By Joseph Conrad
+ +For a long time after the course of the steamer Sofala had been + altered for the land, the low swampy coast had retained its appearance + of a mere smudge of darkness beyond a belt of glitter. The sunrays + seemed to fall violently upon the calm sea--seemed to shatter themselves + upon an adamantine surface into sparkling dust, into a dazzling vapor + of light that blinded the eye and wearied the brain with its unsteady + brightness.
+ +Captain Whalley did not look at it. When his Serang, approaching the + roomy cane arm-chair which he filled capably, had informed him in a low + voice that the course was to be altered, he had risen at once and had + remained on his feet, face forward, while the head of his ship swung + through a quarter of a circle. He had not uttered a single word, not + even the word to steady the helm. It was the Serang, an elderly, alert, + little Malay, with a very dark skin, who murmured the order to the + helmsman. And then slowly Captain Whalley sat down again in the + arm-chair on the bridge and fixed his eyes on the deck between his feet.
+ +He could not hope to see anything new upon this lane of the sea. He had + been on these coasts for the last three years. From Low Cape to Malantan + the distance was fifty miles, six hours' steaming for the old ship with + the tide, or seven against. Then you steered straight for the land, and + by-and-by three palms would appear on the sky, tall and slim, and with + their disheveled heads in a bunch, as if in confidential criticism of + the dark mangroves. The Sofala would be headed towards the somber + strip of the coast, which at a given moment, as the ship closed with + it obliquely, would show several clean shining fractures--the brimful + estuary of a river. Then on through a brown liquid, three parts water + and one part black earth, on and on between the low shores, three parts + black earth and one part brackish water, the Sofala would plow her way + up-stream, as she had done once every month for these seven years or + more, long before he was aware of her existence, long before he had ever + thought of having anything to do with her and her invariable voyages. + The old ship ought to have known the road better than her men, who had + not been kept so long at it without a change; better than the faithful + Serang, whom he had brought over from his last ship to keep the + captain's watch; better than he himself, who had been her captain for + the last three years only. She could always be depended upon to make her + courses. Her compasses were never out. She was no trouble at all to + take about, as if her great age had given her knowledge, wisdom, and + steadiness. She made her landfalls to a degree of the bearing, and + almost to a minute of her allowed time. At any moment, as he sat on + the bridge without looking up, or lay sleepless in his bed, simply by + reckoning the days and the hours he could tell where he was--the precise + spot of the beat. He knew it well too, this monotonous huckster's + round, up and down the Straits; he knew its order and its sights and its + people. Malacca to begin with, in at daylight and out at dusk, to cross + over with a rigid phosphorescent wake this highway of the Far East. + Darkness and gleams on the water, clear stars on a black sky, perhaps + the lights of a home steamer keeping her unswerving course in the + middle, or maybe the elusive shadow of a native craft with her mat sails + flitting by silently--and the low land on the other side in sight + at daylight. At noon the three palms of the next place of call, up a + sluggish river. The only white man residing there was a retired young + sailor, with whom he had become friendly in the course of many voyages. + Sixty miles farther on there was another place of call, a deep bay with + only a couple of houses on the beach. And so on, in and out, picking + up coastwise cargo here and there, and finishing with a hundred miles' + steady steaming through the maze of an archipelago of small islands up + to a large native town at the end of the beat. There was a three days' + rest for the old ship before he started her again in inverse order, + seeing the same shores from another bearing, hearing the same voices + in the same places, back again to the Sofala's port of registry on + the great highway to the East, where he would take up a berth nearly + opposite the big stone pile of the harbor office till it was time to + start again on the old round of 1600 miles and thirty days. Not a very + enterprising life, this, for Captain Whalley, Henry Whalley, otherwise + Dare-devil Harry--Whalley of the Condor, a famous clipper in her day. + No. Not a very enterprising life for a man who had served famous firms, + who had sailed famous ships (more than one or two of them his own); who + had made famous passages, had been the pioneer of new routes and new + trades; who had steered across the unsurveyed tracts of the South Seas, + and had seen the sun rise on uncharted islands. Fifty years at sea, and + forty out in the East ("a pretty thorough apprenticeship," he used + to remark smilingly), had made him honorably known to a generation of + shipowners and merchants in all the ports from Bombay clear over to + where the East merges into the West upon the coast of the two Americas. + His fame remained writ, not very large but plain enough, on the + Admiralty charts. Was there not somewhere between Australia and China a + Whalley Island and a Condor Reef? On that dangerous coral formation the + celebrated clipper had hung stranded for three days, her captain and + crew throwing her cargo overboard with one hand and with the other, as + it were, keeping off her a flotilla of savage war-canoes. At that time + neither the island nor the reef had any official existence. Later the + officers of her Majesty's steam vessel Fusilier, dispatched to make a + survey of the route, recognized in the adoption of these two names the + enterprise of the man and the solidity of the ship. Besides, as anyone + who cares may see, the "General Directory," vol. ii. p. 410, begins the + description of the "Malotu or Whalley Passage" with the words: "This + advantageous route, first discovered in 1850 by Captain Whalley in the + ship Condor," &c., and ends by recommending it warmly to sailing vessels + leaving the China ports for the south in the months from December to + April inclusive.
+ +This was the clearest gain he had out of life. Nothing could rob him + of this kind of fame. The piercing of the Isthmus of Suez, like the + breaking of a dam, had let in upon the East a flood of new ships, new + men, new methods of trade. It had changed the face of the Eastern seas + and the very spirit of their life; so that his early experiences meant + nothing whatever to the new generation of seamen.
+ +In those bygone days he had handled many thousands of pounds of his + employers' money and of his own; he had attended faithfully, as by law + a shipmaster is expected to do, to the conflicting interests of owners, + charterers, and underwriters. He had never lost a ship or consented to + a shady transaction; and he had lasted well, outlasting in the end the + conditions that had gone to the making of his name. He had buried his + wife (in the Gulf of Petchili), had married off his daughter to the man + of her unlucky choice, and had lost more than an ample competence in the + crash of the notorious Travancore and Deccan Banking Corporation, whose + downfall had shaken the East like an earthquake. And he was sixty-five + years old.
+ +His age sat lightly enough on him; and of his ruin he was not ashamed. + He had not been alone to believe in the stability of the Banking + Corporation. Men whose judgment in matters of finance was as expert as + his seamanship had commended the prudence of his investments, and had + themselves lost much money in the great failure. The only difference + between him and them was that he had lost his all. And yet not his all. + There had remained to him from his lost fortune a very pretty little + bark, Fair Maid, which he had bought to occupy his leisure of a retired + sailor--"to play with," as he expressed it himself.
+ +He had formally declared himself tired of the sea the year preceding his + daughter's marriage. But after the young couple had gone to settle in + Melbourne he found out that he could not make himself happy on shore. He + was too much of a merchant sea-captain for mere yachting to satisfy him. + He wanted the illusion of affairs; and his acquisition of the Fair + Maid preserved the continuity of his life. He introduced her to his + acquaintances in various ports as "my last command." When he grew too + old to be trusted with a ship, he would lay her up and go ashore to be + buried, leaving directions in his will to have the bark towed out and + scuttled decently in deep water on the day of the funeral. His daughter + would not grudge him the satisfaction of knowing that no stranger would + handle his last command after him. With the fortune he was able to leave + her, the value of a 500-ton bark was neither here nor there. All this + would be said with a jocular twinkle in his eye: the vigorous old man + had too much vitality for the sentimentalism of regret; and a little + wistfully withal, because he was at home in life, taking a genuine + pleasure in its feelings and its possessions; in the dignity of his + reputation and his wealth, in his love for his daughter, and in his + satisfaction with the ship--the plaything of his lonely leisure.
+ +He had the cabin arranged in accordance with his simple ideal of comfort + at sea. A big bookcase (he was a great reader) occupied one side of his + stateroom; the portrait of his late wife, a flat bituminous oil-painting + representing the profile and one long black ringlet of a young woman, + faced his bed-place. Three chronometers ticked him to sleep and greeted + him on waking with the tiny competition of their beats. He rose at five + every day. The officer of the morning watch, drinking his early cup + of coffee aft by the wheel, would hear through the wide orifice of the + copper ventilators all the splashings, blowings, and splutterings of + his captain's toilet. These noises would be followed by a sustained + deep murmur of the Lord's Prayer recited in a loud earnest voice. Five + minutes afterwards the head and shoulders of Captain Whalley emerged + out of the companion-hatchway. Invariably he paused for a while on the + stairs, looking all round at the horizon; upwards at the trim of the + sails; inhaling deep draughts of the fresh air. Only then he would step + out on the poop, acknowledging the hand raised to the peak of the cap + with a majestic and benign "Good morning to you." He walked the deck + till eight scrupulously. Sometimes, not above twice a year, he had to + use a thick cudgel-like stick on account of a stiffness in the hip--a + slight touch of rheumatism, he supposed. Otherwise he knew nothing of + the ills of the flesh. At the ringing of the breakfast bell he went + below to feed his canaries, wind up the chronometers, and take the + head of the table. From there he had before his eyes the big carbon + photographs of his daughter, her husband, and two fat-legged babies + --his grandchildren--set in black frames into the maplewood bulkheads + of the cuddy. After breakfast he dusted the glass over these portraits + himself with a cloth, and brushed the oil painting of his wife with a + plumate kept suspended from a small brass hook by the side of the heavy + gold frame. Then with the door of his stateroom shut, he would sit down + on the couch under the portrait to read a chapter out of a thick pocket + Bible--her Bible. But on some days he only sat there for half an hour + with his finger between the leaves and the closed book resting on his + knees. Perhaps he had remembered suddenly how fond of boat-sailing she + used to be.
+ +She had been a real shipmate and a true woman too. It was like an + article of faith with him that there never had been, and never could be, + a brighter, cheerier home anywhere afloat or ashore than his home under + the poop-deck of the Condor, with the big main cabin all white and gold, + garlanded as if for a perpetual festival with an unfading wreath. She + had decorated the center of every panel with a cluster of home flowers. + It took her a twelvemonth to go round the cuddy with this labor of love. + To him it had remained a marvel of painting, the highest achievement of + taste and skill; and as to old Swinburne, his mate, every time he + came down to his meals he stood transfixed with admiration before the + progress of the work. You could almost smell these roses, he declared, + sniffing the faint flavor of turpentine which at that time pervaded the + saloon, and (as he confessed afterwards) made him somewhat less hearty + than usual in tackling his food. But there was nothing of the sort to + interfere with his enjoyment of her singing. "Mrs. Whalley is a regular + out-and-out nightingale, sir," he would pronounce with a judicial air + after listening profoundly over the skylight to the very end of the + piece. In fine weather, in the second dog-watch, the two men could hear + her trills and roulades going on to the accompaniment of the piano in + the cabin. On the very day they got engaged he had written to London + for the instrument; but they had been married for over a year before it + reached them, coming out round the Cape. The big case made part of the + first direct general cargo landed in Hong-kong harbor--an event that to + the men who walked the busy quays of to-day seemed as hazily remote as + the dark ages of history. But Captain Whalley could in a half hour of + solitude live again all his life, with its romance, its idyl, and its + sorrow. He had to close her eyes himself. She went away from under the + ensign like a sailor's wife, a sailor herself at heart. He had read + the service over her, out of her own prayer-book, without a break in his + voice. When he raised his eyes he could see old Swinburne facing him + with his cap pressed to his breast, and his rugged, weather-beaten, + impassive face streaming with drops of water like a lump of chipped red + granite in a shower. It was all very well for that old sea-dog to cry. + He had to read on to the end; but after the splash he did not remember + much of what happened for the next few days. An elderly sailor of the + crew, deft at needlework, put together a mourning frock for the child + out of one of her black skirts.
+ +He was not likely to forget; but you cannot dam up life like a sluggish + stream. It will break out and flow over a man's troubles, it will close + upon a sorrow like the sea upon a dead body, no matter how much love has + gone to the bottom. And the world is not bad. People had been very + kind to him; especially Mrs. Gardner, the wife of the senior partner + in Gardner, Patteson, & Co., the owners of the Condor. It was she who + volunteered to look after the little one, and in due course took her to + England (something of a journey in those days, even by the overland + mail route) with her own girls to finish her education. It was ten years + before he saw her again.
+ +As a little child she had never been frightened of bad weather; she + would beg to be taken up on deck in the bosom of his oilskin coat to + watch the big seas hurling themselves upon the Condor. The swirl and + crash of the waves seemed to fill her small soul with a breathless + delight. "A good boy spoiled," he used to say of her in joke. He had + named her Ivy because of the sound of the word, and obscurely fascinated + by a vague association of ideas. She had twined herself tightly round + his heart, and he intended her to cling close to her father as to a + tower of strength; forgetting, while she was little, that in the nature + of things she would probably elect to cling to someone else. But + he loved life well enough for even that event to give him a certain + satisfaction, apart from his more intimate feeling of loss.
+ +After he had purchased the Fair Maid to occupy his loneliness, he + hastened to accept a rather unprofitable freight to Australia simply for + the opportunity of seeing his daughter in her own home. What made him + dissatisfied there was not to see that she clung now to somebody else, + but that the prop she had selected seemed on closer examination "a + rather poor stick"--even in the matter of health. He disliked his + son-in-law's studied civility perhaps more than his method of + handling the sum of money he had given Ivy at her marriage. But of his + apprehensions he said nothing. Only on the day of his departure, with + the hall-door open already, holding her hands and looking steadily into + her eyes, he had said, "You know, my dear, all I have is for you and the + chicks. Mind you write to me openly." She had answered him by an almost + imperceptible movement of her head. She resembled her mother in + the color of her eyes, and in character--and also in this, that she + understood him without many words.
+ +Sure enough she had to write; and some of these letters made Captain + Whalley lift his white eye-brows. For the rest he considered he was + reaping the true reward of his life by being thus able to produce on + demand whatever was needed. He had not enjoyed himself so much in a + way since his wife had died. Characteristically enough his son-in-law's + punctuality in failure caused him at a distance to feel a sort of + kindness towards the man. The fellow was so perpetually being jammed on + a lee shore that to charge it all to his reckless navigation would be + manifestly unfair. No, no! He knew well what that meant. It was bad + luck. His own had been simply marvelous, but he had seen in his life too + many good men--seamen and others--go under with the sheer weight of bad + luck not to recognize the fatal signs. For all that, he was cogitating + on the best way of tying up very strictly every penny he had to leave, + when, with a preliminary rumble of rumors (whose first sound reached + him in Shanghai as it happened), the shock of the big failure came; + and, after passing through the phases of stupor, of incredulity, of + indignation, he had to accept the fact that he had nothing to speak of + to leave.
+ +Upon that, as if he had only waited for this catastrophe, the unlucky + man, away there in Melbourne, gave up his unprofitable game, and sat + down--in an invalid's bath-chair at that too. "He will never walk + again," wrote the wife. For the first time in his life Captain Whalley + was a bit staggered.
+ +The Fair Maid had to go to work in bitter earnest now. It was no longer + a matter of preserving alive the memory of Dare-devil Harry Whalley in + the Eastern Seas, or of keeping an old man in pocket-money and clothes, + with, perhaps, a bill for a few hundred first-class cigars thrown in at + the end of the year. He would have to buckle-to, and keep her going hard + on a scant allowance of gilt for the ginger-bread scrolls at her stem + and stern.
+ +This necessity opened his eyes to the fundamental changes of the world. + Of his past only the familiar names remained, here and there, but + the things and the men, as he had known them, were gone. The name of + Gardner, Patteson, & Co. was still displayed on the walls of warehouses + by the waterside, on the brass plates and window-panes in the business + quarters of more than one Eastern port, but there was no longer a + Gardner or a Patteson in the firm. There was no longer for Captain + Whalley an arm-chair and a welcome in the private office, with a bit of + business ready to be put in the way of an old friend, for the sake of + bygone services. The husbands of the Gardner girls sat behind the desks + in that room where, long after he had left the employ, he had kept his + right of entrance in the old man's time. Their ships now had yellow + funnels with black tops, and a time-table of appointed routes like a + confounded service of tramways. The winds of December and June were all + one to them; their captains (excellent young men he doubted not) were, + to be sure, familiar with Whalley Island, because of late years the + Government had established a white fixed light on the north end (with + a red danger sector over the Condor Reef), but most of them would have + been extremely surprised to hear that a flesh-and-blood Whalley still + existed--an old man going about the world trying to pick up a cargo here + and there for his little bark.
+ +And everywhere it was the same. Departed the men who would have nodded + appreciatively at the mention of his name, and would have thought + themselves bound in honor to do something for Dare-devil Harry Whalley. + Departed the opportunities which he would have known how to seize; and + gone with them the white-winged flock of clippers that lived in the + boisterous uncertain life of the winds, skimming big fortunes out of + the foam of the sea. In a world that pared down the profits to an + irreducible minimum, in a world that was able to count its disengaged + tonnage twice over every day, and in which lean charters were snapped up + by cable three months in advance, there were no chances of fortune for + an individual wandering haphazard with a little bark--hardly indeed any + room to exist.
+ +He found it more difficult from year to year. He suffered greatly from + the smallness of remittances he was able to send his daughter. Meantime + he had given up good cigars, and even in the matter of inferior cheroots + limited himself to six a day. He never told her of his difficulties, and + she never enlarged upon her struggle to live. Their confidence in each + other needed no explanations, and their perfect understanding endured + without protestations of gratitude or regret. He would have been shocked + if she had taken it into her head to thank him in so many words, but + he found it perfectly natural that she should tell him she needed two + hundred pounds.
+ +He had come in with the Fair Maid in ballast to look for a freight in + the Sofala's port of registry, and her letter met him there. Its tenor + was that it was no use mincing matters. Her only resource was in opening + a boarding-house, for which the prospects, she judged, were good. Good + enough, at any rate, to make her tell him frankly that with two hundred + pounds she could make a start. He had torn the envelope open, hastily, + on deck, where it was handed to him by the ship-chandler's runner, who + had brought his mail at the moment of anchoring. For the second time + in his life he was appalled, and remained stock-still at the cabin door + with the paper trembling between his fingers. Open a boarding-house! Two + hundred pounds for a start! The only resource! And he did not know where + to lay his hands on two hundred pence.
+ +All that night Captain Whalley walked the poop of his anchored ship, as + though he had been about to close with the land in thick weather, and + uncertain of his position after a run of many gray days without a sight + of sun, moon, or stars. The black night twinkled with the guiding lights + of seamen and the steady straight lines of lights on shore; and all + around the Fair Maid the riding lights of ships cast trembling trails + upon the water of the roadstead. Captain Whalley saw not a gleam + anywhere till the dawn broke and he found out that his clothing was + soaked through with the heavy dew.
+ +His ship was awake. He stopped short, stroked his wet beard, and + descended the poop ladder backwards, with tired feet. At the sight + of him the chief officer, lounging about sleepily on the quarterdeck, + remained open-mouthed in the middle of a great early-morning yawn.
+ +"Good morning to you," pronounced Captain Whalley solemnly, passing into + the cabin. But he checked himself in the doorway, and without looking + back, "By the bye," he said, "there should be an empty wooden case put + away in the lazarette. It has not been broken up--has it?"
+ +The mate shut his mouth, and then asked as if dazed, "What empty case, + sir?"
+ +"A big flat packing-case belonging to that painting in my room. Let it + be taken up on deck and tell the carpenter to look it over. I may want + to use it before long."
+ +The chief officer did not stir a limb till he had heard the door of the + captain's state-room slam within the cuddy. Then he beckoned aft the + second mate with his forefinger to tell him that there was something "in + the wind."
+ +When the bell rang Captain Whalley's authoritative voice boomed out + through a closed door, "Sit down and don't wait for me." And his + impressed officers took their places, exchanging looks and whispers + across the table. What! No breakfast? And after apparently knocking + about all night on deck, too! Clearly, there was something in the wind. + In the skylight above their heads, bowed earnestly over the plates, + three wire cages rocked and rattled to the restless jumping of the + hungry canaries; and they could detect the sounds of their "old + man's" deliberate movements within his state-room. Captain Whalley was + methodically winding up the chronometers, dusting the portrait of + his late wife, getting a clean white shirt out of the drawers, making + himself ready in his punctilious unhurried manner to go ashore. He could + not have swallowed a single mouthful of food that morning. He had made + up his mind to sell the Fair Maid.
+ +Just at that time the Japanese were casting far and wide for ships + of European build, and he had no difficulty in finding a purchaser, a + speculator who drove a hard bargain, but paid cash down for the Fair + Maid, with a view to a profitable resale. Thus it came about that + Captain Whalley found himself on a certain afternoon descending the + steps of one of the most important post-offices of the East with a slip + of bluish paper in his hand. This was the receipt of a registered letter + enclosing a draft for two hundred pounds, and addressed to Melbourne. + Captain Whalley pushed the paper into his waistcoat-pocket, took his + stick from under his arm, and walked down the street.
+ +It was a recently opened and untidy thoroughfare with rudimentary + side-walks and a soft layer of dust cushioning the whole width of + the road. One end touched the slummy street of Chinese shops near the + harbor, the other drove straight on, without houses, for a couple of + miles, through patches of jungle-like vegetation, to the yard gates + of the new Consolidated Docks Company. The crude frontages of the new + Government buildings alternated with the blank fencing of vacant plots, + and the view of the sky seemed to give an added spaciousness to the + broad vista. It was empty and shunned by natives after business + hours, as though they had expected to see one of the tigers from the + neighborhood of the New Waterworks on the hill coming at a loping canter + down the middle to get a Chinese shopkeeper for supper. Captain Whalley + was not dwarfed by the solitude of the grandly planned street. He + had too fine a presence for that. He was only a lonely figure walking + purposefully, with a great white beard like a pilgrim, and with a thick + stick that resembled a weapon. On one side the new Courts of Justice had + a low and unadorned portico of squat columns half concealed by a few old + trees left in the approach. On the other the pavilion wings of the + new Colonial Treasury came out to the line of the street. But Captain + Whalley, who had now no ship and no home, remembered in passing that + on that very site when he first came out from England there had stood a + fishing village, a few mat huts erected on piles between a muddy tidal + creek and a miry pathway that went writhing into a tangled wilderness + without any docks or waterworks.
+ +No ship--no home. And his poor Ivy away there had no home either. A + boarding-house is no sort of home though it may get you a living. His + feelings were horribly rasped by the idea of the boarding-house. In his + rank of life he had that truly aristocratic temperament characterized by + a scorn of vulgar gentility and by prejudiced views as to the derogatory + nature of certain occupations. For his own part he had always preferred + sailing merchant ships (which is a straightforward occupation) to buying + and selling merchandise, of which the essence is to get the better of + somebody in a bargain--an undignified trial of wits at best. His father + had been Colonel Whalley (retired) of the H. E. I. Company's service, + with very slender means besides his pension, but with distinguished + connections. He could remember as a boy how frequently waiters at the + inns, country tradesmen and small people of that sort, used to "My lord" + the old warrior on the strength of his appearance.
+ +Captain Whalley himself (he would have entered the Navy if his father + had not died before he was fourteen) had something of a grand air which + would have suited an old and glorious admiral; but he became lost like + a straw in the eddy of a brook amongst the swarm of brown and yellow + humanity filling a thoroughfare, that by contrast with the vast and + empty avenue he had left seemed as narrow as a lane and absolutely + riotous with life. The walls of the houses were blue; the shops of the + Chinamen yawned like cavernous lairs; heaps of nondescript merchandise + overflowed the gloom of the long range of arcades, and the fiery + serenity of sunset took the middle of the street from end to end with a + glow like the reflection of a fire. It fell on the bright colors and the + dark faces of the bare-footed crowd, on the pallid yellow backs of the + half-naked jostling coolies, on the accouterments of a tall Sikh trooper + with a parted beard and fierce mustaches on sentry before the gate of + the police compound. Looming very big above the heads in a red haze of + dust, the tightly packed car of the cable tramway navigated cautiously + up the human stream, with the incessant blare of its horn, in the manner + of a steamer groping in a fog.
+ +Captain Whalley emerged like a diver on the other side, and in the + desert shade between the walls of closed warehouses removed his hat to + cool his brow. A certain disrepute attached to the calling of a + landlady of a boarding-house. These women were said to be rapacious, + unscrupulous, untruthful; and though he contemned no class of his + fellow-creatures--God forbid!--these were suspicions to which it was + unseemly that a Whalley should lay herself open. He had not expostulated + with her, however. He was confident she shared his feelings; he was + sorry for her; he trusted her judgment; he considered it a merciful + dispensation that he could help her once more,--but in his aristocratic + heart of hearts he would have found it more easy to reconcile himself to + the idea of her turning seamstress. Vaguely he remembered reading years + ago a touching piece called the "Song of the Shirt." It was all very + well making songs about poor women. The granddaughter of Colonel + Whalley, the landlady of a boarding-house! Pooh! He replaced his hat, + dived into two pockets, and stopping a moment to apply a flaring match + to the end of a cheap cheroot, blew an embittered cloud of smoke at a + world that could hold such surprises.
+ +Of one thing he was certain--that she was the own child of a clever + mother. Now he had got over the wrench of parting with his ship, he + perceived clearly that such a step had been unavoidable. Perhaps he had + been growing aware of it all along with an unconfessed knowledge. But + she, far away there, must have had an intuitive perception of it, with + the pluck to face that truth and the courage to speak out--all the + qualities which had made her mother a woman of such excellent counsel.
+ +It would have had to come to that in the end! It was fortunate she had + forced his hand. In another year or two it would have been an utterly + barren sale. To keep the ship going he had been involving himself deeper + every year. He was defenseless before the insidious work of adversity, + to whose more open assaults he could present a firm front; like a + cliff that stands unmoved the open battering of the sea, with a lofty + ignorance of the treacherous backwash undermining its base. As it was, + every liability satisfied, her request answered, and owing no man a + penny, there remained to him from the proceeds a sum of five hundred + pounds put away safely. In addition he had upon his person some forty + odd dollars--enough to pay his hotel bill, providing he did not linger + too long in the modest bedroom where he had taken refuge.
+ +Scantily furnished, and with a waxed floor, it opened into one of + the side-verandas. The straggling building of bricks, as airy as a + bird-cage, resounded with the incessant flapping of rattan screens + worried by the wind between the white-washed square pillars of the + sea-front. The rooms were lofty, a ripple of sunshine flowed over the + ceilings; and the periodical invasions of tourists from some passenger + steamer in the harbor flitted through the wind-swept dusk of the + apartments with the tumult of their unfamiliar voices and impermanent + presences, like relays of migratory shades condemned to speed headlong + round the earth without leaving a trace. The babble of their irruptions + ebbed out as suddenly as it had arisen; the draughty corridors and + the long chairs of the verandas knew their sight-seeing hurry or + their prostrate repose no more; and Captain Whalley, substantial and + dignified, left well-nigh alone in the vast hotel by each light-hearted + skurry, felt more and more like a stranded tourist with no aim in view, + like a forlorn traveler without a home. In the solitude of his room he + smoked thoughtfully, gazing at the two sea-chests which held all that he + could call his own in this world. A thick roll of charts in a sheath + of sailcloth leaned in a corner; the flat packing-case containing the + portrait in oils and the three carbon photographs had been pushed under + the bed. He was tired of discussing terms, of assisting at surveys, of + all the routine of the business. What to the other parties was merely + the sale of a ship was to him a momentous event involving a radically + new view of existence. He knew that after this ship there would be no + other; and the hopes of his youth, the exercise of his abilities, every + feeling and achievement of his manhood, had been indissolubly connected + with ships. He had served ships; he had owned ships; and even the years + of his actual retirement from the sea had been made bearable by the idea + that he had only to stretch out his hand full of money to get a ship. He + had been at liberty to feel as though he were the owner of all the + ships in the world. The selling of this one was weary work; but when + she passed from him at last, when he signed the last receipt, it was as + though all the ships had gone out of the world together, leaving him on + the shore of inaccessible oceans with seven hundred pounds in his hands.
+ +Striding firmly, without haste, along the quay, Captain Whalley averted + his glances from the familiar roadstead. Two generations of seamen born + since his first day at sea stood between him and all these ships at the + anchorage. His own was sold, and he had been asking himself, What next?
+ +From the feeling of loneliness, of inward emptiness,--and of loss + too, as if his very soul had been taken out of him forcibly,--there had + sprung at first a desire to start right off and join his daughter. + "Here are the last pence," he would say to her; "take them, my dear. And + here's your old father: you must take him too."
+ +His soul recoiled, as if afraid of what lay hidden at the bottom of + this impulse. Give up! Never! When one is thoroughly weary all sorts of + nonsense come into one's head. A pretty gift it would have been for a + poor woman--this seven hundred pounds with the incumbrance of a hale old + fellow more than likely to last for years and years to come. Was he not + as fit to die in harness as any of the youngsters in charge of these + anchored ships out yonder? He was as solid now as ever he had been. But + as to who would give him work to do, that was another matter. Were he, + with his appearance and antecedents, to go about looking for a junior's + berth, people, he was afraid, would not take him seriously; or else if + he succeeded in impressing them, he would maybe obtain their pity, which + would be like stripping yourself naked to be kicked. He was not anxious + to give himself away for less than nothing. He had no use for anybody's + pity. On the other hand, a command--the only thing he could try for with + due regard for common decency--was not likely to be lying in wait + for him at the corner of the next street. Commands don't go a-begging + nowadays. Ever since he had come ashore to carry out the business of + the sale he had kept his ears open, but had heard no hint of one being + vacant in the port. And even if there had been one, his successful past + itself stood in his way. He had been his own employer too long. The only + credential he could produce was the testimony of his whole life. What + better recommendation could anyone require? But vaguely he felt that + the unique document would be looked upon as an archaic curiosity of the + Eastern waters, a screed traced in obsolete words--in a half-forgotten + language.
+ +Revolving these thoughts, he strolled on near the railings of the quay, + broad-chested, without a stoop, as though his big shoulders had never + felt the burden of the loads that must be carried between the cradle + and the grave. No single betraying fold or line of care disfigured the + reposeful modeling of his face. It was full and untanned; and the upper + part emerged, massively quiet, out of the downward flow of silvery hair, + with the striking delicacy of its clear complexion and the powerful + width of the forehead. The first cast of his glance fell on you candid + and swift, like a boy's; but because of the ragged snowy thatch of the + eyebrows the affability of his attention acquired the character of a + dark and searching scrutiny. With age he had put on flesh a little, had + increased his girth like an old tree presenting no symptoms of decay; + and even the opulent, lustrous ripple of white hairs upon his chest + seemed an attribute of unquenchable vitality and vigor.
+ +Once rather proud of his great bodily strength, and even of his personal + appearance, conscious of his worth, and firm in his rectitude, there had + remained to him, like the heritage of departed prosperity, the tranquil + bearing of a man who had proved himself fit in every sort of way for the + life of his choice. He strode on squarely under the projecting brim of + an ancient Panama hat. It had a low crown, a crease through its whole + diameter, a narrow black ribbon. Imperishable and a little discolored, + this headgear made it easy to pick him out from afar on thronged wharves + and in the busy streets. He had never adopted the comparatively modern + fashion of pipeclayed cork helmets. He disliked the form; and he hoped + he could manage to keep a cool head to the end of his life without all + these contrivances for hygienic ventilation. His hair was cropped close, + his linen always of immaculate whiteness; a suit of thin gray flannel, + worn threadbare but scrupulously brushed, floated about his burly limbs, + adding to his bulk by the looseness of its cut. The years had mellowed + the good-humored, imperturbable audacity of his prime into a temper + carelessly serene; and the leisurely tapping of his iron-shod stick + accompanied his footfalls with a self-confident sound on the flagstones. + It was impossible to connect such a fine presence and this unruffled + aspect with the belittling troubles of poverty; the man's whole + existence appeared to pass before you, facile and large, in the freedom + of means as ample as the clothing of his body.
+ +The irrational dread of having to break into his five hundred pounds for + personal expenses in the hotel disturbed the steady poise of his mind. + There was no time to lose. The bill was running up. He nourished the + hope that this five hundred would perhaps be the means, if everything + else failed, of obtaining some work which, keeping his body and soul + together (not a matter of great outlay), would enable him to be of use + to his daughter. To his mind it was her own money which he employed, as + it were, in backing her father and solely for her benefit. Once at work, + he would help her with the greater part of his earnings; he was good for + many years yet, and this boarding-house business, he argued to himself, + whatever the prospects, could not be much of a gold-mine from the first + start. But what work? He was ready to lay hold of anything in an honest + way so that it came quickly to his hand; because the five hundred pounds + must be preserved intact for eventual use. That was the great point. + With the entire five hundred one felt a substance at one's back; but + it seemed to him that should he let it dwindle to four-fifty or even + four-eighty, all the efficiency would be gone out of the money, as though + there were some magic power in the round figure. But what sort of work?
