Sherlock Holmes complete collection by sir arthur conan doyle

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes THE "GLORIA SCOTT"

"I HAVE some papers here," said my friend Sherlock Holmes as we satone winter's night on either side of the fire, "which I really think, Watson,that it would be [374] worth your while to glance over. These are thedocuments in the extraordinary case of the Gloria Scott, and this is themessage which struck Justice of the Peace Trevor dead with horror whenhe read it."He had picked from a drawer a little tarnished cylinder, and, undoingthe tape, he handed me a short note scrawled upon a half-sheet of slategray paper.The supply of game for London is going steadily up [it ran].Head-keeper Hudson, we believe, has been now told to receiveall orders for fly-paper and for preservation of your hen-pheasant'slife.As I glanced up from reading this enigmatical message, I saw Holmeschuckling at the expression upon my face."You look a little bewildered," said he."I cannot see how such a message as this could inspire horror. It seemsto me to be rather grotesque than otherwise.""Very likely. Yet the fact remains that the reader, who was a fine,robust old man, was knocked clean down by it as if it had been the buttend of a pistol.""You arouse my curiosity," said I. "But why did you say just now thatthere were very particular reasons why I should study this case?""Because it was the first in which I was ever engaged."I had often endeavoured to elicit from my companion what had firstturned his mind in the direction of criminal research, but had never caughthim before in a communicative humour. Now he sat forward in hisarmchair and spread out the documents upon his knees. Then he lit hispipe and sat for some time smoking and turning them over."You never heard me talk of Victor Trevor?" he asked. "He was theonly friend I made during the two years I was at college. I was never avery sociable fellow, Watson, always rather fond of moping in my roomsand working out my own little methods of thought, so that I never mixedmuch with the men of my year. Bar fencing and boxing I had few athletictastes, and then my line of study was quite distinct from that of the otherfellows, so that we had no points of contact at all. Trevor was the onlyman I knew, and that only through the accident of his bull terrier freezingon to my ankle one morning as I went down to chapel."It was a prosaic way of forming a friendship, but it was effective. Iwas laid by the heels for ten days, and Trevor used to come in to inquireafter me. At first it was only a minute's chat, but soon his visitslengthened, and before the end of the term we were close friends. He wasa hearty, full-blooded fellow, full of spirits and energy, the very oppositeto me in most respects, but we had some subjects in common, and it was abond of union when I found that he was as friendless as I. Finally heinvited me down to his father's place at Donnithorpe, in Norfolk, and Iaccepted his hospitality for a month of the long vacation."Old Trevor was evidently a man of some wealth and consideration, aJ. P., and a landed proprietor. Donnithorpe is a little hamlet just to thenorth of Langmere, in the country of the Broads. The house was an oldfashioned, widespread, oak-beamed brick building, with a fine lime-linedavenue leading up to it. There was excellent wild-duck shooting in thefens, remarkably good fishing, a small but select library, taken over, as Iunderstood, from a former occupant, and a tolerable cook, so that hewould be a fastidious man who could not put in a pleasant month there."Trevor senior was a widower, and my friend his only son."There had been a daughter, I heard, but she had died of diphtheriawhile on [375] a visit to Birmingham. The father interested me extremely.He was a man of little culture, but with a considerable amount of rudestrength, both physically and mentally. He knew hardly any books, but hehad travelled far, had seen much of the world, and had remembered allthat he had learned. In person he was a thick-set, burly man with a shockof grizzled hair, a brown, weather-beaten face, and blue eyes which werekeen to the verge of fierceness. Yet he had a reputation for kindness andcharity on the countryside, and was noted for the leniency of his sentencesfrom the bench."One evening, shortly after my arrival, we were sitting over a glass ofport after dinner, when young Trevor began to talk about those habits ofobservation and inference which I had already formed into a system,although I had not yet appreciated the part which they were to play in mylife. The old man evidently thought that his son was exaggerating in hisdescription of one or two trivial feats which I had performed." 'Come, now, Mr. Holmes,' said he, laughing good-humouredly. 'I'man excellent subject, if you can deduce anything from me.'" 'I fear there is not very much,' I answered. 'I might suggest that youhave gone about in fear of some personal attack within the lasttwelvemonth.'"The laugh faded from his lips, and he stared at me in great surprise." 'Well, that's true enough,' said he. 'You know, Victor,' turning to hisson, 'when we broke up that poaching gang they swore to knife us, andSir Edward Holly has actually been attacked. I've always been on myguard since then, though I have no idea how you know it.'" 'You have a very handsome stick,' I answered. 'By the inscription Iobserved that you had not had it more than a year. But you have takensome pains to bore the head of it and pour melted lead into the hole so asto make it a formidable weapon. I argued that you would not take suchprecautions unless you had some danger to fear.'" 'Anything else?' he asked, smiling." 'You have boxed a good deal in your youth.'" 'Right again. How did you know it? Is my nose knocked a little out ofthe straight?'" 'No,' said I. 'It is your ears. They have the peculiar flattening andthickening which marks the boxing man.'" 'Anything else?'" 'You have done a good deal of digging by your callosities.'" 'Made all my money at the gold fields.'" 'You have been in New Zealand.'" 'Right again.'" 'You have visited Japan.'" 'Quite true.'" 'And you have been most intimately associated with someone whose initials were J. A., and whom you afterwards were eager to entirelyforget.'"Mr. Trevor stood slowly up, fixed his large blue eyes upon me with astrange wild stare, and then pitched forward, with his face among thenutshells which strewed the cloth, in a dead faint."You can imagine, Watson, how shocked both his son and I were. Hisattack did not last long, however, for when we undid his collar andsprinkled the water from one of the finger-glasses over his face, he gave agasp or two and sat up.[376] " 'Ah, boys,' said he, forcing a smile, 'I hope I haven't frightenedyou. Strong as I look, there is a weak place in my heart, and it does nottake much to knock me over. I don't know how you manage this, Mr.Holmes, but it seems to me that all the detectives of fact and of fancywould be children in your hands. That's your line of life, sir, and you maytake the word of a man who has seen something of the world.'"And that recommendation, with the exaggerated estimate of my abilitywith which he prefaced it, was, if you will believe me, Watson, the veryfirst thing which ever made me feel that a profession might be made outof what had up to that time been the merest hobby. At the moment,however, I was too much concerned at the sudden illness of my host tothink of anything else." 'I hope that I have said nothing to pain you?' said I." 'Well, you certainly touched upon rather a tender point. Might I askhow you know, and how much you know?' He spoke now in a halfjesting fashion, but a look of terror still lurked at the back of his eyes." 'It is simplicity itself,' said I. 'When you bared your arm to draw thatfish into the boat I saw that J. A. had been tattooed in the bend of theelbow. The letters were still legible, but it was perfectly clear from theirblurred appearance, and from the staining of the skin round them, thatefforts had been made to obliterate them. It was obvious, then, that thoseinitials had once been very familiar to you, and that you had afterwardswished to forget them.'" 'What an eye you have!' he cried with a sigh of relief. 'It is just asyou say. But we won't talk of it. Of all ghosts the ghosts of our old lovesare the worst. Come into the billiard-room and have a quiet cigar.'"From that day, amid all his cordiality, there was always a touch ofsuspicion in Mr. Trevor's manner towards me. Even his son remarked it.'You've given the governor such a turn,' said he, 'that he'll never be sureagain of what you know and what you don't know.' He did not mean toshow it, I am sure, but it was so strongly in his mind that it peeped out atevery action. At last I became so convinced that I was causing himuneasiness that I drew my visit to a close. On the very day, however,before I left, an incident occurred which proved in the sequel to be ofimportance."We were sitting out upon the lawn on garden chairs, the three of us,basking in the sun and admiring the view across the Broads, when a maidcame out to say that there was a man at the door who wanted to see Mr.Trevor. " 'What is his name?' asked my host." 'He would not give any.'" 'What does he want, then?'" 'He says that you know him, and that he only wants a moment'sconversation.'" 'Show him round here.' An instant afterwards there appeared a littlewizened fellow with a cringing manner and a shambling style of walking.He wore an open jacket, with a splotch of tar on the sleeve, a red-andblack check shirt, dungaree trousers, and heavy boots badly worn. Hisface was thin and brown and crafty, with a perpetual smile upon it, whichshowed an irregular line of yellow teeth, and his crinkled hands were halfclosed in a way that is distinctive of sailors. As he came slouching acrossthe lawn I heard Mr. Trevor make a sort of hiccoughing noise in histhroat, and, jumping out of his chair, he ran into the house. He was backin a moment, and I smelt a strong reek of brandy as he passed me.[377] " 'Well, my man,' said he. 'What can I do for you?'"The sailor stood looking at him with puckered eyes, and with the sameloose-lipped smile upon his face." 