Page 504 - nostromo-a-tale-of-the-seaboard

any future treacheries of that scoundrel. The others stared,
shifting from foot to foot, and whispering short remarks to
each other.
Sotillo buckled on his sword and gave curt, peremptory
orders to hasten the retirement decided upon in the after-
noon. Sinister, impressive, his sombrero pulled right down
upon his eyebrows, he marched first through the door in
such disorder of mind that he forgot utterly to provide for
Dr. Monygham’s possible return. As the officers trooped out
after him, one or two looked back hastily at the late Senor
Hirsch, merchant from Esmeralda, left swinging rigidly at
rest, alone with the two burning candles. In the emptiness
of the room the burly shadow of head and shoulders on the
wall had an air of life.
Below, the troops fell in silently and moved off by com-
panies without drum or trumpet. The old scarecrow major
commanded the rearguard; but the party he left behind
with orders to fire the Custom House (and ‘burn the car-
cass of the treacherous Jew where it hung’) failed somehow
in their haste to set the staircase properly alight. The body
of the late Senor Hirsch dwelt alone for a time in the dis-
mal solitude of the unfinished building, resounding weirdly
with sudden slams and clicks of doors and latches, with
rustling scurries of torn papers, and the tremulous sighs
that at each gust of wind passed under the high roof. The
light of the two candles burning before the perpendicular
and breathless immobility of the late Senor Hirsch threw a
gleam afar over land and water, like a signal in the night. He
remained to startle Nostromo by his presence, and to puz-

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