Joseph Conrad: Nostromo

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

"Mistrust him!" muttered the doctor through his teeth. "I believe
him capable of anything--even of the most absurd fidelity. I am
the last person he spoke to before he left the wharf, you know.
The poor woman up there wanted to see him, and I let him go up to
her. The dying must not be contradicted, you know. She seemed
then fairly calm and resigned, but the scoundrel in those ten
minutes or so has done or said something which seems to have
driven her into despair. You know," went on the doctor,
hesitatingly, "women are so very unaccountable in every position,
and at all times of life, that I thought sometimes she was in a
way, don't you see? in love with him--the Capataz. The rascal has
his own charm indubitably, or he would not have made the conquest
of all the populace of the town. No, no, I am not absurd. I may
have given a wrong name to some strong sentiment for him on her
part, to an unreasonable and simple attitude a woman is apt to
take up emotionally towards a man. She used to abuse him to me
frequently, which, of course, is not inconsistent with my idea.
Not at all. It looked to me as if she were always thinking of
him. He was something important in her life. You know, I have
seen a lot of those people. Whenever I came down from the mine
Mrs. Gould used to ask me to keep my eye on them. She likes
Italians; she has lived a long time in Italy, I believe, and she
took a special fancy to that old Garibaldino. A remarkable chap
enough. A rugged and dreamy character, living in the
republicanism of his young days as if in a cloud. He has
encouraged much of the Capataz's confounded nonsense--the
high-strung, exalted old beggar!"

"What sort of nonsense?" wondered the chief engineer. "I found
the Capataz always a very shrewd and sensible fellow, absolutely
fearless, and remarkably useful. A perfect handy man. Sir John
was greatly impressed by his resourcefulness and attention when
he made that overland journey from Sta. Marta. Later on, as you
might have heard, he rendered us a service by disclosing to the
then chief of police the presence in the town of some
professional thieves, who came from a distance to wreck and rob
our monthly pay train. He has certainly organized the lighterage
service of the harbour for the O.S.N. Company with great ability.
He knows how to make himself obeyed, foreigner though he is. It
is true that the Cargadores are strangers here, too, for the most
part--immigrants, Islenos."