Page 457 - nostromo-a-tale-of-the-seaboard

speaking to himself, and still gazing at the sketch of the
San Tome gorge upon the wall. ‘Yes, I expect they will try
that.’ Charles Gould looked for the first time at the doctor.
‘It would give me time,’ he added.
‘Exactly,’ said Dr. Monygham, suppressing his excite-
ment. ‘Especially if Don Pepe behaves diplomatically. Why
shouldn’t he give them some hope of success? Eh? Oth-
erwise you wouldn’t gain so much time. Couldn’t he be
instructed to—‘
Charles Gould, looking at the doctor steadily, shook his
head, but the doctor continued with a certain amount of
fire—
‘Yes, to enter into negotiations for the surrender of the
mine. It is a good notion. You would mature your plan. Of
course, I don’t ask what it is. I don’t want to know. I would
refuse to listen to you if you tried to tell me. I am not fit for
confidences.’
‘What nonsense!’ muttered Charles Gould, with displea-
sure.
He disapproved of the doctor’s sensitiveness about
that far-off episode of his life. So much memory shocked
Charles Gould. It was like morbidness. And again he shook
his head. He refused to tamper with the open rectitude of
Don Pepe’s conduct, both from taste and from policy. In-
structions would have to be either verbal or in writing. In
either case they ran the risk of being intercepted. It was by
no means certain that a messenger could reach the mine;
and, besides, there was no one to send. It was on the tip of
Charles’s tongue to say that only the late Capataz de Car-

Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard