Part 3 (1/2)
”We tore slowly along the overhanging bushes in a whirl of broken twigs and flying leaves The fusillade below stopped short, as I had foreseen it would when the squirts got e whizz that traversed the pilot-house, in at one shutter-hole and out at the other Looking past thatat the shore, I saw vague for, distinct, inco appeared in the air before the shutter, the rifle went overboard, and the man stepped back swiftly, looked at me over his shoulder in an extraordinary, profound, familiar manner, and fell upon my feet The side of his head hit the wheel twice, and the end of what appeared a long cane clattered round and knocked over a little ca from somebody ashore he had lost his balance in the effort The thin s ahead I could see that in another hundred yards or so I would be free to sheer off, away from the bank; but my feet felt so very warm and wet that I had to look down The ht up at me; both his hands clutched that cane It was the shaft of a spear that, either thrown or lunged through the opening, had caught hione in out of sight, after ash;dark-red under the wheel; his eyes shone with an aain He looked atprecious, with an air of being afraid I would try to take it away froaze and attend to the steering With one hand I felt above my head for the line of the steam-whistle, and jerked out screech after screech hurriedly The tury and warlike yells was checked instantly, and then from the depths of the woods went out such a treed wail of ined to follow the flight of the last hope froreat commotion in the bush; the shower of arrows stopped, a few dropping shots rang out sharply--then silence, in which the languid beat of the stern-wheel came plainly to my ears I put the helriitated, appeared in the doorway 'The an in an official tone, and stopped short 'Good God!' he said, glaring at the wounded man
”We thites stood over hilance enveloped us both I declare it looked as though he would presently put to us soe; but he died without uttering a sound, withouta h in response to son we could not see, to some whisper we could not hear, he frowned heavily, and that frown gave to his black death- expression The luster of inquiring glance faded swiftly into vacant glassiness 'Can you steer?' I asked the agent eagerly He looked very dubious; but I rab at his arm, and he understood at once I meant him to steer whether or no To tell you the truth, I was e my shoes and socks 'He is dead,' murmured the fellow, i like mad at the shoe-laces 'And, by the way, I suppose Mr Kurtz is dead as well by this tiht There was a sense of extreh I had found out I had been striving after soether without a substance I couldn't have been usted if I had traveled all this way for the sole purpose of talking with Mr Kurtz Talking withI flung one shoe overboard, and beca forward to--a talk with Kurtz I ined hi I didn't say to myself, 'Noill never see him,' or 'Noill never shake him by the hand,' but, 'Noill never hear him' The man presented himself as a voice Not of course that I did not connect him with some sort of action Hadn't I been told in all the tones of jealousy and admiration that he had collected, bartered, swindled, or stolen ether? That was not the point The point was in his being a gifted creature, and that of all his gifts the one that stood out pre-eminently, that carried with it a sense of real presence, was his ability to talk, his words--the gift of expression, the bewildering, the illu, thestreaht, or the deceitful flow from the heart of an i unto the devil-God of that river I thought, 'By Jove! it's all over We are too late; he has vanished--the gift has vanished, by means of some spear, arrow, or club I will never hear that chap speak after all,'--and ance of e sorrow of these savages in the bush I couldn't have felt more of lonely desolation somehow, had I been robbed of a belief or had h in this beastly way, somebody? Absurd? Well, absurd Good Lord! ive me some tobacco”
There was a pause of profound stillness, then a match flared, and Marlow's lean face appeared, worn, holloith doard folds and dropped eyelids, with an aspect of concentrated attention; and as he took vigorous draws at his pipe, it seeular flicker of the tiny flame The match went out
”Absurd!” he cried ”This is the worst of trying to tellHere you all are, each ood addresses, like a hulk with two anchors, a butcher round one corner, a policeman round another, excellent appetites, and temperature normal--you hear--normal from year's end to year's end And you say, Absurd! Absurd be--exploded!
