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This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
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visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Kristin Luoma Green k
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r I dot com. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad,
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Chapter three, Part one. I looked at him, lost in astonishment.
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There he was before me in Motley, as though he
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had absconded from a troop of mimes. Enthusiastic, fabulous. His
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very existence was improbable, inexplicable, and altogether bewildering. He was
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an insoluble problem. It was inconceivable how he had existed,
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how he had succeeded in getting so far, how he
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had managed to remain, why he did not instantly disappear.
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I went to little farther, he said, Then still a
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little farther, till I had gone so far that I
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don't know how I'll ever get back, never mind, plenty
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time I can manage. You. Take Curts away quick quick.
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I tell you the glamor of youth enveloped his party,
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colored rags, his destitution, his loneliness, the essential desolation of
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his feudal wanderings for months, for years, his life hadn't
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been worth a day's purchase. And there he was, gallantly, thoughtlessly,
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alive to all appearances, indestructible, solely by the virtue of
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his few years and of his unreflecting audacity. I was
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seduced into something like admiration, like envy. Glamour urged him on,
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glamour kept him unscathed. He surely wanted nothing from the
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wilderness but space to breathe in and to push on through.
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His need was to exist and to move onwards at
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the greatest possible risk and with a maximum of privation.
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If the absolutely pure, uncalculating, unpractical spirit of adventure had
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ever ruled a human being, it ruled this bepatched youth.
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I almost envied him the possession of this modest and
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clear flame. It seemed to have consumed all thought of
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self so completely that even while he was talking to you,
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you forgot that it was he, the man before your eyes,
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who had gone through these things. I did not envy
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him his devotion to Kurtz. Though he had not meditated
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over it, it came to him, and he accepted it
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with a sort of eager fatalism. I must say that
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to me, it appeared about the most dangerous thing in
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every way he had come upon so far. They had
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come together unavoidably, like two ships, becalmed near each other
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and lay rubbing sides at last. I suppose Curts wanted
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an audience because on a certain when encamped in the forest,
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they had talked all night. Or more probably Kurts had talked.
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We talked of everything, he said, quite transported. At the recollection,
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I forgot there was such a thing as sleep. The
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night did not seem to last an hour. Everything everything
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of love too. Ah, he talked to you, of love,
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I said, much amused. It isn't what you think, he cried,
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almost passionately. It was in general. He made me see
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things things. He threw his arms up. We were on
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deck at the time, and the headman of my woodcutters,
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lounging near by, turned upon him, his heavy and glittering eyes.
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I looked around, and I don't know why, but I
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assure you that never, never before, did this land, this river,
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this jungle, the very art of this blazing sky appeared
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to me so hopeless and so dark, so impenetrable to
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human thought, so pitiless to human weakness. And ever since
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you have been with him, of course, I said. On
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the contrary, it appears their intercourse had been very much
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broken by various causes. He had, as he informed me, proudly,
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managed to nurse Kurts through two illnesses. He alluded to
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it as you would to some risky feet. But as
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a rule Kurts wandered alone far in the depths of
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the forest, very often coming to this station. I had
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to wait days and days before he would turn up.
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He said, Ah, it was worth waiting for sometimes. What
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was he doing exploring? Or what? I asked? Oh? Yes,
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of course he had discovered lots of villages a lake too.
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He did not know exactly in what direction. It was
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dangerous to inquire too much. But mostly his expeditions had
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been for ivory. But he had no goods to trade
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with by that time. I objected, there's a good lot
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of cartridges left. Even yet, he answered, looking away, to
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speak plainly, he raided the country, I said. He nodded,
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not alone, surely. He muttered something about the villages round
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that lake. Kurtz got the tribe to follow him, did he,
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I suggested. He fidgeted a little. They adored him, he said.
