The doctor, observant and
self-possessed, muttered, "He is very capable of that."
Here Captain Mitchell exclaimed with amazement, amusement, and
indignation, "You said that of Charles Gould!" Disgust, and even some
suspicion, crept into his tone, for to him, too, as to other Europeans,
there appeared to be something dubious about the doctor's personality.
"What on earth made you say that to this watch-stealing scoundrel?"
he asked. "What's the object of an infernal lie of that sort? That
confounded pick-pocket was quite capable of believing you."
He snorted. For a time the doctor remained silent in the dark.
"Yes, that is exactly what I did say," he uttered at last, in a tone
which would have made it clear enough to a third party that the pause
was not of a reluctant but of a reflective character. Captain Mitchell
thought that he had never heard anything so brazenly impudent in his
life.
"Well, well!" he muttered to himself, but he had not the heart to voice
his thoughts. They were swept away by others full of astonishment and
regret. A heavy sense of discomfiture crushed him: the loss of the
silver, the death of Nostromo, which was really quite a blow to his
sensibilities, because he had become attached to his Capataz as people
get attached to their inferiors from love of ease and almost unconscious
gratitude.
Pages:
499
500
501
502
503
504
505
506
507
508
509
510
511
512
513
514
515
516
517
518
519
520
521
522
523