Part 3 (2/2)
introduce myselfRussianson of an arch-priest
Governlish tobacco; the excellent English tobacco! Now, that's brotherly Smoke? Where's a sailor that does not sradually I one to sea in a Russian shi+p; ran away again; served solish shi+ps; was now reconciled with the arch-priest Heone e the mind' 'Here!' I interrupted 'You can never tell! Here I have met Mr Kurtz,' he said, youthfully soleue after that It appears he had persuaded a Dutch trading-house on the coast to fit hioods, and had started for the interior with a light heart, and no more idea of ould happen to hi about that river for nearly two years alone, cut off fro as I look I am twenty-five,' he said 'At first old Van Shuyten would tell o to the devil,' he narrated with keen enjoyment; 'but I stuck to hiot afraid I would talk the hind-leg off his favorite dog, so he gave uns, and told ain Good old Dutchman, Van Shuyten I've sent hio, so that he can't call ot it And for the rest I don't care I had some wood stacked for you That was ave hih he would kiss me, but restrained hiht I had lost it,' he said, looking at it ecstatically 'Soabout alone, you know Canoes get upset soot to clear out so quick when the people get angry'
He thues 'You ht they ritten in cipher,' I said He laughed, then became serious 'I had lots of trouble to keep these people off,' he said 'Did they want to kill you?' I asked 'Oh no!' he cried, and checked himself 'Why did they attack us?' I pursued He hesitated, then said shao' 'Don't they?' I said, curiously He nodded a nod full of mystery and wisdoedat me with his little blue eyes that were perfectly round”
III
”I looked at him, lost in astonishh he had absconded from a troupe of mimes, enthusiastic, fabulous His very existence was i He was an insoluble problem It was inconceivable how he had existed, how he had succeeded in getting so far, how he had ed to remain--why he did not instantly disappear
'I went a little farther,' he said, 'then still a little farther--till I had gone so far that I don't kno I'll ever get back Never e You take Kurtz away quick--quick--I tell you' The glas, his destitution, his loneliness, the essential desolation of his futile wanderings For months--for years--his life hadn't been worth a day's purchase; and there he was gallantly, thoughtlessly alive, to all appearance indestructible solely by the virtue of his few years and of his unreflecting audacity I was seduced into sola from the wilderness but space to breathe in and to push on through His need was to exist, and to reatest possible risk, and with a , unpractical spirit of adventure had ever ruled a hu, it ruled this be-patched youth I almost envied him the possession of this ht of self so coot that it was he--the s I did not envy hih He had not meditated over it It caer fataliserous thing in every way he had coether unavoidably, like two shi+ps becal sides at last I suppose Kurtz wanted an audience, because on a certain occasion, when encaht, or ,' he said, quite transported at the recollection 'I forgot there was such a thing as sleep The night did not see!Of love too' 'Ah, he talked to you of love!' I said, much amused 'It isn't what you think,' he cried, als--things'
”He threw his arms up We were on deck at the ti near by, turned upon hi eyes I looked around, and I don't knohy, but I assure you that never, never before, did this land, this river, this jungle, the very arch of this blazing sky, appear to ht, so pitiless to human weakness 'And, ever since, you have been with him, of course?' I said
”On the contrary It appears their intercourse had been very much broken by various causes He had, as he inforh two illnesses (he alluded to it as you would to some risky feat), but as a rule Kurtz wandered alone, far in the depths of the forest 'Very often co to this station, I had to wait days and days before he would turn up,' he said 'Ah, it orth waiting for!--so or what?' I asked 'Oh yes, of course;' he had discovered lots of villages, a lake too--he did not know exactly in what direction; it was dangerous to inquire too much--but oods to trade with by that ties left even yet,' he answered, looking away 'To speak plainly, he raided the country,' I said He nodded 'Not alone, surely!' He es round that lake 'Kurtz got the tribe to follow hieted a little 'They adored him,' he said The tone of these words was so extraordinary that I looked at hierness and reluctance to speak of Kurtz The hts, swayed his emotions 'What can you expect?' he burst out; 'he ca, you know--and they had never seen anything like it--and very terrible He could be very terrible
You can't judge Mr Kurtz as you would an ordinary ive you an idea--I don'tyou, he wanted to shoot e him' 'Shoot you!' I cried
'What for?' 'Well, I had a save ame for them Well, he wanted it, and wouldn't hear reason He declared he would shoot ave him the ivory and then cleared out of the country, because he could do so, and had a fancy for it, and there was nothing on earth to prevent hi whoave him the ivory What did I care! But I didn't clear out No, no I couldn't leave hiain for a time He had his second illness then Afterwards I had to keep out of the way; but I didn't es on the lake When he came down to the river, sometimes he would take to me, and sometimes it was better for me to be careful
This man suffered too et away When I had a chance I begged hio back with hio off on another ivory hunt; disappear for weeks; forget hiet himself--you know' 'Why!
