Transcription complète de Chapter 1 Part 2

all the recesses of the coast, 35 00:02:19.719 --> 00:02:24.680 In all the legality of time, contracts lost in uncongenial surroundings, 36 00:02:24.960 --> 00:02:29.560 fed on unfamiliar food, they sickened, became inefficient, and were 37 00:02:29.560 --> 00:02:34.199 then allowed to crawl away and rest. These moribund shapes 38 00:02:34.240 --> 00:02:38.400 were free as air and nearly as thin. I began 39 00:02:38.439 --> 00:02:42.280 to distinguish the gleam of the eyes under the trees. Then, 40 00:02:42.319 --> 00:02:45.719 glancing down, I saw a face near my hand. The 41 00:02:45.719 --> 00:02:49.000 black bones reclined at full length with one shoulder against 42 00:02:49.000 --> 00:02:52.479 the tree, and slowly the eyelids rose, and the sunken 43 00:02:52.520 --> 00:02:56.319 eyes looked up at me, enormous and vacant, a kind 44 00:02:56.360 --> 00:02:59.280 of blind white flicker in the depths of the orbs, 45 00:02:59.520 --> 00:03:04.599 which died out slowly. The men seemed young, almost a boy, 46 00:03:05.439 --> 00:03:08.319 but you know, with them it's hard to tell. I've 47 00:03:08.319 --> 00:03:10.360 found nothing else to do but to offer him one 48 00:03:10.360 --> 00:03:13.240 of my good Swedes ship biscuits I had in my pocket. 49 00:03:14.080 --> 00:03:17.159 The fingers closed slowly on it and held. There was 50 00:03:17.199 --> 00:03:21.080 no other movement, and no other glance. He had tied 51 00:03:21.120 --> 00:03:24.879 a bit of white worsted around his neck. Why where 52 00:03:24.879 --> 00:03:28.039 did he get it? Was it a badge, an ornament, 53 00:03:28.360 --> 00:03:32.800 a charm, a propitiatory act? Was there any idea at 54 00:03:32.840 --> 00:03:37.240 all connected with it? It looked startling round his black neck, 55 00:03:37.319 --> 00:03:41.599 this bit of white thread. From beyond the seas, near 56 00:03:41.639 --> 00:03:44.680 the same tree, two more bundles of acute angle sat 57 00:03:44.759 --> 00:03:48.240 with their legs drawn up. One with his chin propped 58 00:03:48.280 --> 00:03:51.599 on his knees, stared at nothing in an intolerable and 59 00:03:51.639 --> 00:03:56.199 appalling manner. His brother phantom rested its forehead as if 60 00:03:56.240 --> 00:04:00.000 overcome with a great weariness, and all about others were 61 00:04:00.080 --> 00:04:03.360 scattered in every pose of contorted collapse, as in some 62 00:04:03.439 --> 00:04:07.840 picture of a massacre or a pestilence. While I stood 63 00:04:07.879 --> 00:04:10.879 horror struck, one of these creatures rose to his hands 64 00:04:10.919 --> 00:04:13.439 and knees and went off on all fours towards the 65 00:04:13.520 --> 00:04:17.319 river to drink. He lapped out of his hand, then 66 00:04:17.360 --> 00:04:20.160 sat up in the sunlight, crossing his shins in front 67 00:04:20.199 --> 00:04:23.040 of him, and after a time let his wooly head 68 00:04:23.120 --> 00:04:26.959 fall on his breastbone. I didn't want any more loitering 69 00:04:27.000 --> 00:04:29.399 in the shade, and I made haste towards the station. 70 00:04:30.759 --> 00:04:32.959 When near the buildings, I met a white man in 71 00:04:33.040 --> 00:04:35.720 such an unexpected elegance of get up that in the 72 00:04:35.720 --> 00:04:38.079 first moment I took him for a sort of vision. 73 00:04:39.519 --> 00:04:43.439 I saw a high starched collar, white cuffs, a light 74 00:04:43.519 --> 00:04:49.120 alpaca jacket, snowy trousers, a clean necktie, and varnished boots. 75 00:04:49.959 --> 00:04:55.480 No hat, hair parted, brushed, oiled under a green lined 76 00:04:55.560 --> 00:04:59.800 parasol held in a big white hand. He was amazing 77 00:05:00.199 --> 00:05:04.839 and had a pen holder behind his ear. I shook 78 00:05:04.839 --> 00:05:07.120 hands with this miracle, and I learned that he was 79 00:05:07.360 --> 00:05:10.240 the company's chief accountant, and that all the bookkeeping was 80 00:05:10.279 --> 00:05:13.959 done at this station. He had come out for a moment, 81 00:05:14.040 --> 00:05:16.680 he said, to get a breath of fresh air. The 82 00:05:16.759 --> 00:05:22.480 expression sounded wonderfully awed, with its suggestion of sedentary desk life. 83 00:05:22.839 --> 00:05:24.879 I wouldn't have mentioned the fellow to you at all. 84 00:05:25.240 --> 00:05:27.399 Only it was from his lips that I first heard 85 00:05:27.439 --> 00:05:31.120 the name of the man who was so indissolubly connected 86 00:05:31.120 --> 00:05:37.360 with the memories of that time. Moreover, I respected the fellow, Yes, 87 00:05:38.000 --> 00:05:41.879 I respected his collars, his vast cuffs, his brushed hair. 88 00:05:43.079 --> 00:05:45.480 His appearance was certainly that of a hair dresser's dummy. 89 00:05:45.839 --> 00:05:48.319 But in the great demoralization of the land, he kept 90 00:05:48.399 --> 00:05:53.680 up his appearance. That's backbone, his starched collars, and got 91 00:05:53.759 --> 00:05:57.800 up shirt fronts were achievements of character. He had been 92 00:05:57.839 --> 00:06:01.480 out nearly three years, and later I could not help 93 00:06:01.519 --> 00:06:05.399 asking him how he managed to sport such linen. He 94 00:06:05.480 --> 00:06:09.360 had just the faintest blush and said, modestly, I've been 95 00:06:09.399 --> 00:06:12.360 teaching one of the native women about the station. It 96 00:06:12.480 --> 00:06:16.800 was difficult. She had a distaste for the work. Thus 97 00:06:16.839 --> 00:06:20.439 this man had verily accomplished something, and he was devoted 98 00:06:20.439 --> 00:06:24.079 to his books, which were in apple pie order. Everything 99 00:06:24.079 --> 00:06:28.000 else in the station was in a muddle. Heads, things, buildings, 100 00:06:28.519 --> 00:06:31.560 strings of dusty niggers with display feet arrived and departed. 101 00:06:32.079 --> 00:06:36.399 A stream of manufactured goods, rubbishy cottons, beads and brass 102 00:06:36.399 --> 00:06:39.360 wires set into the

depths of darkness, and in return 103 00:06:39.439 --> 00:06:43.360 came a precious trickle of ivory. I had to wait 104 00:06:43.399 --> 00:06:47.639 in the station for ten days, an eternity. I lived 105 00:06:47.639 --> 00:06:49.519 in a hut in the yard, but to be out 106 00:06:49.519 --> 00:06:52.399 of the chaos, I would sometimes get into the accountant's office. 107 00:06:53.279 --> 00:06:56.240 It was built out of horizontal planks, and so badly 108 00:06:56.240 --> 00:06:58.920 put together that as he bent over his high desk, 109 00:06:59.000 --> 00:07:01.920 he was barred from neck to heels with narrow strips 110 00:07:01.959 --> 00:07:05.040 of sunlight. There was no need to open the big 111 00:07:05.079 --> 00:07:10.240 shutter to see it was hot there too, big flies 112 00:07:10.399 --> 00:07:15.560 buzzed fiendishly and did not sting, but stabbed. I sat 113 00:07:15.639 --> 00:07:19.279 generally on the floor, while a faultless appearance and even 114 00:07:19.319 --> 00:07:24.879 slightly scented. Perching on a high stool, he wrote, He wrote, 115 00:07:25.240 --> 00:07:28.600 Sometimes he stood up for exercise when a truckle bed 116 00:07:28.600 --> 00:07:31.839 with a sick man, some invalid agent from up country 117 00:07:32.000 --> 00:07:36.519 was put in there. He exhibited a gentle annoyance. The 118 00:07:36.600 --> 00:07:39.920 groans of this sick person, he said, distract my attention, 119 00:07:40.959 --> 00:07:43.839 and without that it is extremely difficult to guard against 120 00:07:43.879 --> 00:07:48.360 clerical errors in this climate. One day, he remarked, without 121 00:07:48.360 --> 00:07:52.279 lifting his head, in the interior, you will no doubt 122 00:07:52.279 --> 00:07:56.639 meet mister Kurtz. On my asking who mister Kurtz was, 123 00:07:57.160 --> 00:08:00.399 he said he was a first class agent. And seeing 124 00:08:00.439 --> 00:08:04.079 my disappointment at this information, he added, slowly, laying down 125 00:08:04.120 --> 00:08:09.720 his pen, he is a very remarkable person. Further questions 126 00:08:09.759 --> 00:08:12.439 elicited from him that mister Kurtz was at present in 127 00:08:12.519 --> 00:08:15.120 charge of a trading post, a very important one in 128 00:08:15.160 --> 00:08:18.160 the true ivory country at the very bottom of there 129 00:08:19.079 --> 00:08:21.560 sends in as much ivory as all the others put together. 