Joseph Conrad: Nostromo

PART THIRD: THE LIGHTHOUSE 1. CHAPTER ONE (continued)

"Withdrawing your people from the harbour?" said the doctor,
addressing himself to the chief engineer of the railway, who had
accompanied Charles Gould so far on his way to the town, walking
by the side of the horse, with his hand on the saddle-bow. They
had stopped just outside the open door to let the workmen cross
the road.

"As quick as I can. We are not a political faction," answered the
engineer, meaningly. "And we are not going to give our new rulers
a handle against the railway. You approve me, Gould?"

"Absolutely," said Charles Gould's impassive voice, high up and
outside the dim parallelogram of light falling on the road
through the open door.

With Sotillo expected from one side, and Pedro Montero from the
other, the engineer-in-chief's only anxiety now was to avoid a
collision with either. Sulaco, for him, was a railway station, a
terminus, workshops, a great accumulation of stores. As against
the mob the railway defended its property, but politically the
railway was neutral. He was a brave man; and in that spirit of
neutrality he had carried proposals of truce to the
self-appointed chiefs of the popular party, the deputies Fuentes
and Gamacho. Bullets were still flying about when he had crossed
the Plaza on that mission, waving above his head a white napkin
belonging to the table linen of the Amarilla Club.

He was rather proud of this exploit; and reflecting that the
doctor, busy all day with the wounded in the patio of the Casa
Gould, had not had time to hear the news, he began a succinct
narrative. He had communicated to them the intelligence from the
Construction Camp as to Pedro Montero. The brother of the
victorious general, he had assured them, could be expected at
Sulaco at any time now. This news (as he anticipated), when
shouted out of the window by Senor Gamacho, induced a rush of the
mob along the Campo Road towards Rincon. The two deputies also,
after shaking hands with him effusively, mounted and galloped off
to meet the great man. "I have misled them a little as to the
time," the chief engineer confessed. "However hard he rides, he
can scarcely get here before the morning. But my object is
attained. I've secured several hours' peace for the losing
party. But I did not tell them anything about Sotillo, for fear
they would take it into their heads to try to get hold of the
harbour again, either to oppose him or welcome him--there's no
saying which. There was Gould's silver, on which rests the
remnant of our hopes. Decoud's retreat had to be thought of, too.
I think the railway has done pretty well by its friends without
compromising itself hopelessly. Now the parties must be left to
themselves."