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Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad · Audiobook Collection

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, Part one of
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: chapter one. The Nellie, a cruising yawl, swung to her
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: anchor without a flutter of the sails, and was at rest.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: The flood had made the wind was nearly calm, and
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: being bound down the river, the only thing for it
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: was to come too and wait for the turn of
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: the tide. The sea reach of the Thames stretched before
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: us like the beginning of an interminable waterway. In the offing,
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: the sea and the sky were welded together without a joint,
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: and in the luminous space, the tanned sails of the barges,
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: drifting up with the tide, seemed to stand still in
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: red clusters of canvas, sharply peaked with gleams of varnished spirits.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: A haze rested on the low shores that ran out
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: to sea in vanishing flatness. The air was dark above
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: graves End, and farther back still seemed condensed into a
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: mournful gloom, brooding motionless over the biggest and the greatest
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: town on earth. The Director of Companies was our captain
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: and our host. We fore affectionately watched his back as
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: he stood in the boughs, looking to seaward on the
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: whole river, there was nothing that looked half so nautical.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: It resembled a pilot, which to a seaman is trustworthiness personified.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: It was difficult to realize his work was not out
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: there in the luminous estuary, but behind him, within the
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: brooding gloom between us, there was, as I have already said,
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: somewhere the bond of the sea. Besides holding our hearts
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: together through long periods of separation, it had the effect
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: of making us tolerant of each other's yarns and even convictions.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: The lawyer, the best of old fellows, had, because of
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: his many years and many virtues, the only cushion on deck,
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: and was lying on the only rug. The accountant had
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: brought out already a box of dominoes and was toying
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: architecturally with the bones. Marlowe sat cross legged, right aft,
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: leaning against the mizzen mast. He had sunken cheeks, a
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: yellow complexion, a straight back and ascetic aspect, and with
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: his arms dropped the palms of his hands outwards, resembled
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: an idol. The director, satisfied the anchor had good hold,
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: moved his way aft and sat down amongst us. We
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: exchanged a few words lazily. Afterwards there was silence on
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: board the yacht. For some reason or other, we did
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: not begin that game of dominoes. We felt meditative and
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: fit for nothing but placid staring. The day was ending
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: in a serenity of still and exquisite brilliance. The water
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: shone pacifically, The sky, without a speck, was a benign
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: immensity of unstained light. The very mist on the Essex
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: March was like a gauzy and radiant fabric, hung from
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: the wooded rises inland and draping the low shores in
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: diaphanous folds. Only the gloom to the west, brooding over
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: the upper reaches, became more somber every minute, as if
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: angered by the approach of the sun, and at last,
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: in its curved and imperceptible fall, the sun sank low,
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: and from glowing white, changed to a dull red without
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: rays and without heat, as if about to go out,
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: suddenly stricken to death by the touch of that gloom
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: brooding over a crowd of men. Forthwith a change came
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: over the waters, and the serenity became less brilliant but
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: more profound. The Old River in its broad reach, rested
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: unruffled at the decline of the day, after ages of
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: good service done to the race that peopled its banks,
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: spread out in the tranquil dignity of a waterway leading
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: to the uttermost ends of the earth. We looked at
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: the venerable stream, not in the vivid flush of a
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: short day that comes and departs forever, but in the
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: august light of abiding memories. And indeed, nothing is easier
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: for a man who has, as the phrase goes, followed
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: the sea with reverence and affection, than to evoke the
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: great spirit of the past. Upon the lower reaches of
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: the Thames, the tidal current runs to and fro in
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: its unceasing service, crowded with the memories of men and ships.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: It had borne to the rest of home, or to
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: the battles of the sea. It had known and served
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: all the men of whom the nation is proud, from
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: Sir Francis Drake to Sir John Franklin, Knights, all titled
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: and untitled, the great knights errant of the sea. It
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: had borne all the ships whose names are like jewels
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: flashing in the night of time. From the golden hind,
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: returning with her rotund flanks full of treasure, to be
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: visited by the Queen's Highness, and thus pass out of
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: the gigantic tale to the erebus and terror, bound on
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: other conquests, and that never returned. It had known the
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: ships and the men they had sailed from Deptford, from Greenwich,
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: from Erith, the adventures and the settlers, king's ships, and
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: the ships of men on change, captains, admirals, the dark
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: interlopers of the Eastern trade, and the commissioned generals of
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: the East India. Fleet hunters for gold or pursuers of fame.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: They all had gone out on that stream, bearing the sword,
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: and often the torch, messengers of the might within the land,
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: bearers of a spark from the sacred fire. What greatness
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: had not floated on the ebb of that river, into
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: the mystery of the unknown earth, the dreams of men,
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: the seat of the commonwealths, the germs of empires. The
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: sun set, The dusk fell on the stream, and lights
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: began to appear along the shore. The Chapman Lighthouse, a
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: three legged thing erect on a mud flat, shone strongly.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: Lights of ships moved in the fairway, a great stir
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: of lights, going up and going down, and farther west
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: on the upper reaches, the place of the monstrous town
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: was still marked ominously on the sky, a brooding gloom
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: in sunshine, a lurid glare under the stars. And this also,
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: said Marlin, suddenly has been one of the dark places
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: of the earth. He was the only man of us
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: who still followed the sea. The worst that could be
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: said of him was that he did not represent his class.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: He was a seaman, but he was a wanderer too.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: While most seamen lead, if one may so express it,
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: a sedentary life, their minds are of the stay at
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: home order, and their home is always with them the ship,
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: and so is their country the sea. One ship is
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: very much like another, and the sea is always the same.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: In the immutability of their surroundings, the foreign shores, the
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: foreign faces, the changing immensity of life, glide past, veiled
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: not by a sense of mystery, but by a slightly
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: disdainful ignorance. For there is nothing mysterious to a seaman,
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: unless it be the sea itself, which is mistress of
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: his existence and as inscrutable as destiny. For the rest
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: after his hours of work, a casual stroll or a
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: casual spree on shore suffices to unfold for him the
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: secret of a whole continent, and generally he finds the
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: secret not worth knowing. The yarns of seamen have a
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: direct simplicity, the whole meaning of which lies within the
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: shell of a cracked nut. But marlow was not typical.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: If his propensity to spin yarns be accepted, and to
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: him the meaning of an episode was not inside like
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: a colonel, but outside, enveloping the tail which brought it
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: out only as a glow brings out a haze, in
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: the likeness of one of these misty halos that sometimes
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: are made visible by the spectral illumination of moonshine. His
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: remark did not seem at all surprising. It was just
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: like Marlowe. It was accepted in silence. No one took
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: the trouble to grunt even and presently he said, very slow,
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: I was thinking of very old times, when the Romans
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: first came here, nineteen hundred years ago. The other day,
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: light came out of this river. Since you say nights, yes,
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: but it is like a running blaze on a plane,
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: like a flash of lightning in the clouds we live
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: in the flicker. May it last as long as the
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: old earth keeps rolling. But darkness was here yesterday. Imagine
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: the feelings of a commander of a fine what do
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: you call him, a trireme in the Mediterranean, ordered suddenly
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: to the north, run overland across the Gauls in a hurry,
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: put in charge of one of these craft. The Legionnaires,
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: A wonderful lot of handymen. They must have been too
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: used to build, apparently by the hundred in a month
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: or two, if we may believe what we read. Imagine
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: him here the very end of the world, a sea
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: the color of lead, a sky the color of smoke,
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: a kind of ship about as rigid as a concertina,
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: and going up this river with stores or orders or
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: what you like. Sand banks, marshes, forests, savages, precious little
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: to eat for a civilized man, Nothing but Thames water
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: to drink. No Falernian wine here, no going ashore here
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: and there a military camp lost in a wilderness, like
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: a needle in a bundle of hay, cold, fog, tempests, disease,
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: exile and death, death, skulking in the air, in the water,
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: in the bush. They must have been dying like flies here. Oh, yes,
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: he did it, did it very well too, no doubt,
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: and without thinking much about it either, except afterwards to
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: brag of what he had gone through in his time.
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: Perhaps they were men enough to face the darkness. And
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: perhaps he was cheered by keeping his eye on a
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: chance of promotion to the fleet at Ravenna, by and bye,
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: if he had good friends in Rome and survived the
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: awful climate. Or think of a decent young citizen in
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: a toga. Perhaps too much dice, you know, coming out
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: here in the train of some prefects or tax gatherer
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: or trader, even to mend his fortunes, land in a swamp,
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: marched through the woods, and in some inland post, feel
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: the savagery, the utter savagery had closed around him, all
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: that mysterious life of the wilderness that stirs in the
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: forest and the jungles in the hearts of wild men.
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: There's no initiation either into such mysteries. He has to
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: live in the midst of the incomprehensible, which is also detestable.
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: And it has a fascination too, that goes to work
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: upon him, the fascination of the abomination, you know, imagine
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: the growing regrets, the longing to escape, the powerless disgust,
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: the surrender, the hate. He paused mind. He began again,
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: lifting one arm from the elbow, the palm of the
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: hand outwards, so that with his legs folded before him,
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: he had the pose of a Buddha preaching in European clothes,
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: and without a lotus flower mind. None of us would
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: feel exactly like this. What saves us is efficiency, the
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: devotion to efficiency. But these chaps were not much account really.
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: They were no colonists. Their administration was merely a squeeze
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: and nothing more. I suspect they were conquerors, and for
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: that you want only brute force, nothing to bow when
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: you have it, since your strength is just an accident
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: arising from the weakness of others. They grabbed what they
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: could get for the sake of what was to be got.
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: It was just robbery, with violence aggravated murder on a
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: great scale, and men going at it blind, as is
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: very proper for those who tackle a darkness. The conquest
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: of the earth, which mostly means that taking it away
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: from those who have a different complexion, more slightly flatter
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: look into it too much. What redeems it is the idea,
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: only an idea at the back of it, not a
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: sentimental pretense, but an idea, and an unselfish belief in
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: the idea, something you can set up and bow down
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: before and offer a sacrifice to. He broke off. Flames
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: glided in the river, small green flames, red flames, white flames, pursuing, overtaking, joining,
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: crossing each other, then separating slowly or hastily. The traffic
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: of the great city went on in the deepening night
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: upon the sleepless river. We looked on, waiting patiently. There
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: was nothing else to do till the end of the flood.
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: But it was only after a long silence when he said,
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: in a hesitating voice, I suppose you, fellows, remember I
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: did once turn fresh water sailor for a bit that
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: we knew we were fated before the ebb began to
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: run to hear about one of Marlow's inconclusive experiences. I
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: don't want to bother you much with what happened to
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: me personally. He began showing in this remark the weakness
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: of many tellers of tales, who seemed so often unaware
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: of what their audience would like best to hear, yet
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: to understand the effect of it upon me. You ought
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: to know how I got out there, what I saw,
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: how I went up that river to the place where
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: I first met the poor chap It was the farthest
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: point of navigation and the culminating point of my experience.
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: It seemed somehow to throw a kind of light on
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: everything about me and into my thoughts. It was somber enough, too,
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: and pitiful, not extraordinary in any way, not very clear either, No,
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: not very clear, And yet it seemed to throw a
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: kind of light. I had then, as you remember, just
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: returned to London after a lot of Indian Ocean Pacific
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: China seas a regular dose of the East six years
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: or so, and I was loafing about pindering you fellows
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: in your work and invading your homes, just as though
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: I had got a heavenly mission to civilize you. It
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: was very fine for a time, but after a bit
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: I did get tired of resting. Then I began to
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: look for a ship, I should think the hardest work
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: on earth. But the ships wouldn't even look at me,
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: and I got tired of that.
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: Game too.
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: Now, when I was a little chap I had a
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: passion for maps. I would look for hours at South
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: America or Africa or Australia and lose myself in all
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: the glories of exploration. At that time, there were many
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: blank spaces on the Earth, and when I saw one
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: that looked particularly inviting on a map, but they all
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: looked like that, I would put my finger on it
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: and say, ah, when I grow up, I will go there.
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: The North Pole was one of those places. I remember, well,
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: I haven't been there yet, and shall not try now.
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: The glamours off other places were scattered about the hemispheres.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: I have been in some of them, and well, we
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: won't talk about that. But there was one yet, the biggest,
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: the most blank, so to speak, that I had a
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: hankering after. True, by this time it was not a
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: blank space anymore. It had got filled since my boyhood
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: with rivers and lakes and names. It had ceased to
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: be a blank space of delightful mystery, a white patch
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: for a boy to dream gloriously over. It had become
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: a place of darkness. But there was in it one river,
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: especially a mighty big river that you could see on
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: the map resembling an immense snake uncoiled with its head
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: in the sea, its body at rest, curving afar over
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: the vast country, and its tail lost in the depths
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: of the land. And as I looked at the map
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: of it in a shop window, it fascinated me as
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: a snake would have a silly little bird. Then I
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: remembered there was a big concern a company for trade
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: on that river dash it all. I thought to myself.
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: They can't trade without using some kind of craft on
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: that lot of fresh water steamboats. Why shouldn't I try
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: to get charge of one. I went on along Freed Street,
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: but could not shake off the idea the snake had
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: charmed me. You understand, it was a continental concern, that
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: trading society. But I have a lot of relations living
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: on the continent because it's cheap and not so nasty
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: as it looks. They say, I am sorry to own.
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: I began to worry them. This was already a fresh
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: departure for me. I was not used to get things
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: that way, you know. I always went my own road
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: and on my own legs where I had a mind
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: to go. I wouldn't have believed that of myself. But
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: then you see, I felt somehow I must get there
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: by hook or by crook, so I worried them. The men, said,
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: my dear fellow, and did nothing, And would you believe it?
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: I tried the women. I Charlie Marlowe, set the women
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: to work to get a job. Heavens well, you see
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: the notion drove me. I had an aunt, a dear
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: enthusiastic soul. She wrote, it will be delightful. I am
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: ready to do anything, anything for you. It is a
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: glorious idea. I know, the wife of a very high
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: personage in the administration, and also a man who has
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: lots of influence with et cetera. She was determined to
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: make no end of fuss to get me a pointed
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: skipper of a river steamboat. If such was my fancy.
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: I got my appointments, of course, and I got it
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: very quick. It appears the company had received news that
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: one of their captains had been killed in a scuffle
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: with the natives. This was my chance, and it made
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: me the more anxious to go. It was only months
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: and months afterwards, when I made the attempt to recover
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: what was left of the body, that I heard the
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: original quarrel arose from the misunderstanding about some hens, yes,
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: two black hens. Freslaven that was the fellow's name. A
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: Dane thought himself wronged somehow in the bargain, so he
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: went ashore and started to hammer the chief of the
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: village with a stick. Oh, it didn't surprise me in
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: the least to hear this, and at the same time
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: to be told that Freslavin was the gentlest, quietest creature
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: that ever walked on two legs.
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: No doubt he was.
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: But he had been a couple of years already out
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: there engaged in the noble cause, you know, and he
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: probably felt the need at last of asserting his self
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: respect in some way. Therefore he whacked the old nigger mercilessly,
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: while a big crowd of his people watched him. Thunder
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: struck till some man, I was told, the chief's son,
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: in desperation at hearing the old chap yell, made a
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: tentative jab with a spear at the white man, and
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: of course it went quite easy between the shoulder blades.
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: Then the whole population cleared into the forest, expecting all
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: kinds of calamities to happen. While on the other hand,
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: the steamer Freshlaven commanded, left, also in a bad panic,
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: in charge of the engineer. I believe afterwards nobody seemed
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: to trouble much about fres Lavin's remains till I got
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: out and stepped into his shoes. I couldn't let it rest, though,
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: But when an opportunity offered at last to meet my predecessor,
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: the grass growing through his ribs was tall enough to
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: hide his bones. They were all there. The supernatural being
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: had not been touched after he fell, and the village
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: was deserted. The huts gaped black, rotting all askew within
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: the fallen enclosures. A calamity had come of it, sure enough.
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: The people had vanished. Mad terror had scattered them men,
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: women and children through the bush, and they had never returned.
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: What became of the hens I don't know either. I
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: should think the cause of progress got them anyhow, However,
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: through this glorious affair, I got my appointment before I
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: had fairly begun to hope for it. I flew around
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: like mad to get ready, and before forty eight hours
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: I was crossing the channel to show myself to my
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: employers and sign the contract in a very few hours
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: I arrived in the city that always makes me think
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: of a waighted sepulcher prejudice. No doubt, I had no
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: difficulty in finding the company's offices. It was the biggest
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: thing in the town, and everybody I met was full
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: of it. They were going to run an oversea empire
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: and make no end of coin by trade. A narrow
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: and deserted street in deep shadow, high houses, innumerable windows
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: with Venetian blinds, a dead silence, grass sprouting right and left,
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: immense double door standing ponderously. Ajar I slipped through one
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: of these cracks, went up a swept and ungarnished staircase
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: as arid as a desert, and opened the first door.
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: I came to two women, one fat and the other slim,
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: sat on straw bottomed chairs, knitting black wool. The slimman
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: got up and walked straight at me, still knitting with
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: downcast eyes, and only just as I began to think
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: of getting out of her, saying as you would for
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: a sonombulist stood still and looked up. Her dress was
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: as plain as an umbrella cover, and she turned round
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: without a word and preceded me into a waiting room.
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: I gave my name and looked about deal table in
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: the middle, plain chairs all around the walls. On one
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: end a large shining map marked with all the colors
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: of a rainbow. There was a vast amount of red.
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: Good to see at any time, because one knows that
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: some real work is done in there a deuce of
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: a lot of blue, of little green, smears of orange,
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: and on the east coast a purple patch to show
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: where the jolly pioneers of progress drink the jolly lugger beer. However,
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: I wasn't going into any of these. I was going
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: into the yellow dead in the center. And the river
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: was there fascinating, deadly like a snake. Ah. A door opened,
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: A white haired secretarial head but wearing a compassionate expression, appeared,
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: and a skinny forefinger beckoned me into the sanctuary. Its
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: light was dim, and a heavy writing desk squatted in
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: the middle. From behind that structure came out an impression
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: of pale plumpness and a frock coat. A great man himself.
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: He was five feet six, I should judge, and had
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: his grip on the handle end of ever so many millions.
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: He shook hands. I fancy murmured vaguely, was satisfied with
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: my friend beouvoyage. In about forty five seconds, I found
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: myself again in the waiting room with a compassionate secretary, who,
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: full of desolation and sympathy, made me sign some document
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: I believe I undertook, amongst other things, not to disclose
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: any trade secrets. Well, I'm not going to. I began
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: to feel slightly uneasy. You know, I am not used
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: to such ceremonies, and there was something ominous in the atmosphere.
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: It was just as though I had been let into
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: some conspiracy. I don't know, something not quite right, and
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: I was glad to get out. In the outer room,
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: the two women knitted black woolf feverishly. People were arriving,
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: and the younger one was walking back and forth introducing them.
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: The old one sat on her chair. Her flat cloth
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: slippers were propped up on a footwarmer, and a cat
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: reposed on her lap. She wore a starched white affair
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: on her head and a wart on one cheek, and
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: silver rimmed spectacles hung on the tip of her nose.
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: She glanced at me above the glasses. The swift and
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: indifferent placidity of that look troubled me to you, with
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: foolish and cheery countenances, or being piloted over, And she
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: threw at them the same quick glance of unconcerned wisdom.
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: She seems to know all about them, and about me too.
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: An eerie feeling came over me. She seemed uncanny and fateful.
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: Often far away there I thought of these two guarding
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: the door of darkness, knitting black wool as for a
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: warm pall, one introducing, introducing continuously to the unknown, the
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: other scrutinizing the cheery and foolish faces with unconcerned old
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: eyes bove old knitter of black wool, morituri te salutant.
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: Not many of those she looked at ever saw her again,
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: not half by a long way. There was yet a
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: visit to the doctor. A simple formality assured me the
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: secret with an air of taking an immense part in
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: all my sorrows. Accordingly, a young chap wearing his hat
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: over the left eyebrow, some clerk, I suppose there must
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: have been clerks in the business. Though the house was
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: as still as a house in a city of the dead,
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: came from somewhere upstairs and led me forth He was
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: shabby and careless, with enstains on the sleeves of his jacket,
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: and his cravat was large and billowy under a chin
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: shaped like the toe of an old boot. It was
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: a little too early for the doctor, so I proposed
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: a drink, and thereupon he developed a vein of joviality.
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: As we sat over our Vremouth's, he glorified the company's business,
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: and by and by I expressed casually my surprise at
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: him not going out there. He became very cool and
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: collected all at once. I am not such a fool
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: as I look, quoth Plato to his disciples, he said, sententiously,
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: emptied his glass with great resolution, and we rose. The
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: old doctor felt my pulse, evidently thinking of something else
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: the while. Good good for there, he mumbled, and then,
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: with a certain eagerness, asked me whether I would let
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: him measure my head. Rather surprised, I said yes, when
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: he produced a thing like calipers and got the dimensions
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: back in front and every way, taking notes carefully. He
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: was an unshaven little man in a threadbare coat like
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: a gabardine, with his feet in slippers, and I thought
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: him a harmless fool. I always ask leave in the
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: interest of science to measure the crania of those going outs, eh,
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: he said, And when they come back too, I asked, Oh,
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: I never see them, he remarked. And moreover, the changes
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: take place inside, you know, he smiled, as if at
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: some quiet joke. So you are going out there famous,
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: interesting too, he gave me a searching glance and made
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: another note. Ever any madness in your family, he asked,
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: in a matter of fact tone. I felt very annoyed.
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: Is that question in the interests of science too? It
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: would be, he said, without taking notice of my irritation.
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: Interesting for science to watch the mental changes of individuals
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: on the spot. But are you an alienist, I interrupted,
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: Every doctor should be a little answered that original imperturbably.
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: I have a little theory which you messieur who go
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: out there, must help me to prove. This is my
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: share in the advantages my country shall reap from the
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: possession of such a magnificent dependency, the mere wealth I
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: leave to others. Pardon my questions, But you are the
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: first Englishman coming under my observation, I hastened to assure him.
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: I was not in the least typical if I were
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: said I, I wouldn't be talking like this with you.
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: What you say is rather profound and probably erroneous, he said,
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: with a laugh. Avoid irritation more than exposure to the sun. Adieu,
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: How do you English? Say eh er good bye, ah,
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: good bye hardieu. In the tropics, one must before everything
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: keep calm. He lifted a warning forefinger.
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: Do calm, do calm.
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: One thing more remained to do. Say good bye to
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: my excellent hands. I found her triumphant. I had a
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: cup of tea, the last decent cup of tea for
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: many days, and in a room that most soothingly looked
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: just as you would expect a lady's drawing room to look.
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: We had a long, quiet chat by the fireside. In
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: the course of these confidences, it became quite plain to
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: me I had been represented to the wife of the
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: high dignitary, and goodness knows to how many people besides
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: as an exceptional and gifted creature, a piece of good
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: fortune for the company, a man you didn't get hold
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: of every day. Good heavens, and I was going to
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: take charge of a tuppenny haypenny River steamboat with a
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: penny whistle attached it appeared, however, I was also one
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: of the workers with a capital, you know, something like
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: an emissary of light, something like a lower sort of apostle.
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: There had been a lot of such rot let loose
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: in print and talk just about that time, and the
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: excellent woman, living right in the rush of all that
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: humbug got carried off her feet. She talked about weaning
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: those ignorant millions from their horrid ways, till upon my word,
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: she made me feel quite uncomfortable. I ventured to hint
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: that the company was run for a profit. You forget,
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: dear Charlie, that the laborer is worthy of his hire,
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: She said, brightly. It's queer how out of touch with
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: truth women are. They live in a world of their own,
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: and there has never been anything like it, that never
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: can be. It is too beautiful altogether, And if they
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: were to set it up, it would go to pieces
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: before the first sunset. Some confounded fact we men have
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: been living contentedly with ever since the day of creation,
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: would start up and knock the whole thing over. After this,
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: I got embraced, told to wear flat, be sure to
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: ride often, and so on, and I left in the streets.
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: I don't know why a queer feeling came to me
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: that I was an impostor odd thing, that I, who
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: used to clear out for any part of the world
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: at twenty four hours notice, with less thought than most
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: men give to the crossing of a street, had a
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: moment I won't say of hesitation, but of startled pause
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: before this commonplace affair. The best way I can explain
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: it to you is by saying that, for a second
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: or two I felt as though, instead of going to
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: the center of a continent, I were about to set
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: off for the center of the earth.
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: I left in a.
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: French steamer, and she called in every blamed port they
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: have out there. For as far as I could see
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: the sole purpose of landing soldiers and custom house officers.
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: I watched the coast. Watching a coat as it slips
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: by the ship is like thinking about an enigma. There
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: it is before you, smiling, frowning, inviting, grand, mean, insipid
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: or savage, and always mute, with an air of whispering.
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: Come and find out this one was almost featureless, as
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: if still in the making, with an aspect of monotonous grimness.
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: The edge of a colossal jungle, so dark green as
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: to be almost black fringed with white. Surf ran straight
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: like a ruled line far far away along a blue
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: sea whose glitter was blurred by a creeping mist. The
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: sun was fierce, the land seemed to glisten and drip
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: with steam. Here and there, grayish white as specks showed
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: up clustered inside the white surf, with a flag flying
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: above them, perhaps settlements some centuries old and still no
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: bigger than pin heads on the untouched expanse of their background.
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: We pounded along, stopped. Landed soldiers went on, landed custom
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: house clerks to Levy Toll in what looked like a
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: god forsaken wilderness with a tin shed and a flagpole
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: lost in it. Landed more soldiers to take care of
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: the custom house clerks. Presumably some I heard got drowned
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: in the surf, but whether they did or not, nobody
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: seemed particularly to care. They were just flung out there,
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: and on we went. Every day. The coast looked the
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: same as though we had not moved, But we passed
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: various places, trading places with names like Grand Bassam, little Popo,
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: names that seemed to belong to some sordid farce acted
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: out in front of a sinister black cloth, the idleness
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: of a passenger, my isolation amongst all these men with
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: whom I had no point of contact. The oily and
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: languid see the uniform somberness of the coast seemed to
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: keep me away from the truth of things, within the
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: toil of a mournful and senseless delusion. The voice of
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: the surf, heard now and then, was a positive pleasure,
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: like the speech of a brother. It was something natural
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: that had its reason, that had a meaning. Now and
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: then A boat from the shore gave one a momentary
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: contact with reality. It was paddled by blackfellers. You could
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: see from afar the white of their eyeballs glistening. They shouted, sang,
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: their bodies streamed with perspiration. They had faces like grotesque masks,
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: these chaps, but they had bone, muscle, and a wild vitality,
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: an intense energy of movement that was as natural and
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: true as the surf along their coast. They wanted no
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: excuse for being there. They were a great comfort to
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: look at. For a time I would feel I belonged
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: still to a world of straightforward facts. But the feeling
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: would not last long. Something would turn up to scare
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: it away. Once, I remember, we came upon a man
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: O war anchored off the coast. There wasn't even a
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: shed there, and she was shelling the bush. It appears
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: the French had one of their wars going on thereabouts.
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: Her ensign dropped limp like a rag, the muzzles of
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: the long six inch guns stuck out all over the
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: low hull. The greasy, slimy swell swung her up lazily
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: and let her down, swaying her thin masts in the
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: empty immensity of earth, sky and water. There she was incomprehensible.
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: Firing into a continent, Pop would go one of the
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: six inch guns. A small flame would dart and vanish,
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: A little white smoke would disappear, A tiny projector would
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: give a feeble screech, and nothing happened, nothing could happen.
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: There was a touch of insanity in the proceeding, a
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: sense of lugubrious drollery in the sight, and it was
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: not dissipated by somebody on board assuring me earnestly. There
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: was a camp of natives, he called them, enemies, hidden
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: out of sight somewhere. We gave her her letters. I
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: heard the men in that lonely ship were dying of
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: fever at the rate of three a day, and went on.
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: We call it some more places with farcical names, where
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: the merry dance of death and trade goes on in
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: a still and earthly atmosphere, as of an overheated catacomb,
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: all along the formless coast, boarded by dangerous surf, as
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: if nature herself had tried to ward off intruders in
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: and out of rivers, streams of death in life, whose
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: banks were rough into mud, whose waters thickened into slime,
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: invaded the contorted mangroves that seemed to writhe at us
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: in the extremity of an impotent despair. Nowhere did be
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: stopped long enough to get a particularized impression, but the
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: general sense of vague and oppressive wonder grew upon me.
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: It was like a weary pilgrimage, amongst hints for nightmares.
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: It was upward of thirty days before I saw the
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: mouth of the big river. We anchored off the seat
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: of the government. But my work would not begin till
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: some two hundred miles further on. So as soon as
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: I could, I made a start for the place thirty
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: miles higher up, I had my passage on a little
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: sea going steamer. A captain was a Swede, and, knowing
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: me for a seaman, invited me on the bridge. He
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: was a young man, lean, fair and morose, with lanky
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: hair and a shuffling gate. As we left the miserable
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: little wharf, he tossed his head contemptuously at the shore
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: ben living there.
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: He asked.
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: I said, yes, fine lot, those cverment chaps, are they not?
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: He went on, speaking English with great precision and considerable bitterness.
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: It is funny what some people we'd do for a
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: few francs a month. I wonder what becomes of that
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: kind when it goes up country, I said to him.
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: I expected to see that soon, so he exclaimed. He
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: shuffled a thwart, keeping an eye a head vigilantly. It
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: don't be too sure, he continued. The other day I
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: took up a man who hanged himself on the road.
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: He was a Swede, too, hanged himself. Why in God's name,
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: I cried? He kept on looking out watchfully. Who knows
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: the sun too much for him or the country?
• 42:02
  Speaker 2: Perhaps?
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: At last we opened a reach, A rocky cliff appeared
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: mounds of turned up earth by the shore houses on
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: a hill, others with iron roofs, amongst a waste of
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: excavations or hanging to the declivity. A continuous noise of
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: the rapids above hovered over this scene of inhabited devastation.
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: A lot of people, mostly black and naked, moved about
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: like ants. A jetty projected into the river. A blinding
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: sunlight drowned all this, at times in a sudden recrudescence
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: of glare. There's your company station, said the swede, pointing
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: to three wooden barrack like structures on the rocky slope.
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: I will send your things up four boxes. Did you
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: say so? Farewell? I came upon a boiler wallowing in
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: the grass, then found a path leading up the hill.
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: It turned aside for the boulders, and also for an
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: undersized railway truck lying there on its back, with its
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: wheels in the air. One was off. The thing looked
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: as dead as the carcass of some animal. I came
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: upon more pieces of decaying machinery, a stack of rusty rails.
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: To the left, A clump of trees made a shady
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: spot where dark things seemed to stir feebly. I blinked.
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: The path was steep. A horn tooted to the right,
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: and I saw the black people run. A heavy and
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: dull detonation shook the ground. A puff of smoke came
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: out of the cliff, and that was all. No change
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: appeared on the face of the rock. They were building
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: a railway. The cliff was not in the way or anything,
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: but this objectless blasting was all the work going on.
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: A slight clinking behind me made me turn my head.
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: Six black men advanced in a file, toiling up the path.
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: They walked erect and slow, balancing small baskets full of
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: earth on their heads, and the clink kept time with
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: their footsteps. Black rags were wound round their loins, and
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: the short ends behind waggled to and fro like tails.
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: I could see every rib. The joints of their limbs
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: were like knots in a rope. Each had an iron
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: collar on his neck, and all were connected together with
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: a chain whose bites swung between them rhythmically clinking. Another
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: report from the cliff made me think suddenly of that
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: ship of war I had seen firing into a continent.
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: It was the same kind of ominous voice But these
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: men could, by no stretch of imagination be called enemies.
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: They were called criminals, and the outraged law, like the
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: bursting shells, had come to them an insoluble misas from
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: the sea. All their meager breasts panted together, the violently
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: dilated nostrils quivered, the eyes stared stonily up hill. They
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: passed me within six inches without a glance, with that
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: complete deathlike indifference of unhappy savages. Behind this raw matter,
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: one of the reclaimed, the product of the new forces
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: at work, Strode despondently, carrying a rifle by its middle.
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: He had a uniform jacket with one button off, and
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: seeing a white man on the path, hoisted his weapon
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: to his shoulder with alacrity. This was simple prudence, white
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: men being so much alike at a distance that he
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: could not tell who I might be. He was speedily reassured,
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: and with a large white, rascally grin and a glance
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: at his charge, seemed to take me into partnership in
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: his exalted trust. After all, I also was a part
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: of the great cause of these high and just proceedings.
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: Instead of going up, I turned and descended to the left.
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: My idea was to let that chain gang get out
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: of sight before I climbed the hill. You know, I
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: am not particularly tender. I've had to strike and to
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: fend off. I've had to resist and to attack. Sometimes
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: that's only one way of resisting, without counting the exact
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: costs according to the demands of such sort of life,
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: as I had blundered into, I've seen the devil of violence,
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: and the devil of greed, and the devil of hot desire.
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: But by all the stars, these were strong, lusty, red
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: eyed devils that swayed and drove men men, I tell you.
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: But as I stood on this hillside, I foresaw that
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: in the blinding sunshine of that land, I would become
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: acquainted with a flabby, pretending, weak eyed devil of a
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: rapation and pitiless folly. How insidious he could be too,
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: I was only to find out several months later, and
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: a thousand miles farther. For a moment I stood appalled,
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: as though by a warning. Finally I descended the hill
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: obliquely towards the trees I had seen. I avoided a
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: vast artificial hole somebody had been digging on the slope,
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: the purpose of which I found it impossible to divine.
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: It wasn't a quarry or a sand pit anyhow, it
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: was just a hole. It might have been connected with
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: the philanthropic desire of giving the criminal something to do.
• 47:41
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: Then I nearly fell into a very narrow ravine, almost
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: no more than a scar in the hillside. I discovered
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: that a lot of imported drainage pipes for the settlement
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: had been tumbled in there. There wasn't one that was
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: not broken. It was a wanton smash up. At last
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: I got under the trees. My purpose was to stroll
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: into the shade for a moment, but no sooner within
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: than it seemed to me I had stepped into the
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: gloomy circle of some inferno. The rapids were near, and
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: an uninterrupted, uniform, headlong rushing noise filled the mournful stillness
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: of the grove, where not a breath stirred, not a
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: leaf moved, with a mysterious sound, as though the tearing
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: pace of the launched earth had suddenly become audible. Black
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: shapes crouched lay sat between the trees, leaning against the trunks,
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: clinging to the earth, half coming out, half efface within
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: the dim light in all the attitudes of pain, abandonment,
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: and despair. Another mine on the cliff went off, followed
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: by a slight shudder of the soil under my feet.
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: The work was going on, though, and this was the
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: place where some of the helpers had withdrawn to die.
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: They were dying slowly. It was very clear they were
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: not enemies, they were not criminals. They were nothing earthly now,
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation, lying confusedly
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: in the greenish gloom brought from all the recesses of
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: the coasts, in all the legality of time, contracts lost
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: in uncongenial surroundings, fed on unfamiliar food, they sickened, became inefficient,
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: and were then allowed to crawl away and rest. These
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: moribon shapes were free as air and nearly as thin.
