Page 619 - nostromo-a-tale-of-the-seaboard

with Martin Decoud; she seemed to hear in the silence the
voice of that man, dead miserably so many years ago, pro-
nounce the words, ‘Antonia left her fan here.’ But it was the
doctor’s voice that spoke, a little altered by his excitement.
She remarked his shining eyes.
‘Mrs. Gould, you are wanted. Do you know what has
happened? You remember what I told you yesterday about
Nostromo. Well, it seems that a lancha, a decked boat, com-
ing from Zapiga, with four negroes in her, passing close
to the Great Isabel, was hailed from the cliff by a woman’s
voice—Linda’s, as a matter of fact—commanding them (it’s
a moonlight night) to go round to the beach and take up
a wounded man to the town. The patron (from whom I’ve
heard all this), of course, did so at once. He told me that
when they got round to the low side of the Great Isabel, they
found Linda Viola waiting for them. They followed her:
she led them under a tree not far from the cottage. There
they found Nostromo lying on the ground with his head in
the younger girl’s lap, and father Viola standing some dis-
tance off leaning on his gun. Under Linda’s direction they
got a table out of the cottage for a stretcher, after breaking
off the legs. They are here, Mrs. Gould. I mean Nostromo
and—and Giselle. The negroes brought him in to the first-
aid hospital near the harbour. He made the attendant send
for me. But it was not me he wanted to see—it was you, Mrs.
Gould! It was you.’
‘Me?’ whispered Mrs. Gould, shrinking a little.
‘Yes, you!’ the doctor burst out. ‘He begged me—his en-
emy, as he thinks—to bring you to him at once. It seems he

1 Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard