revived after an extraordinarily short time and scram-

bled up to his feet wildly. Nostromo, in an angry and threatening voice, ordered him forward. Hirsch was one of those men whom fear lashes like a whip, and he must have had an appalling idea of the capataz's ferocity. He displayed an extraordinary agility in disappearing forward into the darkness. They heard him getting over the tarpaulin; then there was the sound of a heavy fall followed by a weary sigh. After- wards all was still in the fore part of the lighter, as though he had killed himself in his headlong tumble. Nostromo shouted in a menacing voice: "Lie still there! Do not move a limb! If I hear as much as a loud breath from you I shall come over there and put a bullet through your head!" The mere presence of a coward, however passive, brings an element of treachery into a dangerous situa- tion. Nostromo's nervous impatience passed into gloomy thoughtfulness. Decoud, in an undertone, if speaking to himself, remarked that, after all, t bizarre event made no great difference. He could not conceive what harm the man could do. At most would be in the way, like an inanimate and usel object like a block of wood, for instance. "I would think twice before getting rid of a pi of wood," said Nostromo, calmly. "Something ma happen unexpectedly where you could make use of it. But in an affair like ours a man like this ought to be thrown overboard. Even if he were as brave as a lion we would not want him here. We are not running away for our lives. Sefior, there is no harm

in a brave man trying to save himself with ingenuity