March 21, 2025 • 34 mins
Almayer’s Folly is a dramatic tale of ambition, greed, and personal downfall. European trader Kaspar Almayer, obsessed with finding gold in Malaysia, watches his dreams crumble as his family and fortune slip away. A haunting study of colonialism and failure.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Chapter eight. The news as to the identity of the
body lying now in all Meyer's compound spread rapidly over
the settlement. During the forenoon, most of the inhabitants remained
in the long street, discussing the mysterious return and the
unexpected death of the man who had become known to
them as the Traitor, his arrival during the northeast monsoon,
(00:26):
his long sojourn in their midst, his sudden departure with
his brig and above all, the mysterious appearance of the
body said to be his. Amongst the logs were subjects
to wonder at and to talk over and over again
with undiminished interest. Mahmat moved from house to house and
from group to group, always ready to repeat his tale.
(00:48):
How he saw the body caught by the sarong in
a pourked blog. How missus Almyer, coming one of the
first at his cries, recognized it even before he had
halded on shore. Boalachi ordered him to bring it out
of the water by the feet. I dragged him in,
and there was no head, exclaimed Mahmat. And how could
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the white man's wife know who it was? She was
a witch? It was well known, And did you see
how the white man himself ran away at the sight
of the body like a deer he ran, And here
Mahmat imitated Almyer's long strides to the great joy of
the beholders. And for all his trouble he had nothing
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the ring with the green stone twang. Babolachi kept nothing. Nothing.
He spat down at his feet in sign of disgust,
and left that group to seek further on a fresh audience.
The news spreading to the furthermost parts of the settlement
found out Abdullah in the cool recess of his go down,
where he sat overlooking his Arab clerks and the men
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loading and unloading the upcountry canoes. Rashid, who was busy
on the jetty, was summoned into his uncle's presence, and
found him, as usual, very calm and even cheerful, very
much surprised. The rumor of the capture or destruction of
Dan's brig had reached the Arab's ears three days before
from the sea fishermen and through the dwellers on the
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lower reaches of the river. It had been passed up
stream from neighbor to neighbor to Balanji, whose clearing was
nearest to the settlement, had brought that news himself to Abdullah,
whose favor he courted. But rumor also spoke of a
fight and of Dane's death on board his own vessel.
And now all the settlement talked of Dane's visit to
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the Rajah and of his deck when crossing the river
in the dark to see Almayer. They could not understand this.
Rashid thought that it was very strange. He felt uneasy
and doubtful. But Abdullah, after the first shock of surprise
with the old age's dislike for solving riddles, showed a
becoming resignation. He remarked that the man was dead now
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at all events, and consequently no more dangerous. Where was
the use to wonder at the decrease of the fate,
especially if they were propiteous to the true believers. And
with a pious ejaculation to Allah the merciful, becompassionate, Abdullah
seen to regard the incident as closed for the present.
Not so Rashid. He lingered by his uncle, pulling thoughtfully
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his neatly trimmed beard. There are many lies, he murmured.
He has been dead once before and came to life
to die again. Now the Dutch will be here before
many days in clamor for the man. Shall I not
believe my eyes sooner than the tongues of women and
idle men. They say that the body is being taken
to Almyer's compound, said Abdullah. If you want to go there,
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you must go before the Dutch arrive here. Go late.
It should not be said that we have been seen
inside that man's enclosure. Lately Rashid assented to the truth
of this last remark and left his uncle's side. He
leaned against the lindle of the big doorway and looked
idly across the courtyard, through the open gate on to
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the main road of the settlement. It lay empty, straight
and yellow under the flood of light in the hot noontide,
the smooth trunks of palm trees, the outlines of the houses,
and away there at the other end of the road,
the roof of Almyer's house, visible over the bushes on
the dark background of forest, seemed to quiver in the
heat radiating from the steaming earth. Swarms of yellow butterflies
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rose and settled to rise again in short flights before
Rashid's half closed eyes from under his feet arose the
dull hum of insects in the long grass of the courtyard.
He looked on sleepily from one of the side passed
amongst the houses. A woman stepped out on the road,
a slight, girlish figure walking under the shade of a
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large tray balanced on her head. The consciousness of something
moving stirred Rasheed's half sleeping senses into a comparative wakefulness.
He recognized Tamina, the Lani slave girl, with her tray
of cakes for sale, an apparition of daily rec currents
and of no importance. Whatever she was going towards Almayer's house,
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she could be made useful. He roused himself up and
ran towards the gate, calling out, Tamana Oh. The girl stopped, hesitated,
and came back slowly. Rashid waited, signing to her impatiently
to come nearer. When near Rashid, Tamanah stood with downcast eyes.
Rashid looked at her a while before he asked, are
you going to Almayer's house? They say? In the settlement
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that deigned the traitor, he that was found drowned this
morning is lying in the white man's compom. I have
heard this talk, whispered Tamanah. And this morning by the
river's side, I saw the body. Where is now? I
do not know? So you have seen it, asked Rashid eagerly.
Is it Dane. You have seen him many times, you
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would know him. The girl's lips quivered, and she remained
silent for a while, breathing quickly. I have seen him
not a long time ago, she said. At last, the
talk is true. He is dead. What do you want
for me? Twa, I must go. Just then, the report
of a gun fired on board the steam launch was heard,
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interrupting Rashid's reply. Leaving the girl, he ran to the
house and met in the courtyard Abdullah, coming towards the gate.
The Orang Blanda are come, said Rashid, and now we
shall have our reward. Abdullah shook his head doubtfully. The
white men's rewards are long in coming, he said. White
men are quick in anger and slow in gratitude. We
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shall see. He stood at the gate, stroking his gray
beard and listening to the distant cries of greeting at
the other endless settlement. As Tamana was turning to go,
he called her back. Listen, girl, he said, there will
be many white men in Almyer's house. You shall be
there selling your cakes to the men of the sea.
What you see and what you hear, you may tell me.
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Come here before the sun sets, and I will give
you a blue handkerchief with red spots. Now go and forget,
not to return. He gave her a push with the
end of his long staff as she was going away,
and made her stumble. This slave is very slow, he
remarked to his nephew, looking after the girl with great disfavor.
Tamana walked on her tray on the head, her eyes
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fixed on the ground. From the open doors of the
houses were heard as she passed. Friendly calls inviting her
within for business purposes, but she never heeded them, neglecting
her sales in the preoccupation of intense thinking. Since the
very early morning, she had heard much. She had also
seen much that filled her heart with a joy mingled
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with great suffering and fear. Before the dawn, before she
left Blangi's house to paddle up to sam Beer, she
had heard voices outside the house when all in it
but herself were asleep, And now with her knowledge of
the words spoken in the darkness. She held in her
hand a life, and carried in her breast a great sorrow.
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Yet from her sprinty step, erect figure and face veiled
over by the everyday look of apathetic indifference, nobody could
have guessed of the double load she carried under the
visible burden of the tray piled up high with cakes
manufactured by the thrifty hands of Blangie's wives. In that
supple figure, straight as an arrow, so graceful and free
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in its walk, behind those soft eyes that spoke of
nothing but of unconscious resignation, there slept all feelings and
all passions, all hopes and all fears, the curse of
life and the consolation of death, and she knew nothing
of it all. She lived like the tall palms amongst
whom she was passing now, seeking the light, desiring the sunshine,
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fearing the storm, Unconscious of either. The slave had no
hope and knew of no change. She knew of no
other sky, no other water, no other forest, no other world,
no other life. She had no wish, no hope, no love,
no fear except of a blow, and no vivid feeling
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but that of occasional hunger, which was seldom, for Blange
was rich, and Rice was plentiful in the solitary house,
in his clearing. The absence of pain and hunger was
her happiness, and when she felt unhappy, she was simply tired,
more than usual after the day's labor. Then, in the
hot nights of the southwest monsoon, she slept dreamlessly under
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the bright stars on the platform built outside the house,
and over the river. Inside they slept too, Blange by
the door, his wives, further in, the children with their mothers.
She could hear their breathing, Velangi's sleepy voice, the sharp
cry of a child, soon hushed with tender words, And
she closed her eyes to the murmur of the water
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below her, to the whisper of the warm wind above,
ignorant of the never ceasing light of that tropical nature
that spoke to her in vain with a thousand faint
voices of the near forest, with the breath of tepet wind,
in the heavy sense that lingered around her head, in
the white race of morning mist that hung over her,
in the solemn hush of all creation before the dawn.
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Such had been her existence, before the coming of the
brig with the strangers She remembered well that time, the
uproar and the settlement, the never ending wander, the days
and nights of talk and excitement. She remembered her own
timidity with the strange men, till the brig moored to
the bank became in a manner part of the settlement,
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and the fear wore off in the familiarity of constant intercourse.
The call on board then became part of her daily round.
She walked hesitatingly up the slanting planks of the gangway,
amidst the encouraging shouts and more or less decent jokes
of the men idling over the bullocks. There she sold
her wares to those men that spoke so loud and
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carried themselves so free. There was a throng, a constant
coming and going calls, interchanged, orders given and executed with shouts,
the rattle of blocks, the flinging about of coils of rope.
She sat out of the way under the shade of
the yawning, with her tray before her, the veil drawn
well over her face, Feeling shy among so many men,
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She smiled at all byers, but spoke to none, letting
their jest pass with stolid, unconcern. She heard many tales
told around her, of far off countries, of strange customs,
of emense strangers. Still, those men were brave, but the
most fearless of them spoke of their chief with fear.
Often the man they called their master passed before her,
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walking erect and indifferent, in the pride of youth, in
the flash of rich dress with a tinkle of gold ornaments,
while everybody stood aside, watching anxiously for a movement of
his lips, ready to do his bidding. Then all her
life seemed to rush into her eyes, and from under
her veil she gazed at him, charmed, yet fearful to
attract attention. One day he noticed her a nest. Who
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is that girl? A slave? Twan a girl that sells cakes?
A dozen voices replied together. She rose in terror to
run on shore when he called her back, and as
she stood trembling with head hung down before him, he
spoke kind words, lifting her chin with his hand and
looking into her eyes with a smile. Do not be afraid,
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he said. He never spoke to her any more. Somebody
called out from the river bank. He turned away and
forgot her existence. Tammana saw Almyer standing on the shore
with Nina on his arm. She heard Nina's voice calling
out gaily, and saw Dane's face brighten with joy as
he leaped on shore. She hated the sound of that
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voice ever since. After that day, she left off visiting
Almeyer's compound and passed the noon hours under the shade
of the brig awning. She watched for his coming, with
heart beating quicker and quicker as he approached into a
wild tumult of newly aroused feeling of joy and hope
and fear that died away with danger retreating figure, leaving
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her tired out as if after a struggle, sitting still
for a long time in dreamy languor. Then she paddled
home slowly in the afternoon, often letting her canoe float
with a lazy stream in the quiet backwater of the river.
The paddle hung idle in the water as she sat
in the stern, one hand supporting her chin, her eyes
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wide open, listening intently to the whispering of her heart
that seemed to swell at last into a song of
extreme sweetness. Listening to that song, she hussed the rice
at home it dulled her ears, to the shrill bickerings
of Balangi's wife, to the sound of angry reproaches addressed
to herself, And when the sun was near its setting,
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she walked to the bathing place and heard it as
she stood on the tender grass of the low bank,
her robe at her feet, and looked at the reflection
of her figure on the glass like surface of the creek.
Listening to it, she walked slowly back, her wet hair
hanging over her shoulders. Laying down to rest under the
bright stars, She closed her eyes to the murmur of
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the water below, of the warm wind above, to the
voice of nature speaking through the faint noises of the
great forest, and to the song of her own heart.
She heard, but did not understand, and drank in the
dreamy joy of her new existence, without troubling about its
meaning or its end, till the full consciousness of life
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came to her through pain and anger, and she suffered horribly.
The first time she saw Nina's long canoe drift silently
past the sleeping house of Blangi, bearing the two lovers
into the white mist of the great river, her jealousy
and rage culminated in a paroxysm of physical pain that
left her lying panting on the river bank in the
dumb agony of a wounded animal. But she went on
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moving patiently in the enchanted circle of slavery, going through
her task day after day, with all the pathos of
the grief she could not express even to herself. Locked
within her breast. She shrank from Nina as she would
have shrunk from the sharp blade of a knife cutting
into her flesh. But she kept on visiting the brig
to feed her dumb, ignorant soul on her own despair.
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She saw Dane many times. He never spoke, he never looked.
Could his eyes see only one woman's image, could his
ears hear only one woman's voice? He never noticed her,
not once, And then he went away. She saw him
and Nina for the last time of that morning, when
Baba Lachi, while visiting his fish baskets, had his suspicions
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of the white man's daughter's love affair with Dane confirmed
beyond the shadow of doubt. Dane disappeared, and Tamina's heart
where lay useless and barren. The seeds of all love
and of all hate, the possibilities of all passions and
of all sacrifices, forgot its joys and its sufferings. When
deprived of the help of the senses, her half formed
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savage mind, the slave of her body, as her body
was the slave of another's will, forgot the faint and
vague image of the ideal that had found its beginnings
in the physical promptings of her savage nature. She dropped
back into a torpor of her former life, and found consolation,
even a certain kind of happiness, in the thought that
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now Nina and Dane were separated, probably forever, he would forget.
This thought soothed the last pangs of dying jealousy that
had nothing now to feed upon, and Tamona found peace.
It was like the dreary tranquility of a desert, where
there is peace only because there is no light. And
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now he had returned. She had recognized his voice, calling
aloud the night for Blangi. She had crept out after
her master to listen closer to the intoxicating sound. Dane
was there in a boat talking to Blangi. Tamona, listening
with arrested breath, heard another voice, the maddening joy that
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only a second before she thought herself incapable of containing
with her fast beating heart died out and left her
shivering in the old anguish of physical pain that she
had suffered once before. At the sight of Dane and Nina.
Nina spoke now, ordering and entreating in turns, and Balanji
was refusing, expostulating. At last consenting, he went in to
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take a paddle from the heap lying behind the door. Outside,
the murmur of two voices went on, and she caught
a word here and there. She understood that he was
fleeing from white men, that he was seeking a hiding place,
that he was in some danger. But she heard also
words which woke the rage of jealousy that had been
asleep for so many days in her bosom. Crouching low
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on the mud, in the black darkness amongst the piles,
she heard the whisper in the boat that made a
light of toil, of privation, of danger, of life itself.
