Page 52 - nostromo-a-tale-of-the-seaboard

aristocratic old Spanish families, all those Don Ambrosios
this and Don Fernandos that, who seemed actually to dis-
like and distrust the coming of the railway over their lands.
It had happened that some of the surveying parties scat-
tered all over the province had been warned off with threats
of violence. In other cases outrageous pretensions as to
price had been raised. But the man of railways prided him-
self on being equal to every emergency. Since he was met
by the inimical sentiment of blind conservatism in Sulaco
he would meet it by sentiment, too, before taking his stand
on his right alone. The Government was bound to carry out
its part of the contract with the board of the new railway
company, even if it had to use force for the purpose. But
he desired nothing less than an armed disturbance in the
smooth working of his plans. They were much too vast and
far-reaching, and too promising to leave a stone unturned;
and so he imagined to get the President-Dictator over there
on a tour of ceremonies and speeches, culminating in a
great function at the turning of the first sod by the harbour
shore. After all he was their own creature—that Don Vin-
cente. He was the embodied triumph of the best elements in
the State. These were facts, and, unless facts meant nothing,
Sir John argued to himself, such a man’s influence must be
real, and his personal action would produce the concilia-
tory effect he required. He had succeeded in arranging the
trip with the help of a very clever advocate, who was known
in Sta. Marta as the agent of the Gould silver mine, the big-
gest thing in Sulaco, and even in the whole Republic. It was
indeed a fabulously rich mine. Its so-called agent, evidently

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