An Outcast of the Islands

n Willems' shoulder. This time it was the old seaman himself going out of his way to pick up the uninteresting waif - all that there was left of that sud

end of which was very visible now from the jetty where they both stood. He

ve been standing here waiting for help. You are the man - of all men

this town like a bluebottle fly, looking for you high and low. I have heard a lot. I will tell you what, Willems; you are no saint, that's a fact. And you have not been over-wise ei

ems lost the faculty of surprise in the over-powering feeling of indignation. So it was Vinck and Leonard who had served him so. They had watched him, tracked his misdeeds, reported them to Hudig. They had bribed obscure Chinamen, wormed out confidences

" he burst out, "the f

ow that, and you did your best to cram your bo

ot," went on Willems, passionately. "Always my

came from, and concluded that it was safer to throw you overboard. After all, Hu

mean, Capta

, you are not going to make me believe you did n

d suddenly and

ver heard . . . Lately I thought the

ed to himself, "I don't believe the fellow knew. Well! well! Steady now

a dreary voice, looking far over

ing wrong there. But did you really think that Hudig was marrying you

ou know yourself - through thick and thin. No matter wh

and the immensity of that injustice which

official position, a government agent in Koti, where he died of cholera, alas! a victim to duty, like a good Catholic, and a good man. It sounded very respectable, and Willems approved of those feeling references. Moreover, he prided himself upon having no colour-prejudices and no racial antipathies. He consented to drink curacoa one afternoon on the verandah of Mrs. da Souza's house. He remembered Joanna that day, swinging in a hammock. She was untidy even then, he remembered, and that was the only impression he carried away from that visit. He had no time for love in those glorious days, no time even for a passing fancy, but gradually he fell into the habit of calling almost every day at that little house where he was greeted by Mrs. da Souza's shrill voice screaming for Joanna to come and entertain the gentleman from Hudig & Co. An

. estimable . . . best thing for a young man . . . settle down. . . . Personally, very glad to hear . .

ng free from prejudices. The old scoundrel must have been laughing in his sleeve at his fool of a confidential clerk. He took the girl, guessing nothing. How could he? There had been a father of some kind to the common knowledge. Men knew him; spoke about him. A lank man of hopelessly mixed descent, but otherwise - apparently - unobjectionable. The shady relations came out afterward, but - with his freedom from prejudices - he did not mind them, because, with their humble dependence, they completed h

t away by a sudden jerk from the watchful o

anfully. "You want to kill, do you? You luna

in the quiet night. On the shore end the native caretaker of the wharf watched the combat, squatting behind the safe shelter of

of white men. No! nobody was killed, or there would have been trouble and a report to ma

of the younger man, he felt Willems' muscles relaxing, and took advantage of this opportunity to pi

ast. "Don't break my back over thi

the end of the jetty, and, still holding him prudently with one hand, he fumbled with the other for his whistle and blew a s

said Lingard. "Think of what you

o do, except one thing?

onsider myself responsible for you in a way. You took your

egular grind of the oars in the rowlocks

u owe him nothing now. Go back to your w

ard," exclaimed Wi

look for you and there I saw her despair. It was heart-breaking. She called for you; s

urity of his heart, and he would not go back to her. Let her come back to him. He had the comfortable conviction that he would never see her again, and that through her own fault only. In this conviction he told himself solemnly that if she would come to him he would receive her with generous forgiveness, because such was the praiseworth

nly on the black water close to the je

at heartless, Willems, and apt to cast adrift those that thought most

she loves me. Every bit. But as to going back now, to that place where I . . . To walk again amongst those men who yesterday were ready to crawl before me, and then feel on my back the sting of their pitying or satisfied smil

threatening good-bye. For a short moment he forgot his downfall in the recollection of his brilliant trium

d Lingard, pensively.

the

ration, "if you leave me here on this jetty - it's murder. I shall never return

seaman

Willems," he said, with g

h considerable uneasiness, the whisper of his own absurd c

l assumption of brutality in his manner, "but I won't. We are responsible for one another - wor

he steps, at the bottom of which lay his boat, rising

boat? Well, light it and bring

oistened his pencil with great energy a

l have it all square and ship-shape; see if I don't! Are you going

sional anger, and he wrote rapidly, the final dash of h

s house. I will send the boat

his lamp deliberat

an? Tau!

taking the lamp from him - a

lady herself," call

n disappeared, he

ack to that house only for another parting. You must come as you stand. I won't have th

d, then smiled

ically. "I trust you implicitly, Captai

steps, swinging the lamp an

and the only difference between then and now is that you were bare-footed then and have boo

the lamp falling on the upturned face of the stroke oar, who held the

t run clear in any way. That's what comes of such talk as yours, and of such a life. A man sees so much falsehood that he begins to lie to himself. Pah!" he said

is hand towards Willems, with friendly care. Willems sat by him in sile

Captain Lingard," said Willems, moodi

nce, seeing that I knew you from a child, so to speak. And now I shall forget; but you are youn

' shoulder, and they both sat silent till

back the messenger. As soon as it was seen returning dark forms appeared on the brig's spars; then the sails fell in festoons with a swish of their heavy folds, and hung motionless under the yard

rd; "we must wait for the land-breeze b

ht, his body bent down, his head low, and hi

ou? Well, it's up that river of mine about which people talk so much and know so litt

hem all in my pocket. The rajah is an old friend of mine. My word is law - and I am the only trader. No other white man but Almayer had ever been in that settlement. You will live quietly there till I come back from my next cruise to the westward. We shall see then what can be done for y

s breast in the discouraging certitude that the knowledge he and Hudig had

heart for it," continued Lingard, "just to kill ti

then, as the airs freshened, the brig tended to the wind, and the silenced canvas lay q

ch way do you want to ca

down at the dejected figure of the man sitting on

, as if annoyed at his own fleeting thought, "and bear a h

re hauled round. Sail was made on the ship and the windlass manned again while he stood still, lost in tho

ce, to the man whose face appeared suddenly out of the darknes

ater, and whispered softly to the gliding craft in that tender and rippling murmur in which it speaks sometimes to those it nurses and loves

ement. Not while I live, I trust. You see, Willems, I brought prosperity to that place. I composed their quarrels, and saw them grow under my eyes. There's peace and happiness there. I am more master there than his Dutch Excellency d

ginning to drop it astern when a white figure started up

to the R

he? I wonder what it means. Just like his impudence! No matter! His civility or his impudence are all one to me. I know that this fellow will be under way and after me like a shot. I don't ca