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diff --git a/old/20060109-493.txt b/old/20060109-493.txt deleted file mode 100644 index d37a9df..0000000 --- a/old/20060109-493.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,3243 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Falk, by Joseph Conrad - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: Falk - -Author: Joseph Conrad - -Release Date: January 9, 2006 [EBook #493] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FALK *** - - - - -Produced by Judith Boss and David Widger - - - - - -FALK - -A REMINISCENCE - - -By Joseph Conrad - - - -Several of us, all more or less connected with the sea, were dining in -a small river-hostelry not more than thirty miles from London, and less -than twenty from that shallow and dangerous puddle to which our coasting -men give the grandiose name of "German Ocean." And through the wide -windows we had a view of the Thames; an enfilading view down the Lower -Hope Reach. But the dinner was execrable, and all the feast was for the -eyes. - -That flavour of salt-water which for so many of us had been the very -water of life permeated our talk. He who hath known the bitterness of -the Ocean shall have its taste forever in his mouth. But one or two -of us, pampered by the life of the land, complained of hunger. It was -impossible to swallow any of that stuff. And indeed there was a strange -mustiness in everything. The wooden dining-room stuck out over the mud -of the shore like a lacustrine dwelling; the planks of the floor seemed -rotten; a decrepit old waiter tottered pathetically to and fro before -an antediluvian and worm-eaten sideboard; the chipped plates might have -been disinterred from some kitchen midden near an inhabited lake; and -the chops recalled times more ancient still. They brought forcibly to -one's mind the night of ages when the primeval man, evolving the first -rudiments of cookery from his dim consciousness, scorched lumps of flesh -at a fire of sticks in the company of other good fellows; then, gorged -and happy, sat him back among the gnawed bones to tell his artless tales -of experience--the tales of hunger and hunt--and of women, perhaps! - -But luckily the wine happened to be as old as the waiter. So, -comparatively empty, but upon the whole fairly happy, we sat back and -told our artless tales. We talked of the sea and all its works. The -sea never changes, and its works for all the talk of men are wrapped in -mystery. But we agreed that the times were changed. And we talked of old -ships, of sea-accidents, of break-downs, dismastings; and of a man who -brought his ship safe to Liverpool all the way from the River Platte -under a jury rudder. We talked of wrecks, of short rations and of -heroism--or at least of what the newspapers would have called heroism -at sea--a manifestation of virtues quite different from the heroism of -primitive times. And now and then falling silent all together we gazed -at the sights of the river. - -A P. & O. boat passed bound down. "One gets jolly good dinners on board -these ships," remarked one of our band. A man with sharp eyes read -out the name on her bows: Arcadia. "What a beautiful model of a ship!" -murmured some of us. She was followed by a small cargo steamer, and the -flag they hauled down aboard while we were looking showed her to be a -Norwegian. She made an awful lot of smoke; and before it had quite blown -away, a high-sided, short, wooden barque, in ballast and towed by a -paddle-tug, appeared in front of the windows. All her hands were forward -busy setting up the headgear; and aft a woman in a red hood, quite alone -with the man at the wheel, paced the length of the poop back and forth, -with the grey wool of some knitting work in her hands. - -"German I should think," muttered one. "The skipper has his wife on -board," remarked another; and the light of the crimson sunset all -ablaze behind the London smoke, throwing a glow of Bengal light upon the -barque's spars, faded away from the Hope Reach. - -Then one of us, who had not spoken before, a man of over fifty, that had -commanded ships for a quarter of a century, looking after the barque now -gliding far away, all black on the lustre of the river, said: - -This reminds me of an absurd episode in my life, now many years ago, -when I got first the command of an iron barque, loading then in a -certain Eastern seaport. It was also the capital of an Eastern kingdom, -lying up a river as might be London lies up this old Thames of ours. -No more need be said of the place; for this sort of thing might have -happened anywhere where there are ships, skippers, tugboats, and orphan -nieces of indescribable splendour. And the absurdity of the episode -concerns only me, my enemy Falk, and my friend Hermann. - -There seemed to be something like peculiar emphasis on the words "My -friend Hermann," which caused one of us (for we had just been speaking -of heroism at sea) to say idly and nonchalantly: - -"And was this Hermann a hero?" - -Not at all, said our grizzled friend. No hero at all. He was a -Schiff-fuhrer: Ship-conductor. That's how they call a Master Mariner -in Germany. I prefer our way. The alliteration is good, and there is -something in the nomenclature that gives to us as a body the sense -of corporate existence: Apprentice, Mate, Master, in the ancient and -honourable craft of the sea. As to my friend Hermann, he might have -been a consummate master of the honourable craft, but he was called -officially Schiff-fuhrer, and had the simple, heavy appearance of a -well-to-do farmer, combined with the good-natured shrewdness of a small -shopkeeper. With his shaven chin, round limbs, and heavy eyelids he did -not look like a toiler, and even less like an adventurer of the sea. -Still, he toiled upon the seas, in his own way, much as a shopkeeper -works behind his counter. And his ship was the means by which he -maintained his growing family. - -She was a heavy, strong, blunt-bowed affair, awakening the ideas of -primitive solidity, like the wooden plough of our forefathers. And there -were, about her, other suggestions of a rustic and homely nature. The -extraordinary timber projections which I have seen in no other vessel -made her square stern resemble the tail end of a miller's waggon. But -the four stern ports of her cabin, glazed with six little greenish panes -each, and framed in wooden sashes painted brown, might have been the -windows of a cottage in the country. The tiny white curtains and the -greenery of flower pots behind the glass completed the resemblance. On -one or two occasions when passing under stern I had detected from my -boat a round arm in the act of tilting a watering pot, and the bowed -sleek head of a maiden whom I shall always call Hermann's niece, because -as a matter of fact I've never heard her name, for all my intimacy with -the family. - -This, however, sprang up later on. Meantime in common with the rest -of the shipping in that Eastern port, I was left in no doubt as to -Hermann's notions of hygienic clothing. Evidently he believed in -wearing good stout flannel next his skin. On most days little frocks and -pinafores could be seen drying in the mizzen rigging of his ship, or -a tiny row of socks fluttering on the signal halyards; but once a -fortnight the family washing was exhibited in force. It covered the -poop entirely. The afternoon breeze would incite to a weird and flabby -activity all that crowded mass of clothing, with its vague suggestions -of drowned, mutilated and flattened humanity. Trunks without heads waved -at you arms without hands; legs without feet kicked fantastically with -collapsible flourishes; and there were long white garments that, taking -the wind fairly through their neck openings edged with lace, became for -a moment violently distended as by the passage of obese and invisible -bodies. On these days you could make out that ship at a great distance -by the multi-coloured grotesque riot going on abaft her mizzen mast. - -She had her berth just ahead of me, and her name was Diana,--Diana not -of Ephesus but of Bremen. This was proclaimed in white letters a foot -long spaced widely across the stern (somewhat like the lettering of a -shop-sign) under the cottage windows. This ridiculously unsuitable name -struck one as an impertinence towards the memory of the most charming -of goddesses; for, apart from the fact that the old craft was physically -incapable of engaging in any sort of chase, there was a gang of four -children belonging to her. They peeped over the rail at passing boats -and occasionally dropped various objects into them. Thus, sometime -before I knew Hermann to speak to, I received on my hat a horrid -rag-doll belonging to Hermann's eldest daughter. However, these -youngsters were upon the whole well behaved. They had fair heads, round -eyes, round little knobby noses, and they resembled their father a good -deal. - -This Diana of Bremen was a most innocent old ship, and seemed to know -nothing of the wicked sea, as there are on shore households that know -nothing of the corrupt world. And the sentiments she suggested were -unexceptionable and mainly of a domestic order. She was a home. All -these dear children had learned to walk on her roomy quarter-deck. In -such thoughts there is something pretty, even touching. Their teeth, I -should judge, they had cut on the ends of her running gear. I have -many times observed the baby Hermann (Nicholas) engaged in gnawing the -whipping of the fore-royal brace. Nicholas' favourite place of residence -was under the main fife-rail. Directly he was let loose he would -crawl off there, and the first seaman who came along would bring him, -carefully held aloft in tarry hands, back to the cabin door. I fancy -there must have been a standing order to that effect. In the course of -these transportations the baby, who was the only peppery person in the -ship, tried to smite these stalwart young German sailors on the face. - -Mrs. Hermann, an engaging, stout housewife, wore on board baggy blue -dresses with white dots. When, as happened once or twice I caught her at -an elegant little wash-tub rubbing hard on white collars, baby's socks, -and Hermann's summer neckties, she would blush in girlish confusion, and -raising her wet hands greet me from afar with many friendly nods. Her -sleeves would be rolled up to the elbows, and the gold hoop of her -wedding ring glittered among the soapsuds. Her voice was pleasant, she -had a serene brow, smooth bands of very fair hair, and a good-humoured -expression of the eyes. She was motherly and moderately talkative. When -this simple matron smiled, youthful dimples broke out on her fresh broad -cheeks. Hermann's niece on the other hand, an orphan and very silent, I -never saw attempt a smile. This, however, was not gloom on her part but -the restraint of youthful gravity. - -They had carried her about with them for the last three years, to help -with the children and be company for Mrs. Hermann, as Hermann mentioned -once to me. It had been very necessary while they were all little, he -had added in a vexed manner. It was her arm and her sleek head that -I had glimpsed one morning, through the stern-windows of the cabin, -hovering over the pots of fuchsias and mignonette; but the first time I -beheld her full length I surrendered to her proportions. They fix her -in my mind, as great beauty, great intelligence, quickness of wit -or kindness of heart might have made some her other woman equally -memorable. - -With her it was form and size. It was her physical personality that had -this imposing charm. She might have been witty, intelligent, and kind to -an exceptional degree. I don't know, and this is not to the point. All -I know is that she was built on a magnificent scale. Built is the only -word. She was constructed, she was erected, as it were, with a regal -lavishness. It staggered you to see this reckless expenditure of -material upon a chit of a girl. She was youthful and also perfectly -mature, as though she had been some fortunate immortal. She was heavy -too, perhaps, but that's nothing. It only added to that notion of -permanence. She was barely nineteen. But such shoulders! Such round -arms! Such a shadowing forth of mighty limbs when with three long -strides she pounced across the deck upon the overturned Nicholas--it's -perfectly indescribable! She seemed a good, quiet girl, vigilant as -to Lena's needs, Gustav's tumbles, the state of Carl's dear little -nose--conscientious, hardworking, and all that. But what magnificent -hair she had! Abundant, long, thick, of a tawny colour. It had the sheen -of precious metals. She wore it plaited tightly into one single tress -hanging girlishly down her back and its end reached down to her waist. -The massiveness of it surprised you. On my word it reminded one of a -club. Her face was big, comely, of an unruffled expression. She had a -good complexion, and her blue eyes were so pale that she appeared to -look at the world with the empty white candour of a statue. You could -not call her good-looking. It was something much more impressive. -The simplicity of her apparel, the opulence of her form, her imposing -stature, and the extraordinary sense of vigorous life that seemed to -emanate from her like a perfume exhaled by a flower, made her beautiful -with a beauty of a rustic and olympian order. To watch her reaching up -to the clothes-line with both arms raised high above her head, caused -you to fall a musing in a strain of pagan piety. Excellent Mrs. -Hermann's baggy cotton gowns had some sort of rudimentary frills at neck -and bottom, but this girl's print frocks hadn't even a wrinkle; nothing -but a few straight folds in the skirt falling to her feet, and these, -when she stood still, had a severe and statuesque quality. She was -inclined naturally to be still whether sitting or standing. However, I -don't mean to say she was statuesque. She was too generously alive; but -she could have stood for an allegoric statue of the Earth. I don't mean -the worn-out earth of our possession, but a young Earth, a virginal -planet undisturbed by the vision of a future teeming with the monstrous -forms of life and death, clamorous with the cruel battles of hunger and -thought. - -The worthy Hermann himself was not very entertaining, though his English -was fairly comprehensible. Mrs. Hermann, who always let off one speech -at least at me in an hospitable, cordial tone (and in Platt-Deutsch I -suppose) I could not understand. As to their niece, however satisfactory -to look upon (and she inspired you somehow with a hopeful view as to -the prospects of mankind) she was a modest and silent presence, mostly -engaged in sewing, only now and then, as I observed, falling over that -work into a state of maidenly meditation. Her aunt sat opposite her, -sewing also, with her feet propped on a wooden footstool. On the other -side of the deck Hermann and I would get a couple of chairs out of the -cabin and settle down to a smoking match, accompanied at long intervals -by the pacific exchange of a few words. I came nearly every evening. -Hermann I would find in his shirt sleeves. As soon as he returned from -the shore on board his ship he commenced operations by taking off his -coat; then he put on his head an embroidered round cap with a tassel, -and changed his boots for a pair of cloth slippers. Afterwards he smoked -at the cabin-door, looking at his children with an air of civic virtue, -till they got caught one after another and put to bed in various -staterooms. Lastly, we would drink some beer in the cabin, which -was furnished with a wooden table on cross legs, and with black -straight-backed chairs--more like a farm kitchen than a ship's cuddy. -The sea and all nautical affairs seemed very far removed from the -hospitality of this exemplary family. - -And I liked this because I had a rather worrying time on board my own -ship. I had been appointed ex-officio by the British Consul to take -charge of her after a man who had died suddenly, leaving for the -guidance of his successor some suspiciously unreceipted bills, a few -dry-dock estimates hinting at bribery, and a quantity of vouchers for -three years' extravagant expenditure; all these mixed up together in a -dusty old violin-case lined with ruby velvet. I found besides a large -account-book, which, when opened, hopefully turned out to my infinite -consternation to be filled with verses--page after page of rhymed -doggerel of a jovial and improper character, written in the neatest -minute hand I ever did see. In the same fiddle-case a photograph of my -predecessor, taken lately in Saigon, represented in front of a garden -view, and in company of a female in strange draperies, an elderly, -squat, rugged man of stern aspect in a clumsy suit of black broadcloth, -and with the hair brushed forward above the temples in a manner -reminding one of a boar's tusks. Of a fiddle, however, the only trace -on board was the case, its empty husk as it were; but of the two last -freights the ship had indubitably earned of late, there were not even -the husks left. It was impossible to say where all that money had gone -to. It wasn't on board. It had not been remitted home; for a letter -from the owners, preserved in a desk evidently by the merest accident, -complained mildly enough that they had not been favoured by a scratch -of the pen for the last eighteen months. There were next to no stores on -board, not an inch of spare rope or a yard of canvas. The ship had been -run bare, and I foresaw no end of difficulties before I could get her -ready for sea. - -As I was young then--not thirty yet--I took myself and my troubles very -seriously. The old mate, who had acted as chief mourner at the captain's -funeral, was not particularly pleased at my coming. But the fact is the -fellow was not legally qualified for command, and the Consul was bound, -if at all possible, to put a properly certificated man on board. As to -the second mate, all I can say his name was Tottersen, or something like -that. His practice was to wear on his head, in that tropical climate, a -mangy fur cap. He was, without exception, the stupidest man I had ever -seen on board ship. And he looked it too. He looked so confoundedly -stupid that it was a matter of surprise for me when he answered to his -name. - -I drew no great comfort from their company, to say the least of it; -while the prospect of making a long sea passage with those two fellows -was depressing. And my other thoughts in solitude could not be of a -gay complexion. The crew was sickly, the cargo was coming very slow; I -foresaw I would have lots of trouble with the charterers, and doubted -whether they would advance me enough money for the ship's expenses. -Their attitude towards me was unfriendly. Altogether I was not getting -on. I would discover at odd times (generally about midnight) that I -was totally inexperienced, greatly ignorant of business, and hopelessly -unfit for any sort of command; and when the steward had to be taken to -the hospital ill with choleraic symptoms I felt bereaved of the only -decent person at the after end of the ship. He was fully expected to -recover, but in the meantime had to be replaced by some sort of servant. -And on the recommendation of a certain Schomberg, the proprietor of the -smaller of the two hotels in the place, I engaged a Chinaman. Schomberg, -a brawny, hairy Alsatian, and an awful gossip, assured me that it was -all right. "First-class boy that. Came in the suite of his Excellency -Tseng the Commissioner--you know. His Excellency Tseng lodged with me -here for three weeks." - -He mouthed the Chinese Excellency at me with great unction, though -the specimen of the "suite" did not seem very promising. At the time, -however, I did not know what an untrustworthy humbug Schomberg was. The -"boy" might have been forty or a hundred and forty for all you could -tell--one of those Chinamen of the death's-head type of face and -completely inscrutable. Before the end of the third day he had revealed -himself as a confirmed opium-smoker, a gambler, a most audacious thief, -and a first-class sprinter. When he departed at the top of his speed -with thirty-two golden sovereigns of my own hard-earned savings it was -the last straw. I had reserved that money in case my difficulties came -to the worst. Now it was gone I felt as poor and naked as a fakir. I -clung to my ship, for all the bother she caused me, but what I could not -bear were the long lonely evenings in her cuddy, where the atmosphere, -made smelly by a leaky lamp, was agitated by the snoring of the mate. -That fellow shut himself up in his stuffy cabin punctually at eight, and -made gross and revolting noises like a water-logged trump. It was odious -not to be able to worry oneself in comfort on board one's own ship. -Everything in this world, I reflected, even the command of a nice little -barque, may be made a delusion and a snare for the unwary spirit of -pride in man. - -From such reflections I was glad to make any escape on board that Bremen -Diana. There apparently no whisper of the world's iniquities had ever -penetrated. And yet she lived upon the wide sea: and the sea tragic -and comic, the sea with its horrors and its peculiar scandals, the sea -peopled by men and ruled by iron necessity is indubitably a part of the -world. But that patriarchal old