won't
spoil
.
We're-in
Hades
if
you
like
.
Where
there
's
nothing
to
hide
and
nothing
to
tell
.
No
bodies
even
.
No
bothers
.
We
loved
each
other-down
there-and
were
kept
apart
,
but
now
it
does
n't
matter
.
It
's
over
...
.
If
you
wo
n't
agree
to
that-I
will
go
home
.
"
"
I
wanted
,
"
I
began
.
"
I
know
.
Oh
!
my
dear
,
if
you
'd
only
understand
I
understand
.
If
you
'd
only
not
care-and
love
me
to-night
.
"
"
I
do
love
you
,
"
I
said
.
"
Then
LOVE
me
,
"
she
answered
,
"
and
leave
all
the
things
that
bother
you
.
Love
me
!
Here
I
am
!
"
"
But
!
-
"
"
No
!
"
she
said
.
"
Well
,
have
your
way
.
"
So
she
carried
her
point
,
and
we
wandered
into
the
night
together
and
Beatrice
talked
to
me
of
love
...
.
I
'd
never
heard
a
woman
before
in
all
my
life
who
could
talk
of
love
,
who
could
lay
bare
and
develop
and
touch
with
imagination
all
that
mass
of
fine
emotion
every
woman
,
it
may
be
,
hides
.
She
had
read
of
love
,
she
had
thought
of
love
,
a
thousand
sweet
lyrics
had
sounded
through
her
brain
and
left
fine
fragments
in
her
memory
;
she
poured
it
out
,
all
of
it
,
shamelessly
,
skilfully
,
for
me
.
I
cannot
give
any
sense
of
that
talk
,
I
cannot
even
tell
how
much
of
the
delight
of
it
was
the
magic
of
her
voice
,
the
glow
of
her
near
presence
.
And
always
we
walked
swathed
warmly
through
a
chilly
air
,
along
dim
,
interminable
greasy
roads-with
never
a
soul
abroad
it
seemed
to
us
,
never
a
beast
in
the
fields
.
"
Why
do
people
love
each
other
?
"
I
said
.
"
Why
not
?
"
"
But
why
do
I
love
you
?
Why
is
your
voice
better
than
any
voice
,
your
face
sweeter
than
any
face
?
"
"
And
why
do
I
love
you
?
"
she
asked
;
"
not
only
what
is
fine
in
you
,
but
what
is
n't
?
Why
do
I
love
your
dullness
,
your
arrogance
?
For
I
do
.
To-night
I
love
the
very
raindrops
on
the
fur
of
your
coat
!
"
...
So
we
talked
;
and
at
last
very
wet
,
still
glowing
but
a
little
tired
,
we
parted
at
the
garden
door
.
We
had
been
wandering
for
two
hours
in
our
strange
irrational
community
of
happiness
,
and
all
the
world
about
us
,
and
particularly
Lady
Osprey
and
her
household
,
had
been
asleep-and
dreaming
of
anything
rather
than
Beatrice
in
the
night
and
rain
.
She
stood
in
the
doorway
,
a
muffled
figure
with
eyes
that
glowed
.
"
Come
back
,
"
she
whispered
.
"
I
shall
wait
for
you
.
"
She
hesitated
.
She
touched
the
lapel
of
my
coat
.
"
I
love
you
NOW
,
"
she
said
,
and
lifted
her
face
to
mine
.
I
held
her
to
me
and
was
atremble
from
top
to
toe
.
"
O
God
!
"
I
cried
.
"
And
I
must
go
!
"
She
slipped
from
my
arms
and
paused
,
regarding
me
.
For
an
instant
the
world
seemed
full
of
fantastic
possibilities
.
"
Yes
,
GO
!
"
she
said
,
and
vanished
and
slammed
the
door
upon
me
,
leaving
me
alone
like
a
man
new
fallen
from
fairyland
in
the
black
darkness
of
the
night
.
That
expedition
to
Mordet
Island
stands
apart
from
all
the
rest
of
my
life
,
detached
,
a
piece
by
itself
with
an
atmosphere
of
its
own
.
It
would
,
I
suppose
,
make
a
book
by
itself-it
has
made
a
fairly
voluminous
official
report-but
so
far
as
this
novel
of
mine
goes
it
is
merely
an
episode
,
a
contributory
experience
,
and
I
mean
to
keep
it
at
that
.
Vile
weather
,
an
impatient
fretting
against
unbearable
slowness
and
delay
,
sea-sickness
,
general
discomfort
and
humiliating
self-revelation
are
the
master
values
of
these
memories
.
I
was
sick
all
through
the
journey
out
.
I
do
n't
know
why
.
It
was
the
only
time
I
was
ever
sea-sick
,
and
I
have
seen
some
pretty
bad
weather
since
I
became
a
boat-builder
.
But
that
phantom
smell
of
potatoes
was
peculiarly
vile
to
me
.
Coming
back
on
the
brig
we
were
all
ill
,
every
one
of
us
,
so
soon
as
we
got
to
sea
,
poisoned
,
I
firmly
believe
,
by
quap
.
On
the
way
out
most
of
the
others
recovered
in
a
few
days
,
but
the
stuffiness
below
,
the
coarse
food
,
the
cramped
dirty
accommodation
kept
me
,
if
not
actually
sea-sick
,
in
a
state
of
acute
physical
wretchedness
the
whole
time
.
The
ship
abounded
in
cockroaches
and
more
intimate
vermin
.
I
was
cold
all
the
time
until
after
we
passed
Cape
Verde
,
then
I
became
steamily
hot
;
I
had
been
too
preoccupied
with
Beatrice
and
my
keen
desire
to
get
the
Maud
Mary
under
way
at
once
,
to
consider
a
proper
wardrobe
for
myself
,
and
in
particular
I
lacked
a
coat
.
Heavens
!
how
I
lacked
that
coat
!
And
,
moreover
,
I
was
cooped
up
with
two
of
the
worst
bores
in
Christendom
,
Pollack
and
the
captain
.
Pollack
,
after
conducting
his
illness
in
a
style
better
adapted
to
the
capacity
of
an
opera
house
than
a
small
compartment
,
suddenly
got
insupportably
well
and
breezy
,
and
produced
a
manly
pipe
in
which
he
smoked
a
tobacco
as
blond
as
himself
,
and
divided
his
time
almost
equally
between
smoking
it
and
trying
to
clean
it
.
"
There
's
only
three
things
you
can
clean
a
pipe
with
,
"
he
used
to
remark
with
a
twist
of
paper
in
hand
.
"
The
best
's
a
feather
,
the
second
's
a
straw
,
and
the
third
's
a
girl
's
hairpin
.
I
never
see
such
a
ship
.
You
ca
n't
find
any
of
'
em
.
Last
time
I
came
this
way
I
did
find
hairpins
anyway
,
and
found
'
em
on
the
floor
of
the
captain
's
cabin
.
Regular
deposit
.
Eh
?
...
Feelin
'
better
?
"
At
which
I
usually
swore
.
"
Oh
,
you
'll
be
all
right
soon
.
Do
n't
mind
my
puffin
'
a
bit
?
Eh
?
"
He
never
tired
of
asking
me
to
"
have
a
hand
at
Nap
.
Good
game
.
Makes
you
forget
it
,
and
that
's
half
the
battle
.
"
He
would
sit
swaying
with
the
rolling
of
the
ship
and
suck
at
his
pipe
of
blond
tobacco
and
look
with
an
inexpressibly
sage
but
somnolent
blue
eye
at
the
captain
by
the
hour
together
.
"
Captain
's
a
Card
,
"
he
would
say
over
and
over
again
as
the
outcome
of
these
meditations
.
"
He
'd
like
to
know
what
we
're
up
to
.
He
'd
like
to
know-no
end
.
"
That
did
seem
to
be
the
captain
's
ruling
idea
.
