Complete Works of Joseph Conrad (Illustrated) (793 page)

“What was he — a Dutchman?” I asked, not seeing in the least what all this had to do with the Westport boatmen and the Westport summer visitors and this extraordinary old fellow’s irritable view of them as liars and fools.  “Devil knows,” he grunted, his eyes on the wall as if not to miss a single movement of a cinematograph picture.  “Spoke nothing but English, anyway.  First I saw him — comes off a ship in dock from the States — passenger.  Asks me for a small hotel near by.  Wanted to be quiet and have a look round for a few days.  I took him to a place — friend of mine. . . Next time — in the City — Hallo!  You’re very obliging — have a drink.  Talks plenty about himself.  Been years in the States.  All sorts of business all over the place.  With some patent medicine people, too.  Travels.  Writes advertisements and all that.  Tells me funny stories.  Tall, loose-limbed fellow.  Black hair up on end, like a brush; long face, long legs, long arms, twinkle in his specs, jocular way of speaking — in a low voice. . . See that?”

I nodded, but he was not looking at me.

“Never laughed so much in my life.  The beggar — would make you laugh telling you how he skinned his own father.  He was up to that, too.  A man who’s been in the patent-medicine trade will be up to anything from pitch-and-toss to wilful murder.  And that’s a bit of hard truth for you.  Don’t mind what they do — think they can carry off anything and talk themselves out of anything — all the world’s a fool to them.  Business man, too, Cloete.  Came over with a few hundred pounds.  Looking for something to do — in a quiet way.  Nothing like the old country, after all, says he. . . And so we part — I with more drinks in me than I was used to.  After a time, perhaps six months or so, I run up against him again in Mr. George Dunbar’s office.  Yes, that office.  It wasn’t often that I . . . However, there was a bit of his cargo in a ship in dock that I wanted to ask Mr. George about.  In comes Cloete out of the room at the back with some papers in his hand.  Partner.  You understand?”

“Aha!” I said.  “The few hundred pounds.”

“And that tongue of his,” he growled.  “Don’t forget that tongue.  Some of his tales must have opened George Dunbar’s eyes a bit as to what business means.”

“A plausible fellow,” I suggested.

“H’m!  You must have it in your own way — of course.  Well.  Partner.  George Dunbar puts his top-hat on and tells me to wait a moment. . . George always looked as though he were making a few thousands a year — a city swell. . . Come along, old man!  And he and Captain Harry go out together — some business with a solicitor round the corner.  Captain Harry, when he was in England, used to turn up in his brother’s office regularly about twelve.  Sat in a corner like a good boy, reading the paper and smoking his pipe.  So they go out. . . Model brothers, says Cloete — two love-birds — I am looking after the tinned-fruit side of this cozy little show. . . Gives me that sort of talk.  Then by-and-by: What sort of old thing is that Sagamore? Finest ship out — eh?  I dare say all ships are fine to you.  You live by them.  I tell you what; I would just as soon put my money into an old stocking.  Sooner!”

He drew a breath, and I noticed his hand, lying loosely on the table, close slowly into a fist.  In that immovable man it was startling, ominous, like the famed nod of the Commander.

“So, already at that time — note — already,” he growled.

“But hold on,” I interrupted.  “The Sagamore belonged to Mundy and Rogers, I’ve been told.”

He snorted contemptuously.  “Damn boatmen — know no better.  Flew the firm’s house-flag.  That’s another thing.  Favour.  It was like this: When old man Dunbar died, Captain Harry was already in command with the firm.  George chucked the bank he was clerking in — to go on his own with what there was to share after the old chap.  George was a smart man.  Started warehousing; then two or three things at a time: wood-pulp, preserved-fruit trade, and so on.  And Captain Harry let him have his share to work with. . . I am provided for in my ship, he says. . . But by-and-by Mundy and Rogers begin to sell out to foreigners all their ships — go into steam right away.  Captain Harry gets very upset — lose command, part with the ship he was fond of — very wretched.  Just then, so it happened, the brothers came in for some money — an old woman died or something.  Quite a tidy bit.  Then young George says: There’s enough between us two to buy the Sagamore with. . . But you’ll need more money for your business, cries Captain Harry — and the other laughs at him: My business is going on all right.  Why, I can go out and make a handful of sovereigns while you are trying to get your pipe to draw, old man. . . Mundy and Rogers very friendly about it: Certainly, Captain.  And we will manage her for you, if you like, as if she were still our own. . . Why, with a connection like that it was good investment to buy that ship.  Good!  Aye, at the time.”