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The tone of these words. Was so extraordinary that I
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looked at him. Certainly, it was curious to see his
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mingled eagerness and reluctance to speak of Kurts The man
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filled his life, occupied his thoughts, swayed his emotions. What
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can you expect? He burst out? He came to them
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with thunder and lightning, you know, and they had never
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seen anything like it, and very terrible. He could be
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very terrible. You can't judge mister Kurtz as you would
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an ordinary man. No, no, no, Now, just to give
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you an idea, I don't mind telling you. He wanted
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to shoot me too one day, but I don't judge
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him shoot you, I cried, what for? Well, I had
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a small lot of ivory the chief of that village
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near my house gave me. You see, I used to
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shoot game for them. Well, he wanted it, and wouldn't
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hear reason. He declared he would shoot me unless I
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gave him the ivory and then cleared out of the country,
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because he could do so and had a fancy for it,
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and there was nothing on earth to prevent him killing
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whom he jolly well pleased. And it was true too.
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I gave him the ivory. What did I care? But
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I didn't clear out. No, No, I couldn't leave him.
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I had to be careful, of course, till we got
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friendly again. For a time he had his second illness.
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Then afterwards I had to keep out of the way,
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but I didn't mind. He was living for the most
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part in those villages on the lake. When he came
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down to the river, sometimes he would take to me,
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and sometimes it was better for me to be careful.
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This man suffered too much. He hated all this, and
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somehow he couldn't get away. When I had a chance,
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I begged him to try and leave while there was time.
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I offered to go back with him, and he would
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say yes, and then he would remain, go off on
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another ivory hunt, disappear for weeks, forget himself amongst these people.
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Forget himself. You know why he's mad, I said, he
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protested indignantly. Mister Kurtz couldn't be mad. If I had
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heard him talk only two days ago, I wouldn't dare
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hint at such a thing. I had taken up my
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binoculars while we talked, and was looking at the shore,
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sweeping the limit of the forest at each side. And
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at the back of the house. The consciousness of there
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being people in that bush, so silent, so quiet, as
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silent and quiet as the ruined house on the hill,
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made me uneasy. There was no sign on the face
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of nature of this amazing tale that was not so
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much told as suggested to me in desolate exclamations, completely
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by shrugs, in uninterrupted phrases, in hints ending in deep sighs.
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The woods were unmoved, like a mask, heavy, like the
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closed door of a prison. They looked with their air
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of hidden knowledge, of patient expectation, of unapproachable silence. The
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Russian was explaining to me that it was only lately
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that mister Kurtz had come down to the river, bringing
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along with him all the fighting men of that lake tribe.
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He had been absent for several months, getting himself adored,
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I suppose, and had come down unexpectedly with the intention
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to all appearance of making a raid either across the
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river or down stream. Evidently the appetite for more ivory
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had got the better of the what shall I say,
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less material aspirations. However, he had got much worse. Suddenly
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I heard he was lying helpless, and so I came up,
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took my chance, said the Russian. Oh, he is bad,
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very bad. I directed my glass to the house. There
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were no signs of life, but there was the ruined
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roof the long mud wall peeping above the grass, with
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three little square window holes, no two of the same size.
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All this brought within reach of my hand, as it were.
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And then I made a brusque movement, and one of
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the remaining posts of that vanished fence leapt up in
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the field of my glass. You remember, I told you
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I had been struck at that distance by certain attempts
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at ornamentation, rather remarkable in the ruinous aspect of the place.
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Now I had suddenly the nearer view, and its first
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result was to make me throw my head back, as
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if before a blow. Then I went carefully from post
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to post with my glass, and I saw my mistake.
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These round knobs were not ornamental, but symbolic. They were
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expressive and puzzling, striking and disturbing, food for thought and
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also for vultures, if there be any looking down from
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the sky. But at all events, for such ants as
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were industrious enough to ascend the pole, they would have
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been even more impressive. Those heads on the stakes. If
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their faces had not been turned to the house, only
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one the first I had made out, was facing my way.
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I was not so shocked as you may think. The
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start back I had given was really nothing but a
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movement of surprise. I had expected to see a novel
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of wood there, you know. I returned deliberately to the
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first I had seen, and there it was black, dried,
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sunken with closed eyelids, a head that seemed to sleep
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at the top of the pole, and with the shrunken,
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dry lips showing a narrow white line of the teeth.
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Was smiling too, smiling continuously at some endless and jocose
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stream of that eternal slumber. I am not disclosing any
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trade secrets. In fact, the manager said afterwards that mister
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Kurtz's methods had ruined the district. I have no opinion
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on that point, but I want you clearly to understand
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that there was nothing exactly profitable in these heads being there.
