e file. One alighted on the breast and glided
down instantly with devious vivacity, like a small insect running away;
it left a narrow dark track on the white skin. He looked at it, looked
at the tiny and active drops, looked at what he had done, with obscure
satisfaction, with anger, with regret. This wasn't much like an act of
justice. He had a desire to go up nearer to the man, to hear him speak,
to hear him say something atrocious and wicked that would justify the
violence of the blow. He made an attempt to move, and became aware of a
close embrace round both his legs, just above the ankles. Instinctively,
he kicked out with his foot, broke through the close bond and felt at
once the clasp transferred to his other leg; the clasp warm, desperate
and soft, of human arms. He looked down bewildered. He saw the body of
the woman stretched at length, flattened on the ground like a dark blue
rag. She trailed face downwards, clinging to his leg with both arms in a
tenacious hug. He saw the top of her head, the long black hair streaming
over his foot, all over the beaten earth, around his boot. He couldn't
see his foot for it. He heard the short and repeated moaning of her
breath. He imagined the invisible face close to his heel. With one kick
into that face he could free himself. He dared not stir, and shouted
down--

"Let go! Let go! Let go!"

The only result of his shouting was a tightening of the pressure of her
arms. With a tremendous effort he tried to bring his right foot up to
his left, and succeeded partly. He heard distinctly the rub of her body
on the ground as he jerked her along. He tried to disengage himself by
drawing up his foot. He stamped. He heard a voice saying sharply--

"Steady, Captain Lingard, steady!"

His eyes flew back to Willems at the sound of that voice, and, in the
quick awakening of sleeping memories, Lingard stood suddenly still,
appeased by the clear ring of familiar words. Appeased as in days of
old, when they were trading together, when Willems was his trusted and
helpful companion in out-of-the-way and dangerous places; when that
fellow, who could keep his temper so much better than he could himself,
had spared him many a difficulty, had saved him from many an act of
hasty violence by the timely and good-humoured warning, whispered or
shouted, "Steady, Captain Lingard, steady." A smart fellow. He had
brought him up. The smartest fellow in the islands. If he had only
stayed with him, t