Page 130 - HEART OF DARKNESS

Heart of Darkness

vigorous action. Cautiously, cautiously—that’s my
principle. We must be cautious yet. The district is closed
to us for a time. Deplorable! Upon the whole, the trade
will suffer. I don’t deny there is a remarkable quantity of

ivory—mostly fossil. We must save it, at all events—but
look how precarious the position is—and why? Because
the method is unsound.’ ‘Do you,’ said I, looking at the
shore, ‘call it ‘unsound method?‘‘ ‘Without doubt,’ he
exclaimed hotly. ‘Don’t you?’ … ‘No method at all,’ I
murmured after a while. ‘Exactly,’ he exulted. ‘I
anticipated this. Shows a complete want of judgment. It is
my duty to point it out in the proper quarter.’ ‘Oh,’ said I,
‘that fellow—what’s his name?—the brickmaker, will
make a readable report for you.’ He appeared confounded
for a moment. It seemed to me I had never breathed an
atmosphere so vile, and I turned mentally to Kurtz for
relief—positively for relief. ‘Nevertheless I think Mr.
Kurtz is a remarkable man,’ I said with emphasis. He
started, dropped on me a heavy glance, said very quietly,
‘he WAS,’ and turned his back on me. My hour of favour
was over; I found myself lumped along with Kurtz as a
partisan of methods for which the time was not ripe: I was
unsound! Ah! but it was something to have at least a
choice of nightmares.

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