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: I began to distinguish the gleam of the eyes under
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: the trees. Then, glancing down, I saw a face near
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: my hand. The black bones reclined at full length, with
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: one shoulder against the tree, and slowly the eyelids rose,
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: and the sunken eyes looked up at me, enormous and vacant,
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: a kind of blind white flicker in the depths of
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: the orbs, which died out slowly. The man seemed young,
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: almost a boy, But you know, with them it's hard
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: to tell. I found nothing else to do but to
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: offer him one of my good swedes ship's biscuits I
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: had in my pocket. The fingers closed slowly on it
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: and held. There was no other movements, and no other glance.
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: He had tied a bit of white worsted round his neck.
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: Why where did he get it? Was it a badge,
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: an ornament, a charm, a propitiatory act? Was there any
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: idea at all connected with it? It looked startling round
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: his black neck, this bit of white thread. From beyond
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: the seas, near the same tree, two more bundles of
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: a cute angles sat with their legs drawn up, one
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: with his chin propped on his knees, stared at nothing
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: in an intolerable and appalling manner. His brother phantom rested
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: its forehead as if overcome with a great weariness, And
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: all about others were scattered in every pose of contorted collapse,
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: as in some picture of a massacre or a pestilence.
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: While I stood horror struck, one of these creatures rose
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: to his hands and knees and went off on all
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: fours towards the river to drink. He lapped out of
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: his hand, then sat up in the sunlight, crossing his
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: shins in front of him, and after a time let
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: his wooly head fall on his breastbone. And of part one,
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: part two of chapter one of Heart of Darkness. I
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: didn't want any more loitering in the shade, and I
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: made hay east towards the station. When near the buildings,
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: I met a white man in such an unexpected elegance
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: of get up that in the first moment I took
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: him for a sort of vision. I saw a high
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: starched collar, white cuffs, a light out pack of jacket,
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: snowy trousers, a clean necktie, and varnished boots, no hat,
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: hair parted, brushed, oiled under a green lined parasol, held
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: in a big white hand. He was amazing and had
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: a penholder behind his ear. I shook hands with this miracle,
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: and I learned he was the company's chief accountants, and
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: that all the bookkeeping was done at this station. He
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: had come out for a moment, he said, to get
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: a breath of fresh air. The expression sounded wonderfully odd
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: with its suggestion of sedentary desk life. I wouldn't have
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: mentioned the fellow to you at all. Only it was
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: from his lips that I first heard the name of
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: the man who was so indissolubly connected with the memories
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: of that time. Moreover, I respected the fellow, Yes, I
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: respected his collars, his vast cuffs, his brushed hair. His
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: appearance was certainly that of a head dresser's dummy. But
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: in the great demoralization of the land, he kept up
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: his appearance. That's backbone, his starched collars and got up
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: shirt fronts were achievements of character. He had been out
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: nearly three years, and later I could not help asking
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: him how he managed to sport shut linen. He had
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: just the faintest blush and said modestly, I've been teaching
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: one of the native women about the station. It was difficult.
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: She had a distaste for the work. Thus this man
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: had verily accomplished something, and he was devoted to his books,
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: which were in apple pie order. Everything else in the
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: station was in a muddle. Heads, things, buildings, strings of
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: dusty niggers with splay feets arrived and departed. A stream
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: of manufactured goods, rubbishy cottons, beads and brass wire set
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: into the depths of darkness, and in return came a
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: precious trickle of ivory. I had to wait in the
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: station for ten days, an eternity. I lived in a
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: hut in the yard, But to the out of the chaos,
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: I would sometimes get into the accountant's office. It was
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: built of horizontal planks, and so badly put together that
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: as he bent over his high desk, he was barred
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: from neck to heels with narrow strips of sunlight. There
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: was no need to open the big shutter to see
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: it was hot. There too, big flies buzzed fiendishly and
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: did not sting, but stabbed. I sat generally on the floor,
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: while of faultless appearance, and even slightly scented, perching on
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: a high stool, he wrote, He wrote. Sometimes he stood
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: up for exercise when a truckled bed with a sick man,
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: some invalid agent from up country was put in there.
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: He exhibited a gentle annoyance. The groans of this sick person,
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: he said, distract my attention, and without that it is
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: extremely difficult to guard against clerical errors in this climate.
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: One day he remarked, without lifting his head. In the interior,
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: you will no doubt meet mister Kurtz. On my asking
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: who mister Kurtz was, he said he was a first
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: class agent's and, seeing my disappointment at this information, he added, slowly,
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: laying down his pen, he is a very remarkable person.
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: Further questions elicited from him that mister Kurtz was at
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: present in charge of a trading post, a very important
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: one in the true ivory country at the very bottom
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: of there sends in as much ivory as all the
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: others put together. He began to write again. The sick
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: man was too ill to groan. The flies buzzed in
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: a great peace. Suddenly there was a growing murmur of
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: voices and a great trampling of feet. A caravan had
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: come in. A violent babble of uncouth sounds burst out
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: on the other side of the planks. All the carriers
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: were speaking together, and in the midst of the uproar,
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: the dementable voice of the chief agent was heard, giving
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: it up tearfully for the twentieth time that day. He
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: rose slowly. What a frightful row, he said. He crossed
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: the room gently to look at the sick man and
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: return said to me, he does not hear what dead?
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: I asked, startled, No, not yet, he answered with great composure,
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: then alluding with the toss of the head to the
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: tumult in the station yard. When one has got to
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: make correct entries, one comes to hate those savages, hate
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: them to the death. He remained thoughtful for a moment.
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: When you see, mister Kurtz, he went on, tell him
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: from me that everything here he glanced at the desk,
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: is very satisfactory. They don't like to write to him.
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: With those messengers of ours. You never know who may
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: get hold of your letter at that central station. He
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: stared at me for a moment with his mild bulging eyes.
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: Oh he will go far, very far, he began again.
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: He will be a somebody in the administration before they
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: above the council in Europe. You know mean him to be.
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: He turned to his work. The noise outside had ceased,
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: and presently, in going out, I stopped at the door
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: in the steady buzz of flies. The homeward bound agent
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: was lying, finished and insensible. The other, bent over his books,
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: was making correct entries of perfectly correct transactions, and fifty
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: feet below the doorstep, I could see the still treetops
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: of the grove of Death. Next day I left that
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: station at last with a caravan of sixty men for
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: a two hundred mile tramp. No use telling you much
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: about that. Paths, paths everywhere, a stamped in network of paths,
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: spreading over the empty land, through the long grass, through
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: burnt grass, through thickets, down and up chilly ravines, up
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: and down stony hills, ablaze with heat and a solitude,
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: a solitude, nobody, not a hut. The population had cleared
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: out a long time ago. Well, if a lot of
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: mysterious niggers, armed with all kinds of fearful weapons, suddenly
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: took to traveling on the road between Deal and Gravesend,
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: catching the yukele's right and left to carry heavy loads
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: for them, I fancy every farm and cottage thereabouts would
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: get empty very soon. Only here the dwellings were gone too. Still.
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: I passed through several abandoned villages. There's something pathetically childish
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: in the ruins of grass walls. Day after day, with
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: the stamp and shuffle of sixty pair of bare feet
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: behind me, each pair under a sixty pound load. Camp
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: cook sleep, strike camp march now and then a carrier
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: dead in hert harness, at rest in the long grass
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: near the path, with an empty water good and his
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: long staff lying by his side, A great silence around
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: and above, perhaps on some quiet night, the tremor of
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: far off drums, sinking, swelling, a tremor vast, faint, a sound, weird, appealing,
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: suggestive and wild, and perhaps with as profound a meaning
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: as the sound of bells in a Christian country. Once
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: a white man in an unbuttoned uniform, camping on the
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: path with an armed escort of lush zan zabaris, very
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: hospitable and festive, not to say drunk, was looking after
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: the upkeep of the road. He declared, can't say I
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: saw any road or any upkeep, unless the body of
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: a middle aged Negro with a bullet hole in the forehead,
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: upon which I absolutely stumbled three miles farther on, be
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: considered as a permanent improvement. I had a white companion too,
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: not a bad chap, but rather too fleshy and with
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: the exasperating habit of fainting on the hot hillsides miles
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: away from the least bit of shade and water, annoying,
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: you know, to hold your own coat like a parasol
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: over a man's head while he's coming too. I couldn't
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: help asking him once what he meant by coming there
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: at all to make money? Of course, what do you think?
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: He said, scornfully. Then he got fever and had to
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: be carried in a hammock slung under a pole, as
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: he weighed sixteen stone. I had no end of rows
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: with the carriers. They jibbed, ran away, sneaked off with
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: their loads in the night. Quite a mutiny. So one
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: evening I made a speech in English with gestures, not
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 1: one of which was long lost of the sixty pair
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: of eyes before me, And the next morning I started
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: the hammock off in front all right. An hour afterwards
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: I came upon the whole concern wrecked in a bush
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: man hammock, groans, blankets, horrors. The heavy pole had skinned
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: his poor nose. He was very anxious for me to
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: kill somebody. But there wasn't the shadow of a carrier near.
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: I remembered the old doctor. It would be interesting for
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: science to watch the mental changes of individuals on the spot,
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: I felt I was becoming scientifically interesting. However, all that
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: is to know purpose. On the fifteenth day, I came
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: in sight of the big river again and hobbled into
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: the central station. It was on a backwater, surrounded by
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: scrub and forest, with a pretty border of smelly mud
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: on one side and on the three others, enclosed by
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: a crazy fence of rushes. A neglected gap was all
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: the gait it had, and the first glance at the
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: place was enough to let you see the flabby devil
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: was running that show. White men with long staves in
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: their hands, appeared languidly from amongst the buildings, strolling up
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 1: to take a look at me, and then retired out
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: of sight somewhere. One of them, a stout, excitable chap
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 1: with black mustaches, informed me with great volubility and many digressions.
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 1: As soon as I told him who I was, that
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: my steamer was at the bottom of the river, I
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: was thunderstruck.
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 2: What how why?
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 1: Oh? It was all right. The manager himself was there,
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: all quite correct. Everybody had behaved splendidly. Splendidly, you must,
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: he said in agitation, go and see the general manager
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: at once. He is waiting. I did not see the
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: real significance of that wreck at once. I fancy I
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 1: see it now, but I am not sure, not at all.
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: Certainly the affair was too stupid when I think of it,
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: to be altogether natural still, But at the moment it
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: presented itself simply as a confounded nuisance. The steamer was sunk.
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 1: They had started two days before in a sudden hurry
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: up the river with the manager on board, in charge
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: of some volunteer skipper, and before they had been out
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: three hours, they tore the bottom out of her on stones,
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: and she sank near the south bank. I asked myself
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: what I was to do there? Now my boat was lost.
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, I had plenty to do
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: in fishing my command out of the river. I had
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: to set about it the very next day. That and
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: the repairs when I brought the pieces to the stee
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: took some months. My first interview with the manager was curious.
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: He did not ask me to sit down after my
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: twenty mile walk that morning. He was commonplace in complexion,
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: in features, in manners, and in voice. He was of
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: middle size and of ordinary build. His eyes of the
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: usual blue, were perhaps remarkably cold, and he certainly could
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: make his glance fall on one, as trenchant and heavy
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: as an axe. But even at these times, the rest
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: of his person seemed to disclaim the intention. Otherwise there
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: was only an indefinable, faint expression of his lips, something stealthy,
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: a smile, not a smile. I remember it, but I
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: can't explain it was unconscious. This smile was though just
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: after he had said something. It got intensified for an instant.
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: It came at the end of his speeches, like a
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: seal applied on the words to make the meaning of
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: the commonest phrase appear absolutely inscrutable. He was a common
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: trader from his youth up, employed in these parts nothing more.
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: He was obeyed. Yet he inspired neither love, nor fear,
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: nor even respect. He inspired uneasiness. That was its uneasiness,
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: not a definite mistrusts, just uneasiness. Nothing more. You have
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: no idea how effective such a faculty can be. He
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: had no genius for organizing, for initiative, or for order,
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: even that was evident in such things as the deplorable
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: state of the station. He had no learning and no intelligence.
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 1: His position had come to him, why, perhaps because he
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: was never ill. He had served three terms of three
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 1: years out there, because triumphant health in the general route
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: of constitutions is a kind of power in itself. When
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: he went home on leave, he rioted on a large scale,
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 1: pompously jack ashore, with a difference in externals. Only this
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: one could gather from his casual talk. He originated nothing.
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 1: He can keep the routine going, that's all. But he
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: was great. He was great by this little thing that
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: it was impossible to tell what could control such a man.
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: He never gave that secret away. Perhaps there was nothing
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 1: within him. Such a suspicion made one pause for out
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 1: there there were no external checks. Once, when various tropical
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: diseases had laid law almost every agent in the state,
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: he was heard to say, men who come out here
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: should have no entrails. He sealed the utterance with that
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: smile of his, as though it had been a door
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: opening into a darkness. He had in his keeping. You
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 1: fancied you had seen things, But the seal was on.
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 1: When annoyed at meal times by the constant quarrels of
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: the white men about precedence, he ordered an immense round
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: table to be made, for which a special house had
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: to be built. This was the station's mess room where
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: he sat was the first place. The rest were nowhere.
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: One felt this to be his unalterable conviction. He was
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 1: neither civil nor uncivil. He was quiet. He allowed his boy,
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 1: an overfed young negro from the coast, to treat the
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 1: white men under his very eyes with provoking insolence. He
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 1: began to speak as soon as he saw me. I
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: had been very long on the road. He could not wait,
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 1: had to start without me. The up river stations had
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: to be relieved. There had been so many delays already
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: that he did not know who was dead and who
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: was alive, and how they got on, and so on
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: and so on. He paid no attention to my explanations, and,
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 1: playing with a stick of sealing wax, repeated several times
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 1: that the situation was very grave, fairy grave. There were
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 1: rumors that a very important station was in jeopardy, and
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 1: its chief, mister Kurtz, was ill. Hoped it was not true.
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: Mister Kurtz was. I felt weary and irritable. Hang Kurtz,
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 1: I thought, I interrupted him by saying, I had heard
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: of mister Kurtz on the coast. Ah, so they talk
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 1: of him down there. He murmured to himself. Then he
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 1: began again, assuring me mister Kurtz was the best agent
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: he had, an exceptional man, of the greatest importance to
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: the company. Therefore, I could understand his anxiety. He was,
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 1: he said, very very uneasy. Certainly he fidgeted on his chair.
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: A good deal, exclaimed Ah. Mister Kurtz broke the stick
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 1: of sealing wax and seemed dumbfounded by the accident. Next thing,
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 1: he wanted to know how long it would take to
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: I interrupted him again, being hungry, you know, and kept
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 1: on my feet too. I was getting savage. How can
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 1: I tell, I said, I haven't even seen the wreck yet.
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 1: Some months, no doubt. All this talk seemed to me
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 1: so futile. Some months he said, well, let us say
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 1: three months before we can make a start. Yes, there
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: are to do the affair. I flung out of his hut.
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 1: He lived all alone in a clay hut with a
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: sort of verandah, muttering to myself my opinion of him,
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 1: he was a chattering idiot. Afterwards, I took it back
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: when it was borne in upon me, startlingly with what
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 1: extreme nicety he had estimated the time requisite for the affair.
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 1: I went to work the next day, turning, so to speak,
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 1: my back on that station. In that way, only it
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: seemed to me I could keep my hold on the
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 1: redeeming facts of life. Still, one must look about sometimes.
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: And then I saw this station, these men strolling aimlessly
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 1: about in the sunshine of the yard. I asked myself
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 1: sometimes what it all meant. They wandered here and there
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 1: with their absurd long staves in their hands, like a
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 1: lot of faithless pilgrims, bewitched inside rotten fence. The word
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: ivory rang in the air, was whispered, was sighed. You
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 1: would think they were praying to it. A taint of
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 1: imbecile rapacity blew through it all like a whiff from
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 1: some corpse. By Jove, I've never seen anything so unreal
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 1: in my life, and outside the silent wilderness surrounding, this
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 1: cleared speck on the earth struck me as something great
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 1: and invincible, like evil or truth, waiting patiently for the
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 1: passing away of this fantastic invasion. Oh these months, well,
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 1: never mind. Various things happened. One evening, a grass shed
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 1: full of Calaco cotton prints, bees, and I don't know
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 1: what else, burst into a blaze. So suddenly that you
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 1: would have thought the earth had opened to let an
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 1: avenging fire consume all that track sh I was smoking
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: my pipe quietly by my dismantled steamer, and saw them
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 1: all cutting capers in the lights with their arms lifted high.
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: When the stout man with mustaches came tearing down to
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 1: the river a tin pail in his hand, assured me
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 1: that everybody was behaving splendidly. Splendidly, dipped about a quart
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 1: of water and tore back again. I noticed there was
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 1: a hole in the bottom of his pail. I strolled up.
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 1: There was no hurry, you see. The thing had gone
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 1: off like a box of matches. It had been hopeless
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 1: from the very first. The flame had leaped high, driven
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 1: everybody back, lighted up everything, and collapsed. The shed was
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 1: already a heap of embers, glowing fiercely. A nigger was
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 1: being beaten near by. They said he had caused the
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 1: fire in some way, but be that as it may,
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 1: he was screeching most horribly. I saw him later for
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 1: several days, sitting in a bit of shade, looking very
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: sick and trying to recover himself. Afterwards, he arose and
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 1: went out and the wilderness, without a sound, took him
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: into its bosom again. As I approached the glow from
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 1: the dark, I found myself at the back of two
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 1: men talking. I heard the name of Kurts pronounced, then
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 1: the words take advantage of this unfortunate accident. One of
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 1: the men was the manager. I wished him a good evening.
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: Did you ever see anything like it? Say? It was incredible,
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 1: he said, and walked off. The other man remained. He
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 1: was a first class agent, young gentlemanly a bit reserved,
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 1: with a forked little beard and a hooked nose. He
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 1: was standoffish with the other agents, and they on this.
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 1: I said, he was the manager's spy upon them. As
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 1: to me, I had hardly ever spoken to him before
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 1: we got into talk, and by and by we strolled
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: away from the hissing ruins. Then he asked me to
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 1: his room, which was in the main building of the station.
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 1: He struck a match, and I perceived that this young
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 1: aristocrat had not only a silver mounted dressing case, but
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 1: also a whole candle all to himself. Just at that
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 1: time the manager was the only man supposed to have
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 1: any right to candles. Native mats covered the clay walls,
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 1: a collection of spears, assgades, shiels knives was hung up
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 1: in trophies. The business entrusted to this fellow was the
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 1: making of bricks, so I had been informed. But there
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 1: wasn't a fragment of a brick anywhere in the station,
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 1: and he had been there more than a year waiting.
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 1: It seems he could not make bricks without something I
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 1: don't know what, straw maybe. Anyway, it could not be
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 1: found there, and as it was not likely to be
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 1: sent from Europe, it did not appear clear to me
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 1: what he was waiting for. An act of special creation perhaps. However,
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 1: they were all waiting, all the sixteen or twenty pilgrims
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 1: of them, for something, and upon my word, it did
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 1: not seem an uncongenial occupation from the way they took it, though.
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 1: The only thing that ever came to them was disease.
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 1: As far as I could see, they beguiled the time
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 1: by backbiding and in prigging against each other in a
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 1: foolish kind of way. There was an air of plotting
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 1: about that station, but nothing came of it. Of course,
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 1: it was as unreal as everything else, as the philanthropic
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 1: pretense of the whole concern as their talk, as their government,
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 1: as their show of work. The only real feeling was
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 1: a desire to get appointed to a trading post where
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 1: ivory was to be had, so that they could earn percentages.
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 1: They intrigued and slandered and hated each other only on
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 1: that account. But as to effectually lifting a little finger,
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 1: oh no, by heavens, there was something, after all in
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 1: the world allowing one man to steal a horse while
• 1:17:23
  Speaker 1: another must not look at a halter. Steal a horse
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 1: straight out, very well, he has done it. Perhaps he
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 1: can ride. But there is a way of looking at
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 1: a halter that would provoke the most charitable of saints
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 1: into a kick. I had no idea why he wanted
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 1: to be sociable, but as we chatted in there, it
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 1: suddenly occurred to me the fellow was trying to get
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 1: at something, in fact pumping me. He alluded constantly to Europe,
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 1: to the people I was supposed to know there, putting
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 1: leading questions as to my acquaintances in the sepulchral city.
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 1: So on his little eyes glittered like mica discs with curiosity,
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 1: though he tried to keep up a bit of superciliousness.
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 1: At first I was astonished, but very soon I became
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 1: awfully curious to see what he would find out from me.
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 1: I couldn't possibly imagine what I had in me to
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: make it worth his while. It was very pretty to
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 1: see how he baffled himself, for in truth, my body
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 1: was full only of chills, and my head had nothing
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 1: in it but that wretched steamboat business. It was evident
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 1: he took me for a perfectly shameless prevaricator. At last
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 1: he got angry, and to conceal a moment of furious annoyance,
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 1: he yawned.
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 2: I rose.
• 1:18:49
  Speaker 1: Then I noticed a small sketch in oils on a
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 1: panel representing a woman draped and blindfolded carrying a lighted torch.
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 1: The background was somber on most black. The movement of
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 1: the woman was stately, and the effect of the torchlight
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 1: on the face was sinister. It arrested me, and he
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 1: stood by civilly holding an empty half pint champagne bottle
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 1: medical comforts, with the candle stuck in it. To my question,
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 1: he said, mister Kurtz had painted this in this very
• 1:19:23
  Speaker 1: station more than a year ago, while waiting for means
• 1:19:27
  Speaker 1: to go to his trading post. Tell me, pray, said I.
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 1: Who is this, mister Kurtz, the chief of the inner station,
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 1: he answered in a short tone, looking away. Much obliged,
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 1: I said, laughing, And you are the brickmaker of the
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 1: central station. Everyone knows that he was silent for a while.
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 1: He is a prodigy, he said at last. He is
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 1: an emissary of pity and syn and progress, and devil
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 1: knows what else we once he began to declaim suddenly
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 1: for the guidance of the cause intrusted to us by Europe,
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 1: so to speak, higher intelligence, wide sympathies, a singleness of purpose.
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 1: Who says that I asked lots of them, he replied,
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 1: Some even write that. And so he comes here a
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 1: special bee, as you ought to know? Why ought I
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 1: to know? I interrupted, really surprised he paid no attention. Yes,
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 1: to day he is chief of the best station. Next
• 1:20:38
  Speaker 1: year he will be assistant manager. Two years more. And
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 1: but I dare say you know what he will be
• 1:20:45
  Speaker 1: in two years time. You are of the new gang,
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 1: the gang of virtue. The same people who sent him
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 1: specially also recommended you. Oh, don't say no, I've mine
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 1: own eyes to trust lights dawned upon me. My dear
• 1:21:04
  Speaker 1: aunt's influential acquaintances were producing an unexpected effect upon that
• 1:21:09
  Speaker 1: young man. I nearly burst into a laugh. Do you
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 1: read the company's confidential correspondence, I asked. He hadn't a
• 1:21:19
  Speaker 1: word to say. It was great fun. When mister Kurtz,
• 1:21:25
  Speaker 1: I continued severely, its general manager, you won't have the opportunity.
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 1: He blew the candle out suddenly, and we went outside.
• 1:21:36
  Speaker 1: The moon had risen. Black figures strolled about listlessly, pouring
• 1:21:41
  Speaker 1: water on the glow. Whence proceeded, a sound of hissing
• 1:21:45
  Speaker 1: steam ascended in the moonlight. The beaten nigger groaned somewhere,
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 1: What a row the brute makes, said the indefatigable man
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 1: with the mustaches appearing near us. Serve him right, transgression punishment, bang, pitiless, pitiless.
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 1: That's the only way this will prevent all conflagrations for
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 1: the future. I was just telling the manager. He noticed
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 1: my companion and became crestfallen all at once. Not in
• 1:22:16
  Speaker 1: bed yet, he said, with a kind of servile heartiness.
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 1: It's so natural. Ah, danger agitation, he vanished. I went
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 1: on to the riverside, and the other followed. Me. I
• 1:22:32
  Speaker 1: heard a scathing murmur at my ear. Heap of muffs
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 1: go to the pilgrims could be seen in nots gesticulating discussing.
• 1:22:43
  Speaker 1: Several had stealed their staves in their hands. I verily
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 1: believe they took these sticks to bed with them. Beyond
• 1:22:53
  Speaker 1: the fence, the forest stood up spectrally in the moonlight,
• 1:22:56
  Speaker 1: and through that dim stir, through the faint sounds of
• 1:22:59
  Speaker 1: that lamentable courtyard, the silence of the land went home
• 1:23:03
  Speaker 1: to one's very heart, its mystery, its greatness, the amazing
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 1: reality of its concealed life. The hurt nigger moaned feebly
• 1:23:13
  Speaker 1: somewhere near by, and then fetched a deep sigh that
• 1:23:16
  Speaker 1: made me mend my pace away from there. I felt
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 1: a hand introducing itself under my arm. My dear sir,
• 1:23:26
  Speaker 1: said the fellow. I don't want to be misunderstood, and
• 1:23:30
  Speaker 1: especially by you, who we'll see, mister Kurtz long before
• 1:23:33
  Speaker 1: I can have that pleasure. I wouldn't like him to
• 1:23:37
  Speaker 1: get a false idea of my disposition. I let him
• 1:23:41
  Speaker 1: run on this paper mache Mestopheles, and it seemed to
• 1:23:45
  Speaker 1: me that if I tried, I could poke my forefinger
• 1:23:48
  Speaker 1: through him. And would find nothing inside but a little
• 1:23:52
  Speaker 1: loose dirt. Maybe he don't you see, had been planned
• 1:23:57
  Speaker 1: to be the assistant manager by and by under the
• 1:24:00
  Speaker 1: present man, And I could see that the coming of
• 1:24:02
  Speaker 1: that Kurts had upset them both not a little. He
• 1:24:07
  Speaker 1: talked precipitately, and I did not try to stop him.
• 1:24:11
  Speaker 1: I had my shoulders against the wreck of my steamer,
• 1:24:14
  Speaker 1: puled up on the slope like a carcass of some
• 1:24:16
  Speaker 1: big river animal. The smell of mud, of prime evil mud,
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 1: by Jove, was in my nostrils. The high stillness of
• 1:24:25
  Speaker 1: primeval forests was before my eyes. There were shiny patches
• 1:24:29
  Speaker 1: on the black creek. The moon had spread over everything,
• 1:24:33
  Speaker 1: a thin layer of silver over the rank grass, over
• 1:24:37
  Speaker 1: the mud, open, the wall of matted vegetation, standing higher
• 1:24:41
  Speaker 1: than the wall of a temple. Over the great river
• 1:24:44
  Speaker 1: I could see through a somber gap, glittering, glittering, as
• 1:24:48
  Speaker 1: it flowed broadly by, without a murmur. All this was
• 1:24:53
  Speaker 1: great expectant mute. While the man jabbered about himself, I
• 1:24:58
  Speaker 1: wondered whether the still ill on the face of the
• 1:25:01
  Speaker 1: immensity looking at us too, were meant as an appeal
• 1:25:05
  Speaker 1: or as a menace. What were we who had strayed
• 1:25:09
  Speaker 1: in there? Could we handle that dumb thing? Or would
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 1: it handle us? I felt, how big, how confoundly big,
• 1:25:17
  Speaker 1: was that thing that couldn't talk, and perhaps was deaf
• 1:25:21
  Speaker 1: as well? What was in there? I could see a
• 1:25:26
  Speaker 1: little ivory coming out from there. And I had heard
• 1:25:29
  Speaker 1: mister Kurtz was in there. I had heard enough about
• 1:25:33
  Speaker 1: it too, God knows. Yet somehow it didn't bring any
• 1:25:37
  Speaker 1: image with it, no more than if I had been
• 1:25:39
  Speaker 1: told an angel or a fiend was in there. I
• 1:25:43
  Speaker 1: believed it in the same way one of you might
• 1:25:45
  Speaker 1: believe there are inhabitants in the planet Mars. I knew
• 1:25:49
  Speaker 1: once a Scotch sailmaker who was certain dead sure there
• 1:25:53
  Speaker 1: were people in Mars. If you asked him for some
• 1:25:57
  Speaker 1: idea how they looked and behaved, he would get shy
• 1:26:01
  Speaker 1: and mutter something about walking on all fours. If you
• 1:26:05
  Speaker 1: as much as smiled, he would, though a man of sixty,
• 1:26:09
  Speaker 1: offer to fight you. I would not have gone so
• 1:26:12
  Speaker 1: far as to fight for Kurtz, but I went for
• 1:26:15
  Speaker 1: him near enough to a lie. You know, I hate,
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 1: detest and can't bear a lie. Not because I am
• 1:26:24
  Speaker 1: straighter than the rest of us, but simply because it
• 1:26:27
  Speaker 1: appalls me. There is a tate of death, a flavor
• 1:26:31
  Speaker 1: of mortality in lies, which is exactly what I hate
• 1:26:35
  Speaker 1: and detest in the world, what I want to forget.
• 1:26:39
  Speaker 1: It makes me miserable and sick, like biting something rotten
• 1:26:43
  Speaker 1: would do temperament. I suppose well, I went near enough
• 1:26:49
  Speaker 1: to it by letting the young fool there believe anything
• 1:26:52
  Speaker 1: he liked to imagine. As to my influence in Europe,
• 1:26:55
  Speaker 1: I became in an instant as much of a pretense
• 1:26:59
  Speaker 1: as the rest of the bewitched pilgrims. This simply because
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 1: I had a notion it would somehow be of help
• 1:27:06
  Speaker 1: to that Kurtz, whom at that time I did not see.
• 1:27:10
  Speaker 1: You understand, he was just a word for me. I
• 1:27:14
  Speaker 1: did not see the man in the name any more
• 1:27:17
  Speaker 1: than you do. Do you see him? Do you see
• 1:27:20
  Speaker 1: the story? Do you see anything? It seems to me
• 1:27:24
  Speaker 1: I am trying to tell you a dream, making a
• 1:27:27
  Speaker 1: vain attempt, because no relation of a dream can convey
• 1:27:31
  Speaker 1: the dream sensation, that commingling of absurdity, surprise, and bewilderment,
• 1:27:37
  Speaker 1: in a tremor of struggling revolt, that notion of being
• 1:27:40
  Speaker 1: captured by the incredible, which is of the very essence
• 1:27:44
  Speaker 1: of dreams. He was silent for a while. Now it
• 1:27:50
  Speaker 1: is impossible. It is impossible to convey the life sensation
• 1:27:55
  Speaker 1: of any given epoch of one's existence, that which makes
• 1:27:59
  Speaker 1: its truth, its meaning, its subtle and penetrating essence. It
• 1:28:04
  Speaker 1: is impossible. We live as we dream alone. He paused again,
• 1:28:11
  Speaker 1: as if reflecting, then added, of course in this you
• 1:28:16
  Speaker 1: fellas see more than I could. Then you see me
• 1:28:19
  Speaker 1: whom you know. It had become so pitch dark that
• 1:28:24
  Speaker 1: we listeners could hardly see one another for a long time. Already,
• 1:28:28
  Speaker 1: he sitting apart, had been no more to us than
• 1:28:31
  Speaker 1: a voice. There was not a word from anybody. The
• 1:28:36
  Speaker 1: others might have been asleep, but I was awake. I listened.
• 1:28:40
  Speaker 1: I listened, on the watch for the sentence, for the
• 1:28:43
  Speaker 1: word that would give me the clue to the faint
• 1:28:45
  Speaker 1: uneasiness inspired by this narrative that seemed to shape itself
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 1: without human lips in the heavy night air of the river. Yes,
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 1: I let him run on. Marlow began again and think
• 1:29:00
  Speaker 1: what he pleased about the powers that were behind me.
• 1:29:03
  Speaker 1: I did, And there was nothing behind me. There was
• 1:29:07
  Speaker 1: nothing but that wretched, old, mangled steamboat I was leaning
• 1:29:11
  Speaker 1: against while he talked fluently about the necessity for every
• 1:29:15
  Speaker 1: man to get on, And when one comes out here
• 1:29:19
  Speaker 1: you can see it is not to gaze at the moon.
• 1:29:23
  Speaker 1: Mister Kurtz was a universal genius. But even a genius
• 1:29:27
  Speaker 1: would find it easier to work with adequate tools, intelligent men.
• 1:29:32
  Speaker 1: He did not make bricks. Why there was a physical
• 1:29:36
  Speaker 1: impossibility in the way, as I was well aware. And
• 1:29:40
  Speaker 1: if he did secretarial work for the manager, it was
• 1:29:43
  Speaker 1: because no sensible man rejects wantonly the confidence of his superiors.
• 1:29:49
  Speaker 1: Did I see it? I saw it? What more did
• 1:29:53
  Speaker 1: I want? What I really wanted was rivets by heaven.
• 1:29:58
  Speaker 1: Rivets to get on with the work, to stop the
• 1:30:01
  Speaker 1: whole rivets I wanted. There were cases of them down
• 1:30:06
  Speaker 1: at the coast, cases piled up, burst split. You kicked
• 1:30:10
  Speaker 1: a loose rivet at every second step in that station yard.
• 1:30:14
  Speaker 1: On the hillside, rivets had rolled into the grove of death.
• 1:30:18
  Speaker 1: You could fill your pockets with rivets for the trouble
• 1:30:21
  Speaker 1: of stooping down. And there wasn't one rivet to be
• 1:30:25
  Speaker 1: found where it was wanted. We had plates that would do,
• 1:30:29
  Speaker 1: but nothing to fasten them with. And every week the messenger,
• 1:30:33
  Speaker 1: a long negro let, her bag on shoulder and staff
• 1:30:36
  Speaker 1: in hand, left our station for the coast, And several
• 1:30:40
  Speaker 1: times a week a coast caravan came in with trade goods,
• 1:30:44
  Speaker 1: ghastly glazed calico that made you shudder only to look
• 1:30:48
  Speaker 1: at it, glass beads value about penny a quart, confounded
• 1:30:52
  Speaker 1: spotted cotton, handkerchiefs, and no rivets. Three carriers could have
• 1:30:58
  Speaker 1: brought all that was wanted to set the steamboat afloat.
• 1:31:02
  Speaker 1: He was becoming confidential now, But I fancy my unresponsive
• 1:31:07
  Speaker 1: attitude must have exasperated him at last, for he judged
• 1:31:11
  Speaker 1: it necessary to inform me. He feared neither God nor devil,
• 1:31:16
  Speaker 1: let alone any mere man, I said, I could see
• 1:31:20
  Speaker 1: that very well. But what I wanted was a certain
• 1:31:23
  Speaker 1: quantity of rivets. And rivets were what really mister Kurtz wanted,
• 1:31:29
  Speaker 1: if he had only known it now. Letters went to
• 1:31:32
  Speaker 1: the coast every week. My dear sir, he cried, I
• 1:31:36
  Speaker 1: write from dictation. I demanded rivets. There was a way
• 1:31:42
  Speaker 1: for an intelligent man. He changed his manner, became very cold,
• 1:31:47
  Speaker 1: and suddenly began to talk about a hippopotamus. Wondered whether
• 1:31:51
  Speaker 1: sleeping on board the steamer, I stuck to my salvage
• 1:31:55
  Speaker 1: night and day. I wasn't disturbed. There was an old
• 1:31:59
  Speaker 1: hip that had the bad habit of getting out on
• 1:32:02
  Speaker 1: the bank and roaming at night over the station grounds.
• 1:32:06
  Speaker 1: The pilgrims used to turn out in a body and
• 1:32:09
  Speaker 1: empty every rifle they could lay hands on at him.