If in exchange there could be but a short moment
of close embrace, a look from the eyes, the feel
of light breath, the touch of soft lips. So spoke Dane,
as he sat in the canoe, holding Nina's hands, while
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waiting for Blangi's return, and Tamina, supporting herself by the
slimy pile, felt as if a heavy weight was crushing
her down, down into the black, oily water at her feet.
She wanted to cry out, to rush at them and
tear their vague shadows apart to throw Nina into the
smooth water, cling to her close hold her to the
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bottom where that man could not find her. She could
not cry, she could not move. Then footsteps were heard
on the bamboo platform above her head. She saw Blangi
get into as small as canoe and take the lead.
The other boat following, paddled by Dane and Nina, with
a slight splash of the paddles, dipped stealthily into the water.
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Their indistinct forms passed before her aching eyes and vanished
into the darkness of the creek. She remained there in
the cold and wet, powerless to move, breathing painfully under
the crushing weight that the mysterious hand of fate had
laid so suddenly upon her slender shoulders, and shivering, she
felt within a burning fire that seemed to feed upon
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her very life. When the breaking day had spread a pale,
golden river over the black outline of the forest. She
took up her tray and departed towards the settlement, going
about her task purely from the force of habit As
she approached sam Beer, she could see the excitement, and
she heard with momentary surprise, of the finding of Dane's body.
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It was not true, of course, she knew it well.
She regretted that he was not dead. She would have
liked Dane to be dead, so as to be parted
from that woman. From all women, she felt a strong
desire to see Nina, but without any clear object. She
hated her and feared her, and she felt an irresistible
impulse pushing her towards Almeyer's house, to see the white
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woman's face, to look close at those eyes, to hear
again that voice, for the sound of which Dane was
ready to risk his liberty, his life. Even she had
seen her many times, she had heard her voice daily
for many months past. What was there in her? What
was there in that being to make a man speak
as Dane had spoken, to make him blind to all
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other faces, deaf to all other voices. She left the
crowd by the river side and wondered aimlessly among the
empty houses resisting the impulse that pushed her towards Almyer's
campong to seek there in Nina's eyes the secret of
her own misery. The sun mounted higher, shortened the shadows,
and poured down upon her a flood of light and
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of stifling heat. As she passed on from shadow to light,
from light to shadow, amongst the houses, the bushes, the
tall trees in her unconscious flight for the pain in
her own heart. In the extremity of her distress, she
could find no words to pray for relief. She knew
of no heaven to send her prayer to, and she
wandered on with tired in the dumb surprise and terror
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at the injustice of the suffering inflicted upon her without
cause and without redress. The short talk with Rashid the
proposal of Abdullah, steadied her a little and turned her
thoughts into another channel. Dane was in some danger. He
was hiding from white men so much she had overheard
last night they all thought him dead. She knew he
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was alive, and she knew of his hiding place. What
did the Arabs want to know about the white men?
The white men want with Dane? Did they wish to
kill him. She could tell them all. No, she would
say nothing, and in the night she would go to
him and sell him his life for a word, for
a smile, for a gesture, even and be his slave
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in far off countries, away from Nina. But there were dangers,
the one eyed bab Alachi who knew everything, the white
man's wife. She was a witch. Perhaps they would tell.
And then there was Nina. She must hurry on and see.
In her impatience, she left the path and ran towards
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Almyer's dwelling through the undergrowth between the palm trees. She
came out at the back of the house, where a
narrow ditch full of stagnant water that overflowed from the
river separated Almyer's campond from the rest of the settlement.
The thick bushes growing on the bank were hiding from
her sight the large courtyard with its cooking shed. Above
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them rose several thin columns of smoke, and from behind
the sound of strange voices informed Tamona that the men
of the sea belonging to the warship had already landed
and were camped between the ditch and the house. To
the left. One of Almyer's slave girls came down to
the ditch and bent over the shining water, washing a kettle.
To the right, the tops of the banana plantation, visible
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above the bushes, swayed and shook under the touch of
invisible hands gathering the fruit on the calm water. Several
canoes moored to a heavy stake were crowded together, nearly
bridging the ditch, just at the place where Tamana stood.
The voices in the courtyard rose at times into an
outburst of calls, replies, and laughter, and then died away
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into a silence that soon was broken again by a
fresh Clamor now and again, the thin blue smoke rushed out,
thicker and blacker, and drove in odorous masses over the creek,
wrapping her for a moment in a suffocating veil. Then,
as the fresh wood caught well of light, the smoke
vanished in the bright sunlight, and only the scent of
aromatic wood drifted afar to leeward of the crackling fires.
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Tamona rested her tray on the stuffed tree and remained
standing with her eyes turned towards Almyer's house, whose root
and part of a whitewashed wall were visible over the bushes.
The slave girl finished her work, and, after looking for
a while curiously at Tamana, pushed her way through the
dense thicket back to the courtyard. Round Tamona, there was
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now a complete solitude. She threw herself down on the
ground and hid her face in her hands. Now, when
so close, she had no courage to see Nina. At
every burst of louder voices from the court yard, she
shivered in the fear of hearing Nina's voice. She came
to the resolution of waiting where she was till dark,
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and then going straight to Dane's hiding place. From where
she was she could watch the movements of white men,
of Nina, of all Dane's friends, and of all his enemies.
Both were hateful alike to her, for both would take
him away beyond her reach. She hid herself in the
long grass to wait anxiously for the sunset that seemed
so slow to come. On the other side of the ditch.
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Behind the bush by the clear fires, the seamen of
the frigate had encamped on the hospitable invitation of Almyer
all Meyer, roused out of his apathy by the prayers
and importunity of Nina had managed to get down in
time to the jetty so as to receive the officers
at their landing. The lieutenant in command accepted his invitation
to his he house with the remark that in any
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case their business was with all Meyer, and perhaps not
very pleasant. He ad it all Meyer hardly hurt him.
He shook hands with them absently, and led the way
towards the house. He was scarcely conscious of the polite
words of welcome, he greeted the strangers with, and afterwards
repeated several times over again in his efforts to appear
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at ease. The agitation of their host did not escape
the officer's eyes, and the chief confided it to his
subordinate in a low voice, his doubts as to Allmeyer's sobriety.
The young sub lieutenant laughed and expressed in a whisper
the hope that the white man was not intoxicated enough
to neglect the offer of some refreshments. He does not
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seem very dangerous, he had it as they followed Almyer
up the steps of the verandah, no, he seems more
of a fool than a knave. I have heard of him,
returned the senior. They sat around the table. All Meyer
was shaking hands, made jin cocktails, offered them all round,
and drank himself with every gulp, feeling stronger, steadier, and
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better able to face all the difficulties of his position.
Ignorant of the fate of the brig he did not
suspect the real object of the officer's visit. He had
a general notion that something must have leaked out about
the gunpowdered trade, but apprehended nothing beyond some temporary inconveniences.