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They only showed that mister Kurtz lacked restraint in the
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gratification of his various lusts, that there was something wanting
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in him, some small matter, which, when the pressing need arose,
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could not be found under his magnificent eloquence. Whether he
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knew of this deficiency himself, I can't say. I think
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the knowledge came to him at last, only at the
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very last. But the wilderness had found him out early
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and had taken on him a terrible vengeance for the
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fantastic invasion. I think it had whispered to him things
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about himself which he did not know, things of which
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he had no conception till he took counsel with this
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great solitude, and the whisper had proved irresistibly fascinating. It
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echoed loudly within him, because he was hollow at the core.
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I put down the look lass, and the head that
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had appeared near enough to be spoken to, seemed at
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once to have leapt away from me into inaccessible distance.
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The admirer of mister Kurtz was a bit crestfallen. In
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a hurried, indistinct voice, he began to assure me he
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had dared not to take these say cymbals down. He
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was not afraid of the natives. They would not stir
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till mister Kurtz gave the word. His ascendancy was extraordinary.
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The camps of these people surrounded the place, and the
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chiefs came every day to see him. They would crawl.
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I don't want to know anything of the ceremonies used
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when approaching mister Kurtz. I shouted, curious this feeling that
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came over me, that such details would be more intolerable
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than those heads drying on the stakes under mister Kurtz's windows.
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After all, that was only a savage sight, while I
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seemed at one bound to have been transported into some
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lightless region of subtle horrors, where pure, uncomplicate catered. Savagery
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was a positive relief, being something that had a right
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to exist, obviously in the sunshine. The young man looked
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at me with surprise. I suppose it did not occur
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to him that mister Kurtz was no idol of mine.
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He forgot I hadn't heard any of these splendid monologs
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on what was it on love, justice, conduct of life,
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or what not. If it had come to crawling before
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mister Kurtz, he crawled as much as the veriest savage
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of them all. I had no idea of the conditions.
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He said, these heads were the heads of rebels. I
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shocked him excessively by laughing rebels. What would be the
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next definition I was to hear there had been enemies, criminals, workers,
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and these were rebels. Those rebellious heads looked very subdued
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to me on their sticks. You don't know how such
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a life tries a man like Kurt's, cried Kurtz's last disciple.
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Well and you, I said, I I I am a
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simple man. I have no great thoughts. I want nothing
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from anybody. How can you compare me to? His feelings
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were too much for speech, and suddenly he broke down.
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I don't understand, he groaned. I've been doing my best
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to keep him alive, and that's enough. I had no
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hand in all this. I have no abilities. There hasn't
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been a drop of medicine or a mouthful of invalid
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food for months. Here he was shamefully abandoned, a man
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like this with such ideas, shamefully shamefully, I I haven't
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slept for the last ten nights. His voice lost itself.
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In the calm of the evening. The long shadows of
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the forest had slipped down hill while we talked, had
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gone far beyond the ruined hovel, beyond the symbolic row
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of the stakes. All this was in the gloom, while
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we down there were yet in the sunshine, and the
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stretch of the river abreast of the clearing glittered in
237
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a still and dazzling splendor, with a murky and overshadowed bend.
238
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Above and below. Not a living soul was seen on
239
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the shore. The bushes did not rustle. Suddenly, round the
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corner of the house a group of men appeared, as
241
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though they had come up from the ground. They waded
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waist deep in the grass in a compact body, bearing
243
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an improvised stretcher in their midst. Instantly, in the emptiness
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of the landscape, a cry arose, whose shrillness pierced the
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still air, like a sharp arrow flying straight to the
246
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very heart of the land. And as if by enchantment,
247
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streams of human beings, of naked human beings with spears
248
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in their hands, with bows, with shields, with wild glances
249
00:15:49.919 --> 00:15:52.879
and savage movements, were poured into the clearing by the
250
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dark faced and pensive forest. The bushes shook, the grass
251
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swayed for a time, and then everybody stood still in
252
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attentive immobility. Now, if he does not say the right
253
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thing to them, we are all done for, said the Russian.
254
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At my elbow. The knot of men with the stretcher
255
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had stopped too half way to the steamer, as if petrified.
