ed silence made the doctor uneasy. He pointed out,
quite unnecessarily, that though for the present he was safe, he could
not live concealed for ever. The choice was between accepting the
mission to Barrios, with all its dangers and difficulties, and leaving
Sulaco by stealth, ingloriously, in poverty.

"None of your friends could reward you and protect you just now,
Capataz. Not even Don Carlos himself."

"I would have none of your protection and none of your rewards. I
only wish I could trust your courage and your sense. When I return in
triumph, as you say, with Barrios, I may find you all destroyed. You
have the knife at your throat now."

It was the doctor's turn to remain silent in the contemplation of
horrible contingencies.

"Well, we would trust your courage and your sense. And you, too, have a
knife at your throat."

"Ah! And whom am I to thank for that? What are your politics and your
mines to me--your silver and your constitutions--your Don Carlos this,
and Don Jose that--"

"I don't know," burst out the exasperated doctor. "There are innocent
people in danger whose little finger is worth more than you or I and all
the Ribierists together. I don't know. You should have asked yourself
before you allowed Decoud to lead you into all this. It was your place
to think like a man; but if you did not think then, try to act like a
man now. Did you imagine Decoud cared very much for what would happen to
you?"

"No more than you care for what will happen to me," muttered the other.

"No; I care for what will happen to you as little as I care for what
will happen to myself."

"And all this because you are such a devoted Ribierist?" Nostromo said
in an incredulous tone.

"All this because I am such a devoted Ribierist," repeated Dr. Monygham,
grimly.

Again Nostromo, gazing abstractedly at the body of the late Senor
Hirsch, remained silent, thinking that the doctor was a dangerous person
in more than one sense. It was impossible to trust him.

"Do you speak in the name of Don Carlos?" he asked at last.

"Yes. I do," the doctor said, loudly, without hesitation. "He must come
forward now. He must," he added in a mutter, which Nostromo did not
catch.

"What did you say, senor?"

The doctor started. "I say that you must be true to yourself, Capataz.
It would be worse than folly to fail now."

"True to myself," repeated Nostromo. "How do you know that I would
not be true to myself if I told you to go to