Victory: An Island Tale

uest, but the real truth of the matter was more complex. One day Heyst turned up in Timor. Why in Timor, of all places in the world, no one knows. Well, he was mooning about

r produce. He would often sail, through awfully dangerous channels up to some miserable settlement, only to find a very hungry population clamorous for rice, and without so much "produce" between them as would have filled Morrison's suitcase. Amid general rejoicings, he would land the rice all the same, explain to the people that it was an advance, that they were in debt to him now; would preach to them energy and industry, and make an elaborate note in a pocket-diary which he always carried; and this would be the end of that tr

remonstra

f your advances if you go

ut on a kn

lling out his inseparable pocketbook-"there's that So-and-So village. They

ferocious entry

and-So village at the

uch. Most of the places he traded with were unknown not only to geography but also to the traders' special lore which is transmitted by word of mouth, without ostentation, and forms the stock of mysterious local k

mps one sees on our roads trudging from workhouse to workhouse. Being hailed on the street he looked up with a wild worried expression. He was really in trouble. He had

t good enough to raise a millrei on-let alone a shilling. The Portuguese officials begged him not to distress himself. They gave him a week's grace, and then pr

bow, and in the manner of a prince addres

to drink something with me in that infamous wine-shop over

not know what he was doing. You could have led him over the edge of a precipice just as easily as into that wine-shop. He sat down like an automaton.

of fever, I fear," he

s tongue was l

them. But I am being murdered. I am being murdered by the Portuguese. The gang her

tively and actually white-for Morrison refused to accept the racial whiteness of the Portuguese officials. He let himself go for the mere relief of violent speech, his elbows planted on the table, his eyes blood-shot, his voice nearly gone, the brim of his round pith hat shading an unshaven, livid face. His white clothes, which he had not taken off for three days, were dingy. He had already gone to the bad, pas

hatched this pretty little plot with the chief of the customs. The sale, of course, will be a farce. There's no one here to bid. He will get the brig for a song-no, not even that-a line of a song. You have been some ye

ecovered self-possession. Heyst was beginning to say that he "could very well s

ssible to keep my trouble to myself. Words can't do it justice; but since I've told you so much I may as well tell you

ison?" asked Heyst with a

am not a

ame a pause, Morrison perhaps interrogating his conscience,

reliant. I don't hold with a man everlastingly bothering the Almighty with his silly troubles. It seems such cheek. Anyhow, this morni

ch other's eyes. Poor Morrison add

such a God-f

nation whether he might know the am

her person than Heyst would have exclaimed at it. And even Heyst could hardly keep incredulity out o

t had been in the innermost depths of the infernal regions. He said all this brusquely. He looked with sudden disfavour at that noble forehead, at those great martial moustaches, at the tired eyes of the man sitting opposite him. Who the devil was he? What was he, Morrison, doing there,

would be very happy if you

gs that don't happen-unheard of things. He had no real

nd you th

spered Morrison. "Do you

e. Glad to

t, flowing down to his toes, and a pair of great dazzling wings to sprout out on the Swede's shoulders-and didn't want to miss a single detail of the transformation. But if Heyst was an angel from on high, sent in answer to prayer, he did not betray his h

he very last person to be the agent of Providence in an affair concerned with money. The fact of his turning up in Timor or anywhere else was no more wonderf

he roadway to the custom-house-another mud hovel-to pay the fine, Morrison

aren't jok

d them on the discomposed Morrison. "In what way,

n was a

ayer. But I have been nearly off my chump for three days with worry;

al," said Heyst graciously, moving on. "N

may be unworthy, but I have been heard. I k

ich he could not share. But he stuck to his point by muttering

gan to talk about repayment. He knew very well his inability to lay by any sum of money. It was partly the fault of circumstances and partly of his temperament; and it would have b

been able to save. It's some sort of cur

notebook so well known in the islands, the fetish

it is-more than five thousand dolla

hroat. But Morrison was not only honest. He was honourable, too; and on this stressful day, before this amazing emissary of Pro

r. I've been saying for years I would, but I give it up. I never rea

ecent feeling was ever scorned by Heyst. But he was incapable of outward cordiality of manner, and he felt acutely his defect. Consummate politeness is not the right tonic for an emotional collapse. They must have had, both of them, a fairly painful time of

Morrison picked up most of his trade. Far from it; but he would have consented to almost any arrangement in order to put an end to the harrowing scene in the cabin. There was at once a great transformation act: Morrison raising his diminished head, and sticking t

by those damned Portuguese rascals! I should ne

t Morrison would force upon him. It made Heyst uncomfortable, as it was. And perhaps he did not care that it should be known that he had some means, whatever they might have been-sufficient, at any rate, to

out that Heyst, having obtained some mysterious hold on Morrison, had fastened himself on him and was sucking him dry. Those who had traced these mutters back to their origin were very careful not to believe them. The originator, it seems, was a certain Schomberg, a big, manly, bearded creature of the Teutonic persuasion, with an ungovernable tongue which surely must have worked on a pivot. Whether he was a Lieutenant of the Reserve, as he declared, I don't know. Out there he was by profession a hotel-keeper, first in Bangkok, then somewher

is thick paw at the side of his mouth: "We are among ourselves; well, gentlemen, all I can