Heart of Darkness

By Joseph Conrad

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 the bond of the sea. Besides holding our hearts together
I through long periods of separation, it had the efect of mak-
ing us tolerant of each other’s yarns—and even convictions.
he Lawyer—the best of old fellows—had, because of his
many years and many virtues, the only cushion on deck,

T he Nellie, a cruising yawl, swung to her anchor without

a lutter of the sails, and was at rest. he lood had made,
the wind was nearly calm, and being bound down the river,
and was lying on the only rug. he Accountant had brought
out already a box of dominoes, and was toying architec-
turally with the bones. Marlow sat cross-legged right at,
the only thing for it was to come to and wait for the turn of leaning against the mizzen-mast. He had sunken cheeks, a
the tide. yellow complexion, a straight back, an ascetic aspect, and,
he sea-reach of the hames stretched before us like the with his arms dropped, the palms of hands outwards, re-
beginning of an interminable waterway. In the oing the sembled an idol. he director, satisied the anchor had good
sea and the sky were welded together without a joint, and hold, made his way at and sat down amongst us. We ex-
in the luminous space the tanned sails of the barges drit- changed a few words lazily. Aterwards there was silence
ing up with the tide seemed to stand still in red clusters of on board the yacht. For some reason or other we did not
canvas sharply peaked, with gleams of varnished sprits. A begin that game of dominoes. We felt meditative, and it for
haze rested on the low shores that ran out to sea in vanish- nothing but placid staring. he day was ending in a serenity
ing latness. he air was dark above Gravesend, and farther of still and exquisite brilliance. he water shone paciically;
back still seemed condensed into a mournful gloom, brood- the sky, without a speck, was a benign immensity of un-
ing motionless over the biggest, and the greatest, town on stained light; the very mist on the Essex marsh was like a
earth. gauzy and radiant fabric, hung from the wooded rises in-
he Director of Companies was our captain and our land, and draping the low shores in diaphanous folds. Only
host. We four afectionately watched his back as he stood the gloom to the west, brooding over the upper reaches,
in the bows looking to seaward. On the whole river there became more sombre every minute, as if angered by the ap-
was nothing that looked half so nautical. He resembled a pi- proach of the sun.
lot, which to a seaman is trustworthiness personiied. It was And at last, in its curved and imperceptible fall, the sun
diicult to realize his work was not out there in the lumi- sank low, and from glowing white changed to a dull red
nous estuary, but behind him, within the brooding gloom. without rays and without heat, as if about to go out sudden-
Between us there was, as I have already said somewhere, ly, stricken to death by the touch of that gloom brooding

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over a crowd of men. or pursuers of fame, they all had gone out on that stream,
Forthwith a change came over the waters, and the seren- bearing the sword, and oten the torch, messengers of the
ity became less brilliant but more profound. he old river in might within the land, bearers of a spark from the sacred
its broad reach rested unruled at the decline of day, ater ire. What greatness had not loated on the ebb of that river
ages of good service done to the race that peopled its banks, into the mystery of an unknown earth! … he dreams of
spread out in the tranquil dignity of a waterway leading to men, the seed of commonwealths, the germs of empires.
the uttermost ends of the earth. We looked at the venerable he sun set; the dusk fell on the stream, and lights be-
stream not in the vivid lush of a short day that comes and gan to appear along the shore. he Chapman light-house,
departs for ever, but in the august light of abiding memo- a three-legged thing erect on a mud-lat, shone strongly.
ries. And indeed nothing is easier for a man who has, as Lights of ships moved in the fairway—a great stir of lights
the phrase goes, ‘followed the sea’ with reverence and afec- going up and going down. And farther west on the upper
tion, that to evoke the great spirit of the past upon the lower reaches the place of the monstrous town was still marked
reaches of the hames. he tidal current runs to and fro in ominously on the sky, a brooding gloom in sunshine, a lu-
its unceasing service, crowded with memories of men and rid glare under the stars.
ships it had borne to the rest of home or to the battles of the ‘And this also,’ said Marlow suddenly, ‘has been one of
sea. It had known and served all the men of whom the na- the dark places of the earth.’
tion is proud, from Sir Francis Drake to Sir John Franklin, He was the only man of us who still ‘followed the sea.’
knights all, titled and untitled—the great knights-errant of he worst that could be said of him was that he did not rep-
the sea. It had borne all the ships whose names are like jew- resent his class. He was a seaman, but he was a wanderer,
els lashing in the night of time, from the GOLDEN HIND too, while most seamen lead, if one may so express it, a
returning with her rotund lanks full of treasure, to be visit- sedentary life. heir minds are of the stay-at-home order,
ed by the Queen’s Highness and thus pass out of the gigantic and their home is always with them—the ship; and so is
tale, to the EREBUS and TERROR, bound on other con- their country—the sea. One ship is very much like anoth-
quests— and that never returned. It had known the ships er, and the sea is always the same. In the immutability of
and the men. hey had sailed from Deptford, from Green- their surroundings the foreign shores, the foreign faces, the
wich, from Erith— the adventurers and the settlers; kings’ changing immensity of life, glide past, veiled not by a sense
ships and the ships of men on ‘Change; captains, admirals, of mystery but by a slightly disdainful ignorance; for there
the dark ‘interlopers’ of the Eastern trade, and the com- is nothing mysterious to a seaman unless it be the sea itself,
missioned ‘generals’ of East India leets. Hunters for gold which is the mistress of his existence and as inscrutable as

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Destiny. For the rest, ater his hours of work, a casual stroll a kind of ship about as rigid as a concertina— and going
or a casual spree on shore suices to unfold for him the se- up this river with stores, or orders, or what you like. Sand-
cret of a whole continent, and generally he inds the secret banks, marshes, forests, savages,—precious little to eat it
not worth knowing. he yarns of seamen have a direct sim- for a civilized man, nothing but hames water to drink. No
plicity, the whole meaning of which lies within the shell of Falernian wine here, no going ashore. Here and there a mil-
a cracked nut. But Marlow was not typical (if his propen- itary camp lost in a wilderness, like a needle in a bundle of
sity to spin yarns be excepted), and to him the meaning of hay—cold, fog, tempests, disease, exile, and death—death
an episode was not inside like a kernel but outside, envel- skulking in the air, in the water, in the bush. hey must have
oping the tale which brought it out only as a glow brings been dying like lies here. Oh, yes—he did it. Did it very
out a haze, in the likeness of one of these misty halos that well, too, no doubt, and without thinking much about it ei-
sometimes are made visible by the spectral illumination of ther, except aterwards to brag of what he had gone through
moonshine. in his time, perhaps. hey were men enough to face the
His remark did not seem at all surprising. It was just like darkness. And perhaps he was cheered by keeping his eye
Marlow. It was accepted in silence. No one took the trou- on a chance of promotion to the leet at Ravenna by and by,
ble to grunt even; and presently he said, very slow—‘I was if he had good friends in Rome and survived the awful cli-
thinking of very old times, when the Romans irst came mate. Or think of a decent young citizen in a toga—perhaps
here, nineteen hundred years ago—the other day…. Light too much dice, you know—coming out here in the train of
came out of this river since—you say Knights? Yes; but it some prefect, or tax-gatherer, or trader even, to mend his
is like a running blaze on a plain, like a lash of lightning fortunes. Land in a swamp, march through the woods, and
in the clouds. We live in the licker—may it last as long as in some inland post feel the savagery, the utter savagery,
the old earth keeps rolling! But darkness was here yesterday. had closed round him—all that mysterious life of the wil-
Imagine the feelings of a commander of a ine—what d’ye derness that stirs in the forest, in the jungles, in the hearts
call ‘em?—trireme in the Mediterranean, ordered suddenly of wild men. here’s no initiation either into such mysteries.
to the north; run overland across the Gauls in a hurry; put He has to live in the midst of the incomprehensible, which
in charge of one of these crat the legionaries—a wonderful is also detestable. And it has a fascination, too, that goes to
lot of handy men they must have been, too—used to build, work upon him. he fascination of the abomination—you
apparently by the hundred, in a month or two, if we may know, imagine the growing regrets, the longing to escape,
believe what we read. Imagine him here—the very end of the powerless disgust, the surrender, the hate.’
the world, a sea the colour of lead, a sky the colour of smoke, He paused.

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 ‘Mind,’ he began again, liting one arm from the elbow, hesitating voice, ‘I suppose you fellows remember I did once
the palm of the hand outwards, so that, with his legs folded turn fresh-water sailor for a bit,’ that we knew we were fated,
before him, he had the pose of a Buddha preaching in Euro- before the ebb began to run, to hear about one of Marlow’s
pean clothes and without a lotus-lower—‘Mind, none of us inconclusive experiences.
would feel exactly like this. What saves us is eiciency—the ‘I don’t want to bother you much with what happened to
devotion to eiciency. But these chaps were not much ac- me personally,’ he began, showing in this remark the weak-
count, really. hey were no colonists; their administration ness of many tellers of tales who seem so oten unaware of
was merely a squeeze, and nothing more, I suspect. hey what their audience would like best to hear; ‘yet to under-
were conquerors, and for that you want only brute force— stand the efect of it on me you ought to know how I got
nothing to boast of, when you have it, since your strength is out there, what I saw, how I went up that river to the place
just an accident arising from the weakness of others. hey where I irst met the poor chap. It was the farthest point
grabbed what they could get for the sake of what was to of navigation and the culminating point of my experience.
be got. It was just robbery with violence, aggravated mur- It seemed somehow to throw a kind of light on everything
der on a great scale, and men going at it blind—as is very about me— and into my thoughts. It was sombre enough,
proper for those who tackle a darkness. he conquest of the too—and pitiful— not extraordinary in any way—not very
earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those clear either. No, not very clear. And yet it seemed to throw
who have a diferent complexion or slightly latter noses a kind of light.
than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it ‘I had then, as you remember, just returned to London
too much. What redeems it is the idea only. An idea at the ater a lot of Indian Ocean, Paciic, China Seas—a regular
back of it; not a sentimental pretence but an idea; and an dose of the East—six years or so, and I was loaing about,
unselish belief in the idea—something you can set up, and hindering you fellows in your work and invading your
bow down before, and ofer a sacriice to. …’ homes, just as though I had got a heavenly mission to civi-
He broke of. Flames glided in the river, small green lize you. It was very ine for a time, but ater a bit I did get
lames, red lames, white lames, pursuing, overtaking, tired of resting. hen I began to look for a ship—I should
joining, crossing each other— then separating slowly or think the hardest work on earth. But the ships wouldn’t
hastily. he traic of the great city went on in the deepen- even look at me. And I got tired of that game, too.
ing night upon the sleepless river. We looked on, waiting ‘Now when I was a little chap I had a passion for maps. I
patiently—there was nothing else to do till the end of the would look for hours at South America, or Africa, or Aus-
lood; but it was only ater a long silence, when he said, in a tralia, and lose myself in all the glories of exploration. At

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 that time there were many blank spaces on the earth, and Continent, because it’s cheap and not so nasty as it looks,
when I saw one that looked particularly inviting on a map they say.
(but they all look that) I would put my inger on it and say, ‘I am sorry to own I began to worry them. his was al-
‘When I grow up I will go there.’ he North Pole was one of ready a fresh departure for me. I was not used to get things
these places, I remember. Well, I haven’t been there yet, and that way, you know. I always went my own road and on my
shall not try now. he glamour’s of. Other places were scat- own legs where I had a mind to go. I wouldn’t have believed
tered about the hemispheres. I have been in some of them, it of myself; but, then—you see—I felt somehow I must get
and … well, we won’t talk about that. But there was one there by hook or by crook. So I worried them. he men said
yet—the biggest, the most blank, so to speak— that I had a ‘My dear fellow,’ and did nothing. hen—would you believe
hankering ater. it?—I tried the women. I, Charlie Marlow, set the women
‘True, by this time it was not a blank space any more. It to work— to get a job. Heavens! Well, you see, the notion
had got illed since my boyhood with rivers and lakes and drove me. I had an aunt, a dear enthusiastic soul. She wrote:
names. It had ceased to be a blank space of delightful mys- ‘It will be delightful. I am ready to do anything, anything
tery— a white patch for a boy to dream gloriously over. It for you. It is a glorious idea. I know the wife of a very high
had become a place of darkness. But there was in it one riv- personage in the Administration, and also a man who has
er especially, a mighty big river, that you could see on the lots of inluence with,’ etc. She was determined to make no
map, resembling an immense snake uncoiled, with its head end of fuss to get me appointed skipper of a river steamboat,
in the sea, its body at rest curving afar over a vast country, if such was my fancy.
and its tail lost in the depths of the land. And as I looked at ‘I got my appointment—of course; and I got it very quick.
the map of it in a shop-window, it fascinated me as a snake It appears the Company had received news that one of their
would a bird—a silly little bird. hen I remembered there captains had been killed in a scule with the natives. his
was a big concern, a Company for trade on that river. Dash was my chance, and it made me the more anxious to go. It
it all! I thought to myself, they can’t trade without using was only months and months aterwards, when I made the
some kind of crat on that lot of fresh water—steamboats! attempt to recover what was let of the body, that I heard
Why shouldn’t I try to get charge of one? I went on along the original quarrel arose from a misunderstanding about
Fleet Street, but could not shake of the idea. he snake had some hens. Yes, two black hens. Fresleven—that was the fel-
charmed me. low’s name, a Dane—thought himself wronged somehow in
‘You understand it was a Continental concern, that the bargain, so he went ashore and started to hammer the
Trading society; but I have a lot of relations living on the chief of the village with a stick. Oh, it didn’t surprise me

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in the least to hear this, and at the same time to be told ‘I lew around like mad to get ready, and before forty-
that Fresleven was the gentlest, quietest creature that ever eight hours I was crossing the Channel to show myself to
walked on two legs. No doubt he was; but he had been a my employers, and sign the contract. In a very few hours
couple of years already out there engaged in the noble cause, I arrived in a city that always makes me think of a whited
you know, and he probably felt the need at last of asserting sepulchre. Prejudice no doubt. I had no diiculty in inding
his self-respect in some way. herefore he whacked the old the Company’s oices. It was the biggest thing in the town,
nigger mercilessly, while a big crowd of his people watched and everybody I met was full of it. hey were going to run
him, thunderstruck, till some man— I was told the chief’s an over-sea empire, and make no end of coin by trade.
son—in desperation at hearing the old chap yell, made a ‘A narrow and deserted street in deep shadow, high
tentative jab with a spear at the white man— and of course houses, innumerable windows with venetian blinds, a dead
it went quite easy between the shoulder-blades. hen the silence, grass sprouting right and let, immense double
whole population cleared into the forest, expecting all doors standing ponderously ajar. I slipped through one of
kinds of calamities to happen, while, on the other hand, these cracks, went up a swept and ungarnished staircase, as
the steamer Fresleven commanded let also in a bad pan- arid as a desert, and opened the irst door I came to. Two
ic, in charge of the engineer, I believe. Aterwards nobody women, one fat and the other slim, sat on straw-bottomed
seemed to trouble much about Fresleven’s remains, till I got chairs, knitting black wool. he slim one got up and walked
out and stepped into his shoes. I couldn’t let it rest, though; straight at me— still knitting with downcast eyes—and
but when an opportunity ofered at last to meet my prede- only just as I began to think of getting out of her way, as
cessor, the grass growing through his ribs was tall enough you would for a somnambulist, stood still, and looked up.
to hide his bones. hey were all there. he supernatural be- Her dress was as plain as an umbrella-cover, and she turned
ing had not been touched ater he fell. And the village was round without a word and preceded me into a waiting-room.
deserted, the huts gaped black, rotting, all askew within the I gave my name, and looked about. Deal table in the middle,
fallen enclosures. A calamity had come to it, sure enough. plain chairs all round the walls, on one end a large shining
he people had vanished. Mad terror had scattered them, map, marked with all the colours of a rainbow. here was
men, women, and children, through the bush, and they had a vast amount of red—good to see at any time, because one
never returned. What became of the hens I don’t know ei- knows that some real work is done in there, a deuce of a lot
ther. I should think the cause of progress got them, anyhow. of blue, a little green, smears of orange, and, on the East
However, through this glorious afair I got my appointment, Coast, a purple patch, to show where the jolly pioneers of
before I had fairly begun to hope for it. progress drink the jolly lager-beer. However, I wasn’t going

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into any of these. I was going into the yellow. Dead in the indiferent placidity of that look troubled me. Two youths
centre. And the river was there—fascinating—deadly—like with foolish and cheery countenances were being piloted
a snake. Ough! A door opened, ya white-haired secretarial over, and she threw at them the same quick glance of un-
head, but wearing a compassionate expression, appeared, concerned wisdom. She seemed to know all about them and
and a skinny foreinger beckoned me into the sanctuary. about me, too. An eerie feeling came over me. She seemed
Its light was dim, and a heavy writing-desk squatted in uncanny and fateful. Oten far away there I thought of these
the middle. From behind that structure came out an im- two, guarding the door of Darkness, knitting black wool as
pression of pale plumpness in a frock-coat. he great man for a warm pall, one introducing, introducing continuous-
himself. He was ive feet six, I should judge, and had his ly to the unknown, the other scrutinizing the cheery and
grip on the handle-end of ever so many millions. He shook foolish faces with unconcerned old eyes. AVE! Old knitter
hands, I fancy, murmured vaguely, was satisied with my of black wool. MORITURI TE SALUTANT. Not many of
French. BON VOYAGE. those she looked at ever saw her again—not half, by a long
‘In about forty-ive seconds I found myself again in the way.
waiting-room with the compassionate secretary, who, full ‘here was yet a visit to the doctor. ‘A simple formality,’
of desolation and sympathy, made me sign some document. assured me the secretary, with an air of taking an immense
I believe I undertook amongst other things not to disclose part in all my sorrows. Accordingly a young chap wearing
any trade secrets. Well, I am not going to. his hat over the let eyebrow, some clerk I suppose—there
‘I began to feel slightly uneasy. You know I am not used to must have been clerks in the business, though the house
such ceremonies, and there was something ominous in the was as still as a house in a city of the dead— came from
atmosphere. It was just as though I had been let into some somewhere up-stairs, and led me forth. He was shabby and
conspiracy— I don’t know—something not quite right; and careless, with inkstains on the sleeves of his jacket, and his
I was glad to get out. In the outer room the two women cravat was large and billowy, under a chin shaped like the
knitted black wool feverishly. People were arriving, and the toe of an old boot. It was a little too early for the doctor,
younger one was walking back and forth introducing them. so I proposed a drink, and thereupon he developed a vein
he old one sat on her chair. Her lat cloth slippers were of joviality. As we sat over our vermouths he gloriied the
propped up on a foot-warmer, and a cat reposed on her lap. Company’s business, and by and by I expressed casually
She wore a starched white afair on her head, had a wart on my surprise at him not going out there. He became very
one cheek, and silver-rimmed spectacles hung on the tip of cool and collected all at once. ‘I am not such a fool as I look,
her nose. She glanced at me above the glasses. he swit and quoth Plato to his disciples,’ he said sententiously, emptied

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 his glass with great resolution, and we rose. ‘If I were,’ said I, ‘I wouldn’t be talking like this with you.’
‘he old doctor felt my pulse, evidently thinking of some- ‘What you say is rather profound, and probably erroneous,’
thing else the while. ‘Good, good for there,’ he mumbled, he said, with a laugh. ‘Avoid irritation more than exposure
and then with a certain eagerness asked me whether I to the sun. Adieu. How do you English say, eh? Good-bye.
would let him measure my head. Rather surprised, I said Ah! Good-bye. Adieu. In the tropics one must before every-
Yes, when he produced a thing like calipers and got the thing keep calm.’ … He lited a warning foreinger…. ‘DU
dimensions back and front and every way, taking notes CALME, DU CALME. ADIEU.’
carefully. He was an unshaven little man in a threadbare ‘One thing more remained to do—say good-bye to my
coat like a gaberdine, with his feet in slippers, and I thought excellent aunt. I found her triumphant. I had a cup of tea—
him a harmless fool. ‘I always ask leave, in the interests of the last decent cup of tea for many days—and in a room
science, to measure the crania of those going out there,’ he that most soothingly looked just as you would expect a la-
said. ‘And when they come back, too?’ I asked. ‘Oh, I never dy’s drawing-room to look, we had a long quiet chat by the
see them,’ he remarked; ‘and, moreover, the changes take ireside. In the course of these conidences it became quite
place inside, you know.’ He smiled, as if at some quiet joke. plain to me I had been represented to the wife of the high
‘So you are going out there. Famous. Interesting, too.’ He dignitary, and goodness knows to how many more people
gave me a searching glance, and made another note. ‘Ever besides, as an exceptional and gited creature— a piece of
any madness in your family?’ he asked, in a matter-of-fact good fortune for the Company—a man you don’t get hold
tone. I felt very annoyed. ‘Is that question in the interests of every day. Good heavens! and I was going to take charge
of science, too?’ ‘It would be,’ he said, without taking no- of a two-penny-half-penny river-steamboat with a penny
tice of my irritation, ‘interesting for science to watch the whistle attached! It appeared, however, I was also one of the
mental changes of individuals, on the spot, but …’ ‘Are you Workers, with a capital— you know. Something like an em-
an alienist?’ I interrupted. ‘Every doctor should be—a little,’ issary of light, something like a lower sort of apostle. here
answered that original, imperturbably. ‘I have a little theo- had been a lot of such rot let loose in print and talk just
ry which you messieurs who go out there must help me to about that time, and the excellent woman, living right in
prove. his is my share in the advantages my country shall the rush of all that humbug, got carried of her feet. She
reap from the possession of such a magniicent dependency. talked about ‘weaning those ignorant millions from their
he mere wealth I leave to others. Pardon my questions, but horrid ways,’ till, upon my word, she made me quite un-
you are the irst Englishman coming under my observation comfortable. I ventured to hint that the Company was run
…’ I hastened to assure him I was not in the least typical. for proit.

