Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard
three or four miles outside the harbor; and, as Mitchell says, Nostromo is the sort of seaman to make the best of his opportunities."
Here the doctor grunted so heavily that the other changed his tone.
"You have a poor opinion of that move, doctor? But why? Charles Gould has got to play his game out, though he is not the man to formulate his conduct even to himself, perhaps, let alone to others. It may be that the game has been partly suggested to him by Holroyd; but it accords with his character, too, and that is why it has been so successful. Haven't they come to calling him 'El Rey de Sulaco' in Sta. Marta? A nickname may be the best record of a success. That's what I call putting the face of a joke upon the body of a truth. My dear sir, when I first arrived in Sta. Marta I was struck by the way all those journalists, demagogues, members of Congress, and all those generals and judges cringed before a sleepy-eyed advocate without practice, simply because he was the plenipotentiary of the Gould Concession. Sir John, when he came out, was impressed, too."
"A new state, with that plump dandy, Decoud, for the first President," mused Dr. Monygham, nursing his cheek and swinging his legs all the time.
"Upon my word, and why not?" the chief engineer retorted, in an unexpectedly earnest and confidential voice. It was as if something subtle in the air of Costaguana had inoculated him with the local faith in "pronunciamientos." All at once he began to talk like an expert revolutionist of the instrument ready to hand in the intact army at Cayta, which could be
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