Joseph Conrad: Nostromo

PART THIRD: THE LIGHTHOUSE 11. CHAPTER ELEVEN (continued)

"Quien sabe! Who can tell?" said the doctor, shrugging his
shoulders like a born Costaguanero. "Ramirez came up to me on
the wharf. He reeled--he looked insane. He took his head into his
hands. He had to talk to someone--simply had to. Of course for
all his mad state he recognized me. People know me well here. I
have lived too long amongst them to be anything else but the
evil-eyed doctor, who can cure all the ills of the flesh, and
bring bad luck by a glance. He came up to me. He tried to be
calm. He tried to make it out that he wanted merely to warn me
against Nostromo. It seems that Captain Fidanza at some secret
meeting or other had mentioned me as the worst despiser of all
the poor--of the people. It's very possible. He honours me with
his undying dislike. And a word from the great Fidanza may be
quite enough to send some fool's knife into my back. The Sanitary
Commission I preside over is not in favour with the populace.
'Beware of him, senor doctor. Destroy him, senor doctor,' Ramirez
hissed right into my face. And then he broke out. 'That man,' he
spluttered, 'has cast a spell upon both these girls.' As to
himself, he had said too much. He must run away now--run away and
hide somewhere. He moaned tenderly about Giselle, and then called
her names that cannot be repeated. If he thought she could be
made to love him by any means, he would carry her off from the
island. Off into the woods. But it was no good. . . . He strode
away, flourishing his arms above his head. Then I noticed an old
negro, who had been sitting behind a pile of cases, fishing from
the wharf. He wound up his lines and slunk away at once. But he
must have heard something, and must have talked, too, because
some of the old Garibaldino's railway friends, I suppose, warned
him against Ramirez. At any rate, the father has been warned. But
Ramirez has disappeared from the town."

"I feel I have a duty towards these girls," said Mrs. Gould,
uneasily. "Is Nostromo in Sulaco now?"

"He is, since last Sunday."

"He ought to be spoken to--at once."