him in that mine, so you may imagine--"

He interrupted himself as, from before one of the little fires burning
outside the low wall of the corral, arose the figure of a man wrapped in
a poncho up to the neck. The saddle which he had been using for a pillow
made a dark patch on the ground against the red glow of embers.

"I shall see Holroyd himself on my way back through the States," said
Sir John. "I've ascertained that he, too, wants the railway."

The man who, perhaps disturbed by the proximity of the voices, had
arisen from the ground, struck a match to light a cigarette. The flame
showed a bronzed, black-whiskered face, a pair of eyes gazing straight;
then, rearranging his wrappings, he sank full length and laid his head
again on the saddle.

"That's our camp-master, whom I must send back to Sulaco now we
are going to carry our survey into the Sta. Marta Valley," said the
engineer. "A most useful fellow, lent me by Captain Mitchell of the
O.S.N. Company. It was very good of Mitchell. Charles Gould told me I
couldn't do better than take advantage of the offer. He seems to know
how to rule all these muleteers and peons. We had not the slightest
trouble with our people. He shall escort your diligencia right into
Sulaco with some of our railway peons. The road is bad. To have him at
hand may save you an upset or two. He promised me to take care of your
person all the way down as if you were his father."

This camp-master was the Italian sailor whom all the Europeans in
Sulaco, following Captain Mitchell's mispronunciation, were in the
habit of calling Nostromo. And indeed, taciturn and ready, he did take
excellent care of his charge at the bad parts of the road, as Sir John
himself acknowledged to Mrs. Gould afterwards.

CHAPTER SIX

At that time Nostromo had been already long enough in the country
to raise to the highest pitch Captain Mitchell's opinion of the
extraordinary value of his discovery. Clearly he was one of those
invaluable subordinates whom to possess is a legitimate cause of
boasting. Captain Mitchell plumed himself upon his eye for men--but
he was not selfish--and in the innocence of his pride was already
developing that mania for "lending you my Capataz de Cargadores" which
was to bring Nostromo into personal contact, sooner or later, with
every European in Sulaco, as a sort of universal factotum--a prodigy of
efficiency in his own sphere of life.

"The fellow is devoted to me, body and s