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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 29, 1905)
TIIE OMAIIA" ILLUSTRATED BEE. October 29, 190K. Exploits of Sherlock Holmes The Mystery of the Gloria Scott Being an Account of a Case in Which the Famous Detective Uses His Deductive Powers to Ferret Out the Author of a Letter Which Caused the Death of an English Judge Thrilling Chapters from the Life Story of the World's Greatest Detective Character Is Just as you say. But we won't talk of it. Of all ghosts the ghosts of our old lovers are the worst Come la to the billiard room and have a quiet what you don't know. lie did not mean to show it, I am sure, but it peeped out at every action. At last I became so convinced that I was .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 sequel to be of im portance. "We were sit ting out upon the lawn 1HAVE some papers here," said my friend Sherlock Holmes, us we sat one winter's night on either side of the fire, "which I really think, Watson, that it would be worth your while to glance over. These are the documents in the extraordinary rme of the Gloria Bcott, aid this is the message which struck Jus tice of the Peace Trevor dead with horror when he read It." He had picked from ft drawer. a little tarnished cylinder and. undoing the tape, he handed me a short note 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 ciEar orders for fly-paper and for preservation of your hen-pheasant's "From that day, amid all his cordiality, life." , . there was always a touch of suspicion in Mr. As I glanced up from reading this enigmatical message, I saw Trevor's manner toward me. Even his son Holmes chuckling at the expression upon my face. remarked it. 'You've given the governor "You look a little bewildered," said be. such a turn,' said he, 'that he'll never "I cannot see bow such a message as this could inspire horror. De gure agftin 0f what you know and 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 knocked clean down by it as if it had been the butt end of a pistol." "You arouse my curiosity," said I. "But why did you say Just 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, but had never caught him Before in a communicative humor. Now he sat frfrward in his arnlchair and spread out the documents upon his knees. Then he 1ft his pipe and sat for some time smoking and tnrnlng them over. "You never heard me talk of Victor Trevor?" he asked. "He was the only frlen I made during the two years I was at college. I was never a very sociable fellow, Watson, always rather fond of moping In my roms and working out my own little methods of thought, so tiat I never mixed much with the men of my' Jear. Bar fencing and boxing. I had few athletic tastes, and then my line of study was quite distinct from that of the other fellows, so that we kad 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 y ancle one morning nd I went dowm to chapel. "It was a prosaic wuy of forming a friendship, but It was effec tive. I was laid by the heels for ten days, and Trevor used to come In to inquire after me. At first It was only a minute's chat, but soon his visits lengthened, and before the end of the term we were close friends. He was a hearty, full-blooded fellow, full of spirits and . energy, the very opposite to me in most respects, but we had some subjects In common, and It was a bond of union when I found that he wr.s ns friendless as I. Finally, he Invited me down to his father's place at Donnithorpe, In Norfolk, and I accepted his hos pitality for a month of the long vacation. "Old Trevor was evidently a man of some wealth and consid eration, a J. P., and a landed proprietor. Donnithorpe is a 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 llme-llned avenye 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 understood, from a former occupant, and a tolerable cook, so that he would be a fastidious man who could not put in a pleasant month there. "Trevor senior was a widower, and my friend his only son. "There had been a daughter, I heard, but she had died of diphtheria while on a visit to Birmingham. The father interested me extremely. He was a man of little culture, but with a consid erable 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 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 dinner, when young Trevor began to talk about those habits of 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, Mr. Holmes,' said he, laughing good-humoredly, 'I'm an 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-month.' "The laugh faded from his lips, and he stared at me in great surprise. , " 'Well, that's true enough,' said he. 'You know, Victor,' turn ing to his son, 'when we broke up that poaching gang they swore to knife us, and Sir Edward Holly has actually been attacked. I've always been on my guard since, then, though I have no idea how you know It.' " 'You have a very handsome stick,' I answered. 'By the in scription I observed that you had not had It more than a year. 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 dan ger to fear.' " 'Anything else?' he asked, smiling. " 'You have boxed a good deal In your youth.' " 'Right again. How did you know it? Is my nose knocked a little out of the straight?' " 'No,' said I. 'It is your ears. They have the peculiar flat tening and thickening which marks the boxing man.' " 'Anything else?' " You have done a good deal of digging by your callousltles.' " 'Made all my money at the gold fields.' " 'You have been in New Zealand.' " 'Right again.' " 'You have visited Japan.' 1 " 'Quite true.' 'And you have been most Intimately associated with someone hour since not one. The governor has never held up 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?' kindly, charitable, good old governor how could he have fallen into the clutahes of such a ruffian! But I am so glad that you have come, Holmes. I trust very much to your Judgment and discretion, and I know that you will advlso me for the best.' "We were dashing along the smooth, white country road, with the long stretch of the Broads In front of ns glimmering In the red light of the setting sun. From a throve upon our left I could already see the high chimneys 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. The dad raised their wages all round to recom pense them for the annoyance. The lei low would take the boat and my A u r Mm $4W. ra n lip 19 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. '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.' "I dure say my face looked as bewildered ns 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 moan ing must lie burled In this strange combination of words. Or could It be that there Mas a prearranged significance to such phrases ns 'fly-paper' and 'hen-pheasant?' Such a meaning would bo nrMrtarv and could not be deduced In any way. And yet I was lonth " 'Ah, that Is what I would give so much to know. The to believe that this was the case, and the presence of the word Hudson seemed to nhow that the suljoct of the message was as I hnd guessed, and that It was from Beddoos rather than the snllor. I tried it back ward, but the combination 'life -pheasant's hen' was not encouraging. Then I tried alternate words, but neither 'tho of for' nor 'supply game Ixmdon' promised to throw any light upon It. "And then in an instant the key of the riddle was lu my hands, and I 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 com panion: " 'The game Is up. Hudson has told all. Fly for your life.' "Victor Trevor sank his face Into his shaking hands. 'It must bo that, I suppose,' said he. 'This is worse than death, for it moans dis grace 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 ns If we had no other means of discovering the sender. Yon see that he has begun by writing "Tho game Is," and so on. Afterwards he had, to fulfill the prearranged cirher, to fill In any two words In each simoe. He would naturally use the first father's best gun and treat himself words which came to his mind, and if there were so many which re ferred to sport among them, you may be tolerably sure that he Is either nn ardent shot or interested In brooding. Do you know anything of this Beddoes?' " 'Why, now that you mention it,' said he, 'I remember that my poor father used to have nn invitation from him to shoot over his pre serves every autumn.' x " 'Then it is undoubtedly from him that the note conies,' said I. 'It only remains for us to find out what tills secret was which the sailor Hudson seems to huve held over the head 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 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 ond read it to me, for l have neither the strength nor the courage to do it myself.' "These nre the very papers, Watson, which he handed to me, and I will read them to you, as I read them in the-old study that night to hi in. They are endorsed outside, as you see, 'Some particulars of the voyage of the bark Gloria Scott, from Its leaving Falmouth on the 8th of October, 1S55, to its destruction in N. Lat 15 degrees 20 minutes. W. Long. 25 degrees 14 minutes, on November 6.' It Is in the form of a letter, nnd 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, nor is it my fall in the eyes of all who have 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 had been a man of my own age. I tell you, Holmes, I have had to kcop a tight bold upon myself all this time; and now I am asking myself whether; if I had let my self go a little more, I might not have been a wiser man. '"Well, matters went from bad to worse with us, and this animal Hud son became more and more Intrusive, until at last, on his making some Insolent reply to my father lu my presence 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 ut tered more threats than his THE GLORIA SCOTT.' 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 Mr. Trevor. " 'What is his name?' asked my host. ' 'He would not give any.' i " 'What does he want, then?' " 'He says that you know him, and that he only wants a mo ment's conversation.' " 'Show him round here.' An instant afterward there ap peared a little wizened fellow with a cringing manner and a sham bling style of walking. He wore an open Jacket, with a splotch of tar on the sleeve, a red-and-black 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 the lawn I heard Mr. Trevor make a sort of hiccoughing 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 puckered eyes, and with the same loose-lipped smile upon bis face. " 'You don't know me?' he asked. " 'Why, dear me, it is surely Hudson,' said Mr. Trevor in a tone of surprise. " 'Hudson it Is, sir,' said the seaman. 'Why, It's thirty years and more since I saw you last. Here you are in your house, and me still picking my salt meat out of the harness cask.' " 'Tut, you will find that I have not forgotten old times,' cried Mr. Trevor, and, walking toward 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.' " 'Thank you, sir,' said the teaman,, touching iis forelock. 'I'm Just off a two-yearer In an eight-knot tramp, short-banded at that, and I wants a rest. I thought I'd get it either with Mr. Bed does or with you.' "'Ah!' cried Mr. Trevor. 'You know where Mr. Beddoes is?' " 'Bless you, sir, I know where all my old friends are,' said the fellow with a sinister smile, and be slouched off after the maid to the kitchen. Mr. Trevor mumbled something to us about having tnnortie could do. I don't know what passed be- known me which cuts me to the heart; but it is the thought that you tween poor dad and Bnouli come to blush for me you who love me and who have seldom, bitn after that, but dad hope, had reason to do other than respect me. But if the blow falls came to me next day and which is forever hanging over me, then I should wish yon to read this, asked me whether I would that you may know straight from me how far I have been to blame, mind apologizing to Hud- On the other hand, if all should go well (which may kind God Al- son. I refused, as you mighty grant!), then, if by any chance this paper should L'e still uu- may imagine, and asked destroyed and should fall into your hands, I conjure you, by all you my father how he could hold sacred, by the memory of your dear mother, and by the love which has 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, be lying' with my tongue sealed forever In death. 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 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 ns Armitage I was convicted of breaking my country's laws, nnd was sentenced to transportation. Do not think very harshly of me, laddie. It was a debt of honor, so called, which I bad to pay, and I used money which was not my own to do it, in the certainty that I could replace .... ..-.., A V l allow Buch a wretch to take such liberties who nimseii uu u. 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 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 announced bis intention in the thick voice of a half-drunken man. " "I've had enough of Norfolk," he said. "I'll run down to Mr. Beddoes in Hampshire. He'll be glad to see me as you were, I dare say." You're not going away in an unkind spirit, Hudson, I hone." said my father, with a tameness which made my blood boll. I've not had my 'pology,'" said he sulkily, glancing in my Jt before there coul(J be any pos8lhmtT of ,tg bplng ml8Sed nut Uw direction. most dreadful ill luck pursuedme. The money which I had reckoned Victor, you will acknowledge that you have used this neyer cnme to a preniature examlunUon of aecountH worthy fellow rather roughly." said the dad. turning to me. exposed my deficit. The case might have been dealt leniently with. ub ine contrary, idiuk iuui wo nunc mm whose Initials were J. A., and whom you afterward were eager to been shipmate with the man when he was going back to the diggings. entirely forget.' "Mr. Trevor stood slowly up, fixed Ws large blue eyes upon me with a strange, wild stare and then pitched forward, 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,' said he, forcing a smile, 'I hope I haven't fright ened 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 manage this, Mr. Holmes, but it seems to me that all the detectives of fact and of fancy would be children in your bands. That's your Use of life, sir. and you may take 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 profes sion might be made out of what had up to that time been the merest hobby. At the moment, however, I was too much concerned at the sudden illness of my host 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 bow much you know?' He spoke now la a half-Jesting fashion, but a look of terror still lurked at the and then, leaving us on the lawn, he went indoors. An hour later, when we entered the house, we found him stretched dead drunk upon the dining room sofa. The whole incident left a most ugly impression upon my mind, and I was not sorry next day to leave .Donnithorpe 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, 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 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 two last months had been very trying ones for him. He had grown thin and careworn, and had lost the loud, cheery manner for which he had been remarkable. " 'The governor is dying,' were the first words he said. "'Impossible!' I cried. 