d: "Pah! Don't they stink! You,
Makola! Take that herd over to the fetish" (the storehouse was in every
station called the fetish, perhaps because of the spirit of civilization
it contained) "and give them up some of the rubbish you keep there. I'd
rather see it full of bone than full of rags."

Kayerts approved.

"Yes, yes! Go and finish that palaver over there, Mr. Makola. I will
come round when you are ready, to weigh the tusk. We must be careful."
Then turning to his companion: "This is the tribe that lives down the
river; they are rather aromatic. I remember, they had been once before
here. D'ye hear that row? What a fellow has got to put up with in this
dog of a country! My head is split."

Such profitable visits were rare. For days the two pioneers of trade and
progress would look on their empty courtyard in the vibrating brilliance
of vertical sunshine. Below the high bank, the silent river flowed on
glittering and steady. On the sands in the middle of the stream, hippos
and alligators sunned themselves side by side. And stretching away
in all directions, surrounding the insignificant cleared spot of the
trading post, immense forests, hiding fateful complications of fantastic
life, lay in the eloquent silence of mute greatness. The two men
understood nothing, cared for nothing but for the passage of days that
separated them from the steamer's return. Their predecessor had left
some torn books. They took up these wrecks of novels, and, as they had
never read anything of the kind before, they were surprised and amused.
Then during long days there were interminable and silly discussions
about plots and personages. In the centre of Africa they made
acquaintance of Richelieu and of d'Artagnan, of Hawk's Eye and of Father
Goriot, and of many other people. All these imaginary personages became
subjects for gossip as if they had been living friends. They discounted
their virtues, suspected their motives, decried their successes; were
scandalized at their duplicity or were doubtful about their courage.
The accounts of crimes filled them with indignation, while tender or
pathetic passages moved them deeply. Carlier cleared his throat and said
in a soldierly voice, "What nonsense!" Kayerts, his round eyes suffused
with tears, his fat cheeks quivering, rubbed his bald head, and
declared. "This is a splendid book. I had no idea there were such clever
fellows in the world." They also found some old copies of a home
paper.