256
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I saw the man on the stretcher sit up lank,
257
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with an uplifted arm above the shoulders of the bearers.
258
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Let us hope that the man who can talk so
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well of love in general will find some particular reason
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to spare us this time, I said, I resented bitterly
261
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the absurd danger of our situation, as if to be
262
00:16:34.799 --> 00:16:37.440
at the mercy of that atrocious phantom had been a
263
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dishonoring necessity. I could not hear a sound, but through
264
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my glasses I saw the thin arm extended commandingly, the
265
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lower jaw moving, the eyes of that apparition shining darkly
266
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far in its bony head that nodded with grotesque jerks kurts, curts.
267
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That means short in German. Don't it well? The name
268
00:17:01.480 --> 00:17:03.879
was as true as everything else in his life and death.
269
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He looked at least seven feet long. His covering had
270
00:17:08.160 --> 00:17:11.640
fallen off, and his body emerged from it, pitiful and appalling,
271
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as from a winding sheet. I could see
the cage
272
00:17:14.559 --> 00:17:17.640
of his ribs all astir, the bones of his arm waving.
273
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It was as though an animated image of death carved
274
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out of old Ivory had been shaking its hand with
275
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menaces at a motionless crowd of men made of dark
276
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and glittering bronze. I saw him open his mouth wide.
277
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It gave him a weirdly voracious aspect, as though he
278
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had wanted to swallow all the air, all the earth,
279
00:17:38.200 --> 00:17:42.759
all the men before him. A deep voice suddenly reached me.
280
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Faintly he must have been shouting. He fell back. Suddenly
281
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the stretcher shook as the bearer staggered forward again, and
282
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almost at the same time, I noticed that the crowd
283
00:17:53.680 --> 00:17:57.559
of savages was vanishing, without any perceptible movement of retreat,
284
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as if the forest that had eject to these beings
285
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so suddenly had drawn them in again as the breath
286
00:18:03.920 --> 00:18:08.799
is drawn in a long aspiration. Some of the pilgrims
287
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behind the stretcher carried his arms two shot guns, a
288
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heavy rifle and a light revolver carbine, the thunderbolts of
289
00:18:16.680 --> 00:18:20.880
that pitiful Jupiter. The manager bent over him, murmuring as
290
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he walked beside his head. They laid him down in
291
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one of the little cabins, just a room for a
292
00:18:26.039 --> 00:18:29.359
bed place, and a campstool or two. You know, we
293
00:18:29.440 --> 00:18:31.920
had brought his blated correspondence, and a lot of torn
294
00:18:32.000 --> 00:18:36.119
envelopes in open letters littered his bed. His hand roamed
295
00:18:36.119 --> 00:18:39.839
feebly amongst these papers. I was struck by the fire
296
00:18:39.920 --> 00:18:43.400
of his eyes and the composed languor of his expression.
297
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It was not so much the exhaustion of disease. He
298
00:18:47.160 --> 00:18:51.599
did not seem in pain. This shadow looked satiated and calm,
299
00:18:52.119 --> 00:18:54.400
as though for the moment it had had its fill
300
00:18:54.480 --> 00:18:58.559
of all the emotions. He rustled one of the letters,
301
00:18:58.599 --> 00:19:01.680
and looking straight in my face, said, I am glad
302
00:19:03.039 --> 00:19:06.160
somebody had been writing to him about me. These special
303
00:19:06.200 --> 00:19:10.200
recommendations were turning up again. The volume of tone he emitted,
304
00:19:10.240 --> 00:19:13.480
without effort, almost without the trouble of moving his lips,
305
00:19:13.519 --> 00:19:21.640
amazed me. A voice, a voice. It was grave, profound, vibrating.
306
00:19:22.000 --> 00:19:25.759
While the man did not seem capable of a whisper, however,
307
00:19:25.839 --> 00:19:31.119
he had enough strength in him, factitious, no doubt, to
308
00:19:31.240 --> 00:19:33.079
very nearly make an end of us. As you shall
309
00:19:33.079 --> 00:19:38.039
hear directly, the manager appeared silently in the doorway. I
310
00:19:38.039 --> 00:19:40.279
stepped out at once, and he drew the curtain after me.