130 00:08:23.519 --> 00:08:26.399 He began to write again, The sick man was too 131 00:08:26.399 --> 00:08:29.839 ill to groan. The flies buzzed in a great peace. 132 00:08:31.279 --> 00:08:33.519 Suddenly there was a growing murmur of voices and a 133 00:08:33.559 --> 00:08:37.639 great tramping of feet. A caravan had come in a 134 00:08:37.720 --> 00:08:40.320 violent babble of uncouth sounds burst out on the other 135 00:08:40.399 --> 00:08:43.639 side of the planks. All the carriers were speaking together, 136 00:08:44.000 --> 00:08:46.440 and in the midst of the uproar, the lamentable voice 137 00:08:46.480 --> 00:08:49.759 of the Chief Agent was heard, giving it up tearfully 138 00:08:49.799 --> 00:08:54.440 for the twentieth time that day. He rose slowly. What 139 00:08:54.559 --> 00:08:58.200 a frightful row, he said. He crossed the room gently 140 00:08:58.240 --> 00:09:01.080 to look at the sick man, and turning, said to me, 141 00:09:02.320 --> 00:09:08.879 he does not hear what dead? I asked, startled, No, 142 00:09:09.240 --> 00:09:12.879 not yet, he answered, with great composure, then alluding with 143 00:09:12.919 --> 00:09:14.720 a toss of the head to the tumult in the 144 00:09:14.759 --> 00:09:18.320 station yard. When one has got to make correct entries, 145 00:09:18.399 --> 00:09:21.399 one comes to hate those savages, hate them to death. 146 00:09:22.919 --> 00:09:27.600 He remained thoughtful for a moment. When you see, mister Kurtz, 147 00:09:27.720 --> 00:09:30.879 he went on, tell him from me that everything here 148 00:09:31.480 --> 00:09:35.600 he glanced at the deck, is very satisfactory. I don't 149 00:09:35.639 --> 00:09:37.600 like to write to him with those messengers of ours. 150 00:09:37.600 --> 00:09:39.759 You never know who may get hold of your letter 151 00:09:40.159 --> 00:09:44.080 at that central station. He stared at me for a 152 00:09:44.159 --> 00:09:48.240 moment with his mild bulging eyes. Oh he will go far, 153 00:09:48.759 --> 00:09:52.279 very far, he began again. He will be as somebody 154 00:09:52.320 --> 00:09:56.679 in the administration. Before long, they above the Council in Europe, 155 00:09:56.720 --> 00:10:00.639 you know mean him to be. He turned his work. 156 00:10:01.360 --> 00:10:04.600 The noise outside had ceased, and presently, in going out, 157 00:10:04.639 --> 00:10:07.759 I stopped at the door, in the steady buzz of flies. 158 00:10:08.120 --> 00:10:12.120 The homeward bound agent was lying, finished and insensible. The other, 159 00:10:12.240 --> 00:10:15.399 bent over his books, was making correct entries of perfectly 160 00:10:15.480 --> 00:10:19.679 correct transactions. And fifty feet below the doorstep I could 161 00:10:19.720 --> 00:10:22.080 see the still tree tops of the grove of Death. 162 00:10:24.759 --> 00:10:27.480 Next day I left that station at last with a 163 00:10:27.559 --> 00:10:31.000 caravan of sixty men for a two hundred mile tramp. 164 00:10:32.399 --> 00:10:36.039 No use telling you much about that. Paths, paths everywhere, 165 00:10:36.519 --> 00:10:39.399 a stamped in network of paths, spreading over the empty land, 166 00:10:39.480 --> 00:10:43.360 through the long grass, through burnt grass, through thickets, down 167 00:10:43.399 --> 00:10:46.799 and up chilly ravines, up and down stony hills, ablaze 168 00:10:46.840 --> 00:10:53.039 with heat and a solitude, a solitude, nobody, not a hut. 169 00:10:54.639 --> 00:10:58.159 The population had cleared out a long time ago. Well, 170 00:10:58.360 --> 00:11:00.480 if a lot

of mysterious niggers, armed with all kinds 171 00:11:00.480 --> 00:11:03.320 of fearful weapons, suddenly took to traveling on the road 172 00:11:03.360 --> 00:11:06.799 between Deal and Gravesend, catching the yokels right and left 173 00:11:06.799 --> 00:11:09.519 to carry heavy loads for them, I fancy every farm 174 00:11:09.519 --> 00:11:13.919 and cottage thereabouts would get empty very soon. Only here 175 00:11:14.000 --> 00:11:18.039 the dwellings were gone too. Still, I passed through several 176 00:11:18.080 --> 00:11:21.799 abandoned villages. There's something pathetically childish in the ruins of 177 00:11:21.799 --> 00:11:25.559 grass walls, day after day, with the stamp and shuffle 178 00:11:25.600 --> 00:11:28.600 of sixty pair of bare feet behind me, each pair 179 00:11:28.759 --> 00:11:33.440 under a sixty pound load. Camp, cook, sleep, strike, camp, 180 00:11:33.639 --> 00:11:37.080 march now and then a carrier dead in harness, at 181 00:11:37.159 --> 00:11:39.240 rest in the long grass near the path, with an 182 00:11:39.279 --> 00:11:42.840 empty water gourd and his long staff lying by his side. 183 00:11:44.120 --> 00:11:49.399 A great silence around and above, perhaps on some quiet night, 184 00:11:49.440 --> 00:11:54.759 the tremor of far off drums sinking, swelling, a tremor vast, faint, 185 00:11:55.639 --> 00:12:00.600 a sound, weird, appealing, suggestive and wild, and perhaps with 186 00:12:00.679 --> 00:12:02.840 as profound a meaning as the sound of bells in 187 00:12:02.879 --> 00:12:08.320 a Christian country. Once a white man in an unbuttoned uniform, 188 00:12:08.440 --> 00:12:11.879 camping on the path with an armed escort of lank zanzibaris, 189 00:12:12.519 --> 00:12:17.440 very hospitable and festive, not to say drunk, was looking 190 00:12:17.480 --> 00:12:21.440 after the upkeep of the road. He declared. Can't say 191 00:12:21.440 --> 00:12:23.759 I saw any road or any upkeep unless the body 192 00:12:23.799 --> 00:12:25.879 of a middle aged negro with a bullet hole in 193 00:12:25.919 --> 00:12:28.840 the forehead, upon which I absolutely stumbled. Three miles further 194 00:12:28.879 --> 00:12:33.440 on may be considered as a permanent improvement. I had 195 00:12:33.440 --> 00:12:36.399 a white companion too, not a bad chap, but rather 196 00:12:36.440 --> 00:12:39.360 too fleshy, and with the exasperating habit of fainting in 197 00:12:39.399 --> 00:12:42.039 the hot hill sides miles away from the least bit 198 00:12:42.080 --> 00:12:45.440 of shade and water. Annoying, you know, to hold your 199 00:12:45.480 --> 00:12:48.240 own coat like a parasol over a man's head while 200 00:12:48.240 --> 00:12:51.799 he is coming too. I couldn't help asking him once 201 00:12:51.840 --> 00:12:55.639 what he meant by coming there at all to make money? 202 00:12:55.639 --> 00:12:59.799 Of course, what do you think? He said, scornfully. Then 203 00:13:00.080 --> 00:13:02.440 yacht fever and had to be carried in a hammock 204 00:13:02.519 --> 00:13:06.240 slung under a pole as he weighed sixteen stone. I 205 00:13:06.279 --> 00:13:10.159 had no end of rows with the carriers. They jibbed, 206 00:13:10.399 --> 00:13:12.519 ran away, snaked off with their loads in the night. 207 00:13:12.840 --> 00:13:15.919 Quite a mutiny. So one evening I made a speech 208 00:13:15.919 --> 00:13:18.639 in English with gestures, not one of which was lost 209 00:13:18.720 --> 00:13:21.320 to the sixty pairs of eyes before me, And the 210 00:13:21.360 --> 00:13:24.279 next morning I started the hammock off in front all right. 211 00:13:25.600 --> 00:13:28.200 An hour afterwards I came upon the whole concern, wrecked 212 00:13:28.200 --> 00:13:33.840 in a bushman hammock groans blankets horrors. The heavy pole 213 00:13:33.919 --> 00:13:38.000 had skinned his poor nose. He was very anxious for 214 00:13:38.039 --> 00:13:40.240 me to kill somebody. But there wasn't the shadow of 215 00:13:40.279 --> 00:13:44.799 a carrier near. I remembered the old doctor. It would 216 00:13:44.799 --> 00:13:48.279 be interesting for science to watch the mental changes of individuals. 