"The Secret Sharer"
by Joseph Conrad

  Previous Page   Next Page   Speaker Off
 

     He reddened and went off, but I believe made some jeering remark to the carpenter as to the sensible practice of ventilating a ship's quarter-deck. I know he popped into the mate's cabin to impart the fact to him because the whiskers came on deck, as it were by chance, and stole glances at me from below--for signs of lunacy or drunkenness, I suppose.

     A little before supper, feeling more restless than ever, I rejoined, for a moment, my second self. And to find him sitting so quietly was surprising, like something against nature, inhuman.

     I developed my plan in a hurried whisper.

 

     "I shall stand in as close as I dare and then put her round. I will presently find means to smuggle you out of here into the sail locker, which communicates with the lobby. But there is an opening, a sort of square for hauling the sails out, which gives straight on the quarter-deck and which is never closed in fine weather, so as to give air to the sails. When the ship's way is deadened in stays and all the hands are aft at the main braces you will have a clear road to slip out and get overboard through the open quarter-deck. I've had them both fastened up. Use a rope's end to lower yourself into the water so as to avoid a splash--you know. It could be heard and cause some beastly complication."

 
Text provided by Project Gutenberg.
Performance by David Kirkland and provided by LiteralSystems through the generous support of Consumer Insights, Inc.
Flash mp3 player by Jeroen Wijering. (cc) some rights reserved.
Web page presentation by LoudLit.org.