VIII

FOR a moment, before this extraordinary find, they forgot their own concerns and sensations. Bettor Hirsch's sensations as he lay there must have been those of extreme terror. For a long time he re- nsed to give a sign of life, till at last Decoud's objur- gations and, perhaps more, Nostromo's impatient sug- gestion that he should be thrown overboard, as he seemed to be dead, induced him to raise one eyelid first and then the other. I It appeared that he had never found a safe oppor- tunity to leave Sulaco. He lodged with Anzani, the universal store-keeper on the Plaza Mayor. But when the riot broke out he had made his escape from his ost's house before daylight, and in such a hurry that be had forgotten to put on his shoes. He had run out impulsively in his socks, and with his hat in his hand, into the garden of Anzani's house. Fear gave him the necessary agility to climb over several low walls, and afterwards he blundered into the over- grown cloisters of the ruined Franciscan convent in one of the by-streets. He forced himself into the midst of matted bushes with the recklessness of desperation, and this accounted for his scratched body and his torn clothing. He lay hidden there all day, his tongue eaving to the roof of his mouth with all the intensity

of thirst engendered by heat and fear. Three times