'You don't know me?' he asked." 'Why, dear me, it is surely Hudson,' said Mr. Trevor in a tone ofsurprise." 'Hudson it is, sir,' said the seaman. 'Why, it's thirty year and moresince I saw you last. Here you are in your house, and me still picking mysalt meat out of the harness cask.'" 'Tut, you will find that I have not forgotten old times,' cried Mr.Trevor, and, walking towards the sailor, he said something in a low voice.'Go into the kitchen,' he continued out loud, 'and you will get food anddrink. I have no doubt that I shall find you a situation.'" 'Thank you, sir,' said the seaman, touching his forelock. 'I'm just offa two-yearer in an eight-knot tramp, short-handed at that, and I wants a rest. I thought I'd get it either with Mr. Beddoes or with you.'" 'Ah!' cried Mr. Trevor. 'You know where Mr. Beddoes is?'" 'Bless you, sir, I know where all my old friends are,' said the fellowwith a sinister smile, and he slouched off after the maid to the kitchen.Mr. Trevor mumbled something to us about having been shipmate withthe man when he was going back to the diggings, and then, leaving us onthe lawn, he went indoors. An hour later, when we entered the house, wefound him stretched dead drunk upon the dining-room sofa. The wholeincident left a most ugly impression upon my mind, and I was not sorrynext day to leave Donnithorpe behind me, for I felt that my presence mustbe a source of embarrassment to my friend."All this occurred during the first month of the long vacation. I went upto my London rooms, where I spent seven weeks working out a fewexperiments in organic chemistry. One day, however, when the autumnwas far advanced and the vacation drawing to a close, I received atelegram from my friend imploring me to return to Donnithorpe, andsaying that he was in great need of my advice and assistance. Of course Idropped everything and set out for the North once more."He met me with the dog-cart at the station, and I saw at a glance thatthe last two months had been very trying ones for him. He had grown thinand careworn, and had lost the loud, cheery manner for which he hadbeen remarkable." 'The governor is dying,' were the first words he said." 'Impossible!' I cried. 'What is the matter?'" 'Apoplexy. Nervous shock. He's been on the verge all day. I doubt ifwe shall find him alive.'"I was, as you may think, Watson, horrified at this unexpected news." 'What has caused it?' I asked." 'Ah, that is the point. Jump in and we can talk it over while we drive.You remember that fellow who came upon the evening before you leftus?'" 'Perfectly.'" 'Do you know who it was that we let into the house that day?'" 'I have no idea.'" 'It was the devil, Holmes,' he cried."I stared at him in astonishment." 'Yes, it was the devil himself. We have not had a peaceful hoursince- not one. The governor has never held up his head from thatevening, and now the life [378] has been crushed out of him and his heartbroken, all through this accursed Hudson.'" 'What power had he, then?'" 'Ah, that is what I would give so much to know. The kindly,charitable good old governor-how could he have fallen into the clutchesof such a ruffian! But I am so glad that you have come, Holmes. I trustvery much to your judgment and discretion, and I know that you willadvise me for the best.'"We were dashing along the smooth white country road, with the longstretch of the Broads in front of us glimmering in the red light of thesetting sun. From a grove upon our left I could already see the high chimneys and the flagstaff which marked the squire's dwelling." 'My father made the fellow gardener,' said my companion, 'and then,as that did not satisfy him, he was promoted to be butler. The houseseemed to be at his mercy, and he wandered about and did what he chosein it. The maids complained of his drunken habits and his vile language.The dad raised their wages all round to recompense them for theannoyance. The fellow would take the boat and my father's best gun andtreat himself to little shooting trips. And all this with such a sneering,leering, insolent face that I would have knocked him down twenty timesover if he had been a man of my own age. I tell you, Holmes, I have hadto keep a tight hold upon myself all this time; and now I am asking myselfwhether, if I had let myself go a little more, I might not have been a wiserman." 'Well, matters went from bad to worse with us, and this animalHudson became more and more intrusive, until at last, on his makingsome insolent reply to my father in my presence one day, I took him bythe shoulders and turned him out of the room. He slunk away with a lividface and two venomous eyes which uttered more threats than his tonguecould do. I don't know what passed between the poor dad and him afterthat, but the dad came to me next day and asked me whether I wouldmind apologizing to Hudson. I refused, as you can imagine, and asked myfather how he could allow such a wretch to take such liberties withhimself and his household." ' "Ah, my boy," said he, "it is all very well to talk, but you don'tknow how I am placed. But you shall know, Victor. I'll see that you shallknow, come what may. You wouldn't believe harm of your poor oldfather, would you, lad?" He was very much moved and shut himself up inthe study all day, where I could see through the window that he waswriting busily." 