When Marlow arrives at the second station he finds that the steamboat that he was supposed to captain was wrecked at the bottom of the river. Marlow turns to the manager of the second station for help. The manager, who inspires uneasiness and distrust in Marlow, explains that an inexperienced captain had wrecked the steamboat days earlier when he and the manager started up-river to pick up Mr. Kurtz, the manager of the third station, who was reportedly gravely ill. Marlow sets about looking for rivets to repair the steamboat. The agents and manager at the station are oddly unwilling to help Marlow. One night, an agent confides in Marlow that others at the station are weary of him because they view him as similar to Kurtz. According to the agen!.
t, Kurtz and Marlow are both from the "new gang of virtue." With that insight, Marlow's disgust and uneasiness with his white .
colleagues grows as does in interest in meeting Kurtz. Before he can meet Kurtz, however, Marlow must remain at the second station for several months to repair his boat.
The emphasis of Marlow's story shifts in Chapter Two. While Marlow describes several incidents, .
including a conversation in which the manager reveals his distain for Kurtz because of his .
"high ideals, that occur at the second station, he quickly leaps forward to describe his final .
approach to the third station (Kurtz' station). As the steamboat makes its slow approach to the last station, Marlow feels as if he's travelling back to the beginning of time. He and his crewmen-a boilermaker, a helmsman, several pilgrims, several deckhands (cannibals), and the manager of the second station-often hear the roll of drums behind the blanket of trees that cover the river's edge. The drums draw Marlow and inspire him to reflect on the nature of man. He realizes that Africans are human and that white men must admit the common bond that links everyone. Conrad illustrates Marlow's changing perspective in a scene involving the cannibals.