Adventure IV. 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 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 ofslate-gray paper.
"The supply of game for London is going steadily up," it ran."Head-keeper Hudson, we believe, has been now told to receive all ordersfor fly-paper and for preservation of your hen-pheasant's life."
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 endeavored to elicit from my companion what had first turnedhis mind in the direction of criminal research, but had never caught himbefore in a communicative humor. Now he sat forward in this arm-chairand spread out the documents upon his knees. Then he lit his pipe andsat for some time smoking and turning them over.
"You never heard me talk of Victor Trevor?" he asked. "He was the onlyfriend I made during the two years I was at college. I was never a verysociable fellow, Watson, always rather fond of moping in my rooms andworking 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 theother fellows, so that we had no points of contact at all. Trevor wasthe only man I knew, and that only through the accident of his bullterrier freezing on to my ankle one morning as I went down to chapel.
"It was a prosaic way of forming a friendship, but it was effective.I was laid by the heels for ten days, but Trevor used to come in toinquire after me. At first it was only a minute's chat, but soon hisvisits lengthened, and before the end of the term we were close friends.He was a hearty, full-blooded fellow, full of spirits and energy,the very opposite to me in most respects, but we had some subjectsin common, and it was a bond of union when I found that he was asfriendless as I. Finally, he invited me down to his father's place atDonnithorpe, in Norfolk, and I accepted his hospitality for a month ofthe 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 tothe north of Langmere, in the country of the Broads. The house wasan old-fashioned, wide-spread, oak-beamed brick building, with a finelime-lined avenue leading up to it. There was excellent wild-duckshooting in the fens, remarkably good fishing, a small but selectlibrary, taken over, as I understood, from a former occupant, and atolerable cook, so that he would be a fastidious man who could not putin 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 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, buthe had traveled far, had seen much of the world. And had rememberedall that he had learned. In person he was a thick-set, burly man witha shock of grizzled hair, a brown, weather-beaten face, and blue eyeswhich were keen to the verge of fierceness. Yet he had a reputation forkindness and charity on the country-side, and was noted for the leniencyof his sentences from 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 habitsof observation and inference which I had already formed into a system,although I had not yet appreciated the part which they were to play inmy life. The old man evidently thought that his son was exaggerating inhis description of one or two trivial feats which I had performed.
"'Come, now, Mr. Holmes,' said he, laughing good-humoredly. 'I'm anexcellent subject, if you can deduce anything from me.'
"'I fear there is not very much,' I answered; 'I might suggest thatyou have 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 soas to 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 some one whoseinitials 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, hegave a gasp or two and sat up.
"'Ah, boys,' said he, forcing a smile, 'I hope I haven't frightened you.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 youmay take 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 madeout of 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 half-jestingfashion, 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 drawthat fish into the boat I saw that J. A. had been tattooed in the bendof the elbow. The letters were still legible, but it was perfectly clearfrom their blurred appearance, and from the staining of the skin roundthem, that efforts had been made to obliterate them. It was obvious,then, that those initials had once been very familiar to you, and thatyou had afterwards wished to forget them.'
"What an eye you have!" he cried, with a sigh of relief. 'It is jus
t asyou say. But we won't talk of it. Of all ghosts the ghosts of our oldlovers are the worst. Come into the billiard-room and have a quietcigar.'
"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 besure again of what you know and what you don't know.' He did not meanto show it, I am sure, but it was so strongly in his mind that it peepedout at every action. At last I became so convinced that I was causinghim uneasiness that I drew my visit to a close. On the very day,however, before I left, an incident occurred which proved in the sequelto be of importance.
"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 ofwalking. He wore an open jacket, with a splotch of tar on the sleeve,a red-and-black check shirt, dungaree trousers, and heavy boots badlyworn. His face was thin and brown and crafty, with a perpetual smileupon it, which showed an irregular line of yellow teeth, and hiscrinkled hands were half closed in a way that is distinctive of sailors.As he came slouching across the lawn I heard Mr. Trevor make a sort ofhiccoughing noise in his throat, and jumping out of his chair, he raninto the house. He was back in a moment, and I smelt a strong reek ofbrandy as he passed me.
