“ ‘It was the year ’55, when the Crimean War was at its height,and the old convict ships had been largely used as transports inthe Black Sea. The government was compelled, therefore, to usesmaller and less suitable vessels for sending out their prisoners.
The Gloria Scott had been in the Chinese tea-trade, but she wasan old-fashioned, heavy-bowed, broad-beamed craft, and the newclippers had cut her out. She was a five-hundred-ton boat; andbesides her thirty-eight jail-birds, she carried twenty-six of a crew,eighteen soldiers, a captain, three mates, a doctor, a chaplain, andfour warders. Nearly a hundred souls were in her, all told, when weset sail from Falmouth.
“ ‘The partitions between the cells of the convicts, instead ofbeing of thick oak, as is usual in convict-ships, were quite thin andfrail. The man next to me, upon the aft side, was one whom I hadparticularly noticed when we were led down the quay. He was ayoung man with a clear, hairless face, a long, thin nose, and rathernut-cracker jaws. He carried his head very jauntily in the air, hadswaggering style of walking, and was, above all else, remarkablefor his extraordinary height. I don’t think any of our heads wouldhave come up to his shoulder, and I am sure that he could nothave measured less than six and a half feet. It was strange amongso many sad and weary faces to see one which was full of energyand resolution. The sight of it was to me like a fire in a snowstorm.
was glad, then, to find that he was my neighbor, and gladder stillwhen, in the dead of the night, I heard a whisper close to my ear,and found that he had managed to cut an opening in the boardwhich separated us.
“ ‘ “Hullo, chummy!” said he, “What’s your name, and what areyou here for?”
“ ‘I answered him, and asked in turn who I was talking with.
“ ‘ “I’m Jack Prendergast,” said he, “and by God! you’ll learn tobless my name before you’ve done with me.”
“ ‘I remembered hearing of his case, for it was one which hadmade an immense sensation throughout the country some timebefore my own arrest. He was a man of good family and of greatability, but of incurably vicious habits, who had by an ingeniousMemoirs of Sherlock Holmes 725
system of fraud obtained huge sums of money from the leadingLondon merchants.
“ ‘ “Ha, ha! You remember my case!” said he proudly.
“ ‘ “Very well, indeed.”
“ ‘ “Then maybe you remember something queer about it?”
“ ‘ “What was that, then?”
“ ‘ “I’d had nearly a quarter of a million, hadn’t I?”
“ ‘ “So it was said.”
“ ‘ “But none was recovered, eh?”
“ ‘ “No.”
“ ‘ “Well, where d’ye suppose the balance is?” he asked.
“ ‘ “I have no idea,” said I.
“ ‘ “Right between my finger and thumb,” he cried. “By God! I’vegot more pounds to my name than you’ve hairs on your head. Andif you’ve money, my son, and know how to handle it and spread it,you can do anything. Now, you don’t think it likely that a man whocould do anything is going to wear his breeches out sitting in thestinking hold of a rat-gutted, beetle-ridden, mouldy old coffin of aChin China coaster. No, sir, such a man will look after himself andwill look after his chums. You may lay 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 meantnothing; but after a while, when he had tested me and sworn me inwith all possible solemnity, he let me understand that there reallywas a plot to gain command of the vessel. A dozen of the prisonershad hatched it before they came aboard, Prendergast was theleader, and his money was the motive power.
“ ‘ “I’d a partner,” said he, “a rare good man, as true as a stock toa barrel. He’s got the dibbs, he has, and where do you think he isat this moment? Why, he’s the chaplain of this ship—the chaplain,no less! He came aboard with a black coat, and his papers right,and money enough in his box to buy the thing right up from keelto main-truck. The crew are his, body and soul. He could buy ’emat so much a gross with a cash discount, and he did it before everthey signed on. He’s got two of the warders and Mereer, the secondmate, and he’d get the captain himself, if he thought him worth it.”
“ ‘ “What are we to do, then?” I asked.
“ ‘ “What do you think?” said he. “We’ll make the coats of someof 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 forevery mother’s son of us; and if we can’t carry this ship, with thecrew at our back, it’s time we were all sent to a young misses’
boarding-school. You speak to your mate upon the left to-night,and see if he is to be trusted.”
726 The Complete Sherlock Holmes
“ ‘I did so, and found my other neighbor to be a young fellow inmuch the same position as myself, whose crime had been forgery.
His name was Evans, but he afterwards changed it, like myself,and 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 ofsaving ourselves, and before we had crossed the Bay there wereonly two of the prisoners who were not in the secret. One of thesewas of weak mind, and we did not dare to trust him, and the otherwas suffering from jaundice, and could not be of any use to us.
“ ‘From the beginning there was really nothing to preventus from taking possession of the ship. The crew were a set ofruffians, specially picked for the job. The sham chaplain came intoour cells to exhort us, carrying a black bag, supposed to be fullof tracts, and so often did he come that by the third day we hadeach stowed away at the foot of our beds a file, a brace of pistols,pound of powder, and twenty slugs. Two of the warders wereagents of Prendergast, and the second mate was his right-handman. The captain, the two mates, two warders, Lieutenant Martin,his eighteen soldiers, and the doctor were all that we had againstus. Yet, safe as it was, we determined to neglect no precaution,and to make our attack suddenly by night. It came, however, morequickly than we expected, and in this way.