t do you think of that?"

"You are a man of infinite resource, Capataz," said Dr. Monygham,
dismally. "I recognize that. But the town is full of talk about you; and
those few Cargadores that are not in hiding with the railway people have
been shouting 'Viva Montero' on the Plaza all day."

"My poor Cargadores!" muttered Nostromo. "Betrayed! Betrayed!"

"I understand that on the wharf you were pretty free in laying about you
with a stick amongst your poor Cargadores," the doctor said in a grim
tone, which showed that he was recovering from his exertions. "Make no
mistake. Pedrito is furious at Senor Ribiera's rescue, and at having
lost the pleasure of shooting Decoud. Already there are rumours in the
town of the treasure having been spirited away. To have missed that does
not please Pedrito either; but let me tell you that if you had all that
silver in your hand for ransom it would not save you."

Turning swiftly, and catching the doctor by the shoulders, Nostromo
thrust his face close to his.

"Maladetta! You follow me speaking of the treasure. You have sworn my
ruin. You were the last man who looked upon me before I went out with
it. And Sidoni the engine-driver says you have an evil eye."

"He ought to know. I saved his broken leg for him last year," the doctor
said, stoically. He felt on his shoulders the weight of these hands
famed amongst the populace for snapping thick ropes and bending
horseshoes. "And to you I offer the best means of saving yourself--let
me go--and of retrieving your great reputation. You boasted of making
the Capataz de Cargadores famous from one end of America to the other
about this wretched silver. But I bring you a better opportunity--let me
go, hombre!"

Nostromo released him abruptly, and the doctor feared that the
indispensable man would run off again. But he did not. He walked on
slowly. The doctor hobbled by his side till, within a stone's throw from
the Casa Viola, Nostromo stopped again.

Silent in inhospitable darkness, the Casa Viola seemed to have changed
its nature; his home appeared to repel him with an air of hopeless and
inimical mystery. The doctor said--

"You will be safe there. Go in, Capataz."

"How can I go in?" Nostromo seemed to ask himself in a low, inward tone.
"She cannot unsay what she said, and I cannot undo what I have done."

"I tell you it is all right. Viola is all alone in there. I looked in
as I came out of the town. You will be perfectly safe in