After emptying his glass, he began to chat easily, lying
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back in his chair with one of his legs thrown
negligently over the arm. The lieutenant astride on his chair,
a glowing cheroot in the corner of his mouth, listened
with a sly smile from behind the thick viands of
smoke that escaped from his compressed lips. The young sub lieutenant,
leaning with both his elbows on the table his head
between his hands, looked on sleepily in the torpora, induced
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by fatigue, and gin Almyer talked on it is a
great pleasure to see white faces here. I have lived
here many years in great solitude. The maylays you wander
stand are not company for a white man. Moreover, they
are not friendly. They do not understand our ways. Great
rascals they are. I believe I am the only white
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man on the East Coast that is a settled resident.
We get visitors from a cast or Singapore, sometimes traders,
agents or explorers, but they are rare. There was a
scientific explorer here a year or more ago. He lived
in my house, drank from morning to night. He lived
joyously for a few months, and when the liquor he
brought with him was gone, he returned to Batavia with
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a report on the mineral wealth of the interior. Ha ha, ha,
good is it not. He ceased abruptly and looked at
his guest with a meaningless stare. While they laughed. He
was reciting to himself the old story Dane dead, all
my plans destroyed. This is the end of all hope
and of all things. His heart sank within him. He
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felt a kind of deadly sickness. Very good, capital, exclaimed.
Both officers came out of his despondency with another burst
of talk, Eh, what about the dinner? You have got
a cook with you that's all right. There is a
cooking shed in the other courtyard. I can give you
a goose. Look at my geese, the only geese on
the east coast, perhaps on the whole island. Is that
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your cook? Very good? Here, Ali, show this chinaman the
cooking place and tell them Almeyer to let him have
room there. My wife, gentlemen, does not come out. My
daughter may meantime have some more drink. It is a
hot day. The lieutenant took the cigar out of his mouth,
looked at the ash critically, shook it off, and turned
towards Allmyer. We have a rather unpleasant business with you,
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he said. I am sorry, returned Almyer. It could be
nothing very serious. Surely, if you think an attempt to
blow up forty men at least not a serious matter,
you will not find many people of your opinion, retorted
the officer. Sharply blow up and what I know nothing
about it? Exclaimed Almyer. Who did that or tried to
do that? A man with whom you have had some dealings,
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answered the lieutenant. He passed here under the name of
Dame Meroula. You sold in the gunpowder he had in
that brig. We captured. How did you hear about the brig,
asked Almyer. I know nothing about the powder. He may
have had. An Arab trader of this place has sent
the information about your goings on here to Batavia a
couple of months ago, said the officer. We were waiting
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for the brig outside, but he slid past us at
the mouth of the river, and we had to chase
the fellow to the southward. When he sighted us, he
ran inside the reefs and put the brig ashore. The
crew escaped in boats before we could take possession. As
our boats neared the craft, it blew up with a
tremendous explosion. One of the boats, being too near, got swamped.
(29:45):
Two men drowned. That is the result of your speculation,
mister Wallmyre. Now we want this Dane. We have good
grounds to suppose he is hiding in Sambert. Do you
know where he is? You had better put yourself right
with the authorities as much as post by being perfectly
frank with me. Where is this name? Almeyer got up
(30:05):
and walked towards the balustrade of the Verandah. He seemed
not to be thinking of the officer's question. He looked
at the body, laying straight and rigid under its white cover,
on which the sun, declining amongst the clouds to the westward,
threw a pale tinge of red. The lieutenant waited for
the answer, taking quick pulls at his half extinguished cigar.
(30:26):
Behind them, Ali moved noiselessly, laying the table, ranging solemnly
the ill assorted and shabby crockery, the tin spoons, the
forks with broken prongs, and the knives with saw like
blades and loose handles. He had almost forgotten how to
prepared the table for white men. He felt aggrieved Memnina
would not help him. He stepped back to look at
(30:48):
his work admiringly, feeling very proud. This must be right.
And if the master afterwards as angry and swears, then
so much the worse for Memnina. Why did she not help?
He left the verandah to fetch the dinner. Well, mister Allmyer,
will you answer my question as frankly as it is
put to you, asked the lieutenant. After a long silence,
(31:11):
all Meyer turned round and looked at his interlocular steadily.
If you catch this dane, what will you do with him?
He asked the officer's face flushed. This is not an answer,
he said, annoyed. And what will you do with me
when an Almyer? Not heeding the interruption, are you inclined
to bardon? Rowled the other. It would be bad policy,
(31:31):
I assure you. At present I have no orders about
your person, but we expected your assistance in catching miss
Melee Ah, interrupted Almyer. Just so you can find nothing
without me, and I knowing the man well, am to
help you in finding him. This is exactly what we expect,
assented the officer. You have broken the law, mister Almyer,
(31:52):
and you ought to make amends and save myself well
in a sense, Yes, your head is not in any danger,
said the lu lieutenant, with a short lap. Very well,
said Almeyer. With decision, I shall deliver the man up
to you. Both officers rose to their feet quickly and
looked for their side arms, which they had unbuckled. Allmyer
(32:12):
laughed harshly. Steady, gentleman, he exclaimed, in my own time
and in my own way after dinner, gentlemen, you shall
have him. This is preposterous, urged the lieutenant. Mister Allmyer.
This is no joking, matter. This man is a criminal.
He deserves to hang while we dine. He may escape
the rumor of our arrival. Allmyer walked towards the table.
(32:35):
I give you my word of honor, gentleman, that he
shall not escape. I have him safe enough. The arrest
should be effected before dark, remarked the young Sun, I
shall hold you responsible for any failure. We are ready,
but can do nothing just now without you at the
senior with evident annoyance, all Meyer made a gesture of
assent on my word of honor, he repeated, vaguely. And
(32:58):
now let us dine, he added briskly. Nina came through
the doorway and stood for a moment, holding the curtain
aside for Ali and the old Melee woman bearing the dishes.
Then she moved towards the three men by the table.
Allow me, said Almyer, pompously. This is my daughter, Nina.
These gentlemen, officers of the frigate outside, have done me
(33:19):
the honor to accept my hospitality. Nina answered the low
bows of the two officers by a slow inclination of
the head, and took her place at the table opposite
her father. All sat down, The cocks and of the
steam launch came up carrying some bottles of wine. You
will allow me to have this put upon the table,
said the lieutenant to Almyer. What wine. You are very kind,
(33:41):
certainly I have none myself. Times are very hard. The
last words of his reply were spoken by Almyer in
a faltering voice. The thought that Dane was dead recurred
to him vividly again, and he felt as if an
invisible hand was gripping his throat. He reached for the
gin bottle while they were uncorking the wine and swallowed
a big gulf. The lieutenant, who was speaking to Nina,
(34:04):
gave him a quick glance. The young sub began to
recover from the astonishment and confusion caused by Nina's unexpected
appearance and great beauty. She was very beautiful and imposing,
he reflected, but after all a half caste girl. This
thought caused him to pluck up heart and look at
Nina's sideways. Nina, with composed face, was answering in a low,
(34:26):
even voice the elder officer's polite questions as to the
country and her mode of light. Almyer pushed his plate
away and drank his guests wine in gloomy silence end
of Chapter eight. Recording by Tom Weiss, Tom's audiobooks dot
com
Chapter eight. The news as to the identity of the
body lying now in all Meyer's compound spread rapidly over
the settlement. During the forenoon, most of the inhabitants remained
in the long street, discussing the mysterious return and the
unexpected death of the man who had become known to
them as the Traitor, his arrival during the northeast monsoon,
(00:26):
his long sojourn in their midst, his sudden departure with
his brig and above all, the mysterious appearance of the
body said to be his. Amongst the logs were subjects
to wonder at and to talk over and over again
with undiminished interest. Mahmat moved from house to house and
from group to group, always ready to repeat his tale.
