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that mad trickfor a lot of Chinamen too. Chinamen! You have no morality.
I might have been ruined for the sake of those murderous scoundrels that,
after all, had to be driven overboard after killing ever so many of your
crewof your beloved crew! Do you call that honest?"
"Well, well!" muttered Lingard, chewing nervously the stump of his cheroot
that had gone out and looking at
Almayerwho stamped wildly about the verandahmuch as a shepherd might look at
a pet sheep in his obedient flock turning unexpectedly upon him in enraged
revolt. He seemed disconcerted, contemptuously angry yet somewhat amused;
and also a little hurt as if at some bitter jest at his own expense.
Almayer stopped suddenly, and crossing his arms on his breast, bent his body
forward and went on speaking.
"I might have been left then in an awkward holeall on account of your absurd
disregard for your safetyyet I bore no grudge. I knew your weaknesses. But
nowwhen I think of it! Now we are ruined.
Ruined! Ruined! My poor little Nina. Ruined!"
He slapped his thighs smartly, walked with small steps this way and that,
seized a chair, planted it with a bang before Lingard, and sat down staring
at the old seaman with haggard eyes. Lingard, returning his stare steadily,
dived slowly into various pockets, fished out at last a box of matches and
proceeded to light his cheroot carefully, rolling it round and round between
his lips, without taking his gaze for a moment off the distressed Almayer.
Then from behind a cloud of tobacco smoke he said calmly
"If you had been in trouble as often as I have, my boy, you wouldn't carry on
so. I have been ruined more than once. Well, here I am."
"Yes, here you are," interrupted Almayer. "Much good it is to me. Had you
been here a month ago it would have been of some use. But now! . . You
might as well be a thousand miles off."
"You scold like a drunken fishwife," said Lingard, serenely. He got up and
moved slowly to the front rail of the verandah. The floor shook and the
whole house vibrated under his heavy step. For a moment he stood with his
back to Almayer, looking out on the river and forest of the east bank, then
turned round and gazed mildly down upon him.
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"It's very lonely this morning here. Hey?" he said.
Almayer lifted up his head.
"Ah! you notice itdon't you? I should think it is lonely! Yes, Captain
Lingard, your day is over in Sambir.
Only a month ago this verandah would have been full of people coming to
greet you. Fellows would be coming up those steps grinning and salaamingto
you and to me. But our day is over. And not by my fault either. You can't
say that. It's all the doing of that pet rascal of yours. Ah! He is a
beauty! You should have seen him leading that hellish crowd. You would
have been proud of your old favourite."
"Smart fellow that," muttered Lingard, thoughtfully. Almayer jumped up with
a shriek.
"And that's all you have to say! Smart fellow! O Lord!"
"Don't make a show of yourself. Sit down. Let's talk quietly. I want to
know all about it. So he led?"
"He was the soul of the whole thing. He piloted Abdulla's ship in. He
ordered everything and everybody,"
said Almayer, who sat down again, with a resigned air.
"When did it happenexactly?"
"On the sixteenth I heard the first rumours of Abdulla's ship being in the
river; a thing I refused to believe at first. Next day I could not doubt
any more. There was a great council held openly in Lakamba's place where
almost everybody in Sambir attended. On the eighteenth the Lord of the
Isles was anchored in Sambir reach, abreast of my house. Let's see. Six
weeks today, exactly."
"And all that happened like this? All of a sudden. You never heard
anythingno warning. Nothing. Never had an idea that something was up?
Come, Almayer!"
"Heard! Yes, I used to hear something every day. Mostly lies. Is there
anything else in Sambir?"
"You might not have believed them," observed Lingard. "In fact you ought not
to have believed everything that was told to you, as if you had been a green
hand on his first voyage."
Almayer moved in his chair uneasily.
"That scoundrel came here one day," he said. "He had been away from the
house for a couple of months living with that woman. I only heard about him
now and then from Patalolo's people when they came over.
Well one day, about noon, he appeared in this courtyard, as if he had been
jerked up from hellwhere he belongs."
Lingard took his cheroot out, and, with his mouth full of white smoke that
oozed out through his parted lips, listened, attentive. After a short pause
Almayer went on, looking at the floor moodily
"I must say he looked awful. Had a bad bout of the ague probably. The left
shore is very unhealthy. Strange that only the breadth of the river . . ."
He dropped off into deep thoughtfulness as if he had forgotten his
grievances in a bitter meditation upon the unsanitary condition of the
virgin forests on the left bank. Lingard took this opportunity to expel the
smoke in a mighty expiration and threw the stump of his cheroot over his
shoulder.
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"Go on," he said, after a while. "He came to see you . . ."
"But it wasn't unhealthy enough to finish him, worse luck!" went on Almayer,
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rousing himself, "and, as I
said, he turned up here with his brazen impudence. He bullied me, he
threatened vaguely. He wanted to scare me, to blackmail me. Me! And, by
heavenhe said you would approve. You! Can you conceive such impudence? I
couldn't exactly make out what he was driving at. Had I known, I would have
approved him.
Yes! With a bang on the head. But how could I guess that he knew enough to
pilot a ship through the entrance you always said was so difficult. And,
after all, that was the only danger. I could deal with anybody herebut when
Abdulla came. . . . That barque of his is armed. He carries twelve brass
sixpounders, and about thirty men. Desperate beggars. Sumatra men, from
Deli and Acheen. Fight all day and ask for more in the evening. That
kind."
"I know, I know," said Lingard, impatiently.
"Of course, then, they were cheeky as much as you please after he anchored
abreast of our jetty. Willems brought her up himself in the best berth. I
could see him from this verandah standing forward, together with the
halfcaste master. And that woman was there too. Close to him. I heard they
took her on board off
Lakamba's place. Willems said he would not go higher without her. Stormed
and raged. Frightened them, I
believe. Abdulla had to interfere. She came off alone in a canoe, and no
sooner on deck than she fell at his feet before all hands, embraced his
knees, wept, raved, begged his pardon. Why? I wonder. Everybody in
Sambir is talking of it. They never heard tell or saw anything like it. I
have all this from Ali, who goes about in the settlement and brings me the
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