Complete Works of Joseph Conrad (Illustrated) (17 page)

Babalatchi and Mrs. Almayer had listened curiously, their bodies bent and their ears turned towards the passage.  At every louder shout they nodded at each other with a ridiculous affectation of scandalised propriety, and they remained in the same attitude for some time after the noise had ceased.

“This is the devil of gin,” whispered Mrs. Almayer.  “Yes; he talks like that sometimes when there is nobody to hear him.”

“What does he say?” inquired Babalatchi, eagerly.  “You ought to understand.”

“I have forgotten their talk.  A little I understood.  He spoke without any respect of the white ruler in Batavia, and of protection, and said he had been wronged; he said that several times.  More I did not understand.  Listen!  Again he speaks!”

“Tse! tse! tse!” clicked Babalatchi, trying to appear shocked, but with a joyous twinkle of his solitary eye.  “There will be great trouble between those white men.  I will go round now and see.  You tell your daughter that there is a sudden and a long journey before her, with much glory and splendour at the end.  And tell her that Dain must go, or he must die, and that he will not go alone.”

“No, he will not go alone,” slowly repeated Mrs. Almayer, with a thoughtful air, as she crept into the passage after seeing Babalatchi disappear round the corner of the house.

The statesman of Sambir, under the impulse of vivid curiosity, made his way quickly to the front of the house, but once there he moved slowly and cautiously as he crept step by step up the stairs of the verandah.  On the highest step he sat down quietly, his feet on the steps below, ready for flight should his presence prove unwelcome.  He felt pretty safe so.  The table stood nearly endways to him, and he saw Almayer’s back; at Nina he looked full face, and had a side view of both officers; but of the four persons sitting at the table only Nina and the younger officer noticed his noiseless arrival.  The momentary dropping of Nina’s eyelids acknowledged Babalatchi’s presence; she then spoke at once to the young sub, who turned towards her with attentive alacrity, but her gaze was fastened steadily on her father’s face while Almayer was speaking uproariously.

“ . . . disloyalty and unscrupulousness!  What have you ever done to make me loyal?  You have no grip on this country.  I had to take care of myself, and when I asked for protection I was met with threats and contempt, and had Arab slander thrown in my face.  I! a white man!”

“Don’t be violent, Almayer,” remonstrated the lieutenant; “I have heard all this already.”

“Then why do you talk to me about scruples?  I wanted money, and I gave powder in exchange.  How could I know that some of your wretched men were going to be blown up?  Scruples!  Pah!”

He groped unsteadily amongst the bottles, trying one after another, grumbling to himself the while.

“No more wine,” he muttered discontentedly.

“You have had enough, Almayer,” said the lieutenant, as he lighted a cigar.  “Is it not time to deliver to us your prisoner?  I take it you have that Dain Maroola stowed away safely somewhere.  Still we had better get that business over, and then we shall have more drink.  Come! don’t look at me like this.”

Almayer was staring with stony eyes, his trembling fingers fumbling about his throat.

“Gold,” he said with difficulty.  “Hem!  A hand on the windpipe, you know.  Sure you will excuse.  I wanted to say — a little gold for a little powder.  What’s that?”

“I know, I know,” said the lieutenant soothingly.

“No!  You don’t know.  Not one of you knows!” shouted Almayer.  “The government is a fool, I tell you.  Heaps of gold.  I am the man that knows; I and another one.  But he won’t speak.  He is — ”

He checked himself with a feeble smile, and, making an unsuccessful attempt to pat the officer on the shoulder, knocked over a couple of empty bottles.

“Personally you are a fine fellow,” he said very distinctly, in a patronising manner.  His head nodded drowsily as he sat muttering to himself.

The two officers looked at each other helplessly.

“This won’t do,” said the lieutenant, addressing his junior.  “Have the men mustered in the compound here.  I must get some sense out of him.  Hi!  Almayer!  Wake up, man.  Redeem your word.  You gave your word.  You gave your word of honour, you know.”

Almayer shook off the officer’s hand with impatience, but his ill-humour vanished at once, and he looked up, putting his forefinger to the side of his nose.

“You are very young; there is time for all things,” he said, with an air of great sagacity.

The lieutenant turned towards Nina, who, leaning back in her chair, watched her father steadily.

