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601
He
had
to
know
.
He
traded
in
so
many
,
and
in
some
districts
--
as
in
Patusan
,
for
instance
--
his
firm
was
the
only
one
to
have
an
agency
by
special
permit
from
the
Dutch
authorities
.
The
Government
trusted
his
discretion
,
and
it
was
understood
that
he
took
all
the
risks
.
The
men
he
employed
understood
that
too
,
but
he
made
it
worth
their
while
apparently
.
He
was
perfectly
frank
with
me
over
the
breakfast-table
in
the
morning
.
As
far
as
he
was
aware
(
the
last
news
was
thirteen
months
old
,
he
stated
precisely
)
,
utter
insecurity
for
life
and
property
was
the
normal
condition
.
There
were
in
Patusan
antagonistic
forces
,
and
one
of
them
was
Rajah
Allang
,
the
worst
of
the
Sultan
's
uncles
,
the
governor
of
the
river
,
who
did
the
extorting
and
the
stealing
,
and
ground
down
to
the
point
of
extinction
the
country-born
Malays
,
who
,
utterly
defenceless
,
had
not
even
the
resource
of
emigrating
--
"
For
indeed
,
"
as
Stein
remarked
,
"
where
could
they
go
,
and
how
could
they
get
away
?
"
No
doubt
they
did
not
even
desire
to
get
away
.
The
world
(
which
is
circumscribed
by
lofty
impassable
mountains
)
has
been
given
into
the
hand
of
the
high-born
,
and
this
Rajah
they
knew
:
he
was
of
their
own
royal
house
.
I
had
the
pleasure
of
meeting
the
gentleman
later
on
.
He
was
a
dirty
,
little
,
used-up
old
man
with
evil
eyes
and
a
weak
mouth
,
who
swallowed
an
opium
pill
every
two
hours
,
and
in
defiance
of
common
decency
wore
his
hair
uncovered
and
falling
in
wild
stringy
locks
about
his
wizened
grimy
face
.
602
When
giving
audience
he
would
clamber
upon
a
sort
of
narrow
stage
erected
in
a
hall
like
a
ruinous
barn
with
a
rotten
bamboo
floor
,
through
the
cracks
of
which
you
could
see
,
twelve
or
fifteen
feet
below
,
the
heaps
of
refuse
and
garbage
of
all
kinds
lying
under
the
house
.
That
is
where
and
how
he
received
us
when
,
accompanied
by
Jim
,
I
paid
him
a
visit
of
ceremony
.
There
were
about
forty
people
in
the
room
,
and
perhaps
three
times
as
many
in
the
great
courtyard
below
.
There
was
constant
movement
,
coming
and
going
,
pushing
and
murmuring
,
at
our
backs
.
A
few
youths
in
gay
silks
glared
from
the
distance
;
the
majority
,
slaves
and
humble
dependants
,
were
half
naked
,
in
ragged
sarongs
,
dirty
with
ashes
and
mud-stains
.
I
had
never
seen
Jim
look
so
grave
,
so
self-possessed
,
in
an
impenetrable
,
impressive
way
.
In
the
midst
of
these
dark-faced
men
,
his
stalwart
figure
in
white
apparel
,
the
gleaming
clusters
of
his
fair
hair
,
seemed
to
catch
all
the
sunshine
that
trickled
through
the
cracks
in
the
closed
shutters
of
that
dim
hall
,
with
its
walls
of
mats
and
a
roof
of
thatch
.
He
appeared
like
a
creature
not
only
of
another
kind
but
of
another
essence
.
Had
they
not
seen
him
come
up
in
a
canoe
they
might
have
thought
he
had
descended
upon
them
from
the
clouds
.
603
He
did
,
however
,
come
in
a
crazy
dug-out
,
sitting
(
very
still
and
with
his
knees
together
,
for
fear
of
overturning
the
thing
)
--
sitting
on
a
tin
box
--
which
I
had
lent
him
--
nursing
on
his
lap
a
revolver
of
the
Navy
pattern
--
presented
by
me
on
parting
--
which
,
through
an
interposition
of
Providence
,
or
through
some
wrong-headed
notion
,
that
was
just
like
him
,
or
else
from
sheer
instinctive
sagacity
,
he
had
decided
to
carry
unloaded
.
That
's
how
he
ascended
the
Patusan
river
.
Nothing
could
have
been
more
prosaic
and
more
unsafe
,
more
extravagantly
casual
,
more
lonely
.
Strange
,
this
fatality
that
would
cast
the
complexion
of
a
flight
upon
all
his
acts
,
of
impulsive
unreflecting
desertion
of
a
jump
into
the
unknown
.
Отключить рекламу
604
'
It
is
precisely
the
casualness
of
it
that
strikes
me
most
.
Neither
Stein
nor
I
had
a
clear
conception
of
what
might
be
on
the
other
side
when
we
,
metaphorically
speaking
,
took
him
up
and
hove
him
over
the
wall
with
scant
ceremony
.
At
the
moment
I
merely
wished
to
achieve
his
disappearance
;
Stein
characteristically
enough
had
a
sentimental
motive
.
He
had
a
notion
of
paying
off
(
in
kind
,
I
suppose
)
the
old
debt
he
had
never
forgotten
.
Indeed
he
had
been
all
his
life
especially
friendly
to
anybody
from
the
British
Isles
.
605
His
late
benefactor
,
it
is
true
,
was
a
Scot
--
even
to
the
length
of
being
called
Alexander
McNeil
--
and
Jim
came
from
a
long
way
south
of
the
Tweed
;
but
at
the
distance
of
six
or
seven
thousand
miles
Great
Britain
,
though
never
diminished
,
looks
foreshortened
enough
even
to
its
own
children
to
rob
such
details
of
their
importance
.
Stein
was
excusable
,
and
his
hinted
intentions
were
so
generous
that
I
begged
him
most
earnestly
to
keep
them
secret
for
a
time
.
I
felt
that
no
consideration
of
personal
advantage
should
be
allowed
to
influence
Jim
;
that
not
even
the
risk
of
such
influence
should
be
run
.
We
had
to
deal
with
another
sort
of
reality
.
He
wanted
a
refuge
,
and
a
refuge
at
the
cost
of
danger
should
be
offered
him
--
nothing
more
.
606
'
Upon
every
other
point
I
was
perfectly
frank
with
him
,
and
I
even
(
as
I
believed
at
the
time
)
exaggerated
the
danger
of
the
undertaking
.
As
a
matter
of
fact
I
did
not
do
it
justice
;
his
first
day
in
Patusan
was
nearly
his
last
--
would
have
been
his
last
if
he
had
not
been
so
reckless
or
so
hard
on
himself
and
had
condescended
to
load
that
revolver
.
I
remember
,
as
I
unfolded
our
precious
scheme
for
his
retreat
,
how
his
stubborn
but
weary
resignation
was
gradually
replaced
by
surprise
,
interest
,
wonder
,
and
by
boyish
eagerness
.
This
was
a
chance
he
had
been
dreaming
of
.
He
could
n't
think
how
he
merited
that
I.
.
.
He
would
be
shot
if
he
could
see
to
what
he
owed
...
And
it
was
Stein
,
Stein
the
merchant
,
who
...
but
of
course
it
was
me
he
had
to
...
I
cut
him
short
.
607
He
was
not
articulate
,
and
his
gratitude
caused
me
inexplicable
pain
.
I
told
him
that
if
he
owed
this
chance
to
any
one
especially
,
it
was
to
an
old
Scot
of
whom
he
had
never
heard
,
who
had
died
many
years
ago
,
of
whom
little
was
remembered
besides
a
roaring
voice
and
a
rough
sort
of
honesty
.