tub, like some saintly retreat, echoed -nothing of it. She was world proof. Her venerable innocence apparently -had put a restraint on the roaring lusts of the sea. And yet I have -known the sea too long to believe in its respect for decency. An -elemental force is ruthlessly frank. It may, of course, have been -Hermann's skilful seamanship, but to me it looked as if the allied -oceans had refrained from smashing these high bulwarks, unshipping -the lumpy rudder, frightening the children, and generally opening this -family's eyes out of sheer reticence. It looked like reticence. The -ruthless disclosure was in the end left for a man to make; a man strong -and elemental enough and driven to unveil some secrets of the sea by the -power of a simple and elemental desire. - -This, however, occurred much later, and meantime I took sanctuary in -that serene old ship early every evening. The only person on board that -seemed to be in trouble was little Lena, and in due course I perceived -that the health of the rag-doll was more than delicate. This object led -a sort of "in extremis" existence in a wooden box placed against the -starboard mooring-bitts, tended and nursed with the greatest sympathy -and care by all the children, who greatly enjoyed pulling long faces and -moving with hushed footsteps. Only the baby--Nicholas--looked on with a -cold, ruffianly leer, as if he had belonged to another tribe altogether. -Lena perpetually sorrowed over the box, and all of them were in deadly -earnest. It was wonderful the way these children would work up their -compassion for that bedraggled thing I wouldn't have touched with a pair -of tongs. I suppose they were exercising and developing their racial -sentimentalism by the means of that dummy. I was only surprised that -Mrs. Hermann let Lena cherish and hug that bundle of rags to that -extent, it was so disreputably and completely unclean. But Mrs. Hermann -would raise her fine womanly eyes from her needlework to look on with -amused sympathy, and did not seen to see it, somehow, that this -object of affection was a disgrace to the ship's purity. Purity, not -cleanliness, is the word. It was pushed so far that I seemed to detect -in this too a sentimental excess, as if dirt had been removed in -very love. It is impossible to give you an idea of such a meticulous -neatness. It was as if every morning that ship had been arduously -explored with--with toothbrushes. Her very bowsprit three times a week -had its toilette made with a cake of soap and a piece of soft flannel. -Arrayed--I _must_ say arrayed--arrayed artlessly in dazzling white paint -as to wood and dark green as to ironwork the simple-minded distribution -of these colours evoked the images of simple-minded peace, of arcadian -felicity; and the childish comedy of disease and sorrow struck me -sometimes as an abominably real blot upon that ideal state. - -I enjoyed it greatly, and on my part I brought a little mild excitement -into it. Our intimacy arose from the pursuit of that thief. It was in -the evening, and Hermann, who, contrary to his habits, had stayed on -shore late that day, was extricating himself backwards out of a little -gharry on the river bank, opposite his ship, when the hunt passed. -Realising the situation as though he had eyes in his shoulder-blades, he -joined us with a leap and took the lead. The Chinaman fled silent like -a rapid shadow on the dust of an extremely oriental road. I followed. A -long way in the rear my mate whooped like a savage. A young moon threw -a bashful light on a plain like a monstrous waste ground: the -architectural mass of a Buddhist temple far away projected itself -in dead black on the sky. We lost the thief of course; but in my -disappointment I had to admire Hermann's presence of mind. The velocity -that stodgy man developed in the interests of a complete stranger earned -my warm gratitude--there was something truly cordial in his exertions. - -He seemed as vexed as myself at our failure, and would hardly listen to -my thanks. He said it was "nothings," and invited me on the spot to -come on board his ship and drink a glass of beer with him. We poked -sceptically for a while amongst the bushes, peered without conviction -into a ditch or two. There was not a sound: patches of slime glimmered -feebly amongst the reeds. Slowly we trudged back, drooping under the -thin sickle of the moon, and I heard him mutter to himself, "Himmel! -Zwei und dreissig Pfund!" He was impressed by the figure of my loss. For -a long time we had ceased to hear the mate's whoops and yells. - -Then he said to me, "Everybody has his troubles," and as we went on -remarked that he would never have known anything of mine hadn't he by an -extraordinary chance been detained on shore by Captain Falk. He didn't -like to stay late ashore--he added with a sigh. The something doleful in -his tone I put to his sympathy with my misfortune, of course. - -On board the Diana Mrs. Hermann's fine eyes expressed much interest and -commiseration. We had found the two women sewing face to face under the -open skylight in the strong glare of the lamp. Hermann walked in first, -starting in the very doorway to pull off his coat, and encouraging -me with loud, hospitable ejaculations: "Come in! This way! Come in, -captain!" At once, coat in hand, he began to tell his wife all about -it. Mrs. Hermann put the palms of her plump hands together; I smiled -and bowed with a heavy heart: the niece got up from her sewing to -bring Hermann's slippers and his embroidered calotte, which he assumed -pontifically, talking (about me) all the time. Billows of white stuff -lay between the chairs on the cabin floor; I caught the words "Zwei und -dreissig Pfund" repeated several times, and presently came the beer, -which seemed delicious to my throat, parched with running and the -emotions of the chase. - -I didn't get away till well past midnight, long after the women had -retired. Hermann had been trading in the East for three years or more, -carrying freights of rice and timber mostly. His ship was well known in -all the ports from Vladivostok to Singapore. She was his own property. -The profits had been moderate, but the trade answered well enough while -the children were small yet. In another year or so he hoped he would -be able to sell the old Diana to a firm in Japan for a fair price. He -intended to return home, to Bremen, by mail boat, second class, with -Mrs. Hermann and the children. He told me all this stolidly, with slow -puffs at his pipe. I was sorry when knocking the ashes out he began -to rub his eyes. I would have sat with him till morning. What had I to -hurry on board my own ship for? To face the broken rifled drawer in my -state-room. Ugh! The very thought made me feel unwell. - -I became their daily guest, as you know. I think that Mrs. Hermann from -the first looked upon me as a romantic person. I did not, of course, -tear my hair _coram populo_ over my loss, and she took it for lordly -indifference. Afterwards, I daresay, I did tell them some of my -adventures--such as they were--and they marvelled greatly at the extent -of my experience. Hermann would translate what he thought the most -striking passages. Getting up on his legs, and as if delivering a -lecture on a phenomenon, he addressed himself, with gestures, to the two -women, who would let their sewing sink slowly on their laps. Meantime -I sat before a glass of Hermann's beer, trying to look modest. Mrs. -Hermann would glance at me quickly, emit slight "Ach's!" The girl never -made a sound. Never. But she too would sometimes raise her pale eyes -to look at me in her unseeing gentle way. Her glance was by no means -stupid; it beamed out soft and diffuse as the moon beams upon a -landscape--quite differently from the scrutinising inspection of the -stars. You were drowned in it, and imagined yourself to appear blurred. -And yet this same glance when turned upon Christian Falk must have been -as efficient as the searchlight of a battle-ship. - -Falk was the other assiduous visitor on board, but from his behaviour -he might have been coming to see the quarter-deck capstan. He certainly -used to stare at it a good deal when keeping us company outside the -cabin door, with one muscular arm thrown over the back of the chair, and -his big shapely legs, in very tight white trousers, extended far out and -ending in a pair of black shoes as roomy as punts. On arrival he would -shake Hermann's hand with a mutter, bow to the women, and take up his -careless and misanthropic attitude by our side. He departed abruptly, -with a jump, going through the performance of grunts, handshakes, bow, -as if in a panic. Sometimes, with a sort of discreet and convulsive -effort, he approached the women and exchanged a few low words with them, -half a dozen at most. On these occasions Hermann's usual stare became -positively glassy and Mrs. Hermann's kind countenance would colour up. -The girl herself never turned a hair. - -Falk was a Dane or perhaps a Norwegian, I can't tell now. At all events -he was a Scandinavian of some sort, and a bloated monopolist to boot. -It is possible he was unacquainted with the word, but he had a clear -perception of the thing itself. His tariff of charges for towing ships -in and out was the most brutally inconsiderate document of the sort I -had ever seen. He was the commander and owner of the only tug-boat on -the river, a very trim white craft of 150 tons or more, as elegantly -neat as a yacht, with a round wheel-house rising like a glazed turret -high above her sharp bows, and with one slender varnished pole mast -forward. I daresay there are yet a few shipmasters afloat who remember -Falk and his tug very well. He extracted his pound and a half of -flesh from each of us merchant-skippers with an inflexible sort of -indifference which made him detested and even feared. Schomberg used to -remark: "I won't talk about the fellow. I don't think he has six drinks -from year's end to year's end in my place. But my advice is, gentlemen, -don't you have anything to do with him, if you can help it." - -This advice, apart from unavoidable business relations, was easy to -follow because Falk intruded upon no one. It seems absurd to compare a -tugboat skipper to a centaur: but he reminded me somehow of an engraving -in a little book I had as a boy, which represented centaurs at a stream, -and there was one, especially in the foreground, prancing bow and arrows -in hand, with regular severe features and an immense curled wavy beard, -flowing down his breast. Falk's face reminded me of that centaur. -Besides, he was a composite creature. Not a man-horse, it is true, but -a man-boat. He lived on board his tug, which was always dashing up and -down the river from early morn till dewy eve. - -In the last rays of the setting sun, you could pick out far away down -the reach his beard borne high up on the white structure, foaming up -stream to anchor for the night. There was the white-clad man's body, and -the rich brown patch of the hair, and nothing below the waist but the -'thwart-ship white lines of the bridge-screens, that lead the eye to the -sharp white lines of the bows cleaving the muddy water of the river. - -Separated from his boat to me at least he seemed incomplete. The tug -herself without his head and torso on the bridge looked mutilated as it -were. But he left her very seldom. All the time I remained in harbour -I saw him only twice on shore. On the first occasion it was at my -charterers, where he came in misanthropically to get paid for towing out -a French barque the day before. The second time I could hardly believe -my eyes, for I beheld him reclining under his beard in a cane-bottomed -chair in the billiard-room of Schomberg's hotel. - -It was very funny to see Schomberg ignoring him pointedly. The -artificiality of it contrasted strongly with Falk's natural unconcern. -The big Alsatian talked loudly with his other customers, going from one -little table to the other, and passing Falk's place of repose with his -eyes fixed straight ahead. Falk sat there with an untouched glass at his -elbow. He must have known by sight and name every white man in the room, -but he never addressed a word to anybody. He acknowledged my presence by -a drop of his eyelids, and that was all. Sprawling there in the chair, -he would, now and again, draw the palms of both his hands down his face, -giving at the same time a slight, almost imperceptible, shudder. - -It was a habit he had, and of course I was perfectly familiar with it, -since you could not remain an hour in his company without being made to -wonder at such a movement breaking some long period of stillness. It was -a passionate and inexplicable gesture. He used to make it at all sorts -of times; as likely as not after he had been listening to little Lena's -chatter about the suffering doll, for instance. The Hermann children -always besieged him about his legs closely, though, in a gentle way, he -shrank from them a little. He seemed, however, to feel a great affection -for the whole family. For Hermann himself especially. He sought his -company. In this case, for instance, he must have been waiting for him, -because as soon as he appeared Falk rose hastily, and they went out -together. Then Schomberg expounded in my hearing to three or four people -his theory that Falk was after Captain Hermann's niece, and asserted -confidently that nothing would come of it. It was the same last year -when Captain Hermann was loading here, he said. - -Naturally, I did not believe Schomberg, but I own that for a time I -observed closely what went on. All I discovered was some impatience on -Hermann's part. At the sight of Falk, stepping over the gangway, the -excellent man would begin to mumble and chew between his teeth something -that sounded like German swear-words. However, as I've said, I'm not -familiar with the language, and Hermann's soft, round-eyed countenance -remained unchanged. Staring stolidly ahead he greeted him with, "Wie -gehts," or in English, "How are you?" with a throaty enunciation. The -girl would look up for an instant and move her lips slightly: Mrs. -Hermann let her hands rest on her lap to talk volubly to him for a -minute or so in her pleasant voice before she went on with her sewing -again. Falk would throw himself into a chair, stretch his big legs, as -like as not draw his hands down his face passionately. As to myself, he -was not pointedly impertinent: it was rather as though he could not be -bothered with such trifles as my existence; and the truth is that being -a monopolist he was under no necessity to be amiable. He was sure to get -his own extortionate terms out of me for towage whether he frowned -or smiled. As a matter of fact, he did neither: but before many days -elapsed he managed to astonish me not a little and to set Schomberg's -tongue clacking more than ever. - -It came about in this way. There was a shallow bar at the mouth of the -river which ought to have been kept down, but the authorities of the -State were piously busy gilding afresh the great Buddhist Pagoda just -then, and I suppose had no money to spare for dredging operations. I -don't know how it may be now, but at the time I speak of that sandbank -was a great nuisance to the shipping. One of its consequences was that -vessels of a certain draught of water, like Hermann's or mine, could not -complete their loading in the river. After taking in as much as possible -of their cargo, they had to go outside to fill up. The whole procedure -was an unmitigated bore. When you thought you had as much on board as -your ship could carry safely over the bar, you went and gave notice to -your agents. They, in their turn, notified Falk that so-and-so was ready -to go out. Then Falk (ostensibly when it fitted in with his other work, -but, if the truth were known, simply when his arbitrary spirit moved -him), after ascertaining carefully in the office that there was enough -money to meet his bill, would come along unsympathetically, glaring -at you with his yellow eyes from the bridge, and would drag you out -dishevelled as to rigging, lumbered as to the decks, with unfeeling -haste, as if to execution. And he would force you too to take the end of -his own wire hawser, for the use of which there was of course an extra -charge. To your shouted remonstrances against that extortion this -towering trunk with one hand on the engine-room telegraph only shook its -bearded head above the splash, the racket, and the clouds of smoke -in which the tug, backing and filling in the smother of churning -paddle-wheels behaved like a ferocious and impatient creature. He had -her manned by the cheekiest gang of lascars I ever did see, whom he -allowed to bawl at you insolently, and, once fast, he plucked you out -of your berth as if he did not care what he smashed. Eighteen miles down -the river you had to go behind him, and then three more along the -coast to where a group of uninhabited rocky islets enclosed a sheltered -anchorage. There you would have to lie at single anchor with your naked -spars showing to seaward over these barren fragments of land scattered -upon a very intensely blue sea. There was nothing to look at besides but -a bare coast, the muddy edge of the brown plain with the sinuosities -of the river you had left, traced in dull green, and the Great Pagoda -uprising lonely and massive with shining curves and pinnacles like the -gorgeous and stony efflorescence of tropical rocks. You had nothing to -do but to wait fretfully for the balance of your cargo, which was sent -out of the river with the greatest irregularity. And it was open to -you to console yourself with the thought that, after all, this stage -of bother meant that your departure from these shores was indeed -approaching at last. - -We both had to go through that stage, Hermann and I, and there was a -sort of tacit emulation between the ships as to which should be ready -first. We kept on neck and neck almost to the finish, when I won -the race by going personally to give notice in the forenoon; whereas -Hermann, who was very slow in making up his mind to go ashore, did not -get to the agents' office till late in the day. They told him there that -my ship was first on turn for next morning, and I believe he told them -he was in no hurry. It suited him better to go the day after. - -That evening, on board the Diana, he sat with his plump knees well -apart, staring and puffing at the curved mouthpiece of his pipe. -Presently he spoke with some impatience to his niece about putting the -children to bed. Mrs. Hermann, who was talking to Falk, stopped short -and looked at her husband uneasily, but the girl got up at once and -drove the children before her into the cabin. In a little while Mrs. -Hermann had to leave us to quell what, from the sounds inside, must have -been a dangerous mutiny. At this Hermann grumbled to himself. For half -an hour longer Falk left alone with us fidgeted on his chair, sighed -lightly, then at last, after drawing his hands down his face, got up, -and as if renouncing the hope of making himself understood (he hadn't -opened his mouth once) he said in English: "Well. . . . Good night, -Captain Hermann." He stopped for a moment before my chair and looked -down fixedly; I may even say he glared: and he went so far as to make a -deep noise in his throat. There was in all this something so marked -that for the first time in our limited intercourse of nods and grunts he -excited in me something like interest. But next moment he disappointed -me--for he strode away hastily without a nod even. - -His manner was usually odd it is true, and I certainly did not pay much -attention to it; but that sort of obscure intention, which seemed to -lurk in his nonchalance like a wary old carp in a pond, had never before -come so near the surface. He had distinctly aroused my expectations. I -would have been unable to say what it was I expected, but at all events -I did not expect the absurd developments he sprung upon me no later than -the break of the very next day. - -I remember only that there was, on that evening, enough point in his -behaviour to make me, after he had fled, wonder audibly what he might -mean. To this Hermann, crossing his legs with a swing and settling -himself viciously away from me in his chair, said: "That fellow don't -know himself what he means." - -There might have been some insight in such a remark. I said nothing, -and, still averted, he added: "When I was here last year he was just the -same." An eruption of tobacco smoke enveloped his head as if his temper -had exploded like gunpowder. - -I had half a mind to ask him point blank whether he, at least, didn't -know why Falk, a notoriously unsociable man, had taken to visiting his -ship with such assiduity. After all, I reflected suddenly, it was a -most remarkable thing. I wonder now what Hermann would have said. As it -turned out he didn't let me ask. Forgetting all about Falk apparently, -he started a monologue on his plans for the future: the selling of the -ship, the going home; and falling into a reflective and calculating -mood he mumbled between regular jets of smoke about the expense. The -necessity of disbursing passage money for all his tribe seemed to -disturb him in a manner that was the more striking because otherwise -he gave no signs of a miserly disposition. And yet he fussed over the -prospect