The mirror-like sentence construction (beginning successive paragraphs) compares Decoud and Nostromo as having opposite types of "audacity" -- intellectual vs. physical. But the result, whether it be considered retribution or reward, is the same: fatigue and the surrender of purpose. Decoud, obviously, will be intellectually audacious no more, but neither will Nostromo be physically audacious, turning instead to a life of theft and telling Captain Mitchell that he is "too tired to work just yet."