June 9, 2025 • 46 mins
Dive into the riveting world of the legendary detective, Sherlock Holmes, in this second compilation of short stories penned by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Explore 12 enthralling adventures, serialized in The Strand from December 1892 to December 1893, each masterfully illustrated by Sidney Paget. Join Holmes and his faithful companion, Dr. Watson, as they unravel the mysteries that baffle Londons finest. - Summary by David Clarke
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Adventure four in the Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
Adventure four, The Glorious Scott. I have some papers here,
said my friend Sherlock Holmes, as we sat one winter's
night on either side of the fire, which I really think, Watson,
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that it would be worth your while to glance over.
These are the documents in the extraordinary case of the
Glorious Scott. And this is the message which struck Justice
of the piece Trevor dead with horror when he read it.
He had picked from a drawer a little tarnished cylinder,
and undoing the tape, he handed me a short note
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scrawled upon a half sheet of slate 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 orders for fly paper and for preservation
of your hen pheasant's life. As I glanced up from
reading this enigmatical message, I saw Holmes chuckling at the
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expression upon my face. You look a little bewildered, said he.
I cannot see how such a message as this could
inspire horror. It seems to me to be rather grotesque
than otherwise very likely. Yet the fact remains that the reader,
who was a fine, robust old man, was not cleaned
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down by it, as if it had been the butt
end of a pistol. You arise my curiosity, said I,
But why did you just say now that there 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 turned his mind in the direction of criminal research,
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but had never caught him before in a communicative humor.
Now he sat forward in this arm chair and spread
out the documents upon his knees. Then he lit his
pipe and sat for some time, smoking and turning them over.
You never heard me talk of Victor Trevor, he asked.
He was the only friend I made during the two
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years I was at college. I was never a very
sociable fellow. Watson, always rather fond of moping in my
rooms and working out my own little methods of thought,
so that I never mixed much with the men of
my year bar fencing and boxing. I had few athletic tastes,
and then my line of study was quite distinct from
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that of the other fellows, so that we had no
points of contact at all. Trevor was the only man
I knew, and that only through the accident of his
bull terrier 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
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to come in to inquire after me. At first it
was only a minute's chat, but soon his visit's length,
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 subjects in common, and it was
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a bond of union when I found that he was
as friendless as I. Finally he invited me down to
his father's place at Donnithorpe in Norfolk, and I accepted
his hospitality for a month of the long vacation. Old
Trevor was evidently a man of some wealth and consideration,
a j P and a landed proprietor, Donethorpe is a
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little hamlet just to the north of Langmere in the
country of the Broads. The house was an old fashioned,
wide spread oak beamed brick building with a fine lime
lined avenue leading up to it. There was excellent wild
duck shooting in the fens, remarkably good fishing, a small
but select library, taken over, as I understand from a
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former occupant, and tolerable cook, so that he would be
a fastidious man who could not put in a pleasant
month there. Trevissenia was a widower and my friend his
only son. There had been a daughter, I heard, but
she had died of diphtheria while on a visit to Birmingham.
The father interested me extremely. He was a man of
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little culture, but with a considerable amount of rude strength,
both physically and mentally. He knew hardly any books, but
he had traveled far, had seen much of the world,
and had remembered all that he had learned in person.
He was a thick set, burly man, with a shock
of grizzled hair, a brown, weather beaten face, and blue
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eyes which were keen to the verge of fierceness. Yet
he had a reputation for kindness and charity on the
country side, and was noted for the leniency of his
sentences from the bench. One evening, shortly after my arrival,
we were sitting over a glass of port after day,
when young Trevor began to talk about those habits of
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observation and inference, which I had already formed into a system,
although I had not yet appreciated the part which they
were to play in my life. The old man evidently
thought that his son was exaggerating in his description of
one or two trivial feats which I had performed. Come now,
mister Holmes, said he, laughing good humoredly. I am an
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excellent subject. If you can deduce anything from me, I
fear there is not very much, I answered, I might
suggest that you have gone about in fear of some
personal attack within the last twelve months. 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
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to his son. When we broke up that poaching gang,
they sworet to Knyphus and Sir Edward Holly has actually
been attacked. I have always been on my guard since then,
though I've no idea how you know it? You have
a very handsome stick, I answered, by the inscription. I
observed that you had not had it more than a year,
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but you have taken some pains to bore the head
of it and pour melted lead into the hole, so
as to make it a formidable weapon. I argued that
you would not take such precautions unless you had some
danger to fear. Anything else, he asked, smiling, you have
boxed a good deal in your youth, right again, How
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did you know it is my nose knocked a little
out of the strait, No, said I. It is your ears.
They have the peculiar flattening and thickening 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.
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You have visited Japan, quite true, and you have been
most intimately associated with some one whose initials were j A,
and whom you, afterwards were eager to entirely forget. Mister
Trevor stood slowly up, fixed his large blue eyes upon
me with a strange, wild stare, and then pitched forward
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with his face among the nutshells which strewed the cloth
in a dead faint. You can imagine Watson how shocked
both his son and I were. His attack did not
last long, however, for when we undid his collar and
sprinkled the water from one of the finger glasses over
his face, he gave a gasp or two and sat up. Ah, boys,
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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 not take much to knock
me over. I don't know how you managed this, mister Holmes,
but it seems to me that all the detectives of
fact and of fancy would be children in your hands.
That's your line of life, sir. And you may take
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the word of a man who has seen something of
the world, and that recommendation, with the exaggerated estimate of
my ability with which he prefaced it was, if you
will believe me, Watson, the very first thing which ever
made me feel that a profession might be made out
of what had up to that time been the merest hobby.
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At the moment, however, I was too much concerned at
the sudden illness of my host to think 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
ask how you know? And how much you know? He
spoke now in a half jesting fashion, but a look
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of terror still lurked at the back of his eyes.
It is simplicity itself, said I. When you bared your
arm to draw that fish into the boat, I saw
that J A had been tattooed in the bend of
the elbow. The letters were still legible, but it was
perfectly clear from their blurred appearance, and from the staining
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of the skin around them, that efforts have been made
to obliterate them. It was obvious then that those initials
had once been very familiar to you, and that you
had afterwards wished to forget them. What an eye you have,
he cried, with a sigh of relief. It is just
as you say, but we won't talk of it. Of
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all ghosts, the ghosts of our old lovers are the worst.
Come into the billiard room and have a quiet cigar.
From that day, amid all his cordiality, there was always
a touch of suspicion in mister 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 sure again
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of what you know and what you don't know. He
did not mean to show it, I am sure, but
it was so strongly in his mind that it peeped
out at every action. At last, I became so convinced
that I was called causing him uneasiness that I drew
my visit to a close. On the very day. However,
before I left, an incident occurred which proved in the
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sequel to be of importance. We were sitting out upon
the lawn and garden chairs, the three of us, basking
in the sun and admiring the view across the broads,
when a maid came out to say that there was
a man at the door who wanted to see mister Trevor.
What is his name, asked my host. He would not
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give any What does he want? Then he says that
you know him, and that he only wants a moment's conversation.
