Latest / Thrilling Adventures - Daily / 01 - Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

Transcript

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

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 sprits.
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 seed 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 gulls 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, bred 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 game too. Now, when
16:16
Speaker 1: I was a little chap, I had a passion for maps.
16:19
Speaker 1: I would look for hours at South America or Africa
16:23
Speaker 1: or Australia and lose myself in all the glories of exploration.
16:29
Speaker 1: At that time, there were many blank spaces on the Earth,
16:32
Speaker 1: and when I saw one that looked particularly inviting on
16:35
Speaker 1: a map, but they all look like that, I would
16:39
Speaker 1: put my finger on it and say, ah, when I
16:43
Speaker 1: grow up, I will go there. The North Pole was
16:47
Speaker 1: one of those places. I remember, well, I haven't been
16:51
Speaker 1: there yet, and shall not try now. The glamours off
16:56
Speaker 1: other places were scattered about the hemispheres. I have been
17:00
Speaker 1: in some of them, and well, we won't talk about that.
17:06
Speaker 1: But there was one yet, the biggest, the most blank,
17:09
Speaker 1: so to speak, that I had a hankering after. True,
17:15
Speaker 1: by this time it was not a blank space anymore.
17:18
Speaker 1: It had got filled since my boyhood with rivers and
17:21
Speaker 1: lakes and names. It had ceased to be a blank
17:25
Speaker 1: space of delightful mystery, a white patch for a boy
17:28
Speaker 1: to dream gloriously over. It had become a place of darkness.
17:34
Speaker 1: But there was in it one river, especially a mighty
17:38
Speaker 1: big river, that you could see on the map, resembling
17:42
Speaker 1: an immense snake uncoiled with its head in the sea,
17:46
Speaker 1: its body at rest, curving afar over the vast country,
17:50
Speaker 1: and its tail lost in the depths of the land.
17:54
Speaker 1: And as I looked at the map of it in
17:56
Speaker 1: a shop window, it fascinated me as a snake would
17:59
Speaker 1: have a silly little bird. Then I remembered there was
18:05
Speaker 1: a big concern a company for trade on that river
18:09
Speaker 1: dash it all, I thought to myself. They can't trade
18:13
Speaker 1: without using some kind of craft on that lot of
18:16
Speaker 1: fresh water steamboats. Why shouldn't I try to get charge
18:21
Speaker 1: of one. I went on along Freed Street, but could
18:25
Speaker 1: not shake off the idea the snake had charmed me.
18:31
Speaker 1: You understand, it was a continental concern, that trading society.
18:35
Speaker 1: But I have a lot of relations living on the
18:37
Speaker 1: continent because it's cheap and not so nasty as it looks.
18:41
Speaker 1: They say, I am sorry to own. I began to
18:46
Speaker 1: worry them. This was already a fresh departure for me.
18:50
Speaker 1: I was not used to get things that way, you know.
18:53
Speaker 1: I always went my own road and on my own
18:56
Speaker 1: legs where I had a mind to go. I wouldn't
18:59
Speaker 1: have believed that of myself. But then you see, I
19:03
Speaker 1: felt somehow I must get there by hook or by crook,
19:08
Speaker 1: so I worried them. The men said, my dear fellow,
19:13
Speaker 1: and did nothing. Then would you believe it? I tried
19:18
Speaker 1: the women. I Charlie Marlowe, set the women to work
19:23
Speaker 1: to get a job. Heavens well, you see the notion
19:29
Speaker 1: drove me. I had an aunt, a dear enthusiastic soul.
19:34
Speaker 1: She wrote, it will be delightful. I am ready to
19:37
Speaker 1: do anything, anything for you. It is a glorious idea.
19:41
Speaker 1: I know, the wife of a very high personage in
19:44
Speaker 1: the administration, and also a man who has lots of
19:47
Speaker 1: influence with et cetera. She was determined to make no
19:52
Speaker 1: end of fuss to get me a pointed skipper of
19:54
Speaker 1: a river steamboat. If such was my fancy. I got
20:00
Speaker 1: my appointments, of course, and I got it very quick.