"'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 pickingmy salt 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 lowvoice. 'Go into the kitchen,' he continued out loud, 'and you will getfood and drink. I have no doubt that I shall find you a situation.'
"'Thank you, sir,' said the seaman, touching his fore-lock. 'I'm justoff a two-yearer in an eight-knot tramp, short-handed at that, and Iwants a rest. I thought I'd get it either with Mr. Beddoes or with you.'
"'Ah!' cried Trevor. 'You know where Mr. Beddoes is?'
"'Bless you, sir, I know where all my old friends are,' said thefellow with a sinister smile, and he slouched off after the maid to thekitchen. Mr. Trevor mumbled something to us about having been shipmatewith the man when he was going back to the diggings, and then, leavingus on the lawn, he went indoors. An hour later, when we entered thehouse, we found him stretched dead drunk upon the dining-room sofa. Thewhole incident left a most ugly impression upon my mind, and I wasnot sorry next day to leave Donnithorpe behind me, for I felt that mypresence must be a source of embarrassment to my friend.
"All this occurred during the first month of the long vacation. I wentup to my London rooms, where I spent seven weeks working out a fewexperiments in organic chemistry. One day, however, when the autumn wasfar advanced and the vacation drawing to a close, I received a telegramfrom my friend imploring me to return to Donnithorpe, and saying thathe was in great need of my advice and assistance. Of course I droppedeverything 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 had beenremarkable.
"'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 if weshall 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 left us?'
"'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 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 clutches of such aruffian! But I am so glad that you have come, Holmes. I trust very muchto your judgment and discretion, and I know that you will advise me forthe 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 highchimneys and the flag-staff which marked the squire's dwelling.
"'My father made the fellow gardener,' said my companion, 'and then, asthat did not satisfy him, he was promoted to be butler. The house seemedto be at his mercy, and he wandered about and did what he chose in it.The maids complained of his drunken habits and his vile language. Thedad raised their wages all round to recompense them for the annoyance.The fellow would take the boat and my father's best gun and treathimself 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 havehad to keep a tight hold upon myself all this time; and now I am askingmyself whether, if I had let myself go a little more, I might not havebeen a wiser man.
"'Well, matters went from bad to worse with us, and this animal Hudsonbecame more and more intrusive, until at last, on making some insolentreply to my father in my presence one day, I took him by the shouldersand turned him out of the room. He slunk away with a livid face and twovenomous eyes which uttered more threats than his tongue could do. Idon't know what passed between the poor dad and him after that, but thedad came to me next day and asked me whether I would mind apologizing toHudson. I refused, as you can imagine, and asked my father how hecould allow such a wretch to take such liberties with himself and hishousehold.
"'"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 youshall know, come what may. You wouldn't believe harm of your poor oldfather, would you, lad?" He was very much moved, and shut himself upin the 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. Beddoesin Hampshire. He'll be as glad to see me as you were, I dare say."
"'"You're not going away in an unkind spirit, Hudson, I hope," said myfather, 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 worthy fellowrather 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 snarls. "Very good, mate. We'll see aboutthat!"
"'He slouched out of the room, and half an hour afterwards left thehouse, leaving my father in a state of pitiable nervousness. Night afternight I heard him pacing his room, and it was just as he was recoveringhis 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 Fordingbridge post-mark. My father readit, clapped both his hands to his head, and began running round the roomin little circles like a man who has been driven out of his senses. WhenI at last 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 shallhardly find 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. Aswe dashed up to the door, my friend's face convulsed with grief, agentleman 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 myhead, and feeling as sombre as ever I had done in my life. What was thepast of this Trevor, pugilist, traveler, and gold-digger, and how had heplaced himself in the power of this acid-faced seaman? Why, too, shouldhe faint at an allusion to the half-effaced initials upon his arm, anddie of fright when he had a letter from Fordingham? Then I rememberedthat Fordingham 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 they seemto mean another. I must see this letter. If there were a hidden meaningin 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 ina lamp, 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 graypaper. 'The supply of game for London is going steadily up,' it ran.'Head-keeper Hudson, we believe, has been now told to receive all ordersfor fly-paper and for preservation of your hen-pheasant's life.'
