An excerpt from Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad http:/www. gutenberg. org/etext/526
The Nellie, a cruising yawl, Swung to her anchor without a flutter of the sails, and was at rest. The flood had made, the wind was nearly calm, and
being bound down the river, the only thing for it was to come to and wait for the turn of the tide.
ZThe sea-reach of the Thames stretched before us like the beginning of an interminable waterway. In the offing the sea and the sky were welded
together without a joint, and in the luminous space the tanned sails of the barges drifting up with the tide seemed to stand still in red clusters of
canvas sharply peaked, with qleams of varnished spirits. A haze rested on the low shores that ran out to sea in vanishing flatness. The air was dark
above Gravesend, and farther back still seemed condensed into a mournful gloom, brooding motionless over the biggest, and the greatest, town on
earth.
3The Director of Companies was our captain and our host. We four affectionately watched his back as he stood in the bows looking to seaward. On
the whole river there was nothing that Looked half so nautical. He resembled a pilot, which to a seaman is trustworthiness personified. It was
difficult to realize his work was not out there in the luminous estuary, but behind him, within the brooding aloom.
Between us there was, as I have already said somewhere, the bond of the sea. Besides holding our hearts together through long periods of
separation, it had the effect of making us tolerant of each other's yarns-and even convictions. The Lawyer--the best of old fellows-had. because of
his many years and many virtues, the only cushion on deck, and was lying on the only rug. The Accountant had brought out already a box of
dominoes, and was toying architecturally with the bones. Marlow sat cross-legged right aft, leaning against the mizzen-mast. He had sunken cheeks
comolexion a straight back. an ascetic aspect, and, with his arms dropped, the palms of hands outwards, resembled an idol The Director.