'That evening there came what seemed to me to be a grand release,for Hudson told us that he was going to leave us. He walked into thedining-room as we sat after dinner and announced his intention in thethick voice of a half-drunken man." ' "I've had enough of Norfolk," said he. "I'll run down to Mr.Beddoes in Hampshire. He'll be as glad to see me as you were, I daresay."" ' "You're not going away in an unkind spirit, Hudson, I hope," saidmy father with a tameness which made my blood boil." ' "I've not had my 'pology," said he sulkily, glancing in my direction." ' "Victor, you will acknowledge that you have used this worthyfellow rather roughly," said the dad, turning to me." ' "On the contrary, I think that we have both shown extraordinarypatience towards him," I answered." ' "Oh, you do, do you?" he snarled. "Very good, mate. We'll seeabout that!"" 'He slouched out of the room and half an hour afterwards left thehouse, [379] leaving my father in a state of pitiable nervousness. Nightafter night I heard him pacing his room, and it was just as he wasrecovering his confidence that the blow did at last fall.'" 'And how?' I asked eagerly." 'In a most extraordinary fashion. A letter arrived for my fatheryesterday evening, bearing the Fordingham postmark. My father read it,clapped both his hands to his head, and began running round the room inlittle circles like a man who has been driven out of his senses. When I atlast drew him down on to the sofa, his mouth and eyelids were allpuckered on one side, and I saw that he had a stroke. Dr. Fordham cameover at once. We put him to bed, but the paralysis has spread, he hasshown no sign of returning consciousness, and I think that we shall hardlyfind him alive.'" 'You horrify me, Trevor!' I cried. 'What then could have been in thisletter to cause so dreadful a result?'" 'Nothing. There lies the inexplicable part of it. The message wasabsurd and trivial. Ah, my God, it is as I feared!'"As he spoke we came round the curve of the avenue and saw in thefading light that every blind in the house had been drawn down. As wedashed up to the door, my friend's face convulsed with grief, a gentleman in black emerged from it." 'When did it happen, doctor?' asked Trevor." 'Almost immediately after you left.'" 'Did he recover consciousness?'" 'For an instant before the end.'" 'Any message for me?'" 'Only that the papers were in the back drawer of the Japanese cabinet.'"My friend ascended with the doctor to the chamber of death, while Iremained in the study, turning the whole matter over and over in my head,and feeling as sombre as ever I had done in my life. What was the past ofthis Trevor, pugilist, traveller, and gold-digger, and how had he placedhimself in the power of this acid-faced seaman? Why, too, should he faintat an allusion to the half-effaced initials upon his arm and die of frightwhen he had a letter from Fordingham? Then I remembered thatFordingham was in Hampshire, and that this Mr. Beddoes, whom theseaman had gone to visit and presumably to blackmail, had also beenmentioned as living in Hampshire. The letter, then, might either comefrom Hudson, the seaman, saying that he had betrayed the guilty secretwhich appeared to exist, or it might come from Beddoes, warning an oldconfederate that such a betrayal was imminent. So far it seemed clearenough. But then how could this letter be trivial and grotesque, asdescribed by the son? He must have misread it. If so, it must have beenone of those ingenious secret codes which mean one thing while theyseem to mean another. I must see this letter. If there was a hiddenmeaning in it, I was confident that I could pluck it forth. For an hour I satpondering over it in the gloom, until at last a weeping maid brought in alamp, and close at her heels came my friend Trevor, pale but composed,with these very papers which lie upon my knee held in his grasp. He satdown opposite to me, drew the lamp to the edge of the table, and handedme a short note scribbled, as you see, upon a single sheet of gray paper.'The supply of game for London is going steadily up,' it ran. 'Headkeeper Hudson, we believe, has been now told to receive all orders for flypaper and for preservation of your hen-pheasant's life.'[380] "I daresay my face looked as bewildered as yours did just nowwhen first I read this message. Then I reread it very carefully. It wasevidently as I had thought, and some secret meaning must lie buried inthis strange combination of words. Or could it be that there was aprearranged significance to such phrases as 'fly-paper' and 'henpheasant'? Such a meaning would be arbitrary and could not be deducedin any way. And yet I was loath to believe that this was the case, and thepresence of the word Hudson seemed to show that the subject of themessage was as I had guessed, and that it was from Beddoes rather thanthe sailor. I tried it backward, but the combination 'life pheasant's hen'was not encouraging. Then I tried alternate words, but neither 'the of for'nor 'supply game London' promised to throw any light upon it."And then in an instant the key of the riddle was in my hands, and Isaw that every third word, beginning with the first, would give a messagewhich might well drive old Trevor to despair."It was short and terse, the warning, as I now read it to my companion:" 'The game is up. Hudson has told all. Fly for your life.'"Victor Trevor sank his face into his shaking hands. 'It must be that, Isuppose,' said he. 'This is worse than death, for it means disgrace as well.But what is the meaning of these "head-keepers" and "hen-pheasants"?'" 'It means nothing to the message, but it might mean a good deal to usif we had no other means of discovering the sender. You see that he hasbegun by writing "The . . . game . . . is," and so on. Afterwards he had, tofulfil the prearranged cipher, to fill in any two words in each space. Hewould naturally use the first words which came to his mind, and if therewere so many which referred to sport among them, you may be tolerablysure that he is either an ardent shot or interested in breeding. Do youknow anything of this Beddoes?'" 'Why, now that you mention it,' said he, 'I remember that my poorfather used to have an invitation from him to shoot over his preservesevery autumn.'" 'Then it is undoubtedly from him that the note comes,' said I. 'It onlyremains for us to find out what this secret was which the sailor Hudsonseems to have held over the heads of these two wealthy and respectedmen.'" 'Alas, Holmes, I fear that it is one of sin and shame!' cried my friend.'But from you I shall have no secrets. Here is the statement which wasdrawn up by my father when he knew that the danger from Hudson hadbecome imminent. I found it in the Japanese cabinet, as he told the doctor.Take it and read it to me, for I have neither the strength nor the courage todo it myself.'"These are the very papers, Watson, which he handed to me, and I willread them to you, as I read them in the old study that night to him. Theyare endorsed outside, as you see, 'Some particulars of the voyage of the bark Gloria Scott, from her leaving Falmouth on the 8th October, 1855, toher destruction in N. Lat. 15° 20', W. Long. 25° 14', on Nov. 6th.' It is inthe form of a letter, and runs in this way." 'My dear, dear son, now that approaching disgrace begins to darkenthe closing years of my life, I can write with all truth and honesty that it isnot the terror of the law, it is not the loss of my position in the county, noris it my fall in the eyes of all who have known me, which cuts me to theheart; but it is the thought that you should come to blush for me-you wholove me and who have seldom, I hope, had reason to do other than respectme. But if the blow falls which is forever hanging over me, then I shouldwish you to read this, that you may know [381] straight from me how far Ihave been to blame. On the other hand, if all should go well (which maykind God Almighty grant!), then, if by any chance this paper should bestill undestroyed and should fall into your hands, I conjure you, by all youhold sacred, by the memory of your dear mother, and by the love whichhas been between us, to hurl it into the fire and to never give one thoughtto it again." 'If then your eye goes on to read this line, I know that I shall alreadyhave been exposed and dragged from my home, or, as is more likely, foryou know that my heart is weak, be lying with my tongue sealed foreverin death. In either case the time for suppression is past, and every wordwhich I tell you is the naked truth, and this I swear as I hope for mercy." 'My name, dear lad, is not Trevor. I was James Armitage in myyounger days, and you can understand now the shock that it was to me afew weeks ago when your college friend addressed me in words whichseemed to imply that he had surprised my secret. As Armitage it was thatI entered a London banking-house, and as Armitage I was convicted ofbreaking my country's laws, and was sentenced to transportation. Do notthink very harshly of me, laddie. It was a debt of honour, so called, whichI had to pay, and I used money which was not my own to do it, in thecertainty that I could replace it before there could be any possibility of itsbeing missed. But the most dreadful ill-luck pursued me. The moneywhich I had reckoned upon never came to hand, and a prematureexamination of accounts exposed my deficit. The case might have beendealt leniently with, but the laws were more harshly administered thirtyyears ago than now, and on my twenty-third birthday I found myselfchained as a felon with thirty-seven other convicts in the 'tween-decks ofthe bark Gloria Scott, bound for Australia." 