But
he
also
wanted
to
impress
me
with
the
notion
that
he
was
a
gentleman
of
good
family
and
to
air
a
number
of
views
adverse
to
the
English
,
to
English
literature
,
to
the
English
constitution
,
and
the
like
.
He
had
learnt
the
sea
in
the
Roumanian
navy
,
and
English
out
of
a
book
;
he
would
still
at
times
pronounce
the
e
's
at
the
end
of
"
there
"
and
"
here
"
;
he
was
a
naturalised
Englishman
,
and
he
drove
me
into
a
reluctant
and
uncongenial
patriotism
by
his
everlasting
carping
at
things
English
.
Pollack
would
set
himself
to
"
draw
him
out
.
"
Heaven
alone
can
tell
how
near
I
came
to
murder
.
Fifty-three
days
I
had
outward
,
cooped
up
with
these
two
and
a
shy
and
profoundly
depressed
mate
who
read
the
Bible
on
Sundays
and
spent
the
rest
of
his
leisure
in
lethargy
,
three
and
fifty
days
of
life
cooped
up
in
a
perpetual
smell
,
in
a
persistent
sick
hunger
that
turned
from
the
sight
of
food
,
in
darkness
,
cold
and
wet
,
in
a
lightly
ballasted
ship
that
rolled
and
pitched
and
swayed
.
And
all
the
time
the
sands
in
the
hour-glass
of
my
uncle
's
fortunes
were
streaming
out
.
Misery
!
Amidst
it
all
I
remember
only
one
thing
brightly
,
one
morning
of
sunshine
in
the
Bay
of
Biscay
and
a
vision
of
frothing
waves
,
sapphire
green
,
a
bird
following
our
wake
and
our
masts
rolling
about
the
sky
.
Then
wind
and
rain
close
in
on
us
again
.
You
must
not
imagine
they
were
ordinary
days
,
days
,
I
mean
,
of
an
average
length
;
they
were
not
so
much
days
as
long
damp
slabs
of
time
that
stretched
each
one
to
the
horizon
,
and
much
of
that
length
was
night
.
One
paraded
the
staggering
deck
in
a
borrowed
sou'-wester
hour
after
hour
in
the
chilly
,
windy
,
splashing
and
spitting
darkness
,
or
sat
in
the
cabin
,
bored
and
ill
,
and
looked
at
the
faces
of
those
inseparable
companions
by
the
help
of
a
lamp
that
gave
smell
rather
than
light
.
Then
one
would
see
going
up
,
up
,
up
,
and
then
sinking
down
,
down
,
down
,
Pollack
,
extinct
pipe
in
mouth
,
humorously
observant
,
bringing
his
mind
slowly
to
the
seventy-seventh
decision
that
the
captain
was
a
Card
,
while
the
words
flowed
from
the
latter
in
a
nimble
incessant
good
.
"
Dis
England
eet
is
not
a
country
aristocratic
,
no
!
Eet
is
a
glorified
bourgeoisie
!
Eet
is
plutocratic
.
In
England
dere
is
no
aristocracy
since
de
Wars
of
Roses
.
In
the
rest
of
Europe
east
of
the
Latins
,
yes
;
in
England
,
no.
"
Eet
is
all
middle-class
,
youra
England
.
Everything
you
look
at
,
middle-class
.
Respectable
!
Everything
good-eet
is
,
you
say
,
shocking
.
Madame
Grundy
!
Eet
is
all
limited
and
computing
and
self-seeking
.
Dat
is
why
your
art
is
so
limited
,
youra
fiction
,
your
philosophin
,
why
you
are
all
so
inartistic
.
You
want
nothing
but
profit
!
What
will
pay
!
What
would
you
?
"
...
He
had
all
those
violent
adjuncts
to
speech
we
Western
Europeans
have
abandoned
,
shruggings
of
the
shoulders
,
waving
of
the
arms
,
thrusting
out
of
the
face
,
wonderful
grimaces
and
twiddlings
of
the
hands
under
your
nose
until
you
wanted
to
hit
them
away
.
Day
after
day
it
went
on
,
and
I
had
to
keep
any
anger
to
myself
,
to
reserve
myself
for
the
time
ahead
when
it
would
be
necessary
to
see
the
quap
was
got
aboard
and
stowed-knee
deep
in
this
man
's
astonishment
.
I
knew
he
would
make
a
thousand
objections
to
all
we
had
before
us
.
He
talked
like
a
drugged
man
.
It
ran
glibly
over
his
tongue
.
And
all
the
time
one
could
see
his
seamanship
fretting
him
,
he
was
gnawed
by
responsibility
,
perpetually
uneasy
about
the
ship
's
position
,
perpetually
imagining
dangers
.
If
a
sea
hit
us
exceptionally
hard
he
'd
be
out
of
the
cabin
in
an
instant
making
an
outcry
of
inquiries
,
and
he
was
pursued
by
a
dread
of
the
hold
,
of
ballast
shifting
,
of
insidious
wicked
leaks
.
As
we
drew
near
the
African
coast
his
fear
of
rocks
and
shoals
became
infectious
.
"
I
do
not
know
dis
coast
,
"
he
used
to
say
.
"
I
cama
hera
because
Gordon-Nasmyth
was
coming
too
.
Den
he
does
not
come
!
"
"
Fortunes
of
war
,
"
I
said
,
and
tried
to
think
in
vain
if
any
motive
but
sheer
haphazard
could
have
guided
Gordon-Nasmyth
in
the
choice
of
these
two
men
.
I
think
perhaps
Gordon-Nasmyth
had
the
artistic
temperament
and
wanted
contrasts
,
and
also
that
the
captain
helped
him
to
express
his
own
malignant
Anti-Britishism
.
He
was
indeed
an
exceptionally
inefficient
captain
.
On
the
whole
I
was
glad
I
had
come
even
at
the
eleventh
hour
to
see
to
things
.
(
The
captain
,
by-the-by
,
did
at
last
,
out
of
sheer
nervousness
,
get
aground
at
the
end
of
Mordet
's
Island
,
but
we
got
off
in
an
hour
or
so
with
a
swell
and
a
little
hard
work
in
the
boat
.
)
I
suspected
the
mate
of
his
opinion
of
the
captain
long
before
he
expressed
it
.
He
was
,
I
say
,
a
taciturn
man
,
but
one
day
speech
broke
through
him
.
He
had
been
sitting
at
the
table
with
his
arms
folded
on
it
,
musing
drearily
,
pipe
in
mouth
,
and
the
voice
of
the
captain
drifted
down
from
above
.
The
mate
lifted
his
heavy
eyes
to
me
and
regarded
me
for
a
moment
.
Then
he
began
to
heave
with
the
beginnings
of
speech
.
He
disembarrassed
himself
of
his
pipe
.
I
cowered
with
expectation
.
Speech
was
coming
at
last
.
Before
he
spoke
he
nodded
reassuringly
once
or
twice
.
"
E-
"
He
moved
his
head
strangely
and
mysteriously
,
but
a
child
might
have
known
he
spoke
of
the
captain
.
"
E
's
a
foreigner
.
"
He
regarded
me
doubtfully
for
a
time
,
and
at
last
decided
for
the
sake
of
lucidity
to
clench
the
matter
.
"
That
's
what
E
is-a
DAGO
!
"
He
nodded
like
a
man
who
gives
a
last
tap
to
a
nail
,
and
I
could
see
he
considered
his
remark
well
and
truly
laid
.
His
face
,
though
still
resolute
,
became
as
tranquil
and
uneventful
as
a
huge
hall
after
a
public
meeting
has
dispersed
out
of
it
,
and
finally
he
closed
and
locked
it
with
his
pipe
.
"
Roumanian
Jew
,
is
n't
he
?
"
I
said
.
He
nodded
darkly
and
almost
forbiddingly
.
More
would
have
been
too
much
.
The
thing
was
said
.
