Chance by Joseph Conrad (novels to read TXT) 📕

The ship-keeper dodged about the quarter-deck, out of hearing, and trying to keep out of sight.  At the same time, taking advantage of the open doors with skill and prudence, he could see the captain and “that girl” the captain had brought aboard.  The captain was showing her round very thoroughly.  Through the whole length of the passage, far away aft in the perspective of the saloon the ship-keeper had interesting glimpses of them as they went in and out of the various cabins, crossing from side to side, remaining invisible for a time in one or another of the state-rooms, and then reappearing again in the distance.  The girl, always following the captain, had her sunshade in her hands.  Mostly she would hang her head, but now and then she would look up.  They had a lot to say to each other, and seemed to forget they weren’t alone in the ship.  He saw the captain put his hand on her shoulder, and was preparing himself with a certain zest for what might follow, when the “old man” seemed to recollect himself, and came striding down all the length of the saloon.  At this move the ship-keeper promptly dodged out of sight, as you may believe, and heard the captain slam the inner door of the passage.  After that disappointment the ship-keeper waited resentfully for them to clear out of the ship.  It happened much sooner than he had expected.  The girl walked out on deck first.  As before she did not look round.  She didn’t look at anything; and she seemed to be in such a hurry to get ashore that she made for the gangway and started down the ladder without waiting for the captain.

What struck the ship-keeper most was the absent, unseeing expression of the captain, striding after the girl.  He passed him, the ship-keeper, without notice, without an order, without so much as a look.  The captain had never done so before.  Always had a nod and a pleasant word for a man.  From this slight the ship-keeper drew a conclusion unfavourable to the strange girl.  He gave them time to get down on the wharf before crossing the deck to steal one more look at the pair over the rail.  The captain took hold of the girl’s arm just before a couple of railway trucks drawn by a horse came rolling along and hid them from the ship-keeper’s sight for good.

Next day, when the chief mate joined the ship, he told him the tale of the visit, and expressed himself about the girl “who had got hold of the captain” disparagingly.  She didn’t look healthy, he explained.  “Shabby clothes, too,” he added spitefully.

The mate was very much interested.  He had been with Anthony for several years, and had won for himself in the course of many long voyages, a footing of familiarity, which was to be expected with a man of Anthony’s character.  But in that slowly-grown intimacy of the sea, which in its duration and solitude had its unguarded moments, no words had passed, even of the most casual, to prepare him for the vision of his captain associated with any kind of girl.  His impression had been that women did not exist for Captain Anthony.  Exhibiting himself with a girl!  A girl!  What did he want with a girl?  Bringing her on board and showing her round the cabin!  That was really a little bit too much.  Captain Anthony ought to have known better.

Franklin (the chief mate’s name was Franklin) felt disappointed; almost disillusioned.  Silly thing to do!  Here was a confounded old ship-keeper set talking.  He snubbed the ship-keeper, and tried to think of that insignificant bit of foolishness no more; for it diminished Captain Anthony in his eyes of a jealously devoted subordinate.

Franklin was over forty; his mother was still alive.  She stood in the forefront of all women for him, just as Captain Anthony stood in the forefront of all men.  We may suppose that these groups were not very large.  He had gone to sea at a very early age.  The feeling which caused these two people to partly eclipse the rest of mankind were of course not similar; though in time he had acquired the conviction that he was “taking care” of them both.  The “old lady” of course had to be looked after as long as she lived.  In regard to Captain Anthony, he used to say that: why should he leave him?  It wasn’t likely that he would come across a better sailor or a better man or a more comfortable ship.  As to trying to better himself in the way of promotion, commands were not the sort of thing one picked up in the streets, and when it came to that, Captain Anthony was as likely to give him a lift on occasion as anyone in the world.

From Mr. Powell’s description Franklin was a short, thick black-haired man, bald on the top.  His head sunk between the shoulders, his staring prominent eyes and a florid colour, gave him a rather apoplectic appearance.  In repose, his congested face had a humorously melancholy expression.

The ship-keeper having given him up all the keys and having been chased forward with the admonition to mind his own business and not to chatter about what did not concern him, Mr. Franklin went under the poop.  He opened one door after another; and, in the saloon, in the captain’s state-room and everywhere, he stared anxiously as if expecting to see on the bulkheads, on the deck, in the air, something unusual—sign, mark, emanation, shadow—he hardly knew what—some subtle change wrought by the passage of a girl.  But there was nothing.  He entered the unoccupied stern cabin and spent some time there unscrewing the two stern ports.  In the absence of all material evidences his uneasiness was passing away.  With a last glance round he came out and found himself in the presence of his captain advancing from the other end of the saloon.