Show him round here. An instant afterwards, there appeared a
little wizened fellow with a cringing manner and the shambling
style of walking. He wore an open jacket with a
splotch of tar on the sleeve, a red and black
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check shirt, dungaree trousers, and heavy boots badly worn. His
face was thin and brown and crafty, with a perpetual
smile upon it, which showed an irregular line of yellow teeth,
and his crinkled hands were half closed in a way
that is distinctive of sailors. As he came slouching across
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the lawn, I heard mister Trevor made a sort of
hiccuping noise in his throat, and jumping out of his chair,
he ran into the house. He was back in a moment,
and I smelt a strong reek of brandy as he
passed me. Well, my man, said he, What can I
do for you? The sailor stood looking at him with
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pucket eyes and with the same loose lipped smile upon
his face. You don't know me, he asked, Why, dear me,
it is surely, Hudson, said mister Trevor, in a tone
of surprise. Hudson, it is, sir, said the seaman. Why
it's thirty years or more since I saw you last.
Here you are in your house and me still picking
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my salt meat out of the harness cask. Tut. You
will find that I have not forgotten old times, cried
mister 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 and drink. I
have no doubt that I shall find you a situation.
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Thank you, sir, said the seaman, touching his forelock. I
am just off a two yearer in an eight knot tramp,
short handed at that, and I want a rest. I
thought i'd get it either with mister Bedders or with you. Ah,
cried Trevor. You know where mister Bedrows is. Bless you, sir,
I know where all my old friends are, said the
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fellow with a sinister smile, and he slouched off after
the maid to the kitchen. Mister Trevor mumbled something to
us about having been shipmate with the man when he
was going back to the diggings, and then leaving us
on the lawn he went indoors. An hour later, when
we entered the house, we found him stretched dead, drunk
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upon the dining room's sofa. The whole instant left a
most ugly impression upon my mind, and I was not
sorry next day to leave Donithorpe behind me, for I
felt that my presence must be a source of embarrassment
to my friend. All this occurred during the first month
of the long vacation. I went up to my London rooms,
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where I spent seven weeks working out a few experiments
in organic chemistry. One day, however, when the autumn was
far advanced and the vacation drawing to a close, I
received a telegram from my friend imploring me to return
to Donnithorpe, and saying that he was in great need
of my advice and assistance. Of course, I dropped everything
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and set out for the North once more. He met
me with the dog cart at the station, and I
saw at a glance that the last two months had
been very trying ones for him. He had grown thin
and care worn, and had lost the loud, cheery manner
for which he had been remarkable. The governor dying with
the first words, he said, impossible. I cried, what is
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the matter? Apoplexy, nervous shock. He's been on the verge
all day. I doubt if we 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
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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
hour since, not one. The Governor has never held up
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his head from that evening, and now the life has
been crushed out of him, and his heart broken 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 a ruffian. But I
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am so glad that you have come, homes. I trust
very much to your judgment and discretion, and I know
that you will advise me for the best. We were
dashing along the smooth White Country road with a long
stretch of the broads in front of us, glimmering in
the red light of the setting sun. From a grove
upon our left, I could already see the high chimneys
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and the flag staff 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 house seemed to 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.
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The dad raised their way all round to recompense them
for the annoyance. The fellow would take the boat and
my father's best gun, and treat himself to little shooting trips,
and all this with such a sneering, leering, insolent face
that I would have knocked him down twenty times over
if he'd been a man of my own age. I
tell you, Holmes, I have had to keep a tight
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hold upon myself all this time, and now I am
asking myself whether if I had let myself go a
little more, I might not have been a wiser man. Well,
matters went from bad to worse with us and this
animal Hudson became more and more intrusive, until at last,
on making some insolent reply to my father in my presence,
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one day, I took him by the shoulders and turned
him out of the room. He slunk away with a
livid face and two venomous eyes which uttered more threats
than his tongue could do. I don't know what passed
between the poor dad and him after that, but the
dad came to me next day and asked me where
I would mind apologizing to Hudson. I refused, as you
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can imagine, and ask my father how he could allow
such a wretch to take such liberties with himself and
his household. Ah, my boy, said he. It is all
very well to talk, but you don't know how I
am placed. But you shall know, Victor, I'll see that
you shall know, come what may. You wouldn't believe harm
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of your poor old father, would you, lad. He was
very much moved and shut himself up in the study
all day, where I could see through the window that
he was writing 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 the dining room as we sat after dinner, and
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announced his intention in the thick voice of a half
drunken man. I've had enough of Norfolk, said he. I'll
run down to mister Bedrows 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,
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said my father, with a tameness which made my blood boil.
I've not ut my apology, said he sulkily, glancing in
my direction. Victor, you will acknowledge that you have used
this worthy fellow rather roughly, said the dad, turning to me.
On the contrary, I think that we have both shown
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extraordinary patience towards him, I answered, Oh you do, do you?
He snarls, Very good, mate, We'll see about that. He
slouched out of the room, and half an hour afterwards
left the house, leaving my father in a state of
pitiable nervousness. Night after night I heard him pacing his room,
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and it was just as he was recovering his confidence
that the blow did at last fall, And how I
asked eagerly, in a most extraordinary fashion, A letter arrived
for my father yesterday evening, bearing the Fordingbridge post mark.
My father read it, clapped both his hands to his head,
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and began running around the room in little circles, like
a man who has been driven out of his senses.
When I at last drew him down on to the sofa,
his mouth and eyelids were all puckered on one side,
and I saw that he had a stroke. Doctor Fordham
came over at once. We put him to bed, but
the paralysis has spread. He has shown no sign of
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returning consciousness, and I think that we shall hardly find
him alive. You horrify me, Trevor, I cried, what then
could have been in this letter to cause so dreadful
a result? Nothing there lies the inexplicable part of it.
The message was absurd and trivial. Ah, my god, it
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is as I feared. As he spoke. We came round
the curve of the avenue and saw in the fading
light that every blind in the house had been drawn down.
As we dashed 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
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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 I remained in the study, turning the whole matter
over and over in my head, and feeling as somber
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as ever I had done in my life. What was
the past of this Trevor, pugilist, traveler and gold digger?
And how had he placed himself in the power of
this acid faced seaman? Why too, should he faint at
an allusion to the half effaced initials upon his arm
and die of fright when he had a letter from Fordingham.
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Then I remembered that Fordingham was in Hampshire, and that
this mister Bedows, whom the seamen had gone to visit
and presumably to blackmail, had also been mentioned as living
in Hampshire. The letter then might either come from Hudson
the seaman, saying that he had betrayed the guilty secret
which appeared to exist, or it might come from Bedow's
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warning an old confederate that such a betrayal was imminent.
So far it seemed clear enough. But then how could
this letter be trivial and grotesque as described by the sun.
He must have misread it. If so, it must have
been one of those ingenious secret codes which mean one
thing while they seemed to mean another. I must see
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this letter if there were a hidden meaning in it.
I was confident that I could pluck it forth. For
an hour I sat pondering over it in the gloom,
until at last a weeping maid brought in a 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 sat down opposite to me,
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drew the lamp to the edge of the table, and
handed me 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 fly paper and for preservation of your hen pheasant's life.
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I dare say my face looked as bewildered as yours
did just now when first I read this message. Then
I reread it very carefully. It was evidently as I
had thought, and some secret meaning must lie buried in
this strange combination of words. Or could it be that
there was a prearranged significance to such phrases as fly
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paper and hen pheasant. Such a meaning would be arbitrary
and could not be deduced in any way. And yet
I was loath to believe that this was the case,
And the presence of the word Hudson seemed to show
that the subject of the message was as I had guessed,
and that it was from Bedow's rather than the sailor.
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I tried it backwards, but the combination life pheasant's hen
was not encouraging. Then I tried alternate words, but neither
thee or four 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
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saw that every third word beginning with the first would
give a message which 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
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his face into his shaking hands. It must be that,
I suppose, 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 us if we had no other means of discovering
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the sender. You see that he has begun by writing
the game is and so on. Afterwards he had to
fulfill the prearranged cipher. To fill in any two words
in each space, he would naturally use the first words
which came to his mind. And if there were so
many which referred to sport among them, you may be
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tolerably sure that he is either an ardent shot or
interested in breeding. Do you know anything of this, Beadows?
Why now that you mention it, said he, I remember
that my poor father used to have an invertation from
him to shoot over his preserves every autumn. Then it
is undoubtedly from him that the note comes, said I.
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It only remains for us to find out what this
secret was which the sailor Hudson seems to have held
over the heads of these two wealthy and respected men.
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 was drawn
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up by my father when he knew that the danger
from Hudson had become 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 to do it myself. These are the
very papers Watson which he handed to me, and I
will read them to you as I read them in
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the Old Study that night to him. They are endorsed
outside as you see some particulars of the voyage of
the bark glorious Scott from her leaving Falmouth on the
eighth of October eighteen fifty five to her destruction in
north latitude fifteen degrees twenty west long twenty five degrees
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fourteen on November sixth. It is in the form of
a letter and runs in this way, My dear dear son,
Now that approaching disgrace begins to darken the closing years
of my life, I can write with all truth and
honesty that it is not the terror of the law
It is not the loss of my position in the county,
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nor is it my fall in the eyes of all
who have known me, which cuts me to the heart.
But it is the thought that you should come to
blush for me, you who love me, and who have seldom,
I hope, had reason to do other than respect me.
But if the blow falls, which is forever hanging over me,
then I should wish you to read this, that you
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may know straight from me how far I have been
to blame. On the other hand, if all should go
well well, which may kind God Almighty grant, then if
by any chance this paper should be still undestroyed and
should fall into your hands, I conjure you, by all
you hold sacred, by the memory of your dear mother,
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and by the love which had been between us, to
hurl it into the fire, and to never give one
thought to it again. If then your eye goes on
to read this line, I know that I shall already
have been exposed and dragged from my home. Or, as
is more likely, for you, know that my heart is
weak by lying, with my tongue sealed forever in death.
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In either case, the time for suppression is past, and
every word which 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
my younger days, and you can understand now the shock
that it was to me a few weeks ago when
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your college friend addressed me in words which seemed to
imply that he had surprised my secret as Armitage. It
was that I entered a London banking house, and as
Armitage I was convicted of breaking my country's laws and
was sentenced to transportation. Do not think very harshly of me, laddie.
It was a debt of honor, so called, which I
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had to pay, and I used money which was not
my own to do it, in the certainty that I
could replace it before there could be any possibility of
its being missed. But the most dreadful ill luck pursued me.
The money which I had reckoned upon never came to hand,
and a premature examination of accounts exposed my deficit. The
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case might have been dealt leniently with, but the laws
were more harshly administered thirty years ago than now. And
on my twenty third birthday, I found myself chained at
a felon with thirty seven other convicts in tween debts
of the bark. Glorious Scott bound for Australia. It was
the year fifty five, when the Crimean War was at
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its height, and the old convict ships had been largely
used as transports in the Black Sea. The government was
compelled therefore to use smaller and less suitable vessels for
sending out their prisoners. The Glorious Scott had been in
the Chinese tea trade, but she was an old fashioned
heavy bowed, broad beamed craft, and the new clippers had
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cut her out. She was a five hundred ton boat,
and besides her thirty eight jail birds, she carried twenty
six of a crew eighteen soldiers, a captain, three mates,
a doctor, a chaplain 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,
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instead of being of thick 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 particularly noticed when we were led down the quay.
He was a young man with a clear, pairless face,
a long, thin nose, and rather nut cracker jaws. He
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carried his head 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 any of our
heads would have come up to his shoulder, and I
am sure that he could not have measured less than
six and a half feet. It was strange, among so
many sad and weary faces to see one which was
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full of energy and resolution. The sight of it was
to me like a fire in a snow storm. I
was glad then to find that he was my neighbor,
and gladder still when in the dead of night I
heard a whisper close to my ear and found that
he had managed to cut an opening in the board
which separated us. Hullo, Chummy, said he, what's your name
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and what are you here for? I answered him, and
asked in turn who I was talking with. I am
bak Prendergast, said he, and by God, you'll learn to
bless my name before you've done with me. I remembered
hearing of his case, for it was one which had
made an immense sensation throughout the country some time before
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my own arrest. He was a man of good family
and of great ability, but of incurably vicious habits, who had,
by an ingenious system of fraud, obtained huge sums of
money from the leading London merchants. Ha ha, Are you
remember my case, said he proudly, Very well. Indeed, then
maybe you remember something queer about it? What was that? Then?
(31:37):
I'd had nearly a quarter of a million, hadn't I?
So it was said, but none was recovered. Eh? No, Well,
where do you suppose the balances? He asked, I've no idea,
said I. Right between my finger and thumb, he cried,
By God, I've got more pounds to my name than
you've had hairs on your head. And if you've money,
(32:00):
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 going to
wear his breeches out sitting in the stinking hole of
a rat gutted, beetle ridden, moldy old coffin of a
China coaster. No, sir, such a man will look after
himself and will look after his chums. You may lay
(32:21):
to that you hold on to him, and you may
kiss the book that he'll haul you 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 all possible solemnity, he
let me understand that there really was a plot to
gain command of the vessel. A dozen of the prisoners
(32:44):
had hatched it before they came aboard. Prendigast was the leader,
and his money was the motive power. I'd a partner said,
he a rare good man, as true as a stop
to a barrel. He's got the DIBs he has, And
where do you think he is at this moment? Why
he's the chaplain of this ship, The chaplain no less.
(33:06):
He came aboard with a black coat and his papers right,
and money enough in his box to buy the thing
right up from keel to main truck. The crew are
his body and soul. He could buy em at so
much a gross with a cash discount, and he did
it before ever they signed on. He's got two of
the warders, and Maria the second mate, and he'd get
(33:27):
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 these
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 every mother's son of us.
And if we can't carry this ship with the crew
(33:49):
at our back, it's time we were all sent to
a young missus boarding school. You speak to your mate
upon the left to night and see if he is
to be trusted. I did, sir, and found my other
neighbor to be a young fellow in much the same
position as myself, whose crime had been forgery. His name
was Evans, but he afterwards changed it like myself, and
(34:11):
he is now a rich and prosperous man in the
south of England. He was ready enough to join the
conspiracy as the only means of saving ourselves. And before
we had crossed the bay there were only two of
the prisoners who were not in the secret. One of
these was of weak mind, and we did not dare
to trust him, and the other was suffering from jaundice
(34:32):
and could not be of any use to us. From
the beginning, there was really nothing to prevent us from
taking possession of the ship. The crew were a set
of Ruffians specially picked 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 he come that by the third day we had
(34:54):
each stowed away at the foot of our beds 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 was his right hand man, the captain. The
two mates, two warders, Lieutenant Martin, his eighteen soldiers, and
(35:14):
the doctor were all that we had against us. Yet,
safe as it was, we determined to neglect no precaution
and to make our attack suddenly by night. It came, however,
more quickly than we expected, and in this way, one evening,
about the third week after our start, the doctor had
come down to see one of the prisoners who was ill, and,
(35:37):
putting his hand down on the bottom of his bunk,
he felt the outline of the pistols. If he had
been silent, he might have blown the whole thing. But
he was a nervous little chap, so he gave a
cry of surprise, and turned so pale that the man
knew what was up in an instant and seized him.
He was gagged before he could give the alarm and
(35:58):
tied down upon the bed. He had unlocked 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 came running to see what
was the matter. There were two more soldiers at the
door of the state room, and their muskets seemed not
to be loaded, for they never fired upon us, and
they were shot while trying to fix their bayonets. Then
(36:20):
we rushed on into the captain's cabin, but as we
pushed open the door, there was an explosion from within,
and there he lay with his brains smeared 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 business seemed to
(36:42):
be settled. The stateroom was next to the cabin, and
we flocked in there and flopped down on the settees,
all speaking together, for we were just mad with the
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 a dozen of brown sherry.
(37:02):
We cracked off the necks of the bottles, poured the
stuff out into tumblers, and were just tossing them off
when in an instant, without warning, there came the roar
of muskets in our ears, and the saloon was so
full of smoke that we couldn't see across the table.
When it cleared again, the place was a shambles. Wilson
(37:23):
and eight others were wriggling on the top of each
other on the floor, and the blood and the brown
sherry on that table turned me sick now when I
think of it. We were so cowed by the sight
that I think we should have given the job up
if it had not been for Prendigast. He bellowed like
a bull and rushed for the door with all that
were left alive at his heels. Out we ran, and
(37:45):
there on the poop were the lieutenant and ten of
his men. The swinging skylights above the saloon table had
been a bit open, and they had fired on us
through the slit. We got on them before they could load,
and they stood to it like men. But we had
the upper hand of them, and in five minutes it
was all over. My god, was there ever a slaughter
(38:05):
house like that ship. Prendigas was like a raging devil,
and he picked the soldiers up as if they had
been children, and threw them overboard, alive or dead. There
was one sergeant that was horribly wounded, and yet kept
on swimming for a surprising time, until some one in
mercy blew out his brains. When the fighting was over,
(38:26):
there was no one left of our enemies except just
the warders, 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 wish to have murder on
our souls. It was one thing to knock the soldiers
over with their muskets in their hands, and it was
(38:46):
another to stand by while men were being killed in
cold blood. Eight of us, five convicts and three sailors,
said that we would not see it done. But there
was no moving Prendigast and those who were with him.
Our only chance of safety lay in making a clean
job of it, said he, and he would not leave
a tongue with powert of wag in a witness box.
(39:08):
It nearly came to our sharing the fate of the prisoners,
but at last he said that if we wished, we
might take a boat and go. We jumped at the offer,
for we were already sick of these bloodthirsty doings, and
we saw that there would be worse before it was done.
We were given a suit of sailor togs each, a
barrel of water, two casks, one of junk and one
(39:30):
of biscuits, and a compass. Prendigas threw us over a chart,
told us that we were shipwrecked mariners whose ship had
founded in latitude fifteen degrees and long twenty five degrees west,
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 four yard
(39:53):
aback during the rising, but now as we left them,
they brought it square again. And as there was a
light wind from the north and east, the bark began
to draw slowly away from us. Our boat lay rising
and falling upon the long smooth rollers, and Evans and I,
who were the most educated of the party, were sitting
(40:13):
in the sheets, working out our position and planning what
coast we should make for. It was a nice question,
for the Cape de Verdes were about five hundred miles
to the north of US, and the African coast about
seven hundred to the east on the whole. As the
wind was coming round to the north, we thought that
Sierra Leone might be best, and turned our head in
(40:34):
that direction. The bark being at that time nearly hulled
down on our starboard quarter. Suddenly, as we looked at her,
we saw a dense black cloud of smoke shoot up
from her, which hung like a monstrous tree upon the
sky line. A few seconds later, a roar like thunder
burst upon our ears, and as the smoke thinned away,
(40:56):
there was no sign left of the glorious scot. In
an instant, we swept the boat's head round again and
pulled with all our strength for the place where the
haze still trailing over the water marked the scene of
this catastrophe. It was a long hour before we reached it,
and at first we feared that we had come too
late to save anyone. A splintered boat, and a number
(41:18):
of crates and fragments of spars rising and falling on
the waves showed us where the vessel had founded, But
there was no sign of life, and we had turned
away in despair when we heard a cry for help
and saw at some distance a piece of wreckage with
a man lying stretched across it. When we pulled him
aboard the boat, he proved to be a young seaman
(41:41):
of the name of Hudson, who was so burned and
exhausted that he could give us no account of what
had happened until the following morning. It seemed that after
we had left, Prendergast and his gang had proceeded to
put to death the five remaining prisoners. The two warders
had been shot and thrown over board, and so also
(42:01):
had the third mate. Prendergast then descended into the tween
decks and with his own hands, cut the throat of
the unfortunate surgeon. There only remained the first mate, who
was a bold and active man. When he saw the
convict approaching him with the bloody knife in his hand,
he kicked off his bonds, which he had somehow contrived
(42:23):
to loosen, and rushing down the deck, he plunged into
the afterhold. A dozen convicts who descended with their pistols
in search of him, found him with a match box
in his hand, seated beside an open powder barrel, which
was one of a hundred carried on board, and swearing
that he would blow all hands up if he were
in any way molested. An instant later the explosion occurred,
(42:48):
though Hudson thought it was caused by the misdirected bullet
of one of the convicts rather than the mate's match.
Be the cause what it may, it was the end
of the glorious Scott and of the rabble who held
command of her. Such in a few words, my dear boy,
is the history of this terrible business in which I
was involved. Next day we were picked up by the
(43:10):
brig Hotspur, bound for Australia, whose captain found no difficulty
in believing that we were the survivors of a passenger
ship which had founded the transport ship. Gloria Scott was
set down by the Admiralty as being lost at sea,
and no word has ever leaked out as to her
true fate. After an excellent voyage, the Hotspur landed us
(43:32):
at Sydney, where Evans and I changed our names and
made our way to the Diggings, where among the crowds
who were gathered from all nations we had no difficulty
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
(43:55):
twenty years we have led peaceful and useful lives, and
we hoped that our past was forever buried. Imagine then
my feelings when in the seamen who came to us,
I recognized 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. You will understand
(44:17):
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 fill me now that
he has gone from me to his other victim, with
threats upon his tongue underneath his written in a hand
so shaky as to be hardly legible, Beddo's rites in
cipher to say, H as told all, sweet Lord, have
(44:40):
mercy on our souls, that was the narrative which I
read that night to young Trevor, and I think Watson
that under the circumstances it was a dramatic one. The
good 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 Bedohs, neither
(45:03):
of them was ever heard of again after that day
on which the letter of warning was written. They both
disappeared utterly and completely. No complaint had been lodged with
the police, so that Beddos had mistaken a threat for
a deed. Hudson had been seen lurking about, and it
was believed by the police that he had done away
with Bedows and had fled for myself. I believe that
(45:26):
the truth was exactly the opposite. I think that it
is most probable that Bedos, pushed to desperation, and believing
himself to have been already betrayed, had revenged himself upon Hudson,
and had fled 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
(45:47):
any use to your collection, I am sure that they
are very heartily at your service. End of the Glorious
Scott
Adventure four in the Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
Adventure four, The Glorious Scott. I have some papers here,
said my friend Sherlock Holmes, as we sat one winter's
night on either side of the fire, which I really think, Watson,
(00:23):
that it would be worth your while to glance over.
These are the documents in the extraordinary case of the
Glorious Scott. And this is the message which struck Justice
of the piece Trevor dead with horror when he read it.
He had picked from a drawer a little tarnished cylinder,
and undoing the tape, he handed me a short note
(00:43):
scrawled upon a half sheet of slate 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 orders for fly paper and for preservation
of your hen pheasant's life. As I glanced up from
reading this enigmatical message, I saw Holmes chuckling at the
(01:05):
expression upon my face. You look a little bewildered, said he.
I cannot see how such a message as this could
inspire horror. It seems to me to be rather grotesque
than otherwise very likely. Yet the fact remains that the reader,
who was a fine, robust old man, was not cleaned
(01:26):
down by it, as if it had been the butt
end of a pistol. You arise my curiosity, said I,
But why did you just say now that there 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 turned his mind in the direction of criminal research,
(01:49):
but had never caught him before in a communicative humor.
Now he sat forward in this arm chair and spread
out the documents upon his knees. Then he lit his
pipe and sat for some time, smoking and turning them over.
You never heard me talk of Victor Trevor, he asked.
He was the only friend I made during the two
(02:10):
years I was at college. I was never a very
sociable fellow. Watson, always rather fond of moping in my
rooms and working out my own little methods of thought,
so that I never mixed much with the men of
my year bar fencing and boxing. I had few athletic tastes,
and then my line of study was quite distinct from
(02:30):
that of the other fellows, so that we had no
points of contact at all. Trevor was the only man
I knew, and that only through the accident of his
bull terrier 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
(02:53):
to come in to inquire after me. At first it
was only a minute's chat, but soon his visit's length,
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 subjects in common, and it was
(03:14):
a bond of union when I found that he was
as friendless as I. Finally he invited me down to
his father's place at Donnithorpe in Norfolk, and I accepted
his hospitality for a month of the long vacation. Old
Trevor was evidently a man of some wealth and consideration,
a j P and a landed proprietor, Donethorpe is a
(03:36):
little hamlet just to the north of Langmere in the
country of the Broads. The house was an old fashioned,
wide spread oak beamed brick building with a fine lime
lined avenue leading up to it. There was excellent wild
duck shooting in the fens, remarkably good fishing, a small
but select library, taken over, as I understand from a
(03:58):
former occupant, and tolerable cook, so that he would be
a fastidious man who could not put in a pleasant
month there. Trevissenia was a widower and my friend his
only son. There had been a daughter, I heard, but
she had died of diphtheria while on a visit to Birmingham.
The father interested me extremely. He was a man of
(04:20):
little culture, but with a considerable amount of rude strength,
both physically and mentally. He knew hardly any books, but
he had traveled far, had seen much of the world,
and had remembered all that he had learned in person.
He was a thick set, burly man, with a shock
of grizzled hair, a brown, weather beaten face, and blue
(04:42):
eyes which were keen to the verge of fierceness. Yet
he had a reputation for kindness and charity on the
country side, and was noted for the leniency of his
sentences from the bench. One evening, shortly after my arrival,
we were sitting over a glass of port after day,
when young Trevor began to talk about those habits of
(05:03):
observation and inference, which I had already formed into a system,
although I had not yet appreciated the part which they
were to play in my life. The old man evidently
thought that his son was exaggerating in his description of
one or two trivial feats which I had performed. Come now,
mister Holmes, said he, laughing good humoredly. I am an
(05:24):
excellent subject. If you can deduce anything from me, I
fear there is not very much, I answered, I might
suggest that you have gone about in fear of some
personal attack within the last twelve months. 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
(05:47):
to his son. When we broke up that poaching gang,
they sworet to Knyphus and Sir Edward Holly has actually
been attacked. I have always been on my guard since then,
though I've no idea how you know it? You have
a very handsome stick, I answered, by the inscription. I
observed that you had not had it more than a year,
(06:07):
but you have taken some pains to bore the head
of it and pour melted lead into the hole, so
as to make it a formidable weapon. I argued that
you would not take such precautions unless you had some
danger to fear. Anything else, he asked, smiling, you have
boxed a good deal in your youth, right again, How
(06:29):
did you know it is my nose knocked a little
out of the strait, No, said I. It is your ears.
They have the peculiar flattening and thickening 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.
(06:53):
You have visited Japan, quite true, and you have been
most intimately associated with some one whose initials were j A,
and whom you, afterwards were eager to entirely forget. Mister
Trevor stood slowly up, fixed his large blue eyes upon
me with a strange, wild stare, and then pitched forward
(07:15):
with his face among the nutshells which strewed the cloth
in a dead faint. You can imagine Watson how shocked
both his son and I were. His attack did not
last long, however, for when we undid his collar and
sprinkled the water from one of the finger glasses over
his face, he gave a gasp or two and sat up. Ah, boys,
(07:37):
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 not take much to knock
me over. I don't know how you managed this, mister Holmes,
but it seems to me that all the detectives of
fact and of fancy would be children in your hands.
That's your line of life, sir. And you may take
(07:59):
the word of a man who has seen something of
the world, and that recommendation, with the exaggerated estimate of
my ability with which he prefaced it was, if you
will believe me, Watson, the very first thing which ever
made me feel that a profession might be made out
of what had up to that time been the merest hobby.
(08:20):
At the moment, however, I was too much concerned at
the sudden illness of my host to think 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
ask how you know? And how much you know? He
spoke now in a half jesting fashion, but a look
(08:42):
of terror still lurked at the back of his eyes.
It is simplicity itself, said I. When you bared your
arm to draw that fish into the boat, I saw
that J A had been tattooed in the bend of
the elbow. The letters were still legible, but it was
perfectly clear from their blurred appearance, and from the staining
(09:04):
of the skin around them, that efforts have been made
to obliterate them. It was obvious then that those initials
had once been very familiar to you, and that you
had afterwards wished to forget them. What an eye you have,
he cried, with a sigh of relief. It is just
as you say, but we won't talk of it. Of
(09:25):
all ghosts, the ghosts of our old lovers are the worst.
Come into the billiard room and have a quiet cigar.
From that day, amid all his cordiality, there was always
a touch of suspicion in mister 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 sure again
(09:46):
of what you know and what you don't know. He
did not mean to show it, I am sure, but
it was so strongly in his mind that it peeped
out at every action. At last, I became so convinced
that I was called causing him uneasiness that I drew
my visit to a close. On the very day. However,
before I left, an incident occurred which proved in the
(10:08):
sequel to be of importance. We were sitting out upon
the lawn and garden chairs, the three of us, basking
in the sun and admiring the view across the broads,
when a maid came out to say that there was
a man at the door who wanted to see mister Trevor.
What is his name, asked my host. He would not
(10:28):
give any What does he want? Then he says that
you know him, and that he only wants a moment's conversation.
Show him round here. An instant afterwards, there appeared a
little wizened fellow with a cringing manner and the shambling
style of walking. He wore an open jacket with a
splotch of tar on the sleeve, a red and black
(10:50):
check shirt, dungaree trousers, and heavy boots badly worn. His
face was thin and brown and crafty, with a perpetual
smile upon it, which showed an irregular line of yellow teeth,
and his crinkled hands were half closed in a way
that is distinctive of sailors. As he came slouching across
(11:10):
the lawn, I heard mister Trevor made a sort of
hiccuping noise in his throat, and jumping out of his chair,
he ran into the house. He was back in a moment,
and I smelt a strong reek of brandy as he
passed me. Well, my man, said he, What can I
do for you? The sailor stood looking at him with
(11:30):
pucket eyes and with the same loose lipped smile upon
his face. You don't know me, he asked, Why, dear me,
it is surely, Hudson, said mister Trevor, in a tone
of surprise. Hudson, it is, sir, said the seaman. Why
it's thirty years or more since I saw you last.