20:04
Speaker 1: It appears the company had received news that one of
20:07
Speaker 1: their captains had been killed in a scuffle with the natives.
20:11
Speaker 1: This was my chance, and it made me the more
20:14
Speaker 1: anxious to go. It was only months and months afterwards,
20:18
Speaker 1: when I made the attempt to recover what was left
20:20
Speaker 1: of the body, that I heard The original quarrel arose
20:24
Speaker 1: from the misunderstanding about some hens, yes, two black hens.
20:29
Speaker 1: Freslaven that was the fellow's name. A Dane thought himself
20:34
Speaker 1: wronged somehow in the bargain, so he went ashore and
20:38
Speaker 1: started to hammer the chief of the village with a stick. Oh,
20:42
Speaker 1: it didn't surprise me in the least to hear this,
20:45
Speaker 1: and at the same time to be told that Freslavin
20:48
Speaker 1: was the gentlest, quietest creature that ever walked on two legs.
20:53
Speaker 1: No doubt he was. But he had been a couple
20:56
Speaker 1: of years already out there engaged in the noble cause,
20:59
Speaker 1: you know, and he probably felt the need at last
21:02
Speaker 1: of asserting his self respect in some way. Therefore he
21:07
Speaker 1: whacked the old nigger mercilessly, while a big crowd of
21:10
Speaker 1: his people watched him. Thunder struck till some man, I
21:14
Speaker 1: was told, the chief's son, in desperation at hearing the
21:18
Speaker 1: old chap yell, made a tentative jab with a spear
21:21
Speaker 1: at the white man, and of course it went quite
21:24
Speaker 1: easy between the shoulder blades. Then the whole population cleared
21:29
Speaker 1: into the forest, expecting all kinds of calamities to happen,
21:34
Speaker 1: while On the other hand, the steamer Freshlaven commanded, left,
21:37
Speaker 1: also in a bad panic, in charge of the engineer.
21:41
Speaker 1: I believe afterwards nobody seemed to trouble much about fres
21:46
Speaker 1: Lavin's remains till I got out and stepped into his shoes.
21:50
Speaker 1: I couldn't let it rest, though, But when an opportunity
21:55
Speaker 1: offered at last to meet my predecessor, the grass growing
21:59
Speaker 1: through his ribs was tall enough to hide his bones.
22:03
Speaker 1: They were all there. The supernatural being had not been
22:07
Speaker 1: touched after he fell, and the village was deserted. The
22:11
Speaker 1: huts gaped black, rotting, all askew within the fallen enclosures.
22:16
Speaker 1: A calamity had come of it, sure enough. The people
22:20
Speaker 1: had vanished. Mad terror had scattered them men, women and
22:24
Speaker 1: children through the bush, and they had never returned. What
22:29
Speaker 1: became of the hens I don't know either. I should
22:33
Speaker 1: think the cause of progress got them anyhow However, through
22:37
Speaker 1: this glorious affair, I got my appointment before I had
22:41
Speaker 1: fairly begun to hope for it. I flew around like
22:46
Speaker 1: mad to get ready, and before forty eight hours I
22:49
Speaker 1: was crossing the channel to show myself to my employers
22:53
Speaker 1: and sign the contract. In a very few hours I
22:57
Speaker 1: arrived in the city that always makes me think of
22:59
Speaker 1: a waighted sepulcher prejudice. No doubt, I had no difficulty
23:05
Speaker 1: in finding the company's offices. It was the biggest thing
23:08
Speaker 1: in the town, and everybody I met was full of it.