• 1:32:12
  Speaker 1: Some had even sat up a night's for him. All
• 1:32:15
  Speaker 1: this energy was wasted, though that animal has a charmed life,
• 1:32:21
  Speaker 1: he said, But you can say this only are brutes
• 1:32:24
  Speaker 1: in this country. No man, you apprehend me, No man
• 1:32:28
  Speaker 1: here bears a charred life. He stood there for a
• 1:32:32
  Speaker 1: moment in the moonlight, with his delicate hooked nose set
• 1:32:35
  Speaker 1: a little askew, and his mica eyes glittering without a wink.
• 1:32:40
  Speaker 1: Then with a curt good night, he strode off. I
• 1:32:45
  Speaker 1: could see he was disturbed and considerably puzzled, which made
• 1:32:49
  Speaker 1: me feel more hopeful than I had been for days.
• 1:32:53
  Speaker 1: It was a great comfort to turn from that chap
• 1:32:56
  Speaker 1: to my influential friend, the battered, twisted, ruined tin pot steamboat.
• 1:33:02
  Speaker 1: I clambered on board. She rang under my feet like
• 1:33:06
  Speaker 1: an empty Huntley and Palmer biscuit tin kicked along a gutter.
• 1:33:10
  Speaker 1: She was nothing so solid in make, and rather less
• 1:33:13
  Speaker 1: pretty in shape. But I had expended enough hard work
• 1:33:17
  Speaker 1: on her to make me love her. No influential friend
• 1:33:21
  Speaker 1: would have served me better. She had given me a
• 1:33:24
  Speaker 1: chance to come out a bit, to find out what
• 1:33:26
  Speaker 1: I could do. No, I didn't like work. I would
• 1:33:31
  Speaker 1: rather laze about and think of all the fine things
• 1:33:34
  Speaker 1: that can be done. I don't like work, no man does.
• 1:33:39
  Speaker 1: But I like what is in the work, the chance
• 1:33:42
  Speaker 1: to find yourself, your own reality, for yourself, not for others.
• 1:33:47
  Speaker 1: What no other man can ever know. They can only
• 1:33:51
  Speaker 1: see the mere show and never can tell what it
• 1:33:54
  Speaker 1: really means. I was not surprised to see somebody sitting
• 1:33:59
  Speaker 1: aft on the deck with his legs dangling over the mud.
• 1:34:03
  Speaker 1: You see, I rather chummed with the few mechanics there
• 1:34:07
  Speaker 1: were in that station, whom the other pilgrims naturally despised
• 1:34:11
  Speaker 1: on account of their imperfect manners. I suppose this was
• 1:34:15
  Speaker 1: the foreman, a boiler maker by trade, a good worker.
• 1:34:19
  Speaker 1: He was a lank, bony, yellow faced man with big,
• 1:34:23
  Speaker 1: intense eyes. His aspect was worried, and his head was
• 1:34:26
  Speaker 1: as bald as the palm of my hand, but his
• 1:34:29
  Speaker 1: hair in falling seemed to have stuck to his chin
• 1:34:33
  Speaker 1: and had prospered in the new locality, for his beard
• 1:34:36
  Speaker 1: hung down to his waist. He was a widower with
• 1:34:40
  Speaker 1: six young children. He had left them in charge of
• 1:34:43
  Speaker 1: a sister of his to come out there, and the
• 1:34:46
  Speaker 1: passion of his life was pigeon flying. He was an
• 1:34:50
  Speaker 1: enthusiast and a connoisseur. He would rave about pigeons after
• 1:34:56
  Speaker 1: work hours. He used sometimes to come over from his
• 1:34:59
  Speaker 1: hut for a little time talk about his children and
• 1:35:01
  Speaker 1: his pigeons. At work, when he had to crawl in
• 1:35:05
  Speaker 1: the mud under the bottom of the steamboat, he would
• 1:35:08
  Speaker 1: tie up that beard of his and a kind of
• 1:35:10
  Speaker 1: white serviettes he brought for the purpose. It had loops
• 1:35:13
  Speaker 1: to go over his ears. In the evening he could
• 1:35:16
  Speaker 1: be seen squatted on the bank, rincing that wrapper in
• 1:35:19
  Speaker 1: the creek with great care, then spreading it solemnly on
• 1:35:23
  Speaker 1: a bush to dry. I slapped him on the back
• 1:35:28
  Speaker 1: and shouted, we shall have rivets. He scrambled to his feet,
• 1:35:33
  Speaker 1: exclaiming no rivets, as though he couldn't believe his ears.
• 1:35:39
  Speaker 1: Then in a low voice. You way, I don't know
• 1:35:43
  Speaker 1: why we behave like lunatics. I put my finger to
• 1:35:47
  Speaker 1: the side of my nose and nodded mysteriously. Good for you,
• 1:35:52
  Speaker 1: he cried, snapped his fingers above his head, lifting one foot,
• 1:35:57
  Speaker 1: I tried a jig. We capered on the iron deck.
• 1:36:01
  Speaker 1: A frightful clatter came out of that hulk, and the
• 1:36:04
  Speaker 1: virgin forest on the other bank of the creek sent
• 1:36:07
  Speaker 1: it back in a thundering roll upon the sleeping station.
• 1:36:12
  Speaker 1: It must have made some of the pilgrims sit up
• 1:36:14
  Speaker 1: in their hovels. A dark figure obscured the lighted doorway
• 1:36:20
  Speaker 1: of the manager's hut vanished, Then a second or so after,
• 1:36:24
  Speaker 1: the doorway itself vanished too. We stopped, and the silence,
• 1:36:29
  Speaker 1: driven away by the stamping of our feet, flowed back
• 1:36:33
  Speaker 1: again from the recesses of the land. The great wall
• 1:36:36
  Speaker 1: of vegetation, an exuberant and entangled mass of trunks, branches, leaves, boughs, festoons,
• 1:36:44
  Speaker 1: motionless in the moonlight, was like a rioting invasion of
• 1:36:48
  Speaker 1: soundless life. A rolling wave of plants piled up, crested,
• 1:36:53
  Speaker 1: ready to topple over the creek, to sweep every little
• 1:36:56
  Speaker 1: man of us out of his little existence, and it
• 1:37:01
  Speaker 1: moved not A deadened burst of mighty splashes and snorts
• 1:37:05
  Speaker 1: reached us from afar, as though an ichtheosaurus had been
• 1:37:09
  Speaker 1: taking a bath of glitter in the great river. After all,
• 1:37:13
  Speaker 1: said the boilermaker, in a reasonable tone, Why shouldn't we
• 1:37:17
  Speaker 1: get the rivets?
• 1:37:19
  Speaker 2: Why not?
• 1:37:20
  Speaker 1: Indeed, I did not know of any reason why we shouldn't.
• 1:37:24
  Speaker 1: They'll come in three weeks, I said, confidently. But they didn't.
• 1:37:31
  Speaker 1: Instead of rivets, there came an invasion, an infliction of visitation.
• 1:37:37
  Speaker 1: It came in sections during the next three weeks, each
• 1:37:41
  Speaker 1: section headed by a donkey carrying a white man in
• 1:37:44
  Speaker 1: new clothes and tan shoes, bowing from that elevation right
• 1:37:48
  Speaker 1: and left to the impressed pilgrims, a quarrelsome band of footsore,
• 1:37:53
  Speaker 1: sulky niggers trode on the heels of the donkey. A
• 1:37:57
  Speaker 1: lot of tents, camp stools, tin boxes, white cases, brown
• 1:38:02
  Speaker 1: bales would be shot down in the courtyard, and the
• 1:38:05
  Speaker 1: air of mystery would deepen a little over the muddle
• 1:38:08
  Speaker 1: of the station. Five such installments came, with their absurd
• 1:38:13
  Speaker 1: air of disorderly flight, with the loot of innumerable outfit
• 1:38:17
  Speaker 1: shops and provision stores that one would think they were
• 1:38:20
  Speaker 1: lugging after a raid into the wilderness for equitable division.
• 1:38:26
  Speaker 1: It was an inextricable mess of things decent in themselves,
• 1:38:30
  Speaker 1: but that human folly made look like the spoils of thieving.
• 1:38:36
  Speaker 1: This devoted band called itself the El Dorado Exploring Expedition,
• 1:38:40
  Speaker 1: and I believe they were sworn to secrecy. Their talk, however,
• 1:38:46
  Speaker 1: was the talk of sordid buccaneers. It was reckless without hardihood,
• 1:38:51
  Speaker 1: greedy without audacity, and cruel without courage. There was not
• 1:38:56
  Speaker 1: an atom of foresight or of serious intention in the
• 1:38:59
  Speaker 1: whole batch of them, and they did not seem aware.
• 1:39:02
  Speaker 1: These things are wanted for the work of the world.
• 1:39:06
  Speaker 1: The tear treasure out of the bowels of the land
• 1:39:09
  Speaker 1: was their desire, with no more moral purpose at the
• 1:39:12
  Speaker 1: back of it than there is in the burglars breaking
• 1:39:14
  Speaker 1: into a safe. Who paid the expenses of the noble enterprise?
• 1:39:19
  Speaker 1: I don't know, but the uncle of our manager was
• 1:39:23
  Speaker 1: leader of that lot. In exterior, he resembled a butcher
• 1:39:28
  Speaker 1: in a poor neighborhood, and his eyes had a look
• 1:39:31
  Speaker 1: of sleepy cunning. He carried his fat, paunch with ostentation
• 1:39:35
  Speaker 1: on his short legs, and during the time his gang
• 1:39:38
  Speaker 1: infested the station, spoke to no one but his nephew.
• 1:39:43
  Speaker 1: You could see these two roaming about all day long,
• 1:39:46
  Speaker 1: with their heads close together in an everlasting confab. I
• 1:39:51
  Speaker 1: had given out worrying myself about the rivets. One's capacity
• 1:39:55
  Speaker 1: for that kind of folly is more limited than you
• 1:39:58
  Speaker 1: would suppose, I said, hang and let things slide. I
• 1:40:05
  Speaker 1: had plenty of time for meditation, and now and then
• 1:40:08
  Speaker 1: I would give some thought to Kerts. I wasn't very
• 1:40:12
  Speaker 1: interested in him. No, Still, I was curious to see
• 1:40:16
  Speaker 1: whether this man, who had come out equipped with moral
• 1:40:19
  Speaker 1: ideas of some sort, would climb to the top after all,
• 1:40:24
  Speaker 1: and how he would set about his work When there
• 1:40:29
  Speaker 1: end of chapter one, part one of chapter two of
• 1:40:34
  Speaker 1: The Heart of Darkness. One evening, as I was lying
• 1:40:38
  Speaker 1: flat on the deck of my steamboat, I heard voices approaching,
• 1:40:42
  Speaker 1: and there were the nephew and the uncle strolling along
• 1:40:45
  Speaker 1: the bank. I laid my head on my arm again
• 1:40:49
  Speaker 1: and had nearly lost myself in a doze when somebody
• 1:40:52
  Speaker 1: said in my ear, as it were, I am as
• 1:40:56
  Speaker 1: harmless as a little child. But I don't like to
• 1:40:59
  Speaker 1: be dictated too, Am I the manager or am I not?
• 1:41:03
  Speaker 1: I was ordered to send him there? It's incredible. I
• 1:41:08
  Speaker 1: became aware that the two were standing on the shore
• 1:41:11
  Speaker 1: alongside the fore part of the steamboat, just below my head.
• 1:41:16
  Speaker 1: I did not move. It did not occur to me
• 1:41:20
  Speaker 1: to move. I was sleepy. It is unpleasant, granted the uncle.
• 1:41:26
  Speaker 1: He has asked the administration to be sent there, said
• 1:41:30
  Speaker 1: the other, with the idea of showing what he could do.
• 1:41:33
  Speaker 1: And I was instructed accordingly. Look at the influence that
• 1:41:37
  Speaker 1: man must have. Is it not frightful? They both agreed
• 1:41:42
  Speaker 1: it was frightful. Then made several bizarre remarks make rain
• 1:41:47
  Speaker 1: and fine weather, one man the council by the nose.
• 1:41:52
  Speaker 1: Bits of absurd sentences that got the better of my drowsiness,
• 1:41:56
  Speaker 1: so that I had pretty near the whole of my
• 1:41:58
  Speaker 1: wits about me. When the uncle said, the climate may
• 1:42:02
  Speaker 1: do away with this difficulty for you. Is he alone there? Yes,
• 1:42:07
  Speaker 1: answered the manager. He sent his assistant down the river
• 1:42:11
  Speaker 1: with a note to me in these terms, clear this
• 1:42:14
  Speaker 1: poor devil out of the country, and don't bother sending
• 1:42:17
  Speaker 1: more of that sort. I had rather be alone than
• 1:42:20
  Speaker 1: have the kind of men you can dispose of with me?
• 1:42:24
  Speaker 1: It was more than a year ago. Can you imagine
• 1:42:27
  Speaker 1: such impudence? Anything since? Then asked the other hoarsely. Ivory
• 1:42:34
  Speaker 1: jerked the nephew. Lots of it, prime sort, lots most
• 1:42:39
  Speaker 1: annoying from him, And with that questioned, the heavy rumble
• 1:42:44
  Speaker 1: in voice was the reply fired out, so to speak,
• 1:42:49
  Speaker 1: Then silence they had been talking about Kerts. I was
• 1:42:56
  Speaker 1: broad awake by this time, but lying perfectly at his remained,
• 1:43:01
  Speaker 1: still having no inducement to change my position. How did
• 1:43:06
  Speaker 1: that Ivory come all this way? Growled the elder man,
• 1:43:10
  Speaker 1: who seemed very vexed. The other explained that it had
• 1:43:14
  Speaker 1: come with a fleet of canoes in charge of an
• 1:43:17
  Speaker 1: English half caste, clerk Kurtz had with him. That Kurtz
• 1:43:21
  Speaker 1: had apparently intended to return himself, the station being by
• 1:43:25
  Speaker 1: that time bare of goods and stores, but after coming
• 1:43:28
  Speaker 1: three hundred miles, had suddenly decided to go back, which
• 1:43:33
  Speaker 1: he started to do alone in a small dugout with
• 1:43:36
  Speaker 1: four paddlers, leaving the half caste to continue down the
• 1:43:39
  Speaker 1: river with the Ivory. The two fellows there seemed astounded
• 1:43:44
  Speaker 1: at anybody attempting such a thing. They were at a
• 1:43:47
  Speaker 1: loss for an adequate motive. As to me, I seemed
• 1:43:53
  Speaker 1: to see Kurtz for the first time. It was a
• 1:43:56
  Speaker 1: distinct glimpse, the dugout for paddling savages, and the lone
• 1:44:02
  Speaker 1: white man turning his back suddenly on the headquarters on relief,
• 1:44:06
  Speaker 1: on thoughts of home, perhaps setting his face towards the
• 1:44:11
  Speaker 1: depths of the wilderness, towards his empty and desolate station.
• 1:44:15
  Speaker 1: I did not know the motive. Perhaps he was just
• 1:44:20
  Speaker 1: simply a fine fellow who stuck to his work for
• 1:44:22
  Speaker 1: its own sake. His name, you understand, had not been
• 1:44:26
  Speaker 1: pronounced once. He was that man, the half caste, who,
• 1:44:32
  Speaker 1: as far as I could see, had conducted a difficult
• 1:44:34
  Speaker 1: trip with great prudence and pluck, was invariably alluded to
• 1:44:39
  Speaker 1: as that scoundrel. The scoundrel had reported that the man
• 1:44:44
  Speaker 1: had been very ill, had recovered imperfectly. The two below
• 1:44:49
  Speaker 1: me moved away then a few paces, and strolled back
• 1:44:52
  Speaker 1: and forth. At some little distance. I heard military posts.
• 1:44:57
  Speaker 1: Doctor two hundred miles I might alone now unavoidable delays,
• 1:45:03
  Speaker 1: nine months, no news, strange rumors. They approached again, just
• 1:45:09
  Speaker 1: as the manager was saying, no one as far as
• 1:45:12
  Speaker 1: I know, unless a species of wandering trader, a pestilential
• 1:45:17
  Speaker 1: fellow snapping ivory from the natives. Who was it they
• 1:45:21
  Speaker 1: were talking about? Now? I gathered in snatches that this
• 1:45:26
  Speaker 1: was some man supposed to be in Courts's district, and
• 1:45:29
  Speaker 1: of whom the manager did not approve. We will not
• 1:45:33
  Speaker 1: be free from unfair competition till one of these fellows
• 1:45:37
  Speaker 1: is hanged. For an example, he said, certainly grunted the other,
• 1:45:42
  Speaker 1: get him hanged? Why not anything? Anything can be done
• 1:45:46
  Speaker 1: in this country, That's what I say. Nobody here, you
• 1:45:50
  Speaker 1: understand here can endanger your position, And why you stand
• 1:45:57
  Speaker 1: the climate you outlast them all. The danger is in Europe.
• 1:46:02
  Speaker 1: But there, before I left, I took care to They
• 1:46:06
  Speaker 1: moved off and whispered. Then their voices rose again. The
• 1:46:11
  Speaker 1: extraordinary series of delays is not my fault. I did
• 1:46:15
  Speaker 1: my best. The fat man sighed very sad, and the
• 1:46:21
  Speaker 1: pestiferous absurdity of his talk continued. The other he bothered
• 1:46:26
  Speaker 1: me enough when he was here. Each station should be
• 1:46:31
  Speaker 1: like a beacon on the road towards better things, a
• 1:46:35
  Speaker 1: center for trade, of course, but also for humanizing, improving, instructing.
• 1:46:42
  Speaker 1: Conceive you that ass and he wants to be the manager.
• 1:46:46
  Speaker 2: No, it's here.
• 1:46:48
  Speaker 1: He got choked by excessive indignation, and I lifted my
• 1:46:52
  Speaker 1: head the least bit. I was surprised to see how
• 1:46:57
  Speaker 1: near they were right under me. I could have spat
• 1:47:01
  Speaker 1: upon their hats. They were looking on the ground, absorbed
• 1:47:05
  Speaker 1: in thought. The manager was switching his leg with a
• 1:47:09
  Speaker 1: slender twig. His sagacious relative lifted his head. You have
• 1:47:14
  Speaker 1: been well since you came out this time, he asked.
• 1:47:18
  Speaker 1: The other gave a start. Who I oh, like a charm,
• 1:47:24
  Speaker 1: Like a charm. But the rest, oh, my goodness, all sick.
• 1:47:30
  Speaker 1: They die so quick too, that I haven't the time
• 1:47:33
  Speaker 1: to send them out of the country. It's incredible. Hm,
• 1:47:37
  Speaker 1: trust so grunted the uncle. Ah, my boy, trust to this,
• 1:47:43
  Speaker 1: I say, trust to this. I saw him extend his
• 1:47:48
  Speaker 1: short flipper of an arm for a gesture that took
• 1:47:51
  Speaker 1: in the forest, the creek, the mud, the river seemed
• 1:47:55
  Speaker 1: to beckon with a dishonoring flourish before the sunlit face
• 1:47:59
  Speaker 1: of the lamp, and a treacherous appeal to the lurking death,
• 1:48:02
  Speaker 1: to the hidden evil, to the profound darkness of its heart.
• 1:48:07
  Speaker 1: It was so startling that I leaped to my feet
• 1:48:11
  Speaker 1: and looked back at the edge of the forest, as
• 1:48:13
  Speaker 1: though I had expected an answer of some sort to
• 1:48:16
  Speaker 1: that black display of confidence. You know, the foolish notions
• 1:48:21
  Speaker 1: that come to one sometimes. The high stillness confronted these
• 1:48:25
  Speaker 1: two figures with its ominous patients, waiting for the passing
• 1:48:29
  Speaker 1: away of a fantastic invasion, they swore aloud together, not
• 1:48:35
  Speaker 1: of sheer fright, I believe, then, pretending not to know
• 1:48:39
  Speaker 1: anything of my existence, turned back to the station. The
• 1:48:44
  Speaker 1: sun was low, and leaning forward side by side, they
• 1:48:48
  Speaker 1: seemed to be tugging painfully uphill their two ridiculous shadows
• 1:48:53
  Speaker 1: of unequal length that trailed behind them slowly over the
• 1:48:57
  Speaker 1: tall grass, without bending a single blode. In a few days,
• 1:49:03
  Speaker 1: the El Dorado expedition went into the patient wilderness that
• 1:49:07
  Speaker 1: closed upon it as the sea closes over a diver.
• 1:49:11
  Speaker 1: Long afterwards, the news came that all the donkeys were dead.
• 1:49:16
  Speaker 1: I know nothing as to the fate of the less
• 1:49:18
  Speaker 1: valuable animals. They, no doubt, like the rest of us,
• 1:49:23
  Speaker 1: found what they deserved. I did not inquire. I was
• 1:49:28
  Speaker 1: then rather excited at the prospect of meeting courts very soon.
• 1:49:33
  Speaker 1: When I say very soon I meet it. Comparatively, it
• 1:49:38
  Speaker 1: was just two months from the day we left the
• 1:49:40
  Speaker 1: creek when we came to the bank below Kurtz's station.
• 1:49:46
  Speaker 1: Going up that river was like traveling back to the
• 1:49:49
  Speaker 1: earliest beginnings of the world, when vegetation rioted on the
• 1:49:53
  Speaker 1: earth and big trees were kings. An empty stream, a
• 1:49:59
  Speaker 1: great silence, an impenetrable forest. The air was warm, thick, heavy, sluggish.
• 1:50:07
  Speaker 1: There was no joy in the brilliance of sunshine. The
• 1:50:11
  Speaker 1: long stretches of the waterway ran on deserted into the
• 1:50:14
  Speaker 1: gloom of overshadowed distances. On silvery sand banks, hippos and
• 1:50:20
  Speaker 1: alligators sunned themselves side by side. The broadening waters flowed
• 1:50:25
  Speaker 1: through a mob of wooded islands. You lost your way
• 1:50:29
  Speaker 1: on that river as you would in a desert, and
• 1:50:32
  Speaker 1: butted all day long against shoals, trying to find the channel,
• 1:50:36
  Speaker 1: till you thought yourself bewitched and cut off forever from
• 1:50:39
  Speaker 1: everything you had known once somewhere far away, in another existence.
• 1:50:46
  Speaker 1: Perhaps there were moments when once past came back to one,
• 1:50:51
  Speaker 1: as it will sometimes when you have not a moment
• 1:50:53
  Speaker 1: to spare for yourself. But it came in the shape
• 1:50:57
  Speaker 1: of an unrestful and noisy dream, remembered with wonder amongst
• 1:51:02
  Speaker 1: the overwhelming realities of this strange world of plants and
• 1:51:07
  Speaker 1: water and silence. And this stillness of life did not,
• 1:51:11
  Speaker 1: in the least resemble a peace. It was the stillness
• 1:51:16
  Speaker 1: of an implacable force brooding over an inscrutable intention. It
• 1:51:21
  Speaker 1: looked at you with a vengeful aspect. I got used
• 1:51:26
  Speaker 1: to it. Afterwards, I did not see it any more.
• 1:51:29
  Speaker 1: I had no time. I had to keep guessing at
• 1:51:32
  Speaker 1: the channel. I had to discern, mostly by inspiration, the
• 1:51:37
  Speaker 1: signs of hidden banks. I watched for sunken stones. I
• 1:51:42
  Speaker 1: was learning to clap my teeth smartly before my heart
• 1:51:46
  Speaker 1: flew out when I shaved by a fluke, some infernal,
• 1:51:50
  Speaker 1: sly old snag that would have ripped the life out
• 1:51:53
  Speaker 1: of the tin pot steamboats and drowned all the pilgrims.
• 1:51:57
  Speaker 1: I had to keep a look out for the signs
• 1:51:59
  Speaker 1: of dead wood we could cut up in the night
• 1:52:01
  Speaker 1: for next day's steaming. When you have to attend to
• 1:52:05
  Speaker 1: things of that sort, to the mere incidence of the surface,
• 1:52:09
  Speaker 1: the reality, the reality I tell you fades. The inner
• 1:52:14
  Speaker 1: truth is hidden, luckily, luckily, But I felt it all
• 1:52:20
  Speaker 1: the same. I felt often its mysterious stillness watching me
• 1:52:24
  Speaker 1: at my monkey tricks, just as it watches you fellows
• 1:52:28
  Speaker 1: performing on your respective tight ropes. For what is it
• 1:52:32
  Speaker 1: half a crown a tumble, Try to be civil, Marlowe
• 1:52:38
  Speaker 1: growled a voice, and I knew there was at least
• 1:52:41
  Speaker 1: one listener awake besides myself. I beg your pardon. I
• 1:52:47
  Speaker 1: forgot the heartache which makes up the rest of the price.
• 1:52:51
  Speaker 1: And indeed, what does the price matter if the trick
• 1:52:54
  Speaker 1: be well done. You do your tricks very well. And
• 1:52:58
  Speaker 1: I didn't do badly either, Since I managed not to
• 1:53:02
  Speaker 1: sink that steamboat on my first trip, it's a wonder
• 1:53:07
  Speaker 1: to me. Yet, imagine a blindfolded man set to drive
• 1:53:11
  Speaker 1: a van over a bad road. I sweated and shivered
• 1:53:16
  Speaker 1: over that business considerably, I can tell you. After all,
• 1:53:20
  Speaker 1: for a seaman to scrape the bottom of the thing
• 1:53:23
  Speaker 1: that's supposed to float all the time under his care
• 1:53:26
  Speaker 1: is the unpardonable sin. No one may know of it,
• 1:53:30
  Speaker 1: but you never forget the thumb. Pay a blow on
• 1:53:35
  Speaker 1: the very heart. You remember it, You dream of it,
• 1:53:40
  Speaker 1: you wake up at night and think of it years after,
• 1:53:43
  Speaker 1: and go hot and cold all over. I don't pretend
• 1:53:47
  Speaker 1: to say that steamboat floated all the time. More than
• 1:53:51
  Speaker 1: once she had to waite for a bit with twenty
• 1:53:54
  Speaker 1: cannibals splashing around and pushing. We had enlisted some of
• 1:53:59
  Speaker 1: these checks aps on the way for a crew. Fine
• 1:54:02
  Speaker 1: fellows cannibals in their place. They were men one could
• 1:54:07
  Speaker 1: work with, and I am grateful to them. And after
• 1:54:11
  Speaker 1: all they did not eat each other before my face.
• 1:54:14
  Speaker 1: They had brought along a provision of hippo meat, which
• 1:54:17
  Speaker 1: went rotten and made the mystery of the wilderness stink
• 1:54:20
  Speaker 1: in my nostrils. Huh, I can sniff it now. I
• 1:54:26
  Speaker 1: had the manager on board, and three or four pilgrims
• 1:54:29
  Speaker 1: with their staves all complete. Sometimes we came upon a
• 1:54:34
  Speaker 1: station close by the bank, clinging to the skirts of
• 1:54:37
  Speaker 1: the unknown, and the white men rushing out of a
• 1:54:40
  Speaker 1: tumble down hovel with great gestures of joy and surprise
• 1:54:44
  Speaker 1: and welcome, seemed very strange, had the appearance of being
• 1:54:50
  Speaker 1: held there captive by a spell. The word ivory would
• 1:54:54
  Speaker 1: ring in the air for a while, And on we
• 1:54:57
  Speaker 1: went again into the silence along m reaches, round the
• 1:55:01
  Speaker 1: still bends between the high walls of our winding way,
• 1:55:05
  Speaker 1: reverberating in hollow claps, the ponderous beat of the stern wheel. Trees, trees,
• 1:55:13
  Speaker 1: millions of trees, massive, immense, running up high and at
• 1:55:18
  Speaker 1: their foot, hugging the bank against the stream, crept the
• 1:55:22
  Speaker 1: little begrimed steamboat, like a sluggish beetle crawling on the
• 1:55:27
  Speaker 1: floor of a lofty portico. It made you feel very small,
• 1:55:32
  Speaker 1: very lost, And yet it was not altogether depressing that feeling.
• 1:55:38
  Speaker 1: After all, if you were small, the grimy beetle crawled on,
• 1:55:43
  Speaker 1: which was just what you wanted it to do. Where
• 1:55:47
  Speaker 1: the pilgrims imagined its crawled too, I don't know, to
• 1:55:52
  Speaker 1: some place where they expected to get something. I bet
• 1:55:56
  Speaker 1: for me it crawled towards Kerts exclusively. But when the
• 1:56:00
  Speaker 1: steam pipe started leaking, we crawled very slow. The reaches
• 1:56:06
  Speaker 1: opened before us and closed behind, as if the forest
• 1:56:09
  Speaker 1: had stepped leisurely across the water to bar the way
• 1:56:13
  Speaker 1: for our return. We penetrated deeper and deeper into the
• 1:56:17
  Speaker 1: heart of darkness. It was very quiet there at night.
• 1:56:23
  Speaker 1: Sometimes the roll of drums behind the curtain of trees
• 1:56:26
  Speaker 1: would run up the river and remained sustained faintly as
• 1:56:31
  Speaker 1: if hovering in the air high over our heads till
• 1:56:34
  Speaker 1: the first break of day. Whether it meant war, peace
• 1:56:39
  Speaker 1: or prayer, we could not tell. The dawns were heralded
• 1:56:44
  Speaker 1: by the descent of a chill stillness. The woodcutters slept,
• 1:56:48
  Speaker 1: their fires burned low. The snapping of a twig would
• 1:56:52
  Speaker 1: make you start. We were wanderers on a prehistoric earth,
• 1:56:57
  Speaker 1: on an earth that wore the aspects of an un
• 1:57:00
  Speaker 1: known planet. We could have fancied ourselves the first of men,
• 1:57:04
  Speaker 1: taking possession of an accursed inheritance, to be subdued at
• 1:57:09
  Speaker 1: the costs of profound anguish and of excessive toil. But suddenly,
• 1:57:14
  Speaker 1: as we struggled round a bend, there would be a
• 1:57:17
  Speaker 1: glimpse of rush, walls of peach, grass, roofs, a burst
• 1:57:22
  Speaker 1: of yells, a whirl of black limbs, a mass of hands,
• 1:57:26
  Speaker 1: clapping of feet, stamping of bodies, swaying of eyes, rolling
• 1:57:32
  Speaker 1: under the droop of heavy and motionless foliage. The steamer
• 1:57:37
  Speaker 1: toiled along slowly on the edge of a black and
• 1:57:40
  Speaker 1: incomprehensible frenzy. The prehistoric man was cursing us, praying to us,
• 1:57:46
  Speaker 1: welcoming us. Who could tell we were cut off from
• 1:57:50
  Speaker 1: the comprehension of our surroundings. We glided past like phantoms,
• 1:57:56
  Speaker 1: wondering and secretly appalled that sane men would be before
• 1:58:00
  Speaker 1: an enthusiastic outbreak in a madhouse. We could not understand
• 1:58:05
  Speaker 1: because we were too far and could not remember. Because
• 1:58:09
  Speaker 1: we were traveling in the night of first ages, of
• 1:58:13
  Speaker 1: those ages that are gone, leaving hardly a sign and
• 1:58:18
  Speaker 1: no memories. The earth seemed unearthly. We were accustomed to
• 1:58:25
  Speaker 1: look upon the shackled form of a conquered monster. But
• 1:58:29
  Speaker 1: there there you could look at a thing monstrous and free.
• 1:58:34
  Speaker 1: It was unearthly. And the men, no, they were not inhuman.
• 1:58:41
  Speaker 1: Well you know that was the worst of it, the
• 1:58:44
  Speaker 1: suspicion of their not being inhuman. It could come slowly
• 1:58:49
  Speaker 1: to one. They howled and leaped and spun and made
• 1:58:53
  Speaker 1: horrid faces. But what thrilled you was just the thought
• 1:58:57
  Speaker 1: of their humanity like yours, the thought of your remote
• 1:59:01
  Speaker 1: kinship with this wild and passionate uproar. Ugly, yes, it
• 1:59:07
  Speaker 1: was ugly enough, But if you were mad enough, you
• 1:59:11
  Speaker 1: would admit to yourself that there was in you just
• 1:59:14
  Speaker 1: the faintest trace of a response to the terrible frankness
• 1:59:18
  Speaker 1: of that noise, a dim suspicion of there being a
• 1:59:22
  Speaker 1: meaning in it which you, you so remote from the
• 1:59:25
  Speaker 1: night of first ages, could comprehend.
• 1:59:29
  Speaker 2: And why not?
• 1:59:31
  Speaker 1: The mind of man is capable of anything, because everything
• 1:59:35
  Speaker 1: is in it, all the past as well as all
• 1:59:38
  Speaker 1: the future. What was there after all? Joy, fear, sorrow, devotion, valor, rage?
• 1:59:48
  Speaker 1: Who can tell but truth? Truth stripped of its cloak
• 1:59:53
  Speaker 1: of time. Let the fool gape and shudder. The man knows,
• 1:59:59
  Speaker 1: and could look gone without a wink. But he must
• 2:00:03
  Speaker 1: at least be as much of a man as these
• 2:00:06
  Speaker 1: on the shore. He must meet that truth with his
• 2:00:09
  Speaker 1: own true stuff, with his own inborn strength. Principles won't
• 2:00:15
  Speaker 1: do acquisitions, clothes, pretty rags, rags that would fly off
• 2:00:20
  Speaker 1: at the first good shake. No, you want a deliberate
• 2:00:25
  Speaker 1: belief and appeal to me in this fiendish row? Is
• 2:00:30
  Speaker 1: there very well? I hear, I admit, But I have
• 2:00:36
  Speaker 1: a voice too, and for good or evil, mine is
• 2:00:39
  Speaker 1: the speech that cannot be silenced. Of course, a fool,
• 2:00:44
  Speaker 1: what with sheer, fright and fine sentiments, is always safe.
• 2:00:49
  Speaker 1: Who's that grunting you wonder? I didn't go ashore for
• 2:00:53
  Speaker 1: a howl and a dance. Well, no, I didn't fine sentiments, say,
• 2:01:01
  Speaker 1: fine sentiments be hanged. I had no time. I had
• 2:01:06
  Speaker 1: to mess about with white lead and strips of woolen blanket,
• 2:01:10
  Speaker 1: helping to put bandages on those leaky steam pipes. I
• 2:01:14
  Speaker 1: tell you, I had to watch the steering and circumvent
• 2:01:18
  Speaker 1: those snags, and get the tin pot along by hook
• 2:01:21
  Speaker 1: or by crook. There was surface truth enough in these
• 2:01:25
  Speaker 1: things to save a wiser man. And between whiles I
• 2:01:30
  Speaker 1: had to look after the savage. It was fireman. He
• 2:01:34
  Speaker 1: was an improved specimen. He could fire up a vertical boiler.
• 2:01:39
  Speaker 1: He was there below me, and upon my word, to
• 2:01:42
  Speaker 1: look at him was as edifying as seeing a dog
• 2:01:45
  Speaker 1: in a parody of breeches and a feather hat walking
• 2:01:48
  Speaker 1: on his hind legs. A few months of training had
• 2:01:52
  Speaker 1: done for that really fine chap. He squinted at the
• 2:01:56
  Speaker 1: steam gage and at the water gage with an evident
• 2:01:59
  Speaker 1: effort of intrepidity, and he filed teeth too, the poor devil,
• 2:02:04
  Speaker 1: and the wool of his pate shaved into queer patterns,
• 2:02:07
  Speaker 1: and three ornamental scars on each of his cheeks. He
• 2:02:12
  Speaker 1: ought to have been clapping his hands and stamping his
• 2:02:14
  Speaker 1: foot on the bank, instead of which he was hard
• 2:02:17
  Speaker 1: at work, a thrall to strange witchcraft, full of improving knowledge.
