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51
"
It
was
upward
of
thirty
days
before
I
saw
the
mouth
of
the
big
river
.
We
anchored
off
the
seat
of
the
government
.
But
my
work
would
not
begin
till
some
two
hundred
miles
farther
on
.
So
as
soon
as
I
could
I
made
a
start
for
a
place
thirty
miles
higher
up
.
52
"
I
had
my
passage
on
a
little
sea-going
steamer
.
Her
captain
was
a
Swede
,
and
knowing
me
for
a
seaman
,
invited
me
on
the
bridge
.
He
was
a
young
man
,
lean
,
fair
,
and
morose
,
with
lanky
hair
and
a
shuffling
gait
.
As
we
left
the
miserable
little
wharf
,
he
tossed
his
head
contemptuously
at
the
shore
.
'
Been
living
there
?
'
he
asked
.
I
said
,
'
Yes
.
'
'
Fine
lot
these
government
chaps
--
are
they
not
?
'
he
went
on
,
speaking
English
with
great
precision
and
considerable
bitterness
.
'
It
is
funny
what
some
people
will
do
for
a
few
francs
a
month
.
I
wonder
what
becomes
of
that
kind
when
it
goes
upcountry
?
'
I
said
to
him
I
expected
to
see
that
soon
.
'
So-o-o
!
'
he
exclaimed
.
He
shuffled
athwart
,
keeping
one
eye
ahead
vigilantly
.
'
Do
n't
be
too
sure
,
'
he
continued
.
'
The
other
day
I
took
up
a
man
who
hanged
himself
on
the
road
.
He
was
a
Swede
,
too
.
'
'
Hanged
himself
!
Why
,
in
God
's
name
?
'
I
cried
.
He
kept
on
looking
out
watchfully
.
'
Who
knows
?
The
sun
too
much
for
him
,
or
the
country
perhaps
.
'
53
"
At
last
we
opened
a
reach
.
A
rocky
cliff
appeared
,
mounds
of
turned-up
earth
by
the
shore
,
houses
on
a
hill
,
others
with
iron
roofs
,
amongst
a
waste
of
excavations
,
or
hanging
to
the
declivity
.
A
continuous
noise
of
the
rapids
above
hovered
over
this
scene
of
inhabited
devastation
.
Отключить рекламу
54
A
lot
of
people
,
mostly
black
and
naked
,
moved
about
like
ants
.
A
jetty
projected
into
the
river
.
A
blinding
sunlight
drowned
all
this
at
times
in
a
sudden
recrudescence
of
glare
.
'
There
's
your
Company
's
station
,
'
said
the
Swede
,
pointing
to
three
wooden
barrack-like
structures
on
the
rocky
slope
.
'
I
will
send
your
things
up
.
Four
boxes
did
you
say
?
So
.
Farewell
.
'
55
"
I
came
upon
a
boiler
wallowing
in
the
grass
,
then
found
a
path
leading
up
the
hill
.
It
turned
aside
for
the
boulders
,
and
also
for
an
undersized
railway-truck
lying
there
on
its
back
with
its
wheels
in
the
air
.
One
was
off
.
The
thing
looked
as
dead
as
the
carcass
of
some
animal
.
I
came
upon
more
pieces
of
decaying
machinery
,
a
stack
of
rusty
rails
.
To
the
left
a
clump
of
trees
made
a
shady
spot
,
where
dark
things
seemed
to
stir
feebly
.
I
blinked
,
the
path
was
steep
.
A
horn
tooted
to
the
right
,
and
I
saw
the
black
people
run
.
A
heavy
and
dull
detonation
shook
the
ground
,
a
puff
of
smoke
came
out
of
the
cliff
,
and
that
was
all
.
No
change
appeared
on
the
face
of
the
rock
.
They
were
building
a
railway
.
The
cliff
was
not
in
the
way
or
anything
;
but
this
objectless
blasting
was
all
the
work
going
on
.
56
"
A
slight
clinking
behind
me
made
me
turn
my
head
.
Six
black
men
advanced
in
a
file
,
toiling
up
the
path
.
They
walked
erect
and
slow
,
balancing
small
baskets
full
of
earth
on
their
heads
,
and
the
clink
kept
time
with
their
footsteps
.
