d gloomily.

"I told you; I told you," he mumbled. "I could smell some treachery,
some diableria a league off."

Meantime, the steamer had kept on her way towards Sulaco, where only the
truth of that matter could be ascertained. Decoud and Nostromo heard the
loud churning of her propeller diminish and die out; and then, with no
useless words, busied themselves in making for the Isabels. The last
shower had brought with it a gentle but steady breeze. The danger was
not over yet, and there was no time for talk. The lighter was leaking
like a sieve. They splashed in the water at every step. The Capataz put
into Decoud's hands the handle of the pump which was fitted at the side
aft, and at once, without question or remark, Decoud began to pump in
utter forgetfulness of every desire but that of keeping the treasure
afloat. Nostromo hoisted the sail, flew back to the tiller, pulled at
the sheet like mad. The short flare of a match (they had been kept
dry in a tight tin box, though the man himself was completely wet),
disclosed to the toiling Decoud the eagerness of his face, bent low over
the box of the compass, and the attentive stare of his eyes. He knew
now where he was, and he hoped to run the sinking lighter ashore in
the shallow cove where the high, cliff-like end of the Great Isabel is
divided in two equal parts by a deep and overgrown ravine.

Decoud pumped without intermission. Nostromo steered without relaxing
for a second the intense, peering effort of his stare. Each of them was
as if utterly alone with his task. It did not occur to them to speak.
There was nothing in common between them but the knowledge that the
damaged lighter must be slowly but surely sinking. In that knowledge,
which was like the crucial test of their desires, they seemed to have
become completely estranged, as if they had discovered in the very shock
of the collision that the loss of the lighter would not mean the same
thing to them both. This common danger brought their differences in aim,
in view, in character, and in position, into absolute prominence in the
private vision of each. There was no bond of conviction, of common
idea; they were merely two adventurers pursuing each his own adventure,
involved in the same imminence of deadly peril. Therefore they had
nothing to say to each other. But this peril, this only incontrovertible
truth in which they shared, seemed to act as an inspiration to their
mental and bodily powers.

There wa