Page 526 - nostromo-a-tale-of-the-seaboard

The Capataz drank greedily. A slight flush deepened
the bronze of his cheek. Before him, Viola, with a turn of
his white and massive head towards the staircase, took his
empty pipe out of his mouth, and pronounced slowly—
‘After the shot was fired down here, which killed her as
surely as if the bullet had struck her oppressed heart, she
called upon you to save the children. Upon you, Gian’ Bat-
tista.’
The Capataz looked up.
‘Did she do that, Padrone? To save the children! They are
with the English senora, their rich benefactress. Hey! old
man of the people. Thy benefactress. …’
‘I am old,’ muttered Giorgio Viola. ‘An Englishwom-
an was allowed to give a bed to Garibaldi lying wounded
in prison. The greatest man that ever lived. A man of the
people, too—a sailor. I may let another keep a roof over my
head. Si … I am old. I may let her. Life lasts too long some-
times.’
‘And she herself may not have a roof over her head be-
fore many days are out, unless I … What do you say? Am I
to keep a roof over her head? Am I to try—and save all the
Blancos together with her?’
‘You shall do it,’ said old Viola in a strong voice. ‘You
shall do it as my son would have….’
‘Thy son, viejo! .. .. There never has been a man like thy
son. Ha, I must try…. But what if it were only a part of the
curse to lure me on? … And so she called upon me to save—
and then——?’
‘She spoke no more.’ The heroic follower of Garibaldi, at