Joseph Conrad: Nostromo

PART THIRD: THE LIGHTHOUSE 4. CHAPTER FOUR (continued)

"Antonia will kill herself!" she cried out.

This cry fell into the silence of the room with strangely little
effect. Only the doctor, crumbling up a piece of bread, with his
head inclined on one side, raised his face, and the few long
hairs sticking out of his shaggy eyebrows stirred in a slight
frown. Dr. Monygham thought quite sincerely that Decoud was a
singularly unworthy object for any woman's affection. Then he
lowered his head again, with a curl of his lip, and his heart
full of tender admiration for Mrs. Gould.

"She thinks of that girl," he said to himself; "she thinks of the
Viola children; she thinks of me; of the wounded; of the miners;
she always thinks of everybody who is poor and miserable! But
what will she do if Charles gets the worst of it in this infernal
scrimmage those confounded Avellanos have drawn him into? No one
seems to be thinking of her."

Charles Gould, staring at the wall, pursued his reflections
subtly.

"I shall write to Holroyd that the San Tome mine is big enough to
take in hand the making of a new State. It'll please him. It'll
reconcile him to the risk."

But was Barrios really available? Perhaps. But he was
inaccessible. To send off a boat to Cayta was no longer possible,
since Sotillo was master of the harbour, and had a steamer at his
disposal. And now, with all the democrats in the province up, and
every Campo township in a state of disturbance, where could he
find a man who would make his way successfully overland to Cayta
with a message, a ten days' ride at least; a man of courage and
resolution, who would avoid arrest or murder, and if arrested
would faithfully eat the paper? The Capataz de Cargadores would
have been just such a man. But the Capataz of the Cargadores was
no more.

And Charles Gould, withdrawing his eyes from the wall, said
gently, "That Hirsch! What an extraordinary thing! Saved himself
by clinging to the anchor, did he? I had no idea that he was
still in Sulaco. I thought he had gone back overland to
Esmeralda more than a week ago. He came here once to talk to me
about his hide business and some other things. I made it clear
to him that nothing could be done."