t he knew
the yard had come down, lowered as carefully as if it had been made of
glass. Next moment he heard Nostromo's quiet breathing by his side.

"You had better not move at all from where you are, Don Martin," advised
the Capataz, earnestly. "You might stumble or displace something which
would make a noise. The sweeps and the punting poles are lying about.
Move not for your life. Por Dios, Don Martin," he went on in a keen but
friendly whisper, "I am so desperate that if I didn't know your worship
to be a man of courage, capable of standing stock still whatever
happens, I would drive my knife into your heart."

A deathlike stillness surrounded the lighter. It was difficult to
believe that there was near a steamer full of men with many pairs of
eyes peering from her bridge for some hint of land in the night. Her
steam had ceased blowing off, and she remained stopped too far off
apparently for any other sound to reach the lighter.

"Perhaps you would, Capataz," Decoud began in a whisper. "However, you
need not trouble. There are other things than the fear of your knife
to keep my heart steady. It shall not betray you. Only, have you
forgotten--"

"I spoke to you openly as to a man as desperate as myself," explained
the Capataz. "The silver must be saved from the Monterists. I told
Captain Mitchell three times that I preferred to go alone. I told Don
Carlos Gould, too. It was in the Casa Gould. They had sent for me. The
ladies were there; and when I tried to explain why I did not wish to
have you with me, they promised me, both of them, great rewards for your
safety. A strange way to talk to a man you are sending out to an almost
certain death. Those gentlefolk do not seem to have sense enough to
understand what they are giving one to do. I told them I could do
nothing for you. You would have been safer with the bandit Hernandez.
It would have been possible to ride out of the town with no greater risk
than a chance shot sent after you in the dark. But it was as if they had
been deaf. I had to promise I would wait for you under the harbour gate.
I did wait. And now because you are a brave man you are as safe as the
silver. Neither more nor less."

At that moment, as if by way of comment upon Nostromo's words, the
invisible steamer went ahead at half speed only, as could be judged
by the leisurely beat of her propeller. The sound shifted its place
markedly, but without coming nearer. It even grew a little more dist