“Hullo!” exclaimed the doctor, looking up with a start. He could hear the Capataz stagger against the table and gasp. In the sudden extinction of the light within, the dead blackness sealing the window-frames became alive with stars to his sight.
“Of course, of course,” the doctor muttered to himself in English. “Enough to make him jump out of his skin.”
Nostromo’s heart seemed to force itself into his throat. His head swam. Hirsch! The man was Hirsch! He held on tight to the edge of the table.
“But he was hiding in the lighter,” he almost shouted His voice fell. “In the lighter, and—and—”
“And Sotillo brought him in,” said the doctor. “He is no more startling to you than you were to me. What I want to know is how he induced some compassionate soul to shoot him.”
“So Sotillo knows—” b
