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10 - Dealings of Captain Sharkey and Other Stories of Pirates by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle · Dealings of Captain Sharkey and Other Stories of Pirates

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Joe Denoia Somerset, New Jersey, Jeldin's voyage. Well said our
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Anglo jap as we all drew up our chairs around
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  Speaker 1: the smoking room fire. It's an old tail yonder and
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: may have split out into print for all I know.
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  Speaker 1: I don't want to turn this club room into a
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  Speaker 1: chestnut stall. But it's a long way to the Yellow Sea.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: And it's just as likely that none of you have
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  Speaker 1: ever heard of the Yawl Matilda and of what happened
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: to Henry Jelland and Willie McAvoy aboard her. The middle
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: of the sixties was a stirring time out in Japan.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: That was just after the Simonosaki bombardment and before the
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  Speaker 1: Daimio Fair. There was a Tory Party and there was
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  Speaker 1: a Liberal party among the natives, and the question that
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  Speaker 1: they were wrangling over was whether the throats of the
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  Speaker 1: foreigners should be cut or not. I tell you all
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: politics have been tamed to me since then. If you
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  Speaker 1: lived in a treaty port, we were bound to wake
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  Speaker 1: up and take an interest in them, and to make
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  Speaker 1: it better. The outsider had no way of knowing how
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  Speaker 1: the game was going. If the opposition won, it would
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  Speaker 1: not be a newspaper paragraph that would tell him of it,
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  Speaker 1: but a good old Tory in a suit of chain
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  Speaker 1: mail with a sword in each hand would drop in
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  Speaker 1: and let him know all about it in a single uppercut.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: Of course, it makes men reckless when they are living
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: on the edge of a volcano like that. Just at
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  Speaker 1: first they are very jumpy, and then there comes a
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  Speaker 1: time when they are lear nim to enjoy life while
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  Speaker 1: they have him. I tell you there's nothing that makes
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  Speaker 1: life so beautiful as when the shadow of death begins
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  Speaker 1: to fall across it. Time is too precious to be
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  Speaker 1: dauled away then, and the man lives every minute of it.
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  Speaker 1: That was the way with us. In Yokohama. There were
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  Speaker 1: many European places of business which had to go on running,
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  Speaker 1: and the men who worked there made a place lively
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  Speaker 1: for seven nights a week. One of the heads of
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  Speaker 1: the European colony was Randolph Moore, the big export merchant.
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  Speaker 1: His offices were in Yokohama, and he spent a good
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  Speaker 1: deal of his time at his house up in Jeddo,
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  Speaker 1: which had only just been opened to the trade. In
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  Speaker 1: his absence. He used to leave his affair in the
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  Speaker 1: hands of the head clerk Jellen, whom he knew to
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  Speaker 1: be a man of great energy and resolution. But energy
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: and resolution are two edged things, you know, and when
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  Speaker 1: they are used against you, you don't appreciate them so much.
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  Speaker 1: It was gambling that set Jellen wrong. He was a little,
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  Speaker 1: dark eyed fellow with black curly hair more than three
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  Speaker 1: quarters celt I should imagine every night in the week
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  Speaker 1: you would see him in the same place, on the
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  Speaker 1: left hand side of the croupier at Matheson's rouge et
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  Speaker 1: noir table. For a long time he won and lived
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  Speaker 1: in better style than his employer. Then came a turn
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  Speaker 1: of luck and began to lose, so that at the
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  Speaker 1: end of the single week his partner and he were
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  Speaker 1: stone broke, without a dollar to their names. This partner
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  Speaker 1: was a clerk in the employer of the same firm,
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  Speaker 1: a tall, straw haired young englishman called McAvoy. He was
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  Speaker 1: a good boy enough at the start, but he was
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  Speaker 1: clay in the hands of Jellen, who fashioned him into
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  Speaker 1: a kind of weak model of h himself. They were
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  Speaker 1: forever on the prow together, but it was Gellen who led,
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  Speaker 1: and McAvoy who followed. Lynch and I and one or
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  Speaker 1: two others tried to show the youngster that he could
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  Speaker 1: come to no good along that line. And when we
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: were talking to him, we could win him round easily enough,
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  Speaker 1: But five minutes Jellen would swing him back again. It
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  Speaker 1: may have been animal magnetism or what you like, but
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  Speaker 1: the little man could pull the big one along with
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  Speaker 1: a sixty foot tug in front of a full rigged ship.
