Algernon Blackwood

Name: The Centaur — Chapter XI
Author: Algernon Blackwood

The Centaur — Chapter XI (1911)

Summary

“The Centaur — Chapter XI”, published in 1911, is a work by Algernon Blackwood. It explores elements such as O'Malley, Stahl and deck.

Quotes from The Centaur — Chapter XI (Algernon Blackwood)

Algernon Blackwood, The Centaur — Chapter XI (1911)

“ He experienced the sensation a man sometimes knows on entering a deserted chamber in the nighttime, and is aware that the things in it have just that instant--stopped. His arrival puts abrupt end to some busy activity they were engaged in, which begins again the moment he goes. Chairs, tables, cupboards, the very spots and patterns of the wall have just flown back to their usual places whence they watch impatiently for his departure--with the candle.
This time, on a deck instead of in a room, O'Malley with his candle had surprised them in the act: people, moreover, not furniture. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Algernon Blackwood, The Centaur — Chapter XI (1911)

“ When the vessel righted herself again the outline of the rail was clear.
Dr. Stahl, he then saw, had picked up the lamp and was bending over some mark upon the deck, examining a wide splash of wet upon which he directed the electric flash. The sense of revived antagonism between the men for the moment was strong, too strong for speech. O'Malley feeling half ashamed, yet realized that his action had been instinctive, and that another time he would do just the same. He would fight to the death any too close inspection, since such inspection included also now--himself. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Algernon Blackwood, The Centaur — Chapter XI (1911)

“ There was a most unseemly struggle--for a minute, and it was caused by the younger man's sudden passionate instinct to protect his own from discovery, if not from actual capture and destruction.
Stahl fought in vain, being easily overmatched; he swore vehement German oaths under his breath; and the pocket-lamp, of course unlighted, fell and rattled over the deck, sliding with the gentle roll of the steamer to leeward. But O'Malley's eyes, even while he struggled, never for one instant left the spot where the figure and the "movement" had been ”

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Source: Wikisource

Algernon Blackwood, The Centaur — Chapter XI (1911)

“ That the Earth was a living being was a conception divine in size as in simplicity, and that the Gods and mythological figures had been projections of her consciousness--this thought ran with a magnificent new thunder about his mind. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Algernon Blackwood, The Centaur — Chapter XI (1911)

“ It was ten o'clock, Stahl still apparently in his cabin by himself, and most of the passengers below at an impromptu concert, when the Irishman, coming down from his long solitude, caught sight of the Russian and his boy moving about the dark after-deck with a speed and vigor that instantly arrested his attention. The suggestion of size, and of rapidity of movement, had never been more marked. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Algernon Blackwood, The Centaur — Chapter XI (1911)

“ Nature had become at last aware of his presence close against her ancient face. Henceforth would every sight of Beauty take him direct to the place where Beauty comes from. No middleman, no Art was necessary. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Algernon Blackwood, The Centaur — Chapter XI (1911)

“ Consciousness is everywhere; it is awake when and wherever the bodily energy underlying the spiritual exceeds that degree of strength which we call the threshold. According to this, consciousness can be localized in time and space."
--FECHNER, Buchlein vom Leben nach dem Tode
The offer of the cabin, meanwhile, remained open. In the solitude that O'Malley found necessary that evening he toyed with it, though knowing that he would never really accept.
Like a true Celt his imagination took the main body of Stahl's words and ensouled them with his own vivid temperament. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Algernon Blackwood, The Centaur — Chapter XI (1911)

“ His eyes shone keenly in the gleam of the lamp, but he was no longer agitated.
"There is too much water," he said calmly, as though diagnosing a case; "too much to permit of definite traces." He glanced round, flashing the beam about the decks. The other two had disappeared. They were alone. "It was outside the rail all the time, you see," he added, "and never quite reached the decks." ”

Algernon Blackwood

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