Almayer's Folly: A Story of an Eastern River

ght, flooded the main path of the settlement leading from the low shor

s blue haze over the sunlit solitude of the settlement. Almayer, just out of his hammock, gazed sleepily at the unwonted appearance of Sambir, wondering vaguely at the absence of life. His own house was very quiet; he could not hear his wife's voice, nor the sound of Nina's footsteps in the big room, opening on the verandah, which he called his sitting-room, whenever, in the company of white men, he wished to assert his claims to the commonplace decencies of civilisation. Nobody ever sat there; there was nothing there to sit upon, for Mrs. Almayer in her savage moods, when excited by the reminiscences of the piratical period of her life, had torn off the curtains to make sarongs for the slave-

his wife's voice to break the oppressive stillness which seemed, to his frightened fancy, to portend the advent of some new misfortune. "What has happ

fit of unheard-of energy, arose and, taking up his hatchet, stepped over the sleeping forms of his two wives and walk

im that his house was still there, and he congratulated himself on his foresight in hauling it out of harm's way, for the increasing light showed him a confused wrack of drift-logs, half-stranded on the muddy flat, interlocked into a shapeless raft by their branches, tossing to and fro and grinding together in the eddy caused by the meeting currents of the two branches of the river. Mahmat walked down to the water's edge to examine the rattan moorings of his house just as the sun cleare

his hand to his lips and shouted, enunciating distinctly, his face turned towards t

ushed out excited but silent, and ran towards the muddy point where the unconscious logs tossed and ground and bumped and rolled over the dead stranger with the stupid persistency of inanimate things. The wome

tidious care, as if not in a hurry to meet Almayer, whom he saw looking at him from the verandah. This delay gave Almayer time to notice and greatly wonder at Babalatchi's official get-up. The statesman of Sambir was clad in a costume befitting his high rank. A loudly checkered sarong encircled his waist, and from its many folds peeped out the silver hilt of the kriss that saw the light only on great festivals or during official receptions. Over the left shoulder and across the otherwise unclad breast of the aged diplomatist glistened a patent leather belt bearing a brass plate with the arms of Netherlands under

called out; "what is the

oint. Almayer, now greatly interested, ran down the steps of the verandah. The murmur of men's voices and the shrill cries of women reached him quite distinctly now, and as soon as he turned the corner of his house he could see the cro

e cause of this excitement. On the very outskirts of the crowd Almayer found himself arrested by an unyielding mass of humanity, reg

rs to make a passage for himself, intending to get some intelligence from those around him, when a long and piercing shriek rent the air, silencing the murmurs of the crowd and the voices of his informants. For a moment Almayer remained as if turned into stone with astonishment and horro

eye gazing steadily at the shapeless mass of broken limbs, torn flesh, and bloodstained rags. As Almayer burst through the ring of horrified spectators, Mrs. Almayer threw her own head-veil over

e Almayer's eyes, and he listened to words spoken around him without comprehending their meanin

aw what it was I did not want it here. I wanted it to get clear and drift away. Why should we bury a stranger in th

pted him here. Mahmat looked

ng himself only to Almayer-"and I dragged him by the feet; in through the mud I have dragged him, although my heart

as a matter of common notoriety and of undying interest to the inhabitants

ou pleased, O Tuan Almayer? And what will be my recompense? Tuan Babalatchi said a recompense there will be, and from you. Now consider. I have been defiled, and if not defiled I may be under the spell. Look at his anklets! Who ever heard of a corpse appearing

, and at last arrested his fascinated gaze on the body lying on the mud with covered face in a grotesquely unnatural contortion of mangled and broken limbs, one tw

is?" he asked of Babal

s, while Mrs. Almayer's persistent lamentations drowned the w

hite man. I can see a ring on thos

accidentally on the hand of the corpse and pressing it into the soft mud.

