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Page 52
"'And now I come to the most surprising part of my
story, my dear son. The seamen had hauled the
fore-yard aback during the rising, but now as we left
them they brought it square again, and as there was a
light wind from the north and east the bark began to
draw slowly away from us. Our boat lay, rising and
falling, upon the long, smooth rollers, and Evans and
I, who were the most educated of the party, were
sitting in the sheets working out our position and
planning what coast we should make for. It was a nice
question, for the Cape de Verdes were about five
hundred miles to the north of us, and the African
coast about seven hundred to the east. On the whole,
as the wind was coming round to the north, we thought
that Sierra Leone might be best, and turned our head
in that direction, the bark being at that time nearly
hull down on our starboard quarter. Suddenly as we
looked at her we saw a dense black cloud of smoke
shoot up from her, which hung like a monstrous tree
upon the sky line. A few seconds later a roar like
thunder burst upon our ears, and as the smoke thinned
away there was no sign left of the _Gloria Scott_. In
an instant we swept the boat's head round again and
pulled with all our strength for the place where the
haze still trailing over the water marked the scene of
this catastrophe.
"'It was a long hour before we reached it, and at
first we feared that we had come too late to save any
one. A splintered boat and a number of crates and
fragments of spars rising and falling on the waves
showed us where the vessel had foundered; but there
was no sign of life, and we had turned away in despair
when we heard a cry for help, and saw at some distance
a piece of wreckage with a man lying stretched across
it. When we pulled him aboard the boat he proved to
be a young seaman of the name of Hudson, who was so
burned and exhausted that he could give us no account
of what had happened until the following morning.
"'It seemed that after we had left, Prendergast and
his gang had proceeded to put to death the five
remaining prisoners. The two warders had been shot
and thrown overboard, and so also had the third mate.
Prendergast then descended into the 'tween-decks and
with his own hands cut the throat of the unfortunate
surgeon. There only remained the first mate, who was
a bold and active man. When he saw the convict
approaching him with the bloody knife in his hand he
kicked off his bonds, which he had somehow contrived
to loosen, and rushing down the deck he plunged into
the after-hold. A dozen convicts, who descended with
their pistols in search of him, found him with a
match-box in his hand seated beside an open
powder-barrel, which was one of a hundred carried on
board, and swearing that he would blow all hands up if
he were in any way molested. An instant later the
explosion occurred, though Hudson thought it was
caused by the misdirected bullet of one of the
convicts rather than the mate's match. Be the cause
what it may, it was the end of the _Gloria Scott_ and of
the rabble who held command of her.
"'Such, in a few words, my dear boy, is the history of
this terrible business in which I was involved. Next
day we were picked up by the brig _Hotspur_, bound for
Australia, whose captain found no difficulty in
believing that we were the survivors of a passenger
ship which had foundered. The transport ship Gloria
Scott was set down by the Admiralty as being lost at
sea, and no word has ever leaked out as to her true
fate. After an excellent voyage the _Hotspur_ landed us
at Sydney, where Evans and I changed our names and
made our way to the diggings, where, among the crowds
who were gathered from all nations, we had no
difficulty in losing our former identities. The rest
I need not relate. We prospered, we traveled, we came
back as rich colonials to England, and we bought
country estates. For more than twenty years we have
led peaceful and useful lives, and we hoped that our
past was forever buried. Imagine, then, my feelings
when in the seaman who came to us I recognized
instantly the man who had been picked off the wreck.
He had tracked us down somehow, and had set himself to
live upon our fears. You will understand now how it
was that I strove to keep the peace with him, and you
will in some measure sympathize with me in the fears
which fill me, now that he has gone from me to his
other victim with threats upon his tongue.'
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