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 ‘You forget, dear Charlie, that the labourer is worthy of with white surf, ran straight, like a ruled line, far, far away
his hire,’ she said, brightly. It’s queer how out of touch with along a blue sea whose glitter was blurred by a creeping
truth women are. hey live in a world of their own, and there mist. he sun was ierce, the land seemed to glisten and
has never been anything like it, and never can be. It is too drip with steam. Here and there greyish-whitish specks
beautiful altogether, and if they were to set it up it would go showed up clustered inside the white surf, with a lag lying
to pieces before the irst sunset. Some confounded fact we above them perhaps. Settlements some centuries old, and
men have been living contentedly with ever since the day of still no bigger than pinheads on the untouched expanse of
creation would start up and knock the whole thing over. their background. We pounded along, stopped, landed sol-
‘Ater this I got embraced, told to wear lannel, be sure diers; went on, landed custom-house clerks to levy toll in
to write oten, and so on—and I let. In the street—I don’t what looked like a God-forsaken wilderness, with a tin shed
know why—a queer feeling came to me that I was an im- and a lag-pole lost in it; landed more soldiers—to take care
poster. Odd thing that I, who used to clear out for any part of the custom-house clerks, presumably. Some, I heard, got
of the world at twenty-four hours’ notice, with less thought drowned in the surf; but whether they did or not, nobody
than most men give to the crossing of a street, had a mo- seemed particularly to care. hey were just lung out there,
ment—I won’t say of hesitation, but of startled pause, before and on we went. Every day the coast looked the same, as
this commonplace afair. he best way I can explain it to though we had not moved; but we passed various places—
you is by saying that, for a second or two, I felt as though, trading places—with names like Gran’ Bassam, Little Popo;
instead of going to the centre of a continent, I were about to names that seemed to belong to some sordid farce acted in
set of for the centre of the earth. front of a sinister back-cloth. he idleness of a passenger,
‘I let in a French steamer, and she called in every blamed my isolation amongst all these men with whom I had no
port they have out there, for, as far as I could see, the sole point of contact, the oily and languid sea, the uniform som-
purpose of landing soldiers and custom-house oicers. I breness of the coast, seemed to keep me away from the truth
watched the coast. Watching a coast as it slips by the ship of things, within the toil of a mournful and senseless delu-
is like thinking about an enigma. here it is before you— sion. he voice of the surf heard now and then was a positive
smiling, frowning, inviting, grand, mean, insipid, or savage, pleasure, like the speech of a brother. It was something nat-
and always mute with an air of whispering, ‘Come and ind ural, that had its reason, that had a meaning. Now and then
out.’ his one was almost featureless, as if still in the mak- a boat from the shore gave one a momentary contact with
ing, with an aspect of monotonous grimness. he edge of a reality. It was paddled by black fellows. You could see from
colossal jungle, so dark-green as to be almost black, fringed afar the white of their eyeballs glistening. hey shouted,

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sang; their bodies streamed with perspiration; they had fac- and earthy atmosphere as of an overheated catacomb; all
es like grotesque masks—these chaps; but they had bone, along the formless coast bordered by dangerous surf, as if
muscle, a wild vitality, an intense energy of movement, that Nature herself had tried to ward of intruders; in and out of
was as natural and true as the surf along their coast. hey rivers, streams of death in life, whose banks were rotting
wanted no excuse for being there. hey were a great com- into mud, whose waters, thickened into slime, invaded the
fort to look at. For a time I would feel I belonged still to contorted mangroves, that seemed to writhe at us in the ex-
a world of straightforward facts; but the feeling would not tremity of an impotent despair. Nowhere did we stop long
last long. Something would turn up to scare it away. Once, enough to get a particularized impression, but the general
I remember, we came upon a man-of-war anchored of the sense of vague and oppressive wonder grew upon me. It was
coast. here wasn’t even a shed there, and she was shell- like a weary pilgrimage amongst hints for nightmares.
ing the bush. It appears the French had one of their wars ‘It was upward of thirty days before I saw the mouth of
going on thereabouts. Her ensign dropped limp like a rag; the big river. We anchored of the seat of the government.
the muzzles of the long six-inch guns stuck out all over the But my work would not begin till some two hundred miles
low hull; the greasy, slimy swell swung her up lazily and let farther on. So as soon as I could I made a start for a place
her down, swaying her thin masts. In the empty immensity thirty miles higher up.
of earth, sky, and water, there she was, incomprehensible, ‘I had my passage on a little sea-going steamer. Her cap-
iring into a continent. Pop, would go one of the six-inch tain was a Swede, and knowing me for a seaman, invited me
guns; a small lame would dart and vanish, a little white on the bridge. He was a young man, lean, fair, and morose,
smoke would disappear, a tiny projectile would give a feeble with lanky hair and a shuling gait. As we let the miserable
screech—and nothing happened. Nothing could happen. little wharf, he tossed his head contemptuously at the shore.
here was a touch of insanity in the proceeding, a sense of ‘Been living there?’ he asked. I said, ‘Yes.’ ‘Fine lot these
lugubrious drollery in the sight; and it was not dissipated government chaps—are they not?’ he went on, speaking
by somebody on board assuring me earnestly there was a English with great precision and considerable bitterness. ‘It
camp of natives—he called them enemies!— hidden out of is funny what some people will do for a few francs a month.
sight somewhere. I wonder what becomes of that kind when it goes upcoun-
‘We gave her her letters (I heard the men in that lone- try?’ I said to him I expected to see that soon. ‘So-o-o!’ he
ly ship were dying of fever at the rate of three a day) and exclaimed. He shuled athwart, keeping one eye ahead vig-
went on. We called at some more places with farcical names, ilantly. ‘Don’t be too sure,’ he continued. ‘he other day I
where the merry dance of death and trade goes on in a still took up a man who hanged himself on the road. He was a

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Swede, too.’ ‘Hanged himself! Why, in God’s name?’ I cried. Six black men advanced in a ile, toiling up the path. hey
He kept on looking out watchfully. ‘Who knows? he sun walked erect and slow, balancing small baskets full of earth
too much for him, or the country perhaps.’ on their heads, and the clink kept time with their footsteps.
‘At last we opened a reach. A rocky clif appeared, mounds Black rags were wound round their loins, and the short ends
of turned-up earth by the shore, houses on a hill, others behind waggled to and fro like tails. I could see every rib,
with iron roofs, amongst a waste of excavations, or hang- the joints of their limbs were like knots in a rope; each had
ing to the declivity. A continuous noise of the rapids above an iron collar on his neck, and all were connected together
hovered over this scene of inhabited devastation. A lot of with a chain whose bights swung between them, rhythmi-
people, mostly black and naked, moved about like ants. A cally clinking. Another report from the clif made me think
jetty projected into the river. A blinding sunlight drowned suddenly of that ship of war I had seen iring into a conti-
all this at times in a sudden recrudescence of glare. ‘here’s nent. It was the same kind of ominous voice; but these men
your Company’s station,’ said the Swede, pointing to three could by no stretch of imagination be called enemies. hey
wooden barrack-like structures on the rocky slope. ‘I will were called criminals, and the outraged law, like the burst-
send your things up. Four boxes did you say? So. Farewell.’ ing shells, had come to them, an insoluble mystery from the
‘I came upon a boiler wallowing in the grass, then found sea. All their meagre breasts panted together, the violent-
a path leading up the hill. It turned aside for the boulders, ly dilated nostrils quivered, the eyes stared stonily uphill.
and also for an undersized railway-truck lying there on hey passed me within six inches, without a glance, with
its back with its wheels in the air. One was of. he thing that complete, deathlike indiference of unhappy savages.
looked as dead as the carcass of some animal. I came upon Behind this raw matter one of the reclaimed, the product
more pieces of decaying machinery, a stack of rusty rails. of the new forces at work, strolled despondently, carrying a
To the let a clump of trees made a shady spot, where dark rile by its middle. He had a uniform jacket with one button
things seemed to stir feebly. I blinked, the path was steep. of, and seeing a white man on the path, hoisted his weap-
A horn tooted to the right, and I saw the black people run. on to his shoulder with alacrity. his was simple prudence,
A heavy and dull detonation shook the ground, a puf of white men being so much alike at a distance that he could
smoke came out of the clif, and that was all. No change ap- not tell who I might be. He was speedily reassured, and
peared on the face of the rock. hey were building a railway. with a large, white, rascally grin, and a glance at his charge,
he clif was not in the way or anything; but this objectless seemed to take me into partnership in his exalted trust. Af-
blasting was all the work going on. ter all, I also was a part of the great cause of these high and
‘A slight clinking behind me made me turn my head. just proceedings.

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 ‘Instead of going up, I turned and descended to the let. of some Inferno. he rapids were near, and an uninterrupt-
My idea was to let that chain-gang get out of sight before ed, uniform, headlong, rushing noise illed the mournful
I climbed the hill. You know I am not particularly tender; stillness of the grove, where not a breath stirred, not a leaf
I’ve had to strike and to fend of. I’ve had to resist and to moved, with a mysterious sound—as though the tearing
attack sometimes—that’s only one way of resisting— with- pace of the launched earth had suddenly become audible.
out counting the exact cost, according to the demands of ‘Black shapes crouched, lay, sat between the trees leaning
such sort of life as I had blundered into. I’ve seen the devil against the trunks, clinging to the earth, half coming out,
of violence, and the devil of greed, and the devil of hot de- half efaced within the dim light, in all the attitudes of pain,
sire; but, by all the stars! these were strong, lusty, red-eyed abandonment, and despair. Another mine on the clif went
devils, that swayed and drove men—men, I tell you. But as of, followed by a slight shudder of the soil under my feet.
I stood on this hillside, I foresaw that in the blinding sun- he work was going on. he work! And this was the place
shine of that land I would become acquainted with a labby, where some of the helpers had withdrawn to die.
pretending, weak-eyed devil of a rapacious and pitiless folly. ‘hey were dying slowly—it was very clear. hey were not
How insidious he could be, too, I was only to ind out sever- enemies, they were not criminals, they were nothing earthly
al months later and a thousand miles farther. For a moment now— nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation,
I stood appalled, as though by a warning. Finally I descend- lying confusedly in the greenish gloom. Brought from all
ed the hill, obliquely, towards the trees I had seen. the recesses of the coast in all the legality of time contracts,
‘I avoided a vast artiicial hole somebody had been dig- lost in uncongenial surroundings, fed on unfamiliar food,
ging on the slope, the purpose of which I found it impossible they sickened, became ineicient, and were then allowed to
to divine. It wasn’t a quarry or a sandpit, anyhow. It was just crawl away and rest. hese moribund shapes were free as
a hole. It might have been connected with the philanthropic air—and nearly as thin. I began to distinguish the gleam of
desire of giving the criminals something to do. I don’t know. the eyes under the trees. hen, glancing down, I saw a face
hen I nearly fell into a very narrow ravine, almost no more near my hand. he black bones reclined at full length with
than a scar in the hillside. I discovered that a lot of import- one shoulder against the tree, and slowly the eyelids rose
ed drainage-pipes for the settlement had been tumbled in and the sunken eyes looked up at me, enormous and va-
there. here wasn’t one that was not broken. It was a wan- cant, a kind of blind, white licker in the depths of the orbs,
ton smash-up. At last I got under the trees. My purpose was which died out slowly. he man seemed young— almost
to stroll into the shade for a moment; but no sooner within a boy—but you know with them it’s hard to tell. I found
than it seemed to me I had stepped into the gloomy circle nothing else to do but to ofer him one of my good Swede’s

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ship’s biscuits I had in my pocket. he ingers closed slowly Company’s chief accountant, and that all the book-keeping
on it and held—there was no other movement and no other was done at this station. He had come out for a moment, he
glance. He had tied a bit of white worsted round his neck— said, ‘to get a breath of fresh air. he expression sounded
Why? Where did he get it? Was it a badge—an ornament—a wonderfully odd, with its suggestion of sedentary desk-life.
charm— a propitiatory act? Was there any idea at all con- I wouldn’t have mentioned the fellow to you at all, only it
nected with it? It looked startling round his black neck, this was from his lips that I irst heard the name of the man who
bit of white thread from beyond the seas. is so indissolubly connected with the memories of that time.
‘Near the same tree two more bundles of acute angles Moreover, I respected the fellow. Yes; I respected his col-
sat with their legs drawn up. One, with his chin propped lars, his vast cufs, his brushed hair. His appearance was
on his knees, stared at nothing, in an intolerable and ap- certainly that of a hairdresser’s dummy; but in the great de-
palling manner: his brother phantom rested its forehead, moralization of the land he kept up his appearance. hat’s
as if overcome with a great weariness; and all about oth- backbone. His starched collars and got-up shirt-fronts were
ers were scattered in every pose of contorted collapse, as in achievements of character. He had been out nearly three
some picture of a massacre or a pestilence. While I stood years; and, later, I could not help asking him how he man-
horror-struck, one of these creatures rose to his hands and aged to sport such linen. He had just the faintest blush, and
knees, and went of on all-fours towards the river to drink. said modestly, ‘I’ve been teaching one of the native women
He lapped out of his hand, then sat up in the sunlight, cross- about the station. It was diicult. She had a distaste for the
ing his shins in front of him, and ater a time let his woolly work.’ hus this man had verily accomplished something.
head fall on his breastbone. And he was devoted to his books, which were in apple-pie
‘I didn’t want any more loitering in the shade, and I made order.
haste towards the station. When near the buildings I met a ‘Everything else in the station was in a muddle—heads,
white man, in such an unexpected elegance of get-up that in things, buildings. Strings of dusty niggers with splay feet
the irst moment I took him for a sort of vision. I saw a high arrived and departed; a stream of manufactured goods,
starched collar, white cufs, a light alpaca jacket, snowy rubbishy cottons, beads, and brass-wire set into the depths
trousers, a clean necktie, and varnished boots. No hat. Hair of darkness, and in return came a precious trickle of ivory.
parted, brushed, oiled, under a green-lined parasol held in ‘I had to wait in the station for ten days—an eternity. I
a big white hand. He was amazing, and had a penholder be- lived in a hut in the yard, but to be out of the chaos I would
hind his ear. sometimes get into the accountant’s oice. It was built of
‘I shook hands with this miracle, and I learned he was the horizontal planks, and so badly put together that, as he bent

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over his high desk, he was barred from neck to heels with day…. He rose slowly. ‘What a frightful row,’ he said. He
narrow strips of sunlight. here was no need to open the big crossed the room gently to look at the sick man, and return-
shutter to see. It was hot there, too; big lies buzzed iendish- ing, said to me, ‘He does not hear.’ ‘What! Dead?’ I asked,
ly, and did not sting, but stabbed. I sat generally on the loor, startled. ‘No, not yet,’ he answered, with great composure.
while, of faultless appearance (and even slightly scented), hen, alluding with a toss of the head to the tumult in the
perching on a high stool, he wrote, he wrote. Sometimes he station-yard, ‘When one has got to make correct entries,
stood up for exercise. When a truckle-bed with a sick man one comes to hate those savages—hate them to the death.’
(some invalid agent from upcountry) was put in there, he He remained thoughtful for a moment. ‘When you see Mr.
exhibited a gentle annoyance. ‘he groans of this sick per- Kurtz’ he went on, ‘tell him from me that everything here’—
son,’ he said, ‘distract my attention. And without that it is he glanced at the deck—’ is very satisfactory. I don’t like
extremely diicult to guard against clerical errors in this to write to him—with those messengers of ours you nev-
climate.’ er know who may get hold of your letter—at that Central
‘One day he remarked, without liting his head, ‘In the Station.’ He stared at me for a moment with his mild, bulg-
interior you will no doubt meet Mr. Kurtz.’ On my asking ing eyes. ‘Oh, he will go far, very far,’ he began again. ‘He
who Mr. Kurtz was, he said he was a irst-class agent; and will be a somebody in the Administration before long. hey,
seeing my disappointment at this information, he added above—the Council in Europe, you know—mean him to
slowly, laying down his pen, ‘He is a very remarkable per- be.’
son.’ Further questions elicited from him that Mr. Kurtz ‘He turned to his work. he noise outside had ceased, and
was at present in charge of a trading-post, a very important presently in going out I stopped at the door. In the steady
one, in the true ivory-country, at ‘the very bottom of there. buzz of lies the homeward-bound agent was lying inished
Sends in as much ivory as all the others put together …’ He and insensible; the other, bent over his books, was making
began to write again. he sick man was too ill to groan. he correct entries of perfectly correct transactions; and ity
lies buzzed in a great peace. feet below the doorstep I could see the still tree-tops of the
‘Suddenly there was a growing murmur of voices and a grove of death.
great tramping of feet. A caravan had come in. A violent ‘Next day I let that station at last, with a caravan of sixty
babble of uncouth sounds burst out on the other side of the men, for a two-hundred-mile tramp.
planks. All the carriers were speaking together, and in the ‘No use telling you much about that. Paths, paths, every-
midst of the uproar the lamentable voice of the chief agent where; a stamped-in network of paths spreading over the
was heard ‘giving it up’ tearfully for the twentieth time that empty land, through the long grass, through burnt grass,

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through thickets, down and up chilly ravines, up and down habit of fainting on the hot hillsides, miles away from the
stony hills ablaze with heat; and a solitude, a solitude, no- least bit of shade and water. Annoying, you know, to hold
body, not a hut. he population had cleared out a long time your own coat like a parasol over a man’s head while he is
ago. Well, if a lot of mysterious niggers armed with all kinds coming to. I couldn’t help asking him once what he meant
of fearful weapons suddenly took to travelling on the road by coming there at all. ‘To make money, of course. What do
between Deal and Gravesend, catching the yokels right and you think?’ he said, scornfully. hen he got fever, and had to
let to carry heavy loads for them, I fancy every farm and be carried in a hammock slung under a pole. As he weighed
cottage thereabouts would get empty very soon. Only here sixteen stone I had no end of rows with the carriers. hey
the dwellings were gone, too. Still I passed through several jibbed, ran away, sneaked of with their loads in the night—
abandoned villages. here’s something pathetically childish quite a mutiny. So, one evening, I made a speech in English
in the ruins of grass walls. Day ater day, with the stamp and with gestures, not one of which was lost to the sixty pairs
shule of sixty pair of bare feet behind me, each pair under of eyes before me, and the next morning I started the ham-
a 60-lb. load. Camp, cook, sleep, strike camp, march. Now mock of in front all right. An hour aterwards I came upon
and then a carrier dead in harness, at rest in the long grass the whole concern wrecked in a bush—man, hammock,
near the path, with an empty water-gourd and his long staf groans, blankets, horrors. he heavy pole had skinned his
lying by his side. A great silence around and above. Perhaps poor nose. He was very anxious for me to kill somebody,
on some quiet night the tremor of far-of drums, sinking, but there wasn’t the shadow of a carrier near. I remembered
swelling, a tremor vast, faint; a sound weird, appealing, the old doctor—’It would be interesting for science to watch
suggestive, and wild—and perhaps with as profound a the mental changes of individuals, on the spot.’ I felt I was
meaning as the sound of bells in a Christian country. Once becoming scientiically interesting. However, all that is to
a white man in an unbuttoned uniform, camping on the no purpose. On the iteenth day I came in sight of the big
path with an armed escort of lank Zanzibaris, very hospi- river again, and hobbled into the Central Station. It was on
table and festive— not to say drunk. Was looking ater the a back water surrounded by scrub and forest, with a pretty
upkeep of the road, he declared. Can’t say I saw any road border of smelly mud on one side, and on the three others
or any upkeep, unless the body of a middle-aged negro, enclosed by a crazy fence of rushes. A neglected gap was all
with a bullet-hole in the forehead, upon which I absolute- the gate it had, and the irst glance at the place was enough
ly stumbled three miles farther on, may be considered as a to let you see the labby devil was running that show. White
permanent improvement. I had a white companion, too, not men with long staves in their hands appeared languidly
a bad chap, but rather too leshy and with the exasperating from amongst the buildings, strolling up to take a look at

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 me, and then retired out of sight somewhere. One of them, on one as trenchant and heavy as an axe. But even at these
a stout, excitable chap with black moustaches, informed times the rest of his person seemed to disclaim the intention.
me with great volubility and many digressions, as soon as Otherwise there was only an indeinable, faint expression
I told him who I was, that my steamer was at the bottom of of his lips, something stealthy— a smile—not a smile—I
the river. I was thunderstruck. What, how, why? Oh, it was remember it, but I can’t explain. It was unconscious, this
‘all right.’ he ‘manager himself’ was there. All quite cor- smile was, though just ater he had said something it got
rect. ‘Everybody had behaved splendidly! splendidly!’—’you intensiied for an instant. It came at the end of his speeches
must,’ he said in agitation, ‘go and see the general manager like a seal applied on the words to make the meaning of
at once. He is waiting!’ the commonest phrase appear absolutely inscrutable. He
‘I did not see the real signiicance of that wreck at once. was a common trader, from his youth up employed in these
I fancy I see it now, but I am not sure—not at all. Certainly parts—nothing more. He was obeyed, yet he inspired nei-
the afair was too stupid—when I think of it— to be alto- ther love nor fear, nor even respect. He inspired uneasiness.
gether natural. Still … But at the moment it presented itself hat was it! Uneasiness. Not a deinite mistrust—just uneas-
simply as a confounded nuisance. he steamer was sunk. iness—nothing more. You have no idea how efective such a
hey had started two days before in a sudden hurry up the … a. … faculty can be. He had no genius for organizing, for
river with the manager on board, in charge of some volun- initiative, or for order even. hat was evident in such things
teer skipper, and before they had been out three hours they as the deplorable state of the station. He had no learning,
tore the bottom out of her on stones, and she sank near the and no intelligence. His position had come to him—why?
south bank. I asked myself what I was to do there, now my Perhaps because he was never ill … He had served three
boat was lost. As a matter of fact, I had plenty to do in ish- terms of three years out there … Because triumphant health
ing my command out of the river. I had to set about it the in the general rout of constitutions is a kind of power in
very next day. hat, and the repairs when I brought the piec- itself. When he went home on leave he rioted on a large
es to the station, took some months. scale—pompously. Jack ashore—with a diference— in ex-
‘My irst interview with the manager was curious. He ternals only. his one could gather from his casual talk. He
did not ask me to sit down ater my twenty-mile walk that originated nothing, he could keep the routine going—that’s
morning. He was commonplace in complexion, in features, all. But he was great. He was great by this little thing that
in manners, and in voice. He was of middle size and of it was impossible to tell what could control such a man.
ordinary build. His eyes, of the usual blue, were perhaps re- He never gave that secret away. Perhaps there was nothing
markably cold, and he certainly could make his glance fall within him. Such a suspicion made one pause—for out there