• 2:02:23
  Speaker 1: He was useful because he had been instructed, and what
• 2:02:27
  Speaker 1: he knew was this, that should the water in that
• 2:02:31
  Speaker 1: transparent thing disappear, the evil spirit inside the boiler would
• 2:02:36
  Speaker 1: get angry through the greatness of his thirst and take
• 2:02:40
  Speaker 1: a terrible vengeance. So he sweated and fired up, and
• 2:02:45
  Speaker 1: watched the glass fearfully, with an impromptu charm made of
• 2:02:49
  Speaker 1: rags tied to his arm, and a piece of polished
• 2:02:51
  Speaker 1: bone as big as a watch stuck flatways through his
• 2:02:55
  Speaker 1: lower lip. While the wooded bank slipped past us slowly,
• 2:02:59
  Speaker 1: the short noise was left behind the interminable miles of silence,
• 2:03:05
  Speaker 1: and we crept on towards Kurts. But the snags were thick,
• 2:03:11
  Speaker 1: the water was treacherous and shallow. The boiler seemed indeed
• 2:03:15
  Speaker 1: to have a sulky devil in it, and thus neither
• 2:03:18
  Speaker 1: that fireman nor I had any time to peer into
• 2:03:22
  Speaker 1: our creepy thoughts. Some fifty miles below the inner station,
• 2:03:28
  Speaker 1: we came upon a hut of reeds, an inclined and
• 2:03:31
  Speaker 1: melancholy pole with the unrecognizable tatters of what had been
• 2:03:36
  Speaker 1: a flag of some sort flying from it, and a
• 2:03:39
  Speaker 1: neatly stacked wood pile. This was unexpected. We came to
• 2:03:44
  Speaker 1: the bank and on the stack of firewood found a
• 2:03:47
  Speaker 1: flat piece of board with some faded pencil riding on it.
• 2:03:51
  Speaker 1: When deciphered, it said, would for you hurry up? Approach cautiously.
• 2:03:57
  Speaker 1: There was a signature, but it was illegible, not kurtz,
• 2:04:02
  Speaker 1: a much longer word, hurry up where up the river
• 2:04:08
  Speaker 1: approached cautiously? We had not done so, But the warning
• 2:04:13
  Speaker 1: could not have been meant for the place where it
• 2:04:15
  Speaker 1: could be only found after reproach. Something was wrong above,
• 2:04:20
  Speaker 1: But what and how much? That was the question. We
• 2:04:26
  Speaker 1: commented adversely upon the imbecility of that telegraphic style. The
• 2:04:31
  Speaker 1: bush around said nothing and would not let us look
• 2:04:35
  Speaker 1: very far either. A torn curtain of red twill hung
• 2:04:39
  Speaker 1: in the doorway of the hut and flapped sadly in
• 2:04:42
  Speaker 1: our faces. The dwelling was dismantled, but we could see
• 2:04:46
  Speaker 1: a white man had lived there not very long ago.
• 2:04:49
  Speaker 1: There remained a rude table, a plank on two posts,
• 2:04:53
  Speaker 1: a heap of rubbish reposed in a dark corner, and
• 2:04:56
  Speaker 1: by the door, I picked up a book. It had
• 2:04:59
  Speaker 1: lost its covers, and the pages had been thumbed into
• 2:05:02
  Speaker 1: a state of extremely dirty softness. But the back had
• 2:05:06
  Speaker 1: been lovingly stitched afresh with white cotton thread, which looked clean.
• 2:05:11
  Speaker 1: Yet it was an extraordinary find. Its title was an
• 2:05:17
  Speaker 1: inquiry into some points of seamanship by a man towsered thousand,
• 2:05:23
  Speaker 1: some such name, master in his Majesty's navy. The matter
• 2:05:28
  Speaker 1: looked dreary reading enough, with illustrative diagrams and repulsive tables
• 2:05:33
  Speaker 1: of figures, and the copy was sixty years old. I
• 2:05:38
  Speaker 1: handled the amazing antiquity with the greatest possible tenderness, lest
• 2:05:43
  Speaker 1: it should dissolve in my hands. Within tousand or Towser
• 2:05:49
  Speaker 1: was inquiring earnestly into the breaking strain of ships, chains
• 2:05:52
  Speaker 1: and tackle, and other such matters. Not a very enthralling book,
• 2:05:58
  Speaker 1: but at the first glance once you could see there
• 2:06:01
  Speaker 1: was a singleness of intention, an honest concern for the
• 2:06:04
  Speaker 1: right way of going to work, which made these humble pages,
• 2:06:09
  Speaker 1: thought out so many years ago, luminous with another than
• 2:06:12
  Speaker 1: a professional light. The simple old sailor, with his talk
• 2:06:17
  Speaker 1: of chains and purchases made me forget the jungle and
• 2:06:21
  Speaker 1: the pilgrims in a delicious sensation of having come upon
• 2:06:24
  Speaker 1: something unmistakably real. Such a book being there was wonderful enough.
• 2:06:31
  Speaker 1: But still more astounding were the notes penciled in the
• 2:06:34
  Speaker 1: margin and plainly referring to the text. I couldn't believe
• 2:06:39
  Speaker 1: my eyes. They were in cipher. Yes, it looked like cipher.
• 2:06:45
  Speaker 1: Fancy a man lugging with him a book of that
• 2:06:47
  Speaker 1: description into this nowhere and studying it and making notes
• 2:06:52
  Speaker 1: in cipher At that it was an extravagant mystery. I
• 2:06:58
  Speaker 1: had been dimly aware for some time of a worrying noise,
• 2:07:02
  Speaker 1: And when I lifted my eyes, I saw the woodpile
• 2:07:05
  Speaker 1: was gone, and the manager, aided by all the pilgrims,
• 2:07:09
  Speaker 1: was shouting at me from the river side. I slipped
• 2:07:12
  Speaker 1: the book into my pocket. I assure you that to
• 2:07:15
  Speaker 1: leave off reading was like tearing myself away from the
• 2:07:19
  Speaker 1: shelter of an old and solid friendship. I started the
• 2:07:24
  Speaker 1: lame engine ahead. It must be this miserable trader, this intruder,
• 2:07:29
  Speaker 1: exclaimed the manager, looking back malevolently at the place we
• 2:07:33
  Speaker 1: had left. He must be English, I said. He will
• 2:07:38
  Speaker 1: not save him from getting into trouble if he is
• 2:07:40
  Speaker 1: not careful, muttered the manager darkly. I observed, with assumed innocence,
• 2:07:46
  Speaker 1: that no man was safe from trouble in this world.
• 2:07:51
  Speaker 1: The current was more rapid now. The steamer seemed at
• 2:07:54
  Speaker 1: her last gasp. The stern wheel flopped languidly, and I
• 2:07:58
  Speaker 1: caught myself lit listening on tiptoe for the next beat
• 2:08:02
  Speaker 1: of the boat. For in sober truth, I expected the
• 2:08:06
  Speaker 1: wretched thing to give up every moment. It was like
• 2:08:10
  Speaker 1: watching the last flickers of a life. But still we crawled.
• 2:08:16
  Speaker 1: Sometimes I would pick out a tree a little way
• 2:08:18
  Speaker 1: ahead to measure our progress towards Kurtz by, but I
• 2:08:22
  Speaker 1: lost it invariably before we got abreast. To keep the
• 2:08:26
  Speaker 1: eye so long on one thing was too much for
• 2:08:29
  Speaker 1: human patience. The manager displayed a beautiful resignation. I fretted
• 2:08:36
  Speaker 1: and fumed, and took to arguing with myself whether or
• 2:08:40
  Speaker 1: no I would talk openly with Kurtz. But before I
• 2:08:44
  Speaker 1: could come to any conclusion, it occurred to me that
• 2:08:47
  Speaker 1: my speech, or my silence, indeed any action of mine,
• 2:08:51
  Speaker 1: would be a mere futility. What did it matter what
• 2:08:55
  Speaker 1: anyone knew or ignored. What did it matter who was met?
• 2:09:01
  Speaker 1: One gets sometimes such a flash of insight. The essentials
• 2:09:06
  Speaker 1: of this affair lay deep under the surface, beyond my
• 2:09:10
  Speaker 1: reach and beyond my power of meddling. Towards the evening
• 2:09:15
  Speaker 1: of the second day, we judged ourselves about eight miles
• 2:09:18
  Speaker 1: from Kurtz's station. I wanted to push on, but the
• 2:09:22
  Speaker 1: manager looked grave and told me the navigation up there
• 2:09:26
  Speaker 1: was so dangerous that it would be advisable, the sun
• 2:09:29
  Speaker 1: being very low already, to wait where we were till
• 2:09:33
  Speaker 1: next morning. Moreover, he pointed out that if the warning
• 2:09:37
  Speaker 1: to approach cautiously were to be followed, we must approach
• 2:09:41
  Speaker 1: in daylight, not at dusk or in the dark. This
• 2:09:46
  Speaker 1: was sensible enough. Eight miles met nearly three hours of
• 2:09:51
  Speaker 1: steaming for us, and I could also see suspicious ripples
• 2:09:54
  Speaker 1: at the upper end of the reach. Nevertheless, I was
• 2:09:59
  Speaker 1: annoyed beyond a expression at the delay, and most unreasonably too,
• 2:10:04
  Speaker 1: since one night more could not matter much after so
• 2:10:07
  Speaker 1: many months, as we had plenty of wood, and caution
• 2:10:12
  Speaker 1: was the word I brought up. In the middle of
• 2:10:14
  Speaker 1: the stream. The reach was narrow, straight with high sides,
• 2:10:19
  Speaker 1: like a railway. Cutting. The dusk came gliding into it
• 2:10:23
  Speaker 1: long before the sun had set. The current ran smooth
• 2:10:27
  Speaker 1: and swift, but a dumb immobility sat on the banks.
• 2:10:31
  Speaker 1: The living trees lashed together by the creepers, and every
• 2:10:34
  Speaker 1: living bush of the undergrowth might have been changed into stone,
• 2:10:39
  Speaker 1: even to the slenderest twig, to the lightest leaf. It
• 2:10:43
  Speaker 1: was not sleep. It seemed unnatural, like a state of
• 2:10:48
  Speaker 1: trans Not the faintest sound of any kind could be heard.
• 2:10:53
  Speaker 1: You looked on amazed and began to suspect yourself of
• 2:10:57
  Speaker 1: being deaf. Then the night came suddenly and struck you
• 2:11:02
  Speaker 1: blind as well. About three in the morning, some large
• 2:11:06
  Speaker 1: fish leaped, and the loud splash made me jump as
• 2:11:10
  Speaker 1: though a gun had been fired. When the sun rose,
• 2:11:13
  Speaker 1: there was a white fog, very warm and clamming, and
• 2:11:17
  Speaker 1: more blinding than the night. It did not shift or drive.
• 2:11:23
  Speaker 1: It was just there standing all round you like something solid.
• 2:11:29
  Speaker 1: But eight or nine perhaps it lifted as a shutter lifts.
• 2:11:34
  Speaker 1: We had a glimpse of the towering multitude of trees
• 2:11:37
  Speaker 1: of the immense mattered jungle, with the blazing little ball
• 2:11:41
  Speaker 1: of the sun hanging over it, all perfectly still and
• 2:11:45
  Speaker 1: then the white shutter came down again, smoothly, as if
• 2:11:50
  Speaker 1: sliding in greased grooves. I ordered the chain which we
• 2:11:55
  Speaker 1: had begun to heave in to be paid out again
• 2:11:59
  Speaker 1: before it stopped running with a muffled rattle. A cry,
• 2:12:03
  Speaker 1: a very loud cry, as of infinite desolation, soared slowly
• 2:12:08
  Speaker 1: in the opaque air. It ceased. A complaining clamor modulated
• 2:12:13
  Speaker 1: in savage discords, filled our ears. The sheer unexpectedness of
• 2:12:19
  Speaker 1: it made my hair stir under my cap. I don't
• 2:12:23
  Speaker 1: know how it struck the others. To me, it seemed
• 2:12:26
  Speaker 1: as though the mist itself had screamed. So suddenly, and
• 2:12:30
  Speaker 1: apparently from all sides at once, did this tumultuous and
• 2:12:34
  Speaker 1: mournful uproar arise. It culminated in a hairried outbreak of
• 2:12:39
  Speaker 1: almost intolerably excessive shrieking, which stopped short, leaving us stiffened
• 2:12:45
  Speaker 1: in a variety of silly attitudes and obstinately listening to
• 2:12:49
  Speaker 1: the nearly as appalling an excessive silence. Good God, what
• 2:12:54
  Speaker 1: is the meaning? Stammered at my elbow. One of the pilgrims,
• 2:12:58
  Speaker 1: a little fat man and with sandy hair and red whiskers,
• 2:13:02
  Speaker 1: who wore side spring boots and pink pajamas tucked into
• 2:13:05
  Speaker 1: his socks. Two others remained open mouthed a whole minute,
• 2:13:10
  Speaker 1: then dashed into the little cabin to rush out incontinently
• 2:13:14
  Speaker 1: and stand darting scared glances with winchesters at ready in
• 2:13:19
  Speaker 1: their hands. What we could see was just the steamer.
• 2:13:24
  Speaker 1: We were on, her outlines blurred as though she had
• 2:13:28
  Speaker 1: been on the point of dissolving, and a misty strip
• 2:13:31
  Speaker 1: of water perhaps two feet broad around her. And that
• 2:13:35
  Speaker 1: was all. The rest of the world was nowhere, as
• 2:13:39
  Speaker 1: far as our eyes and ears were concerned, just nowhere,
• 2:13:44
  Speaker 1: gone disappeared, swept off without leaving a whisper or a
• 2:13:49
  Speaker 1: shadow behind. I went forward and ordered the chain to
• 2:13:53
  Speaker 1: be hauled in short so as to be ready to
• 2:13:56
  Speaker 1: trip the anchor and move the steamboat at once if necessary.
• 2:14:00
  Speaker 1: Will they attack, whispered an awed voice. We will all
• 2:14:06
  Speaker 1: be butchered in this fog, murmured another. The faces twitched
• 2:14:11
  Speaker 1: with a strain, the hands trembled slightly, the eyes forgot
• 2:14:15
  Speaker 1: to wink. It was very curious to see the contrast
• 2:14:19
  Speaker 1: of expressions of the white men and of the black
• 2:14:21
  Speaker 1: fellows of our crew, who were as much strange as
• 2:14:24
  Speaker 1: to that part of the river as we, though their
• 2:14:27
  Speaker 1: homes were only eight hundred miles away. The whites, of course,
• 2:14:32
  Speaker 1: greatly discomposed, had besides a curious look of being painfully
• 2:14:36
  Speaker 1: shocked by such an outrageous row. The others had an alert,
• 2:14:42
  Speaker 1: naturally interested expression, but their faces were essentially quiet, even
• 2:14:47
  Speaker 1: those of the one or two who grinned as they
• 2:14:49
  Speaker 1: hauled out the chain. Several exchanged short, grunting phrases, which
• 2:14:55
  Speaker 1: seemed to settle the matter to their satisfaction. Their headman,
• 2:15:00
  Speaker 1: a young, broad chested black, severely draped in dark blue
• 2:15:04
  Speaker 1: fringed cloths with fierce nostrils, and his hair all done
• 2:15:08
  Speaker 1: up artfully in oily ringlets, stood near me. Aha, I said,
• 2:15:14
  Speaker 1: just for a good fellowship's sake, catch him, he snapped,
• 2:15:19
  Speaker 1: with a bloodshot widening of his eyes and a flash
• 2:15:22
  Speaker 1: of sharp teeth. Catch him, give him to us, to you, eh,
• 2:15:28
  Speaker 1: I asked, And what would you do with him?
• 2:15:31
  Speaker 2: Eat him?
• 2:15:32
  Speaker 1: He said curtly, and, leaning his elbow on the rail,
• 2:15:36
  Speaker 1: looked out into the fog in a dignified and profoundly
• 2:15:39
  Speaker 1: pensive attitude. I would no doubt have been properly horrified.
• 2:15:45
  Speaker 1: Had it not occurred to me that he and his
• 2:15:47
  Speaker 1: chaps must be very hungry, that they must have been
• 2:15:50
  Speaker 1: growing increasingly hungry for at least this month past. They
• 2:15:55
  Speaker 1: had been engaged for six months. I don't think a
• 2:15:58
  Speaker 1: single one of them had any of time, as we
• 2:16:01
  Speaker 1: at the end of countless ages have they still belonged
• 2:16:05
  Speaker 1: to the beginnings of time, had no inherited experience to
• 2:16:09
  Speaker 1: teach them as it were. And of course, as long
• 2:16:13
  Speaker 1: as there was a piece of paper written over in
• 2:16:15
  Speaker 1: accordance with some farcical law or other made down the river,
• 2:16:20
  Speaker 1: it didn't enter anybody's head to trouble how they would live.
• 2:16:24
  Speaker 1: Certainly they had brought with them some rotten hippo meat,
• 2:16:28
  Speaker 1: which couldn't have lasted very long anyway, even if the
• 2:16:31
  Speaker 1: Pilgrims hadn't, in the midst of a shocking hullabaloo, thrown
• 2:16:34
  Speaker 1: a considerable quantity of it overboard. It looked like a
• 2:16:39
  Speaker 1: high handed proceeding, but it was really a case of
• 2:16:43
  Speaker 1: legitimate self defense. You can't breathe dead hippo waking, sleeping,
• 2:16:48
  Speaker 1: and eating, and at the same time keep your precarious
• 2:16:52
  Speaker 1: grip on existence. Besides that they had given them every
• 2:16:57
  Speaker 1: week three pieces of brass wire, each about nine inches long,
• 2:17:01
  Speaker 1: and the theory was they were to buy their provisions
• 2:17:04
  Speaker 1: with that currency in riverside villages. You can see how
• 2:17:09
  Speaker 1: that worked. There were either no villages, or the people
• 2:17:14
  Speaker 1: were hostile, or the director, who like the rest of us,
• 2:17:17
  Speaker 1: fed out of tins with an occasional old he goat
• 2:17:20
  Speaker 1: thrown in, didn't want to stop the steamer for some
• 2:17:24
  Speaker 1: more or less recondite reason. So unless they swallowed the
• 2:17:29
  Speaker 1: wire itself or made loops of it to snare the
• 2:17:32
  Speaker 1: fishes with, I don't see what good their extravagant salary
• 2:17:36
  Speaker 1: could be to them. I must say it was paid
• 2:17:39
  Speaker 1: with a regularity worthy of a large and honorable tracking company.
• 2:17:44
  Speaker 1: For the rest, the only thing to eat, though it
• 2:17:47
  Speaker 1: didn't look eatable in the least I saw in their possession,
• 2:17:50
  Speaker 1: were a few lumps of some stuff like half cooked
• 2:17:53
  Speaker 1: dough of a dirty lavender color. They kept wrapped in leaves,
• 2:17:58
  Speaker 1: and now and then swallowed a peace but so small
• 2:18:02
  Speaker 1: that it seemed done more for the looks of the
• 2:18:04
  Speaker 1: thing than for any serious purpose of sustenance. Why in
• 2:18:09
  Speaker 1: the name of all the gnawing devils of hunger. They
• 2:18:12
  Speaker 1: didn't go for us. They were thirty to five and
• 2:18:16
  Speaker 1: have a good tuck in for once. Amazes me now
• 2:18:19
  Speaker 1: when I think of it. They were big, powerful men,
• 2:18:23
  Speaker 1: with not much capacity to weigh the consequences with courage,
• 2:18:27
  Speaker 1: with strength. Even yet now their skins were no longer glossy,
• 2:18:31
  Speaker 1: and their muscles no longer hard. And I saw that
• 2:18:35
  Speaker 1: something restraining, one of those human secrets that baffle probability,
• 2:18:40
  Speaker 1: had come into play there. I looked at them with
• 2:18:44
  Speaker 1: a swift quickening of interest, not because it occurred to
• 2:18:48
  Speaker 1: me I might be eaten by them before very long,
• 2:18:51
  Speaker 1: though I owned to you that just then I perceived
• 2:18:55
  Speaker 1: in a new light, as it were, how unwholesome the
• 2:18:58
  Speaker 1: pilgrims looked. I hoped, yes, I positively hoped that my
• 2:19:03
  Speaker 1: aspect was not so what shall I say, so unappetizing,
• 2:19:10
  Speaker 1: a touch of fantastic vanity, which fitted well with the
• 2:19:13
  Speaker 1: dream sensation that pervaded all my days at the time.
• 2:19:19
  Speaker 1: Perhaps I had a little fever too. One can't live
• 2:19:23
  Speaker 1: with one's finger everlastingly on one's pulse. I had often
• 2:19:27
  Speaker 1: a little fever, or a little touch of other things.
• 2:19:31
  Speaker 1: The playful paw strokes of the wilderness, the preliminary trifling
• 2:19:34
  Speaker 1: before the more serious onslaught, which came in due course. Yes,
• 2:19:40
  Speaker 1: I looked at them as you would on any human being,
• 2:19:43
  Speaker 1: with a curiosity of their impulses, motives, capacities, weaknesses, when
• 2:19:49
  Speaker 1: brought to the test of an inexorable physical necessity restraint
• 2:19:54
  Speaker 1: What possible restraint was it? Superstition, disgust, patience, fear, or
• 2:20:03
  Speaker 1: some kind of primitive honor. No fear can stand up
• 2:20:08
  Speaker 1: to hunger, no patience can wear it out. Disgust simply
• 2:20:12
  Speaker 1: does not exist where hunger is. And as to superstition, beliefs,
• 2:20:17
  Speaker 1: and what you may call principles, they are less than
• 2:20:21
  Speaker 1: chaff in a breeze. Don't you know the devilry of
• 2:20:26
  Speaker 1: lingering starvation, its exasperating torment, its black thoughts, its somber
• 2:20:31
  Speaker 1: and brooding ferocity. Well I do. It takes a man
• 2:20:37
  Speaker 1: all his inborn strength to fight hunger properly. It's really
• 2:20:41
  Speaker 1: easier to face bereavement, dishonor, and the perdition of one's
• 2:20:45
  Speaker 1: soul than this kind of prolonged hunger. Sad but true,
• 2:20:51
  Speaker 1: And these chaps too, had no earthly reason for any
• 2:20:54
  Speaker 1: kind of scruple restraint. I would just as soon have
• 2:20:58
  Speaker 1: expected restraint from a hyena prowling amongst the corpses of
• 2:21:02
  Speaker 1: a battlefield. But there was the fact facing me, the
• 2:21:07
  Speaker 1: fact dazzling to be seen, like the foam on the
• 2:21:10
  Speaker 1: depths of a sea, like a ripple on the unfathomable enigma,
• 2:21:15
  Speaker 1: a mystery greater when I thought of it, than the curious,
• 2:21:19
  Speaker 1: inexplicable note of desperate grief in this savage clamor that
• 2:21:24
  Speaker 1: had swept by us. On the river bank, behind the
• 2:21:27
  Speaker 1: blind whiteness of the fog, two pilgrims were quarreling in
• 2:21:33
  Speaker 1: hurried whispers as to which bank left. No, No, how
• 2:21:38
  Speaker 1: can you right?
• 2:21:40
  Speaker 2: Right?
• 2:21:40
  Speaker 1: Of course, it is very serious, said the manager's voice
• 2:21:45
  Speaker 1: behind me. I would be desolated if anything should happen
• 2:21:48
  Speaker 1: to mister Kurtz. Before we came up. I looked at
• 2:21:52
  Speaker 1: him and had not the slightest doubt he was sincere.
• 2:21:56
  Speaker 1: He was just the kind of man who would wish
• 2:21:58
  Speaker 1: to preserve appearance. That was his restraint.
• 2:22:03
  Speaker 2: But when he.
• 2:22:04
  Speaker 1: Muttered something about going on at once, I did not
• 2:22:07
  Speaker 1: even take the trouble to answer him. I knew, and
• 2:22:11
  Speaker 1: he knew that it was impossible. Were we to let
• 2:22:15
  Speaker 1: go our hold of the bottom, we would be absolutely
• 2:22:18
  Speaker 1: in the air in space. We wouldn't be able to
• 2:22:22
  Speaker 1: tell where we were going to, whether up or down
• 2:22:25
  Speaker 1: stream or a cross till we fetched against one bank
• 2:22:29
  Speaker 1: or the other, and then we wouldn't know at first
• 2:22:32
  Speaker 1: which it was. Of course, I had no move I
• 2:22:36
  Speaker 1: had no mind for a smash up. You couldn't imagine
• 2:22:40
  Speaker 1: a more deadly place for a shipwreck. Whether we drowned
• 2:22:44
  Speaker 1: at once or not, we were sure to perry speedily
• 2:22:47
  Speaker 1: in one way or another. I authorize you to take
• 2:22:51
  Speaker 1: all the risks, he said, after a short silence. I
• 2:22:55
  Speaker 1: refuse to take any, I said shortly, which was just
• 2:23:00
  Speaker 1: the answer he expected, though its tone might have surprised him. Well,
• 2:23:06
  Speaker 1: I must defer to your judgment. You are captain, he said,
• 2:23:10
  Speaker 1: with a marked civility. I turned my shoulder to him
• 2:23:15
  Speaker 1: in a sign of my appreciation, and looked into the fog.
• 2:23:19
  Speaker 1: How long would it last? It was the most hopeless
• 2:23:23
  Speaker 1: lookout the approach to this. Kurt's grubbing for ivory and
• 2:23:28
  Speaker 1: the wretched bush was beset by as many dangers as
• 2:23:31
  Speaker 1: though he had been an enchanted princess sleeping in a
• 2:23:34
  Speaker 1: fabulous castle. Will they attack, do you think, asked the
• 2:23:39
  Speaker 1: manager in a confidential tone. I did not think they
• 2:23:44
  Speaker 1: would attack, for several obvious reasons. The thick fog was one.
• 2:23:50
  Speaker 1: If they left the bank in their canoes, they would
• 2:23:52
  Speaker 1: get lost in it, as we would be if we
• 2:23:55
  Speaker 1: attempted to move. Still, I had also judged the jungle
• 2:23:59
  Speaker 1: of both banks quite impenetrable, and yet eyes were in it,
• 2:24:04
  Speaker 1: eyes that had seen us. The riverside bushes were certainly
• 2:24:09
  Speaker 1: very thick, but the undergrowth behind was evidently penetrable. However,
• 2:24:15
  Speaker 1: during the short lift, I had seen no canoes anywhere
• 2:24:18
  Speaker 1: in the reach, certainly not abreast of the steamer. But
• 2:24:22
  Speaker 1: what made the idea of attack inconceivable to me was
• 2:24:26
  Speaker 1: the nature of the noise of the cries we had heard.
• 2:24:30
  Speaker 1: They had not the fierce character boding immediate hostile intention.
• 2:24:34
  Speaker 1: Unexpected wild and violent as they had been, they had
• 2:24:38
  Speaker 1: given me an irresistible impression of sorrow. The glimpse of
• 2:24:43
  Speaker 1: the steamboats had for some reason filled those savages with
• 2:24:47
  Speaker 1: unrestrained grief. The danger, if any, I expounded, was from
• 2:24:53
  Speaker 1: the proximity to a great human passion let loose even
• 2:24:58
  Speaker 1: extreme grief may ultimately vent itself in violence, but more
• 2:25:03
  Speaker 1: generally takes the form of apathy. You should have seen
• 2:25:07
  Speaker 1: the pilgrims stare. They had no heart to grin or
• 2:25:11
  Speaker 1: even to revile me. But I believe they thought me
• 2:25:15
  Speaker 1: gone mad with fright. Maybe I delivered a regular lecture,
• 2:25:21
  Speaker 1: my dear boys. It was no good bothering keep a lookouts. Well,
• 2:25:27
  Speaker 1: you may guess. I watched the fog for the signs
• 2:25:30
  Speaker 1: of lifting, as a cat watches a mouse, but for
• 2:25:33
  Speaker 1: anything else. Our eyes were of no more use to
• 2:25:36
  Speaker 1: us than if we had been buried miles deep in
• 2:25:38
  Speaker 1: a heap of cotton wool. I felt like it too, choking, warm, stifling. Besides,
• 2:25:46
  Speaker 1: all I said, though it sounded extravagant, was absolutely true
• 2:25:51
  Speaker 1: to fact. What we afterwards alluded to as an attack
• 2:25:55
  Speaker 1: was really an attempt to repulse. The action was very
• 2:26:00
  Speaker 1: far from being aggressive. It was not even defensive in
• 2:26:04
  Speaker 1: the usual sense. It was undertaken under the stress of desperation,
• 2:26:09
  Speaker 1: and in its essence was purely protective. It developed itself,
• 2:26:15
  Speaker 1: I should say, two hours after the fog lifted, and
• 2:26:18
  Speaker 1: its commencement was at a spot roughly speaking about a
• 2:26:22
  Speaker 1: mile and a half below Kurtz's station. We had just
• 2:26:26
  Speaker 1: floundered and flopped round a bend when I saw an islet,
• 2:26:30
  Speaker 1: a mere grassy hummock of bright green in the middle
• 2:26:33
  Speaker 1: of the stream. It was the only thing of the kind.
• 2:26:36
  Speaker 1: But as we opened the reach more I perceived it
• 2:26:39
  Speaker 1: was the head of a long sand bank, or rather
• 2:26:42
  Speaker 1: of a chain of shallow patches stretching down the middle
• 2:26:45
  Speaker 1: of the river. They were discolored, just a wash, and
• 2:26:49
  Speaker 1: the whole lot was seen just under the water, exactly
• 2:26:53
  Speaker 1: as a man's backbone is seen running down the middle
• 2:26:56
  Speaker 1: of his back under the skin. Now, as far as
• 2:27:00
  Speaker 1: I did see, I could go to the right or
• 2:27:03
  Speaker 1: to the left of this. I didn't know either channel.
• 2:27:06
  Speaker 1: Of course, the banks looked pretty well alike, the depth
• 2:27:10
  Speaker 1: appeared the same. But as I had been informed the
• 2:27:14
  Speaker 1: station was on the west side, I naturally headed for
• 2:27:18
  Speaker 1: the western passage. End of Part one of Chapter two
• 2:27:25
  Speaker 1: Chapter two, Part two of Heart of Darkness. No sooner
• 2:27:30
  Speaker 1: had we fairly entered it than I became aware it
• 2:27:33
  Speaker 1: was much narrower than I had supposed. To the left
• 2:27:36
  Speaker 1: of us there was the long uninterrupted shoal, and to
• 2:27:40
  Speaker 1: the right a high steep bank heavily overgrown with bushes.
• 2:27:45
  Speaker 1: Above the bush, the trees stood in serried ranks. The
• 2:27:49
  Speaker 1: twigs overhung the current thickly, and from distance to distance,
• 2:27:53
  Speaker 1: a large limb of some tree projected rigidly over the stream.
• 2:27:58
  Speaker 1: It was then well on in the after the face
• 2:28:01
  Speaker 1: of the forest was gloomy, and a broad strip of
• 2:28:04
  Speaker 1: shadow had already fallen on the water. In this shadow
• 2:28:08
  Speaker 1: we steamed up very slowly, as you may imagine, I
• 2:28:12
  Speaker 1: shared her well inshore, the water being deepest near the bank.
• 2:28:17
  Speaker 1: As the sounding pole informed me, one of my hungry
• 2:28:21
  Speaker 1: and forbearing friends was sounding in the boughs just below me.
• 2:28:25
  Speaker 1: This steambert was exactly like a decked scow. On one deck,
• 2:28:30
  Speaker 1: there were two little teak wood houses with doors and windows.
• 2:28:34
  Speaker 1: The boiler was in the fore end, and the machinery
• 2:28:37
  Speaker 1: right astern. Over the whole, there was a light roof
• 2:28:41
  Speaker 1: supported on stanchions. The funnel projected through that roof, and
• 2:28:46
  Speaker 1: in front of the funnel a small cabin built of
• 2:28:48
  Speaker 1: light planks served for a pilot house. It contained a couch,
• 2:28:53
  Speaker 1: two campstools, a loaded Martini henry leaning in one corner,
• 2:28:57
  Speaker 1: tiny table, and the steering wheel. It had a wide
• 2:29:01
  Speaker 1: door in front, and a broad shutter at each side.
• 2:29:05
  Speaker 1: All these were always thrown open. Of course, I spent
• 2:29:09
  Speaker 1: my days perched up there on the extreme fore end
• 2:29:12
  Speaker 1: of the roof, before the door. At night I slept
• 2:29:17
  Speaker 1: or tried to on the couch. An athletic black belonging
• 2:29:22
  Speaker 1: to some coast tribe and educated by my poor predecessor,
• 2:29:25
  Speaker 1: was the helmsman. He sported a pair of brass earrings,
• 2:29:30
  Speaker 1: wore a blue cloth wrapper from the waist of the ankles,
• 2:29:33
  Speaker 1: and thought all the world of himself. He was the
• 2:29:37
  Speaker 1: most unstable kind of fool I had ever seen. He
• 2:29:40
  Speaker 1: steered with no end of swagger while you were by,
• 2:29:44
  Speaker 1: but if he lost sight of you, he became instantly
• 2:29:47
  Speaker 1: the prey of an abject funk, and would let that
• 2:29:50
  Speaker 1: cripple of a steamboat get the upper hand of him.
• 2:29:53
  Speaker 1: In a minute, I was looking down at the sounding pole,
• 2:29:57
  Speaker 1: and feeling much annoyed to see at each try a
• 2:30:00
  Speaker 1: little more of it stick out of that river, when
• 2:30:03
  Speaker 1: I saw my pullman give up on the business suddenly
• 2:30:07
  Speaker 1: and stretch himself flat on the deck, without even taking
• 2:30:10
  Speaker 1: the trouble to haul his pole in. He kept hold
• 2:30:14
  Speaker 1: on it, though, and it trailed in the water. At
• 2:30:17
  Speaker 1: the same time, the fireman, whom I could also see
• 2:30:21
  Speaker 1: below me, sat down abruptly before his furnace and ducked
• 2:30:25
  Speaker 1: his head. I was amazed. Then I had to look
• 2:30:29
  Speaker 1: at the river mighty quick because there was a snag
• 2:30:32
  Speaker 1: in the fairway. Sticks, little sticks were flying about, thick.
• 2:30:38
  Speaker 1: They were whizzing before my nose, dropping below me, striking
• 2:30:41
  Speaker 1: behind me against my pilot house.
• 2:30:45
  Speaker 2: All this time, the.
• 2:30:46
  Speaker 1: River, the shore, the woods were very quiet, perfectly quiet.
• 2:30:51
  Speaker 1: I could only hear the heavy splashing thump of the
• 2:30:54
  Speaker 1: stern wheel and the patter of these things. We cleared
• 2:30:59
  Speaker 1: the snag clumsily. Arrows, By jove, we were being shot at.