311
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The Russian, eyed curiously by the pilgrims, was staring at
312
00:19:44.480 --> 00:19:49.599
the shore. I followed the direction of his glance. Dark
313
00:19:49.759 --> 00:19:53.359
human shapes could be made out in the darkness, flitting
314
00:19:53.400 --> 00:19:58.440
indistinctly against the gloomy border of the forest and near
315
00:19:58.480 --> 00:20:02.640
the river, two bronze figures, leaning on tall spears, stood
316
00:20:02.680 --> 00:20:06.319
in the sunlight under fantastic head dresses of spotted skins,
317
00:20:07.079 --> 00:20:10.880
warlike and still in statuesque repose, And from right to
318
00:20:10.960 --> 00:20:13.960
left along the lighted shore moved a wild and gorgeous
319
00:20:14.000 --> 00:20:20.480
apparition of a woman. She walked with measured steps, draped
320
00:20:20.519 --> 00:20:24.319
in striped and fringed cloths, treading the earth proudly with
321
00:20:24.400 --> 00:20:28.200
a slight jingle and flash of barbarous ornaments. She carried
322
00:20:28.240 --> 00:20:30.799
her head high. Her hair was done in the shape
323
00:20:30.799 --> 00:20:34.200
of a helmet. She had brass leggings to the knee,
324
00:20:34.720 --> 00:20:38.359
brass wire gauntlets to the elbow, a crimson spot on
325
00:20:38.400 --> 00:20:42.519
her tawny cheek, innumerable necklaces of glass beads on her neck,
326
00:20:43.480 --> 00:20:48.400
bizarre things, charms, gifts of witch men that hung about her,
327
00:20:48.640 --> 00:20:52.119
glittered and trembled at every step. She must have had
328
00:20:52.160 --> 00:20:55.759
the value of several elephant tusks upon her. She was
329
00:20:55.799 --> 00:21:00.599
savage and superb, wild eyed and magnificent. There was something
330
00:21:00.680 --> 00:21:04.640
ominous and stately in her deliberate progress, and in the
331
00:21:04.720 --> 00:21:08.160
hush that had fallen suddenly upon the whole sorrowful land.
332
00:21:08.799 --> 00:21:12.519
The immense wilderness, the colossal body of the fecund and
333
00:21:12.759 --> 00:21:17.079
mysterious life, seemed to look at her punsive, as though
334
00:21:17.119 --> 00:21:18.759
it had been looking at the image of its own
335
00:21:18.759 --> 00:21:23.240
tineprius and passionate soul. She came abreast of the steamer
336
00:21:23.279 --> 00:21:27.359
and stood still and faced us. Her long shadow fell
337
00:21:27.400 --> 00:21:30.480
to the water's edge. Her face had a tragic and
338
00:21:30.640 --> 00:21:35.119
fierce aspect
of wild sorrow and of dumb pain, mingled
339
00:21:35.119 --> 00:21:40.000
with the fear of some struggling, half shaped resolve. She
340
00:21:40.079 --> 00:21:42.880
stood looking at us without a stir, and, like the
341
00:21:42.880 --> 00:21:46.880
wilderness itself, with an air of brooding over an inscrutable purpose.
342
00:21:48.640 --> 00:21:52.200
A whole minute passed, and then she made a step forward.
343
00:21:53.400 --> 00:21:56.279
There was a low jingle, a glint of yellow metal,
344
00:21:57.000 --> 00:22:00.400
a sway of fringed draperies, and she stopped, as if
345
00:22:00.440 --> 00:22:03.640
her heart had failed her. The young fellow by my
346
00:22:03.720 --> 00:22:08.279
side growled, the pilgrims, murmured at my back. She looked
347
00:22:08.279 --> 00:22:10.559
at us all as if her life had depended upon
348
00:22:10.599 --> 00:22:15.000
the unswerving steadiness of her glance. Suddenly she opened her
349
00:22:15.039 --> 00:22:18.039
bared arms and drew them up rigid above her head,
350
00:22:18.400 --> 00:22:21.640
as though in an uncontrollable desire to touch the sky.
