登陆注册
5254700000010

第10章 CHAPTER V(1)

`O H, yes. I attended the inquiry,' he would say, `and to this day I haven't left off wondering why I went. I am willing to believe each of us has a guardian angel, if you fellows will concede to me that each of us has a familiar devil as well. I want you to own up, because I don't like to feel exceptional in any way, and I known I have him--the devil, I mean. I haven't seen him, of course, but I go upon circumstantial evidence. He is there right enough, and, being malicious, he lets me in for that kind of thing. What kind of thing, you ask? Why, the inquiry thing, the yellow-dog thing--you wouldn't think a mangy, native tyke would be allowed to trip up people in the veranda of a magistrate's court, would you?--the kind of thing that by devious, unexpected, truly diabolical ways causes me to run up against men with soft spots, with hard spots, with hidden plague spots, by Jove! and loosens their tongues at the sight of me for their infernal confidences; as though, forsooth, I had no confidences to make myself, as though--God help me!--I didn't have enough confidential information about myself to harrow my own soul till the end of my appointed time. And what I have done to be thus favoured I want to know. I declare I am as full of my own concerns as the next man, and I have as much memory as the average pilgrim in this valley, so you see I am not particularly fit to be a receptacle of confessions. Then why? Can't tell--unless it be to make time pass away after dinner. Charley, my dear chap, your dinner was extremely good, and in consequence these men here look upon a quiet rubber as a tumultuous occupation. They wallow in your good chairs and think to themselves, "Hang exertion. Let that Marlow talk."`Talk! So be it. And it's easy enough to talk of Master Jim, after a good spread, two hundred feet above the sea-level, with a box of decent cigars handy, on a blessed evening of freshness and starlight that would make the best of us forget we are only on sufferance here and got to pick our way in cross lights, watching every precious minute and every irremediable step, trusting we shall manage yet to go out decently in the end--but not so sure of it after all--and with dashed little help to expect from those we touch elbows with right and left. Of course there are men here and there to whom the whole of life is like an after-dinner hour with a cigar; easy, pleasant, empty, perhaps enlivened by some fable of strife to be forgotten before the end is told--before the end is told--even if there happens to be any end to it.

`My eyes met his for the first time at that inquiry. You must know that everybody connected in any way with the sea was there, because the affair had been notorious for days, ever since that mysterious cable message came from Aden to start us all cackling. I say mysterious, because it was so in a sense though it contained a naked fact, about as naked and ugly as a fact can well be. The whole waterside talked of nothing else. First thing in the morning as I was dressing in my state-room, I would hear through the bulkhead my Parsee dubash jabbering about the Patna with the steward, while he drank a cup of tea, by favour, in the pantry. No sooner on shore I would meet some acquaintance, and the first remark would be, "Did you ever hear of anything to beat this?" and according to his kind the man would smile cynically, or look sad, or let out a swear or two. Complete strangers would accost each other familiarly, just for the sake of easing their minds on the subject: every confounded loafer in the town came in for a harvest of drinks over this affair: you heard of it in the harbour office, at every ship-broker's, at your agent's, from whites, from natives, from half-castes, from the very boatmen squatting half-naked on the stone steps as you went up--by Jove! There was some indignation, not a few jokes, and no end of discussions as to what had become of them, you know. This went on for a couple of weeks or more, and the opinion that whatever was mysterious in this would turn out to be tragic as well, began to prevail, when one fine morning, as I was standing in the shade by the steps of the harbour office, I perceived four men walking towards me along the quay. I wondered for a while where that queer lot had sprung from, and suddenly, I may say, I shouted to myself, "Here they are!"`There they were, sure enough, three of them as large as life, and one much larger of girth than any living man has a right to be, just landed with a good breakfast inside of them from an outward-bound Dale Line steamer that had come in about an hour after sunrise. There could be no mistake;I spotted the jolly skipper of the Patna at the first glance: the fattest man in the whole blessed tropical belt clear round that good old earth of ours. Moreover, nine months or so before, I had come across him in Samarang. His steamer was loading in the Roads, and he was abusing the tyrannical institutions of the German Empire, and soaking himself in beer all day long and day after day in De Jongh's back-shop, till De Jongh, who charged a guilder for every bottle without as much as the quiver of an eyelid, would beckon me aside, and, with his little leathery face all puckered up, declare confidentially, "Business is business, but this man, captain, he make me very sick. Tfui!"`I was looking at him from the shade. He was hurrying on a little in advance, and the sunlight beating on him brought out his bulk in a startling way. He made me think of a trained baby elephant walking on hind-legs.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 查泰莱夫人的情人(纪念版)

    查泰莱夫人的情人(纪念版)

    康妮嫁给贵族查泰莱为妻,但不久他便在战争中负伤,腰部以下终生瘫痪。在老家,二人的生活虽无忧无虑,却死气沉沉,直到庄园的猎场看守重新燃起康妮的爱情之火及其对生活的渴望。《查泰莱夫人的情人》是英国小说最有争议的作品之一,长期遭禁,二十世纪六十年代英国宣布开禁后,小说一度洛阳纸贵,长期高踞畅销书排行榜并长销至今。
  • 重生之复仇谋妃

