Page 458 - nostromo-a-tale-of-the-seaboard

gadores could have been employed with some chance of
success and the certitude of discretion. But he did not say
that. He pointed out to the doctor that it would have been
bad policy. Directly Don Pepe let it be supposed that he
could be bought over, the Administrador’s personal safety
and the safety of his friends would become endangered. For
there would be then no reason for moderation. The incor-
ruptibility of Don Pepe was the essential and restraining
fact. The doctor hung his head and admitted that in a way
it was so.
He couldn’t deny to himself that the reasoning was sound
enough. Don Pepe’s usefulness consisted in his unstained
character. As to his own usefulness, he reflected bitterly it
was also his own character. He declared to Charles Gould
that he had the means of keeping Sotillo from joining his
forces with Montero, at least for the present.
‘If you had had all this silver here,’ the doctor said, ‘or
even if it had been known to be at the mine, you could have
bribed Sotillo to throw off his recent Monterism. You could
have induced him either to go away in his steamer or even
to join you.’
‘Certainly not that last,’ Charles Gould declared, firmly.
‘What could one do with a man like that, afterwards—tell
me, doctor? The silver is gone, and I am glad of it. It would
have been an immediate and strong temptation. The
scramble for that visible plunder would have precipitated a
disastrous ending. I would have had to defend it, too. I am
glad we’ve removed it—even if it is lost. It would have been
a danger and a curse.’