The turning of his head slightly toward me at this point was like a sign of strong feeling in any other man.

“You’ll mind that this was long before Cloete came into it at all,” he muttered, warningly.

“Yes.  I will mind,” I said.  “We generally say: some years passed.  That’s soon done.”

He eyed me for a while silently in an unseeing way, as if engrossed in the thought of the years so easily dealt with; his own years, too, they were, the years before and the years (not so many) after Cloete came upon the scene.  When he began to speak again, I discerned his intention to point out to me, in his obscure and graphic manner, the influence on George Dunbar of long association with Cloete’s easy moral standards, unscrupulously persuasive gift of humour (funny fellow), and adventurously reckless disposition.  He desired me anxiously to elaborate this view, and I assured him it was quite within my powers.  He wished me also to understand that George’s business had its ups and downs (the other brother was meantime sailing to and fro serenely); that he got into low water at times, which worried him rather, because he had married a young wife with expensive tastes.  He was having a pretty anxious time of it generally; and just then Cloete ran up in the city somewhere against a man working a patent medicine (the fellow’s old trade) with some success, but which, with capital, capital to the tune of thousands to be spent with both hands on advertising, could be turned into a great thing — infinitely better-paying than a gold-mine.  Cloete became excited at the possibilities of that sort of business, in which he was an expert.  I understood that George’s partner was all on fire from the contact with this unique opportunity.

“So he goes in every day into George’s room about eleven, and sings that tune till George gnashes his teeth with rage.  Do shut up.  What’s the good?  No money.  Hardly any to go on with, let alone pouring thousands into advertising.  Never dare propose to his brother Harry to sell the ship.  Couldn’t think of it.  Worry him to death.  It would be like the end of the world coming.  And certainly not for a business of that kind! . . . Do you think it would be a swindle? asks Cloete, twitching his mouth. . . George owns up: No — would be no better than a squeamish ass if he thought that, after all these years in business.

“Cloete looks at him hard — Never thought of selling the ship.  Expected the blamed old thing wouldn’t fetch half her insured value by this time.  Then George flies out at him.  What’s the meaning, then, of these silly jeers at ship-owning for the last three weeks?  Had enough of them, anyhow.

“Angry at having his mouth made to water, see.  Cloete don’t get excited. . . I am no squeamish ass, either, says he, very slowly.  ‘Tisn’t selling your old Sagamore wants.  The blamed thing wants tomahawking (seems the name Sagamore means an Indian chief or something.  The figure-head was a half-naked savage with a feather over one ear and a hatchet in his belt).  Tomahawking, says he.

“What do you mean? asks George. . . Wrecking — it could be managed with perfect safety, goes on Cloete — your brother would then put in his share of insurance money.  Needn’t tell him exactly what for.  He thinks you’re the smartest business man that ever lived.  Make his fortune, too. . . George grips the desk with both hands in his rage. . . You think my brother’s a man to cast away his ship on purpose.  I wouldn’t even dare think of such a thing in the same room with him — the finest fellow that ever lived. . . Don’t make such noise; they’ll hear you outside, says Cloete; and he tells him that his brother is the salted pattern of all virtues, but all that’s necessary is to induce him to stay ashore for a voyage — for a holiday — take a rest — why not? . . . In fact, I have in view somebody up to that sort of game — Cloete whispers.

“George nearly chokes. . . So you think I am of that sort — you think me capable — What do you take me for? . . . He almost loses his head, while Cloete keeps cool, only gets white about the gills. . . I take you for a man who will be most cursedly hard up before long. . . He goes to the door and sends away the clerks — there were only two — to take their lunch hour.  Comes back . . . What are you indignant about?  Do I want you to rob the widow and orphan?  Why, man!  Lloyd’s a corporation, it hasn’t got a body to starve.  There’s forty or more of them perhaps who underwrote the lines on that silly ship of yours.  Not one human being would go hungry or cold for it.  They take every risk into consideration.  Everything I tell you. . . That sort of talk.  H’m!  George too upset to speak — only gurgles and waves his arms; so sudden, you see.  The other, warming his back at the fire, goes on.  Wood-pulp business next door to a failure.  Tinned-fruit trade nearly played out. . . You’re frightened, he says; but the law is only meant to frighten fools away. . . And he shows how safe casting away that ship would be.  Premiums paid for so many, many years.  No shadow of suspicion could arise.  And, dash it all! a ship must meet her end some day. . .