"I dare say my face looked as bewildered as yours did just now whenfirst I read this message. Then I reread it very carefully. It wasevidently as I had thought, and some secret meaning must lie buriedin this strange combination of words. Or could it be that there wasa prearranged significance to such phrases as 'fly-paper' and'hen-pheasant'? Such a meaning would be arbitrary and could not bededuced in any way. And yet I was loath to believe that this was thecase, and the presence of the word Hudson seemed to show that thesubject of the message was as I had guessed, and that it was fromBeddoes rather than the sailor. I tried it backwards, but thecombination 'life pheasant's hen' was not encouraging. Then I triedalternate 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 I sawthat 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,I suppose,' said he. "This is worse than death, for it means disgraceas 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, tofulfill the prearranged cipher, to fill in any two words in each space.He would naturally use the first words which came to his mind, andif there were so many which referred to sport among them, you maybe tolerably sure that he is either an ardent shot or interested inbreeding. Do you know 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 myfriend. 'But from you I shall have no secrets. Here is the statementwhich was drawn up by my father when he knew that the danger from Hudsonhad become imminent. I found it in the Japanese cabinet, as he told thedoctor. Take it and read it to me, for I have neither the strength northe courage to do 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.They are endorsed outside, as you see, 'Some particulars of the voyageof the bark _Gloria Scott_, from her leaving Falmouth on the 8thOctober, 1855, to her destruction in N. Lat. 15 degrees 20', W. Long.25 degrees 14' on Nov. 6th.' It is in the form of a letter, and runs inthis way:
"'My dear, dear son, now that approaching disgrace begins to darken theclosing years of my life, I can write with all truth and honesty that itis not the terror of the law, it is not the loss of my position in thecounty, nor is it my fall in the eyes of all who have known me, whichcuts me to the heart; but it is the thought that you should come toblush for me--you who love me and who have seldom, I hope, had reason todo other than respect me. But if the blow falls which is forever hangingover me, then I should wish you to read this, that you may know straightfrom me how far I have been to blame. On the other hand, if all shouldgo well (which may kind God Almighty grant!), then if by any chance thispaper should be still undestroyed and should fall into your hands, Iconjure you, by all you hold sacred, by the memory of your dear mother,and by the love which had been between us, to hurl it into the fire andto never give one thought to it again.
"'If then your eye goes on to read this line, I know that I shallalready have been exposed and dragged from my home, or as is morelikely, for you know that my heart is weak, by lying with my tonguesealed forever in death. In either case the time for suppression ispast, and every word which I tell you is the naked truth, and this Iswear as I hope for mercy.
"'My name, dear lad, is not Trevor. I was James Armitage in my youngerdays, and you can understand now the shock that it was to me a few weeksago when your college friend addressed me in words which seemed to implythat he had surprised my secret. As Armitage it was that I entered aLondon banking-house, and as Armitage I was convicted of breaking mycountry's laws, and was sentenced to transportation. Do not think veryharshly of me, laddie. It was a debt of honor, so called, which I hadto pay, and I used money which was not my own to do it, in the certaintythat I could replace it before there could be any possibility of itsbeing missed. But the most dreadful ill-luck pursued me. The money whichI had reckoned upon never came to hand, and a premature examination ofaccounts
exposed my deficit. The case might have been dealt lenientlywith, but the laws were more harshly administered thirty years ago thannow, and on my twenty-third birthday I found myself chained as a felonwith thirty-seven other convicts in 'tween-decks of the bark _GloriaScott_, 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 BlackSea. The government was compelled, therefore, to use smaller and lesssuitable vessels for sending out their prisoners. The Gloria Scotthad been in the Chinese tea-trade, but she was an old-fashioned,heavy-bowed, broad-beamed craft, and the new clippers had cut herout. She was a five-hundred-ton boat; and besides her thirty-eightjail-birds, she carried twenty-six of a crew, eighteen soldiers, acaptain, three mates, a doctor, a chaplain, and four warders. Nearly ahundred souls were in her, all told, when we set sail from Falmouth.