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  Speaker 1: Even when they had lost all their money, they would
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  Speaker 1: still take their places at the table and look on
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  Speaker 1: with shining eyes when any one else was raking in
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  Speaker 1: the stamps. But one evening they can keep out of
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  Speaker 1: it no longer. Red had turned up sixteen times running,
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  Speaker 1: and was more than Jealen could bear. He whispered to Macavoy,
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  Speaker 1: and then said a word to the croupier. Certainly, mister Jellen,
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  Speaker 1: your check is as good as notes, said he. Jellen
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  Speaker 1: scribbled a check and threw it on the black. The
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  Speaker 1: card was the King of Hearts, and the croupier raked
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  Speaker 1: in a little bit of paper. Jellen grew angry, and
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  Speaker 1: Macinvoy white. Another, and a heavier check was written and
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  Speaker 1: thrown on the table. The card was a nine of diamonds,
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  Speaker 1: macinvoy leaned his head upon his hands and looked as
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  Speaker 1: he would faint by God, growled Jellen. I won't be beat.
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  Speaker 1: And they threw on a check that covered the other two.
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  Speaker 1: The card was the deuce of hearts. A few minutes
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: later they were walking down the bun and the cool
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  Speaker 1: night air playing upon their fevered faces. Of course you
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  Speaker 1: know what this means, said Jellen, lighting and Cherod. We'll
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  Speaker 1: have to transfer some of the office money to our
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  Speaker 1: current account. There's no occasion to make a fuss over it.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: Old Moore won't look over the books before easter. If
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  Speaker 1: we have any luck, we can easily replace it before then.
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  Speaker 1: But if we have no luck, faltered McAvoy, tut man,
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  Speaker 1: we must take things as they come. You stick to me,
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  Speaker 1: and I'll stick to you, and we'll pull through together.
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  Speaker 1: You shall sign the check tomorrow night, and we shall
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  Speaker 1: see if your luck is better than mine. But if anything,
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  Speaker 1: it was worse. When the pair rose from the table
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  Speaker 1: in the following evening, they had spent over five thousand
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  Speaker 1: pounds of their employer's money, but the resolute Jellen was
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  Speaker 1: as sanguine as ever. We have a good nine weeks
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  Speaker 1: before us, before the books will be examined, said he.
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  Speaker 1: We must play this game out and it will all
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  Speaker 1: come straight. McAvoy returned to his rooms that night in
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  Speaker 1: an agony of shame and remorse. When he was with
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  Speaker 1: jellin he borrows strength from him, But alone he recognized
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: the full danger of his position, and the vision of
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  Speaker 1: his old white capped mother in England, who had been
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  Speaker 1: so proud when he had received his appointment, rose up
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  Speaker 1: before him to fill him with loathing and madness. He
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: was still tossing upon a sleepless couch when his Japanese
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  Speaker 1: servant entered the room. For an instant Macavoy thought that
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: the long expected outbreak had come, and plunged for his revolver. Then,
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  Speaker 1: with his heart in his mouth, he listened to the
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  Speaker 1: message which the servant had brought. Jellen was downstairs and
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  Speaker 1: wanted to see him. What on earth could he want
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  Speaker 1: at that hour of night. McAvoy dressed hurriedly and rushed downstairs.
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  Speaker 1: His companion, with a set smile on his lips, which
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  Speaker 1: was belied by the ghastly pallor of his face, was
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  Speaker 1: sitting in the dim light of a solitary candle with
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  Speaker 1: a slip of pipper in his hands. Sorry to knock yep,
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  Speaker 1: Willie said he no eavesdroppers. I suppose Macavoy shook his head.
