bridge in a group of officers as
excited as himself. Distracted between the coaxings and menaces of
Sotillo and his Staff, the miserable commander of the steamer kept her
moving with as much prudence as they would let him exercise. Some of
them had been drinking heavily, no doubt; but the prospect of laying
hands on so much wealth made them absurdly foolhardy, and, at the same
time, extremely anxious. The old major of the battalion, a stupid,
suspicious man, who had never been afloat in his life, distinguished
himself by putting out suddenly the binnacle light, the only one allowed
on board for the necessities of navigation. He could not understand of
what use it could be for finding the way. To the vehement protestations
of the ship's captain, he stamped his foot and tapped the handle of
his sword. "Aha! I have unmasked you," he cried, triumphantly. "You are
tearing your hair from despair at my acuteness. Am I a child to believe
that a light in that brass box can show you where the harbour is? I am
an old soldier, I am. I can smell a traitor a league off. You wanted
that gleam to betray our approach to your friend the Englishman. A thing
like that show you the way! What a miserable lie! Que picardia! You
Sulaco people are all in the pay of those foreigners. You deserve to
be run through the body with my sword." Other officers, crowding round,
tried to calm his indignation, repeating persuasively, "No, no! This is
an appliance of the mariners, major. This is no treachery." The captain
of the transport flung himself face downwards on the bridge, and refused
to rise. "Put an end to me at once," he repeated in a stifled voice.
Sotillo had to interfere.

The uproar and confusion on the bridge became so great that the helmsman
fled from the wheel. He took refuge in the engine-room, and alarmed the
engineers, who, disregarding the threats of the soldiers set on guard
over them, stopped the engines, protesting that they would rather be
shot than run the risk of being drowned down below.

This was the first time Nostromo and Decoud heard the steamer stop.
After order had been restored, and the binnacle lamp relighted, she went
ahead again, passing wide of the lighter in her search for the Isabels.
The group could not be made out, and, at the pitiful entreaties of the
captain, Sotillo allowed the engines to be stopped again to wait for one
of those periodical lightenings of darkness caused by the shifting of
the cloud canopy sp