Nostromo : A Tale of the Seaboard
tion. That was the rich Englishman who, as people say, pays for the making of this railway. He was very based with me. But my wages were not due till the end of the month."
He slid down the bank, suddenly. Decoud heard the splash of his feet in the brook, and followed his footsteps down the ravine. His form was lost among the bushes till he had reached the strip of sand under She cliff. As often happens in the gulf, when the showers during the first part of the night had been frequent and heavy, the darkness had thinned considerably towards the morning, though there were no signs of daylight as yet.
The cargo lighter, relieved of its precious burden, locked feebly, half afloat, with her forefoot on the sand. A long rope stretched away like a black cotton thread cross the strip of white beach to the grapnel Nostromo had carried ashore, and hooked to the stem of a tree -like shrub in the very opening of the ravine.
There was nothing for Decoud but to remain on the island. He received from Nostromo's hands whatever food the foresight of Captain Mitchell had put on board the lighter, and deposited it temporarily in the little dinghy which, on their arrival, they had hauled up out of sight among the bushes. It was to be left with him. The island was to be a hiding-place, not a prison; He could pull out to a passing ship. The O.S.N. Company's mail-boats passed close to the islands when going into Sulaco from the north. But the Minerva, carrying off the ex-president, had taken the news up north of the disturbances in Sulaco. It was possible that the next steamer down would get instructions to
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