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 there were no external checks. Once when various tropical best agent he had, an exceptional man, of the greatest im-
diseases had laid low almost every ‘agent’ in the station, he portance to the Company; therefore I could understand his
was heard to say, ‘Men who come out here should have no anxiety. He was, he said, ‘very, very uneasy.’ Certainly he
entrails.’ He sealed the utterance with that smile of his, as idgeted on his chair a good deal, exclaimed, ‘Ah, Mr. Kurtz!’
though it had been a door opening into a darkness he had broke the stick of sealing-wax and seemed dumfounded by
in his keeping. You fancied you had seen things—but the the accident. Next thing he wanted to know ‘how long it
seal was on. When annoyed at meal-times by the constant would take to’ … I interrupted him again. Being hungry,
quarrels of the white men about precedence, he ordered an you know, and kept on my feet too. I was getting savage.
immense round table to be made, for which a special house ‘How can I tell?’ I said. ‘I haven’t even seen the wreck yet—
had to be built. his was the station’s mess-room. Where some months, no doubt.’ All this talk seemed to me so futile.
he sat was the irst place—the rest were nowhere. One felt ‘Some months,’ he said. ‘Well, let us say three months before
this to be his unalterable conviction. He was neither civil we can make a start. Yes. hat ought to do the afair.’ I lung
nor uncivil. He was quiet. He allowed his ‘boy’—an overfed out of his hut (he lived all alone in a clay hut with a sort of
young negro from the coast—to treat the white men, under verandah) muttering to myself my opinion of him. He was
his very eyes, with provoking insolence. a chattering idiot. Aterwards I took it back when it was
‘He began to speak as soon as he saw me. I had been very borne in upon me startlingly with what extreme nicety he
long on the road. He could not wait. Had to start without had estimated the time requisite for the ‘afair.’
me. he up-river stations had to be relieved. here had been ‘I went to work the next day, turning, so to speak, my
so many delays already that he did not know who was dead back on that station. In that way only it seemed to me
and who was alive, and how they got on—and so on, and so I could keep my hold on the redeeming facts of life. Still,
on. He paid no attention to my explanations, and, playing one must look about sometimes; and then I saw this station,
with a stick of sealing-wax, repeated several times that the these men strolling aimlessly about in the sunshine of the
situation was ‘very grave, very grave.’ here were rumours yard. I asked myself sometimes what it all meant. hey wan-
that a very important station was in jeopardy, and its chief, dered here and there with their absurd long staves in their
Mr. Kurtz, was ill. Hoped it was not true. Mr. Kurtz was … hands, like a lot of faithless pilgrims bewitched inside a rot-
I felt weary and irritable. Hang Kurtz, I thought. I inter- ten fence. he word ‘ivory’ rang in the air, was whispered,
rupted him by saying I had heard of Mr. Kurtz on the coast. was sighed. You would think they were praying to it. A taint
‘Ah! So they talk of him down there,’ he murmured to him- of imbecile rapacity blew through it all, like a whif from
self. hen he began again, assuring me Mr. Kurtz was the some corpse. By Jove! I’ve never seen anything so unreal in

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my life. And outside, the silent wilderness surrounding this advantage of this unfortunate accident.’ One of the men
cleared speck on the earth struck me as something great was the manager. I wished him a good evening. ‘Did you
and invincible, like evil or truth, waiting patiently for the ever see anything like it— eh? it is incredible,’ he said, and
passing away of this fantastic invasion. walked of. he other man remained. He was a irst-class
‘Oh, these months! Well, never mind. Various things agent, young, gentlemanly, a bit reserved, with a forked lit-
yhappened. One evening a grass shed full of calico, cot- tle beard and a hooked nose. He was stand-oish with the
ton prints, beads, and I don’t know what else, burst into a other agents, and they on their side said he was the manag-
blaze so suddenly that you would have thought the earth er’s spy upon them. As to me, I had hardly ever spoken to
had opened to let an avenging ire consume all that trash. him before. We got into talk, and by and by we strolled away
I was smoking my pipe quietly by my dismantled steamer, from the hissing ruins. hen he asked me to his room, which
and saw them all cutting capers in the light, with their arms was in the main building of the station. He struck a match,
lited high, when the stout man with moustaches came tear- and I perceived that this young aristocrat had not only a
ing down to the river, a tin pail in his hand, assured me that silver-mounted dressing-case but also a whole candle all to
everybody was ‘behaving splendidly, splendidly,’ dipped himself. Just at that time the manager was the only man
about a quart of water and tore back again. I noticed there supposed to have any right to candles. Native mats covered
was a hole in the bottom of his pail. the clay walls; a collection of spears, assegais, shields, knives
‘I strolled up. here was no hurry. You see the thing had was hung up in trophies. he business intrusted to this fel-
gone of like a box of matches. It had been hopeless from low was the making of bricks— so I had been informed; but
the very irst. he lame had leaped high, driven everybody there wasn’t a fragment of a brick anywhere in the station,
back, lighted up everything— and collapsed. he shed was and he had been there more than a year—waiting. It seems
already a heap of embers glowing iercely. A nigger was be- he could not make bricks without something, I don’t know
ing beaten near by. hey said he had caused the ire in some what—straw maybe. Anyway, it could not be found there
way; be that as it may, he was screeching most horribly. I saw and as it was not likely to be sent from Europe, it did not
him, later, for several days, sitting in a bit of shade looking appear clear to me what he was waiting for. An act of spe-
very sick and trying to recover himself; aterwards he arose cial creation perhaps. However, they were all waiting— all
and went out— and the wilderness without a sound took the sixteen or twenty pilgrims of them—for something; and
him into its bosom again. As I approached the glow from upon my word it did not seem an uncongenial occupation,
the dark I found myself at the back of two men, talking. I from the way they took it, though the only thing that ever
heard the name of Kurtz pronounced, then the words, ‘take came to them was disease— as far as I could see. hey be-

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guiled the time by back-biting and intriguing against each me for a perfectly shameless prevaricator. At last he got an-
other in a foolish kind of way. here was an air of plotting gry, and, to conceal a movement of furious annoyance, he
about that station, but nothing came of it, of course. It was yawned. I rose. hen I noticed a small sketch in oils, on a
as unreal as everything else—as the philanthropic pretence panel, representing a woman, draped and blindfolded, car-
of the whole concern, as their talk, as their government, as rying a lighted torch. he background was sombre—almost
their show of work. he only real feeling was a desire to get black. he movement of the woman was stately, and the ef-
appointed to a trading-post where ivory was to be had, so fect of the torchlight on the face was sinister.
that they could earn percentages. hey intrigued and slan- ‘It arrested me, and he stood by civilly, holding an emp-
dered and hated each other only on that account— but as to ty half-pint champagne bottle (medical comforts) with the
efectually liting a little inger—oh, no. By heavens! there is candle stuck in it. To my question he said Mr. Kurtz had
something ater all in the world allowing one man to steal a painted this—in this very station more than a year ago—
horse while another must not look at a halter. Steal a horse while waiting for means to go to his trading post. ‘Tell me,
straight out. Very well. He has done it. Perhaps he can ride. pray,’ said I, ‘who is this Mr. Kurtz?’
But there is a way of looking at a halter that would provoke ‘he chief of the Inner Station,’ he answered in a short
the most charitable of saints into a kick. tone, looking away. ‘Much obliged,’ I said, laughing. ‘And
‘I had no idea why he wanted to be sociable, but as we you are the brickmaker of the Central Station. Every one
chatted in there it suddenly occurred to me the fellow was knows that.’ He was silent for a while. ‘He is a prodigy,’
trying to get at something— in fact, pumping me. He al- he said at last. ‘He is an emissary of pity and science and
luded constantly to Europe, to the people I was supposed progress, and devil knows what else. We want,’ he began to
to know there—putting leading questions as to my ac- declaim suddenly, ‘for the guidance of the cause intrusted
quaintances in the sepulchral city, and so on. His little eyes to us by Europe, so to speak, higher intelligence, wide sym-
glittered like mica discs— with curiosity—though he tried pathies, a singleness of purpose.’ ‘Who says that?’ I asked.
to keep up a bit of superciliousness. At irst I was aston- ‘Lots of them,’ he replied. ‘Some even write that; and so HE
ished, but very soon I became awfully curious to see what comes here, a special being, as you ought to know.’ ‘Why
he would ind out from me. I couldn’t possibly imagine ought I to know?’ I interrupted, really surprised. He paid no
what I had in me to make it worth his while. It was very attention. ‘Yes. Today he is chief of the best station, next year
pretty to see how he baled himself, for in truth my body he will be assistant-manager, two years more and … but I
was full only of chills, and my head had nothing in it but dare-say you know what he will be in two years’ time. You
that wretched steamboat business. It was evident he took are of the new gang—the gang of virtue. he same people

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who sent him specially also recommended you. Oh, don’t concealed life. he hurt nigger moaned feebly somewhere
say no. I’ve my own eyes to trust.’ Light dawned upon me. near by, and then fetched a deep sigh that made me mend
My dear aunt’s inluential acquaintances were producing my pace away from there. I felt a hand introducing itself
an unexpected efect upon that young man. I nearly burst under my arm. ‘My dear sir,’ said the fellow, ‘I don’t want to
into a laugh. ‘Do you read the Company’s conidential cor- be misunderstood, and especially by you, who will see Mr.
respondence?’ I asked. He hadn’t a word to say. It was great Kurtz long before I can have that pleasure. I wouldn’t like
fun. ‘When Mr. Kurtz,’ I continued, severely, ‘is General him to get a false idea of my disposition….’
Manager, you won’t have the opportunity.’ ‘I let him run on, this papier-mache Mephistopheles, and
‘He blew the candle out suddenly, and we went outside. it seemed to me that if I tried I could poke my foreinger
he moon had risen. Black igures strolled about listlessly, through him, and would ind nothing inside but a little
pouring water on the glow, whence proceeded a sound of loose dirt, maybe. He, don’t you see, had been planning to
hissing; steam ascended in the moonlight, the beaten nig- be assistant-manager by and by under the present man, and
ger groaned somewhere. ‘What a row the brute makes!’ said I could see that the coming of that Kurtz had upset them
the indefatigable man with the moustaches, appearing near both not a little. He talked precipitately, and I did not try
us. ‘Serve him right. Transgression—punishment—bang! to stop him. I had my shoulders against the wreck of my
Pitiless, pitiless. hat’s the only way. his will prevent all steamer, hauled up on the slope like a carcass of some big
conlagrations for the future. I was just telling the manager river animal. he smell of mud, of primeval mud, by Jove!
…’ He noticed my companion, and became crestfallen all at was in my nostrils, the high stillness of primeval forest was
once. ‘Not in bed yet,’ he said, with a kind of servile hearti- before my eyes; there were shiny patches on the black creek.
ness; ‘it’s so natural. Ha! Danger—agitation.’ He vanished. I he moon had spread over everything a thin layer of sil-
went on to the riverside, and the other followed me. I heard ver— over the rank grass, over the mud, upon the wall of
a scathing murmur at my ear, ‘Heap of mufs—go to.’ he matted vegetation standing higher than the wall of a temple,
pilgrims could be seen in knots gesticulating, discussing. over the great river I could see through a sombre gap glit-
Several had still their staves in their hands. I verily believe tering, glittering, as it lowed broadly by without a murmur.
they took these sticks to bed with them. Beyond the fence All this was great, expectant, mute, while the man jabbered
the forest stood up spectrally in the moonlight, and through about himself. I wondered whether the stillness on the face
that dim stir, through the faint sounds of that lamentable of the immensity looking at us two were meant as an ap-
courtyard, the silence of the land went home to one’s very peal or as a menace. What were we who had strayed in here?
heart—its mystery, its greatness, the amazing reality of its Could we handle that dumb thing, or would it handle us?

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I felt how big, how confoundedly big, was that thing that It seems to me I am trying to tell you ya dream—making a
couldn’t talk, and perhaps was deaf as well. What was in vain attempt, because no relation of a dream can convey the
there? I could see a little ivory coming out from there, and I dream-sensation, that commingling of absurdity, surprise,
had heard Mr. Kurtz was in there. I had heard enough about and bewilderment in a tremor of struggling revolt, that no-
it, too— God knows! Yet somehow it didn’t bring any im- tion of being captured by the incredible which is of the very
age with it— no more than if I had been told an angel or essence of dreams….’
a iend was in there. I believed it in the same way one of He was silent for a while.
you might believe there are inhabitants in the planet Mars. ‘… No, it is impossible; it is impossible to convey the life-
I knew once a Scotch sailmaker who was certain, dead sure, sensation of any given epoch of one’s existence—that which
there were people in Mars. If you asked him for some idea makes its truth, its meaning—its subtle and penetrating es-
how they looked and behaved, he would get shy and mut- sence. It is impossible. We live, as we dream—alone. …’
ter something about ‘walking on all-fours.’ If you as much He paused again as if relecting, then added:
as smiled, he would—though a man of sixty— ofer to ight ‘Of course in this you fellows see more than I could then.
you. I would not have gone so far as to ight for Kurtz, but I You see me, whom you know. …’
went for him near enough to a lie. You know I hate, detest, It had become so pitch dark that we listeners could hard-
and can’t bear a lie, not because I am straighter than the ly see one another. For a long time already he, sitting apart,
rest of us, but simply because it appalls me. here is a taint had been no more to us than a voice. here was not a word
of death, a lavour of mortality in lies— which is exactly from anybody. he others might have been asleep, but I was
what I hate and detest in the world— what I want to forget. awake. I listened, I listened on the watch for the sentence,
It makes me miserable and sick, like biting something rot- for the word, that would give me the clue to the faint uneasi-
ten would do. Temperament, I suppose. Well, I went near ness inspired by this narrative that seemed to shape itself
enough to it by letting the young fool there believe any- without human lips in the heavy night-air of the river.
thing he liked to imagine as to my inluence in Europe. I ‘… Yes—I let him run on,’ Marlow began again, ‘and
became in an instant as much of a pretence as the rest of the think what he pleased about the powers that were behind
bewitched pilgrims. his simply because I had a notion it me. I did! And there was nothing behind me! here was
somehow would be of help to that Kurtz whom at the time nothing but that wretched, old, mangled steamboat I was
I did not see—you understand. He was just a word for me. I leaning against, while he talked luently about ‘the neces-
did not see the man in the name any more than you do. Do sity for every man to get on.’ ‘And when one comes out here,
you see him? Do you see the story? Do you see anything? you conceive, it is not to gaze at the moon.’ Mr. Kurtz was

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a ‘universal genius,’ but even a genius would ind it easi- known it. Now letters went to the coast every week. … ‘My
er to work with ‘adequate tools—intelligent men.’ He did dear sir,’ he cried, ‘I write from dictation.’ I demanded riv-
not make bricks—why, there was a physical impossibility ets. here was a way—for an intelligent man. He changed
in the way—as I was well aware; and if he did secretarial his manner; became very cold, and suddenly began to talk
work for the manager, it was because ‘no sensible man re- about a hippopotamus; wondered whether sleeping on
jects wantonly the conidence of his superiors.’ Did I see it? board the steamer (I stuck to my salvage night and day) I
I saw it. What more did I want? What I really wanted was wasn’t disturbed. here was an old hippo that had the bad
rivets, by heaven! Rivets. To get on with the work—to stop habit of getting out on the bank and roaming at night over
the hole. Rivets I wanted. here were cases of them down the station grounds. he pilgrims used to turn out in a body
at the coast— cases—piled up—burst—split! You kicked a and empty every rile they could lay hands on at him. Some
loose rivet at every second step in that station-yard on the even had sat up o’ nights for him. All this energy was wast-
hillside. Rivets had rolled into the grove of death. You could ed, though. ‘hat animal has a charmed life,’ he said; ‘but
ill your pockets with rivets for the trouble of stooping you can say this only of brutes in this country. No man—
down— and there wasn’t one rivet to be found where it was you apprehend me?—no man here bears a charmed life.’ He
wanted. We had plates that would do, but nothing to fas- stood there for a moment in the moonlight with his delicate
ten them with. And every week the messenger, a long negro, hooked nose set a little askew, and his mica eyes glittering
letter-bag on shoulder and staf in hand, let our station for without a wink, then, with a curt Good-night, he strode
the coast. And several times a week a coast caravan came of. I could see he was disturbed and considerably puzzled,
in with trade goods—ghastly glazed calico that made you which made me feel more hopeful than I had been for days.
shudder only to look at it, glass beads value about a penny It was a great comfort to turn from that chap to my inluen-
a quart, confounded spotted cotton handkerchiefs. And no tial friend, the battered, twisted, ruined, tin-pot steamboat.
rivets. hree carriers could have brought all that was want- I clambered on board. She rang under my feet like an empty
ed to set that steamboat aloat. Huntley & Palmer biscuit-tin kicked along a gutter; she was
‘He was becoming conidential now, but I fancy my unre- nothing so solid in make, and rather less pretty in shape,
sponsive attitude must have exasperated him at last, for he but I had expended enough hard work on her to make me
judged it necessary to inform me he feared neither God nor love her. No inluential friend would have served me bet-
devil, let alone any mere man. I said I could see that very ter. She had given me a chance to come out a bit—to ind
well, but what I wanted was a certain quantity of rivets— out what I could do. No, I don’t like work. I had rather laze
and rivets were what really Mr. Kurtz wanted, if he had only about and think of all the ine things that can be done. I

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don’t like work—no man does—but I like what is in the as though he couldn’t believe his ears. hen in a low voice,
work— the chance to ind yourself. Your own reality—for ‘You … eh?’ I don’t know why we behaved like lunatics. I put
yourself, not for others—what no other man can ever know. my inger to the side of my nose and nodded mysteriously.
hey can only see the mere show, and never can tell what it ‘Good for you!’ he cried, snapped his ingers above his head,
really means. liting one foot. I tried a jig. We capered on the iron deck. A
‘I was not surprised to see somebody sitting at, on the frightful clatter came out of that hulk, and the virgin forest
deck, with his legs dangling over the mud. You see I rather on the other bank of the creek sent it back in a thundering
chummed with the few mechanics there were in that station, roll upon the sleeping station. It must have made some of
whom the other pilgrims naturally despised—on account the pilgrims sit up in their hovels. A dark igure obscured
of their imperfect manners, I suppose. his was the fore- the lighted doorway of the manager’s hut, vanished, then,
man—a boiler-maker by trade—a good worker. He was a a second or so ater, the doorway itself vanished, too. We
lank, bony, yellow-faced man, with big intense eyes. His as- stopped, and the silence driven away by the stamping of our
pect was worried, and his head was as bald as the palm of feet lowed back again from the recesses of the land. he
my hand; but his hair in falling seemed to have stuck to his great wall of vegetation, an exuberant and entangled mass
chin, and had prospered in the new locality, for his beard of trunks, branches, leaves, boughs, festoons, motionless in
hung down to his waist. He was a widower with six young the moonlight, was like a rioting invasion of soundless life,
children (he had let them in charge of a sister of his to come a rolling wave of plants, piled up, crested, ready to topple
out there), and the passion of his life was pigeon-lying. He over the creek, to sweep every little man of us out of his lit-
was an enthusiast and a connoisseur. He would rave about tle existence. And it moved not. A deadened burst of mighty
pigeons. Ater work hours he used sometimes to come over splashes and snorts reached us from afar, as though an ic-
from his hut for a talk about his children and his pigeons; at thyosaurus had been taking a bath of glitter in the great
work, when he had to crawl in the mud under the bottom of river. ‘Ater all,’ said the boiler-maker in a reasonable tone,
the steamboat, he would tie up that beard of his in a kind of ‘why shouldn’t we get the rivets?’ Why not, indeed! I did
white serviette he brought for the purpose. It had loops to not know of any reason why we shouldn’t. ‘hey’ll come in
go over his ears. In the evening he could be seen squatted on three weeks,’ I said conidently.
the bank rinsing that wrapper in the creek with great care, ‘But they didn’t. Instead of rivets there came an inva-
then spreading it solemnly on a bush to dry. sion, an inliction, a visitation. It came in sections during
‘I slapped him on the back and shouted, ‘We shall have the next three weeks, each section headed by a donkey car-
rivets!’ He scrambled to his feet exclaiming, ‘No! Rivets!’ rying a white man in new clothes and tan shoes, bowing

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from that elevation right and let to the impressed pilgrims. day long with their heads close together in an everlasting
A quarrelsome band of footsore sulky niggers trod on the confab.
heels of the donkey; a lot of tents, camp-stools, tin boxes, ‘I had given up worrying myself about the rivets. One’s
white cases, brown bales would be shot down in the court- capacity for that kind of folly is more limited than you
yard, and the air of mystery would deepen a little over the would suppose. I said Hang!—and let things slide. I had
muddle of the station. Five such instalments came, with plenty of time for meditation, and now and then I would
their absurd air of disorderly light with the loot of innu- give some thought to Kurtz. I wasn’t very interested in him.
merable outit shops and provision stores, that, one would No. Still, I was curious to see whether this man, who had
think, they were lugging, ater a raid, into the wilderness come out equipped with moral ideas of some sort, would
for equitable division. It was an inextricable mess of things climb to the top ater all and how he would set about his
decent in themselves but that human folly made look like work when there.’
the spoils of thieving.
‘his devoted band called itself the Eldorado Exploring
Expedition, and I believe they were sworn to secrecy. heir
talk, however, was the talk of sordid buccaneers: it ywas
reckless without hardihood, greedy without audacity, and
cruel without courage; there was not an atom of foresight
or of serious intention in the whole batch of them, and they
did not seem aware these things are wanted for the work of
the world. To tear treasure out of the bowels of the land was
their desire, with no more moral purpose at the back of it
than there is in burglars breaking into a safe. Who paid the
expenses of the noble enterprise I don’t know; but the uncle
of our manager was leader of that lot.
‘In exterior he resembled a butcher in a poor neighbour-
hood, and his eyes had a look of sleepy cunning. He carried
his fat paunch with ostentation on his short legs, and dur-
ing the time his gang infested the station spoke to no one
but his nephew. You could see these two roaming about all

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 have the kind of men you can dispose of with me.’ It was
II more than a year ago. Can you imagine such impudence!’
‘Anything since then?’ asked the other hoarsely. ‘Ivory,’
jerked the nephew; ‘lots of it—prime sort—lots—most an-
noying, from him.’ ‘And with that?’ questioned the heavy