(00:48):
How he saw the body caught by the sarong in
a pourked blog. How missus Almyer, coming one of the
first at his cries, recognized it even before he had
halded on shore. Boalachi ordered him to bring it out
of the water by the feet. I dragged him in,
and there was no head, exclaimed Mahmat. And how could
(01:08):
the white man's wife know who it was? She was
a witch? It was well known, And did you see
how the white man himself ran away at the sight
of the body like a deer he ran, And here
Mahmat imitated Almyer's long strides to the great joy of
the beholders. And for all his trouble he had nothing
(01:28):
the ring with the green stone twang. Babolachi kept nothing. Nothing.
He spat down at his feet in sign of disgust,
and left that group to seek further on a fresh audience.
The news spreading to the furthermost parts of the settlement
found out Abdullah in the cool recess of his go down,
where he sat overlooking his Arab clerks and the men
(01:49):
loading and unloading the upcountry canoes. Rashid, who was busy
on the jetty, was summoned into his uncle's presence, and
found him, as usual, very calm and even cheerful, very
much surprised. The rumor of the capture or destruction of
Dan's brig had reached the Arab's ears three days before
from the sea fishermen and through the dwellers on the
(02:09):
lower reaches of the river. It had been passed up
stream from neighbor to neighbor to Balanji, whose clearing was
nearest to the settlement, had brought that news himself to Abdullah,
whose favor he courted. But rumor also spoke of a
fight and of Dane's death on board his own vessel.
And now all the settlement talked of Dane's visit to
(02:30):
the Rajah and of his deck when crossing the river
in the dark to see Almayer. They could not understand this.
Rashid thought that it was very strange. He felt uneasy
and doubtful. But Abdullah, after the first shock of surprise
with the old age's dislike for solving riddles, showed a
becoming resignation. He remarked that the man was dead now
(02:54):
at all events, and consequently no more dangerous. Where was
the use to wonder at the decrease of the fate,
especially if they were propiteous to the true believers. And
with a pious ejaculation to Allah the merciful, becompassionate, Abdullah
seen to regard the incident as closed for the present.
Not so Rashid. He lingered by his uncle, pulling thoughtfully
(03:17):
his neatly trimmed beard. There are many lies, he murmured.
He has been dead once before and came to life
to die again. Now the Dutch will be here before
many days in clamor for the man. Shall I not
believe my eyes sooner than the tongues of women and
idle men. They say that the body is being taken
to Almyer's compound, said Abdullah. If you want to go there,
(03:39):
you must go before the Dutch arrive here. Go late.
It should not be said that we have been seen
inside that man's enclosure. Lately Rashid assented to the truth
of this last remark and left his uncle's side. He
leaned against the lindle of the big doorway and looked
idly across the courtyard, through the open gate on to
(03:59):
the main road of the settlement. It lay empty, straight
and yellow under the flood of light in the hot noontide,
the smooth trunks of palm trees, the outlines of the houses,
and away there at the other end of the road,
the roof of Almyer's house, visible over the bushes on
the dark background of forest, seemed to quiver in the
heat radiating from the steaming earth. Swarms of yellow butterflies
(04:23):
rose and settled to rise again in short flights before
Rashid's half closed eyes from under his feet arose the
dull hum of insects in the long grass of the courtyard.
He looked on sleepily from one of the side passed
amongst the houses. A woman stepped out on the road,
a slight, girlish figure walking under the shade of a
(04:43):
large tray balanced on her head. The consciousness of something
moving stirred Rasheed's half sleeping senses into a comparative wakefulness.
He recognized Tamina, the Lani slave girl, with her tray
of cakes for sale, an apparition of daily rec currents
and of no importance. Whatever she was going towards Almayer's house,
(05:05):
she could be made useful. He roused himself up and
ran towards the gate, calling out, Tamana Oh. The girl stopped, hesitated,
and came back slowly. Rashid waited, signing to her impatiently
to come nearer. When near Rashid, Tamanah stood with downcast eyes.
Rashid looked at her a while before he asked, are
you going to Almayer's house? They say? In the settlement
(05:28):
that deigned the traitor, he that was found drowned this
morning is lying in the white man's compom. I have
heard this talk, whispered Tamanah. And this morning by the
river's side, I saw the body. Where is now? I
do not know? So you have seen it, asked Rashid eagerly.
Is it Dane. You have seen him many times, you
(05:49):
would know him. The girl's lips quivered, and she remained
silent for a while, breathing quickly. I have seen him
not a long time ago, she said. At last, the
talk is true. He is dead. What do you want
for me? Twa, I must go. Just then, the report
of a gun fired on board the steam launch was heard,
(06:09):
interrupting Rashid's reply. Leaving the girl, he ran to the
house and met in the courtyard Abdullah, coming towards the gate.
The Orang Blanda are come, said Rashid, and now we
shall have our reward. Abdullah shook his head doubtfully. The
white men's rewards are long in coming, he said. White
men are quick in anger and slow in gratitude. We
(06:32):
shall see. He stood at the gate, stroking his gray
beard and listening to the distant cries of greeting at
the other endless settlement. As Tamana was turning to go,
he called her back. Listen, girl, he said, there will
be many white men in Almyer's house. You shall be
there selling your cakes to the men of the sea.
What you see and what you hear, you may tell me.
(06:55):
Come here before the sun sets, and I will give
you a blue handkerchief with red spots. Now go and forget,
not to return. He gave her a push with the
end of his long staff as she was going away,
and made her stumble. This slave is very slow, he
remarked to his nephew, looking after the girl with great disfavor.
Tamana walked on her tray on the head, her eyes
(07:17):
fixed on the ground. From the open doors of the
houses were heard as she passed. Friendly calls inviting her
within for business purposes, but she never heeded them, neglecting
her sales in the preoccupation of intense thinking. Since the
very early morning, she had heard much. She had also
seen much that filled her heart with a joy mingled
(07:38):
with great suffering and fear. Before the dawn, before she
left Blangi's house to paddle up to sam Beer, she
had heard voices outside the house when all in it
but herself were asleep, And now with her knowledge of
the words spoken in the darkness. She held in her
hand a life, and carried in her breast a great sorrow.
(07:59):
Yet from her sprinty step, erect figure and face veiled
over by the everyday look of apathetic indifference, nobody could
have guessed of the double load she carried under the
visible burden of the tray piled up high with cakes
manufactured by the thrifty hands of Blangie's wives. In that
supple figure, straight as an arrow, so graceful and free
(08:20):
in its walk, behind those soft eyes that spoke of
nothing but of unconscious resignation, there slept all feelings and
all passions, all hopes and all fears, the curse of
life and the consolation of death, and she knew nothing
of it all. She lived like the tall palms amongst
whom she was passing now, seeking the light, desiring the sunshine,
(08:44):
fearing the storm, Unconscious of either. The slave had no
hope and knew of no change. She knew of no
other sky, no other water, no other forest, no other world,
no other life. She had no wish, no hope, no love,
no fear except of a blow, and no vivid feeling
(09:04):
but that of occasional hunger, which was seldom, for Blange
was rich, and Rice was plentiful in the solitary house,
in his clearing. The absence of pain and hunger was
her happiness, and when she felt unhappy, she was simply tired,
more than usual after the day's labor. Then, in the
hot nights of the southwest monsoon, she slept dreamlessly under
(09:26):
the bright stars on the platform built outside the house,
and over the river. Inside they slept too, Blange by
the door, his wives, further in, the children with their mothers.