"'The partitions between the cells of the convicts, instead of being ofthick oak, as is usual in convict-ships, were quite thin and frail.The man next to me, upon the aft side, was one whom I had particularlynoticed when we were led down the quay. He was a young man with aclear, hairless face, a long, thin nose, and rather nut-cracker jaws.He carried his head very jauntily in the air, had a swaggering styleof walking, and was, above all else, remarkable for his extraordinaryheight. I don't think any of our heads would have come up to hisshoulder, and I am sure that he could not have measured less than sixand a half feet. It was strange among so many sad and weary faces to seeone which was full of energy and resolution. The sight of it was to melike a fire in a snow-storm. I was glad, then, to find that he was myneighbor, and gladder still when, in the dead of the night, I heard awhisper close to my ear, and found that he had managed to cut an openingin the board which separated us.
"'"Hullo, chummy!" said he, "what's your name, and what are you herefor?"
"'I answered him, and asked in turn who I was talking with.
"'"I'm Jack Prendergast," said he, "and by God! You'll learn to bless myname 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 own arrest.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 got morepounds to my name than you've hairs on your head. And if you've money,my son, and know how to handle it and spread it, you can do anything.Now, you don't think it likely that a man who could do anything is goingto wear his breeches out sitting in the stinking hold of a rat-gutted,beetle-ridden, mouldy old coffin of a China coaster. No, sir, sucha man will look after himself and will look after his chums. You may layto that! You hold on to him, and you may kiss the book that he'll haulyou through."
"'That was his style of talk, and at first I thought it meant nothing;but after a while, when he had tested me and sworn me in with allpossible solemnity, he let me understand that there really was a plotto gain command of the vessel. A dozen of the prisoners had hatched itbefore they came aboard, Prendergast was the leader, and his money wasthe motive 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 creware his, 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,if he 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 of thesesoldiers 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 atour back, it's time we were all sent to a young misses' boarding-school.You speak to your mate upon the left to-night, and see if he is to betrusted."
"'I did so, and found my other neighbor to be a young fellow in muchthe same position as myself, whose crime had been forgery. His name wasEvans, but he afterwards changed it, like myself, and he is now a richand prosperous man in the south of England. He was ready enough to jointhe conspiracy, as the only means of saving ourselves, and before we hadcrossed the Bay there were only two of the prisoners who were not in thesecret. 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 any useto us.
"'From the beginning there was really nothing to prevent us from takingpossession 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 didhe come 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.Two of the warders were agents of Prendergast, and the second mate washis right-hand man. The captain, the two mates, two warders, LieutenantMartin, his eighteen soldiers, and the doctor were all that we hadagainst us. Yet, safe as it was, we determined to neglect no precaution,and to make our attack suddenly by night. It came, however, more quicklythan we expected, and in this way.
"'One evening, about the third week after our start, the doctor had comedown to see one of the prisoners who was ill, and putting his hand downon the bottom of his bunk he felt the outline of the pistols. If he hadbeen silent he might have blown the whole thing, but he was a nervouslittle 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 gagged beforehe could give the alarm, and tied down upon the bed. He had unlockedthe door that led to the deck, and we were through it in a rush. The twosentries were shot down, and so was a corporal who came running to seewhat was the matter. There were two more soldiers at the door of thestate-room, and their muskets seemed not to be loaded, for they neverfired 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 hisbrains smeared over the chart of the Atlantic which was pinned upon thetable, while the chaplain stood with a smoking pistol in his hand athis elbow. The two mates had both been seized by the crew, and the wholebusiness seemed to be settled.
"'The state-room was next the cabin, and we flocked in there and floppeddown on the settees, all speaking together, for we were just mad withthe feeling that we were free once more. There were lockers all round,and Wilson, the sham chaplain, knocked one of them in, and pulled out adozen of brown sherry. We cracked off the necks of the bottles, pouredthe stuff out into tumblers, and were just tossing them off, when in aninstant without warning there came the roar of muskets in our ears, andthe saloon was so full of smoke that we could not see across the table.When it cleared again the place was a shambles. Wilson and eight otherswere wriggling on the top of each other on the floor, and the blood andthe brown sherry on that table turn me sick now when I think of it. Wewere so cowed by the sight that I think we should have given the job upif 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 there on the poop were the l
ieutenant and ten of his men. The swingskylights above the saloon table had been a bit open, and they had firedon us through the slit. We got on them before they could load, and theystood to it like men; but we had the upper hand of them, and in fiveminutes it was all over. My God! Was there ever a slaughter-houselike that ship! Prendergast was like a raging devil, and he picked thesoldiers up as if they had been children and threw them overboard aliveor dead. There was one sergeant that was horribly wounded and yet kepton swimming for a surprising time, until some one in mercy blew out hisbrains. When the fighting was over there was no one left of our enemiesexcept just the warders, the mates, and the doctor.