Absurd! My dear boys, what can you expect fro overboard a pair of new shoes Now I think of it, it is a I did not shed tears I am, upon the whole, proud oflost the inestiifted Kurtz Of course I rong The privilege aiting for ht, too A voice He was very little more than a voice And I heard--him--it--this voice--other voices--all of them were so little ers aroundvibration of one ie, or simply irl herself--now--”
He was silent for a long tiifts at last with a lie,” he began suddenly
”Girl! What? Did I irl? Oh, she is out of it--completely
They--the women, I mean--are out of it--should be out of it We must help theets worse Oh, she had to be out of it You should have heard the disinterred body of Mr Kurtz saying, 'My Intended' You would have perceived directly then how completely she was out of it And the lofty frontal bone of Mr Kurtz! They say the hair goes on growing sometimes, but this--ah specimen, was impressively bald The wilderness had patted him on the head, and, behold, it was like a ball--an ivory ball; it had caressed him, and--lo!--he had withered; it had taken hiot into his veins, consumed his flesh, and sealed his soul to its own by the inconceivable ceremonies of some devilish initiation He was its spoiled and pampered favorite Ivory? I should think so Heaps of it, stacks of it The oldwith it You would think there was not a single tusk left either above or below the ground in the whole country 'Mostly fossil,' the ly It was noup It appears these niggers do bury the tusks sometih to save the gifted Mr Kurtz from his fate We filled the steamboat with it, and had to pile a lot on the deck Thus he could see and enjoy as long as he could see, because the appreciation of this favor had remained with him to the last You should have heard him say, 'My ivory' Oh yes, I heard him 'My Intended, ed to hi the wilderness burst into a prodigious peal of laughter that would shake the fixed stars in their places Everything belonged to hied to, how many powers of darkness claimed him for their own That was the reflection that ood for one either--trying to ist the devils of the land--I mean literally You can't understand
How could you?--with solid pavehbors ready to cheer you or to fall on you, stepping delicately between the butcher and the policeallows and lunatic asylues a man's untrammeled feet may take him into by the way of solitude--utter solitude without a police voice of a kind neighbor can be heard whispering of public opinion? These little things one you th, upon your own capacity for faithfulness Of course you --too dull even to know you are being assaulted by the powers of darkness I take it, no fool ever ain for his soul with the devil: the fool is too much of a fool, or the devil too much of a devil--I don't knohich Or you ether deaf and blind to anything but heavenly sights and sounds Then the earth for you is only a standing place--and whether to be like this is your loss or your gain I won't pretend to say But most of us are neither one nor the other
The earth for us is a place to live in, where we hts, with sounds, with smells too, by Jove!--breathe dead hippo, so to speak, and not be contath co of unostentatious holes to bury the stuff in--your power of devotion, not to yourself, but to an obscure, back-breaking business And that's difficult enough Mind, I a to account to myself for--for--Mr Kurtz--for the shade of Mr
Kurtz This initiated wraith fro confidence before it vanished altogether This was because it could speak English to land, and--as he was good enough to say hiht place His lish, his father was half-French All Europe contributed to theof Kurtz; and by-and-by I learned that, most appropriately, the International Society for the Suppression of Savage Custo of a report, for its future guidance And he had written it too
I've seen it I've read it It was eloquent, vibrating with eloquence, but too high-strung, I think Seventeen pages of close writing he had found time for! But this , and caused hi with unspeakable rites, which--as far as I reluctantly gathered from what I heard at various times--were offered up to him--do you understand?--to Mr Kurtz hi paragraph, however, in the light of later inforument that hites, from the point of development we had arrived at, 'es] in the nature of supernatural beings--we approach theht as of a deity,' and so on, and so on 'By the siood practically unbounded,' &c, &c From that point he soared and took h difficult to reave ust Benevolence It le with enthusiasm This was the unbounded power of eloquence--of words--of burning noble words There were no practical hints to interrupt the ic current of phrases, unless a kind of note at the foot of the last page, scrawled evidently arded as the exposition of aappeal to every altruistic senti, like a flash of lightning in a serene sky: 'Exterminate all the brutes!'
