The "Gloria Scott" - The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

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