Page 531 - nostromo-a-tale-of-the-seaboard

world knows of now. I hold seventeen of the thousand-dol-
lar shares in the Consolidated San Tome mines. All the poor
savings of my lifetime, sir, and it will be enough to keep
me in comfort to the end of my days at home when I re-
tire. I got in on the ground-floor, you see. Don Carlos, great
friend of mine. Seventeen shares—quite a little fortune to
leave behind one, too. I have a niece—married a parson—
most worthy man, incumbent of a small parish in Sussex;
no end of children. I was never married myself. A sailor
should exercise self-denial. Standing under that very gate-
way, sir, with some young engineer-fellows, ready to defend
that house where we had received so much kindness and
hospitality, I saw the first and last charge of Pedrito’s horse-
men upon Barrios’s troops, who had just taken the Harbour
Gate. They could not stand the new rifles brought out by
that poor Decoud. It was a murderous fire. In a moment the
street became blocked with a mass of dead men and horses.
They never came on again.’
And all day Captain Mitchell would talk like this to his
more or less willing victim—
‘The Plaza. I call it magnificent. Twice the area of Trafal-
gar Square.’
From the very centre, in the blazing sunshine, he pointed
out the buildings—
‘The Intendencia, now President’s Palace—Cabildo,
where the Lower Chamber of Parliament sits. You notice
the new houses on that side of the Plaza? Compania Anzani,
a great general store, like those cooperative things at home.
Old Anzani was murdered by the National Guards in front

0 Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard