andah came out strongly
outlined in black splashes of shadow with all the uncompromising ugliness
of their disorder, and a caricature of the sleeping Almayer appeared on
the dirty whitewash of the wall behind him in a grotesquely exaggerated
detail of attitude and feature enlarged to a heroic size. The
discontented bats departed in quest of darker places, and a lizard came
out in short, nervous rushes, and, pleased with the white table-cloth,
stopped on it in breathless immobility that would have suggested sudden
death had it not been for the melodious call he exchanged with a less
adventurous friend hiding amongst the lumber in the courtyard. Then the
boards in the passage creaked, the lizard vanished, and Almayer stirred
uneasily with a sigh: slowly, out of the senseless annihilation of
drunken sleep, he was returning, through the land of dreams, to waking
consciousness. Almayer's head rolled from shoulder to shoulder in the
oppression of his dream; the heavens had descended upon him like a heavy
mantle, and trailed in starred folds far under him. Stars above, stars
all round him; and from the stars under his feet rose a whisper full of
entreaties and tears, and sorrowful faces flitted amongst the clusters of
light filling the infinite space below. How escape from the importunity
of lamentable cries and from the look of staring, sad eyes in the faces
which pressed round him till he gasped for breath under the crushing
weight of worlds that hung over his aching shoulders? Get away! But
how? If he attempted to move he would step off into nothing, and perish
in the crashing fall of that universe of which he was the only support.
And what were the voices saying? Urging him to move! Why? Move to
destruction! Not likely! The absurdity of the thing filled him with
indignation. He got a firmer foothold and stiffened his muscles in
heroic resolve to carry his burden to all eternity. And ages passed in
the superhuman labour, amidst the rush of circling worlds; in the
plaintive murmur of sorrowful voices urging him to desist before it was
too late--till the mysterious power that had laid upon him the giant task
seemed at last to seek his destruction. With terror he felt an
irresistible hand shaking him by the shoulder, while the chorus of voices
swelled louder into an agonised prayer to go, go before it is too late.
He felt himself slipping, losing his balance, as something dragged at his
legs, and he fell. With a