“I am not frightened.  I am indignant,” says George Dunbar.

“Cloete boiling with rage inside.  Chance of a lifetime — his chance!  And he says kindly: Your wife’ll be much more indignant when you ask her to get out of that pretty house of yours and pile in into a two-pair back — with kids perhaps, too. . .

“George had no children.  Married a couple of years; looked forward to a kid or two very much.  Feels more upset than ever.  Talks about an honest man for father, and so on.  Cloete grins: You be quick before they come, and they’ll have a rich man for father, and no one the worse for it.  That’s the beauty of the thing.

“George nearly cries.  I believe he did cry at odd times.  This went on for weeks.  He couldn’t quarrel with Cloete.  Couldn’t pay off his few hundreds; and besides, he was used to have him about.  Weak fellow, George.  Cloete generous, too. . . Don’t think of my little pile, says he.  Of course it’s gone when we have to shut up.  But I don’t care, he says. . . And then there was George’s new wife.  When Cloete dines there, the beggar puts on a dress suit; little woman liked it; . . . Mr. Cloete, my husband’s partner; such a clever man, man of the world, so amusing! . . . When he dines there and they are alone: Oh, Mr. Cloete, I wish George would do something to improve our prospects.  Our position is really so mediocre. . . And Cloete smiles, but isn’t surprised, because he had put all these notions himself into her empty head. . . What your husband wants is enterprise, a little audacity.  You can encourage him best, Mrs. Dunbar. . . She was a silly, extravagant little fool.  Had made George take a house in Norwood.  Live up to a lot of people better off than themselves.  I saw her once; silk dress, pretty boots, all feathers and scent, pink face.  More like the Promenade at the Alhambra than a decent home, it looked to me.  But some women do get a devil of a hold on a man.”

“Yes, some do,” I assented.  “Even when the man is the husband.”

“My missis,” he addressed me unexpectedly, in a solemn, surprisingly hollow tone, “could wind me round her little finger.  I didn’t find it out till she was gone.  Aye.  But she was a woman of sense, while that piece of goods ought to have been walking the streets, and that’s all I can say. . . You must make her up out of your head.  You will know the sort.”

“Leave all that to me,” I said.

“H’m!” he grunted, doubtfully, then going back to his scornful tone: “A month or so afterwards the Sagamore arrives home.  All very jolly at first. . . Hallo, George boy!  Hallo, Harry, old man! . . . But by and by Captain Harry thinks his clever brother is not looking very well.  And George begins to look worse.  He can’t get rid of Cloete’s notion.  It has stuck in his head. . . There’s nothing wrong — quite well. . . Captain Harry still anxious.  Business going all right, eh?  Quite right.  Lots of business.  Good business. . . Of course Captain Harry believes that easily.  Starts chaffing his brother in his jolly way about rolling in money.  George’s shirt sticks to his back with perspiration, and he feels quite angry with the captain. . . The fool, he says to himself.  Rolling in money, indeed!  And then he thinks suddenly: Why not? . . . Because Cloete’s notion has got hold of his mind.

“But next day he weakens and says to Cloete . . . Perhaps it would be best to sell.  Couldn’t you talk to my brother? and Cloete explains to him over again for the twentieth time why selling wouldn’t do, anyhow.  No!  The Sagamore must be tomahawked — as he would call it; to spare George’s feelings, maybe.  But every time he says the word, George shudders. . . I’ve got a man at hand competent for the job who will do the trick for five hundred, and only too pleased at the chance, says Cloete. . . George shuts his eyes tight at that sort of talk — but at the same time he thinks: Humbug!  There can be no such man.  And yet if there was such a man it would be safe enough — perhaps.

“And Cloete always funny about it.  He couldn’t talk about anything without it seeming there was a great joke in it somewhere. . . Now, says he, I know you are a moral citizen, George.  Morality is mostly funk, and I think you’re the funkiest man I ever came across in my travels.  Why, you are afraid to speak to your brother.  Afraid to open your mouth to him with a fortune for us all in sight. . . George flares up at this: no, he ain’t afraid; he will speak; bangs fist on the desk.  And Cloete pats him on the back. . . We’ll be made men presently, he says.