10 Heart of Darkness
at all events—but look how precarious the position is—and
why? Because the method is unsound.’ ‘Do you,’ said I, look-
ing at the shore, ‘call it ‘unsound method?‘ ‘Without doubt,’
he exclaimed hotly. ‘Don’t you?’ ... ‘No method at all,’ I
murmured after a while. ‘Exactly,’ he exulted. ‘I anticipated
this. Shows a complete want of judgment. It is my duty to
point it out in the proper quarter.’ ‘Oh,’ said I, ‘that fellow—
what’s his name?—the brickmaker, will make a readable
report for you.’ He appeared confounded for a moment. It
seemed to me I had never breathed an atmosphere so vile,
and I turned mentally to Kurtz for relief—positively for re-
lief. ‘Nevertheless I think Mr. Kurtz is a remarkable man,’
I said with emphasis. He started, dropped on me a heavy
glance, said very quietly, ‘he WAS,’ and turned his back on
me. My hour of favour was over; I found myself lumped
along with Kurtz as a partisan of methods for which the
time was not ripe: I was unsound! Ah! but it was something
to have at least a choice of nightmares.
‘I had turned to the wilderness really, not to Mr. Kurtz,
who, I was ready to admit, was as good as buried. And for
a moment it seemed to me as if I also were buried in a vast
grave full of unspeakable secrets. I felt an intolerable weight
oppressing my breast, the smell of the damp earth, the un-
seen presence of victorious corruption, the darkness of an
impenetrable night.... The Russian tapped me on the shoul-
der. I heard him mumbling and stammering something
about ‘brother seaman—couldn’t conceal— knowledge of
matters that would affect Mr. Kurtz’s reputation.’ I waited.
For him evidently Mr. Kurtz was not in his grave; I suspect