about his plan of action. He
had arguments which should have appeared solid enough if we, members of old,
stable political and national organizations, were not startled by the mere idea
of a new State evolved like this out of the head of a scoffing young man fleeing
for his life, with a proclamation in his pocket, to a rough, jeering, half-bred
swashbuckler, who in this part of the world is called a general. It sounds like
a comic fairy tale - and behold, it may come off; because it is true to the very
spirit of the country.«
    »Is the silver gone off, then?« asked the doctor, moodily.
    The chief engineer pulled out his watch. »By Captain Mitchell's reckoning -
and he ought to know - it has been gone long enough now to be some three or four
miles outside the harbour; and, as Mitchell says, Nostromo is the sort of seaman
to make the best of his opportunities.« Here the doctor grunted so heavily that
the other changed his tone.
    »You have a poor opinion of that move, doctor? But why? Charles Gould has
got to play his game out, though he is not the man to formulate his conduct even
to himself, perhaps, let alone to others. It may be that the game has been
partly suggested to him by Holroyd; but it accords with his character, too; and
that is why it has been so successful. Haven't they come to calling him El Rey
de Sulaco in Sta. Marta? A nickname may be the best record of a success. That's
what I call putting the face of a joke upon the body of a truth. My dear sir,
when I first arrived in Sta. Marta I was struck by the way all those
journalists, demagogues, members of Congress, and all those generals and judges
cringed before a sleepy-eyed advocate without practice simply because he was the
plenipotentiary of the Gould Concession. Sir John when he came out was
impressed, too.«
    »A new State, with that plump dandy, Decoud, for the first President,« mused
Dr. Monygham, nursing his cheek and swinging his legs all the time.
    »Upon my word, and why not?« the chief engineer retorted in an unexpectedly
earnest and confidential voice. It was as if something subtle in the air of
Costaguana had inoculated him with the local faith in pronunciamientos. All at
once he began to talk, like an expert revolutionist, of the instrument ready to
hand in the intact army at Cayta