She could hear their breathing, Velangi's sleepy voice, the sharp
cry of a child, soon hushed with tender words, And
she closed her eyes to the murmur of the water
(09:48):
below her, to the whisper of the warm wind above,
ignorant of the never ceasing light of that tropical nature
that spoke to her in vain with a thousand faint
voices of the near forest, with the breath of tepet wind,
in the heavy sense that lingered around her head, in
the white race of morning mist that hung over her,
in the solemn hush of all creation before the dawn.
(10:11):
Such had been her existence, before the coming of the
brig with the strangers She remembered well that time, the
uproar and the settlement, the never ending wander, the days
and nights of talk and excitement. She remembered her own
timidity with the strange men, till the brig moored to
the bank became in a manner part of the settlement,
(10:32):
and the fear wore off in the familiarity of constant intercourse.
The call on board then became part of her daily round.
She walked hesitatingly up the slanting planks of the gangway,
amidst the encouraging shouts and more or less decent jokes
of the men idling over the bullocks. There she sold
her wares to those men that spoke so loud and
(10:53):
carried themselves so free. There was a throng, a constant
coming and going calls, interchanged, orders given and executed with shouts,
the rattle of blocks, the flinging about of coils of rope.
She sat out of the way under the shade of
the yawning, with her tray before her, the veil drawn
well over her face, Feeling shy among so many men,
(11:15):
She smiled at all byers, but spoke to none, letting
their jest pass with stolid, unconcern. She heard many tales
told around her, of far off countries, of strange customs,
of emense strangers. Still, those men were brave, but the
most fearless of them spoke of their chief with fear.
Often the man they called their master passed before her,
(11:38):
walking erect and indifferent, in the pride of youth, in
the flash of rich dress with a tinkle of gold ornaments,
while everybody stood aside, watching anxiously for a movement of
his lips, ready to do his bidding. Then all her
life seemed to rush into her eyes, and from under
her veil she gazed at him, charmed, yet fearful to
attract attention. One day he noticed her a nest. Who
(12:02):
is that girl? A slave? Twan a girl that sells cakes?
A dozen voices replied together. She rose in terror to
run on shore when he called her back, and as
she stood trembling with head hung down before him, he
spoke kind words, lifting her chin with his hand and
looking into her eyes with a smile. Do not be afraid,
(12:23):
he said. He never spoke to her any more. Somebody
called out from the river bank. He turned away and
forgot her existence. Tammana saw Almyer standing on the shore
with Nina on his arm. She heard Nina's voice calling
out gaily, and saw Dane's face brighten with joy as
he leaped on shore. She hated the sound of that
(12:44):
voice ever since. After that day, she left off visiting
Almeyer's compound and passed the noon hours under the shade
of the brig awning. She watched for his coming, with
heart beating quicker and quicker as he approached into a
wild tumult of newly aroused feeling of joy and hope
and fear that died away with danger retreating figure, leaving
(13:06):
her tired out as if after a struggle, sitting still
for a long time in dreamy languor. Then she paddled
home slowly in the afternoon, often letting her canoe float
with a lazy stream in the quiet backwater of the river.
The paddle hung idle in the water as she sat
in the stern, one hand supporting her chin, her eyes
(13:26):
wide open, listening intently to the whispering of her heart
that seemed to swell at last into a song of
extreme sweetness. Listening to that song, she hussed the rice
at home it dulled her ears, to the shrill bickerings
of Balangi's wife, to the sound of angry reproaches addressed
to herself, And when the sun was near its setting,
(13:46):
she walked to the bathing place and heard it as
she stood on the tender grass of the low bank,
her robe at her feet, and looked at the reflection
of her figure on the glass like surface of the creek.
Listening to it, she walked slowly back, her wet hair
hanging over her shoulders. Laying down to rest under the
bright stars, She closed her eyes to the murmur of
(14:08):
the water below, of the warm wind above, to the
voice of nature speaking through the faint noises of the
great forest, and to the song of her own heart.
She heard, but did not understand, and drank in the
dreamy joy of her new existence, without troubling about its
meaning or its end, till the full consciousness of life
(14:28):
came to her through pain and anger, and she suffered horribly.
The first time she saw Nina's long canoe drift silently
past the sleeping house of Blangi, bearing the two lovers
into the white mist of the great river, her jealousy
and rage culminated in a paroxysm of physical pain that
left her lying panting on the river bank in the
dumb agony of a wounded animal. But she went on
(14:51):
moving patiently in the enchanted circle of slavery, going through
her task day after day, with all the pathos of
the grief she could not express even to herself. Locked
within her breast. She shrank from Nina as she would
have shrunk from the sharp blade of a knife cutting
into her flesh. But she kept on visiting the brig
to feed her dumb, ignorant soul on her own despair.
(15:15):
She saw Dane many times. He never spoke, he never looked.
Could his eyes see only one woman's image, could his
ears hear only one woman's voice? He never noticed her,
not once, And then he went away. She saw him
and Nina for the last time of that morning, when
Baba Lachi, while visiting his fish baskets, had his suspicions
(15:38):
of the white man's daughter's love affair with Dane confirmed
beyond the shadow of doubt. Dane disappeared, and Tamina's heart
where lay useless and barren. The seeds of all love
and of all hate, the possibilities of all passions and
of all sacrifices, forgot its joys and its sufferings. When
deprived of the help of the senses, her half formed
(15:59):
savage mind, the slave of her body, as her body
was the slave of another's will, forgot the faint and
vague image of the ideal that had found its beginnings
in the physical promptings of her savage nature. She dropped
back into a torpor of her former life, and found consolation,
even a certain kind of happiness, in the thought that
(16:20):
now Nina and Dane were separated, probably forever, he would forget.
This thought soothed the last pangs of dying jealousy that
had nothing now to feed upon, and Tamona found peace.
It was like the dreary tranquility of a desert, where
there is peace only because there is no light. And
(16:41):
now he had returned. She had recognized his voice, calling
aloud the night for Blangi. She had crept out after
her master to listen closer to the intoxicating sound. Dane
was there in a boat talking to Blangi. Tamona, listening
with arrested breath, heard another voice, the maddening joy that
(17:01):
only a second before she thought herself incapable of containing
with her fast beating heart died out and left her
shivering in the old anguish of physical pain that she
had suffered once before. At the sight of Dane and Nina.
Nina spoke now, ordering and entreating in turns, and Balanji
was refusing, expostulating. At last consenting, he went in to
(17:24):
take a paddle from the heap lying behind the door. Outside,
the murmur of two voices went on, and she caught
a word here and there. She understood that he was
fleeing from white men, that he was seeking a hiding place,
that he was in some danger. But she heard also
words which woke the rage of jealousy that had been
asleep for so many days in her bosom. Crouching low
(17:47):
on the mud, in the black darkness amongst the piles,
she heard the whisper in the boat that made a
light of toil, of privation, of danger, of life itself.
