Section 47

For a time the doctor kept silent. ‘Do you mean ta say that you think I may give you away?” he asked in an unsteady voice. ‘Why? Why should I do that?”
“What do I know? Why not? To gain a day per- haps. It would take Sotillo a day to give me the estra- pade, and try some other things perhaps, before he puts a bullet through my heart—as he did to that poor wretch here. Why not?”
The doctor swallowed with difficulty. His throat had gone dry in a moment. It was not from indigna- tion. The doctor, pathetically enough, believed that he had forfeited the right to be indignant with any one— for anything. It was simple dread. Had the fellow: heard his story by some chance? If so, there was an end of his usefulness in that direction. The indispen- sable man escaped his influence, because of that indeli- ble blot which made him fit for dirty work. A feeling as of sickness came upon the doctor. He would have given anything to know, but he dared not clear up the point. The fanaticism of his devotion, fed on the sense of his abasement, hardened his heart in sadness and scorn.
“Why not, indeed?” he reéchoed, sardonically. *Then the safe thing for you is to kill me on the spot. I would defend myself. But you may just as well know I am going about unarmed.”
*‘Por Dios!” said the Capataz, passionately. “You fine people are all alike. All dangerous. All betrayers of the poor who are your dogs.”
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“You do not understand,” began the doctor, slowly. |
“T understand you all!” cried the other with a violent ‘movement, as shadowy to the doctor’s eyes as the per- sistent immobility of the late Sefior Hirsch. “A poor man amongst you has got to look after himself. I say that you do not care for those that serve you. Look at me! After all these years, suddenly, here I find myself like one of these curs that bark outside the walls —without a kennel or a dry bone for my teeth. Ca- ramba!l” But he relented with a contemptuous fair- ness. “‘Of course,” he went on, quietly, “I do not sup- pose that you would hasten to give me up to Sotillo, for example. It is not that. It is that I am nothing! Suddenly: * He swung his arm downwards. ‘Noth ing to any one,” he repeated.
The doctor breathed freely. “Listen, Capataz,” he said, stretching out his arm almost affectionately towards Nostromo’s shoulder. “I am going to tell you a very simple thing. You are safe because you are needed. I would not give you away for any con- ceivable reason, because I want you.”
In the dark Nostromo bit his lip. He had heard enough of that. He knew what that meant. No more of that for him. But he had to look after himself now, he thought. And he thought, too, that it would not. be prudent to part in anger from his companion. The doctor, admitted to be a great healer, had, amongst the populace of Sulaco, the reputation of being an evil sort of man. It was based solidly on his personal ap- pearance, which was strange, and on his rough ironic manner—proofs visible, sensible, and incontrovertible of the doctor’s malevolent disposition. And Nostromo was of the people. So he only grunted incredulously.
“You, to speak plainly, are the only man,” the doctor pursued. “It is in your power to save this town and
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. . everybody from the destructive rapacity of
. “No, sefior,’” said Nostromo, sullenly. “It is not - in my power to get the treasure back for you to give up to Sotillo, or Pedrito, or Gamacho. What do I know?”
i “Nobody expects the impossible,” was the answer. “You have said it yourself—nobody,” muttered Nostromo, in a gloomy, threatening tone.
. ' But Dr. Monygham, full of hope, disregarded the _ enigmatic words and the threatening tone. To their eyes, accustomed to obscurity, the late Seftor Hirsch, growing more distinct, seemed to have come nearer. And the doctor lowered his voice in exposing his scheme as though afraid of being overheard.
He was taking the indispensable man into his fullest confidence. Its implied flattery and suggestion of great risks came with a familiar sound to the Capataz. His mind, floating in irresolution and discontent, recognized it with bitterness. He understood well that the doctor was anxious to save the San Tomé mine from annihila- tion. He would be nothing without it. It was his interest. Just as it had been the interest of Sefior Decoud, of the Blancos, and of the Europeans to get his Cargadores on their side. His thought became arrested upon Decoud. What would happen to him?
Nostromo’s prolonged silence made the doctor un- easy. He pointed out, quite unnecessarily, that though for the present he was safe, he could not live concealed forever. ‘The choice was between accepting the mission to Barrios, with all its dangers and difficulties, and leav- ing Sulaco by stealth, ingloriously, in poverty.
“None of your friends could reward you and protect you just now, Capataz. Not even Don Carlos himself.” “T would have none of your protection and none of
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your rewards. I only wish I could trust your courage — and your sense. When I return in triumph, as you say, with Barrios, I may find you all destroyed. You have the knife at your throat now.”
It was the doctor’s turn to remain silent in the con- templation of horrible contingencies.
“Well, we would trust your courage and your sense. And you, too, have a knife at your throat.”
