登陆注册
5254700000020

第20章 CHAPTER VI(4)

"I feel like a fool all the time." I looked up at him. This was going very far--for Brierly--when talking of Brierly. He stopped short, and seizing the lapel of my coat, gave it a slight tug. "Why are we tormenting that young chap?" he asked. This question chimed in so well to the tolling of a certain thought of mine that, with the image of the absconding renegade in my eye, I answered at once, "Hanged if I know, unless it be that he lets you." I was astonished to see him fall into line, so to speak, with that utterance, which ought to have been tolerably cryptic. He said angrily, "Why, yes. Can't he see that wretched skipper of his has cleared out? What does he expect to happen? Nothing can save him. He's done for." We walked on in silence a few steps. "Why eat all that dirt?" he exclaimed, with an oriental energy of expression--about the only sort of energy you can find a trace of east of the fiftieth meridian. I wondered greatly at the direction of his thoughts, but now I strongly suspect it was strictly in character: at bottom poor Brierly must have been thinking of himself. Ipointed out to him that the skipper of the Patna was known to have feathered his nest pretty well, and could procure almost anywhere the means of getting away. With Jim it was otherwise: the Government was keeping him in the Sailors' Home for the time being, and probably he hadn't a penny in his pocket to bless himself with. It costs some money to run away. "Does it? Not always," he said, with a bitter laugh, and to some further remark of mine--"Well, then, let him creep twenty feet underground and stay there!

By heavens! I would." I don't know why his tone provoked me, and I said, "There is a kind of courage in facing it out as he does, knowing very well that if he went away nobody would trouble to run after him.""Courage be hanged!" growled Brierly. "That sort of courage is of no use to keep a man straight, and I don't care a snap for such courage. If you were to say it was a kind of cowardice now--of softness. I tell you what, I will put up two hundred rupees if you put up another hundred and undertake to make the beggar clear out early to-morrow morning. The fellow's a gentleman if he ain't fit to be touched--he will understand. He must! This infernal publicity is too shocking: there he sits while all these confounded natives, serangs, lascars, quarter-masters, are giving evidence that's enough to burn a man to ashes with shame. This is abominable. Why, Marlow, don't you think, don't you feel, that this is abominable; don't you now--come--as a seaman? If he went away all this would stop at once." Brierly said those words with a most unusual animation, and made as if to reach after his pocket-book. I restrained him, and declared coldly that the cowardice of these four men did not seem to me a matter of such great importance. "And you call yourself a seaman, I suppose," he pronounced, angrily. I said that's what I called myself, and I hoped I was too. He heard me out, and made a gesture with his big arm that seemed to deprive me of my individuality, to push me away into the crowd. "The worst of it," he said, "is that all you fellows have no sense of dignity; you don't think enough of what you are supposed to be."`We had been walking slowly meantime, and now stopped opposite the harbour office, in sight of the very spot from which the immense captain of the Patna had vanished as utterly as a tiny feather blown away in a hurricane. I smiled. Brierly went on: "This is a disgrace. We've got all kinds amongst us--some anointed scoundrels in the lot; but, hang it, we must preserve professional decency or we become no better than so many tinkers going about loose. We are trusted. Do you understand?--trusted!

Frankly, I don't care a snap for all the pilgrims that ever came out of Asia, but a decent man would not have behaved like this to a full cargo of old rags in bales. We aren't an organized body of men, and the only thing that holds us together is just the name for that kind of decency.

Such an affair destroys one's confidence. A man may go pretty near through his whole sea-life without any call to show a stiff upper lip. But when the call comes . . . Aha! . . . If I . . ."`He broke off, and in a changed tone, "I'll give you two hundred rupees now, Marlow, and you just talk to that chap. Confound him! I wish he had never come out here. Fact is, I rather think some of my people know his.

The old man's a parson, and I remember now I met him once when staying with my cousin in Essex last year. If I am not mistaken, the old chap seemed rather to fancy his sailor son. Horrible. I can't do it myself--but you . . ."`Thus, apropos of Jim, I had a glimpse of the real Brierly a few days before he committed his reality and his sham together to the keeping of the sea. Of course I declined to meddle. The tone of this last "but you"(poor Brierly couldn't help it), that seemed to imply I was no more noticeable than an insect, caused me to look at the proposal with indignation, and on account of that provocation, or for some other reason, I became positive in my mind that the inquiry was a severe punishment to that Jim, and that his facing it--practically of his own free will--was a redeeming feature in his abominable case. I hadn't been so sure of it before. Brierly went off in a huff. At the time his state of mind was more of a mystery to me than it is now.

`Next day, coming into court late, I sat by myself. Of course I could not forget the conversations I had with Brierly, and now I had them both under my eyes. The demeanour of one suggested gloomy impudence and of the other a contemptuous boredom; yet one attitude might not have been truer than the other, and I was aware that one was not true. Brierly was not bored--he was exasperated; and if so, then Jim might not have been impudent.

