Joseph Conrad: Nostromo

PART THIRD: THE LIGHTHOUSE 8. CHAPTER EIGHT (continued)

"As long as I can."

"What does that mean?"

"I can tell you exactly. As long as I live," the doctor retorted
in a stubborn voice. Then, in a few words, he described the story
of his arrest and the circumstances of his release. "I was going
back to that silly scoundrel when we met," he concluded.

Nostromo had listened with profound attention. "You have made up
your mind, then, to a speedy death," he muttered through his
clenched teeth.

"Perhaps, my illustrious Capataz," the doctor said, testily. "You
are not the only one here who can look an ugly death in the
face."

"No doubt," mumbled Nostromo, loud enough to be overheard. "There
may be even more than two fools in this place. Who knows?"

"And that is my affair," said the doctor, curtly.

"As taking out the accursed silver to sea was my affair,"
retorted Nostromo. "I see. Bueno! Each of us has his reasons. But
you were the last man I conversed with before I started, and you
talked to me as if I were a fool."

Nostromo had a great distaste for the doctor's sardonic treatment
of his great reputation. Decoud's faintly ironic recognition used
to make him uneasy; but the familiarity of a man like Don Martin
was flattering, whereas the doctor was a nobody. He could
remember him a penniless outcast, slinking about the streets of
Sulaco, without a single friend or acquaintance, till Don Carlos
Gould took him into the service of the mine.

"You may be very wise," he went on, thoughtfully, staring into
the obscurity of the room, pervaded by the gruesome enigma of the
tortured and murdered Hirsch. "But I am not such a fool as when
I started. I have learned one thing since, and that is that you
are a dangerous man."

Dr. Monygham was too startled to do more than exclaim--