“Really I am very much distressed by all this for your sake,” he exclaimed.  “I do not know;” he went on, speaking with some embarrassment, “whether I have any right to ask you anything, unless, perhaps, to withdraw from this painful scene, but I feel that I must — for your father’s good — suggest that you should — I mean if you have any influence over him you ought to exert it now to make him keep the promise he gave me before he — before he got into this state.”

He observed with discouragement that she seemed not to take any notice of what he said sitting still with half-closed eyes.

“I trust — ” he began again.

“What is the promise you speak of?” abruptly asked Nina, leaving her seat and moving towards her father.

“Nothing that is not just and proper.  He promised to deliver to us a man who in time of profound peace took the lives of innocent men to escape the punishment he deserved for breaking the law.  He planned his mischief on a large scale.  It is not his fault if it failed, partially.  Of course you have heard of Dain Maroola.  Your father secured him, I understand.  We know he escaped up this river.  Perhaps you — ”

“And he killed white men!” interrupted Nina.

“I regret to say they were white.  Yes, two white men lost their lives through that scoundrel’s freak.”

“Two only!” exclaimed Nina.

The officer looked at her in amazement.

“Why! why!  You — ” he stammered, confused.

“There might have been more,” interrupted Nina.  “And when you get this — this scoundrel will you go?”

The lieutenant, still speechless, bowed his assent.

“Then I would get him for you if I had to seek him in a burning fire,” she burst out with intense energy.  “I hate the sight of your white faces.  I hate the sound of your gentle voices.  That is the way you speak to women, dropping sweet words before any pretty face.  I have heard your voices before.  I hoped to live here without seeing any other white face but this,” she added in a gentler tone, touching lightly her father’s cheek.

Almayer ceased his mumbling and opened his eyes.  He caught hold of his daughter’s hand and pressed it to his face, while Nina with the other hand smoothed his rumpled grey hair, looking defiantly over her father’s head at the officer, who had now regained his composure and returned her look with a cool, steady stare.  Below, in front of the verandah, they could hear the tramp of seamen mustering there according to orders.  The sub-lieutenant came up the steps, while Babalatchi stood up uneasily and, with finger on lip, tried to catch Nina’s eye.

“You are a good girl,” whispered Almayer, absently, dropping his daughter’s hand.

“Father! father!” she cried, bending over him with passionate entreaty.  “See those two men looking at us.  Send them away.  I cannot bear it any more.  Send them away.  Do what they want and let them go.”

She caught sight of Babalatchi and ceased speaking suddenly, but her foot tapped the floor with rapid beats in a paroxysm of nervous restlessness.  The two officers stood close together looking on curiously.

“What has happened?  What is the matter?” whispered the younger man.

“Don’t know,” answered the other, under his breath.  “One is furious, and the other is drunk.  Not so drunk, either.  Queer, this.  Look!”

Almayer had risen, holding on to his daughter’s arm.  He hesitated a moment, then he let go his hold and lurched half-way across the verandah.  There he pulled himself together, and stood very straight, breathing hard and glaring round angrily.

“Are the men ready?” asked the lieutenant.

“All ready, sir.”

“Now, Mr. Almayer, lead the way,” said the lieutenant

Almayer rested his eyes on him as if he saw him for the first time.

“Two men,” he said thickly.  The effort of speaking seemed to interfere with his equilibrium.  He took a quick step to save himself from a fall, and remained swaying backwards and forwards.  “Two men,” he began again, speaking with difficulty.  “Two white men — men in uniform — honourable men.  I want to say — men of honour.  Are you?”

“Come!  None of that,” said the officer impatiently.  “Let us have that friend of yours.”

“What do you think I am?” asked Almayer, fiercely.

“You are drunk, but not so drunk as not to know what you are doing.  Enough of this tomfoolery,” said the officer sternly, “or I will have you put under arrest in your own house.”

“Arrest!” laughed Almayer, discordantly.  “Ha! ha! ha!  Arrest!  Why, I have been trying to get out of this infernal place for twenty years, and I can’t.  You hear, man!  I can’t, and never shall!  Never!”

He ended his words with a sob, and walked unsteadily down the stairs.  When in the courtyard the lieutenant approached him, and took him by the arm.  The sub-lieutenant and Babalatchi followed close.

