黄色い神のあらすじ

The story in 7 parts

1. Key idea 1 · free to read

   An honest man learns what his partners sell

   The story opens in the London office of Aylward and Champers-Haswell, a firm that promotes companies. Their newest scheme is Sahara Limited, a plan to flood the desert. The third partner, Major Alan Vernon, is a thin man weakened by fever. He is quick to trust and late to suspect evil in others.

   When the newspaper called The Judge refuses the firm's advertisement, Sir Robert sends Alan to talk its old editor round. Mr. Jackson knew Alan's father. He tells Alan plainly that the firm lives by trickery and that the shares are priced far above their worth. He hands Alan a typed history of the firm's earlier companies and of the people who lost their money in them.

   Alan reads it in the car back to the City. He sees that his earnings would come from trusting strangers. He walks into the granite office and says he is leaving. His partners suspect a trick.

   Before he goes, Sir Robert offers seventeen thousand pounds for the golden idol, which is worth perhaps a hundred as metal. The money would save Yarleys, the old Vernon house. Alan looks into the idol's glittering eyes and refuses. He cannot say why. He walks into the mist feeling light as a boy.

   On the bus he remembers what he has thrown away, and that he loves his cousin Barbara, an heiress. A clear conscience feels wonderful for an evening, and the bills come the next morning.

2. 2

   Jeekie tells a story that frightens the guests

   Alan accepts an invitation to spend the weekend at Mr. Haswell's country house, mainly to see Barbara.

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3. 3

   Two proposals and a clear refusal

   The next morning Barbara slips away with Alan to church.

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4. 4

   Jeekie offers a plan and Alan reads a diary

   Mr. Haswell forbids Alan to see Barbara, and Alan goes home to Yarleys.

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5. 5

   Dwarfs, cannibals, and a god's mask

   Alan and Jeekie leave the river with four porters and march into a forest so dark that it feels like another world.

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6. 6

   The Asika, the dead husbands, and the divining bowl

   That night a tall woman in a gold breastplate stands over his bed and slips a ring of two snakes onto his finger.

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7. 7

   What the story says about gold, conscience, and luck

   Money runs through the whole book.

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