of that voyage home in a mail boat like a sedentary grocer -who has made up his mind to see the world. He was racially thrifty I -suppose, and for him there must have been a great novelty in finding -himself obliged to pay for travelling--for sea travelling which was the -normal state of life for the family--from the very cradle for most of -them. I could see he grudged prospectively every single shilling which -must be spent so absurdly. It was rather funny. He would become doleful -over it, and then again, with a fretful sigh, he would suppose there -was nothing for it now but to take three second-class tickets--and there -were the four children to pay for besides. A lot of money that to spend -at once. A big lot of money. - -I sat with him listening (not for the first time) to these -heart-searchings till I grew thoroughly sleepy, and then I left him and -turned in on board my ship. At daylight I was awakened by a yelping of -shrill voices, accompanied by a great commotion in the water, and the -short, bullying blasts of a steam-whistle. Falk with his tug had come -for me. - -I began to dress. It was remarkable that the answering noise on board my -ship together with the patter of feet above my head ceased suddenly. But -I heard more remote guttural cries which seemed to express surprise and -annoyance. Then the voice of my mate reached me howling expostulations -to somebody at a distance. Other voices joined, apparently indignant; -a chorus of something that sounded like abuse replied. Now and then the -steam-whistle screeched. - -Altogether that unnecessary uproar was distracting, but down there in my -cabin I took it calmly. In another moment, I thought, I should be going -down that wretched river, and in another week at the most I should be -totally quit of the odious place and all the odious people in it. - -Greatly cheered by the idea, I seized the hair-brushes and looking at -myself in the glass began to use them. Suddenly a hush fell upon the -noise outside, and I heard (the ports of my cabin were thrown open)--I -heard a deep calm voice, not on board my ship, however, hailing -resolutely in English, but with a strong foreign twang, "Go ahead!" - -There may be tides in the affairs of men which taken at the flood . . . -and so on. Personally I am still on the look out for that important -turn. I am, however, afraid that most of us are fated to flounder for -ever in the dead water of a pool whose shores are arid indeed. But -I know that there are often in men's affairs unexpectedly--even -irrationally--illuminating moments when an otherwise insignificant -sound, perhaps only some perfectly commonplace gesture, suffices -to reveal to us all the unreason, all the fatuous unreason, of our -complacency. "Go ahead" are not particularly striking words even when -pronounced with a foreign accent; yet they petrified me in the very -act of smiling at myself in the glass. And then, refusing to believe my -ears, but already boiling with indignation, I ran out of the cabin and -up on deck. - -It was incredibly true. It was perfectly true. I had no eyes for -anything but the Diana. It was she, then, was being taken away. She was -already out of her berth and shooting athwart the river. "The way this -loonatic plucked that ship out is a caution," said the awed voice of my -mate close to my ear. "Hey! Hallo! Falk! Hermann! What's this infernal -trick?" I yelled in a fury. - -Nobody heard me. Falk certainly could not hear me. His tug was turning -at full speed away under the other bank. The wire hawser between her and -the Diana, stretched as taut as a harp-string, vibrated alarmingly. - -The high black craft careened over to the awful strain. A loud crack -came out of her, followed by the tearing and splintering of wood. -"There!" said the awed voice in my ear. "He's carried away their towing -chock." And then, with enthusiasm, "Oh! Look! Look! sir, Look! at them -Dutchmen skipping out of the way on the forecastle. I hope to goodness -he'll break a few of their shins before he's done with 'em." - -I yelled my vain protests. The rays of the rising sun coursing level -along the plain warmed my back, but I was hot enough with rage. I -could not have believed that a simple towing operation could suggest so -plainly the idea of abduction, of rape. Falk was simply running off with -the Diana. - -The white tug careered out into the middle of the river. The red floats -of her paddle-wheels revolving with mad rapidity tore up the whole reach -into foam. The Diana in mid-stream waltzed round with as much grace -as an old barn, and flew after her ravisher. Through the ragged fog of -smoke driving headlong upon the water I had a glimpse of Falk's square -motionless shoulders under a white hat as big as a cart-wheel, of his -red face, his yellow staring eyes, his great beard. Instead of keeping -a lookout ahead, he was deliberately turning his back on the river to -glare at his tow. The tall heavy craft, never so used before in her -life, seemed to have lost her senses; she took a wild sheer against her -helm, and for a moment came straight at us, menacing and clumsy, like -a runaway mountain. She piled up a streaming, hissing, boiling wave -half-way up her blunt stem, my crew let out one great howl,--and then we -held our breaths. It was a near thing. But Falk had her! He had her in -his clutch. I fancied I could hear the steel hawser ping as it surged -across the Diana's forecastle, with the hands on board of her bolting -away from it in all directions. It was a near thing. Hermann, with his -hair rumpled, in a snuffy flannel shirt and a pair of mustard-coloured -trousers, had rushed to help with the wheel. I saw his terrified round -face; I saw his very teeth uncovered by a sort of ghastly fixed grin; -and in a great leaping tumult of water between the two ships the Diana -whisked past so close that I could have flung a hair-brush at his head, -for, it seems, I had kept them in my hands all the time. Meanwhile -Mrs. Hermann sat placidly on the skylight, with a woollen shawl on -her shoulders. The excellent woman in response to my indignant -gesticulations fluttered a handkerchief, nodding and smiling in the -kindest way imaginable. The boys, only half-dressed, were jumping about -the poop in great glee, displaying their gaudy braces; and Lena in a -short scarlet petticoat, with peaked elbows and thin bare arms, nursed -the rag-doll with devotion. The whole family passed before my sight as -if dragged across a scene of unparalleled violence. The last I saw was -Hermann's niece with the baby Hermann in her arms standing apart from -the others. Magnificent in her close-fitting print frock she displayed -something so commanding in the manifest perfection of her figure that -the sun seemed to be rising for her alone. The flood of light brought -out the opulence of her form and the vigour of her youth in a glorifying -way. She went by perfectly motionless and as if lost in meditation; only -the hem of her skirt stirred in the draught; the sun rays broke on her -sleek tawny hair; that bald-headed ruffian, Nicholas, was whacking her -on the shoulder. I saw his tiny fat arm rise and fall in a workmanlike -manner. And then the four cottage windows of the Diana came into view -retreating swiftly down the river. The sashes were up, and one of the -white calico curtains was fluttered straight out like a streamer above -the agitated water of the wake. - -To be thus tricked out of one's turn was an unheard of occurrence. In -my agent's office, where I went to complain at once, they protested with -apologies they couldn't understand how the mistake arose: but Schomberg -when I dropped in later to get some tiffin, though surprised to see me, -was perfectly ready with an explanation. I found him seated at the end -of a long narrow table, facing his wife--a scraggy little woman, with -long ringlets and a blue tooth, who smiled abroad stupidly and looked -frightened when you spoke to her. Between them a waggling punkah fanned -twenty cane-bottomed chairs and two rows of shiny plates. Three -Chinamen in white jackets loafed with napkins in their hands around that -desolation. Schomberg's pet table d'hote was not much of a success that -day. He was feeding himself ferociously and seemed to overflow with -bitterness. - -He began by ordering in a brutal voice the chops to be brought back for -me, and turning in his chair: "Mistake they told you? Not a bit of it! -Don't you believe it for a moment, captain! Falk isn't a man to make -mistakes unless on purpose." His firm conviction was that Falk had been -trying all along to curry favour on the cheap with Hermann. "On the -cheap--mind you! It doesn't cost him a cent to put that insult upon you, -and Captain Hermann gets in a day ahead of your ship. Time's money! Eh? -You are very friendly with Captain Hermann I believe, but a man is bound -to be pleased at any little advantage he may get. Captain Hermann is a -good business man, and there's no such thing as a friend in business. Is -there?" He leaned forward and began to cast stealthy glances as usual. -"But Falk is, and always was, a miserable fellow. I would despise him." - -I muttered, grumpily, that I had no particular respect for Falk. - -"I would despise him," he insisted, with an appearance of anxiety which -would have amused me if I had not been fathoms deep in discontent. To a -young man fairly conscientious and as well-meaning as only the young -man can be, the current ill-usage of life comes with a peculiar cruelty. -Youth that is fresh enough to believe in guilt, in innocence, and in -itself, will always doubt whether it have not perchance deserved its -fate. Sombre of mind and without appetite, I struggled with the -chop while Mrs. Schomberg sat with her everlasting stupid grin and -Schomberg's talk gathered way like a slide of rubbish. - -"Let me tell you. It's all about that girl. I don't know what Captain -Hermann expects, but if he asked me I could tell him something about -Falk. He's a miserable fellow. That man is a perfect slave. That's what -I call him. A slave. Last year I started this table d'hote, and sent -cards out--you know. You think he had one meal in the house? Give the -thing a trial? Not once. He has got hold now of a Madras cook--a blamed -fraud that I hunted out of my cookhouse with a rattan. He was not fit to -cook for white men. No, not for the white men's dogs either; but, see, -any damned native that can boil a pot of rice is good enough for Mr. -Falk. Rice and a little fish he buys for a few cents from the fishing -boats outside is what he lives on. You would hardly credit it--eh? A -white man, too. . . ." - -He wiped his lips, using the napkin with indignation, and looking at me. -It flashed through my mind in the midst of my depression that if all the -meat in the town was like these table d'hote chops, Falk wasn't so far -wrong. I was on the point of saying this, but Schomberg's stare was -intimidating. "He's a vegetarian, perhaps," I murmured instead. - -"He's a miser. A miserable miser," affirmed the hotel-keeper with great -force. "The meat here is not so good as at home--of course. And dear -too. But look at me. I only charge a dollar for the tiffin, and one -dollar and fifty cents for the dinner. Show me anything cheaper. Why am -I doing it? There's little profit in this game. Falk wouldn't look -at it. I do it for the sake of a lot of young white fellows here that -hadn't a place where they could get a decent meal and eat it decently in -good company. There's first-rate company always at my table." - -The convinced way he surveyed the empty chairs made me feel as if I had -intruded upon a tiffin of ghostly Presences. - -"A white man should eat like a white man, dash it all," he burst out -impetuously. "Ought to eat meat, must eat meat. I manage to get meat for -my patrons all the year round. Don't I? I am not catering for a dam' lot -of coolies: Have another chop captain. . . . No? You, boy--take away!" - -He threw himself back and waited grimly for the curry. The half-closed -jalousies darkened the room pervaded by the smell of fresh whitewash: -a swarm of flies buzzed and settled in turns, and poor Mrs. Schomberg's -smile seemed to express the quintessence of all the imbecility that had -ever spoken, had ever breathed, had ever been fed on infamous buffalo -meat within these bare walls. Schomberg did not open his lips till he -was ready to thrust therein a spoonful of greasy rice. He rolled his -eyes ridiculously before he swallowed the hot stuff, and only then broke -out afresh. - -"It is the most degrading thing. They take the dish up to the wheelhouse -for him with a cover on it, and he shuts both the doors before he begins -to eat. Fact! Must be ashamed of himself. Ask the engineer. He can't -do without an engineer--don't you see--and as no respectable man can be -expected to put up with such a table, he allows them fifteen dollars -a month extra mess money. I assure you it is so! You just ask Mr. -Ferdinand da Costa. That's the engineer he has now. You may have seen -him about my place, a delicate dark young man, with very fine eyes and a -little moustache. He arrived here a year ago from Calcutta. Between you -and me, I guess the money-lenders there must have been after him. He -rushes here for a meal every chance he can get, for just please tell me -what satisfaction is that for a well-educated young fellow to feed all -alone in his cabin--like a wild beast? That's what Falk expects his -engineers to put up with for fifteen dollars extra. And the rows on -board every time a little smell of cooking gets about the deck! You -wouldn't believe! The other day da Costa got the cook to fry a steak for -him--a turtle steak it was too, not beef at all--and the fat caught -or something. Young da Costa himself was telling me of it here in this -room. 'Mr. Schomberg'--says he-'if I had let a cylinder cover blow off -through the skylight by my negligence Captain Falk couldn't have been -more savage. He frightened the cook so that he won't put anything on the -fire for me now.' Poor da Costa had tears in his eyes. Only try to put -yourself in his place, captain: a sensitive, gentlemanly young fellow. -Is he expected to eat his food raw? But that's your Falk all over. Ask -any one you like. I suppose the fifteen dollars extra he has to give -keep on rankling--in there." - -And Schomberg tapped his manly breast. I sat half stunned by his -irrelevant babble. Suddenly he gripped my forearm in an impressive and -cautious manner, as if to lead me into a very cavern of confidence. - -"It's nothing but enviousness," he said in a lowered tone, which had a -stimulating effect upon my wearied hearing. "I don't suppose there -is one person in this town that he isn't envious of. I tell you he's -dangerous. Even I myself am not safe from him. I know for certain he -tried to poison . . . ." - -"Oh, come now," I cried, revolted. - -"But I know for certain. The people themselves came and told me of it. -He went about saying everywhere I was a worse pest to this town than the -cholera. He had been talking against me ever since I opened this hotel. -And he poisoned Captain Hermann's mind too. Last time the Diana was -loading here Captain Hermann used to come in every day for a drink or a -cigar. This time he hasn't been here twice in a week. How do you account -for that?" - -He squeezed my arm till he extorted from me some sort of mumble. - -"He makes ten times the money I do. I've another hotel to fight against, -and there is no other tug on the river. I am not in his way, am I? He -wouldn't be fit to run an hotel if he tried. But that's just his nature. -He can't bear to think I am making a living. I only hope it makes him -properly wretched. He's like that in everything. He would like to keep a -decent table well enough. But no--for the sake of a few cents. Can't do -it. It's too much for him. That's what I call being a slave to it. But -he's mean enough to kick up a row when his nose gets tickled a bit. See -that? That just paints him. Miserly and envious. You can't account for -it any other way. Can you? I have been studying him these three years." - -He was anxious I should assent to his theory. And indeed on thinking it -over it would have been plausible enough if there hadn't been always the -essential falseness of irresponsibility in Schomberg's chatter. However, -I was not disposed to investigate the psychology of Falk. I was engaged -just then in eating despondently a piece of stale Dutch cheese, being -too much crushed to care what I swallowed myself, let along bothering my -head about Falk's ideas of gastronomy. I could expect from their study -no clue to his conduct in matters of business, which seemed to me -totally unrestrained by morality or even by the commonest sort of -decency. How insignificant and contemptible I must appear, for the -fellow to dare treat me like this--I reflected suddenly, writhing in -silent agony. And I consigned Falk and all his peculiarities to the -devil with so much mental fervour as to forget Schomberg's existence, -till he grabbed my arm urgently. "Well, you may think and think till -every hair of your head falls off, captain; but you can't explain it in -any other way." - -For the sake of peace and quietness I admitted hurriedly that I -couldn't: persuaded that now he would leave off. But the only result was -to make his moist face shine with the pride of cunning. He removed his -hand for a moment to scare a black mass of flies off the sugar-basin and -caught hold of my arm again. - -"To be sure. And in the same way everybody is aware he would like to get -married. Only he can't. Let me quote you an instance. Well, two years -ago a Miss Vanlo, a very ladylike girl, came from home to keep house for -her brother, Fred, who had an engineering shop for small repairs by -the water side. Suddenly Falk takes to going up to their bungalow after -dinner, and sitting for hours in the verandah saying nothing. The poor -girl couldn't tell for the life of her what to do with such a man, so -she would keep on playing the piano and singing to him evening after -evening till she was ready to drop. And it wasn't as if she had been -a strong young woman either. She was thirty, and the climate had been -playing the deuce with her. Then--don't you know--Fred had to sit up with -them for propriety, and during whole weeks on end never got a single -chance to get to bed before midnight. That was not pleasant for a tired -man--was it? And besides Fred had worries then because his shop didn't -pay and he was dropping money fast. He just longed to get away from here -and try his luck somewhere else, but for the sake of his sister he hung -on and on till he ran himself into debt over his ears--I can tell you. -I, myself, could show a handful of his chits for meals and drinks in -my drawer. I could never find out tho' where he found all the money at -last. Can't be but he must have got something out of that brother of -his, a coal merchant in Port Said. Anyhow he paid everybody before he -left, but the girl nearly broke her heart. Disappointment, of course, -and at her age, don't you know. . . . Mrs. Schomberg here was very -friendly with her, and she could tell you. Awful despair. Fainting -fits. It was a scandal. A notorious scandal. To that extent that old Mr. -Siegers--not your present charterer, but Mr. Siegers the father, the old -gentleman who retired from business on a fortune and got buried at sea -going home, _he_ had to interview Falk in his private office. He was a man -who could speak like a Dutch Uncle, and, besides, Messrs. Siegers had -been helping Falk with a good bit of money from the start. In fact you -may say they made him as far as that goes. It so happened that just at -the time he turned up here, their firm was chartering a lot of sailing -ships every year, and it suited their business that there should be good -towing facilities on the river. See? . . . Well--there's always an -ear at the keyhole--isn't there? In fact," he lowered his tone -confidentially, "in this case a good friend of mine; a man you can see -here any evening; only they conversed rather low. Anyhow my friend's -certain that Falk was trying to make all sorts of excuses, and old -Mr. Siegers was coughing a lot. And yet Falk wanted all the time to be -married too. Why! It's notorious the man has been longing for years to -make a home for himself. Only he can't face the expense. When it comes -to putting his hand in his pocket--it chokes him off. That's the truth -and no other. I've always said so, and everybody agrees with me by this -time. What do you think of that--eh?" - -He appealed confidently to my indignation, but having a mind to annoy -him I remarked, "that it seemed to me very pitiful--if true." - -He bounced in his chair as if I had run a pin into him. I don't know -what he might have said, only at that moment we heard through the half -open door of the billiard-room the footsteps of two men entering from -the verandah, a murmur of two voices; at the sharp tapping of a coin on -a table Mrs. Schomberg half rose irresolutely. "Sit still," he hissed at -her, and then, in an hospitable, jovial tone, contrasting amazingly with -the angry glance that had made his wife sink in her chair, he cried very -loud: "Tiffin still going on in here, gentlemen." - -There was no answer, but the voices dropped suddenly. The head Chinaman -went out. We