‘O ne evening as I was lying lat on the deck of my steam-

boat, I heard voices approaching—and there were the
nephew and the uncle strolling along the bank. I laid my
rumble. ‘Invoice,’ was the reply ired out, so to speak. hen
silence. hey had been talking about Kurtz.
‘I was broad awake by this time, but, lying perfectly at
head on my arm again, and had nearly lost myself in a doze, ease, remained still, having no inducement to change my
when somebody said in my ear, as it were: ‘I am as harmless position. ‘How did that ivory come all this way?’ growled
as a little child, but I don’t like to be dictated to. Am I the the elder man, who seemed very vexed. he other explained
manager—or am I not? I was ordered to send him there. It’s that it had come with a leet of canoes in charge of an Eng-
incredible.’ … I became aware that the two were standing lish half-caste clerk Kurtz had with him; that Kurtz had
on the shore alongside the forepart of the steamboat, just apparently intended to return himself, the station being by
below my head. I did not move; it did not occur to me to that time bare of goods and stores, but ater coming three
move: I was sleepy. ‘It IS unpleasant,’ grunted the uncle. ‘He hundred miles, had suddenly decided to go back, which he
has asked the Administration to be sent there,’ said the oth- started to do alone in a small dugout with four paddlers,
er, ‘with the idea of showing what he could do; and I was leaving the half-caste to continue down the river with the
instructed accordingly. Look at the inluence that man must ivory. he two fellows there seemed astounded at anybody
have. Is it not frightful?’ hey both agreed it was frightful, attempting such a thing. hey were at a loss for an adequate
then made several bizarre remarks: ‘Make rain and ine motive. As to me, I seemed to see Kurtz for the irst time. It
weather—one man—the Council—by the nose’— bits of was a distinct glimpse: the dugout, four paddling savages,
absurd sentences that got the better of my drowsiness, so and the lone white man turning his back suddenly on the
that I had pretty near the whole of my wits about me when headquarters, yon relief, on thoughts of home—perhaps; set-
the uncle said, ‘he climate may do away with this diiculty ting his face towards the depths of the wilderness, towards
for you. Is he alone there?’ ‘Yes,’ answered the manager; ‘he his empty and desolate station. I did not know the motive.
sent his assistant down the river with a note to me in these Perhaps he was just simply a ine fellow who stuck to his
terms: ‘Clear this poor devil out of the country, and don’t work for its own sake. His name, you understand, had not
bother sending more of that sort. I had rather be alone than been pronounced once. He was ‘that man.’ he half-caste,

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who, as far as I could see, had conducted a diicult trip with he got choked by excessive indignation, and I lited my head
great prudence and pluck, was invariably alluded to as ‘that the least bit. I was surprised to see how near they were—
scoundrel.’ he ‘scoundrel’ had reported that the ‘man’ had right under me. I could have spat upon their hats. hey were
been very ill—had recovered imperfectly…. he two below looking on the ground, absorbed in thought. he manager
me moved away then a few paces, and strolled back and was switching his leg with a slender twig: his sagacious rela-
forth at some little distance. I heard: ‘Military post—doc- tive lited his head. ‘You have been well since you came out
tor—two hundred miles—quite alone now— unavoidable this time?’ he asked. he other gave a start. ‘Who? I? Oh!
delays—nine months—no news—strange rumours.’ hey Like a charm—like a charm. But the rest—oh, my goodness!
approached again, just as the manager was saying, ‘No one, All sick. hey die so quick, too, that I haven’t the time to
as far as I know, unless a species of wandering trader— a send them out of the country— it’s incredible!’ ‘Hm’m. Just
pestilential fellow, snapping ivory from the natives.’ Who so,’ grunted the uncle. ‘Ah! my boy, trust to this—I say, trust
was it they were talking about now? I gathered in snatches to this.’ I saw him extend his short lipper of an arm for a
that this was some man supposed to be in Kurtz’s district, gesture that took in the forest, the creek, the mud, the riv-
and of whom the manager did not approve. ‘We will not er— seemed to beckon with a dishonouring lourish before
be free from unfair competition till one of these fellows is the sunlit face of the land a treacherous appeal to the lurk-
hanged for an example,’ he said. ‘Certainly,’ grunted the ing death, to the hidden evil, to the profound darkness of its
other; ‘get him hanged! Why not? Anything—anything can heart. It was so startling that I leaped to my feet and looked
be done in this country. hat’s what I say; nobody here, you back at the edge of the forest, as though I had expected an
understand, HERE, can endanger your position. And why? answer of some sort to that black display of conidence. You
You stand the climate—you outlast them all. he danger know the foolish notions that come to one sometimes. he
is in Europe; but there before I let I took care to—’ hey high stillness confronted these two igures with its omi-
moved of and whispered, then their voices rose again. ‘he nous patience, waiting for the passing away of a fantastic
extraordinary series of delays is not my fault. I did my best.’ invasion.
he fat man sighed. ‘Very sad.’ ‘And the pestiferous absurdi- ‘hey swore aloud together—out of sheer fright, I
ty of his talk,’ continued the other; ‘he bothered me enough believe—then pretending not to know anything of my ex-
when he was here. ‘Each station should be like a beacon on istence, turned back to the station. he sun was low; and
the road towards better things, a centre for trade of course, leaning forward side by side, they seemed to be tugging
but also for humanizing, improving, instructing.’ Conceive painfully uphill their two ridiculous shadows of unequal
you—that ass! And he wants to be manager! No, it’s—’ Here length, that trailed behind them slowly over the tall grass

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without bending a single blade. alities of this strange world of plants, and water, and silence.
‘In a few days the Eldorado Expedition went into the pa- And this stillness of life did not in the least resemble a peace.
tient wilderness, that closed upon it as the sea closes over a It was the stillness of an implacable force brooding over an
diver. Long aterwards the news came that all the donkeys inscrutable intention. It looked at you with a vengeful as-
were dead. I know nothing as to the fate of the less valu- pect. I got used to it aterwards; I did not see it any more; I
able animals. hey, no doubt, like the rest of us, found what had no time. I had to keep guessing at the channel; I had to
they deserved. I did not inquire. I was then rather excited at discern, mostly by inspiration, the signs of hidden banks; I
the prospect of meeting Kurtz very soon. When I say very watched for sunken stones; I was learning to clap my teeth
soon I mean it comparatively. It was just two months from smartly before my heart lew out, when I shaved by a luke
the day we let the creek when we came to the bank below some infernal sly old snag that would have ripped the life
Kurtz’s station. out of the tin-pot steamboat and drowned all the pilgrims;
‘Going up that river was like traveling back to the earli- I had to keep a lookout for the signs of dead wood we could
est beginnings of the world, when vegetation rioted on the cut up in the night for next day’s steaming. When you have
earth and the big trees were kings. An empty stream, a great to attend to things of that sort, to the mere incidents of the
silence, an impenetrable forest. he air was warm, thick, surface, the reality—the reality, I tell you—fades. he inner
heavy, sluggish. here was no joy in the brilliance of sun- truth is hidden—luckily, luckily. But I felt it all the same; I
shine. he long stretches of the waterway ran on, deserted, felt oten its mysterious stillness watching me at my mon-
into the gloom of overshadowed distances. On silvery sand- key tricks, just as it watches you fellows performing on your
banks hippos and alligators sunned themselves side by side. respective tight-ropes for—what is it? half-a-crown a tum-
he broadening waters lowed through a mob of wooded ble—‘
islands; you lost your way on that river as you would in a ‘Try to be civil, Marlow,’ growled a voice, and I knew
desert, and butted all day long against shoals, trying to ind there was at least one listener awake besides myself.
the channel, till you thought yourself bewitched and cut ‘I beg your pardon. I forgot the heartache which makes
of for ever from everything you had known once—some- up the rest of the price. And indeed what does the price
where—far away—in another existence perhaps. here were matter, if the trick be well done? You do your tricks very
moments when one’s past came back to one, as it will some- well. And I didn’t do badly either, since I managed not to
times when you have not a moment to spare for yourself; sink that steamboat on my irst trip. It’s a wonder to me
but it came in the shape of an unrestful and noisy dream, yet. Imagine a blindfolded man set to drive a van over a
remembered with wonder amongst the overwhelming re- bad road. I sweated and shivered over that business con-

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siderably, I can tell you. Ater all, for a seaman, to scrape loor of a loty portico. It made you feel very small, very lost,
the bottom of the thing that’s supposed to loat all the time and yet it was not altogether depressing, that feeling. Ater
under his care is the unpardonable sin. No one may know all, if you were small, the grimy beetle crawled on—which
of it, but you never forget the thump—eh? A blow on the was just what you wanted it to do. Where the pilgrims imag-
very heart. You remember it, you dream of it, you wake up ined it crawled to I don’t know. To some place where they
at night and think of it—years ater—and go hot and cold expected to get something. I bet! For me it crawled towards
all over. I don’t pretend to say that steamboat loated all the Kurtz—exclusively; but when the steam-pipes started leak-
time. More than once she had to wade for a bit, with twenty ing we crawled very slow. he reaches opened before us and
cannibals splashing around and pushing. We had enlisted closed behind, as if the forest had stepped leisurely across
some of these chaps on the way for a crew. Fine fellows— the water to bar the way for our return. We penetrated deep-
cannibals—in their place. hey were men one could work er and deeper into the heart of darkness. It was very quiet
with, and I am grateful to them. And, ater all, they did there. At night sometimes the roll of drums behind the cur-
not eat each other before my face: they had brought along a tain of trees would run up the river and remain sustained
provision of hippo-meat which went rotten, and made the faintly, as if hovering in the air high over our heads, till the
mystery of the wilderness stink in my nostrils. Phoo! I can irst break of day. Whether it meant war, peace, or prayer we
snif it now. I had the manager on board and three or four could not tell. he dawns were heralded by the descent of a
pilgrims with their staves— all complete. Sometimes we chill stillness; the wood-cutters slept, their ires burned low;
came upon a station close by the bank, clinging to the skirts the snapping of a twig would make you start. Were were
of the unknown, and the white men rushing out of a tum- wanderers on a prehistoric earth, on an earth that wore
ble-down hovel, with great gestures of joy and surprise and the aspect of an unknown planet. We could have fancied
welcome, seemed very strange— had the appearance of be- ourselves the irst of men taking possession of an accursed
ing held there captive by a spell. he word ivory would ring inheritance, to be subdued at the cost of profound anguish
in the air for a while—and on we went again into the silence, and of excessive toil. But suddenly, as we struggled round
along empty reaches, round the still bends, between the high a bend, there would be a glimpse of rush walls, of peaked
walls of our winding way, reverberating in hollow claps the grass-roofs, a burst of yells, a whirl of black limbs, a mass of
ponderous beat of the stern-wheel. Trees, trees, millions hands clapping. of feet stamping, of bodies swaying, of eyes
of trees, massive, immense, running up high; and at their rolling, under the droop of heavy and motionless foliage.
foot, hugging the bank against the stream, crept the little he steamer toiled along slowly on the edge of a black and
begrimed steamboat, like a sluggish beetle crawling on the incomprehensible frenzy. he prehistoric man was cursing

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us, praying to us, welcoming us—who could tell? We were these on the shore. He must meet that truth with his own
cut of from the comprehension of our surroundings; we true stuf— with his own inborn strength. Principles won’t
glided past like phantoms, wondering and secretly appalled, do. Acquisitions, clothes, pretty rags—rags that would ly
as sane men would be before an enthusiastic outbreak in a of at the irst good shake. No; you want a deliberate be-
madhouse. We could not understand because we were too lief. An appeal to me in this iendish row—is there? Very
far and could not remember because we were travelling in well; I hear; I admit, but I have a voice, too, and for good or
the night of irst ages, of those ages that are gone, leaving evil mine is the speech that cannot be silenced. Of course,
hardly a sign— and no memories. a fool, what with sheer fright and ine sentiments, is always
‘he earth seemed unearthly. We are accustomed to look safe. Who’s that grunting? You wonder I didn’t go ashore
upon the shackled form of a conquered monster, but there— for a howl and a dance? Well, no—I didn’t. Fine sentiments,
there you could look at a thing monstrous and free. It was you say? Fine sentiments, be hanged! I had no time. I had
unearthly, and the men were—No, they were not inhuman. to mess about with white-lead and strips of woolen blan-
Well, you know, that was the worst of it—this suspicion of ket helping to put bandages on those leaky steam-pipes—I
their not being inhuman. It would come slowly to one. hey tell you. I had to watch the steering, and circumvent those
howled and leaped, and spun, and made horrid faces; but snags, and get the tin-pot along by hook or by crook. here
what thrilled you was just the thought of their humanity— was surface-truth enough in these things to save a wiser
like yours—the thought of your remote kinship with this man. And between whiles I had to look ater the savage who
wild and passionate uproar. Ugly. Yes, it was ugly enough; was ireman. He was an improved specimen; he could ire
but if you were man enough you would admit to yourself up a vertical boiler. He was there below me, and, upon my
that there ywas in you just the faintest trace of a response to word, to look at him was as edifying as seeing a dog in a par-
the terrible frankness of that noise, a dim suspicion of there ody of breeches and a feather hat, walking on his hind-legs.
being a meaning in it which you—you so remote from the A few months of training had done for that really ine chap.
night of irst ages—could comprehend. And why not? he He squinted at the steam-gauge and at the water-gauge with
mind of man is capable of anything—because everything an evident efort of intrepidity—and he had iled teeth, too,
is in it, all the past as well as all the future. What was there the poor devil, and the wool of his pate shaved into queer
ater all? Joy, fear, sorrow, devotion, valour, rage—who can patterns, and three ornamental scars on each of his cheeks.
tell?— but truth—truth stripped of its cloak of time. Let the He ought to have been clapping his hands and stamping his
fool gape and shudder—the man knows, and can look on feet on the bank, instead of which he was hard at work, a
without a wink. But he must at least be as much of a man as thrall to strange witchcrat, full of improving knowledge.

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He was useful because he had been instructed; and what he not let us look very far, either. A torn curtain of red twill
knew was this—that should the water in that transparent hung in the doorway of the hut, and lapped sadly in our
thing disappear, the evil spirit inside the boiler would get faces. he dwelling was dismantled; but we could see a white
angry through the greatness of his thirst, and take a ter- man had lived there not very long ago. here remained a
rible vengeance. So he sweated and ired up and watched rude table—a plank on two posts; a heap of rubbish reposed
the glass fearfully (with an impromptu charm, made of in a dark corner, and by the door I picked up a book. It had
rags, tied to his arm, and a piece of polished bone, as big lost its covers, and the pages had been thumbed into a state
as a watch, stuck latways through his lower lip), while the of extremely dirty sotness; but the back had been lovingly
wooded banks slipped past us slowly, the short noise was stitched afresh with white cotton thread, which looked clean
let behind, the interminable miles of silence—and we crept yet. It was an extraordinary ind. Its title was, AN INQUI-
on, towards Kurtz. But the snags were thick, the water was RY INTO SOME POINTS OF SEAMANSHIP, by a man
treacherous and shallow, the boiler seemed indeed to have a Towser, Towson—some such name—Master in his Majes-
sulky devil in it, and thus neither that ireman nor I had any ty’s Navy. he matter looked dreary reading enough, with
time to peer into our creepy thoughts. illustrative diagrams and repulsive tables of igures, and the
‘Some ity miles below the Inner Station we came upon copy was sixty years old. I handled this amazing antiquity
a hut of reeds, an inclined and melancholy pole, with the with the greatest possible tenderness, lest it should dissolve
unrecognizable tatters of what had been a lag of some sort in my hands. Within, Towson or Towser was inquiring ear-
lying from it, and a neatly stacked wood-pile. his was un- nestly into the breaking strain of ships’ chains and tackle,
expected. We came to the bank, and on the stack of irewood and other such matters. Not a very enthralling book; but
found a lat piece of board with some faded pencil-writing at the irst glance you could see there a singleness of inten-
on it. When deciphered it said: ‘Wood for you. Hurry up. tion, an honest concern for the right way of going to work,
Approach cautiously.’ here was a signature, but it was illeg- which made these humble pages, thought out so many years
ible—not Kurtz—a much longer word. ‘Hurry up.’ Where? ago, luminous with another than a professional light. he
Up the river? ‘Approach cautiously.’ We had not done so. simple old sailor, with his talk of chains and purchases,
But the warning could not have been meant for the place made me forget the jungle and the pilgrims in a delicious
where it could be only found ater approach. Something was sensation of having come upon something unmistakably
wrong above. But what—and how much? hat was the ques- real. Such a book being there was wonderful enough; but
tion. We commented adversely upon the imbecility of that still more astounding were the notes pencilled in the mar-
telegraphic style. he bush around said nothing, and would gin, and plainly referring to the text. I couldn’t believe my

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eyes! hey were in cipher! Yes, it looked like cipher. Fancy a come to any conclusion it occurred to me that my speech
man lugging with him a book of that description into this or my silence, indeed any action of mine, would be a mere
nowhere and studying it—and making notes—in cipher at futility. What did it matter what any one knew or ignored?
that! It was an extravagant mystery. What did it matter who was manager? One gets sometimes
‘I had been dimly aware for some time of a worrying noise, such a lash of insight. he essentials of this afair lay deep
and when I lited my eyes I saw the wood-pile was gone, and under the surface, beyond my reach, and beyond my power
the manager, aided by all the pilgrims, was shouting at me of meddling.
from the riverside. I slipped the book into my pocket. I as- ‘Towards the evening of the second day we judged our-
sure you to leave of reading was like tearing myself away selves about eight miles from Kurtz’s station. I wanted to
from the shelter of an old and solid friendship. push on; but the manager looked grave, and told me the
‘I started the lame engine ahead. ‘It must be this miser- navigation up there was so dangerous that it would be ad-
able trader-this intruder,’ exclaimed the manager, looking visable, the sun being very low already, to wait where we
back malevolently at the place we had let. ‘He must be Eng- were till next morning. Moreover, he pointed out that if the
lish,’ I said. ‘It will not save him from getting into trouble if warning to approach cautiously were to be followed, we
he is not careful,’ muttered the manager darkly. I observed must approach in daylight— not at dusk or in the dark. his
with assumed innocence that no man was safe from trouble was sensible enough. Eight miles meant nearly three hours’
in this world. steaming for us, and I could also see suspicious ripples at
‘he current was more rapid now, the steamer seemed the upper end of the reach. Nevertheless, I was annoyed be-
at her last gasp, the stern-wheel lopped languidly, and I yond expression at the delay, and most unreasonably, too,
caught myself listening on tiptoe for the next beat of the since one night more could not matter much ater so many
boat, for in sober truth I expected the wretched thing to months. As we had plenty of wood, and caution was the
give up every moment. It was like watching the last lickers word, I brought up in the middle of the stream. he reach
of a life. But still we crawled. Sometimes I would pick out was narrow, straight, with high sides like a railway cutting.
a tree a little way ahead to measure our progress towards he dusk came gliding into it long before the sun had set.
Kurtz by, but I lost it invariably before we got abreast. To he current ran smooth and swit, but a dumb immobility
keep the eyes so long on one thing was too much for human sat on the banks. he living trees, lashed together by the
patience. he manager displayed a beautiful resignation. I creepers and every living bush of the undergrowth, might
fretted and fumed and took to arguing with myself whether have been changed into stone, even to the slenderest twig,
or no I would talk openly with Kurtz; but before I could to the lightest leaf. It was not sleep—it seemed unnatural,

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like a state of trance. Not the faintest sound of any kind dy hair and red whiskers, who wore sidespring boots, and
could be heard. You looked on amazed, and began to sus- pink pyjamas tucked into his socks. Two others remained
pect yourself of being deaf— then the night came suddenly, open-mouthed a while minute, then dashed into the little
and struck you blind as well. About three in the morning cabin, to rush out incontinently and stand darting scared
some large ish leaped, and the loud splash made me jump glances, with Winchesters at ‘ready’ in their hands. What
as though a gun had been ired. When the sun rose there we could see was just the steamer we were on, her outlines
was a white fog, very warm and clammy, and more blind- blurred as though she had been on the point of dissolving,
ing than the night. It did not shit or drive; it was just there, and a misty strip of water, perhaps two feet broad, around
standing all round you like something solid. At eight or her— and that was all. he rest of the world was nowhere,
nine, perhaps, it lited as a shutter lits. We had a glimpse as far as our eyes and ears were concerned. Just nowhere.
of the towering multitude of trees, of the immense mat- Gone, disappeared; swept of without leaving a whisper or
ted jungle, with the blazing little ball of the sun hanging a shadow behind.
over it—all perfectly still—and then the white shutter came ‘I went forward, and ordered the chain to be hauled in
down again, smoothly, as if sliding in greased grooves. I short, so as to be ready to trip the anchor and move the
ordered the chain, which we had begun to heave in, to be steamboat at once if necessary. ‘Will they attack?’ whis-
paid out again. Before it stopped running with a muled pered an awed voice. ‘We will be all butchered in this fog,’
rattle, a cry, a very loud cry, as of ininite desolation, soared murmured another. he faces twitched with the strain, the
slowly in the opaque air. It ceased. A complaining clamour, hands trembled slightly, the eyes forgot to wink. It was very
modulated in savage discords, illed our ears. he sheer un- curious to see the contrast of expressions of the white men
expectedness of it made my hair stir under my cap. I don’t and of the black fellows of our crew, who were as much
know how it struck the others: to me it seemed as though strangers to that part of the river as we, though their homes
the mist itself had screamed, so suddenly, and apparently were only eight hundred miles away. he whites, of course
from all sides at once, did this tumultuous and mournful greatly discomposed, had besides a curious look of being
uproar arise. It culminated in a hurried outbreak of al- painfully shocked by such an outrageous row. he oth-
most intolerably excessive shrieking, which stopped short, ers had an alert, naturally interested expression; but their
leaving us stifened in a variety of silly attitudes, and ob- faces were essentially quiet, even those of the one or two
stinately listening to the nearly as appalling and excessive who grinned as they hauled at the chain. Several exchanged
silence. ‘Good God! What is the meaning—’ stammered at short, grunting phrases, which seemed to settle the matter
my elbow one of the pilgrims— a little fat man, with san- to their satisfaction. heir headman, a young, broad-chest-