But
from
that
time
forth
I
knew
I
could
depend
upon
him
and
that
he
and
I
were
friends
.
It
happens
I
never
did
have
to
depend
upon
him
,
but
that
does
not
affect
our
relationship
.
Forward
the
crew
lived
lives
very
much
after
the
fashion
of
ours
,
more
crowded
,
more
cramped
and
dirty
,
wetter
,
steamier
,
more
verminous
.
The
coarse
food
they
had
was
still
not
so
coarse
but
that
they
did
not
think
they
were
living
"
like
fighting
cocks
.
"
So
far
as
I
could
make
out
they
were
all
nearly
destitute
men
;
hardly
any
of
them
had
a
proper
sea
outfit
,
and
what
small
possessions
they
had
were
a
source
of
mutual
distrust
.
And
as
we
pitched
and
floundered
southward
they
gambled
and
fought
,
were
brutal
to
one
another
,
argued
and
wrangled
loudly
,
until
we
protested
at
the
uproar
.
There
's
no
romance
about
the
sea
in
a
small
sailing
ship
as
I
saw
it
.
The
romance
is
in
the
mind
of
the
landsman
dreamer
.
These
brigs
and
schooners
and
brigantines
that
still
stand
out
from
every
little
port
are
relics
from
an
age
of
petty
trade
,
as
rotten
and
obsolescent
as
a
Georgian
house
that
has
sunken
into
a
slum
.
They
are
indeed
just
floating
fragments
of
slum
,
much
as
icebergs
are
floating
fragments
of
glacier
.
The
civilised
man
who
has
learnt
to
wash
,
who
has
developed
a
sense
of
physical
honour
,
of
cleanly
temperate
feeding
,
of
time
,
can
endure
them
no
more
.
They
pass
,
and
the
clanking
coal-wasting
steamers
will
follow
them
,
giving
place
to
cleaner
,
finer
things
...
.
But
so
it
was
I
made
my
voyage
to
Africa
,
and
came
at
last
into
a
world
of
steamy
fogs
and
a
hot
smell
of
vegetable
decay
,
and
into
sound
and
sight
of
surf
and
distant
intermittent
glimpses
of
the
coast
.
I
lived
a
strange
concentrated
life
through
all
that
time
,
such
a
life
as
a
creature
must
do
that
has
fallen
in
a
well
.
All
my
former
ways
ceased
,
all
my
old
vistas
became
memories
.
The
situation
I
was
saving
was
very
small
and
distant
now
;
I
felt
its
urgency
no
more
.
Beatrice
and
Lady
Grove
,
my
uncle
and
the
Hardingham
,
my
soaring
in
the
air
and
my
habitual
wide
vision
of
swift
effectual
things
,
became
as
remote
as
if
they
were
in
some
world
I
had
left
for
ever
...
.
All
these
African
memories
stand
by
themselves
.
It
was
for
me
an
expedition
into
the
realms
of
undisciplined
nature
out
of
the
world
that
is
ruled
by
men
,
my
first
bout
with
that
hot
side
of
our
mother
that
gives
you
the
jungle-that
cold
side
that
gives
you
the
air-eddy
I
was
beginning
to
know
passing
well
.
They
are
memories
woven
upon
a
fabric
of
sunshine
and
heat
and
a
constant
warm
smell
of
decay
.
They
end
in
rain-such
rain
as
I
had
never
seen
before
,
a
vehement
,
a
frantic
downpouring
of
water
,
but
our
first
slow
passage
through
the
channels
behind
Mordet
's
Island
was
in
incandescent
sunshine
.
There
we
go
in
my
memory
still
,
a
blistered
dirty
ship
with
patched
sails
and
a
battered
mermaid
to
present
Maud
Mary
,
sounding
and
taking
thought
between
high
ranks
of
forest
whose
trees
come
out
knee-deep
at
last
in
the
water
.
There
we
go
with
a
little
breeze
on
our
quarter
,
Mordet
Island
rounded
and
the
quap
,
it
might
be
within
a
day
of
us
.
Here
and
there
strange
blossoms
woke
the
dank
intensities
of
green
with
a
trumpet
call
of
colour
.
Things
crept
among
the
jungle
and
peeped
and
dashed
back
rustling
into
stillness
.
Always
in
the
sluggishly
drifting
,
opaque
water
were
eddyings
and
stirrings
;
little
rushes
of
bubbles
came
chuckling
up
light-heartedly
from
this
or
that
submerged
conflict
and
tragedy
;
now
and
again
were
crocodiles
like
a
stranded
fleet
of
logs
basking
in
the
sun
.
Still
it
was
by
day
,
a
dreary
stillness
broken
only
by
insect
sounds
and
the
creaking
and
flapping
of
our
progress
,
by
the
calling
of
the
soundings
and
the
captain
's
confused
shouts
;
but
in
the
night
as
we
lay
moored
to
a
clump
of
trees
the
darkness
brought
a
thousand
swampy
things
to
life
and
out
of
the
forest
came
screaming
and
howlings
,
screaming
and
yells
that
made
us
glad
to
be
afloat
.
And
once
we
saw
between
the
tree
stems
long
blazing
fires
.
We
passed
two
or
three
villages
landward
,
and
brown-black
women
and
children
came
and
stared
at
us
and
gesticulated
,
and
once
a
man
came
out
in
a
boat
from
a
creek
and
hailed
us
in
an
unknown
tongue
;
and
so
at
last
we
came
to
a
great
open
place
,
a
broad
lake
rimmed
with
a
desolation
of
mud
and
bleached
refuse
and
dead
trees
,
free
from
crocodiles
or
water
birds
or
sight
or
sound
of
any
living
thing
,
and
saw
far
off
,
even
as
Nasmyth
had
described
,
the
ruins
of
the
deserted
station
,
and
hard
by
two
little
heaps
of
buff-hued
rubbish
under
a
great
rib
of
rock
,
the
quap
!
The
forest
receded
.
The
land
to
the
right
of
us
fell
away
and
became
barren
,
and
far
on
across
notch
in
its
backbone
was
surf
and
the
sea
.
We
took
the
ship
in
towards
those
heaps
and
the
ruined
jetty
slowly
and
carefully
.
The
captain
came
and
talked
.
"
This
is
eet
?
"
he
said
.
"
Yes
,
"
said
I
.
"
Is
eet
for
trade
we
have
come
?
"
This
was
ironical
.
"
No
,
"
said
I
.
"
Gordon-Nasmyth
would
haf
told
me
long
ago
what
it
ees
for
we
haf
come
.
"
"
I
'll
tell
you
now
,
"
I
said
.
"
We
are
going
to
lay
in
as
close
as
we
can
to
those
two
heaps
of
stuff-you
see
them
?
-under
the
rock
.
Then
we
are
going
to
chuck
all
our
ballast
overboard
and
take
those
in
.
Then
we
're
going
home
.
"
"
May
I
presume
to
ask-is
eet
gold
?
"
"
No
,
"
I
said
incivilly
,
"
it
is
n't
.
"
"
Then
what
is
it
?
"
"
It
's
stuff-of
some
commercial
value
.
"
"
We
ca
n't
do
eet
,
"
he
said
.
"
We
can
,
"
I
answered
reassuringly
.
"
We
ca
n't
,
"
he
said
as
confidently
.
"
I
do
n't
mean
what
you
mean
.
You
know
so
liddle-But-dis
is
forbidden
country
.
"
I
turned
on
him
suddenly
angry
and
met
bright
excited
eyes
.
For
a
minute
we
scrutinised
one
another
.
Then
I
said
,
"
That
's
our
risk
.
Trade
is
forbidden
.
But
this
is
n't
trade
...
.
This
thing
's
got
to
be
done
.
"
His
eyes
glittered
and
he
shook
his
head
...
.