If in exchange there could be but a short moment
of close embrace, a look from the eyes, the feel
of light breath, the touch of soft lips. So spoke Dane,
as he sat in the canoe, holding Nina's hands, while
(18:10):
waiting for Blangi's return, and Tamina, supporting herself by the
slimy pile, felt as if a heavy weight was crushing
her down, down into the black, oily water at her feet.
She wanted to cry out, to rush at them and
tear their vague shadows apart to throw Nina into the
smooth water, cling to her close hold her to the
(18:30):
bottom where that man could not find her. She could
not cry, she could not move. Then footsteps were heard
on the bamboo platform above her head. She saw Blangi
get into as small as canoe and take the lead.
The other boat following, paddled by Dane and Nina, with
a slight splash of the paddles, dipped stealthily into the water.
(18:51):
Their indistinct forms passed before her aching eyes and vanished
into the darkness of the creek. She remained there in
the cold and wet, powerless to move, breathing painfully under
the crushing weight that the mysterious hand of fate had
laid so suddenly upon her slender shoulders, and shivering, she
felt within a burning fire that seemed to feed upon
(19:12):
her very life. When the breaking day had spread a pale,
golden river over the black outline of the forest. She
took up her tray and departed towards the settlement, going
about her task purely from the force of habit As
she approached sam Beer, she could see the excitement, and
she heard with momentary surprise, of the finding of Dane's body.
(19:33):
It was not true, of course, she knew it well.
She regretted that he was not dead. She would have
liked Dane to be dead, so as to be parted
from that woman. From all women, she felt a strong
desire to see Nina, but without any clear object. She
hated her and feared her, and she felt an irresistible
impulse pushing her towards Almeyer's house, to see the white
(19:56):
woman's face, to look close at those eyes, to hear
again that voice, for the sound of which Dane was
ready to risk his liberty, his life. Even she had
seen her many times, she had heard her voice daily
for many months past. What was there in her? What
was there in that being to make a man speak
as Dane had spoken, to make him blind to all
(20:17):
other faces, deaf to all other voices. She left the
crowd by the river side and wondered aimlessly among the
empty houses resisting the impulse that pushed her towards Almyer's
campong to seek there in Nina's eyes the secret of
her own misery. The sun mounted higher, shortened the shadows,
and poured down upon her a flood of light and
(20:39):
of stifling heat. As she passed on from shadow to light,
from light to shadow, amongst the houses, the bushes, the
tall trees in her unconscious flight for the pain in
her own heart. In the extremity of her distress, she
could find no words to pray for relief. She knew
of no heaven to send her prayer to, and she
wandered on with tired in the dumb surprise and terror
(21:01):
at the injustice of the suffering inflicted upon her without
cause and without redress. The short talk with Rashid the
proposal of Abdullah, steadied her a little and turned her
thoughts into another channel. Dane was in some danger. He
was hiding from white men so much she had overheard
last night they all thought him dead. She knew he
(21:25):
was alive, and she knew of his hiding place. What
did the Arabs want to know about the white men?
The white men want with Dane? Did they wish to
kill him. She could tell them all. No, she would
say nothing, and in the night she would go to
him and sell him his life for a word, for
a smile, for a gesture, even and be his slave
(21:46):
in far off countries, away from Nina. But there were dangers,
the one eyed bab Alachi who knew everything, the white
man's wife. She was a witch. Perhaps they would tell.
And then there was Nina. She must hurry on and see.
In her impatience, she left the path and ran towards
(22:06):
Almyer's dwelling through the undergrowth between the palm trees. She
came out at the back of the house, where a
narrow ditch full of stagnant water that overflowed from the
river separated Almyer's campond from the rest of the settlement.
The thick bushes growing on the bank were hiding from
her sight the large courtyard with its cooking shed. Above
(22:26):
them rose several thin columns of smoke, and from behind
the sound of strange voices informed Tamona that the men
of the sea belonging to the warship had already landed
and were camped between the ditch and the house. To
the left. One of Almyer's slave girls came down to
the ditch and bent over the shining water, washing a kettle.
To the right, the tops of the banana plantation, visible
(22:49):
above the bushes, swayed and shook under the touch of
invisible hands gathering the fruit on the calm water. Several
canoes moored to a heavy stake were crowded together, nearly
bridging the ditch, just at the place where Tamana stood.
The voices in the courtyard rose at times into an
outburst of calls, replies, and laughter, and then died away
(23:10):
into a silence that soon was broken again by a
fresh Clamor now and again, the thin blue smoke rushed out,
thicker and blacker, and drove in odorous masses over the creek,
wrapping her for a moment in a suffocating veil. Then,
as the fresh wood caught well of light, the smoke
vanished in the bright sunlight, and only the scent of
aromatic wood drifted afar to leeward of the crackling fires.
(23:35):
Tamona rested her tray on the stuffed tree and remained
standing with her eyes turned towards Almyer's house, whose root
and part of a whitewashed wall were visible over the bushes.
The slave girl finished her work, and, after looking for
a while curiously at Tamana, pushed her way through the
dense thicket back to the courtyard. Round Tamona, there was
(23:56):
now a complete solitude. She threw herself down on the
ground and hid her face in her hands. Now, when
so close, she had no courage to see Nina. At
every burst of louder voices from the court yard, she
shivered in the fear of hearing Nina's voice. She came
to the resolution of waiting where she was till dark,
(24:16):
and then going straight to Dane's hiding place. From where
she was she could watch the movements of white men,
of Nina, of all Dane's friends, and of all his enemies.
Both were hateful alike to her, for both would take
him away beyond her reach. She hid herself in the
long grass to wait anxiously for the sunset that seemed
so slow to come. On the other side of the ditch.
(24:39):
Behind the bush by the clear fires, the seamen of
the frigate had encamped on the hospitable invitation of Almyer
all Meyer, roused out of his apathy by the prayers
and importunity of Nina had managed to get down in
time to the jetty so as to receive the officers
at their landing. The lieutenant in command accepted his invitation
to his he house with the remark that in any
(25:02):
case their business was with all Meyer, and perhaps not
very pleasant. He ad it all Meyer hardly hurt him.
He shook hands with them absently, and led the way
towards the house. He was scarcely conscious of the polite
words of welcome, he greeted the strangers with, and afterwards
repeated several times over again in his efforts to appear
(25:22):
at ease. The agitation of their host did not escape
the officer's eyes, and the chief confided it to his
subordinate in a low voice, his doubts as to Allmeyer's sobriety.
The young sub lieutenant laughed and expressed in a whisper
the hope that the white man was not intoxicated enough
to neglect the offer of some refreshments. He does not
(25:43):
seem very dangerous, he had it as they followed Almyer
up the steps of the verandah, no, he seems more
of a fool than a knave. I have heard of him,
returned the senior. They sat around the table. All Meyer
was shaking hands, made jin cocktails, offered them all round,
and drank himself with every gulp, feeling stronger, steadier, and
(26:03):
better able to face all the difficulties of his position.
Ignorant of the fate of the brig he did not
suspect the real object of the officer's visit. He had
a general notion that something must have leaked out about
the gunpowdered trade, but apprehended nothing beyond some temporary inconveniences.