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 ed black, severely draped in dark-blue fringed cloths, with buy their provisions with that currency in riverside villages.
ierce nostrils and his hair all done up artfully in oily ring- You can see how THAT worked. here were either no vil-
lets, stood near me. ‘Aha!’ I said, just for good fellowship’s lages, or the people were hostile, or the director, who like
sake. ‘Catch ‘im,’ he snapped, with a bloodshot widening of the rest of us fed out of tins, with an occasional old he-goat
his eyes and a lash of sharp teeth—’catch ‘im. Give ‘im to thrown in, didn’t want to stop the steamer for some more
us.’ ‘To you, eh?’ I asked; ‘what would you do with them?’ or less recondite reason. So, unless they swallowed the wire
‘Eat ‘im!’ he said curtly, and, leaning his elbow on the rail, itself, or made loops of it to snare the ishes with, I don’t
looked out into the fog in a digniied and profoundly pen- see what good their extravagant salary could be to them. I
sive attitude. I would no doubt have been properly horriied, must say it was paid with a regularity worthy of a large and
had it not occurred to me that he and his chaps must be honourable trading company. For the rest, the only thing to
very hungry: that they must have been growing increasingly eat—though it didn’t look eatable in the least—I saw in their
hungry for at least this month past. hey had been engaged possession was a few lumps of some stuf like half-cooked
for six months (I don’t think a single one of them had any dough, of a dirty lavender colour, they kept wrapped in
clear idea of time, as we at the end of countless ages have. leaves, and now and then swallowed a piece of, but so small
hey still belonged to the beginnings of time—had no in- that it seemed done more for the looks of the thing than for
herited experience to teach them as it were), and of course, any serious purpose of sustenance. Why in the name of all
as long as there was a piece of paper written over in accor- the gnawing devils of hunger they didn’t go for us—they
dance with some farcical law or other made down the river, were thirty to ive—and have a good tuck-in for once, amaz-
it didn’t enter anybody’s head to trouble how they would es me now when I think of it. hey were big powerful men,
live. Certainly they had brought with them some rotten with not much capacity to weigh the consequences, with
hippo-meat, which couldn’t have lasted very long, anyway, courage, with strength, even yet, though their skins were no
even if the pilgrims hadn’t, in the midst of a shocking hul- longer glossy and their muscles no longer hard. And I saw
labaloo, thrown a considerable quantity of it overboard. that something restraining, one of those human secrets that
It looked like a high-handed proceeding; but it was real- bale probability, had come into play there. I looked at them
ly a case of legitimate self-defence. You can’t breathe dead with a swit quickening of interest— not because it occurred
hippo waking, sleeping, and eating, and at the same time to me I might be eaten by them before very long, though I
keep your precarious grip on existence. Besides that, they own to you that just then I perceived— in a new light, as it
had given them every week three pieces of brass wire, each were—how unwholesome the pilgrims looked, and I hoped,
about nine inches long; and the theory was they were to yes, I positively hoped, that my aspect was not so— what

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shall I say?—so—unappetizing: a touch of fantastic vanity age clamour that had swept by us on the river-bank, behind
which itted well with the dream-sensation that pervaded the blind whiteness of the fog.
all my days at that time. Perhaps I had a little fever, too. One ‘Two pilgrims were quarrelling in hurried whispers as to
can’t live with one’s inger everlastingly on one’s pulse. I had which bank. ‘Let.’ ‘no, no; how can you? Right, right, of
oten ‘a little fever,’ or a little touch of other things— the course.’ ‘It is very serious,’ said the manager’s voice behind
playful paw-strokes of the wilderness, the preliminary tri- me; ‘I would be desolated if anything should happen to Mr.
ling before the more serious onslaught which came in due Kurtz before we came up.’ I looked at him, and had not the
course. Yes; I looked at them as you would on any human slightest doubt he was sincere. He was just the kind of man
being, with a curiosity of their impulses, motives, capaci- who would wish to preserve appearances. hat was his re-
ties, weaknesses, when brought to the test of an inexorable straint. But when he muttered something about going on
physical necessity. Restraint! What possible restraint? Was at once, I did not even take the trouble to answer him. I
it superstition, disgust, patience, fear—or some kind of knew, and he knew, that it was impossible. Were we to let go
primitive honour? No fear can stand up to hunger, no pa- our hold of the bottom, we would be absolutely in the air—
tience can wear it out, disgust simply does not exist where in space. We wouldn’t be able to tell where we were going
hunger is; and as to superstition, beliefs, and what you may to—whether up or down stream, or across—till we fetched
call principles, they are less than chaf in a breeze. Don’t against one bank or the other—and then we wouldn’t know
you know the devilry of lingering starvation, its exasperat- at irst which it was. Of course I made no move. I had no
ing torment, its black thoughts, its sombre and brooding mind for a smash-up. You couldn’t imagine a more deadly
ferocity? Well, I do. It takes a man all his inborn strength to place for a shipwreck. Whether we drowned at once or not,
ight hunger properly. It’s really easier to face bereavement, we were sure to perish speedily in one way or another. ‘I
dishonour, and the perdition of one’s soul—than this kind authorize you to take all the risks,’ he said, ater a short si-
of prolonged hunger. Sad, but true. And these chaps, too, lence. ‘I refuse to take any,’ I said shortly; which was just the
had no earthly reason for any kind of scruple. Restraint! answer he expected, though its tone might have surprised
I would just as soon have expected restraint from a hyena him. ‘Well, I must defer to your judgment. You are captain,’
prowling amongst the corpses of a battleield. But there was he said with marked civility. I turned my shoulder to him
the fact facing me—the fact dazzling, to be seen, like the in sign of my appreciation, and looked into the fog. How
foam on the depths of the sea, like a ripple on an unfathom- long would it last? It was the most hopeless lookout. he
able enigma, a mystery greater—when I thought of it— than approach to this Kurtz grubbing for ivory in the wretched
the curious, inexplicable note of desperate grief in this sav- bush was beset by as many dangers as though he had been

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an enchanted princess sleeping in a fabulous castle. ‘Will buried miles deep in a heap of cotton-wool. It felt like it,
they attack, do you think?’ asked the manager, in a coni- too—choking, warm, stiling. Besides, all I said, though it
dential tone. sounded extravagant, was absolutely true to fact. What we
‘I did not think they would attack, for several obvious aterwards alluded to as an attack was really an attempt at
reasons. he thick fog was one. If they let the bank in their repulse. he action was very far from being aggressive—it
canoes they would get lost in it, as we would be if we attempt- was not even defensive, in the usual sense: it was under-
ed to move. Still, I had also judged the jungle of both banks taken under the stress of desperation, and in its essence was
quite impenetrable— and yet eyes were in it, eyes that had purely protective.
seen us. he riverside bushes were certainly very thick; but ‘It developed itself, I should say, two hours ater the fog
the undergrowth behind was evidently penetrable. Howev- lited, and its commencement was at a spot, roughly speak-
er, during the short lit I had seen no canoes anywhere in ing, about a mile and a half below Kurtz’s station. We had
the reach—certainly not abreast of the steamer. But what just loundered and lopped round a bend, when I saw an
made the idea of attack inconceivable to me was the nature islet, a mere grassy hummock of bright green, in the middle
of the noise—of the cries we had heard. hey had not the of the stream. It was the ony thing of the kind; but as we
ierce character boding immediate hostile intention. Unex- opened the reach more, I perceived it was the head of a long
pected, wild, and violent as they had been, they had given sand-bank, or rather of a chain of shallow patches stretch-
me an irresistible impression of sorrow. he glimpse of the ing down the middle of the river. hey were discoloured,
steamboat had for some reason illed those savages with un- just awash, and the whole lot was seen just under the wa-
restrained grief. he danger, if any, I expounded, was from ter, exactly as a man’s backbone is seen running down the
our proximity to a great human passion let loose. Even ex- middle of his back under the skin. Now, as far as I did see, I
treme grief may ultimately vent itself in violence—but more could go to the right or to the let of this. I didn’t know ei-
generally takes the form of apathy…. ther channel, of course. he banks looked pretty well alike,
‘You should have seen the pilgrims stare! hey had no the depth appeared the same; but as I had been informed
heart to grin, or even to revile me: but I believe they thought the station was on the west side, I naturally headed for the
me gone mad— with fright, maybe. I delivered a regu- western passage.
lar lecture. My dear boys, it was no good bothering. Keep ‘No sooner had we fairly entered it than I became aware
a lookout? Well, you may guess I watched the fog for the it was much narrower than I had supposed. To the let of
signs of liting as a cat watches a mouse; but for anything us there was the long uninterrupted shoal, and to the right
else our eyes were of no more use to us than if we had been a high, steep bank heavily overgrown with bushes. Above

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the bush the trees stood in serried ranks. he twigs over- he lost sight of you, he became instantly the prey of an ab-
hung the current thickly, and from distance to distance a ject funk, and would let that cripple of a steamboat get the
large limb of some tree projected rigidly over the stream. It upper hand of him in a minute.
was then well on in the aternoon, the face of the forest was ‘I was looking down at the sounding-pole, and feeling
gloomy, and a broad strip of shadow had already fallen on much annoyed to see at each try a little more of it stick out
the water. In this shadow we steamed up—very slowly, as of that river, when I saw my poleman give up on the busi-
you may imagine. I sheered her well inshore—the water be- ness suddenly, and stretch himself lat on the deck, without
ing deepest near the bank, as the sounding-pole informed even taking the trouble to haul his pole in. He kept hold on
me. it though, and it trailed in the water. At the same time the
‘One of my hungry and forbearing friends was sounding ireman, whom I could also see below me, sat down abruptly
in the bows just below me. his steamboat was exactly like before his furnace and ducked his head. I was amazed. hen
a decked scow. On the deck, there were two little teakwood I had to look at the river mighty quick, because there was a
houses, with doors and windows. he boiler was in the fore- snag in the fairway. Sticks, little sticks, were lying about—
end, and the machinery right astern. yOver the whole there thick: they were whizzing before my nose, dropping below
was a light roof, supported on stanchions. he funnel pro- me, striking behind me against my pilot-house. All this
jected through that roof, and in front of the funnel a small time the river, the shore, the woods, were very quiet— per-
cabin built of light planks served for a pilot-house. It con- fectly quiet. I could only hear the heavy splashing thump of
tained a couch, two camp-stools, a loaded Martini-Henry the stern-wheel and the patter of these things. We cleared
leaning in one corner, a tiny table, and the steering-wheel. the snag clumsily. Arrows, by Jove! We were being shot at!
It had a wide door in front and a broad shutter at each side. I stepped in quickly to close the shutter on the landside.
All these were always thrown open, of course. I spent my hat fool-helmsman, his hands on the spokes, was liting
days perched up there on the extreme fore-end of that roof, his knees high, stamping his feet, champing his mouth, like
before the door. At night I slept, or tried to, on the couch. a reined-in horse. Confound him! And we were staggering
An athletic black belonging to some coast tribe and educat- within ten feet of the bank. I had to lean right out to swing
ed by my poor predecessor, was the helmsman. He sported the heavy shutter, and I saw a face amongst the leaves on the
a pair of brass earrings, wore a blue cloth wrapper from the level with my own, looking at me very ierce and steady; and
waist to the ankles, and thought all the world of himself. then suddenly, as though a veil had been removed from my
He was the most unstable kind of fool I had ever seen. He eyes, I made out, deep in the tangled gloom, naked breasts,
steered with no end of a swagger while you were by; but if arms, legs, glaring eyes— the bush was swarming with hu-

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man limbs in movement, glistening. of bronze colour. he into the bank, where I knew the water was deep.
twigs shook, swayed, and rustled, the arrows lew out of ‘We tore slowly along the overhanging bushes in a whirl
them, and then the shutter came to. ‘Steer her straight,’ I of broken twigs and lying leaves. he fusillade below
said to the helmsman. He held his head rigid, face forward; stopped short, as I had foreseen it would when the squirts
but his eyes rolled, he kept on liting and setting down his got empty. I threw my head back to a glinting whizz that
feet gently, his mouth foamed a little. ‘Keep quiet!’ I said in traversed the pilot-house, in at one shutter-hole and out
a fury. I might just as well have ordered a tree not to sway at the other. Looking past that mad helmsman, who was
in the wind. I darted out. Below me there was a great scuf- shaking the empty rile and yelling at the shore, I saw vague
le of feet on the iron deck; confused exclamations; a voice forms of men running bent double, leaping, gliding, dis-
screamed, ‘Can you turn back?’ I caught sight of a V-shaped tinct, incomplete, evanescent. Something big appeared in
ripple on the water ahead. What? Another snag! A fusil- the air before the shutter, the rile went overboard, and the
lade burst out under my feet. he pilgrims had opened with man stepped back switly, looked at me over his shoulder
their Winchesters, and were simply squirting lead into that in an extraordinary, profound, familiar manner, and fell
bush. A deuce of a lot of smoke came up and drove slowly upon my feet. he side of his head hit the wheel twice, and
forward. I swore at it. Now I couldn’t see the ripple or the the end of what appeared a long cane clattered round and
snag either. I stood in the doorway, peering, and the arrows knocked over a little camp-stool. It looked as though ater
came in swarms. hey might have been poisoned, but they wrenching that thing from somebody ashore he had lost his
looked as though they wouldn’t kill a cat. he bush began balance in the efort. he thin smoke had blown away, we
to howl. Our wood-cutters raised a warlike whoop; the re- were clear of the snag, and looking ahead I could see that
port of a rile just at my back deafened me. I glanced over in another hundred yards or so I would be free to sheer of,
my shoulder, and the pilot-house was yet full of noise and away from the bank; but my feet felt so very warm and wet
smoke when I made a dash at the wheel. he fool-nigger that I had to look down. he man had rolled on his back and
had dropped everything, to throw the shutter open and let stared straight up at me; both his hands clutched that cane.
of that Martini-Henry. He stood before the wide opening, It was the shat of a spear that, either thrown or lunged
glaring, and I yelled at him to come back, while I straight- through the opening, had caught him in the side, just below
ened the sudden twist out of that steamboat. here was no the ribs; the blade had gone in out of sight, ater making a
room to turn even if I had wanted to, the snag was some- frightful gash; my shoes were full; a pool of blood lay very
where very near ahead in that confounded smoke, there was still, gleaming dark-red under the wheel; his eyes shone
no time to lose, so I just crowded her into the bank— right with an amazing lustre. he fusillade burst out again. He

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looked at me anxiously, gripping the spear like something gerly. He looked very dubious; but I made a grab at his arm,
precious, with an air of being afraid I would try to take it and he understood at once I meant him to steer whether or
away from him. I had to make an efort to free my eyes from no. To tell you the truth, I was morbidly anxious to change
his gaze and attend to the steering. With one hand I felt my shoes and socks. ‘He is dead,’ murmured the fellow, im-
above my head for the line of the steam whistle, and jerk- mensely impressed. ‘No doubt about it,’ said I, tugging like
ed out screech ater screech hurriedly. he tumult of angry mad at the shoe-laces. ‘And by the way, I suppose Mr. Kurtz
and warlike yells was checked instantly, and then from the is dead as well by this time.’
depths of the woods went out such a tremulous and pro- ‘For the moment that was the dominant thought. here
longed wail of mournful fear and utter despair as may be was a sense of extreme disappointment, as though I had
imagined to follow the light of the last hope from the earth. found out I had been striving ater something altogether
here was a great commotion in the bush; the shower of ar- without a substance. I couldn’t have been more disgusted if I
rows stopped, a few dropping shots rang out sharply—then had travelled all this way for the sole purpose of talking with
silence, in which the languid beat of the stern-wheel came Mr. Kurtz. Talking with … I lung one shoe overboard, and
plainly to my ears. I put the helm hard a-starboard at the became aware that that was exactly what I had been looking
moment when the pilgrim in pink pyjamas, very hot and forward to— a talk with Kurtz. I made the strange discov-
agitated, appeared in the doorway. ‘he manager sends ery that I had never imagined him as doing, you know, but
me—’ he began in an oicial tone, and stopped short. ‘Good as discoursing. I didn’t say to myself, ‘Now I will never see
God!’ he said, glaring at the wounded man. him,’ or ‘Now I will never shake him by the hand,’ but, ‘Now
‘We two whites stood over him, and his lustrous and I will never hear him.’ he man presented himself as a voice.
inquiring glance enveloped us both. I declare it looked as Not of course that I did not connect him with some sort of
though he would presently put to us some questions in an action. Hadn’t I been told in all the tones of jealousy and ad-
understandable language; but he died without uttering a miration that he had collected, bartered, swindled, or stolen
sound, without moving a limb, without twitching a mus- more ivory than all the other agents together? hat was not
cle. Only in the very last moment, as though in response to the point. he point was in his being a gited creature, and
some sign we could not see, to some whisper we could not that of all his gits the one that stood out preeminently, that
hear, he frowned heavily, and that frown gave to his black carried with it a sense of real presence, was his ability to
death-mask an inconeivably sombre, brooding, and menac- talk, his words— the git of expression, the bewildering, the
ing expression. he lustre of inquiring glance faded switly illuminating, the most exalted and the most contemptible,
into vacant glassiness. ‘Can you steer?’ I asked the agent ea- the pulsating stream of light, or the deceitful low from the

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heart of an impenetrable darkness. listening to the gited Kurtz. Of course I was wrong. he
‘he other shoe went lying unto the devil-god of that riv- privilege was waiting for me. Oh, yes, I heard more than
er. I thought, ‘By Jove! it’s all over. We are too late; he has enough. And I was right, too. A voice. He was very little
vanished— the git has vanished, by means of some spear, more than a voice. And I heard—him—it—this voice—oth-
arrow, or club. I will never hear that chap speak ater all’— er voices—all of them were so little more than voices—and
and my sorrow had a startling extravagance of emotion, the memory of that time itself lingers around me, impal-
even such as I had noticed in the howling sorrow of these pable, like a dying vibration of one immense jabber, silly,
savages in the bush. I couldn’t have felt more of lonely deso- atrocious, sordid, savage, or simply mean, without any kind
lation somehow, had I been robbed of a belief or had missed of sense. Voices, voices—even the girl herself—now—‘
my destiny in life. … Why do you sigh in this beastly way, He was silent for a long time.
somebody? Absurd? Well, absurd. Good Lord! mustn’t a ‘I laid the ghost of his gits at last with a lie,’ he began,
man ever—Here, give me some tobacco.’ … suddenly. ‘Girl! What? Did I mention a girl? Oh, she is out
here was a pause of profound stillness, then a match of it—completely. hey—the women, I mean— are out of
lared, and Marlow’s lean face appeared, worn, hollow, with it—should be out of it. We must help them to stay in that
downward folds and dropped eyelids, with an aspect of beautiful world of their own, lest ours gets worse. Oh, she
concentrated attention; and as he took vigorous draws at had to be out of it. You should have heard the disinterred
his pipe, it seemed to retreat and advance out of the night in body of Mr. Kurtz saying, ‘My Intended.’ You would have
the regular licker of tiny lame. he match went out. perceived directly then how completely she was out of it.
‘Absurd!’ he cried. ‘his is the worst of trying to tell. … And the loty frontal bone of Mr. Kurtz! hey say the hair
Here you all are, each moored with two good addresses, goes on growing sometimes, but this— ah—specimen, was
like a hulk with two anchors, a butcher round one corner, a impressively bald. he wilderness had patted him on the
policeman round another, excellent appetites, and tempera- head, and, behold, it was like a ball— an ivory ball; it had
ture normal—you hear—normal from year’s end to year’s caressed him, and—lo!—he had withered; it had taken him,
end. And you say, Absurd! Absurd be—exploded! Absurd! loved him, embraced him, got into his veins, consumed his
My dear boys, what can you expect from a man who out of lesh, and sealed his soul to its own by the inconceivable
sheer nervousness had just lung overboard a pair of new ceremonies of some devilish initiation. He was its spoiled
shoes! Now I think of it, it is amazing I did not shed tears. I and pampered favourite. Ivory? I should think so. Heaps of
am, upon the whole, proud of my fortitude. I was cut to the it, stacks of it. he old mud shanty was bursting with it. You
quick at the idea of having lost the inestimable privilege of would think there was not a single tusk let either above or

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below the ground in the whole country. ‘Mostly fossil,’ the heard whispering of public opinion? hese little things
manager had remarked, disparagingly. It was no more fossil make all the great diference. When they are gone you must
than I am; but they call it fossil when it is dug up. It appears fall back upon your own innate strength, upon your own
these niggers do bury the tusks sometimes— but evidently capacity for faithfulness. Of course you may be too much of
they couldn’t bury this parcel deep enough to save the git- a fool to go wrong— too dull even to know you are being as-
ed Mr. Kurtz from his fate. We illed the steamboat with it, saulted by the powers of darkness. I take it, no fool ever
and had to pile a lot on the deck. hus he could see and en- made a bargain for his soul with the devil; the fool is too
joy as long as he could see, because the appreciation of this much of a fool, or the devil too much of a devil—I don’t
favour had remained with him to the last. You should have know which. Or you may be such a thunderingly exalted
heard him say, ‘My ivory.’ Oh, yes, I heard him. ‘My Intend- creature as to be altogether deaf and blind to anything but
ed, my ivory, my station, my river, my—’ everything heavenly sights and sounds. hen the earth for you is only a
belonged to him. It made me hold my breath in expectation standing place—and whether to be like this is your loss or
of hearing the wilderness burst into a prodigious peal of your gain I won’t pretend to say. But most of us are neither
laughter that would shake the ixed stars in their places. Ev- one nor the other. he earth for us is a place to live in, where
erything belonged to him— but that was a trile. he thing we must put up with sights, with sounds, with smells, too,
was to know what he belonged to, how many powers of by Jove!—breathe dead hippo, so to speak, and not be con-
darkness claimed him for their own. hat was the relection taminated. And there, don’t you see? Your strength comes
that made you creepy all over. It was impossible—it was not in, the faith in your ability for the digging of unostentatious
good for one either—trying to imagine. He had taken a holes to bury the stuf in— your power of devotion, not to
high seat amongst the devils of the land— I mean literally. yourself, but to an obscure, back-breaking business. And
You can’t understand. How could you?— with solid pave- that’s diicult enough. Mind, I am not trying to excuse or
ment under your feet, surrounded by kind neighbours ready even explain—I am trying to account to myself for—for—
to cheer you or to fall on you, stepping delicately between Mr. Kurtz—for the shade of Mr. Kurtz. his initiated wraith
the butcher and the policeman, in the holy terror of scandal from the back of Nowhere honoured me with its amazing
and gallows and lunatic asylums—how can you imagine conidence before it vanished altogether. his was because it
what particular region of the irst ages a man’s untram- could speak English to me. he original Kurtz had been ed-
melled feet may take him into by the way of solitude—utter ucated partly in England, and—as he was good enough to
solitude without a policeman— by the way of silence—utter say himself—his sympathies were in the right place. His
silence, where no warning voice of a kind neighbour can be mother was half-English, his father was half-French. All

