Nostromo : A Tale of the Seaboard
rattling of arms and a murmuring noise that ran right up the column. Near by a loud voice directed hurriedly, "Push that railway-car out of the way." At the rush of bare feet to execute the order, Captain Mitchell skipped back a pace or two; the car, suddenly impelled by many hands, flew away from him along the rails; and before lie knew what had happened he found himself surrounded and seized, by his arms and the collar of his coat.
"We have caught a man hiding here, mi teniente!" cried one of his captors.
" Hold him on one side till the rear-guard comes along," answered the voice. The whole column streamed past Captain Mitchell at a run, the thundering noise of their feet dying away suddenly on the shore. His captors held him tightly, disregarding his declaration that he was an Englishman, and his loud demands to be taken at once before their commanding officer. Finally he lapsed into dignified silence. With a hollow rumble of wheels on the planks, a couple of field-guns dragged by hand rolled by. Then, after a small body of men had marched past, escorting four or five figures which walked in advance with a jingle of steel scabbards, he felt a tug at his arms and was ordered to come along. During the passage from the wharf to the custom-house it is to be feared that Captain Mitchell was subjected to certain indignities at the hands of the soldiers, such as jerks, thumps on the neck, forcible application of the butt of a rifle to the small of his back. Their ideas of speed were not in accord with his notion of his dignity. He became flustered, flushed, and helpless. It was a,s if the world were coming to an end.
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