The Complete Works of Sherlock Holmes

Chapter 68 Memoirs (9) ([-])
"I'm afraid I was as puzzled as you were when I first read this letter. I reread it very carefully. Apparently, as I had expected, there was some secret meaning hidden in these strange phrases. 'Flypaper' and ' Phrases such as "hen" may be a code word agreed in advance. This code word can be agreed on at will. No one else can deduce its meaning anyway. But I don't believe this is the case in this letter, and this Hudson The appearance of the words indicated that the content of the letter seemed to meet my guess. The note was from Beddoes, not the sailor. I read the words backwards, but the phrases 'life, hen', etc. There is no special meaning. So, I tried to read every other word, but neither 'the of for' nor 'supply game london' made any sense.

"After a while, I finally cracked the code in the letter. I saw that reading every second word from the first word made sense to the letter, but the codes meant enough to put old Trey Buddha was cornered.

"This is a warning letter, short and to the point. I immediately read it to my friend:

The game is up. Hudson has told all. Fly for your life.
(Translation: The game is over. Hudson has all been exposed. You run for your life!)

"Victor Trevor covered his face with trembling hands. 'It must be so,' he said, 'it's worse than death, it means disgrace. What does the word stand for?'

"'These two words have no special meaning in the letter, but it would be of great help to us if we had no other way of finding the sender. You see him finish the preformed phrase 'The  … game...is' and so on, and fill in two words between each two words. From his subconscious use of the first word that comes to mind, we can be sure that he is a person who likes hunting, or A man who loves poultry. Do you know anything about Beddoes?"

"'Yes, upon your mention,' said he, 'I remember that Beddoes used to invite my father to hunt with him every fall.'

"'He must have sent the letter,' said I, 'and now we only need to find out what the sailor Hudson has done to threaten these two powerful men.'

"'Alas, Holmes, I am afraid that is a crime and a disgrace!' exclaimed my friend; 'but I need not keep the secret from you. Such is the statement of my father, and it was in his Written when Hudson was about to expose him. I found it in the Japanese cabinet, as the doctor told me. Please read it to me, I am too exhausted to read it myself.'

"Here, Watson, are the papers that little Trevor gave me, which I read to him that evening in the old study, and which I now read to you. Look, on the outside of these papers is written:' Voyage of the three-masted galleon Gloria Scott, which sailed from Falmouth on October 15, 20, and sank on November 25 of the same year at latitude 14 [-] north, longitude [-] [-] west. 'This voyage record is recorded in the form of a letter.

"'My dearest son: disgrace began to approach me, and darkened my old age. I confess that I have no fear of the law, nor do I care to lose my office in the county, nor to be scorned by others. It hurts my heart to think that you love me so much, and worship me so much, and yet be ashamed of me. If the evil I fear should happen, I want you to read this account, and then You will know exactly what my punishment is. If I escape this (may the Almighty Merciful God grant!), and this paper falls into your hands, I hope you will, for God's sake, see For your dear mother's sake, and for the sake of our father and son's kindness, burn it, and forget forever what is written on this paper.

"'If you read this letter, either the matter is revealed, and I am in prison, or I am dead (for you know my heart is weak). But in either case, there is no need to continue to conceal the matter. The following What I have said is true, and I sincerely hope for your forgiveness.

"'Dear boy, my real name is not Trevor, but my name was James Armitage when I was young. What your college friends speculated about me a few weeks ago sounded like a revelation to me about my alias. I was sentenced to exile for a crime I committed while working in a London bank. No, boy. Excessively critical of me. To pay a gambling debt I had to embezzle money that did not belong to me. I did manage to make it up before anyone else noticed, but misfortune never came, the money I was counting on did not arrive on time, and In addition to checking the accounts in advance, my deficit was exposed. Originally, this case could have been given a lenient sentence, but the law 30 years ago was much stricter than it is now. So, on my 23rd birthday, I was sentenced to a heavy sentence and The other 37 criminals were imprisoned on the deck of the "Gloria Scott" sailing ship and exiled to Australia.

"'It was 38, during the Crimean War. Many of the ships that were supposed to carry criminals were doing military transport in the Black Sea, so the government had to temporarily use smaller, unprofessional ships to transport criminals.' The "Gloria Scott" sailing ship was originally used exclusively for Chinese tea business. It was old in style, with a heavy bow and a wide hull. It had long been replaced by a new type of fast sailing ship. In addition to the 26 prisoners, there were 100 sailors, [-] soldiers, a captain, three mates, a doctor, a priest and four jailers. When sailing from Falmouth, there were about [-] people on board. people.