ht not to have left to run after a dead stranger. This is men's work here. I take him n

anging groups that gradually dissolved as they neared the settlement and every man regained his own house with steps quickened by the hungry anticipation of the morning rice. Only on the slight elevation wh

trodden the poor fellow's hand right into the mud. Uncover his face," he went on, addressing Mrs. Almayer, who, squatting by t

must have been between them, and now there is no face for you to look at. There are his flesh and his bones, the nose, and the lips, and maybe his eyes, but nob

off his anklet, thou eater of pigs flesh. Tuan Almayer," he w

," he said quickly; "haven't you seen him? Is he not

nodded his

t he had within him a light that showed the way to your house as smooth as a narrow backwater, and the many logs no bigg

r off and looked at the formless mass of flesh, hair, and drying mud, where the face of t

ingers of the outstretched hand. He rose to his feet and flashe

r left Dain's hand. I had to tear the fle

ds with wearisome rapidity. A great rush, the noise of which he fancied he could hear yet; and now, with an awful shock, he had reached the bottom, and behold! he was alive and whole, and Dain was dead with all his bones broken. It struck him as funny. A dead Malay; he had seen many dead Malays without any emotion; and now he felt inclined to weep, but it was over the fate of a white man he knew; a man that fell over a deep precipice and did not die. He seemed somehow to himself to be standing on one side, a little way of

s not going mad, which he still kept repeating mentally as he ran round the table, till he stumbled against one of the arm-chairs and dropped into it exhausted. He sat staring wildly at Nina, still assuring himself mentally of his own sanity and wondering why the girl shrank from

ourney. He felt as if he had walked miles and miles that morning and now wanted to rest very much. He took the tumbler with a shaking hand, and as he drank his t

He is dead, and I may as

lking about the finding of the body, listening to his own voice complacently. Nina stood quietly, her hand resting lightly on her father's

he said coldly, when her

nour gave way in a moment to an

ver. You have no heart, and you have no mind, or you would have understood that it was for you, for your happiness I was working. I wanted to be rich; I wanted to get away from here. I wanted to see white men bowing low before the power of your beauty and your wealth. Old as I am I wished to seek a st

attentive face and jumped to

t all there; so; with

keep down his risin

without hope?" Nina's silence exasperated him; his

retched hole? Say something, Nina; have you no sympathy?

swer, and receiving none shook

u are an idio

ets. And now his heart was filled only with a great tenderness and love for his daughter. He wanted to see her miserable, and to share with her his despair; but he wanted it only as all weak natures long for a companionship in misfortune with beings innocent of its cause. If she suffered herself she would understand and pity him; but now she would not, or could not, find one word of comfort or love for him in his

at least did not expect to happen so soon. With her heart deeply moved by the sight of Almayer's misery, knowing it in her power to end it with a word, longing to bring peace to that troubled heart, she heard with terror the voice of her overpowering love commanding her to be silent. And she submitted after a short and fierce struggle of her old self against the new principle of her life. She wrapped herself up in absolute silence, the only safeguard aga

lected courtyard stood very straight before her eyes in the noonday heat. From the river-bank there were voices and a shuffle of bare feet approaching the house; Babalatchi could be heard giving directions to Almayer's men, and Mrs. Almayer's subdued wailing became audible as the small procession bea

he verandah. "Lay him there. He was a Kaffir and the son of a dog, and he was the white man's friend

fter whispering for some time with Babalatchi departed to her domestic duties. Almayer's men, after laying down their burden, dispersed themselves in q

latchi, who put his hand to his forehead

a, looking down on Babalatchi's upt

atesman. Then turning towards Mahmat he bec

ation. He avoided looking at Nina

he trader, and to no other. Dain returned last night in a canoe. He spoke with the Rajah, and in the middle of the ni

hmat under his breath. "Tuan Babalatchi, the

eyes. "What I have told you, Mahmat, is for all ear

m I a fool to show this thing in a house with three women in it?" he growled.

asing his pace as soon as he w

ared behind the bushes. "Have I done well,

Nina. "The ring you

ooked at Nina, as if expecting her to say something more, but Nina turned

ull to the Rajah's house. Yet he must go and tell the Rajah-tell of the event; of the change in his pla

before his eyes. The fishermen seemed to be racing. Babalatchi paused in his work, and looked on with sudden interest.

he man-of-war's boats ar

en their boats, the women stood in groups looking towards the bend down the river. Above the trees linin

rds Almayer's house, and back again at the river as if undecided what to do. At last he mad

coming. The man-of-war's boats. You had better

slowly from the table, a

ina, "look at him. He does not hear. Y

was just then coming into view arrested the words on her parted lips. The smile died out, and was replaced by the old look of anxious attention.