An Outpost of Progress by Joseph Conrad: Part 2 of 2

There were ten station men who had been left by the director, those fellows having engaged themselves to the company for six months, without having any idea of a month in particular, and only a very faint notion of time in general, had been serving the cause of progress for upwards of two years, belonging to a tribe from a very distant part of the land of darkness and sorrow. They did not run away, naturally supposing that as wandering strangers they would be killed by the inhabitants of the country in which they were right. They lived in straw huts on the slope of a ravine, overgrown with reedy grass, just behind the station buildings. They were not happy, regretting the festive incantations, the sorceries, the human sacrifices of their own land, where they also had parents, brothers, sisters, admired chiefs, respected magicians, loved friends, and other ties supposed generally to be human. Besides, the rice portions served out by the company did not agree with them, being a food unknown to their land, and to which they could not get used. Consequently they were unhealthy and miserable. Had they been of any other tribe, they would have made up their minds to die, for nothing is easier to certain savages than suicide, and so have escaped from the puzzling difficulties of existence. But belonging, as they did, to a war-like tribe, with filed teeth, they had more grit, and went on stupidly living through disease and sorrow. They did very little work, and had lost their splendid physique. Carlier and Kertz doctored them assiduously, without being able to bring them back into good condition again. They were mustered every morning, and told off to different tasks—grass-cutting, fence-building, tree-felling, etc., etc.—which no power on earth could induce them to execute efficiently. The two whites had practically very little control over them. In the afternoon, McCulloch came over to the big house and found Kertz watching three heavy columns of smoke rising above the forests. What is that? asked Kertz. Some villages burn, answered McCulloch, who seemed to have regained his wits. Then he said abruptly, We have got very little ivory. Bad six-months trading. Do you like get a little more ivory? Yes, said Kertz eagerly. He thought of percentages which were low. Those men who came yesterday are traders from Luanda, who have got more ivory than they can carry home. Shall I buy? I know their camp. Certainly, said Kertz. What are those traders? Bad fellows, said McCulloch indifferently. They fight with people, and catch women and children. They are bad men, and got guns. There is a great disturbance in the country. Do you want ivory? Yes, said Kertz. McCulloch said nothing for a while. Then those workmen of ours are no good at all, he muttered, looking round. Station in very bad order, sir. Director will growl. Better get a fine lot of ivory than he say nothing. I can't help it. The men won't work, said Kertz. When will you get that ivory? Very soon, said McCulloch. Perhaps to-night. You leave it to me. And keep indoors, sir. I think you had better give some palm wine to our men to make a dance this evening. Enjoy themselves. Work better to-morrow. There's plenty palm wine, gone a little sour. Kertz said yes. And McCulloch, with his own hands, carried big calabashes to the door of his hut. They stood there till the evening, and Mrs. McCulloch looked into every one. The men got them at sunset. When Kertz and Carlier retired, a big bonfire was flaring before the men's huts. They could hear their shouts and drumming. Some men from Gobila's village had joined the station hands, and the entertainment was a great success. In the middle of the night, Carlier, waking suddenly, heard a man shout loudly. Then a shot was fired. Only one. Carlier ran out and met Kertz on the veranda. They were both startled. As they went across the yard to call McCulloch, they saw shadows moving in the night. One of them cried, Don't shoot! It's me, Price! Then McCulloch appeared close to them. Go back! Please! He urged. You spoil all. They're a strange man about. Said Carlier. Never mind. I know. Said McCulloch. Then he whispered. All right. Bring Ivory. Say nothing. I know my business. The two white men reluctantly went back to the house, but did not sleep. They heard footsteps, whispers, some groans. It seemed as if a lot of men came in, dumped heavy things on the ground, squabbled a long time, then went away. They lay on their hard beds and thought. This McCulloch is invaluable. In the morning, Carlier came out, very sleepy, and pulled at the chord of the big bell. The station hands mustered every morning to the sound of the bell. That morning nobody came. Cahorts turned out also, yawning. Across the yard, they saw McCulloch come out of his hut, a tin basin of soapy water in his hand. McCulloch, a civilized nigger, was very neat in his person. He threw the soap suds skillfully over a wretched little yellow cur he had. Then turning his face to the agent's house, he shouted from the distance. All the men gone last night. They heard him plainly, but in their surprise they both yelled out together, What? Then they stared at one another. We are in a proper fix now, growled Carlier. It's incredible, muttered Cahorts. I will go to the huts and see, said Carlier, striding off. McCulloch, coming up, found Cahorts standing alone. I can hardly believe it, said Cahorts, tearfully. We took care of them as if they had been our children. They went with the Coast People, said McCulloch, after a moment of hesitation. But oh, I care with whom they went, the ungrateful brutes, exclaimed the other. Then with sudden suspicion and looking hard at McCulloch, he added, What do you know about it? McCulloch moved his shoulders, looking down on the ground. What do I know? I think only. Will you come back at the ivory I've got there? It's a fine lot. You never saw such. He moved towards the store. Cahorts followed him, mechanically, thinking about the incredible desertion of the men. On the ground before the door of the fetish lay six splendid tusks. What did you give for it, asked Cahorts, after surveying the lot with satisfaction. No regular trade, said McCulloch. They brought the ivory and gave it to me. I told them to take what they most wanted in the station. It is a beautiful lot. No station can show such tusks. Those traders wanted carriers badly, and our men were no good here. No trade, no entry in books, all correct. Cahorts nearly burst with indignation. Why, he shouted, I believe you have sold our men for these tusks. McCulloch stood impassive and silent. I will, I stuttered Cahorts. You fiend, he yelled out. I did the best for you and the company, said McCulloch. Why do you shout so much? Look at this tusk. I dismiss you. I will report you. I won't look at the tusk. I forbid you to touch them. I order you to throw them into the river. You, you. You very read, Mr. Cahorts. If you are so irritable in the sun, you will get fever and die, like the first chief, pronounced McCulloch impressively. They stood still, contemplating one another with intense eyes, as if they had been looking with effort across immense distances. Cahorts shivered. McCulloch had meant no more than he said. But his words seemed to Cahorts full of ominous menace. He turned sharply and went away to the house. McCulloch retired into the bosom of his family, and the tusks, left lying before the store, looked very large and valuable in the sunshine. Carlier came back on the veranda. They're all gone, huh? Asked Cahorts from the far end of the common room in a muffled voice. You did not find anybody? Oh, yes, said Carlier. I found one of Gobele's people lying dead before the huts, shot through the body. We heard that shot last night. Cahorts came out quickly. He found his companion staring grimly over the yard at the tusks, away by the store. They both sat in silence for a while. Then Cahorts related his conversation with McCulloch. Carlier said nothing. At the midday meal, they ate very little. They hardly exchanged a word that day. A great silence seemed to lie heavily over the station and press on their lips. McCulloch did not open the store. He spent the day playing with his children. He lay full length on a mat outside his door, and the youngsters sat on his chest and clambered all over him. It was a touching picture. Mrs. McCulloch was busy cooking all day, as usual. The white men made a somewhat better meal in the evening. Afterwards, Carlier, smoking his pipe, strolled over to the store. He stood for a long time over the tusks, touched one or two with his foot, even tried to lift the largest one by its small end. He came back to the chief, who had not stirred from the veranda, threw himself in the chair and said, I can see it. They were pounced upon while they slept heavily. After drinking all that palm wine, you've allowed McCulloch to give them. A put-up job. See? The worst is, some of Gobila's people were there, and got carried off too, no doubt. The least drunk woke up and got shot for his sobriety. This is a funny country. Will you do now? We can't touch it, of course, said Caherts. Of course not, ascended Carlier. Slavery is an awful thing, stammered out Caherts in an unsteady voice. Frightful. The sufferings, grunted Carlier with conviction. They believed their words. Everybody shows a respectful deference to certain sounds that he and his fellows can make, but about feelings people really know nothing. We talk with indignation or enthusiasm. We talk about oppression, cruelty, crime, devotion, self-sacrifice, virtue, and we know nothing real beyond the words. Nobody knows what suffering or sacrifice mean, except perhaps the victims of the mysterious purpose of these illusions. Next morning they saw McCulloch, very busy, setting up in the yard the big scales used for weighing ivory. By and by, Carlier said, what's that filthy scoundrel up to, and lounged out into the yard. Caherts followed. They stood watching. McCulloch took no notice. When the balance was swung true, he tried to lift a tusk into the scale. It was too heavy. He looked up helplessly, without a word, and for a minute they stood round that balance as mute and still as three statues. Suddenly Carlier said, catch hold of the other end, McCulloch, you beast, and together they swung the tusk up. Caherts trembled in every limb. He muttered, I say, oh, I say, and putting his hand in his pockets, found there a dirty bit of paper and the stump of a pencil. He turned his back on the others, as if about to do something tricky, and noted stealthily the weights which Carlier shouted out to him with unnecessary loudness. When all was over, McCulloch whispered to himself, the sun's very strong here for the tusks. Carlier said to Caherts in a careless tone, I say, chief, I might just as well give him a lift with this lot into the store. As they were going back to the house, Caherts observed with a sigh, it had to be done, and Carlier said, it's deplorable, but the men being company's men, the ivory is company's ivory, we must look after it. I will report to the director, of course, said Caherts. Of course, let him decide, approved Carlier. At midday they made a hearty meal. Caherts sighed from time to time. Whenever they mentioned McCulloch's name, they always added to it an approbrious epithet. It eased their conscience. McCulloch gave himself a half holiday, and bathed his children in the river. No one from Gobila's villages came near the station that day. No one came the next day, and the next, nor for a whole week. Gobila's people might have been dead and buried for any sign of life they gave, but they were only mourning for those they had lost by the witchcraft of white men, who had brought wicked people into their country. The wicked people were gone, but fear remained. Fear always remains. A man may destroy everything within himself, love and hate and belief and even doubt, but as long as he clings to life, he cannot destroy fear, the fear, subtle, indestructible and terrible, that pervades his being, that tinges his thoughts, that lurks in his heart, that watches on his lips the struggle of his last breath. In his fear, the mild old Gobila offered extra-human sacrifices to all the evil spirits that had taken possession of his white friends. His heart was heavy. Some warriors spoke about burning and killing, but the cautious old savage dissuaded them. Who could foresee the woe those mysterious creatures, if irritated, might bring? They should be left alone. Perhaps in time they would disappear into the earth, as the first one had disappeared. His people must be kept away from them, and hope for the best. Geertz and Karliger did not disappear, but remained above, on this earth, that somehow they fancied had become bigger and very empty. It was not the absolute and dumb solitude of the post that impressed them so much as an inarticulate feeling that something from within them was gone, something that worked for their safety, and had kept the wilderness from interfering with their hearts. The images of home, the memory of people like them, of men that thought and felt as they used to think and feel, receded into distances made indistinct by the glare of unclouded sunshine, and out of the great silence of the surrounding wilderness, its very hopelessness and savagery seemed to approach them nearer, to draw them gently, to look upon them, to envelop them with a solicitude irresistible, familiar, and disgusting. Days lengthened into weeks, then into months. Hopeless people drummed and yelled to every new moon, as of yore, but kept away from the station. McCulloch and Karliger tried once in a canoe to open communications, but were received with a shower of arrows, and had to fly back to the station for dear life. That attempt set the country up and down the river into an uproar that could be very distinctly heard for days. The steamer was late. At first they spoke of delay jauntily, then anxiously, then gloomily. The matter was becoming serious. Stores were running short. Karliger cast his line off the bank, but the river was low, and the fish kept out in the stream. They dared not stroll far away from the station to shoot. Moreover, there was no game in the impenetrable forest. Once Karliger shot a hippo in the river. They had no boat to secure it, and it sank. When it floated up, it drifted away, and Gobila's people secured the carcass. It was the occasion for a national holiday, but Karliger had a fit of rage over it, and talked about the necessity of exterminating all the niggers before the country could be made habitable. Geertz mooned about silently, spent hours looking at the portrait of his melee. It represented a little girl with long, bleached tresses, and a rather sour face. His legs were much swollen, and he could hardly walk. Karliger, undermined by fever, could not swagger any more, but kept tottering about, still with a devil-may-care air, as became a man who remembered his crack regiment. He had become hoarse, sarcastic, and inclined to say unpleasant things. He called it being frank with you. They had long ago reckoned their percentages on trade, including in them the last deal of this infamous McCulloch. They had also concluded not to say anything about it. Geertz hesitated at first, was afraid of the director. He has seen worse things done on the quiet, maintained Karliger, with a hoarse laugh. Trust him. He won't thank you if you blab. He is no better than you or me. Who will talk if we hold our tongues? There's nobody here. That was the root of the trouble. There was nobody there. And being left alone there, with their weakness, they became, daily, more like a pair of accomplices than like a couple of devoted friends. They had heard nothing from home for eight months. Every evening, they said, tomorrow we shall see the steamer. But one of the company's steamers had been wrecked, and the director was busy with the other, relieving very distant and important stations on the main river. He thought that the useless station, and the useless men, could wait. Meantime, K. Geertz and Karliger lived on rice boiled with all salt, and cursed the colony, all Africa, and the day they were born. One must have lived on such diet to discover what ghastly trouble and the necessity of swallowing one's food may become. There was literally nothing else in the station but rice and coffee. They drank the coffee without sugar. The last fifteen lumps K. Geertz had solemnly locked away in his box. Another, with a half-bottle of cognac, in case of sickness, he explained. Karliger approved. When one is sick, he said, any little extra like that is cheering. They waited. Rank grass began to sprout over the courtyard. The bell never rang now. Days passed, silent, exasperating, and slow. When the two men spoke, they snarled, and their silences were bitter, as if tinged by the bitterness of their thoughts. One day, after a lunch of boiled rice, Karliger put down his cup, untasted, and said, hang it all, let's have a decent cup of coffee for once, bring out that sugar, K. Geertz. For the sick, muttered K. Geertz, without looking up. For the sick, mocked Karliger, bosh, well, I am sick. You are no more sick than I, and I go without, said K. Geertz, in a peaceful tone. Come, out with that sugar, you stingy old slave-dealer. K. Geertz looked up quickly. Karliger was smiling, with marked insolence, and suddenly it seemed to K. Geertz that he had never seen that man before. Who was he? He knew nothing about him. What was he capable of? There was a surprising flash of violent emotion within him, as if in the presence of something undreamt of, dangerous, and final. But he managed to pronounce, with composure, that joke is in very bad taste, don't repeat it. A joke, said Karliger, hitching himself forward on his seat. I am hungry. I am sick. I don't joke. I hate hypocrites. You are a hypocrite. You are a slave-dealer. I am a slave-dealer. There's nothing but slave-dealers in this cursed country. I mean to have sugar in my coffee today, anyhow. I forbid you to speak in that way, said K. Geertz, with a fair show of resolution. You? What? shouted Karliger, jumping up. K. Geertz stood up also. I am your chief, he began, trying to master the shakiness of his voice. What? yelled the other. Who's chief? There's no chief here. There's nothing but you and I. Fetch the sugar, you pot-bellied ass. Hold your tongue. Go out of this room, screamed K. Geertz. I dismiss you, you scoundrel. Karliger swung a stool. All at once he looked dangerously in earnest. You flabby, good-for-nothing civilian. Take that, he howled. K. Geertz dropped under the table, and the stool struck the grass in her wall of the room. Then, as Karliger was trying to upset the table, K. Geertz, in desperation, made a blind rush, head low, like a cornered pig would do, and, overturning his friend, vaulted along the veranda and into his room. He locked the door, snatched his revolver, and stood panting. In less than a minute, Karliger was kicking at the door furiously, howling. If you don't bring out that sugar, I will shoot you at sight like a dog. Now then, one, two, three. You won't? I will show you who's the master. K. Geertz thought the door would fall in, and scrambled through the square hole that served for a window in his room. There was then the whole breadth of the house between them, but the other was apparently not strong enough to break in the door, and K. Geertz heard him running round. Then, he also began to run laboriously on his swollen legs. He ran as quickly as he could, grasping the revolver, and unable yet to understand what was happening to him, he saw in succession McCulloch's house, the store, the river, the ravine, and the low bushes, and he saw all those things again as he ran for the second time round the house. Then again they flashed past him. That morning he could not have walked a yard without a groan. And now he ran, he ran fast enough to keep out of the sight of the other man. Then as weak and desperate, he thought, before I finish the next round I shall die. He heard the other man stumble heavily, then stop. He stopped also. He had the back, and Carlier had the front of the house, as before. He heard him drop into a chair, cursing, and suddenly his own legs gave way, and he slid down into a sitting posture with his back to the wall. His mouth was as dry as a cinder, and his face was wet with perspiration and tears. What was it all about? He thought it must be a horrible illusion. He thought he was dreaming. He thought he was going mad. After a while he collected his senses. What did they quarrel about? That sugar? How absurd! He would give it to him, didn't want it himself, and he began scrambling to his feet with a sudden feeling of security. But before he had fairly stood upright, a common-sense reflection occurred to him and drove him back into despair. He thought, if I give way now to that brood of a soldier, he will begin this horror again tomorrow, and the day after, every day, raise other pretensions, trample on me, torture me, make me his slave, and I will be lost, lost. The steamer may not come for days, may never come. He shook so that he had to sit down on the floor again. He shivered forlornly. He felt he could not, would not move any more. He was completely distracted by the sudden perception that the position was without issue, that death and life had in a moment become equally difficult and terrible. All at once he heard the other push his chair back, and he leaped to his feet with extreme facility. He listened and got confused. Must run again. Right or left? He heard footsteps. He darted to the left, grasping his revolver, and at the same instant, as it seemed to him, they came into violent collision. Both shouted with surprise. A loud explosion took place between them, a roar of red fire, thick smoke, and Cahirtz, raffined and blinded, rushed back thinking, I am hit, it's all over. He expected the other to come round, to gloat over his agony. He caught hold of an upright of the roof, all over, then he heard a crashing fall on the other side of the house, as if somebody had tumbled headlong over a chair. Then silence. Nothing more happened. He did not die. Only his shoulder felt as if it had been badly wrenched, and he had lost his revolver. He was disarmed and helpless. He waited for his fate. The other man made no sound. It was a stratagem. He was stalking him now. Along what side? Perhaps he was taking aim this very minute. After a few moments of an agony, frightful and absurd, he decided to go and meet his doom. He was prepared for every surrender. He turned the corner, steadying himself with one hand on the wall, made a few paces, and nearly swooned. He had seen on the floor, protruding past the other corner, a pair of turned-up feet, a pair of white, naked feet, and red slippers. He felt deadly sick, and stood for a time in profound darkness. Then McCullough appeared before him, saying quietly, Come along, Mr. K. Hertz. He is dead. He had burst into tears of gratitude, a loud, sobbing fit of crying. After a time, he found himself sitting in a chair, and looking at Carlier, who lay stretched on his back. McCullough was kneeling over the body. Is this your revolver? asked McCullough, getting up. Yes, said K. Hertz, and he added very quickly. He ran after me. To shoot me, you saw. Yes, I saw, said McCullough. There is only one revolver. Where is his? Don't know, whispered K. Hertz in a voice that had become suddenly very faint. I will go and look for it, said the other, gently. He made the round along the veranda, while K. Hertz sat still and looked at the corpse. McCullough came back empty-handed, stood in deep thought, then stepped quietly into the dead man's room, and came out directly with a revolver, which he held up before K. Hertz. K. Hertz shut his eyes. Everything was going round. He found life more terrible and difficult than death. He had shot an unarmed man. After meditating for a while, McCullough said softly, pointing at the dead man who lay there in his right eye, blown out. He died of fever. K. Hertz looked at him with a stony stare. Yes, repeated McCullough, thoughtfully, stepping over the corpse, I think he died of fever. Bury him tomorrow. And he went away slowly to his expectant wife, leaving the two white men alone on the veranda. Night came, and K. Hertz sat unmoving on his chair. He sat quiet, as if he had taken a dose of opium. The violence of the emotions he had passed through produced a feeling of exhausted serenity. He had plumbed, in one short afternoon, the depths of horror and despair, and now found repose in the conviction that life had no more secrets for him, neither had death. He sat by the corpse thinking, thinking very actively, thinking very new thoughts. He seemed to have broken loose from himself altogether. His old thoughts, convictions, likes and dislikes, things he respected and things he abhorred, appeared in their true light at last, appeared contemptible and childish, false and ridiculous. He reveled in his new wisdom, while he sat by the man he had killed. He argued with himself about all things under heaven, with that kind of wrong-headed lucidity which may be observed in some lunatics. Incidentally, he reflected that the fellow dead there had been a noxious beast anyway, that men died every day in thousands, perhaps in hundreds of thousands, who could tell? And then in the number, that one death could not possibly make any difference, couldn't have any importance, at least to a thinking creature. He, K. Ertz, was a thinking creature. He had been all his life, till that moment, a believer in a lot of nonsense like the rest of mankind, who are fools. But now he thought, he knew, he was at peace, he was familiar with the highest wisdom. Then he tried to imagine himself dead, and Carlier sitting in his chair, watching him, and his attempt might, with such unexpected success, that in a very few moments he became not at all sure who was dead and who was alive. This extraordinary achievement of his fancy startled him, however, and by a clever and timely effort of mind he saved himself, just in time, from becoming Carlier. His heart thumped, and he felt hot all over at the thought of that danger, Carlier, what a beastly thing, to compose his now disturbed nerves, and, no wonder, he tried to whistle a little, and suddenly he fell asleep, or thought he had slept. But at any rate, there was a fog, and somebody had whistled in the fog. He stood up. The day had come, and a heavy mist had descended upon the land, the mist penetrating and enveloping and silent, the morning mist of tropical lands, the mist that clings and kills, the mist white and deadly, immaculate and poisonous. He stood up, saw the body, and threw his arms above his head with a cry like that of a man who, waking up from a trance, finds himself immured forever in a tomb. Help! My God! A shriek, inhuman, vibrating and sudden, pierced like a sharp dart the white shroud of that land of sorrow. Three short, impatient screeches followed, and then, for a time, the fog-wreaths rolled on, undisturbed, through a formidable silence. Then many more shrieks, rapid and piercing, like the yells of some exasperated and ruthless creature, rent the air. Progress was calling to Keurz from the river, progress and civilization and all the virtues. Society was calling to its accomplished child to come, to be taken care of, to be instructed, to be judged, to be condemned. It called him to return to that rubbish heap from which he had wandered away, so that justice could be done. Keurz heard and understood. He stumbled out of the veranda, leaving the other man quite alone for the first time since he had been thrown there together. He groped his way through the fog, calling in his ignorance upon the invisible heaven to undo his work. McCulloch flitted by in the midst, shouting as he ran. Steamer! They can't see! They whistle for that station. I go ring the bell. Go down to the landing, sir, I ring. He disappeared. Keurz stood still. He looked upwards. The fog rolled low over his head. He looked round like a man who has lost his way, and he saw a dark smudge, a cross-shaped stain, upon the shifting purity of the mist. As he began to stumble towards it, the station bell rang in a tumultuous peal, its answer to the impatient clamor of the steamer. The managing director of the Great Civilizing Company, since we know that civilization follows trade, landed first, an incontinently lost sight of the steamer. The fog down by the river was exceedingly dense. Above, at the station, the bell rang, unceasing and brazen. The director shouted loudly to the steamer, There is nobody down to meet us. There may be something wrong, though they are ringing. You had better come too. And he began to toil up the steep bank. The captain and the engine driver of the boat followed behind. As they scrambled up, the fog thinned, and they could see their director a good way ahead. Suddenly they saw him start forward, calling to them over his shoulder, Run, run to the house. I found one of them. Run, look for the other. He had found one of them. And even he, the man of varied and startling experience, was somewhat discomposed by the manner of his finding. He stood and fumbled in his pockets for a knife, while he faced Cahiers, who was hanging by a leather strap from the cross. He had evidently climbed the grave, which was high and narrow, and after tying the end of the strap to the arm, had swung himself off. His toes were only a couple of inches above the ground. His arms hung stiffly down. He seemed to be standing rigidly at attention, but with one purple cheek playfully posed on the shoulder, and irreverently he was putting out a swollen tongue at his managing director.