• 2:31:06
  Speaker 1: I stepped in quickly to close the shutter. On the
• 2:31:08
  Speaker 1: land side. That fool helmsman, his hands on the spokes,
• 2:31:13
  Speaker 1: was lifting his knees high, stamping his feet, champing his
• 2:31:16
  Speaker 1: mouth like a reined in horse. Kan found him, and
• 2:31:20
  Speaker 1: we were staggering within ten feet of the bank. I
• 2:31:24
  Speaker 1: had to lean right out to swing the heavy shutter,
• 2:31:27
  Speaker 1: and I saw a face amongst the leaves on the
• 2:31:29
  Speaker 1: level with my own, looking at me, very fierce and steady,
• 2:31:34
  Speaker 1: And then suddenly, as though a veil had been removed
• 2:31:38
  Speaker 1: from my eyes. I made out deep in the tangled gloom,
• 2:31:42
  Speaker 1: naked breasts, arms, legs, glaring eyes. The bush was swarming
• 2:31:49
  Speaker 1: with human limbs in movement, glistening of bronze color. The
• 2:31:54
  Speaker 1: twigs shook, swayed, and rustled. The arrows flew out of them,
• 2:31:59
  Speaker 1: and then the shudder came to steer her straight, I
• 2:32:04
  Speaker 1: said to the helmsman. He held his head rigid, face forward,
• 2:32:09
  Speaker 1: but his eyes rolled. He kept on lifting and setting
• 2:32:12
  Speaker 1: down his feet gently. His mouth foamed a little. Keep quiet,
• 2:32:18
  Speaker 1: I said, in a fury. I might just as well
• 2:32:21
  Speaker 1: have ordered a tree not to sway in the wind.
• 2:32:24
  Speaker 1: I darted out below me. There was a great scuffle
• 2:32:28
  Speaker 1: of feet on the iron deck, confused exclamations. A voice screamed,
• 2:32:34
  Speaker 1: can you turn back? I caught sight of a V
• 2:32:38
  Speaker 1: shaped ripple on the water ahead. What another snag? A
• 2:32:43
  Speaker 1: fusillade burst out under my feet. The pilgrims had opened
• 2:32:47
  Speaker 1: with their winchesters and were simply squirting lead into the bush.
• 2:32:51
  Speaker 1: A deuce of a lot of smoke came up and
• 2:32:54
  Speaker 1: drove slowly forward. I swore at it. Now I couldn't
• 2:32:59
  Speaker 1: see the ripple or the snag either. I stood in
• 2:33:02
  Speaker 1: the doorway peering, and the arrows came in swarms. They
• 2:33:07
  Speaker 1: might have been poisoned, but they looked as though they
• 2:33:10
  Speaker 1: couldn't kill a cat. The bush began to howl. Our
• 2:33:15
  Speaker 1: woodcutters raised a warlike whoop. The report of a rifle
• 2:33:19
  Speaker 1: just at my back deafened me. I glanced off of
• 2:33:22
  Speaker 1: my shoulder, and the pilot house was yet full of
• 2:33:24
  Speaker 1: noise and smoke. When I made a dash at the wheel,
• 2:33:28
  Speaker 1: the fooled nigger had dropped everything to throw the shutter
• 2:33:31
  Speaker 1: open and let off that Martini Henry. He stood before
• 2:33:35
  Speaker 1: the wide opening, glaring, and I yelled at him to
• 2:33:38
  Speaker 1: come back while I straightened the sudden twist out of
• 2:33:41
  Speaker 1: that steamboat. There was no room to turn, even if
• 2:33:45
  Speaker 1: I had wanted to. The snag was somewhere very near ahead.
• 2:33:49
  Speaker 1: In that confounded smoke. There was no time to lose,
• 2:33:53
  Speaker 1: so I just crowded her into the bank, right into
• 2:33:56
  Speaker 1: the bank, where I knew the water was deep. We
• 2:34:01
  Speaker 1: tore slowly along the overhanging bushes and a whirl of
• 2:34:05
  Speaker 1: broken twigs and flying leaves. The fusillade below stopped short
• 2:34:09
  Speaker 1: as I had foreseen it would when the squirts got empty.
• 2:34:13
  Speaker 1: I threw my head back to a glinting whiz that
• 2:34:16
  Speaker 1: traversed the pilot house in at one shutter hole and
• 2:34:20
  Speaker 1: out at the other. Looking past that mad helmsman who
• 2:34:24
  Speaker 1: was shaking the empty rifle and yelling at the shore,
• 2:34:27
  Speaker 1: I saw vague forms of men running, bent, double, leaping, gliding,
• 2:34:32
  Speaker 1: distinct incomplete evanescent. Something big appeared in the air before
• 2:34:38
  Speaker 1: the shutter. The rifle went overboard, and the man stepped
• 2:34:43
  Speaker 1: back swiftly, looked at me over his shoulder in an extraordinary, profound,
• 2:34:48
  Speaker 1: familiar manner, and fell upon my feet. The side of
• 2:34:54
  Speaker 1: his head hit the wheel twice, and the end of
• 2:34:57
  Speaker 1: what appeared a long cane clattered round and knocked over
• 2:35:00
  Speaker 1: a little campstool. It looked as though after wrenching that
• 2:35:05
  Speaker 1: thing from somebody ashore, he had lost his balance in
• 2:35:08
  Speaker 1: the effort. The thin smoke had blown away. We were
• 2:35:12
  Speaker 1: clear of the snag, and looking ahead I could see
• 2:35:15
  Speaker 1: that in another hundred yards or so I would be
• 2:35:19
  Speaker 1: free to sheer off away from the bank. But my
• 2:35:23
  Speaker 1: feet felt so very warm and wet that I had
• 2:35:26
  Speaker 1: to look down. The man had rolled on his back
• 2:35:30
  Speaker 1: and stared straight up at me. Both his hands clutched
• 2:35:33
  Speaker 1: that cane. It was the shaft of a spear that
• 2:35:38
  Speaker 1: either thrown or lunged through the opening, had caught him
• 2:35:41
  Speaker 1: in the side, just below the ribs. The blade had
• 2:35:45
  Speaker 1: gone in out of sight after making a frightful gash.
• 2:35:49
  Speaker 1: My shoes were full. A pool of blood lay very still,
• 2:35:54
  Speaker 1: gleaming dark red under the wheel. His eyes shone with
• 2:35:58
  Speaker 1: an amazing lust. The fusillade burst out again. He looked
• 2:36:04
  Speaker 1: at me anxiously, gripping the spear like something precious, with
• 2:36:08
  Speaker 1: an air of being afraid that I would try to
• 2:36:11
  Speaker 1: take it away from him. I had to make an
• 2:36:13
  Speaker 1: effort to free my eyes from his gaze and attend
• 2:36:16
  Speaker 1: to the steering. With one hand, I felt above my
• 2:36:20
  Speaker 1: head for the line of the steam whistle and jerked
• 2:36:22
  Speaker 1: out screech after screech hurriedly. The tumult of angry and
• 2:36:27
  Speaker 1: warlike yells was checked instantly, and then from the depths
• 2:36:32
  Speaker 1: of the woods went out such a tremulous and prolonged
• 2:36:36
  Speaker 1: wail of mournful fear and utter despair, as maybe imagined
• 2:36:40
  Speaker 1: to follow the flight of the last hope from the earth.
• 2:36:45
  Speaker 1: There was a great commotion in the bush. The shower
• 2:36:49
  Speaker 1: of arrows stopped, A few dropping shots rang out sharply,
• 2:36:54
  Speaker 1: then silence, in which the languid beat of the stern
• 2:36:58
  Speaker 1: wheel came plainly to my ear. I put the helm
• 2:37:02
  Speaker 1: hard a starboard. At the moment when the pilgrim in
• 2:37:05
  Speaker 1: pink pajamas, very hot and agitated, appeared in the doorway,
• 2:37:10
  Speaker 1: the manager sends me. He began in an official tone
• 2:37:14
  Speaker 1: and stopped short. Good God, he said, glaring at the
• 2:37:20
  Speaker 1: wounded man. We two whites stood over him, and his
• 2:37:25
  Speaker 1: lustrous and inquiring glance enveloped us both. I declare, it
• 2:37:30
  Speaker 1: looked as though he would presently put to us some
• 2:37:32
  Speaker 1: questions in an understandable language. But he died without uttering
• 2:37:38
  Speaker 1: a sound, without moving a limb, without twitching a muscle.
• 2:37:43
  Speaker 1: Only in the very last moment, as though in response
• 2:37:47
  Speaker 1: to some sign we could not see, to some whisper
• 2:37:50
  Speaker 1: we could not hear, he frowned heavily, and that frown
• 2:37:55
  Speaker 1: gave to his black death mask an inconceivably somber, broody
• 2:38:00
  Speaker 1: and menacing expression. The luster of inquiring glance faded swiftly
• 2:38:05
  Speaker 1: into vacant glassiness. Can you steer? I asked the agent eagerly.
• 2:38:11
  Speaker 1: He looked very dubious, but I made a grab at
• 2:38:15
  Speaker 1: his arm, and he understood at once. I meant him
• 2:38:17
  Speaker 1: to steer, whether or no. To tell you the truth,
• 2:38:22
  Speaker 1: I was morbidly anxious to change my shoes and socks.
• 2:38:27
  Speaker 1: He is dead, murmured the fellow, immensely impressed, no doubt
• 2:38:33
  Speaker 1: about it, said I tugging like mad at the shoelaces.
• 2:38:37
  Speaker 1: And by the way, I suppose mister Curtse is dead
• 2:38:40
  Speaker 1: as well. By this time, for the moment that was
• 2:38:44
  Speaker 1: the dominant thought, there was a sense of extreme disappointments,
• 2:38:48
  Speaker 1: as though I had found out that I had been
• 2:38:50
  Speaker 1: striving after something altogether without a substance. I couldn't have
• 2:38:55
  Speaker 1: been more disgusted if I had traveled all this way
• 2:38:58
  Speaker 1: for the sole purpose of top talking with mister Kurtz.
• 2:39:02
  Speaker 1: Talking with I flung one shoe overboard and became aware
• 2:39:07
  Speaker 1: that that was exactly what I had been looking forward to,
• 2:39:10
  Speaker 1: a talk with Kurts. I made the strange discovery that
• 2:39:14
  Speaker 1: I had never imagined him as doing, you know, but
• 2:39:18
  Speaker 1: as discoursing. I didn't say to myself, now I will
• 2:39:23
  Speaker 1: never see him, or now I will never shake him
• 2:39:26
  Speaker 1: by the hand. But now I will never hear him.
• 2:39:31
  Speaker 1: The man presented himself as a voice. Not of course,
• 2:39:35
  Speaker 1: that I did not connect him with some sort of action.
• 2:39:38
  Speaker 1: Hadn't I been told in all the tones of jealousy
• 2:39:41
  Speaker 1: and admiration that he had collected, bartered, swindled, or stolen
• 2:39:45
  Speaker 1: more ivory than all the other agents together.
• 2:39:49
  Speaker 2: That was not the point. The point was in.
• 2:39:53
  Speaker 1: His being a gifted creature, and that of all his gifts,
• 2:39:57
  Speaker 1: the one that stood out pre eminently, that carried with
• 2:40:00
  Speaker 1: it a sense of real presence, was his ability to talk,
• 2:40:04
  Speaker 1: his words, the gift of expression, the bewildering, the illuminating,
• 2:40:10
  Speaker 1: the most exalted and the most contemptible, the pulsating stream
• 2:40:15
  Speaker 1: of light, or the deceitful flow from the heart of
• 2:40:19
  Speaker 1: an impenetrable darkness. The other shoe went flying into the
• 2:40:24
  Speaker 1: devil god of that river. I thought, by Jove, it's
• 2:40:29
  Speaker 1: all over. We are too late. He has vanished. The
• 2:40:35
  Speaker 1: gift has vanished by means of some spear, arrow or club.
• 2:40:41
  Speaker 1: I will never hear that chap speak after all. And
• 2:40:45
  Speaker 1: my sorrow had a startling extravagance of emotion, even such
• 2:40:49
  Speaker 1: as I had noticed in the howling sorrow of those
• 2:40:52
  Speaker 1: savages in the bush. I couldn't have felt more of
• 2:40:56
  Speaker 1: lonely desolation somehow, had I been robbed of a belief,
• 2:41:00
  Speaker 1: or had missed my destiny in life? Why do you
• 2:41:04
  Speaker 1: sigh in this beastly way? Somebody absurd? Well absurd? Good Lord,
• 2:41:12
  Speaker 1: mustn't a man ever? Eh, give me some tobacco.
• 2:41:18
  Speaker 2: There was a.
• 2:41:18
  Speaker 1: Pause of profound stillness. Then a match flared, and Marlow's
• 2:41:22
  Speaker 1: lean face appeared borne, hollow, with downward folds and dropped eyelids,
• 2:41:28
  Speaker 1: with an aspect of concentrated attention. And as he took
• 2:41:32
  Speaker 1: vigorous draws at his pipe, which seemed to retreat and
• 2:41:36
  Speaker 1: advance out of the nights in the regular flicker of
• 2:41:38
  Speaker 1: tiny flame, the match went out. Absurd, he cried, This
• 2:41:46
  Speaker 1: is the worst of trying to tell you here. You
• 2:41:50
  Speaker 1: all are each moored with two good addresses, like a
• 2:41:54
  Speaker 1: hulk with two anchors. A butcher round one corner, a
• 2:41:58
  Speaker 1: policeman round another. Excellent appetites and temperature normal. You hear
• 2:42:03
  Speaker 1: normal from years and to year's end, and you say absurd,
• 2:42:08
  Speaker 1: absurd to be exploded, absurd, My dear boys, what can
• 2:42:16
  Speaker 1: you expect from a man who, out of sheered nervousness,
• 2:42:19
  Speaker 1: had just flung overboard a pair of new shoes. Now
• 2:42:25
  Speaker 1: I think of it, it is amazing. I did not
• 2:42:28
  Speaker 1: shed tears. I am upon the whole proud of my fortitude.
• 2:42:34
  Speaker 1: I was cut to the quick at the idea of
• 2:42:37
  Speaker 1: having lost the inestimable privilege of listening to the gifted Kurts.
• 2:42:43
  Speaker 1: Of course I was wrong. The privilege was waiting for me.
• 2:42:49
  Speaker 1: Oh yes, I heard more than enough, and I was
• 2:42:52
  Speaker 1: right too. A voice, he was very little more than
• 2:42:57
  Speaker 1: a voice, and I heard him it this voice, other voices,
• 2:43:05
  Speaker 1: all of them were so little more than voices. And
• 2:43:08
  Speaker 1: the memory of that time itself lingers upon me impalpably,
• 2:43:13
  Speaker 1: like a dying vibration of one immense jabber, silly, atrocious, sordid, savage,
• 2:43:20
  Speaker 1: or simply mean, without any kind of sense, voices, voices,
• 2:43:28
  Speaker 1: even the girl herself. Now he was silent for a
• 2:43:35
  Speaker 1: long time. I laid the ghost of his gifts at
• 2:43:41
  Speaker 1: last with a lie. He began suddenly, Girl, What did
• 2:43:49
  Speaker 1: I mention a girl?
• 2:43:51
  Speaker 2: Oh?
• 2:43:52
  Speaker 1: She is out of it completely. They, the women, I mean,
• 2:43:57
  Speaker 1: are out of it, should be out of it. We
• 2:44:01
  Speaker 1: must help them stay in that beautiful world of their
• 2:44:04
  Speaker 1: own lest ours gets worse. Oh, she had to be
• 2:44:09
  Speaker 1: out of it. You should have heard the disinterred body
• 2:44:12
  Speaker 1: of mister Kurtz saying my intended. You would have perceived
• 2:44:18
  Speaker 1: directly then how completely she was out of it. And
• 2:44:23
  Speaker 1: the lofty frontal bone of mister Kurt's. They say the
• 2:44:27
  Speaker 1: hair goes on growing sometimes, but this specimen was impressively bald.
• 2:44:36
  Speaker 1: The wilderness had patted him on the head, and behold
• 2:44:40
  Speaker 1: it was like a ball, an ivory ball. It had
• 2:44:44
  Speaker 1: caressed him, and lo he had withered. It had taken him,
• 2:44:50
  Speaker 1: loved him, embraced him, got into his veins, consumed his flesh,
• 2:44:55
  Speaker 1: and sealed his soul to its own by the inconceivable
• 2:44:59
  Speaker 1: ceremonies of some devilish initiation. He was it, spoiled and
• 2:45:04
  Speaker 1: pampered favorite ivory, I should think so. Heaps of it,
• 2:45:11
  Speaker 1: stacks of it. The old mud shanty was bursting with it.
• 2:45:16
  Speaker 1: You would think there was not a single tusk left
• 2:45:19
  Speaker 1: either above or below the ground in the whole country.
• 2:45:23
  Speaker 1: Mostly fossil, the manager had remarked disparagingly, it was no
• 2:45:28
  Speaker 1: more fossil than I am. But they call it fossil
• 2:45:32
  Speaker 1: when it is duga. It appears these niggers do bury
• 2:45:35
  Speaker 1: the tusks sometimes, but evidently they couldn't bury this parcel
• 2:45:39
  Speaker 1: deep enough To save the gifted mister Kurtz from his fate,
• 2:45:44
  Speaker 1: we filled the steamboat with it and had to pile
• 2:45:47
  Speaker 1: a lot on the deck. Thus he could see and
• 2:45:51
  Speaker 1: enjoy as long as he could see, because the appreciation
• 2:45:54
  Speaker 1: of this favor had remained with him to the last.
• 2:45:58
  Speaker 1: You should have heard him say, my ivy. Oh yes,
• 2:46:05
  Speaker 1: I heard him, My intended, my ivy, my station, my river,
• 2:46:14
  Speaker 1: my everything belonged to him. It made me hold my
• 2:46:21
  Speaker 1: breath in expectation of hearing the wilderness burst into a
• 2:46:25
  Speaker 1: prodigious peal of laughter that would shake the fixed stars
• 2:46:28
  Speaker 1: in their places. Everything belonged to him, But that was
• 2:46:34
  Speaker 1: a trifle. The thing was to know what he belonged to.
• 2:46:39
  Speaker 1: How many powers of darkness claimed him for their own.
• 2:46:44
  Speaker 1: That was the reflection that made you creepy all over.
• 2:46:48
  Speaker 1: It was impossible. He was not good for one either.
• 2:46:53
  Speaker 1: Trying to imagine he had taken a high seat amongst
• 2:46:57
  Speaker 1: the devils of the land, I mean little. You can't understand.
• 2:47:03
  Speaker 1: How could you with solid pavement under your feet, surrounded
• 2:47:07
  Speaker 1: by kind neighbors ready to cheer you or to fall
• 2:47:10
  Speaker 1: on you. Stepping delicately between the butcher and the policeman,
• 2:47:13
  Speaker 1: in the holy terror of scandal and gallows and lunatic asylums.
• 2:47:18
  Speaker 1: How can you imagine what particular region of the first
• 2:47:21
  Speaker 1: ages a man's untrammeled feet may take him into. By
• 2:47:25
  Speaker 1: the way of solitude, utter solitude without a policeman, by
• 2:47:31
  Speaker 1: the way of silence, utter silence, where no warning voice
• 2:47:35
  Speaker 1: of a kind neighbor can be heard, whispering of public opinion.
• 2:47:40
  Speaker 1: These little things make all the great difference. When they
• 2:47:45
  Speaker 1: are gone, you must fall back upon your own innate strength,
• 2:47:49
  Speaker 1: upon your own capacity for faithfulness. Of course, you may
• 2:47:53
  Speaker 1: be too much of a fool to go wrong, too
• 2:47:56
  Speaker 1: dull even to know you are being assaulted by the
• 2:47:59
  Speaker 1: powers of darkness. I take it no fool if it
• 2:48:03
  Speaker 1: made a bargain for his soul with the devil. The
• 2:48:06
  Speaker 1: fool is too much of a fool, or the devil
• 2:48:09
  Speaker 1: too much of a devil, I don't know which. Or
• 2:48:13
  Speaker 1: you may be such a thunderingly exalted creature as to
• 2:48:17
  Speaker 1: be altogether deaf and blind to anything but heavenly sights
• 2:48:21
  Speaker 1: and sounds. Then the earth for you is only a
• 2:48:25
  Speaker 1: standing place. And whether to be like this is your
• 2:48:29
  Speaker 1: loss or your gain. I won't pretend to say, but
• 2:48:33
  Speaker 1: most of us are neither one nor the other. The
• 2:48:37
  Speaker 1: earth for us is a place to live in where
• 2:48:40
  Speaker 1: we must put up with sights, with sounds, with smiles too.
• 2:48:45
  Speaker 1: By Jove, breathe dead, hippo, so to speak, andnot be contaminated.
• 2:48:51
  Speaker 1: And there, don't you see? Your strength comes in the faith,
• 2:48:56
  Speaker 1: in your ability for the digging of unostentatious home to
• 2:49:00
  Speaker 1: bury the stuff, in your power of devotion not to
• 2:49:05
  Speaker 1: yourself but to an obscure, back breaking business. And that's
• 2:49:11
  Speaker 1: difficult enough.
• 2:49:14
  Speaker 2: Mind.
• 2:49:14
  Speaker 1: I am not trying to excuse or even explain. I
• 2:49:18
  Speaker 1: am trying to account to myself for for mister Kurtz,
• 2:49:25
  Speaker 1: for the shade of mister Kurtz. This initiated wraith from
• 2:49:29
  Speaker 1: the back of nowhere honored me with its amazing confidence
• 2:49:33
  Speaker 1: before it vanished altogether. This was because it could speak
• 2:49:38
  Speaker 1: English to me. The original Kurts have been educated partly
• 2:49:42
  Speaker 1: in England, and as he was good enough to say himself,
• 2:49:45
  Speaker 1: his sympathies were in the right place. His mother was
• 2:49:49
  Speaker 1: half English, his father was half French. All Europe contributed
• 2:49:55
  Speaker 1: to the making of Kurts and by and by I
• 2:49:59
  Speaker 1: learned that, most appropriately, the International Society for the Suppression
• 2:50:04
  Speaker 1: of Savage Customs had entrusted him with the making of
• 2:50:07
  Speaker 1: a report for its future guidance, and he had written
• 2:50:12
  Speaker 1: it too. I've seen it, I've read it. It was elegant,
• 2:50:17
  Speaker 1: vibrating with elegance, but too high strong. I think seventeen
• 2:50:23
  Speaker 1: pages of close writing he had found time for. But
• 2:50:27
  Speaker 1: this must have been before his, let us say, nerves
• 2:50:32
  Speaker 1: went wrong and caused him to preside at certain midnight
• 2:50:36
  Speaker 1: dances ending with unspeakable rights, which, as far as I
• 2:50:41
  Speaker 1: reluctantly gathered from what I heard at various times, were
• 2:50:45
  Speaker 1: offered up to him, do you understand to mister Kurtz himself.
• 2:50:51
  Speaker 1: But it was a beautiful piece of writing. The opening paragraph, however,
• 2:50:57
  Speaker 1: in the light of later information, strikes me now is ominous.
• 2:51:02
  Speaker 1: He began with the argument that we whites, from the
• 2:51:05
  Speaker 1: point of development we had arrived at, must necessarily appear
• 2:51:09
  Speaker 1: to them savages. In the nature of supernatural beings. We
• 2:51:14
  Speaker 1: approached them with the might of a deity, and so
• 2:51:18
  Speaker 1: on and so on. By the simple exercise of our will,
• 2:51:22
  Speaker 1: we can exert a power for good, practically unbounded, et cetera,
• 2:51:27
  Speaker 1: et cetera. From that point he soared and took me
• 2:51:32
  Speaker 1: with him. The peroration was magnificent, though difficult to remember.
• 2:51:38
  Speaker 1: You know, it gave me the notion of an exotic
• 2:51:42
  Speaker 1: immensity ruled by an august benevolence. It made me tingle
• 2:51:47
  Speaker 1: with enthusiasm. This was the unbounded power of eloquence, of words,
• 2:51:53
  Speaker 1: of burning noble words. There were no practical hints to
• 2:51:59
  Speaker 1: interrupt the magic current of phrases, unless a kind of
• 2:52:04
  Speaker 1: note at the foot of the last page, scrawled evidently
• 2:52:07
  Speaker 1: much later in an unsteady hand, may be regarded as
• 2:52:11
  Speaker 1: the exposition of a method. It was very simple, and
• 2:52:15
  Speaker 1: at the end of that moving appeal to every altruistic sentiment,
• 2:52:19
  Speaker 1: it blazed at you, luminous and terrifying, like a flash
• 2:52:24
  Speaker 1: of lightning in a serene sky. Exterminate all the brutes.
• 2:52:31
  Speaker 1: The curious part was that he had apparently forgotten all
• 2:52:34
  Speaker 1: about that valuable postscriptum, because later on, when he, in
• 2:52:39
  Speaker 1: a sense came to himself, he repeatedly entreated me to
• 2:52:43
  Speaker 1: take good care of my pamphlet. He called it, as
• 2:52:48
  Speaker 1: it was sure to have in the future a good
• 2:52:50
  Speaker 1: influence upon his career. I had full information about all
• 2:52:54
  Speaker 1: these things. And besides, as it turned out, I was
• 2:52:59
  Speaker 1: to have the care of his memory. I've done enough
• 2:53:03
  Speaker 1: for it to give me the indisputable right to lay
• 2:53:06
  Speaker 1: it if I choose for an everlasting rest in the
• 2:53:09
  Speaker 1: dust bin of progress, amongst all the sweepings and figuratively speaking,
• 2:53:14
  Speaker 1: all the dead cats of civilization. But then you see,
• 2:53:20
  Speaker 1: I can't choose. He won't be forgotten. Whatever he was,
• 2:53:26
  Speaker 1: he was not common. He had the power to charm
• 2:53:30
  Speaker 1: or frighten rudimentary souls into an aggravated witch dance in
• 2:53:35
  Speaker 1: his honor. He could also fill the small souls of
• 2:53:38
  Speaker 1: the pilgrims with bitter misgivings. He had one devoted friend
• 2:53:43
  Speaker 1: at least, and he had conquered one soul in the
• 2:53:46
  Speaker 1: world that was neither rudimentary nor tainted with self seeking. No,
• 2:53:51
  Speaker 1: I can't forget him, though I am not prepared to
• 2:53:55
  Speaker 1: affirm the fellow was exactly worth the life we lost
• 2:53:58
  Speaker 1: in getting to him. I missed my late Helmsman awfully.
• 2:54:02
  Speaker 1: I missed him, even while his body was still lying
• 2:54:05
  Speaker 1: in the pilot house. Perhaps you will think it passing strange,
• 2:54:10
  Speaker 1: this regret for a savage who was no more account
• 2:54:13
  Speaker 1: than a grain of sand in a black Sahara. Well,
• 2:54:17
  Speaker 1: don't you see? He had done something he had steered
• 2:54:23
  Speaker 1: for months. I had him at my back, a help,
• 2:54:26
  Speaker 1: an instrument. It was a kind of partnership he steered
• 2:54:32
  Speaker 1: for me. I had to look after him. I worried
• 2:54:35
  Speaker 1: about his deficiencies, and thus a subtle bond had been created,
• 2:54:40
  Speaker 1: of which I only became aware when it was suddenly broken.
• 2:54:44
  Speaker 1: And the intimate profundity of that look he gave me
• 2:54:47
  Speaker 1: when he received his hurt remains to this day in
• 2:54:51
  Speaker 1: my memory, like a claim of distant kinship affirmed in
• 2:54:55
  Speaker 1: a supreme moment. Poor fool, if he had only left
• 2:55:00
  Speaker 1: that shutter alone, he had no restraint, no restraint, just
• 2:55:06
  Speaker 1: like kerts a tree swayed by the wind. As soon
• 2:55:11
  Speaker 1: as I had put on a dry pair of slippers,
• 2:55:13
  Speaker 1: I dragged him out, after first jerking the spear out
• 2:55:16
  Speaker 1: of his side, which operation I confess I performed with
• 2:55:20
  Speaker 1: my eyes shut tight. His heels leaped together over the
• 2:55:25
  Speaker 1: little doorstep. His shoulders were pressed to my breast. I
• 2:55:29
  Speaker 1: hugged him from behind desperately. Oh he was heavy, heavy, heavy,
• 2:55:37
  Speaker 1: heavier than any man on earth, I should imagine. Then,
• 2:55:41
  Speaker 1: without more ado, I tipped him overboard. The current snatched
• 2:55:47
  Speaker 1: him as though he had been a wisp of grass,
• 2:55:49
  Speaker 1: and I saw the body roll over twice before I
• 2:55:52
  Speaker 1: lost sight of it forever. All the pilgrims and the
• 2:55:56
  Speaker 1: manager were then congregated on the awning deck of the
• 2:56:00
  Speaker 1: pilot house, chattering at each other like a flock of
• 2:56:03
  Speaker 1: excited magpies. And there was a scandalized murmur at my
• 2:56:07
  Speaker 1: heartless promptitude. What they wanted to keep that body hanging about? For?
• 2:56:13
  Speaker 1: I can't guess embowment maybe, But I had also heard
• 2:56:19
  Speaker 1: another and a very ominous murmur on the deck below.
• 2:56:23
  Speaker 1: My friends, the woodcutters were likewise scandalized, and with a
• 2:56:27
  Speaker 1: better show of reason, though I admit that the reason
• 2:56:30
  Speaker 1: itself was quite inadmissible, Oh quite. I had made up
• 2:56:36
  Speaker 1: my mind that if my late helmsman was to be eaten,
• 2:56:39
  Speaker 1: the fishes alone should have him. He had been a
• 2:56:43
  Speaker 1: very second rate helmsman while alive, but now he was
• 2:56:46
  Speaker 1: dead he might have become a first class temptation and
• 2:56:50
  Speaker 1: possibly caused some startling trouble. Besides, I was anxious to
• 2:56:56
  Speaker 1: take the wheel the man in pink pajamas, showing himself
• 2:56:59
  Speaker 1: a hopeless duffer at the business. This I did directly.
• 2:57:04
  Speaker 1: The simple funeral was over. We were going half speed,
• 2:57:09
  Speaker 1: keeping right in the middle of the stream, and I
• 2:57:12
  Speaker 1: listened to the talk about me. They had given up Kurtz,
• 2:57:17
  Speaker 1: they had given up the station. Kurtz was dead, and
• 2:57:20
  Speaker 1: the station had been burned, and so on and so on.
• 2:57:24
  Speaker 1: The red haired pilgrim was beside himself with the thought
• 2:57:27
  Speaker 1: that at least this poor Kurts had been properly avenged. Say,
• 2:57:31
  Speaker 1: we must have made a glorious slaughter of them in
• 2:57:34
  Speaker 1: the bush. Hey, what do you think? Say? He positively
• 2:57:39
  Speaker 1: danced the bloodthirsty little gingery beggar, and he had nearly
• 2:57:44
  Speaker 1: fainted when he saw the wounded man. I could not
• 2:57:48
  Speaker 1: help saying, you made a glorious lot of smoke. Anyhow,
• 2:57:53
  Speaker 1: I had seen from the way the tops of the
• 2:57:55
  Speaker 1: bushes rustled and flew that almost all the shots had
• 2:57:59
  Speaker 1: gone to You can't hit anything unless you take aim
• 2:58:03
  Speaker 1: and fire from the shoulder. But these chaps fired from
• 2:58:07
  Speaker 1: the hip with their eyes shut. The retreats, I maintained,
• 2:58:11
  Speaker 1: and I was right, was caused by the screeching of
• 2:58:15
  Speaker 1: a steam whistle. Upon this they forgot kurts and began
• 2:58:20
  Speaker 1: to howl at me with indignant protests. The manager stood
• 2:58:25
  Speaker 1: by the wheel, murmuring confidentially about the necessity of getting
• 2:58:28
  Speaker 1: well away down the river before dark at all events.
• 2:58:32
  Speaker 1: When I saw in the distance a clearing on the
• 2:58:35
  Speaker 1: river side, and the outlines of some sort of building.
• 2:58:39
  Speaker 1: What's this, I asked, He clapped his hands in wonder.
• 2:58:44
  Speaker 1: The station, he cried. I edged in at once, still
• 2:58:49
  Speaker 1: going half speed through my glasses, I saw the slope
• 2:58:54
  Speaker 1: of a hill, interspersed with rare trees and perfectly free
• 2:58:57
  Speaker 1: from undergrowth. Long decaying building on the summit was half
• 2:59:02
  Speaker 1: buried in the high grass. The large holes in the
• 2:59:05
  Speaker 1: peaked roof gaped black from afar. The jungle in the
• 2:59:09
  Speaker 1: woods made a background. There was no enclosure or fence
• 2:59:13
  Speaker 1: of any kind, but there had been one, apparently for
• 2:59:16
  Speaker 1: near the house. Half a dozen slim posts remained in
• 2:59:19
  Speaker 1: a row, roughly trimmed and with their upper ends ornamented
• 2:59:23
  Speaker 1: with round carved balls. The rails or whatever there had
• 2:59:28
  Speaker 1: been between had disappeared. Of course, the forests surrounded all that.
• 2:59:35
  Speaker 1: The river bank was clear, and on the water side
• 2:59:38
  Speaker 1: I saw a white man under a hat like a
• 2:59:40
  Speaker 1: cart wheel, beckoning persistently with his whole arm, examining the
• 2:59:45
  Speaker 1: edge of the forest above and below. I was almost
• 2:59:49
  Speaker 1: certain I could see movements, human forms gliding here and there.
• 2:59:54
  Speaker 1: I steamed past prudently, then stopped the engines and let
• 2:59:58
  Speaker 1: her drift down. The man on the shore began to shout,
• 3:00:02
  Speaker 1: urging us to land. We have been attacked, screamed the manager.
• 3:00:07
  Speaker 1: I know, I know, it's all right, yelled back the other,
• 3:00:12
  Speaker 1: as cheerful as you please.
• 3:00:13
  Speaker 2: Come along. It's all right. I am glad.
• 3:00:18
  Speaker 1: His aspect reminded me of something I had seen, something
• 3:00:22
  Speaker 1: funny I had seen somewhere. As I maneuvered to get alongside,
• 3:00:27
  Speaker 1: I was asking myself, what does this fellow look like?
• 3:00:32
  Speaker 1: Suddenly I got it. It looked like a harlequin. His
• 3:00:37
  Speaker 1: clothes had been made of some stuff that was brown,
• 3:00:40
  Speaker 1: Holland probably, but it was covered with patches all over,
• 3:00:45
  Speaker 1: with bright patches, blue, red and yellow patches on the back,
• 3:00:49
  Speaker 1: patches on the front, patches on elbows, on knees, colored
• 3:00:53
  Speaker 1: binding around his jacket, scarlet edging at the bottom of
• 3:00:57
  Speaker 1: his trousers, and the sunshine made him look extremely gay
• 3:01:01
  Speaker 1: and wonderfully neat withal because you could see how beautifully
• 3:01:05
  Speaker 1: all this patching had been done. A beardless, boyish face,
• 3:01:10
  Speaker 1: very fair, no features to speak of, nose pealing, little
• 3:01:14
  Speaker 1: blue eyes, smiles and frowns chasing each other over that
• 3:01:18
  Speaker 1: open countenance, like sunshine and shadow on a wind swept plane.
