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, as 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 he 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. Senor, there is no harm
in a brave man trying to save himself with ingenuity and courage; but
you have heard his tale, Don Martin. His being here is a miracle of
fear--" Nostromo paused. "There is no room for fear in this lighter," he
added through his teeth.

Decoud had no answer to make. It was not a position for argument, for a
display of scruples or feelings. There were a thousand ways in which
a panic-stricken man could make himself dangerous. It was evident
that Hirsch could not be spoken to, reasoned with, or persuaded into a
rational line of conduct. The story of his own escape demonstrated that
clearly enough. Decoud thought that it was a thousand pities the wretch
had not died of fright. Nature, who had made him what he was, seemed to
have calculated cruelly how much he could bear in the way of atrocious
anguish without actually expiring. Some compassion was due to so much
terror. Decoud, though imaginative enough for sympathy, resolved not
to interfere with any action that Nostromo would take. But Nostromo did
nothing. And the fate of Senor Hirsch remained suspended in the darkness
of the gulf at the mercy of events which could not be foreseen.

The Capataz, extending his hand, put out the candle suddenly. It was to
Decoud as if his companion had destroyed, by a single touch, the world
of affairs, of loves, of revolut