+ +Confronted by that haunting question as by an uneasy ghost, for whom he + had no exorcising formula, Captain Whalley stopped short on the apex + of a small bridge spanning steeply the bed of a canalized creek with + granite shores. Moored between the square blocks a seagoing Malay prau + floated half hidden under the arch of masonry, with her spars lowered + down, without a sound of life on board, and covered from stem to stern + with a ridge of palm-leaf mats. He had left behind him the overheated + pavements bordered by the stone frontages that, like the sheer face of + cliffs, followed the sweep of the quays; and an unconfined spaciousness + of orderly and sylvan aspect opened before him its wide plots of rolled + grass, like pieces of green carpet smoothly pegged out, its long ranges + of trees lined up in colossal porticos of dark shafts roofed with a + vault of branches.
+ +Some of these avenues ended at the sea. It was a terraced shore; and + beyond, upon the level expanse, profound and glistening like the gaze + of a dark-blue eye, an oblique band of stippled purple lengthened itself + indefinitely through the gap between a couple of verdant twin islets. + The masts and spars of a few ships far away, hull down in the outer + roads, sprang straight from the water in a fine maze of rosy lines + penciled on the clear shadow of the eastern board. Captain Whalley gave + them a long glance. The ship, once his own, was anchored out there. It + was staggering to think that it was open to him no longer to take a boat + at the jetty and get himself pulled off to her when the evening came. To + no ship. Perhaps never more. Before the sale was concluded, and till the + purchase-money had been paid, he had spent daily some time on board the + Fair Maid. The money had been paid this very morning, and now, all at + once, there was positively no ship that he could go on board of when he + liked; no ship that would need his presence in order to do her work--to + live. It seemed an incredible state of affairs, something too bizarre + to last. And the sea was full of craft of all sorts. There was that prau + lying so still swathed in her shroud of sewn palm-leaves--she too had + her indispensable man. They lived through each other, this Malay he had + never seen, and this high-sterned thing of no size that seemed to be + resting after a long journey. And of all the ships in sight, near and + far, each was provided with a man, the man without whom the finest ship + is a dead thing, a floating and purposeless log.
+ +After his one glance at the roadstead he went on, since there was + nothing to turn back for, and the time must be got through somehow. The + avenues of big trees ran straight over the Esplanade, cutting each other + at diverse angles, columnar below and luxuriant above. The interlaced + boughs high up there seemed to slumber; not a leaf stirred overhead: + and the reedy cast-iron lampposts in the middle of the road, gilt like + scepters, diminished in a long perspective, with their globes of white + porcelain atop, resembling a barbarous decoration of ostriches' eggs + displayed in a row. The flaming sky kindled a tiny crimson spark upon + the glistening surface of each glassy shell.
+ +With his chin sunk a little, his hands behind his back, and the end of + his stick marking the gravel with a faint wavering line at his heels, + Captain Whalley reflected that if a ship without a man was like a body + without a soul, a sailor without a ship was of not much more account + in this world than an aimless log adrift upon the sea. The log might be + sound enough by itself, tough of fiber, and hard to destroy--but what of + that! And a sudden sense of irremediable idleness weighted his feet like + a great fatigue.
+ +A succession of open carriages came bowling along the newly opened + sea-road. You could see across the wide grass-plots the discs of + vibration made by the spokes. The bright domes of the parasols swayed + lightly outwards like full-blown blossoms on the rim of a vase; and + the quiet sheet of dark-blue water, crossed by a bar of purple, made a + background for the spinning wheels and the high action of the horses, + whilst the turbaned heads of the Indian servants elevated above the line + of the sea horizon glided rapidly on the paler blue of the sky. In an + open space near the little bridge each turn-out trotted smartly in a + wide curve away from the sunset; then pulling up sharp, entered the main + alley in a long slow-moving file with the great red stillness of the sky + at the back. The trunks of mighty trees stood all touched with red on + the same side, the air seemed aflame under the high foliage, the + very ground under the hoofs of the horses was red. The wheels turned + solemnly; one after another the sunshades drooped, folding their colors + like gorgeous flowers shutting their petals at the end of the day. In + the whole half-mile of human beings no voice uttered a distinct word, + only a faint thudding noise went on mingled with slight jingling sounds, + and the motionless heads and shoulders of men and women sitting in + couples emerged stolidly above the lowered hoods--as if wooden. But one + carriage and pair coming late did not join the line.
+ +It fled along in a noiseless roll; but on entering the avenue one of the + dark bays snorted, arching his neck and shying against the steel-tipped + pole; a flake of foam fell from the bit upon the point of a satiny + shoulder, and the dusky face of the coachman leaned forward at once over + the hands taking a fresh grip of the reins. It was a long dark-green + landau, having a dignified and buoyant motion between the sharply + curved C-springs, and a sort of strictly official majesty in its supreme + elegance. It seemed more roomy than is usual, its horses seemed slightly + bigger, the appointments a shade more perfect, the servants perched + somewhat higher on the box. The dresses of three women--two young + and pretty, and one, handsome, large, of mature age--seemed to fill + completely the shallow body of the carriage. The fourth face was that + of a man, heavy lidded, distinguished and sallow, with a somber, thick, + iron-gray imperial and mustaches, which somehow had the air of solid + appendages. His Excellency--
+ +The rapid motion of that one equipage made all the others appear utterly + inferior, blighted, and reduced to crawl painfully at a snail's pace. + The landau distanced the whole file in a sort of sustained rush; the + features of the occupant whirling out of sight left behind an impression + of fixed stares and impassive vacancy; and after it had vanished in full + flight as it were, notwithstanding the long line of vehicles hugging the + curb at a walk, the whole lofty vista of the avenue seemed to lie open + and emptied of life in the enlarged impression of an august solitude.
+ +Captain Whalley had lifted his head to look, and his mind, disturbed in + its meditation, turned with wonder (as men's minds will do) to matters + of no importance. It struck him that it was to this port, where he had + just sold his last ship, that he had come with the very first he had + ever owned, and with his head full of a plan for opening a new trade + with a distant part of the Archipelago. The then governor had given + him no end of encouragement. No Excellency he--this Mr. Denham--this + governor with his jacket off; a man who tended night and day, so to + speak, the growing prosperity of the settlement with the self-forgetful + devotion of a nurse for a child she loves; a lone bachelor who lived as + in a camp with the few servants and his three dogs in what was called + then the Government Bungalow: a low-roofed structure on the half-cleared + slope of a hill, with a new flagstaff in front and a police orderly on + the veranda. He remembered toiling up that hill under a heavy sun for + his audience; the unfurnished aspect of the cool shaded room; the long + table covered at one end with piles of papers, and with two guns, a + brass telescope, a small bottle of oil with a feather stuck in the neck + at the other--and the flattering attention given to him by the man in + power. It was an undertaking full of risk he had come to expound, but a + twenty minutes' talk in the Government Bungalow on the hill had made it + go smoothly from the start. And as he was retiring Mr. Denham, already + seated before the papers, called out after him, "Next month the Dido + starts for a cruise that way, and I shall request her captain officially + to give you a look in and see how you get on." The Dido was one of the + smart frigates on the China station--and five-and-thirty years make a + big slice of time. Five-and-thirty years ago an enterprise like his had + for the colony enough importance to be looked after by a Queen's ship. + A big slice of time. Individuals were of some account then. Men like + himself; men, too, like poor Evans, for instance, with his red face, + his coal-black whiskers, and his restless eyes, who had set up the first + patent slip for repairing small ships, on the edge of the forest, in + a lonely bay three miles up the coast. Mr. Denham had encouraged that + enterprise too, and yet somehow poor Evans had ended by dying at + home deucedly hard up. His son, they said, was squeezing oil out of + cocoa-nuts for a living on some God-forsaken islet of the Indian Ocean; + but it was from that patent slip in a lonely wooded bay that had sprung + the workshops of the Consolidated Docks Company, with its three + graving basins carved out of solid rock, its wharves, its jetties, + its electric-light plant, its steam-power houses--with its gigantic + sheer-legs, fit to lift the heaviest weight ever carried afloat, and + whose head could be seen like the top of a queer white monument peeping + over bushy points of land and sandy promontories, as you approached the + New Harbor from the west.
+ +There had been a time when men counted: there were not so many carriages + in the colony then, though Mr. Denham, he fancied, had a buggy. And + Captain Whalley seemed to be swept out of the great avenue by the swirl + of a mental backwash. He remembered muddy shores, a harbor without + quays, the one solitary wooden pier (but that was a public work) jutting + out crookedly, the first coal-sheds erected on Monkey Point, that caught + fire mysteriously and smoldered for days, so that amazed ships came + into a roadstead full of sulphurous smoke, and the sun hung blood-red + at midday. He remembered the things, the faces, and something more + besides--like the faint flavor of a cup quaffed to the bottom, like a + subtle sparkle of the air that was not to be found in the atmosphere of + to-day.
+ +In this evocation, swift and full of detail like a flash of magnesium + light into the niches of a dark memorial hall, Captain Whalley + contemplated things once important, the efforts of small men, the growth + of a great place, but now robbed of all consequence by the greatness + of accomplished facts, by hopes greater still; and they gave him for a + moment such an almost physical grip upon time, such a comprehension of + our unchangeable feelings, that he stopped short, struck the ground with + his stick, and ejaculated mentally, "What the devil am I doing here!" He + seemed lost in a sort of surprise; but he heard his name called out in + wheezy tones once, twice--and turned on his heels slowly.
+ +He beheld then, waddling towards him autocratically, a man of an + old-fashioned and gouty aspect, with hair as white as his own, but with + shaved, florid cheeks, wearing a necktie--almost a neckcloth--whose + stiff ends projected far beyond his chin; with round legs, round arms, + a round body, a round face--generally producing the effect of his short + figure having been distended by means of an air-pump as much as the + seams of his clothing would stand. This was the Master-Attendant of the + port. A master-attendant is a superior sort of harbor-master; a person, + out in the East, of some consequence in his sphere; a Government + official, a magistrate for the waters of the port, and possessed of vast + but ill-defined disciplinary authority over seamen of all classes. + This particular Master-Attendant was reported to consider it miserably + inadequate, on the ground that it did not include the power of life + and death. This was a jocular exaggeration. Captain Eliott was fairly + satisfied with his position, and nursed no inconsiderable sense of such + power as he had. His conceited and tyrannical disposition did not allow + him to let it dwindle in his hands for want of use. The uproarious, + choleric frankness of his comments on people's character and conduct + caused him to be feared at bottom; though in conversation many pretended + not to mind him in the least, others would only smile sourly at the + mention of his name, and there were even some who dared to pronounce him + "a meddlesome old ruffian." But for almost all of them one of Captain + Eliott's outbreaks was nearly as distasteful to face as a chance of + annihilation.
+ + + + + + + + + +