'It was the year '55, when the Crimean War was at its height, and theold convict ships had been largely used as transports in the Black Sea.The government was compelled, therefore, to use smaller and lesssuitable vessels for sending out their prisoners. The Gloria Scott had beenin the Chinese tea-trade, but she was an old-fashioned, heavy-bowed,broad-beamed craft, and the new clippers had cut her out. She was a fivehundred-ton boat; and besides her thirty-eight jail-birds, she carriedtwenty-six of a crew, eighteen soldiers, a captain, three mates, a doctor, achaplain, and four warders. Nearly a hundred souls were in her, all told,when we set sail from Falmouth." 'The partitions between the cells of the convicts instead of being of thick oak, as is usual in convict-ships, were quite thin and frail. The mannext to me, upon the aft side, was one whom I had particularly noticedwhen we were led down the quay. He was a young man with a clear,hairless face, a long, thin nose, and rather nut-cracker jaws. He carried hishead very jauntily in the air, had a swaggering style of walking, and was,above all else, remarkable for his extraordinary height. I don't think anyof our heads would have come up to his shoulder, and I am sure that hecould not have measured less than six and a half feet. It was strangeamong so many sad and weary faces to see one which was full of energyand resolution. The sight of it was to me like a fire in a snowstorm. I wasglad, then, to find that he was my neighbour, and gladder still when, inthe dead of the night, I heard a whisper close to my ear and found that hehad managed to cut an opening in the board which separated us." ' "Hullo, chummy!" said he, "what's your name, and what are youhere for?"" 'I answered him, and asked in turn who I was talking with.[382] " ' "I'm Jack Prendergast," said he, "and by God! you'll learn tobless my name before you've done with me."" 'I remembered hearing of his case, for it was one which had made animmense sensation throughout the country some time before my ownarrest. He was a man of good family and of great ability, but of incurablyvicious habits, who had by an ingenious system of fraud obtained hugesums of money from the leading London merchants. " ' "Ha, ha! You remember my case!" said he proudly." ' "Very well, indeed."" ' "Then maybe you remember something queer about it?"" ' "What was that, then?"" ' "I'd had nearly a quarter of a million, hadn't I?"" ' "So it was said."" ' "But none was recovered, eh?"" ' "No."" ' "Well, where d'ye suppose the balance is?" he asked." ' "I have no idea," said I." ' "Right between my finger and thumb," he cried. "By God! I've gotmore pounds to my name than you've hairs on your head. And if you'vemoney, my son, and know how to handle it and spread it, you can doanything. Now, you don't think it likely that a man who could doanything is going to wear his breeches out sitting in the stinking hold of arat-gutted, beetle-ridden, mouldy old coffin of a Chin China coaster. No,sir, such a man will look after himself and will look after his chums. Youmay lay to that! You hold on to him, and you may kiss the Book that he'llhaul you through."" 'That was his style of talk, and at first I thought it meant nothing; butafter a while, when he had tested me and sworn me in with all possiblesolemnity, he let me understand that there really was a plot to gaincommand of the vessel. A dozen of the prisoners had hatched it beforethey came aboard, Prendergast was the leader, and his money was themotive power." ' "I'd a partner," said he, "a rare good man, as true as a stock to abarrel. He's got the dibbs, he has, and where do you think he is at thismoment? Why, he's the chaplain of this ship-the chaplain, no less! Hecame aboard with a black coat, and his papers right, and money enough inhis box to buy the thing right up from keel to main-truck. The crew arehis, body and soul. He could buy 'em at so much a gross with a cashdiscount, and he did it before ever they signed on. He's got two of thewarders and Mereer, the second mate, and he'd get the captain himself, ifhe thought him worth it."" ' "What are we to do, then?" I asked." ' "What do you think?" said he. "We'll make the coats of some ofthese soldiers redder than ever the tailor did."" ' "But they are armed," said I." ' "And so shall we be, my boy. There's a brace of pistols for everymother's son of us; and if we can't carry this ship, with the crew at ourback, it's time we were all sent to a young misses' boarding-school. Youspeak to your mate upon the left to-night, and see if he is to be trusted."" 'I did so and found my other neighbour to be a young fellow in muchthe same position as myself, whose crime had been forgery. His namewas Evans, but he afterwards changed it, like myself, and he is now a richand prosperous man in the [383] south of England. He was ready enoughto join the conspiracy, as the only means of saving ourselves, and beforewe had crossed the bay there were only two of the prisoners who were notin the secret. One of these was of weak mind, and we did not dare to trust him, and the other was suffering from jaundice and could not be of anyuse to us." 