Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard
as he saw me come up, lifted his arm for silence. I stole in on tiptoe. By Jove! his wife was lying down and had gone to sleep. The woman had actually dropped off to sleep! 'Señor Doctor,' Viola whispers to me, 'it looks as if her oppression was going to get better.' 'Yes,' I said, very much surprised, 'your wife is a wonderful woman, Giorgio.' Just then a shot was fired in the kitchen which made us jump and cower as if at a thunder-clap. It seems that the party of soldiers had stolen quite close up and one of them had crept up to the door. He looked in, thought there was no one there, and holding his rifle ready entered quietly. The chief told me that he had just closed his eyes for a moment: when he opened them he saw the man already in the middle of the room peering into the dark corners. The chief was so startled that, without thinking, he made one leap from the recess right out in front of the fireplace. The soldier, no less startled, up with his rifle and pulls the trigger, deafening and singeing the engineer, but in his flurry missing him completely. But look what happens! At the noise of the report the sleeping woman sat up, as if moved by a spring, with a shriek, 'The children, Gian' Battista! Save the children!' I have it in my ears now. It was the truest cry of distress I ever heard. I stood as if paralyzed, but the old husband ran across to the bedside stretching out his hands. She clung to them. I could see her eyes go glazed. The old fellow lowered her down on the pillows and then looked round at me. She was dead. All this took less than five minutes, and then I ran down to see what was the matter. It was no use thinking of
378