“Ah! And whom am I to thank for that? What are your politics and your mines to me—your silver and your constitutions—your Don Carlos this, and Don José that 3
“T don’t know,” burst out the exasperated doctor. “There are innocent people in danger whose little finger is worth more than you or I and all the Ribier- _ ists together. I don’t know. You should have asked . yourself before you allowed Decoud to lead you into all this. It was your place to think like a man ; but if you did not think then, try to act like a man now. Did you imagine Decoud cared very much for what would happen to you?”
“No more than you care for what will happen to me,” muttered the other. |
“No; I care for what will happen to you as little as I care for what will happen to myself.”
“And all this because you are such a devoted Ribier- ist?’? Nostromo said in an incredulous tone.
“All this because I am such a devoted Ribierist,” repeated Dr. Monygham, grimly.
Again Nostromo, gazing abstractedly at the body of the late Sefior Hirsch, remained silent, thinking that the doctor was a dangerous person in more than one sense. It was impossible to trust him.
" “Do you speak in the name of Don Carlos?” he asked at lastif he:
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“Yes. Ido,” the doctor said, loudly, without hesita- tion. “He must come forward now. He must;” he added in a mutter, which Nostromo did not catch.
_ “What did you say, sefior?”
; The doctor started. “Isay that you must be true to . yourself, Capataz. It would be worse than folly to fail _ now.”
“True to myself,” repeated Nostromo. “How do you know that I would not be true to myself if I told you to go to the devil with your propositions?”
“T do not know. Maybe you would,” the doctor said, with a roughness of tone intended to hide the sinking of his heart and the faltering of his voice. “All I know is, that you had better get away from here. Some of Sotillo’s men may turn up here looking for me.”
He slipped off the table, listening intently. The _ Capataz, too, stood up. | “Suppose I went to Cayta, what would you do mean- _ time?” he asked.
“T would go to Sotillo directly you had left—in the way I am thinking of.”
“A very good way—if only that engineer-in-chief consents. Remind him, sefior, that I looked after the old rich Englishman who pays for the railway, and that I saved the lives of some of his people that time when a gang of thieves came from the south to wreck one of his pay-trains. It was I who discovered it all at the risk of my life, by pretending to enter into their plans. Just as you are doing with Sotillo.”
“Yes, Yes, of course. But I can offer him better arguments,” the doctor said, hastily. “Leave it to me.”
“Ah, yes! True. I am nothing.”
“Not at all. You are everything.”
They moved a few paces towards the door. Behind
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them the late Sefior Hirsch preserved the immobility of a disregarded man. ;
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“That will be all right. I know what to say to the © engineer,” pursued the doctor, in a low tone. “My —
difficulty will be with Sotillo.” And Dr. Monygham stopped short in the doorway as
if intimidated by the difficulty. He had made the sacri- |
fice of his life. He considered this a fitting opportunity.
But he did not want to throw his life away too soen. —
In his quality of betrayer of Don Carlos’ confidence, he would have ultimately to indicate the hiding-place
of the treasure. That would be the end of his deception, ~
and the end of himself as well, at the hands of the infuri- ated colonel. He wanted to delay him to the very last
moment; and he had been racking his brains to invent ,
some place of concealment at once plausible and diffi- cult of access.
He imparted his trouble to Nostromo, and con- cluded—
“Do you know what, Capataz? I think that when the time comes and some information must be given, I shall indicate the Great Isabel. That is the best place I can think of. What is the matter?”
A low exclamation had escaped Nostromo. The doctor waited, surprised, and after a moment of pro- found silence, heard a thick voice stammer out, “Utter folly,” and stop with a gasp.
“Why folly?”
“Ah! You do not see it,” began Nostromo, scath- ingly, gathering scorn as he went on. “Three men in half an hour would see that no ground had been dis- turbed anywhere on that island. Do you think that such a treasure can be buried without leaving traces of the work—eh! sefior doctor? Why! you would not gain half a day more before having your throat cut by
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_ Sotillo. The Isabel! What stupidity! What miser-
_ able invention! Ah! you are all alike, you fine men : of intelligence. All you are fit for is to betray men of
the people into undertaking deadly risks for objects
_ that you are not even sure about. If it comes off you
_ get the benefit. If not, then it does not matter. He
_ is only a dog. Ah! Madre de Dios, I would “s
f He shook his fists above his head.
The doctor was overwhelmed at first by this fierce,
' hissing vehemence.
\ “Well! It seems to me on your own showing that the . men of the people are no mean fools, too,”’ he said, sul-
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lenly. “No, but come. You are soclever. Have you a better place?” Nostromo had calmed down as quickly as he had
flared up. “T am clever enough for that,” he said, quietly, al- _ most with indifference. “You want to tell him of a hiding-place big enough to take days in ransacking—a place where a treasure of silver ingots can be buried without leaving a sign on the surface.”