23:12
Speaker 1: They were going to run an oversea empire and make
23:15
Speaker 1: no end of coin by trade. A narrow and deserted
23:20
Speaker 1: street in deep shadow, high houses, innumerable windows with Venetian blinds,
23:26
Speaker 1: a dead silence, grass sprouting right and left, immense double
23:31
Speaker 1: door standing ponderously. Ajar I slipped through one of these cracks,
23:36
Speaker 1: went up a swept and ungarnished staircase as arid as
23:40
Speaker 1: a desert, and opened the first door. I came to
23:44
Speaker 1: two women, one fat and the other slim, sat on
23:48
Speaker 1: straw bottomed chairs, knitting black wool. The slimman got up
23:52
Speaker 1: and walked straight at me, still knitting with downcast eyes,
23:57
Speaker 1: and only just as I began to think of getting
23:59
Speaker 1: out of her way, as you would for a sonombulist
24:02
Speaker 1: stood still and looked up. Her dress was as plain
24:06
Speaker 1: as an umbrella cover, and she turned round without a
24:09
Speaker 1: word and preceded me into a waiting room. I gave
24:14
Speaker 1: my name and looked about deal table in the middle,
24:17
Speaker 1: plain chairs all around the walls. On one end a
24:21
Speaker 1: large shining map marked with all the colors of a rainbow.
24:26
Speaker 1: There was a vast amount of red. Good to see
24:29
Speaker 1: at any time, because one knows that some real work
24:32
Speaker 1: is done in there a deuice of a lot of blue,
24:36
Speaker 1: of little green, smears of orange, and on the east
24:39
Speaker 1: coast a purple patch to show where the jolly pioneers
24:43
Speaker 1: of progress drink the jolly lugger beer. However, I wasn't
24:49
Speaker 1: going into any of these. I was going into the
24:53
Speaker 1: yellow dead in the center. And the river was there fascinating,
24:59
Speaker 1: deadly like a snake. Ah. A door opened, A white
25:05
Speaker 1: haired secretarial head but wearing a compassionate expression, appeared, and
25:10
Speaker 1: a skinny forefinger beckoned me into the sanctuary. Its light
25:15
Speaker 1: was dim, and a heavy writing desk squatted in the middle.
25:19
Speaker 1: From behind that structure came out an impression of pale
25:23
Speaker 1: plumpness and a frock coat. The great man himself. He
25:28
Speaker 1: was five feet six, I should judge, and had his
25:31
Speaker 1: 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 beou voyage. In about forty five seconds, I
25:46
Speaker 1: found myself again in the waiting room with the 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 seemed 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 eyes.
27:39
Speaker 1: Bave old knitter of black wool morituri te salutant. Not
27:46
Speaker 1: 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 ere 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. 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. I left in
34:45
Speaker 1: a French steamer, and she called in every blamed port
34:49
Speaker 1: they have out there. For as far as I could
34:52
Speaker 1: see 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 whitish specks showed up
35:50
Speaker 1: clustered inside the white surf, with a flag flying above them,
35:54
Speaker 1: perhaps settlements some centuries old and still no bigger than
35:59
Speaker 1: pin heads on the untouched expanse of their background. We
36:04
Speaker 1: pounded along, stopped. Landed soldiers went on, landed custom house
36:10
Speaker 1: clerks to Levy Toll in what looked like a god
36:12
Speaker 1: forsaken wilderness with a tin shed and a flagpole lost
36:16
Speaker 1: in it. Landed more soldiers to take care of the
36:20
Speaker 1: custom house clerks. Presumably some I heard got drowned in
36:24
Speaker 1: the surf, but whether they did or not, nobody seemed
36:29
Speaker 1: particularly to care. They were just flung out there. And
36:33
Speaker 1: on we went. Every day. The coast looked the same
36:37
Speaker 1: as though we had not moved, But we passed various places,
36:42
Speaker 1: trading places with names like Grand Bassam, little popo names.
36:47
Speaker 1: It seemed to belong to some sordid farce acted out
36:51
Speaker 1: in front of a sinister black cloth, the idleness of
36:55
Speaker 1: a passenger, my isolation amongst all these men with whom
36:59
Speaker 1: I had no point of contact. The oily and languid
37:02
Speaker 1: see the uniform somberness of the coast seemed to keep
37:06
Speaker 1: me away from the truth of things, within the toil
37:10
Speaker 1: of a mournful and senseless delusion. The voice of the surf,
37:14
Speaker 1: heard now and then, was a positive pleasure, like the
37:18
Speaker 1: speech of a brother. It was something natural that had
37:21
Speaker 1: its reason, that had a meaning. Now and then a
37:26
Speaker 1: boat from the shore gave one a momentary contact with reality.