351
00:22:22.279 --> 00:22:25.400
And at the same time, the swift shadows started out
352
00:22:25.480 --> 00:22:28.839
on the earth, swept around on the river, gathering the
353
00:22:28.880 --> 00:22:33.839
steamer into a shadowy embrace. A formidable silence hung over
354
00:22:33.880 --> 00:22:40.400
the scene. She turned away, slowly, walked on, following the bank,
355
00:22:40.799 --> 00:22:45.599
and passed into the bushes to the left. Once only
356
00:22:45.680 --> 00:22:47.920
her eyes gleamed back at us in the dusk of
357
00:22:47.920 --> 00:22:52.680
the thickets before she disappeared. If she had offered to
358
00:22:52.680 --> 00:22:54.680
come aboard, I really think I would have tried to
359
00:22:54.680 --> 00:22:58.240
shoot her, said the man of patches nervously. I have
360
00:22:58.319 --> 00:23:00.880
been risking my life every day for the last fortnight
361
00:23:01.119 --> 00:23:03.559
to keep her out of the house. She got in
362
00:23:03.559 --> 00:23:06.000
one day and kicked up a row about those miserable
363
00:23:06.079 --> 00:23:08.440
rags I picked up in the storm room to mend
364
00:23:08.480 --> 00:23:12.079
my clothes with. I wasn't decent, at least it must
365
00:23:12.079 --> 00:23:13.920
have been that, for she talked like a fury to
366
00:23:14.000 --> 00:23:16.400
Kurtz for an hour, pointing at me. Now and then,
367
00:23:17.400 --> 00:23:20.759
I don't understand the dialect of this tribe. Luckily for me,
368
00:23:20.880 --> 00:23:23.319
I fancy Kurtz felt too ill that day to care,
369
00:23:23.799 --> 00:23:27.839
or there would have been mischief. I don't understand. No,
370
00:23:28.160 --> 00:23:31.680
it's too much for me. Ah well, it's all over now.
371
00:23:33.160 --> 00:23:35.960
At this moment, I heard Kurtz's deep voice behind the curtain,
372
00:23:37.000 --> 00:23:39.839
Save me, save the ivory. You mean, don't tell me,
373
00:23:40.279 --> 00:23:43.839
save me why I've had to save you. You are
374
00:23:43.880 --> 00:23:47.480
interrupting my plans now, sick, sick, not so sick as
375
00:23:47.480 --> 00:23:50.039
you would like to believe. Never mind, I'll carry my
376
00:23:50.119 --> 00:23:52.720
ideas out yet I will return. I'll show you what
377
00:23:52.799 --> 00:23:56.119
can be done. You with your little peddling notions, you
378
00:23:56.160 --> 00:24:01.200
are interfering with me. I will return. I the manager
379
00:24:01.279 --> 00:24:03.960
came out. He did me the honor to take me
380
00:24:04.039 --> 00:24:07.720
under the arm and leave me aside. He is very low,
381
00:24:08.359 --> 00:24:12.480
very low, he said. He considered it necessary to sigh,
382
00:24:12.799 --> 00:24:16.720
but neglected to be consistently sorrowful. We have done all
383
00:24:16.759 --> 00:24:18.960
we could for him, haven't we. But there is no
384
00:24:19.039 --> 00:24:21.480
disguising the fact mister Kurtz has done more harm than
385
00:24:21.519 --> 00:24:24.319
good to the company. He did not see. The time
386
00:24:24.400 --> 00:24:29.559
was not ripe for vigorous action. Cautiously, cautiously, that's my principle.
387
00:24:30.200 --> 00:24:33.119
We must be cautious. Yet the district is close to
388
00:24:33.200 --> 00:24:37.079
us for a time deplorable upon the whole the trade
389
00:24:37.079 --> 00:24:40.119
will suffer. I don't deny there is a remarkable quantity
390
00:24:40.119 --> 00:24:44.200
of ivory, mostly fossil. We must save it at all events.
391
00:24:44.559 --> 00:24:48.200
But look how precarious the position is. And why because
392
00:24:48.200 --> 00:24:53.160
the method is unsound, do you, said I, looking at
393
00:24:53.160 --> 00:24:59.200
the shore, call it unsound method? Without doubt, he exclaimed hotly.