• 3:01:23
  Speaker 1: Look Out, Captain, he replied, there's a snag lodged in
• 3:01:27
  Speaker 1: here last night. What another snag? I confess, I swore, shamefully,
• 3:01:35
  Speaker 1: I had nearly holed my cripple to finish off that
• 3:01:38
  Speaker 1: charming trip. The harlequin on the back turned his little
• 3:01:42
  Speaker 1: pug nose up to me. You English, he asked, all smiles,
• 3:01:48
  Speaker 1: are you, I shouted from the wheel. The smiles vanished,
• 3:01:53
  Speaker 1: and he shook his head as if sorry for my disappointment.
• 3:01:57
  Speaker 1: Then he brightened up. Never mind, he cried encouragingly. Are
• 3:02:03
  Speaker 1: we in time? I asked, He is up there, he replied,
• 3:02:09
  Speaker 1: with a toss of the head up the hill and
• 3:02:11
  Speaker 1: becoming gloomy. All of a sudden, his face was like
• 3:02:14
  Speaker 1: the autumn sky, overcast one moment and bright the next.
• 3:02:19
  Speaker 1: When the manager, escorted by the pilgrims, all of them
• 3:02:23
  Speaker 1: armed to the teeth, had gone to the house, this
• 3:02:25
  Speaker 1: chap came on board. I say, I don't like this.
• 3:02:30
  Speaker 1: The natives are in the bush, I said. He assured
• 3:02:34
  Speaker 1: me earnestly, it was all right. They are simple people.
• 3:02:39
  Speaker 1: He added, Well, I am glad you came. It took
• 3:02:43
  Speaker 1: me all my time to keep them off, but you
• 3:02:46
  Speaker 1: said it was all right.
• 3:02:48
  Speaker 2: I cried.
• 3:02:49
  Speaker 1: Oh, they meant no harm, he said, And as I stared,
• 3:02:53
  Speaker 1: he corrected himself, not exactly. Then, vivaciously, my faith, you're
• 3:03:00
  Speaker 1: pilot house wants a clean up. In the next breath,
• 3:03:04
  Speaker 1: he advised me to keep enough steam on the boiler
• 3:03:06
  Speaker 1: to blow the whistle in case of trouble. One good
• 3:03:10
  Speaker 1: screech will do more for you than all your rifles.
• 3:03:14
  Speaker 1: They are simple people, he repeated. He rattled away at
• 3:03:19
  Speaker 1: such a rate he quite overwhelmed me. He seemed to
• 3:03:23
  Speaker 1: be trying to make up for lots of silence, and
• 3:03:26
  Speaker 1: actually hinted, laughing that such was the case. But don't
• 3:03:30
  Speaker 1: you talk with mister Kurtz, I said. You don't talk
• 3:03:35
  Speaker 1: with that man. You listen to him, he exclaimed with
• 3:03:39
  Speaker 1: severe exultation. But now he waved his arm, and in
• 3:03:45
  Speaker 1: the twinkling of an eye, was in the outermost depths
• 3:03:48
  Speaker 1: of despondency. In a moment, he came up again with
• 3:03:52
  Speaker 1: a jump, possessed himself of both my hands, shook them
• 3:03:56
  Speaker 1: continuously while he gabbed A brother sail honor, a pleasure, delight,
• 3:04:02
  Speaker 1: introduce myself, Russian son of an archpriest, government of Tamboff.
• 3:04:08
  Speaker 1: What tobacco, English tobacco, the excellent English tobacco. Now that's
• 3:04:15
  Speaker 1: brotherly smoke. Where's a sailor that does not smoke? The
• 3:04:22
  Speaker 1: pipe soothed him, and gradually I made out he had
• 3:04:26
  Speaker 1: run away from school and had gone to sea in
• 3:04:28
  Speaker 1: a Russian ship, ran away again, served some time in
• 3:04:32
  Speaker 1: English ships, was now reconciled with the arch priest. He
• 3:04:36
  Speaker 1: made a point of that, But when one is young,
• 3:04:39
  Speaker 1: one must see things, gather experience, ideas, enlarge the mind. Here,
• 3:04:46
  Speaker 1: I interrupted, you can never tell here I met, mister Kurtz,
• 3:04:51
  Speaker 1: He said, youthfully, solemn and reproachful. I held my tongue.
• 3:04:56
  Speaker 1: After that, it appears he had persuaded a Dutch trading
• 3:05:00
  Speaker 1: house on the coast to fit him out with stores
• 3:05:03
  Speaker 1: and goods, and started for the interior with a light
• 3:05:06
  Speaker 1: heart and no more idea of what would happen to
• 3:05:08
  Speaker 1: him than a baby. He had been wandering about that
• 3:05:12
  Speaker 1: river for nearly two years alone, cut off from everybody
• 3:05:16
  Speaker 1: and everything. I am not so young as I look.
• 3:05:21
  Speaker 1: I am twenty five, he said. At first, Old von
• 3:05:25
  Speaker 1: Schechten would tell me to go to the devil. He
• 3:05:28
  Speaker 1: narrated with keen enjoyment. But I stuck to him and
• 3:05:32
  Speaker 1: talked and talked till at last he got afraid I
• 3:05:35
  Speaker 1: would talk the hind leg off his favorite dog. So
• 3:05:38
  Speaker 1: he gave me some cheap things and a few guns,
• 3:05:41
  Speaker 1: and told me he hoped he would never see my
• 3:05:44
  Speaker 1: face again, Good old Dutchman van Scheiten. I've sent him
• 3:05:50
  Speaker 1: one small lot of ivory a year ago so that
• 3:05:53
  Speaker 1: he can't call me a little thief when I get back.
• 3:05:56
  Speaker 1: I hope he got it, and for the rest I
• 3:06:00
  Speaker 1: don't care. I had some wood stacked for you. That
• 3:06:03
  Speaker 1: was my old house, did you see. I gave him
• 3:06:07
  Speaker 1: Towson's book. He made as though he would kiss me,
• 3:06:11
  Speaker 1: but restrained himself. The only book I had left, And
• 3:06:15
  Speaker 1: I thought I had lost it, he said, looking at
• 3:06:19
  Speaker 1: it ecstatically. So many accidents happened to a man about alone.
• 3:06:25
  Speaker 1: You know, canoes get upset sometimes, and sometimes you've got
• 3:06:29
  Speaker 1: to clear out so quick when the people get angry.
• 3:06:32
  Speaker 1: He thumbed the pages. You made notes in Russian, I asked.
• 3:06:38
  Speaker 1: He nodded. I thought they were written in Cipher, I said.
• 3:06:43
  Speaker 1: He laughed, then became serious. I had lots of trouble
• 3:06:48
  Speaker 1: to keep these people off, he said. Did they want
• 3:06:51
  Speaker 1: to kill you? I asked, Oh no, he cried, and
• 3:06:56
  Speaker 1: checked himself. Why did they attack us? Pursued He hesitated,
• 3:07:02
  Speaker 1: then said, shamefacedly. They don't want him to go, don't they?
• 3:07:09
  Speaker 1: I said curiously. He nodded, a nod full of mystery
• 3:07:13
  Speaker 1: and wisdom, I tell you, he cried, This man has
• 3:07:19
  Speaker 1: enlarged my mind. He opened his arms wide, staring at
• 3:07:25
  Speaker 1: me with his little blue eyes that were perfectly round
• 3:07:31
  Speaker 1: and of Chapter two, Part one of chapter three of
• 3:07:36
  Speaker 1: Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. I looked at him,
• 3:07:41
  Speaker 1: lost in astonishment. There he was before me in Motley,
• 3:07:46
  Speaker 1: as though he had absconded from a troop of mimes. Enthusiastic, fabulous.
• 3:07:52
  Speaker 1: His very existence was improbable, inexplicable, and altogether bewildering. He
• 3:07:59
  Speaker 1: was an inn soluble problem. It was inconceivable how he
• 3:08:03
  Speaker 1: had existed, how he had succeeded in getting so far,
• 3:08:07
  Speaker 1: how he had managed to remain, why he did not
• 3:08:10
  Speaker 1: instantly disappear. I went a little farther, he said, then
• 3:08:16
  Speaker 1: still a little farther, till I had gone so far
• 3:08:19
  Speaker 1: that I don't know how I ever got back. Never mind,
• 3:08:23
  Speaker 1: plenty time I can manage you. Take Kurtz away quick quick.
• 3:08:28
  Speaker 1: I tell you. The glamor of youth enveloped his partly
• 3:08:33
  Speaker 1: colored rags, his destitution, his loneliness, the essential desolation of
• 3:08:38
  Speaker 1: his futile wanderings for months, for years, his life hadn't
• 3:08:44
  Speaker 1: been worth a day's purchase. And there he was, gallantly, thoughtlessly,
• 3:08:49
  Speaker 1: alive to all appearances, indestructible, solely by the virtue of
• 3:08:53
  Speaker 1: his few years and of his unreflecting audacity. I was
• 3:08:59
  Speaker 1: seduced into something like admiration, like envy. Glamour urged him on,
• 3:09:06
  Speaker 1: glamour kept him unscathed. He surely wanted nothing from the
• 3:09:10
  Speaker 1: wilderness but space to breathe in and to push on through.
• 3:09:15
  Speaker 1: His need was to exist and to move onwards at
• 3:09:18
  Speaker 1: the greatest possible risk and with a maximum of privation.
• 3:09:24
  Speaker 1: If the absolutely pure, uncalculating, unpractical spirit of adventure had
• 3:09:29
  Speaker 1: ever ruled a human being, it ruled this bepatched youth.
• 3:09:35
  Speaker 1: I almost envied him the possession of this modest and
• 3:09:39
  Speaker 1: clear flame. It seemed to have consumed all thought of
• 3:09:43
  Speaker 1: self so completely that even while he was talking to you,
• 3:09:46
  Speaker 1: you forgot that it was he, the man before your eyes,
• 3:09:50
  Speaker 1: who had gone through these things. I did not envy
• 3:09:55
  Speaker 1: him his devotion to Kurtz, though he had not meditated
• 3:09:59
  Speaker 1: over it, It came to him, and he accepted it
• 3:10:02
  Speaker 1: with a sort of eager fatalism. I must say that
• 3:10:06
  Speaker 1: to me it appeared about the most dangerous thing in
• 3:10:10
  Speaker 1: every way he had come upon so far. They had
• 3:10:14
  Speaker 1: come together unavoidably, like two ships be calmed near each
• 3:10:19
  Speaker 1: other and lay rubbing sides at last. I suppose Kurtz
• 3:10:23
  Speaker 1: wanted an audience, because on a certain occasion, when it
• 3:10:27
  Speaker 1: camped in the forest, they had talked all night. Or
• 3:10:30
  Speaker 1: more probably Kurtz had talked. We talked of everything he said,
• 3:10:36
  Speaker 1: quite transported. At the recollection, I forgot there was such
• 3:10:40
  Speaker 1: a thing as sleep. The nights did not seem to
• 3:10:44
  Speaker 1: last an hour. Everything everything of love too. Ah, he
• 3:10:51
  Speaker 1: talked to you of love, I said, much amused. It
• 3:10:55
  Speaker 1: isn't what you think, he cried, almost passionately. It was
• 3:11:00
  Speaker 1: in general.
• 3:11:02
  Speaker 2: He made me see things things.
• 3:11:07
  Speaker 1: He threw his arms up. We were on deck at
• 3:11:11
  Speaker 1: the time, and the headman of my woodcutters, lounging nearby,
• 3:11:15
  Speaker 1: turned upon him, his heavy and glittering eyes. I looked around,
• 3:11:20
  Speaker 1: and I don't know why, but I assure you that never,
• 3:11:24
  Speaker 1: never before, did this land, this river, this jungle, the
• 3:11:29
  Speaker 1: very arch of this blazing sky appeared to me so
• 3:11:33
  Speaker 1: hopeless and so dark, so impenetrable to human thought, so
• 3:11:38
  Speaker 1: pitiless to human weakness. And ever since you have been
• 3:11:43
  Speaker 1: with him, of course, I said. On the contrary, it
• 3:11:47
  Speaker 1: appears their intercourse had been very much broken by various causes.
• 3:11:52
  Speaker 1: He had, as he informed me, proudly, managed to nurse
• 3:11:55
  Speaker 1: Kirt through two illnesses. He alluded to it as you
• 3:11:59
  Speaker 1: would to some risky feet. But as a rule Kurtz
• 3:12:03
  Speaker 1: wandered alone far in the depths of the forest, very
• 3:12:07
  Speaker 1: often coming to this station. I had to wait days
• 3:12:11
  Speaker 1: and days before he would turn up, he said, Ah,
• 3:12:15
  Speaker 1: it was worth waiting for sometimes. What was he doing
• 3:12:22
  Speaker 1: exploring or what?
• 3:12:23
  Speaker 2: I asked?
• 3:12:24
  Speaker 1: Oh? Yes, of course he had discovered lots of villages
• 3:12:28
  Speaker 1: a lake too. He did not know exactly in what direction.
• 3:12:33
  Speaker 1: It was dangerous to inquire too much. But mostly his
• 3:12:37
  Speaker 1: expeditions had been for ivery, but he had no goods
• 3:12:42
  Speaker 1: to trade with by that time. I objected, there's a
• 3:12:45
  Speaker 1: good lot of cartridges left even yet, he answered, looking away,
• 3:12:51
  Speaker 1: to speak plainly, he raided the country, I said. He nodded,
• 3:12:58
  Speaker 1: not alone, surely, he muttered something about the villages round
• 3:13:02
  Speaker 1: that lake. Kurtz got the tribe to follow him, did he?
• 3:13:07
  Speaker 1: I suggested? He fidgeted a little. They adored him, he said.
• 3:13:15
  Speaker 1: The tone of these words was so extraordinary that I
• 3:13:18
  Speaker 1: looked at him searchingly. It was curious to see his
• 3:13:22
  Speaker 1: mingled eagerness and the reluctance to speak of kurt The
• 3:13:27
  Speaker 1: man filled his life, occupied his thoughts, swayed his emotions.
• 3:13:33
  Speaker 1: What can you expect, he burst out. He came to
• 3:13:36
  Speaker 1: them with thunder and lightning, you know, and they had
• 3:13:40
  Speaker 1: never seen anything like it, And very terrible. He could
• 3:13:44
  Speaker 1: be very terrible. You can't judge, mister Kurtz as you
• 3:13:48
  Speaker 1: would an ordinary man. No, no, no, now, just to
• 3:13:54
  Speaker 1: give you an idea, I don't mind telling you. He
• 3:13:58
  Speaker 1: wanted to shoot me too, but I don't judge him
• 3:14:03
  Speaker 1: shoot you. I cried, what for? Well, I had a
• 3:14:08
  Speaker 1: small lot of ivory the chief of that village near
• 3:14:11
  Speaker 1: my house gave me. You see, I used to shoot
• 3:14:15
  Speaker 1: game for them. Well, he wanted it, and wouldn't hear reason.
• 3:14:20
  Speaker 1: He declared he would shoot me unless I gave him
• 3:14:23
  Speaker 1: the ivory and then cleared out of the country, because
• 3:14:26
  Speaker 1: he could do so and had a fancy for it,
• 3:14:29
  Speaker 1: and there was nothing on earth to prevent him killing
• 3:14:32
  Speaker 1: whom he jolly well pleased. And it was true too.
• 3:14:36
  Speaker 1: I gave him the ivory. What did I care? But
• 3:14:41
  Speaker 1: I didn't clear out. No, no, I couldn't leave him.
• 3:14:46
  Speaker 1: I had to be careful, of course, till we got
• 3:14:49
  Speaker 1: friendly again. For a time he had his second illness.
• 3:14:53
  Speaker 1: Then afterwards I had to keep out of the way,
• 3:14:56
  Speaker 1: but I didn't mind. He was living for the moment
• 3:15:00
  Speaker 1: part in those villages on the lake. When he came
• 3:15:03
  Speaker 1: down to the river, sometimes he would take to me,
• 3:15:06
  Speaker 1: and sometimes it was better for me to be careful.
• 3:15:10
  Speaker 1: This man suffered too much. He hated all this, and
• 3:15:15
  Speaker 1: somehow he couldn't get away. When I had a chance.
• 3:15:19
  Speaker 1: I begged him to try and leave while there was time.
• 3:15:23
  Speaker 1: I offered to go back with him, and he would
• 3:15:26
  Speaker 1: say yes, and then he would remain, go off on
• 3:15:29
  Speaker 1: another ivory hunt, disappear for weeks, forgot himself amongst these people,
• 3:15:35
  Speaker 1: forgot himself. You know why he's mad, I said, he
• 3:15:42
  Speaker 1: protested indignantly. Mister Kurtz couldn't be mad. If I had
• 3:15:47
  Speaker 1: heard him talk only two days ago, I wouldn't dare
• 3:15:51
  Speaker 1: hint at such a thing. I had taken up my
• 3:15:54
  Speaker 1: binoculars while we talked, and was looking at the shore,
• 3:15:57
  Speaker 1: sweeping the limit of the forest at each side and
• 3:16:00
  Speaker 1: at the back of the house. The consciousness of there
• 3:16:03
  Speaker 1: being people in that bush, so silent, so quiet, as
• 3:16:07
  Speaker 1: silent and quiet as the ruined house on the hill,
• 3:16:10
  Speaker 1: made me uneasy. There was no sign on the face
• 3:16:14
  Speaker 1: of nature of this amazing tale that was not so
• 3:16:17
  Speaker 1: much told as suggested to me in desolate exclamations completed
• 3:16:22
  Speaker 1: by shrugs. It interrupted phrases, in hints, ending in deep sighs.
• 3:16:28
  Speaker 1: The woods were unmoved, like a mask heavy, like the
• 3:16:32
  Speaker 1: closed door of a prison. They looked with their air
• 3:16:35
  Speaker 1: of hidden knowledge, of patient expectation, of unapproachable silence. The
• 3:16:41
  Speaker 1: Russian was explaining to me that it was only lately
• 3:16:44
  Speaker 1: that mister Kurtz had come down to the river, bringing
• 3:16:47
  Speaker 1: along with him all the fighting men of that lake tribe.
• 3:16:51
  Speaker 1: He had been absent for several months, getting himself adored,
• 3:16:55
  Speaker 1: I suppose, and had come down unexpectedly with the intention
• 3:17:00
  Speaker 1: to all appearance of making a raid, either across the
• 3:17:03
  Speaker 1: river or down stream. Evidently the appetite for more ivory
• 3:17:08
  Speaker 1: had got the better of the what shall I say,
• 3:17:11
  Speaker 1: the less material aspirations. However, he had got much worse.
• 3:17:17
  Speaker 1: Suddenly I heard he was lying helpless, and so I
• 3:17:23
  Speaker 1: came up took my chance, said the Russian. Oh, he
• 3:17:27
  Speaker 1: is bad, very bad. I directed my glass to the house.
• 3:17:33
  Speaker 1: There were no signs of life, but there was the
• 3:17:36
  Speaker 1: ruined roof the long mud wall peeping above the grass,
• 3:17:40
  Speaker 1: with three little square window holes, no two of the
• 3:17:44
  Speaker 1: same size. All this brought within reach of my hand,
• 3:17:48
  Speaker 1: as it were, And then I made a brusque movement,
• 3:17:53
  Speaker 1: and one of the remaining posts of that vanished forest
• 3:17:56
  Speaker 1: leaped up in the field of my glass. He remember,
• 3:18:00
  Speaker 1: I told you I had been struck at the distance
• 3:18:03
  Speaker 1: by certain attempts at ornamentation, rather remarkable in the ruinous
• 3:18:07
  Speaker 1: aspect of the place. Now I suddenly had a nearer view,
• 3:18:12
  Speaker 1: and its first result was to make me throw my
• 3:18:16
  Speaker 1: head back, as if before a blow. Then I went
• 3:18:21
  Speaker 1: carefully from post to post with my glass, and I
• 3:18:24
  Speaker 1: saw my mistake. These round knobs were not ornamental, but symbolic.
• 3:18:32
  Speaker 1: They were expressive and puzzling, striking and disturbing, food for
• 3:18:37
  Speaker 1: thought and also for vulgures if there had been any
• 3:18:40
  Speaker 1: looking down from the sky. But at all events, for
• 3:18:44
  Speaker 1: such ants as were industrious enough to ascend the pole,
• 3:18:49
  Speaker 1: they would have been even more impressive these heads on
• 3:18:53
  Speaker 1: the stakes, if their faces had not been turned to
• 3:18:56
  Speaker 1: the house. Only one the first I had made out,
• 3:19:00
  Speaker 1: was facing my way. I was not so shocked as
• 3:19:05
  Speaker 1: you may think. The start back I had given was
• 3:19:08
  Speaker 1: really nothing but a movement of surprise. I expected to
• 3:19:12
  Speaker 1: see a knob of wood there, you know. I'd returned
• 3:19:16
  Speaker 1: deliberately to the first I had seen. And there it was, black, dried,
• 3:19:22
  Speaker 1: sunken with closed eyelids, a head that seemed to sleep
• 3:19:27
  Speaker 1: the top of that pole, and with the shrunken, dry
• 3:19:30
  Speaker 1: lips showing a narrow white line of the teeth, was
• 3:19:34
  Speaker 1: smiling too, smiling continuously at some endless and jocose dream
• 3:19:39
  Speaker 1: of that eternal slumber. I am not disclosing any trade secrets.
• 3:19:46
  Speaker 1: In fact, the manager said afterwards that mister Kurtz's methods
• 3:19:50
  Speaker 1: had bruined the district. I have no opinion on that point,
• 3:19:55
  Speaker 1: but I want you clearly to understand that there was
• 3:19:58
  Speaker 1: nothing exactly profitable in these heads being there. They only
• 3:20:03
  Speaker 1: showed that mister Kurtz lacked restraint in the gratification of
• 3:20:06
  Speaker 1: his various lusts, that there was something wanting in him,
• 3:20:11
  Speaker 1: some small matter, which, when the pressing need arose, could
• 3:20:15
  Speaker 1: not be found under his magnificent eloquence. Whether he knew
• 3:20:20
  Speaker 1: of this deficiency himself, I can't say. I think the
• 3:20:24
  Speaker 1: knowledge came to him at last, only at the very last.
• 3:20:30
  Speaker 1: But the wilderness had found him out early and had
• 3:20:33
  Speaker 1: taken on him a terrible vengeance for the fantastic invasion.
• 3:20:38
  Speaker 1: I think it had whispered to him things about himself
• 3:20:41
  Speaker 1: which he did not know, things of which he had
• 3:20:44
  Speaker 1: no conception till he took counsel with this great solitude,
• 3:20:48
  Speaker 1: and the whisper had proved irresistibly fascinating. It echoed loudly
• 3:20:54
  Speaker 1: within him, because he was hollow at the core. I
• 3:20:58
  Speaker 1: put down the glass, and the head that had appeared
• 3:21:01
  Speaker 1: near enough to be spoken to seemed at once to
• 3:21:04
  Speaker 1: have leaped away from me into inaccessible distance. The admirer
• 3:21:10
  Speaker 1: of mister Kurtz was a bit crestfallen. In a hurried,
• 3:21:14
  Speaker 1: indistinct voice, he began to assure me he had not
• 3:21:17
  Speaker 1: dared to take these say symbols down. He was not
• 3:21:23
  Speaker 1: afraid of the natives. They would not stir till mister
• 3:21:26
  Speaker 1: Kurtz gave the word. His ascendancy was extraordinary. The camps
• 3:21:31
  Speaker 1: of these people surrounded the place, and the chiefs came
• 3:21:34
  Speaker 1: every day to see him. They would crawl. I don't
• 3:21:39
  Speaker 1: want to know anything of the ceremonies used when approaching
• 3:21:42
  Speaker 1: mister Kurtz, I shouted, curious this feeling that came over me,
• 3:21:47
  Speaker 1: that such details would be more intolerable than those heads
• 3:21:51
  Speaker 1: drying on the stakes under mister Kurtz's windows. After all,
• 3:21:56
  Speaker 1: that was only a savage sight, while I seemed at
• 3:22:00
  Speaker 1: one bound to have been transported into some lightless region
• 3:22:03
  Speaker 1: of subtle horrors, where pure, uncomplicated savagery was a positive relief,
• 3:22:09
  Speaker 1: being something that had a right to exist obviously in
• 3:22:13
  Speaker 1: the sunshine. The young man looked at me with surprise.
• 3:22:18
  Speaker 1: I suppose it did not occur to him that mister
• 3:22:21
  Speaker 1: Kurtz was no idol of mine. He forgot I hadn't
• 3:22:25
  Speaker 1: heard any of these splendid monologs on what was it
• 3:22:30
  Speaker 1: on love, justice, conduct of life, or whatnot? If it
• 3:22:35
  Speaker 1: had come to crawling before mister Kurtz, he crawled as
• 3:22:39
  Speaker 1: much as the veriest savage of them all. I had
• 3:22:43
  Speaker 1: no idea of the conditions. He said, These heads were
• 3:22:47
  Speaker 1: the heads of rebels. I shocked him excessively by laughing, rebels.
• 3:22:52
  Speaker 1: What would be the next definition? I was to hear?
• 3:22:55
  Speaker 1: There had been enemies, criminals, workers, and these were rebels.
• 3:23:02
  Speaker 1: These rebellious heads looked very subdued to me on their sticks.
• 3:23:08
  Speaker 1: You don't know how such a life tries a man
• 3:23:11
  Speaker 1: like Kurtz, cried Curtz's last disciple. Well and you, I
• 3:23:16
  Speaker 1: said I I I am a simple man. I have
• 3:23:21
  Speaker 1: no great thoughts. I want nothing from anybody. How can
• 3:23:26
  Speaker 1: you compare me to missed feelings were too much for speech,
• 3:23:31
  Speaker 1: and suddenly he broke down. I don't understand, he groaned.
• 3:23:38
  Speaker 1: I've been doing my best to keep him alive, and
• 3:23:41
  Speaker 1: that's enough. I had no hand in all this. I
• 3:23:45
  Speaker 1: have no abilities. There hasn't been a drop of medicine
• 3:23:49
  Speaker 1: or a mouthful of invalid food for months. Here he
• 3:23:53
  Speaker 1: was shamefully abandoned, a man like this with such ideas,
• 3:23:58
  Speaker 1: shamefully shameful. I I haven't slept for the last ten nights.
• 3:24:06
  Speaker 1: His voice lost itself. In the calm of the evening.
• 3:24:10
  Speaker 1: The long shadows of the forest had slipped down hill
• 3:24:13
  Speaker 1: while we talked, had gone far beyond the ruined hovel,
• 3:24:17
  Speaker 1: beyond the symbolic row of stakes. All this was in
• 3:24:21
  Speaker 1: the gloom. While we down there were yet in the sunshine,
• 3:24:25
  Speaker 1: and the stretch of the river abreast of the clearing
• 3:24:27
  Speaker 1: glittered in a still and dazzling splendor, with a murky
• 3:24:31
  Speaker 1: and overshadowed bend over and below. Not a living soul
• 3:24:36
  Speaker 1: was seen on the shore. The bushes did not rustle. Suddenly,
• 3:24:43
  Speaker 1: round the corner of the house a group of men appeared,
• 3:24:46
  Speaker 1: as though they had come up from the ground. They
• 3:24:49
  Speaker 1: waded waist deep in the grass, in a compact body,
• 3:24:53
  Speaker 1: bearing an improvised stretcher in their midst. Instantly, in the
• 3:24:57
  Speaker 1: emptiness of the landscape, a cry I arose, whose shrillness
• 3:25:01
  Speaker 1: pierced the still air, like a sharp arrow flying straight
• 3:25:05
  Speaker 1: to the very heart of the land. And as if
• 3:25:08
  Speaker 1: by enchantment, streams of human beings have naked. Human beings
• 3:25:13
  Speaker 1: with spears in their hands, with bows, with shields, with
• 3:25:17
  Speaker 1: wild glances and savage movements, were poured into the clearing
• 3:25:21
  Speaker 1: by the dark faced and pensive forest. The bushes shook,
• 3:25:26
  Speaker 1: the grass swayed for a time, and then everything stood
• 3:25:30
  Speaker 1: still in attentive immobility. Now, if he does not say
• 3:25:36
  Speaker 1: the right thing to them, we are all done for,
• 3:25:40
  Speaker 1: said the Russian. At my elbow. The knot of men
• 3:25:45
  Speaker 1: with a stretcher had stopped to half way to the steamer,
• 3:25:48
  Speaker 1: as if petrified. I saw the men on the stretcher
• 3:25:52
  Speaker 1: set up lank and with an uplifted arm above the
• 3:25:56
  Speaker 1: shoulders of the bearers. Let us hope that the man
• 3:25:59
  Speaker 1: who can talk so well of love in general will
• 3:26:03
  Speaker 1: find some particular reason to spare us this time, I said,
• 3:26:08
  Speaker 1: I resented bitterly the absurd danger of our situation, as
• 3:26:12
  Speaker 1: if to be at the mercy of that atrocious phantom
• 3:26:15
  Speaker 1: had been a dishonoring necessity. I could not hear a sound,
• 3:26:20
  Speaker 1: but through my glasses I saw the thin arm extended commandingly,
• 3:26:25
  Speaker 1: the lower jaw moving, the eyes of that apparition shining
• 3:26:29
  Speaker 1: darkly far in its bony head that nodded with grotesque
• 3:26:33
  Speaker 1: jerks kurts kurtz that means short and German. Don't it well?
• 3:26:42
  Speaker 1: The name was as true as everything else in his
• 3:26:44
  Speaker 1: life and death. He looked at least seven feet long.
• 3:26:50
  Speaker 1: His covering had fallen off, and his body emerged from
• 3:26:54
  Speaker 1: its pitiful and appalling as from a winding sheet. I
• 3:26:58
  Speaker 1: could see the cage of his ribs all astir, the
• 3:27:01
  Speaker 1: bones of his arm waving. It was as though an
• 3:27:05
  Speaker 1: animated image of death carved out of old ivory, had
• 3:27:08
  Speaker 1: been shaking its hand with menaces and a motionless crowd
• 3:27:12
  Speaker 1: of men made of dark and glittering bronze. I saw
• 3:27:16
  Speaker 1: him open his mouth wide. It gave him a weirdly
• 3:27:20
  Speaker 1: voracious aspect, as though he had wanted to swallow all
• 3:27:24
  Speaker 1: the air, all the earth, all the men before him.
• 3:27:28
  Speaker 1: A deep voice reached me faintly. He must have been shouting.
• 3:27:33
  Speaker 1: He fell back. Suddenly the stretcher shook, as the barriers
• 3:27:37
  Speaker 1: staggered forward again, and almost at the same time, I
• 3:27:41
  Speaker 1: noticed that the crowd of savages was vanishing, without any
• 3:27:44
  Speaker 1: perceptible movement of retreat, as if the forest that had
• 3:27:47
  Speaker 1: ejected these beings so suddenly had drawn them in again,
• 3:27:52
  Speaker 1: as the breath is drawn in a long aspiration. Some
• 3:27:57
  Speaker 1: of the pilgrims behind the stretcher carried his arms two
• 3:28:00
  Speaker 1: shot guns, a heavy rifle and a light revolver carbine,
• 3:28:04
  Speaker 1: the thunderbolts of that pitiful Jupiter. The manager bent over him,
• 3:28:10
  Speaker 1: murmuring as he walked beside his head. They laid him
• 3:28:13
  Speaker 1: down in one of the little cabins, just a room
• 3:28:17
  Speaker 1: for a bed place and a campstool or two. You know.
• 3:28:21
  Speaker 1: He had brought his belated correspondence, and a lot of
• 3:28:24
  Speaker 1: torn envelopes and open letters littered his bed. His hand
• 3:28:29
  Speaker 1: roamed feebly amongst his papers. I was struck by the
• 3:28:33
  Speaker 1: fire of his eyes and the composed languor of his expression.
• 3:28:37
  Speaker 1: It was not so much the exhaustion of disease. He
• 3:28:41
  Speaker 1: did not seem in pain. This shadow looked satiated and calm,
• 3:28:46
  Speaker 1: as though for the moments it had had its fill
• 3:28:49
  Speaker 1: of all the emotions. He rustled one of the letters,
• 3:28:53
  Speaker 1: and looking straight in my face, said, I am glad
• 3:29:01
  Speaker 1: somebody had been writing to him about me. These special
• 3:29:05
  Speaker 1: recommendations were turning up again. The volume of tone he emitted,
• 3:29:10
  Speaker 1: without effort, almost without the trouble of moving his lips,
• 3:29:13
  Speaker 1: amazed me. A voice, a voice. It was grave, profound, vibrating.
• 3:29:21
  Speaker 1: While the man did not seem capable of a whisper,
• 3:29:25
  Speaker 1: however he had enough strength in him fact issues no doubt,
• 3:29:30
  Speaker 1: to very nearly make an end of us, as you
• 3:29:33
  Speaker 1: shall hear directly, the manager appeared silently in the doorway.
• 3:29:39
  Speaker 1: I stepped out at once, and he drew a curtain
• 3:29:41
  Speaker 1: after me. The Russian, eyed curiously by the pilgrims, was
• 3:29:46
  Speaker 1: staring at the shore. I followed the direction of his glands.
• 3:29:52
  Speaker 1: Dark human shapes could be made out in the distance,
• 3:29:56
  Speaker 1: flitting indistinctly against the gloomy border of the forest. Near
• 3:30:00
  Speaker 1: the river, two bronze figures, leaning on tall spears, stood
• 3:30:05
  Speaker 1: in the sunlight, under fantastic head dresses of spotted skins,
• 3:30:09
  Speaker 1: warlike and still in statuesque repose, and from right to
• 3:30:15
  Speaker 1: left along the lighted shore moved a wild and gorgeous
• 3:30:19
  Speaker 1: apparition of a woman. She walked with measured steps, draped
• 3:30:25
  Speaker 1: in striped and fringed cloths, treading the earth proudly with
• 3:30:29
  Speaker 1: a slight jingle and flash of barbarous ornaments. She carried
• 3:30:34
  Speaker 1: her head high. Her hair was done in the shape
• 3:30:37
  Speaker 1: of a helmet. She had brass leggings to the knee,
• 3:30:41
  Speaker 1: brass wire gauntless to the elbow, a crimson spot on
• 3:30:44
  Speaker 1: her tawny cheek, innumerable necklaces of glass beads on her neck,
• 3:30:50
  Speaker 1: bizarre things, charms, gifts of witch men that hung about her,
• 3:30:54
  Speaker 1: glittered and trembled at every step. She must have had
• 3:30:58
  Speaker 1: the value of several elephant tusks upon her. She was
• 3:31:02
  Speaker 1: savage and superb wild eyed and magnificent. There was something
• 3:31:08
  Speaker 1: ominous and stately in her deliberate progress, and in the
• 3:31:12
  Speaker 1: hush that had fallen suddenly upon the whole sorrowful land,
• 3:31:16
  Speaker 1: The immense wilderness, the colossal body of the feakened and
• 3:31:21
  Speaker 1: mysterious life seemed to look at her pensive, as though
• 3:31:24
  Speaker 1: it had been looking at the image of its own
• 3:31:27
  Speaker 1: tenebrous and passionate soul. She came abreast of the steamer,
• 3:31:32
  Speaker 1: stood still and faced us. Her long shadow fell to
• 3:31:36
  Speaker 1: the water's edge. Her face had a tragic and fierce
• 3:31:40
  Speaker 1: aspect of wild sorrow and of dumb pain, mingled with
• 3:31:44
  Speaker 1: the fear of some struggling, half shaped resolve. She stood
• 3:31:49
  Speaker 1: looking at us without a stir, and like the wilderness itself,
• 3:31:54
  Speaker 1: with an air of brooding over an inscrutable purpose. A
• 3:31:59
  Speaker 1: whole minute it passed, and then she made a step forward.
