Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard
of the engineer in charge there, Montero had thrown himself on his clean blankets and lay there shivering and dictating requisitions to be transmitted by wire to Sulaco. He demanded a train of cars to be down at once to transport his men up.
"'To this I answered from my end,' the engineer-in-chief related to us, ' that I dared not risk the rolling-stock in the interior, as there had been attempts to wreck trains all along the line several times. I did that for your sake, Gould,' said the chief engineer. 'The answer to this was, in the words of my subordinate, the filthy brute on my bed said, "Suppose I were to have you shot?" To which my subordinate, who, it appears, was himself operating, remarked that it would not bring the cars up. Upon that, the other, yawning, said, "Never mind, there is no lack of horses on the Campo." And, turning over, went to sleep on Harris's bed.'
"This is why, my dear girl, I am a fugitive to-night. The last wire from rail-head says that Pedro Montero and his men left at daybreak, after feeding on asado beef all night. They took all the horses; they will find more on the road; they'll be here in less than thirty hours, and thus Sulaco is no place either for me or the great store of silver belonging to the Gould Concession.
"But that is not the worst. The garrison of Esmeralda has gone over to the victorious party. That news we have heard by means of the telegraphist of the cable company, who came to the Casa Gould in the early morning with the news. In fact, it was so early that the day had not yet quite broken over
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