Page:Nostromo (1904).djvu/54

 as the agent of the Gould silver-mine, the biggest thing in Sulaco, and even in the whole republic. It was indeed a fabulously rich mine. Its so-called agent, evidently a man of culture and ability, seemed, without official position, to possess an extraordinary influence in the highest government spheres. He was able to assure Sir John that the President-Dictator would make the journey. He regretted, however, in the course of the same conversation, that General Montero insisted upon going too.

General Montero, whom the beginning of the struggle had found an obscure army captain employed on the wild eastern frontier of the state, had thrown in his lot with the Ribiera party at a moment when special circumstances had given that small adhesion a fortuitous importance. The fortunes of war served him marvellously, and the victory of Rio Seco (after a day of desperate fighting) put a seal to his success. At the end he emerged General, Minister of War, and the military head of the Blanco party, although there was nothing aristocratic in his descent. Indeed, it was said that he and his brother, orphans, had been brought up by the munificence of a famous European traveller, in whose service their father had lost his life. Another story was that their father had been nothing but a charcoal-burner in the woods, and their mother a baptized Indian woman from the far interior.

However that might be, the Costaguana press was in the habit of styling Montero's forest march from his commandancia to join the Blanco forces at the beginning of the troubles the "most heroic military