Joseph Conrad: Nostromo

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

"Yes, yes," said Decoud, hastily. "Your wonderful reputation will
make them attach great value to your words; therefore be careful
what you say. I am looking forward," he continued, feeling the
fatal touch of contempt for himself to which his complex nature
was subject, "I am looking forward to a glorious and successful
ending to my mission. Do you hear, Capataz? Use the words
glorious and successful when you speak to the senorita. Your own
mission is accomplished gloriously and successfully. You have
indubitably saved the silver of the mine. Not only this silver,
but probably all the silver that shall ever come out of it."

Nostromo detected the ironic tone. "I dare say, Senor Don
Martin," he said, moodily. "There are very few things that I am
not equal to. Ask the foreign signori. I, a man of the people,
who cannot always understand what you mean. But as to this lot
which I must leave here, let me tell you that I would believe it
in greater safety if you had not been with me at all."

An exclamation escaped Decoud, and a short pause followed. "Shall
I go back with you to Sulaco?" he asked in an angry tone.

"Shall I strike you dead with my knife where you stand?" retorted
Nostromo, contemptuously. "It would be the same thing as taking
you to Sulaco. Come, senor. Your reputation is in your politics,
and mine is bound up with the fate of this silver. Do you wonder
I wish there had been no other man to share my knowledge? I
wanted no one with me, senor."

"You could not have kept the lighter afloat without me," Decoud
almost shouted. "You would have gone to the bottom with her."

"Yes," uttered Nostromo, slowly; "alone."

Here was a man, Decoud reflected, that seemed as though he would
have preferred to die rather than deface the perfect form of his
egoism. Such a man was safe. In silence he helped the Capataz to
get the grapnel on board. Nostromo cleared the shelving shore
with one push of the heavy oar, and Decoud found himself solitary
on the beach like a man in a dream. A sudden desire to hear a
human voice once more seized upon his heart. The lighter was
hardly distinguishable from the black water upon which she
floated.