Falk

"Falk" -- the second story in the volume -- offended the delicacy of one critic at least by certain peculiarities of its subject.

I may safely say that Falk is absolutely true to my experience of certain straightforward characters combining a perfectly natural ruthlessness with a certain amount of moral delicacy.

"Falk" shares with one other of my stories ("The Return" in the "Tales of Unrest" volume) the distinction of never having been serialized.

And the absurdity of the episode concerns only me, my enemy Falk, and my friend Hermann.

Then he said to me, "Everybody has his troub les," and as we went on remarked that he would never have known anything of mine hadn't he by an extraordinary chance been detained on shore by Captain Falk. He didn't like to stay late ashore- he added with a sigh.

And yet this same glance when turned upon Christian Falk must have been as efficient as the searchlight of a battle-ship.

Falk was the other assiduous visitor on board, but from his behaviour he might have been coming to see the quarter-deck capstan.

Falk was a Dane or perhaps a Norwegian, I can't tell now.

This advice, apart from unavoidable business re lations, was easy to follow because Falk intruded upon no one.