he's nantly Mr Kurtz couldn't be o, I wouldn't dare hint at such a thingI had taken upat the shore, sweeping the limit of the forest at each side and at the back of the house The consciousness of there being people in that bush, so silent, so quiet--as silent and quiet as the ruined house on the hill--n on the face of nature of this aested to s, in interrupted phrases, in hints ending in deep sighs The woods were unmoved, like a mask--heavy, like the closed door of a prison--they looked with their air of hidden knowledge, of patient expectation, of unapproachable silence The Russian was explaining to me that it was only lately that Mr Kurtz had co men of that lake tribe He had been absent for severalhimself adored, I suppose--and had come down unexpectedly, with the intention to all appearance ofa raid either across the river or down streaot the better of the--what shall I say?--less othelpless, and so I came up--took my chance,' said the Russian 'Oh, he is bad, very bad' I directed ns of life, but there was the ruined roof, the long rass, with three little square -holes, no two of the saht within reach of my hand, as it were And then Iposts of that vanished fence leaped up in the field of lass You remember I told you I had been struck at the distance by certain attempts at ornamentation, rather remarkable in the ruinous aspect of the place Now I had suddenly a nearer view, and its first result was to make me throw my head back as if before a blow Then I went carefully frolass, and I saw my mistake
These round knobs were not orna, striking and disturbing--food for thought and also for the vultures if there had been any looking down from the sky; but at all events for such ants as were industrious enough to ascend the pole
They would have been even more impressive, those heads on the stakes, if their faces had not been turned to the house Only one, the first I hadmy way I was not so shocked as youbut a movement of surprise
I had expected to see a knob of wood there, you know I returned deliberately to the first I had seen--and there it was, black, dried, sunken, with closed eyelids,--a head that seemed to sleep at the top of that pole, and, with the shrunken dry lips showing a narrohite line of the teeth, was s continuously at some endless and jocose drea any trade secrets In fact the er said afterwards that Mr Kurtz's methods had ruined the district I have no opinion on that point, but I want you clearly to understand that there was nothing exactly profitable in these heads being there They only showed that Mr Kurtz lacked restraint in the gratification of his various lusts, that there was so in hi need arose, could not be found under his nificent eloquence Whether he knew of this deficiency hie came to him at last--only at the very last But the wilderness had found hieance for the fantastic invasion I think it had whispered to his of which he had no conception till he took counsel with this great solitude--and the whisper had proved irresistibly fascinating It echoed loudly within hilass, and the head that had appeared near enough to be spoken to seemed at once to have leaped away from me into inaccessible distance
”The admirer of Mr Kurtz was a bit crestfallen In a hurried, indistinct voice he began to assure me he had not dared to take these--say, symbols--down He was not afraid of the natives; they would not stir till Mr Kurtz gave the word His ascendency was extraordinary
The camps of these people surrounded the place, and the chiefs came every day to see hi of the cere Mr Kurtz,' I shouted
Curious, this feeling that came over me that such details would beon the stakes under Mr Kurtz's s After all, that was only a savage sight, while I seehtless region of subtle horrors, where pure, unco that had a right to exist--obviously--in the sunshi+ne The young man looked at me with surprise I suppose it did not occur to hiot I hadn't heard any of these splendid ues on, as it? on love, justice, conduct of life--or what not If it had co before Mr Kurtz, he crawled as e of them all I had no idea of the conditions, he said: these heads were the heads of rebels I shocked hi Rebels! What would be the next definition I was to hear? There had been enemies, criminals, workers--and these were rebels Those rebellious heads looked very subdued to me on their sticks 'You don't kno such a life tries a man like Kurtz,' cried Kurtz's last disciple 'Well, and you?' I said 'I! I! I a fros were too much for speech, and suddenly he broke down 'I don't understand,' he groaned 'I've been doing h I had no hand in all this I have no abilities There hasn't been a drop of medicine or a mouthful of invalid food for months here He was shamefully abandoned
A man like this, with such ideas Shahts '
”His voice lost itself in the cal shadows of the forest had slipped down hill while we talked, had gone far beyond the ruined hovel, beyond the syloom, while n there were yet in the sunshi+ne, and the stretch of the river abreast of the clearing glittered in a still and dazzling splendor, with asoul was seen on the shore The bushes did not rustle
”Suddenly round the corner of the house a group of round They waded waist-deep in the grass, in a co an improvised stretcher in their midst Instantly, in the emptiness of the landscape, a cry arose whose shrillness pierced the still air like a sharp arrow flying straight to the very heart of the land; and, as if by enchants--with spears in their hands, with boith shi+elds, ild glances and savageby the dark-faced and pensive forest The bushes shook, the grass swayed for a ti stood still in attentive i to them we are all done for,'
said the Russian at my elbow The knot of men with the stretcher had stopped too, half-way to the steamer, as if petrified I saw the man on the stretcher sit up, lank and with an uplifted arm, above the shoulders of the bearers 'Let us hope that the eneral will find some particular reason to spare us this tier of our situation, as if to be at thenecessity I could not hear a sound, but through ly, the lower jawdarkly far in its bony head that nodded with grotesque jerks Kurtz--Kurtz--that means short in Ger else in his life--and death
He looked at least seven feet long His covering had fallen off, and his body e-sheet I could see the cage of his ribs all astir, the bones of his are of death carved out of old ivory had been shaking its hand with littering bronze I saw hiave hih he had wanted to s all the air, all the earth, all the men before hi He fell back suddenly The stretcher shook as the bearers staggered forward again, and ales was vanishi+ng without any perceptible moves so suddenly had drawn the aspiration