k that I, too, have dozed off. I have a strange
notion somehow of having dreamt that there was a sound of blubbering,
a sound a sorrowing man could make, somewhere near this boat. Something
between a sigh and a sob."

"Strange!" muttered Decoud, stretched upon the pile of treasure boxes
covered by many tarpaulins. "Could it be that there is another boat near
us in the gulf? We could not see it, you know."

Nostromo laughed a little at the absurdity of the idea. They dismissed
it from their minds. The solitude could almost be felt. And when the
breeze ceased, the blackness seemed to weigh upon Decoud like a stone.

"This is overpowering," he muttered. "Do we move at all, Capataz?"

"Not so fast as a crawling beetle tangled in the grass," answered
Nostromo, and his voice seemed deadened by the thick veil of obscurity
that felt warm and hopeless all about them. There were long periods
when he made no sound, invisible and inaudible as if he had mysteriously
stepped out of the lighter.

In the featureless night Nostromo was not even certain which way the
lighter headed after the wind had completely died out. He peered for the
islands. There was not a hint of them to be seen, as if they had sunk to
the bottom of the gulf. He threw himself down by the side of Decoud at
last, and whispered into his ear that if daylight caught them near the
Sulaco shore through want of wind, it would be possible to sweep the
lighter behind the cliff at the high end of the Great Isabel, where
she would lie concealed. Decoud was surprised at the grimness of his
anxiety. To him the removal of the treasure was a political move. It was
necessary for several reasons that it should not fall into the hands of
Montero, but here was a man who took another view of this enterprise.
The Caballeros over there did not seem to have the slightest idea of
what they had given him to do. Nostromo, as if affected by the gloom
around, seemed nervously resentful. Decoud was surprised. The Capataz,
indifferent to those dangers that seemed obvious to his companion,
allowed himself to become scornfully exasperated by the deadly nature
of the trust put, as a matter of course, into his hands. It was more
dangerous, Nostromo said, with a laugh and a curse, than sending a man
to get the treasure that people said was guarded by devils and ghosts in
the deep ravines of Azuera. "Senor," he said, "we must catch the steamer
at sea. We must keep out in the open looking for her