Latest / Thrilling Adventures - Daily / 04 - Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

Transcript

04 - Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad · Thrilling Adventures - Daily

0:00
Speaker 1: Chapter two, Part two of Heart of Darkness. No sooner
0:05
Speaker 1: had we fairly entered it than I became aware it
0:08
Speaker 1: was much narrower than I had supposed. To the left
0:12
Speaker 1: of us there was the long, uninterrupted shoal, and to
0:15
Speaker 1: the right a high steep bank, heavily overgrown with bushes.
0:20
Speaker 1: Above the bush, the trees stood in serried ranks. The
0:24
Speaker 1: twigs overhung the current thickly, and from distance to distance
0:28
Speaker 1: a large limb of some tree projected rigidly over the stream.
0:33
Speaker 1: It was then well on in the afternoon. The face
0:36
Speaker 1: of the forest was gloomy, and a broad strip of
0:40
Speaker 1: shadow had already fallen on the water. In this shadow
0:44
Speaker 1: we steamed up very slowly. As you may imagine, I
0:48
Speaker 1: shared her well inshore, the water being deepest near the bank.
0:52
Speaker 1: As the sounding pole informed me, one of my hungry
0:56
Speaker 1: and forbearing friends was sounding in the boughs just below me.
1:01
Speaker 1: This steambut was exactly like a decked scow. On one
1:05
Speaker 1: deck there were two little teak wood houses with doors
1:08
Speaker 1: and windows. The boiler was in the fore end, and
1:12
Speaker 1: the machinery right astern. Over the whole there was a
1:16
Speaker 1: light roof supported on stanchions. The funnel projected through that roof,
1:21
Speaker 1: and in front of the funnel a small cabin built
1:23
Speaker 1: of light planks served for a pilot house. It contained
1:27
Speaker 1: a couch, two campstools, a loaded martini henry leaning in
1:32
Speaker 1: one corner, tiny table, and the steering wheel. It had
1:36
Speaker 1: a wide door in front and a broad shutter at
1:39
Speaker 1: each side. All these were always thrown open. Of course,
1:44
Speaker 1: I spent my days perched up there on the extreme
1:47
Speaker 1: fore end of the roof, before the door. At night
1:51
Speaker 1: I slept or tried to on the couch. An athletic
1:56
Speaker 1: black belonging to some coast tribe and educated by my
2:00
Speaker 1: poor predecessor, was the helmsman. He sported a pair of
2:04
Speaker 1: brass ear rings, wore a blue cloth wrapper from the
2:07
Speaker 1: waist of the ankles, and thought all the world of himself.
2:11
Speaker 1: He was the most unstable kind of fool I had
2:14
Speaker 1: ever seen. He steered with no end of swagger while
2:18
Speaker 1: you were by, but if he lost sight of you,
2:21
Speaker 1: he became instantly the prey of an abject funk, and
2:25
Speaker 1: would let that cripple of a steamboat to get the
2:28
Speaker 1: upper hand of him. In a minute, I was looking
2:31
Speaker 1: down at the sounding pole and feeling much annoyed to
2:35
Speaker 1: see at each try a little more of it stick
2:37
Speaker 1: out of that river. When I saw my poleman give
2:40
Speaker 1: up on the business suddenly and stretch himself flat on
2:44
Speaker 1: the deck, without even taking the trouble to haul his
2:47
Speaker 1: pole in. He kept hold on it, though, and it
2:51
Speaker 1: trailed in the water. At the same time, the fireman,
2:55
Speaker 1: whom I could also see below me, sat down abruptly
2:58
Speaker 1: before his furnace and ducked his head. I was amazed.
3:03
Speaker 1: Then I had to look at the river mighty quick
3:06
Speaker 1: because there was a snag in the fairway. Sticks, little
3:10
Speaker 1: sticks were flying about, thick They were whizzing before my nose,
3:15
Speaker 1: dropping below me, striking behind me against my pilot house.
3:20
Speaker 1: All this time, the river, the shore, the woods were
3:23
Speaker 1: very quiet, perfectly quiet. I could only hear the heavy
3:28
Speaker 1: splashing thump of the stern wheel and the patter of
3:31
Speaker 1: these things. We cleared the snag clumsily. Arrows. By jove,
3:39
Speaker 1: we were being shot at. I stepped in quickly to
3:42
Speaker 1: close the shutter. On the land side. That fool helmsman,
3:46
Speaker 1: his hands on the spokes, was lifting his knees high,
3:49
Speaker 1: stamping his feet, champing his mouth like a reined in
3:53
Speaker 1: horse con found him, and we were staggering within ten
3:57
Speaker 1: feet of the bank. I had to lean right out
4:00
Speaker 1: to swing the heavy shutter, and I saw a face
4:03
Speaker 1: amongst the leaves on the level with my own, looking
4:07
Speaker 1: at me, very fierce and steady. And then, suddenly, as
4:11
Speaker 1: though a veil had been removed from my eyes, I
4:15
Speaker 1: made out deep in the tangled gloom, naked breasts, arms, legs,
4:21
Speaker 1: glaring eyes. The bush was swarming with human limbs in movement,
4:26
Speaker 1: glistening of bronze color. The twigs shook, swayed, and rustled.
4:32
Speaker 1: The arrows flew out of them, and then the shutter
4:36
Speaker 1: came to steer her straight, I said to the helmsman.
4:41
Speaker 1: He held his head rigid, face forward, but his eyes rolled.
4:46
Speaker 1: He kept on lifting and setting down his feet gently.
4:49
Speaker 1: His mouth foamed a little. Keep quiet, I said, in
4:54
Speaker 1: a fury. I might just as well have ordered a
4:57
Speaker 1: tree not to sway in the wind. I darted out
5:01
Speaker 1: below me. There was a great scuffle of feet on
5:04
Speaker 1: the iron deck, confused exclamations. A voice screamed, can you
5:09
Speaker 1: turn back? I caught sight of a V shaped ripple
5:14
Speaker 1: on the water ahead. What another snag? A fusillade burst
5:19
Speaker 1: out under my feet. The pilgrims had opened with their
5:22
Speaker 1: winchesters and were simply squirting lead into the bush. A
5:27
Speaker 1: deuce of a lot of smoke came up and drove
5:29
Speaker 1: slowly forward. I swore at it. Now. I couldn't see
5:35
Speaker 1: the ripple or the snag either. I stood in the
5:37
Speaker 1: doorway peering, and the arrows came in swarms. They might
5:43
Speaker 1: have been poisoned, but they looked as though they couldn't
5:46
Speaker 1: kill a cat. The bush began to howl. Our woodcutters
5:51
Speaker 1: raised a warlike whoop. The report of a rifle just
5:54
Speaker 1: at my back deafened me. I glanced over my shoulder,
5:58
Speaker 1: and the pilot house was yet full of noise and smoke.
6:01
Speaker 1: When I made a dash at the wheel, the fooled
6:04
Speaker 1: nigger had dropped everything to throw the shutter open and
6:07
Speaker 1: let off that Martini Henry. He stood before the wide opening, glaring,
6:12
Speaker 1: and I yelled at him to come back while I
6:15
Speaker 1: straightened the sudden twist out of that steamboat. There was
6:19
Speaker 1: no room to turn, even if I had wanted to.
6:22
Speaker 1: The snag was somewhere very near ahead. In that confounded smoke,
6:26
Speaker 1: there was no time to lose, so I just crowded
6:30
Speaker 1: her into the bank, right into the bank where I
6:33
Speaker 1: knew the water was deep. We tore slowly along the
6:38
Speaker 1: overhanging bushes and a whirl of broken twigs and flying leaves.
6:43
Speaker 1: The fusillade below stopped short, as I had foreseen it
6:46
Speaker 1: would when the squirts got empty. I threw my head
6:49
Speaker 1: back to a glinting whiz that traversed the pilot house
6:53
Speaker 1: in at one shutter hole and out at the other.
6:57
Speaker 1: Looking past that mad helmsman who was shaking the empty
7:00
Speaker 1: rifle and yelling at the shore, I saw vague forms
7:04
Speaker 1: of men running, bent, double, leaping, gliding, distinct incomplete evanescent.
7:11
Speaker 1: Something big appeared in the air before the shutter. The
7:15
Speaker 1: rifle went overboard, and the man stepped back swiftly, looked
7:20
Speaker 1: at me over his shoulder in an extraordinary, profound, familiar manner,
7:25
Speaker 1: and fell upon my feet. The side of his head
7:30
Speaker 1: hit the wheel twice, and the end of what appeared
7:33
Speaker 1: a long cane clattered round and knocked over a little campstool.
7:38
Speaker 1: It looked as though after wrenching that thing from somebody ashore,
7:42
Speaker 1: he had lost his balance in the effort. The thin
7:45
Speaker 1: smoke had blown away. We were clear of the snag,
7:49
Speaker 1: and looking ahead, I could see that in another hundred
7:52
Speaker 1: yards or so I would be free to shear off
7:55
Speaker 1: away from the bank. But my feet felt so vage,
8:00
Speaker 1: very warm, and wet, that I had to look down.
8:03
Speaker 1: The man had rolled on his back and stared straight
8:06
Speaker 1: up at me. Both his hands clutched that cane. It
8:11
Speaker 1: was the shaft of a spear that either thrown or
8:14
Speaker 1: lunged through the opening, had caught him in the side,
8:18
Speaker 1: just below the ribs. The blade had gone in out
8:21
Speaker 1: of sight after making a frightful gash. My shoes were full.
8:27
Speaker 1: A pool of blood lay very still, gleaming dark red
8:30
Speaker 1: under the wheel. His eyes shone with an amazing luster.
8:37
Speaker 1: The fusillade burst out again. He looked at me anxiously,
8:41
Speaker 1: gripping the spear like something precious, with an air of
8:44
Speaker 1: being afraid that I would try to take it away
8:47
Speaker 1: from him. I had to make an effort to free
8:49
Speaker 1: my eyes from his gaze and attend to the steering.