"'Usually the cell partitions of prison ships are made of thick oak, but the cell partitions of this ship were not strong and were very thin. When I was taken to the dock, I noticed a man who was held in the In the cell next to me at the stern of the boat. He was a young man with a handsome face, no beard, a high nose, a shriveled mouth, and he walked with a proud look. He was very tall, at least six years old. Feet and a half feet, I guess no one is as tall as his shoulders. It is impressive to see such a vigorous and resolute face among so many gloomy and depressed faces. I am happy that his prisoner The cell was next to me. One night in the dead of night, I heard a few whispers in my ears, and I saw that he had dug a hole in the partition of the cell.

"'He said: 'Hello, my friend!May I have your name?What crime? "

"'I answered him, and asked him who he was.

"'He said: 'My name is Jack Prendergast, and I swear you'll appreciate me before you part with me. "

"'Before I was arrested myself, his case was a sensation in the country, so I knew a thing or two about his crimes. , defrauded huge sums of money from wealthy London businessmen.

"' At this time, he said proudly: "Haha!You remember my case. "

"'I said: 'Yes, I remember it very well. "

"'He said: 'Do you remember what was special about that case? "

"'I said, 'What's so special about it? "

"'He said: 'I got nearly a quarter of a million pounds, didn't I? "

"'I said: 'Yes.That's what people say. "

"'He said: 'But the stolen money has not been recovered, you know? "

"'I replied: 'I don't know. "

"' He asked again: "Well, where do you think this huge sum of money is now? "

"'I said: 'I can't guess. "

"' He said aloud: "The money is still in my hand.True!The number of pounds in my name is more than the strands of your hair.Friends, if you have money and know how to manage it, then you can do whatever you want.Hello!Don't think that a person who can do whatever he wants is willing to sit and wait to die in the cargo hold of this dilapidated Chinese ship full of rats and bugs and emitting a stench.No, sir, such a man not only has to save himself, but his fellow sufferer as well.You can have a blast!You swear by the Bible to rely on him, and he will surely deliver you. "

"'That was the tone of his voice. I didn't take it seriously at first. But after a while he tried me again, and swore to me seriously that there was indeed a secret plan to take the ship. Before the ship, Prendergast bought twelve prisoners with money and made preparations in advance.

"' said Prendergast: 'I have a completely honest and reliable accomplice, and the money is in his hands.Where do you think this person is now?Ha, he is the priest of this ship!He was wearing a black jacket, his ID card was valid, and the money in his box was enough to buy off everyone on the ship.All the sailors on this ship are his confidantes.He bought them all in cash before they signed for employment.He also bribed two jailers and second mate Mailer.As long as he thinks the captain is worth buying, he will even buy the captain. "

"'I asked: 'What on earth are we going to do? "

"'He said: 'What do you think?We're going to make some of the soldier's clothes more bright red than the cloth we just made. "

"'I said: 'But they all have arms. "

"'He said: 'Boy, we too will be armed, with two pistols each.We have all the sailors behind us, and if we can't take this ship, we should all be sent to a girls' boarding school.Tonight, you talk to that guy on your left to see if he's reliable. "

"'I did so, and I learned that my left neighbor was a young man in a similar situation to myself, charged with counterfeiting money. His name was Evans, and he was now as anonymous as I was, and he was a Southerner of England. Wealthy man. He is perfectly willing to take part in this covert operation, because it is the only way out for us. So there were only two of the prisoners on board who were not involved in this covert operation before we were imprisoned across the bay. One of them Weak-willed, we couldn't trust him; the other was jaundiced and was of no use to us.

"'At first, our seizure of the ship was met with no hindrance. The gang of rogue sailors had been chosen for it. The fake priest, carrying a black knapsack that seemed to be full of mission books, kept coming to One cell after cell was used as the exhortation of the Zong family, and the essence was to encourage us. By the third day, each of us had a file, two pistols, a pound of dynamite, and twenty rounds of ammunition hidden under the foot of the bed. Two The jailer had long been Prendergast's confidant, and the second mate became his assistant. Only the captain, two mates, two jailers, Lieutenant Martin, his eighteen soldiers, and the doctor were on board. On our side. Although the plan seems to be quite safe, we have to proceed more cautiously. We are preparing to carry out a surprise attack at night. However, the time to do it is much earlier than we expected. The situation is as follows:
"'One night in the third week after the ship sailed, the doctor, while attending to a prisoner, found a pistol under the prisoner's bed. If he had kept his composure, he might have thwarted our plan, but he was a coward. The courageous man suddenly turned pale with fright, and screamed. The prisoner immediately understood what happened and caught him. Before the doctor had time to report the news, he was gagged and tied to the bed. The doctor came The door to the deck was unlocked at that time, and we passed through the door and rushed onto the deck. Two sentries were shot dead, and a squad leader ran to see what was going on, and was also shot and fell. The other two guards of the first class The soldiers in the cabin, their muskets seemed to have no powder, and they were killed when they found out that they were going to bayonet the guns. When we rushed into the captain's cabin, there was a gunshot inside. When we opened the door, we saw that the captain had already Falling down, brains splashed on the Atlantic chart on the table, and the priest with a smoking gun was standing next to the body. The two officers had already been captured, and the whole operation seemed to be a success.

"'The first-class cabin is next to the captain's cabin, and we swarmed there, leaning on the benches and chatting. There were several cargo boxes in the first-class cabin, and the fake priest Wilson opened one of them and took out twenty bottles of brown wine. Broke the neck of the bottle, and was about to toast for a drink, when there was a sudden burst of gunfire, and the first-class cabin was filled with smoke, and no one could be seen across the table. When the smoke cleared, the cabin was full of blood and flesh. Wilson and The other eight were dying on the floor. To this day I still feel sick when I think of the table full of blood and brown wine. At the time, we were all terrified by the sight, and if it weren't for Prendergast, It's all over. He roared like a mad cow and rushed out the door, and all the survivors rushed out with him. We rushed out of the cabin, only to see the lieutenant and ten soldiers under him standing in the stern, first class Directly over the table, there was a revolving skylight, and they shot at us through the opening of the skylight. We rushed forward while they had no time to reload the gunpowder. Although they fought hard, we finally gained the upper hand, The battle lasted less than 5 minutes and they were all dealt with. Oh my god! This ship has become a slaughterhouse! Prendergast is like an angry devil, picking up the soldiers one by one like children, regardless People were thrown into the sea dead or alive. There was a sergeant who was seriously injured. After being thrown into the sea, he swam for a surprisingly long time until someone shot him in the head because he couldn't bear it. He gradually sank into the sea The battle is over, except for two jailers, two mates and a doctor, the rest of the enemies have all been eliminated.

"'We had a heated debate about what to do with the few remaining enemies. Many were happy to be free again and were unwilling to kill. It is one thing to kill armed soldiers, but it is to kill unarmed captives. Another matter. For the eight of us, five prisoners and three sailors, we would not kill them, but Prendergast and his gang insisted. He said, we will If you want to be safe, you must cut the grass and roots, and you must not leave any one alive who may accuse us in the future. Because we objected, they almost detained us, but he finally agreed that we could leave them in a small boat. We have long hated this bloody He readily agreed to this proposal, we know that after this killing, perhaps even more cruel things will happen.

"'So he gave each of us a sailor's suit, a bucket of fresh water, a little bucket of corned beef, a little bucket of biscuits, and a compass. Prendergast threw us a chart and ordered us to To claim that we were sailors of a wrecked ship which sank at 15° 20' N, 25° 14' W. Then he cut the rope and let us drift away.

"'My dear son, I come now to the most shocking episode of this history. During the riots, the sailors had lowered their sails and sailed against the wind, but after we were gone, they hoisted Sail, the three masted sailed slowly away from us on a north-easterly wind. Our skiff drifted with the current. Of these men, only I and Evans were the most educated. We sat down and looked at the nautical charts, to ascertain where we were, and to which coast we plan to head. This is a matter of urgent caution, as we are about five hundred miles north of the Cape Verde Islands and about seven hundred miles east of the coast of Africa. As the wind turns north, we think we are heading towards Sierra Leone. The sailing was better, so we turned the bow and sailed towards Sierra Leone. At this time, looking back from the small boat, the three-masted sailing ship was far away from us, and only the mast was visible. Just as we looked at it, we suddenly saw a thick Black smoke shot straight up into the sky. A few seconds later, there was a deafening loud noise, and when the smoke cleared, the sailboat "Gloria Scott" had disappeared without a trace. The place sailed away. There was still lingering smoke on the sea, and the three-masted sailing ship was obviously lost.

"'It took us a long time to get there, and at first we feared that we would be too late to save anyone. There was a broken boat and some broken masts floating on the sea where it happened. It showed that the sailboat had sunk, but we found no trace of any living people. Just as we turned the bow of the boat in disappointment, we suddenly heard someone calling for help, and saw a person lying upright on a broken board not far away from the sea We dragged him to the boat. It turned out that he was a young sailor named Hudson. He was so burned that he couldn't even speak, and he didn't tell us what happened until early next morning.

"'It turns out that after we left, Prendergast and the others set out to kill the five remaining prisoners. He shot the two jailers and the third mate, and threw their bodies into the sea. Prendergast went down to the middle cabin and cut the doctor's throat with his own hands. At this time, only the brave and resourceful first officer was left. When he saw Prendergast walking towards him with a bloody butcher knife, he Then he broke free from the lashing rope that he had managed to loosen beforehand, ran up to the deck, and got into the stern cabin. Seeing twelve prisoners rushing towards him with guns, he was sitting on an opened powder keg with a box of matches. Side. There were a hundred barrels of gunpowder on board. The first mate yelled loudly that anyone who touched him would have the whole ship buried with him. Before he could finish speaking, it exploded. Hudson thought it was a prisoner who shot by mistake The powder keg was lit instead of the mate's match. Whatever the cause, the life of the Gloria Scott and the thugs was over.

(End of this chapter)