Joseph Conrad: Nostromo

PART THIRD: THE LIGHTHOUSE 9. CHAPTER NINE (continued)

Again Nostromo, gazing abstractedly at the body of the late Senor
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 last.

"Yes. I do," the doctor said, loudly, without hesitation. "He
must come forward now. He must," he added in a mutter, which
Nostromo did not catch.

"What did you say, senor?"

The doctor started. "I say 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?"

"I 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 meantime?" he asked.

"I 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, senor, 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."