217 00:13:48.279 --> 00:13:55.080 On the spot, I felt I was becoming scientifically interesting. However, 218 00:13:55.120 --> 00:13:58.000 all that is to no purpose. On the fifteenth day, 219 00:13:58.039 --> 00:14:00.279 I came in sight of the Big River again and 220 00:14:00.320 --> 00:14:03.879 hobbled into the central station. It was on a back water, 221 00:14:03.919 --> 00:14:06.919 surround by scrub and forest, with a pretty border of 222 00:14:06.919 --> 00:14:09.840 smelly mud on one side and on the three others, 223 00:14:09.960 --> 00:14:14.240 enclosed by a crazy fence of rushes. A neglected gap 224 00:14:14.320 --> 00:14:16.559 was all the gate it had, and the first glance 225 00:14:16.600 --> 00:14:18.279 at the place was enough to let you see the 226 00:14:18.320 --> 00:14:21.519 flabby devil was running that show. White men with long 227 00:14:21.559 --> 00:14:25.200 staves in their hands, appeared languidly from amongst the buildings, 228 00:14:25.440 --> 00:14:27.360 strolling up to take a look at me, and then 229 00:14:27.399 --> 00:14:31.519 retired out of sight somewhere. One of them, a stout, 230 00:14:31.600 --> 00:14:36.000 excitable chap with black mustaches, informed me with great volubility 231 00:14:36.120 --> 00:14:38.840 and many digressions, as soon as I told him who 232 00:14:38.879 --> 00:14:40.919 I was, that my steamer was at the bottom of 233 00:14:40.919 --> 00:14:48.559 the river. I was thunderstruck. What how why? Oh? It 234 00:14:48.600 --> 00:14:52.799 was all right. The manager himself was there, all quite correct. 235 00:14:54.000 --> 00:14:58.879 Everybody had behaved splendidly. Splendidly, you must, he said, in agitation. 236 00:14:59.240 --> 00:15:01.600 Go and see the gener manager at once. He is waiting. 237 00:15:04.120 --> 00:15:06.159 I did not see the real

significance of that wreck 238 00:15:06.240 --> 00:15:08.759 at once. I fancy I see it now, but I 239 00:15:08.799 --> 00:15:12.480 am not sure, not at all. Certainly the affair was 240 00:15:12.519 --> 00:15:14.879 too stupid when I think of it, to be altogether 241 00:15:14.960 --> 00:15:19.200 natural still, But at the moment it presented itself simply 242 00:15:19.240 --> 00:15:23.399 as a confounded nuisance. The steamer was sunk. They had 243 00:15:23.440 --> 00:15:26.000 started two days before in a sudden hurry up the 244 00:15:26.080 --> 00:15:28.440 river with the manager on board, in charge of some 245 00:15:28.559 --> 00:15:31.720 volunteer skipper, and before they had been out three hours, 246 00:15:31.759 --> 00:15:34.080 they tore the bottom out of her arm stones, and 247 00:15:34.159 --> 00:15:38.000 she sank near the south bank. I asked myself what 248 00:15:38.080 --> 00:15:40.120 I was to do there? Now my boat was lost. 249 00:15:40.720 --> 00:15:42.720 As a matter of fact, I had plenty to do 250 00:15:42.799 --> 00:15:45.279 in fishing my command out of the river. I had 251 00:15:45.320 --> 00:15:47.679 to set about it the very next day. That and 252 00:15:47.759 --> 00:15:50.000 the repairs when I brought the pieces to the station 253 00:15:50.360 --> 00:15:55.960 took some months. My first interview with the manager was curious. 254 00:15:56.360 --> 00:15:58.120 He did not ask me to sit down after my 255 00:15:58.200 --> 00:16:02.159 twenty mile walk that morning. He was commonplace in complexion, 256 00:16:02.600 --> 00:16:06.639 in features, in manners, and in voice. He was of 257 00:16:06.679 --> 00:16:10.519 middle size and of ordinary build. His eyes, of the 258 00:16:10.600 --> 00:16:14.440 usual blue, were perhaps remarkably cold, and he certainly could 259 00:16:14.440 --> 00:16:16.840 make his glance fall on one as trenchant and heavy 260 00:16:16.879 --> 00:16:20.679 as an axe. But even at these times, the rest 261 00:16:20.679 --> 00:16:25.080 of his person seemed to disclaim the intention. Otherwise there 262 00:16:25.120 --> 00:16:29.360 was only an indefinable, faint expression of his lips, something stealthy, 263 00:16:29.799 --> 00:16:33.200 a smile, not a smile. I remember it, but I 264 00:16:33.200 --> 00:16:37.600 can't explain it was unconscious. This smile was though just 265 00:16:37.679 --> 00:16:41.039 after he had said something. It got intensified for an instant. 266 00:16:41.759 --> 00:16:43.480 It came at the end of his speeches, like a 267 00:16:43.559 --> 00:16:45.720 seal applied on the words to make the meaning of 268 00:16:45.759 --> 00:16:50.960 the commonest phrase appear absolutely inscrutable. He was a common 269 00:16:51.000 --> 00:16:54.399 trader from his youth up, employed in these parts. Nothing more. 270 00:16:55.320 --> 00:16:58.399 He was obeyed, Yet he inspired neither love, nor fear, 271 00:16:58.840 --> 00:17:04.720 nor even respect. He inspired uneasiness. That was it uneasiness, 272 00:17:05.200 --> 00:17:10.799 not a definite mistrust, just uneasiness. Nothing more. You have 273 00:17:10.880 --> 00:17:15.079 no idea how effective such a a faculty can be. 274 00:17:15.559 --> 00:17:19.119 He had no genius for organizing, for initiative, or for order, 275 00:17:19.160 --> 00:17:22.440 even that was evident in such things as the deplorable 276 00:17:22.480 --> 00:17:26.200 state of the station. He had no learning and no intelligence. 277 00:17:26.799 --> 00:17:31.480 His position had come to him. Why, perhaps because he 278 00:17:31.559 --> 00:17:34.519 was never ill, He had served three terms of three 279 00:17:34.599 --> 00:17:37.880 years out there, Because triumphant health in the general rout 280 00:17:37.960 --> 00:17:42.119 of constitutions is a kind of power in itself. When 281 00:17:42.119 --> 00:17:44.799 he went home on leave, he rioted on a large scale, 282 00:17:45.119 --> 00:17:51.559 pompously jack ashore, with a difference in externals. Only this 283 00:17:51.640 --> 00:17:55.400 one could gather from his casual talk. He originated nothing. 284 00:17:55.839 --> 00:17:59.079 He could keep the routine going, that's all. But he 285 00:17:59.240 --> 00:18:02.119 was great. He was great by this little thing that 286 00:18:02.200 --> 00:18:05.279 it was impossible to tell what could control such a man. 287 00:18:06.240 --> 00:18:09.519 He never gave that secret away. Perhaps there was nothing 288 00:18:09.519 --> 00:18:14.319 within him. Such a suspicion made one pause, for out 289 00:18:14.319 --> 00:18:18.599 there there were no external checks. Once, when various tropical 290 00:18:18.640 --> 00:18:21.559 diseases had laid low almost every agent in the station, 291 00:18:22.079 --> 00:18:24.839 he was heard to say, men who come out here 292 00:18:24.880 --> 00:18:28.680 should have no entrails. He sealed the utterance with that 293 00:18:28.759 --> 00:18:31.000 smile of his, as though it had been a door 294 00:18:31.039 --> 00:18:34.119 opening into a darkness he had in his keeping. You 295 00:18:34.240 --> 00:18:37.480 fancy you had seen things, But the seal was on. 296 00:18:38.559 --> 00:18:41.079 When annoyed at meal times by the constant quarrels of 297 00:18:41.119 --> 00:18:44.359 the white men about precedence, he ordered an immense round 298 00:18:44.400 --> 00:18:47.119 table to be made, for which a special house had 299 00:18:47.160 --> 00:18:51.400 to be built. This was the station's mess room, where 300 00:18:51.440 --> 00:18:54.519 he sat, was the first place the rest were nowhere. 301 00:18:55.799 --> 00:18:59.079 One felt this to be his unalterable conviction. He was 302 00:18:59.119 --> 00:19:03.920 neither civil nor more uncivil. He was quiet. He allowed 303 00:19:03.920 --> 00:19:07.240 his boy and overfed young Negro from the coast, to 304 00:19:07.319 --> 00:19:10.400 treat the white men under his very eyes with provoking insolence. 305 00:19:12.519 --> 00:19:14.519 He began to