heard the clink of ice in the glasses, pouring sounds, the -shuffling of feet, the scraping of chairs. Schomberg, after wondering in -a low mutter who the devil could be there at this time of the day, got -up napkin in hand to peep through the doorway cautiously. He retreated -rapidly on tip-toe, and whispering behind his hand informed me that -it was Falk, Falk himself who was in there, and, what's more, he had -Captain Hermann with him. - -The return of the tug from the outer Roads was unexpected but possible, -for Falk had taken away the Diana at half-past five, and it was now two -o'clock. Schomberg wished me to observe that neither of these men would -spend a dollar on a tiffin, which they must have wanted. But by the time -I was ready to leave the dining-room Falk had gone. I heard the last of -his big boots on the planks of the verandah. Hermann was sitting quite -alone in the large, wooden room with the two lifeless billiard tables -shrouded in striped covers, mopping his face diligently. He wore -his best go-ashore clothes, a stiff collar, black coat, large white -waistcoat, grey trousers. A white cotton sunshade with a cane handle -reposed between his legs, his side whiskers were neatly brushed, his -chin had been freshly shaved; and he only distantly resembled the -dishevelled and terrified man in a snuffy night shirt and ignoble old -trousers I had seen in the morning hanging on to the wheel of the Diana. - -He gave a start at my entrance, and addressed me at once in some -confusion, but with genuine eagerness. He was anxious to make it clear -he had nothing to do with what he called the "tam pizness" of the -morning. It was most inconvenient. He had reckoned upon another day up -in town to settle his bills and sign certain papers. There were also -some few stores to come, and sundry pieces of "my ironwork," as he -called it quaintly, landed for repairs, had been left behind. Now he -would have to hire a native boat to take all this out to the ship. It -would cost five or six dollars perhaps. He had had no warning from -Falk. Nothing. . . . He hit the table with his dumpy fist. . . . Der -verfluchte Kerl came in the morning like a "tam' ropper," making a great -noise, and took him away. His mate was not prepared, his ship was moored -fast--he protested it was shameful to come upon a man in that way. -Shameful! Yet such was the power Falk had on the river that when I -suggested in a chilling tone that he might have simply refused to have -his ship moved, Hermann was quite startled at the idea. I never realised -so well before that this is an age of steam. The exclusive possession -of a marine boiler had given Falk the whip-hand of us all. Hermann, -recovering, put it to me appealingly that I knew very well how unsafe it -was to contradict that fellow. At this I only smiled distantly. - -"Der Kerl!" he cried. He was sorry he had not refused. He was indeed. -The damage! The damage! What for all that damage! There was no occasion -for damage. Did I know how much damage he had done? It gave me a certain -satisfaction to tell him that I had heard his old waggon of a ship crack -fore and aft as she went by. "You passed close enough to me," I added -significantly. - -He threw both his hands up to heaven at the recollection. One of them -grasped by the middle the white parasol, and he resembled curiously -a caricature of a shop-keeping citizen in one of his own German comic -papers. "Ach! That was dangerous," he cried. I was amused. But directly -he added with an appearance of simplicity, "The side of your iron ship -would have been crushed in like--like this matchbox." - -"Would it?" I growled, much less amused now; but by the time I had -decided that this remark was not meant for a dig at me he had -worked himself into a high state of resentfulness against Falk. The -inconvenience, the damage, the expense! Gottferdam! Devil take the -fellow. Behind the bar Schomberg with a cigar in his teeth, pretended -to be writing with a pencil on a large sheet of paper; and as Hermann's -excitement increased it made me comfortingly aware of my own calmness -and superiority. But it occurred to me while I listened to his -revilings, that after all the good man had come up in the tug. There -perhaps--since he must come to town--he had no option. But evidently he -had had a drink with Falk, either accepted or offered. How was that? So -I checked him by saying loftily that I hoped he would make Falk pay for -every penny of the damage. - -"That's it! That's it! Go for him," called out Schomberg from the bar, -flinging his pencil down and rubbing his hands. - -We ignored his noise. But Hermann's excitement suddenly went off -the boil as when you remove a saucepan from the fire. I urged on his -consideration that he had done now with Falk and Falk's confounded tug. -He, Hermann, would not, perhaps, turn up again in this part of the world -for years to come, since he was going to sell the Diana at the end -of this very trip ("Go home passenger in a mail boat," he murmured -mechanically). He was therefore safe from Falk's malice. All he had to -do was to race off to his consignees and stop payment of the towage bill -before Falk had the time to get in and lift the money. - -Nothing could have been less in the spirit of my advice than the -thoughtful way in which he set about to make his parasol stay propped -against the edge of the table. - -While I watched his concentrated efforts with astonishment he threw at -me one or two perplexed, half-shy glances. Then he sat down. "That's all -very well," he said reflectively. - -It cannot be doubted that the man had been thrown off his balance by -being hauled out of the harbour against his wish. His stolidity had been -profoundly stirred, else he would never have made up his mind to ask me -unexpectedly whether I had not remarked that Falk had been casting eyes -upon his niece. "No more than myself," I answered with literal truth. -The girl was of the sort one necessarily casts eyes at in a sense. She -made no noise, but she filled most satisfactorily a good bit of space. - -"But you, captain, are not the same kind of man," observed Hermann. - -I was not, I am happy to say, in a position to deny this. "What about -the lady?" I could not help asking. At this he gazed for a time into -my face, earnestly, and made as if to change the subject. I heard him -beginning to mutter something unexpected, about his children growing -old enough to require schooling. He would have to leave them ashore with -their grandmother when he took up that new command he expected to get in -Germany. - -This constant harping on his domestic arrangements was funny. I suppose -it must have been like the prospect of a complete alteration in his -life. An epoch. He was going, too, to part with the Diana! He had served -in her for years. He had inherited her. From an uncle, if I remember -rightly. And the future loomed big before him, occupying his thought -exclusively with all its aspects as on the eve of a venturesome -enterprise. He sat there frowning and biting his lip, and suddenly he -began to fume and fret. - -I discovered to my momentary amusement that he seemed to imagine I -could, should or ought, have caused Falk in some way to pronounce -himself. Such a hope was incomprehensible, but funny. Then the contact -with all this foolishness irritated me. I said crossly that I had seen -no symptoms, but if there were any--since he, Hermann, was so sure--then -it was still worse. What pleasure Falk found in humbugging people in -just that way I couldn't say. It was, however, my solemn duty to warn -him. It had lately, I said, come to my knowledge that there was a man -(not a very long time ago either) who had been taken in just like this. - -All this passed in undertones, and at this point Schomberg, exasperated -at our secrecy, went out of the room slamming the door with a crash -that positively lifted us in our chairs. This, or else what I had said, -huffed my Hermann, He supposed, with a contemptuous toss of his head -towards the door which trembled yet, that I had got hold of some of -that man's silly tales. It looked, indeed, as though his mind had been -thoroughly poisoned against Schomberg. "His tales were--they were," he -repeated, seeking for the word--"trash." They were trash, he reiterated, -and moreover I was young yet . . . - -This horrid aspersion (I regret I am no longer exposed to that sort of -insult) made me huffy too. I felt ready in my own mind to back up every -assertion of Schomberg's and on any subject. In a moment, devil only -knows why, Hermann and I were looking at each other most inimically. -He caught up his hat without more ado and I gave myself the pleasure of -calling after him: - -"Take my advice and make Falk pay for breaking up your ship. You aren't -likely to get anything else out of him." - -When I got on board my ship later on, the old mate, who was very full of -the events of the morning, remarked: - -"I saw the tug coming back from the outer Roads just before two P.M." -(He never by any chance used the words morning or afternoon. Always P.M. -or A.M., log-book style.) "Smart work that. Man's always in a state of -hurry. He's a regular chucker-out, ain't he, sir? There's a few pubs I -know of in the East-end of London that would be all the better for -one of his sort around the bar." He chuckled at his joke. "A regular -chucker-out. Now he has fired out that Dutchman head over heels, I -suppose our turn's coming to-morrow morning." - -We were all on deck at break of day (even the sick--poor devils--had -crawled out) ready to cast off in the twinkling of an eye. Nothing -came. Falk did not come. At last, when I began to think that probably -something had gone wrong in his engine-room, we perceived the tug going -by, full pelt, down the river, as if we hadn't existed. For a moment I -entertained the wild notion that he was going to turn round in the next -reach. Afterwards I watched his smoke appear above the plain, now here, -now there, according to the windings of the river. It disappeared. Then -without a word I went down to breakfast. I just simply went down to -breakfast. - -Not one of us uttered a sound till the mate, after imbibing--by means -of suction out of a saucer--his second cup of tea, exclaimed: "Where the -devil is the man gone to?" - -"Courting!" I shouted, with such a fiendish laugh that the old chap -didn't venture to open his lips any more. - -I started to the office perfectly calm. Calm with excessive rage. -Evidently they knew all about it already, and they treated me to a -show of consternation. The manager, a soft-footed, immensely obese man, -breathing short, got up to meet me, while all round the room the young -clerks, bending over the papers on their desks, cast upward glances in -my direction. The fat man, without waiting for my complaint, wheezing -heavily and in a tone as if he himself were incredulous, conveyed to -me the news that Falk--Captain Falk--had declined--had absolutely -declined--to tow my ship--to have anything to do with my ship--this day -or any other day. Never! - -I did my best to preserve a cool appearance, but, all the same, I must -have shown how much taken aback I was. We were talking in the middle -of the room. Suddenly behind my back some ass blew his nose with great -force, and at the same time another quill-driver jumped up and went out -on the landing hastily. It occurred to me I was cutting a foolish figure -there. I demanded angrily to see the principal in his private room. - -The skin of Mr. Siegers' head showed dead white between the iron grey -streaks of hair lying plastered cross-wise from ear to ear over the top -of his skull in the manner of a bandage. His narrow sunken face was of -an uniform and permanent terra-cotta colour, like a piece of pottery. -He was sickly, thin, and short, with wrists like a boy of ten. But from -that debile body there issued a bullying voice, tremendously loud, harsh -and resonant, as if produced by some powerful mechanical contrivance -in the nature of a fog-horn. I do not know what he did with it in -the private life of his home, but in the larger sphere of business it -presented the advantage of overcoming arguments without the slightest -mental effort, by the mere volume of sound. We had had several -passages of arms. It took me all I knew to guard the interests of my -owners--whom, nota bene, I had never seen--while Siegers (who had -made their acquaintance some years before, during a business tour in -Australia) pretended to the knowledge of their innermost minds, and, in -the character of "our very good friends," threw them perpetually at my -head. - -He looked at me with a jaundiced eye (there was no love lost between -us), and declared at once that it was strange, very strange. His -pronunciation of English was so extravagant that I can't even attempt to -reproduce it. For instance, he said "Fferie strantch." Combined with -the bellowing intonation it made the language of one's childhood sound -weirdly startling, and even if considered purely as a kind of unmeaning -noise it filled you with astonishment at first. "They had," he -continued, "been acquainted with Captain Falk for very many years, and -never had any reason. . . ." - -"That's why I come to you, of course," I interrupted. "I've the right -to know the meaning of this infernal nonsense." In the half light of the -room, which was greenish, because of the tree-tops screening the -window, I saw him writhe his meagre shoulders. It came into my head, as -disconnected ideas will come at all sorts of times into one's head, that -this, most likely, was the very room where, if the tale were true, Falk -had been lectured by Mr. Siegers, the father. Mr. Siegers' (the son's) -overwhelming voice, in brassy blasts, as though he had been trying to -articulate his words through a trombone, was expressing his great regret -at a conduct characterised by a very marked want of discretion. . . As I -lived I was being lectured too! His deafening gibberish was difficult to -follow, but it was _my_ conduct--mine!--that . . . Damn! I wasn't going to -stand this. - -"What on earth are you driving at?" I asked in a passion. I put my hat -on my head (he never offered a seat to anybody), and as he seemed for -the moment struck dumb by my irreverence, I turned my back on him and -marched out. His vocal arrangements blared after me a few threats of -coming down on the ship for the demurrage of the lighters, and all the -other expenses consequent upon the delays arising from my frivolity. - -Once outside in the sunshine my head swam. It was no longer a question -of mere delay. I perceived myself involved in hopeless and humiliating -absurdities that were leading me to something very like a disaster. "Let -us be calm," I muttered to myself, and ran into the shade of a -leprous wall. From that short side-street I could see the broad main -thoroughfare ruinous and gay, running away, away between stretches of -decaying masonry, bamboo fences, ranges of arcades of brick and plaster, -hovels of lath and mud, lofty temple gates of carved timber, huts of -rotten mats--an immensely wide thoroughfare, loosely packed as far as -the eye could reach with a barefooted and brown multitude paddling ankle -deep in the dust. For a moment I felt myself about to go out of my mind -with worry and desperation. - -Some allowance must be made for the feelings of a young man new to -responsibility. I thought of my crew. Half of them were ill, and I -really began to think that some of them would end by dying on board if -I couldn't get them out to sea soon. Obviously I should have to take my -ship down the river, either working under canvas or dredging with the -anchor down; operations which, in common with many modern sailors, -I only knew theoretically. And I almost shrank from undertaking them -shorthanded and without local knowledge of the river bed, which is so -necessary for the confident handling of the ship. There were no pilots, -no beacons, no buoys of any sort; but there was a very devil of a -current for anybody to see, no end of shoal places, and at least two -obviously awkward turns of the channel between me and the sea. But how -dangerous these turns were I would not tell. I didn't even know what -my ship was capable of! I had never handled her in my life. A -misunderstanding between a man and his ship in a difficult river with no -room to make it up, is bound to end in trouble for the man. On the other -hand, it must be owned I had not much reason to count upon a general run -of good luck. And suppose I had the misfortune to pile her up high and -dry on some beastly shoal? That would have been the final undoing of -that voyage. It was plain that if Falk refused to tow me out he would -also refuse to pull me off. This meant--what? A day lost at the -very best; but more likely a whole fortnight of frizzling on some -pestilential mud-flat, of desperate work, of discharging cargo; more than -likely it meant borrowing money at an exorbitant rate of interest--from -the Siegers' gang too at that. They were a power in the port. And that -elderly seaman of mine, Gambril, had looked pretty ghastly when I -went forward to dose him with quinine that morning. _He_ would certainly -die--not to speak of two or three others that seemed nearly as bad, -and of the rest of them just ready to catch any tropical disease going. -Horror, ruin and everlasting remorse. And no help. None. I had fallen -amongst a lot of unfriendly lunatics! - -At any rate, if I must take my ship down myself it was my duty to -procure if possible some local knowledge. But that was not easy. The -only person I could think of for that service was a certain Johnson, -formerly captain of a country ship, but now spliced to a country wife -and gone utterly to the bad. I had only heard of him in the vaguest way, -as living concealed in the thick of two hundred thousand natives, and -only emerging into the light of day for the purpose of hunting up some -brandy. I had a notion that if I could lay my hands on him I would sober -him on board my ship and use him for a pilot. Better than nothing. Once -a sailor always a sailor--and he had known the river for years. But in -our Consulate (where I arrived dripping after a sharp walk) they could -tell me nothing. The excellent young men on the staff, though willing to -help me, belonged to a sphere of the white colony for which that sort of -Johnson does not exist. Their suggestion was that I should hunt the -man up myself with the help of the Consulate's constable--an -ex-sergeant-major of a regiment of Hussars. - -This man, whose usual duty apparently consisted in sitting behind a -little table in an outer room of Consular offices, when ordered to -assist me in my search for Johnson displayed lots of energy and a -marvellous amount of local knowledge of a sort. But he did not conceal -an immense and sceptical contempt for the whole business. We explored -together on that afternoon an infinity of infamous grog shops, gambling -dens, opium dens. We walked up narrow lanes where our gharry--a tiny -box of a thing on wheels, attached to a jibbing Burmah pony--could by -no means have passed. The constable seemed to be on terms of scornful -intimacy with Maltese, with Eurasians, with Chinamen, with Klings, and -with the sweepers attached to a temple, with whom he talked at the gate. -We interviewed also through a grating in a mud wall closing a blind -alley an immensely corpulent Italian, who, the ex-sergeant-major -remarked to me perfunctorily, had "killed another man last year." -Thereupon he addressed him as "Antonio" and "Old Buck," though that -bloated carcase, apparently more than half filling the sort of cell -wherein it sat, recalled rather a fat pig in a stye. Familiar and never -unbending, the sergeant chucked--absolutely chucked--under the chin -a horribly wrinkled and shrivelled old hag propped on a stick, who had -volunteered some sort of information: and with the same stolid face he -kept up an animated conversation with the groups of swathed brown women, -who sat smoking cheroots on the door-steps of a long range of clay -hovels. We got out of the gharry and clambered into dwellings airy like -packing crates, or descended into places sinister like cellars. We got -in, we drove on, we got out again for the sole purpose, as it seemed, of -looking behind a heap of rubble. The sun declined; my companion was curt -and sardonic in his answers, but it appears we were just missing Johnson -all along. At last our conveyance stopped once more with a jerk, and the -driver jumping down opened the door. - -A black mudhole blocked the lane. A mound of garbage crowned with the -dead body of a dog arrested us not. An empty Australian beef tin bounded -cheerily before the toe of my boot. Suddenly we clambered through a gap -in a prickly fence. . . . - -It was a very clean native compound: and the big native woman, with bare -brown legs as thick as bedposts, pursuing on all fours a silver dollar -that came rolling out from somewhere, was Mrs. Johnson herself. "Your -man's at home," said the ex-sergeant, and stepped aside in complete -and marked indifference to anything that might follow. Johnson--at -home--stood with his back to a native house built on posts and with its -walls made of mats. In his left hand he held a banana. Out of the right -he dealt another dollar into space. The woman captured this