Page 494 - nostromo-a-tale-of-the-seaboard

that treasure, for that wealth of silver which he seemed to
feel somewhere about, to scent somewhere near.
But where? Where? Heavens! Where? Oh! why had he
allowed that doctor to go! Imbecile that he was. But no! It
was the only right course, he reflected distractedly, while
the messenger waited downstairs chatting agreeably to the
officers. It was in that scoundrelly doctor’s true interest
to return with positive information. But what if anything
stopped him? A general prohibition to leave the town, for
instance! There would be patrols!
The colonel, seizing his head in his hands, turned in his
tracks as if struck with vertigo. A flash of craven inspiration
suggested to him an expedient not unknown to European
statesmen when they wish to delay a difficult negotiation.
Booted and spurred, he scrambled into the hammock with
undignified haste. His handsome face had turned yellow
with the strain of weighty cares. The ridge of his shapely
nose had grown sharp; the audacious nostrils appeared
mean and pinched. The velvety, caressing glance of his fine
eyes seemed dead, and even decomposed; for these almond-
shaped, languishing orbs had become inappropriately
bloodshot with much sinister sleeplessness. He addressed
the surprised envoy of Senor Fuentes in a deadened, ex-
hausted voice. It came pathetically feeble from under a pile
of ponchos, which buried his elegant person right up to
the black moustaches, uncurled, pendant, in sign of bodi-
ly prostration and mental incapacity. Fever, fever—a heavy
fever had overtaken the ‘muy valliente’ colonel. A waver-
ing wildness of expression, caused by the passing spasms