‘And close at hand,” the doctor put in.
“Just so, sefior. Tell him it is sunk.”
“This has the merit of being the truth,” the doctor said, contemptuously. ‘He will not believe it.”
“You tell him that it is sunk where he may hope to lay his hands on it, and he will believe you quick enough. Tell him it has been sunk in the harbour in order to be recovered afterwards by divers. Tell him you found out that I had orders from Don Carlos Gould to lower the cases quietly overboard somewhere in a line between the end of the jetty and the entrance. The depth is not too great there. He has no divers, but he has a ship, boats, ropes, chains, sailors—of a sort. Let him fish for the silver. Let him set his fools to drag backwards
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and forwards and crossways while he sits and watches till his eyes drop out of his head.”
“Really, this is an admirable idea,’ muttered the doctor. .
“Si. You tell him that, and see whether he will not believe you! He will spend days in rage and torment— and still he will believe. He will have no thought for anything else. He will not give up till he is driven off— why, he may even forget to kill you. He will neither eat nor sleep. He——”
“The very thing! The very thing!” the doctor repeated in an excited whisper. “Capataz, I be-- gin to believe that you are a great genius in your way.”
Nostromo had paused; then began again in a changed tone, sombre, speaking to himself as though he had forgotten the doctor’s existence.
“There is something in a treasure that fastens upon a man’s mind. He will pray and blaspheme and still persevere, and will curse the day he ever heard of it, and will let his last hour come upon him unawares, still believing that he missed it only by a foot. He will see it every time he closes his eyes. He will never forget it till he is dead—and even then. Doctor, did you ever hear of the miserable gringos on Azuera, that can- not die? Ha! ha! Sailors like myself. There is no getting away from a treasure that once fastens upon your mind.”
“You are a devil of a man, Capataz. It is the most plausible thing.”
Nostromo pressed his arm.
“Tt will be worse for him than thirst at sea or hunger in a town full of people. Do you know what that is? He shall suffer greater torments than he inflicted upon that terrified wretch who had no invention. None!
oo
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none! Notlikeme. I could have told Sotillo a deadly tale for very little pain.’
He laughed wildly and turned in the doorway towards the body of the late Sefior Hirsch, an opaque long blotch in the semi-transparent obscurity of the room between the two tall parallelograms of the windows full of stars.
“You man of fear!”’ he cried. “You shall be avenged by me—Nostromo. Out of my way, doctor! Stand aside—or, by the suffering soul of a woman dead without confession, I will strangle you with my two hands.”
He bounded downwards into the black, smoky hall. With a grunt of astonishment, Dr. Monygham threw himself recklessly into the pursuit. At the bottom of the charred stairs he had a fall, pitching forward on his face with a force that would have stunned a spirit less intent upon a task of love and devotion. He was up in a moment, jarred, shaken, with a queer impression of the terrestrial globe having been flung at his head in the dark. But it wanted more than that to stop Dr.’ Monygham’s body, possessed by the exaltation of self- sacrifice; a reasonable exaltation, determined not to lose whatever advantage chance put into its way. He ran with headlong, tottering swiftness, his arms going like a windmill in his effort to keep his balance on his crippled feet. He lost his hat; the tails of his open gaberdine flew behind him. He had no mind to lose sight of the indispensable man. But it was a long time, and a long way from the Custom House, before he managed to seize his arm from behind, roughly, out of breath. *
“Stop! Are you mad?” é
Already Nostromo was walking slowly, his head dropping, as if checked in his pace by the weariness of irresolution.
“What is that to you? Ah! I forgot you want me for something. Always. Siempre Nostromo.”
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“What do you mean by talking of strangling me?” —
panted the doctor. “What do I mean? I mean that the king of the
devils himself has sent you out of this town of cowards —
and talkers to meet me to-night of all the nights of my life.”
Under the starry sky the Albergo d'Italia Una emerged, black and low, breaking the dark level of the plain. Nostromo stopped altogether.
“The priests say he is a tempter, do they not?” he
added, through his clenched teeth.
“My good man, you drivel. The devil has nothing — to do with this. Neither has the town, which you may —
call by what name you please. But Don Carlos Gould is neither a coward nor an empty talker. You will admit that?” He waited. “Well?”
“Could I see Don Carlos?”
“Great heavens! No! Why? What for?” exclaimed —
the doctor in agitation. “TI tell you it is madness. I will not let you go into the town for anything.”
“*T must.”
“You must not!” hissed the doctor, fiercely, almost beside himself with the fear of the man doing away with his usefulness for an imbecile whim of some sort. “TI tell you you shall not. I would rather-——”
He stopped at loss for words, feeling fagged out, powerless, holding on to Nostromo’s sleeve, absolutely for support after his run.