Page 491 - nostromo-a-tale-of-the-seaboard

ous to him. It was odious to him by training, instinct, and
tradition. To do these things in the character of a traitor
was abhorrent to his nature and terrible to his feelings. He
had made that sacrifice in a spirit of abasement. He had said
to himself bitterly, ‘I am the only one fit for that dirty work.’
And he believed this. He was not subtle. His simplicity was
such that, though he had no sort of heroic idea of seeking
death, the risk, deadly enough, to which he exposed himself,
had a sustaining and comforting effect. To that spiritual
state the fate of Hirsch presented itself as part of the general
atrocity of things. He considered that episode practically.
What did it mean? Was it a sign of some dangerous change
in Sotillo’s delusion? That the man should have been killed
like this was what the doctor could not understand.
‘Yes. But why shot?’ he murmured to himself.
Nostromo kept very still.

0 Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard