Latest / Classic Adventure Books - Daily / 02 - Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

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02 - Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad · Classic Adventure Books - Daily

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Speaker 1: Part two of chapter one of Heart of Darkness. I
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Speaker 1: didn't want any more loitering in the shade, and I
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Speaker 1: made haste towards the station. When near the buildings, I
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Speaker 1: met a white man in such an unexpected elegance of
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Speaker 1: get up that in the first moment I took him
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Speaker 1: for a sort of vision. I saw a high starched collar,
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Speaker 1: white cuffs, a light outpack of jacket, snowy trousers, a
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Speaker 1: clean necktie, and varnished boots, no hat, hair parted, brushed,
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Speaker 1: oiled under a green lined parasol, held in a big
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Speaker 1: white hand. He was amazing and had a penholder behind
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Speaker 1: his ear. I shook hands with this miracle, and I
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Speaker 1: learned he was the company's chief accountants, and that all
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Speaker 1: the bookkeeping was done at this station. He had come
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Speaker 1: out for a moment, he said, to get a breath
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Speaker 1: of fresh air. The expression sounded wonderfully odd, with its
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Speaker 1: suggestion of sedentary desk life. I wouldn't have mentioned the
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Speaker 1: fellow to you at all. Only it was from his
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Speaker 1: lips that I first heard the name of the man
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Speaker 1: who was so indissolubly connected with the memories of that time. Moreover,
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Speaker 1: I respected the fellow. Yes, I respected his collars, his
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Speaker 1: vast cuffs, his brushed hair. His appearance was certainly that
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Speaker 1: of a head dresser's dummy. But in the great demoralization
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Speaker 1: of the land, he kept up his appearance. That's backbone,
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Speaker 1: his starched collars and got up shirt fronts were achievements
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Speaker 1: of character. He had been out nearly three years, and
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Speaker 1: later I could not help asking him how he managed
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Speaker 1: to sport shut linen. He had just the faintest blush
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Speaker 1: and said modestly, I've been teaching one of the native
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Speaker 1: women about the station. It was difficult. She had a
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Speaker 1: distaste for the work. Thus this man had verily accomplished something,
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Speaker 1: and he was devoted to his books, which were in
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Speaker 1: apple pie order. Everything else in the station was in
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Speaker 1: a muddle. Heads, things, buildings, strings of dusty niggers with
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Speaker 1: splay feets arrived and departed a stream of manufactured goods,
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Speaker 1: rubbishy cottons, beads and brass wire set into the depths
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Speaker 1: of darkness, and in return came a precious trickle of ivory.
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Speaker 1: I had to wait in the station for ten days,
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Speaker 1: an eternity. I lived in a hut in the yard,
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Speaker 1: but to the out of the chaos. I would sometimes
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Speaker 1: get into the accountant's office. It was built of horizontal planks,
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Speaker 1: and so badly put together that as he bent over
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Speaker 1: his high desk, he was barred from neck to heels
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Speaker 1: with narrow strips of sunlight. There was no need to
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Speaker 1: open the big shutter to see it was hot. There, too,
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Speaker 1: big flies buzzed fiendishly and did not sting, but stabbed.
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Speaker 1: I sat generally on the floor, while of faultless appearance,
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Speaker 1: and even slightly scented, perching on a high stool, he wrote,
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Speaker 1: He wrote, Sometimes he stood up for exercise when a
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Speaker 1: truckled bed with a sick man, some invalid agent from
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Speaker 1: up country was put in there. He exhibited a gentle annoyance.
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Speaker 1: The groans of this sick person, he said, distract my attention,
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Speaker 1: and without that it is extremely difficult to guard against
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Speaker 1: clerical errors in this climate. One day, he remarked, without
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Speaker 1: lifting his head in the interior, you will no doubt
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Speaker 1: meet mister Kurtz. On my asking who mister Kurtz was,
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Speaker 1: he said he was a first class agent's and seeing
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Speaker 1: my disappointment at this information, he added, slowly, laying down
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Speaker 1: his pen, he is a very remarkable person. Further questions
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Speaker 1: elicited from him that mister Kurtz was at present in
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Speaker 1: charge of a trading post, a very important one in
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Speaker 1: the true ivory country at the very bottom of there
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Speaker 1: sends in as much ivory as all the others put together.
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Speaker 1: He began to write again. The sick man was too
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Speaker 1: ill to groan. The flies buzzed in a great peace.
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Speaker 1: Suddenly there was a growing murmur of voices and a
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Speaker 1: great trampling of feet. A caravan had come in. A
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Speaker 1: violent babble of uncouth sounds burst out on the other
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Speaker 1: side of the planks. All the carriers were speaking together,
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Speaker 1: and in the midst of the uproar, the mementable voice
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Speaker 1: of the chief agent was heard, giving it up tearfully
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Speaker 1: for the twentieth time that day. He rode slowly. What
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Speaker 1: a frightful row, he said. He crossed the room gently
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Speaker 1: to look at the sick man, and returning, said to me,
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Speaker 1: he does not hear what dead? I asked, startled, No,
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Speaker 1: not yet, he answered, with great composure, then alluding with
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Speaker 1: the toss of the head to the tumult in the
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Speaker 1: station yard. When one has got to make correct entries,
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Speaker 1: one comes to hate those savages, hate them to the death.
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Speaker 1: He remained thoughtful for a moment. When you see mister Kurtz,
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Speaker 1: he went on, tell him from me that everything here
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Speaker 1: he glanced at the desk, is very satisfactory. They don't
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Speaker 1: like to write to him. With those messengers of ours.
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Speaker 1: You never know who may get hold of your letter.
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Speaker 1: At that central station, he stared at me for a
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Speaker 1: moment with his mild bulging eyes. Oh oh, he will
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Speaker 1: go far, very far, he began again. He will be
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Speaker 1: a somebody in the administration before long they above the
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Speaker 1: council in Europe, you know, mean him to be. He
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Speaker 1: turned to his work. The noise outside had ceased, and presently,
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Speaker 1: in going out, I stopped at the door, in the
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Speaker 1: steady buzz of flies. The homeward bound agent was lying,
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Speaker 1: finished and insensible. The other, bent over his books, was
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Speaker 1: making correct entries of perfectly correct transactions. And fifty feet
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Speaker 1: below the doorstep I could see the still treetops of
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Speaker 1: the grove of death. Next day I left that station
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Speaker 1: at last with a caravan of sixty men for a
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Speaker 1: two hundred mile tramp. No use telling you much about that.
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Speaker 1: Paths paths everywhere, A stamped in work of paths, spreading
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Speaker 1: over the empty land, through the long grass, through burnt grass,
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Speaker 1: through thickets, down and up chilly ravines, up and down
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Speaker 1: stony hills, ablaze with heat and a solitude, a solitude, nobody,
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Speaker 1: not a hut. The population had cleared out a long
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Speaker 1: time ago. Well, if a lot of mysterious niggers, armed
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Speaker 1: with all kinds of fearful weapons, suddenly took to traveling
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Speaker 1: on the road between Deal and Gravesend, catching the yukele's
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Speaker 1: right and left to carry heavy loads for them, I
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Speaker 1: fancy every farm and cottage thereabouts would get empty very soon.
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Speaker 1: Only here the dwellings were gone too. Still I passed
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Speaker 1: through several abandoned villages. There's something pathetically childish in the
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Speaker 1: ruins of grass walls, day after day, with the stamp
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Speaker 1: and shuffle of sixty pair of bare feet behind me,
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Speaker 1: each pair under a six pound load. Camp, cook, sleep, strike, camp,
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Speaker 1: march now and then a carrier dead in harness, at
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Speaker 1: rest in the long grass near the path, with an
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Speaker 1: empty water good and his long staff lying by his side.
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Speaker 1: A great silence around and above, perhaps on some quiet night,
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Speaker 1: the tremor of far off drums sinking, swelling, a tremor, vast, faint,
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Speaker 1: a sound, weird, appealing, suggestive and wild, and perhaps with
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Speaker 1: as profound a meaning as the sound of bells in
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Speaker 1: a Christian country. Once a white man in an unbuttoned uniform,
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Speaker 1: camping on the path with an armed escort of lush Zanzabaris,
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Speaker 1: very hospitable and festive, not to say drunk, was looking
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Speaker 1: after the upkeep of the road. He declared, can't say
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Speaker 1: I saw any road or any upkeep, unless the body
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Speaker 1: of a middle aged Negro with a bullet hole in
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Speaker 1: the forehead, upon which I absolutely stumbled three miles farther on,
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Speaker 1: may be considered as a permanent improvement. I had a
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Speaker 1: white companion too, not a bad chap, but rather too fleshy,
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Speaker 1: and with the exasperating habit of fainting on the hot
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Speaker 1: hillsides miles away from the least bit of shade and water. Annoying,
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Speaker 1: you know, to hold your own coat like a parasol
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Speaker 1: over a man's head while he's coming too. I couldn't
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Speaker 1: help asking him once what he meant by coming there
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Speaker 1: at all? To make money? Of course, what do you think,
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Speaker 1: he said, scornfully. Then he got fever and had to
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Speaker 1: be carried in a hammock slung under a pole. As
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Speaker 1: he weighed sixteen stone. I had no end of rows
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Speaker 1: with the carriers. They jibbed, ran away, sneaked off with
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Speaker 1: their loads in the night. Quite a mutiny. So one
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Speaker 1: evening I made a speech in English with gestures, not
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Speaker 1: one of which was lost to the sixty pair of
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Speaker 1: eyes before me, And the next morning I started the
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Speaker 1: hammock off in front all right. An hour afterwards I
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Speaker 1: came upon the whole concern wrecked in a bush man hammock, groans, blankets, horrors.
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Speaker 1: The heavy pole had skinned his poor nose. He was
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Speaker 1: very anxious for me to kill somebody. But there wasn't
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Speaker 1: the shadow of a carrier near. I remembered the old doctor.
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Speaker 1: It would be interesting for science to watch the mental
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Speaker 1: changes of individuals. On the spot, I felt I was
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Speaker 1: becoming scientifically interesting. However, all that is to know purpose.
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Speaker 1: On the fifteenth day I came in sight of the
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Speaker 1: Big River again and hobbled into the central station. It
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Speaker 1: was on a back water, surrounded by scrub and forest,
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Speaker 1: with a pretty border of smelly mud on one side
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Speaker 1: and on the three others enclosed by a crazy fence
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Speaker 1: of rushes. A neglected gap was all the gait it had,
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Speaker 1: and the first glance at the place was enough to
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Speaker 1: let you see the flabby devil was running that show.
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Speaker 1: White men with long staves in their hands, appeared languidly
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Speaker 1: from amongst the buildings, strolling up to take a look
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Speaker 1: at me, and then retired out of sight somewhere. One
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Speaker 1: of them, a stout, excitable chap with black mustaches, informed
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Speaker 1: me with great volubility and many digressions. As soon as
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Speaker 1: I told him who I was, that my steamer was
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Speaker 1: at the bottom of the river. I was thunderstruck. What
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Speaker 1: how why? Oh, it was all right. The manager himself
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Speaker 1: was there, all quite correct. Everybody had behaved splendidly. Splendidly,
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Speaker 1: you must, he said, in agitation, Go and see the
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Speaker 1: general manager at once. He is waiting. I did not
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Speaker 1: see the real significance of that wreck at once. I
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Speaker 1: fancy I see it now, but I am not sure,
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Speaker 1: not at all. Certainly the affair was too stupid when
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Speaker 1: I think of it, to be altogether natural. Still, but
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Speaker 1: at the moment it presented itself simply as a confounded nuisance.