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 Europe contributed to the making of Kurtz; and by and by I position of a method. It was very simple, and at the end of
learned that, most appropriately, the International Society that moving appeal to every altruistic sentiment it blazed at
for the Suppression of Savage Customs had intrusted him you, luminous and terrifying, like a lash of lightning in a
with the making of a report, for its future guidance. And he serene sky: ‘Exterminate all the brutes!’ he curious part
had written it, too. I’ve seen it. I’ve read it. It was eloquent, was that he had apparently forgotten all about that valuable
vibrating with eloquence, but too high-strung, I think. Sev- postscriptum, because, later on, when he in a sense came to
enteen pages of close writing he had found time for! But himself, he repeatedly entreated me to take good care of ‘my
this must have been before his—let us say—nerves, went pamphlet’ (he called it), as it was sure to have in the future
wrong, and caused him to preside at certain midnight danc- a good inluence upon his career. I had full information
es ending with unspeakable rites, which—as far as I about all these things, and, besides, as it turned out, I was to
reluctantly gathered from what I heard at various times— have the care of his memory. I’ve done enough for it to give
were ofered up to him— do you understand?—to Mr. Kurtz me the indisputable right to lay it, if I choose, for an ever-
himself. But it was a beautiful piece of writing. he opening lasting rest in the dust-bin of progress, amongst all the
paragraph, however, in the light of later information, strikes sweepings and, iguratively speaking, all the dead cats of
me now as ominous. He began with the argument that we civilization. But then, you see, I can’t choose. He won’t be
whites, from the point of development we had arrived at, forgotten. Whatever he was, he was not common. He had
‘must necessarily appear to them [savages] in the nature of the power to charm or frighten rudimentary souls into an
supernatural beings— we approach them with the might of aggravated witch-dance in his honour; he could also ill the
a deity,’ and so on, and so on. ‘By the simple exercise of our small souls of the pilgrims with bitter misgivings: he had
will we can exert a power for good practically unbounded,’ one devoted friend at least, and he had conquered one soul
etc., etc. From that point he soared and took me with him. in the world that was neither rudimentary nor tainted with
he peroration was magniicent, though diicult to remem- self-seeking. No; I can’t forget him, though I am not pre-
ber, you know. It gave me the notion of an exotic Immensity pared to airm the fellow was exactly worth the life we lost
ruled by an august Benevolence. It made me tingle with en- in getting to him. I missed my late helmsman awfully— I
thusiasm. his was the unbounded power of eloquence—of missed him even while his body was still lying in the pilot-
words—of burning noble words. here were no practical house. Perhaps you will think it passing strange this regret
hints to interrupt the magic current of phrases, unless a for a savage who was no more account than a grain of sand
kind of note at the foot of the last page, scrawled evidently in a black Sahara. Well, don’t you see, he had done some-
much later, in an unsteady hand, may be regarded as the ex- thing, he had steered; for months I had him at my back— a

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help—an instrument. It was a kind of partnership. He Oh, quite! I had made up my mind that if my late helms-
steered for me—I had to look ater him, I worried about his man was to be eaten, the ishes alone should have him. He
deiciencies, and thus a subtle bond had been created, of had been a very second-rate helmsman while alive, but now
which I only became aware when it was suddenly broken. he was dead he might have become a irst-class temptation,
And the intimate profundity of that look he gave me when and possibly cause some startling trouble. Besides, I was
he received his hurt remains to this day in my memory— anxious to take the wheel, the man in pink pyjamas show-
like a claim of distant kinship airmed in a supreme ing himself a hopeless dufer at the business.
moment. ‘his I did directly the simple funeral was over. We were
‘Poor fool! If he had only let that shutter alone. He had going half-speed, keeping right in the middle of the stream,
no restraint, no restraint—just like Kurtz—a tree swayed by and I listened to the talk about me. hey had given up Kurtz,
the wind. As soon as I had put on a dry pair of slippers, I they had given up the station; Kurtz was dead, and the sta-
dragged him out, ater irst jerking the spear out of his side, tion had been burnt—and so on—and so on. he red-haired
which operation I confess I performed with my eyes shut pilgrim was beside himself with the thought that at least this
tight. His heels leaped together over the little doorstep; his poor Kurtz had been properly avenged. ‘Say! We must have
shoulders were pressed to my breast; I hugged him from be- made a glorious slaughter of them in the bush. Eh? What
hind desperately. Oh! he was heavy, heavy; heavier than any do you think? Say?’ He positively danced, the bloodthirsty
man on earth, I should imagine. hen without more ado I little gingery beggar. And he had nearly fainted when he
tipped him overboard. he current snatched him as though saw the wounded man! I could not help saying, ‘You made a
he had been a wisp of grass, and I saw the body roll over glorious lot of smoke, anyhow.’ I had seen, from the way the
twice before I lost sight of it for ever. All the pilgrims and tops of the bushes rustled and lew, that almost all the shots
the manager were then congregated on the awning-deck had gone too high. You can’t hit anything unless you take
about the pilot-house, chattering at each other like a lock aim and ire from the shoulder; but these chaps ired from
of excited magpies, and there was a scandalized murmur at the hip with their eyes shut. he retreat, I maintained—and
my heartless promptitude. What they wanted to keep that I was right—was caused by the screeching of the steam
body hanging about for I can’t guess. Embalm it, maybe. whistle. Upon this they forgot Kurtz, and began to howl at
But I had also heard another, and a very ominous, mur- me with indignant protests.
mur on the deck below. My friends the wood-cutters were ‘he manager stood by the wheel murmuring coniden-
likewise scandalized, and with a better show of reason— tially about the necessity of getting well away down the
though I admit that the reason itself was quite inadmissible. river before dark at all events, when I saw in the distance

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a clearing on the riverside and the outlines of some sort of clothes had been made of some stuf that was brown hol-
building. ‘What’s this?’ I asked. He clapped his hands in land probably, but it was covered with patches all over, with
wonder. ‘he station!’ he cried. I edged in at once, still go- bright patches, blue, red, and yellow—patches on the back,
ing half-speed. patches on the front, patches on elbows, on knees; coloured
‘hrough my glasses I saw the slope of a hill interspersed binding around his jacket, scarlet edging at the bottom of
with rare trees and perfectly free from undergrowth. A long his trousers; and the sunshine made him look extremely gay
decaying building on the summit was half buried in the and wonderfully neat withal, because you could see how
high grass; the large holes in the peaked roof gaped black beautifully all this patching had been done. A beardless,
from afar; the jungle and the woods made a background. boyish face, very fair, no features to speak of, nose peel-
here was no enclosure or fence of any kind; but there had ing, little blue eyes, smiles and frowns chasing each other
been one apparently, for near the house half-a-dozen slim over that open countenance like sunshine and shadow on
posts remained in a row, roughly trimmed, and with their a wind-swept plain. ‘Look out, captain!’ he cried; ‘there’s a
upper ends ornamented with round carved balls. he rails, snag lodged in here last night.’ What! Another snag? I con-
or whatever there had been between, had disappeared. Of fess I swore shamefully. I had nearly holed my cripple, to
course the forest surrounded all that. he river-bank was inish of that charming trip. he harlequin on the bank
clear, and on the waterside I saw a white man under a hat turned his little pug-nose up to me. ‘You English?’ he asked,
like a cart-wheel beckoning persistently with his whole arm. all smiles. ‘Are you?’ I shouted from the wheel. he smiles
Examining the edge of the forest above and below, I was vanished, and he shook his head as if sorry for my disap-
almost certain I could see movements—human forms glid- pointment. hen he brightened up. ‘Never mind!’ he cried
ing here and there. I steamed past prudently, then stopped encouragingly. ‘Are we in time?’ I asked. ‘He is up there,’ he
the engines and let her drit down. he man on the shore replied, with a toss of the head up the hill, and becoming
began to shout, urging us to land. ‘We have been attacked,’ gloomy all of a sudden. His face was like the autumn sky,
screamed the manager. ‘I know—I know. It’s all right,’ yelled overcast one moment and bright the next.
back the other, as cheerful as you please. ‘Come along. It’s ‘When the manager, escorted by the pilgrims, all of them
all right. I am glad.’ armed to the teeth, had gone to the house this chap came on
‘His aspect reminded me of something I had seen— board. ‘I say, I don’t like this. hese natives are in the bush,’ I
something funny I had seen somewhere. As I manoeuvred said. He assured me earnestly it was all right. ‘hey are sim-
to get alongside, I was asking myself, ‘What does this fellow ple people,’ he added; ‘well, I am glad you came. It took me
look like?’ Suddenly I got it. He looked like a harlequin. His all my time to keep them of.’ ‘But you said it was all right,’ I

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 cried. ‘Oh, they meant no harm,’ he said; and as I stared he coast to it him out with stores and goods, and had started
corrected himself, ‘Not exactly.’ hen vivaciously, ‘My faith, for the interior with a light heart and no more idea of what
your pilot-house wants a clean-up!’ In the next breath he would happen to him than a baby. He had been wandering
advised me to keep enough steam on the boiler to blow the about that river for nearly two years alone, cut of from ev-
whistle in case of any trouble. ‘One good screech will do erybody and everything. ‘I am not so young as I look. I am
more for you than all your riles. hey are simple people,’ twenty-ive,’ he said. ‘At irst old Van Shuyten would tell me
he repeated. He rattled away at such a rate he quite over- to go to the devil,’ he narrated with keen enjoyment; ‘but I
whelmed me. He seemed to be trying to make up for lots stuck to him, and talked and talked, till at last he got afraid
of silence, and actually hinted, laughing, that such was the I would talk the hind-leg of his favourite dog, so he gave me
case. ‘Don’t you talk with Mr. Kurtz?’ I said. ‘You don’t talk some cheap things and a few guns, and told me he hoped he
with that man—you listen to him,’ he exclaimed with severe would never see my face again. Good old Dutchman, Van
exaltation. ‘But now—’ He waved his arm, and in the twin- Shuyten. I’ve sent him one small lot of ivory a year ago, so
kling of an eye was in the uttermost depths of despondency. that he can’t call me a little thief when I get back. I hope he
In a moment he came up again with a jump, possessed him- got it. And for the rest I don’t care. I had some wood stacked
self of both my hands, shook them continuously, while he for you. hat was my old house. Did you see?’
gabbled: ‘Brother sailor … honour … pleasure … delight ‘I gave him Towson’s book. He made as though he would
… introduce myself … Russian … son of an arch-priest … kiss me, but restrained himself. ‘he only book I had let,
Government of Tambov … What? Tobacco! English to- and I thought I had lost it,’ he said, looking at it ecstatically.
bacco; the excellent English tobacco! Now, that’s brotherly. ‘So many accidents happen to a man going about alone, you
Smoke? Where’s a sailor that does not smoke?’ know. Canoes get upset sometimes—and sometimes you’ve
‘he pipe soothed him, and gradually I made out he had got to clear out so quick when the people get angry.’ He
run away from school, had gone to sea in a Russian ship; thumbed the pages. ‘You made notes in Russian?’ I asked.
ran away again; served some time in English ships; was He nodded. ‘I thought they were written in cipher,’ I said.
now reconciled with the arch-priest. He made a point of He laughed, then became serious. ‘I had lots of trouble to
that. ‘But when one is young one must see things, gather keep these people of,’ he said. ‘Did they want to kill you?’
experience, ideas; enlarge the mind.’ ‘Here!’ I interrupted. I asked. ‘Oh, no!’ he cried, and checked himself. ‘Why did
‘You can never tell! Here I met Mr. Kurtz,’ he said, youth- they attack us?’ I pursued. He hesitated, then said shame-
fully solemn and reproachful. I held my tongue ater that. facedly, ‘hey don’t want him to go.’ ‘Don’t they?’ I said
It appears he had persuaded a Dutch trading-house on the curiously. He nodded a nod full of mystery and wisdom.

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‘I tell you,’ he cried, ‘this man has enlarged my mind.’ He
opened his arms wide, staring at me with his little blue eyes III
that were perfectly round.’

‘I looked at him, lost in astonishment. here he was be-

fore me, in motley, as though he had absconded from a
troupe of mimes, enthusiastic, fabulous. His very existence
was improbable, inexplicable, and altogether bewildering.
He was an insoluble problem. It was inconceivable how he
had existed, how he had succeeded in getting so far, how
he had managed to remain— why he did not instantly dis-
appear. ‘I went a little farther,’ he said, ‘then still a little
farther—till I had gone so far that I don’t know how I’ll ever
get back. Never mind. Plenty time. I can manage. You take
Kurtz away quick—quick—I tell you.’ he glamour of youth
enveloped his parti-coloured rags, his destitution, his lone-
liness, the essential desolation of his futile wanderings. For
months—for years—his life hadn’t been worth a day’s pur-
chase; and there he was gallantly, thoughtlessly alive, to all
appearances indestructible solely by the virtue of his few
years and of his unrelecting audacity. I was seduced into
something like admiration— like envy. Glamour urged
him on, glamour kept him unscathed. He surely wanted
nothing from the wilderness but space to breathe in and
to push on through. His need was to exist, and to move on-
wards at the greatest possible risk, and with a maximum of
privation. If the absolutely pure, uncalculating, unpractical
spirit of adventure had ever ruled a human being, it ruled

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this bepatched youth. I almost envied him the possession of I said.
this modest and clear lame. It seemed to have consumed all ‘On the contrary. It appears their intercourse had been
thought of self so completely, that even while he was talk- very much broken by various causes. He had, as he in-
ing to you, you forgot that it was he— the man before your formed me proudly, managed to nurse Kurtz through two
eyes—who had gone through these things. I did not envy illnesses (he alluded to it as you would to some risky feat),
him his devotion to Kurtz, though. He had not meditated but as a rule Kurtz wandered alone, far in the depths of the
over it. It came to him, and he accepted it with a sort of forest. ‘Very oten coming to this station, I had to wait days
eager fatalism. I must say that to me it appeared about the and days before he would turn up,’ he said. ‘Ah, it was worth
most dangerous thing in every way he had come upon so waiting for!—sometimes.’ ‘What was he doing? exploring or
far. what?’ I asked. ‘Oh, yes, of course’; he had discovered lots of
‘hey had come together unavoidably, like two ships villages, a lake, too—he did not know exactly in what di-
becalmed near each other, and lay rubbing sides at last. I rection; it was dangerous to inquire too much—but mostly
suppose Kurtz wanted an audience, because on a certain his expeditions had been for ivory. ‘But he had no goods
occasion, when encamped in the forest, they had talked all to trade with by that time,’ I objected. ‘here’s a good lot
night, or more probably Kurtz had talked. ‘We talked of ev- of cartridges let even yet,’ he answered, looking away. ‘To
erything,’ he said, quite transported at the recollection. ‘I speak plainly, he raided the country,’ I said. He nodded.
forgot there was such a thing as sleep. he night did not ‘Not alone, surely!’ He muttered something about the vil-
seem to last an hour. Everything! Everything! … Of love, lages round that lake. ‘Kurtz got the tribe to follow him, did
too.’ ‘Ah, he talked to you of love!’ I said, much amused. ‘It he?’ I suggested. He idgeted a little. ‘hey adored him,’ he
isn’t what you think,’ he cried, almost passionately. ‘It was said. he tone of these words was so extraordinary that I
in general. He made me see things—things.’ looked at him searchingly. It was curious to see his min-
‘He threw his arms up. We were on deck at the time, and gled eagerness and reluctance to speak of Kurtz. he man
the headman of my wood-cutters, lounging near by, turned illed his life, occupied his thoughts, swayed his emotions.
upon him his heavy and glittering eyes. I looked around, ‘What can you expect?’ he burst out; ‘he came to them with
and I don’t know why, but I assure you that never, never thunder and lightning, you know— and they had never
before, did this land, this river, this jungle, the very arch of seen anything like it—and very terrible. He could be very
this blazing sky, appear to me so hopeless and so dark, so terrible. You can’t judge Mr. Kurtz as you would an ordi-
impenetrable to human thought, so pitiless to human weak- nary man. No, no, no! Now—just to give you an idea— I
ness. ‘And, ever since, you have been with him, of course?’ don’t mind telling you, he wanted to shoot me, too, one

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 day— but I don’t judge him.’ ‘Shoot you!’ I cried ‘What for?’ here was no sign on the face of nature of this amazing tale
‘Well, I had a small lot of ivory the chief of that village near that was not so much told as suggested to me in desolate ex-
my house gave me. You see I used to shoot game for them. clamations, completed by shrugs, in interrupted phrases, in
Well, he wanted it, and wouldn’t hear reason. He declared hints ending in deep sighs. he woods were unmoved, like a
he would shoot me unless I gave him the ivory and then mask—heavy, like the closed door of a prison—they looked
cleared out of the country, because he could do so, and had with their air of hidden knowledge, of patient expectation,
a fancy for it, and there was nothing on earth to prevent of unapproachable silence. he Russian was explaining to
him killing whom he jolly well pleased. And it was true, too. me that it was only lately that Mr. Kurtz had come down
I gave him the ivory. What did I care! But I didn’t clear out. to the river, bringing along with him all the ighting men
No, no. I couldn’t leave him. I had to be careful, of course, of that lake tribe. He had been absent for several months—
till we got friendly again for a time. He had his second ill- getting himself adored, I suppose— and had come down
ness then. Aterwards I had to keep out of the way; but I unexpectedly, with the intention to all appearance of mak-
didn’t mind. He was living for the most part in those villag- ing a raid either across the river or down stream. Evidently
es on the lake. When he came down to the river, sometimes the appetite for more ivory had got the better of the— what
he would take to me, and sometimes it was better for me to shall I say?—less material aspirations. However he had got
be careful. his man sufered too much. He hated all this, much worse suddenly. ‘I heard he was lying helpless, and
and somehow he couldn’t get away. When I had a chance so I came up—took my chance,’ said the Russian. ‘Oh, he is
I begged him to try and leave while there was time; I of- bad, very bad.’ I directed my glass to the house. here were
fered to go back with him. And he would say yes, and then no signs of life, but there was the ruined roof, the long mud
he would remain; go of on another ivory hunt; disappear wall peeping above the grass, with three little square win-
for weeks; forget himself amongst these people— forget dow-holes, no two of the same size; all this brought within
himself—you know.’ ‘Why! he’s mad,’ I said. He protested reach of my hand, as it were. And then I made a brusque
indignantly. Mr. Kurtz couldn’t be mad. If I had heard him movement, and one of the remaining posts of that vanished
talk, only two days ago, I wouldn’t dare hint at such a thing. fence leaped up in the ield of my glass. You remember I told
… I had taken up my binoculars while we talked, and was you I had been struck at the distance by certain attempts at
looking at the shore, sweeping the limit of the forest at each ornamentation, rather remarkable in the ruinous aspect of
side and at the back of the house. he consciousness of there the place. Now I had suddenly a nearer view, and its irst re-
being people in that bush, so silent, so quiet—as silent and sult was to make me throw my head back as if before a blow.
quiet as the ruined house on the hill— made me uneasy. hen I went carefully from post to post with my glass, and

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I saw my mistake. hese round knobs were not ornamental him a terrible vengeance for the fantastic invasion. I think
but symbolic; they were expressive and puzzling, striking it had whispered to him things about himself which he did
and disturbing— food for thought and also for vultures if not know, things of which he had no conception till he
there had been any looking down from the sky; but at all took counsel with this great solitude—and the whisper had
events for such ants as were industrious enough to ascend proved irresistibly fascinating. It echoed loudly within him
the pole. hey would have been even more impressive, those because he was hollow at the core…. I put down the glass,
heads on the stakes, if their faces had not been turned to the and the head that had appeared near enough to be spoken
house. Only one, the irst I had made out, was facing my way. to seemed at once to have leaped away from me into inac-
I was not so shocked as you may think. he start back I had cessible distance.
given was really nothing but a movement of surprise. I had ‘he admirer of Mr. Kurtz was a bit crestfallen. In a hur-
expected to see a knob of wood there, you know. I returned ried, indistinct voice he began to assure me he had not
deliberately to the irst I had seen—and there it was, black, dared to take these—say, symbols—down. He was not
dried, sunken, with closed eyelids—a head that seemed to afraid of the natives; they would not stir till Mr. Kurtz gave
sleep at the top of that pole, and, with the shrunken dry lips the word. His ascendancy was extraordinary. he camps of
showing a narrow white line of the teeth, was smiling, too, these people surrounded the place, and the chiefs came ev-
smiling continuously at some endless and jocose dream of ery day to see him. hey would crawl…. ‘I don’t want to
that eternal slumber. know anything of the ceremonies used when approaching
‘I am not disclosing any trade secrets. In fact, the man- Mr. Kurtz,’ I shouted. Curious, this feeling that came over
ager said aterwards that Mr. Kurtz’s methods had ruined me that such details would be more intolerable than those
the district. I have no opinion on that point, but I want you heads drying on the stakes under Mr. Kurtz’s windows. Af-
clearly to understand that there was nothing exactly prof- ter all, that was only a savage sight, while I seemed at one
itable in these heads being there. hey only showed that bound to have been transported into some lightless region
Mr. Kurtz lacked restraint in the gratiication of his vari- of subtle horrors, where pure, uncomplicated savagery was
ous lusts, that there was something wanting in him— some a positive relief, being something that had a right to exist—
small matter which, when the pressing need arose, could obviously—in the sunshine. he young man looked at me
not be found under his magniicent eloquence. Whether with surprise. I suppose it did not occur to him that Mr.
he knew of this deiciency himself I can’t say. I think the Kurtz was no idol of mine. He forgot I hadn’t heard any of
knowledge came to him at last—only at the very last. But these splendid monologues on, what was it? on love, justice,
the wilderness had found him out early, and had taken on conduct of life—or what not. If it had come to crawling be-