one on the -wing, and there and then plumped down on the ground to look at us with -greater comfort. - -My man was sallow of face, grizzled, unshaven, muddy on elbows and -back; where the seams of his serge coat yawned you could see his white -nakedness. The vestiges of a paper collar encircled his neck. He looked -at us with a grave, swaying surprise. "Where do you come from?" he -asked. My heart sank. How could I have been stupid enough to waste -energy and time for this? - -But having already gone so far I approached a little nearer and declared -the purpose of my visit. He would have to come at once with me, sleep on -board my ship, and to-morrow, with the first of the ebb, he would give -me his assistance in getting my ship down to the sea, without steam. A -six-hundred-ton barque, drawing nine feet aft. I proposed to give -him eighteen dollars for his local knowledge; and all the time I was -speaking he kept on considering attentively the various aspects of the -banana, holding first one side up to his eye, then the other. - -"You've forgotten to apologise," he said at last with extreme precision. -"Not being a gentleman yourself, you don't know apparently when you -intrude upon a gentleman. I am one. I wish you to understand that when I -am in funds I don't work, and now . . ." - -I would have pronounced him perfectly sober hadn't he paused in great -concern to try and brush a hole off the knee of his trousers. - -"I have money--and friends. Every gentleman has. Perhaps you would like -to know my friend? His name is Falk. You could borrow some money. Try to -remember. F-A-L-K, Falk." Abruptly his tone changed. "A noble heart," he -said muzzily. - -"Has Falk been giving you some money?" I asked, appalled by the detailed -finish of the dark plot. - -"Lent me, my good man, not given me. Lent," he corrected suavely. -"Met me taking the air last evening, and being as usual anxious to -oblige--Hadn't you better go to the devil out of my compound?" - -And upon this, without other warning, he let fly with the banana which -missed my head, and took the constable just under the left eye. He -rushed at the miserable Johnson, stammering with fury. They fell. . . . -But why dwell on the wretchedness, the breathlessness, the degradation, -the senselessness, the weariness, the ridicule and humiliation -and--and--the perspiration, of these moments? I dragged the ex-hussar -off. He was like a wild beast. It seems he had been greatly annoyed -at losing his free afternoon on my account. The garden of his bungalow -required his personal attention, and at the slight blow of the banana -the brute in him had broken loose. We left Johnson on his back, still -black in the face, but beginning to kick feebly. Meantime, the big woman -had remained sitting on the ground, apparently paralysed with extreme -terror. - -For half an hour we jolted inside our rolling box, side by side, in -profound silence. The ex-sergeant was busy staunching the blood of a -long scratch on his cheek. "I hope you're satisfied," he said suddenly. -"That's what comes of all that tomfool business. If you hadn't -quarrelled with that tugboat skipper over some girl or other, all this -wouldn't have happened." - -"You heard _that_ story?" I said. - -"Of course I heard. And I shouldn't wonder if the Consul-General himself -doesn't come to hear of it. How am I to go before him to-morrow with -that thing on my cheek--I want to know. Its _you_ who ought to have got -this!" - -After that, till the gharry stopped and he jumped out without -leave-taking, he swore to himself steadily, horribly; muttering great, -purposeful, trooper oaths, to which the worst a sailor can do is like -the prattle of a child. For my part I had just the strength to crawl -into Schomberg's coffee-room, where I wrote at a little table a note to -the mate instructing him to get everything ready for dropping down the -river next day. I couldn't face my ship. Well! she had a clever sort of -skipper and no mistake--poor thing! What a horrid mess! I took my head -between my hands. At times the obviousness of my innocence would reduce -me to despair. What had I done? If I had done something to bring about -the situation I should at least have learned not to do it again. But I -felt guiltless to the point of imbecility. The room was empty yet; -only Schomberg prowled round me goggle-eyed and with a sort of awed -respectful curiosity. No doubt he had set the story going himself; but -he was a good-hearted chap, and I am really persuaded he participated in -all my troubles. He did what he could for me. He ranged aside the heavy -match-stand, set a chair straight, pushed a spittoon slightly with -his foot--as you show small attentions to a friend under a great -sorrow--sighed, and at last, unable to hold his tongue: - -"Well! I warned you, captain. That's what comes of running your head -against Mr. Falk. Man'll stick at nothing." - -I sat without stirring, and after surveying me with a sort of -commiseration in his eyes he burst out in a hoarse whisper: "But for -a fine lump of a girl, she's a fine lump of a girl." He made a loud -smacking noise with his thick lips. "The finest lump of a girl that I -ever . . ." he was going on with great unction, but for some reason or -other broke off. I fancied myself throwing something at his head. "I -don't blame you, captain. Hang me if I do," he said with a patronising -air. - -"Thank you," I said resignedly. It was no use fighting against this -false fate. I don't know even if I was sure myself where the truth of -the matter began. The conviction that it would end disastrously had been -driven into me by all the successive shocks my sense of security had -received. I began to ascribe an extraordinary potency to agents in -themselves powerless. It was as if Schomberg's baseless gossip had the -power to bring about the thing itself or the abstract enmity of Falk -could put my ship ashore. - -I have already explained how fatal this last would have been. For my -further action, my youth, my inexperience, my very real concern for the -health of my crew must be my excuse. The action itself, when it came, -was purely impulsive. It was set in movement quite undiplomatically and -simply by Falk's appearance in the doorway. - -The room was full by then and buzzing with voices. I had been looked -at with curiosity by every one, but how am I to describe the sensation -produced by the appearance of Falk himself blocking the doorway? The -tension of expectation could be measured by the profundity of the -silence that fell upon the very click of the billiard balls. As to -Schomberg, he looked extremely frightened; he hated mortally any sort -of row (fracas he called it) in his establishment. Fracas was bad -for business, he affirmed; but, in truth, this specimen of portly, -middle-aged manhood was of a timid disposition. I don't know what, -considering my presence in the place, they all hoped would come of it. A -sort of stag fight, perhaps. Or they may have supposed Falk had come in -only to annihilate me completely. As a matter of fact, Falk had come in -because Hermann had asked him to inquire after the precious white cotton -parasol which, in the worry and excitement of the previous day, he had -forgotten at the table where we had held our little discussion. - -It was this that gave me my opportunity. I don't think I would have gone -to seek Falk out. No. I don't think so. There are limits. But there was -an opportunity and I seized it--I have already tried to explain why. Now -I will merely state that, in my opinion, to get his sickly crew into -the sea air and secure a quick despatch for his ship a skipper would be -justified in going to any length, short of absolute crime. He should -put his pride in his pocket; he may accept confidences; explain his -innocence as if it were a sin; he may take advantage of misconceptions, -of desires and of weaknesses; he ought to conceal his horror and other -emotions, and, if the fate of a human being, and that human being -a magnificent young girl, is strangely involved--why, he should -contemplate that fate (whatever it might seem to be) without turning a -hair. And all these things I have done; the explaining, the listening, -the pretending--even to the discretion--and nobody, not even Hermann's -niece, I believe, need throw stones at me now. Schomberg at all events -needn't, since from first to last, I am happy to say, there was not the -slightest "fracas." - -Overcoming a nervous contraction of the windpipe, I had managed to -exclaim "Captain Falk!" His start of surprise was perfectly genuine, but -afterwards he neither smiled nor scowled. He simply waited. Then, when -I had said, "I must have a talk with you," and had pointed to a chair -at my table, he moved up to me, though he didn't sit down. Schomberg, -however, with a long tumbler in his hand, was making towards us -prudently, and I discovered then the only sign of weakness in Falk. He -had for Schomberg a repulsion resembling that sort of physical fear -some people experience at the sight of a toad. Perhaps to a man so -essentially and silently concentrated upon himself (though he could talk -well enough, as I was to find out presently) the other's irrepressible -loquacity, embracing every human being within range of the tongue, might -have appeared unnatural, disgusting, and monstrous. He suddenly gave -signs of restiveness--positively like a horse about to rear, and, -muttering hurriedly as if in great pain, "No. I can't stand that -fellow," seemed ready to bolt. This weakness of his gave me the -advantage at the very start. "Verandah," I suggested, as if rendering -him a service, and walked him out by the arm. We stumbled over a few -chairs; we had the feeling of open space before us, and felt the fresh -breath of the river--fresh, but tainted. The Chinese theatres across the -water made, in the sparsely twinkling masses of gloom an Eastern town -presents at night, blazing centres of light, and of a distant and -howling uproar. I felt him become suddenly tractable again like an -animal, like a good-tempered horse when the object that scares him is -removed. Yes. I felt in the darkness there how tractable he was, without -my conviction of his inflexibility--tenacity, rather, perhaps--being in -the least weakened. His very arm abandoning itself to my grasp was as -hard as marble--like a limb of iron. But I heard a tumultuous scuffling -of boot-soles within. The unspeakable idiots inside were crowding to the -windows, climbing over each other's backs behind the blinds, billiard -cues and all. Somebody broke a window pane, and with the sound of -falling glass, so suggestive of riot and devastation, Schomberg reeled -out after us in a state of funk which had prevented his parting with his -brandy and soda. He must have trembled like an aspen leaf. The piece of -ice in the long tumbler he held in his hand tinkled with an effect -of chattering teeth. "I beg you, gentlemen," he expostulated thickly. -"Come! Really, now, I must insist . . ." - -How proud I am of my presence of mind! "Hallo," I said instantly in a -loud and naive tone, "somebody's breaking your windows, Schomberg. Would -you please tell one of your boys to bring out here a pack of cards and a -couple of lights? And two long drinks. Will you?" - -To receive an order soothed him at once. It was business. "Certainly," -he said in an immensely relieved tone. The night was rainy, with -wandering gusts of wind, and while we waited for the candles Falk said, -as if to justify his panic, "I don't interfere in anybody's business. -I don't give any occasion for talk. I am a respectable man. But this -fellow is always making out something wrong, and can never rest till he -gets somebody to believe him." - -This was the first of my knowledge of Falk. This desire of -respectability, of being like everybody else, was the only recognition -he vouchsafed to the organisation of mankind. For the rest he might have -been the member of a herd, not of a society. Self-preservation was his -only concern. Not selfishness, but mere self-preservation. Selfishness -presupposes consciousness, choice, the presence of other men; but his -instinct acted as though he were the last of mankind nursing that law -like the only spark of a sacred fire. I don't mean to say that living -naked in a cavern would have satisfied him. Obviously he was -the creature of the conditions to which he was born. No doubt -self-preservation meant also the preservation of these conditions. But -essentially it meant something much more simple, natural, and powerful. -How shall I express it? It meant the preservation of the five senses -of his body--let us say--taking it in its narrowest as well as in its -widest meaning. I think you will admit before long the justice of this -judgment. However, as we stood there together in the dark verandah I had -judged nothing as yet--and I had no desire to judge--which is an idle -practice anyhow. The light was long in coming. - -"Of course," I said in a tone of mutual understanding, "it isn't exactly -a game of cards I want with you." - -I saw him draw his hands down his face--the vague stir of the passionate -and meaningless gesture; but he waited in silent patience. It was -only when the lights had been brought out that he opened his lips. I -understood his mumble to mean that "he didn't know any game." - -"Like this Schomberg and all the other fools will have to keep off," -I said tearing open the pack. "Have you heard that we are universally -supposed to be quarrelling about a girl? You know who--of course. I am -really ashamed to ask, but is it possible that you do me the honour to -think me dangerous?" - -As I said these words I felt how absurd it was and also I felt -flattered--for, really, what else could it be? His answer, spoken in -his usual dispassionate undertone, made it clear that it was so, but -not precisely as flattering as I supposed. He thought me dangerous with -Hermann, more than with the girl herself; but, as to quarrelling, I -saw at once how inappropriate the word was. We had no quarrel. Natural -forces are not quarrelsome. You can't quarrel with the wind that -inconveniences and humiliates you by blowing off your hat in a street -full of people. He had no quarrel with me. Neither would a boulder, -falling on my head, have had. He fell upon me in accordance with the law -by which he was moved--not of gravitation, like a detached stone, but -of self-preservation. Of course this is giving it a rather wide -interpretation. Strictly speaking, he had existed and could have existed -without being married. Yet he told me that he had found it more and -more difficult to live alone. Yes. He told me this in his low, careless -voice, to such a pitch of confidence had we arrived at the end of half -an hour. - -It took me just about that time to convince him that I had never -dreamed of marrying Hermann's niece. Could any necessity have been more -extravagant? And the difficulty was the greater because he was so hard -hit that he couldn't imagine anybody being able to remain in a state of -indifference. Any man with eyes in his head, he seemed to think, could -not help coveting so much bodily magnificence. This profound belief was -conveyed by the manner he listened sitting sideways to the table and -playing absently with a few cards I had dealt to him at random. And the -more I saw into him the more I saw of him. The wind swayed the lights -so that his sunburnt face, whiskered to the eyes, seemed to successively -flicker crimson at me and to go out. I saw the extraordinary breadth -of the high cheek-bones, the perpendicular style of the features, -the massive forehead, steep like a cliff, denuded at the top, largely -uncovered at the temples. The fact is I had never before seen him -without his hat; but now, as if my fervour had made him hot, he had -taken it off and laid it gently on the floor. Something peculiar in -the shape and setting of his yellow eyes gave them the provoking -silent intensity which characterised his glance. But the face was thin, -furrowed, worn; I discovered that through the bush of his hair, as -you may detect the gnarled shape of a tree trunk lost in a dense -undergrowth. These overgrown cheeks were sunken. It was an anchorite's -bony head fitted with a Capuchin's beard and adjusted to a herculean -body. I don't mean athletic. Hercules, I take it, was not an athlete. He -was a strong man, susceptible to female charms, and not afraid of dirt. -And thus with Falk, who was a strong man. He was extremely strong, just -as the girl (since I must think of them together) was magnificently -attractive by the masterful power of flesh and blood, expressed in -shape, in size, in attitude--that is by a straight appeal to the senses. -His mind meantime, preoccupied with respectability, quailed before -Schomberg's tongue and seemed absolutely impervious to my protestations; -and I went so far as to protest that I would just as soon think of -marrying my mother's (dear old lady!) faithful female cook as Hermann's -niece. Sooner, I protested, in my desperation, much sooner; but it did -not appear that he saw anything outrageous in the proposition, and in -his sceptical immobility he seemed to nurse the argument that at all -events the cook was very, very far away. It must be said that, just -before, I had gone wrong by appealing to the evidence of my manner -whenever I called on board the Diana. I had never attempted to approach -the girl, or to speak to her, or even to look at her in any marked way. -Nothing could be clearer. But, as his own idea of--let us say--courting, -seemed to consist precisely in sitting silently for hours in the -vicinity of the beloved object, that line of argument inspired him with -distrust. Staring down his extended legs he let out a grunt--as much as -to say, "That's all very fine, but you can't throw dust in _my_ eyes." - -At last I was exasperated into saying, "Why don't you put the matter at -rest by talking to Hermann?" and I added sneeringly: "You don't expect -me perhaps to speak for you?" - -To this he said, very loud for him, "Would you?" - -And for the first time he lifted his head to look at me with wonder -and incredulity. He lifted his head so sharply that there could be -no mistake. I had touched a spring. I saw the whole extent of my -opportunity, and could hardly believe in it. - -"Why. Speak to . . . Well, of course," I proceeded very slowly, watching -him with great attention, for, on my word, I feared a joke. "Not, -perhaps, to the young lady herself. I can't speak German, you know. But -. . ." - -He interrupted me with the earnest assurance that Hermann had the -highest opinion of me; and at once I felt the need for the greatest -possible diplomacy at this juncture. So I demurred just enough to draw -him on. Falk sat up, but except for a very noticeable enlargement of the -pupils, till the irises of his eyes were reduced to two narrow yellow -rings, his face, I should judge, was incapable of expressing excitement. -"Oh, yes! Hermann did have the greatest . . ." - -"Take up your cards. Here's Schomberg peeping at us through the blind!" -I said. - -We went through the motions of what might have been a game of e'carte'. -Presently the intolerable scandalmonger withdrew, probably to inform the -people in the billiard-room that we two were gambling on the verandah -like mad. - -We were not gambling, but it was a game; a game in which I felt I held -the winning cards. The stake, roughly speaking, was the success of the -voyage--for me; and he, I apprehended, had nothing to lose. Our intimacy -matured rapidly, and before many words had been exchanged I perceived -that the excellent Hermann had been making use of me. That simple and -astute Teuton had been, it seems, holding me up to Falk in the light of -a rival. I was young enough to be shocked at so much duplicity. "Did he -tell you that in so many words?" I asked with indignation. - -Hermann had not. He had given hints only; and of course it had not taken -very much to alarm Falk; but, instead of declaring himself, he had taken -steps to remove the family from under my influence. He was perfectly -straightforward about it--as straightforward as a tile falling on your -head. There was no duplicity in that man; and when I congratulated -him on the perfection of his arrangements--even to the bribing of the -wretched Johnson against me--he had a genuine movement of protest. Never -bribed. He knew the man wouldn't work as long as he had a few cents in -his pocket to get drunk on, and, naturally (he said-"_naturally_") he -let him have a dollar or two. He was himself a sailor, he said, and -anticipated the view another sailor, like myself, was bound to take. -On the other hand, he was sure that I should have to come to grief. He -hadn't been knocking about for the last seven years up and down that -river for nothing. It would have been no disgrace to me--but he asserted -confidently I would have had my ship very awkwardly ashore at a spot two -miles below the Great Pagoda. . . . - -And with all that he had no ill-will. That was evident. This was a -crisis in which his only object had been to gain time--I fancy. And -presently he mentioned that he had written for some jewellery, real good -jewellery--had written to Hong-Kong for it. It would arrive in a day or -two. - -"Well, then," I said cheerily, "everything is all right. All you've got -to