Joseph Conrad: Nostromo

PART SECOND: THE ISABELS 8. CHAPTER EIGHT (continued)

These words were in strange contrast to the prevailing peace--to
this almost solid stillness of the gulf. A shower fell with an
abrupt whispering sound all round the boat, and Decoud took off
his hat, and, letting his head get wet, felt greatly refreshed.
Presently a steady little draught of air caressed his cheek. The
lighter began to move, but the shower distanced it. The drops
ceased to fall upon his head and hands, the whispering died out
in the distance. Nostromo emitted a grunt of satisfaction, and
grasping the tiller, chirruped softly, as sailors do, to
encourage the wind. Never for the last three days had Decoud felt
less the need for what the Capataz would call desperation.

"I fancy I hear another shower on the water," he observed in a
tone of quiet content. "I hope it will catch us up."

Nostromo ceased chirruping at once. "You hear another shower?" he
said, doubtfully. A sort of thinning of the darkness seemed to
have taken place, and Decoud could see now the outline of his
companion's figure, and even the sail came out of the night like
a square block of dense snow.

The sound which Decoud had detected came along the water harshly.
Nostromo recognized that noise partaking of a hiss and a rustle
which spreads out on all sides of a steamer making her way
through a smooth water on a quiet night. It could be nothing else
but the captured transport with troops from Esmeralda. She
carried no lights. The noise of her steaming, growing louder
every minute, would stop at times altogether, and then begin
again abruptly, and sound startlingly nearer; as if that
invisible vessel, whose position could not be precisely guessed,
were making straight for the lighter. Meantime, that last kept on
sailing slowly and noiselessly before a breeze so faint that it
was only by leaning over the side and feeling the water slip
through his fingers that Decoud convinced himself they were
moving at all. His drowsy feeling had departed. He was glad to
know that the lighter was moving. After so much stillness the
noise of the steamer seemed uproarious and distracting. There was
a weirdness in not being able to see her. Suddenly all was still.
She had stopped, but so close to them that the steam, blowing
off, sent its rumbling vibration right over their heads.