Jim Janus’s Reviews > Joseph Conrad Short Stories: Easton Press Collector's Edition 1996 > Status Update

There are those who say a native will not speak to a white man. Error. Words are spoken by the campfires, in the shared solitude of the sea, in riverside villages, in resting-places surrounded by forests—words are spoken that take no account of race or colour. One heart speaks—another one listens; and the earth, the sea, the sky, the passing wind and the stirring leaf, hear also the futile tale of the burden of life.

"A misunderstanding between a man and his ship in a difficult river with no room to make it up, is bound to end in trouble for the man."

A reading lamp concentrated all its light upon the papers on his desk; and, sitting by the open window, I saw the frigid splendour of a hazy sea lying motionless under the moon. Not a whisper, not a splash, not a stir of the shingle, not a footstep, not a sigh came up from the earth below...and Kennedy's voice, speaking behind me, passed through the wide casement, to vanish outside in a chill and sumptuous stillness.