37:30
Speaker 1: It was paddled by blackfellers. You could see from afar
37:33
Speaker 1: the white of their eyeballs glistening. They shouted, sang, their
37:38
Speaker 1: 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 ru 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. He asked. I said, yes, fine lot,
41:13
Speaker 1: those cverment chaps, are they not? He went on, speaking
41:18
Speaker 1: English with great precision and considerable bitterness. It is funny
41:22
Speaker 1: what some people we'll do for a few francs a month.
41:25
Speaker 1: I wonder what becomes of that kind when it goes
41:28
Speaker 1: up country, I said to him. I expected to see
41:32
Speaker 1: that soon, so he exclaimed. He shuffled a thwart, keeping
41:39
Speaker 1: an eye. I head vigilantly. It don't be too sure,
41:43
Speaker 1: he continued. The other day I took up a man
41:46
Speaker 1: who hanged himself on the road. He was a Swede, too,
41:51
Speaker 1: hanged himself. Why in God's name? I cried? He kept
41:55
Speaker 1: on looking out watchfully. Who knows the sun too much
42:00
Speaker 1: for him or the country? Perhaps? At last we opened
42:06
Speaker 1: a reach, A rocky cliff appeared mounds of turned up
42:10
Speaker 1: earth by the shore houses on a hill, others with
42:14
Speaker 1: iron roofs, amongst a waste of excavations or hanging to
42:18
Speaker 1: the declivity. A continuous noise of the rapids above hovered
42:23
Speaker 1: over this scene of inhabited devastation. A lot of people,
42:28
Speaker 1: mostly black and naked, moved about like ants. A jetty
42:32
Speaker 1: projected into the river. A blinding sunlight drowned all this,
42:37
Speaker 1: at times in a sudden recrudescence of glare. There's your
42:42
Speaker 1: company station, said the swede, pointing to three wooden barrack
42:46
Speaker 1: like structures on the rocky slope. I will send your
42:49
Speaker 1: things up four boxes. Did you say so? Farewell? I
42:57
Speaker 1: came upon a boiler wallowing in the grass, then found
43:00
Speaker 1: a path leading up the hill. It turned aside for
43:04
Speaker 1: the boulders, and also for an undersized railway truck lying
43:08
Speaker 1: there on its back, with its wheels in the air.
43:12
Speaker 1: One was off. The thing looked as dead as the
43:15
Speaker 1: carcass of some animal. I came upon more pieces of
43:19
Speaker 1: decaying machinery, a stack of rusty rails. To the left,
43:24
Speaker 1: A clump of trees made a shady spot where dark
43:27
Speaker 1: things seemed to stir feebly. I blinked. The path was steep.
43:33
Speaker 1: A horn tooted to the right, and I saw the
43:35
Speaker 1: black people run. A heavy and dull detonation shook the ground.
43:40
Speaker 1: A puff of smoke came out of the cliff, and
43:43
Speaker 1: that was all. No change appeared on the face of
43:46
Speaker 1: the rock. They were building a railway. The cliff was
43:51
Speaker 1: not in the way or anything, but this objectless blasting
43:55
Speaker 1: was all the work going on. A slight clinking behind
43:59
Speaker 1: me made me turn my head. Six black men advanced
44:03
Speaker 1: in a file, toiling up the path. They walked erect
44:07
Speaker 1: and slow, balancing small baskets full of earth on their heads,
44:11
Speaker 1: and the clink kept time with their footsteps. Black rags
44:15
Speaker 1: were wound round their loins, and the short ends behind
44:19
Speaker 1: waggled to and fro like tails. I could see every rib.