394
00:24:59.359 --> 00:25:05.880
Don't you no method at all? I murmured. After a while, exactly,
395
00:25:06.240 --> 00:25:10.279
he exulted. I anticipated this shows a complete want of judgment.
396
00:25:10.799 --> 00:25:12.759
It is my duty to point it out in the
397
00:25:12.799 --> 00:25:17.440
proper quarter, Oh said I. That fellow what's his name,
398
00:25:17.720 --> 00:25:21.599
the brickmaker, will make a readable report for you. He
399
00:25:21.640 --> 00:25:24.960
appeared confounded. For a moment. It seemed to me I
400
00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:28.279
had never breathed an atmosphere so vile, and I turned
401
00:25:28.279 --> 00:25:33.720
mentally to Kurtz for relief, positively for relief. Nevertheless, I
402
00:25:33.720 --> 00:25:37.880
think mister Kurtz is a remarkable man, I said, with emphasis.
403
00:25:38.480 --> 00:25:41.680
He started dropped on me a heavy glance and said
404
00:25:41.759 --> 00:25:46.480
very quietly he was and turned his back on me.
405
00:25:47.480 --> 00:25:50.400
My hour of favor was over. I found myself lumping
406
00:25:50.440 --> 00:25:53.000
along with Kurts as a partisan
of methods for which
407
00:25:53.039 --> 00:25:57.480
the time was not ripe. I was unsound, ah, but
408
00:25:57.559 --> 00:26:00.000
it was something to have, at least a choice of nightmare.
409
00:26:01.400 --> 00:26:04.160
I had turned to the wilderness, really, not to mister Kurtz,
410
00:26:04.599 --> 00:26:07.119
who I was ready to admit was as good as buried.
411
00:26:07.920 --> 00:26:10.000
And for a moment it seemed to me as if
412
00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:12.319
I also were buried in a vast grave full of
413
00:26:12.440 --> 00:26:17.519
unspeakable secrets. I felt an intolerable weight oppressing my breast,
414
00:26:18.119 --> 00:26:21.680
the smell of the damp earth, the unseen presence of
415
00:26:21.759 --> 00:26:27.880
victorious corruption, the darkness of an impenetrable night. The Russian
416
00:26:27.920 --> 00:26:30.279
tapped me on the shoulder. I heard him mumbling and
417
00:26:30.359 --> 00:26:34.799
stammered something about brother Seamen couldn't conceal knowledge of matters
418
00:26:34.799 --> 00:26:39.960
that would affect mister Kurtse's reputation. I waited for him.
419
00:26:40.079 --> 00:26:44.079
Evidently mister Kurtz was not in his grave. I suspect
420
00:26:44.119 --> 00:26:46.839
that for him, mister Kurtz was one of the immortals.
421
00:26:48.200 --> 00:26:52.480
Well said, I at last speak out as it happens.
422
00:26:52.519 --> 00:26:56.720
I am mister Kurtz's friend in a way. He stated,
423
00:26:56.759 --> 00:26:59.119
with a good deal of formality, that had we not
424
00:26:59.240 --> 00:27:01.920
been of the same profession, he would have kept the
425
00:27:01.920 --> 00:27:06.559
matter to himself without regard to consequences. He suspected there
426
00:27:06.599 --> 00:27:08.680
was an active ill will towards him on the part
427
00:27:08.680 --> 00:27:11.880
of these white men. That you are right, I said,
428
00:27:11.960 --> 00:27:16.079
remembering a certain conversation I had overheard. The manager thinks
429
00:27:16.079 --> 00:27:19.559
you ought to be hanged. He showed a concern at
430
00:27:19.559 --> 00:27:24.240
this intelligence, which amused me at first. I had better
431
00:27:24.279 --> 00:27:28.079
get out of the way quietly, he said, earnestly. I
432
00:27:28.160 --> 00:27:30.079
can do no more for Kurtz now, and they would
433
00:27:30.119 --> 00:27:33.279
soon find some excuse. What's to stop them. There's a
434
00:27:33.319 --> 00:27:37.920
military post three hundred miles from here. Well, upon my word,
435
00:27:38.119 --> 00:27:39.960
said I, perhaps you had better go. If you have
436
00:27:40.039 --> 00:27:44.279
any friends amongst the savages near by plenty, he said.
