"Well, come up.

Don't make a noise, but come up.

You'll catch a sunstroke down there and die on my doorstep perhaps.

I don't want any tragedy here.

Come on!" Before he finished speaking Willems' head appeared above the level of the floor, then his shoulders rose gradually and he stood at last before Almayer--a masquerading spectre of the once so very confidential clerk of the richest merchant in the islands.