• 3:32:04
  Speaker 1: There was a low jingle, a glint of yellow metal,
• 3:32:07
  Speaker 1: a sway of fringed draperies, and she stopped, as if
• 3:32:11
  Speaker 1: her heart had failed her. The young fellow by my
• 3:32:16
  Speaker 1: side growled, the pilgrims murmured at my back. She looked
• 3:32:21
  Speaker 1: at us all as if her life had depended upon
• 3:32:24
  Speaker 1: the unswerving steadiness of her glance. Suddenly she opened her
• 3:32:30
  Speaker 1: bared arms and threw them up rigid above her head,
• 3:32:33
  Speaker 1: as though in an uncontrollable desire to touch the sky.
• 3:32:37
  Speaker 1: And at the same time, the swift shadows darted out
• 3:32:41
  Speaker 1: on the earth, swept around on the river, gathering the
• 3:32:44
  Speaker 1: steamer into a shadowy embrace, A formidable silence hung over
• 3:32:50
  Speaker 1: the scene. She turned away, slowly walked on following the bank,
• 3:32:57
  Speaker 1: and passed into the bushes to the left. Once only
• 3:33:01
  Speaker 1: her eyes gleamed back at us in the dusk of
• 3:33:03
  Speaker 1: the thickets before she disappeared. If she had offered to
• 3:33:08
  Speaker 1: come aboard, I really think I would have tried to
• 3:33:12
  Speaker 1: shoot her, said the man of patches nervously. I have
• 3:33:16
  Speaker 1: been risking my life every day for the last fortnight
• 3:33:19
  Speaker 1: to keep her out of the house. She got in
• 3:33:22
  Speaker 1: one day and kicked up a row about these miserable
• 3:33:26
  Speaker 1: rags I picked up in the storeroom to mend my
• 3:33:28
  Speaker 1: clothes with. I wasn't decent, at least it must have
• 3:33:33
  Speaker 1: been that, for she talked like a fury to Kurtz
• 3:33:36
  Speaker 1: for an hour, pointing at me now and then. I
• 3:33:40
  Speaker 1: don't understand the dialect of this tribe. Luckily for me,
• 3:33:44
  Speaker 1: I fancy curts felt too ill that day to care,
• 3:33:47
  Speaker 1: or they would have been mischief. I don't understand. No,
• 3:33:53
  Speaker 1: it's too much for me. Oh well, it's all over now.
• 3:34:01
  Speaker 1: At this moment, I heard Curtse's deep voice behind the curtain.
• 3:34:05
  Speaker 1: Save me, save the ivy, you mean, don't tell me
• 3:34:11
  Speaker 1: save me? Why I've had to save you. You are
• 3:34:16
  Speaker 1: interrupting my plans now sick, sick, not so sick as
• 3:34:23
  Speaker 1: you would like to believe. Never mind, I'll carry my
• 3:34:28
  Speaker 1: ideas out yet I will return.
• 3:34:32
  Speaker 2: I'll show you what can be done.
• 3:34:35
  Speaker 1: You with your little peddling notions, you are interfering with me.
• 3:34:40
  Speaker 1: I will return. I the manager came out. He did
• 3:34:47
  Speaker 1: me the honor to take me under the arm and
• 3:34:50
  Speaker 1: lead me aside. He is very low, very low, he said.
• 3:34:57
  Speaker 1: He considered it necessary to sigh, but no neglected to
• 3:35:00
  Speaker 1: be consistently sorrowful. We have done all we could for him,
• 3:35:06
  Speaker 1: haven't we. But there is no disguising the fact mister
• 3:35:11
  Speaker 1: Kurtz has done more harm than good to the company.
• 3:35:16
  Speaker 1: He did not see the time was not ripe for
• 3:35:18
  Speaker 1: vigorous action. Cautiously, cautiously, that's my principle. We must be cautious.
• 3:35:25
  Speaker 1: Yet the district is closed to us for a time.
• 3:35:29
  Speaker 1: Upon the whole the trade will suffer. I don't deny
• 3:35:33
  Speaker 1: there is a remarkable quantity of ivory, mostly farsil. We
• 3:35:38
  Speaker 1: must save it at all events. But look how precarious
• 3:35:42
  Speaker 1: the position is, and why because the method is unsound?
• 3:35:48
  Speaker 1: Do you said? I looking at the shore. Call it
• 3:35:52
  Speaker 1: unsound method without doubt, he exclaimed hotly. Don't you no
• 3:35:59
  Speaker 1: method at all? I murmured after a while, exactly, he exulted.
• 3:36:04
  Speaker 1: I anticipated this shows a complete want of judgment. It
• 3:36:09
  Speaker 1: is my duty to point it out in the proper quarter. Oh,
• 3:36:14
  Speaker 1: said I. That fellow what's his name, the brickmaker, will
• 3:36:19
  Speaker 1: make a readable report for you. He appeared confounded. For
• 3:36:23
  Speaker 1: a moment, it seemed to me I had never breathed
• 3:36:26
  Speaker 1: an atmosphere so vile, and I turned mentally to Kurtz
• 3:36:30
  Speaker 1: for relief, positively for relief. Nevertheless, I think Kurtz is
• 3:36:36
  Speaker 1: a remarkable man, I said with emphasis. He started dropped
• 3:36:41
  Speaker 1: on me a heavy glance, said very quietly he was,
• 3:36:48
  Speaker 1: and turned his back on me. My hour of favor
• 3:36:52
  Speaker 1: was over. I found myself lumped along with Kurtz as
• 3:36:56
  Speaker 1: a partisan of methods for which the time was not ripe.
• 3:37:00
  Speaker 1: I was unsound, ah, but it was something to have,
• 3:37:06
  Speaker 1: at least a choice of nightmares. I had turned to
• 3:37:10
  Speaker 1: the wilderness, really, not to mister Kurtz, who I was
• 3:37:14
  Speaker 1: ready to admit was as good as buried, And for
• 3:37:18
  Speaker 1: a moment it seemed to me as if I also
• 3:37:20
  Speaker 1: were buried in a vast grave full of unspeakable secrets.
• 3:37:25
  Speaker 1: I felt an intolerable way of pressing my breast, the
• 3:37:29
  Speaker 1: smell of the damp earth, the unseen presence of victorious corruption,
• 3:37:33
  Speaker 1: the darkness of an impenetrable night. The Russian tapped me
• 3:37:38
  Speaker 1: on the shoulder. I heard him mumbling and stammering something
• 3:37:42
  Speaker 1: about brother Seamen. Couldn't conceive knowledge of matters that would
• 3:37:46
  Speaker 1: affect mister Kurtz's reputation. I waited for him. Evidently mister
• 3:37:52
  Speaker 1: Kurtz was not in his grave. I suspect that for him,
• 3:37:57
  Speaker 1: mister Kurtz was one of the immortals. Well said, I
• 3:38:01
  Speaker 1: at last speak out, as it happens. I am mister
• 3:38:05
  Speaker 1: Kurtz's friend in a way. He stated, with a good
• 3:38:10
  Speaker 1: deal of formality, that had we not been of the
• 3:38:14
  Speaker 1: same profession, he would have kept the matter to himself
• 3:38:17
  Speaker 1: without regarding consequences. He suspected there was an active ill
• 3:38:22
  Speaker 1: will towards him on the part of these white men.
• 3:38:25
  Speaker 1: That you are right, I said, remembering a certain conversation
• 3:38:29
  Speaker 1: I had overheard. The manager thinks you ought to be hanged.
• 3:38:34
  Speaker 1: He showed a concern at this intelligence, which amused me
• 3:38:38
  Speaker 1: at first. I had better get out of the way quietly,
• 3:38:43
  Speaker 1: he said, earnestly. I can do no more for Kurtz now,
• 3:38:47
  Speaker 1: and they would soon find some excuse. What's to stop them.
• 3:38:52
  Speaker 1: There's a military post three hundred miles from here. Well,
• 3:38:57
  Speaker 1: upon my word, said I, perhaps you had better go.
• 3:39:01
  Speaker 1: If you have any friends amongst the savages near by plenty,
• 3:39:05
  Speaker 1: he said. They are simple people, and I want nothing,
• 3:39:09
  Speaker 1: you know, he stood, biting his lip. Then I don't
• 3:39:14
  Speaker 1: want any harm to happen to these whites here. But
• 3:39:16
  Speaker 1: of course I was thinking of mister Kurtz's reputation. But
• 3:39:20
  Speaker 1: you are a brother, Seaman, and all right, said I.
• 3:39:25
  Speaker 1: After a time, mister Kirtse's reputation is safe with me.
• 3:39:31
  Speaker 1: I did not know how truly I spoke. He informed me,
• 3:39:36
  Speaker 1: lowering his voice, that it was Kurtz who had ordered
• 3:39:39
  Speaker 1: the attack to be made on the steamer. He hated
• 3:39:43
  Speaker 1: sometimes the idea of being taken away and then again.
• 3:39:48
  Speaker 1: But I don't understand these matters. I am a simple man.
• 3:39:53
  Speaker 1: He thought it would scare you away, that you would
• 3:39:55
  Speaker 1: give it up. Thinking him dead, I could not stop him. Oh,
• 3:40:01
  Speaker 1: I had an awful time of it this last month,
• 3:40:05
  Speaker 1: very well, I said, he is all right now, yes,
• 3:40:11
  Speaker 1: he muttered, not very convinced. Apparently, thanks said I I
• 3:40:16
  Speaker 1: shall keep my eyes open.
• 3:40:18
  Speaker 2: Won't good? Quiet? Eh?
• 3:40:20
  Speaker 1: He urged anxiously. It would be awful for his reputation
• 3:40:24
  Speaker 1: if anybody here, I promised a complete discretion with great gravity.
• 3:40:31
  Speaker 1: I have a canoe and three blackfellows waiting not very
• 3:40:34
  Speaker 1: far off. I am off. Could you give me a
• 3:40:40
  Speaker 1: few Martini Henry cartridges? I could, and did with proper secrecy.
• 3:40:47
  Speaker 1: He helped himself with a wink at me to a
• 3:40:50
  Speaker 1: handful of my tobacco between sailors, you know, good English tobacco.
• 3:40:58
  Speaker 1: At the door of the pilot house, he turned round.
• 3:41:01
  Speaker 1: I say, haven't you a pair of shoes you could spare?
• 3:41:05
  Speaker 1: He raised one leg.
• 3:41:07
  Speaker 2: Look.
• 3:41:08
  Speaker 1: The soles were tied with knotted strings sandalwise under his
• 3:41:12
  Speaker 1: bare feet. I rooted out an old pair, at which
• 3:41:16
  Speaker 1: he looked with admiration, before tucking it under his left arm.
• 3:41:22
  Speaker 1: One of his pockets, bright red, was bulging with cartridges.
• 3:41:26
  Speaker 1: From the other, dark blue, peeped thousands inquiry met Sena
• 3:41:31
  Speaker 1: at cena. He seemed to think himself excellently well equipped
• 3:41:36
  Speaker 1: for a renewed encounter with the wilderness. Ah, I'll never
• 3:41:43
  Speaker 1: never meet such a man again. You ought to have
• 3:41:47
  Speaker 1: heard him recite poetry his own too. It was he
• 3:41:51
  Speaker 1: told me poetry. He rode his eyes at the recollection
• 3:41:57
  Speaker 1: of these delights. Oh, he in larged my mind. Goodbye,
• 3:42:04
  Speaker 1: said I. He shook hands and vanished in the night.
• 3:42:10
  Speaker 1: Sometimes I asked myself whether I had ever really seen him,
• 3:42:13
  Speaker 1: whether it was possible to meet such a phenomenon. When
• 3:42:18
  Speaker 1: I woke up shortly after midnights, his warning came to
• 3:42:22
  Speaker 1: my mind, with its hint of danger that seemed in
• 3:42:25
  Speaker 1: the starred darkness, real enough to make me get up
• 3:42:28
  Speaker 1: for the purpose of having a look round on the hill.
• 3:42:32
  Speaker 1: A big fire burned, illuminating fitfully a crooked corner of
• 3:42:36
  Speaker 1: the station house. One of the agents, with a picket
• 3:42:39
  Speaker 1: of a few of our blacks armed for the purpose,
• 3:42:42
  Speaker 1: was keeping guard over the ivory. But deep within the forest,
• 3:42:47
  Speaker 1: red gleams that wavered that seems to sink and rise
• 3:42:51
  Speaker 1: from the ground amongst confused columnar shapes of intense blackness
• 3:42:55
  Speaker 1: showed the exact position of the camp where mister Kurtz's
• 3:42:59
  Speaker 1: adorers were keeping their uneasy vigil. The monotonous beating of
• 3:43:03
  Speaker 1: a big drum filled the air with muffled shocks and
• 3:43:07
  Speaker 1: a lingering vibration, a steady droning sound of many men
• 3:43:11
  Speaker 1: chanting each to himself. Some weird incantation came out from
• 3:43:15
  Speaker 1: the black flat wall of the woods, as the humming
• 3:43:18
  Speaker 1: of bees comes out of a hive, and had a
• 3:43:21
  Speaker 1: strange narcotic effect upon my half awake senses. I believe
• 3:43:26
  Speaker 1: I dozed off leaning over the rail till an abrupt
• 3:43:29
  Speaker 1: burst of yells and overwhelming outbreak of a pent up
• 3:43:33
  Speaker 1: and mysterious frenzy woke me up in a bewildered wonder.
• 3:43:38
  Speaker 1: It was cut short all at once, and the low
• 3:43:41
  Speaker 1: droning went on with an effect of audible and soothing silence.
• 3:43:46
  Speaker 1: I glanced casually into the little cabin. A light was
• 3:43:49
  Speaker 1: burning within, but mister Kurtz was not there. I think
• 3:43:55
  Speaker 1: I would have raised an outcry if I had believed
• 3:43:57
  Speaker 1: my eyes, but I didn't believe them at first. The
• 3:44:00
  Speaker 1: thing seemed so impossible. The fact is I was completely
• 3:44:05
  Speaker 1: unnerved by a sheer, blank fright, pure abstract terror, unconnected
• 3:44:10
  Speaker 1: with any distinct shape of physical danger. What made this
• 3:44:14
  Speaker 1: emotion so overpowering was how shall I define it? The
• 3:44:19
  Speaker 1: moral shock I received, as if something altogether monstrous, intolerable
• 3:44:25
  Speaker 1: to thought, and odious to the soul had been thrust
• 3:44:28
  Speaker 1: upon me unexpectedly. This lasted, of course, the merest fraction
• 3:44:33
  Speaker 1: of a second, and then the usual sense of commonplace,
• 3:44:37
  Speaker 1: deadly danger. The possibility of a sudden onslaught and massacre,
• 3:44:41
  Speaker 1: or something of the kind which I saw impending, was
• 3:44:45
  Speaker 1: positively welcome and composing. It pacified me, in fact, so
• 3:44:50
  Speaker 1: much that I did not raise an alarm. There was
• 3:44:54
  Speaker 1: an agent buttoned up inside an ulster and sleeping on
• 3:44:57
  Speaker 1: a chair on deck, within three feet of me. The
• 3:45:01
  Speaker 1: yells had not awakened him. He snored very slightly. I
• 3:45:05
  Speaker 1: left him to his slumbers and leaped ashore. I did
• 3:45:09
  Speaker 1: not betray mister Kurtz. It was ordered. I should never
• 3:45:14
  Speaker 1: betray him. It was written, I should be loyal to
• 3:45:17
  Speaker 1: the nightmare of my choice. I was anxious to deal
• 3:45:21
  Speaker 1: with this shadow by myself alone, and to this day
• 3:45:25
  Speaker 1: I don't know why I was so jealous of sharing
• 3:45:28
  Speaker 1: with any one the peculiar blackness of that experience. As
• 3:45:34
  Speaker 1: soon as I got on the bank, I saw a trail,
• 3:45:37
  Speaker 1: a broad trail through the grass. I remember the exultation
• 3:45:41
  Speaker 1: with which I said to myself, he can't walk. He
• 3:45:45
  Speaker 1: is crawling on all fours. I forgot him. The grass
• 3:45:50
  Speaker 1: was wet with dew. I strode rapidly with clinched fists.
• 3:45:55
  Speaker 1: I fancy I had some vague notion of falling upon
• 3:45:58
  Speaker 1: him and giving him a drubbing. I don't know. I
• 3:46:02
  Speaker 1: had some imbecile thoughts. The knitting old woman with the
• 3:46:06
  Speaker 1: cat obtruded herself upon my memory as a most improper
• 3:46:10
  Speaker 1: person to be sitting at the other end of such
• 3:46:12
  Speaker 1: an affair. I saw a row of pilgrims squirting lead
• 3:46:16
  Speaker 1: in the air out of Winchester's held to the ship.
• 3:46:19
  Speaker 1: I thought I would never get back to the steamer,
• 3:46:22
  Speaker 1: and imagined myself living alone and unarmed in the woods
• 3:46:26
  Speaker 1: to an advanced age. Such silly things, you know, And
• 3:46:32
  Speaker 1: I remember. I confounded the beat of the drum with
• 3:46:35
  Speaker 1: the beating of my heart, and was pleased at its
• 3:46:38
  Speaker 1: calm regularity. I kept to the track, though then stopped
• 3:46:44
  Speaker 1: to listen. The night was very clear, a dark blue space,
• 3:46:48
  Speaker 1: sparkling with dew and starlight, in which black things stood
• 3:46:52
  Speaker 1: very still. I thought I could see a kind of
• 3:46:55
  Speaker 1: motion ahead of me. I was strangely cock sure of
• 3:46:59
  Speaker 1: everything that I actually left the track and ran in
• 3:47:02
  Speaker 1: a great semicircle, I verily believe, chuckling to myself, so
• 3:47:07
  Speaker 1: as to get in front of that stir of that
• 3:47:10
  Speaker 1: motion I had seen, if indeed I had seen anything,
• 3:47:14
  Speaker 1: I was circumventing curts, as though it had been a
• 3:47:17
  Speaker 1: boyish game. I came upon him, and if he had
• 3:47:23
  Speaker 1: not heard me coming, I would have fallen over him too.
• 3:47:26
  Speaker 1: But he got up in time. He rose unsteady, long, pale, indistinct,
• 3:47:33
  Speaker 1: like a vapor exhaled by the earth, and swayed slightly,
• 3:47:37
  Speaker 1: misty and silent before me, while at my back the
• 3:47:41
  Speaker 1: fires loomed between the trees, and the murmur of many
• 3:47:45
  Speaker 1: voices issued from the forest. I had cut him off cleverly,
• 3:47:49
  Speaker 1: but when actually confronting him, I seemed to come to
• 3:47:53
  Speaker 1: my senses. I saw the danger in its right proportion.
• 3:47:58
  Speaker 1: It was by no means over yet. Suppose he began
• 3:48:02
  Speaker 1: to shout, though he could hardly stand, there was still
• 3:48:06
  Speaker 1: plenty of vigor in his voice.
• 3:48:09
  Speaker 2: Go away, hide yourself.
• 3:48:13
  Speaker 1: He said, in that profound tone. It was very awful.
• 3:48:20
  Speaker 1: I glanced back. We were within thirty yards from the
• 3:48:23
  Speaker 1: nearest fire. A black figure stood up, strolled on long
• 3:48:28
  Speaker 1: black legs, waving long black arms across the glow. It
• 3:48:33
  Speaker 1: had horns, antelope horns, I think on its head, some sorcerer,
• 3:48:38
  Speaker 1: some witch man, No doubt, it looked fiendlike enough. Do
• 3:48:45
  Speaker 1: you know what you are doing? I whispered perfectly, he answered,
• 3:48:52
  Speaker 1: raising his voice for that single word. It sounded to
• 3:48:56
  Speaker 1: me far off and yet loud, like a hay through
• 3:49:00
  Speaker 1: a speaking trumpet. If he makes a row, we are lost,
• 3:49:05
  Speaker 1: I thought to myself. This clearly was not a case
• 3:49:09
  Speaker 1: for fisticuffs, even apart from the very natural aversion. I
• 3:49:13
  Speaker 1: had to beat that shadow, this wandering and tormented thing.
• 3:49:18
  Speaker 1: You will be lost, I said, utterly lost. One gets
• 3:49:24
  Speaker 1: sometimes such a flash of inspiration. You know, I did
• 3:49:28
  Speaker 1: say the right thing, though indeed he could not have
• 3:49:31
  Speaker 1: been more irretrievably lost than he was at this very moment,
• 3:49:35
  Speaker 1: when the foundations of our intimacy were being laid. To endure,
• 3:49:39
  Speaker 1: to endure, even to the end, even beyond. I had
• 3:49:45
  Speaker 1: immense plans, he muttered, irresolutely. Yes, said I. But if
• 3:49:53
  Speaker 1: you try to shout I'll smash your head with There
• 3:49:57
  Speaker 1: was not a stick or a stone near. I will
• 3:50:01
  Speaker 1: throttle you for good, I corrected myself. I was on
• 3:50:06
  Speaker 1: the threshold of great things. He pleaded, in a voice
• 3:50:11
  Speaker 1: of longing, with a wistfulness of tone that made my
• 3:50:14
  Speaker 1: blood run cold. And now for this stupid scoundrel, your
• 3:50:21
  Speaker 1: success in Europe is assured in any case, I affirmed steadily.
• 3:50:26
  Speaker 1: I did not want to have the throttling of him,
• 3:50:29
  Speaker 1: you understand, And indeed it would have been very little
• 3:50:33
  Speaker 1: use for any practical purpose. I tried to break the spell,
• 3:50:37
  Speaker 1: the heavy, mute spell of the wilderness that seemed to
• 3:50:41
  Speaker 1: draw him to its pitiless breast, by the awakening of
• 3:50:44
  Speaker 1: forgotten and brutal instincts, by the memory of gratified and
• 3:50:49
  Speaker 1: monstrous passions. This alone, I was convinced, had driven him
• 3:50:54
  Speaker 1: out to the edge of the forest, to the bush
• 3:50:57
  Speaker 1: towards the gleam of fires, the throb of drums, the
• 3:51:01
  Speaker 1: drone of weird incantations. This alone had beguiled his unlawful
• 3:51:07
  Speaker 1: soul beyond the bounds of permitted aspirations.
• 3:51:11
  Speaker 2: And don't you.
• 3:51:12
  Speaker 1: See the terror of the position was not in being
• 3:51:16
  Speaker 1: knocked on the head though I had a very lively
• 3:51:19
  Speaker 1: sense of that danger too. But in this that I
• 3:51:22
  Speaker 1: had to deal with a being to whom I could
• 3:51:25
  Speaker 1: not appeal in the name of anything high or low.
• 3:51:30
  Speaker 1: I had, even like the niggers, to invoke him himself,
• 3:51:34
  Speaker 1: his own exalted and incredible degradation. There was nothing either
• 3:51:39
  Speaker 1: above or below him.
• 3:51:41
  Speaker 2: I knew it.
• 3:51:43
  Speaker 1: He had kicked himself loose of the earth, confound the man.
• 3:51:47
  Speaker 1: He had kicked the very earth to pieces. He was alone,
• 3:51:52
  Speaker 1: and I before him, did not know whether I stood
• 3:51:55
  Speaker 1: on the ground or floated in the air. I've been
• 3:51:59
  Speaker 1: telling you what we said, repeating the phrases we pronounced.
• 3:52:03
  Speaker 1: But what's the good? They were common every day words,
• 3:52:07
  Speaker 1: the familiar, vague sounds, exchanged on every waking day of life.
• 3:52:12
  Speaker 1: But what of that they had behind them? To my mind?
• 3:52:17
  Speaker 1: The terrific suggestiveness of words heard in dreams, of phrases
• 3:52:22
  Speaker 1: spoken in nightmares.
• 3:52:24
  Speaker 2: Soul.
• 3:52:26
  Speaker 1: If anybody ever struggled with a soul, I am the man,
• 3:52:31
  Speaker 1: And I wasn't arguing with a lunatic, either believe me
• 3:52:36
  Speaker 1: or not. His intelligence was perfectly clear, concentrated, it is true,
• 3:52:41
  Speaker 1: upon himself, with horrible intensity, yet clear, and therein was
• 3:52:47
  Speaker 1: my only chance, barring, of course, the killing him there
• 3:52:51
  Speaker 1: and then, which wasn't so good on account of unavoidable noise.
• 3:52:57
  Speaker 1: But his soul was mad. Being alone in the wilderness,
• 3:53:02
  Speaker 1: it had looked within itself, and by Heavens, I tell
• 3:53:06
  Speaker 1: you it had gone mad. I had for my sins,
• 3:53:11
  Speaker 1: I suppose to go through the ordeal of looking into myself.
• 3:53:16
  Speaker 1: No eloquence could have been so withering to one's belief
• 3:53:20
  Speaker 1: in mankind as his final burst of sincerity. He struggled
• 3:53:25
  Speaker 1: with himself too. I saw it, I heard it. I
• 3:53:30
  Speaker 1: saw the inconceivable mystery of a soul that knew no restraint,
• 3:53:34
  Speaker 1: no faith, no fear, yet struggling blindly with itself. I
• 3:53:41
  Speaker 1: kept my head pretty well. But when I had him
• 3:53:44
  Speaker 1: at last stretched on the couch, I wiped my forehead
• 3:53:48
  Speaker 1: while my legs shook under me, as though I had
• 3:53:51
  Speaker 1: carried half a ton of my back down the hill,
• 3:53:55
  Speaker 1: and yet I had only supported him. His bony arm
• 3:53:59
  Speaker 1: clasped round my neck. He was not much heavier than
• 3:54:03
  Speaker 1: a child. And of part one of chapter three, Part
• 3:54:11
  Speaker 1: two of chapter three. When next day we left at noon,
• 3:54:16
  Speaker 1: the crowd of whose presence behind the curtain of trees.
• 3:54:19
  Speaker 1: I had been acutely conscious all the time, flowed out
• 3:54:23
  Speaker 1: of the woods again filled the clearing, covered the slope
• 3:54:26
  Speaker 1: with a mass of naked, breathing, quivering, bronze bodies. I
• 3:54:31
  Speaker 1: steamed up a bit, then swung downstream, and two thousand
• 3:54:36
  Speaker 1: eyes followed the evolutions of the splashing, thumping, fierce river Demon,
• 3:54:41
  Speaker 1: beating the water with its terrible tail and breathing black
• 3:54:45
  Speaker 1: smoke into the air. In the front of the first
• 3:54:49
  Speaker 1: rank along the river, three men plastered with bright bred
• 3:54:53
  Speaker 1: earth from head to foot, strutted to and fro restlessly.
• 3:54:58
  Speaker 1: When we came abreast again, they faced the river, stamped
• 3:55:01
  Speaker 1: their feet, nodded their horned heads, swayed their scarlet bodies.
• 3:55:07
  Speaker 1: They shook towards the fierce river demon, a bunch of
• 3:55:10
  Speaker 1: black feathers, a mangy skin, with a pendent tail, something
• 3:55:14
  Speaker 1: that looked a dry gourd. They shouted periodically together strings
• 3:55:20
  Speaker 1: of amazing words that resembled no sounds of human language,
• 3:55:24
  Speaker 1: and the deep murmurs of the crowd interrupted suddenly, were
• 3:55:29
  Speaker 1: like the responses of some satanic litany. We had carried
• 3:55:34
  Speaker 1: kurts into the pilot house. There was more air there
• 3:55:38
  Speaker 1: lying on the couch, He stared through the open shudder.
• 3:55:42
  Speaker 1: There was an eddy in the mass of human bodies,
• 3:55:45
  Speaker 1: and the woman with helmeted head and tawny cheeks rushed
• 3:55:48
  Speaker 1: out to the very brink of the stream. She put
• 3:55:51
  Speaker 1: out her hands, shouted something, and all that wild mob
• 3:55:55
  Speaker 1: took up the shots, and a roaring chorus of articulated, rapid,
• 3:56:00
  Speaker 1: breathless utterance. Do you understand this, I asked. He kept
• 3:56:07
  Speaker 1: on looking out past me with fiery, longing eyes, with
• 3:56:10
  Speaker 1: a mingled expression of wistfulness and hate. He made no answer,
• 3:56:16
  Speaker 1: but I saw a smile, a smile of indefinable meaning,
• 3:56:20
  Speaker 1: appear on his colorless lips that a moment after twitched convulsively.
• 3:56:26
  Speaker 1: Do not, he said, slowly, gasping, as if the words
• 3:56:33
  Speaker 1: had been torn out of him by a supernatural power.
• 3:56:37
  Speaker 1: I pulled the string of the whistle, and I did
• 3:56:40
  Speaker 1: this because I saw the pilgrims on deck getting out
• 3:56:43
  Speaker 1: their rifles with an air of anticipating a jolly lark.
• 3:56:48
  Speaker 1: At a sudden screech, there was a movement of abject
• 3:56:51
  Speaker 1: terror through that wedged mass of bodies. Don't don't you
• 3:56:56
  Speaker 1: frighten them away? Cried someone on deck consolately. I pulled
• 3:57:02
  Speaker 1: the string time after time. They broke and ran, They leaped,
• 3:57:07
  Speaker 1: they crouched, they swerved, they dodged the flying terror of
• 3:57:12
  Speaker 1: the sound. The three red chaps had fallen flat face
• 3:57:17
  Speaker 1: down on the shore, as though they had been shot dead.
• 3:57:20
  Speaker 1: Only the barbarous and superb woman did not so much
• 3:57:24
  Speaker 1: as flinch, and stretched tragically her bare arms after us
• 3:57:29
  Speaker 1: over the somber and glittering river. And then that imbecile
• 3:57:34
  Speaker 1: crowd down on the deck started their little fun, and
• 3:57:38
  Speaker 1: I could see nothing more for smoke. The brown current
• 3:57:44
  Speaker 1: ran swiftly out of the heart of darkness, bearing us
• 3:57:47
  Speaker 1: down towards the sea with twice the speed of our
• 3:57:50
  Speaker 1: upward progress. And Courtz's life was running swiftly too, ebbing, ebbing,
• 3:57:56
  Speaker 1: out of his heart into the sea of inexorable time.
• 3:58:00
  Speaker 1: The manager was very placid, He had no vital anxieties. Now.
• 3:58:05
  Speaker 1: He took us both in with a comprehensive and satisfied glance.
• 3:58:09
  Speaker 1: The affair had come off as well as he could
• 3:58:12
  Speaker 1: have wished. I saw the time approaching when I would
• 3:58:16
  Speaker 1: be left alone of the party of unsound method. The
• 3:58:21
  Speaker 1: pilgrims looked upon me with disfavor. I was, so to speak,
• 3:58:26
  Speaker 1: numbered with the dead. It is strange how I accepted
• 3:58:30
  Speaker 1: this unforeseen partnership, this choice of nightmares forced upon me
• 3:58:34
  Speaker 1: in the tenebrous land invaded by these mean and greedy phantoms,
• 3:58:41
  Speaker 1: Curtz disgorsed a voice. A voice it rang deep to
• 3:58:48
  Speaker 1: the very last, It survived his strength to hide in
• 3:58:52
  Speaker 1: the magnificent folds of eloquence, the barren darkness of his heart. Oh,
• 3:58:59
  Speaker 1: he struggled, He struggled. The wastes of his weary brain
• 3:59:05
  Speaker 1: were haunted by shadowy images, now images of wealth and fame,
• 3:59:09
  Speaker 1: revolving obsequiously around his unextinguishable gift of noble and lofty expression.
• 3:59:17
  Speaker 1: My intended, my station, my career, my ideas. These were
• 3:59:22
  Speaker 1: the subjects for the occasional utterances of elevated sentiments. The
• 3:59:27
  Speaker 1: shade of the original Curts frequented the bedside of the
• 3:59:30
  Speaker 1: hollow sham, whose fate it was to be buried presently
• 3:59:34
  Speaker 1: in the mold of primeval earth. But both the diabolic
• 3:59:39
  Speaker 1: love and the unearthly hate of the mysteries it had penetrated,
• 3:59:43
  Speaker 1: fought for the possession of that soul satiated of primitive emotions,
• 3:59:48
  Speaker 1: avid of lying, fame, of sham, distinction of all the
• 3:59:53
  Speaker 1: appearances of success and power. Sometimes he was contemptibly childish,
• 4:00:00
  Speaker 1: a desire to have kings meet him at railway stations
• 4:00:03
  Speaker 1: on his return from some ghastly nowhere where he intended
• 4:00:07
  Speaker 1: to accomplish great things. You show them that you have
• 4:00:12
  Speaker 1: in you something it is really profitable, and then there
• 4:00:15
  Speaker 1: will be no limits to the recognition of your ability.
• 4:00:19
  Speaker 1: He would say. Of course, you must take care of
• 4:00:22
  Speaker 1: the motives, right motives. Always the long reaches that were
• 4:00:29
  Speaker 1: like one and the same reach, monotonous bends that were
• 4:00:32
  Speaker 1: exactly alike, slipped past the steamer with their multitude of
• 4:00:36
  Speaker 1: secular trees. Looking patiently after this grimy fragment of another world,
• 4:00:42
  Speaker 1: the forerunner of change, of conquest, of trade, of massacres
• 4:00:46
  Speaker 1: of blessings. I looked ahead, piloting close the shutter, said Curtz. Suddenly,
• 4:00:56
  Speaker 1: one day I can't bear to look at this. I
• 4:01:01
  Speaker 1: did so. There was a silence. Oh but I will
• 4:01:07
  Speaker 1: wring your heart, yet, he cried at the invisible wilderness.
• 4:01:14
  Speaker 1: We broke down, as I had expected, and had to
• 4:01:18
  Speaker 1: lie up for repairs at the head of an island.
• 4:01:21
  Speaker 1: This delay was the first thing that shook Kurtz's confidence.
• 4:01:26
  Speaker 1: One morning, he gave me a packet of papers and
• 4:01:28
  Speaker 1: a photograph the lot tied together with a shoe string.
• 4:01:33
  Speaker 1: Keep this for me, he said, this noxious fool, meaning
• 4:01:39
  Speaker 1: the manager is capable of prying into my boxes when
• 4:01:43
  Speaker 1: I'm not looking. In the afternoon, I saw him. He
• 4:01:48
  Speaker 1: was lying on his back with closed eyes, and I
• 4:01:51
  Speaker 1: withdrew quietly. But I heard him mutter, live rightly, Die die.
• 4:02:01
  Speaker 1: I listened. There was nothing more. Was he rehearsing some
• 4:02:07
  Speaker 1: speech in his sleep, or was it a fragment of
• 4:02:10
  Speaker 1: a phrase from some newspaper article He had been writing
• 4:02:14
  Speaker 1: for the papers and meant to do so again for
• 4:02:17
  Speaker 1: the furthering of my ideas. It's my duty. His was
• 4:02:22
  Speaker 1: an impenetrable darkness. I looked at him as you peered
• 4:02:27
  Speaker 1: down at a man who was lying at the bottom
• 4:02:29
  Speaker 1: of a precipice where the sun never shines. But I
• 4:02:33
  Speaker 1: had not much time to give him, because I was
• 4:02:36
  Speaker 1: helping the engine driver to take to pieces the leaky cylinders,
• 4:02:40
  Speaker 1: to straighten a bent connecting rod, and another such matters.
