Page 470 - nostromo-a-tale-of-the-seaboard

Sharing in the anti-priestly freethought of the masses,
his mind used the pious formula from the superficial force
of habit, but with a deep-seated sincerity. The popular mind
is incapable of scepticism; and that incapacity delivers their
helpless strength to the wiles of swindlers and to the pitiless
enthusiasms of leaders inspired by visions of a high destiny.
She was dead. But would God consent to receive her soul?
She had died without confession or absolution, because
he had not been willing to spare her another moment of
his time. His scorn of priests as priests remained; but after
all, it was impossible to know whether what they affirmed
was not true. Power, punishment, pardon, are simple and
credible notions. The magnificent Capataz de Cargadores,
deprived of certain simple realities, such as the admiration
of women, the adulation of men, the admired publicity of
his life, was ready to feel the burden of sacrilegious guilt de-
scend upon his shoulders.
Bareheaded, in a thin shirt and drawers, he felt the lin-
gering warmth of the fine sand under the soles of his feet.
The narrow strand gleamed far ahead in a long curve, de-
fining the outline of this wild side of the harbour. He flitted
along the shore like a pursued shadow between the sombre
palm-groves and the sheet of water lying as still as death on
his right hand. He strode with headlong haste in the silence
and solitude as though he had forgotten all prudence and
caution. But he knew that on this side of the water he ran
no risk of discovery. The only inhabitant was a lonely, silent,
apathetic Indian in charge of the palmarias, who brought
sometimes a load of cocoanuts to the town for sale. He lived