Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard
In this Captain Mitchell was right. Sotillo was indeed infuriated. Captain Mitchell, however, had not been arrested at once; a vivid curiosity induced him to remain on the wharf (which is nearly two hundred and fifty yards long) to see, or rather hear, the whole process of disembarkation. Concealed by the railway- truck used for silver, which had been run back afterwards to the shore end of the jetty, Captain Mitchell saw the small detachment thrown forward and pass by, taking different directions upon the plain. Meantime the troops were being landed and formed into a column whose head crept up gradually so close to him that he made it out barring nearly the whole width of the wharf only a very few yards from him. Then the low, shuffling, murmuring, clinking sounds ceased, and the whole mass remained for about an hour motionless and silent, awaiting the return of the scouts. On land nothing was to be heard except the deep baying of the mastiffs at the railway-yards, answered by the faint barking of the curs infesting the outer limits of the town. A detached knot of dark shapes stood in front of the head of the column.
Presently the picket at the end of the wharf began to challenge in undertones single figures approaching from the plain. Those messengers sent back from the scouting-parties flung to their comrades brief sentences and passed on rapidly, becoming lost in the great motionless mass, to make their report to the staff. It occurred to Captain Mitchell that his position could become disagreeable, and perhaps dangerous, when, suddenly, at the head of the jetty, there was a shout of command, a bugle-call, followed by a stir and a
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