The
brig
stood
in
slowly
through
the
twilight
toward
this
strange
scorched
and
blistered
stretch
of
beach
,
and
the
man
at
the
wheel
strained
his
ears
to
listening
the
low-voiced
angry
argument
that
began
between
myself
and
the
captain
,
that
was
presently
joined
by
Pollack
.
We
moored
at
last
within
a
hundred
yards
of
our
goal
,
and
all
through
our
dinner
and
far
into
the
night
we
argued
intermittently
and
fiercely
with
the
captain
about
our
right
to
load
just
what
we
pleased
.
"
I
will
haf
nothing
to
do
with
eet
,
"
he
persisted
.
"
I
wash
my
hands
.
"
It
seemed
that
night
as
though
we
argued
in
vain
.
"
If
it
is
not
trade
,
"
he
said
,
"
it
is
prospecting
and
mining
.
That
is
worse
.
Any
one
who
knows
anything-outside
England-knows
that
is
worse
.
"
We
argued
and
I
lost
my
temper
and
swore
at
him
.
Pollack
kept
cooler
and
chewed
his
pipe
watchfully
with
that
blue
eye
of
his
upon
the
captain
's
gestures
.
Finally
I
went
on
deck
to
cool
.
The
sky
was
overcast
I
discovered
all
the
men
were
in
a
knot
forward
,
staring
at
the
faint
quivering
luminosity
that
had
spread
over
the
heaps
of
quap
,
a
phosphorescence
such
as
one
sees
at
times
on
rotting
wood
.
And
about
the
beach
east
and
west
there
were
patches
and
streaks
of
something
like
diluted
moonshine
...
.
In
the
small
hours
I
was
still
awake
and
turning
over
scheme
after
scheme
in
my
mind
whereby
I
might
circumvent
the
captain
's
opposition
.
I
meant
to
get
that
quap
aboard
if
I
had
to
kill
some
one
to
do
it
.
Never
in
my
life
had
I
been
so
thwarted
!
After
this
intolerable
voyage
!
There
came
a
rap
at
my
cabin
door
and
then
it
opened
and
I
made
out
a
bearded
face
.
"
Come
in
,
"
I
said
,
and
a
black
voluble
figure
I
could
just
see
obscurely
came
in
to
talk
in
my
private
ear
and
fill
my
cabin
with
its
whisperings
and
gestures
.
It
was
the
captain
.
He
,
too
,
had
been
awake
and
thinking
things
over
.
He
had
come
to
explain-enormously
.
I
lay
there
hating
him
and
wondering
if
I
and
Pollack
could
lock
him
in
his
cabin
and
run
the
ship
without
him
.
"
I
do
not
want
to
spoil
dis
expedition
,
"
emerged
from
a
cloud
of
protestations
,
and
then
I
was
able
to
disentangle
"
a
commission-shush
a
small
commission-for
special
risks
!
"
"
Special
risks
"
became
frequent
.
I
let
him
explain
himself
out
.
It
appeared
he
was
also
demanding
an
apology
for
something
I
had
said
.
No
doubt
I
had
insulted
him
generously
.
At
last
came
definite
offers
.
I
broke
my
silence
and
bargained
.
"
Pollack
!
"
I
cried
and
hammered
the
partition
.
"
What
's
up
?
"
asked
Pollack
.
I
stated
the
case
concisely
.
There
came
a
silence
.
"
He
's
a
Card
,
"
said
Pollack
.
"
Let
's
give
him
his
commission
.
I
do
n't
mind
.
"
"
Eh
?
"
I
cried
.
"
I
said
he
was
a
Card
,
that
's
all
,
"
said
Pollack
.
"
I
'm
coming
.
"
He
appeared
in
my
doorway
a
faint
white
figure
joined
our
vehement
whisperings
.
We
had
to
buy
the
captain
off
;
we
had
to
promise
him
ten
per
cent
.
of
our
problematical
profits
.
We
were
to
give
him
ten
per
cent
.
on
what
we
sold
the
cargo
for
over
and
above
his
legitimate
pay
,
and
I
found
in
my
out-bargained
and
disordered
state
small
consolation
in
the
thought
that
I
,
as
the
Gordon-Nasmyth
expedition
,
was
to
sell
the
stuff
to
myself
as
Business
Organisations
.
And
he
further
exasperated
me
by
insisting
on
having
our
bargain
in
writing
.
"
In
the
form
of
a
letter
,
"
he
insisted
.
"
All
right
,
"
I
acquiesced
,
"
in
the
form
of
a
letter
.
Here
goes
!
Get
a
light
!
"
"
And
the
apology
,
"
he
said
,
folding
up
the
letter
.
"
All
right
,
"
I
said
;
"
Apology
.
"
My
hand
shook
with
anger
as
I
wrote
,
and
afterwards
I
could
not
sleep
for
hate
of
him
.
At
last
I
got
up
.
I
suffered
,
I
found
,
from
an
unusual
clumsiness
.
I
struck
my
toe
against
my
cabin
door
,
and
cut
myself
as
I
shaved
.
I
found
myself
at
last
pacing
the
deck
under
the
dawn
in
a
mood
of
extreme
exasperation
.
The
sun
rose
abruptly
and
splashed
light
blindingly
into
my
eyes
and
I
swore
at
the
sun
.
I
found
myself
imagining
fresh
obstacles
with
the
men
and
talking
aloud
in
anticipatory
rehearsal
of
the
consequent
row
.
The
malaria
of
the
quap
was
already
in
my
blood
.
Sooner
or
later
the
ridiculous
embargo
that
now
lies
upon
all
the
coast
eastward
of
Mordet
Island
will
be
lifted
and
the
reality
of
the
deposits
of
quap
ascertained
.
I
am
sure
that
we
were
merely
taking
the
outcrop
of
a
stratum
of
nodulated
deposits
that
dip
steeply
seaward
.
Those
heaps
were
merely
the
crumbled
out
contents
of
two
irregular
cavities
in
the
rock
;
they
are
as
natural
as
any
talus
or
heap
of
that
kind
,
and
the
mud
along
the
edge
of
the
water
for
miles
is
mixed
with
quap
,
and
is
radio-active
and
lifeless
and
faintly
phosphorescent
at
night
.
But
the
reader
will
find
the
full
particulars
of
my
impression
of
all
this
in
the
Geological
Magazine
for
October
,
1905
,
and
to
that
I
must
refer
him
.
There
,
too
,
he
will
find
my
unconfirmed
theories
of
its
nature
.
If
I
am
right
it
is
something
far
more
significant
from
the
scientific
point
of
view
than
those
incidental
constituents
of
various
rare
metals
,
pitchblende
,
rutile
,
and
the
like
,
upon
which
the
revolutionary
discoveries
of
the
last
decade
are
based
.
Those
are
just
little
molecular
centres
of
disintegration
,
of
that
mysterious
decay
and
rotting
of
those
elements
,
elements
once
regarded
as
the
most
stable
things
in
nature
.
But
there
is
something-the
only
word
that
comes
near
it
is
CANCEROUS-and
that
is
not
very
near
,
about
the
whole
of
quap
,
something
that
creeps
and
lives
as
a
disease
lives
by
destroying
;
an
elemental
stirring
and
disarrangement
,
incalculably
maleficent
and
strange
.
This
is
no
imaginative
comparison
of
mine
.
To
my
mind
radio-activity
is
a
real
disease
of
matter
.
Moreover
,
it
is
a
contagious
disease
.
It
spreads
.
You
bring
those
debased
and
crumbling
atoms
near
others
and
those
too
presently
catch
the
trick
of
swinging
themselves
out
of
coherent
existence
.
It
is
in
matter
exactly
what
the
decay
of
our
old
culture
is
in
society
,
a
loss
of
traditions
and
distinctions
and
assured
reactions
.
When
I
think
of
these
inexplicable
dissolvent
centres
that
have
come
into
being
in
our
globe-these
quap
heaps
are
surely
by
far
the
largest
that
have
yet
been
found
in
the
world
;
the
rest
as
yet
mere
specks
in
grains
and
crystals-I
am
haunted
by
a
grotesque
fancy
of
the
ultimate
eating
away
and
dry-rotting
and
dispersal
of
all
our
world
.
