To that spiritual state the fate of Hirsch presented itself
as part of the general atrocity of things. He considered that episode
practically. What did it mean? Was it a sign of some dangerous change in
Sotillo's delusion? That the man should have been killed like this was
what the doctor could not understand.
"Yes. But why shot?" he murmured to himself.
Nostromo kept very still.
CHAPTER NINE
Distracted between doubts and hopes, dismayed by the sound of bells
pealing out the arrival of Pedrito Montero, Sotillo had spent the
morning in battling with his thoughts; a contest to which he was
unequal, from the vacuity of his mind and the violence of his passions.
Disappointment, greed, anger, and fear made a tumult, in the colonel's
breast louder than the din of bells in the town. Nothing he had planned
had come to pass. Neither Sulaco nor the silver of the mine had fallen
into his hands. He had performed no military exploit to secure his
position, and had obtained no enormous booty to make off with. Pedrito
Montero, either as friend or foe, filled him with dread.
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