44:24
Speaker 1: The joints of their limbs were like knots in a rope.
44:28
Speaker 1: Each had an iron collar on his neck, and all
44:31
Speaker 1: were connected together with a chain whose bites swung between
44:35
Speaker 1: them rhythmically clinking. Another report from the cliff made me
44:39
Speaker 1: think suddenly of that ship of war I had seen
44:42
Speaker 1: firing into a continent. It was the same kind of
44:45
Speaker 1: ominous voice But these men could, by no stretch of
44:49
Speaker 1: imagination be called enemies. They were called criminals, and the
44:54
Speaker 1: outraged law, like the bursting shells, had come to them
44:58
Speaker 1: an insoluble misas from the sea. All their meager breasts
45:04
Speaker 1: panted together, the violently dilated nostrils quivered, the eyes stared
45:09
Speaker 1: stonily up hill. They passed me within six inches without
45:14
Speaker 1: a glance, with that complete deathlike indifference of unhappy savages.
45:20
Speaker 1: Behind this raw matter, one of the reclaimed, the product
45:24
Speaker 1: of the new forces at work, Strode despondently, carrying a
45:28
Speaker 1: rifle by its middle. He had a uniform jacket with
45:32
Speaker 1: one button off, and seeing a white man on the path,
45:35
Speaker 1: hoisted his weapon to his shoulder with alacrity. This was
45:39
Speaker 1: simple prudence, white men being so much alike at a
45:42
Speaker 1: distance that he could not tell who I might be.
45:46
Speaker 1: He was speedily reassured, and with a large white, rascally
45:50
Speaker 1: grin and a glance at his charge, seemed to take
45:54
Speaker 1: me into partnership in his exalted trust. After all, I
45:58
Speaker 1: also was a part of the great cause of these
46:01
Speaker 1: high and just proceedings. Instead of going up, I turned
46:06
Speaker 1: and descended to the left. My idea was to let
46:10
Speaker 1: that chain gang get out of sight before I climbed
46:12
Speaker 1: the hill. You know, I am not particularly tender. I've
46:17
Speaker 1: had to strike and to fend off. I've had to
46:20
Speaker 1: resist and to attack. Sometimes that's only one way of resisting,
46:25
Speaker 1: without counting the exact costs according to the demands of
46:28
Speaker 1: such sort of life, as I had blundered into, I've
46:33
Speaker 1: seen the devil of violence, and the devil of greed,
46:36
Speaker 1: and the devil of hot desire. But by all the stars,
46:40
Speaker 1: these were strong, lusty, red eyed devils that swayed and
46:45
Speaker 1: drove men men, I tell you. But as I stood
46:49
Speaker 1: on this hillside, I foresaw that in the blinding sunshine
46:53
Speaker 1: of that land, I would become acquainted with a flabby, pretending,
46:58
Speaker 1: weak eyed devil of a rapation and pitiless folly. How
47:02
Speaker 1: insidious he could be too, I was only to find
47:05
Speaker 1: out several months later, and a thousand miles farther. For
47:10
Speaker 1: a moment I stood appalled, as though by a warning.
47:15
Speaker 1: Finally I descended the hill obliquely towards the trees I
47:19
Speaker 1: had seen. I avoided a vast artificial hole somebody had
47:24
Speaker 1: been digging on the slope, the purpose of which I
47:27
Speaker 1: found it impossible to divine. It wasn't a quarry or
47:31
Speaker 1: a sand pit anyhow, it was just a hole. It
47:36
Speaker 1: might have been connected with the philanthropic desire of giving
47:39
Speaker 1: the criminal something to do. I don't know. Then I
47:43
Speaker 1: nearly fell into a very narrow ravine, almost no more
47:47
Speaker 1: than a scar in the hillside. I discovered that a
47:50
Speaker 1: lot of imported drainage pipes for the settlement had been
47:53
Speaker 1: tumbled in there. There wasn't one that was not broken.