Franklin, at once, looked for the girl.  She wasn’t to be seen.  The captain came up quickly.  ‘Oh! you are here, Mr. Franklin.’  And the mate said, ‘I was giving a little air to the place, sir.’  Then the captain, his hat pulled down over his eyes, laid his stick on the table and asked in his kind way: ‘How did you find your mother, Franklin?’—‘The old lady’s first-rate, sir, thank you.’  And then they had nothing to say to each other.  It was a strange and disturbing feeling for Franklin.  He, just back from leave, the ship just come to her loading berth, the captain just come on board, and apparently nothing to say!  The several questions he had been anxious to ask as to various things which had to be done had slipped out of his mind.  He, too, felt as though he had nothing to say.

The captain, picking up his stick off the table, marched into his state-room and shut the door after him.  Franklin remained still for a moment and then started slowly to go on deck.  But before he had time to reach the other end of the saloon he heard himself called by name.  He turned round.  The captain was staring from the doorway of his state-room.  Franklin said, “Yes, sir.”  But the captain, silent, leaned a little forward grasping the door handle.  So he, Franklin, walked aft keeping his eyes on him.  When he had come up quite close he said again, “Yes, sir?” interrogatively.  Still silence.  The mate didn’t like to be stared at in that manner, a manner quite new in his captain, with a defiant and self-conscious stare, like a man who feels ill and dares you to notice it.  Franklin gazed at his captain, felt that there was something wrong, and in his simplicity voiced his feelings by asking point-blank:

“What’s wrong, sir?”

The captain gave a slight start, and the character of his stare changed to a sort of sinister surprise.  Franklin grew very uncomfortable, but the captain asked negligently:

“What makes you think that there’s something wrong?”

“I can’t say exactly.  You don’t look quite yourself, sir,” Franklin owned up.

“You seem to have a confoundedly piercing eye,” said the captain in such an aggressive tone that Franklin was moved to defend himself.

“We have been together now over six years, sir, so I suppose I know you a bit by this time.  I could see there was something wrong directly you came on board.”

“Mr. Franklin,” said the captain, “we have been more than six years together, it is true, but I didn’t know you for a reader of faces.  You are not a correct reader though.  It’s very far from being wrong.  You understand?  As far from being wrong as it can very well be.  It ought to teach you not to make rash surmises.  You should leave that to the shore people.  They are great hands at spying out something wrong.  I dare say they know what they have made of the world.  A dam’ poor job of it and that’s plain.  It’s a confoundedly ugly place, Mr. Franklin.  You don’t know anything of it?  Well—no, we sailors don’t.  Only now and then one of us runs against something cruel or underhand, enough to make your hair stand on end.  And when you do see a piece of their wickedness you find that to set it right is not so easy as it looks . . . Oh!  I called you back to tell you that there will be a lot of workmen, joiners and all that sent down on board first thing to-morrow morning to start making alterations in the cabin.  You will see to it that they don’t loaf.  There isn’t much time.”

Franklin was impressed by this unexpected lecture upon the wickedness of the solid world surrounded by the salt, uncorruptible waters on which he and his captain had dwelt all their lives in happy innocence.  What he could not understand was why it should have been delivered, and what connection it could have with such a matter as the alterations to be carried out in the cabin.  The work did not seem to him to be called for in such a hurry.  What was the use of altering anything?  It was a very good accommodation, spacious, well-distributed, on a rather old-fashioned plan, and with its decorations somewhat tarnished.  But a dab of varnish, a touch of gilding here and there, was all that was necessary.  As to comfort, it could not be improved by any alterations.  He resented the notion of change; but he said dutifully that he would keep his eye on the workmen if the captain would only let him know what was the nature of the work he had ordered to be done.

“You’ll find a note of it on this table.  I’ll leave it for you as I go ashore,” said Captain Anthony hastily.  Franklin thought there was no more to hear, and made a movement to leave the saloon.  But the captain continued after a slight pause, “You will be surprised, no doubt, when you look at it.  There’ll be a good many alterations.  It’s on account of a lady coming with us.  I am going to get married, Mr. Franklin!”

“You remember,” went on Marlow, “how I feared that Mr. Powell’s want of experience would stand in