Joseph Conrad: Nostromo

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

"I told you; I told you," he mumbled. "I could smell some
treachery, some diableria a league off."

Meantime, the steamer had kept on her way towards Sulaco, where
only the truth of that matter could be ascertained. Decoud and
Nostromo heard the loud churning of her propeller diminish and
die out; and then, with no useless words, busied themselves in
making for the Isabels. The last shower had brought with it a
gentle but steady breeze. The danger was not over yet, and there
was no time for talk. The lighter was leaking like a sieve. They
splashed in the water at every step. The Capataz put into
Decoud's hands the handle of the pump which was fitted at the
side aft, and at once, without question or remark, Decoud began
to pump in utter forgetfulness of every desire but that of
keeping the treasure afloat. Nostromo hoisted the sail, flew back
to the tiller, pulled at the sheet like mad. The short flare of a
match (they had been kept dry in a tight tin box, though the man
himself was completely wet), disclosed to the toiling Decoud the
eagerness of his face, bent low over the box of the compass, and
the attentive stare of his eyes. He knew now where he was, and he
hoped to run the sinking lighter ashore in the shallow cove where
the high, cliff-like end of the Great Isabel is divided in two
equal parts by a deep and overgrown ravine.

Decoud pumped without intermission. Nostromo steered without
relaxing for a second the intense, peering effort of his stare.
Each of them was as if utterly alone with his task. It did not
occur to them to speak. There was nothing in common between them
but the knowledge that the damaged lighter must be slowly but
surely sinking. In that knowledge, which was like the crucial
test of their desires, they seemed to have become completely
estranged, as if they had discovered in the very shock of the
collision that the loss of the lighter would not mean the same
thing to them both. This common danger brought their differences
in aim, in view, in character, and in position, into absolute
prominence in the private vision of each. There was no bond of
conviction, of common idea; they were merely two adventurers
pursuing each his own adventure, involved in the same imminence
of deadly peril. Therefore they had nothing to say to each other.
But this peril, this only incontrovertible truth in which they
shared, seemed to act as an inspiration to their mental and
bodily powers.