Page 479 - nostromo-a-tale-of-the-seaboard

candlestick, as if struck out of Nostromo’s hand, clattered
on the floor.
‘Hullo!’ exclaimed the doctor, looking up with a start. He
could hear the Capataz stagger against the table and gasp.
In the sudden extinction of the light within, the dead black-
ness sealing the window-frames became alive with stars to
his sight.
‘Of course, of course,’ the doctor muttered to himself in
English. ‘Enough to make him jump out of his skin.’
Nostromo’s heart seemed to force itself into his throat.
His head swam. Hirsch! The man was Hirsch! He held on
tight to the edge of the table.
‘But he was hiding in the lighter,’ he almost shouted His
voice fell. ‘In the lighter, and—and—‘
‘And Sotillo brought him in,’ said the doctor. ‘He is no
more startling to you than you were to me. What I want to
know is how he induced some compassionate soul to shoot
him.’
‘So Sotillo knows—‘ began Nostromo, in a more equable
voice.
‘Everything!’ interrupted the doctor.
The Capataz was heard striking the table with his fist.
‘Everything? What are you saying, there? Everything? Know
everything? It is impossible! Everything?’
‘Of course. What do you mean by impossible? I tell you
I have heard this Hirsch questioned last night, here, in this
very room. He knew your name, Decoud’s name, and all
about the loading of the silver…. The lighter was cut in two.
He was grovelling in abject terror before Sotillo, but he re-

Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard