Falk .......................................................................................................................................................................1

Joseph Conrad ..........................................................................................................................................1

Several of us, all more or less connected with the sea, were dining in a small riverhostelry not more than

thirty miles from London, and less than twenty from that shallow and dangerous puddle to which our coasting

men give the grandiose name of "Ger man Ocean." And through the wide windows we had a view of the

Thames; an enfilading view down the Lower Hope Reach. But the dinner was exe crable, and all the feast

That flavour of saltwater which for so many of us had been the very water of life permeated our talk. He

who hath known the bitterness of the Ocean shall have its taste forever in his mouth. But one or two of us,

pampered by the life of the land, complained of hunger. It was impossible to swal low any of that stuff. And

indeed there was a strange mustiness in everything. The wooden din ingroom stuck out over the mud of

the shore like a lacustrine dwelling; the planks of the floor seemed rotten; a decrepit old waiter tottered

pathetically to and fro before an antediluvian and wormeaten sideboard; the chipped plates might have been

dis interred from some kitchen midden near an inhab ited lake; and the chops recalled times more ancient

still. They brought forcibly to one's mind the night of ages when the primeval man, evolving the first

rudiments of cookery from his dim conscious ness, scorched lumps of flesh at a fire of sticks in the

company of other good fellows; then, gorged and happy, sat him back among the gnawed bones to tell his

But luckily the wine happened to be as old as the waiter. So, comparatively empty, but upon the whole fairly

happy, we sat back and told our artless tales. We talked of the sea and all its works. The sea never changes,

and its works for all the talk of men are wrapped in mystery. But we agreed that the times were changed. And

we talked of old ships, of seaaccidents, of breakdowns, dismast ings; and of a man who brought his ship

safe to Liverpool all the way from the River Platte under a jury rudder. We talked of wrecks, of short ra

tions and of heroismor at least of what the news papers would have called heroism at seaa mani

festation of virtues quite different from the heroism of primitive times. And now and then falling silent all

A P. O. boat passed bound down. "One gets jolly good dinners on board these ships," remarked one of our

band. A man with sharp eyes read out the name on her bows: Arcadia. "What a beauti ful model of a ship!"

murmured some of us. She was followed by a small cargo steamer, and the flag they hauled down aboard

while we were looking showed her to be a Norwegian. She made an awful lot of smoke; and before it had

quite blown away, a highsided, short, wooden barque, in ballast and towed by a paddletug, appeared in

front of the windows. All her hands were forward busy setting up the headgear; and aft a woman in a red

hood, quite alone with the man at the wheel, paced the length of the poop back and forth, with the grey wool

"German I should think," muttered one. "The skipper has his wife on board," remarked another; and the light

of the crimson sunset all ablaze behind the London smoke, throwing a glow of Bengal light upon the barque's

Then one of us, who had not spoken before, a man of over fifty, that had commanded ships for a quarter of a

century, looking after the barque now gliding far away, all black on the lustre of the river, said:

This reminds me of an absurd episode in my life, now many years ago, when I got first the command of an

iron barque, loading then in a certain Eastern seaport. It was also the capital of an Eastern king dom, lying

up a river as might be London lies up this old Thames of ours. No more need be said of the place; for this sort

of thing might have hap pened anywhere where there are ships, skippers, tugboats, and orphan nieces of

indescribable splen dour. And the absurdity of the episode concerns only me, my enemy Falk, and my friend

There seemed to be something like peculiar em phasis on the words "My friend Hermann," which caused

one of us (for we had just been speaking of heroism at sea) to say idly and nonchalantly:

Not at all, said our grizzled friend. No hero at all. He was a Schifffuhrer: Shipconductor. That's how they

call a Master Mariner in Germany. I prefer our way. The alliteration is good, and there is something in the

nomenclature that gives to us as a body the sense of corporate existence: Apprentice, Mate, Master, in the

ancient and hon ourable craft of the sea. As to my friend Hermann, he might have been a consummate

master of the honourable craft, but he was called officially Schiff fuhrer, and had the simple, heavy

appearance of a welltodo farmer, combined with the goodnatured shrewdness of a small shopkeeper.

With his shaven chin, round limbs, and heavy eyelids he did not look like a toiler, and even less like an

adventurer of the sea. Still, he toiled upon the seas, in his own way, much as a shopkeeper works behind his

She was a heavy, strong, bluntbowed affair, awakening the ideas of primitive solidity, like the wooden

plough of our forefathers. And there were, about her, other suggestions of a rustic and homely nature. The

extraordinary timber projections which I have seen in no other vessel made her square stern resemble the tail

end of a miller's waggon. But the four stern ports of her cabin, glazed with six little greenish panes each, and

framed in wooden sashes painted brown, might have been the windows of a cottage in the country. The tiny

white cur tains and the greenery of flower pots behind the glass completed the resemblance. On one or two

occasions when passing under stern I had de tected from my boat a round arm in the act of tilt ing a

watering pot, and the bowed sleek head of a maiden whom I shall always call Hermann's niece, because as a

This, however, sprang up later on. Meantime in common with the rest of the shipping in that East ern port, I

was left in no doubt as to Hermann's no tions of hygienic clothing. Evidently he believed in wearing good

stout flannel next his skin. On most days little frocks and pinafores could be seen drying in the mizzen

rigging of his ship, or a tiny row of socks fluttering on the signal halyards; but once a fortnight the family

washing was exhibited in force. It covered the poop entirely. The after noon breeze would incite to a weird

and flabby activ ity all that crowded mass of clothing, with its vague suggestions of drowned, mutilated and

flattened hu manity. Trunks without heads waved at you arms without hands; legs without feet kicked

fantasti cally with collapsible flourishes; and there were long white garments that, taking the wind fairly

through their neck openings edged with lace, be came for a moment violently distended as by the passage of

obese and invisible bodies. On these days you could make out that ship at a great distance by the

She had her berth just ahead of me, and her name was Diana,Diana not of Ephesus but of Bremen. This

was proclaimed in white letters a foot long spaced widely across the stern (somewhat like the lettering of a

shopsign) under the cottage windows. This ridiculously unsuitable name struck one as an impertinence

towards the memory of the most charming of goddesses; for, apart from the fact that the old craft was

physically incapable of engaging in any sort of chase, there was a gang of four children belonging to her.

They peeped over the rail at passing boats and occasionally dropped various objects into them. Thus,

sometime before I knew Hermann to speak to, I received on my hat a horrid ragdoll belonging to Hermann's

eldest daughter. However, these youngsters were upon the whole well behaved. They had fair heads, round

This Diana of Bremen was a most innocent old ship, and seemed to know nothing of the wicked sea, as there

are on shore households that know nothing of the corrupt world. And the sentiments she sug gested were

unexceptionable and mainly of a do mestic order. She was a home. All these dear chil dren had learned to

walk on her roomy quarterdeck. In such thoughts there is something pretty, even touching. Their teeth, I

should judge, they had cut on the ends of her running gear. I have many times observed the baby Hermann

(Nicholas) en gaged in gnawing the whipping of the foreroyal brace. Nicholas' favourite place of residence

was under the main fiferail. Directly he was let loose he would crawl off there, and the first seaman who

came along would bring him, carefully held aloft in tarry hands, back to the cabin door. I fancy there must

have been a standing order to that effect. In the course of these transportations the baby, who was the only

peppery person in the ship, tried to smite these stalwart young German sailors on the face.

Mrs. Hermann, an engaging, stout housewife, wore on board baggy blue dresses with white dots. When, as

happened once or twice I caught her at an elegant little washtub rubbing hard on white col lars, baby's

socks, and Hermann's summer neck ties, she would blush in girlish confusion, and rais ing her wet hands

greet me from afar with many friendly nods. Her sleeves would be rolled up to the elbows, and the gold hoop

of her wedding ring glittered among the soapsuds. Her voice was pleasant, she had a serene brow, smooth

bands of very fair hair, and a goodhumoured expression of the eyes. She was motherly and moderately

talka tive. When this simple matron smiled, youthful dimples broke out on her fresh broad cheeks. Her

mann's niece on the other hand, an orphan and very silent, I never saw attempt a smile. This, however, was

They had carried her about with them for the last three years, to help with the children and be company for

Mrs. Hermann, as Hermann men tioned once to me. It had been very necessary while they were all little, he

had added in a vexed manner. It was her arm and her sleek head that I had glimpsed one morning, through the

sternwindows of the cabin, hovering over the pots of fuchsias and mignonette; but the first time I beheld her

full length I surrendered to her proportions. They fix her in my mind, as great beauty, great intelligence,

quickness of wit or kindness of heart might have made some her other woman equally memorable.

With her it was form and size. It was her physi cal personality that had this imposing charm. She might have

been witty, intelligent, and kind to an exceptional degree. I don't know, and this is not to the point. All I know

is that she was built on a magnificent scale. Built is the only word. She was constructed, she was erected, as it

were, with a regal lavishness. It staggered you to see this reckless ex penditure of material upon a chit of a

girl. She was youthful and also perfectly mature, as though she had been some fortunate immortal. She was

heavy too, perhaps, but that's nothing. It only added to that notion of permanence. She was bare ly nineteen.

But such shoulders! Such round arms! Such a shadowing forth of mighty limbs when with three long strides

she pounced across the deck upon the overturned Nicholasit's perfectly indescribable! She seemed a good,

quiet girl, vigi lant as to Lena's needs, Gustav's tumbles, the state of Carl's dear little noseconscientious,

hardwork ing, and all that. But what magnificent hair she had! Abundant, long, thick, of a tawny colour. It

had the sheen of precious metals. She wore it plaited tightly into one single tress hanging girl ishly down her

back and its end reached down to her waist. The massiveness of it surprised you. On my word it reminded

one of a club. Her face was big, comely, of an unruffled expression. She had a good complexion, and her blue

eyes were so pale that she appeared to look at the world with the empty white candour of a statue. You could

not call her goodlooking. It was something much more impressive. The simplicity of her apparel, the

opulence of her form, her imposing stature, and the extraordinary sense of vigorous life that seemed to

emanate from her like a perfume exhaled by a flower, made her beautiful with a beauty of a rustic and

olympian order. To watch her reaching up to the clothesline with both arms raised high above her head,

caused you to fall a musing in a strain of pagan piety. Excellent Mrs. Hermann's baggy cotton gowns had

some sort of rudimentary frills at neck and bottom, but this girl's print frocks hadn't even a wrinkle; nothing

but a few straight folds in the skirt falling to her feet, and these, when she stood still, had a severe and

statuesque quality. She was inclined naturally to be still whether sit ting or standing. However, I don't mean

to say she was statuesque. She was too generously alive; but she could have stood for an allegoric statue of

the Earth. I don't mean the wornout earth of our possession, but a young Earth, a virginal planet undisturbed

by the vision of a future teeming with the monstrous forms of life and death, clamorous with the cruel battles

The worthy Hermann himself was not very en tertaining, though his English was fairly compre hensible.

Mrs. Hermann, who always let off one speech at least at me in an hospitable, cordial tone (and in

PlattDeutsch I suppose) I could not un derstand. As to their niece, however satisfactory to look upon (and

she inspired you somehow with a hopeful view as to the prospects of mankind) she was a modest and silent

presence, mostly en gaged in sewing, only now and then, as I observed, falling over that work into a state of

maidenly meditation. Her aunt sat opposite her, sewing also, with her feet propped on a wooden footstool. On

the other side of the deck Hermann and I would get a couple of chairs out of the cabin and settle down to a

smoking match, accompanied at long in tervals by the pacific exchange of a few words. I came nearly every

evening. Hermann I would find in his shirt sleeves. As soon as he returned from the shore on board his ship

he commenced operations by taking off his coat; then he put on his head an embroidered round cap with a

tassel, and changed his boots for a pair of cloth slippers. Afterwards he smoked at the cabindoor, looking at

his children with an air of civic virtue, till they got caught one after another and put to bed in various

staterooms. Lastly, we would drink some beer in the cabin, which was furnished with a wooden table on cross

legs, and with black straightbacked chairsmore like a farm kitchen than a ship's cuddy. The sea and all

nauti cal affairs seemed very far removed from the hos pitality of this exemplary family.

And I liked this because I had a rather worrying time on board my own ship. I had been appointed exofficio

by the British Consul to take charge of her after a man who had died suddenly, leaving for the guidance of his

successor some suspiciously un receipted bills, a few drydock estimates hinting at bribery, and a quantity

of vouchers for three years' extravagant expenditure; all these mixed up to gether in a dusty old violincase

lined with ruby velvet. I found besides a large accountbook, which, when opened, hopefully turned out to

my infinite consternation to be filled with versespage after page of rhymed doggerel of a jovial and im

proper character, written in the neatest minute hand I ever did see. In the same fiddlecase a photograph of

my predecessor, taken lately in Saigon, repre sented in front of a garden view, and in company of a female

in strange draperies, an elderly, squat, rugged man of stern aspect in a clumsy suit of black broadcloth, and

with the hair brushed forward above the temples in a manner reminding one of a boar's tusks. Of a fiddle,

however, the only trace on board was the case, its empty husk as it were; but of the two last freights the ship

had indubitably earned of late, there were not even the husks left. It was impossible to say where all that

money had gone to. It wasn't on board. It had not been remitted home; for a letter from the owners, preserved

in a desk evidently by the merest accident, complained mildly enough that they had not been favoured by a

scratch of the pen for the last eighteen months. There were next to no stores on board, not an inch of spare

rope or a yard of canvas. The ship had been run bare, and I foresaw no end of difficulties before I could get

As I was young thennot thirty yetI took myself and my troubles very seriously. The old mate, who had

acted as chief mourner at the cap tain's funeral, was not particularly pleased at my coming. But the fact is

the fellow was not legally qualified for command, and the Consul was bound, if at all possible, to put a

properly certificated man on board. As to the second mate, all I can say his name was Tottersen, or something

like that. His practice was to wear on his head, in that tropical climate, a mangy fur cap. He was, without

excep tion, the stupidest man I had ever seen on board ship. And he looked it too. He looked so con

foundedly stupid that it was a matter of surprise for me when he answered to his name.

I drew no great comfort from their company, to say the least of it; while the prospect of making a long sea

passage with those two fellows was depress ing. And my other thoughts in solitude could not be of a gay

complexion. The crew was sickly, the cargo was coming very slow; I foresaw I would have lots of trouble

with the charterers, and doubted whether they would advance me enough money for the ship's expenses.

Their attitude towards me was unfriendly. Altogether I was not getting on. I would discover at odd times

(generally about mid night) that I was totally inexperienced, greatly ig norant of business, and hopelessly

unfit for any sort of command; and when the steward had to be taken to the hospital ill with choleraic

symptoms I felt bereaved of the only decent person at the after end of the ship. He was fully expected to

recover, but in the meantime had to be replaced by some sort of servant. And on the recommendation of a

cer tain Schomberg, the proprietor of the smaller of the two hotels in the place, I engaged a Chinaman.

Schomberg, a brawny, hairy Alsatian, and an awful gossip, assured me that it was all right. "First class boy

that. Came in the suite of his Excellency Tseng the Commissioneryou know. His Excel lency Tseng

He mouthed the Chinese Excellency at me with great unction, though the specimen of the "suite" did not

seem very promising. At the time, however, I did not know what an untrustworthy humbug Schomberg was.

The "boy" might have been forty or a hundred and forty for all you could tell one of those Chinamen of the

death'shead type of face and completely inscrutable. Before the end of the third day he had revealed himself

as a confirmed opiumsmoker, a gambler, a most audacious thief, and a firstclass sprinter. When he

departed at the top of his speed with thirtytwo golden sovereigns of my own hardearned savings it was the

last straw. I had reserved that money in case my difficulties came to the worst. Now it was gone I felt as poor

and naked as a fakir. I clung to my ship, for all the bother she caused me, but what I could not bear were the

long lonely evenings in her cuddy, where the atmosphere, made smelly by a leaky lamp, was agitated by the

snoring of the mate. That fellow shut himself up in his stuffy cabin punctually at eight, and made gross and

revolting noises like a waterlogged trump. It was odious not to be able to worry oneself in comfort on board

one's own ship. Everything in this world, I reflected, even the command of a nice little barque, may be made

From such reflections I was glad to make any es cape on board that Bremen Diana. There appar ently no

whisper of the world's iniquities had ever penetrated. And yet she lived upon the wide sea: and the sea tragic

and comic, the sea with its horrors and its peculiar scandals, the sea peopled by men and ruled by iron

necessity is indubitably a part of the world. But that patriarchal old tub, like some saintly retreat, echoed

nothing of it. She was world proof. Her venerable innocence apparently had put a restraint on the roaring

lusts of the sea. And yet I have known the sea too long to believe in its respect for decency. An elemental

force is ruthlessly frank. It may, of course, have been Hermann's skilful seamanship, but to me it looked as if

the al lied oceans had refrained from smashing these high bulwarks, unshipping the lumpy rudder, frighten

ing the children, and generally opening this fam ily's eyes out of sheer reticence. It looked like reti cence.

The ruthless disclosure was in the end left for a man to make; a man strong and elemental enough and driven

to unveil some secrets of the sea by the power of a simple and elemental desire.

This, however, occurred much later, and mean time I took sanctuary in that serene old ship early every

evening. The only person on board that seemed to be in trouble was little Lena, and in due course I perceived

that the health of the ragdoll was more than delicate. This object led a sort of "in extremis" existence in a

wooden box placed against the starboard mooringbitts, tended and nursed with the greatest sympathy and

care by all the children, who greatly enjoyed pulling long faces and moving with hushed footsteps. Only the

baby Nicholaslooked on with a cold, ruffianly leer, as if he had belonged to another tribe altogether.

Lena perpetually sorrowed over the box, and all of them were in deadly earnest. It was wonderful the way

these children would work up their compassion for that bedraggled thing I wouldn't have touched with a pair

of tongs. I suppose they were exercis ing and developing their racial sentimentalism by the means of that

dummy. I was only surprised that Mrs. Hermann let Lena cherish and hug that bundle of rags to that extent, it

was so disreputably and completely unclean. But Mrs. Hermann would raise her fine womanly eyes from her

needlework to look on with amused sympathy, and did not seen to see it, somehow, that this object of

affection was a disgrace to the ship's purity. Purity, not cleanli ness, is the word. It was pushed so far that I

seemed to detect in this too a sentimental excess, as if dirt had been removed in very love. It is impossible to

give you an idea of such a meticulous neatness. It was as if every morning that ship had been ardu ously

explored withwith toothbrushes. Her very bowsprit three times a week had its toilette made with a cake of

soap and a piece of soft flannel. Ar rayedI MUST say arrayedarrayed artlessly in dazzling white paint

as to wood and dark green as to ironwork the simpleminded distribution of these colours evoked the images

of simpleminded peace, of arcadian felicity; and the childish comedy of disease and sorrow struck me

I enjoyed it greatly, and on my part I brought a little mild excitement into it. Our intimacy arose from the

pursuit of that thief. It was in the even ing, and Hermann, who, contrary to his habits, had stayed on shore

late that day, was extricating him self backwards out of a little gharry on the river bank, opposite his ship,

when the hunt passed. Realising the situation as though he had eyes in his shoulderblades, he joined us with

a leap and took the lead. The Chinaman fled silent like a rapid shadow on the dust of an extremely oriental

road. I followed. A long way in the rear my mate whooped like a savage. A young moon threw a bashful light

on a plain like a monstrous waste ground: the architectural mass of a Buddhist tem ple far away projected

itself in dead black on the sky. We lost the thief of course; but in my disap pointment I had to admire

Hermann's presence of mind. The velocity that stodgy man developed in the interests of a complete stranger

He seemed as vexed as myself at our failure, and would hardly listen to my thanks. He said it was "nothings,"

and invited me on the spot to come on board his ship and drink a glass of beer with him. We poked

sceptically for a while amongst the bushes, peered without conviction into a ditch or two. There was not a

sound: patches of slime glim mered feebly amongst the reeds. Slowly we trudged back, drooping under the

thin sickle of the moon, and I heard him mutter to himself, "Himmel! Zwei und dreissig Pfund!" He was

impressed by the figure of my loss. For a long time we had ceased to hear the mate's whoops and yells.

Then he said to me, "Everybody has his troub les," and as we went on remarked that he would never have

known anything of mine hadn't he by an extraordinary chance been detained on shore by Captain Falk. He

didn't like to stay late ashore he added with a sigh. The something doleful in his tone I put to his sympathy

On board the Diana Mrs. Hermann's fine eyes expressed much interest and commiseration. We had found the

two women sewing face to face under the open skylight in the strong glare of the lamp. Hermann walked in

first, starting in the very door way to pull off his coat, and encouraging me with loud, hospitable

ejaculations: "Come in! This way! Come in, captain!" At once, coat in hand, he began to tell his wife all

about it. Mrs. Hermann put the palms of her plump hands together; I smiled and bowed with a heavy heart:

the niece got up from her sewing to bring Hermann's slippers and his embroidered calotte, which he assumed

pon tifically, talking (about me) all the time. Billows of white stuff lay between the chairs on the cabin

floor; I caught the words "Zwei und dreissig Pfund" repeated several times, and presently came the beer,

which seemed delicious to my throat, parched with running and the emotions of the chase.

I didn't get away till well past midnight, long after the women had retired. Hermann had been trading in the

East for three years or more, carry ing freights of rice and timber mostly. His ship was well known in all the

ports from Vladivostok to Singapore. She was his own property. The profits had been moderate, but the trade

answered well enough while the children were small yet. In an other year or so he hoped he would be able

to sell the old Diana to a firm in Japan for a fair price. He intended to return home, to Bremen, by mail boat,

second class, with Mrs. Hermann and the children. He told me all this stolidly, with slow puffs at his pipe. I

was sorry when knocking the ashes out he began to rub his eyes. I would have sat with him till morning.

What had I to hurry on board my own ship for? To face the broken rifled drawer in my stateroom. Ugh! The

I became their daily guest, as you know. I think that Mrs. Hermann from the first looked upon me as a

romantic person. I did not, of course, tear my hair coram populo over my loss, and she took it for lordly

indifference. Afterwards, I daresay, I did tell them some of my adventuressuch as they were and they

marvelled greatly at the extent of my experience. Hermann would translate what he thought the most striking

passages. Getting up on his legs, and as if delivering a lecture on a phenom enon, he addressed himself, with

gestures, to the two women, who would let their sewing sink slowly on their laps. Meantime I sat before a

glass of Hermann's beer, trying to look modest. Mrs. Her mann would glance at me quickly, emit slight

"Ach's!" The girl never made a sound. Never. But she too would sometimes raise her pale eyes to look at me

in her unseeing gentle way. Her glance was by no means stupid; it beamed out soft and dif fuse as the moon

beams upon a landscapequite differently from the scrutinising inspection of the stars. You were drowned

in it, and imagined your self to appear blurred. And yet this same glance when turned upon Christian Falk

Falk was the other assiduous visitor on board, but from his behaviour he might have been coming to see the

quarterdeck capstan. He certainly used to stare at it a good deal when keeping us company outside the cabin

door, with one muscular arm thrown over the back of the chair, and his big shapely legs, in very tight white

trousers, extended far out and ending in a pair of black shoes as roomy as punts. On arrival he would shake

Her mann's hand with a mutter, bow to the women, and take up his careless and misanthropic attitude by our

side. He departed abruptly, with a jump, go ing through the performance of grunts, hand shakes, bow, as if

in a panic. Sometimes, with a sort of discreet and convulsive effort, he approached the women and exchanged

a few low words with them, half a dozen at most. On these occasions Her mann's usual stare became

positively glassy and Mrs. Hermann's kind countenance would colour up. The girl herself never turned a hair.

Falk was a Dane or perhaps a Norwegian, I can't tell now. At all events he was a Scandinavian of some sort,

and a bloated monopolist to boot. It is possible he was unacquainted with the word, but he had a clear

perception of the thing itself. His tariff of charges for towing ships in and out was the most brutally

inconsiderate document of the sort I had ever seen. He was the commander and owner of the only tugboat

on the river, a very trim white craft of 150 tons or more, as elegantly neat as a yacht, with a round

wheelhouse rising like a glazed turret high above her sharp bows, and with one slen der varnished pole

mast forward. I daresay there are yet a few shipmasters afloat who remember Falk and his tug very well. He

extracted his pound and a half of flesh from each of us merchantskippers with an inflexible sort of

indifference which made him detested and even feared. Schomberg used to remark: "I won't talk about the

fellow. I don't think he has six drinks from year's end to year's end in my place. But my advice is, gentlemen,

This advice, apart from unavoidable business re lations, was easy to follow because Falk intruded upon no

one. It seems absurd to compare a tug boat skipper to a centaur: but he reminded me some how of an

engraving in a little book I had as a boy, which represented centaurs at a stream, and there was one, especially

in the foreground, prancing bow and arrows in hand, with regular severe features and an immense curled

wavy beard, flowing down his breast. Falk's face reminded me of that cen taur. Besides, he was a composite

creature. Not a manhorse, it is true, but a manboat. He lived on board his tug, which was always dashing

In the last rays of the setting sun, you could pick out far away down the reach his beard borne high up on the

white structure, foaming up stream to anchor for the night. There was the whiteclad man's body, and the rich

brown patch of the hair, and nothing below the waist but the 'thwartship white lines of the bridgescreens,

that lead the eye to the sharp white lines of the bows cleaving the muddy water of the river.

Separated from his boat to me at least he seemed incomplete. The tug herself without his head and torso on

the bridge looked mutilated as it were. But he left her very seldom. All the time I re mained in harbour I saw

him only twice on shore. On the first occasion it was at my charterers, where he came in misanthropically to

get paid for towing out a French barque the day before. The second time I could hardly believe my eyes, for I

beheld him reclining under his beard in a canebottomed chair in the billiardroom of Schomberg's hotel.

It was very funny to see Schomberg ignoring him pointedly. The artificiality of it contrasted strongly with

Falk's natural unconcern. The big Alsatian talked loudly with his other customers, go ing from one little

table to the other, and passing Falk's place of repose with his eyes fixed straight ahead. Falk sat there with an

untouched glass at his elbow. He must have known by sight and name every white man in the room, but he

never addressed a word to anybody. He acknowledged my presence by a drop of his eyelids, and that was all.

Sprawl ing there in the chair, he would, now and again, draw the palms of both his hands down his face,

It was a habit he had, and of course I was per fectly familiar with it, since you could not remain an hour in

his company without being made to won der at such a movement breaking some long period of stillness. it

was a passionate and inexplicable gesture. He used to make it at all sorts of times; as likely as not after he had

been listening to little Lena's chatter about the suffering doll, for instance. The Hermann children always

besieged him about his legs closely, though, in a gentle way, he shrank from them a little. He seemed,

however, to feel a great affection for the whole family. For Hermann himself especially. He sought his

company. In this case, for instance, he must have been waiting for him, because as soon as he appeared Falk

rose hastily, and they went out together. Then Schom berg expounded in my hearing to three or four people

his theory that Falk was after Captain Her mann's niece, and asserted confidently that nothing would come

of it. It was the same last year when Captain Hermann was loading here, he said.

Naturally, I did not believe Schomberg, but I own that for a time I observed closely what went on. All I

discovered was some impatience on Her mann's part. At the sight of Falk, stepping over the gangway, the

excellent man would begin to mumble and chew between his teeth something that sounded like German

swearwords. However, as I've said, I'm not familiar with the language, and Hermann's soft, roundeyed

countenance remained unchanged. Staring stolidly ahead he greeted him with, "Wie gehts," or in English,

"How are you?" with a throaty enunciation. The girl would look up for an instant and move her lips slightly:

Mrs. Hermann let her hands rest on her lap to talk volubly to him for a minute or so in her pleasant voice

before she went on with her sewing again. Falk would throw himself into a chair, stretch his big legs, as like

as not draw his hands down his face passionately. As to myself, he was not pointedly impertinent: it was

rather as though he could not be bothered with such trifles as my existence; and the truth is that being a

monopolist he was under no necessity to be amiable. He was sure to get his own extortionate terms out of me

for towage whether he frowned or smiled. As a matter of fact, he did neither: but before many days elapsed

he managed to astonish me not a little and to set Schomberg's tongue clacking more than ever.

It came about in this way. There was a shallow bar at the mouth of the river which ought to have been kept

down, but the authorities of the State were piously busy gilding afresh the great Buddhist Pagoda just then,

and I suppose had no money to spare for dredging operations. I don't know how it may be now, but at the

time I speak of that sand bank was a great nuisance to the shipping. One of its consequences was that

vessels of a certain draught of water, like Hermann's or mine, could not complete their loading in the river.

After taking in as much as possible of their cargo, they had to go outside to fill up. The whole procedure was

an unmitigated bore. When you thought you had as much on board as your ship could carry safely over the

bar, you went and gave notice to your agents. They, in their turn, notified Falk that soandso was ready to

go out. Then Falk (ostensibly when it fitted in with his other work, but, if the truth were known, simply when

his arbitrary spirit moved him), after ascertaining carefully in the office that there was enough money to meet

his bill, would come along unsympathetically, glaring at you with his yellow eyes from the bridge, and would

drag you out dishevelled as to rigging, lumbered as to the decks, with unfeeling haste, as if to execution. And

he would force you too to take the end of his own wire hawser, for the use of which there was of course an

extra charge. To your shouted remonstrances against that extortion this towering trunk with one hand on the

engineroom telegraph only shook its bearded head above the splash, the racket, and the clouds of smoke in

which the tug, backing and fill ing in the smother of churning paddlewheels be haved like a ferocious and

impatient creature. He had her manned by the cheekiest gang of lascars I ever did see, whom he allowed to

bawl at you inso lently, and, once fast, he plucked you out of your berth as if he did not care what he

smashed. Eigh teen miles down the river you had to go behind him, and then three more along the coast to

where a group of uninhabited rocky islets enclosed a shel tered anchorage. There you would have to lie at

single anchor with your naked spars showing to seaward over these barren fragments of land scat tered upon

a very intensely blue sea. There was nothing to look at besides but a bare coast, the mud dy edge of the

brown plain with the sinuosities of the river you had left, traced in dull green, and the Great Pagoda uprising

lonely and massive with shining curves and pinnacles like the gorgeous and stony efflorescence of tropical

rocks. You had nothing to do but to wait fretfully for the balance of your cargo, which was sent out of the

river with the greatest irregularity. And it was open to you to console yourself with the thought that, after all,

this stage of bother meant that your departure from these shores was indeed approaching at last.

We both had to go through that stage, Hermann and I, and there was a sort of tacit emulation be tween the

ships as to which should be ready first. We kept on neck and neck almost to the finish, when I won the race

by going personally to give notice in the forenoon; whereas Hermann, who was very slow in making up his

mind to go ashore, did not get to the agents' office till late in the day. They told him there that my ship was

first on turn for next morn ing, and I believe he told them he was in no hurry. It suited him better to go the

That evening, on board the Diana, he sat with his plump knees well apart, staring and puffing at the curved

mouthpiece of his pipe. Presently he spoke with some impatience to his niece about put ting the children to

bed. Mrs. Hermann, who was talking to Falk, stopped short and looked at her husband uneasily, but the girl

got up at once and drove the children before her into the cabin. In a little while Mrs. Hermann had to leave us

to quell what, from the sounds inside, must have been a dan gerous mutiny. At this Hermann grumbled to

him self. For half an hour longer Falk left alone with us fidgeted on his chair, sighed lightly, then at last,

after drawing his hands down his face, got up, and as if renouncing the hope of making himself under stood

(he hadn't opened his mouth once) he said in English: "Well. . . . Good night, Captain Her mann." He

stopped for a moment before my chair and looked down fixedly; I may even say he glared: and he went so far

as to make a deep noise in his throat. There was in all this something so marked that for the first time in our

limited intercourse of nods and grunts he excited in me something like interest. But next moment he

His manner was usually odd it is true, and I cer tainly did not pay much attention to it; but that sort of

obscure intention, which seemed to lurk in his nonchalance like a wary old carp in a pond, had never before

come so near the surface. He had dis tinctly aroused my expectations. I would have been unable to say what

it was I expected, but at all events I did not expect the absurd developments he sprung upon me no later than

I remember only that there was, on that evening, enough point in his behaviour to make me, after he had fled,

wonder audibly what he might mean. To this Hermann, crossing his legs with a swing and settling himself

viciously away from me in his chair, said: "That fellow don't know himself what he means."

There might have been some insight in such a remark. I said nothing, and, still averted, he added: "When I

was here last year he was just the same." An eruption of tobacco smoke envel oped his head as if his temper

I had half a mind to ask him point blank whether he, at least, didn't know why Falk, a notoriously unsociable

man, had taken to visiting his ship with such assiduity. After all, I reflected suddenly, it was a most

remarkable thing. I wonder now what Hermann would have said. As it turned out he didn't let me ask.

Forgetting all about Falk ap parently, he started a monologue on his plans for the future: the selling of the

ship, the going home; and falling into a reflective and calculating mood he mumbled between regular jets of

smoke about the expense. The necessity of disbursing passage money for all his tribe seemed to disturb him

in a manner that was the more striking because other wise he gave no signs of a miserly disposition. And yet

he fussed over the prospect of that voyage home in a mail boat like a sedentary grocer who has made up his

mind to see the world. He was racially thrifty I suppose, and for him there must have been a great novelty in

finding himself obliged to pay for travel lingfor sea travelling which was the normal state of life for the

familyfrom the very cradle for most of them. I could see he grudged prospectively every single shilling

which must be spent so absurd ly. It was rather funny. He would become doleful over it, and then again,

with a fretful sigh, he would suppose there was nothing for it now but to take three secondclass

ticketsand there were the four children to pay for besides. A lot of money that to spend at once. A big lot

I sat with him listening (not for the first time) to these heartsearchings till I grew thoroughly sleepy, and

then I left him and turned in on board my ship. At daylight I was awakened by a yelping of shrill voices,

accompanied by a great commotion in the water, and the short, bullying blasts of a steamwhistle. Falk with

I began to dress. It was remarkable that the answering noise on board my ship together with the patter of feet

above my head ceased suddenly. But I heard more remote guttural cries which seemed to express surprise and

annoyance. Then the voice of my mate reached me howling expostulations to somebody at a distance. Other

voices joined, ap parently indignant; a chorus of something that sounded like abuse replied. Now and then

Altogether that unnecessary uproar was distract ing, but down there in my cabin I took it calmly. In another

moment, I thought, I should be going down that wretched river, and in another week at the most I should be

Greatly cheered by the idea, I seized the hair brushes and looking at myself in the glass began to use them.

Suddenly a hush fell upon the noise out side, and I heard (the ports of my cabin were thrown open)I

heard a deep calm voice, not on board my ship, however, hailing resolutely in English, but with a strong

There may be tides in the affairs of men which taken at the flood . . . and so on. Personally I am still on the

look out for that important turn. I am, however, afraid that most of us are fated to flounder for ever in the

dead water of a pool whose shores are arid indeed. But I know that there are often in men's affairs

unexpectedlyeven irration allyilluminating moments when an otherwise in significant sound, perhaps

only some perfectly com monplace gesture, suffices to reveal to us all the unreason, all the fatuous

unreason, of our compla cency. "Go ahead" are not particularly striking words even when pronounced with

a foreign accent; yet they petrified me in the very act of smiling at myself in the glass. And then, refusing to

believe my ears, but already boiling with indignation, I ran out of the cabin and up on deck.

It was incredibly true. It was perfectly true. I had no eyes for anything but the Diana. It was she, then, was

being taken away. She was already out of her berth and shooting athwart the river. "The way this loonatic

plucked that ship out is a cau tion," said the awed voice of my mate close to my ear. "Hey! Hallo! Falk!

Nobody heard me. Falk certainly could not hear me. His tug was turning at full speed away under the other

bank. The wire hawser between her and the Diana, stretched as taut as a harpstring, vibrated alarmingly.

The high black craft careened over to the awful strain. A loud crack came out of her, followed by the tearing

and splintering of wood. "There!" said the awed voice in my ear. "He's carried away their towing chock."

And then, with enthusiasm, "Oh! Look! Look! sir, Look! at them Dutchmen skipping out of the way on the

forecastle. I hope to goodness he'll break a few of their shins before he's done with 'em."

I yelled my vain protests. The rays of the rising sun coursing level along the plain warmed my back, but I was

hot enough with rage. I could not have believed that a simple towing operation could sug gest so plainly the

The white tug careered out into the middle of the river. The red floats of her paddlewheels revolv ing with

mad rapidity tore up the whole reach into foam. The Diana in midstream waltzed round with as much grace

as an old barn, and flew after her ravisher. Through the ragged fog of smoke driving headlong upon the water

I had a glimpse of Falk's square motionless shoulders under a white hat as big as a cartwheel, of his red

face, his yel low staring eyes, his great beard. Instead of keep ing a lookout ahead, he was deliberately

turning his back on the river to glare at his tow. The tall heavy craft, never so used before in her life, seemed

to have lost her senses; she took a wild sheer against her helm, and for a moment came straight at us,

menacing and clumsy, like a runaway mountain. She piled up a streaming, hissing, boiling wave halfway up

her blunt stem, my crew let out one great howl,and then we held our breaths. It was a near thing. But Falk

had her! He had her in his clutch. I fancied I could hear the steel hawser ping as it surged across the Diana's

forecastle, with the hands on board of her bolting away from it in all directions. It was a near thing. Hermann,

with his hair rumpled, in a snuffy flannel shirt and a pair of mustardcoloured trousers, had rushed to help

with the wheel. I saw his terrified round face; I saw his very teeth uncovered by a sort of ghastly fixed grin;

and in a great leaping tumult of water between the two ships the Diana whisked past so close that I could

have flung a hairbrush at his head, for, it seems, I had kept them in my hands all the time. Meanwhile Mrs.

Hermann sat placidly on the skylight, with a woollen shawl on her shoul ders. The excellent woman in

response to my in dignant gesticulations fluttered a handkerchief, nodding and smiling in the kindest way

imagina ble. The boys, only halfdressed, were jumping about the poop in great glee, displaying their gaudy

braces; and Lena in a short scarlet petticoat, with peaked elbows and thin bare arms, nursed the ragdoll with

devotion. The whole family passed before my sight as if dragged across a scene of un paralleled violence.

The last I saw was Hermann's niece with the baby Hermann in her arms standing apart from the others.

Magnificent in her close fitting print frock she displayed something so com manding in the manifest

perfection of her figure that the sun seemed to be rising for her alone. The flood of light brought out the

opulence of her form and the vigour of her youth in a glorifying way. She went by perfectly motionless and

as if lost in meditation; only the hem of her skirt stirred in the draught; the sun rays broke on her sleek tawny

hair; that baldheaded ruffian, Nicholas, was whack ing her on the shoulder. I saw his tiny fat arm rise and

fall in a workmanlike manner. And then the four cottage windows of the Diana came into view retreating

swiftly down the river. The sashes were up, and one of the white calico curtains was fluttered straight out like

To be thus tricked out of one's turn was an un heard of occurrence. In my agent's office, where I went to

complain at once, they protested with apol ogies they couldn't understand how the mistake arose: but

Schomberg when I dropped in later to get some tiffin, though surprised to see me, was perfect ly ready with

an explanation. I found him seated at the end of a long narrow table, facing his wifea scraggy little woman,

with long ringlets and a blue tooth, who smiled abroad stupidly and looked frightened when you spoke to her.

Between them a waggling punkah fanned twenty canebottomed chairs and two rows of shiny plates. Three

China men in white jackets loafed with napkins in their hands around that desolation. Schomberg's pet table

d'hote was not much of a success that day. He was feeding himself ferociously and seemed to overflow with

He began by ordering in a brutal voice the chops to be brought back for me, and turning in his chair: "Mistake

they told you? Not a bit of it! Don't you believe it for a moment, captain! Falk isn't a man to make mistakes

unless on purpose." His firm conviction was that Falk had been trying all along to curry favour on the cheap

with Hermann. "On the cheapmind you! It doesn't cost him a cent to put that insult upon you, and Captain

Her mann gets in a day ahead of your ship. Time's money! Eh? You are very friendly with Captain Hermann

I believe, but a man is bound to be pleased at any little advantage he may get. Captain Her mann is a good

business man, and there's no such thing as a friend in business. Is there?" He leaned forward and began to

cast stealthy glances as usual. "But Falk is, and always was, a misera ble fellow. I would despise him."

"I would despise him," he insisted, with an ap pearance of anxiety which would have amused me if I had not

been fathoms deep in discontent. To a young man fairly conscientious and as wellmean ing as only the

young man can be, the current ill usage of life comes with a peculiar cruelty. Youth that is fresh enough to

believe in guilt, in innocence, and in itself, will always doubt whether it have not perchance deserved its fate.

Sombre of mind and without appetite, I struggled with the chop while Mrs. Schomberg sat with her

everlasting stupid grin and Schomberg's talk gathered way like a slide of rubbish.

"Let me tell you. It's all about that girl. I don't know what Captain Hermann expects, but if he asked me I

could tell him something about Falk. He's a miserable fellow. That man is a perfect slave. That's what I call

him. A slave. Last year I started this table d'hote, and sent cards out you know. You think he had one meal

in the house? Give the thing a trial? Not once. He has got hold now of a Madras cooka blamed fraud that I

hunted out of my cookhouse with a rattan. He was not fit to cook for white men. No, not for the white men's

dogs either; but, see, any damned native that can boil a pot of rice is good enough for Mr. Falk. Rice and a

little fish he buys for a few cents from the fishing boats outside is what he lives on. You would hardly credit

He wiped his lips, using the napkin with indig nation, and looking at me. It flashed through my mind in the

midst of my depression that if all the meat in the town was like these table d'hote chops, Falk wasn't so far

wrong. I was on the point of saying this, but Schomberg's stare was intimidat ing. "He's a vegetarian,

"He's a miser. A miserable miser," affirmed the hotelkeeper with great force. "The meat here is not so good

as at homeof course. And dear too. But look at me. I only charge a dollar for the tif fin, and one dollar

and fifty cents for the dinner. Show me anything cheaper. Why am I doing it? There's little profit in this

game. Falk wouldn't look at it. I do it for the sake of a lot of young white fellows here that hadn't a place

where they could get a decent meal and eat it decently in good company. There's firstrate company always

The convinced way he surveyed the empty chairs made me feel as if I had intruded upon a tiffin of ghostly

"A white man should eat like a white man, dash it all," he burst out impetuously. "Ought to eat meat, must eat

meat. I manage to get meat for my patrons all the year round. Don't I? I am not ca tering for a dam' lot of

He threw himself back and waited grimly for the curry. The halfclosed jalousies darkened the room

pervaded by the smell of fresh whitewash: a swarm of flies buzzed and settled in turns, and poor Mrs.

Schomberg's smile seemed to express the quintes sence of all the imbecility that had ever spoken, had ever

breathed, had ever been fed on infamous buffalo meat within these bare walls. Schomberg did not open his

lips till he was ready to thrust therein a spoonful of greasy rice. He rolled his eyes ridicu lously before he

"It is the most degrading thing. They take the dish up to the wheelhouse for him with a cover on it, and he

shuts both the doors before he begins to eat. Fact! Must be ashamed of himself. Ask the engi neer. He can't

do without an engineerdon't you seeand as no respectable man can be expected to put up with such a

table, he allows them fifteen dol lars a month extra mess money. I assure you it is so! You just ask Mr.

Ferdinand da Costa. That's the engineer he has now. You may have seen him about my place, a delicate dark

young man, with very fine eyes and a little moustache. He arrived here a year ago from Calcutta. Between

you and me, I guess the moneylenders there must have been after him. He rushes here for a meal every

chance he can get, for just please tell me what satisfaction is that for a welleducated young fellow to feed all

alone in his cabinlike a wild beast? That's what Falk expects his engineers to put up with for fifteen dollars

extra. And the rows on board every time a little smell of cooking gets about the deck! You wouldn't believe!

The other day da Costa got the cook to fry a steak for hima turtle steak it was too, not beef at alland the

fat caught or some thing. Young da Costa himself was telling me of it here in this room. 'Mr.

Schomberg'says he 'if I had let a cylinder cover blow off through the skylight by my negligence Captain

Falk couldn't have been more savage. He frightened the cook so that he won't put anything on the fire for me

now.' Poor da Costa had tears in his eyes. Only try to put yourself in his place, captain: a sensitive, gen

tlemanly young fellow. Is he expected to eat his food raw? But that's your Falk all over. Ask any one you

like. I suppose the fifteen dollars extra he has to give keep on ranklingin there."

And Schomberg tapped his manly breast. I sat half stunned by his irrelevant babble. Suddenly he gripped my

forearm in an impressive and cau tious manner, as if to lead me into a very cavern of confidence.

"It's nothing but enviousness," he said in a low ered tone, which had a stimulating effect upon my wearied

hearing. "I don't suppose there is one person in this town that he isn't envious of. I tell you he's dangerous.

Even I myself am not safe from him. I know for certain he tried to poi son . . . ."

"But I know for certain. The people themselves came and told me of it. He went about saying everywhere I

was a worse pest to this town than the cholera. He had been talking against me ever since I opened this hotel.

And he poisoned Captain Her mann's mind too. Last time the Diana was loading here Captain Hermann

used to come in every day for a drink or a cigar. This time he hasn't been here twice in a week. How do you

"He makes ten times the money I do. I've another hotel to fight against, and there is no other tug on the river.

I am not in his way, am I? He wouldn't be fit to run an hotel if he tried. But that's just his nature. He can't bear

to think I am mak ing a living. I only hope it makes him properly wretched. He's like that in everything. He

would like to keep a decent table well enough. But nofor the sake of a few cents. Can't do it. It's too much

for him. That's what I call being a slave to it. But he's mean enough to kick up a row when his nose gets

tickled a bit. See that? That just paints him. Miserly and envious. You can't account for it any other way. Can

He was anxious I should assent to his theory. And indeed on thinking it over it would have been plausible

enough if there hadn't been always the essential falseness of irresponsibility in Schom berg's chatter.

However, I was not disposed to in vestigate the psychology of Falk. I was engaged just then in eating

despondently a piece of stale Dutch cheese, being too much crushed to care what I swallowed myself, let

along bothering my head about Falk's ideas of gastronomy. I could expect from their study no clue to his

conduct in matters of business, which seemed to me totally unrestrained by morality or even by the

commonest sort of de cency. How insignificant and contemptible I must appear, for the fellow to dare treat

me like thisI reflected suddenly, writhing in silent agony. And I consigned Falk and all his peculiarities to

the devil with so much mental fervour as to forget Schom berg's existence, till he grabbed my arm urgently.

"Well, you may think and think till every hair of your head falls off, captain; but you can't explain it in any

For the sake of peace and quietness I admitted hurriedly that I couldn't: persuaded that now he would leave

off. But the only result was to make his moist face shine with the pride of cunning. He removed his hand for a

moment to scare a black mass of flies off the sugarbasin and caught hold of my arm again.

"To be sure. And in the same way everybody is aware he would like to get married. Only he can't. Let me

quote you an instance. Well, two years ago a Miss Vanlo, a very ladylike girl, came from home to keep house

for her brother, Fred, who had an en gineering shop for small repairs by the water side. Suddenly Falk takes

to going up to their bunga low after dinner, and sitting for hours in the veran dah saying nothing. The poor

girl couldn't tell for the life of her what to do with such a man, so she would keep on playing the piano and

singing to him evening after evening till she was ready to drop. And it wasn't as if she had been a strong

young woman either. She was thirty, and the cli mate had been playing the deuce with her. Then don't

you knowFred had to sit up with them for propriety, and during whole weeks on end never got a single

chance to get to bed before midnight. That was not pleasant for a tired manwas it? And besides Fred had

worries then because his shop didn't pay and he was dropping money fast. He just longed to get away from

here and try his luck somewhere else, but for the sake of his sister he hung on and on till he ran himself into

debt over his earsI can tell you. I, myself, could show a hand ful of his chits for meals and drinks in my

drawer. I could never find out tho' where he found all the money at last. Can't be but he must have got some

thing out of that brother of his, a coal merchant in Port Said. Anyhow he paid everybody before he left, but

the girl nearly broke her heart. Disap pointment, of course, and at her age, don't you know. . . . Mrs.

Schomberg here was very friendly with her, and she could tell you. Awful despair. Fainting fits. It was a

scandal. A notorious scan dal. To that extent that old Mr. Siegersnot your present charterer, but Mr.

Siegers the father, the old gentleman who retired from business on a fortune and got buried at sea going

home, HE had to interview Falk in his private office. He was a man who could speak like a Dutch Uncle, and,

be sides, Messrs. Siegers had been helping Falk with a good bit of money from the start. In fact you may say

they made him as far as that goes. It so happened that just at the time he turned up here, their firm was

chartering a lot of sailing ships every year, and it suited their business that there should be good towing

facilities on the river. See? . . . Wellthere's always an ear at the keyhole isn't there? In fact," he lowered

his tone confiden tially, "in this case a good friend of mine; a man you can see here any evening; only they

conversed rather low. Anyhow my friend's certain that Falk was trying to make all sorts of excuses, and old

Mr. Siegers was coughing a lot. And yet Falk wanted all the time to be married too. Why! It's notorious the

man has been longing for years to make a home for himself. Only he can't face the expense. When it comes to

putting his hand in his pocket it chokes him off. That's the truth and no other. I've always said so, and

He appealed confidently to my indignation, but having a mind to annoy him I remarked, "that it seemed to me

He bounced in his chair as if I had run a pin into him. I don't know what he might have said, only at that

moment we heard through the half open door of the billiardroom the footsteps of two men entering from the

verandah, a murmur of two voices; at the sharp tapping of a coin on a table Mrs. Schomberg half rose

irresolutely. "Sit still," he hissed at her, and then, in an hospitable, jovial tone, contrasting amazingly with the

angry glance that had made his wife sink in her chair, he cried very loud: "Tiffin still going on in here,

There was no answer, but the voices dropped sud denly. The head Chinaman went out. We heard the clink

of ice in the glasses, pouring sounds, the shuffling of feet, the scraping of chairs. Schom berg, after

wondering in a low mutter who the devil could be there at this time of the day, got up napkin in hand to peep

through the doorway cautiously. He retreated rapidly on tiptoe, and whispering be hind his hand informed

me that it was Falk, Falk himself who was in there, and, what's more, he had Captain Hermann with him.

The return of the tug from the outer Roads was unexpected but possible, for Falk had taken away the Diana at

halfpast five, and it was now two o'clock. Schomberg wished me to observe that neither of these men would

spend a dollar on a tiffin, which they must have wanted. But by the time I was ready to leave the

diningroom Falk had gone. I heard the last of his big boots on the planks of the verandah. Hermann was

sitting quite alone in the large, wooden room with the two lifeless billiard tables shrouded in striped covers,

mopping his face diligently. He wore his best goashore clothes, a stiff collar, black coat, large white

waistcoat, grey trousers. A white cotton sunshade with a cane han dle reposed between his legs, his side

whiskers were neatly brushed, his chin had been freshly shaved; and he only distantly resembled the

dishevelled and terrified man in a snuffy night shirt and ignoble old trousers I had seen in the morning

He gave a start at my entrance, and addressed me at once in some confusion, but with genuine ea gerness.

He was anxious to make it clear he had nothing to do with what he called the "tam piz ness" of the morning.

It was most inconvenient. He had reckoned upon another day up in town to settle his bills and sign certain

papers. There were also some few stores to come, and sundry pieces of "my ironwork," as he called it

quaintly, landed for repairs, had been left behind. Now he would have to hire a native boat to take all this out

to the ship. It would cost five or six dollars perhaps. He had had no warning from Falk. Nothing. . . . He hit

the table with his dumpy fist. . . . Der ver fluchte Kerl came in the morning like a "tam' ropper," making a

great noise, and took him away. His mate was not prepared, his ship was moored fasthe protested it was

shameful to come upon a man in that way. Shameful! Yet such was the power Falk had on the river that when

I suggested in a chilling tone that he might have simply refused to have his ship moved, Hermann was quite

startled at the idea. I never realised so well before that this is an age of steam. The exclusive possession of a

marine boiler had given Falk the whiphand of us all. Hermann, recovering, put it to me appealingly that I

knew very well how unsafe it was to contra dict that fellow. At this I only smiled distantly.

"Der Kerl!" he cried. He was sorry he had not refused. He was indeed. The damage! The dam age! What for

all that damage! There was no occasion for damage. Did I know how much dam age he had done? It gave

me a certain satisfaction to tell him that I had heard his old waggon of a ship crack fore and aft as she went

He threw both his hands up to heaven at the rec ollection. One of them grasped by the middle the white

parasol, and he resembled curiously a carica ture of a shopkeeping citizen in one of his own Ger man

comic papers. "Ach! That was dangerous," he cried. I was amused. But directly he added with an appearance

of simplicity, "The side of your iron ship would have been crushed in like like this matchbox."

"Would it?" I growled, much less amused now; but by the time I had decided that this remark was not meant

for a dig at me he had worked himself into a high state of resentfulness against Falk. The inconvenience, the

damage, the expense! Gott ferdam! Devil take the fellow. Behind the bar Schomberg with a cigar in his

teeth, pretended to be writing with a pencil on a large sheet of paper; and as Hermann's excitement increased

it made me comfortingly aware of my own calmness and supe riority. But it occurred to me while I listened

to his revilings, that after all the good man had come up in the tug. There perhapssince he must come to

townhe had no option. But evidently he had had a drink with Falk, either accepted or offered. How was

that? So I checked him by saying loftily that I hoped he would make Falk pay for every penny of the damage.

"That's it! That's it! Go for him," called out Schomberg from the bar, flinging his pencil down and rubbing his

We ignored his noise. But Hermann's excite ment suddenly went off the boil as when you remove a

saucepan from the fire. I urged on his considera tion that he had done now with Falk and Falk's con

founded tug. He, Hermann, would not, perhaps, turn up again in this part of the world for years to come,

since he was going to sell the Diana at the end of this very trip ("Go home passenger in a mail boat," he

murmured mechanically). He was there fore safe from Falk's malice. All he had to do was to race off to his

consignees and stop payment of the towage bill before Falk had the time to get in and lift the money.

Nothing could have been less in the spirit of my advice than the thoughtful way in which he set about to

While I watched his concentrated efforts with as tonishment he threw at me one or two perplexed, halfshy

It cannot be doubted that the man had been thrown off his balance by being hauled out of the harbour against

his wish. His stolidity had been profoundly stirred, else he would never have made up his mind to ask me

unexpectedly whether I had not remarked that Falk had been casting eyes upon his niece. "No more than

myself," I answered with literal truth. The girl was of the sort one necessa rily casts eyes at in a sense. She

I was not, I am happy to say, in a position to deny this. "What about the lady?" I could not help asking. At

this he gazed for a time into my face, earnestly, and made as if to change the sub ject. I heard him beginning

to mutter something unexpected, about his children growing old enough to require schooling. He would have

to leave them ashore with their grandmother when he took up that new command he expected to get in

This constant harping on his domestic arrange ments was funny. I suppose it must have been like the

prospect of a complete alteration in his life. An epoch. He was going, too, to part with the Diana! He had

served in her for years. He had inherited her. From an uncle, if I remember rightly. And the future loomed big

before him, occupying his thought exclusively with all its aspects as on the eve of a venturesome enterprise.

He sat there frowning and biting his lip, and suddenly he began to fume and fret.

I discovered to my momentary amusement that he seemed to imagine I could, should or ought, have caused

Falk in some way to pronounce him self. Such a hope was incomprehensible, but funny. Then the contact

with all this foolishness irritated me. I said crossly that I had seen no symptoms, but if there were anysince

he, Hermann, was so surethen it was still worse. What pleasure Falk found in humbugging people in just

that way I couldn't say. It was, however, my solemn duty to warn him. It had lately, I said, come to my

knowl edge that there was a man (not a very long time ago either) who had been taken in just like this.

All this passed in undertones, and at this point Schomberg, exasperated at our secrecy, went out of the room

slamming the door with a crash that positively lifted us in our chairs. This, or else what I had said, huffed my

Hermann, He supposed, with a contemptuous toss of his head towards the door which trembled yet, that I had

got hold of some of that man's silly tales. It looked, indeed, as though his mind had been thoroughly poisoned

against Schomberg. "His tales werethey were," he re peated, seeking for the word"trash." They were

This horrid aspersion (I regret I am no longer exposed to that sort of insult) made me huffy too. I felt ready in

my own mind to back up every asser tion of Schomberg's and on any subject. In a mo ment, devil only

knows why, Hermann and I were looking at each other most inimically. He caught up his hat without more

"Take my advice and make Falk pay for break ing up your ship. You aren't likely to get any thing else out

When I got on board my ship later on, the old mate, who was very full of the events of the morn ing,

"I saw the tug coming back from the outer Roads just before two P.M." (He never by any chance used the

words morning or afternoon. Always P.M. or A.M., logbook style.) "Smart work that. Man's always in a

state of hurry. He's a regular chuckerout, ain't he, sir? There's a few pubs I know of in the Eastend of

London that would be all the better for one of his sort around the bar." He chuckled at his joke. "A regular

chuckerout. Now he has fired out that Dutchman head over heels, I suppose our turn's coming tomorrow

We were all on deck at break of day (even the sickpoor devilshad crawled out) ready to cast off in the

twinkling of an eye. Nothing came. Falk did not come. At last, when I began to think that probably something

had gone wrong in his engineroom, we perceived the tug going by, full pelt, down the river, as if we hadn't

existed. For a moment I entertained the wild notion that he was going to turn round in the next reach.

Afterwards I watched his smoke appear above the plain, now here, now there, according to the windings of

the river. It disappeared. Then without a word I went down to breakfast. I just simply went down to breakfast.

Not one of us uttered a sound till the mate, after imbibingby means of suction out of a saucer his second

"Courting!" I shouted, with such a fiendish laugh that the old chap didn't venture to open his lips any more.

I started to the office perfectly calm. Calm with excessive rage. Evidently they knew all about it already, and

they treated me to a show of conster nation. The manager, a softfooted, immensely obese man, breathing

short, got up to meet me, while all round the room the young clerks, bend ing over the papers on their desks,

cast upward glances in my direction. The fat man, without waiting for my complaint, wheezing heavily and in

a tone as if he himself were incredulous, con veyed to me the news that FalkCaptain Falk had

declinedhad absolutely declinedto tow my shipto have anything to do with my shipthis day or any

I did my best to preserve a cool appearance, but, all the same, I must have shown how much taken aback I

was. We were talking in the middle of the room. Suddenly behind my back some ass blew his nose with great

force, and at the same time an other quilldriver jumped up and went out on the landing hastily. It occurred

to me I was cutting a foolish figure there. I demanded angrily to see the principal in his private room.

The skin of Mr. Siegers' head showed dead white between the iron grey streaks of hair lying plas tered

crosswise from ear to ear over the top of his skull in the manner of a bandage. His narrow sunken face was

of an uniform and permanent ter racotta colour, like a piece of pottery. He was sickly, thin, and short, with

wrists like a boy of ten. But from that debile body there issued a bullying voice, tremendously loud, harsh and

resonant, as if produced by some powerful mechanical contriv ance in the nature of a foghorn. I do not

know what he did with it in the private life of his home, but in the larger sphere of business it presented the

advantage of overcoming arguments without the slightest mental effort, by the mere volume of sound. We

had had several passages of arms. It took me all I knew to guard the interests of my ownerswhom, nota

bene, I had never seenwhile Siegers (who had made their acquaintance some years before, during a

business tour in Australia) pretended to the knowledge of their innermost minds, and, in the character of "our

He looked at me with a jaundiced eye (there was no love lost between us), and declared at once that it was

strange, very strange. His pronunciation of English was so extravagant that I can't even attempt to reproduce

it. For instance, he said "Fferie strantch." Combined with the bellowing intonation it made the language of

one's childhood sound weirdly startling, and even if considered purely as a kind of unmeaning noise it filled

you with astonishment at first. "They had," he con tinued, "been acquainted with Captain Falk for very

"That's why I come to you, of course," I inter rupted. "I've the right to know the meaning of this infernal

nonsense." In the half light of the room, which was greenish, because of the treetops screening the window,

I saw him writhe his meagre shoulders. It came into my head, as disconnected ideas will come at all sorts of

times into one's head, that this, most likely, was the very room where, if the tale were true, Falk had been

lectured by Mr. Siegers, the father. Mr. Siegers' (the son's) over whelming voice, in brassy blasts, as though

he had been trying to articulate his words through a trom bone, was expressing his great regret at a conduct

characterised by a very marked want of discre tion. . . As I lived I was being lectured too! His deafening

gibberish was difficult to follow, but it was MY conductmine!that . . . Damn! I wasn't going to stand

"What on earth are you driving at?" I asked in a passion. I put my hat on my head (he never offered a seat to

anybody), and as he seemed for the moment struck dumb by my irreverence, I turned my back on him and

marched out. His vo cal arrangements blared after me a few threats of coming down on the ship for the

demurrage of the lighters, and all the other expenses consequent upon the delays arising from my frivolity.

Once outside in the sunshine my head swam. It was no longer a question of mere delay. I per ceived myself

involved in hopeless and humiliating absurdities that were leading me to something very like a disaster. "Let

us be calm," I muttered to myself, and ran into the shade of a leprous wall. From that short sidestreet I could

see the broad main thoroughfare ruinous and gay, running away, away between stretches of decaying mason

ry, bamboo fences, ranges of arcades of brick and plaster, hovels of lath and mud, lofty temple gates of

carved timber, huts of rotten matsan im mensely wide thoroughfare, loosely packed as far as the eye

could reach with a barefooted and brown multitude paddling ankle deep in the dust. For a moment I felt

Some allowance must be made for the feelings of a young man new to responsibility. I thought of my crew.

Half of them were ill, and I really began to think that some of them would end by dy ing on board if I

couldn't get them out to sea soon. Obviously I should have to take my ship down the river, either working

under canvas or dredging with the anchor down; operations which, in com mon with many modern sailors, I

only knew theo retically. And I almost shrank from undertaking them shorthanded and without local

knowledge of the river bed, which is so necessary for the con fident handling of the ship. There were no

pilots, no beacons, no buoys of any sort; but there was a very devil of a current for anybody to see, no end of

shoal places, and at least two obviously awkward turns of the channel between me and the sea. But how

dangerous these turns were I would not tell. I didn't even know what my ship was capable of! I had never

handled her in my life. A misunder standing between a man and his ship in a difficult river with no room to

make it up, is bound to end in trouble for the man. On the other hand, it must be owned I had not much

reason to count upon a general run of good luck. And suppose I had the misfortune to pile her up high and dry

on some beastly shoal? That would have been the final un doing of that voyage. It was plain that if Falk

refused to tow me out he would also refuse to pull me off. This meantwhat? A day lost at the very best; but

more likely a whole fortnight of frizzling on some pestilential mudflat, of desperate work, of discharging

cargo; more than likely it meant borrowing money at an exorbitant rate of interestfrom the Siegers' gang

too at that. They were a power in the port. And that elderly seaman of mine, Gambril, had looked pretty

ghastly when I went forward to dose him with quinine that morn ing. HE would certainly dienot to speak

of two or three others that seemed nearly as bad, and of the rest of them just ready to catch any tropical

disease going. Horror, ruin and everlasting re morse. And no help. None. I had fallen amongst a lot of

At any rate, if I must take my ship down myself it was my duty to procure if possible some local knowledge.

But that was not easy. The only per son I could think of for that service was a certain Johnson, formerly

captain of a country ship, but now spliced to a country wife and gone utterly to the bad. I had only heard of

him in the vaguest way, as living concealed in the thick of two hundred thousand natives, and only emerging

into the light of day for the purpose of hunting up some brandy. I had a notion that if I could lay my hands on

him I would sober him on board my ship and use him for a pilot. Better than nothing. Once a sailor always a

sailorand he had known the river for years. But in our Consulate (where I arrived drip ping after a sharp

walk) they could tell me noth ing. The excellent young men on the staff, though willing to help me,

belonged to a sphere of the white colony for which that sort of Johnson does not exist. Their suggestion was

that I should hunt the man up myself with the help of the Consulate's constablean exsergeantmajor of a

This man, whose usual duty apparently consisted in sitting behind a little table in an outer room of Consular

offices, when ordered to assist me in my search for Johnson displayed lots of energy and a marvellous

amount of local knowledge of a sort. But he did not conceal an immense and scep tical contempt for the

whole business. We explored together on that afternoon an infinity of infamous grog shops, gambling dens,

opium dens. We walked up narrow lanes where our gharrya tiny box of a thing on wheels, attached to a

jibbing Bur mah ponycould by no means have passed. The constable seemed to be on terms of scornful

inti macy with Maltese, with Eurasians, with China men, with Klings, and with the sweepers attached to a

temple, with whom he talked at the gate. We interviewed also through a grating in a mud wall closing a blind

alley an immensely corpulent Ital ian, who, the exsergeantmajor remarked to me perfunctorily, had

"killed another man last year." Thereupon he addressed him as "Antonio" and "Old Buck," though that

bloated carcase, appar ently more than half filling the sort of cell where in it sat, recalled rather a fat pig in

a stye. Fa miliar and never unbending, the sergeant chucked absolutely chuckedunder the chin a

horribly wrinkled and shrivelled old hag propped on a stick, who had volunteered some sort of information:

and with the same stolid face he kept up an animated conversation with the groups of swathed brown women,

who sat smoking cheroots on the doorsteps of a long range of clay hovels. We got out of the gharry and

clambered into dwellings airy like packing crates, or descended into places sinister like cellars. We got in, we

drove on, we got out again for the sole purpose, as it seemed, of looking behind a heap of rubble. The sun

declined; my companion was curt and sardonic in his answers, but it appears we were just missing Johnson

all along. At last our conveyance stopped once more with a jerk, and the driver jumping down opened the

A black mudhole blocked the lane. A mound of garbage crowned with the dead body of a dog ar rested us

not. An empty Australian beef tin bounded cheerily before the toe of my boot. Sud denly we clambered

It was a very clean native compound: and the big native woman, with bare brown legs as thick as bedposts,

pursuing on all fours a silver dollar that came rolling out from somewhere, was Mrs. Johnson herself. "Your

man's at home," said the exsergeant, and stepped aside in complete and marked indifference to anything that

might follow. Johnsonat homestood with his back to a native house built on posts and with its walls

made of mats. In his left hand he held a banana. Out of the right he dealt another dollar into space. The

woman captured this one on the wing, and there and then plumped down on the ground to look at us with

My man was sallow of face, grizzled, unshaven, muddy on elbows and back; where the seams of his serge

coat yawned you could see his white naked ness. The vestiges of a paper collar encircled his neck. He

looked at us with a grave, swaying sur prise. "Where do you come from?" he asked. My heart sank. How

But having already gone so far I approached a little nearer and declared the purpose of my visit. He would

have to come at once with me, sleep on board my ship, and tomorrow, with the first of the ebb, he would

give me his assistance in getting my ship down to the sea, without steam. A sixhun dredton barque,

drawing nine feet aft. I pro posed to give him eighteen dollars for his local knowledge; and all the time I

was speaking he kept on considering attentively the various aspects of the banana, holding first one side up to

"You've forgotten to apologise," he said at last with extreme precision. "Not being a gentleman yourself, you

don't know apparently when you in trude upon a gentleman. I am one. I wish you to understand that when I

I would have pronounced him perfectly sober hadn't he paused in great concern to try and brush a hole off the

"I have moneyand friends. Every gentle man has. Perhaps you would like to know my friend? His name

is Falk. You could borrow some money. Try to remember. FALK, Falk." Abruptly his tone changed. "A

"Has Falk been giving you some money?" I asked, appalled by the detailed finish of the dark plot.

"Lent me, my good man, not given me. Lent," he corrected suavely. "Met me taking the air last evening, and

being as usual anxious to oblige Hadn't you better go to the devil out of my compound?"

And upon this, without other warning, he let fly with the banana which missed my head, and took the

constable just under the left eye. He rushed at the miserable Johnson, stammering with fury. They fell. . . .

But why dwell on the wretched ness, the breathlessness, the degradation, the sense lessness, the weariness,

the ridicule and humiliation andandthe perspiration, of these moments? I dragged the exhussar off. He

was like a wild beast. It seems he had been greatly annoyed at losing his free afternoon on my account. The

gar den of his bungalow required his personal atten tion, and at the slight blow of the banana the brute in

him had broken loose. We left Johnson on his back, still black in the face, but beginning to kick feebly.

Meantime, the big woman had remained sitting on the ground, apparently paralysed with extreme terror.

For half an hour we jolted inside our rolling box, side by side, in profound silence. The exser geant was

busy staunching the blood of a long scratch on his cheek. "I hope you're satisfied," he said suddenly. "That's

what comes of all that tomfool business. If you hadn't quarrelled with that tugboat skipper over some girl or

"Of course I heard. And I shouldn't wonder if the ConsulGeneral himself doesn't come to hear of it. How am

I to go before him tomorrow with that thing on my cheekI want to know. Its YOU who ought to have got

After that, till the gharry stopped and he jumped out without leavetaking, he swore to him self steadily,

horribly; muttering great, purpose ful, trooper oaths, to which the worst a sailor can do is like the prattle of a

child. For my part I had just the strength to crawl into Schomberg's coffee room, where I wrote at a little

table a note to the mate instructing him to get everything ready for dropping down the river next day. I

couldn't face my ship. Well! she had a clever sort of skip per and no mistakepoor thing! What a horrid

mess! I took my head between my hands. At times the obviousness of my innocence would reduce me to

despair. What had I done? If I had done something to bring about the situation I should at least have learned

not to do it again. But I felt guiltless to the point of imbecility. The room was empty yet; only Schomberg

prowled round me goggleeyed and with a sort of awed respectful cu riosity. No doubt he had set the story

going him self; but he was a goodhearted chap, and I am really persuaded he participated in all my

troubles. He did what he could for me. He ranged aside the heavy matchstand, set a chair straight, pushed a

spittoon slightly with his footas you show small attentions to a friend under a great sorrow sighed, and

"Well! I warned you, captain. That's what comes of running your head against Mr. Falk. Man'll stick at

I sat without stirring, and after surveying me with a sort of commiseration in his eyes he burst out in a hoarse

whisper: "But for a fine lump of a girl, she's a fine lump of a girl." He made a loud smacking noise with his

thick lips. "The finest lump of a girl that I ever . . ." he was going on with great unction, but for some reason

or other broke off. I fancied myself throwing something at his head. "I don't blame you, captain. Hang me if I

"Thank you," I said resignedly. It was no use fighting against this false fate. I don't know even if I was sure

myself where the truth of the matter began. The conviction that it would end disas trously had been driven

into me by all the succes sive shocks my sense of security had received. I began to ascribe an extraordinary

potency to agents in themselves powerless. It was as if Schomberg's baseless gossip had the power to bring

I have already explained how fatal this last would have been. For my further action, my youth, my

inexperience, my very real concern for the health of my crew must be my excuse. The ac tion itself, when it

came, was purely impulsive. It was set in movement quite undiplomatically and simply by Falk's appearance

The room was full by then and buzzing with voices. I had been looked at with curiosity by every one, but

how am I to describe the sensation produced by the appearance of Falk himself block ing the doorway? The

tension of expectation could be measured by the profundity of the silence that fell upon the very click of the

billiard balls. As to Schomberg, he looked extremely frightened; he hated mortally any sort of row (fracas he

called it) in his establishment. Fracas was bad for busi ness, he affirmed; but, in truth, this specimen of

portly, middleaged manhood was of a timid dis position. I don't know what, considering my pres ence in

the place, they all hoped would come of it. A sort of stag fight, perhaps. Or they may have supposed Falk had

come in only to annihilate me completely. As a matter of fact, Falk had come in because Hermann had asked

him to inquire after the precious white cotton parasol which, in the worry and excitement of the previous day,

It was this that gave me my opportunity. I don't think I would have gone to seek Falk out. No. I don't think so.

There are limits. But there was an opportunity and I seized itI have already tried to explain why. Now I

will merely state that, in my opinion, to get his sickly crew into the sea air and secure a quick despatch for his

ship a skip per would be justified in going to any length, short of absolute crime. He should put his pride in

his pocket; he may accept confidences; explain his in nocence as if it were a sin; he may take advantage of

misconceptions, of desires and of weaknesses; he ought to conceal his horror and other emotions, and, if the

fate of a human being, and that human being a magnificent young girl, is strangely in volvedwhy, he

should contemplate that fate (whatever it might seem to be) without turning a hair. And all these things I have

done; the ex plaining, the listening, the pretendingeven to the discretionand nobody, not even

Hermann's niece, I believe, need throw stones at me now. Schomberg at all events needn't, since from first to

Overcoming a nervous contraction of the wind pipe, I had managed to exclaim "Captain Falk!" His start of

surprise was perfectly genuine, but afterwards he neither smiled nor scowled. He sim ply waited. Then,

when I had said, "I must have a talk with you," and had pointed to a chair at my table, he moved up to me,

though he didn't sit down. Schomberg, however, with a long tumbler in his hand, was making towards us

prudently, and I discovered then the only sign of weakness in Falk. He had for Schomberg a repulsion

resembling that sort of physical fear some people experience at the sight of a toad. Perhaps to a man so

essentially and silently concentrated upon himself (though he could talk well enough, as I was to find out

presently) the other's irrepressible loquacity, em bracing every human being within range of the tongue,

might have appeared unnatural, disgust ing, and monstrous. He suddenly gave signs of

restivenesspositively like a horse about to rear, and, muttering hurriedly as if in great pain, "No. I can't

stand that fellow," seemed ready to bolt. This weakness of his gave me the advantage at the very start.

"Verandah," I suggested, as if ren dering him a service, and walked him out by the arm. We stumbled over a

few chairs; we had the feeling of open space before us, and felt the fresh breath of the riverfresh, but

tainted. The Chi nese theatres across the water made, in the sparsely twinkling masses of gloom an Eastern

town pre sents at night, blazing centres of light, and of a distant and howling uproar. I felt him become

suddenly tractable again like an animal, like a goodtempered horse when the object that scares him is

removed. Yes. I felt in the darkness there how tractable he was, without my conviction of his

inflexibilitytenacity, rather, perhapsbeing in the least weakened. His very arm abandoning it self to my

grasp was as hard as marblelike a limb of iron. But I heard a tumultuous scuffling of bootsoles within.

The unspeakable idiots inside were crowding to the windows, climbing over each other's backs behind the

blinds, billiard cues and all. Somebody broke a window pane, and with the sound of falling glass, so

suggestive of riot and devasta tion, Schomberg reeled out after us in a state of funk which had prevented his

parting with his brandy and soda. He must have trembled like an aspen leaf. The piece of ice in the long

tumbler he held in his hand tinkled with an effect of chat tering teeth. "I beg you, gentlemen," he expost

How proud I am of my presence of mind! "Hallo," I said instantly in a loud and naive tone, "somebody's

breaking your windows, Schomberg. Would you please tell one of your boys to bring out here a pack of cards

To receive an order soothed him at once. It was business. "Certainly," he said in an immensely relieved tone.

The night was rainy, with wander ing gusts of wind, and while we waited for the can dles Falk said, as if to

justify his panic, "I don't interfere in anybody's business. I don't give any occasion for talk. I am a respectable

man. But this fellow is always making out something wrong, and can never rest till he gets somebody to

This was the first of my knowledge of Falk. This desire of respectability, of being like every body else, was

the only recognition he vouchsafed to the organisation of mankind. For the rest he might have been the

member of a herd, not of a so ciety. Selfpreservation was his only concern. Not selfishness, but mere

selfpreservation. Sel fishness presupposes consciousness, choice, the pres ence of other men; but his

instinct acted as though he were the last of mankind nursing that law like the only spark of a sacred fire. I

don't mean to say that living naked in a cavern would have satis fied him. Obviously he was the creature of

the conditions to which he was born. No doubt self preservation meant also the preservation of these

conditions. But essentially it meant something much more simple, natural, and powerful. How shall I express

it? It meant the preservation of the five senses of his bodylet us saytaking it in its narrowest as well as in

its widest meaning. I think you will admit before long the justice of this judg ment. However, as we stood

there together in the dark verandah I had judged nothing as yetand I had no desire to judgewhich is an

"Of course," I said in a tone of mutual under standing, "it isn't exactly a game of cards I want with you."

I saw him draw his hands down his facethe vague stir of the passionate and meaningless ges ture; but he

waited in silent patience. It was only when the lights had been brought out that he opened his lips. I

"Like this Schomberg and all the other fools will have to keep off," I said tearing open the pack. "Have you

heard that we are universally supposed to be quarrelling about a girl? You know who of course. I am really

ashamed to ask, but is it possible that you do me the honour to think me dan gerous?"

As I said these words I felt how absurd it was and also I felt flatteredfor, really, what else could it be? His

answer, spoken in his usual dis passionate undertone, made it clear that it was so, but not precisely as

flattering as I supposed. He thought me dangerous with Hermann, more than with the girl herself; but, as to

quarrelling, I saw at once how inappropriate the word was. We had no quarrel. Natural forces are not

quarrelsome. You can't quarrel with the wind that inconveniences and humiliates you by blowing off your hat

in a street full of people. He had no quarrel with me. Neither would a boulder, falling on my head, have had.

He fell upon me in accordance with the law by which he was movednot of gravitation, like a detached

stone, but of selfpreservation. Of course this is giving it a rather wide interpretation. Strictly speaking, he

had existed and could have existed without being married. Yet he told me that he had found it more and more

difficult to live alone. Yes. He told me this in his low, careless voice, to such a pitch of confidence had we

It took me just about that time to convince him that I had never dreamed of marrying Hermann's niece. Could

any necessity have been more extrava gant? And the difficulty was the greater because he was so hard hit

that he couldn't imagine any body being able to remain in a state of indifference. Any man with eyes in his

head, he seemed to think, could not help coveting so much bodily magnifi cence. This profound belief was

conveyed by the manner he listened sitting sideways to the table and playing absently with a few cards I had

dealt to him at random. And the more I saw into him the more I saw of him. The wind swayed the lights so

that his sunburnt face, whiskered to the eyes, seemed to successively flicker crimson at me and to go out. I

saw the extraordinary breadth of the high cheekbones, the perpendicular style of the features, the massive

forehead, steep like a cliff, denuded at the top, largely uncovered at the tem ples. The fact is I had never

before seen him with out his hat; but now, as if my fervour had made him hot, he had taken it off and laid it

gently on the floor. Something peculiar in the shape and setting of his yellow eyes gave them the provoking

silent intensity which characterised his glance. But the face was thin, furrowed, worn; I discov ered that

through the bush of his hair, as you may detect the gnarled shape of a tree trunk lost in a dense undergrowth.

These overgrown cheeks were sunken. It was an anchorite's bony head fitted with a Capuchin's beard and

adjusted to a herculean body. I don't mean athletic. Hercules, I take it, was not an athlete. He was a strong

man, suscep tible to female charms, and not afraid of dirt. And thus with Falk, who was a strong man. He

was extremely strong, just as the girl (since I must think of them together) was magnificently at tractive by

the masterful power of flesh and blood, expressed in shape, in size, in attitudethat is by a straight appeal to

the senses. His mind mean time, preoccupied with respectability, quailed be fore Schomberg's tongue and

seemed absolutely impervious to my protestations; and I went so far as to protest that I would just as soon

think of marrying my mother's (dear old lady!) faithful female cook as Hermann's niece. Sooner, I pro

tested, in my desperation, much sooner; but it did not appear that he saw anything outrageous in the

proposition, and in his sceptical immobility he seemed to nurse the argument that at all events the cook was

very, very far away. It must be said that, just before, I had gone wrong by appealing to the evidence of my

manner whenever I called on board the Diana. I had never attempted to approach the girl, or to speak to her,

or even to look at her in any marked way. Nothing could be clearer. But, as his own idea oflet us

saycourting, seemed to consist precisely in sitting silently for hours in the vicinity of the beloved object,

that line of argu ment inspired him with distrust. Staring down his extended legs he let out a gruntas

At last I was exasperated into saying, "Why don't you put the matter at rest by talking to Her mann?" and I

And for the first time he lifted his head to look at me with wonder and incredulity. He lifted his head so

sharply that there could be no mistake. I had touched a spring. I saw the whole extent of my opportunity, and

"Why. Speak to . . . Well, of course," I proceeded very slowly, watching him with great at tention, for, on

my word, I feared a joke. "Not, perhaps, to the young lady herself. I can't speak German, you know. But . . ."

He interrupted me with the earnest assurance that Hermann had the highest opinion of me; and at once I felt

the need for the greatest possible diplomacy at this juncture. So I demurred just enough to draw him on. Falk

sat up, but except for a very noticeable enlargement of the pupils, till the irises of his eyes were reduced to

two narrow yellow rings, his face, I should judge, was incapa ble of expressing excitement. "Oh, yes!

"Take up your cards. Here's Schomberg peep ing at us through the blind!" I said.

We went through the motions of what might have been a game of e'carte'. Presently the intoler able

scandalmonger withdrew, probably to inform the people in the billiardroom that we two were gambling on

We were not gambling, but it was a game; a game in which I felt I held the winning cards. The stake, roughly

speaking, was the success of the voy agefor me; and he, I apprehended, had nothing to lose. Our intimacy

matured rapidly, and before many words had been exchanged I perceived that the excellent Hermann had

been making use of me. That simple and astute Teuton had been, it seems, holding me up to Falk in the light

of a rival. I was young enough to be shocked at so much duplic ity. "Did he tell you that in so many words?"

Hermann had not. He had given hints only; and of course it had not taken very much to alarm Falk; but,

instead of declaring himself, he had taken steps to remove the family from under my in fluence. He was

perfectly straightforward about itas straightforward as a tile falling on your head. There was no duplicity in

that man; and when I congratulated him on the perfection of his arrangementseven to the bribing of the

wretched Johnson against mehe had a genuine movement of protest. Never bribed. He knew the man

wouldn't work as long as he had a few cents in his pocket to get drunk on, and, naturally (he said

"NATURALLY") he let him have a dollar or two. He was himself a sailor, he said, and anticipated the view

another sailor, like myself, was bound to take. On the other hand, he was sure that I should have to come to

grief. He hadn't been knocking about for the last seven years up and down that river for nothing. It would

have been no disgrace to me but he asserted confidently I would have had my ship very awkwardly ashore

And with all that he had no illwill. That was evident. This was a crisis in which his only object had been to

gain timeI fancy. And presently he mentioned that he had written for some jewel lery, real good

"Well, then," I said cheerily, "everything is all right. All you've got to do is to present it to the lady together

Upon the whole he seemed to accept that view as far as the girl was concerned, but his eyelids drooped.

There was still something in the way. For one thing Hermann disliked him so much. As to me, on the

contrary, it seemed as though he could not praise me enough. Mrs. Hermann too. He didn't know why they

I listened impassive, feeling more and more dip lomatic. His speech was not transparently clear. He was one

of those men who seem to live, feel, suffer in a sort of mental twilight. But as to being fascinated by the girl

and possessed by the desire of home life with herit was as clear as daylight. So much being at stake, he

was afraid of putting it to the hazard of declaration. Besides, there was something else. And with Hermann

"I see," I said thoughtfully, while my heart beat fast with the excitement of my diplomacy. "I don't mind

sounding Hermann. In fact, to show you how mistaken you were, I am ready to do all I can for you in that

A light sigh escaped him. He drew his hands down his face, and it emerged, bony, unchanged of expression,

as if all the tissues had been ossified. All the passion was in those big brown hands. He was satisfied. Then

there was that other matter. If there were anybody on earth it was I who could persuade Hermann to take a

reasonable view! I had a knowledge of the world and lots of expe rience. Hermann admitted this himself.

And then I was a sailor too. Falk thought that a sail or would be able to understand certain things best. . . .

He talked as if the Hermanns had been living all their life in a rural hamlet, and I alone had been capable,

with my practice in life, of a large and indulgent view of certain occurrences. That was what my diplomacy

"I say, Falk," I asked quite brusquely, "you haven't already a wife put away somewhere?"

The pain and disgust of his denial were very striking. Couldn't I understand that he was as respectable as any

white man hereabouts; earning his living honestly. He was suffering from my sus picion, and the low

undertone of his voice made his protestations sound very pathetic. For a moment he shamed me, but, my

diplomacy notwithstanding, I seemed to develop a conscience, as if in very truth it were in my power to

decide the success of this matrimonial enterprise. By pretending hard enough we come to believe

anythinganything to our advantage. And I had been pretending very hard, because I meant yet to be towed

safely down the river. But through conscience or stupidity, I couldn't help alluding to the Vanlo affair. "You

acted rather badly there. Didn't you?" was what I ventured actually to sayfor the logic of our conduct is

His dilated pupils swerved from my face, glan cing at the window with a sort of scared fury. We heard

behind the blinds the continuous and sudden clicking of ivory, a jovial murmur of many voices, and

"That confounded old woman of a hotelkeeper then would never, never let it rest!" Falk ex claimed. "Well,

yes! It had happened two years ago." When it came to the point he owned he couldn't make up his mind to

trust Fred Vanlo no sailor, a bit of a fool too. He could not trust him, but, to stop his row, he had lent him

enough money to pay all his debts before he left. I was greatly surprised to hear this. Then Falk could not be

such a miser after all. So much the better for the girl. For a time he sat silent; then he picked up a card, and

"You need not think of anything bad. It was an accident. I've been unfortunate once."

As soon as these words were out of my mouth I fancied I had said something immoral. He shook his head

negatively. It had to be told. He con sidered it proper that the relations of the lady should know. No

doubtI thought to myself had Miss Vanlo not been thirty and damaged by the climate he would have

found it possible to entrust Fred Vanlo with this confidence. And then the fig ure of Hermann's niece

appeared before my mind's eye, with the wealth of her opulent form, her rich youth, her lavish strength. With

that powerful and immaculate vitality, her girlish form must have shouted aloud of life to that man, whereas

"And that Hermann hates me, I know it!" he cried in his undertone, with a sudden recrudescence of anxiety.

"I must tell them. It is proper that they should know. You would say so yourself."

He then murmured an utterly mysterious allu sion to the necessity for peculiar domestic arrange ments.

Though my curiosity was excited I did not want to hear any of his confidences. I feared he might give me a

piece of information that would make my assumed role of matchmaker odious however unreal it was. I

was aware that he could have the girl for the asking; and keeping down a desire to laugh in his face, I

expressed a confident belief in my ability to argue away Hermann's dis like for him. "I am sure I can make it

And when we rose not a word had been said about towage! Not a word! The game was won and the honour

was safe. Oh! blessed white cotton um brella! We shook hands, and I was holding myself with difficulty

from breaking into a step dance of joy when he came back, striding all the length of the verandah, and said

Heavens! The fright he gave me. Behind his tone of doubt there was something desperate and menacing. The

"My dear Falk," I said, beginning to lie with a glibness and effrontery that amazed me even at the

time"confidence for confidence." (He had made no confidences.) "I will tell you that I am already engaged

"On rice and fish," I interrupted smartly, gig gling with the sheer nervousness of a danger es caped.

He dropped my hand as if it had become sud denly red hot. A moment of profound silence en sued, as

"I promise you to obtain Hermann's consent," I faltered out at last, and it seemed to me that he could not help

seeing through that humbug ging promise. "If there's anything else to get over I shall endeavour to stand by

you," I conceded further, feeling somehow defeated and overborne; "but you must do your best yourself."

"I have been unfortunate once," he muttered unemotionally, and turning his back on me he went away,

Next morning, however, he was lively enough as manboat, a combination of splashing and shout ing; of

the insolent commotion below with the steady overbearing glare of the silent headpiece above. He turned us

out most unnecessarily at an ungodly hour, but it was nearly eleven in the morn ing before he brought me up

a cable's length from Hermann's ship. And he did it very badly too, in a hurry, and nearly contriving to miss

altogether the patch of good holding ground, because, for sooth, he had caught sight of Hermann's niece on

the poop. And so did I; and probably as soon as he had seen her himself. I saw the modest, sleek glory of the

tawny head, and the full, grey shape of the girlish print frock she filled so perfectly, so satisfactorily, with the

seduction of unfaltering curvesa very nymph of Diana the Huntress. And Diana the ship sat, highwalled

and as solid as an institution, on the smooth level of the water, the most uninspiring and respectable craft

upon the seas, useful and ugly, devoted to the support of domestic virtues like any grocer's shop on shore. At

once Falk steamed away; for there was some work for him to do. He would return in the even ing.

He ranged close by us, passing out dead slow, without a hail. The beat of the paddlewheels re verberating

amongst the stony islets, as if from the ruined walls of a vast arena, filled the anchorage confusedly with the

clapping sounds of a mighty and leisurely applause. Abreast of Hermann's ship he stopped the engines; and a

profound si lence reigned over the rocks, the shore and the sea, for the time it took him to raise his hat aloft

before the nymph of the grey print frock. I had snatched up my binoculars, and I can answer for it she didn't

stir a limb, standing by the rail shapely and erect, with one of her hands grasping a rope at the height of her

head, while the way of the tug carried slowly past her the lingering and profound homage of the man. There

was for me an enormous significance in the scene, the sense of having witnessed a solemn declaration. The

die was cast. After such a man ifestation he couldn't back out. And I reflected that it was nothing whatever

to me now. With a rush of black smoke belching suddenly out of the funnel, and a mad swirl of

paddlewheels provoking a burst of weird and precipitated clapping, the tug shot out of the desolate arena.

The rocky islets lay on the sea like the heaps of a cyclopean ruin on a plain; the centipedes and scorpions

lurked un der the stones; there was not a single blade of grass in sight anywhere, not a single lizard sunning

him self on a boulder by the shore. When I looked again at Hermann's ship the girl had disappeared. I could

not detect the smallest dot of a bird on the immense sky, and the flatness of the land continued the flatness of

This is the setting now inseparably connected with my knowledge of Falk's misfortune. My di plomacy had

brought me there, and now I had only to wait the time for taking up the role of an ambas sador. My

diplomacy was a success; my ship was safe; old Gambril would probably live; a feeble sound of a tapping

hammer came intermittently from the Diana. During the afternoon I looked at times at the old homely ship,

the faithful nurse of Hermann's progeny, or yawned towards the dis tant temple of Buddha, like a lonely

hillock on the plain, where shaven priests cherish the thoughts of that Annihilation which is the worthy

reward of us all. Unfortunate! He had been unfortunate once. Well, that was not so bad as life goes. And what

the devil could be the nature of that misfortune? I remembered that I had known a man before who had

declared himself to have fallen, years ago, a victim to misfortune; but this misfortune, whose effects appeared

permanent (he looked desper ately hard up) when considered dispassionately, seemed indistinguishable

from a breach of trust. Could it be something of that nature? Apart, however, from the utter improbability that

he would offer to talk of it even to his future uncle inlaw, I had a strange feeling that Falk's physique

unfitted him for that sort of delinquency. As the person of Hermann's niece exhaled the profound physical

charm of feminine form, so her ador er's big frame embodied to my senses the hard, straight masculinity that

would conceivably kill but would not condescend to cheat. The thing was obvious. I might just as well have

suspected the girl of a curvature of the spine. And I per ceived that the sun was about to set.

The smoke of Falk's tug hove in sight, far away at the mouth of the river. It was time for me to assume the

character of an ambassador, and the negotiation would not be difficult except in the matter of keeping my

countenance. It was all too extravagantly nonsensical, and I conceived that it would be best to compose for

myself a grave de meanour. I practised this in my boat as I went along, but the bashfulness that came

secretly upon me the moment I stepped on the deck of the Diana is inexplicable. As soon as we had

exchanged greetings Hermann asked me eagerly if I knew whether Falk had found his white parasol.

"He's going to bring it to you himself directly," I said with great solemnity. "Meantime I am charged with an

important message for which he begs your favourable consideration. He is in love with your niece. . . ."

"Ach So!" he hissed with an animosity that made my assumed gravity change into the most genuine concern.

"He wishes, with your consent of course, to ask her to marry him at oncebefore you leave here, that is. He

Hermann sat down and smoked violently. Five minutes passed in that furious meditation, and then, taking the

long pipe out of his mouth, he burst into a hot diatribe against Falkagainst his cupidity, his stupidity (a

fellow that can hardly be got to say "yes" or "no" to the simplest ques tion)against his outrageous

treatment of the shipping in port (because he saw they were at his mercy)and against his manner of

walking, which to his (Hermann's) mind showed a conceit positively unbearable. The damage to the old

Diana was not forgotten, of course, and there was nothing of any nature said or done by Falk (even to the last

offer of refreshment in the hotel) that did not seem to have been a cause of offence. "Had the cheek" to drag

him (Hermann) into that coffeeroom; as though a drink from him could make up for fortyseven dollars and

fifty cents of damage in the cost of wood alonenot counting two days' work for the carpenter. Of course he

would not stand in the girl's way. He was going home to Germany. There were plenty of poor girls walking

"Yes," he cried. "And it is time too after mak ing himself and me talked about ashore the last voyage I was

here, and then now again; coming on board every evening unsettling the girl's mind, and saying nothing.

The seven thousand dollars the fellow was always talking about did not, in his opinion, justify such

behaviour. Moreover, nobody had seen them. He (Hermann) seriously doubted if there were seven thousand

cents, and the tug, no doubt, was mort gaged up to the top of the funnel to the firm of Siegers. But let that

pass. He wouldn't stand in the girl's way. Her head was so turned that she had become no good to them of

late. Quite unable even to put the children to bed without her aunt. It was bad for the children; they got

For that, too, Falk was made responsible ap parently. And looking at my Hermann's heavy, puffy,

goodnatured face, I knew he would not ex ert himself till greatly exasperated, and, therefore, would thrash

very hard, and being fat would resent the necessity. How Falk had managed to turn the girl's head was more

difficult to understand. I sup posed Hermann would know. And then hadn't there been Miss Vanlo? It could

not be his silvery tongue, or the subtle seduction of his manner; he had no more of what is called "manner"

than an animalwhich, however, on the other hand, is never, and can never be called vulgar. Therefore it

must have been his bodily appearance, exhibiting a virility of nature as exaggerated as his beard, and

resembling a sort of constant ruthlessness. It was seen in the very manner he lolled in the chair. He meant no

offence, but his intercourse was charac terised by that sort of frank disregard of suscepti bilities a man of

seven foot six, living in a world of dwarfs, would naturally assume, without in the least wishing to be unkind.

But amongst men of his own stature, or nearly, this frank use of his ad vantages, in such matters as the

awful towage bills for instance, caused much impotent gnashing of teeth. When attentively considered it

seemed ap palling at times. He was a strange beast. But maybe women liked it. Seen in that light he was

well worth taming, and I suppose every woman at the bottom of her heart considers herself as a tamer of

strange beasts. But Hermann arose with pre cipitation to carry the news to his wife. I had barely the time, as

he made for the cabin door, to grab him by the seat of his inexpressibles. I begged him to wait till Falk in

person had spoken with him. There remained some small matter to talk over, as I understood.

"What matter?" he said surlily. "I have had enough of his nonsense. There's no matter at all, as he knows very

well; the girl has nothing in the world. She came to us in one thin dress when my brother died, and I have a

"It can't be anything of that kind," I opined. "He's desperately enamoured of your niece. I don't know why he

did not say so before. Upon my word, I believe it is because he was afraid to lose, perhaps, the felicity of

I intimated my conviction that his love was so great as to be in a sense cowardly. The effects of a great

passion are unaccountable. It has been known to make a man timid. But Hermann looked at me as if I had

"You don't believe in passion, do you, Her mann?" I said cheerily. "The passion of fear will make a

cornered rat courageous. Falk's in a cor ner. He will take her off your hands in one thin frock just as she

Far from taking offence, he resumed his air of civic virtue. The sudden night came upon him while he stared

placidly along the deck, bringing in contact with his thick lips, and taking away again after a jet of smoke, the

curved mouthpiece fitted to the stem of his pipe. The night came upon him and buried in haste his whiskers,

his glob ular eyes, his puffy pale face, his fat knees and the vast flat slippers on his fatherly feet. Only his

short arms in respectable white shirtsleeves re mained very visible, propped up like the flippers of a seal

"Falk wouldn't settle anything about repairs. Told me to find out first how much wood I should require and he

would see," he remarked; and after he had spat peacefully in the dusk we heard over the water the beat of the

tug's floats. There is, on a calm night, nothing more suggestive of fierce and headlong haste than the rapid

sound made by the paddlewheels of a boat threshing her way through a quiet sea; and the approach of Falk

towards his fate seemed to be urged by an impatient and pas sionate desire. The engines must have been

driven to the very utmost of their revolutions. We heard them slow down at last, and, vaguely, the white hull

of the tug appeared moving against the black islets, whilst a slow and rhythmical clapping as of thousands of

hands rose on all sides. It ceased all at once, just before Falk brought her up. A sin gle brusque splash was

followed by the long drawn rumbling of iron links running through the hawse pipe. Then a solemn silence

"He will soon be here," I murmured, and after that we waited for him without a word. Meantime, raising my

eyes, I beheld the glitter of a lofty sky above the Diana's mastheads. The multitude of stars gathered into

clusters, in rows, in lines, in masses, in groups, shone all together, unanimously and the few isolated ones,

blazing by themselves in the midst of dark patches, seemed to be of a su perior kind and of an

inextinguishable nature. But long striding footsteps were heard hastening along the deck; the high bulwarks

of the Diana made a deeper darkness. We rose from our chairs quickly, and Falk, appearing before us, all in

Nobody spoke at first, as though we had been covered with confusion. His arrival was fiery, but his white

bulk, of indefinite shape and without fea tures, made him loom up like a man of snow.

"The captain here has been telling me . . ." Hermann began in a homely and amicable voice; and Falk had a

low, nervous laugh. His cool, neg ligent undertone had no inflexions, but the strength of a powerful emotion

made him ramble in his speech. He had always desired a home. It was difficult to live alone, though he was

not answera ble. He was domestic; there had been difficulties; but since he had seen Hermann's niece he

found that it had become at last impossible to live by him self. "I meanimpossible," he repeated with no

sort of emphasis and only with the slightest of pauses, but the word fell into my mind with the force of a new

"I have not said anything to her yet," Hermann observed quietly. And Falk dismissed this by a "That's all

right. Certainly. Very proper." There was a necessity for perfect franknessin marrying, especially.

Hermann seemed attentive, but he seized the first opportunity to ask us into the cabin. "And bytheby,

Falk," he said innocent ly, as we passed in, "the timber came to no less than fortyseven dollars and fifty

Falk, uncovering his head, lingered in the pas sage. "Some other time," he said; and Hermann nudged me

angrilyI don't know why. The girl alone in the cabin sat sewing at some distance from the table. Falk

stopped short in the doorway. Without a word, without a sign, without the slight est inclination of his bony

head, by the silent in tensity of his look alone, he seemed to lay his her culean frame at her feet. Her hands

sank slowly on her lap, and raising her clear eyes, she let her soft, beaming glance enfold him from head to

foot like a slow and pale caress. He was very hot when he sat down; she, with bowed head, went on with her

sewing; her neck was very white under the light of the lamp; but Falk, hiding his face in the palms of his

hands, shuddered faintly. He drew them down, even to his beard, and his uncovered eyes as tonished me by

their tense and irrational expres sionas though he had just swallowed a heavy gulp of alcohol. It passed

away while he was binding us to secrecy. Not that he cared, but he did not like to be spoken about; and I

looked at the girl's marvellous, at her wonderful, at her regal hair, plaited tight into that one astonishing and

maidenly tress. Whenever she moved her well shaped head it would stir stiffly to and fro on her back. The

thin cotton sleeve fitted the irreproach able roundness of her arm like a skin; and her very dress, stretched on

her bust, seemed to palpitate like a living tissue with the strength of vitality ani mating her body. How good

her complexion was, the outline of her soft cheek and the small convo luted conch of her rosy ear! To pull

her needle she kept the little finger apart from the others; it seemed a waste of power to see her

sewingeter nally sewingwith that industrious and precise movement of her arm, going on eternally

upon all the oceans, under all the skies, in innumerable har bours. And suddenly I heard Falk's voice declare

that he could not marry a woman unless she knew of something in his life that had happened ten years ago. It

was an accident. An unfortunate ac cident. It would affect the domestic arrangements of their home, but,

once told, it need not be alluded to again for the rest of their lives. "I should want my wife to feel for me," he

said. "It has made me unhappy." And how could he keep the knowledge of it to himselfhe asked

usperhaps through years and years of companionship? What sort of companionship would that be? He had

thought it over. A wife must know. Then why not at once? He counted on Hermann's kindness for presenting

the affair in the best possible light. And Her mann's countenance, mystified before, became very sour. He

stole an inquisitive glance at me. I shook my head blankly. Some people thought, Falk went on, that such an

experience changed a man for the rest of his life. He couldn't say. It was hard, awful, and not to be forgotten,

but he did not think himself a worse man than before. Only he talked in his sleep now, he believed. . . . At last

I began to think he had accidentally killed some one; perhaps a friendhis own father may be; when he

went on to say that probably we were aware he never touched meat. Throughout he spoke English, of course

The girl, with her hands raised before her pale eyes, was threading her needle. He glanced at her, and his

mighty trunk overshadowed the table, bringing nearer to us the breadth of his shoulders, the thickness of his

neck, and that incongruous, an chorite head, burnt in the desert, hollowed and lean as if by excesses of vigils

and fasting. His beard flowed imposingly downwards, out of sight, be tween the two brown hands gripping

the edge of the table, and his persistent glance made sombre by the wide dilations of the pupils, fascinated.

"Imagine to yourselves," he said in his ordinary voice, "that I have eaten man."

I could only ejaculate a faint "Ah!" of com plete enlightenment. But Hermann, dazed by the excessive

"It was my terrible misfortune to do so," said Falk in a measured undertone. The girl, uncon scious, sewed

on. Mrs. Hermann was absent in one of the staterooms, sitting up with Lena, who was feverish; but

Hermann suddenly put both his hands up with a jerk. The embroidered calotte fell, and, in the twinkling of an

eye, he had rum pled his hair all ends up in a most extravagant manner. In this state he strove to speak; with

every effort his eyes seemed to start further out of their sockets; his head looked like a mop. He choked,

From that moment till Falk went out of the cab in the girl, with her hands folded on the work lying in her

lap, never took her eyes off him. His own, in the blindness of his heart, darted all over the cabin, only seeking

to avoid the sight of Hermann's raving. It was ridiculous, and was made almost terrible by the stillness of

every other person pres ent. It was contemptible, and was made appalling by the man's overmastering horror

of this awful sincerity, coming to him suddenly, with the confes sion of such a fact. He walked with great

strides; he gasped. He wanted to know from Falk how dared he to come and tell him this? Did he think

himself a proper person to be sitting in this cabin where his wife and children lived? Tell his niece! Expected

him to tell his niece! His own brother's daughter! Shameless! Did I ever hear tell of such impudence?he

appealed to me. "This man here ought to have gone and hidden himself out of sight instead of . . ."

"But it's a great misfortune for me. But it's a great misfortune for me," Falk would ejaculate from time to

However, Hermann kept on running frequently against the corners of the table. At last he lost a slipper, and

crossing his arms on his breast, walked up with one stocking foot very close to Falk, in or der to ask him

whether he did think there was any where on earth a woman abandoned enough to mate with such a

monster. "Did he? Did he? Did he?" I tried to restrain him. He tore himself out of my hands; he found his

slipper, and, endeavour ing to put it on, stormed standing on one leg and Falk, with a face unmoved and

"Was it right then for me to die myself?" he asked thoughtfully. I laid my hand on his shoul der.

"Go away," I whispered imperiously, without any clear reason for this advice, except that I wished to put an

He looked searchingly for a moment at Hermann before he made a move. I left the cabin too to see him out of

"You were stupid to blurt it out in such a man ner. After all, we don't hear such confidences every day."

"What does the man mean?" he mused in deep undertones. "Somebody had to diebut why me?"

He remained still for a time in the darksilent; almost invisible. All at once he pinned my elbows to my

sides. I felt utterly powerless in his grip, and his voice, whispering in my ear, vibrated.

"It's worse than hunger. Captain, do you know what that means? And I could kill thenor be killed. I wish

the crowbar had smashed my skull ten years ago. And I've got to live now. Without her. Do you understand?

Perhaps many years. But how? What can be done? If I had allowed myself to look at her once I would have

I felt myself snatched off the deck, then suddenly droppedand I staggered backwards, feeling bewildered

and bruised. What a man! All was still; he was gone. I heard Hermann's voice de claiming in the cabin, and

I could not at first make out a single word, but Mrs. Hermann, who, attracted by the noise, had come in some

time before, with an expression of surprise and mild disapproval, depicted broadly on her face, was giving

now all the signs of profound, helpless agitation. Her husband shot a string of guttural words at her, and

instantly putting out one hand to the bulkhead as if to save herself from falling, she clutched the loose bosom

of her dress with the other. He harangued the two women ex traordinarily, with much of his shirt hanging

out of his waistbelt, stamping his foot, turning from one to the other, sometimes throwing both his arms to

gether, straight up above his rumpled hair, and keeping them in that position while he uttered a passage of

loud denunciation; at others folding them tight across his breastand then he hissed with indignation,

She had not changed her attitude. From her steady eyes that, following Falk in his retreat, had remained fixed

wistfully on the cabin door, the tears fell rapid, thick, on her hands, on the work in her lap, warm and gentle

like a shower in spring. She wept without grimacing, without noisevery touching, very quiet, with

something more of pity than of pain in her face, as one weeps in compassion rather than in griefand

Hermann, before her, declaimed. I caught several times the word "Mensch," man; and also "Fressen," which

last I looked up afterwards in my dictionary. It means "Devour." Hermann seemed to be requesting an answer

of some sort from her; his whole body swayed. She remained mute and perfectly still; at last his agitation

gained her; she put the palms of her hands together, her full lips parted, no sound came. His voice scolded

shrilly, his arms went like a windmillsuddenly he shook a thick fist at her. She burst out into loud sobs. He

Mrs. Hermann rushed forward babbling rap dly. The two women fell on each other's necks, and, with an

arm round her niece's waist, she led her away. Her own eyes were simply streaming, her face was flooded.

She shook her head back at me negatively, I wonder why to this day. The girl's head dropped heavily on her

"We don't know all the circumstances," I ven tured to break the silence. He retorted tartly that he didn't want

to know of any. According to his ideas no circumstances could excuse a crimeand certainly not such a

crime. This was the opinion generally received. The duty of a human being was to starve. Falk therefore was

a beast, an ani mal; base, low, vile, despicable, shameless, and de ceitful. He had been deceiving him since

last year. He was, however, inclined to think that Falk must have gone mad quite recently; for no sane person,

without necessity, uselessly, for no earthly reason, and regardless of another's selfrespect and peace of mind,

would own to having devoured human flesh. "Why tell?" he cried. "Who was asking him?" It showed Falk's

brutality because after all he had selfishly caused him (Hermann) much pain. He would have preferred not to

know that such an unclean creature had been in the habit of caressing his children. He hoped I would say

noth ing of all this ashore, though. He wouldn't like it to get about that he had been intimate with an eater of

mena common cannibal. As to the scene he had made (which I judged quite unnecessary) he was not going

to inconvenience and restrain himself for a fellow that went about courting and upsetting girls' heads, while

he knew all the time that no decent housewifely girl could think of mar rying him. At least he (Hermann)

could not con ceive how any girl could. Fancy Lena! . . . No, it was impossible. The thoughts that would

He seemed to think it was eminently proper to be squeamish if the word meant disgust at Falk's con duct;

and turning up his eyes sentimentally he drew my attention to the horrible fate of the victims the victims of

that Falk. I said that I knew nothing about them. He seemed surprised. Could not anybody imagine without

knowing? Hefor instancefelt he would like to avenge them. But what ifsaid Ithere had not been

any? They might have died as it were, naturallyof starva tion. He shuddered. But to be eatenafter

death! To be devoured! He gave another deep shudder, and asked suddenly, "Do you think it is true?"

His indignation and his personality together would have been enough to spoil the reality of the most authentic

thing. When I looked at him I doubted the storybut the remembrance of Falk's words, looks, gestures,

invested it not only with an air of reality but with the absolute truth of primitive passion.

"It is true just as much as you are able to make it; and exactly in the way you like to make it. For my part,

And I left him pondering. The men in my boat lying at the foot of Diana's side ladder told me that the captain

I let my fellows pull an easy stroke; because of the heavy dew the clear sparkle of the stars seemed to fall on

me cold and wetting. There was a sense of lurking gruesome horror somewhere in my mind, and it was

mingled with clear and grotesque images. Schomberg's gastronomic tittletattle was responsible for these;

and I half hoped I should never see Falk again. But the first thing my anchorwatchman told me was that the

captain of the tug was on board. He had sent his boat away and was now waiting for me in the cuddy.

He was lying full length on the stern settee, his face buried in the cushions. I had expected to see it

discomposed, contorted, despairing. It was nothing of the kind; it was just as I had seen it twenty times,

steady and glaring from the bridge of the tug. It was immovably set and hungry, dominated like the whole

He wanted to live. He had always wanted to live. So we all dobut in us the instinct serves a complex

conception, and in him this instinct existed alone. There is in such simple development a gi gantic force, and

like the pathos of a child's naive nd uncontrolled desire. He wanted that girl, and the utmost that can be said

for him was that he wanted that particular girl alone. I think I saw then the obscure beginning, the seed

germinating in the soil of an unconscious need, the first shoot of that tree bearing now for a mature mankind

the flower and the fruit, the infinite gradation in shades and in flavour of our discriminating love. He was a

child. He was as frank as a child too. He was hungry for the girl, terribly hungry, as he had been terribly

Don't be shocked if I declare that in my belief it was the same need, the same pain, the same tor ture. We are

in his case allowed to contemplate the foundation of all the emotionsthat one joy which is to live, and the

one sadness at the root of the innumerable torments. It was made plain by the way he talked. He had never

suffered so. It was gnawing, it was fire; it was there, like this! And after pointing below his breastbone, he

made a hard wringing motion with his hands. And I as sure you that, seen as I saw it with my bodily eyes, it

was anything but laughable. And again, as he was presently to tell me (alluding to an early inci dent of the

disastrous voyage when some damaged meat had been flung overboard), he said that a time soon came when

his heart ached (that was the expression he used), and he was ready to tear his hair out at the thought of all

I had heard all this; I witnessed his physical struggles, seeing the working of the rack and hear ing the true

voice of pain. I witnessed it all pa tiently, because the moment I came into the cuddy he had called upon me

His agitation was impressive and alarming in the little cabin, like the floundering of a great whale driven into

a shallow cove in a coast. He stood up; he flung himself down headlong; he tried to tear the cushion with his

teeth; and again hug ging it fiercely to his face he let himself fall on the couch. The whole ship seemed to

feel the shock of his despair; and I contemplated with wonder the lofty forehead, the noble touch of time on

the un covered temples, the unchanged hungry character of the faceso strangely ascetic and so incapable

What should he do? He had lived by being near her. He had satin the eveningI knew? all his life! She

sewed. Her head was bentso. Her headlike thisand her arms. Ah! Had I seen? Like this.

He dropped on a stool, bowed his powerful neck whose nape was red, and with his hands stitched the air,

And now he couldn't have her? No! That was too much. After thinking too that . . . What had he done? What

was my advice? Take her by force? No? Mustn't he? Who was there then to kill him? For the first time I saw

one of his fea tures move; a fighting teethbaring curl of the lip. . . . "Not Hermann, perhaps." He lost

I may note that the idea of suicide apparently did not enter his head for a single moment. It oc curred to me

"You are not down south now," I said. "Vio lence won't do. They would take her away from you in no time.

"Break down," he answered, looking more like himself every moment. By this only I learned that it was a

steamer. I had till then supposed they had been starving in boats or on a raftor per haps on a barren rock.

"She did not sink then?" I asked in surprise. He nodded. "We sighted the southern ice," he pronounced

He sat down. "Yes. It was a terrible misfor tune for me. Everything went wrong. All the men went wrong. I

Remembering the things one reads of it was diffi cult to realise the true meaning of his answers. I ought to

have seen at oncebut I did not; so diffi cult is it for our minds, remembering so much, in structed so

much, informed of so much, to get in touch with the real actuality at our elbow. And with my head full of

preconceived notions as to how a case of "cannibalism and suffering at sea" should be managed I said"You

"Drawing of lots?" he said. "What lots? Do you think I would have allowed my life to go for the drawing of

"It was a great misfortune. Terrible. Awful," he said. "Many heads went wrong, but the best men would live."

"The toughest, you mean," I said. He consid ered the word. Perhaps it was strange to him, though his

"Yes," he asserted at last. "The best. It was everybody for himself at last and the ship open to all."

Thus from question to question I got the whole story. I fancy it was the only way I could that night have

stood by him. Outwardly at least he was himself again; the first sign of it was the re turn of that incongruous

trick he had of drawing both his hands down his faceand it had its mean ing now, with that slight shudder

of the frame and the passionate anguish of these hands uncovering a hungry immovable face, the wide pupils

It was an iron steamer of a most respectable ori gin. The burgomaster of Falk's native town had built her.

She was the first steamer ever launched there. The burgomaster's daughter had christened her. Country people

drove in carts from miles around to see her. He told me all this. He got the berth as what we should call a

chief mate. He seemed to think it had been a feather in his cap; and, in his own corner of the world, this lover

The burgomaster had advanced ideas in the shipowning line. At that time not every one would have known

enough to think of despatching a cargo steamer to the Pacific. But he loaded her with pitchpine deals and

sent her off to hunt for her luck. Wellington was to be the first port, I fancy. It doesn't matter, because in

latitude 44 d south and somewhere halfway between Good Hope and New Zealand the tail shaft broke and

They were steaming then with a fresh gale on the quarter and all their canvas set, to help the en gines. But

by itself the sail power was not enough to keep way on her. When the propeller went the ship broachedto at

The disadvantage of being dismasted consisted in this, that they had nothing to hoist flags on to make

themselves visible at a distance. In the course of the first few days several ships failed to sight them; and the

gale was drifting them out of the usual track. The voyage had been, from the first, neither very successful nor

very harmonious. There had been quarrels on board. The captain was a clever, melancholic man, who had no

unusual grip on his crew. The ship had been amply pro visioned for the passage, but, somehow or other,

several barrels of meat were found spoiled on open ing, and had been thrown overboard soon after leaving

home, as a sanitary measure. Afterwards the crew of the Borgmester Dahl thought of that rotten carrion with

She drove south. To begin with, there had been an appearance of organisation, but soon the bonds of

discipline became relaxed. A sombre idleness succeeded. They looked with sullen eyes at the hori zon. The

gales increased: she lay in the trough, the seas made a clean breach over her. On one frightful night, when

they expected their hulk to turn over with them every moment, a heavy sea broke on board, deluged the

storerooms and spoiled the best part of the remaining provisions. It seems the hatch had not been properly

secured. This in stance of neglect is characteristic of utter discour agement. Falk tried to inspire some

energy into his captain, but failed. From that time he retired more into himself, always trying to do his utmost

in the situation. It grew worse. Gale succeeded gale, with black mountains of water hurling them selves on

the Borgmester Dahl. Some of the men never left their bunks; many became quarrelsome. The chief engineer,

an old man, refused to speak at all to anybody. Others shut themselves up in their berths to cry. On calm days

the inert steamer rolled on a leaden sea under a murky sky, or showed, in sunshine, the squalor of sea waifs,

the dried white salt, the rust, the jagged broken places. Then the gales came again. They kept body and soul

together on short rations. Once, an English ship, scudding in a storm, tried to stand by them, heavingto

pluckily under their lee. The seas swept her decks; the men in oilskins clinging to her rigging looked at them,

and they made des perate signs over their shattered bulwarks. Sud denly her maintopsail went, yard and

all, in a ter rific squall; she had to bear up under bare poles, and disappeared.

Other ships had spoken them before, but at first they had refused to be taken off, expecting the as sistance of

some steamer. There were very few steamers in those latitudes then; and when they desired to leave this dead

and drifting carcase, no ship came in sight. They had drifted south out of men's knowledge. They failed to

attract the atten tion of a lonely whaler, and very soon the edge of the polar icecap rose from the sea and

closed the southern horizon like a wall. One morning they were alarmed by finding themselves floating

amongst detached pieces of ice. But the fear of sinking passed away like their vigour, like their hopes; the

shocks of the floes knocking against the ship's side could not rouse them from their apathy: and the

Borgmester Dahl drifted out again un harmed into open water. They hardly noticed the change.

The funnel had gone overboard in one of the heavy rolls; two of their three boats had disap peared, washed

away in bad weather, and the davits swung to and fro, unsecured, with chafed rope's ends waggling to the

roll. Nothing was done on board, and Falk told me how he had often listened to the water washing about the

dark engineroom where the engines, stilled for ever, were decaying slowly into a mass of rust, as the stilled

heart de cays within the lifeless body. At first, after the loss of the motive power, the tiller had been thor

oughly secured by lashings. But in course of time these had rotted, chafed, rusted, parting one by one: and the

rudder, freed, banged heavily to and fro night and day, sending dull shocks through the whole frame of the

vessel. This was dangerous. Nobody cared enough to lift a little finger. He told me that even now sometimes

waking up at night, he fancied he could hear the dull vibrating thuds. The pintles carried away, and it dropped

The final catastrophe came with the sending off of their one remaining boat. It was Falk who had managed to

preserve her intact, and now it was agreed that some of the hands should sail away into the track of the

shipping to procure assistance. She was provisioned with all the food they could spare for the six who were to

go. They waited for a fine day. It was long in coming. At last one morning they lowered her into the water.

Directly, in that demoralised crowd, trouble broke out. Two men who had no business there had jumped into

the boat under the pretence of unhooking the tackles, while some sort of squabble arose on the deck amongst

these weak, tottering spectres of a ship's company. The captain, who had been for days living secluded and

unapproach able in the chartroom, came to the rail. He or dered the two men to come up on board and

men aced them with his revolver. They pretended to obey, but suddenly cutting the boat's painter, gave a

"Shoot, sir! Shoot them down!" cried Falk "and I will jump overboard to regain the boat." But the captain,

A howl of rage arose. Falk dashed into his cabin for his own pistol. When he returned it was too late. Two

more men had leaped into the water, but the fellows in the boat beat them off with the oars, hoisted the boat's

Consternation and despair possessed the remain ing ship's company, till the apathy of utter hope lessness

reasserted its sway. That day a fireman committed suicide, running up on deck with his throat cut from ear

to ear, to the horror of all hands. He was thrown overboard. The captain had locked himself in the

chartroom, and Falk, knocking vainly for admittance, heard him recit ing over and over again the names of

his wife and children, not as if calling upon them or commend ing them to God, but in a mechanical voice

like an exercise of memory. Next day the doors of the chartroom were swinging open to the roll of the ship,

and the captain had disappeared. He must during the night have jumped into the sea. Falk locked both the

The organised life of the ship had come to an end. The solidarity of the men had gone. They became

indifferent to each other. It was Falk who took in hand the distribution of such food as re mained. They

boiled their boots for soup to eke out the rations, which only made their hunger more intolerable. Sometimes

whispers of hate were heard passing between the languid skeletons that drifted endlessly to and fro, north and

And in this lies the grotesque horror of this som bre story. The last extremity of sailors, overtaking a small

boat or a frail craft, seems easier to bear, because of the direct danger of the seas. The con fined space, the

close contact, the imminent menace of the waves, seem to draw men together, in spite of madness, suffering

and despair. But there was a shipsafe, convenient, roomy: a ship with beds, bedding, knives, forks,

comfortable cabins, glass and china, and a complete cook's galley, pervaded, ruled and possessed by the

pitiless spectre of star vation. The lamp oil had been drunk, the wicks cut up for food, the candles eaten. At

night she floated dark in all her recesses, and full of fears. One day Falk came upon a man gnawing a splinter

of pine wood. Suddenly he threw the piece of wood away, tottered to the rail, and fell over. Falk, too late to

prevent the act, saw him claw the ship's side desperately before he went down. Next day another man did the

same thing, after uttering hor rible imprecations. But this one somehow man aged to get hold of the broken

rudder chains and hung on there, silently. Falk set about trying to save him, and all the time the man, holding

with both hands, looked at him anxiously with his sunken eyes. Then, just as Falk was ready to put his hand

on him, the man let go his hold and sank like a stone. Falk reflected on these sights. His heart revolted against

the horror of death, and he said to himself that he would struggle for every pre cious minute of his life.

One afternoonas the survivors lay about on the after deckthe carpenter, a tall man with a black beard,

spoke of the last sacrifice. There was nothing eatable left on board. Nobody said a word to this; but that

company separated quickly, these listless feeble spectres slunk off one by one to hide in fear of each other.

Falk and the car penter remained on deck together. Falk liked the big carpenter. He had been the best man of

the lot, helpful and ready as long as there was anything to do, the longest hopeful, and had preserved to the

They did not speak to each other. Henceforth no voices were to be heard conversing sadly on board that ship.

After a time the carpenter tot tered away forward; but later on, Falk going to drink at the freshwater pump,

had the inspiration to turn his head. The carpenter had stolen upon him from behind, and, summoning all his

Dodging just in time, Falk made his escape and ran into his cabin. While he was loading his re volver there,

he heard the sound of heavy blows struck upon the bridge. The locks of the chart room doors were slight,

they flew open, and the car penter, possessing himself of the captain's revolver, fired a shot of defiance.

Falk was about to go on deck and have it out at once, when he remarked that one of the ports of his cabin

commanded the approaches to the fresh water pump. Instead of going out he remained in and secured the

door. "The best man shall sur vive," he said to himselfand the other, he rea soned, must at some time or

other come there to drink. These starving men would drink often to cheat the pangs of their hunger. But the

carpen ter too must have noticed the position of the port. They were the two best men in the ship, and the

game was with them. All the rest of the day Falk saw no one and heard no sound. At night he strained his

eyes. It was darkhe heard a rustling noise once, but he was certain that no one could have come near the

pump. It was to the left of his deck port, and he could not have failed to see a man, for the night was clear and

starry. He saw nothing; towards morning another faint noise made him suspicious. Deliberately and quietly

he unlocked his door. He had not slept, and had not given way to the horror of the situation. He wanted to

But during the night the carpenter, without at all trying to approach the pump, had managed to creep quietly

along the starboard bulwark, and, unseen, had crouched down right under Falk's deck port. When daylight

came he rose up suddenly, looked in, and putting his arm through the round brass framed opening, fired at

Falk within a foot. He missedand Falk, instead of attempting to seize the arm holding the weapon, opened

his door unexpectedly, and with the muzzle of his long re volver nearly touching the other's side, shot him

The best man had survived. Both of them had at the beginning just strength enough to stand on their feet, and

both had displayed pitiless resolu tion, endurance, cunning and courageall the qualities of classic

heroism. At once Falk threw overboard the captain's revolver. He was a born monopolist. Then after the

report of the two shots, followed by a profound silence, there crept out into the cold, cruel dawn of Antarctic

regions, from various hidingplaces, over the deck of that dismantled corpse of a ship floating on a grey sea

ruled by iron necessity and with a heart of ice there crept into view one by one, cautious, slow, ea ger,

glaring, and unclean, a band of hungry and livid skeletons. Falk faced them, the possessor of the only

firearm on board, and the second best man the carpenterwas lying dead between him and them.

He bent his head slowly, shuddered a little, draw ing his hands over his face, and said, "I had never any

Why continue the story of that ship, that story before which, with its freshwater pump like a spring of death,

its man with the weapon, the sea ruled by iron necessity, its spectral band swayed by terror and hope, its mute

and unhearing heaven? the fable of the Flying Dutchman with its conven tion of crime and its sentimental

retribution fades like a graceful wreath, like a wisp of white mist. What is there to say that every one of us

cannot guess for himself? I believe Falk began by going through the ship, revolver in hand, to annex all the

matches. Those starving wretches had plenty of matches! He had no mind to have the ship set on fire under

his feet, either from hate or from despair. He lived in the open, camping on the bridge, com manding all the

after deck and the only approach to the pump. He lived! Some of the others lived tooconcealed, anxious,

coming out one by one from their hidingplaces at the seductive sound of a shot. And he was not selfish.

They shared, but only three of them all were alive when a whaler, re turning from her cruising ground,

nearly ran over the waterlogged hull of the Borgmester Dahl, which, it seems, in the end had in some way

"They all died," Falk said. "These three too, afterwards. But I would not die. All died, all! under this terrible

misfortune. But was I too to throw away my life? Could I? Tell me, captain? I was alone there, quite alone,

just like the others. Each man was alone. Was I to give up my re volver? Who to? Or was I to throw it into

the sea? What would have been the good? Only the best man would survive. It was a great, terrible, and cruel

He had survived! I saw him before me as though preserved for a witness to the mighty truth of an unerring

and eternal principle. Great beads of perspiration stood on his forehead. And sud denly it struck the table

He made my heart thump with the profound con viction of his cries. And after he had left me alone I called

up before my mental eye the image of the girl weeping silently, abundantly, patiently, and as if irresistibly. I

thought of her tawny hair. I thought how, if unplaited, it would have covered her all round as low as the hips,

like the hair of a siren. And she had bewitched him. Fancy a man who would guard his own life with the in

flexibility of a pitiless and immovable fate, being brought to lament that once a crowbar had missed his skull!

The sirens sing and lure to death, but this one had been weeping silently as if for the pity of his life. She was

the tender and voiceless siren of this appalling navigator. He evidently wanted to live his whole conception of

life. Nothing else would do. And she too was a servant of that life that, in the midst of death, cries aloud to

our senses. She was eminently fitted to interpret for him its feminine side. And in her own way, and with her

own profusion of sensuous charms, she also seemed to illustrate the eternal truth of an unerring prin ciple. I

don't know though what sort of principle Hermann illustrated when he turned up early on board my ship with

a most perplexed air. It struck me, however, that he too would do his best to survive. He seemed greatly

"What is it you said I was last night? You know," he asked after some preliminary talk. "TootooI don't

He seemed to turn it over in his mind. We went on talking. This Falk was the plague of his life. Upsetting

everybody like this! Mrs. Hermann was unwell rather this morning. His niece was crying still. There was

nobody to look after the children. He struck his umbrella on the deck. She would be like that for months.

Fancy carrying all the way home, second class, a perfectly useless girl who is crying all the time. It was bad

for Lena too, he observed; but on what grounds I could not guess. Perhaps of the bad example. That child was

already sorrowing and crying enough over the rag doll. Nicholas was really the least sentimental person of

It was impossible to make out women. Mrs. Her mann was the only one he pretended to understand. She

He averted his eyes and did not answer this. It was impossible to make them out. For instance, his niece was

weeping for Falk. Now he (Her mann) would like to wring his neckbut then . . . He supposed he had too

tender a heart. "Frank ly," he asked at last, "what do you think of what we heard last night, captain?"

"In all these tales," I observed, "there is always a good deal of exaggeration."

And not letting him recover from his surprise I assured him that I knew all the details. He begged me not to

repeat them. His heart was too tender. They made him feel unwell. Then, looking at his feet and speaking

very slowly, he supposed that he need not see much of them after they were married. For, indeed, he could

not bear the sight of Falk. On the other hand it was ridiculous to take home a girl with her head turned. A girl

"Yes, I had thought of that," he said brightly, almost. "Yes! Himself, his wife, four children one cabin

Mrs. Hermann did not know whether a man of that sort could make a girl happyshe had been greatly

Those good people did not seem to be able to re tain an impression for a whole twelve hours. I assured him

on my own personal knowledge that Falk possessed in himself all the qualities to make his niece's future

prosperous. He said he was glad to hear this, and that he would tell his wife. Then the object of the visit came

out. He wished me to help him to resume relations with Falk. His niece, he said, had expressed the hope I

would do so in my kindness. He was evidently anxious that I should, for though he seemed to have forgotten

ninetenths of his last night's opinions and the whole of his in dignation, yet he evidently feared to be sent

to the rightabout. "You told me he was very much in love," he concluded slyly, and leered in a sort of bu

"As soon as he had left my ship I called Falk on board by signalthe tug still lying at the anchor age. He

took the news with calm gravity, as though he had all along expected the stars to fight for him in their

I saw them once more together, and only once on the quarterdeck of the Diana. Hermann sat smoking

with a shirtsleeved elbow hooked over the back of his chair. Mrs. Hermann was sewing alone. As Falk

stepped over the gangway, Her mann's niece, with a slight swish of the skirt and a swift friendly nod to me,

They met in sunshine abreast of the mainmast. He held her hands and looked down at them, and she looked

up at him with her candid and unseeing glance. It seemed to me they had come together as if attracted, drawn

and guided to each other by a mysterious influence. They were a complete couple. In her grey frock,

palpitating with life, generous of form, olympian and simple, she was in deed the siren to fascinate that dark

navigator, this ruthless lover of the five senses. From afar I seemed to feel the masculine strength with which

he grasped those hands she had extended to him with a womanly swiftness. Lena, a little pale, nursing her

beloved lump of dirty rags, ran to wards her big friend; and then in the drowsy si lence of the good old

ship Mrs. Hermann's voice rang out so changed that it made me spin round in my chair to see what was the

"Lena, come here!" she screamed. And this goodnatured matron gave me a wavering glance, dark and full

of fearsome distrust. The child ran back, surprised to her knee. But the two, stand ing before each other in

sunlight with clasped hands, had heard nothing, had seen nothing and no one. Three feet away from them in

the shade a seaman sat on a spar, very busy splicing a strop, and dipping his fingers into a tarpot, as if

When I returned in command of another ship, some five years afterwards, Mr. and Mrs. Falk had left the

place. I should not wonder if Schom berg's tongue had succeeded at last in scaring Falk away for good; and,

indubitably, there was a tale still going about the town of a certain Falk, owner of a tug, who had won his