Quotation from: Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard

Written by: Joseph Conrad


In the featureless night Nostromo was not even certain which way the
lighter headed after the wind had completely died out. He peered for the
islands. There was not a hint of them to be seen, as if they had sunk to
the bottom of the gulf. He threw himself down by the side of Decoud at
last, and whispered into his ear that if daylight caught them near the
Sulaco shore through want of wind, it would be possible to sweep the
lighter behind the cliff at the high end of the Great Isabel, where
she would lie concealed. Decoud was surprised at the grimness of his
anxiety. To him the removal of the treasure was a political move. It was
necessary for several reasons that it should not fall into the hands of
Montero, but here was a man who took another view of this enterprise.
The Caballeros over there did not seem to have the slightest idea of
what they had given him to do. Nostromo, as if affected by the gloom
around, seemed nervously resentful. Decoud was surprised. The Capataz,
indifferent to those dangers that seemed obvious to his companion,
allowed himself to become scornfully exasperated by the deadly nature
of the trust put, as a matter of course, into his hands. It was more
dangerous, Nostromo said, with a laugh and a curse, than sending a man
to get the treasure that people said was guarded by devils and ghosts in
the deep ravines of Azuera. "Senor," he said, "we must catch the steamer
at sea. We must keep out in the open looking for her till we have eaten
and drunk all that has been put on board here. And if we miss her by
some mischance, we must keep away from the land till we grow weak,
and perhaps mad, and die, and drift dead, until one or another of the
steamers of the Compania comes upon the boat with the two dead men who
have saved the treasure. That, senor, is the only way to save it; for,
don't you see? for us to come to the land anywhere in a hundred miles
along this coast with this silver in our possession is to run the naked
breast against the point of a knife. This thing has been given to me
like a deadly disease. If men discover it I am dead, and you, too,
senor, since you would come with me. There is enough silver to make a
whole province rich, let alone a seaboard pueblo inhabited by thieves
and vagabonds. Senor, they would think that heaven itself sent these
riches into their hands, and would cut our throats without hesitation.
I would trust no fair words from the best man around the shores of this
wild gulf. Reflect that, even by giving up the treasure at the first
demand, we would not be able to save our lives. Do you understand this,
or must I explain?"

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