8:53
Speaker 1: With one hand, I felt above my head for the
8:56
Speaker 1: line of the steam whistle and jerked out screech after
8:59
Speaker 1: screech Hurriedly. The tumult of angry and warlike yells was
9:04
Speaker 1: checked instantly, and then from the depths of the woods
9:08
Speaker 1: went out such a tremulous and prolonged wail of mournful
9:12
Speaker 1: fear and utter despair, as may be imagined to follow
9:16
Speaker 1: the flight of the last hope from the earth. There
9:20
Speaker 1: was a great commotion in the bush. The shower of
9:25
Speaker 1: arrows stopped, A few dropping shots rang out sharply, then silence,
9:31
Speaker 1: in which the languid beat of the stern wheel came
9:34
Speaker 1: plainly to my ears. I put the helm hard a starboard.
9:38
Speaker 1: At the moment when the pilgrim in pink pajamas, very
9:42
Speaker 1: hot and agitated, appeared in the doorway, the manager sends me.
9:47
Speaker 1: He began in an official tone and stopped short. Good God,
9:54
Speaker 1: he said, glaring at the wounded man. We two whites
9:59
Speaker 1: stood over him, and his lustrous and inquiring glance envelop
10:03
Speaker 1: us both. I declare. It looked as though he would
10:07
Speaker 1: presently put to us some questions in an understandable language.
10:11
Speaker 1: But he died without uttering a sound, without moving a limb,
10:16
Speaker 1: without twitching a muscle, only in the very last moment,
10:21
Speaker 1: as though in response to some sign we could not
10:24
Speaker 1: see to some whisper we could not hear. He frowned heavily,
10:29
Speaker 1: and that frown gave to his black death mass, an
10:33
Speaker 1: inconceivably somber, brooding and menacing expression. The luster of inquiring
10:39
Speaker 1: glance faded swiftly into vacant glassiness. Can you steer, I
10:45
Speaker 1: asked the agent eagerly. He looked very dubious, but I
10:49
Speaker 1: made a grab at his arm, and he understood at once.
10:52
Speaker 1: I meant him to steer, whether or no. To tell
10:56
Speaker 1: you the truth, I was morbidly anxious to change my
11:00
Speaker 1: shoes and socks. He is dead, murmured the fellow, immensely impressed,
11:07
Speaker 1: no doubt about it, said I, tugging like mad at
11:11
Speaker 1: the shoelaces. And by the way, I suppose mister Kurtz
11:15
Speaker 1: is dead as well. By this time, for the moment
11:19
Speaker 1: that was the dominant thought, there was a sense of
11:22
Speaker 1: extreme disappointments, as though I had found out that I
11:25
Speaker 1: had been striving after something altogether without a substance. I
11:30
Speaker 1: couldn't have been more disgusted if I had traveled all
11:33
Speaker 1: this way for the sole purpose of talking with mister Kurtz.
11:37
Speaker 1: Talking with I flung one shoe overboard, and became aware
11:42
Speaker 1: that that was exactly what I had been looking forward to.
11:45
Speaker 1: A talk with Kurts. I made the strange discovery that
11:50
Speaker 1: I had never imagined him as doing, you know, but
11:54
Speaker 1: as discoursing. I didn't say to myself, now I will
11:59
Speaker 1: never see him, or now I will never shake him
12:02
Speaker 1: by the hand, But now I will never hear him.
12:07
Speaker 1: The man presented himself as a voice. Not of course,
12:10
Speaker 1: that I did not connect him with some sort of action.
12:14
Speaker 1: Had I been told, in all the tones of jealousy
12:16
Speaker 1: and admiration, that he had collected, bartered, swindled, or stolen
12:21
Speaker 1: more ivory than all the other agents together. That was
12:25
Speaker 1: not the point. The point was in his being a
12:29
Speaker 1: gifted creature, and that of all his gifts, the one
12:33
Speaker 1: that stood out preeminently, that carried with it a sense
12:36
Speaker 1: of real presence was his ability to talk, his words,
12:42
Speaker 1: the gift of expression, the bewildering, the illuminating, the most
12:46
Speaker 1: exalted and the most contemptible, the pulsating stream of light,
12:52
Speaker 1: or the deceitful flow from the heart of an impenetrable darkness.
12:58
Speaker 1: The other shoe went flying into the devil God of
13:00
Speaker 1: that river. I thought, by jove, it's all over. We
13:06
Speaker 1: are too late. He has vanished. The gift has vanished
13:12
Speaker 1: by means of some spear, arrow or club. I will
13:17
Speaker 1: never hear that chap speak after all, And my sorrow
13:21
Speaker 1: had a startling extravagance of emotion, even such as I
13:25
Speaker 1: had noticed in the howling sorrow of those savages in
13:28
Speaker 1: the bush. I couldn't have felt more of lonely desolation somehow,
13:33
Speaker 1: had I been robbed of a belief, or had missed
13:36
Speaker 1: my destiny in life? Why do you sigh in this
13:41
Speaker 1: beastly way? Somebody absurd? Well absurd? Good Lord, mustn't a
13:48
Speaker 1: man ever? Eh, give me some tobacco. There was a
13:54
Speaker 1: pause of profound stillness. Then a match flared, and Marlow's
13:58
Speaker 1: lean face appeared hollow with downward folds and dropped eyelids,
14:03
Speaker 1: with an aspect of concentrated attention. And as he took
14:07
Speaker 1: vigorous draws at his pipe, which seemed to retreat and
14:11
Speaker 1: advance out of the nights in the regular flicker of
14:14
Speaker 1: tiny flame, the match went out. Absurd, he cried, this
14:22
Speaker 1: is the worst of trying to tell you here. You
14:26
Speaker 1: all are each moored with two good addresses, like a
14:30
Speaker 1: hulk with two anchors, a butcher round one corner, a
14:33
Speaker 1: policeman round another, excellent appetites and temperature normal. You hear
14:39
Speaker 1: normal from year's and to year's end, and you say absurd, absurd,
14:45
Speaker 1: to be exploded. Absurd, My dear boys, what can you
14:52
Speaker 1: expect from a man who, out of sheered nervousness, had
14:55
Speaker 1: just flung overboard a pair of new shoes. Now I
15:00
Speaker 1: think of it, it is amazing. I did not shed tears.