'From the beginning there was really nothing to prevent us fromtaking possession of the ship. The crew were a set of ruffians, speciallypicked for the job. The sham chaplain came into our cells to exhort us,carrying a black bag, supposed to be full of tracts, and so often did hecome that by the third day we had each stowed away at the foot of ourbeds a file, a brace of pistols, a pound of powder, and twenty slugs. Twoof the warders were agents of Prendergast, and the second mate was hisright-hand man. The captain, the two mates, two warders, LieutenantMartin, his eighteen soldiers, and the doctor were all that we had againstus. Yet, safe as it was, we determined to neglect no precaution, and tomake our attack suddenly by night. It came, however, more quickly thanwe expected, and in this way." 'One evening, about the third week after our start, the doctor hadcome down to see one of the prisoners who was ill, and, putting his handdown on the bottom of his bunk, he felt the outline of the pistols. If hehad been silent he might have blown the whole thing, but he was anervous little chap, so he gave a cry of surprise and turned so pale that theman knew what was up in an instant and seized him. He was gaggedbefore he could give the alarm and tied down upon the bed. He hadunlocked the door that led to the deck, and we were through it in a rush.The two sentries were shot down, and so was a corporal who camerunning to see what was the matter. There were two more soldiers at thedoor of the stateroom, and their muskets seemed not to be loaded, for theynever fired upon us, and they were shot while trying to fix their bayonets.Then we rushed on into the captain's cabin, but as we pushed open thedoor there was an explosion from within, and there he lay with his brainssmeared over the chart of the Atlantic which was pinned upon the table,while the chaplain stood with a smoking pistol in his hand at his elbow.The two mates had both been seized by the crew, and the whole businessseemed to be settled." 'The stateroom was next the cabin, and we flocked in there andflopped down on the settees, all speaking together, for we were just madwith the feeling that we were free once more. There were lockers allround, and Wilson, the sham chaplain, knocked one of them in, andpulled out a dozen of brown sherry. We cracked off the necks of thebottles, poured the stuff out into tumblers, and were just tossing them offwhen in an instant without warning there came the roar of muskets in ourears, and the saloon was so full of smoke that we could not see across thetable. When it cleared again the place was a shambles. Wilson and eightothers were wriggling on the top of each other on the floor, and the bloodand the brown sherry on that table turn me sick now when I think of it.We were so cowed by the sight that I think we should have given the jobup if it had not been for Prendergast. He bellowed like a bull and rushedfor the door with all that were left alive at his heels. Out we ran, and thereon the poop were the lieutenant and ten of his men. The swing skylightsabove the saloon table had been a bit open, and they had fired on usthrough the slit. We got on them before they could load, and they stood toit like men; but we had the upper hand of them, and in five minutes it wasall over. My God! was there ever a slaughter-house like [384] that ship!Prendergast was like a raging devil, and he picked the soldiers up as ifthey had been children and threw them overboard alive or dead. Therewas one sergeant that was horribly wounded and yet kept on swimmingfor a surprising time until someone in mercy blew out his brains. Whenthe fighting was over there was no one left of our enemies except just thewarders, the mates, and the doctor." 'It was over them that the great quarrel arose. There were many of us who were glad enough to win back our freedom, and yet who had no wishto have murder on our souls. It was one thing to knock the soldiers overwith their muskets in their hands, and it was another to stand by whilemen were being killed in cold blood. Eight of us, five convicts and threesailors, said that we would not see it done. But there was no movingPrendergast and those who were with him. Our only chance of safety layin making a clean job of it, said he, and he would not leave a tongue withpower to wag in a witness-box. It nearly came to our sharing the fate ofthe prisoners, but at last he said that if we wished we might take a boatand go. We jumped at the offer, for we were already sick of thesebloodthirsty doings, and we saw that there would be worse before it wasdone. We were given a suit of sailor togs each, a barrel of water, twocasks, one of junk and one of biscuits, and a compass. Prendergast threwus over a chart, told us that we were shipwrecked mariners whose shiphad foundered in Lat. 15° and Long. 25° west, and then cut the painter andlet us go." 