speak as soon as he saw me. 306 00:19:15.200 --> 00:19:17.240 I had been very long on the road. He could 307 00:19:17.279 --> 00:19:20.519 not wait. He had to start without me. The up 308 00:19:20.640 --> 00:19:23.279 river stations had to be relieved. There had been so 309 00:19:23.359 --> 00:19:25.640 many delays already that he did not know who was 310 00:19:25.720 --> 00:19:28.119 dead and who was alive, and how they got on, 311 00:19:28.640 --> 00:19:31.680 and so on and so on. He paid no attention 312 00:19:31.720 --> 00:19:35.119 to my explanations, and, playing with a stick of sealing wax, 313 00:19:35.400 --> 00:19:39.759 repeated several times that the situation was very grave, very grave. 314 00:19:41.000 --> 00:19:43.440 There were rumors that a very important station was in 315 00:19:43.519 --> 00:19:47.640 Jeopardy and its chief, mister Kurtz, was ill. He hoped 316 00:19:47.680 --> 00:19:51.519 it was not true. Mister Kurtz was. I felt weary 317 00:19:51.599 --> 00:19:56.039 and irritable. Hang Kurtz, I thought. I interrupted him by 318 00:19:56.039 --> 00:19:59.480 saying I had heard of mister Kurtz on the coast. Ah, 319 00:19:59.519 --> 00:20:02.880 so they talk of him down there, he murmured to himself. 320 00:20:03.599 --> 00:20:06.160 Then he began again, assuring me mister Kurtz was the 321 00:20:06.200 --> 00:20:09.880 best agent he had, an exceptional man, of the greatest 322 00:20:09.920 --> 00:20:14.000 importance to the company. Therefore, I could understand his anxiety. 323 00:20:14.920 --> 00:20:19.799 He was, he said, very very uneasy. Certainly he fidgeted 324 00:20:19.880 --> 00:20:24.039 on his chair. A good deal, exclaimed Ah. Mister Kurtz 325 00:20:24.279 --> 00:20:27.039 broke the stick of sealing wax and seemed dumbfounded by 326 00:20:27.039 --> 00:20:31.079 the accident. Next thing, he wanted to know how long 327 00:20:31.119 --> 00:20:34.839 it would take to I interrupted him again, being hungry, 328 00:20:34.880 --> 00:20:37.720 you know, and kept on my feet too. I was 329 00:20:37.759 --> 00:20:42.160 getting savage. How can I tell, I said, I haven't 330 00:20:42.160 --> 00:20:45.119 even seen the wreck yet. Some months, no doubt. All 331 00:20:45.119 --> 00:20:50.440 this talk seemed to me so futile. Some months, he said, well, 332 00:20:50.799 --> 00:20:53.880 let us say three months before we could make a start. Yes, 333 00:20:54.000 --> 00:20:57.799 thought ought to do the affair. I flung out of 334 00:20:57.799 --> 00:20:59.960 his hut. He lived all alone in a clay hut 335 00:21:00.119 --> 00:21:03.160 with a sort of verandah, muttering to myself my opinion 336 00:21:03.160 --> 00:21:07.599 of him, He was a chattering idiot. Afterwards, I took 337 00:21:07.599 --> 00:21:09.960 it back when I was borne in upon me, startlingly 338 00:21:10.319 --> 00:21:13.400 with what extreme nicety he had estimated the time requisite 339 00:21:13.400 --> 00:21:17.839 for the affair. I went to work the next day, turning, 340 00:21:17.880 --> 00:21:21.599 so to speak, my back on that station. In that way, 341 00:21:21.640 --> 00:21:23.680 only it seemed to me I could keep my hold 342 00:21:23.720 --> 00:21:27.599 on the redeeming facts of life. Still, one must look 343 00:21:27.640 --> 00:21:31.319 about sometimes. And then I saw this station, these men 344 00:21:31.359 --> 00:21:35.160 strolling aimlessly about in the sunshine of the yard. I 345 00:21:35.200 --> 00:21:39.160 asked myself sometimes what it all meant. They wandered here 346 00:21:39.200 --> 00:21:42.039 and there with their absurd long staves in their hands, 347 00:21:42.640 --> 00:21:45.799 like a lot of faithless pilgrims bewitched inside a rotten fence. 348 00:21:46.920 --> 00:21:50.480 The word ivory rang in the air, was whispered, was sighed. 349 00:21:51.720 --> 00:21:55.079 You would think they were praying to it. A taint 350 00:21:55.079 --> 00:21:58.599 of imbecile rapacity blew through it all like a whiff 351 00:21:58.640 --> 00:22:02.519 from some corpse. By Jove, I've never seen anything so 352 00:22:02.680 --> 00:22:07.200 unreal in my life, And outside the silent wilderness surrounding 353 00:22:07.240 --> 00:22:10.559 this cleared speck on the earth struck me as something 354 00:22:10.599 --> 00:22:15.880 great and invincible, like evil or truth, waiting patiently for 355 00:22:15.920 --> 00:22:21.359 the passing away of this fantastic invasion. Oh these months, well, 356 00:22:21.599 --> 00:22:25.519 never mind. Various things happened. One evening, a grass shed 357 00:22:25.559 --> 00:22:28.599 full of calico, cotton, prints, beads, and I don't know 358 00:22:28.640 --> 00:22:31.160 what else, burst into a blaze so suddenly that you 359 00:22:31.200 --> 00:22:33.519 would have thought the earth had opened to let an 360 00:22:33.519 --> 00:22:38.200 avenging fire consume all that trash. I was smoking my 361 00:22:38.240 --> 00:22:41.319 pipe quietly by my dismantled steamer, and saw them all 362 00:22:41.319 --> 00:22:44.400 cutting capers in the light with their arms lifted high. 363 00:22:44.680 --> 00:22:47.599 When the stout man with mustaches came tearing down to 364 00:22:47.640 --> 00:22:50.799 the river a tin pail in his hand, assured me 365 00:22:50.839 --> 00:22:55.279 that everybody was behaving splendidly. Splendidly, dipped about a quart 366 00:22:55.319 --> 00:22:58.559 of water, and tore back again. I noticed there was 367 00:22:58.559 --> 00:23:02.079 a hole in the bottom of his pear. I strolled up. 368 00:23:02.519 --> 00:23:05.200 There was no hurry, you see. The thing had gone 369 00:23:05.200 --> 00:23:07.960 off like a box of matches. It had been hopeless 370 00:23:07.960 --> 00:23:11.279 from the very first. The flame had leapt high, driven 371 00:23:11.319 --> 00:23:16.160 everybody back, lighted up everything, and collapsed. The shed was 372 00:23:16.160 --> 00:23:20.079 already a heap of embers glowing fiercely. A nigger was 373 00:23:20.119 -->

00:23:22.720 being beaten near by it. They said he had caused 374 00:23:22.720 --> 00:23:26.079 the fire in some way. Be that as it may. 375 00:23:26.200 --> 00:23:30.000 He was screeching most horribly. I saw him later for 376 00:23:30.079 --> 00:23:32.880 several days, sitting in a bit of shade, looking very 377 00:23:32.920 --> 00:23:37.920 sick and trying to recover himself. Afterwards, he arose and 378 00:23:38.000 --> 00:23:40.960 went out, and the wilderness, without a sound, took him 379 00:23:41.000 --> 00:23:45.119 into its bosom again. As I approached the glow from 380 00:23:45.119 --> 00:23:46.960 the dark, I found myself at the back of two 381 00:23:47.000 --> 00:23:51.319 men talking. I heard the name of Kurts pronounced, then 382 00:23:51.359 --> 00:23:56.480 the words take advantage of this unfortunate accident. One of 383 00:23:56.519 --> 00:23:59.880 the men was the manager. I wished him a good evening. 384 00:24:01.160 --> 00:24:04.400 Did you ever see anything like it? Eh? It is incredible, 385 00:24:04.480 --> 00:24:08.559 he said, and walked off. The other man remained. He 386 00:24:08.720 --> 00:24:13.119 was a first class agent, young gentlemanly a bit reserved, 387 00:24:13.160 --> 00:24:16.960 with a forked little beard and a hooked nose. He 388 00:24:17.079 --> 00:24:19.880 was stand offish with the other agents, and they on 389 00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:23.000 their side said he was the manager's spy upon them. 390 00:24:23.759 --> 00:24:26.279 As to me, I had hardly ever spoken to him 391 00:24:26.319 --> 00:24:29.759 before we got into talk, and by and by we 392 00:24:29.839 --> 00:24:33.480 strolled away from the hissing ruins. Then he asked me 393 00:24:33.599 --> 00:24:36.160 to his room, which was in the main building of 394 00:24:36.200 --> 00:24:39.319 the station. He struck a match, and I perceived that 395 00:24:39.359 --> 00:24:42.839 this young aristocrat had not only a silver mounted dressing case, 396 00:24:43.279 --> 00:24:48.000 but also a whole candle all to himself. Just at 397 00:24:48.000 --> 00:24:50.400 that time the manager was the only man supposed to 398 00:24:50.440 --> 00:24:54.880 have any right to candles. Native mats covered the clay walls, 399 00:24:55.200 --> 00:24:59.640 a collection of spears, assegaes, shields, knives with hung up 400 00:24:59.640 --> 00:25:03.599 in tropes. The business entrusted to this fellow was the 401 00:25:03.599 --> 00:25:07.039 making of bricks, so I had been informed. But there 402 00:25:07.079 --> 00:25:09.519 wasn't a fragment of a brick anywhere in the station, 403 00:25:10.079 --> 00:25:12.880 and he had been there more than a year waiting. 