The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-10-29

shock that II was 10 me rev WEEKS
ago when your college friend ad-
dressed me in words which seemed 10
! imply that he had surprised my secret.
! AS Armitage it was that l entered
/ London banking house and as Armlt-
! age / was convicted of breaking my
. countrys laws, and was sentenced TO
transportation. Do not think very
! harshly of me, laddie. 1t was debt
| of honor so-called, which ] had 10
| pay, and ] used money which was not
! my own to do IT, in the certainty that
| l could replace it before there could be
any possibility of its being missed. But
| the most dreadful ili-iuck pursued me.
| The money which ! had reckOned upon
/. never came TO hand. and u premature
| examination of accounts exposed my
+ deficit The case might have been
dealt leniently With, but the laws were
more harshly administered thirty years
ago than now aud OF my twenty-third
birthday found myself chained as a
felon with thirty-seven other cOnvicts
in the 'tween-deeks of the bark Gloria
| Scott, bound for Australia.
1t was the year so. when the Grim
can war was at it's height, and the old
convict ships had been largely used as
| TRANSPORTS i'm the Black sea. The gov
| eminent 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 she was an Old-fashioned. heavy
! bowed, broad beamed craft, and the
| new clippers had cut her out. She was
a 5O0-ton boat; and besides her thirty
! eight jailbiTds. she carried tWenty-six
/ OF a crew, eighteen soldiers. captain,
| three mates a doctor, a chaplain and
| four warders. Nearly a hundred souls
| we're i'm her. all told, when we set san
| from Falmouth.
| The partitions between ne cells or
] the convicts, instead of being of thick
| oak as is usual in convict ships, were
| quite thin and frail. The man next 10
me. upon the aft side. was one whom
| had particularly noticed when we were
| led down the quay. He was a young
| man. with a clear, hairless face, long,
] thin nose, and rather nut-cracker paws.
| He carried his head very iauntily in
| the air, had. a staggering style of
walking, and was above all else, re-
markable for his extraordinary height.
| / don't think any of our heads would
| have come up TO his shoulder, and L
am sure that he could not have meas
/ ured less than six and half feet. II
was strange among so many sad and
| weary faces to see one which was full
/ of energy and resolution. The sight Of
| it was to me like the fire in snow
storm | was glad, then, TO md that
! he was my neighbor, and gladder still
when, in the dead of the night, heard
a whisper close to my ear, and found
| that he had managed to cut an open
/ ing i'm the board which separated US.
g. '-Hullo. chummy." said he, what's
your name, and what are you here
J for"
! " 1 answered him. and asked III turn
who I was talking with.
| "'"Im Jack Prendergast,' said he
| and by God, you'll learn TO bless my
name before you've done with II
! I remembered hearing of his case
] for il was one which had made al i'm
| mense sensation throughout the coUn-
/ try some time before my own arrest.
| He was a man of good family and OF
great ability. but Of iucuraOiy vicious
! habits. who had by an ingenious sys-
4 tenn of fraud obtained huge sums of
money from the leading London
merchants.
''''Ha. ha. You remember my easel
! said he proudly.
Very well, indeed.
".' Then maybe you remember some
! thing queer about it,
''"What was that them
I'D had nearly quarter Of a nil
lion. hadn't I?'
49, so it was said"
BQl HOite was lCCONtItus I'll
'' No"
"."Well, where dye suppose he bal
ance is ," he asked.
~ have no idea" said /.
g" 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 han
die it and spread ii out, YOU can DO
anything. Now. you dOn'C thiok it like
ly that man who could 90 ANYTHING
! is going TO wear his breeLhes ont sit
| ting i'm the sinking hold OF d rdt-gutted,
/ beetle-ridden. mouldy old coffin of
| Chin China coaster No, sir, such
man viii look. after himself and viii
J 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 Ct
/ first | thought it meant nothing: but
after a while. when he had tested me
/ and sworn me in with all possible
/ solemnity. he let me understand that
I there really was a plot 10 gam COM
mand of the vessel. A dozen Of the
| prisoners had Matched # before they
came aboard: Prendergast was the lead
/ er, and his money was the motive pow
/ er.
! I'D a partner" said he "a rare
/ good man. as true as a stock to a bar
! rel He's got the dibbs he has, and
| where do YOU think he is at this mo
/ ment? Why, he's The chaplain of this
! ship-the chaplain. no less. He cam
aboard with a black coat. and his pa
| per right, and money enough in his
/ box 10 buy the thing right up from keel
/ 10 main truck, The crew is his, body
and soul He could buy EN- at so
much gross with cash discount. and
! he did it before ever they signed on.
! He's got two of the warders. and
! Mercer, the second mate. and he'd get
| the captain himself, if he thought him
worth it
What are we 10 do. thene"
asked
What do you think?" said he.
| Wen make the coats OF some of these
! soldiers redder than ever the tailor
/ did
So But they are armed said I.
And so shall we be, my boy.
| There's a brace of pistols for every
mothers son of US. and if we can't
carry this ship. with the crew 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"
e I did so. and found my other neigh
! Dor to- be a young fellow i'm much the
/ same position as myself. whose crime
/ had been forgery His name was EV
ans. but he afterward changed it. like
mayself, and he is now rich and pros
/ porous man in the south OF England.
/ He was ready enough 10 join the con-
! spiracy, as the only means of saving
/ ourselves, and before we had crossed
/ the bay there were only two Of the
]
/ One of these was of weak mind, and
/ we did not dare to trust him and the