15:05
Speaker 1: I am upon the whole proud of my fortitude. I
15:10
Speaker 1: was cut to the quick at the idea of having
15:13
Speaker 1: lost the inestimable privilege of listening to the gifted kurts.
15:18
Speaker 1: Of course I was wrong. The privilege was waiting for me.
15:24
Speaker 1: Oh yes, I heard more than enough, and I was
15:28
Speaker 1: right too. A voice, he was very little more than
15:33
Speaker 1: a voice, and I heard him it this voice, Other voices,
15:40
Speaker 1: all of them were so little more than voices. And
15:43
Speaker 1: the memory of that time itself lingers upon me impalpably,
15:48
Speaker 1: like a dying vibration of one immense jabber, silly, atrocious, sordid, savage,
15:55
Speaker 1: or simply mean, without any kind of sense, voices, voices,
16:03
Speaker 1: even the girl herself now he was silent for a
16:10
Speaker 1: long time. I laid the ghost of his gifts at
16:17
Speaker 1: last with a lie. He began suddenly, Girl, What did
16:24
Speaker 1: I mention a girl? Oh? She is out of it completely. They,
16:31
Speaker 1: the women, I mean, are out of it. Should be
16:35
Speaker 1: out of it. We must help them stay in that
16:38
Speaker 1: beautiful world of their own lest ours gets worse. Oh,
16:43
Speaker 1: she had to be out of it. You should have
16:46
Speaker 1: heard the disinterred body of mister kurt saying, my intended
16:52
Speaker 1: You would have perceived directly then how completely she was
16:56
Speaker 1: out of it. And the lofty frontal bow of mister Kurtz.
17:02
Speaker 1: They say the hair goes on growing sometimes, but this
17:07
Speaker 1: specimen was impressively bald. The wilderness had patted him on
17:14
Speaker 1: the head, and behold it was like a ball, an
17:17
Speaker 1: ivory ball. It had caressed him, and lo he had withered.
17:24
Speaker 1: It had taken him, loved him, embraced him, got into
17:28
Speaker 1: his veins, consumed his flesh, and sealed his soul to
17:32
Speaker 1: its own by the inconceivable ceremonies of some devilish initiation.
17:38
Speaker 1: He was its spoiled and pampered favorite ivory. I should
17:44
Speaker 1: think so. Heaps of it, stacks of it, the old
17:49
Speaker 1: mud shanty was bursting with it. You would think there
17:52
Speaker 1: was not a single tusk left either above or below
17:55
Speaker 1: the ground in the whole country. Mostly fossil. The manager
18:00
Speaker 1: had remarked disparagingly, It was no more fossil than I am.
18:06
Speaker 1: But they call it fossil when it is duga. It
18:09
Speaker 1: appears these niggers do bury the tusks sometimes, But evidently
18:13
Speaker 1: they couldn't bury this parcel deep enough. To save the
18:16
Speaker 1: gifted mister Kurtz from his fate, we filled the steamboat
18:22
Speaker 1: with it and had to pile a lot on the deck.
18:25
Speaker 1: Thus he could see and enjoy as long as he
18:27
Speaker 1: could see, because the appreciation of this favor had remained
18:31
Speaker 1: with him to the last. You should have heard him say,
18:36
Speaker 1: my ivy, Oh yes, I heard him. My intended, my ivy,
18:46
Speaker 1: my station, my river, my everything belonged to him. It
18:55
Speaker 1: made me hold my breath in expectation of hearing the
18:59
Speaker 1: wilderness burst into a prodigious peal of laughter that would
19:02
Speaker 1: shake the fixed stars in their places. Everything belonged to him,
19:09
Speaker 1: But that was a trifle. The thing was to know
19:13
Speaker 1: what he belonged to, how many powers of darkness claimed
19:17
Speaker 1: him for their own. That was the reflection that made
19:21
Speaker 1: you creepy all over. It was impossible. He was not
19:26
Speaker 1: good for one either, trying to imagine he had taken
19:31
Speaker 1: a high seat amongst the devils of the land. I
19:34
Speaker 1: mean literally, you can't understand. How could you, with solid
19:40
Speaker 1: pavement under your feet, surrounded by kind neighbors ready to
19:44
Speaker 1: cheer you or to fall on you, stepping delicately between
19:47
Speaker 1: the butcher and the policeman, in the holy terror of
19:50
Speaker 1: scandal and gallows and lunatic asylums. How can you imagine
19:55
Speaker 1: what particular region of the first ages a man's untrammeled
19:59
Speaker 1: feet made take him into by the way of solitude,
20:02
Speaker 1: utter solitude without a policeman, by the way of silence,
20:08
Speaker 1: utter silence, where no warning voice of a kind neighbor
20:12
Speaker 1: can be heard, whispering of public opinion. These little things
20:17
Speaker 1: make all the great difference. When they are gone, you
20:21
Speaker 1: must fall back upon your own innate strength, upon your
20:25
Speaker 1: own capacity for faithfulness. Of course, you may be too
20:29
Speaker 1: much of a fool to go wrong, too dull even
20:32
Speaker 1: to know you are being assaulted by the powers of darkness.
