Page 538 - nostromo-a-tale-of-the-seaboard

see framed under glass in the Municipal Sala. Names are
to be engraved all round the base. Well! They could do no
better than begin with the name of Nostromo. He has done
for Separation as much as anybody else, and,’ added Cap-
tain Mitchell, ‘has got less than many others by it—when it
comes to that.’ He dropped on to a stone seat under a tree,
and tapped invitingly at the place by his side. ‘He carried to
Barrios the letters from Sulaco which decided the General
to abandon Cayta for a time, and come back to our help
here by sea. The transports were still in harbour fortunately.
Sir, I did not even know that my Capataz de Cargadores
was alive. I had no idea. It was Dr. Monygham who came
upon him, by chance, in the Custom House, evacuated
an hour or two before by the wretched Sotillo. I was nev-
er told; never given a hint, nothing—as if I were unworthy
of confidence. Monygham arranged it all. He went to the
railway yards, and got admission to the engineer-in-chief,
who, for the sake of the Goulds as much as for anything
else, consented to let an engine make a dash down the line,
one hundred and eighty miles, with Nostromo aboard. It
was the only way to get him off. In the Construction Camp
at the railhead, he obtained a horse, arms, some clothing,
and started alone on that marvellous ride—four hundred
miles in six days, through a disturbed country, ending by
the feat of passing through the Monterist lines outside Cay-
ta. The history of that ride, sir, would make a most exciting
book. He carried all our lives in his pocket. Devotion, cour-
age, fidelity, intelligence were not enough. Of course, he was
perfectly fearless and incorruptible. But a man was wanted