    重生之复仇谋妃

    她,前世是万人之上,后宫之首的皇后,她为爱而活,却因爱而亡。她,今生是低贱卑微,受人利用的奴儿,她为爱复仇,却被爱所救。她视为挚爱的男人残忍将她杀害,她无视存在的男人却暗自为她伤怀。前世已亡,今生重头来过,她选择幸福被爱还是决心复仇?
  • 低碳环保优秀人物故事

    低碳环保优秀人物故事

    “环保”是旨在强调人与自然的和谐及对自然资源的合理利用及保护。放眼世界,“环保”已是一个备受热议的话题;环境问题,已是不争的事实,是21世纪面临的严峻挑战之一;环境问题解决得好坏是关系到国计民生的大事,这不仅是政府的基本责任与义务,同时也是生活在地球村的每一个公民应尽的职责所在。
  • 朝鲜战争:未曾透露的真相

    朝鲜战争:未曾透露的真相

    《朝鲜战争:未曾透露的真相》是一部研究朝鲜战争的全面又精彩的综合性著作。美国政论家约瑟夫·古尔登充分利用1970年代末开始解密的有关朝战的官方档案,收集到美国政府重要决策所依赖的原始情报数据,此后四年间采访众多当事者和知情人,经过精准梳理和敏锐把握,完成了这部内幕之作。而这批“五角大楼朝战文件”资料已经被小布什政府重新加密,这使得本书所揭示的真相更为难得可贵。
  • 运筹帷幄(中华美德)

    运筹帷幄(中华美德)

    运筹帷幄,语出《史记·太史公自序》,在军帐内对军略做全面计划。常指在后方决定作战方案。也泛指主持大计,考虑决策。本书收录了“失败者、小马过河之后的猜想、坚守责任的力量、天堂有棵枇杷树、一个女人的爱情观”等数十个关于运筹帷幄的故事,愿读者能从这些故事中获得启发,树立良好的道德观、人生观。
  • 美丽的自卑皇冠

    美丽的自卑皇冠

    一个天真善良的自卑女孩,在一次见义勇为的行动中结识了一位富商公子。他气宇不凡,他领导风度翩翩,同时他也有女朋友。有一天,她爱上了他,可是这时她又自卑了。但是,当有一天自卑女孩职位提升时,她才知道是他在暗中的关照和帮助才使她有的今天……这是一部华丽的蜕变史,从自卑到自信,从悲观到乐观,这个美丽的过程中有欢笑,有泪水,有坚强,有勇敢……最终,她拥抱了自信,获得了爱情与事业的成功,戴上了属于她自己的自卑皇冠。
  • 星际重生:拒当太子妃

    星际重生:拒当太子妃

    她易容成满脸斑的丑女设计指腹为婚的太子殿下退婚,一心只想找回万年前宠她如命的师父。可是,谁能告诉她,她师父怎么突然从温润如玉的仙人变身吃人不吐骨的狼人了?“师父,你…在做什么?”“傻落儿,师父突然想起来,有件事忘了教你……”“什么事啊?”“傻落儿,别捂着嘴,会呼吸不过来的…为师设了结界,不会有人听到的……”第二天晚上,她悲愤地跑去质问他:“师父你骗人!不是说没人会听到么?!”他微微一笑,“是没人听到…不过,你在我床上睡了一天一夜,他们可都看到了。”“落儿,你该好好补补了……身体这么弱怎么行?”“…………”
  • 鬼相

    鬼相

    鬼相之人通阴阳,不以常人度之。亲人惨死,坟茔被毁,一切因何而起?尽在鬼相之谜……
  • 民国清流

    民国清流

    从2015年起便陆续迎来新文化运动和五四运动百年纪念热潮,一个世纪前,由一代文人学士引领的思想文化革新运动推动着中国迈入现代化进程。民国六年至十六年(1917至1927年),中国呈现了与春秋战国时期的“百家争鸣”相比肩的思想活跃、文化灿烂的局面。继承了传统“士”担当精神的一代民国清流在风云激荡的时局中扮演着先锋角色,共同擎起中国文化的苍穹。
  • 小心孩子这样问你:巧妙回答孩子的260个雷人问题

    小心孩子这样问你:巧妙回答孩子的260个雷人问题

    对于3~6岁的孩子而言,那些看似幼稚、好笑或者令人瞠目结舌的问题恰恰是他们认识世界、表达自己情感的开始,也是他们与父母沟通的重要途径。对此,父母必须给予足够的重视。本书针对孩子最常问的260个问题,首先点出父母最容易做出的错误回答,然后通过对问题进行分析,进而告诉父母该如何巧妙、科学地回答孩子那些令人赧颜的雷人问题,从而保护孩子的好奇心和求知欲,增强亲子关系,为孩子认识世界、发展身心健康、扩大认知能力打下良好基础。