There
was
really
no
one
to
receive
his
thanks
.
Stein
was
passing
on
to
a
young
man
the
help
he
had
received
in
his
own
young
days
,
and
I
had
done
no
more
than
to
mention
his
name
.
Upon
this
he
coloured
,
and
,
twisting
a
bit
of
paper
in
his
fingers
,
he
remarked
bashfully
that
I
had
always
trusted
him
.
Отключить рекламу
608
'
I
admitted
that
such
was
the
case
,
and
added
after
a
pause
that
I
wished
he
had
been
able
to
follow
my
example
.
"
You
think
I
do
n't
?
"
he
asked
uneasily
,
and
remarked
in
a
mutter
that
one
had
to
get
some
sort
of
show
first
;
then
brightening
up
,
and
in
a
loud
voice
he
protested
he
would
give
me
no
occasion
to
regret
my
confidence
,
which
--
which
...
609
"'
Do
not
misapprehend
,
"
I
interrupted
.
"
It
is
not
in
your
power
to
make
me
regret
anything
.
"
There
would
be
no
regrets
;
but
if
there
were
,
it
would
be
altogether
my
own
affair
:
an
the
other
hand
,
I
wished
him
to
understand
clearly
that
this
arrangement
,
this
--
this
--
experiment
,
was
his
own
doing
;
he
was
responsible
for
it
and
no
one
else
.
"
Why
?
Why
,
"
he
stammered
,
"
this
is
the
very
thing
that
I.
.
.
"
I
begged
him
not
to
be
dense
,
and
he
looked
more
puzzled
than
ever
.
He
was
in
a
fair
way
to
make
life
intolerable
to
himself
...
610
"
Do
you
think
so
?
"
he
asked
,
disturbed
;
but
in
a
moment
added
confidently
,
"
I
was
going
on
though
.
Was
I
not
?
"
It
was
impossible
to
be
angry
with
him
:
I
could
not
help
a
smile
,
and
told
him
that
in
the
old
days
people
who
went
on
like
this
were
on
the
way
of
becoming
hermits
in
a
wilderness
.
"
Hermits
be
hanged
!
"
he
commented
with
engaging
impulsiveness
.
Of
course
he
did
n't
mind
a
wilderness
...
"
I
was
glad
of
it
,
"
I
said
.
That
was
where
he
would
be
going
to
.
He
would
find
it
lively
enough
,
I
ventured
to
promise
.
"
Yes
,
yes
,
"
he
said
keenly
.
He
had
shown
a
desire
,
I
continued
inflexibly
,
to
go
out
and
shut
the
door
after
him
...
"
Did
I
?
"
he
interrupted
in
a
strange
access
of
gloom
that
seemed
to
envelop
him
from
head
to
foot
like
the
shadow
of
a
passing
cloud
.
He
was
wonderfully
expressive
after
all
.
Wonderfully
!
"
Did
I
?
"
he
repeated
bitterly
.
"
You
ca
n't
say
I
made
much
noise
about
it
.
And
I
can
keep
it
up
too
--
only
,
confound
it
!
you
show
me
a
door
.
"
...
"
Very
well
.
Pass
on
,
"
I
struck
in
.
I
could
make
him
a
solemn
promise
that
it
would
be
shut
behind
him
with
a
vengeance
.
His
fate
,
whatever
it
was
,
would
be
ignored
,
because
the
country
,
for
all
its
rotten
state
,
was
not
judged
ripe
for
interference
.
Once
he
got
in
,
it
would
be
for
the
outside
world
as
though
he
had
never
existed
.
He
would
have
nothing
but
the
soles
of
his
two
feet
to
stand
upon
,
and
he
would
have
first
to
find
his
ground
at
that
.
"
Never
existed
--
that
's
it
,
by
love
,
"
he
murmured
to
himself
.
His
eyes
,
fastened
upon
my
lips
,
sparkled