"'It was over them that the great quarrel arose. There were many of uswho 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 andthree sailors, said that we would not see it done. But there was nomoving Prendergast and those who were with him. Our only chance ofsafety lay in making a clean job of it, said he, and he would not leavea tongue with power to wag in a witness-box. It nearly came to oursharing the fate of the prisoners, but at last he said that if we wishedwe might take a boat and go. We jumped at the offer, for we were alreadysick of these bloodthirsty doings, and we saw that there would be worsebefore it was done. We were given a suit of sailor togs each, a barrelof water, two casks, one of junk and one of biscuits, and a compass.Prendergast threw us over a chart, told us that we were shipwreckedmariners whose ship had foundered in Lat. 15 degrees and Long 25 degreeswest, and then cut the painter and let us go.
"'And now I come to the most surprising part of my story, my dear son.The seamen had hauled the fore-yard aback during the rising, but now aswe left them they brought it square again, and as there was a light windfrom the north and east the bark began to draw slowly away from us. Ourboat lay, rising and falling, upon the long, smooth rollers, and Evansand 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 de Verdes were about fivehundred miles to the north of us, and the African coast about sevenhundred to the east. On the whole, as the wind was coming round to thenorth, we thought that Sierra Leone might be best, and turned our headin that direction, the bark being at that time nearly hull down on ourstarboard quarter. Suddenly as we looked at her we saw a dense blackcloud of smoke shoot up from her, which hung like a monstrous tree uponthe sky line. A few seconds later a roar like thunder burst upon ourears, and as the smoke thinned away there was no sign left of the_Gloria Scott_. In an instant we swept the boat's head round again andpulled with all our strength for the place where the haze still trailingover the water marked the scene of this catastrophe.
"'It was a long hour before we reached it, and at first we feared thatwe had come too late to save any one. 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 wehad turned 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 us noaccount 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 the 'tween-decks and with his own handscut the throat of the unfortunate surgeon. There only remained the firstmate, who was a bold and active man. When he saw the convict approachinghim with the bloody knife in his hand he kicked off his bonds, which hehad somehow contrived to loosen, and rushing down the deck he plungedinto the after-hold. A dozen convicts, who descended with their pistolsin search of him, found him with a match-box in his hand seated besidean open powder-barrel, which was one of a hundred carried on board, andswearing that he would blow all hands up if he were in any way molested.An instant later the explosion occurred, though Hudson thought it wascaused by the misdirected bullet of one of the convicts rather than themate's match. Be the cause what it may, it was the end of the _GloriaScott_ 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 brig_Hotspur_, 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 truefate. After an excellent voyage the _Hotspur_ landed us at Sydney, whereEvans and 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.We prospered, we traveled, we came back as rich colonials to England,and we bought country estates. For more than twenty years we haveled peaceful and useful lives, and we hoped that our past was foreverburied. Imagine, then, my feelings when in the seaman who came to us Irecognized instantly the man who had been picked off the wreck. He hadtracked 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.The good fellow was heart-broken at it, and went out to the Terai teaplanting, where I hear that he is doing well. As to the sailor andBeddoes, neither of them was ever heard of again after that day on whichthe letter of warning was written. They both disappeared utterly andcompletely. No complaint had been lodged with the police, so thatBeddoes had mistaken a threat for a deed. Hudson had been seen lurkingabout, and it was believed by the police that he had done away withBeddoes and had fled. For myself I believe that the truth was exactlythe opposite. I think that it is most probable that Beddoes, pushed todesperation and believing himself to have been already betrayed, hadrevenged himself upon Hudson, and had fled from the country with as muchmoney as he could lay his hands on. Those are the facts of the case,Doctor, and if they are of any use to your collection, I am sure thatthey are very heartily at your service."
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes Page 5