Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard
"Linda!" he shouted, throwing back his head. "Linda!"
Linda stood up. She had recognized the voice.
"Is he dead?" she cried, bending over.
"Yes, my poor girl. I am coming round," the doctor answered from below. "Pull to the beach," he said to the rowers.
Linda's black figure detached itself upright on the light of the lantern with her arms raised above her head as though she were going to throw herself over.
"It is I who loved you," she whispered, with a face as set and white as marble in the moonlight. "I! Only I! She will forget thee, killed miserably for her pretty face. I cannot understand—I cannot understand. But I shall never forget thee. Never!"
She stood silent and still, collecting her strength to throw all her fidelity, her pain, bewilderment, and despair into one great cry.
"Never! Gian' Battista!"
Dr. Monygham, pulling round in the police-galley, heard the name pass over his head. It was another of Nostromo's triumphs, the greatest, the most enviable, the most sinister of all. In that true cry of undying passion that seemed to ring aloud from Punta Mala to Azuera and away to the bright line of the horizon, overhung by a big white cloud shining like a mass of solid silver, the genius of the magnificent capataz de cargadores dominated the dark gulf containing his conquests of treasure and love.
THE END
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