So
that
while
man
still
struggles
and
dreams
his
very
substance
will
change
and
crumble
from
beneath
him
.
I
mention
this
here
as
a
queer
persistent
fancy
.
Suppose
,
indeed
,
that
is
to
be
the
end
of
our
planet
;
no
splendid
climax
and
finale
,
no
towering
accumulation
of
achievements
,
but
just-atomic
decay
!
I
add
that
to
the
ideas
of
the
suffocating
comet
,
the
dark
body
out
of
space
,
the
burning
out
of
the
sun
,
the
distorted
orbit
,
as
a
new
and
far
more
possible
end-as
Science
can
see
ends-to
this
strange
by-play
of
matter
that
we
call
human
life
.
I
do
not
believe
this
can
be
the
end
;
no
human
soul
can
believe
in
such
an
end
and
go
on
living
,
but
to
it
science
points
as
a
possible
thing
,
science
and
reason
alike
.
If
single
human
beings-if
one
single
ricketty
infant-can
be
born
as
it
were
by
accident
and
die
futile
,
why
not
the
whole
race
?
These
are
questions
I
have
never
answered
,
that
now
I
never
attempt
to
answer
,
but
the
thought
of
quap
and
its
mysteries
brings
them
back
to
me
.
I
can
witness
that
the
beach
and
mud
for
two
miles
or
more
either
way
was
a
lifeless
beach-lifeless
as
I
could
have
imagined
no
tropical
mud
could
ever
be
,
and
all
the
dead
branches
and
leaves
and
rotting
dead
fish
and
so
forth
that
drifted
ashore
became
presently
shrivelled
and
white
.
Sometimes
crocodiles
would
come
up
out
of
the
water
and
bask
,
and
now
and
then
water
birds
would
explore
the
mud
and
rocky
ribs
that
rose
out
of
it
,
in
a
mood
of
transitory
speculation
.
That
was
its
utmost
admiration
.
And
the
air
felt
at
once
hot
and
austere
,
dry
and
blistering
,
and
altogether
different
the
warm
moist
embrace
that
had
met
us
at
our
first
African
landfall
and
to
which
we
had
grown
accustomed
.
I
believe
that
the
primary
influence
of
the
quap
upon
us
was
to
increase
the
conductivity
of
our
nerves
,
but
that
is
a
mere
unjustifiable
speculation
on
my
part
.
At
any
rate
it
gave
a
sort
of
east
wind
effect
to
life
.
We
all
became
irritable
,
clumsy
,
languid
and
disposed
to
be
impatient
with
our
languor
.
We
moored
the
brig
to
the
rocks
with
difficulty
,
and
got
aground
on
mud
and
decided
to
stick
there
and
tow
off
when
we
had
done-the
bottom
was
as
greasy
as
butter
.
Our
efforts
to
fix
up
planks
and
sleepers
in
order
to
wheel
the
quap
aboard
were
as
ill-conceived
as
that
sort
of
work
can
be-and
that
sort
of
work
can
at
times
be
very
ill-conceived
.
The
captain
had
a
superstitious
fear
of
his
hold
:
he
became
wildly
gesticulatory
and
expository
and
incompetent
at
the
bare
thought
of
it
.
His
shouts
still
echo
in
my
memory
,
becoming
as
each
crisis
approached
less
and
less
like
any
known
tongue
.
But
I
cannot
now
write
the
history
of
those
days
of
blundering
and
toil
:
of
how
Milton
,
one
of
the
boys
,
fell
from
a
plank
to
the
beach
,
thirty
feet
perhaps
,
with
his
barrow
and
broke
his
arm
and
I
believe
a
rib
,
of
how
I
and
Pollack
set
the
limb
and
nursed
him
through
the
fever
that
followed
,
of
how
one
man
after
another
succumbed
to
a
feverish
malaria
,
and
how
I-by
virtue
of
my
scientific
reputation-was
obliged
to
play
the
part
of
doctor
and
dose
them
with
quinine
,
and
then
finding
that
worse
than
nothing
,
with
rum
and
small
doses
of
Easton
's
Syrup
,
of
which
there
chanced
to
be
a
case
of
bottles
aboard-Heaven
and
Gordon-Nasmyth
know
why
.
For
three
long
days
we
lay
in
misery
and
never
shipped
a
barrow-load
.
Then
,
when
they
resumed
,
the
men
's
hands
broke
out
into
sores
.
There
were
no
gloves
available
;
and
I
tried
to
get
them
,
while
they
shovelled
and
wheeled
,
to
cover
their
hands
with
stockings
or
greased
rags
.
They
would
not
do
this
on
account
of
the
heat
and
discomfort
.
This
attempt
of
mine
did
,
however
,
direct
their
attention
to
the
quap
as
the
source
of
their
illness
and
precipitated
what
in
the
end
finished
our
lading
,
an
informal
strike
.
"
We
've
had
enough
of
this
,
"
they
said
,
and
they
meant
it
.
They
came
aft
to
say
as
much
.
They
cowed
the
captain
.
Through
all
these
days
the
weather
was
variously
vile
,
first
a
furnace
heat
under
a
sky
of
a
scowling
intensity
of
blue
,
then
a
hot
fog
that
stuck
in
one
's
throat
like
wool
and
turned
the
men
on
the
planks
into
colourless
figures
of
giants
,
then
a
wild
burst
of
thunderstorms
,
mad
elemental
uproar
and
rain
.
Through
it
all
,
against
illness
,
heat
,
confusion
of
mind
,
one
master
impetus
prevailed
with
me
,
to
keep
the
shipping
going
,
to
maintain
one
motif
at
least
,
whatever
else
arose
or
ceased
,
the
chuff
of
the
spades
,
the
squeaking
and
shriek
of
the
barrows
,
the
pluppa
,
pluppa
,
pluppa
,
as
the
men
came
trotting
along
the
swinging
high
planks
,
and
then
at
last
,
the
dollop
,
dollop
,
as
the
stuff
shot
into
the
hold
.
"
Another
barrow-load
,
thank
God
!
Another
fifteen
hundred
,
or
it
may
be
two
thousand
pounds
,
for
the
saving
of
Ponderevo
!
...
"
I
found
out
many
things
about
myself
and
humanity
in
those
weeks
of
effort
behind
Mordet
Island
.
I
understand
now
the
heart
of
the
sweater
,
of
the
harsh
employer
,
of
the
nigger-driver
.
I
had
brought
these
men
into
a
danger
they
did
n't
understand
,
I
was
fiercely
resolved
to
overcome
their
opposition
and
bend
and
use
them
for
my
purpose
,
and
I
hated
the
men
.
But
I
hated
all
humanity
during
the
time
that
the
quap
was
near
me
.
And
my
mind
was
pervaded
,
too
,
by
a
sense
of
urgency
and
by
the
fear
that
we
should
be
discovered
and
our
proceedings
stopped
.
I
wanted
to
get
out
to
sea
again-to
be
beating
up
northward
with
our
plunder
.
I
was
afraid
our
masts
showed
to
seaward
and
might
betray
us
to
some
curious
passer
on
the
high
sea
.
And
one
evening
near
the
end
I
saw
a
canoe
with
three
natives
far
off
down
the
lake
;
I
got
field-glasses
from
the
captain
and
scrutinised
them
,
and
I
could
see
them
staring
at
us
.
One
man
might
have
been
a
half-breed
and
was
dressed
in
white
.
They
watched
us
for
some
time
very
quietly
and
then
paddled
off
into
some
channel
in
the
forest
shadows
.