20:36
Speaker 1: I take it no fool if it made a bargain
20:39
Speaker 1: for his soul with the devil. The fool is too
20:42
Speaker 1: much of a fool, or the devil too much of
20:45
Speaker 1: a devil, I don't know which. Or you may be
20:49
Speaker 1: such a thunderingly exalted creature as to be altogether deaf
20:53
Speaker 1: and blind to anything but heavenly sights and sounds. Then
20:59
Speaker 1: the earth for you is only a standing place. And
21:02
Speaker 1: whether to be like this is your loss or your gain,
21:06
Speaker 1: I won't pretend to say. But most of us are
21:10
Speaker 1: neither one nor the other. The earth for us is
21:14
Speaker 1: a place to live in where we must put up
21:17
Speaker 1: with sights, with sounds, with smiles too, by Jove, breathe
21:23
Speaker 1: dead hippo, so to speak, andnot be contaminated. And there,
21:28
Speaker 1: don't you see? Your strength comes in the faith, in
21:32
Speaker 1: your ability for the digging of unostentatious holes to bury
21:36
Speaker 1: the stuff, in your power of devotion, not to yourself
21:41
Speaker 1: but to an obscure, backbreaking business. And that's difficult enough. Mind.
21:50
Speaker 1: I am not trying to excuse or even explain. I
21:53
Speaker 1: am trying to account to myself for for mister Kurtz,
22:00
Speaker 1: for the shade of mister Kurtz, this initiated wraith from
22:05
Speaker 1: the back of nowhere honored me with its amazing confidence
22:09
Speaker 1: before it vanished altogether. This was because it could speak
22:13
Speaker 1: English to me. The original Kurts have been educated partly
22:17
Speaker 1: in England, and as he was good enough to say himself,
22:21
Speaker 1: his sympathies were in the right place. His mother was
22:25
Speaker 1: half English, his father was half French. All Europe contributed
22:30
Speaker 1: to the making of Kurts, and by and by I
22:34
Speaker 1: learned that, most appropriately, the International Society for the Suppression
22:39
Speaker 1: of Savage Customs had entrusted him with the making of
22:42
Speaker 1: a report for its future guidance, and he had written
22:47
Speaker 1: it too. I've seen it, I've read it. It was elegant,
22:52
Speaker 1: vibrating with elegance, but too high strong, I think seventeen
22:58
Speaker 1: pages of close writing had found time for. But this
23:02
Speaker 1: must have been before his, let us say, nerves went
23:08
Speaker 1: wrong and caused him to preside at certain midnight dances
23:12
Speaker 1: ending with unspeakable rights, which, as far as I reluctantly
23:17
Speaker 1: gathered from what I heard at various times, were offered
23:21
Speaker 1: up to him. Do you understand? To mister Kurtz himself.
23:27
Speaker 1: But it was a beautiful piece of writing. The opening paragraph, However,
23:32
Speaker 1: in the light of later information strikes me now as ominous.
23:38
Speaker 1: He began with the argument that we whites, from the
23:41
Speaker 1: point of development we had arrived at, must necessarily appear
23:45
Speaker 1: to them savages in the nature of supernatural beings. We
23:49
Speaker 1: approached them with the might of a deity, and so
23:53
Speaker 1: on and so on. By the simple exercise of our will,
23:57
Speaker 1: we can exert a power for good, practically unbounded, et cetera,
24:02
Speaker 1: et cetera. From that point he soared and took me
24:07
Speaker 1: with him. The periation was magnificent, though difficult to remember.
24:13
Speaker 1: You know, it gave me the notion of an exotic immensity,
24:18
Speaker 1: ruled by an august benevolence. It made me tingle with enthusiasm.
24:24
Speaker 1: This was the unbounded power of eloquence, of words, of
24:29
Speaker 1: burning noble words. There were no practical hints to interrupt
24:35
Speaker 1: the magic current of phrases. Unless a kind of note
24:39
Speaker 1: at the foot of the last page, scrawled evidently much
24:43
Speaker 1: later in an unsteady hand, may be regarded as the
24:46
Speaker 1: exposition of a method. It was very simple, and at
24:51
Speaker 1: the end of that moving appeal to every altruistic sentiment,
24:55
Speaker 1: it blazed at you, luminous and terrifying, like a flash
24:59
Speaker 1: of light in a serene sky, exterminate all the brutes.