After emptying his glass, he began to chat easily, lying
(26:26):
back in his chair with one of his legs thrown
negligently over the arm. The lieutenant astride on his chair,
a glowing cheroot in the corner of his mouth, listened
with a sly smile from behind the thick viands of
smoke that escaped from his compressed lips. The young sub lieutenant,
leaning with both his elbows on the table his head
between his hands, looked on sleepily in the torpora, induced
(26:48):
by fatigue, and gin Almyer talked on it is a
great pleasure to see white faces here. I have lived
here many years in great solitude. The maylays you wander
stand are not company for a white man. Moreover, they
are not friendly. They do not understand our ways. Great
rascals they are. I believe I am the only white
(27:10):
man on the East Coast that is a settled resident.
We get visitors from a cast or Singapore, sometimes traders,
agents or explorers, but they are rare. There was a
scientific explorer here a year or more ago. He lived
in my house, drank from morning to night. He lived
joyously for a few months, and when the liquor he
brought with him was gone, he returned to Batavia with
(27:32):
a report on the mineral wealth of the interior. Ha ha, ha,
good is it not. He ceased abruptly and looked at
his guest with a meaningless stare. While they laughed. He
was reciting to himself the old story Dane dead, all
my plans destroyed. This is the end of all hope
and of all things. His heart sank within him. He
(27:54):
felt a kind of deadly sickness. Very good, capital, exclaimed.
Both officers came out of his despondency with another burst
of talk, Eh, what about the dinner? You have got
a cook with you that's all right. There is a
cooking shed in the other courtyard. I can give you
a goose. Look at my geese, the only geese on
the east coast, perhaps on the whole island. Is that
(28:16):
your cook? Very good? Here, Ali, show this chinaman the
cooking place and tell them Almeyer to let him have
room there. My wife, gentlemen, does not come out. My
daughter may meantime have some more drink. It is a
hot day. The lieutenant took the cigar out of his mouth,
looked at the ash critically, shook it off, and turned
towards Allmyer. We have a rather unpleasant business with you,
(28:39):
he said. I am sorry, returned Almyer. It could be
nothing very serious. Surely, if you think an attempt to
blow up forty men at least not a serious matter,
you will not find many people of your opinion, retorted
the officer. Sharply blow up and what I know nothing
about it? Exclaimed Almyer. Who did that or tried to
do that? A man with whom you have had some dealings,
(29:02):
answered the lieutenant. He passed here under the name of
Dame Meroula. You sold in the gunpowder he had in
that brig. We captured. How did you hear about the brig,
asked Almyer. I know nothing about the powder. He may
have had. An Arab trader of this place has sent
the information about your goings on here to Batavia a
couple of months ago, said the officer. We were waiting
(29:24):
for the brig outside, but he slid past us at
the mouth of the river, and we had to chase
the fellow to the southward. When he sighted us, he
ran inside the reefs and put the brig ashore. The
crew escaped in boats before we could take possession. As
our boats neared the craft, it blew up with a
tremendous explosion. One of the boats, being too near, got swamped.
(29:45):
Two men drowned. That is the result of your speculation,
mister Wallmyre. Now we want this Dane. We have good
grounds to suppose he is hiding in Sambert. Do you
know where he is? You had better put yourself right
with the authorities as much as post by being perfectly
frank with me. Where is this name? Almeyer got up
(30:05):
and walked towards the balustrade of the Verandah. He seemed
not to be thinking of the officer's question. He looked
at the body, laying straight and rigid under its white cover,
on which the sun, declining amongst the clouds to the westward,
threw a pale tinge of red. The lieutenant waited for
the answer, taking quick pulls at his half extinguished cigar.
(30:26):
Behind them, Ali moved noiselessly, laying the table, ranging solemnly
the ill assorted and shabby crockery, the tin spoons, the
forks with broken prongs, and the knives with saw like
blades and loose handles. He had almost forgotten how to
prepared the table for white men. He felt aggrieved Memnina
would not help him. He stepped back to look at
(30:48):
his work admiringly, feeling very proud. This must be right.
And if the master afterwards as angry and swears, then
so much the worse for Memnina. Why did she not help?
He left the verandah to fetch the dinner. Well, mister Allmyer,
will you answer my question as frankly as it is
put to you, asked the lieutenant. After a long silence,
(31:11):
all Meyer turned round and looked at his interlocular steadily.
If you catch this dane, what will you do with him?
He asked the officer's face flushed. This is not an answer,
he said, annoyed. And what will you do with me
when an Almyer? Not heeding the interruption, are you inclined
to bardon? Rowled the other. It would be bad policy,
(31:31):
I assure you. At present I have no orders about
your person, but we expected your assistance in catching miss
Melee Ah, interrupted Almyer. Just so you can find nothing
without me, and I knowing the man well, am to
help you in finding him. This is exactly what we expect,
assented the officer. You have broken the law, mister Almyer,
(31:52):
and you ought to make amends and save myself well
in a sense, Yes, your head is not in any danger,
said the lu lieutenant, with a short lap. Very well,
said Almeyer. With decision, I shall deliver the man up
to you. Both officers rose to their feet quickly and
looked for their side arms, which they had unbuckled. Allmyer
(32:12):
laughed harshly. Steady, gentleman, he exclaimed, in my own time
and in my own way after dinner, gentlemen, you shall
have him. This is preposterous, urged the lieutenant. Mister Allmyer.
This is no joking, matter. This man is a criminal.
He deserves to hang while we dine. He may escape
the rumor of our arrival. Allmyer walked towards the table.
(32:35):
I give you my word of honor, gentleman, that he
shall not escape. I have him safe enough. The arrest
should be effected before dark, remarked the young Sun, I
shall hold you responsible for any failure. We are ready,
but can do nothing just now without you at the
senior with evident annoyance, all Meyer made a gesture of
assent on my word of honor, he repeated, vaguely. And
(32:58):
now let us dine, he added briskly. Nina came through
the doorway and stood for a moment, holding the curtain
aside for Ali and the old Melee woman bearing the dishes.
Then she moved towards the three men by the table.
Allow me, said Almyer, pompously. This is my daughter, Nina.
These gentlemen, officers of the frigate outside, have done me
(33:19):
the honor to accept my hospitality. Nina answered the low
bows of the two officers by a slow inclination of
the head, and took her place at the table opposite
her father. All sat down, The cocks and of the
steam launch came up carrying some bottles of wine. You
will allow me to have this put upon the table,
said the lieutenant to Almyer. What wine. You are very kind,
(33:41):
certainly I have none myself. Times are very hard. The
last words of his reply were spoken by Almyer in
a faltering voice. The thought that Dane was dead recurred
to him vividly again, and he felt as if an
invisible hand was gripping his throat. He reached for the
gin bottle while they were uncorking the wine and swallowed
a big gulf. The lieutenant, who was speaking to Nina,
(34:04):
gave him a quick glance. The young sub began to
recover from the astonishment and confusion caused by Nina's unexpected
appearance and great beauty. She was very beautiful and imposing,
he reflected, but after all a half caste girl. This
thought caused him to pluck up heart and look at
Nina's sideways. Nina, with composed face, was answering in a low,
(34:26):
even voice the elder officer's polite questions as to the
country and her mode of light. Almyer pushed his plate
away and drank his guests wine in gloomy silence end
of Chapter eight. Recording by Tom Weiss, Tom's audiobooks dot
com
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