The motif of conspiracy and plotting is evident in HEART OF DARKNESS. At the head office of the trading company on whose behalf he travels to the Congo, Marlow promised not to disclose any trade secrets: "It was just as though I had been let into some " (p. 15 in Bantam and p. 74 in Signet Classics editions). Later, at one of the trading stations, he finds the twenty or so white employees passing the time "by backbiting and intriguing against each other in a foolish kind of way. There was an air of plotting about that station, but nothing came of it, of course. It was as unreal as everything else. . . ." (p. 39 in Bantam; p. 91 in Signet Classics edition). And Kurtz is described as a man who "would have been a splendid leader of an extreme party" (p. 123 in Bantam; p. 151 in Signet Classics edition).