404 00:25:14.279 --> 00:25:16.759 It seems he could not make bricks without something I 405 00:25:16.799 --> 00:25:20.759 don't know what, straw maybe. Anyway, it could not be 406 00:25:20.839 --> 00:25:22.640 found there, and as it was not likely to be 407 00:25:22.720 --> 00:25:24.960 sent from Europe, it did not appear clear to me 408 00:25:25.160 --> 00:25:31.680 what he was waiting for. An act of special creation. Perhaps. However, 409 00:25:31.960 --> 00:25:34.799 they were all waiting, all the sixteen or twenty pilgrims 410 00:25:34.799 --> 00:25:38.440 of them, for something, and upon my word, it did 411 00:25:38.440 --> 00:25:41.640 not seem an incongenial occupation from the way they took it, 412 00:25:42.160 --> 00:25:44.440 though the only thing that ever came to them was disease. 413 00:25:44.599 --> 00:25:48.119 As far as I could see, they beguiled the time 414 00:25:48.160 --> 00:25:50.960 by backbiting and intriguing against each other in a foolish 415 00:25:51.079 --> 00:25:54.039 kind of way. There was an air of plotting about 416 00:25:54.039 --> 00:25:57.480 that station, but nothing came of it. Of course, it 417 00:25:57.599 --> 00:26:01.400 was as unreal as everything else, the philanthropic pretense of 418 00:26:01.400 --> 00:26:05.400 the whole concern as their talk, as their government, as 419 00:26:05.440 --> 00:26:09.160 their show of work. The only real feeling was a 420 00:26:09.200 --> 00:26:12.160 desire to get appointed to a trading post where ivory 421 00:26:12.240 --> 00:26:14.920 was to be had, so that they could earn percentages. 422 00:26:16.240 --> 00:26:19.160 They intrigued and slandered and hated each other only on 423 00:26:19.240 --> 00:26:22.359 that account. But as to actually lifting a little finger, 424 00:26:22.880 --> 00:26:26.359 oh no, by heavens, there is something, after all, in 425 00:26:26.440 --> 00:26:29.400 the world allowing one man to steal a horse while 426 00:26:29.440 --> 00:26:32.759 another must not look at a halter. Steal a horse 427 00:26:32.799 --> 00:26:36.160 straight out, very well, he has done it, perhaps he 428 00:26:36.200 --> 00:26:38.359 can ride. But there is a way of looking at 429 00:26:38.400 --> 00:26:41.359 a halter that would provoke the most charitable of saints 430 00:26:41.400 --> 00:26:44.680 into a kick. I had no idea why he wanted 431 00:26:44.720 --> 00:26:47.240 to be sociable, but as we chatted in there, it 432 00:26:47.279 --> 00:26:49.359 suddenly occurred to me the fellow was trying to get 433 00:26:49.400 --> 00:26:54.680 at something, in fact pumping me. He alluded constantly to Europe, 434 00:26:54.880 --> 00:26:57.359 to the people I was supposed to know there, putting 435 00:26:57.440 --> 00:27:00.400 leading questions as to my acquaintances in the suppulchral city, 436 00:27:00.480 --> 00:27:04.400 and so on. His little eyes glittered like mica discs 437 00:27:04.480 --> 00:27:07.200 with curiosity, though he tried to keep up a bit 438 00:27:07.240 --> 00:27:12.680 of superciliousness. At first I was astonished, but very soon 439 00:27:12.720 --> 00:27:14.920 I became awfully curious to see what he would find 440 00:27:14.960 --> 00:27:18.440 out from me. I couldn't possibly imagine what I had 441 00:27:18.440 --> 00:27:21.079 in me to make it worth his

while. It was 442 00:27:21.160 --> 00:27:24.200 very pretty to see how he baffled himself, for in truth, 443 00:27:24.200 --> 00:27:26.519 my body was full only of chills, and my head 444 00:27:26.559 --> 00:27:30.440 had nothing in it but that wretched steamboat business. It 445 00:27:30.559 --> 00:27:33.559 was evident he took me for a perfectly shameless prevaricator. 446 00:27:34.640 --> 00:27:37.039 At last he got angry, and to conceal a movement 447 00:27:37.039 --> 00:27:41.799 of furious annoyance, he yawned. I rose. Then I noticed 448 00:27:41.799 --> 00:27:44.720 a small sketch in oils on a panel representing a 449 00:27:44.759 --> 00:27:50.359 woman draped and blindfolded carrying a lighted torch. The background 450 00:27:50.400 --> 00:27:55.279 was somber, almost black. The movement of the woman was stately, 451 00:27:55.640 --> 00:27:58.640 and the effect of the torchlight on the face was sinister. 452 00:28:00.759 --> 00:28:03.880 It arrested me, and he stood by civilly holding an 453 00:28:03.920 --> 00:28:08.160 empty half pint champagne bottle medical comforts, with the candle 454 00:28:08.200 --> 00:28:12.440 stuck in it. To my question, he said, mister Kurtz 455 00:28:12.480 --> 00:28:15.000 had painted this in this very station more than a 456 00:28:15.039 --> 00:28:17.000 year ago, while waiting for means to go to his 457 00:28:17.079 --> 00:28:22.240 trading post. Tell me, pray, said I. Who is this, 458 00:28:22.359 --> 00:28:26.759 mister Kurtz, The chief of the inner station, he answered, 459 00:28:26.799 --> 00:28:30.960 in a short tone, looking away. Much obliged, I said, laughing, 460 00:28:31.400 --> 00:28:33.880 and you are the brickmaker of the central station. Every 461 00:28:33.880 --> 00:28:38.799 one knows that he was silent for a while. He 462 00:28:38.920 --> 00:28:42.440 is a prodigy, he said, at last, he is an 463 00:28:42.480 --> 00:28:46.359 emissary of pity and science and progress, and devil knows 464 00:28:46.359 --> 00:28:50.319 what else we want. He began to declaim, suddenly for 465 00:28:50.400 --> 00:28:53.160 the guidance of the cause entrusted to us by Europe, 466 00:28:53.200 --> 00:28:58.599 so to speak, higher intelligence, wide sympathies, a singleness of purpose. 467 00:29:00.599 --> 00:29:05.400 Who says that I asked lots of them, he replied, 468 00:29:05.599 --> 00:29:09.359 some even write that, And so he comes here a 469 00:29:09.480 --> 00:29:13.519 special being, as you ought to know? Why ought I 470 00:29:13.640 --> 00:29:17.440 to know? I interrupted, really surprised. He paid no attention 471 00:29:18.799 --> 00:29:21.279 yes to day. He is chief of the best station. 472 00:29:21.880 --> 00:29:25.319 Next year he will be assistant manager two years more. 473 00:29:25.359 --> 00:29:27.559 And but I dare say you know what he will 474 00:29:27.599 --> 00:29:30.119 be in two years time. You are of the new gang, 475 00:29:30.200 --> 00:29:33.079 the gang of virtue. The same people who sent