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fore Mr. Kurtz, he crawled as much as the veriest savage hey waded waist-deep in the grass, in a compact body,
of them all. I had no idea of the conditions, he said: these bearing an improvised stretcher in their midst. Instantly, in
heads were the heads of rebels. I shocked him excessively by the emptiness of the landscape, a cry arose whose shrillness
laughing. Rebels! What would be the next deinition I was pierced the still air like a sharp arrow lying straight to the
to hear? here had been enemies, criminals, workers—and very heart of the land; and, as if by enchantment, streams
these were rebels. hose rebellious heads looked very sub- of human beings—of naked human beings—with spears in
dued to me on their sticks. ‘You don’t know how such a life their hands, with bows, with shields, with wild glances and
tries a man like Kurtz,’ cried Kurtz’s last disciple. ‘Well, and savage movements, were poured into the clearing by the
you?’ I said. ‘I! I! I am a simple man. I have no great thoughts. dark-faced and pensive forest. he bushes shook, the grass
I want nothing from anybody. How can you compare me to swayed for a time, and then everything stood still in atten-
… ?’ His feelings were too much for speech, and suddenly he tive immobility.
broke down. ‘I don’t understand,’ he groaned. ‘I’ve been do- ‘Now, if he does not say the right thing to them we are
ing my best to keep him alive, and that’s enough. I had no all done for,’ said the Russian at my elbow. he knot of men
hand in all this. I have no abilities. here hasn’t been a drop with the stretcher had stopped, too, halfway to the steamer,
of medicine or a mouthful of invalid food for months here. as if petriied. I saw the man on the stretcher sit up, lank
He was shamefully abandoned. A man like this, with such and with an uplited arm, above the shoulders of the bear-
ideas. Shamefully! Shamefully! I—I— haven’t slept for the ers. ‘Let us hope that the man who can talk so well of love
last ten nights …’ in general will ind some particular reason to spare us this
‘His voice lost itself in the calm of the evening. he long time,’ I said. I resented bitterly the absurd danger of our
shadows of the forest had slipped downhill while we talked, situation, as if to be at the mercy of that atrocious phan-
had gone far beyond the ruined hovel, beyond the symbolic tom had been a dishonouring necessity. I could not hear a
row of stakes. All this was in the gloom, while we down sound, but through my glasses I saw the thin arm extend-
there were yet in the sunshine, and the stretch of the river ed commandingly, the lower jaw moving, the eyes of that
abreast of the clearing glittered in a still and dazzling splen- apparition shining darkly far in its bony head that nodded
dour, with a murky and overshadowed bend above and with grotesque jerks. Kurtz—Kurtz—that means short in
below. Not a living soul was seen on the shore. he bushes German—don’t it? Well, the name was as true as everything
did not rustle. else in his life— and death. He looked at least seven feet long.
‘Suddenly round the corner of the house a group of men His covering had fallen of, and his body emerged from it
appeared, as though they had come up from the ground. pitiful and appalling as from a winding-sheet. I could see

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the cage of his ribs all astir, the bones of his arm waving. It about me. hese special recommendations were turning up
was as though an animated image of death carved out of old again. he volume of tone he emitted without efort, almost
ivory had been shaking its hand with menaces at a motion- without the trouble of moving his lips, amazed me. A voice!
less crowd of men made of dark and glittering bronze. I saw a voice! It was grave, profound, vibrating, while the man
him open his mouth wide—it gave him a weirdly voracious did not seem capable of a whisper. However, he had enough
aspect, as though he had wanted to swallow all the air, all strength in him— factitious no doubt—to very nearly make
the earth, all the men before him. A deep voice reached me an end of us, as you shall hear directly.
faintly. He must have been shouting. He fell back suddenly. ‘he manager appeared silently in the doorway; I stepped
he stretcher shook as the bearers staggered forward again, out at once and he drew the curtain ater me. he Russian,
and almost at the same time I noticed that the crowd of sav- eyed curiously by the pilgrims, was staring at the shore. I
ages was vanishing without any perceptible movement of followed the direction of his glance.
retreat, as if the forest that had ejected these beings so sud- ‘Dark human shapes could be made out in the distance,
denly had drawn them in again as the breath is drawn in a litting indistinctly against the gloomy border of the forest,
long aspiration. and near the river two bronze igures, leaning on tall spears,
‘Some of the pilgrims behind the stretcher carried his stood in the sunlight under fantastic head-dresses of spot-
arms— two shot-guns, a heavy rile, and a light revolv- ted skins, warlike and still in statuesque repose. And from
er-carbine— the thunderbolts of that pitiful Jupiter. he right to let along the lighted shore moved a wild and gor-
manager bent over him murmuring as he walked beside his geous apparition of a woman.
head. hey laid him down in one of the little cabins—just ‘She walked with measured steps, draped in striped and
a room for a bed place and a camp-stool or two, you know. fringed cloths, treading the earth proudly, with a slight jin-
We had brought his belated correspondence, and a lot of gle and lash of barbarous ornaments. She carried her head
torn envelopes and open letters littered his bed. His hand high; her hair was done in the shape of a helmet; she had
roamed feebly amongst these papers. I was struck by the ire brass leggings to the knee, brass wire gauntlets to the elbow,
of his eyes and the composed languor of his expression. It a crimson spot on her tawny cheek, innumerable necklaces
was not so much the exhaustion of disease. He did not seem of glass beads on her neck; bizarre things, charms, gits of
in pain. his shadow looked satiated and calm, as though witch-men, that hung about her, glittered and trembled at
for the moment it had had its ill of all the emotions. every step. She must have had the value of several elephant
‘He rustled one of the letters, and looking straight in my tusks upon her. She was savage and superb, wild-eyed and
face said, ‘I am glad.’ Somebody had been writing to him magniicent; there was something ominous and stately in

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her deliberate progress. And in the hush that had fallen ‘I have been risking my life every day for the last fortnight
suddenly upon the whole sorrowful land, the immense wil- to keep her out of the house. She got in one day and kicked
derness, the colossal body of the fecund and mysterious life up a row about those miserable rags I picked up in the store-
seemed to look at her, pensive, as though it had been look- room to mend my clothes with. I wasn’t decent. At least it
ing at the image of its own tenebrous and passionate soul. must have been that, for she talked like a fury to Kurtz for
‘She came abreast of the steamer, stood still, and faced an hour, pointing at me now and then. I don’t understand
us. Her long shadow fell to the water’s edge. Her face had the dialect of this tribe. Luckily for me, I fancy Kurtz felt
a tragic and ierce aspect of wild sorrow and of dumb pain too ill that day to care, or there would have been mischief. I
mingled with the fear of some struggling, half-shaped re- don’t understand…. No—it’s too much for me. Ah, well, it’s
solve. She stood looking at us without a stir, and like the all over now.’
wilderness itself, with an air of brooding over an inscru- ‘At this moment I heard Kurtz’s deep voice behind the
table purpose. A whole minute passed, and then she made a curtain: ‘Save me!—save the ivory, you mean. Don’t tell me.
step forward. here was a low jingle, a glint of yellow metal, Save ME! Why, I’ve had to save you. You are interrupting
a sway of fringed draperies, and she stopped as if her heart my plans now. Sick! Sick! Not so sick as you would like to
had failed her. he young fellow by my side growled. he believe. Never mind. I’ll carry my ideas out yet—I will re-
pilgrims murmured at my back. She looked at us all as if turn. I’ll show you what can be done. You with your little
her life had depended upon the unswerving steadiness of peddling notions—you are interfering with me. I will re-
her glance. Suddenly she opened her bared arms and threw turn. I….’
them up rigid above her head, as though in an uncontrol- ‘he manager came out. He did me the honour to take
lable desire to touch the sky, and at the same time the swit me under the arm and lead me aside. ‘He is very low, very
shadows darted out on the earth, swept around on the river, low,’ he said. He considered it necessary to sigh, but neglect-
gathering the steamer into a shadowy embrace. A formida- ed to be consistently sorrowful. ‘We have done all we could
ble silence hung over the scene. for him—haven’t we? But there is no disguising the fact, Mr.
‘She turned away slowly, walked on, following the bank, Kurtz has done more harm than good to the Company. He
and passed into the bushes to the let. Once only her eyes did not see the time was not ripe for vigorous action. Cau-
gleamed back at us in the dusk of the thickets before she tiously, cautiously—that’s my principle. We must be cautious
disappeared. yet. he district is closed to us for a time. Deplorable! Upon
‘If she had ofered to come aboard I really think I would the whole, the trade will sufer. I don’t deny there is a re-
have tried to shoot her,’ said the man of patches, nervously. markable quantity of ivory—mostly fossil. We must save it,

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at all events—but look how precarious the position is—and that for him Mr. Kurtz was one of the immortals. ‘Well!’
why? Because the method is unsound.’ ‘Do you,’ said I, look- said I at last, ‘speak out. As it happens, I am Mr. Kurtz’s
ing at the shore, ‘call it ‘unsound method?‘ ‘Without doubt,’ friend—in a way.’
he exclaimed hotly. ‘Don’t you?’ … ‘No method at all,’ I ‘He stated with a good deal of formality that had we not
murmured ater a while. ‘Exactly,’ he exulted. ‘I anticipated been ‘of the same profession,’ he would have kept the matter
this. Shows a complete want of judgment. It is my duty to to himself without regard to consequences. ‘He suspected
point it out in the proper quarter.’ ‘Oh,’ said I, ‘that fellow— there was an active ill-will towards him on the part of these
what’s his name?—the brickmaker, will make a readable white men that—’ ‘You are right,’ I said, remembering a cer-
report for you.’ He appeared confounded for a moment. It tain conversation I had overheard. ‘he manager thinks you
seemed to me I had never breathed an atmosphere so vile, ought to be hanged.’ He showed a concern at this intelli-
and I turned mentally to Kurtz for relief—positively for re- gence which amused me at irst. ‘I had better get out of the
lief. ‘Nevertheless I think Mr. Kurtz is a remarkable man,’ way quietly,’ he said earnestly. ‘I can do no more for Kurtz
I said with emphasis. He started, dropped on me a heavy now, and they would soon ind some excuse. What’s to stop
glance, said very quietly, ‘he WAS,’ and turned his back on them? here’s a military post three hundred miles from here.’
me. My hour of favour was over; I found myself lumped ‘Well, upon my word,’ said I, ‘perhaps you had better go if
along with Kurtz as a partisan of methods for which the you have any friends amongst the savages near by.’ ‘Plenty,’
time was not ripe: I was unsound! Ah! but it was something he said. ‘hey are simple people—and I want nothing, you
to have at least a choice of nightmares. know.’ He stood biting his lip, then: ‘I don’t want any harm
‘I had turned to the wilderness really, not to Mr. Kurtz, to happen to these whites here, but of course I was thinking
who, I was ready to admit, was as good as buried. And for of Mr. Kurtz’s reputation—but you are a brother seaman
a moment it seemed to me as if I also were buried in a vast and—’ ‘All right,’ said I, ater a time. ‘Mr. Kurtz’s reputation
grave full of unspeakable secrets. I felt an intolerable weight is safe with me.’ I did not know how truly I spoke.
oppressing my breast, the smell of the damp earth, the un- ‘He informed me, lowering his voice, that it was Kurtz
seen presence of victorious corruption, the darkness of an who had ordered the attack to be made on the steamer. ‘He
impenetrable night…. he Russian tapped me on the shoul- hated sometimes the idea of being taken away—and then
der. I heard him mumbling and stammering something again…. But I don’t understand these matters. I am a simple
about ‘brother seaman—couldn’t conceal— knowledge of man. He thought it would scare you away—that you would
matters that would afect Mr. Kurtz’s reputation.’ I waited. give it up, thinking him dead. I could not stop him. Oh, I
For him evidently Mr. Kurtz was not in his grave; I suspect had an awful time of it this last month.’ ‘Very well,’ I said.

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‘He is all right now.’ ‘Ye-e-es,’ he muttered, not very con- illuminating itfully a crooked corner of the station-house.
vinced apparently. ‘hanks,’ said I; ‘I shall keep my eyes One of the agents with a picket of a few of our blacks, armed
open.’ ‘But quiet-eh?’ he urged anxiously. ‘It would be awful for the purpose, was keeping guard over the ivory; but deep
for his reputation if anybody here—’ I promised a complete within the forest, red gleams that wavered, that seemed to
discretion with great gravity. ‘I have a canoe and three black sink and rise from the ground amongst confused columnar
fellows waiting not very far. I am of. Could you give me shapes of intense blackness, showed the exact position of
a few Martini-Henry cartridges?’ I could, and did, with the camp where Mr. Kurtz’s adorers were keeping their un-
proper secrecy. He helped himself, with a wink at me, to a easy vigil. he monotonous beating of a big drum illed the
handful of my tobacco. ‘Between sailors—you know—good air with muled shocks and a lingering vibration. A steady
English tobacco.’ At the door of the pilot-house he turned droning sound of many men chanting each to himself some
round—‘I say, haven’t you a pair of shoes you could spare?’ weird incantation came out from the black, lat wall of the
He raised one leg. ‘Look.’ he soles were tied with knotted woods as the humming of bees comes out of a hive, and had
strings sandalwise under his bare feet. I rooted out an old a strange narcotic efect upon my half-awake senses. I be-
pair, at which he looked with admiration before tucking lieve I dozed of leaning over the rail, till an abrupt burst of
it under his let arm. One of his pockets (bright red) was yells, an overwhelming outbreak of a pent-up and mysteri-
bulging with cartridges, from the other (dark blue) peeped ous frenzy, woke me up in a bewildered wonder. It was cut
‘Towson’s Inquiry,’ etc., etc. He seemed to think himself ex- short all at once, and the low droning went on with an ef-
cellently well equipped for a renewed encounter with the fect of audible and soothing silence. I glanced casually into
wilderness. ‘Ah! I’ll never, never meet such a man again. You the little cabin. A light was burning within, but Mr. Kurtz
ought to have heard him recite poetry— his own, too, it was, was not there.
he told me. Poetry!’ He rolled his eyes at the recollection of ‘I think I would have raised an outcry if I had believed my
these delights. ‘Oh, he enlarged my mind!’ ‘Good-bye,’ said eyes. But I didn’t believe them at irst—the thing seemed so
I. He shook hands and vanished in the night. Sometimes I impossible. he fact is I was completely unnerved by a sheer
ask myself whether I had ever really seen him— whether it blank fright, pure abstract terror, unconnected with any
was possible to meet such a phenomenon! … distinct shape of physical danger. What made this emotion
‘When I woke up shortly ater midnight his warning so overpowering was— how shall I deine it?—the moral
came to my mind with its hint of danger that seemed, in shock I received, as if something altogether monstrous, in-
the starred darkness, real enough to make me get up for the tolerable to thought and odious to the soul, had been thrust
purpose of having a look round. On the hill a big ire burned, upon me unexpectedly. his lasted of course the merest

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fraction of a second, and then the usual sense of common- regularity.
place, deadly danger, the possibility of a sudden onslaught ‘I kept to the track though—then stopped to listen. he
and massacre, or something of the kind, which I saw im- night was very clear; a dark blue space, sparkling with dew
pending, was positively welcome and composing. It paciied and starlight, in which black things stood very still. I thought
me, in fact, so much that I did not raise an alarm. I could see a kind of motion ahead of me. I was strangely
‘here was an agent buttoned up inside an ulster and cocksure of everything that night. I actually let the track
sleeping on a chair on deck within three feet of me. he and ran in a wide semicircle (I verily believe chuckling to
yells had not awakened him; he snored very slightly; I let myself) so as to get in front of that stir, of that motion I had
him to his slumbers and leaped ashore. I did not betray Mr. seen—if indeed I had seen anything. I was circumventing
Kurtz—it was ordered I should never betray him— it was Kurtz as though it had been a boyish game.
written I should be loyal to the nightmare of my choice. I ‘I came upon him, and, if he had not heard me coming, I
was anxious to deal with this shadow by myself alone—and would have fallen over him, too, but he got up in time. He
to this day I don’t know why I was so jealous of sharing with rose, unsteady, long, pale, indistinct, like a vapour exhaled
any one the peculiar blackness of that experience. by the earth, and swayed slightly, misty and silent before
‘As soon as I got on the bank I saw a trail—a broad trail me; while at my back the ires loomed between the trees,
through the grass. I remember the exultation with which I and the murmur of many voices issued from the forest. I
said to myself, ‘He can’t walk—he is crawling on all-fours— had cut him of cleverly; but when actually confronting
I’ve got him.’ he grass was wet with dew. I strode rapidly him I seemed to come to my senses, I saw the danger in its
with clenched ists. I fancy I had some vague notion of fall- right proportion. It was by no means over yet. Suppose he
ing upon him and giving him a drubbing. I don’t know. I began to shout? hough he could hardly stand, there was
had some imbecile thoughts. he knitting old woman with still plenty of vigour in his voice. ‘Go away—hide yourself,’
the cat obtruded herself upon my memory as a most im- he said, in that profound tone. It was very awful. I glanced
proper person to be sitting at the other end of such an afair. back. We were within thirty yards from the nearest ire. A
I saw a row of pilgrims squirting lead in the air out of Win- black igure stood up, strode on long black legs, waving long
chesters held to the hip. I thought I would never get back to black arms, across the glow. It had horns—antelope horns,
the steamer, and imagined myself living alone and unarmed I think—on its head. Some sorcerer, some witch-man, no
in the woods to an advanced age. Such silly things—you doubt: it looked iendlike enough. ‘Do you know what you
know. And I remember I confounded the beat of the drum are doing?’ I whispered. ‘Perfectly,’ he answered, raising his
with the beating of my heart, and was pleased at its calm voice for that single word: it sounded to me far of and yet

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loud, like a hail through a speaking-trumpet. ‘If he makes a the head— though I had a very lively sense of that danger,
row we are lost,’ I thought to myself. his clearly was not a too—but in this, that I had to deal with a being to whom I
case for isticufs, even apart from the very natural aversion could not appeal in the name of anything high or low. I had,
I had to beat that Shadow—this wandering and tormented even like the niggers, to invoke him—himself—his own ex-
thing. ‘You will be lost,’ I said—’utterly lost.’ One gets some- alted and incredible degradation. here was nothing either
times such a lash of inspiration, you know. I did say the above or below him, and I knew it. He had kicked himself
right thing, though indeed he could not have been more ir- loose of the earth. Confound the man! he had kicked the
retrievably lost than he was at this very moment, when the very earth to pieces. He was alone, and I before him did not
foundations of our intimacy were being laid—to endure— know whether I stood on the ground or loated in the air.
to endure—even to the end—even beyond. I’ve been telling you what we said— repeating the phrases
‘I had immense plans,’ he muttered irresolutely. ‘Yes,’ said we pronounced—but what’s the good? hey were common
I; ‘but if you try to shout I’ll smash your head with—’ here everyday words—the familiar, vague sounds exchanged on
was not a stick or a stone near. ‘I will throttle you for good,’ every waking day of life. But what of that? hey had be-
I corrected myself. ‘I was on the threshold of great things,’ hind them, to my mind, the terriic suggestiveness of words
he pleaded, in a voice of longing, with a wistfulness of tone heard in dreams, of phrases spoken in nightmares. Soul! If
that made my blood run cold. ‘And now for this stupid anybody ever struggled with a soul, I am the man. And I
scoundrel—’ ‘Your success in Europe is assured in any case,’ wasn’t arguing with a lunatic either. Believe me or not, his
I airmed steadily. I did not want to have the throttling intelligence was perfectly clear—concentrated, it is true,
of him, you understand—and indeed it would have been upon himself with horrible intensity, yet clear; and therein
very little use for any practical purpose. I tried to break the was my only chance—barring, of course, the killing him
spell—the heavy, mute spell of the wilderness— that seemed there and then, which wasn’t so good, on account of un-
to draw him to its pitiless breast by the awakening of for- avoidable noise. But his soul was mad. Being alone in the
gotten and brutal instincts, by the memory of gratiied and wilderness, it had looked within itself, and, by heavens! I tell
monstrous passions. his alone, I was convinced, had driv- you, it had gone mad. I had—for my sins, I suppose—to go
en him out to the edge of the forest, to the bush, towards through the ordeal of looking into it myself. No eloquence
the gleam of ires, the throb of drums, the drone of weird could have been so withering to one’s belief in mankind as
incantations; this alone had beguiled his unlawful soul be- his inal burst of sincerity. He struggled with himself, too. I
yond the bounds of permitted aspirations. And, don’t you saw it—I heard it. I saw the inconceivable mystery of a soul
see, the terror of the position was not in being knocked on that knew no restraint, no faith, and no fear, yet struggling

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blindly with itself. I kept my head pretty well; but when I rushed out to the very brink of the stream. She put out her
had him at last stretched on the couch, I wiped my forehead, hands, shouted something, and all that wild mob took up
while my legs shook under me as though I had carried half the shout in a roaring chorus of articulated, rapid, breath-
a ton on my back down that hill. And yet I had only sup- less utterance.
ported him, his bony arm clasped round my neck—and he ‘Do you understand this?’ I asked.
was not much heavier than a child. ‘He kept on looking out past me with iery, longing eyes,
‘When next day we let at noon, the crowd, of whose with a mingled expression of wistfulness and hate. He made
presence behind the curtain of trees I had been acutely con- no answer, but I saw a smile, a smile of indeinable meaning,
scious all the time, lowed out of the woods again, illed the appear on his colourless lips that a moment ater twitched
clearing, covered the slope with a mass of naked, breath- convulsively. ‘Do I not?’ he said slowly, gasping, as if the
ing, quivering, bronze bodies. I steamed up a bit, then words had been torn out of him by a supernatural power.
swung down stream, and two thousand eyes followed the ‘I pulled the string of the whistle, and I did this because
evolutions of the splashing, thumping, ierce river-demon I saw the pilgrims on deck getting out their riles with an
beating the water with its terrible tail and breathing black air of anticipating a jolly lark. At the sudden screech there
smoke into the air. In front of the irst rank, along the riv- was a movement of abject terror through that wedged mass
er, three men, plastered with bright red earth from head to of bodies. ‘Don’t! don’t you frighten them away,’ cried some
foot, strutted to and fro restlessly. When we came abreast one on deck disconsolately. I pulled the string time ater
again, they faced the river, stamped their feet, nodded their time. hey broke and ran, they leaped, they crouched, they
horned heads, swayed their scarlet bodies; they shook to- swerved, they dodged the lying terror of the sound. he
wards the ierce river-demon a bunch of black feathers, a three red chaps had fallen lat, face down on the shore, as
mangy skin with a pendent tail—something that looked a though they had been shot dead. Only the barbarous and
dried gourd; they shouted periodically together strings of superb woman did not so much as linch, and stretched
amazing words that resembled no sounds of human lan- tragically her bare arms ater us over the sombre and glit-
guage; and the deep murmurs of the crowd, interrupted tering river.
suddenly, were like the responses of some satanic litany. ‘And then that imbecile crowd down on the deck started
‘We had carried Kurtz into the pilot-house: there was their little fun, and I could see nothing more for smoke.
more air there. Lying on the couch, he stared through the ‘he brown current ran switly out of the heart of dark-
open shutter. here was an eddy in the mass of human bod- ness, bearing us down towards the sea with twice the speed
ies, and the woman with helmeted head and tawny cheeks of our upward progress; and Kurtz’s life was running switly,