Here you are in your house and me still picking
(11:52):
my salt meat out of the harness cask. Tut. You
will find that I have not forgotten old times, cried
mister 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 and drink. I
have no doubt that I shall find you a situation.
(12:14):
Thank you, sir, said the seaman, touching his forelock. I
am just off a two yearer in an eight knot tramp,
short handed at that, and I want a rest. I
thought i'd get it either with mister Bedders or with you. Ah,
cried Trevor. You know where mister Bedrows is. Bless you, sir,
I know where all my old friends are, said the
(12:36):
fellow with a sinister smile, and he slouched off after
the maid to the kitchen. Mister Trevor mumbled something to
us about having been shipmate with the man when he
was going back to the diggings, and then leaving us
on the lawn he went indoors. An hour later, when
we entered the house, we found him stretched dead, drunk
(12:57):
upon the dining room's sofa. The whole instant left a
most ugly impression upon my mind, and I was not
sorry next day to leave Donithorpe behind me, for I
felt that my presence must be a source of embarrassment
to my friend. All this occurred during the first month
of the long vacation. I went up to my London rooms,
(13:19):
where I spent seven weeks working out a few experiments
in organic chemistry. One day, however, when the autumn was
far advanced and the vacation drawing to a close, I
received a telegram from my friend imploring me to return
to Donnithorpe, and saying that he was in great need
of my advice and assistance. Of course, I dropped everything
(13:41):
and set out for the North once more. He met
me with the dog cart at the station, and I
saw at a glance that the last two months had
been very trying ones for him. He had grown thin
and care worn, and had lost the loud, cheery manner
for which he had been remarkable. The governor dying with
the first words, he said, impossible. I cried, what is
(14:05):
the matter? Apoplexy, nervous shock. He's been on the verge
all day. I doubt if we 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
(14:28):
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
hour since, not one. The Governor has never held up
(14:52):
his head from that evening, and now the life has
been crushed out of him, and his heart broken 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 a ruffian. But I
(15:14):
am so glad that you have come, homes. I trust
very much to your judgment and discretion, and I know
that you will advise me for the best. We were
dashing along the smooth White Country road with a long
stretch of the broads in front of us, glimmering in
the red light of the setting sun. From a grove
upon our left, I could already see the high chimneys
(15:36):
and the flag staff 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 house seemed to 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.
(15:58):
The dad raised their way all round to recompense them
for the annoyance. The fellow would take the boat and
my father's best gun, and treat himself to little shooting trips,
and all this with such a sneering, leering, insolent face
that I would have knocked him down twenty times over
if he'd been a man of my own age. I
tell you, Holmes, I have had to keep a tight
(16:20):
hold upon myself all this time, and now I am
asking myself whether if I had let myself go a
little more, I might not have been a wiser man. Well,
matters went from bad to worse with us and this
animal Hudson became more and more intrusive, until at last,
on making some insolent reply to my father in my presence,
(16:41):
one day, I took him by the shoulders and turned
him out of the room. He slunk away with a
livid face and two venomous eyes which uttered more threats
than his tongue could do. I don't know what passed
between the poor dad and him after that, but the
dad came to me next day and asked me where
I would mind apologizing to Hudson. I refused, as you
(17:04):
can imagine, and ask my father how he could allow
such a wretch to take such liberties with himself and
his household. Ah, my boy, said he. It is all
very well to talk, but you don't know how I
am placed. But you shall know, Victor, I'll see that
you shall know, come what may. You wouldn't believe harm
(17:26):
of your poor old father, would you, lad. He was
very much moved and shut himself up in the study
all day, where I could see through the window that
he was writing 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 the dining room as we sat after dinner, and
(17:48):
announced his intention in the thick voice of a half
drunken man. I've had enough of Norfolk, said he. I'll
run down to mister Bedrows 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,
(18:08):
said my father, with a tameness which made my blood boil.
I've not ut my apology, said he sulkily, glancing in
my direction. Victor, you will acknowledge that you have used
this worthy fellow rather roughly, said the dad, turning to me.
On the contrary, I think that we have both shown
(18:31):
extraordinary patience towards him, I answered, Oh you do, do you?
He snarls, Very good, mate, We'll see about that. He
slouched out of the room, and half an hour afterwards
left the house, leaving my father in a state of
pitiable nervousness. Night after night I heard him pacing his room,
(18:53):
and it was just as he was recovering his confidence
that the blow did at last fall, And how I
asked eagerly, in a most extraordinary fashion, A letter arrived
for my father yesterday evening, bearing the Fordingbridge post mark.
My father read it, clapped both his hands to his head,
(19:14):
and began running around the room in little circles, like
a man who has been driven out of his senses.
When I at last drew him down on to the sofa,
his mouth and eyelids were all puckered on one side,
and I saw that he had a stroke. Doctor Fordham
came over at once. We put him to bed, but
the paralysis has spread. He has shown no sign of
(19:36):
returning consciousness, and I think that we shall hardly find
him alive. You horrify me, Trevor, I cried, what then
could have been in this letter to cause so dreadful
a result? Nothing there lies the inexplicable part of it.
The message was absurd and trivial. Ah, my god, it
(19:58):
is as I feared. As he spoke. We came round
the curve of the avenue and saw in the fading
light that every blind in the house had been drawn down.
As we dashed 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
(20:22):
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 I remained in the study, turning the whole matter
over and over in my head, and feeling as somber
(20:45):
as ever I had done in my life. What was
the past of this Trevor, pugilist, traveler and gold digger?
And how had he placed himself in the power of
this acid faced seaman? Why too, should he faint at
an allusion to the half effaced initials upon his arm
and die of fright when he had a letter from Fordingham.
(21:07):
Then I remembered that Fordingham was in Hampshire, and that
this mister Bedows, whom the seamen had gone to visit
and presumably to blackmail, had also been mentioned as living
in Hampshire. The letter then might either come from Hudson
the seaman, saying that he had betrayed the guilty secret
which appeared to exist, or it might come from Bedow's
(21:28):
warning an old confederate that such a betrayal was imminent.
So far it seemed clear enough. But then how could
this letter be trivial and grotesque as described by the sun.
He must have misread it. If so, it must have
been one of those ingenious secret codes which mean one
thing while they seemed to mean another. I must see
(21:50):
this letter if there were a hidden meaning in it.
I was confident that I could pluck it forth. For
an hour I sat pondering over it in the gloom,
until at last a weeping maid brought in a 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 sat down opposite to me,
(22:14):
drew the lamp to the edge of the table, and
handed me 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 fly paper and for preservation of your hen pheasant's life.
(22:37):
I dare say my face looked as bewildered as yours
did just now when first I read this message. Then
I reread it very carefully. It was evidently as I
had thought, and some secret meaning must lie buried in
this strange combination of words. Or could it be that
there was a prearranged significance to such phrases as fly
(22:59):
paper and hen pheasant. Such a meaning would be arbitrary
and could not be deduced in any way. And yet
I was loath to believe that this was the case,
And the presence of the word Hudson seemed to show
that the subject of the message was as I had guessed,
and that it was from Bedow's rather than the sailor.