him 476 00:29:33.079 --> 00:29:37.279 specially also recommended you. Oh, don't say no, I've my 477 00:29:37.359 --> 00:29:41.960 own eyes to trust. Light dawned upon me. My dear 478 00:29:42.000 --> 00:29:46.240 aunt's influential acquaintances were producing an unexpected effect on that 479 00:29:46.440 --> 00:29:50.799 young man. I nearly burst into a laugh. Do you 480 00:29:50.920 --> 00:29:55.400 read the company's confidential correspondence? I asked. He hadn't a 481 00:29:55.440 --> 00:29:59.559 word to say. It was great fun. When mister Kurtz, 482 00:29:59.839 --> 00:30:05.359 I continued severely, is general manager. You won't have the opportunity. 483 00:30:05.920 --> 00:30:09.200 He blew the candle out suddenly, and we went outside. 484 00:30:09.559 --> 00:30:14.200 The moon had risen. Black figures strolled about listlessly, pouring 485 00:30:14.240 --> 00:30:16.960 water on the glow. Whence proceeded, a sound of hissing 486 00:30:17.799 --> 00:30:21.839 steam ascended in the moonlight. The beaten nigger groaned. Somewhere, 487 00:30:23.160 --> 00:30:26.359 What a row the brute makes, said the indefatigable man 488 00:30:26.400 --> 00:30:36.160 with the mustaches appearing near us. Serve him right, transgression punishment, bang, pitiless, pitiless, 489 00:30:36.599 --> 00:30:39.440 that's the only way this will prevent all conflagrations for 490 00:30:39.519 --> 00:30:43.079 the future. I was just telling the manager. He noticed 491 00:30:43.079 --> 00:30:47.160 my companion and became crestfallen out all at once. Not 492 00:30:47.279 --> 00:30:49.880 in bed yet, he said, with a kind of servile heartiness. 493 00:30:50.359 --> 00:30:57.680 It's so natural, ha danger agitation, he vanished. I went 494 00:30:57.720 --> 00:30:59.759 on to the river side, and the other followed me. 495 00:31:01.119 --> 00:31:03.880 I heard a scathing murmur at my ear. Heap of 496 00:31:03.960 --> 00:31:09.319 muffs go too. The pilgrims could be seen in knots, gesticulating, discussing. 497 00:31:10.319 --> 00:31:13.759 Several had still their staves in their hands. I verily 498 00:31:13.759 --> 00:31:16.880 believe they took these sticks to bed with them. Beyond 499 00:31:16.920 --> 00:31:19.759 the fence, the forest stood up spectrally in the moonlight, 500 00:31:20.119 --> 00:31:22.920 and through that dim stir, through the faint sounds of 501 00:31:22.960 --> 00:31:26.359 that lamentable courtyard, the silence of the land went home 502 00:31:26.400 --> 00:31:31.839 to one's very heart, its mystery, its greatness, the amazing 503 00:31:31.880 --> 00:31:36.920 reality of its concealed life. The herd nigger moaned feebly 504 00:31:37.000 --> 00:31:39.720 somewhere near by, and then fetched a deep sigh that 505 00:31:39.839 --> 00:31:43.480 made me mend my pace away from there. I felt 506 00:31:43.480 --> 00:31:47.920 a hand introducing itself under my arm. My dear sir, 507 00:31:48.240 --> 00:31:51.279 said the fellow. I don't want to be misunderstood, and 508 00:31:51.440 --> 00:31:54.599 especially by you, who will see mister Kurtz long before 509 00:31:54.640 --> 00:31:57.519 I can have that pleasure. I wouldn't like him to 510 00:31:57.519 --> 00:32:01.480 get a false idea of my disposition. I let him 511 00:32:01.559 --> 00:32:05.599 run on this papia mache Mephistopheles, and it seemed to 512 00:32:05.640 --> 00:32:08.119 me that if I tried, I could poke my forefinger 513 00:32:08.200 --> 00:32:11.599 through him and would find nothing inside but a little 514 00:32:11.599 --> 00:32:16.400 loose dirt. Maybe he, you don't see, had been planning 515 00:32:16.640 --> 00:32:19.759 to be assistant manager by and by under the present man. 516 00:32:20.240 --> 00:32:22.359 And I could see that the coming of that curts 517 00:32:22.400 --> 00:32:26.720 had upset them both not a little. He talked precipitately, 518 00:32:27.160 --> 00:32:29.799 and I did not try to stop him. I had 519 00:32:29.799 --> 00:32:32.599 my shoulders against the wreck of my steamer, hauled up 520 00:32:32.599 --> 00:32:35.319 on the slope, like a carcass of some big river animal. 521 00:32:35.880 --> 00:32:39.519 The smell of mud, of primeval mud, by Jove, was 522 00:32:39.559 --> 00:32:43.680 in my nostrils. The high stillness of primeval forest was 523 00:32:43.720 --> 00:32:47.559 before my eyes. They were shiny patches on the black creek. 524 00:32:48.400 --> 00:32:51.519 The moon had spread over everything, a thin layer of silver, 525 00:32:52.200 --> 00:32:55.599 over the rank grass, over the mud, upon the wall 526 00:32:55.680 --> 00:32:59.000 of matted vegetation, standing higher than the wall of a temple. 527 00:32:59.759 --> 00:33:03.039 Over the great river. I could see through a somber gap, glittering, 528 00:33:03.440 --> 00:33:07.759 glittering as it flowed broadly by without a murmur. All 529 00:33:07.799 --> 00:33:13.480 this was great expectant mute. While the man jabbered about himself, 530 00:33:14.680 --> 00:33:16.799 I wondered whether the stillness on the face of the 531 00:33:16.839 --> 00:33:19.880 immensity looking at us too, were meant as an appeal 532 00:33:20.200 --> 00:33:23.880 or as a menace? What were we who had strayed 533 00:33:23.880 --> 00:33:28.079 in here? Could we handle that dumb thing? Or would 534 00:33:28.119 --> 00:33:33.880 it handle us? I felt, how big, how confoundedly big, 535 00:33:34.119 --> 00:33:37.160 was that thing that couldn't talk, and perhaps was death 536 00:33:37.200 --> 00:33:41.920 as well? What was in there? I could see a 537 00:33:41.920 --> 00:33:44.640 little ivory coming out from there, And I had heard 538 00:33:44.680 --> 00:33:47.839 mister Kurtz was in there. I had heard enough about 539 00:33:47.880 --> 00:33:51.240 it too, God knows. Yet somehow it didn't bring any 540 00:33:51.319 --> 00:33:53.519 image with it, no more than if I had been 541 00:33:53.559 --> 00:33:56.599 told an angel or a fiend was in there. I 542 00:33:56.680 --> 00:33:58.640

believed it in the same way one of you might 543 00:33:58.680 --> 00:34:02.839 believe there are inhabitants on the planet Mars. I knew 544 00:34:02.880 --> 00:34:06.720 once a Scotch sail maker who was certain dead sure 545 00:34:07.039 --> 00:34:10.480 there were people in Mars. If you asked him for 546 00:34:10.519 --> 00:34:13.199 some idea how they looked and behaved, he would get 547 00:34:13.199 --> 00:34:17.360 shy and mutter something about walking on all fours. If 548 00:34:17.400 --> 00:34:20.519 you as much as smiled, he would, though a man 549 00:34:20.519 --> 00:34:24.280 of sixty, offer to fight you. I would not have 550 00:34:24.320 --> 00:34:26.960 gone so far as to fight for Kurts, but I 551 00:34:27.039 --> 00:34:29.840 went for him near enough to a lie. You know, 552 00:34:29.960 --> 00:34:33.719 I hate detest. I can't bear a lie, not because 553 00:34:33.719 --> 00:34:36.280 I am straighter than the rest of us, but simply 554 00:34:36.280 --> 00:34:39.639 because it appalls me. There is a taint of death, 555 00:34:40.280 --> 00:34:43.559 a flavor of mortality in lies, which is exactly what 556 00:34:43.679 --> 00:34:46.400 I hate and detest in the world, what I want 557 00:34:46.400 --> 00:34:51.480 to forget. It makes me miserable and sick, like biting 558 00:34:51.519 --> 00:34:57.159 something rotten would do temperament, I suppose well, I went 559 00:34:57.280 --> 00:34:59.280 near enough to it by letting the young fool there 560 00:34:59.320 --> 00:35:02.199 believe anything he liked to imagine. As to my influence 561 00:35:02.199 --> 00:35:05.760 in Europe, I became in an instant as much of 562 00:35:05.800 --> 00:35:09.039 a pretense as the rest of the bewitched Pilgrims. This 563 00:35:09.199 --> 00:35:11.480 simply because I had a notion it somehow would be 564 00:35:11.519 --> 00:35:14.159 of help to that Curt, whom at the time I 565 00:35:14.199 --> 00:35:17.760 did not see. You understand, he was just a word 566 00:35:17.800 --> 00:35:20.519 for me. I did not see the man in the 567 00:35:20.599 --> 00:35:24.440 name any more than you do. Do you see him 568 00:35:24.760 --> 00:35:28.719 do you see the story? Do you see anything? It 569 00:35:28.800 --> 00:35:32.360 seems to me I am trying to tell you a dream, 570 00:35:32.440 --> 00:35:35.079 making a vain attempt, because no relation of a dream 571 00:35:35.119 --> 00:35:39.719 can convey the dream sensation, that commingling of absurdity, surprise, 572 00:35:39.880 --> 00:35:44.039 and bewilderment, in a tremor of struggling revolt, that notion 573 00:35:44.119 --> 00:35:47.079 of being captured by the incredible, which is of the 574 00:35:47.199 --> 00:35:54.280 very essence of dreams. He was silent for a while. No, 575 00:35:54.880 --> 00:35:58.519 it is impossible. It is impossible to convey the life 576 00:35:58.639 --> 00:36:02.119 sensation of any given epoty, of one's existence, that which 577 00:36:02.159 --> 00:36:06.679 makes its truth, its meaning, its

