Page 484 - nostromo-a-tale-of-the-seaboard

ought never to have left the mountain. But it was Decoud
who—however, he is dead. There is no need to talk of him.’
‘No,’ assented Nostromo, as the doctor paused, ‘there is
no need to talk of dead men. But I am not dead yet.’
‘You are all right. Only a man of your intrepidity could
have saved himself.’
In this Dr. Monygham was sincere. He esteemed highly
the intrepidity of that man, whom he valued but little, be-
ing disillusioned as to mankind in general, because of the
particular instance in which his own manhood had failed.
Having had to encounter singlehanded during his period of
eclipse many physical dangers, he was well aware of the most
dangerous element common to them all: of the crushing,
paralyzing sense of human littleness, which is what real-
ly defeats a man struggling with natural forces, alone, far
from the eyes of his fellows. He was eminently fit to appre-
ciate the mental image he made for himself of the Capataz,
after hours of tension and anxiety, precipitated suddenly
into an abyss of waters and darkness, without earth or sky,
and confronting it not only with an undismayed mind, but
with sensible success. Of course, the man was an incompa-
rable swimmer, that was known, but the doctor judged that
this instance testified to a still greater intrepidity of spirit.
It was pleasing to him; he augured well from it for the suc-
cess of the arduous mission with which he meant to entrust
the Capataz so marvellously restored to usefulness. And in
a tone vaguely gratified, he observed—
‘It must have been terribly dark!’
‘It was the worst darkness of the Golfo,’ the Capataz as-