Nostromo : A Tale of the Seaboard
ing, doctor. Our peons have recoverd some of our stampeded horses. By riding hard and taking a wide circuit by Los Ilatos and along the edge of the forest, clear of Rincon altogether, you may hope to reach the San Tome" bridge without being interfered with. The mine is just now, to my mind, the safest place for any- body at all compromised. I only wish the railway was as difficult to touch."
"Am I compromised?" Dr. Monygham brought out slowly, after a short silence.
"The whole Gould Concession is compromised. It could not have remained forever outside the political life of the country if those convulsions may be called life. The thing is can it be touched? The moment was bound to come when neutrality would become impossible, and Charles Gould understood this well. I believe he is prepared for every extremity. A man of his sort has never contemplated remaining indefinitely at the mercy of ignorance and corruption. It was like being a prisoner in a cavern of banditti with the price of your ransom in your pocket and buying your life from day to day. Your mere safety, not your liberty, mind, doctor. I know what I am talking about. The image at which you shrug your shoulders is perfectly correct; especially if you conceive such a prisoner endowed with the power of replenishing his pocket by means as remote from the faculties of his captors as if they were magic. You must have understood that as well as I do, doctor. He was in the position of the goose with the golden eggs. I broached this matter to him as far back as Sir John's visit here. The prisoner of stupid and greedy banditti is always at
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