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Speaker 1: The steamer was sunk. They had started two days before
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Speaker 1: in a sudden hurry up the river with the manager
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Speaker 1: on board, in charge of some volunteer skipper, and before
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Speaker 1: they had been out three hours, they tore the bottom
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Speaker 1: out of her on stones, and she sank near the
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Speaker 1: south bank. I asked myself what I was to do
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Speaker 1: there now my boat was lost. As a matter of fact,
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Speaker 1: I had plenty to do in fishing my mind command
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Speaker 1: out of the river. I had to set about it
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Speaker 1: the very next day. That and the repairs when I
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Speaker 1: brought the pieces to the station took some months. My
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Speaker 1: first interview with the manager was curious. He did not
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Speaker 1: ask me to sit down after my twenty mile walk
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Speaker 1: that morning. He was commonplace in complexion, in features, in manners,
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Speaker 1: and in voice. He was of middle size and of
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Speaker 1: ordinary build. His eyes of the usual blue, were perhaps
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Speaker 1: remarkably cold, and he certainly could make his glance fall
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Speaker 1: on one as trenchant and heavy as an axe. But
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Speaker 1: even at these times, the rest of his person seemed
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Speaker 1: to disclaim the intention. Otherwise there was only an indefinable
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Speaker 1: faint expression of his lips, something stealthy. A smile. Not
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Speaker 1: a smile, I remember it, but I can't explain. It
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Speaker 1: was unconscious. This smile was though just after he had
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Speaker 1: said something, it got intensified for an instant. It came
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Speaker 1: at the end of his speeches, like a seal applied
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Speaker 1: on the words to make the meaning of the commonest
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Speaker 1: phrase appear absolutely inscrutable. He was a common trader from
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Speaker 1: his youth up, employed in these parts. Nothing more. He
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Speaker 1: was obeyed. Yet he inspired neither love, nor fear, nor
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Speaker 1: even respect. He inspired uneasiness. That was its uneasiness, not
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Speaker 1: a definite mistrusts, just uneasiness. Nothing more. You have no
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Speaker 1: idea how effective such a faculty can be. He had
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Speaker 1: no genius for organizing, for initiative, or for order, even
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Speaker 1: that was evident in such things as the fplorable state
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Speaker 1: of the station. He had no learning and no intelligence.
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Speaker 1: His position had come to him. Why, perhaps because he
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Speaker 1: was never ill, He had served three terms of three
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Speaker 1: years out there, Because triumphant health in the general route
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Speaker 1: of constitutions is a kind of power in itself. When
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Speaker 1: he went home on leave, he rioted on a large
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Speaker 1: scale pompously jack ashore, with a difference in externals. Only
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Speaker 1: this one could gather from his casual talk he originated nothing.
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Speaker 1: He can keep the routine going, that's all. But he
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Speaker 1: was great. He was great by this little thing that
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Speaker 1: it was impossible to tell what could control such a man.
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Speaker 1: He never gave that secret away. Perhaps there was nothing
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Speaker 1: within him. Such a suspicion made one pause. For out
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Speaker 1: there there were no external checks. Once, when various tropical
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Speaker 1: diseases had laid low almost every agent in the station,
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Speaker 1: he was heard to say, men who come out here
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Speaker 1: should have no entrails. He sealed the utterance with that
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Speaker 1: smile of his, as though it had been a door
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Speaker 1: opening into a darkness he had in his keeping. You
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Speaker 1: fancied you had seen things. But the seal was on.
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Speaker 1: When annoyed at meal times by the constant quarrels of
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Speaker 1: the white men about precedents, he ordered an immense round
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Speaker 1: table to be made, for which a special house had
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Speaker 1: to be built. This was the station's mess room, where
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Speaker 1: he sat, was the first place the rest were nowhere.
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Speaker 1: One felt this to be his unalterable conviction. He was
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Speaker 1: neither civil nor uncivil. He was quiet. He allowed his
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Speaker 1: boy and over fed young Negro from the coast, to
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Speaker 1: treat the white men under his very eyes, with provoking insolence.
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Speaker 1: He began to speak as soon as he saw me.
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Speaker 1: I had been very long on the road. He could
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Speaker 1: not wait, had to start without me. The up river
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Speaker 1: stations had to be relieved. There had been so many
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Speaker 1: delays already that he did not know who was dead
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Speaker 1: and who was alive, and how they got on, and
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Speaker 1: so on and so on. He paid no attention to
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Speaker 1: my explanations, and, playing with a stick of sealing wax,
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Speaker 1: repeated several times that the situation was very grave, fairy grave.
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Speaker 1: There were rumors that a very important station was in jeopardy,
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Speaker 1: and its chief, mister Kurtz, was ill. Hoped it was
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Speaker 1: not true. Mister Kurtz was. I felt weary and irritable.
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Speaker 1: Hang Kurtz, I thought. I interrupted him by saying, I
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Speaker 1: had heard of mister Kurtz on the coast. Ah, so
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Speaker 1: they talk of him down there, he murmured to himself.
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Speaker 1: Then he began again, assuring me mister Kurtz was the
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Speaker 1: best agent he had, an exceptional man, of the greatest
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Speaker 1: importance to the company. Therefore, I could understand his anxiety.
18:18
Speaker 1: He was, he said, very very uneasy. Certainly he fidgeted
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Speaker 1: on his chair a good deal, exclaimed, Ah, mister Kurtz
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Speaker 1: broke the stick of sealing wax and seemed dumbfounded by
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Speaker 1: the accident. Next thing, he wanted to know how long
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Speaker 1: it would take to I interrupted him again, being hungry,
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Speaker 1: you know, and kept on my feet too. I was
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Speaker 1: getting savage. How can I tell? I said, I haven't
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Speaker 1: even seen the wreck yet. Some months, no doubt. All
18:57
Speaker 1: this talk seemed to me so futile. Some months he said, well,
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Speaker 1: let us say three months before we can make a start. Yes,
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Speaker 1: that ought to do the affair. I flung out of
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Speaker 1: his hut. He lived all alone in a clay hut
19:15
Speaker 1: with a sort of verandah muttering to myself my opinion
19:19
Speaker 1: of him, he was a chattering idiot. Afterwards, I took
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Speaker 1: it back when it was borne in upon me, startlingly
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Speaker 1: with what extreme nicety he had estimated the time requisite
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Speaker 1: for the affair. I went to work the next day, turning,
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Speaker 1: so to speak, my back on that station. In that way,
19:41
Speaker 1: only it seemed to me I could keep my hold
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Speaker 1: on the redeeming facts of life. Still one must look
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Speaker 1: about sometimes, And then I saw this station, these men
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Speaker 1: strolling aimlessly about in the sunshine of the yard, I
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Speaker 1: asked myself sometimes what in all meant? They wandered here
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Speaker 1: and there with their absurd long staves in their hands,
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Speaker 1: like a lot of faithless pilgrims, bewitched inside a rotten fence.
