Page 96 - HEART OF DARKNESS

Heart of Darkness

from the depths of the woods went out such a tremulous
and prolonged wail of mournful fear and utter despair as
may be imagined to follow the flight of the last hope from
the earth. There was a great commotion in the bush; the

shower of arrows stopped, a few dropping shots rang out
sharply—then silence, in which the languid beat of the
stern-wheel came plainly to my ears. I put the helm hard
a-starboard at the moment when the pilgrim in pink
pyjamas, very hot and agitated, appeared in the doorway.
‘The manager sends me—’ he began in an official tone,
and stopped short. ‘Good God!’ he said, glaring at the
wounded man.
‘We two whites stood over him, and his lustrous and
inquiring glance enveloped us both. I declare it looked as
though he would presently put to us some questions in an
understandable language; but he died without uttering a
sound, without moving a limb, without twitching a
muscle. Only in the very last moment, as though in
response to some sign we could not see, to some whisper
we could not hear, he frowned heavily, and that frown
gave to his black death-mask an inconeivably sombre,
brooding, and menacing expression. The lustre of
inquiring glance faded swiftly into vacant glassiness. ‘Can
you steer?’ I asked the agent eagerly. He looked very

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