in Mitchell's office
one day, when he came in with that calm, grave air he always carries
everywhere. He had been away trading in the Gulf of California, he said,
looking straight past us at the wall, as his manner is, and was glad to
see on his return that a lighthouse was being built on the cliff of the
Great Isabel. Very glad, he repeated. Mitchell explained that it was
the O. S. N. Co. who was building it, for the convenience of the mail
service, on his own advice. Captain Fidanza was good enough to say that
it was excellent advice. I remember him twisting up his moustaches and
looking all round the cornice of the room before he proposed that old
Giorgio should be made the keeper of that light."

"I heard of this. I was consulted at the time," Mrs. Gould said. "I
doubted whether it would be good for these girls to be shut up on that
island as if in a prison."

"The proposal fell in with the old Garibaldino's humour. As to Linda,
any place was lovely and delightful enough for her as long as it was
Nostromo's suggestion. She could wait for her Gian' Battista's good
pleasure there as well as anywhere else. My opinion is that she was
always in love with that incorruptible Capataz. Moreover, both father
and sister were anxious to get Giselle away from the attentions of a
certain Ramirez."

"Ah!" said Mrs. Gould, interested. "Ramirez? What sort of man is that?"

"Just a mozo of the town. His father was a Cargador. As a lanky boy he
ran about the wharf in rags, till Nostromo took him up and made a man of
him. When he got a little older, he put him into a lighter and very soon
gave him charge of the No. 3 boat--the boat which took the silver away,
Mrs. Gould. Nostromo selected that lighter for the work because she
was the best sailing and the strongest boat of all the Company's fleet.
Young Ramirez was one of the five Cargadores entrusted with the removal
of the treasure from the Custom House on that famous night. As the boat
he had charge of was sunk, Nostromo, on leaving the Company's service,
recommended him to Captain Mitchell for his successor. He had trained
him in the routine of work perfectly, and thus Mr. Ramirez, from a
starving waif, becomes a man and the Capataz of the Sulaco Cargadores."

"Thanks to Nostromo," said Mrs. Gould, with warm approval.

"Thanks to Nostromo," repeated Dr. Monygham. "Upon my word, the fellow's
power frightens me when I think of it. That our poor old Mitchell was
only too glad to