Page:Conrad - Lord Jim, 1900.djvu/111

 ‘quite a little chap,’ he had been preparing himself for all the difficulties that can beset one on land and water. He confessed proudly to this kind of foresight. He had been elaborating dangers and defences, expecting the worst, rehearsing his best. He must have led a most exalted existence. Can you fancy it ? A succession of adventures, so much glory, such a victorious progress ! and the deep sense of his sagacity crowning every day of his inner life. He forgot himself ; his eyes shone ; and with every word my heart, searched by the light of his ab- surdity, was growing heavier in my breast. I had no mind to laugh, and lest I should smile I made for myself a stolid face. He gave signs of irritation.

“‘It is always the unexpected that happens,’ I said in a propitiatory tone. My obtuseness pro- voked him into a contemptuous ‘ Pshaw ! ’ I suppose he meant that the unexpected couldn’t touch him ; nothing less than the unconceivable itself could get over his perfect state of prepar- ation. He had been taken unawares — and he whispered to himself a malediction upon the waters and the firmament, upon the ship, upon the men. Everything had betrayed him ! He had been tricked into that sort of high-minded resignation which pre- vented him lifting as much as his little finger, while these others who had a very clear perception of the actual necessity were tumbling against each other and sweating desperately over that boat business. Something had gone wrong there at the last moment. It appears that in their flurry they had contrived in some mysterious way to get the sliding bolt of the foremost boat-chock jammed tight, and