“That’s better, Almayer,” said the officer encouragingly.  “Where are you going to?  There are only planks there.  Here,” he went on, shaking him slightly, “do we want the boats?”

“No,” answered Almayer, viciously.  “You want a grave.”

“What?  Wild again!  Try to talk sense.”

“Grave!” roared Almayer, struggling to get himself free.  “A hole in the ground.  Don’t you understand?  You must be drunk.  Let me go!  Let go, I tell you!”

He tore away from the officer’s grasp, and reeled towards the planks where the body lay under its white cover; then he turned round quickly, and faced the semicircle of interested faces.  The sun was sinking rapidly, throwing long shadows of house and trees over the courtyard, but the light lingered yet on the river, where the logs went drifting past in midstream, looking very distinct and black in the pale red glow.  The trunks of the trees in the forest on the east bank were lost in gloom while their highest branches swayed gently in the departing sunlight.  The air felt heavy and cold in the breeze, expiring in slight puffs that came over the water.

Almayer shivered as he made an effort to speak, and again with an uncertain gesture he seemed to free his throat from the grip of an invisible hand.  His bloodshot eyes wandered aimlessly from face to face.

“There!” he said at last.  “Are you all there?  He is a dangerous man.”

He dragged at the cover with hasty violence, and the body rolled stiffly off the planks and fell at his feet in rigid helplessness.

“Cold, perfectly cold,” said Almayer, looking round with a mirthless smile.  “Sorry can do no better.  And you can’t hang him, either.  As you observe, gentlemen,” he added gravely, “there is no head, and hardly any neck.”

The last ray of light was snatched away from the tree-tops, the river grew suddenly dark, and in the great stillness the murmur of the flowing water seemed to fill the vast expanse of grey shadow that descended upon the land.

“This is Dain,” went on Almayer to the silent group that surrounded him.  “And I have kept my word.  First one hope, then another, and this is my last.  Nothing is left now.  You think there is one dead man here?  Mistake, I ‘sure you.  I am much more dead.  Why don’t you hang me?” he suggested suddenly, in a friendly tone, addressing the lieutenant.  “I assure, assure you it would be a mat — matter of form altog — altogether.”

These last words he muttered to himself, and walked zigzaging towards his house.  “Get out!” he thundered at Ali, who was approaching timidly with offers of assistance.  From afar, scared groups of men and women watched his devious progress.  He dragged himself up the stairs by the banister, and managed to reach a chair into which he fell heavily.  He sat for awhile panting with exertion and anger, and looking round vaguely for Nina; then making a threatening gesture towards the compound, where he had heard Babalatchi’s voice, he overturned the table with his foot in a great crash of smashed crockery.  He muttered yet menacingly to himself, then his head fell on his breast, his eyes closed, and with a deep sigh he fell asleep.

That night — for the first time in its history — the peaceful and flourishing settlement of Sambir saw the lights shining about “Almayer’s Folly.”  These were the lanterns of the boats hung up by the seamen under the verandah where the two officers were holding a court of inquiry into the truth of the story related to them by Babalatchi.  Babalatchi had regained all his importance.  He was eloquent and persuasive, calling Heaven and Earth to witness the truth of his statements.  There were also other witnesses.  Mahmat Banjer and a good many others underwent a close examination that dragged its weary length far into the evening.  A messenger was sent for Abdulla, who excused himself from coming on the score of his venerable age, but sent Reshid.  Mahmat had to produce the bangle, and saw with rage and mortification the lieutenant put it in his pocket, as one of the proofs of Dain’s death, to be sent in with the official report of the mission.  Babalatchi’s ring was also impounded for the same purpose, but the experienced statesman was resigned to that loss from the very beginning.  He did not mind as long as he was sure, that the white men believed.  He put that question to himself earnestly as he left, one of the last, when the proceedings came to a close.  He was not certain.  Still, if they believed only for a night, he would put Dain beyond their reach and feel safe himself.  He walked away fast, looking from time to time over his shoulder in the fear of being followed, but he saw and heard nothing.

“Ten o’clock,” said the lieutenant, looking at his watch and yawning.  “I shall hear some of the captain’s complimentary remarks when we get back.  Miserable business, this.”

“Do you think all this is true?” asked the younger man.