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too, ebbing, ebbing out of his heart into the sea of inexorable great things. ‘You show them you have in you something
time. he manager was very placid, he had no vital anxieties that is really proitable, and then there will be no limits to
now, he took us both in with a comprehensive and satisied the recognition of your ability,’ he would say. ‘Of course you
glance: the ‘afair’ had come of as well as could be wished. I must take care of the motives— right motives—always.’ he
saw the time approaching when I would be let alone of the long reaches that were like one and the same reach, monoto-
party of ‘unsound method.’ he pilgrims looked upon me nous bends that were exactly alike, slipped past the steamer
with disfavour. I was, so to speak, numbered with the dead. with their multitude of secular trees looking patiently af-
It is strange how I accepted this unforeseen partnership, ter this grimy fragment of another world, the forerunner of
this choice of nightmares forced upon me in the tenebrous change, of conquest, of trade, of massacres, of blessings. I
land invaded by these mean and greedy phantoms. looked ahead—piloting. ‘Close the shutter,’ said Kurtz sud-
‘Kurtz discoursed. A voice! a voice! It rang deep to the denly one day; ‘I can’t bear to look at this.’ I did so. here
very last. It survived his strength to hide in the magniicent was a silence. ‘Oh, but I will wring your heart yet!’ he cried
folds of eloquence the barren darkness of his heart. Oh, he at the invisible wilderness.
struggled! he struggled! he wastes of his weary brain were ‘We broke down—as I had expected—and had to lie up
haunted by shadowy images now—images of wealth and for repairs at the head of an island. his delay was the irst
fame revolving obsequiously round his unextinguishable thing that shook Kurtz’s conidence. One morning he gave
git of noble and loty expression. My Intended, my station, me a packet of papers and a photograph— the lot tied to-
my career, my ideas— these were the subjects for the occa- gether with a shoe-string. ‘Keep this for me,’ he said. ‘his
sional utterances of elevated sentiments. he shade of the noxious fool’ (meaning the manager) ‘is capable of prying
original Kurtz frequented the bedside of the hollow sham, into my boxes when I am not looking.’ In the aternoon I
whose fate it was to be buried presently in the mould of pri- saw him. He was lying on his back with closed eyes, and
meval earth. But both the diabolic love and the unearthly I withdrew quietly, but I heard him mutter, ‘Live rightly,
hate of the mysteries it had penetrated fought for the pos- die, die …’ I listened. here was nothing more. Was he re-
session of that soul satiated with primitive emotions, avid hearsing some speech in his sleep, or was it a fragment of a
of lying fame, of sham distinction, of all the appearances of phrase from some newspaper article? He had been writing
success and power. for the papers and meant to do so again, ‘for the furthering
‘Sometimes he was contemptibly childish. He desired to of my ideas. It’s a duty.’
have kings meet him at railway-stations on his return from ‘His was an impenetrable darkness. I looked at him as
some ghastly Nowhere, where he intended to accomplish you peer down at a man who is lying at the bottom of a prec-

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ipice where the sun never shines. But I had not much time the manager, who lited his eyes to give me a questioning
to give him, because I was helping the engine-driver to take glance, which I successfully ignored. He leaned back, se-
to pieces the leaky cylinders, to straighten a bent connect- rene, with that peculiar smile of his sealing the unexpressed
ing-rod, and in other such matters. I lived in an infernal depths of his meanness. A continuous shower of small lies
mess of rust, ilings, nuts, bolts, spanners, hammers, ratch- streamed upon the lamp, upon the cloth, upon our hands
et-drills—things I abominate, because I don’t get on with and faces. Suddenly the manager’s boy put his insolent
them. I tended the little forge we fortunately had aboard; I black head in the doorway, and said in a tone of scathing
toiled wearily in a wretched scrap-heap—unless I had the contempt:
shakes too bad to stand. ‘Mistah Kurtz—he dead.’
‘One evening coming in with a candle I was startled to ‘All the pilgrims rushed out to see. I remained, and went
hear him say a little tremulously, ‘I am lying here in the on with my dinner. I believe I was considered brutally cal-
dark waiting for death.’ he light was within a foot of his lous. However, I did not eat much. here was a lamp in
eyes. I forced myself to murmur, ‘Oh, nonsense!’ and stood there—light, don’t you know—and outside it was so beastly,
over him as if transixed. beastly dark. I went no more near the remarkable man who
‘Anything approaching the change that came over his fea- had pronounced a judgment upon the adventures of his
tures I have never seen before, and hope never to see again. soul on this earth. he voice was gone. What else had been
Oh, I wasn’t touched. I was fascinated. It was as though a there? But I am of course aware that next day the pilgrims
veil had been rent. I saw on that ivory face the expression buried something in a muddy hole.
of sombre pride, of ruthless power, of craven terror—of an ‘And then they very nearly buried me.
intense and hopeless despair. Did he live his life again in ‘However, as you see, I did not go to join Kurtz there
every detail of desire, temptation, and surrender during and then. I did not. I remained to dream the nightmare
that supreme moment of complete knowledge? He cried in out to the end, and to show my loyalty to Kurtz once more.
a whisper at some image, at some vision—he cried out twice, Destiny. My destiny! Droll thing life is— that mysterious
a cry that was no more than a breath: arrangement of merciless logic for a futile purpose. he
most you can hope from it is some knowledge of yourself—
‘he horror! he horror!’ that comes too late—a crop of unextinguishable regrets. I
have wrestled with death. It is the most unexciting contest
‘I blew the candle out and let the cabin. he pilgrims you can imagine. It takes place in an impalpable greyness,
were dining in the mess-room, and I took my place opposite with nothing underfoot, with nothing around, without

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spectators, without clamour, without glory, without the over the threshold of the invisible. Perhaps! I like to think
great desire of victory, without the great fear of defeat, in a my summing-up would not have been a word of careless
sickly atmosphere of tepid scepticism, without much belief contempt. Better his cry—much better. It was an airma-
in your own right, and still less in that of your adversary. If tion, a moral victory paid for by innumerable defeats, by
such is the form of ultimate wisdom, then life is a greater abominable terrors, by abominable satisfactions. But it was
riddle than some of us think it to be. I was within a hair’s a victory! hat is why I have remained loyal to Kurtz to the
breadth of the last opportunity for pronouncement, and I last, and even beyond, when a long time ater I heard once
found with humiliation that probably I would have noth- more, not his own voice, but the echo of his magniicent
ing to say. his is the reason why I airm that Kurtz was a eloquence thrown to me from a soul as translucently pure
remarkable man. He had something to say. He said it. Since as a clif of crystal.
I had peeped over the edge myself, I understand better the ‘No, they did not bury me, though there is a period of
meaning of his stare, that could not see the lame of the time which I remember mistily, with a shuddering won-
candle, but was wide enough to embrace the whole universe, der, like a passage through some inconceivable world that
piercing enough to penetrate all the hearts that beat in the had no hope in it and no desire. I found myself back in
darkness. He had summed up—he had judged. ‘he horror!’ the sepulchral city resenting the sight of people hurrying
He was a remarkable man. Ater all, this was the expres- through the streets to ilch a little money from each other,
sion of some sort of belief; it had candour, it had conviction, to devour their infamous cookery, to gulp their unwhole-
it had a vibrating note of revolt in its whisper, it had the some beer, to dream their insigniicant and silly dreams.
appalling face of a glimpsed truth—the strange commin- hey trespassed upon my thoughts. hey were intruders
gling of desire and hate. And it is not my own extremity I whose knowledge of life was to me an irritating pretence,
remember best— a vision of greyness without form illed because I felt so sure they could not possibly know the
with physical pain, and a careless contempt for the eva- things I knew. heir bearing, which was simply the bear-
nescence of all things—even of this pain itself. No! It is his ing of commonplace individuals going about their business
extremity that I seem to have lived through. True, he had in the assurance of perfect safety, was ofensive to me like
made that last stride, he had stepped over the edge, while the outrageous launtings of folly in the face of a danger it
I had been permitted to draw back my hesitating foot. And is unable to comprehend. I had no particular desire to en-
perhaps in this is the whole diference; perhaps all the wis- lighten them, but I had some diiculty in restraining myself
dom, and all truth, and all sincerity, are just compressed from laughing in their faces so full of stupid importance. I
into that inappreciable moment of time in which we step dareway I was not very well at that time. I tottered about

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 the streets—there were various afairs to settle—grinning with an air of contempt. ‘his is not what we had a right to
bitterly at perfectly respectable persons. I admit my behav- expect,’ he remarked. ‘Expect nothing else,’ I said. ‘here
iour was inexcusable, but then my temperature was seldom are only private letters.’ He withdrew upon some threat of
normal in these days. My dear aunt’s endeavours to ‘nurse legal proceedings, and I saw him no more; but another fel-
up my strength’ seemed altogether beside the mark. It was low, calling himself Kurtz’s cousin, appeared two days later,
not my strength that wanted nursing, it was my imagina- and was anxious to hear all the details about his dear rela-
tion that wanted soothing. I kept the bundle of papers given tive’s last moments. Incidentally he gave me to understand
me by Kurtz, not knowing exactly what to do with it. His that Kurtz had been essentially a great musician. ‘here was
mother had died lately, watched over, as I was told, by his the making of an immense success,’ said the man, who was
Intended. A clean-shaved man, with an oicial manner an organist, I believe, with lank grey hair lowing over a
and wearing gold-rimmed spectacles, called on me one day greasy coat-collar. I had no reason to doubt his statement;
and made inquiries, at irst circuitous, aterwards suavely and to this day I am unable to say what was Kurtz’s profes-
pressing, about what he was pleased to denominate certain sion, whether he ever had any—which was the greatest of
‘documents.’ I was not surprised, because I had had two his talents. I had taken him for a painter who wrote for the
rows with the manager on the subject out there. I had re- papers, or else for a journalist who could paint—but even
fused to give up the smallest scrap out of that package, and I the cousin (who took snuf during the interview) could
took the same attitude with the spectacled man. He became not tell me what he had been—exactly. He was a universal
darkly menacing at last, and with much heat argued that genius—on that point I agreed with the old chap, who there-
the Company had the right to every bit of information about upon blew his nose noisily into a large cotton handkerchief
its ‘territories.’ And said he, ‘Mr. Kurtz’s knowledge of un- and withdrew in senile agitation, bearing of some fami-
explored regions must have been necessarily extensive and ly letters and memoranda without importance. Ultimately
peculiar— owing to his great abilities and to the deplorable a journalist anxious to know something of the fate of his
circumstances in which he had been placed: therefore—’ I ‘dear colleague’ turned up. his visitor informed me Kurtz’s
assured him Mr. Kurtz’s knowledge, however extensive, did proper sphere ought to have been politics ‘on the popular
not bear upon the problems of commerce or administra- side.’ He had furry straight eyebrows, bristly hair cropped
tion. He invoked then the name of science. ‘It would be an short, an eyeglass on a broad ribbon, and, becoming expan-
incalculable loss if,’ etc., etc. I ofered him the report on the sive, confessed his opinion that Kurtz really couldn’t write
‘Suppression of Savage Customs,’ with the postscriptum a bit—’but heavens! how that man could talk. He electriied
torn of. He took it up eagerly, but ended by sniing at it large meetings. He had faith—don’t you see?—he had the

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 faith. He could get himself to believe anything—anything. man existence. I don’t know. I can’t tell. But I went.
He would have been a splendid leader of an extreme party.’ ‘I thought his memory was like the other memories of the
‘What party?’ I asked. ‘Any party,’ answered the other. ‘He dead that accumulate in every man’s life—a vague impress
was an—an—extremist.’ Did I not think so? I assented. Did on the brain of shadows that had fallen on it in their swit
I know, he asked, with a sudden lash of curiosity, ‘what it and inal passage; but before the high and ponderous door,
was that had induced him to go out there?’ ‘Yes,’ said I, and between the tall houses of a street as still and decorous as
forthwith handed him the famous Report for publication, if a well-kept alley in a cemetery, I had a vision of him on the
he thought it. He glanced through it hurriedly, mumbling stretcher, opening his mouth voraciously, as if to devour all
all the time, judged ‘it would do,’ and took himself of with the earth with all its mankind. He lived then before me; he
this plunder. lived as much as he had ever lived—a shadow insatiable of
‘hus I was let at last with a slim packet of letters and splendid appearances, of frightful realities; a shadow dark-
the girl’s portrait. She struck me as beautiful— I mean er than the shadow of the night, and draped nobly in the
she had a beautiful expression. I know that the sunlight folds of a gorgeous eloquence. he vision seemed to enter
ycan be made to lie, too, yet one felt that no manipulation the house with me—the stretcher, the phantom-bearers, the
of light and pose could have conveyed the delicate shade wild crowd of obedient worshippers, the gloom of the for-
of truthfulness upon those features. She seemed ready to ests, the glitter of the reach between the murky bends, the
listen without mental reservation, without suspicion, with- beat of the drum, regular and muled like the beating of a
out a thought for herself. I concluded I would go and give heart—the heart of a conquering darkness. It was a moment
her back her portrait and those letters myself. Curiosity? of triumph for the wilderness, an invading and vengeful
Yes; and also some other feeling perhaps. All that had been rush which, it seemed to me, I would have to keep back
Kurtz’s had passed out of my hands: his soul, his body, his alone for the salvation of another soul. And the memory of
station, his plans, his ivory, his career. here remained only what I had heard him say afar there, with the horned shapes
his memory and his Intended— and I wanted to give that stirring at my back, in the glow of ires, within the patient
up, too, to the past, in a way— to surrender personally all woods, those broken phrases came back to me, were heard
that remained of him with me to that oblivion which is the again in their ominous and terrifying simplicity. I remem-
last word of our common fate. I don’t defend myself. I had bered his abject pleading, his abject threats, the colossal
no clear perception of what it was I really wanted. Perhaps scale of his vile desires, the meanness, the torment, the tem-
it was an impulse of unconscious loyalty, or the fulilment pestuous anguish of his soul. And later on I seemed to see
of one of those ironic necessities that lurk in the facts of hu- his collected languid manner, when he said one day, ‘his

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lot of ivory now is really mine. he Company did not pay this pale visage, this pure brow, seemed surrounded by an
for it. I collected it myself at a very great personal risk. I am ashy halo from which the dark eyes looked out at me. heir
afraid they will try to claim it as theirs though. H’m. It is a glance was guileless, profound, conident, and trustful. She
diicult case. What do you think I ought to do—resist? Eh? carried her sorrowful head as though she were proud of that
I want no more than justice.’ … He wanted no more than sorrow, as though she would say, ‘I—I alone know how to
justice—no more than justice. I rang the bell before a ma- mourn for him as he deserves.’ But while we were still shak-
hogany door on the irst loor, and while I waited he seemed ing hands, such a look of awful desolation came upon her
to stare at me out of the glassy panel— stare with that wide face that I perceived she was one of those creatures that are
and immense stare embracing, condemning, loathing all not the playthings of Time. For her he had died only yes-
the universe. I seemed to hear the whispered cry, ‘he hor- terday. And, by Jove! the impression was so powerful that
ror! he horror!’ for me, too, he seemed to have died only yesterday—nay,
‘he dusk was falling. I had to wait in a loty drawing- this very minute. I saw her and him in the same instant of
room with three long windows from loor to ceiling that time—his death and her sorrow—I saw her sorrow in the
were like three luminous and bedraped columns. he bent very moment of his death. Do you understand? I saw them
gilt legs and backs of the furniture shone in indistinct together—I heard them together. She had said, with a deep
curves. he tall marble ireplace had a cold and monumen- catch of the breath, ‘I have survived’ while my strained
tal whiteness. A grand piano stood massively in a corner; ears seemed to hear distinctly, mingled with her tone of
with dark gleams on the lat surfaces like a sombre and pol- despairing regret, the summing up whisper of his eternal
ished sarcophagus. A high door opened—closed. I rose. condemnation. I asked myself what I was doing there, with
‘She came forward, all in black, with a pale head, loat- a sensation of panic in my heart as though I had blundered
ing towards me in the dusk. She was in mourning. It was into a place of cruel and absurd mysteries not it for a hu-
more than a year since his death, more than a year since the man being to behold. She motioned me to a chair. We sat
news came; she seemed as though she would remember and down. I laid the packet gently on the little table, and she put
mourn forever. She took both my hands in hers and mur- her hand over it. … ‘You knew him well,’ she murmured, af-
mured, ‘I had heard you were coming.’ I noticed she was ter a moment of mourning silence.
not very young—I mean not girlish. She had a mature ca- ‘Intimacy grows quickly out there,’ I said. ‘I knew him as
pacity for idelity, for belief, for sufering. he room seemed well as it is possible for one man to know another.’
to have grown darker, as if all the sad light of the cloudy ‘And you admired him,’ she said. ‘It was impossible to
evening had taken refuge on her forehead. his fair hair, know him and not to admire him. Was it?’

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 ‘He was a remarkable man,’ I said, unsteadily. hen be- all his life. He had given me some reason to infer that it was
fore the appealing ixity of her gaze, that seemed to watch his impatience of comparative poverty that drove him out
for more words on my lips, I went on, ‘It was impossible not there.
to—’ ‘… Who was not his friend who had heard him speak
‘Love him,’ she inished eagerly, silencing me into an ap- once?’ she was saying. ‘He drew men towards him by what
palled dumbness. ‘How true! how true! But when you think was best in them.’ She looked at me with intensity. ‘It is the
that no one knew him so well as I! I had all his noble coni- git of the great,’ she went on, and the sound of her low voice
dence. I knew him best.’ seemed to have the accompaniment of all the other sounds,
‘You knew him best,’ I repeated. And perhaps she did. But full of mystery, desolation, and sorrow, I had ever heard—
with every word spoken the room was growing darker, and the ripple of the river, the soughing of the trees swayed by
only her forehead, smooth and white, remained illumined the wind, the murmurs of the crowds, the faint ring of in-
by the inextinguishable light of belief and love. comprehensible words cried from afar, the whisper of a
‘You were his friend,’ she went on. ‘His friend,’ she re- voice speaking from beyond the threshold of an eternal
peated, a little louder. ‘You must have been, if he had given darkness. ‘But you have heard him! You know!’ she cried.
you this, and sent you to me. I feel I can speak to you—and ‘Yes, I know,’ I said with something like despair in my
oh! I must speak. I want you—you who have heard his last heart, but bowing my head before the faith that was in her,
words— to know I have been worthy of him. … It is not before that great and saving illusion that shone with an un-
pride. … Yes! I am proud to know I understood him better earthly glow in the darkness, in the triumphant darkness
than any one on earth— he told me so himself. And since from which I could not have defended her— from which I
his mother died I have had no one— no one—to—to—’ could not even defend myself.
‘I listened. he darkness deepened. I was not even sure ‘What a loss to me—to us!’—she corrected herself with
whether he had given me the right bundle. I rather suspect beautiful generosity; then added in a murmur, ‘To the
he wanted me to take care of another batch of his papers world.’ By the last gleams of twilight I could see the glitter
which, ater his death, I saw the manager examining under of her eyes, full of tears—of tears that would not fall.
the lamp. And the girl talked, easing her pain in the cer- ‘I have been very happy—very fortunate—very proud,’
titude of my sympathy; she talked as thirsty men drink. I she went on. ‘Too fortunate. Too happy for a little while.
had heard that her engagement with Kurtz had been disap- And now I am unhappy for—for life.’
proved by her people. He wasn’t rich enough or something. ‘She stood up; her fair hair seemed to catch all the re-
And indeed I don’t know whether he had not been a pauper maining light in a glimmer of gold. I rose, too.

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 ‘And of all this,’ she went on mournfully, ‘of all his prom- as he lived.’
ise, and of all his greatness, of his generous mind, of his ‘His end,’ said I, with dull anger stirring in me, ‘was in
noble heart, nothing remains—nothing but a memory. You every way worthy of his life.’
and I—’ ‘And I was not with him,’ she murmured. My anger sub-
‘We shall always remember him,’ I said hastily. sided before a feeling of ininite pity.
‘No!’ she cried. ‘It is impossible that all this should be ‘Everything that could be done—’ I mumbled.
lost— that such a life should be sacriiced to leave noth- ‘Ah, but I believed in him more than any one on earth—
ing—but sorrow. You know what vast plans he had. I knew more than his own mother, more than—himself. He needed
of them, too—I could not perhaps understand—but others me! Me! I would have treasured every sigh, every word, ev-
knew of them. Something must remain. His words, at least, ery sign, every glance.’
have not died.’ ‘I felt like a chill grip on my chest. ‘Don’t,’ I said, in a
‘His words will remain,’ I said. muled voice.
‘And his example,’ she whispered to herself. ‘Men looked ‘Forgive me. I—I have mourned so long in silence—in
up to him— his goodness shone in every act. His exam- silence…. You were with him—to the last? I think of his
ple—’ loneliness. Nobody near to understand him as I would have
‘True,’ I said; ‘his example, too. Yes, his example. I for- understood. Perhaps no one to hear. …’
got that.’ ‘To the very end,’ I said, shakily. ‘I heard his very last
‘But I do not. I cannot—I cannot believe—not yet. I can- words….’ I stopped in a fright.
not believe that I shall never see him again, that nobody will ‘Repeat them,’ she murmured in a heart-broken tone. ‘I
see him again, never, never, never.’ want—I want—something—something—to—to live with.’
‘She put out her arms as if ater a retreating igure, ‘I was on the point of crying at her, ‘Don’t you hear them?’
stretching them back and with clasped pale hands across he dusk was repeating them in a persistent whisper all
the fading and narrow sheen of the window. Never see him! around us, in a whisper that seemed to swell menacingly
I saw him clearly enough then. I shall see this eloquent like the irst whisper of a rising wind. ‘he horror! he hor-
phantom as long as I live, and I shall see her, too, a tragic ror!’
and familiar Shade, resembling in this gesture another one, ‘His last word—to live with,’ she insisted. ‘Don’t you un-
tragic also, and bedecked with powerless charms, stretch- derstand I loved him—I loved him—I loved him!’
ing bare brown arms over the glitter of the infernal stream, ‘I pulled myself together and spoke slowly.
the stream of darkness. She said suddenly very low, ‘He died ‘he last word he pronounced was—your name.’

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 ‘I heard a light sigh and then my heart stood still, stopped
dead short by an exulting and terrible cry, by the cry of in-
conceivable triumph and of unspeakable pain. ‘I knew it—I
was sure!’ … She knew. She was sure. I heard her weeping;
she had hidden her face in her hands. It seemed to me that
the house would collapse before I could escape, that the
heavens would fall upon my head. But nothing happened.
he heavens do not fall for such a trile. Would they have
fallen, I wonder, if I had rendered Kurtz that justice which
was his due? Hadn’t he said he wanted only justice? But I
couldn’t. I could not tell her. It would have been too dark—
too dark altogether….’
Marlow ceased, and sat apart, indistinct and silent, in
the pose of a meditating Buddha. Nobody moved for a time.
‘We have lost the irst of the ebb,’ said the Director suddenly.
I raised my head. he oing was barred by a black bank of
clouds, and the tranquil waterway leading to the uttermost
ends of the earth lowed sombre under an overcast sky—
seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness.

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