(23:21):
I tried it backwards, but the combination life pheasant's hen
was not encouraging. Then I tried alternate words, but neither
thee or four 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
(23:42):
saw that every third word beginning with the first would
give a message which 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
(24:03):
his face into his shaking hands. It must be that,
I suppose, 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 us if we had no other means of discovering
(24:24):
the sender. You see that he has begun by writing
the game is and so on. Afterwards he had to
fulfill the prearranged cipher. To fill in any two words
in each space, he would naturally use the first words
which came to his mind. And if there were so
many which referred to sport among them, you may be
(24:45):
tolerably sure that he is either an ardent shot or
interested in breeding. Do you know anything of this, Beadows?
Why now that you mention it, said he, I remember
that my poor father used to have an invertation from
him to shoot over his preserves every autumn. Then it
is undoubtedly from him that the note comes, said I.
(25:08):
It only remains for us to find out what this
secret was which the sailor Hudson seems to have held
over the heads of these two wealthy and respected men.
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 was drawn
(25:29):
up by my father when he knew that the danger
from Hudson had become 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 to do it myself. These are the
very papers Watson which he handed to me, and I
will read them to you as I read them in
(25:50):
the Old Study that night to him. They are endorsed
outside as you see some particulars of the voyage of
the bark glorious Scott from her leaving Falmouth on the
eighth of October eighteen fifty five to her destruction in
north latitude fifteen degrees twenty west long twenty five degrees
(26:10):
fourteen on November sixth. It is in the form of
a letter and runs in this way, My dear dear son,
Now that approaching disgrace begins to darken the closing years
of my life, I can write with all truth and
honesty that it is not the terror of the law
It is not the loss of my position in the county,
(26:33):
nor is it my fall in the eyes of all
who have known me, which cuts me to the heart.
But it is the thought that you should come to
blush for me, you who love me, and who have seldom,
I hope, had reason to do other than respect me.
But if the blow falls, which is forever hanging over me,
then I should wish you to read this, that you
(26:53):
may know straight from me how far I have been
to blame. On the other hand, if all should go
well well, which may kind God Almighty grant, then if
by any chance this paper should be still undestroyed and
should fall into your hands, I conjure you, by all
you hold sacred, by the memory of your dear mother,
(27:15):
and by the love which had been between us, to
hurl it into the fire, and to never give one
thought to it again. If then your eye goes on
to read this line, I know that I shall already
have been exposed and dragged from my home. Or, as
is more likely, for you, know that my heart is
weak by lying, with my tongue sealed forever in death.
(27:39):
In either case, the time for suppression is past, and
every word which 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
my younger days, and you can understand now the shock
that it was to me a few weeks ago when
(28:00):
your college friend addressed me in words which seemed to
imply that he had surprised my secret as Armitage. It
was that I entered a London banking house, and as
Armitage I was convicted of breaking my country's laws and
was sentenced to transportation. Do not think very harshly of me, laddie.
It was a debt of honor, so called, which I
(28:22):
had to pay, and I used money which was not
my own to do it, in the certainty that I
could replace it before there could be any possibility of
its being missed. But the most dreadful ill luck pursued me.
The money which I had reckoned upon never came to hand,
and a premature examination of accounts exposed my deficit. The
(28:42):
case might have been dealt leniently with, but the laws
were more harshly administered thirty years ago than now. And
on my twenty third birthday, I found myself chained at
a felon with thirty seven other convicts in tween debts
of the bark. Glorious Scott bound for Australia. It was
the year fifty five, when the Crimean War was at
(29:04):
its height, and the old convict ships had been largely
used as transports in the Black Sea. The government was
compelled therefore to use smaller and less suitable vessels for
sending out their prisoners. The Glorious Scott had been in
the Chinese tea trade, but she was an old fashioned
heavy bowed, broad beamed craft, and the new clippers had
(29:25):
cut her out. She was a five hundred ton boat,
and besides her thirty eight jail birds, she carried twenty
six of a crew eighteen soldiers, a captain, three mates,
a doctor, a chaplain 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,
(29:49):
instead of being of thick 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 particularly noticed when we were led down the quay.
He was a young man with a clear, pairless face,
a long, thin nose, and rather nut cracker jaws. He
(30:09):
carried his head 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 any of our
heads would have come up to his shoulder, and I
am sure that he could not have measured less than
six and a half feet. It was strange, among so
many sad and weary faces to see one which was
(30:31):
full of energy and resolution. The sight of it was
to me like a fire in a snow storm. I
was glad then to find that he was my neighbor,
and gladder still when in the dead of night I
heard a whisper close to my ear and found that
he had managed to cut an opening in the board
which separated us. Hullo, Chummy, said he, what's your name
(30:53):
and what are you here for? I answered him, and
asked in turn who I was talking with. I am
bak Prendergast, said he, and by God, you'll learn to
bless my name before you've done with me. I remembered
hearing of his case, for it was one which had
made an immense sensation throughout the country some time before
(31:13):
my own arrest. He was a man of good family
and of great ability, but of incurably vicious habits, who had,
by an ingenious system of fraud, obtained huge sums of
money from the leading London merchants. Ha ha, Are you
remember my case, said he proudly, Very well. Indeed, then
maybe you remember something queer about it? What was that? Then?
(31:37):
I'd had nearly a quarter of a million, hadn't I?
So it was said, but none was recovered. Eh? No, Well,
where do you suppose the balances? He asked, I've no idea,
said I. Right between my finger and thumb, he cried,
By God, I've got more pounds to my name than
you've had hairs on your head. And if you've money,
(32:00):
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 going to
wear his breeches out sitting in the stinking hole of
a rat gutted, beetle ridden, moldy old coffin of a
China coaster. No, sir, such a man will look after
himself and will look after his chums. You may lay
(32:21):
to that you hold on to him, and you may
kiss the book that he'll haul you 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 all possible solemnity, he
let me understand that there really was a plot to
gain command of the vessel. A dozen of the prisoners
(32:44):
had hatched it before they came aboard. Prendigast was the leader,
and his money was the motive power. I'd a partner said,
he a rare good man, as true as a stop
to a barrel. He's got the DIBs he has, And
where do you think he is at this moment? Why
he's the chaplain of this ship, The chaplain no less.
(33:06):
He came aboard with a black coat and his papers right,
and money enough in his box to buy the thing
right up from keel to main truck. The crew are
his body and soul. He could buy em at so
much a gross with a cash discount, and he did
it before ever they signed on. He's got two of
the warders, and Maria the second mate, and he'd get
(33:27):
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 these
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 every mother's son of us.
And if we can't carry this ship with the crew
(33:49):
at our back, it's time we were all sent to
a young missus boarding school. You speak to your mate
upon the left to night and see if he is
to be trusted. I did, sir, and found my other
neighbor to be a young fellow in much the same
position as myself, whose crime had been forgery. His name
was Evans, but he afterwards changed it like myself, and
(34:11):
he is now a rich and prosperous man in the
south of England. He was ready enough to join the
conspiracy as the only means of saving ourselves. And before
we had crossed the bay there were only two of
the prisoners who were not in the secret. One of
these was of weak mind, and we did not dare
to trust him, and the other was suffering from jaundice
(34:32):
and could not be of any use to us. From
the beginning, there was really nothing to prevent us from
taking possession of the ship. The crew were a set
of Ruffians specially picked 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 he come that by the third day we had
(34:54):
each stowed away at the foot of our beds 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 was his right hand man, the captain. The
two mates, two warders, Lieutenant Martin, his eighteen soldiers, and
(35:14):
the doctor were all that we had against us. Yet,
safe as it was, we determined to neglect no precaution
and to make our attack suddenly by night. It came, however,
more quickly than we expected, and in this way, one evening,
about the third week after our start, the doctor had
come down to see one of the prisoners who was ill, and,
(35:37):
putting his hand down on the bottom of his bunk,
he felt the outline of the pistols. If he had
been silent, he might have blown the whole thing. But
he was a nervous little chap, so he gave a
cry of surprise, and turned so pale that the man
knew what was up in an instant and seized him.
