Journey Into Fear Page #4

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You're more delicate than I.

Have you got a wife, sir?

Yes I have. Excuse me.

- Has your wife got a bad temper, Mr. Graham?

- No, very good.

You're lucky.

For years I lived in misery.

Then one day I made a great discovery.

There was a socialist meeting and I went to it.

I wasn't a socialist, understand...

I went to this meeting because I was curious.

The speaker was good.

Then a week later we went out with some friends, and I repeated what I heard.

My wife laughed in a very peculiar way,

and when I got home, I made a discovery.

I found out my wife was a snob, and even more stupid than I dreamed.

She said that I humiliated her by saying such things as if I believed them.

And all her friends were respectable people,

and I mustn't speak as if I was a working man.

She wept!

Then I knew that I was free.

Mr. Graham, I bought books and pamphlets to make my arguments more damaging.

My wife became very docile.

She even cooked things I liked, just so I wouldn't disgrace her.

I see.

So...you don't believe these things you say?

- No.

That's where my little joke comes in.

Mr. Graham, for awhile I was free, then a terrible thing happened.

I found I began to believe these things that I said.

These books I read showed me that I'd found a truth.

I, a capitalist by instinct, became a socialist by conviction.

Worse than that, there was a strike at the factory, and I, the manager, supported the strikers!

I didn't belong to a union, naturally, and so I was dismissed. It was ridiculous!

So here I am.

I've become a man in my home at the price of becoming a bore outside.

Josette!

Banking! What is banking but usury?

And where has our American been?

Today the usurers are the gods of the earth,

and the only mortal sin is to be poor.

There are so many poor people it is terrible!

Banking! What does he know about banking?

I thought you were ill, sir? You are better now?

Yes, thanks.

You've been ill?

I...felt tired.

It is the ventilation.

I myself have felt a nausea and a headache since we got on this ship.

We should complain!

Mrs. Matthews is right. The ventilation isn't good.

I think we should go outside.

I know you must be ill, you are polite!

I'll go with you.

It was not at all stuffy in the saloon.

Now you shall tell me what is really the matter.

Chri, I am sorry, but I have seen people who are afraid before.

They do not look at all like people who are tired

or people who feel faint in a stuffy room.

They have a special look about them.

Their faces look very small and gray around the mouth.

And they can't keep their hands still.

I'm glad we can walk like this together.

Good evening, Mr. Graham.

Taking your constitutional, I see?

Remember I told you I came on this ship to avoid somebody who was trying to shoot me?

Yes, I remember. It was a bad joke.

A very bad joke. Only it's true.

You're lying to me!

I'm afraid not.

What have you done that someone should wish to kill you?

Nothing.

Some business competitors don't want me to get back to America.

You are lying!

Yes I am lying, but not very much.

There are some people who don't want me to get back to the States.

Who are they?

I only know one. His name is Mueller or Miller or something...

He lives in Sofia, he's a Nazi agent.

- The salaud!

But he cannot touch you now!

I'm afraid he can.

That fat man aboard is working for him.

The Greek?

He's not a Greek. His real name is Banat.

He's been hired to kill me.

- How do you know?

- I've seen his picture.

- This is not very nice.

- No, it's not.

He knows you suspect him, he was watching you.

Kuvetli was watching you also. You look so curious, you see.

You mean I look frightened?

Frightened to death!

I was frightened, I'll admit it.

Why shouldn't I be? I'm not used to people trying to kill me.

Besides, somebody's stolen my gun.

You needn't worry. I can tell you something.

This fat man doesn't carry a gun.

- How do you know?

His clothes are tight. If he carried a gun, one could see the shape of it in his pocket.

He's got a gun, I know.

He must keep it in his cabin.

He's in the saloon now.

I could see that he doesn't go to his cabin for a long time.

- How?

- Gogo will do it.

I will not have to tell Gogo anything about you. Gogo will play cards with him.

Will Gogo ask him?

I will tell Gogo that I saw this man open a wallet with a lot of money in it.

Gogo will see that he plays cards...You don't know Gogo.

- Are you sure he can keep him in there?

- I'll make certain.

You wait here.

Won't you join me, Mr. Graham?

I'm just getting some fresh air.

- Oh.

To see the land from a ship,

or to see a ship from the land...

I used to like both. Now I dislike both.

When a man reaches my age,

he grows I think to resent subconsciously

the movement of everything except the respiratory muscles which keep him alive.

Movement is change.

And to an old man, change means death.

Excuse me.

I think I will say good night, Mr. Graham.

- Good night.

Good night, Mademoiselle.

I mustn't stay. I came only to tell you that it's all right.

- Good.

But be sure to come back to the saloon after you have been to his cabin

so that I know that you have finished.

- All right.

Boom boom!

Oh Mr. Graham, I have been waiting for you.

This is what you have been looking for, isn't it?

Close the door, please.

I thought I had better keep this for Mavrodopoulos.

Banat!

Banat's easier to say.

I wonder if your name happens to be Mueller.

You have guessed it, Mr. Graham. I am Mueller.

But I rather like myself as an archeologist.

I got my little speeches from this.

The Sumerian Pantheon by Fritz Haller.

Mr. Graham, I should not like to think of you being murdered by any employee of mine.

But as things stand at the present,

you will be dead within a very few moments of your landing at Batoumi tomorrow morning.

If you should die before you get back to America,

somebody else will be sent here to take your place,

but your work will be delayed.

That is all we're interested in.

Mr. Graham, you are a fortunate man!

What does that mean?

- You are going to catch typhus.

- What?

When you get to Batoumi tomorrow morning,

you'll be taken to a small, private hospital.

In six weeks, you will have recovered.

How does that appeal to you, Mr. Graham?

Has it occurred to you that I might not be so stupid as you think?

Graham, you are a fool!

You know nothing, nothing!

Oh, I don't?

One of the things you do not know is

that Colonel Haki considered it advisable

to install one of his agents onboard this ship to watch over you.

I tried hard yesterday to interest you in Mr. Kuvetli.

Are you trying to tell me that Kuvetli is a Turkish agent?

I wanted to see you before he made himself known to you.

He has his duty to do,

and doubtless will have evolved some laborious plan for getting you to safety.

What I wanted to warn you against is telling him of my suggestion.

It will be embarrassing for both of us

if an agent of the Turkish government should know of our little deception.

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