Forty tons of dynamite have
been your best friend to-day, young man."
"That was true too, perhaps. Anyway I saw clearly enough that I had
nothing to thank myself for. But as I tried to thank him, he checked my
stammering.
"Don't be in a hurry to thank me," says he. "The voyage isn't finished
yet."
Our new acquaintance paused, then added meditatively: "Queer man. As if
it made any difference. Queer man."
"It's certainly unwise to admit any sort of responsibility for our
actions, whose consequences we are never able to foresee," remarked
Marlow by way of assent.
"The consequence of his action was that I got a ship," said the other.
"That could not do much harm," he added with a laugh which argued a
probably unconscious contempt of general ideas.
But Marlow was not put off. He was patient and reflective. He had been
at sea many years and I verily believe he liked sea-life because upon the
whole it is favourable to reflection. I am speaking of the now nearly
vanished sea-life under sail. To those who may be surprised at the
statement I will point out that this life secured for the mind of him who
embraced it the inestimable advantages of solitude and silence.
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