Page 134 - HEART OF DARKNESS

Heart of Darkness

burned, illuminating fitfully a crooked corner of the
station-house. One of the agents with a picket of a few of
our blacks, armed for the purpose, was keeping guard over
the ivory; but deep within the forest, red gleams that

wavered, that seemed to sink and rise from the ground
amongst confused columnar shapes of intense blackness,
showed the exact position of the camp where Mr. Kurtz’s
adorers were keeping their uneasy vigil. The monotonous
beating of a big drum filled the air with muffled shocks
and a lingering vibration. A steady droning sound of many
men chanting each to himself some weird incantation
came out from the black, flat wall of the woods as the
humming of bees comes out of a hive, and had a strange
narcotic effect upon my half-awake senses. I believe I
dozed off leaning over the rail, till an abrupt burst of yells,
an overwhelming outbreak of a pent-up and mysterious
frenzy, woke me up in a bewildered wonder. It was cut
short all at once, and the low droning went on with an
effect of audible and soothing silence. I glanced casually
into the little cabin. A light was burning within, but Mr.
Kurtz was not there.
‘I think I would have raised an outcry if I had believed
my eyes. But I didn’t believe them at first—the thing
seemed so impossible. The fact is I was completely

133 of 162