25:06
Speaker 1: The curious part was that he had apparently forgotten all
25:10
Speaker 1: about that valuable postscriptum, because later on, when he, in
25:15
Speaker 1: a sense came to himself, he repeatedly entreated me to
25:19
Speaker 1: take good care of my pamphlet. He called it, as
25:23
Speaker 1: it was sure to have in the future a good
25:25
Speaker 1: influence upon his career. I had full information about all
25:30
Speaker 1: these things. And besides, as it turned out, I was
25:34
Speaker 1: to have the care of his memory. I've done enough
25:38
Speaker 1: for it to give me the indisputable right to lay
25:41
Speaker 1: it if I choose for an everlasting rest in the
25:44
Speaker 1: dust bin of progress, amongst all the sweepings and figuratively speaking,
25:50
Speaker 1: all the dead cats of civilization. But then you see,
25:55
Speaker 1: I can't choose. He won't be forgotten. Whatever he was,
26:01
Speaker 1: he was not common. He had the power to charm
26:06
Speaker 1: or frighten rudimentary souls into an aggravated witch dance in
26:10
Speaker 1: his honor. He could also fill the small souls of
26:13
Speaker 1: the pilgrims with bitter misgivings. He had one devoted friend
26:18
Speaker 1: at least, and he had conquered one soul in the
26:21
Speaker 1: world that was neither rudimentary, nor tainted with self seeking. No,
26:27
Speaker 1: I can't forget him, though I am not prepared to
26:30
Speaker 1: affirm the fellow was exactly worth the life we lost
26:33
Speaker 1: in getting to him. I missed my late helmsman, awfully.
26:38
Speaker 1: I missed him even while his body was still lying
26:40
Speaker 1: in the pilot house. Perhaps you will think it passing strange,
26:45
Speaker 1: this regret for a savage who was no more account
26:48
Speaker 1: than a grain of sand in a black Sahara. Well,
26:53
Speaker 1: don't you see he had done something he had steered
26:58
Speaker 1: for months. I had him at my back, a help,
27:01
Speaker 1: an instrument. It was a kind of partnership he steered
27:07
Speaker 1: for me. I had to look after him. I worried
27:11
Speaker 1: about his deficiencies, and thus a subtle bond had been
27:15
Speaker 1: created of which I only became aware when it was
27:18
Speaker 1: suddenly broken. And the intimate profundity of that look he
27:22
Speaker 1: gave me when he received his hurt remains to this
27:26
Speaker 1: day in my memory like a claim of distant kinship
27:30
Speaker 1: affirmed in a supreme moment. Poor fool, if he had
27:35
Speaker 1: only left that shutter alone, he had no restraint, no restraint,
27:41
Speaker 1: just like Kerts a tree swayed by the wind. As
27:46
Speaker 1: soon as I had put on a dry pair of slippers.
27:48
Speaker 1: I dragged him out, after first jerking the spear out
27:51
Speaker 1: of his side, which operation I confess I performed with
27:55
Speaker 1: my eyes shut tight. His heels leaped together over the
28:01
Speaker 1: little doorstep, his shoulders were pressed to my breast. I
28:05
Speaker 1: hugged him from behind desperately. Oh he was heavy, heavy, heavy,
28:12
Speaker 1: heavier than any man on earth, I should imagine. Then,
28:17
Speaker 1: without more ado, I tipped him overboard. The current snatched
28:22
Speaker 1: him as though he had been a wisp of grass,
28:25
Speaker 1: and I saw the body roll over twice before I
28:28
Speaker 1: lost sight of it forever. All the pilgrims and the
28:32
Speaker 1: manager were then congregated on the awning deck about the
28:35
Speaker 1: pilot house, chattering at each other like a flock of
28:38
Speaker 1: excited magpies. And there was a scandalized murmur at my
28:43
Speaker 1: heartless promptitude. What they wanted to keep that body hanging about? For?
28:48
Speaker 1: I can't guess embowm it maybe, But I had also
28:54
Speaker 1: heard another and a very ominous murmur on the deck below.
28:59
Speaker 1: My friends, the woodcutters were likewise scandalized, and with a
29:03
Speaker 1: better show of reason, though I admit that the reason
29:06
Speaker 1: itself was quite inadmissible. Oh quite. I had made up
29:11
Speaker 1: my mind that if my late helmsman was to be eaten,
29:14
Speaker 1: the fishes alone should have him. He had been a
29:18
Speaker 1: very second rate helmsman while alive, but now he was
29:22
Speaker 1: dead he might have become a first class temptation and
29:26
Speaker 1: possibly caused some startling trouble. Besides, I was anxious to
29:31
Speaker 1: take the wheel the man in pink pajamas showing himself
29:35
Speaker 1: a hopeless duffer at the business. This I did directly.
29:40
Speaker 1: The simple funeral was over. We were going half speed,
29:45
Speaker 1: keeping right in the middle of the stream, and I
29:48
Speaker 1: listened to the talk about me. They had given up Kurtz,
29:52
Speaker 1: they had given up the station. Kurtz was dead, and
29:55
Speaker 1: the station had been burned, and so on and so on.
