Kurtz has done more harm than good to the Company. He did
not see the time was not ripe for vigorous action. Cautiously,
cautiously--that's my principle. We must be cautious yet. The district
is closed to us for a time. Deplorable! Upon the whole, the trade will
suffer. I don't deny there is a remarkable quantity of ivory--mostly
fossil. We must save it, at all events--but look how precarious the
position is--and why? Because the method is unsound.' 'Do you,' said I,
looking 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 relief. '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.
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