同类推荐
  • 太上灵宝净明院真师密诰

    太上灵宝净明院真师密诰

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 谷神赋

    谷神赋

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 诗话总龟前集

    诗话总龟前集

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 炽盛光道场念诵仪

    炽盛光道场念诵仪

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 广黄帝本行记

    广黄帝本行记

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 性保健中药

    性保健中药

    本书为“性保健丛书”之一。主要介绍了四十四种有调节人的性兴奋水平和性保健作用中药的性味、归经、配伍、应用。内容丰富、健康实用。
  • 概念主神

    概念主神

    题材:主神建设流,信仰封神流,维度穿越流。注:本书无女主。平行宇宙,纯属虚构,请勿对号入座。QQ群名称【书友群】群号码:105292537
  • 都市之妖孽龙帝

    都市之妖孽龙帝

    新书《我在三界当老师》发布!“在我面前,你们都是废柴,求求你们不要再秀了,好吗?”唐炎面对一大帮天才开口说道。
  • 妇人经脉门

    妇人经脉门

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 许你诺言,赠我欢颜

    许你诺言,赠我欢颜

    你有没有默默地爱过一个人,在年少懵懂的岁月里?那时她尚且不懂什么是爱情,却将他小心翼翼珍藏在心底,一搁就是整整十年。十年前,她是集万千宠爱于一身的江家公主,身旁追随者无数;十年后,她却成为众人攻击谩骂的众矢之的,人人避之唯恐不及。再次重逢,他是意气风发的特警队长,她却是默默无闻的图书管理员。他一反从前的冷静自持,主动出击,想将心中的小美人一举拿下;她却早已不是旧时模样,谨慎防守,不愿跟他生出更多纠缠。面对家中堂兄的步步紧逼,几家势力的暗中博弈,他与她原本单纯的恋情,却成为众人眼中不可宽恕的罪过。当时光流转,思念绵延,他们始终躲不过宿命,升级版高帅富特警拯救豪门落魄千金。
  • 周末女佣(全本)

    周末女佣(全本)

    李静纯,为了爸爸和弟弟,无奈之下应聘周末女佣....欧阳天,名牌大学校长的儿子,毕业于德国慕尼黑工业大学,现任某家知名汽车公司的老总......他的妈妈竟然为他招聘周末女佣,目的是和他培养感情?真是荒唐!在他“商界强强联姻”的未婚妻面前,她李静纯,或者应该放弃这份灰姑娘的爱情,去寻找自已平凡的幸福。QQ群8:57793625(未满)QQ群6:57793418(未满)QQ群5:13473928(将满)QQ群3:54980617(满)QQ群2:35238354(满)QQ群1:45046577(满)应广大会员要求,VIP已开通手机充值方式,点此进入充值:http://m.wkkk.net/vipreader/Charge1_1_zh_m.wkkk.net
  • 绝色妖狐魅红尘

    绝色妖狐魅红尘

    她,银行的小职员因为一次抢劫事件穿越到了一个未知的世界里与他相遇,为了帮助他,她成为了四品中书侍郎之女,进宫为妃。在皇宫之中她与皇帝善妒的后妃们展开了一场恶斗,让皇帝与至亲的兄弟反目成仇,最终她由一个小小的才人一步一艰辛的登上了皇后的宝座,就在她集万千宠爱于一身之时她才发现自己心里爱着的人却是那亲手将她送入宫中的人。
  • 动画艺术论

    动画艺术论

    众所周知,以创意经济为核心的新型文化产业已经成为当今发达国家的经济发展支柱,而在这个产业队伍中,动画产业异军突起,已成为和通信等高科技产业并行的极具发展潜力和蓬勃朝气的生力军。相比之下,曾经一度在国际上享有很高的声誉,并筑就一大批优秀经典的动画作品使之成为世界动画长廊中的瑰宝,还被国际同行誉称为“中国学派”的中国动画却显得步履蹒跚。
  • 末世大佬的古代日常

    末世大佬的古代日常

    安妄欢身为末世闻风丧胆的小魔王,一朝穿越未知朝代。大家族的娇宠千金,宫斗宅斗各种斗?别扯了,都是假象。娇俏可爱的外表之下,是一颗放荡不羁的内心。我的目标是包养整个朝廷,让他们跪下来叫爸爸!第一步,从边关将士开始!女主战斗力爆表,男主是个痴汉。没有太多的儿女情长,主要是基建和改造。不虐女主,不虐男主,作者亲妈,智商在线,没有狗血。
  • 激励一生的名人名言(下)

    激励一生的名人名言(下)

    关于人生、理想、事业、家庭、教育、爱情、人际交往、道德修养、伦理、个性、命运、科学、艺术、健康等人类社会生活各个层面,各个领域的经典名言、名句,“句句价值连城”。翻开《激励一生的名人名言》,你将与世界上最伟大的思想对话,你的人生将因此而改变、升华、圆满和成功!