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Updated: June 16, 2025
And so Lingard came and went on his secret or open expeditions, becoming a hero in Almayer's eyes by the boldness and enormous profits of his ventures, seeming to Almayer a very great man indeed as he saw him marching up the warehouse, grunting a "how are you?" to Vinck, or greeting Hudig, the Master, with a boisterous "Hallo, old pirate!
All would vanish in the unappeasable past which would swallow up all even the very memory of his temptation and of his downfall. Nothing mattered. He cared for nothing. He had forgotten Aissa, his wife, Lingard, Hudig everybody, in the rapid vision of his hopeful future. After a while he heard Aissa saying "A child! A child! What have I done to be made to devour this sorrow and this grief?
He would find an opening there for his abilities and juster men to deal with than old Hudig. He laughed bitterly. "You have the money I left at home this morning, Joanna?" he asked. "We will want it all now." As he spoke those words he thought he was a fine fellow. Nothing new that. Still, he surpassed there his own expectations. Hang it all, there are sacred things in life, after all.
I had to go to Singapore about the insurance; then I went to Macassar, of course. Had long passages. No wind. It was like a curse on me. I had lots of trouble with old Hudig. That delayed me much." "Ah! Hudig! Why with Hudig?" asked Almayer, in a perfunctory manner. "Oh! about a . . . a woman," mumbled Lingard. Almayer looked at him with languid surprise.
As he often told people, he came east fourteen years ago a cabin boy. A small boy. His shadow must have been very small at that time; he thought with a smile that he was not aware then he had anything even a shadow which he dared call his own. And now he was looking at the shadow of the confidential clerk of Hudig & Co. going home. How glorious!
And then came vividly into his recollection the morning when he met again that fellow coming out of Hudig's office, and how he was amused at the incongruous visit. And that morning with Hudig! Would he ever forget it?
Hudig would ask at last, turning away and bending over the papers on his desk. "No, Mr. Hudig. Not yet. But I am trying," was Willems' invariable reply, delivered with a ring of regretful deprecation. "Try! Always try! You may try! You think yourself clever perhaps," rumbled on Hudig, without looking up. "I have been trading with him twenty thirty years now. The old fox. And I have tried. Bah!"
Tell that pig as you go out that if he doesn't make the punkah go a little better I will break every bone in his body," finished up Hudig, wiping his purple face with a red silk handkerchief nearly as big as a counterpane. Noiselessly Willems went out, shutting carefully behind him the little green door through which he passed to the warehouse.
Hudig was angry with her for wishing to join her husband. Unprincipled old fellow. You know she is his daughter. Well, I said I would see her through it all right; help Willems to a fresh start and so on. I spoke to Craig in Palembang. He is getting on in years, and wanted a manager or partner. I promised to guarantee Willems' good behaviour. We settled all that. Craig is an old crony of mine.
He paused, listening, till he heard the regular grind of the oars in the rowlocks of the approaching boat then went on again. "I have made it all right with Hudig. You owe him nothing now. Go back to your wife. She is a good woman. Go back to her." "Why, Captain Lingard," exclaimed Willems, "she . . ." "It was most affecting," went on Lingard, without heeding him.
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