" And suddenly he burst out: "I cannot take them ashore bound
hand and foot."
"Mr. d'Alcacer knows. You will find him ready. Ever since the beginning
he has been prepared for whatever might happen."
"He is a man," said Lingard with conviction. "But it's of the other that
I am thinking."
"Ah, the other," she repeated. "Then, what about my thoughts? Luckily we
have Mr. d'Alcacer. I shall speak to him first."
She turned away from the rail and moved toward the Cage.
"Jorgenson," the voice of Lingard resounded all along the deck, "get a
light on the gangway." Then he followed Mrs. Travers slowly.
VI
D'Alcacer, after receiving his warning, stepped back and leaned against
the edge of the table. He could not ignore in himself a certain emotion.
And indeed, when he had asked Mrs. Travers for a sign he expected to
be moved--but he had not expected the sign to come so soon. He expected
this night to pass like other nights, in broken slumbers, bodily
discomfort, and the unrest of disconnected thinking. At the same time
he was surprised at his own emotion. He had flattered himself on the
possession of more philosophy. He thought that this famous sense of
self-preservation was a queer thing, a purely animal thing. "For, as
a thinking man," he reflected, "I really ought not to care.
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