437
00:27:44.839 --> 00:27:47.160
They are simple people, and I want nothing, you know,
438
00:27:48.359 --> 00:27:52.440
he stood, biting his lip. Then I don't want any
439
00:27:52.440 --> 00:27:55.079
harm to happen to these whites here. But of course
440
00:27:55.119 --> 00:27:58.519
I was thinking of mister Kurtz's reputation. But you are
441
00:27:58.519 --> 00:28:02.920
a brother's seaman, and all right, said I after a time,
442
00:28:03.400 --> 00:28:07.519
mister Kurtse's reputation is safe with me. I did not
443
00:28:07.759 --> 00:28:13.640
know how truly I spoke. He informed me, lowering his voice,
444
00:28:13.839 --> 00:28:16.000
that it was Curse who had ordered the attack to
445
00:28:16.039 --> 00:28:19.440
be made on the steamer. He hated sometimes the idea
446
00:28:19.440 --> 00:28:22.839
of being taken away and then again. But I don't
447
00:28:22.920 --> 00:28:25.720
understand these matters. I am a simple man. He thought
448
00:28:25.720 --> 00:28:27.920
it would scare you away, that you would give it up.
449
00:28:28.000 --> 00:28:31.680
Thinking him dead, I could not stop him. Oh, I
450
00:28:31.720 --> 00:28:35.759
had an awful time of it this last month. Very well,
451
00:28:35.880 --> 00:28:41.279
I said, he is all right now, yes, he muttered,
452
00:28:41.640 --> 00:28:46.400
not very convinced apparently, Thanks, said I I shall keep
453
00:28:46.400 --> 00:28:51.440
my eyes open, but quiet, eh, he urged anxiously. It
454
00:28:51.480 --> 00:28:55.480
would be awful for his reputation if anybody here, I
455
00:28:55.559 --> 00:28:59.680
promised a complete discretion with great gravity. I have a
456
00:28:59.680 --> 00:29:02.680
cane and three black fellows waiting, not very far, I
457
00:29:02.720 --> 00:29:05.359
am off. Could you give me a few martini Henry cartages?
458
00:29:06.599 --> 00:29:10.640
I could, and did with proper secrecy. He helped himself
459
00:29:10.680 --> 00:29:12.559
with a wink at me to a handful of my
460
00:29:12.599 --> 00:29:18.400
tobacco between sailors, you know, good English tobacco. At the
461
00:29:18.440 --> 00:29:21.799
door of the pilot house, he turned round. I say,
462
00:29:21.920 --> 00:29:24.599
haven't you a pair of shoes you could spare? He
463
00:29:24.680 --> 00:29:29.039
raised one leg. Look. The soles were tied with knotted
464
00:29:29.079 --> 00:29:32.720
strings sandalwise under his bare feet. I rooted out an
465
00:29:32.759 --> 00:29:35.480
old pear, at which he looked with admiration, before tucking
466
00:29:35.559 --> 00:29:39.519
it under his left arm. One of his pockets, bright red,
467
00:29:39.720 --> 00:29:43.799
was bulging with cartridges. From the other, dark blue, peeped
468
00:29:43.799 --> 00:29:47.720
Towson's inquiry, et cetera, et cetera. He seemed to think
469
00:29:47.759 --> 00:29:53.000
himself excellently well equipped for a renewed encounter with the wilderness. Ah,
470
00:29:53.039 --> 00:29:56.160
I'll never never meet such a man again. You ought
471
00:29:56.160 --> 00:29:59.160
to have heard him recite poetry his own too, it
472
00:29:59.359 --> 00:30:02.920
was he told me poetry. He rolled his eyes at
473
00:30:02.920 --> 00:30:07.599
the recollection of these delights. Oh, he enlarged my mind.
474
00:30:08.079 --> 00:30:11.960
Good Bye, said I. He shook hands and vanished in
475
00:30:12.039 --> 00:30:15.519
the night. Sometimes I asked myself whether I had ever
476
00:30:15.599 --> 00:30:19.119
really seen him, whether it was possible to meet such
477
00:30:19.119 --> 00:30:20.000
a phenomenon.