do is to present it to the lady together with your heart, and live -happy ever after." - -Upon the whole he seemed to accept that view as far as the girl was -concerned, but his eyelids drooped. There was still something in the -way. For one thing Hermann disliked him so much. As to me, on the -contrary, it seemed as though he could not praise me enough. Mrs. -Hermann too. He didn't know why they disliked him so. It made everything -most difficult. - -I listened impassive, feeling more and more diplomatic. His speech was -not transparently clear. He was one of those men who seem to live, feel, -suffer in a sort of mental twilight. But as to being fascinated by the -girl and possessed by the desire of home life with her--it was as clear -as daylight. So much being at stake, he was afraid of putting it to -the hazard of declaration. Besides, there was something else. And with -Hermann being so set against him . . . - -"I see," I said thoughtfully, while my heart beat fast with the -excitement of my diplomacy. "I don't mind sounding Hermann. In fact, to -show you how mistaken you were, I am ready to do all I can for you in -that way." - -A light sigh escaped him. He drew his hands down his face, and it -emerged, bony, unchanged of expression, as if all the tissues had -been ossified. All the passion was in those big brown hands. He was -satisfied. Then there was that other matter. If there were anybody on -earth it was I who could persuade Hermann to take a reasonable view! I -had a knowledge of the world and lots of experience. Hermann admitted -this himself. And then I was a sailor too. Falk thought that a sailor -would be able to understand certain things best. . . . - -He talked as if the Hermanns had been living all their life in a rural -hamlet, and I alone had been capable, with my practice in life, of -a large and indulgent view of certain occurrences. That was what my -diplomacy was leading me to. I began suddenly to dislike it. - -"I say, Falk," I asked quite brusquely, "you haven't already a wife put -away somewhere?" - -The pain and disgust of his denial were very striking. Couldn't I -understand that he was as respectable as any white man hereabouts; -earning his living honestly. He was suffering from my suspicion, and the -low undertone of his voice made his protestations sound very pathetic. -For a moment he shamed me, but, my diplomacy notwithstanding, I seemed -to develop a conscience, as if in very truth it were in my power to -decide the success of this matrimonial enterprise. By pretending hard -enough we come to believe anything--anything to our advantage. And I had -been pretending very hard, because I meant yet to be towed safely down -the river. But through conscience or stupidity, I couldn't help alluding -to the Vanlo affair. "You acted rather badly there. Didn't you?" was -what I ventured actually to say--for the logic of our conduct is always -at the mercy of obscure and unforeseen impulses. - -His dilated pupils swerved from my face, glancing at the window with -a sort of scared fury. We heard behind the blinds the continuous -and sudden clicking of ivory, a jovial murmur of many voices, and -Schomberg's deep manly laugh. - -"That confounded old woman of a hotel-keeper then would never, never let -it rest!" Falk exclaimed. "Well, yes! It had happened two years ago." -When it came to the point he owned he couldn't make up his mind to trust -Fred Vanlo--no sailor, a bit of a fool too. He could not trust him, -but, to stop his row, he had lent him enough money to pay all his debts -before he left. I was greatly surprised to hear this. Then Falk could -not be such a miser after all. So much the better for the girl. For a -time he sat silent; then he picked up a card, and while looking at it he -said: - -"You need not think of anything bad. It was an accident. I've been -unfortunate once." - -"Then in heaven's name say nothing about it." - -As soon as these words were out of my mouth I fancied I had said -something immoral. He shook his head negatively. It had to be told. -He considered it proper that the relations of the lady should know. No -doubt--I thought to myself--had Miss Vanlo not been thirty and damaged by -the climate he would have found it possible to entrust Fred Vanlo with -this confidence. And then the figure of Hermann's niece appeared before -my mind's eye, with the wealth of her opulent form, her rich youth, her -lavish strength. With that powerful and immaculate vitality, her girlish -form must have shouted aloud of life to that man, whereas poor Miss -Vanlo could only sing sentimental songs to the strumming of a piano. - -"And that Hermann hates me, I know it!" he cried in his undertone, with -a sudden recrudescence of anxiety. "I must tell them. It is proper that -they should know. You would say so yourself." - -He then murmured an utterly mysterious allusion to the necessity for -peculiar domestic arrangements. Though my curiosity was excited I did -not want to hear any of his confidences. I feared he might give me a -piece of information that would make my assumed role of match-maker -odious--however unreal it was. I was aware that he could have the girl -for the asking; and keeping down a desire to laugh in his face, I -expressed a confident belief in my ability to argue away Hermann's -dislike for him. "I am sure I can make it all right," I said. He looked -very pleased. - -And when we rose not a word had been said about towage! Not a word! The -game was won and the honour was safe. Oh! blessed white cotton umbrella! -We shook hands, and I was holding myself with difficulty from breaking -into a step dance of joy when he came back, striding all the length of -the verandah, and said doubtfully: - -"I say, captain, I have your word? You--you--won't turn round?" - -Heavens! The fright he gave me. Behind his tone of doubt there was -something desperate and menacing. The infatuated ass. But I was equal to -the situation. - -"My dear Falk," I said, beginning to lie with a glibness and effrontery -that amazed me even at the time--"confidence for confidence." (He had -made no confidences.) "I will tell you that I am already engaged to an -extremely charming girl at home, and so you understand. . . ." - -He caught my hand and wrung it in a crushing grip. - -"Pardon me. I feel it every day more difficult to live alone . . ." - -"On rice and fish," I interrupted smartly, giggling with the sheer -nervousness of a danger escaped. - -He dropped my hand as if it had become suddenly red hot. A moment of -profound silence ensued, as though something extraordinary had happened. - -"I promise you to obtain Hermann's consent," I faltered out at last, and -it seemed to me that he could not help seeing through that humbugging -promise. "If there's anything else to get over I shall endeavour -to stand by you," I conceded further, feeling somehow defeated and -over-borne; "but you must do your best yourself." - -"I have been unfortunate once," he muttered unemotionally, and turning -his back on me he went away, thumping slowly the plank floor as if his -feet had been shod with iron. - -Next morning, however, he was lively enough as man-boat, a combination -of splashing and shouting; of the insolent commotion below with the -steady overbearing glare of the silent head-piece above. He turned us -out most unnecessarily at an ungodly hour, but it was nearly eleven -in the morning before he brought me up a cable's length from Hermann's -ship. And he did it very badly too, in a hurry, and nearly contriving to -miss altogether the patch of good holding ground, because, forsooth, -he had caught sight of Hermann's niece on the poop. And so did I; and -probably as soon as he had seen her himself. I saw the modest, sleek -glory of the tawny head, and the full, grey shape of the girlish print -frock she filled so perfectly, so satisfactorily, with the seduction of -unfaltering curves--a very nymph of Diana the Huntress. And Diana the -ship sat, high-walled and as solid as an institution, on the smooth -level of the water, the most uninspiring and respectable craft upon the -seas, useful and ugly, devoted to the support of domestic virtues like -any grocer's shop on shore. At once Falk steamed away; for there was -some work for him to do. He would return in the evening. - -He ranged close by us, passing out dead slow, without a hail. The beat -of the paddle-wheels reverberating amongst the stony islets, as if from -the ruined walls of a vast arena, filled the anchorage confusedly with -the clapping sounds of a mighty and leisurely applause. Abreast of -Hermann's ship he stopped the engines; and a profound silence reigned -over the rocks, the shore and the sea, for the time it took him to raise -his hat aloft before the nymph of the grey print frock. I had snatched -up my binoculars, and I can answer for it she didn't stir a limb, -standing by the rail shapely and erect, with one of her hands grasping a -rope at the height of her head, while the way of the tug carried slowly -past her the lingering and profound homage of the man. There was for me -an enormous significance in the scene, the sense of having witnessed -a solemn declaration. The die was cast. After such a manifestation he -couldn't back out. And I reflected that it was nothing whatever to me -now. With a rush of black smoke belching suddenly out of the funnel, and -a mad swirl of paddle-wheels provoking a burst of weird and precipitated -clapping, the tug shot out of the desolate arena. The rocky islets lay -on the sea like the heaps of a cyclopean ruin on a plain; the centipedes -and scorpions lurked under the stones; there was not a single blade -of grass in sight anywhere, not a single lizard sunning himself on a -boulder by the shore. When I looked again at Hermann's ship the girl -had disappeared. I could not detect the smallest dot of a bird on the -immense sky, and the flatness of the land continued the flatness of the -sea to the naked line of the horizon. - -This is the setting now inseparably connected with my knowledge of -Falk's misfortune. My diplomacy had brought me there, and now I had only -to wait the time for taking up the role of an ambassador. My diplomacy -was a success; my ship was safe; old Gambril would probably live; a -feeble sound of a tapping hammer came intermittently from the Diana. -During the afternoon I looked at times at the old homely ship, the -faithful nurse of Hermann's progeny, or yawned towards the distant -temple of Buddha, like a lonely hillock on the plain, where shaven -priests cherish the thoughts of that Annihilation which is the worthy -reward of us all. Unfortunate! He had been unfortunate once. Well, that -was not so bad as life goes. And what the devil could be the nature -of that misfortune? I remembered that I had known a man before who had -declared himself to have fallen, years ago, a victim to misfortune; but -this misfortune, whose effects appeared permanent (he looked desperately -hard up) when considered dispassionately, seemed indistinguishable from -a breach of trust. Could it be something of that nature? Apart, however, -from the utter improbability that he would offer to talk of it even to -his future uncle-in-law, I had a strange feeling that Falk's physique -unfitted him for that sort of delinquency. As the person of Hermann's -niece exhaled the profound physical charm of feminine form, so her -adorer's big frame embodied to my senses the hard, straight masculinity -that would conceivably kill but would not condescend to cheat. The thing -was obvious. I might just as well have suspected the girl of a curvature -of the spine. And I perceived that the sun was about to set. - -The smoke of Falk's tug hove in sight, far away at the mouth of the -river. It was time for me to assume the character of an ambassador, and -the negotiation would not be difficult except in the matter of keeping -my countenance. It was all too extravagantly nonsensical, and I -conceived that it would be best to compose for myself a grave demeanour. -I practised this in my boat as I went along, but the bashfulness that -came secretly upon me the moment I stepped on the deck of the Diana is -inexplicable. As soon as we had exchanged greetings Hermann asked me -eagerly if I knew whether Falk had found his white parasol. - -"He's going to bring it to you himself directly," I said with great -solemnity. "Meantime I am charged with an important message for which he -begs your favourable consideration. He is in love with your niece. . . ." - -"Ach So!" he hissed with an animosity that made my assumed gravity -change into the most genuine concern. What meant this tone? And I -hurried on. - -"He wishes, with your consent of course, to ask her to marry him at -once--before you leave here, that is. He would speak to the Consul." - -Hermann sat down and smoked violently. Five minutes passed in that -furious meditation, and then, taking the long pipe out of his mouth, -he burst into a hot diatribe against Falk--against his cupidity, his -stupidity (a fellow that can hardly be got to say "yes" or "no" to the -simplest question)--against his outrageous treatment of the shipping in -port (because he saw they were at his mercy)--and against his manner -of walking, which to his (Hermann's) mind showed a conceit positively -unbearable. The damage to the old Diana was not forgotten, of course, -and there was nothing of any nature said or done by Falk (even to the -last offer of refreshment in the hotel) that did not seem to have been -a cause of offence. "Had the cheek" to drag him (Hermann) into that -coffee-room; as though a drink from him could make up for forty-seven -dollars and fifty cents of damage in the cost of wood alone--not -counting two days' work for the carpenter. Of course he would not stand -in the girl's way. He was going home to Germany. There were plenty of -poor girls walking about in Germany. - -"He's very much in love," was all I found to say. - -"Yes," he cried. "And it is time too after making himself and me talked -about ashore the last voyage I was here, and then now again; coming on -board every evening unsettling the girl's mind, and saying nothing. What -sort of conduct is that?" - -The seven thousand dollars the fellow was always talking about did not, -in his opinion, justify such behaviour. Moreover, nobody had seen them. -He (Hermann) seriously doubted if there were seven thousand cents, and -the tug, no doubt, was mortgaged up to the top of the funnel to the firm -of Siegers. But let that pass. He wouldn't stand in the girl's way. Her -head was so turned that she had become no good to them of late. Quite -unable even to put the children to bed without her aunt. It was bad for -the children; they got unruly; and yesterday he actually had to give -Gustav a thrashing. - -For that, too, Falk was made responsible apparently. And looking at my -Hermann's heavy, puffy, good-natured face, I knew he would not exert -himself till greatly exasperated, and, therefore, would thrash very -hard, and being fat would resent the necessity. How Falk had managed -to turn the girl's head was more difficult to understand. I supposed -Hermann would know. And then hadn't there been Miss Vanlo? It could not -be his silvery tongue, or the subtle seduction of his manner; he had no -more of what is called "manner" than an animal--which, however, on the -other hand, is never, and can never be called vulgar. Therefore it must -have been his bodily appearance, exhibiting a virility of nature -as exaggerated as his beard, and resembling a sort of constant -ruthlessness. It was seen in the very manner he lolled in the chair. He -meant no offence, but his intercourse was characterised by that sort of -frank disregard of susceptibilities a man of seven foot six, living in a -world of dwarfs, would naturally assume, without in the least wishing to -be unkind. But amongst men of his own stature, or nearly, this frank -use of his advantages, in such matters as the awful towage bills for -instance, caused much impotent gnashing of teeth. When attentively -considered it seemed appalling at times. He was a strange beast. But -maybe women liked it. Seen in that light he was well worth taming, and -I suppose every woman at the bottom of her heart considers herself as a -tamer of strange beasts. But Hermann arose with precipitation to carry -the news to his wife. I had barely the time, as he made for the cabin -door, to grab him by the seat of his inexpressibles. I begged him to -wait till Falk in person had spoken with him. There remained some small -matter to talk over, as I understood. - -He sat down again at once, full of suspicion. - -"What matter?" he said surlily. "I have had enough of his nonsense. -There's no matter at all, as he knows very well; the girl has nothing in -the world. She came to us in one thin dress when my brother died, and I -have a growing family." - -"It can't be anything of that kind," I opined. "He's desperately -enamoured of your niece. I don't know why he did not say so before. Upon -my word, I believe it is because he was afraid to lose, perhaps, the -felicity of sitting near her on your quarter deck." - -I intimated my conviction that his love was so great as to be in a sense -cowardly. The effects of a great passion are unaccountable. It has -been known to make a man timid. But Hermann looked at me as if I had -foolishly raved; and the twilight was dying out rapidly. - -"You don't believe in passion, do you, Hermann?" I said cheerily. "The -passion of fear will make a cornered rat courageous. Falk's in a corner. -He will take her off your hands in one thin frock just as she came to -you. And after ten years' service it isn't a bad bargain," I added. - -Far from taking offence, he resumed his air of civic virtue. The sudden -night came upon him while he stared placidly along the deck, bringing in -contact with his thick lips, and taking away again after a jet of smoke, -the curved mouthpiece fitted to the stem of his pipe. The night came -upon him and buried in haste his whiskers, his globular eyes, his puffy -pale face, his fat knees and the vast flat slippers on his fatherly -feet. Only his short arms in respectable white shirt-sleeves remained -very visible, propped up like the flippers of a seal reposing on the -strand. - -"Falk wouldn't settle anything about repairs. Told me to find out first -how much wood I should require and he would see," he remarked; and after -he had spat peacefully in the dusk we heard over the water the beat of -the tug's floats. There is, on a calm night, nothing more suggestive of -fierce and headlong haste than the rapid sound made by the paddle-wheels -of a boat threshing her way through a quiet sea; and the approach of -Falk towards his fate seemed to be urged by an impatient and passionate -desire. The engines must have been driven to the very utmost of their -revolutions. We heard them slow down at last, and, vaguely, the white -hull of the tug appeared moving against the black islets, whilst a slow -and rhythmical clapping as of thousands of hands rose on all sides. It -ceased all at once, just before Falk brought her up. A single brusque -splash was followed by the long drawn rumbling of iron links running -through the hawse pipe. Then a solemn silence fell upon the Roadstead. - -"He will soon be here," I murmured, and after that we waited for him -without a word. Meantime, raising my eyes, I beheld the glitter of a -lofty sky above the Diana's mastheads. The multitude of stars gathered -into clusters, in rows, in lines, in masses, in groups, shone all -together, unanimously--and the few isolated ones, blazing by themselves -in the midst of dark patches, seemed to be of a superior kind and of -an inextinguishable nature. But long striding footsteps were heard -hastening along the deck; the high bulwarks of the Diana made a deeper -darkness. We rose from our chairs quickly, and Falk, appearing before -us, all in white, stood still. - -Nobody spoke at first, as though we had been covered with confusion. His -arrival was fiery, but his white bulk, of indefinite shape and without -features, made him loom up like a man of snow. - -"The captain here has been telling me . . ." Hermann began in a homely -and amicable voice; and Falk had a low, nervous laugh. His cool, -negligent undertone had no inflexions, but the strength of a powerful -emotion made him ramble in his speech. He had always desired a home. -It was difficult to live alone, though he was not answerable. He was -domestic; there had been difficulties; but since he had seen Hermann's -niece he found that it had become at last impossible to live by himself. -"I mean--impossible," he repeated with no sort of emphasis and only with -the slightest of pauses, but the word fell into my mind with the force -of a new idea. - -"I have not said anything to her yet," Hermann observed quietly. And -Falk dismissed this by a "That's all right. Certainly. Very proper." -There was a necessity for perfect frankness--in marrying, especially. -Hermann seemed attentive, but he seized the first opportunity to ask us -into the cabin. "And by-the-by, Falk," he said innocently, as we passed -in, "the timber came to no less than forty-seven dollars and fifty -cents." - -Falk, uncovering his head, lingered in the passage. "Some other time," -he said; and Hermann nudged me angrily--I don't know why. The girl alone -in the cabin sat sewing at some distance from