Joseph Conrad: Nostromo

PART SECOND: THE ISABELS 7. CHAPTER SEVEN (continued)

"He had his feet wrapped up in blood-stained rags, a lean,
haggard face, ragged beard and hair, and had walked in limping,
with a crooked branch of a tree for a staff. His followers were
perhaps in a worse plight, but apparently they had not thrown
away their arms, and, at any rate, not all their ammunition.
Their lean faces filled the door and the windows of the telegraph
hut. As it was at the same time the bedroom of the
engineer-in-charge there, Montero had thrown himself on his clean
blankets and lay there shivering and dictating requisitions to be
transmitted by wire to Sulaco. He demanded a train of cars to be
sent down at once to transport his men up.

"'To this I answered from my end,' the engineer-in-chief related
to us, 'that I dared not risk the rolling-stock in the interior,
as there had been attempts to wreck trains all along the line
several times. I did that for your sake, Gould,' said the chief
engineer. 'The answer to this was, in the words of my
subordinate, "The filthy brute on my bed said, 'Suppose I were to
have you shot?'" To which my subordinate, who, it appears, was
himself operating, remarked that it would not bring the cars up.
Upon that, the other, yawning, said, "Never mind, there is no
lack of horses on the Campo." And, turning over, went to sleep on
Harris's bed.'

"This is why, my dear girl, I am a fugitive to-night. The last
wire from railhead says that Pedro Montero and his men left at
daybreak, after feeding on asado beef all night. They took all
the horses; they will find more on the road; they'll be here in
less than thirty hours, and thus Sulaco is no place either for me
or the great store of silver belonging to the Gould Concession.

"But that is not the worst. The garrison of Esmeralda has gone
over to the victorious party. We have heard this by means of the
telegraphist of the Cable Company, who came to the Casa Gould in
the early morning with the news. In fact, it was so early that
the day had not yet quite broken over Sulaco. His colleague in
Esmeralda had called him up to say that the garrison, after
shooting some of their officers, had taken possession of a
Government steamer laid up in the harbour. It is really a heavy
blow for me. I thought I could depend on every man in this
province. It was a mistake. It was a Monterist Revolution in
Esmeralda, just such as was attempted in Sulaco, only that that
one came off. The telegraphist was signalling to Bernhardt all
the time, and his last transmitted words were, 'They are bursting
in the door, and taking possession of the cable office. You are
cut off. Can do no more.'