Nostromo : A Tale of the Seaboard
"They are trying for a sight of the Isabels," muttered Nostromo, "in order to make for the harbor in a straight line, and seize the custom-house with the treasure in it. Have you ever seen the Comandante of Esmeralda, Sotillo? A handsome fellow with a soft voice. When I first came here I used to see him in the calle talking to the señoritas at the windows of the houses, and showing his white teeth all the time. But one of my cargadores, who had been a soldier, told me that he had once ordered a man to be flayed alive in the remote Campo, where he was sent recruiting among the people of the Estancias. It has never entered his head that the compania had a man capable of baffling his game."
The murmuring loquacity of the capataz disturbed Decoud like a hint of weakness. And yet talkative resolution may be as genuine as grim silence.
"Sotillo is not baffled so far," he said. "Have you forgotten that crazy man forward?"
Nostromo had not forgotten Señor Hirsch. He reproached himself bitterly for not having visited the lighter carefully before leaving the wharf. He reproached himself for not having stabbed and flung him overboard at the very moment of discovery without even looking at his face. That would have been consistent with the desperate character of the affair. Whatever happened, Sotillo was already baffled. Even if that wretch, now as silent as death, did anything to betray the nearness of the lighter, Sotillo if Sotillo it was in command of the troops on board would be still baffled of his plunder.
"I have an axe in my hand," Nostromo whispered.
312
