Nostromo : A Tale of the Seaboard
revived after an extraordinarily short time and scrambled up to his feet wildly. Nostromo, in an angry and threatening voice, ordered him forward. Hirsch was one of those men whom fear lashes like a whip, and he must have had an appalling idea of the capataz's ferocity. He displayed an extraordinary agility in disappearing forward into the darkness. They heard him getting over the tarpaulin; then there was the sound of a heavy fall followed by a weary sigh. Afterwards all was still in the fore part of the lighter, as though he had killed himself in his headlong tumble. Nostromo shouted in a menacing voice:
"Lie still there! Do not move a limb! If I hear as much as a loud breath from you I shall come over there and put a bullet through your head!"
The mere presence of a coward, however passive, brings an element of treachery into a dangerous situation. Nostromo's nervous impatience passed into gloomy thoughtfulness. Decoud, in an undertone, if speaking to himself, remarked that, after all, this bizarre event made no great difference. He could not conceive what harm the man could do. At most would be in the way, like an inanimate and useless object like a block of wood, for instance.
"I would think twice before getting rid of a piece of wood," said Nostromo, calmly. "Something may happen unexpectedly where you could make use of it. But in an affair like ours a man like this ought to be thrown overboard. Even if he were as brave as a lion we would not want him here. We are not running away for our lives. Señor, there is no harm in a brave man trying to save himself with ingenuity
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