t boast of having
opened their doors to my knock, you know I wouldn't look at any one of
them twice except for what the people would say. They are queer, the
good people of Sulaco, and I have got much useful information simply by
listening patiently to the talk of the women that everybody believed
I was in love with. Poor Teresa could never understand that. On that
particular Sunday, senor, she scolded so that I went out of the house
swearing that I would never darken their door again unless to fetch
away my hammock and my chest of clothes. Senor, there is nothing more
exasperating than to hear a woman you respect rail against your good
reputation when you have not a single brass coin in your pocket. I
untied one of the small boats and pulled myself out of the harbour with
nothing but three cigars in my pocket to help me spend the day on this
island. But the water of this rivulet you hear under your feet is cool
and sweet and good, senor, both before and after a smoke." He was silent
for a while, then added reflectively, "That was the first Sunday after
I brought down the white-whiskered English rico all the way down the
mountains from the Paramo on the top of the Entrada Pass--and in the
coach, too! No coach had gone up or down that mountain road within the
memory of man, senor, till I brought this one down in charge of fifty
peons working like one man with ropes, pickaxes, and poles under my
direction. That was the rich Englishman who, as people say, pays for the
making of this railway. He was very pleased with me. But my wages were
not due till the end of the month."

He slid down the bank suddenly. Decoud heard the splash of his feet in
the brook and followed his footsteps down the ravine. His form was lost
among the bushes till he had reached the strip of sand under the cliff.
As often happens in the gulf when the showers during the first part
of the night had been frequent and heavy, the darkness had thinned
considerably towards the morning though there were no signs of daylight
as yet.

The cargo-lighter, relieved of its precious burden, rocked feebly,
half-afloat, with her fore-foot on the sand. A long rope stretched
away like a black cotton thread across the strip of white beach to
the grapnel Nostromo had carried ashore and hooked to the stem of a
tree-like shrub in the very opening of the ravine.

There was nothing for Decoud but to remain on the island. He received
from Nostromo's hands whatever food the