• 4:02:45
  Speaker 1: I lived in an infernal mess of rust, filings, nuts, bolts, spanners, hammers,
• 4:02:52
  Speaker 1: ratchet drills, things I abominate because I don't get on
• 4:02:57
  Speaker 1: with them. I tended the little forge. We fortunately had
• 4:03:01
  Speaker 1: a board. I toiled wearily in a wretched scrap heap
• 4:03:07
  Speaker 1: unless I had the shakes too bad to stand. One evening,
• 4:03:12
  Speaker 1: coming in with a candle, I was startled to hear
• 4:03:15
  Speaker 1: him say, a little tremulously, I am lying here in
• 4:03:19
  Speaker 1: the dark, waiting for death. The lights was within a
• 4:03:25
  Speaker 1: foot of his eyes. I forced myself to murmur, oh, nonsense,
• 4:03:32
  Speaker 1: and stood over him, as if transfixed anything approaching. The
• 4:03:38
  Speaker 1: change that came over his features I have never seen
• 4:03:42
  Speaker 1: before and hope never to see again. Oh, I wasn't touched.
• 4:03:49
  Speaker 1: I was fascinated. It was as though a veil had
• 4:03:52
  Speaker 1: been rent. I saw on that ivory face the expression
• 4:03:57
  Speaker 1: of somber pride, of ruthless power, of craven terror, of
• 4:04:02
  Speaker 1: an intense and hopeless despair. Did he live his life
• 4:04:08
  Speaker 1: again in every detail of desired, temptation and surrender. During
• 4:04:13
  Speaker 1: that supreme moment of complete knowledge, he cried in a
• 4:04:17
  Speaker 1: whisper at some image, at some vision. He cried out twice,
• 4:04:23
  Speaker 1: a cry that was no more than a breath lo horror, theoror.
• 4:04:35
  Speaker 1: I blew the candilats and left the cabin. The pilgrims
• 4:04:40
  Speaker 1: were dining in the mess room, and I took my
• 4:04:43
  Speaker 1: place opposite the manager, who lifted his eyes to give
• 4:04:46
  Speaker 1: me a questioning glance, which I successfully ignored. He leaned back, serene,
• 4:04:53
  Speaker 1: with that peculiar smile of his, sealing the unexpressed depths
• 4:04:57
  Speaker 1: of his meanness. A continuous shower of small flies streamed
• 4:05:02
  Speaker 1: upon the lamp, upon the cloth, upon our hands and faces.
• 4:05:07
  Speaker 1: Suddenly the manager's boy put his insolent black head in
• 4:05:11
  Speaker 1: the doorway and said, in a tone of scathing contempt,
• 4:05:15
  Speaker 1: mister Kurtz, he dead. All the pilgrims rushed out to sea.
• 4:05:24
  Speaker 1: I remained and went on with my dinner. I believe
• 4:05:28
  Speaker 1: I was considered brutally callous. However I did not eat much.
• 4:05:33
  Speaker 1: There was a lamp in there, light, don't you know,
• 4:05:37
  Speaker 1: And outside it was so beastly, beastly dark. I went
• 4:05:42
  Speaker 1: no more near the remarkable man who had pronounced a
• 4:05:46
  Speaker 1: judgment upon the adventures of his soul on this earth.
• 4:05:50
  Speaker 1: The voice was gone. What else had been there? But
• 4:05:56
  Speaker 1: I am, of course aware that next day the pilgrim
• 4:06:00
  Speaker 1: buried something in a muddy hole, and then they very
• 4:06:06
  Speaker 1: nearly buried me. However, as you see, I did not
• 4:06:12
  Speaker 1: go to join Kurtz there, and then I did not.
• 4:06:16
  Speaker 1: I remained to dream the nightmare after the end, and
• 4:06:20
  Speaker 1: to show my loyalty to Kurtz once more. Destiny, my destiny,
• 4:06:28
  Speaker 1: droll thing. Life is that mysterious arrangement of merciless logic
• 4:06:34
  Speaker 1: for a futile purpose. The most you can hope from
• 4:06:37
  Speaker 1: it is some knowledge of yourself that comes too late,
• 4:06:42
  Speaker 1: a crop of unextinguishable regrets. I have wrestled with death.
• 4:06:48
  Speaker 1: It is the most unexciting contest you can imagine. It
• 4:06:52
  Speaker 1: takes place in an impalpable grayness, with nothing underfoot, with
• 4:06:57
  Speaker 1: nothing around, without spectators, without clamor, without glory, without the
• 4:07:03
  Speaker 1: great desire of victory, without the great fear of defeat,
• 4:07:08
  Speaker 1: in a sickly atmosphere of tapid skepticism, without much belief
• 4:07:12
  Speaker 1: in your own right, and still less in that of
• 4:07:14
  Speaker 1: your adversary. If such is the form of ultimate wisdom,
• 4:07:20
  Speaker 1: then life is a greater riddle than some of us
• 4:07:22
  Speaker 1: think it to be. I was within a hair's breadth
• 4:07:27
  Speaker 1: of the last opportunity for pronouncement and I found with
• 4:07:30
  Speaker 1: humiliation that probably I would have nothing to say. This
• 4:07:36
  Speaker 1: is the reason why I affirm that Kurtz was a
• 4:07:39
  Speaker 1: remarkable man. He had something to say. He said it.
• 4:07:47
  Speaker 1: Since I had peeped over the edge myself, I understand
• 4:07:50
  Speaker 1: better the meaning of his stare that would not see
• 4:07:53
  Speaker 1: the flame of the candle, but was wide enough to
• 4:07:56
  Speaker 1: embrace the whole universe, piercing enough to penetrate all the
• 4:08:00
  Speaker 1: arts that beat in the darkness. He had summed up,
• 4:08:04
  Speaker 1: he had judged the horror. He was a remarkable man,
• 4:08:13
  Speaker 1: after all. This was the expression of some sort of belief.
• 4:08:17
  Speaker 1: It had candor, It had conviction, that had a vibrating
• 4:08:21
  Speaker 1: note of revolt in its whisper. It had the appalling
• 4:08:25
  Speaker 1: face of a glimpsed truth, the strange commingling of desire
• 4:08:30
  Speaker 1: and hate. And it is not my own extremity I
• 4:08:34
  Speaker 1: remember best, a vision of grayness without form, filled with
• 4:08:38
  Speaker 1: physical pain and a careless contempt with the evanescence of
• 4:08:42
  Speaker 1: all things, even of this pain itself. Now it was
• 4:08:48
  Speaker 1: his extremity that I seemed to have lived through. True,
• 4:08:53
  Speaker 1: he had made that last stride, he had stepped over
• 4:08:57
  Speaker 1: the edge, while I had been permitted to drop back
• 4:09:00
  Speaker 1: my hesitating foot. And perhaps in this is the whole difference.
• 4:09:06
  Speaker 1: Perhaps all the wisdom, and all truth, and all sincerity
• 4:09:11
  Speaker 1: are just compressed into that inappreciable moment of time in
• 4:09:15
  Speaker 1: which we step over the threshold of the invisible. Perhaps
• 4:09:22
  Speaker 1: I like to think my summing up would not have
• 4:09:24
  Speaker 1: been a word of careless contempt. Better his cry, much better.
• 4:09:31
  Speaker 1: It was an affirmation, a moral victory, paid for by
• 4:09:35
  Speaker 1: innumerable defeats, by abominable terrors, by abominable satisfactions. But it
• 4:09:44
  Speaker 1: was a victory. That is why I have remained loyal
• 4:09:48
  Speaker 1: to carts to the last and even beyond. When a
• 4:09:52
  Speaker 1: long time after I heard once more, not his own voice,
• 4:09:56
  Speaker 1: but the echo of his magnificent eloquence thro to me
• 4:10:00
  Speaker 1: from a soul as translucently pure as a cliff of crystal. No,
• 4:10:07
  Speaker 1: they did not bury me, though there is a period
• 4:10:11
  Speaker 1: of time which I remember mistily with a shuddering wonder,
• 4:10:15
  Speaker 1: like a passage through some inconceivable world that had no
• 4:10:18
  Speaker 1: hope in it and no desire. I found myself back
• 4:10:23
  Speaker 1: in the sepulchral city, presenting the sight of people hurrying
• 4:10:27
  Speaker 1: through the streets to filter little money from each other,
• 4:10:31
  Speaker 1: to devour their infamous cookery, to gulp their unwholesome beer,
• 4:10:36
  Speaker 1: to dream their insignificant and silly dreams. They trespassed upon
• 4:10:42
  Speaker 1: my thoughts. They were intruders whose knowledge of life was
• 4:10:47
  Speaker 1: to me an irritating pretense. Because I felt so sure
• 4:10:51
  Speaker 1: they could not possibly know the things I knew. Their bearing,
• 4:10:56
  Speaker 1: which was simply the bearing of commonplace individuals going about
• 4:11:00
  Speaker 1: their business in the assurance of perfect safety, was offensive
• 4:11:04
  Speaker 1: to me, Like the outrageous flauntings of folly in the
• 4:11:07
  Speaker 1: face of a danger. It is unable to comprehend. I
• 4:11:12
  Speaker 1: had no particular desire to enlighten them, but I had
• 4:11:16
  Speaker 1: some difficulty in restraining myself from laughing in their faces.
• 4:11:20
  Speaker 1: So full of stupid importance, I dare say I was
• 4:11:25
  Speaker 1: not very well at that time. I tottered about the
• 4:11:29
  Speaker 1: streets there were various affairs to settle, grinning bitterly at
• 4:11:34
  Speaker 1: perfectly respectable persons. I admit my behavior was inexcusable, but
• 4:11:42
  Speaker 1: then my temperature was seldom normal in these days. My
• 4:11:47
  Speaker 1: dear aunt's endeavors to nurse up my strength seemed altogether
• 4:11:52
  Speaker 1: beside the mark. It was not my strength that wanted nursing.
• 4:11:57
  Speaker 1: It was my imagination that wanted soothing. I kept the
• 4:12:03
  Speaker 1: bundle of papers given me by Kerts, not knowing exactly
• 4:12:06
  Speaker 1: what to do with it. His mother had died lately,
• 4:12:11
  Speaker 1: watched over as I was told by his intended. A
• 4:12:15
  Speaker 1: clean shaved man with an official manner and wearing gold
• 4:12:19
  Speaker 1: rimmed spectacles called on me one day and made inquiries,
• 4:12:22
  Speaker 1: at first circuitous, afterwards suavely pressing about what he was
• 4:12:27
  Speaker 1: pleased to denominate certain documents. I was not surprised, because
• 4:12:34
  Speaker 1: I had had two rows with the manager on the
• 4:12:36
  Speaker 1: subject out there. I had refused to give up the
• 4:12:41
  Speaker 1: smallest scrap out of that package, and I took the
• 4:12:44
  Speaker 1: same attitude with the spectacled man. He became darkly menacing
• 4:12:49
  Speaker 1: at last, and with much heat, argued that the company
• 4:12:53
  Speaker 1: had the right to every bit of information about its territories,
• 4:12:58
  Speaker 1: and said he miss mister Kurtz's knowledge of unexplored regions
• 4:13:02
  Speaker 1: must have been necessarily extensive and peculiar, owing to his
• 4:13:07
  Speaker 1: great abilities and to the deplorable circumstances in which he
• 4:13:11
  Speaker 1: had been placed. Therefore, I assured him mister Kurtz's knowledge, however, extensive,
• 4:13:18
  Speaker 1: did not bear upon the problems of commerce or administration.
• 4:13:23
  Speaker 1: He invoked, then the name of science. It would be
• 4:13:27
  Speaker 1: an incalculable loss if et cetera, et cetera. I offered
• 4:13:33
  Speaker 1: him the Report on the Suppression of Savage Customs, with
• 4:13:36
  Speaker 1: the post scriptum torn off. He took it up eagerly,
• 4:13:40
  Speaker 1: but ended by sniffing at it with an air of contempt.
• 4:13:44
  Speaker 1: This is not what we had a right to expect,
• 4:13:48
  Speaker 1: he remarked. Expect nothing else, I said, there are only
• 4:13:53
  Speaker 1: private letters. He withdrew upon some threat of legal proceedings,
• 4:13:59
  Speaker 1: and I saw him no more. But another fellow calling
• 4:14:04
  Speaker 1: himself Kurtz's cousin, appeared two days later and was anxious
• 4:14:08
  Speaker 1: to hear all the details about his dear relative's last moments. Incidentally,
• 4:14:13
  Speaker 1: he gave me to understand that Kurtz had been essentially
• 4:14:17
  Speaker 1: a great musician. There was the making of an immense success,
• 4:14:22
  Speaker 1: said the man who was an organist, I believe, with
• 4:14:26
  Speaker 1: blank gray hair flowing over a greasy coat collar. I
• 4:14:31
  Speaker 1: had no reason to doubt his statements, And to this
• 4:14:34
  Speaker 1: day I was unable to say what was Kurtz's profession,
• 4:14:38
  Speaker 1: whether he ever had any, Which was the greatest of
• 4:14:41
  Speaker 1: his talents. I had taken him for a painter who
• 4:14:46
  Speaker 1: wrote for the papers, or else for a journalist who
• 4:14:49
  Speaker 1: could paint. But even the cousin who took snuff during
• 4:14:53
  Speaker 1: the interview could not tell me what he had been exactly.
• 4:14:58
  Speaker 1: He was a unifor versal genius. On that point, I
• 4:15:02
  Speaker 1: agreed with the old chap, who thereupon blew his nose
• 4:15:06
  Speaker 1: noisily into a large cotton handkerchief and withdrew in senile agitation,
• 4:15:11
  Speaker 1: bearing off some family letters and memoranda without importance. Ultimately,
• 4:15:17
  Speaker 1: a journalist, anxious to know something of the fate of
• 4:15:20
  Speaker 1: his dear colleague, turned up. This visitor informed me Kurtz's
• 4:15:26
  Speaker 1: proper sphere ought to have been in politics on the
• 4:15:29
  Speaker 1: popular side. He had very straight eyebrows, bristly hair, crop short,
• 4:15:35
  Speaker 1: an eyeglass on a broad ribbon, and, becoming expansive, confessed
• 4:15:40
  Speaker 1: his opinion that Kurtz really couldn't write a bit. But
• 4:15:44
  Speaker 1: heavens how that man could talk. He electrified large meetings.
• 4:15:50
  Speaker 1: He had faith, don't you see? He had the faith.
• 4:15:54
  Speaker 1: He could get himself to believe anything anything. He would
• 4:15:59
  Speaker 1: have been a splendid leader of an extreme party. What party,
• 4:16:05
  Speaker 1: I asked, Any party answered the other. He was an
• 4:16:10
  Speaker 1: an extremist. Did I not think so? I assented, Did
• 4:16:16
  Speaker 1: I know? He asked, with a sudden flash of curiosity,
• 4:16:20
  Speaker 1: what it was that had induced him to go out there? Yes,
• 4:16:25
  Speaker 1: said I, and forthwith handed him the famous report for
• 4:16:30
  Speaker 1: publication if he thought fit. He glanced through it hurriedly,
• 4:16:35
  Speaker 1: mumbling all the time, judged it it would do, and
• 4:16:39
  Speaker 1: took himself off with his plunder. Thus I was left
• 4:16:45
  Speaker 1: at last with a slim packet of letters and the
• 4:16:48
  Speaker 1: girl's portrait. She struck me as beautiful. I mean, she
• 4:16:53
  Speaker 1: had a beautiful expression. I know that the sunlight can
• 4:16:58
  Speaker 1: be made to lie too, Yet one felt that no
• 4:17:02
  Speaker 1: manipulation of light and pose could have conveyed the delicate
• 4:17:06
  Speaker 1: shade of truthfulness upon these features. She seemed ready to listen,
• 4:17:11
  Speaker 1: without mental reservation, without suspicion, without a thought for herself.
• 4:17:17
  Speaker 1: I concluded I would go back and give her back
• 4:17:20
  Speaker 1: her portrait and those letters myself, curiosity, yes, and some
• 4:17:27
  Speaker 1: other feeling. Perhaps all that had been Curtsy's had passed
• 4:17:31
  Speaker 1: out of my hands, his soul, his body, his station,
• 4:17:35
  Speaker 1: his plans, his ivory, his career. There remained only his
• 4:17:41
  Speaker 1: memory and his intended and I wanted to give that
• 4:17:45
  Speaker 1: up too, to the past, in a way, to surrender
• 4:17:49
  Speaker 1: personally all that remained of him with me, to that oblivion,
• 4:17:53
  Speaker 1: which is the last word of our common fate. I
• 4:17:57
  Speaker 1: don't defend myself. I had no clear perception of what
• 4:18:01
  Speaker 1: it was I really wanted. Perhaps it was an impulse
• 4:18:06
  Speaker 1: of unconscious loyalty, or the fulfillment of one of those
• 4:18:10
  Speaker 1: ironic necessities that lurk in the facts of human existence.
• 4:18:15
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I can't tell, but I went. I
• 4:18:22
  Speaker 1: thought his memory was like the other memories of the
• 4:18:25
  Speaker 1: dead that accumulated every man's life, a vague impress on
• 4:18:30
  Speaker 1: the brain of shadows that had fallen on us in
• 4:18:32
  Speaker 1: their swift and final passage. But before the high and
• 4:18:37
  Speaker 1: ponderous door between the tall houses of a street, as
• 4:18:41
  Speaker 1: still and decorous as a well kept alley in a cemetery,
• 4:18:45
  Speaker 1: I had a vision of him on the stretcher, opening
• 4:18:48
  Speaker 1: his mouth voraciously, as if to devour all the earth
• 4:18:52
  Speaker 1: with all its mankind. He lived then before me, he
• 4:18:58
  Speaker 1: lived as much as he had ever lived, a shadow,
• 4:19:01
  Speaker 1: insatiable of splendid appearances, of frightful realities, a shadow darker
• 4:19:07
  Speaker 1: than the shadow of the night, and draped nobly in
• 4:19:10
  Speaker 1: the folds of a gorgeous eloquence. The vision seemed to
• 4:19:15
  Speaker 1: enter the house with me, the stretcher, the phantom bearers,
• 4:19:19
  Speaker 1: the wild crowd of obedient worshippers, the gloom of the forests,
• 4:19:24
  Speaker 1: the glitter of the reach between the murky bends, the
• 4:19:27
  Speaker 1: beat of the drum, regular and muffled, like the beating
• 4:19:31
  Speaker 1: of a heart, the hearts of a conquering darkness. It
• 4:19:36
  Speaker 1: was a moment of triumph for the wilderness, an invading
• 4:19:40
  Speaker 1: and vengeful rush, which it seemed to me I would
• 4:19:44
  Speaker 1: have to keep back alone for the salvation of another soul.
• 4:19:49
  Speaker 1: And the memory of what I had heard him say
• 4:19:51
  Speaker 1: afar there, with the horned shapes stirring at my back.
• 4:19:56
  Speaker 1: In the glow of fires within the patient woods, those
• 4:20:00
  Speaker 1: broken phrases came back to me, were heard again in
• 4:20:03
  Speaker 1: their ominous and terrifying simplicity. I remembered his abject pleading,
• 4:20:10
  Speaker 1: his abject threats, the colossal scale of his vile desires,
• 4:20:15
  Speaker 1: the meanness, the torment, the tempestuous anguish of his soul,
• 4:20:20
  Speaker 1: And later on I seemed to see his collected, languid
• 4:20:25
  Speaker 1: manner when he said, one day this lot of ivory
• 4:20:30
  Speaker 1: now is really mine. The company did not pay for it.
• 4:20:35
  Speaker 1: I collected it myself at a very great personal risk.
• 4:20:40
  Speaker 1: I am afraid they will try to claim it as theirs.
• 4:20:43
  Speaker 1: Though it's a difficult case. What do you think I
• 4:20:47
  Speaker 1: ought to do? Resist? I want no more than justice.
• 4:20:55
  Speaker 1: He wanted no more than justice, No more than justice.
• 4:21:02
  Speaker 1: I rang the bell before a mahogany door on the
• 4:21:04
  Speaker 1: first floor, and while I waited, he seemed to stare
• 4:21:08
  Speaker 1: at me out of the glassy panel, stare with that
• 4:21:11
  Speaker 1: wide and immense stare, embracing, condemning, loathing all the universe.
• 4:21:18
  Speaker 1: I seemed to hear the whispered cry.
• 4:21:22
  Speaker 2: The horror, the horror.
• 4:21:29
  Speaker 1: The dusk was falling. I had to wait in a
• 4:21:32
  Speaker 1: lofty drawing room with three long windows from floor to
• 4:21:36
  Speaker 1: ceiling that were like three luminous and bedraped columns. The
• 4:21:41
  Speaker 1: bent gilt legs and backs of the furniture shone in
• 4:21:45
  Speaker 1: indistinct curves. The tall marble fireplace had a cold and
• 4:21:50
  Speaker 1: monumental whiteness. A grand piano stood massively in a corner
• 4:21:55
  Speaker 1: with dark gleams on the flat surfaces like a somber
• 4:21:58
  Speaker 1: and polished sarka coofagus. A high door opened, closed, I rose.
• 4:22:06
  Speaker 1: She came forward, all in black, with a pale head
• 4:22:10
  Speaker 1: floating towards me in the dusk. She was in mourning.
• 4:22:16
  Speaker 1: It was more than a year since his death, more
• 4:22:19
  Speaker 1: than a year since the news came. She seemed as
• 4:22:22
  Speaker 1: though she would remember and mourn forever. She took both
• 4:22:27
  Speaker 1: my hands in hers and murmured, I had heard you
• 4:22:31
  Speaker 1: were coming. I noticed she was not very young, I mean,
• 4:22:36
  Speaker 1: not girlish. She had a mature capacity for fidelity, for belief,
• 4:22:43
  Speaker 1: for suffering. The room seemed to have grown darker, as
• 4:22:48
  Speaker 1: if all the sad light of the cloudy evening had
• 4:22:50
  Speaker 1: taken refuge on her forehead. This fair hair, this pale visage,
• 4:22:57
  Speaker 1: this pure brow, seemed so by an ashy halo from
• 4:23:02
  Speaker 1: which the dark eyes looked out at me. Their glance
• 4:23:06
  Speaker 1: was guileless, profound, confident, and trustful. She carried her sorrowful
• 4:23:12
  Speaker 1: head as though she were proud of that sorrow, as
• 4:23:15
  Speaker 1: though she would say, I I alone know how to
• 4:23:20
  Speaker 1: mourn for him as he deserves. But while we were
• 4:23:25
  Speaker 1: still shaking hands, such a look of awful desolation came
• 4:23:29
  Speaker 1: upon her face that I perceived she was one of
• 4:23:32
  Speaker 1: those creatures that are not the playthings of time. For her,
• 4:23:38
  Speaker 1: he had died only yesterday, And by Jove, the impression
• 4:23:43
  Speaker 1: was so powerful that for me too, he seemed to
• 4:23:47
  Speaker 1: have died only yesterday. Nay, this very minute, I saw
• 4:23:54
  Speaker 1: her and him in the same instant of time, his
• 4:23:59
  Speaker 1: death and her sorrow. I saw her sorrow in the
• 4:24:03
  Speaker 1: very moment of his death. Do you understand I saw
• 4:24:09
  Speaker 1: them together. I heard them together, she had said, with
• 4:24:15
  Speaker 1: a deep catch of the breath, I have survived, while
• 4:24:20
  Speaker 1: my strained ears seemed to hear distinctly mingled with her
• 4:24:24
  Speaker 1: tone of despairing regret, the summing up whisper of his
• 4:24:29
  Speaker 1: eternal condemnation. I asked myself what I was doing there,
• 4:24:34
  Speaker 1: with a sensation of panic in my heart, as though
• 4:24:36
  Speaker 1: I had blundered into a place of cruel and absurd
• 4:24:39
  Speaker 1: mysteries not fit for a human being to behold. She
• 4:24:44
  Speaker 1: motioned me to a chair. We sat down. I laid
• 4:24:48
  Speaker 1: the packet gently on the little table, and she put
• 4:24:51
  Speaker 1: her hand over it. You knew him well, she murmured,
• 4:24:57
  Speaker 1: after a moment of mourning silence, intimacy grows quickly out there.
• 4:25:02
  Speaker 1: I said, I knew him as well as it is
• 4:25:06
  Speaker 1: possible for one man to know another, And you admired him.
• 4:25:12
  Speaker 1: He said, it was impossible to know him and not
• 4:25:16
  Speaker 1: admire him. Who was it? He was a remarkable man,
• 4:25:22
  Speaker 1: I said unsteadily. Then, before the appealing fixity of her
• 4:25:27
  Speaker 1: gaze that seemed to watch for more words on my lips,
• 4:25:31
  Speaker 1: I went on, it was impossible not to love him,
• 4:25:38
  Speaker 1: she finished, eagerly, silencing me into an appalled dumbness.
• 4:25:43
  Speaker 2: How true, How true?
• 4:25:47
  Speaker 1: But when you think that no one knew him so
• 4:25:50
  Speaker 1: well as I? I had all his noble confidence. I
• 4:25:56
  Speaker 1: knew him best. You knew him better, I repeated, and
• 4:26:02
  Speaker 1: perhaps she did. But with every word spoken, the room
• 4:26:06
  Speaker 1: was growing darker, and only her forehead, smooth and white,
• 4:26:11
  Speaker 1: remained illumined by the inextinguishable light of belief and love.
• 4:26:17
  Speaker 1: You were his friend, she went on, his friend, she repeated.
• 4:26:22
  Speaker 1: A little louder you must have been if he had
• 4:26:25
  Speaker 1: given you this and sent you to me. I fear
• 4:26:30
  Speaker 1: I can speak to you, and oh I must speak.
• 4:26:36
  Speaker 1: I want you you have heard his last words, to
• 4:26:41
  Speaker 1: know I have been worthy of him. It is not pride. Yes,
• 4:26:47
  Speaker 1: I am proud to know I understood him better than
• 4:26:50
  Speaker 1: any one on earth. He told me so himself, And
• 4:26:55
  Speaker 1: since his mother died, I have had no one, no
• 4:26:59
  Speaker 1: one to to. I listened, the darkness deepened. I was
• 4:27:07
  Speaker 1: not even sure whether he had given me the right bundle.
• 4:27:10
  Speaker 1: I rather suspect he wanted me to take care of
• 4:27:13
  Speaker 1: another batch of his papers, which after his death. I
• 4:27:16
  Speaker 1: saw the manager examining under the lamp, and the girl talked,
• 4:27:22
  Speaker 1: easing her pain in the certitude of my sympathy. She
• 4:27:27
  Speaker 1: talked as thirsty men drink. I had heard that her
• 4:27:32
  Speaker 1: engagement with Kurts had been disapproved by her people. He
• 4:27:37
  Speaker 1: wasn't rich enough or something. And indeed, I don't know
• 4:27:41
  Speaker 1: whether he had not been a pauper all his life.
• 4:27:44
  Speaker 1: He had given me some reason to infer that it
• 4:27:47
  Speaker 1: was his impatience of comparative poverty that drove him out there.
• 4:27:53
  Speaker 1: Who was not his friend, who had heard him speak once?
• 4:27:57
  Speaker 1: She was saying, he drew men to by what was
• 4:28:01
  Speaker 1: best in them. She looked at me with intensity. It
• 4:28:06
  Speaker 1: is the gift of the great, she went on, and
• 4:28:10
  Speaker 1: the sound of her low voice seemed to have the
• 4:28:13
  Speaker 1: accompaniment of all the other sounds full of mystery, desolation,
• 4:28:18
  Speaker 1: and sorrow. I had ever heard the ripple of the river,
• 4:28:23
  Speaker 1: the sowing of the trees swayed by the wind, the
• 4:28:26
  Speaker 1: murmurs of the crowds, the faint ring of incomprehensible words
• 4:28:30
  Speaker 1: cried from afar, the whisper of a voice speaking from
• 4:28:35
  Speaker 1: beyond the threshold of an eternal darkness. But you have
• 4:28:41
  Speaker 1: heard him, you know, she cried, Yes, I know, I said,
• 4:28:47
  Speaker 1: with something like despair in my heart, but bowing my
• 4:28:52
  Speaker 1: head before the faith that was in her, before that
• 4:28:55
  Speaker 1: great and saving illusion that shone with an unearthly glow
• 4:28:58
  Speaker 1: in the darkness, triumphant darkness from which I could not
• 4:29:02
  Speaker 1: have defended her, from which I could not even defend myself.
• 4:29:08
  Speaker 1: What a lost to me, to us, she corrected herself
• 4:29:13
  Speaker 1: with beautiful generosity, then added, in a murmur.
• 4:29:17
  Speaker 2: To the world.
• 4:29:20
  Speaker 1: By the last gleams of twilight, I could see the
• 4:29:23
  Speaker 1: glitter of her eyes, full of tears, of tears that
• 4:29:27
  Speaker 1: would not fall. I have been very happy, very fortunate,
• 4:29:35
  Speaker 1: very proud. She went on, too fortunate, too happy for
• 4:29:40
  Speaker 1: a little while, and now I am unhappy for for life.
• 4:29:47
  Speaker 1: She stood up, her fair hair seemed to catch all
• 4:29:51
  Speaker 1: the remaining light in a glimmer of gold. I rose too,
• 4:29:57
  Speaker 1: And all of this she went on, mournfully, of all
• 4:30:01
  Speaker 1: his promise, and of all his greatness, of his generous mind,
• 4:30:06
  Speaker 1: of his noble heart. Nothing remains nothing but a memory.
• 4:30:13
  Speaker 1: You and I we shall always remember him, I said hastily. No,
• 4:30:21
  Speaker 1: she cried, it is impossible that all this should be lost,
• 4:30:25
  Speaker 1: that such a life should be sacrificed, to leave nothing
• 4:30:31
  Speaker 1: but sorrow.
• 4:30:33
  Speaker 2: You know what.
• 4:30:34
  Speaker 1: Vast plans he had. I knew of them too, I
• 4:30:37
  Speaker 1: could not perhaps understand, but others knew of them. Something
• 4:30:42
  Speaker 1: must remain. His words, at least, have not died. His
• 4:30:49
  Speaker 1: words will remain, I said. And his example, she whispered
• 4:30:55
  Speaker 1: to herself. Man looked up to him, his goodness shown
• 4:31:00
  Speaker 1: in every act, His example true, I said, his example too, Yes,
• 4:31:08
  Speaker 1: his example. I forgot that. But I do not. I cannot.
• 4:31:16
  Speaker 1: I cannot believe, not yet, I cannot believe that I
• 4:31:22
  Speaker 1: shall never see him again, that nobody will see him.
• 4:31:27
  Speaker 2: Again, never, never, never.
• 4:31:34
  Speaker 1: She put out her arms as if after a retreating figure,
• 4:31:39
  Speaker 1: stretching them back and with clasped pale hands across the
• 4:31:42
  Speaker 1: fading and narrow sheen of the window. Never see him.
• 4:31:48
  Speaker 1: I saw him clearly enough. Then I shall see this
• 4:31:52
  Speaker 1: eloquent phantom as long as I live, and I shall
• 4:31:56
  Speaker 1: see her too, a tragic and familiar shape, resembling in
• 4:32:01
  Speaker 1: this gesture another one, tragic also, and bedecked with powerless charms,
• 4:32:08
  Speaker 1: stretching bare brown arms over the glitter of the infernal stream,
• 4:32:12
  Speaker 1: a stream of darkness, she said, suddenly very low. He
• 4:32:19
  Speaker 1: died as he lived his end, said I, with dull
• 4:32:25
  Speaker 1: anger stirring in me, was in every way worthy of
• 4:32:29
  Speaker 1: his life, And I was not with him, She murmured.
• 4:32:35
  Speaker 1: My anger subsided before a feeling of infinite pity. Everything
• 4:32:41
  Speaker 1: that could be done, I mumbled, Ah, But I believed
• 4:32:47
  Speaker 1: in him more than any one on earth, more than
• 4:32:51
  Speaker 1: his own mother, more than himself.
• 4:32:55
  Speaker 2: He needed me me.
• 4:32:59
  Speaker 1: I would have treasured every sigh, every word, every sign,
• 4:33:04
  Speaker 1: every glance. I felt like a chill grip on my chest, don't,
• 4:33:12
  Speaker 1: I said, in a muffled voice, forgive me. I I
• 4:33:20
  Speaker 1: have mourned so long in silence, In silence, you were
• 4:33:27
  Speaker 1: with him to the last. I think of his loneliness.
• 4:33:33
  Speaker 1: Nobody near to understand him as I would have understood,
• 4:33:38
  Speaker 1: perhaps no one to hear to the very end, I said, shakily.
• 4:33:44
  Speaker 1: I heard his very last words. I stopped in affright
• 4:33:51
  Speaker 1: repeat them, she murmured, in a heart broken tone. I
• 4:33:57
  Speaker 1: want I want something, something to to live with. I
• 4:34:09
  Speaker 1: was on the point of crying at her. Don't you
• 4:34:12
  Speaker 1: hear them? The dusk was repeating them in a persistent
• 4:34:16
  Speaker 1: whisper all around us, in a whisper that seemed to
• 4:34:20
  Speaker 1: swell menacingly, like the first whisper of a rising wind.
• 4:34:25
  Speaker 2: Bror the.
• 4:34:31
  Speaker 1: His last word to live with, She insisted, don't you
• 4:34:37
  Speaker 1: understand I loved him. I loved him. I loved him.
• 4:34:44
  Speaker 1: I pulled myself together and spoke slowly. The last word
• 4:34:50
  Speaker 1: he pronounced was your name. I heard a light sigh,
• 4:34:58
  Speaker 1: and then my heart good still stopped dead short by
• 4:35:03
  Speaker 1: an exulting and terrible cry, by the cry of inconceivable
• 4:35:07
  Speaker 1: triumph and of unspeakable pain.
• 4:35:11
  Speaker 2: I knew it. I was sure she knew.
• 4:35:18
  Speaker 1: She was sure I heard her weeping. She had hidden
• 4:35:24
  Speaker 1: her face in her hands. It seemed to me that
• 4:35:27
  Speaker 1: the house would collapse before I could escape, that the
• 4:35:31
  Speaker 1: heavens would fall upon my head. But nothing happened. The
• 4:35:37
  Speaker 1: heavens do not fall for such a trifle. Would they
• 4:35:41
  Speaker 1: have fallen? I wonder if I had rendered Kurts that
• 4:35:44
  Speaker 1: justice which was his due. Hadn't he said, he wanted
• 4:35:48
  Speaker 1: only justice. But I couldn't. I could not tell her.
• 4:35:54
  Speaker 1: It would have been too dark, too dark. Altogether, Marlow
• 4:36:01
  Speaker 1: ceased and sat apart, indistinct and silent, in the pose
• 4:36:05
  Speaker 1: of a meditating Buddha. Nobody moved for a time. We
• 4:36:10
  Speaker 1: have lost the first of the ebb, said the director.
• 4:36:14
  Speaker 1: Suddenly I raised my head. The offing was barred by
• 4:36:19
  Speaker 1: a black bank of clouds, and the tranquil waterway leading
• 4:36:23
  Speaker 1: to the uttermost ends of the earth flowed somber under
• 4:36:27
  Speaker 1: an overcast sky, seemed to lead into the heart of
• 4:36:32
  Speaker 1: an immense darkness. End of Heart of Darkness by Joseph
• 4:36:40
  Speaker 1: Conrad