And
for
three
nights
running
,
so
that
it
took
a
painful
grip
upon
my
inflamed
imagination
,
I
dreamt
of
my
uncle
's
face
,
only
that
it
was
ghastly
white
like
a
clown
's
,
and
the
throat
was
cut
from
ear
to
ear-a
long
ochreous
cut
.
"
Too
late
,
"
he
said
;
"
Too
late
!
...
"
A
day
or
so
after
we
had
got
to
work
upon
the
quap
I
found
myself
so
sleepless
and
miserable
that
the
ship
became
unendurable
.
Just
before
the
rush
of
sunrise
I
borrowed
Pollack
's
gun
,
walked
down
the
planks
,
clambered
over
the
quap
heaps
and
prowled
along
the
beach
.
I
went
perhaps
a
mile
and
a
half
that
day
and
some
distance
beyond
the
ruins
of
the
old
station
.
I
became
interested
in
the
desolation
about
me
,
and
found
when
I
returned
that
I
was
able
to
sleep
for
nearly
an
hour
.
It
was
delightful
to
have
been
alone
for
so
long
,
-no
captain
,
no
Pollack
,
no
one
.
Accordingly
I
repeated
this
expedition
the
next
morning
and
the
next
until
it
became
a
custom
with
me
.
There
was
little
for
me
to
do
once
the
digging
and
wheeling
was
organised
,
and
so
these
prowlings
of
mine
grew
longer
and
longer
,
and
presently
I
began
to
take
food
with
me
.
I
pushed
these
walks
far
beyond
the
area
desolated
by
the
quap
.
On
the
edges
of
that
was
first
a
zone
of
stunted
vegetation
,
then
a
sort
of
swampy
jungle
that
was
difficult
to
penetrate
,
and
then
the
beginnings
of
the
forest
,
a
scene
of
huge
tree
stems
and
tangled
creeper
ropes
and
roots
mingled
with
oozy
mud
.
Here
I
used
to
loaf
in
a
state
between
botanising
and
reverie-always
very
anxious
to
know
what
was
up
above
in
the
sunlight-and
here
it
was
I
murdered
a
man
.
It
was
the
most
unmeaning
and
purposeless
murder
imaginable
.
Even
as
I
write
down
its
well-remembered
particulars
there
comes
again
the
sense
of
its
strangeness
,
its
pointlessness
,
its
incompatibility
with
any
of
the
neat
and
definite
theories
people
hold
about
life
and
the
meaning
of
the
world
.
I
did
this
thing
and
I
want
to
tell
of
my
doing
it
,
but
why
I
did
it
and
particularly
why
I
should
be
held
responsible
for
it
I
cannot
explain
.
That
morning
I
had
come
upon
a
track
in
the
forest
,
and
it
had
occurred
to
me
as
a
disagreeable
idea
that
this
was
a
human
pathway
.
I
did
n't
want
to
come
upon
any
human
beings
.
The
less
our
expedition
saw
of
the
African
population
the
better
for
its
prospects
.
Thus
far
we
had
been
singularly
free
from
native
pestering
.
So
I
turned
back
and
was
making
my
way
over
mud
and
roots
and
dead
fronds
and
petals
scattered
from
the
green
world
above
when
abruptly
I
saw
my
victim
.
I
became
aware
of
him
perhaps
forty
feet
off
standing
quite
still
and
regarding
me
.
He
was
n't
by
any
means
a
pretty
figure
.
He
was
very
black
and
naked
except
for
a
dirty
loin-cloth
,
his
legs
were
ill-shaped
and
his
toes
spread
wide
and
the
upper
edge
of
his
cloth
and
a
girdle
of
string
cut
his
clumsy
abdomen
into
folds
.
His
forehead
was
low
,
his
nose
very
flat
and
his
lower
lip
swollen
and
purplish-red
.
His
hair
was
short
and
fuzzy
,
and
about
his
neck
was
a
string
and
a
little
purse
of
skin
.
He
carried
a
musket
,
and
a
powder-flask
was
stuck
in
his
girdle
.
It
was
a
curious
confrontation
.
There
opposed
to
him
stood
I
,
a
little
soiled
,
perhaps
,
but
still
a
rather
elaborately
civilised
human
being
,
born
,
bred
and
trained
in
a
vague
tradition
.
In
my
hand
was
an
unaccustomed
gun
.
And
each
of
us
was
essentially
a
teeming
,
vivid
brain
,
tensely
excited
by
the
encounter
,
quite
unaware
of
the
other
's
mental
content
or
what
to
do
with
him
.
He
stepped
back
a
pace
or
so
,
stumbled
and
turned
to
run
.
"
Stop
,
"
I
cried
;
"
stop
,
you
fool
!
"
and
started
to
run
after
him
,
shouting
such
things
in
English
.
But
I
was
no
match
for
him
over
the
roots
and
mud
.
I
had
a
preposterous
idea
.
"
He
must
n't
get
away
and
tell
them
!
"
And
with
that
instantly
I
brought
both
feet
together
,
raised
my
gun
,
aimed
quite
coolly
,
drew
the
trigger
carefully
and
shot
him
neatly
in
the
back
.
I
saw
,
and
saw
with
a
leap
of
pure
exaltation
,
the
smash
of
my
bullet
between
his
shoulder
blades
.
"
Got
him
,
"
said
I
,
dropping
my
gun
and
down
he
flopped
and
died
without
a
groan
.
"
By
Jove
!
"
I
cried
with
note
of
surprise
,
"
I
've
killed
him
!
"
I
looked
about
me
and
then
went
forward
cautiously
,
in
a
mood
between
curiosity
and
astonishment
,
to
look
at
this
man
whose
soul
I
had
flung
so
unceremoniously
out
of
our
common
world
.
I
went
to
him
,
not
as
one
goes
to
something
one
has
made
or
done
,
but
as
one
approaches
something
found
.
He
was
frightfully
smashed
out
in
front
;
he
must
have
died
in
the
instant
.
I
stooped
and
raised
him
by
his
shoulder
and
realised
that
.
I
dropped
him
,
and
stood
about
and
peered
about
me
through
the
trees
.
"
My
word
!
"
I
said
.
He
was
the
second
dead
human
being-apart
,
I
mean
,
from
surgical
properties
and
mummies
and
common
shows
of
that
sort-that
I
have
ever
seen
.
I
stood
over
him
wondering
,
wondering
beyond
measure
.
A
practical
idea
came
into
that
confusion
.
Had
any
one
heard
the
gun
?
I
reloaded
.
After
a
time
I
felt
securer
,
and
gave
my
mind
again
to
the
dead
I
had
killed
.
What
must
I
do
?
It
occurred
to
me
that
perhaps
I
ought
to
bury
him
.
At
any
rate
,
I
ought
to
hide
him
.
I
reflected
coolly
,
and
then
put
my
gun
within
easy
reach
and
dragged
him
by
the
arm
towards
a
place
where
the
mud
seemed
soft
,
and
thrust
him
in
.
His
powder-flask
slipped
from
his
loin-cloth
,
and
I
went
back
to
get
it
.
Then
I
pressed
him
down
with
the
butt
of
my
rifle
.
Afterwards
this
all
seemed
to
me
most
horrible
,
but
at
the
time
it
was
entirely
a
matter-of-fact
transaction
.
I
looked
round
for
any
other
visible
evidence
of
his
fate
,
looked
round
as
one
does
when
one
packs
one
's
portmanteau
in
an
hotel
bedroom
.
When
I
got
my
bearings
,
and
carefully
returned
towards
the
ship
.
I
had
the
mood
of
grave
concentration
of
a
boy
who
has
lapsed
into
poaching
.
And
the
business
only
began
to
assume
proper
proportions
for
me
as
I
got
near
the
ship
,
to
seem
any
other
kind
of
thing
than
the
killing
of
a
bird
or
rabbit
.
In
the
night
,
however
,
it
took
on
enormous
and
portentous
forms
.
"
By
God
!
"
I
cried
suddenly
,
starting
wide
awake
;
"
but
it
was
murder
!
