flung
off his hat, uncovering his long, tangled hair that stuck in wisps on
his perspiring forehead and straggled over his eyes, which glittered
deep down in the sockets like the last sparks amongst the black embers
of a burnt-out fire. An unclean beard grew out of the caverns of his
sunburnt cheeks. The hand he put out towards Almayer was very unsteady.
The once firm mouth had the tell-tale droop of mental suffering and
physical exhaustion. He was barefooted. Almayer surveyed him with
leisurely composure.

"Well!" he said at last, without taking the extended hand which dropped
slowly along Willems' body.

"I am come," began Willems.

"So I see," interrupted Almayer. "You might have spared me this treat
without making me unhappy. You have been away five weeks, if I am not
mistaken. I got on very well without you--and now you are here you are
not pretty to look at."

"Let me speak, will you!" exclaimed Willems.

"Don't shout like this. Do you think yourself in the forest with your
. . . your friends? This is a civilized man's house. A white man's.
Understand?"

"I am come," began Willems again; "I am come for your good and mine."

"You look as if you had come for a good feed," chimed in the
irrepressible Almayer, while Willems waved his hand in a discouraged
gesture. "Don't they give you enough to eat," went on Almayer, in a tone
of easy banter, "those--what am I to call them--those new relations of
yours? That old blind scoundrel must be delighted with your company. You
know, he was the greatest thief and murderer of those seas. Say! do
you exchange confidences? Tell me, Willems, did you kill somebody in
Macassar or did you only steal something?"

"It is not true!" exclaimed Willems, hotly. "I only borrowed. . . . They
all lied! I . . ."

"Sh-sh!" hissed Almayer, warningly, with a look at the sleeping child.
"So you did steal," he went on, with repressed exultation. "I thought
there was something of the kind. And now, here, you steal again."

For the first time Willems raised his eyes to Almayer's face.

"Oh, I don't mean from me. I haven't missed anything," said Almayer,
with mocking haste. "But that girl. Hey! You stole her. You did not pay
the old fellow. She is no good to him now, is she?"

"Stop that. Almayer!"

Something in Willems' tone caused Almayer to pause. He looked narrowly
at the man before him, and could not help being shocked at his
appearance.

"Almayer," went on Willems, "listen to m