iel tore himself loose from the embrace of his old comrade, pushed
the dishevelled hair back from his forehead, and said hastily: "Come
upstairs with me; no one will disturb us up there."

Daniel lighted the lamp in his room, and then looked around to see
whether old Jordan was at home. Jordan's room was dark. He closed the
door and took a seat opposite Benda. He was breathing heavily.

What meaning can be attached to the preliminary questions and answers
that invariably accompany such a meeting after such a long separation?
"How are you? How long are you going to stay in town? You still have the
same old habits of life? Tell me about yourself." What do such questions
mean? They mean virtually nothing. The protagonists thereby simply
remove the rubbish from the channels which have been choked up in the
course of years, and try to build new bridges carrying them over abysses
that must be crossed if the conversation is to be connected and
coherent.

Benda had grown somewhat stout. His face was brownish yellow, about the
colour of leather. The deep wrinkles around his forehead and mouth told
of the hardships he had gone through. His eye was completely changed: it
had the strong, vivacious, and yet quiet appearance of the eye of a
hunter or a peasant.

"You may well imagine that I have already told the story of my
adventures in Africa a hundred times and in the same way," said Benda.
"It has all been written down, and will shortly appear in book form,
where you can read it. It was an unbroken chain of toil and trouble.
Frequently I was as close to death as I am to this wall. I devoured
enough quinine to fill a freight car, and yet it was always the same old
story, fever to-day, to-morrow, for six months in the year. I have, I
fear, ruined my health; I am afraid my old heart will not last much
longer. The eternal vigilance I was obliged to exercise, the incessant
fight for so simple a thing as a path, or for more urgent things such as
food and drink, has told on me. I suffered terribly from the sun; also
from the rain. I had very few of the comforts of life; I was often
forced to sleep on the ground. And there was no one to talk to, no sense
of security."

"And yet," he continued, "I had my reward. When I look back on it all,
there is not an hour that I would care to have wiped from my memory. I
accomplished a great deal. I made some important discoveries, brought
back enough work to keep me busy for years to come, thir