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Speaker 1: The word ivory rang in the air, was whispered, was sighed.
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Speaker 1: You would think they were praying to it. A taint
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Speaker 1: of imbecile rapacity blew through it all like a whiff
20:22
Speaker 1: from some corpse. By Jove, I've never seen anything so
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Speaker 1: unreal in my life, and outside the silent wilderness surrounding,
20:33
Speaker 1: this cleared speck on the earth struck me as something
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Speaker 1: great and invincible, like evil or truth, waiting patiently for
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Speaker 1: the passing away of this fantastic invasion. Oh these months, well,
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Speaker 1: never mind. Various things happened. One evening, a grass shed
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Speaker 1: full of Calaco cotton prints, bees, and I don't know
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Speaker 1: what else, burst into a blaze so suddenly that you
21:03
Speaker 1: would have thought the earth had opened to let an
21:06
Speaker 1: avenging fire consume all that trash. I was smoking my
21:11
Speaker 1: pipe quietly by my dismantled steamer, and saw them all
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Speaker 1: cutting capers in the lights with their arms lifted high.
21:18
Speaker 1: When the stout man with mustaches came tearing down to
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Speaker 1: the river, a tin pail in his hand, assured me
21:25
Speaker 1: that everybody was behaving splendidly. Splendidly, dipped about a quart
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Speaker 1: of water and tore back again. I noticed there was
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Speaker 1: a hole in the bottom of his pail. I strolled up.
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Speaker 1: There was no hurry, you see. The thing had gone
21:43
Speaker 1: off like a box of matches. It had been hopeless
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Speaker 1: from the very first. The flame had leaped high, driven
21:50
Speaker 1: everybody back, lighted up everything, and collapsed. The shed was
21:56
Speaker 1: already a heap of embers, glowing fiercely. It was being
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Speaker 1: beaten near by. They said he had caused the fire
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Speaker 1: in some way, but be that as it may, he
22:09
Speaker 1: was screeching most horribly. I saw him later for several days,
22:14
Speaker 1: sitting in a bit of shade, looking very sick and
22:17
Speaker 1: trying to recover himself. Afterwards, he arose and went out,
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Speaker 1: and the wilderness, without a sound, took him into its
22:25
Speaker 1: bosom again. As I approached the glow from the dark,
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Speaker 1: I found myself at the back of two men talking.
22:34
Speaker 1: I heard the name of Kurts pronounced, then the words
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Speaker 1: take advantage of this unfortunate accident. One of the men
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Speaker 1: was the manager. I wished him a good evening. Did
22:46
Speaker 1: you ever see anything like it? Say? It was incredible,
22:51
Speaker 1: he said, and walked off. The other man remained he
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Speaker 1: was a first class agent, young gentlemanly bit reserved, with
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Speaker 1: a forked little beard and a hooked nose. He was
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Speaker 1: stand offish with the other agents, and they on their
23:08
Speaker 1: side said he was the manager's spy upon them. As
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Speaker 1: to me, I had hardly ever spoken to him before
23:16
Speaker 1: we got into talk, and by and by we strolled
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Speaker 1: away from the hissing ruins. Then he asked me to
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Speaker 1: his room, which was in the main building of the station.
23:26
Speaker 1: He struck a match, and I perceived that this young
23:30
Speaker 1: aristocrat had not only a silver mounted dressing case, but
23:34
Speaker 1: also a whole candle all to himself. Just at that
23:38
Speaker 1: time the manager was the only man supposed to have
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Speaker 1: any right to candles. Native mats covered the clay walls.
23:45
Speaker 1: A collection of spears, assgades, shiels knives was hung up
23:49
Speaker 1: in trophies. The business entrusted to this fellow was the
23:53
Speaker 1: making of bricks, so I had been informed. But there
23:57
Speaker 1: wasn't a fragment of a brick anywhere in the station,
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Speaker 1: and he had been there more than a year waiting.
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Speaker 1: It seems he could not make bricks without something. I
24:07
Speaker 1: don't know what, straw maybe. Anyway, it could not be
24:12
Speaker 1: found there, and as it was not likely to be
24:14
Speaker 1: sent from Europe, it did not appear clear to me
24:17
Speaker 1: what he was waiting for. An act of special creation perhaps. However,
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Speaker 1: they were all waiting, all the sixteen or twenty pilgrims
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Speaker 1: of them, for something, and upon my word, it did
24:31
Speaker 1: not seem an uncongenial occupation from the way they took it, though,
24:35
Speaker 1: the only thing that ever came to them was disease.
24:39
Speaker 1: As far as I could see. They beguiled the time
24:42
Speaker 1: by backbiding and in figuring against each other in a
24:45
Speaker 1: foolish kind of way. There was an air of plotting
24:49
Speaker 1: about that station, but nothing came of it. Of course,
24:54
Speaker 1: it was as unreal as everything else, as the philanthropic
24:57
Speaker 1: pretense of the whole concern as their talk, as their government,
25:02
Speaker 1: as their show of work. The only real feeling was
25:07
Speaker 1: a desire to get appointed to a trading post where
25:10
Speaker 1: ivory was to be had, so that they could earn percentages.
25:14
Speaker 1: They intrigued and slandered and hated each other only on
25:18
Speaker 1: that account. But as to effectually lifting a little finger,
25:24
Speaker 1: oh no, By heavens, there was something, after all in
25:28
Speaker 1: the world allowing one man to steal a horse while
25:31
Speaker 1: another must not look at a halter steal a horse
25:35
Speaker 1: straight out, very well, he has done it. Perhaps he
25:39
Speaker 1: can ride. But there is a way of looking at
25:42
Speaker 1: a halter that would provoke the most charitable of saints
25:46
Speaker 1: into a kick. I had no idea why he wanted
25:50
Speaker 1: to be sociable, but as we chatted in there, it
25:54
Speaker 1: suddenly occurred to me the fellow was trying to get
25:56
Speaker 1: at something, in fact pumping me. He alluded constantly to Europe,
26:02
Speaker 1: to the people I was supposed to know there, putting
26:05
Speaker 1: leading questions as to my acquaintances in the sepulchral city.
