Page 622 - nostromo-a-tale-of-the-seaboard

aim. I myself could have done no better. But the price of a
charge of powder might have been saved. The honour was
safe…. Senora, she would have followed to the end of the
world Nostromo the thief…. I have said the word. The spell
is broken!’
A low moan from the girl made him cast his eyes down.
‘I cannot see her…. No matter,’ he went on, with the shad-
ow of the old magnificent carelessness in his voice. ‘One
kiss is enough, if there is no time for more. An airy soul, se-
nora! Bright and warm, like sunshine—soon clouded, and
soon serene. They would crush it there between them. Se-
nora, cast on her the eye of your compassion, as famed from
one end of the land to the other as the courage and daring of
the man who speaks to you. She will console herself in time.
And even Ramirez is not a bad fellow. I am not angry. No!
It is not Ramirez who overcame the Capataz of the Sulaco
Cargadores.’ He paused, made an effort, and in louder voice,
a little wildly, declared—
‘I die betrayed—betrayed by——‘
But he did not say by whom or by what he was dying be-
trayed.
‘She would not have betrayed me,’ he began again, open-
ing his eyes very wide. ‘She was faithful. We were going very
far—very soon. I could have torn myself away from that
accursed treasure for her. For that child I would have left
boxes and boxes of it—full. And Decoud took four. Four in-
gots. Why? Picardia! To betray me? How could I give back
the treasure with four ingots missing? They would have
said I had purloined them. The doctor would have said that.

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