Joseph Conrad: Nostromo

PART THIRD: THE LIGHTHOUSE 2. CHAPTER TWO (continued)

In this Captain Mitchell was right. Sotillo was indeed
infuriated. Captain Mitchell, however, had not been arrested at
once; a vivid curiosity induced him to remain on the wharf (which
is nearly four hundred feet long) to see, or rather hear, the
whole process of disembarkation. Concealed by the railway truck
used for the silver, which had been run back afterwards to the
shore end of the jetty, Captain Mitchell saw the small detachment
thrown forward, pass by, taking different directions upon the
plain. Meantime, the troops were being landed and formed into a
column, whose head crept up gradually so close to him that he
made it out, barring nearly the whole width of the wharf, only a
very few yards from him. Then the low, shuffling, murmuring,
clinking sounds ceased, and the whole mass remained for about an
hour motionless and silent, awaiting the return of the scouts. On
land nothing was to be heard except the deep baying of the
mastiffs at the railway yards, answered by the faint barking of
the curs infesting the outer limits of the town. A detached knot
of dark shapes stood in front of the head of the column.

Presently the picket at the end of the wharf began to challenge
in undertones single figures approaching from the plain. Those
messengers sent back from the scouting parties flung to their
comrades brief sentences and passed on rapidly, becoming lost in
the great motionless mass, to make their report to the Staff. It
occurred to Captain Mitchell that his position could become
disagreeable and perhaps dangerous, when suddenly, at the head of
the jetty, there was a shout of command, a bugle call, followed
by a stir and a rattling of arms, and a murmuring noise that ran
right up the column. Near by a loud voice directed hurriedly,
"Push that railway car out of the way!" At the rush of bare feet
to execute the order Captain Mitchell skipped back a pace or two;
the car, suddenly impelled by many hands, flew away from him
along the rails, and before he knew what had happened he found
himself surrounded and seized by his arms and the collar of his
coat.

"We have caught a man hiding here, mi teniente!" cried one of his
captors.