26:09
Speaker 1: So on his little eyes glittered like mica discs with curiosity,
26:15
Speaker 1: though he tried to keep up a bit of superciliousness.
26:19
Speaker 1: At first I was astonished, but very soon I became
26:23
Speaker 1: awfully curious to see what he would find out from me.
26:27
Speaker 1: I couldn't possibly imagine what I had in me to
26:29
Speaker 1: make it worth his while. It was very pretty to
26:33
Speaker 1: see how he baffled himself, for in truth, my body
26:37
Speaker 1: was full only of chills, and my head had nothing
26:40
Speaker 1: in it but that wretched steamboat business. It was evident
26:45
Speaker 1: he took me for a perfectly shameless prevaricator. At last
26:50
Speaker 1: he got angry, and to conceal a moment of furious annoyance,
26:54
Speaker 1: he yawned. I rose. Then I noticed a small sketch
26:59
Speaker 1: of oils on a panel representing a woman draped and blindfolded,
27:04
Speaker 1: carrying a lighted torch. The background was somber, almost black.
27:10
Speaker 1: The movement of the woman was stately, and the effect
27:13
Speaker 1: of the torchlight on the face was sinister. It arrested me,
27:19
Speaker 1: and he stood by civilly holding an empty half pint
27:23
Speaker 1: champagne bottle medical comforts, with the candle stuck in it.
27:28
Speaker 1: To my question, he said, mister Kurtz had painted this
27:31
Speaker 1: in this very station more than a year ago, while
27:35
Speaker 1: waiting for means to go to his trading post. Tell me, pray,
27:40
Speaker 1: said I. Who is this, mister Kurtz, the chief of
27:45
Speaker 1: the inner station, He answered, in a short tone, looking away.
27:50
Speaker 1: Much obliged, I said, laughing, and you are the brickmaker
27:55
Speaker 1: of the central station. Every one knows that he was
28:00
Speaker 1: silent for a while He is a prodigy, he said,
28:05
Speaker 1: at last, he is an emissary of pity and science
28:09
Speaker 1: and progress, and devil knows what else we want. He
28:13
Speaker 1: began to declaim suddenly for the guidance of the cause
28:17
Speaker 1: entrusted to us by Europe, so to speak, higher intelligence,
28:21
Speaker 1: wide sympathies, a singleness of purpose. Who says that? I
28:27
Speaker 1: asked lots of them, he replied, some even write that.
28:31
Speaker 1: And so he comes here a special bee, as you
28:35
Speaker 1: ought to know? Why ought I to know? I interrupted,
28:40
Speaker 1: really surprised he paid no attention. Yes, to day, he
28:44
Speaker 1: is chief of the best station. Next year he will
28:48
Speaker 1: be assistant manager two years more. And but I dare
28:52
Speaker 1: say you know what he will be in two years time.
28:56
Speaker 1: You are of the new gang, the gang of virtue.
29:00
Speaker 1: The same people who sent him specially also recommended you. Oh,
29:05
Speaker 1: don't say no, I've mine own eyes to trust. Lights
29:11
Speaker 1: dawned upon me. My dear aunt's influential acquaintances were producing
29:16
Speaker 1: an unexpected effect upon that young man. I nearly burst
29:21
Speaker 1: into a laugh. Do you read the company's confidential correspondence?
29:26
Speaker 1: I asked. He hadn't a word to say. It was
29:30
Speaker 1: great fun. When mister Kurtz, I continued severely. It's general, manager,
29:37
Speaker 1: you won't have the opportunity. He blew the candle out suddenly,
29:42
Speaker 1: and we went outside. The moon had risen. Black figures
29:47
Speaker 1: strolled about listlessly, pouring water on the glow. Whence proceeded,
29:52
Speaker 1: a sound of hissing steam ascended in the moonlight. The
29:56
Speaker 1: beaten nigger groaned. Somewhere, What a row the brute makes,
30:02
Speaker 1: said the indefatigable man with the mustaches appearing near us.
30:06
Speaker 1: Serve him right, transgression punishment, bang, pitiless, pitiless, That's the
30:11
Speaker 1: only way this will prevent all conflagrations for the future.
30:17
Speaker 1: I was just telling the manager. He noticed my companion
30:21
Speaker 1: and became crestfallen all at once. Not in bed yet,
30:26
Speaker 1: he said, with a kind of servile heartiness. It's so natural. Ah,
30:32
Speaker 1: danger agitation, he vanished. I went on to the river side,
30:38
Speaker 1: and the other followed me. I heard a scathing murmur
30:43
Speaker 1: at my ear. Heap of muffs go to the Pilgrims
30:48
Speaker 1: could be seen in nots gesticulating discussing. Several had stilled
30:53
Speaker 1: their staves in their hands. I verily believe they took
30:57
Speaker 1: these sticks to bed with them. Beyond the fence. The
31:02
Speaker 1: forest stood up spectrally in the moonlight, and through that
31:06
Speaker 1: dim stir, through the faint sounds of that lamentable courtyard,
31:10
Speaker 1: the silence of the land went home to one's very heart,
31:14
Speaker 1: its mystery, its greatness, the amazing reality of its concealed life.
31:20
Speaker 1: The hurt nigger moaned feebly somewhere near by, and then
31:24
Speaker 1: fetched a deep sigh that made me mend my pace
31:27
Speaker 1: away from there. I felt a hand introducing itself under
31:31
Speaker 1: my arm. My dear sir, said the fellow. I don't
31:36
Speaker 1: want to be misunderstood, and especially by you, who we'll see,
31:41
Speaker 1: mister Kurtz, long before I can have that pleasure. I
31:45
Speaker 1: wouldn't like him to get a false idea of my disposition.