'And now I come to the most surprising part of my story, my dearson. The seamen had hauled the fore-yard aback during the rising, butnow as we left them they brought it square again, and as there was a lightwind from the north and east the bark began to draw slowly away fromus. Our boat lay, rising and falling, upon the long, smooth rollers, andEvans and I, who were the most educated of the party, were sitting in thesheets working out our position and planning what coast we should makefor. It was a nice question, for the Cape Verdes were about five hundredmiles to the north of us, and the African coast about seven hundred to theeast. On the whole, as the wind was coming round to the north, wethought that Sierra Leone might be best and turned our head in thatdirection, the bark being at that time nearly hull down on our starboardquarter. Suddenly as we looked at her we saw a dense black cloud ofsmoke shoot up from her, which hung like a monstrous tree upon the skyline. A few seconds later a roar like thunder burst upon our ears, and asthe smoke thinned away there was no sign left of the Gloria Scott. In aninstant we swept the boat's head round again and pulled with all ourstrength for the place where the haze still trailing over the water markedthe scene of this catastrophe." 'It was a long hour before we reached it, and at first we feared that wehad come too late to save anyone. A splintered boat and a number ofcrates and fragments of spars rising and falling on the waves showed uswhere the vessel had foundered; but there was no sign of life, and we hadturned away in despair, when we heard a cry for help and saw at somedistance a piece of wreckage with a man lying stretched across it. Whenwe pulled him aboard the boat he proved to be a young seaman of thename of Hudson, who was so burned and exhausted that he could give usno account of what had happened until the following morning." 'It seemed that after we had left, Prendergast and his gang hadproceeded to put to death the five remaining prisoners. The two wardershad been shot and thrown overboard, and so also had the third mate.Prendergast then descended into [385] the 'tween-decks and with his ownhands cut the throat of the unfortunate surgeon. There only remained thefirst mate, who was a bold and active man. When he saw the convictapproaching him with the bloody knife in his hand he kicked off hisbonds, which he had somehow contrived to loosen, and rushing down thedeck he plunged into the after-hold. A dozen convicts, who descendedwith their pistols in search of him, found him with a match-box in hishand seated beside an open powder-barrel, which was one of the hundredcarried on board, and swearing that he would blow all hands up if he werein any way molested. An instant later the explosion occurred, thoughHudson thought it was caused by the misdirected bullet of one of theconvicts rather than the mate's match. Be the cause what it may, it wasthe end of the Gloria Scott and of the rabble who held command of her." 'Such, in a few words, my dear boy, is the history of this terriblebusiness in which I was involved. Next day we were picked up by the brigHotspur, bound for Australia, whose captain found no difficulty inbelieving that we were the survivors of a passenger ship which hadfoundered. The transport ship Gloria Scott was set down by the Admiraltyas being lost at sea, and no word has ever leaked out as to her true fate.After an excellent voyage the Hotspur landed us at Sydney, where Evansand I changed our names and made our way to the diggings, where,among the crowds who were gathered from all nations, we had nodifficulty in losing our former identities. The rest I need not relate. Weprospered, we travelled, we came back as rich colonials to England, andwe bought country estates. For more than twenty years we have ledpeaceful and useful lives, and we hoped that our past was forever buried.Imagine, then, my feelings when in the seaman who came to us Irecognized instantly the man who had been picked off the wreck. He had tracked us down somehow and had set himself to live upon our fears. Youwill understand now how it was that I strove to keep the peace with him,and you will in some measure sympathize with me in the fears which fillme, now that he has gone from me to his other victim with threats uponhis tongue.'"Underneath is written in a hand so shaky as to be hardly legible,'Beddoes writes in cipher to say H. has told all. Sweet Lord, have mercyon our souls!'"That was the narrative which I read that night to young Trevor, and Ithink, Watson, that under the circumstances it was a dramatic one. Thegood fellow was heart-broken at it, and went out to the Terai tea planting,where I hear that he is doing well. As to the sailor and Beddoes, neither ofthem was ever heard of again after that day on which the letter of warningwas written. They both disappeared utterly and completely. No complainthad been lodged with the police, so that Beddoes had mistaken a threatfor a deed. Hudson had been seen lurking about, and it was believed bythe police that he had done away with Beddoes and had fled. For myself Ibelieve that the truth was exactly the opposite. I think that it is mostprobable that Beddoes, pushed to desperation and believing himself tohave been already betrayed, had revenged himself upon Hudson, and hadfled from the country with as much money as he could lay his hands on.Those are the facts of the case, Doctor, and if they are of any use to yourcollection, I am sure that they are very heartily at your service."