subtle and penetrating essence. 578 00:36:07.480 --> 00:36:14.599 It is impossible. We live as we dream alone. He 579 00:36:14.639 --> 00:36:19.760 paused again, as if reflecting, then added, of course in 580 00:36:19.880 --> 00:36:22.480 this you fellows see more than I could. Then you 581 00:36:22.559 --> 00:36:27.360 see me whom you know. It had become so pitch 582 00:36:27.480 --> 00:36:31.360 dark that we listeners could hardly see one another for 583 00:36:31.440 --> 00:36:34.519 a long time. Already, he sitting apart, had been no 584 00:36:34.599 --> 00:36:37.519 more to us than a voice. There was not a 585 00:36:37.559 --> 00:36:41.239 word from anybody. The others might have been asleep, but 586 00:36:41.360 --> 00:36:45.280 I was awake. I listened. I listened on the watch 587 00:36:45.280 --> 00:36:48.000 for the sentence, for the word that would give me 588 00:36:48.079 --> 00:36:51.480 the clue to the faint uneasiness inspired by this narrative 589 00:36:52.000 --> 00:36:55.039 that seemed to shape itself without human lips in the 590 00:36:55.079 --> 00:37:00.559 heavy night air of the river. Yes, let him run on. 591 00:37:00.880 --> 00:37:04.199 Marlow began again, and think what he pleased about the 592 00:37:04.239 --> 00:37:07.800 powers that were behind me. I did, And there was 593 00:37:07.840 --> 00:37:11.559 nothing behind me. There was nothing but that wretched, old, 594 00:37:12.039 --> 00:37:15.840 mangled steamboat I was leaning against. While he talked fluently 595 00:37:15.880 --> 00:37:20.039 about the necessity for every man to get on, and 596 00:37:20.159 --> 00:37:23.079 when one comes out here, you conceive it is not 597 00:37:23.199 --> 00:37:28.440 to gaze at the moon. Mister Kurtz was a universal genius. 598 00:37:28.800 --> 00:37:31.199 But even a genius would find it easier to work 599 00:37:31.199 --> 00:37:35.920 with adequate tools, intelligent men. He did not make bricks. 600 00:37:36.440 --> 00:37:40.119 Why there was a physical impossibility in the way a 601 00:37:40.119 --> 00:37:43.840 as I was well aware. And if he did secretarial 602 00:37:43.840 --> 00:37:46.639 work for the manager, it was because no sensible man 603 00:37:46.679 --> 00:37:51.400 rejects wantonly the confidence of his superiors. Did I see it? 604 00:37:52.480 --> 00:37:56.599 I saw it? What more did I want? What I 605 00:37:56.719 --> 00:38:00.599 really wanted was rivets by heaven, riffets to get on 606 00:38:00.679 --> 00:38:04.119 with the work, to stop the whole rivets I wanted. 607 00:38:04.519 --> 00:38:07.639 There were cases of them down at the coast, cases 608 00:38:08.039 --> 00:38:12.920 piled up burst split. You kicked a loose rivet at 609 00:38:12.960 --> 00:38:15.880 every second step in that station yard. On the hill side, 610 00:38:16.480 --> 00:38:19.400 rivets had rolled into the grove of death. You could 611 00:38:19.400 --> 00:38:22.119 fill your pockets with rivets for the trouble of stooping down. 612 00:38:22.559 --> 00:38:24.760 And there wasn't one rivet to be found where it 613 00:38:24.880 --> 00:38:28.719 was wanted. We had plates that would do, but nothing 614 00:38:28.760 --> 00:38:31.840 to fasten them with. And every week the messenger, a 615 00:38:31.880 --> 00:38:35.239 long negro letter bag on shoulder and staff in hand, 616 00:38:35.679 --> 00:38:39.159 left our station for the coast, And several times a 617 00:38:39.159 --> 00:38:42.760 week a coast caravan came in with trade goods, ghastly 618 00:38:42.840 --> 00:38:45.679 glazed calico that made you shudder only to look at it. 619 00:38:46.360 --> 00:38:51.360 Glass beads value about a penny a quart, confounded spotted cotton, handkerchiefs, 620 00:38:52.440 --> 00:38:56.280 and no rivets. Three carriers could have brought all that 621 00:38:56.360 --> 00:39:00.480 was wanted to set that steamboat afloat. He was becoming 622 00:39:00.519 --> 00:39:04.079 confidential now, But I fancy my unresponsive attitude must have 623 00:39:04.159 --> 00:39:07.440 exasperated him at last, for he judged it necessary to 624 00:39:07.480 --> 00:39:10.880 inform me he feared neither God nor devil, let alone 625 00:39:10.880 --> 00:39:14.440 any mere man. I said, I could see that very well, 626 00:39:14.760 --> 00:39:17.199 But what I wanted was a certain quantity of rivets 627 00:39:17.760 --> 00:39:21.039 and rivets were what really mister Kurtz wanted, if he 628 00:39:21.119 --> 00:39:24.679 had only known it now. Letters went to the coast 629 00:39:24.719 --> 00:39:29.000 every week. My dear sir, he cried, I write from dictation. 630 00:39:30.400 --> 00:39:34.920 I demanded rivets. There was a way for an intelligent man. 631 00:39:36.039 --> 00:39:39.239 He changed his manner, became very cold, and suddenly began 632 00:39:39.320 --> 00:39:42.920 to talk about a hippopotamus. Wondered whether sleeping on board 633 00:39:42.920 --> 00:39:45.679 the steamer, I stuck to my salvage night and day. 634 00:39:46.320 --> 00:39:50.480 I wasn't disturbed. There was an old hippo that had 635 00:39:50.480 --> 00:39:52.920 the bad habit of getting out on the bank and 636 00:39:53.039 --> 00:39:56.679 roaming at night over the station grounds. The pilgrims used 637 00:39:56.719 --> 00:39:59.159 to turn out in a body and empty every rifle 638 00:39:59.199 --> 00:40:03.000 they could lay hand at him. Some even sat up 639 00:40:03.000 --> 00:40:06.800 o nights for him. All this energy was wasted, though, 640 00:40:07.599 --> 00:40:10.440 that animal has a charmed life, he said. But you 641 00:40:10.480 --> 00:40:14.159 can say this only of brute in this country. No man, 642 00:40:14.199 --> 00:40:17.079 you apprehend me, No man here bears a charmed life. 643 00:40:18.880 --> 00:40:20.880 He stood there for a moment in the moonlight, with 644 00:40:20.920 --> 00:40:23.960 his delicate hooked nose set a little askew, and his 645 00:40:24.039 --> 00:40:27.840 mica eyes glittering without a wink. Then with a

curt 646 00:40:27.880 --> 00:40:31.320 good night, he strode off. I could see he was 647 00:40:31.400 --> 00:40:34.920 disturbed and considerably puzzled, which made me feel more hopeful 648 00:40:34.960 --> 00:40:37.559 than I had been for days. It was a great 649 00:40:37.599 --> 00:40:40.320 comfort to turn from that chap to my influential friend, 650 00:40:40.960 --> 00:40:47.119 the battered, twisted, ruined tin pot steamboat. I clambered on board. 651 00:40:47.800 --> 00:40:50.239 She rang under my feet like an empty huntly and 652 00:40:50.320 --> 00:40:54.800 palmer biscuit tin kicked along a gutter. She was nothing 653 00:40:54.840 --> 00:40:58.119 so solid in make, and rather less pretty in shape. 654 00:40:58.480 --> 00:41:00.679 But I had expended enough hard work on her to 655 00:41:00.719 --> 00:41:06.400 make me love her. No influential friend would have served 656 00:41:06.400 --> 00:41:09.079 me better. She had given me a chance to come 657 00:41:09.079 --> 00:41:12.519 out a bit, to find out what I could do. No, 658 00:41:12.679 --> 00:41:15.119 I don't like work. I had rather lays about and 659 00:41:15.199 --> 00:41:17.039 think of all the fine things I can be done. 660 00:41:17.800 --> 00:41:20.480 I don't like work, no man does. But I like 661 00:41:20.559 --> 00:41:23.280 what is in the work, the chance to find yourself, 662 00:41:23.920 --> 00:41:27.400 your own reality, for yourself, not for others. What no 663 00:41:27.480 --> 00:41:30.599 other men can ever know. They can only see the 664 00:41:30.639 --> 00:41:33.760 mere show and never can tell what it really means. 665 00:41:35.039 --> 00:41:37.599 I was not surprised to see somebody sitting aft on 666 00:41:37.679 --> 00:41:41.679 the deck with his legs dangling over the mud. You see, 667 00:41:41.679 --> 00:41:43.880 I rather chummed with the few mechanics there were in 668 00:41:43.920 --> 00:41:47.599 that station, whom the other pilgrims naturally despised on account 669 00:41:47.639 --> 00:41:51.320 of their imperfect manners. I suppose this was the foreman, 670 00:41:51.840 --> 00:41:55.719 a boiler maker by trade, a good worker. He was 671 00:41:55.760 --> 00:41:59.400 a lank, bony, yellow faced man, with big, intense eyes. 672 00:42:00.199 --> 00:42:02.760 His aspect was worried, and his head was as bald 673 00:42:02.760 --> 00:42:05.840 as the palm of my hand. But his hair and 674 00:42:06.000 --> 00:42:08.960 falling seemed to have stuck to his chin, and had 675 00:42:09.000 --> 00:42:11.639 prospered in the new locality, for his beard hung down 676 00:42:11.679 --> 00:42:16.239 to his waist. He was a widower with six young children. 