31:49
Speaker 1: I let him run on this paper, Machet Mestopheles, And
31:53
Speaker 1: it seemed to me that if I tried, I could
31:55
Speaker 1: poke my forefinger through him and would find nothing inside
32:00
Speaker 1: but a little loose dirt. Maybe he don't, you see,
32:05
Speaker 1: had been planned to be the assistant manager by and
32:08
Speaker 1: by under the present man. And I could see that
32:11
Speaker 1: the coming of that Kurtz had upset them both not
32:14
Speaker 1: a little. He talked precipitately, and I did not try
32:18
Speaker 1: to stop him. I had my shoulders against the wreck
32:21
Speaker 1: of my steamer, hauled up on the slope, like a
32:24
Speaker 1: carcass of some big river animal. The smell of mud,
32:29
Speaker 1: of prime evil, mud, by jove was in my nostrils.
32:33
Speaker 1: The high stillness of primeval forests was before my eyes.
32:37
Speaker 1: There were shiny patches on the black creek. The moon
32:40
Speaker 1: had spread over everything, a thin layer of silver over
32:45
Speaker 1: the rank grass, over the mud open, the wall of
32:48
Speaker 1: matted vegetation, standing higher than the wall of a temple.
32:52
Speaker 1: Over the great river I could see through a somber gap, glittering, glittering,
32:57
Speaker 1: as it flowed broadly by, without a murmur. All this
33:01
Speaker 1: was great, expectant mute. While the man jabbered about himself.
33:07
Speaker 1: I wondered whether the stillness on the face of the
33:10
Speaker 1: immensity looking at us too, were meant as an appeal
33:14
Speaker 1: or as a menace? What were we who had strayed
33:17
Speaker 1: in there? Could we handle that dumb thing or would
33:21
Speaker 1: it handle us? I felt, how big, how confoundly big,
33:26
Speaker 1: was that thing that couldn't talk, and perhaps was deaf
33:30
Speaker 1: as well? What was in there? I could see a
33:35
Speaker 1: little ivory coming out from there, and I had heard
33:38
Speaker 1: mister Kurtz was in there. I had heard enough about
33:42
Speaker 1: it too, God knows. Yet somehow it didn't bring any
33:46
Speaker 1: image with it, no more than if I had been
33:48
Speaker 1: told an angel or a fiend was in there. I
33:52
Speaker 1: believed it in the same way one of you might
33:54
Speaker 1: believe there are inhabitants in the planet Mars. I knew
33:58
Speaker 1: once a Scotch salemanaker, who was certain dead sure there
34:02
Speaker 1: were people in Mars. If you asked him for some
34:06
Speaker 1: idea how they looked and behaved, he would get shy
34:09
Speaker 1: and mutter something about walking on all fours. If you
34:14
Speaker 1: as much as smiled, he would, though a man of sixty,
34:18
Speaker 1: offer to fight you. I would not have gone so
34:21
Speaker 1: far as to fight for Kurtz, but I went for
34:24
Speaker 1: him near enough to a lie. You know, I hate, detest,
34:29
Speaker 1: and can't bear a lie. Not because I am straighter
34:33
Speaker 1: than the rest of us, but simply because it appalls me.
34:37
Speaker 1: There is a taint of death, a flavor of mortality
34:41
Speaker 1: in lies, which is exactly what I hate and detest
34:45
Speaker 1: in the world, what I want to forget. It makes
34:48
Speaker 1: me miserable and sick, like biting something rotten would do temperament,
34:54
Speaker 1: I suppose well, I went near enough to it by
34:58
Speaker 1: letting the young fool believe anything he liked to imagine.
35:02
Speaker 1: As to my influence in Europe, I became in an
35:05
Speaker 1: instant as much of a pretense as the rest of
35:09
Speaker 1: the bewitched pilgrims. This simply because I had a notion
35:14
Speaker 1: it would somehow be of help to that Kurtz, whom
35:16
Speaker 1: at that time I did not see. You understand, he
35:21
Speaker 1: was just a word for me. I did not see
35:24
Speaker 1: the man in the name any more than you do.
35:27
Speaker 1: Do you see him? Do you see the story? Do
35:30
Speaker 1: you see anything? It seems to me I am trying
35:34
Speaker 1: to tell you a dream, making a vain attempt, because
35:38
Speaker 1: no relation of a dream can convey the dream sensation,
35:41
Speaker 1: that commingling of absurdity, surprise, and bewilderment in a tremor
35:46
Speaker 1: of struggling revolt, that notion of being captured by the incredible,
35:51
Speaker 1: which is of the very essence of dreams. He was
35:56
Speaker 1: silent for a while. Now it is in possible. It
36:01
Speaker 1: is impossible to convey the life sensation of any given
36:04
Speaker 1: epoch of one's existence, that which makes its truth, its meaning,
36:10
Speaker 1: its subtle and penetrating essence. It is impossible we live
36:16
Speaker 1: as we dream alone. He paused again, as if reflecting,
36:21
Speaker 1: then added, of course in this you fellas see more
36:25
Speaker 1: than I could. Then you see me whom you know.
36:31
Speaker 1: It had become so pitch dark that we listeners could
36:33
Speaker 1: hardly see one another for a long time. Already, he
36:37
Speaker 1: sitting apart, had been no more to us than a voice.
36:42
Speaker 1: There was not a word from anybody. The others might
36:45
Speaker 1: have been asleep, but I was awake. I listened. I listened,
36:50
Speaker 1: on the watch for the sentence, for the word that
36:52
Speaker 1: would give me the clue to the faint uneasiness inspired
36:56
Speaker 1: by this narrative that seemed to shape itself without human
36:59
Speaker 1: lips in the heavy night air of the river. Yes,
37:04
Speaker 1: I let him run on. Marlow began again, and think
37:08
Speaker 1: what he pleased about the powers that were behind me.
37:12
Speaker 1: I did, And there was nothing behind me. There was
37:16
Speaker 1: nothing but that wretched, old, mangled steamboat I was leaning against.
