Joseph Conrad: Nostromo

PART FIRST: THE SILVER OF THE MINE 8. CHAPTER EIGHT (continued)

"You call these men Government officials? They? Never! They are
officials of the mine--officials of the Concession--I tell you."

The prominent man (who was then a person in power, with a
lemon-coloured face and a very short and curly, not to say
woolly, head of hair) went so far in his temporary discontent as
to shake his yellow fist under the nose of his interlocutor, and
shriek--

"Yes! All! Silence! All! I tell you! The political Gefe, the
chief of the police, the chief of the customs, the general, all,
all, are the officials of that Gould."

Thereupon an intrepid but low and argumentative murmur would flow
on for a space in the ministerial cabinet, and the prominent
man's passion would end in a cynical shrug of the shoulders.
After all, he seemed to say, what did it matter as long as the
minister himself was not forgotten during his brief day of
authority? But all the same, the unofficial agent of the San
Tome mine, working for a good cause, had his moments of anxiety,
which were reflected in his letters to Don Jose Avellanos, his
maternal uncle.

"No sanguinary macaque from Sta. Marta shall set foot on that
part of Costaguana which lies beyond the San Tome bridge," Don
Pepe used to assure Mrs. Gould. "Except, of course, as an
honoured guest--for our Senor Administrador is a deep politico."
But to Charles Gould, in his own room, the old Major would remark
with a grim and soldierly cheeriness, "We are all playing our
heads at this game."