30:00
Speaker 1: The red haired pilgrim was beside himself with the thought
30:03
Speaker 1: that at least this poor Kerts had been properly avenged. Say,
30:07
Speaker 1: we must have made a glorious slaughter of them in
30:09
Speaker 1: the bush. Say what do you think? Say? He positively
30:14
Speaker 1: danced the bloodthirsty little gingery beggar, and he had nearly
30:19
Speaker 1: fainted when he saw the wounded man. I could not
30:23
Speaker 1: help saying, you made a glorious lot of smoke. Anyhow,
30:29
Speaker 1: I had seen from the way the tops of the
30:31
Speaker 1: bushes rustled and flew that almost all the shots had
30:34
Speaker 1: gone too high. You can't hit anything unless you take
30:38
Speaker 1: aim and fire from the shoulder. But these chaps fired
30:42
Speaker 1: from the hip with their eyes shut. The retreats, I maintained,
30:47
Speaker 1: and I was right, was caused by the screeching of
30:50
Speaker 1: the steam whistle. Upon this they forgot kurts and began
30:55
Speaker 1: to howl at me with indignant protests. The man stood
31:00
Speaker 1: by the wheel, murmuring confidentially about the necessity of getting
31:04
Speaker 1: well away down the river before dark at all events.
31:08
Speaker 1: When I saw in the distance a clearing on the
31:10
Speaker 1: river side, and the outlines of some sort of building.
31:14
Speaker 1: What's this, I asked, He clapped his hands in wonder.
31:19
Speaker 1: The station, he cried. I edged in at once, still
31:24
Speaker 1: going half speed through my glasses, I saw the slope
31:29
Speaker 1: of a hill, interspersed with rare trees and perfectly free
31:33
Speaker 1: from undergrowth. A long, decaying building on the summit was
31:37
Speaker 1: half buried in the high grass. The large holes in
31:41
Speaker 1: the peaked roof gaped black from afar. The jungle in
31:44
Speaker 1: the woods made a background there was no enclosure or
31:48
Speaker 1: fence of any kind, but there had been one, apparently
31:52
Speaker 1: for near the house. Half a dozen slim posts remained
31:55
Speaker 1: in a row, roughly trimmed and with their upper ends
31:58
Speaker 1: ornamented with drowned carved balls. The rails or whatever there
32:03
Speaker 1: had been between had disappeared, of course. The forest surrounded
32:09
Speaker 1: all that. The river bank was clear, and on the
32:13
Speaker 1: water side I saw a white man under a hat
32:15
Speaker 1: like a cartwheel, beckoning persistently with his whole arm examining
32:21
Speaker 1: the edge of the forest above and below. I was
32:24
Speaker 1: almost certain I could see movements human forms gliding here
32:28
Speaker 1: and there. I steamed past prudently, then stopped the engines
32:33
Speaker 1: and let her drift down. The man on the shore
32:36
Speaker 1: began to shout, urging us to land. We have been attacked,
32:41
Speaker 1: screamed the manager. I know, I know it's all right,
32:46
Speaker 1: yelled back the other, as cheerful as you please, come along.
32:50
Speaker 1: It's all right. I am glad. His aspect reminded me
32:55
Speaker 1: of something I had seen, something funny I had seen somewhere.
33:01
Speaker 1: As I maneuvered to get alongside, I was asking myself,
33:05
Speaker 1: what does this fellow look like? Suddenly I got it.
33:10
Speaker 1: It looked like a harlequin. His clothes had been made
33:14
Speaker 1: of some stuff that was brown, horland, probably, but it
33:18
Speaker 1: was covered with patches all over, with bright patches, blue, red,
33:23
Speaker 1: and yellow patches on the back, patches on the front,
33:26
Speaker 1: patches on elbows, on knees, colored binding around his jacket,
33:30
Speaker 1: scarlet edging at the bottom of his trousers. And the
33:34
Speaker 1: sunshine made him look extremely gay and wonderfully neat withal
33:38
Speaker 1: because you could see how beautifully all this patching had
33:42
Speaker 1: been done. A beardless, boyish face, very fair, no features
33:47
Speaker 1: to speak of, nose peeling, little blue eyes, smiles and
33:51
Speaker 1: frowns chasing each other over that open countenance, like sunshine
33:56
Speaker 1: and shadow on a wind swept plane. Lookout did he replied,
34:01
Speaker 1: there's a snag lodged in here last night. What another snag?
34:07
Speaker 1: I confess, I swore, shamefully, I had nearly holed my
34:11
Speaker 1: cribble to finish off that charming trip. The harlequin on
34:16
Speaker 1: the back turned his little pug nose up to me.
34:20
Speaker 1: You English, he asked, All smiles are you, I shouted
34:25
Speaker 1: from the wheel. The smiles vanished, and he shook his
34:29
Speaker 1: head as if sorry for my disappointment. Then he brightened up.
34:35
Speaker 1: Never mind, he cried encouragingly. Are we in time? I asked,
34:42
Speaker 1: He is up there, he replied, with a toss of
34:45
Speaker 1: the head up the hill and becoming gloomy. All of
34:47
Speaker 1: a sudden, His face was like the autumn sky, overcast
34:52
Speaker 1: one moment and bright the next. When the manager, escorted
34:56
Speaker 1: by the pilgrims, all of them armed to the teeth,
35:00
Speaker 1: gone to the house, this chap came on board. I say,
35:04
Speaker 1: I don't like this. The natives are in the bush,
35:07
Speaker 1: I said, He assured me earnestly, it was all right.