47:58
Speaker 1: It was a wanton smash up. At last I got
48:02
Speaker 1: under the trees. My purpose was to stroll into the
48:06
Speaker 1: shade for a moment, but no sooner within than it
48:09
Speaker 1: seemed to me I had stepped into the gloomy circle
48:12
Speaker 1: of some inferno. The rapids were near, and an uninterrupted, uniform,
48:18
Speaker 1: headlong rushing noise filled the mournful stillness of the grove,
48:23
Speaker 1: where not a breath stirred, not a leaf moved, with
48:27
Speaker 1: a mysterious sound, as though the tearing pace of the
48:31
Speaker 1: launched earth had suddenly become audible. Black shapes crouched lay
48:38
Speaker 1: sat between the trees, leaning against the trunks, clinging to
48:41
Speaker 1: the earth, half coming out, half efface within the dim
48:45
Speaker 1: light in all the attitudes of pain, abandonment, and despair.
48:51
Speaker 1: Another mine on the cliff went off, followed by a
48:54
Speaker 1: slight shudder of the soil under my feet. The work
48:58
Speaker 1: was going on, and this was the place where some
49:02
Speaker 1: of the helpers had withdrawn to die. They were dying slowly.
49:09
Speaker 1: It was very clear they were not enemies, they were
49:12
Speaker 1: not criminals. They were nothing earthly now, nothing but black
49:17
Speaker 1: shadows of disease and starvation, lying confusedly in the greenish
49:21
Speaker 1: gloom brought from all the recesses of the coasts, in
49:26
Speaker 1: all the legality of time, contracts lost in uncongenial surroundings,
49:31
Speaker 1: fed on unfamiliar food, they sickened, became inefficient, and were
49:36
Speaker 1: then allowed to crawl away and rest. These moribun shapes
49:41
Speaker 1: were free as air and nearly as thin. I began
49:45
Speaker 1: to distinguish the gleam of the eyes under the trees. Then,
49:49
Speaker 1: glancing down, I saw a face near my hand. The
49:54
Speaker 1: black bones reclined at full length with one shoulder against
49:58
Speaker 1: the tree, and slowly the eyelids rose, and the sunken
50:02
Speaker 1: eyes looked up at me, enormous and vacant, a kind
50:06
Speaker 1: of blind white flicker in the depths of the orbs,
50:09
Speaker 1: which died out slowly. The man seemed young, almost a boy,
50:16
Speaker 1: But you know, with them it's hard to tell. I
50:19
Speaker 1: found nothing else to do but to offer him one
50:22
Speaker 1: of my good swedes ship's biscuits I had in my pocket.
50:26
Speaker 1: The fingers closed slowly on it and held. There was
50:30
Speaker 1: no other movements, and no other glance. He had tied
50:35
Speaker 1: a bit of white worsted round his neck. Why where
50:39
Speaker 1: did he get it? Was it a badge, an ornament,
50:42
Speaker 1: a charm, a propitiatory act? Was there any idea at
50:48
Speaker 1: all connected with it? It looked startling round his black neck,
50:52
Speaker 1: this bit of white thread. From beyond the seas, near
50:57
Speaker 1: the same tree, two more bundles of a cute angles
51:01
Speaker 1: sat with their legs drawn up, one with his chin
51:04
Speaker 1: propped on his knees, stared at nothing in an intolerable
51:08
Speaker 1: and appalling manner. His brother phantom rested its forehead as
51:14
Speaker 1: if overcome with a great weariness, And all about others
51:18
Speaker 1: were scattered in every pose of contorted collapse, as in
51:22
Speaker 1: some picture of a massacre or a pestilence. While I
51:26
Speaker 1: stood horror struck, one of these creatures rose to his
51:30
Speaker 1: hands and knees, and went off on all fours towards
51:33
Speaker 1: the river to drink. He lapped out of his hand,
51:37
Speaker 1: then sat up in the sunlight, crossing his shins in
51:40
Speaker 1: front of him, and after a time let his wooly
51:44
Speaker 1: head fall on his breast bone. And of Part one