He--"

"The very thing! The very thing!" the doctor repeated in an excited
whisper. "Capataz, I begin to believe that you are a great genius in
your way."

Nostromo had paused; then began again in a changed tone, sombre,
speaking to himself as though he had forgotten the doctor's existence.

"There is something in a treasure that fastens upon a man's mind. He
will pray and blaspheme and still persevere, and will curse the day he
ever heard of it, and will let his last hour come upon him unawares,
still believing that he missed it only by a foot. He will see it every
time he closes his eyes. He will never forget it till he is dead--and
even then----Doctor, did you ever hear of the miserable gringos on
Azuera, that cannot die? Ha! ha! Sailors like myself. There is no
getting away from a treasure that once fastens upon your mind."

"You are a devil of a man, Capataz. It is the most plausible thing."

Nostromo pressed his arm.

"It will be worse for him than thirst at sea or hunger in a town full of
people. Do you know what that is? He shall suffer greater torments than
he inflicted upon that terrified wretch who had no invention. None!
none! Not like me. I could have told Sotillo a deadly tale for very
little pain."

He laughed wildly and turned in the doorway towards the body of the late
Senor Hirsch, an opaque long blotch in the semi-transparent obscurity
of the room between the two tall parallelograms of the windows full of
stars.

"You man of fear!" he cried. "You shall be avenged by me--Nostromo. Out
of my way, doctor! Stand aside--or, by the suffering soul of a woman
dead without confession, I will strangle you with my two hands."

He bounded downwards into the black, smoky hall. With a grunt of
astonishment, Dr. Monygham threw himself recklessly into the pursuit. At
the bottom of the charred stairs he had a fall, pitching forward on his
face with a force that would have stunned a spirit less intent upon a
task of love and devotion. He was up in a moment, jarred, shaken, with a
queer impression of the terrestrial globe having been flung at his head
in the dark. But it wanted more than that to stop Dr. Monygham's body,
possessed by the exaltation of self-sacrifice; a reasonable exaltation,
determined not to lose whatever advantage chance put into its way. He
ran with headlong, tottering swiftness, his arms going like a windmill
in his effort to keep his balance on his crippled feet. He lost his hat;
the t