Mysteries - Knut Hamsun [151]
And Nagel jumped into another boat.
“Where are you going?” the man asks.
“I’m going to look for my ring. Perhaps you know me, I used to wear a ring here, you can see the mark yourself, it’s the honest truth. And now I’ve thrown the ring away, it’s lying out there somewhere.”
The man doesn’t understand this sort of talk.
“Are you going to look for a ring at the bottom of the sea?” he says.
“Exactly!” Nagel replies. “I can hear you understand. Because I must have my ring, you know, you too realize that, don’t you? Come and row me out.”
The man asks again, “Are you going to look for a ring you have thrown into the sea?”
“Yes, yes, come on! Don’t worry, I’ll give you lots of money for it.”
“God bless you, forget about it! Are you going to fish it out with your fingers?”
“Yes, with my fingers. It’s no matter. I can swim like an eel if it should come to that. Maybe we could find something else to fish it out with.”
And the stranger actually gets into the boat. He begins to talk about the matter in hand, but keeps his face averted. It was sheer folly to try something like that. If it had been an anchor or a chain, it might have made some sense, but a ring! Especially since he didn’t even know exactly where it was!
Nagel himself was also beginning to realize how impossible his undertaking was. But his mind couldn’t accept it, because then he was doomed! His eyes were fixed in a stare, and he was shaking with fever and dread. He makes as though he means to jump overboard, but the man grabs him. Nagel collapses at once, faint, dead tired, much too weak to wrestle anyone. Heavenly father, this was going from bad to worse! The ring was lost, it would soon be twelve o’clock and the ring was lost. He had also received the warning.
At this moment a glimpse of lucid awareness flashed through him, and during those two or three short minutes he thought of an incredible number of things. He also recalled something he’d so far forgotten, that already yesterday evening he’d written a farewell note to his sister and sent it off. He wasn’t dead yet, but the letter was hurrying along, it couldn’t be stopped, it had to take its course and was well on its way by now. And when his sister received it, he simply had to be dead. Anyway, the ring was gone, from now on everything was impossible....
His teeth chattering, he looks around, at a complete loss what to do-the water is only a short jump away. He squints at the man on the thwart in front of him; the man still keeps his face averted but is watching carefully, ready to intervene if necessary. But why does he keep his face averted all the time?
“Let me help you ashore,” the man says. And he grabs him under the arms and gets him ashore.
“Good night!” Nagel says, turning his back on him.
But the man is distrustful and goes after him, watching his every movement on the sly. Furious, Nagel turns around and says good night once more, whereupon he tries to jump off the jetty.
Again the man lays hold of him.
“You won’t make it,” he says, close to Nagel’s ear. “You’re too good a swimmer. You’ll come to the surface again.”
Taken aback, Nagel considers a moment. Sure, he was too good a swimmer, he would probably come to the surface again and be saved. He looks at the man, staring him in the face; his eyes meet the most hideous face ever-it’s Miniman.
Miniman again, once again Miniman.
“Go to hell, you miserable, crawling snake!” Nagel screams, and starts running. He staggers up the road like a drunk, stumbles, falls and gets up again; everything is spinning before his eyes and he’s still running, running in the direction of the town. For the second time Miniman had frustrated his plans! In heaven’s name, what would he finally have to dream up? What swirling