Joseph Conrad: Nostromo

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

"Strange!" muttered Decoud, stretched upon the pile of treasure
boxes covered by many tarpaulins. "Could it be that there is
another boat near us in the gulf? We could not see it, you know."

Nostromo laughed a little at the absurdity of the idea. They
dismissed it from their minds. The solitude could almost be felt.
And when the breeze ceased, the blackness seemed to weigh upon
Decoud like a stone.

"This is overpowering," he muttered. "Do we move at all,
Capataz?"

"Not so fast as a crawling beetle tangled in the grass," answered
Nostromo, and his voice seemed deadened by the thick veil of
obscurity that felt warm and hopeless all about them. There were
long periods when he made no sound, invisible and inaudible as if
he had mysteriously stepped out of the lighter.

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?"