677 00:42:16.679 --> 00:42:18.760 He had left them in charge of a sister of 678 00:42:18.800 --> 00:42:21.239 his to come out there. And the passion of his 679 00:42:21.320 --> 00:42:25.480 life was pigeon flying. He was an enthusiast and a connoisseur. 680 00:42:26.360 --> 00:42:30.719 He would rave about pigeons after work hours. He used 681 00:42:30.760 --> 00:42:33.239 sometimes to come over from his hut for a talk 682 00:42:33.280 --> 00:42:37.480 about his children and his pigeons. At work, when he 683 00:42:37.559 --> 00:42:39.360 had to crawl in the mud under the bottom of 684 00:42:39.400 --> 00:42:41.760 the steamboat, he would tie up that beard of his 685 00:42:41.880 --> 00:42:44.760 in a kind of white serviette he brought for the purpose. 686 00:42:45.960 --> 00:42:48.719 It had loops to go over his ears. In the 687 00:42:48.800 --> 00:42:51.519 evening he could be seen squatted on the bank, rinsing 688 00:42:51.559 --> 00:42:54.719 that wrapper in the creek with great care, then spreading 689 00:42:54.719 --> 00:42:58.519 it solemnly on a bush to dry. I slapped him 690 00:42:58.519 --> 00:43:02.199 on the back and shouted, we shall have rivets. He 691 00:43:02.280 --> 00:43:06.280 scrambled to his feet, exclaiming no rivets, as though he 692 00:43:06.280 --> 00:43:12.360 couldn't believe his ears. Then, in a low voice, you, eh, 693 00:43:13.039 --> 00:43:15.960 I don't know why we behaved like lunatics. I put 694 00:43:15.960 --> 00:43:18.519 my finger to the side of my nose and nodded mysteriously. 695 00:43:19.599 --> 00:43:22.559 Good for you, he cried, snapped his fingers above his head, 696 00:43:22.679 --> 00:43:26.920 lifting one foot, I tried a jig. We capered on 697 00:43:27.000 --> 00:43:30.519 the iron deck. A frightful clatter came out of that hulk, 698 00:43:30.760 --> 00:43:32.559 and the virgin forest on the other bank of the 699 00:43:32.599 --> 00:43:34.960 creek sent it back in a thundering roll upon the 700 00:43:34.960 --> 00:43:38.960 sleeping station. It must have made some of the pilgrims 701 00:43:39.000 --> 00:43:42.519 sit up in their hovels. A dark figure obscured the 702 00:43:42.559 --> 00:43:46.159 lighted doorway of the manager's hut vanished, Then a second 703 00:43:46.280 --> 00:43:51.400 or so after, the doorway itself vanished too. We stopped, 704 00:43:51.920 --> 00:43:54.760 and the silence, driven away by the stamping of our feet, 705 00:43:55.039 --> 00:43:58.960 flowed back again from the recesses of the land, the 706 00:43:59.000 --> 00:44:05.960 great wall of vegetani, an exuberant and entangled mass of trunks, branches, leaves, boughs, festoons, 707 00:44:06.400 --> 00:44:09.960 motionless in the moonlight, was like a rioting invasion of 708 00:44:10.039 --> 00:44:15.239 soundless life. A rolling wave of plants piled up, crested, 709 00:44:15.480 --> 00:44:18.559 ready to topple over the creek, to sweep every little 710 00:44:18.599 --> 00:44:22.559 man of us out of his little existence. And it 711 00:44:22.639 --> 00:44:27.079 moved not. A deadened burst of mighty splashes and snorts 712 00:44:27.119 --> 00:44:30.400 reached us from afar, as though an ichthisaurus had been 713 00:44:30.440 --> 00:44:34.599 taking a bath of glitter in the great river. After all, 714 00:44:34.840 --> 00:44:37.800 said the boiler

maker, in a reasonable tone, Why shouldn't 715 00:44:37.800 --> 00:44:41.559 we get the rivets? Why not? Indeed, I did not 716 00:44:41.679 --> 00:44:45.239 know of any reason why we shouldn't. They'll come in 717 00:44:45.280 --> 00:44:51.159 three weeks, I said, confidently. But they didn't. Instead of rivets, 718 00:44:51.159 --> 00:44:56.280 there came an invasion, an infliction of visitation. It came 719 00:44:56.280 --> 00:44:59.639 in sections during the next three weeks, each section headed 720 00:44:59.679 --> 00:45:02.280 by a donkey carrying a white man in new clothes 721 00:45:02.679 --> 00:45:06.400 and tanned shoes, bowing from that elevation right and left 722 00:45:06.440 --> 00:45:11.280 to the impressed pilgrims, a quarrelsome band of footsore, sulky niggers, 723 00:45:11.280 --> 00:45:15.159 trod on the heels of the donkey. A lot of tents, campstools, 724 00:45:15.199 --> 00:45:18.920 tin boxes, white cases, brown bales would be shot down 725 00:45:18.960 --> 00:45:21.800 in the courtyard, and the air of mystery would deepen 726 00:45:21.840 --> 00:45:25.079 a little over the muddle of the station. Five such 727 00:45:25.119 --> 00:45:29.079 installments came, with their absurd air of disorderly flight, with 728 00:45:29.159 --> 00:45:33.119 the loot of innumerable outfit shops and provisioned stores, that 729 00:45:33.400 --> 00:45:36.159 one would think they were lugging after a raid into 730 00:45:36.159 --> 00:45:41.000 the wilderness for equitable division. It was an inextricable mess 731 00:45:41.039 --> 00:45:44.639 of things decent in themselves, but that human folly made 732 00:45:44.679 --> 00:45:50.639 look like the spoils of thieving. This devoted band called 733 00:45:50.639 --> 00:45:54.559 itself the El Dorado Exploring Expedition, and I believe they 734 00:45:54.559 --> 00:45:58.280 were sworn to secrecy. Their talk, however, was the talk 735 00:45:58.360 --> 00:46:04.159 of sordid buccaneers. It was reckless without hardihood, greedy without audacity, 736 00:46:04.639 --> 00:46:08.000 and cruel without courage. There was not an atom of 737 00:46:08.079 --> 00:46:11.079 foresight or of serious intention in the whole batch of them, 738 00:46:11.480 --> 00:46:13.800 and they did not seem aware these things are wanted 739 00:46:13.840 --> 00:46:17.239 for the work of the world. To tear treasure out 740 00:46:17.280 --> 00:46:19.639 of the bowels of the land was their desire, with 741 00:46:19.719 --> 00:46:21.719 no more moral purpose. At the back of it than 742 00:46:21.760 --> 00:46:25.559 there is in burglars breaking into a safe. Who paid 743 00:46:25.559 --> 00:46:28.480 the expenses of the noble enterprise? I don't know, but 744 00:46:28.559 --> 00:46:30.880 the uncle of our manager was leader of that lot. 745 00:46:32.280 --> 00:46:35.840 In exterior, he resembled a butcher in a poor neighborhood, 746 00:46:36.000 --> 00:46:39.440 and his eyes had a look of sleepy cunning. He 747 00:46:39.519 --> 00:46:42.840 carried his fat paunch with ostentation on his short legs, 748 00:46:43.320 --> 00:46:46.159 and during the time his gang infested the station, spoke 749 00:46:46.199 --> 00:46:49.159 to no one but his nephew. You could see these 750 00:46:49.159 --> 00:46:51.679 two roaming about all day long, with their heads close 751 00:46:51.719 --> 00:46:56.599 together in an everlasting confab. I had given up worrying 752 00:46:56.599 --> 00:46:59.679 myself about the rivets. One's capacity for that kind of 753 00:46:59.679 --> 00:47:03.119 folly is more limited than you would suppose, I said, 754 00:47:03.239 --> 00:47:06.960 hang and let things slide. I had plenty of time 755 00:47:07.000 --> 00:47:09.480 for meditation, and now and then I would give some 756 00:47:09.559 --> 00:47:14.960 thought to Kerts. I wasn't very interested in him. No, Still, 757 00:47:15.119 --> 00:47:17.960 I was curious to see whether this man, who had 758 00:47:17.960 --> 00:47:21.000 come out equipped with moral ideas of some sort, would 759 00:47:21.039 --> 00:47:23.639 climb to the top after all, and how he would 760 00:47:23.679 --> 00:47:29.679 set about his work when there end of Chapter one, 761 00:47:30.400 --> 00:47:31.039 Part two