35:12
Speaker 1: They are simple people. He added. Well, I am glad
35:17
Speaker 1: you came. It took me all my time to keep
35:19
Speaker 1: them off, but you said it was all right. I cried,
35:24
Speaker 1: Oh they meant no harm, he said, And as I stared,
35:29
Speaker 1: he corrected himself, not exactly, then, vivaciously, my faith, your
35:35
Speaker 1: pilot house wants a clean up. In the next breath,
35:39
Speaker 1: he advised me to keep enough steam on the boiler
35:42
Speaker 1: to blow the whistle in case of trouble. One good
35:45
Speaker 1: screech will do more for you than all your rifles.
35:49
Speaker 1: They are simple people, he repeated. He rattled away at
35:54
Speaker 1: such a rate. He quite overwhelmed me. He seemed to
35:58
Speaker 1: be trying to make up for lots of silence, and
36:01
Speaker 1: actually hinted, laughing that such was the case. But don't
36:06
Speaker 1: you talk with mister Kurtz, I said, you don't talk
36:10
Speaker 1: with that man. You listen to him, he exclaimed with
36:15
Speaker 1: severe exultation. But now he waved his arm, and in
36:21
Speaker 1: the twinkling of an eye, was in the outermost depths
36:24
Speaker 1: of despondency. In a moment, he came up again with
36:27
Speaker 1: a jump, possessed himself of both my hands, shook them
36:31
Speaker 1: continuously while he gabbed A brother sailor, honor, a pleasure delight,
36:38
Speaker 1: introduced myself, Russian son of an archpriest, government of timeboff
36:44
Speaker 1: What tobacco, English tobacco, The excellent English tobacco. Now that's
36:51
Speaker 1: brotherly smoke. Where's a sailor that does not smoke? The
36:58
Speaker 1: pipe soothed him. Gradually I made out he had run
37:01
Speaker 1: away from school and had gone to sea in a
37:03
Speaker 1: Russian ship, ran away again, served some time in English ships,
37:09
Speaker 1: was now reconciled with the archpriest. He made a point
37:12
Speaker 1: of that. But when one is young, one must see
37:16
Speaker 1: things gathered experience, ideas enlarge the mind here, I interrupted,
37:22
Speaker 1: you can never tell here I met mister Kurtz, he said, youthfully,
37:28
Speaker 1: solemn and reproachful. I held my tongue after that. It
37:33
Speaker 1: appears he had persuaded a Dutch trading house on the
37:36
Speaker 1: coast to fit him out with stores and goods, and
37:39
Speaker 1: started for the interior with a light heart and no
37:42
Speaker 1: more idea of what would happen to him than a baby.
37:45
Speaker 1: He had been wandering about that river for nearly two
37:48
Speaker 1: years alone, cut off from everybody and everything. I am
37:54
Speaker 1: not so young as I look. I am twenty five,
37:58
Speaker 1: he said. At first, Old von Schechten would tell me
38:02
Speaker 1: to go to the devil. He narrated with keen enjoyment.
38:06
Speaker 1: But I stuck to him and talked and talked till
38:09
Speaker 1: at last he got afraid I would talk the hind
38:12
Speaker 1: leg off his favorite dog. So he gave me some
38:15
Speaker 1: cheap things and a few guns, and told me he
38:18
Speaker 1: hoped he would never see my face again, good old
38:22
Speaker 1: Dutchman von Scheten. I've sent him one small lot of
38:27
Speaker 1: ivory a year ago so that he can't call me
38:29
Speaker 1: a little thief when I get back. I hope he
38:33
Speaker 1: got it, and for the rest I don't care. I
38:37
Speaker 1: had some wood stacked for you. That was my old house,
38:40
Speaker 1: did you see. I gave him Towson's book. He made
38:45
Speaker 1: as though he would kiss me, but restrained himself. The
38:49
Speaker 1: only book I had left, and I thought I had
38:52
Speaker 1: lost it, he said, looking at it ecstatically. So many
38:58
Speaker 1: accidents happened to a man about alone. You know, canoes
39:02
Speaker 1: get upset sometimes, and sometimes you've got to clear out
39:05
Speaker 1: so quick when the people get angry. He thumbed the pages.
39:10
Speaker 1: You made notes in Russian, I asked. He nodded. I
39:15
Speaker 1: thought they were written in cipher, I said. He laughed,
39:19
Speaker 1: then became serious. I had lots of trouble to keep
39:23
Speaker 1: these people off, he said. Did they want to kill you?
39:28
Speaker 1: I asked, Oh no, he cried and checked himself. Why
39:33
Speaker 1: did they attack us? I pursued. He hesitated, then said,
39:38
Speaker 1: shame facedly. They don't want him to go, don't they?
39:45
Speaker 1: I said curiously. He nodded a nod full of mystery
39:49
Speaker 1: and wisdom, I tell you, he cried, This man has
39:54
Speaker 1: enlarged my mind. He opened his arms wide, staring at
40:00
Speaker 1: me with his little blue eyes that were perfectly round
40:07
Speaker 1: end of chapter two,