He was gagged before he could give the alarm and
(35:58):
tied down upon the bed. He had unlocked 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 came running to see what
was the matter. There were two more soldiers at the
door of the state room, and their muskets seemed not
to be loaded, for they never fired upon us, and
they were shot while trying to fix their bayonets. Then
(36:20):
we rushed on into the captain's cabin, but as we
pushed open the door, there was an explosion from within,
and there he lay with his brains smeared 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 business seemed to
(36:42):
be settled. The stateroom was next to the cabin, and
we flocked in there and flopped down on the settees,
all speaking together, for we were just mad with the
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 a dozen of brown sherry.
(37:02):
We cracked off the necks of the bottles, poured the
stuff out into tumblers, and were just tossing them off
when in an instant, without warning, there came the roar
of muskets in our ears, and the saloon was so
full of smoke that we couldn't see across the table.
When it cleared again, the place was a shambles. Wilson
(37:23):
and eight others were wriggling on the top of each
other on the floor, and the blood and the brown
sherry on that table turned me sick now when I
think of it. We were so cowed by the sight
that I think we should have given the job up
if it had not been for Prendigast. He bellowed like
a bull and rushed for the door with all that
were left alive at his heels. Out we ran, and
(37:45):
there on the poop were the lieutenant and ten of
his men. The swinging skylights above the saloon table had
been a bit open, and they had fired on us
through the slit. We got on them before they could load,
and they stood to it like men. But we had
the upper hand of them, and in five minutes it
was all over. My god, was there ever a slaughter
(38:05):
house like that ship. Prendigas was like a raging devil,
and he picked the soldiers up as if they had
been children, and threw them overboard, alive or dead. There
was one sergeant that was horribly wounded, and yet kept
on swimming for a surprising time, until some one in
mercy blew out his brains. When the fighting was over,
(38:26):
there was no one left of our enemies except just
the warders, 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 wish to have murder on
our souls. It was one thing to knock the soldiers
over with their muskets in their hands, and it was
(38:46):
another to stand by while men were being killed in
cold blood. Eight of us, five convicts and three sailors,
said that we would not see it done. But there
was no moving Prendigast and those who were with him.
Our only chance of safety lay in making a clean
job of it, said he, and he would not leave
a tongue with powert of wag in a witness box.
(39:08):
It nearly came to our sharing the fate of the prisoners,
but at last he said that if we wished, we
might take a boat and go. We jumped at the offer,
for we were already sick of these bloodthirsty doings, and
we saw that there would be worse before it was done.
We were given a suit of sailor togs each, a
barrel of water, two casks, one of junk and one
(39:30):
of biscuits, and a compass. Prendigas threw us over a chart,
told us that we were shipwrecked mariners whose ship had
founded in latitude fifteen degrees and long twenty five degrees west,
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 four yard
(39:53):
aback during the rising, but now as we left them,
they brought it square again. And as there was a
light wind from the north and east, the bark began
to draw slowly away from us. Our boat lay rising
and falling upon the long smooth rollers, and Evans and I,
who were the most educated of the party, were sitting
(40:13):
in the sheets, working out our position and planning what
coast we should make for. It was a nice question,
for the Cape de Verdes were about five hundred miles
to the north of US, and the African coast about
seven hundred to the east on the whole. As the
wind was coming round to the north, we thought that
Sierra Leone might be best, and turned our head in
(40:34):
that direction. The bark being at that time nearly hulled
down on our starboard quarter. Suddenly, as we looked at her,
we saw a dense black cloud of smoke shoot up
from her, which hung like a monstrous tree upon the
sky line. A few seconds later, a roar like thunder
burst upon our ears, and as the smoke thinned away,
(40:56):
there was no sign left of the glorious scot. In
an instant, we swept the boat's head round again and
pulled with all our strength for the place where the
haze still trailing over the water marked the scene of
this catastrophe. It was a long hour before we reached it,
and at first we feared that we had come too
late to save anyone. A splintered boat, and a number
(41:18):
of crates and fragments of spars rising and falling on
the waves showed us where the vessel had founded, But
there was no sign of life, and we had turned
away in despair when we heard a cry for help
and saw at some distance a piece of wreckage with
a man lying stretched across it. When we pulled him
aboard the boat, he proved to be a young seaman
(41:41):
of the name of Hudson, who was so burned and
exhausted that he could give us no account of what
had happened until the following morning. It seemed that after
we had left, Prendergast and his gang had proceeded to
put to death the five remaining prisoners. The two warders
had been shot and thrown over board, and so also
(42:01):
had the third mate. Prendergast then descended into the tween
decks and with his own hands, cut the throat of
the unfortunate surgeon. There only remained the first mate, who
was a bold and active man. When he saw the
convict approaching him with the bloody knife in his hand,
he kicked off his bonds, which he had somehow contrived
(42:23):
to loosen, and rushing down the deck, he plunged into
the afterhold. A dozen convicts who descended with their pistols
in search of him, found him with a match box
in his hand, seated beside an open powder barrel, which
was one of a hundred carried on board, and swearing
that he would blow all hands up if he were
in any way molested. An instant later the explosion occurred,
(42:48):
though Hudson thought it was caused by the misdirected bullet
of one of the convicts rather than the mate's match.
Be the cause what it may, it was the end
of the glorious Scott and of the rabble who held
command of her. Such in a few words, my dear boy,
is the history of this terrible business in which I
was involved. Next day we were picked up by the
(43:10):
brig Hotspur, bound for Australia, whose captain found no difficulty
in believing that we were the survivors of a passenger
ship which had founded the transport ship. Gloria Scott was
set down by the Admiralty as being lost at sea,
and no word has ever leaked out as to her
true fate. After an excellent voyage, the Hotspur landed us
(43:32):
at Sydney, where Evans and I changed our names and
made our way to the Diggings, where among the crowds
who were gathered from all nations we had no difficulty
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
(43:55):
twenty years we have led peaceful and useful lives, and
we hoped that our past was forever buried. Imagine then
my feelings when in the seamen who came to us,
I recognized 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. You will understand
(44:17):
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 fill me now that
he has gone from me to his other victim, with
threats upon his tongue underneath his written in a hand
so shaky as to be hardly legible, Beddo's rites in
cipher to say, H as told all, sweet Lord, have
(44:40):
mercy on our souls, that was the narrative which I
read that night to young Trevor, and I think Watson
that under the circumstances it was a dramatic one. The
good 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 Bedohs, neither
(45:03):
of them was ever heard of again after that day
on which the letter of warning was written. They both
disappeared utterly and completely. No complaint had been lodged with
the police, so that Beddos had mistaken a threat for
a deed. Hudson had been seen lurking about, and it
was believed by the police that he had done away
with Bedows and had fled for myself. I believe that
(45:26):
the truth was exactly the opposite. I think that it
is most probable that Bedos, pushed to desperation, and believing
himself to have been already betrayed, had revenged himself upon Hudson,
and had fled 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
(45:47):
any use to your collection, I am sure that they
are very heartily at your service. End of the Glorious
Scott
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