"
I
lay
after
that
wide
awake
,
staring
at
my
memories
.
In
some
odd
way
these
visions
mixed
up
with
my
dream
of
in
my
uncle
in
his
despair
.
The
black
body
which
saw
now
damaged
and
partly
buried
,
but
which
,
nevertheless
,
I
no
longer
felt
was
dead
but
acutely
alive
and
perceiving
,
I
mixed
up
with
the
ochreous
slash
under
my
uncle
's
face
.
I
tried
to
dismiss
this
horrible
obsession
from
my
mind
,
but
it
prevailed
over
all
my
efforts
.
The
next
day
was
utterly
black
with
my
sense
of
that
ugly
creature
's
body
.
I
am
the
least
superstitious
of
men
,
but
it
drew
me
.
It
drew
me
back
into
those
thickets
to
the
very
place
where
I
had
hidden
him
.
Some
evil
and
detestable
beast
had
been
at
him
,
and
he
lay
disinterred
.
Methodically
I
buried
his
swollen
and
mangled
carcass
again
,
and
returned
to
the
ship
for
another
night
of
dreams
.
Next
day
for
all
the
morning
I
resisted
the
impulse
to
go
to
him
,
and
played
nap
with
Pollack
with
my
secret
gnawing
at
me
,
and
in
the
evening
started
to
go
and
was
near
benighted
.
I
never
told
a
soul
of
them
of
this
thing
I
had
done
.
Next
day
I
went
early
,
and
he
had
gone
,
and
there
were
human
footmarks
and
ugly
stains
round
the
muddy
hole
from
which
he
had
been
dragged
.
I
returned
to
the
ship
,
disconcerted
and
perplexed
.
That
day
it
was
the
men
came
aft
,
with
blistered
hands
and
faces
,
and
sullen
eyes
.
When
they
proclaimed
,
through
Edwards
,
their
spokesman
,
"
We
've
had
enough
of
this
,
and
we
mean
it
,
"
I
answered
very
readily
,
"
So
have
I
.
Let
's
go
.
"
We
were
none
too
soon
.
People
had
been
reconnoitring
us
,
the
telegraph
had
been
at
work
,
and
we
were
not
four
hours
at
sea
before
we
ran
against
the
gunboat
that
had
been
sent
down
the
coast
to
look
for
us
and
that
would
have
caught
us
behind
the
island
like
a
beast
in
a
trap
.
It
was
a
night
of
driving
cloud
that
gave
intermittent
gleams
of
moonlight
;
the
wind
and
sea
were
strong
and
we
were
rolling
along
through
a
drift
of
rails
and
mist
.
Suddenly
the
world
was
white
with
moonshine
.
The
gunboat
came
out
as
a
long
dark
shape
wallowing
on
the
water
to
the
east
.
She
sighted
the
Maud
Mary
at
once
,
and
fired
some
sort
of
popgun
to
arrest
us
.
The
mate
turned
to
me
.
"
Shall
I
tell
the
captain
?
"
"
The
captain
be
damned
"
said
I
,
and
we
let
him
sleep
through
two
hours
of
chase
till
a
rainstorm
swallowed
us
up
.
Then
we
changed
our
course
and
sailed
right
across
them
,
and
by
morning
only
her
smoke
was
showing
.
We
were
clear
of
Africa-and
with
the
booty
aboard
I
did
not
see
what
stood
between
us
and
home
.
For
the
first
time
since
I
had
fallen
sick
in
the
Thames
my
spirits
rose
.
I
was
sea-sick
and
physically
disgusted
,
of
course
,
but
I
felt
kindly
in
spite
of
my
qualms
.
So
far
as
I
could
calculate
then
the
situation
was
saved
.
I
saw
myself
returning
triumphantly
into
the
Thames
,
and
nothing
on
earth
to
prevent
old
Capern
's
Perfect
Filament
going
on
the
market
in
fortnight
.
I
had
the
monopoly
of
electric
lamps
beneath
my
feet
.
I
was
released
from
the
spell
of
that
bloodstained
black
body
all
mixed
up
with
grey-black
mud
.
I
was
going
back
to
baths
and
decent
food
and
aeronautics
and
Beatrice
.
I
was
going
back
to
Beatrice
and
my
real
life
again-out
of
this
well
into
which
I
had
fallen
.
It
would
have
needed
something
more
than
sea-sickness
and
quap
fever
to
prevent
my
spirits
rising
.
I
told
the
captain
that
I
agreed
with
him
that
the
British
were
the
scum
of
Europe
,
the
westward
drift
of
all
the
people
,
a
disgusting
rabble
,
and
I
lost
three
pounds
by
attenuated
retail
to
Pollack
at
ha'penny
nap
and
euchre
.
And
then
you
know
,
as
we
got
out
into
the
Atlantic
this
side
of
Cape
Verde
,
the
ship
began
to
go
to
pieces
.
I
do
n't
pretend
for
one
moment
to
understand
what
happened
.
But
I
think
Greiffenhagen
's
recent
work
on
the
effects
of
radium
upon
ligneous
tissue
does
rather
carry
out
my
idea
that
emanations
from
quap
have
rapid
rotting
effect
upon
woody
fibre
.
From
the
first
there
had
been
a
different
feel
about
the
ship
,
and
as
the
big
winds
and
waves
began
to
strain
her
she
commenced
leaking
.
Soon
she
was
leaking-not
at
any
particular
point
,
but
everywhere
.
She
did
not
spring
a
leak
,
I
mean
,
but
water
came
in
first
of
all
near
the
decaying
edges
of
her
planks
,
and
then
through
them
.
I
firmly
believe
the
water
came
through
the
wood
.
First
it
began
to
ooze
,
then
to
trickle
.
It
was
like
trying
to
carry
moist
sugar
in
a
thin
paper
bag
.
Soon
we
were
taking
in
water
as
though
we
had
opened
a
door
in
her
bottom
.
Once
it
began
,
the
thing
went
ahead
beyond
all
fighting
.
For
a
day
or
so
we
did
our
best
,
and
I
can
still
remember
in
my
limbs
and
back
the
pumping-the
fatigue
in
my
arms
and
the
memory
of
a
clear
little
dribble
of
water
that
jerked
as
one
pumped
,
and
of
knocking
off
and
the
being
awakened
to
go
on
again
,
and
of
fatigue
piling
up
upon
fatigue
.
At
last
we
ceased
to
think
of
anything
but
pumping
;
one
became
a
thing
of
torment
enchanted
,
doomed
to
pump
for
ever
.
I
still
remember
it
as
pure
relief
when
at
last
Pollack
came
to
me
pipe
in
mouth
.
"
The
captain
says
the
damned
thing
's
going
down
right
now
;
"
he
remarked
,
chewing
his
mouthpiece
.
"
Eh
?
"
"
Good
idea
!
"
I
said
.
"
One
ca
n't
go
on
pumping
for
ever
.
"
And
without
hurry
or
alacrity
,
sullenly
and
wearily
we
got
into
the
boats
and
pulled
away
from
the
Maud
Mary
until
we
were
clear
of
her
,
and
then
we
stayed
resting
on
our
oars
,
motionless
upon
a
glassy
sea
,
waiting
for
her
to
sink
.
We
were
all
silent
,
even
the
captain
was
silent
until
she
went
down
.
And
then
he
spoke
quite
mildly
in
an
undertone
.
"
Dat
is
the
first
ship
I
haf
ever
lost
...
.
And
it
was
not
a
fair
game
!
It
wass
not
a
cargo
any
man
should
take
.
No
!
"
I
stared
at
the
slow
eddies
that
circled
above
the
departed
Maud
Mary
,
and
the
last
chance
of
Business
Organisations
.
I
felt
weary
beyond
emotion
.
I
thought
of
my
heroics
to
Beatrice
and
my
uncle
,
of
my
prompt
"
I
'LL
go
,
"
and
of
all
the
ineffectual
months
I
had
spent
after
this
headlong
decision
.