37:21
Speaker 1: While he talked fluently about the necessity for every man
37:24
Speaker 1: to get on, and when one comes out here you
37:28
Speaker 1: can see it is not to gaze at the moon.
37:31
Speaker 1: Mister Kurtz was a universal genius, but even a genius
37:36
Speaker 1: would find it easier to work with adequate tools intelligent men.
37:41
Speaker 1: He did not make bricks. Why there was a physical
37:45
Speaker 1: impossibility in the way, as I was well aware. And
37:49
Speaker 1: if he did secretarial work for the manager, it was
37:52
Speaker 1: because no sensible man rejects wantonly the confidence of his superiors.
37:58
Speaker 1: Did I see it? I saw it? What more did
38:02
Speaker 1: I want? What I really wanted was rivets by heaven,
38:07
Speaker 1: rivets to get on with the work, to stop the
38:10
Speaker 1: whole rivets I wanted. There were cases of them down
38:15
Speaker 1: at the coast, cases piled up, burst split. You kicked
38:19
Speaker 1: a loose rivet in every second step in that station yard.
38:22
Speaker 1: On the hillside, rivets had rolled into the grove of death.
38:27
Speaker 1: You could fill your pockets with rivets for the trouble
38:30
Speaker 1: of stooping down. And there wasn't one rivet to be
38:34
Speaker 1: found where it was wanted. We had plates that would do,
38:38
Speaker 1: but nothing to fasten them with. And every week the messenger,
38:42
Speaker 1: a long negro let, her bag on shoulder and staff
38:45
Speaker 1: in hand, left our station for the coast, And several
38:49
Speaker 1: times a week a coast caravan came in with trade goods,
38:53
Speaker 1: ghastly glazed calico that made you shudder only to look
38:56
Speaker 1: at it. Glass beads, value about penny court, confounded, spotted cotton, handkerchiefs,
39:03
Speaker 1: and no rivets. Three carriers could have brought all that
39:07
Speaker 1: was wanted to set that steamboat afloat. He was becoming
39:12
Speaker 1: confidential now, But I fancy my unresponsive attitude must have
39:17
Speaker 1: exasperated him at last, for he judged it necessary to
39:21
Speaker 1: inform me he feared neither God nor devil, let alone
39:26
Speaker 1: any mere man. I said, I could see that very well.
39:30
Speaker 1: But what I wanted was a certain quantity of rivets.
39:34
Speaker 1: And rivets were what really mister Kurtz wanted, if he
39:38
Speaker 1: had only known it now. Letters went to the coast
39:42
Speaker 1: every week. My dear sir, he cried, I write from dictation.
39:47
Speaker 1: I demanded rivets. There was a way for an intelligent man.
39:53
Speaker 1: He changed his manner, became very cold, and suddenly began
39:57
Speaker 1: to talk about a hippopotamus. Wondered whether sleeping on board
40:01
Speaker 1: the steamer. I stuck to my salvage night and day.
40:05
Speaker 1: I wasn't disturbed. There was an old hippo that had
40:09
Speaker 1: the bad habit of getting out on the bank and
40:12
Speaker 1: roaming at night over the station grounds. The pilgrims used
40:16
Speaker 1: to turn out in a body and empty every rifle
40:19
Speaker 1: they could lay hands on at him. Some had even
40:22
Speaker 1: sat up a night's for him. All this energy was wasted,
40:26
Speaker 1: though that animal has a charmed life, he said. But
40:31
Speaker 1: you can say this only are brutes in this country.
40:34
Speaker 1: No man you apprehend me, No man here bears a
40:38
Speaker 1: charmed life. He stood there for a moment in the moonlight,
40:42
Speaker 1: with his delicate hooked nose set a little askew, and
40:46
Speaker 1: his mica eyes glittering without a wink. Then with a
40:50
Speaker 1: curt good night, he strode off. I could see he
40:55
Speaker 1: was disturbed and considerably puzzled, which made me feel more
40:59
Speaker 1: hopeful than I had been for days. It was a
41:02
Speaker 1: great comfort to turn from that chap to my influential friend,
41:07
Speaker 1: the battered, twisted, ruined tin pot steamboat. I clambered on board.
41:13
Speaker 1: She rang under my feet like an empty Huntley and
41:16
Speaker 1: Palmer biscuit tin kicked along a gutter. She was nothing
41:20
Speaker 1: so solid in make, and rather less pretty in shape.
41:24
Speaker 1: But I had expended enough hard work on her to
41:26
Speaker 1: make me love her. No influential friend would have served
41:31
Speaker 1: me better. She had given me a chance to come
41:34
Speaker 1: out a bit to find out what I could do. No,
41:38
Speaker 1: I didn't like work. I would rather laze about and
41:41
Speaker 1: think of all the fine things that can be done.
41:45
Speaker 1: I don't like work, no man does. But I like
41:48
Speaker 1: what is in the work, the chance to find yourself,
41:52
Speaker 1: your own reality, for yourself, not for others. What no
41:57
Speaker 1: other man can ever know. They can only see the
42:00
Speaker 1: mere show and never can tell what it really means.
42:06
Speaker 1: I was not surprised to see somebody sitting aft on
42:09
Speaker 1: the deck, with his legs dangling over the mud. You see,
42:13
Speaker 1: I rather chummed with the few mechanics there were in
42:16
Speaker 1: that station, whom the other pilgrims naturally despised on account
42:20
Speaker 1: of their imperfect manners. I suppose this was the foreman,
42:25
Speaker 1: a boiler maker by trade, a good worker. He was
42:28
Speaker 1: a lank, bony, yellow faced man, with big, intense eyes.
42:33
Speaker 1: His aspect was worried, and his head was as bald
42:36
Speaker 1: as the palm of my hand. But his hair, in falling,
42:39
Speaker 1: seemed to have stuck to his chin and had prospered
42:42
Speaker 1: in the new locality, for his beard hung down to
42:46
Speaker 1: his waist. He was a widower with six young children.
42:51
Speaker 1: He had left them in charge of a sister of
42:53
Speaker 1: his to come out there. And the passion of his
42:56
Speaker 1: life was pigeon flying. He was an enthusias and a connoisseur.