Black
rags
were
wound
round
their
loins
,
and
the
short
ends
behind
waggled
to
and
fro
like
tails
.
57
I
could
see
every
rib
,
the
joints
of
their
limbs
were
like
knots
in
a
rope
;
each
had
an
iron
collar
on
his
neck
,
and
all
were
connected
together
with
a
chain
whose
bights
swung
between
them
,
rhythmically
clinking
.
Another
report
from
the
cliff
made
me
think
suddenly
of
that
ship
of
war
I
had
seen
firing
into
a
continent
.
It
was
the
same
kind
of
ominous
voice
;
but
these
men
could
by
no
stretch
of
imagination
be
called
enemies
.
They
were
called
criminals
,
and
the
outraged
law
,
like
the
bursting
shells
,
had
come
to
them
,
an
insoluble
mystery
from
the
sea
.
All
their
meagre
breasts
panted
together
,
the
violently
dilated
nostrils
quivered
,
the
eyes
stared
stonily
uphill
.
They
passed
me
within
six
inches
,
without
a
glance
,
with
that
complete
,
deathlike
indifference
of
unhappy
savages
.
Behind
this
raw
matter
one
of
the
reclaimed
,
the
product
of
the
new
forces
at
work
,
strolled
despondently
,
carrying
a
rifle
by
its
middle
.
He
had
a
uniform
jacket
with
one
button
off
,
and
seeing
a
white
man
on
the
path
,
hoisted
his
weapon
to
his
shoulder
with
alacrity
.
This
was
simple
prudence
,
white
men
being
so
much
alike
at
a
distance
that
he
could
not
tell
who
I
might
be
.
He
was
speedily
reassured
,
and
with
a
large
,
white
,
rascally
grin
,
and
a
glance
at
his
charge
,
seemed
to
take
me
into
partnership
in
his
exalted
trust
.
After
all
,
I
also
was
a
part
of
the
great
cause
of
these
high
and
just
proceedings
.
Отключить рекламу
58
"
Instead
of
going
up
,
I
turned
and
descended
to
the
left
.
My
idea
was
to
let
that
chain-gang
get
out
of
sight
before
I
climbed
the
hill
.
59
You
know
I
am
not
particularly
tender
;
I
've
had
to
strike
and
to
fend
off
.
I
've
had
to
resist
and
to
attack
sometimes
--
that
's
only
one
way
of
resisting
--
without
counting
the
exact
cost
,
according
to
the
demands
of
such
sort
of
life
as
I
had
blundered
into
.
I
've
seen
the
devil
of
violence
,
and
the
devil
of
greed
,
and
the
devil
of
hot
desire
;
but
,
by
all
the
stars
!
these
were
strong
,
lusty
,
red-eyed
devils
,
that
swayed
and
drove
men
--
men
,
I
tell
you
.
But
as
I
stood
on
this
hillside
,
I
foresaw
that
in
the
blinding
sunshine
of
that
land
I
would
become
acquainted
with
a
flabby
,
pretending
,
weak-eyed
devil
of
a
rapacious
and
pitiless
folly
.
How
insidious
he
could
be
,
too
,
I
was
only
to
find
out
several
months
later
and
a
thousand
miles
farther
.
For
a
moment
I
stood
appalled
,
as
though
by
a
warning
.
Finally
I
descended
the
hill
,
obliquely
,
towards
the
trees
I
had
seen
.
60
"
I
avoided
a
vast
artificial
hole
somebody
had
been
digging
on
the
slope
,
the
purpose
of
which
I
found
it
impossible
to
divine
.
It
was
n't
a
quarry
or
a
sandpit
,
anyhow
.
It
was
just
a
hole
.
It
might
have
been
connected
with
the
philanthropic
desire
of
giving
the
criminals
something
to
do
.
I
do
n't
know
.
Then
I
nearly
fell
into
a
very
narrow
ravine
,
almost
no
more
than
a
scar
in
the
hillside
.
I
discovered
that
a
lot
of
imported
drainage-pipes
for
the
settlement
had
been
tumbled
in
there
.
There
was
n't
one
that
was
not
broken
.
It
was
a
wanton
smash-up
.
At
last
I
got
under
the
trees
.