Page 108 - HEART OF DARKNESS

Heart of Darkness

smoke, anyhow.’ I had seen, from the way the tops of the
bushes rustled and flew, that almost all the shots had gone
too high. You can’t hit anything unless you take aim and
fire from the shoulder; but these chaps fired from the hip

with their eyes shut. The retreat, I maintained—and I was
right—was caused by the screeching of the steam whistle.
Upon this they forgot Kurtz, and began to howl at me
with indignant protests.
‘The manager stood by the wheel murmuring
confidentially about the necessity of getting well away
down the river before dark at all events, when I saw in the
distance a clearing on the riverside and the outlines of
some sort of building. ‘What’s this?’ I asked. He clapped
his hands in wonder. ‘The station!’ he cried. I edged in at
once, still going half-speed.
‘Through my glasses I saw the slope of a hill
interspersed with rare trees and perfectly free from
undergrowth. A long decaying building on the summit
was half buried in the high grass; the large holes in the
peaked roof gaped black from afar; the jungle and the
woods made a background. There was no enclosure or
fence of any kind; but there had been one apparently, for
near the house half-a-dozen slim posts remained in a row,
roughly trimmed, and with their upper ends ornamented

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