43:01
Speaker 1: He would rave about pigeons after work hours. He used
43:06
Speaker 1: sometimes to come over from his hut for a little
43:08
Speaker 1: talk about his children and his pigeons. At work, when
43:13
Speaker 1: he had to crawl in the mud under the bottom
43:15
Speaker 1: of the steamboat, he would tie up that beard of
43:18
Speaker 1: his and a kind of white serviettes he brought for
43:21
Speaker 1: the purpose. It had loops to go over his ears.
43:24
Speaker 1: In the evening he could be seen squatted on the bank,
43:27
Speaker 1: rincing that wrapper in the creek with great care, then
43:31
Speaker 1: spreading it solemnly on a bush to dry. I slapped
43:36
Speaker 1: him on the back and shouted, we shall have rivets.
43:40
Speaker 1: He scrambled to his feet, exclaiming no rivets, as though
43:45
Speaker 1: he couldn't believe his ears. Then, in a low voice,
43:49
Speaker 1: you way, I don't know why we behave like lunatics.
43:54
Speaker 1: I put my finger to the side of my nose
43:57
Speaker 1: and nodded mysteriously. Good for you, he cried, snapped his
44:02
Speaker 1: fingers above his head, lifting one foot, I tried a jig.
44:07
Speaker 1: We capered on the iron deck. A frightful clatter came
44:12
Speaker 1: out of that hulk, and the virgin forest on the
44:14
Speaker 1: other bank of the creek sent it back in a
44:17
Speaker 1: thundering roll upon the sleeping station. It must have made
44:21
Speaker 1: some of the pilgrims sit up in their hovels. A
44:26
Speaker 1: dark figure obscured the lighted doorway of the manager's hut vanished,
44:31
Speaker 1: Then a second or so after the doorway itself vanished too.
44:36
Speaker 1: We stopped, and the silence, driven away by the stamping
44:40
Speaker 1: of our feet, flowed back again from the recesses of
44:43
Speaker 1: the land. The great wall of vegetation, an exuberant and
44:48
Speaker 1: entangled mass of trunks, branches, leaves, boughs, festoons, motionless in
44:54
Speaker 1: the moonlight, was like a rioting invasion of soundless life.
44:58
Speaker 1: A rolling wave of glance piled up, crested, ready to
45:02
Speaker 1: topple over the creek, to sweep every little man of
45:06
Speaker 1: us out of his little existence. And it moved not
45:11
Speaker 1: A deadened burst of mighty splashes and snorts reached us
45:15
Speaker 1: from afar, as though an ichtheosaurus had been taking a
45:18
Speaker 1: bath of glitter in the great river. After all, said
45:23
Speaker 1: the boilermaker, in a reasonable tone, Why shouldn't we get
45:26
Speaker 1: the rivets? Why not? Indeed, I did not know of
45:31
Speaker 1: any reason why we shouldn't. They'll come in three weeks,
45:35
Speaker 1: I said, confidently. But they didn't. Instead of rivets, there
45:41
Speaker 1: came an invasion, an infliction of visitation. It came in
45:47
Speaker 1: sections during the next three weeks, each section headed by
45:51
Speaker 1: a donkey carrying a white man in new clothes and
45:53
Speaker 1: tan shoes, bowing from that elevation right and left to
45:57
Speaker 1: the impressed pilgrims, a quarrelsome band of footsore, sulky niggers
46:03
Speaker 1: trode on the heels of the donkey. A lot of tents, campstools,
46:07
Speaker 1: tin boxes, white cases, brown bales would be shot down
46:12
Speaker 1: in the courtyard, and the air of mystery would deepen
46:15
Speaker 1: a little over the muddle of the station. Five such
46:19
Speaker 1: installments came, with their absurd air of disorderly flight, with
46:24
Speaker 1: the loot of innumerable outfit shops and provision stores that
46:27
Speaker 1: one would think they were lugging after a raid into
46:31
Speaker 1: the wilderness for equitable division. It was an inextricable mess
46:36
Speaker 1: of things decent in themselves, but that human folly made
46:41
Speaker 1: look like the spoils of thieving. This devoted band called
46:46
Speaker 1: itself the El Dorado Exploring Expedition, and I believe they
46:50
Speaker 1: were sworn to secrecy. Their talk, however, was the talk
46:55
Speaker 1: of sordid buccaneers. It was reckless without hardihood, greedy without audacity,
47:02
Speaker 1: and cruel without courage. There was not an atom of
47:06
Speaker 1: foresight or of serious intention in the whole batch of them,
47:10
Speaker 1: and they did not seem aware these things are wanted
47:12
Speaker 1: for the work of the world. To tear treasure out
47:16
Speaker 1: of the bowels of the land was their desire, with
47:19
Speaker 1: no more moral purpose at the back of it than
47:21
Speaker 1: there is in the burglars breaking into a safe. Who
47:25
Speaker 1: paid the expenses of the noble enterprise? I don't know,
47:29
Speaker 1: but the uncle of our manager was leader of that lot.
47:35
Speaker 1: In exterior, he resembled a butcher in a poor neighborhood,
47:39
Speaker 1: and his eyes had a look of sleepy cunning. He
47:41
Speaker 1: carried his fat paunch with ostentation on his short legs,
47:46
Speaker 1: and during the time his gang infested the station, spoke
47:49
Speaker 1: to no one but his nephew. You could see these
47:53
Speaker 1: two roaming about all day long with their heads close
47:56
Speaker 1: together in an everlasting confab. I had given up worrying
48:01
Speaker 1: myself about the rivets. One's capacity for that kind of
48:05
Speaker 1: folly is more limited than you would suppose. I said,
48:10
Speaker 1: hang and let things slide. I had plenty of time
48:15
Speaker 1: for meditation, and now and then I would give some
48:18
Speaker 1: thought to Kerts. I wasn't very interested in him. No, Still,
48:24
Speaker 1: I was curious to see whether this man, who had
48:27
Speaker 1: come out equipped with moral ideas of some sort, would
48:30
Speaker 1: climb to the top after all, and how he would
48:33
Speaker 1: set about his work When there end of chapter one