The curious part was that he had apparently forgotten all about that valuable postscriptum, because, later on, when he in a sense caood care of 'my pamphlet'
(he called it), as it was sure to have in the future a good influence upon his career I had full infors, and, besides, as it turned out, I was to have the care of his ive ht to lay it, if I choose, for an everlasting rest in the dust-bin of progress, a, all the dead cats of civilization But then, you see, I can't choose He won't be forgotten
Whatever he was, he was not cohten rudiravated witch-dance in his honor; he could also fill the ss: he had one devoted friend at least, and he had conquered one soul in the world that was neither rudiet hih I am not prepared to affir to him I missed my late helms in the pilot-house Perhaps you will think it passing strange this regret for a savage as no rain of sand in a black Sahara Well, don't you see, he had done so, he had steered; for months I had him at my back--a help--an instrument It was a kind of partnershi+p He steered for me--I had to look after him, I worried about his deficiencies, and thus a subtle bond had been created, of which I only became ahen it was suddenly broken And the intiave me when he received his hurt remains to this day in my memory--like a claim of distant kinshi+p affirmed in a supreme moment
”Poor fool! If he had only left that shutter alone He had no restraint, no restraint--just like Kurtz--a tree swayed by the wind As soon as I had put on a dry pair of slippers, I dragged hi the spear out of his side, which operation I confess I perforether over the little door-step; his shoulders were pressed to ed him from behind desperately Oh! he was heavy, heavy; heavier than any ine Then without more ado I tipped hih he had been a wisp of grass, and I saw the body roll over twice before I lost sight of it for ever All the pilgri-deck about the pilot-house, chattering at each other like a flock of excited pies, and there was a scandalized murmur at my heartless pro about for I can't guess
Embalm it, maybe But I had also heard another, and a very ominous, murmur on the deck below My friends the wood-cutters were likewise scandalized, and with a better show of reason--though I admit that the reason itself was quite inadmissible Oh, quite! I had made up my mind that if my late helmsman was to be eaten, the fishes alone should have him He had been a very second-rate helht have become a first-class te trouble Besides, I was anxious to take the wheel, thehimself a hopeless duffer at the business
”This I did directly the siht in the middle of the streaiven up Kurtz, they had given up the station; Kurtz was dead, and the station had been burnt--and so on--and so on The red-haired pilgriht that at least this poor Kurtz had been properly revenged 'Say! We hter of them in the bush Eh? What do you think?
Say?' He positively danced, the bloodthirsty little gingery beggar
And he had nearly fainted when he saw the wounded lorious lot of smoke, anyhow' I had seen, from the way the tops of the bushes rustled and flew, that al unless you take aim and fire from the shoulder; but these chaps fired from the hip with their eyes shut The retreat, Iof the steaan to howl at er stood by the wheelwell away down the river before dark at all events, when I saw in the distance a clearing on the river-side and the outlines of so 'What's this?' I asked He clapped his hands in wonder 'The station!' he cried I edged in at once, still going half-speed
”Through lasses I saw the slope of a hill interspersed with rare trees and perfectly free fro on the sue holes in the peaked roof gaped black froround There was no inclosure or fence of any kind; but there had been one apparently, for near the house half-a-dozen slihly trimmed, and with their upper ends ornamented with round carved balls The rails, or whatever there had been between, had disappeared Of course the forest surrounded all that The river-bank was clear, and on the water-side I sahitepersistently with his whole are of the forest above and beloas al here and there I steaines and let her drift down Theus to land 'We have been attacked,' screaht,' yelled back the other, as cheerful as you please 'Colad'
”His aspect re funny I had seen so ot it He looked like a harlequin His clothes had been made of some stuff that was brown holland probably, but it was covered with patches all over, with bright patches, blue, red, and yellow,--patches on the back, patches on front, patches on elbows, on knees; colored binding round his jacket, scarlet edging at the bottom of his trousers; and the sunshi+ne ay and wonderfully neat withal, because you could see how beautifully all this patching had been done A beardless, boyish face, very fair, no features to speak of, nose peeling, little blue eyes, s each other over that open countenance like sunshi+ne and shadow on a ept plain 'Look out, captain!' he cried; 'there's a snag lodged in here last night' What! Another snag? I confess I swore shamefully I had nearly holedtrip The harlequin on the bank turned his little pug nose up to lish?' he asked, all smiles 'Are you?' I shouted from the wheel The smiles vanished, and he shook his head as if sorry for htened up 'Never ly 'Are we in time?' I asked 'He is up there,' he replied, with a toss of the head up the hill, and becoloomy all of a sudden His face was like the autuht the next
”When the rione to the house, this chap came on board 'I say, I don't like this These natives are in the bush,' I said He assured ht 'They are silad you came It took ht,' I cried 'Oh, they meant no harm,' he said; and as I stared he corrected himself, 'Not exactly' Then vivaciously, 'My faith, your pilot-house wants a clean up!' In the next breath he advised h steam on the boiler to blow the whistle in case of any trouble 'One good screech will do more for you than all your rifles
They are simple people,' he repeated He rattled away at such a rate he quite overwhel to , that such was the case 'Don't you talk with Mr Kurtz?' I said 'You don't talk with that man--you listen to him,' he exclaimed with severe exaltation 'But now--' He waved his ar of an eye was in the utterain with a jump, possessed hiabbled: 'Brother sailorhonorpleasuredelight