I
was
moved
to
laughter
at
myself
and
fate
.
But
the
captain
and
the
men
did
not
laugh
.
The
men
scowled
at
me
and
rubbed
their
sore
and
blistered
hands
,
and
set
themselves
to
row
...
.
As
all
the
world
knows
we
were
picked
up
by
the
Union
Castle
liner
,
Portland
Castle
.
The
hairdresser
aboard
was
a
wonderful
man
,
and
he
even
improvised
me
a
dress
suit
,
and
produced
a
clean
shirt
and
warm
underclothing
.
I
had
a
hot
bath
,
and
dressed
and
dined
and
drank
a
bottle
of
Burgundy
.
"
Now
,
"
I
said
,
"
are
there
any
newspapers
?
I
want
to
know
what
's
been
happening
in
the
world
.
"
My
steward
gave
me
what
he
had
,
but
I
landed
at
Plymouth
still
largely
ignorant
of
the
course
of
events
.
I
shook
off
Pollack
,
and
left
the
captain
and
mate
in
an
hotel
,
and
the
men
in
a
Sailor
's
Home
until
I
could
send
to
pay
them
off
,
and
I
made
my
way
to
the
station
.
The
newspapers
I
bought
,
the
placards
I
saw
,
all
England
indeed
resounded
to
my
uncle
's
bankruptcy
.
BOOK
THE
FOURTH
THE
AFTERMATH
OF
TONO-BUNGAY
CHAPTER
THE
FIRST
THE
STICK
OF
THE
ROCKET
That
evening
I
talked
with
my
uncle
in
the
Hardingham
for
the
last
time
.
The
atmosphere
of
the
place
had
altered
quite
shockingly
.
Instead
of
the
crowd
of
importunate
courtiers
there
were
just
half
a
dozen
uninviting
men
,
journalists
waiting
for
an
interview
.
Ropper
the
big
commissionaire
was
still
there
,
but
now
indeed
he
was
defending
my
uncle
from
something
more
than
time-wasting
intrusions
.
I
found
the
little
man
alone
in
the
inner
office
pretending
to
work
,
but
really
brooding
.
He
was
looking
yellow
and
deflated
.
"
Lord
!
"
he
said
at
the
sight
of
me
.
"
You
're
lean
,
George
.
It
makes
that
scar
of
yours
show
up
.
"
We
regarded
each
other
gravely
for
a
time
.
"
Quap
,
"
I
said
,
"
is
at
the
bottom
of
the
Atlantic
.
There
's
some
bills-We
've
got
to
pay
the
men
.
"
"
Seen
the
papers
?
"
"
Read
'
em
all
in
the
train
.
"
"
At
bay
,
"
he
said
.
"
I
been
at
bay
for
a
week
...
.
Yelping
round
me
...
.
And
me
facing
the
music
.
I
'm
feelin
'
a
bit
tired
.
"
He
blew
and
wiped
his
glasses
.
"
My
stomack
is
n't
what
it
was
,
"
he
explained
.
"
One
finds
it-these
times
.
How
did
it
all
happen
,
George
?
Your
Marconigram-it
took
me
in
the
wind
a
bit
.
"
I
told
him
concisely
.
He
nodded
to
the
paragraphs
of
my
narrative
and
at
the
end
he
poured
something
from
a
medicine
bottle
into
a
sticky
little
wineglass
and
drank
it
.
I
became
aware
of
the
presence
of
drugs
,
of
three
or
four
small
bottles
before
him
among
his
disorder
of
papers
,
of
a
faint
elusively
familiar
odour
in
the
room
.
"
Yes
,
"
he
said
,
wiping
his
lips
and
recorking
the
bottle
.
"
You
've
done
your
best
,
George
.
The
luck
's
been
against
us
.
"
He
reflected
,
bottle
in
hand
.
"
Sometimes
the
luck
goes
with
you
and
sometimes
it
does
n't
.
Sometimes
it
does
n't
.
And
then
where
are
you
?
Grass
in
the
oven
!
Fight
or
no
fight
.
"
He
asked
a
few
questions
and
then
his
thoughts
came
back
to
his
own
urgent
affairs
.
I
tried
to
get
some
comprehensive
account
of
the
situation
from
him
,
but
he
would
not
give
it
.
"
Oh
,
I
wish
I
'd
had
you
.
I
wish
I
'd
had
you
,
George
.
I
've
had
a
lot
on
my
hands
.
You
're
clear
headed
at
times
.
"
"
What
has
happened
?
"
"
Oh
!
Boom
!
-infernal
things
.
"
"
Yes
,
but-how
?
I
'm
just
off
the
sea
,
remember
.
"
"
It
'd
worry
me
too
much
to
tell
you
now
.
It
's
tied
up
in
a
skein
.
"
He
muttered
something
to
himself
and
mused
darkly
,
and
roused
himself
to
say-
"
Besides-you
'd
better
keep
out
of
it
.
It
's
getting
tight
.
Get
'
em
talking
.
Go
down
to
Crest
Hill
and
fly
.
That
's
YOUR
affair
.
"
For
a
time
his
manner
set
free
queer
anxieties
in
my
brain
again
.
I
will
confess
that
that
Mordet
Island
nightmare
of
mine
returned
,
and
as
I
looked
at
him
his
hand
went
out
for
the
drug
again
.
"
Stomach
,
George
,
"
he
said
.
"
I
been
fightin
'
on
that
.
Every
man
fights
on
some
thing-gives
way
somewheres-head
,
heart
,
liver-something
.
Zzzz
.
Gives
way
somewhere
.
Napoleon
did
at
last
.
All
through
the
Waterloo
campaign
,
his
stomach-it
was
n't
a
stomach
!
Worse
than
mine
,
no
end
.
"
The
mood
of
depression
passed
as
the
drug
worked
within
him
.
His
eyes
brightened
.
He
began
to
talk
big
.
He
began
to
dress
up
the
situation
for
my
eyes
,
to
recover
what
he
had
admitted
to
me
.
He
put
it
as
a
retreat
from
Russia
.
There
were
still
the
chances
of
Leipzig
.
"
It
's
a
battle
,
George-a
big
fight
.
We
're
fighting
for
millions
.
I
've
still
chances
.
There
's
still
a
card
or
so
.
I
ca
n't
tell
all
my
plans-like
speaking
on
the
stroke
.
"
"
You
might
,
"
I
began
.
"
I
ca
n't
,
George
.
It
's
like
asking
to
look
at
some
embryo
.
You
got
to
wait
.
I
know
.
In
a
sort
of
way
,
I
know
.
But
to
tell
it-No
!
You
been
away
so
long
.
And
everything
's
got
complicated
.
"
My
perception
of
disastrous
entanglements
deepened
with
the
rise
of
his
spirits
.
It
was
evident
that
I
could
only
help
to
tie
him
up
in
whatever
net
was
weaving
round
his
mind
by
forcing
questions
and
explanations
upon
him
.
My
thoughts
flew
off
at
another
angle
.
"
How
's
Aunt
Susan
?
"
said
I
.
I
had
to
repeat
the
question
.
His
busy
whispering
lips
stopped
for
a
moment
,
and
he
answered
in
the
note
of
one
who
repeats
a
formula
.
"
She
'd
like
to
be
in
the
battle
with
me
.
She
'd
like
to
be
here
in
London
.
But
there
's
corners
I
got
to
turn
alone
.
"
His
eye
rested
for
a
moment
on
the
little
bottle
beside
him
.
"
And
things
have
happened
.
"
You
might
go
down
now
and
talk
to
her
,
"
he
said
,
in
a
directer
voice
.
"
I
shall
be
down
to-morrow
night
,
I
think
.
"
He
looked
up
as
though
he
hoped
that
would
end
our
talk
.
"
For
the
week-end
?
"
