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Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad · Audiobooks & Scary Stories

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