the table. Falk stopped -short in the doorway. Without a word, without a sign, without the -slightest inclination of his bony head, by the silent intensity of his -look alone, he seemed to lay his herculean frame at her feet. Her hands -sank slowly on her lap, and raising her clear eyes, she let her soft, -beaming glance enfold him from head to foot like a slow and pale caress. -He was very hot when he sat down; she, with bowed head, went on with her -sewing; her neck was very white under the light of the lamp; but Falk, -hiding his face in the palms of his hands, shuddered faintly. He drew -them down, even to his beard, and his uncovered eyes astonished me by -their tense and irrational expression--as though he had just swallowed -a heavy gulp of alcohol. It passed away while he was binding us to -secrecy. Not that he cared, but he did not like to be spoken about; and -I looked at the girl's marvellous, at her wonderful, at her regal hair, -plaited tight into that one astonishing and maidenly tress. Whenever she -moved her well-shaped head it would stir stiffly to and fro on her back. -The thin cotton sleeve fitted the irreproachable roundness of her -arm like a skin; and her very dress, stretched on her bust, seemed to -palpitate like a living tissue with the strength of vitality animating -her body. How good her complexion was, the outline of her soft cheek and -the small convoluted conch of her rosy ear! To pull her needle she kept -the little finger apart from the others; it seemed a waste of power -to see her sewing--eternally sewing--with that industrious and precise -movement of her arm, going on eternally upon all the oceans, under all -the skies, in innumerable harbours. And suddenly I heard Falk's voice -declare that he could not marry a woman unless she knew of something -in his life that had happened ten years ago. It was an accident. An -unfortunate accident. It would affect the domestic arrangements of their -home, but, once told, it need not be alluded to again for the rest of -their lives. "I should want my wife to feel for me," he said. "It -has made me unhappy." And how could he keep the knowledge of it to -himself--he asked us--perhaps through years and years of companionship? -What sort of companionship would that be? He had thought it over. A wife -must know. Then why not at once? He counted on Hermann's kindness -for presenting the affair in the best possible light. And Hermann's -countenance, mystified before, became very sour. He stole an inquisitive -glance at me. I shook my head blankly. Some people thought, Falk went -on, that such an experience changed a man for the rest of his life. He -couldn't say. It was hard, awful, and not to be forgotten, but he did -not think himself a worse man than before. Only he talked in his sleep -now, he believed. . . . At last I began to think he had accidentally -killed some one; perhaps a friend--his own father maybe; when he went on -to say that probably we were aware he never touched meat. Throughout he -spoke English, of course of my account. - -He swayed forward heavily. - -The girl, with her hands raised before her pale eyes, was threading her -needle. He glanced at her, and his mighty trunk overshadowed the table, -bringing nearer to us the breadth of his shoulders, the thickness of -his neck, and that incongruous, anchorite head, burnt in the desert, -hollowed and lean as if by excesses of vigils and fasting. His beard -flowed imposingly downwards, out of sight, between the two brown hands -gripping the edge of the table, and his persistent glance made sombre by -the wide dilations of the pupils, fascinated. - -"Imagine to yourselves," he said in his ordinary voice, "that I have -eaten man." - -I could only ejaculate a faint "Ah!" of complete enlightenment. But -Hermann, dazed by the excessive shock, actually murmured, "Himmel! What -for?" - -"It was my terrible misfortune to do so," said Falk in a measured -undertone. The girl, unconscious, sewed on. Mrs. Hermann was absent -in one of the state-rooms, sitting up with Lena, who was feverish; but -Hermann suddenly put both his hands up with a jerk. The embroidered -calotte fell, and, in the twinkling of an eye, he had rumpled his hair -all ends up in a most extravagant manner. In this state he strove to -speak; with every effort his eyes seemed to start further out of their -sockets; his head looked like a mop. He choked, gasped, swallowed, and -managed to shriek out the one word, "Beast!" - -From that moment till Falk went out of the cabin the girl, with her -hands folded on the work lying in her lap, never took her eyes off him. -His own, in the blindness of his heart, darted all over the cabin, only -seeking to avoid the sight of Hermann's raving. It was ridiculous, and -was made almost terrible by the stillness of every other person present. -It was contemptible, and was made appalling by the man's over-mastering -horror of this awful sincerity, coming to him suddenly, with the -confession of such a fact. He walked with great strides; he gasped. He -wanted to know from Falk how dared he to come and tell him this? Did he -think himself a proper person to be sitting in this cabin where his wife -and children lived? Tell his niece! Expected him to tell his niece! -His own brother's daughter! Shameless! Did I ever hear tell of such -impudence?--he appealed to me. "This man here ought to have gone and -hidden himself out of sight instead of . . ." - -"But it's a great misfortune for me. But it's a great misfortune for -me," Falk would ejaculate from time to time. - -However, Hermann kept on running frequently against the corners of the -table. At last he lost a slipper, and crossing his arms on his breast, -walked up with one stocking foot very close to Falk, in order to ask -him whether he did think there was anywhere on earth a woman abandoned -enough to mate with such a monster. "Did he? Did he? Did he?" I tried -to restrain him. He tore himself out of my hands; he found his slipper, -and, endeavouring to put it on, stormed standing on one leg--and Falk, -with a face unmoved and averted eyes, grasped all his mighty beard in -one vast palm. - -"Was it right then for me to die myself?" he asked thoughtfully. I laid -my hand on his shoulder. - -"Go away," I whispered imperiously, without any clear reason for this -advice, except that I wished to put an end to Hermann's odious noise. -"Go away." - -He looked searchingly for a moment at Hermann before he made a move. -I left the cabin too to see him out of the ship. But he hung about the -quarter-deck. - -"It is my misfortune," he said in a steady voice. - -"You were stupid to blurt it out in such a manner. After all, we don't -hear such confidences every day." - -"What does the man mean?" he mused in deep undertones. "Somebody had to -die--but why me?" - -He remained still for a time in the dark--silent; almost invisible. All -at once he pinned my elbows to my sides. I felt utterly powerless in his -grip, and his voice, whispering in my ear, vibrated. - -"It's worse than hunger. Captain, do you know what that means? And I -could kill then--or be killed. I wish the crowbar had smashed my skull -ten years ago. And I've got to live now. Without her. Do you understand? -Perhaps many years. But how? What can be done? If I had allowed myself -to look at her once I would have carried her off before that man in my -hands--like this." - -I felt myself snatched off the deck, then suddenly dropped--and I -staggered backwards, feeling bewildered and bruised. What a man! All was -still; he was gone. I heard Hermann's voice declaiming in the cabin, and -I went in. - -I could not at first make out a single word, but Mrs. Hermann, who, -attracted by the noise, had come in some time before, with an expression -of surprise and mild disapproval, depicted broadly on her face, was -giving now all the signs of profound, helpless agitation. Her husband -shot a string of guttural words at her, and instantly putting out one -hand to the bulkhead as if to save herself from falling, she clutched -the loose bosom of her dress with the other. He harangued the two women -extraordinarily, with much of his shirt hanging out of his waist-belt, -stamping his foot, turning from one to the other, sometimes throwing -both his arms together, straight up above his rumpled hair, and keeping -them in that position while he uttered a passage of loud denunciation; -at others folding them tight across his breast--and then he hissed with -indignation, elevating his shoulders and protruding his head. The girl -was crying. - -She had not changed her attitude. From her steady eyes that, following -Falk in his retreat, had remained fixed wistfully on the cabin door, the -tears fell rapid, thick, on her hands, on the work in her lap, warm -and gentle like a shower in spring. She wept without grimacing, without -noise--very touching, very quiet, with something more of pity than of -pain in her face, as one weeps in compassion rather than in grief--and -Hermann, before her, declaimed. I caught several times the word -"Mensch," man; and also "Fressen," which last I looked up afterwards -in my dictionary. It means "Devour." Hermann seemed to be requesting an -answer of some sort from her; his whole body swayed. She remained mute -and perfectly still; at last his agitation gained her; she put the palms -of her hands together, her full lips parted, no sound came. His voice -scolded shrilly, his arms went like a windmill--suddenly he shook a -thick fist at her. She burst out into loud sobs. He seemed stupefied. - -Mrs. Hermann rushed forward babbling rapidly. The two women fell on each -other's necks, and, with an arm round her niece's waist, she led her -away. Her own eyes were simply streaming, her face was flooded. She -shook her head back at me negatively, I wonder why to this day. The -girl's head dropped heavily on her shoulder. They disappeared. - -Then Hermann sat down and stared at the cabin floor. - -"We don't know all the circumstances," I ventured to break the silence. -He retorted tartly that he didn't want to know of any. According to his -ideas no circumstances could excuse a crime--and certainly not such -a crime. This was the opinion generally received. The duty of a human -being was to starve. Falk therefore was a beast, an animal; base, low, -vile, despicable, shameless, and deceitful. He had been deceiving him -since last year. He was, however, inclined to think that Falk must -have gone mad quite recently; for no sane person, without necessity, -uselessly, for no earthly reason, and regardless of another's -self-respect and peace of mind, would own to having devoured human -flesh. "Why tell?" he cried. "Who was asking him?" It showed Falk's -brutality because after all he had selfishly caused him (Hermann) much -pain. He would have preferred not to know that such an unclean creature -had been in the habit of caressing his children. He hoped I would say -nothing of all this ashore, though. He wouldn't like it to get about -that he had been intimate with an eater of men--a common cannibal. As -to the scene he had made (which I judged quite unnecessary) he was not -going to inconvenience and restrain himself for a fellow that went about -courting and upsetting girls' heads, while he knew all the time that -no decent housewifely girl could think of marrying him. At least he -(Hermann) could not conceive how any girl could. Fancy Lena! . . . No, -it was impossible. The thoughts that would come into their heads every -time they sat down to a meal. Horrible! Horrible! - -"You are too squeamish, Hermann," I said. - -He seemed to think it was eminently proper to be squeamish if the word -meant disgust at Falk's conduct; and turning up his eyes sentimentally -he drew my attention to the horrible fate of the victims--the -victims of that Falk. I said that I knew nothing about them. He -seemed surprised. Could not anybody imagine without knowing? He--for -instance--felt he would like to avenge them. But what if--said I--there -had not been any? They might have died as it were, naturally--of -starvation. He shuddered. But to be eaten--after death! To be devoured! -He gave another deep shudder, and asked suddenly, "Do you think it is -true?" - -His indignation and his personality together would have been enough to -spoil the reality of the most authentic thing. When I looked at him I -doubted the story--but the remembrance of Falk's words, looks, gestures, -invested it not only with an air of reality but with the absolute truth -of primitive passion. - -"It is true just as much as you are able to make it; and exactly in the -way you like to make it. For my part, when I hear you clamouring about -it, I don't believe it is true at all." - -And I left him pondering. The men in my boat lying at the foot of -Diana's side ladder told me that the captain of the tug had gone away in -his gig some time ago. - -I let my fellows pull an easy stroke; because of the heavy dew the clear -sparkle of the stars seemed to fall on me cold and wetting. There was -a sense of lurking gruesome horror somewhere in my mind, and it was -mingled with clear and grotesque images. Schomberg's gastronomic -tittle-tattle was responsible for these; and I half hoped I should never -see Falk again. But the first thing my anchor-watchman told me was that -the captain of the tug was on board. He had sent his boat away and was -now waiting for me in the cuddy. - -He was lying full length on the stern settee, his face buried in the -cushions. I had expected to see it discomposed, contorted, despairing. -It was nothing of the kind; it was just as I had seen it twenty times, -steady and glaring from the bridge of the tug. It was immovably set and -hungry, dominated like the whole man by the singleness of one instinct. - -He wanted to live. He had always wanted to live. So we all do--but in -us the instinct serves a complex conception, and in him this instinct -existed alone. There is in such simple development a gigantic force, -and like the pathos of a child's naive and uncontrolled desire. He wanted -that girl, and the utmost that can be said for him was that he wanted -that particular girl alone. I think I saw then the obscure beginning, -the seed germinating in the soil of an unconscious need, the first shoot -of that tree bearing now for a mature mankind the flower and the fruit, -the infinite gradation in shades and in flavour of our discriminating -love. He was a child. He was as frank as a child too. He was hungry for -the girl, terribly hungry, as he had been terribly hungry for food. - -Don't be shocked if I declare that in my belief it was the same -need, the same pain, the same torture. We are in his case allowed to -contemplate the foundation of all the emotions--that one joy which is -to live, and the one sadness at the root of the innumerable torments. -It was made plain by the way he talked. He had never suffered so. It was -gnawing, it was fire; it was there, like this! And after pointing below -his breastbone, he made a hard wringing motion with his hands. And I -assure you that, seen as I saw it with my bodily eyes, it was anything -but laughable. And again, as he was presently to tell me (alluding to an -early incident of the disastrous voyage when some damaged meat had been -flung overboard), he said that a time soon came when his heart ached -(that was the expression he used), and he was ready to tear his hair out -at the thought of all that rotten beef thrown away. - -I had heard all this; I witnessed his physical struggles, seeing the -working of the rack and hearing the true voice of pain. I witnessed it -all patiently, because the moment I came into the cuddy he had called -upon me to stand by him--and this, it seems, I had diplomatically -promised. - -His agitation was impressive and alarming in the little cabin, like the -floundering of a great whale driven into a shallow cove in a coast. He -stood up; he flung himself down headlong; he tried to tear the cushion -with his teeth; and again hugging it fiercely to his face he let himself -fall on the couch. The whole ship seemed to feel the shock of his -despair; and I contemplated with wonder the lofty forehead, the noble -touch of time on the uncovered temples, the unchanged hungry character -of the face--so strangely ascetic and so incapable of portraying -emotion. - -What should he do? He had lived by being near her. He had sat--in the -evening--I knew?-all his life! She sewed. Her head was bent--so. Her -head--like this--and her arms. Ah! Had I seen? Like this. - -He dropped on a stool, bowed his powerful neck whose nape was red, -and with his hands stitched the air, ludicrous, sublimely imbecile and -comprehensible. - -And now he couldn't have her? No! That was too much. After thinking too -that . . . What had he done? What was my advice? Take her by force? No? -Mustn't he? Who was there then to kill him? For the first time I saw -one of his features move; a fighting teeth-baring curl of the lip. . . . -"Not Hermann, perhaps." He lost himself in thought as though he had -fallen out of the world. - -I may note that the idea of suicide apparently did not enter his head -for a single moment. It occurred to me to ask: - -"Where was it that this shipwreck of yours took place?" - -"Down south," he said vaguely with a start. - -"You are not down south now," I said. "Violence won't do. They would -take her away from you in no time. And what was the name of the ship?" - -"Borgmester Dahl," he said. "It was no shipwreck." - -He seemed to be waking up by degrees from that trance, and waking up -calmed. - -"Not a shipwreck? What was it?" - -"Break down," he answered, looking more like himself every moment. By -this only I learned that it was a steamer. I had till then supposed they -had been starving in boats or on a raft--or perhaps on a barren rock. - -"She did not sink then?" I asked in surprise. He nodded. "We sighted the -southern ice," he pronounced dreamily. - -"And you alone survived?" - -He sat down. "Yes. It was a terrible misfortune for me. Everything went -wrong. All the men went wrong. I survived." - -Remembering the things one reads of it was difficult to realise the true -meaning of his answers. I ought to have seen at once--but I did not; so -difficult is it for our minds, remembering so much, instructed so much, -informed of so much, to get in touch with the real actuality at our -elbow. And with my head full of preconceived notions as to how a case of -"cannibalism and suffering at sea" should be managed I said--"You were -then so lucky in the drawing of lots?" - -"Drawing of lots?" he said. "What lots? Do you think I would have -allowed my life to go for the drawing of lots?" - -Not if he could help if, I perceived, no matter what other life went. - -"It was a great misfortune. Terrible. Awful," he said. "Many heads went -wrong, but the best men would live." - -"The toughest, you mean," I said. He considered the word. Perhaps it was -strange to him, though his English was so good. - -"Yes," he asserted at last. "The best. It was everybody for himself at -last and the ship open to all." - -Thus from question to question I got the whole story. I fancy it was the -only way I could that night have stood by him. Outwardly at least he was -himself again; the first sign of it was the return of that incongruous -trick he had of drawing both his hands down his face--and it had its -meaning now, with that slight shudder of the frame and the passionate -anguish of these hands uncovering a hungry immovable face, the wide -pupils of the intent, silent, fascinating eyes. - -It was an iron steamer of a most respectable origin. The burgomaster -of Falk's native town had built her. She was the first steamer ever -launched there. The burgomaster's daughter had christened her. Country -people drove in carts from miles around to see her. He told me all this. -He got the berth as what we should call a chief mate. He seemed to think -it had been a feather in his cap; and, in his own corner of the world, -this lover of life was of good parentage. - -The burgomaster had advanced ideas in the ship-owning line. At that time -not every one would have known enough to think of despatching a cargo -steamer to the Pacific. But he loaded her with pitch-pine deals and sent -her off to hunt for her luck. Wellington was to be the first port, I -fancy. It doesn't matter, because in latitude 44 d south and somewhere -halfway between Good Hope and New Zealand the tail shaft broke and the -propeller dropped off. - -They were steaming then with a fresh gale on the quarter and all their -canvas set, to help the engines. But by itself the sail power was not -enough to keep way on her. When the propeller went the ship broached-to -at once, and the masts got whipped overboard. - -The disadvantage of being dismasted consisted in this, that they had -nothing to hoist flags on to make themselves visible at a distance. In -the course of the first few days several ships failed to sight them; and -the gale was drifting them out of the usual track. The voyage had been, -from the first, neither very successful nor very harmonious. There had -been quarrels on board. The captain was a clever, melancholic man, who -had no unusual grip on his crew. The ship had been amply provisioned for -the passage, but, somehow or other, several barrels of meat were found -spoiled on opening, and had been thrown overboard soon after leaving -home, as a sanitary measure. Afterwards the crew of the Borgmester Dahl -thought of that rotten carrion with tears of regret, covetousness and -despair. - -She drove south. To begin with, there had been an appearance of -organisation, but soon the bonds of discipline became relaxed. A sombre -idleness succeeded. They looked with sullen eyes at the horizon. The -gales increased: she lay in the trough, the seas made a clean breach -over her. On one frightful night, when they expected their hulk to turn -over with them every moment, a heavy sea broke on board, deluged the -store-rooms and spoiled the best part of the remaining provisions. It -seems the hatch had not been properly secured. This instance of neglect -is characteristic of utter discouragement. Falk tried to inspire some -energy into his captain, but failed. From that time he retired more into -himself, always trying to do his utmost in the situation. It grew worse. -Gale succeeded gale, with black mountains of water hurling themselves on -the Borgmester Dahl. Some of the men never left their bunks; many became -quarrelsome. The chief engineer, an old man, refused to speak at all to -anybody. Others shut themselves up in their berths to cry. On calm days -the inert steamer rolled on a leaden sea under a murky sky, or showed, -in sunshine, the squalor of sea waifs, the dried white salt, the rust, -the jagged broken places. Then the gales came again. They kept body and -soul together on short rations. Once, an English ship, scudding in a -storm, tried to stand by them, heaving-to pluckily under their lee. The -seas swept her decks; the men in oilskins clinging to her rigging looked -at them, and they made desperate signs over their shattered bulwarks. -Suddenly her main-topsail went, yard and all, in a terrific squall; she -had to bear up under bare poles, and disappeared. - -Other ships had spoken them before, but at first they had refused to be -taken off, expecting the assistance of some steamer. There were very few -steamers in those latitudes then; and when they desired to leave this -dead and drifting carcase, no ship came in sight. They had drifted south -out of men's knowledge. They failed to attract the attention of a lonely -whaler, and very soon the edge of the polar ice-cap rose from the sea -and closed the southern horizon like a wall. One morning they were -alarmed by finding themselves floating amongst detached pieces of ice. -But the fear of sinking passed away like their vigour, like their hopes; -the shocks of the floes knocking against the ship's side could not -rouse them from their apathy: and the Borgmester Dahl drifted out again -unharmed into open water. They hardly noticed the change. - -The funnel had gone overboard in one of the heavy rolls; two of their -three boats had disappeared, washed away in bad weather, and the davits -swung to and fro, unsecured, with chafed rope's ends waggling to the -roll. Nothing was done on board, and Falk told me how he had often -listened to the water washing about the dark engine-room where the -engines, stilled for ever, were decaying slowly into a mass of rust, as -the stilled heart decays within the lifeless body. At first, after the -loss of the motive power, the tiller had been thoroughly secured by -lashings. But in course of time these had rotted, chafed, rusted, -parting one by one: and the rudder, freed, banged heavily to and fro -night and day, sending dull shocks through the whole frame of the -vessel. This was dangerous. Nobody cared enough to lift a little finger. -He told me that even now sometimes waking up at night, he fancied he -could hear the dull vibrating thuds. The pintles carried away, and it -dropped off at last. - -The final catastrophe came with the sending off of their one remaining -boat. It was Falk who had managed to preserve her intact, and now it -was agreed that some of the hands should sail away into the track of the -shipping to procure assistance. She was provisioned with all the food -they could spare for the six who were to go. They waited for a fine day. -It was long in coming. At last one morning they lowered her into the -water. - -Directly, in that demoralised crowd, trouble broke out. Two men who -had no business there had jumped into the boat under the pretence of -unhooking the tackles, while some sort of squabble arose on the deck -amongst these weak, tottering spectres of a ship's company. The -captain, who had been for days living secluded and unapproachable in the -chart-room, came to the rail. He ordered the two men to come up on board -and menaced them with his revolver. They pretended to obey, but suddenly -cutting the boat's painter, gave a shove against the ship's side and -made ready to hoist the sail. - -"Shoot, sir! Shoot them down!" cried Falk-"and I will jump overboard to -regain the boat." But the captain, after taking aim with an irresolute -arm, turned suddenly away. - -A howl of rage arose. Falk dashed into his cabin for his own pistol. -When he returned it was too late. Two more men had leaped into the -water, but the fellows in the boat beat them off with the oars, hoisted -the boat's lug and sailed away. They were never heard of again. - -Consternation and despair possessed the remaining ship's company, -till the apathy of utter hopelessness re-asserted its sway. That day a -fireman committed suicide, running up on deck with his throat cut from -ear to ear, to the horror of all hands. He was thrown overboard. The -captain had locked himself in the chart-room, and Falk, knocking vainly -for admittance, heard him reciting over and over again the names of his -wife and children, not as if calling upon them or commending them to -God, but in a mechanical voice like an exercise of memory. Next day the -doors of the chart-room were swinging open to the roll of the ship, and -the captain had disappeared. He must during the night have jumped into -the sea. Falk locked both the doors and kept the keys. - -The organised life of the ship had come to an end. The solidarity of -the men had gone. They became indifferent to each other. It was Falk -who took in hand the distribution of such food as remained. They boiled -their boots for soup to eke out the rations, which only made their -hunger more intolerable. Sometimes whispers of hate were heard passing -between the languid skeletons that drifted endlessly to and fro, north -and south, east and west, upon that carcase of a ship. - -And in this lies the grotesque horror of this sombre story. The last -extremity of sailors, overtaking a small boat or a frail craft, seems -easier to bear, because of the direct danger of the seas. The confined -space, the close contact, the imminent menace of the waves, seem to draw -men together, in spite of madness, suffering and despair. But there -was a ship--safe, convenient, roomy: a ship with beds, bedding, knives, -forks, comfortable cabins, glass and china, and a complete cook's -galley, pervaded, ruled and possessed by the pitiless spectre of -starvation. The lamp oil had been drunk, the wicks cut up for food, the -candles eaten. At night she floated dark in all her recesses, and full -of fears. One day Falk came upon a man gnawing a splinter of pine wood. -Suddenly he threw the piece of wood away, tottered to the rail, and fell -over. Falk, too late to prevent the act, saw him claw the ship's side -desperately before he went down. Next day another man did the same -thing, after uttering horrible imprecations. But this one somehow -managed to get hold of the broken rudder chains and hung on there, -silently. Falk set about trying to save him, and all the time the man, -holding with both hands, looked at him anxiously with his sunken eyes. -Then, just as Falk was ready to put his hand on him, the man let go his -hold and sank like a stone. Falk reflected on these sights. His heart -revolted against the horror of death, and he said to himself that he -would struggle for every precious minute of his life. - -One afternoon--as the survivors lay about on the after deck--the -carpenter, a tall man with a black beard, spoke of the last sacrifice. -There was nothing eatable left on board. Nobody said a word to this; but -that company separated quickly, these listless feeble spectres slunk -off one by one to hide in fear of each other. Falk and the carpenter -remained on deck together. Falk liked the big carpenter. He had been the -best man of the lot, helpful and ready as long as there was anything to -do, the longest hopeful, and had preserved to the last some vigour and -decision of mind. - -They did not speak to each other. Henceforth no voices were to be heard -conversing sadly on board that ship. After a time the carpenter tottered -away forward; but later on, Falk going to drink at the fresh-water pump, -had the inspiration to turn his head. The carpenter had stolen upon him -from behind, and, summoning all his strength, was aiming with a crowbar -a blow at the back of his skull. - -Dodging just in time, Falk made his escape and ran into his cabin. While -he was loading his revolver there, he heard the sound of heavy blows -struck upon the bridge. The locks of the chartroom doors were slight, -they flew open, and the carpenter, possessing himself of the captain's -revolver, fired a shot of defiance. - -Falk was about to go on deck and have it out at once, when he remarked -that one of the ports of his cabin commanded the approaches to the -freshwater pump. Instead of going out he remained in and secured the -door. "The best man shall survive," he said to himself--and the other, -he reasoned, must at some time or other come there to drink. These -starving men would drink often to cheat the pangs of their hunger. But -the carpenter too must have noticed the position of the port. They were -the two best men in the ship, and the game was with them. All the rest -of the day Falk saw no one and heard no sound. At night he strained his -eyes. It was dark--he heard a rustling noise once, but he was certain -that no one could have come near the pump. It was to the left of his -deck port, and he could not have failed to see a man, for the night was -clear and starry. He saw nothing; towards morning another faint noise -made him suspicious. Deliberately and quietly he unlocked his door. He -had not slept, and had not given way to the horror of the situation. He -wanted to live. - -But during the night the carpenter, without at all trying to approach -the pump, had managed to creep quietly along the starboard bulwark, and, -unseen, had crouched down right under Falk's deck port. When daylight -came he rose up suddenly, looked in, and putting his arm through the -round brass framed opening, fired at Falk within a foot. He missed--and -Falk, instead of attempting to seize the arm holding the weapon, opened -his door unexpectedly, and with the muzzle of his long revolver nearly -touching the other's side, shot him dead. - -The best man had survived. Both of them had at the beginning just -strength enough to stand on their feet, and both had displayed pitiless -resolution, endurance, cunning and courage--all the qualities of classic -heroism. At once Falk threw overboard the captain's revolver. He was a -born monopolist. Then after the report of the two shots, followed by a -profound silence, there crept out into the cold, cruel dawn of Antarctic -regions, from various hiding-places, over the deck of that dismantled -corpse of a ship floating on a grey sea ruled by iron necessity and with -a heart of ice--there crept into view one by one, cautious, slow, eager, -glaring, and unclean, a band of hungry and livid skeletons. Falk faced -them, the possessor of the only fire-arm on board, and the second best -man--the carpenter--was lying dead between him and them. - -"He was eaten, of course," I said. - -He bent his head slowly, shuddered a little, drawing his hands over his -face, and said, "I had never any quarrel with that man. But there were -our lives between him and me." - -Why continue the story of that ship, that story before which, with its -fresh-water pump like a spring of death, its man with the weapon, the -sea ruled by iron necessity, its spectral band swayed by terror and -hope, its mute and unhearing heaven?-the fable of the Flying Dutchman -with its convention of crime and its sentimental retribution fades like -a graceful wreath, like a wisp of white mist. What is there to say that -every one of us cannot guess for himself? I believe Falk began by going -through the ship, revolver in hand, to annex all the matches. Those -starving wretches had plenty of matches! He had no mind to have the ship -set on fire under his feet, either from hate or from despair. He lived -in the open, camping on the bridge, commanding all the after deck -and the only approach to the pump. He lived! Some of the others lived -too--concealed, anxious, coming out one by one from their hiding-places -at the seductive sound of a shot. And he was not selfish. They shared, -but only three of them all were alive when a whaler, returning from her -cruising ground, nearly ran over the water-logged hull of the Borgmester -Dahl, which, it seems, in the end had in some way sprung a leak in both -her holds, but being loaded with deals could not sink. - -"They all died," Falk said. "These three too, afterwards. But I would -not die. All died, all! under this terrible misfortune. But was I too to -throw away my life? Could I? Tell me, captain? I was alone there, quite -alone, just like the others. Each man was alone. Was I to give up my -revolver? Who to? Or was I to throw it into the sea? What would -have been the good? Only the best man would survive. It was a great, -terrible, and cruel misfortune." - -He had survived! I saw him before me as though preserved for a witness -to the mighty truth of an unerring and eternal principle. Great beads -of perspiration stood on his forehead. And suddenly it struck the table -with a heavy blow, as he fell forward throwing his hands out. - -"And this is worse," he cried. "This is a worse pain! This is more -terrible." - -He made my heart thump with the profound conviction of his cries. And -after he had left me alone I called up before my mental eye the image -of the girl weeping silently, abundantly, patiently, and as if -irresistibly. I thought of her tawny hair. I thought how, if unplaited, -it would have covered her all round as low as the hips, like the hair of -a siren. And she had bewitched him. Fancy a man who would guard his -own life with the inflexibility of a pitiless and immovable fate, being -brought to lament that once a crowbar had missed his skull! The sirens -sing and lure to death, but this one had been weeping silently as if -for the pity of his life. She was the tender and voiceless siren of this -appalling navigator. He evidently wanted to live his whole conception -of life. Nothing else would do. And she too was a servant of that -life that, in the midst of death, cries aloud to our senses. She was -eminently fitted to interpret for him its feminine side. And in her own -way, and with her own profusion of sensuous charms, she also seemed -to illustrate the eternal truth of an unerring principle. I don't know -though what sort of principle Hermann illustrated when he turned up -early on board my ship with a most perplexed air. It struck me, however, -that he too would do his best to survive. He seemed greatly calmed on -the subject of Falk, but still very full of it. - -"What is it you said I was last night? You know," he asked after some -preliminary talk. "Too--too--I don't know. A very funny word." - -"Squeamish?" I suggested. - -"Yes. What does it mean?" - -"That you exaggerate things--to yourself. Without inquiry, and so on." - -He seemed to turn it over in his mind. We went on talking. This Falk was -the plague of his life. Upsetting everybody like this! Mrs. Hermann was -unwell rather this morning. His niece was crying still. There was nobody -to look after the children. He struck his umbrella on the deck. She -would be like that for months. Fancy carrying all the way home, second -class, a perfectly useless girl who is crying all the time. It was -bad for Lena too, he observed; but on what grounds I could not guess. -Perhaps of the bad example. That child was already sorrowing and crying -enough over the rag doll. Nicholas was really the least sentimental -person of the family. - -"Why does she weep?" I asked. - -"From pity," cried Hermann. - -It was impossible to make out women. Mrs. Hermann was the only one he -pretended to understand. She was very, very upset and doubtful. - -"Doubtful about what?" I asked. - -He averted his eyes and did not answer this. It was impossible to make -them out. For instance, his niece was weeping for Falk. Now he (Hermann) -would like to wring his neck--but then . . . He supposed he had too -tender a heart. "Frankly," he asked at last, "what do you think of what -we heard last night, captain?" - -"In all these tales," I observed, "there is always a good deal of -exaggeration." - -And not letting him recover from his surprise I assured him that I knew -all the details. He begged me not to repeat them. His heart was too -tender. They made him feel unwell. Then, looking at his feet and -speaking very slowly, he supposed that he need not see much of them -after they were married. For, indeed, he could not bear the sight of -Falk. On the other hand it was ridiculous to take home a girl with her -head turned. A girl that weeps all the time and is of no help to her -aunt. - -"Now you will be able to do with one cabin only on your passage home," I -said. - -"Yes, I had thought of that," he said brightly, almost. "Yes! Himself, -his wife, four children--one cabin might do. Whereas if his niece went -. . ." - -"And what does Mrs. Hermann say to it?" I inquired. - -Mrs. Hermann did not know whether a man of that sort could make a girl -happy--she had been greatly deceived in Captain Falk. She had been very -upset last night. - -Those good people did not seem to be able to retain an impression for a -whole twelve hours. I assured him on my own personal knowledge that -Falk possessed in himself all the qualities to make his niece's future -prosperous. He said he was glad to hear this, and that he would tell his -wife. Then the object of the visit came out. He wished me to help him to -resume relations with Falk. His niece, he said, had expressed the hope I -would do so in my kindness. He was evidently anxious that I should, -for though he seemed to have forgotten nine-tenths of his last night's -opinions and the whole of his indignation, yet he evidently feared to -be sent to the right-about. "You told me he was very much in love," he -concluded slyly, and leered in a sort of bucolic way. - -As soon as he had left my ship I called Falk on board by signal--the -tug still lying at the anchorage. He took the news with calm gravity, -as though he had all along expected the stars to fight for him in their -courses. - -I saw them once more together, and only once--on the quarter-deck of the -Diana. Hermann sat smoking with a shirt-sleeved elbow hooked over the -back of his chair. Mrs. Hermann was sewing alone. As Falk stepped over -the gangway, Hermann's niece, with a slight swish of the skirt and a -swift friendly nod to me, glided past my chair. - -They met in sunshine abreast of the mainmast. He held her hands and -looked down at them, and she looked up at him with her candid and -unseeing glance. It seemed to me they had come together as if attracted, -drawn and guided to each other by a mysterious influence. They were a -complete couple. In her grey frock, palpitating with life, generous of -form, olympian and simple, she was indeed the siren to fascinate that -dark navigator, this ruthless lover of the five senses. From afar I -seemed to feel the masculine strength with which he grasped those hands -she had extended to him with a womanly swiftness. Lena, a little pale, -nursing her beloved lump of dirty rags, ran towards her big friend; and -then in the drowsy silence of the good old ship Mrs. Hermann's voice -rang out so changed that it made me spin round in my chair to see what -was the matter. - -"Lena, come here!" she screamed. And this good-natured matron gave me a -wavering glance, dark and full of fearsome distrust. The child ran -back, surprised to her knee. But the two, standing before each other in -sunlight with clasped hands, had heard nothing, had seen nothing and no -one. Three feet away from them in the shade a seaman sat on a spar, very -busy splicing a strop, and dipping his fingers into a tar-pot, as if -utterly unaware of their existence. - -When I returned in command of another ship, some five years afterwards, -Mr. and Mrs. Falk had left the place. I should not wonder if Schomberg's -tongue had succeeded at last in scaring Falk away for good; and, -indubitably, there was a tale still going about the town of a certain -Falk, owner of a tug, who had won his wife at cards from the captain of -an English ship. - - -THE END - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Falk, by Joseph Conrad - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FALK *** - -***** This file should be named 493.txt or 493.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/9/493/ - -Produced by Judith Boss and David Widger - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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