'What is the matter?' " 'Apoplexy. Nervous shock. He's been on the verge all day. I doubt if 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 upon the evening back of his eyes. " 'It Is simplicity Itself.' said I, 'when you bared your arm to before you left us?' draw that fish Into the boat I saw that J. A. had been tattooed in " 'Perfectly.' the bend of the elbow. The letters were still legible, but it was per- " 'Do you know who it was that we let into the house that fectly clear from their blurred appearance and from the staining of day?' the skin around them, that efforts had been made to obliterate them. " 'I have no Idea.' It was obvious, then, that those initials had once been very familiar " 'It was the devil, Holmes.' he cried. to you, and that you had afterward wished to forget them.' "I started at him la astonishment. "What an eye you have!' he cried, with a sigh of relief. 'It "'Yes. It was the devil himself. We have not bad a peaceful dlnary patience toward htm," I answered. " ' "Oh, you do, do you?" he snarled. "Very good, mate. We'll see about that!" " 'He slouched out of the room, and half an hour afterward left the house, leaving my father in a state of pitiable nervousness. Night after night I heard hitvupacing his room, 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 Fordlngbrldge postmark. My father read It, clapped both his hands to his head and began run ning round the room in little circles like a man who has been driven out of his senses. When I at lust drew him down onto the sofa his mouth and eyelids were all puckered on one side, and I saw that he had a stroke. Dr. Fordham came over at once. We put him to bed; but the paralysis has spread, he has shown no sign of 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 mes sage was absurd and trivial. Ah, my God, it 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. Ab 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 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 as ever Ivhad done in my life. What was the past of this Trevor, pugilist, traveler and gold digger, and how bad he placed himself in the power of this acid faced seaman? Why. too, should be faint at an allusion to the half effaced Initials upon his arm. and die of fright when he bad a letter from Fordlngham? Then I remembered that Fordlngham was in Hampshire, and that this Mr. Beddoes, whom the seaman 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 Beddoes, 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 son? He must have misread it. If so, it must have been one of those ingenious secret codes which mean one thing while they seem to mean another. I must see 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 op posite to me, drew the lamp to the edge of the table and handed me but the laws were more harshly administered thirty years ago than now, aDd on my twenty-third birthday I found myself chained as a felon with thirty-seven other convicts in the 'tween decks of tho bark Gloria Scott, bound for Australia. , " 'It was the year '55, when the Crimean war was at Its height, and tho old convict ships bad 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 Gloria Scott had been In the Chinese tea trade, but it was an old-fashioned, heavy-ltowed, broad-beained craft, and the new clippers had cut it out. It was a 500-ton boat; and besides its thirty-eight Jailbirds, It carried twenty-six of a crew, eighteen soldiers, a captain, three mates, a duc tor, a chaplain, and four warders. Nearly a hundred souls were in It, u 11 told, when we set sail from Falmouth. " 'The partitions between tho cells of the convicts, instead of being of thick oak, as is usual I n convict ships, were quite thin and fniil. The niun next to me, upon the aft side, was one whom I had particularly noticed when we were led down the quay. Ho was u young man with a clear, hairless face, a long, thin uose, and rather nrt-crucker jaws. Ho 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 meas ured less than six and a half feet. It was strango among so many sad and weary faces to see one which was full of energy und resolu tion. The sight of it was to me like a fire lu a snowstorm. I was glad, then, to find that he was my neighbor, and gladder still when, in the dead of the night, I heard a whisper close to my ear, and found that he had mauaged to cut an opening in the board which separated ns. Hullo, chummy!" said he, "what's you name, and what are you 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 to bless my name before you've done with me." " 'I remembered hearing of bis cuse, for it was one which bad made an immense sensation throughout the country some time before my own arrest. He was a man of good family and of great ability, but of incurably vicious habits, who bad by an inzeulous system of fraud obtained huge sums of money from the leading London merchants. lis, ha! You remember my case!" said he, proudly. " ' "Very well. Indeed." "'"Then maybe you remeinlH;r soniethim; queer alwiut it?" What was that, then?" "'"I'd bad 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 hare 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 hairs on your head. And if you've money, my son, and know how to handle it and spread It out, you can do anything. Now, you don't think It likely that a (Continued fa Page Eight)