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  Speaker 1: He could not trust himself to speak well. Then our
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: little games played out. This note was waiting for me
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  Speaker 1: at home. It is from More and says that he
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: will be down on Monday morning for an examination of
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  Speaker 1: the books. It leaves us at a tight place. Monday,
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: gasped McAvoy. Today's Friday, Saturday, my son three a m.
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  Speaker 1: We have not much time to turn round in. We
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  Speaker 1: are a lost, screamed McAvoy. We soon will be if
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  Speaker 1: you make such an infernal row, said Jellen harshly. Now
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  Speaker 1: do what I tell you, Willie, and we'll pull through.
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  Speaker 1: Yet I will do anything, anything that's better. Where's your whiskey.
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  Speaker 1: It's a beastly time to day to have to get
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  Speaker 1: your backstiff. But there must be no softness with us
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  Speaker 1: or we are gone. First of all, I think there's
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  Speaker 1: something due to our relations, don't you, Macavoy stared. We
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  Speaker 1: must stand or fall together. You know now, I, for one,
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  Speaker 1: don't intend to step my foot inside the Felon's dock
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  Speaker 1: under any circumstances. D you see I'm ready to swear
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  Speaker 1: to that, are you? What do you mean? Asked Macavoy,
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  Speaker 1: shrinking back. Well, man, we all have to die, and
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  Speaker 1: it's only the pressing of a trigger. I swear that
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  Speaker 1: I shall never be taken alive? Will you if you don't,
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  Speaker 1: I leave you to your fate? All right, I'll do
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  Speaker 1: whatever you think best. You swear it, yes, well, mind,
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  Speaker 1: you must be as good as your word. Now we
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  Speaker 1: have two clear days to get off it. The yawl
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  Speaker 1: Matilda is on sale, and she has all her fixings
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  Speaker 1: and plenty of tin stuff aboard. We'll buy the lot
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  Speaker 1: tomorrow morning and whenever we want and get away in her.
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  Speaker 1: But first we'll clear all that is left in the office.
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  Speaker 1: There are five thousand sovereigns in the safe. After dark
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  Speaker 1: we'll get them aboard to y'all and take our chance
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  Speaker 1: of reaching California. There's no use hesitating, my son, for
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  Speaker 1: we have no ghost of a look in any other direction.
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  Speaker 1: Is that or nothing I'll do with you? Advise all right,
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  Speaker 1: and mind you get a bright face on you tomorrow,
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  Speaker 1: for if more gets the tip and come before monday.
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  Speaker 1: Then he tapped the side pocket of his coat and
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  Speaker 1: looked across at his partner with eyes that were full
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  Speaker 1: of sinister meaning. All went well with their plans. The
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  Speaker 1: next day, the Matilda was walked without difficulty, and though
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  Speaker 1: she was a tiny craft for so long a voyage,
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  Speaker 1: had she been larger, two men cannot have hoped to
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  Speaker 1: manage her. She was stopped with water during the day,
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  Speaker 1: and after dark the two clerks brought down the money
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  Speaker 1: from the office and stowed it in the hold. Before
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  Speaker 1: midnight they collected all their own possessions without exciting suspicion,
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  Speaker 1: and at two in the morning they left their moorings
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  Speaker 1: and stole quietly out from moaning shipping. They were seen,
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  Speaker 1: of course, and were set down as keen yachtsmen who
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: were on for a good long Sunday cruise. But there
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  Speaker 1: was no one who dreamed that the cruise would only
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  Speaker 1: end either on the American coast or at the bottom
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  Speaker 1: of the North Pacific Ocean. Straining and hauling, they got
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  Speaker 1: their mainsail up and set their foresail and jib. There
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: was a slight breeze from the southeast, and the little
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  Speaker 1: craft went dipping along upon her way. Seven miles from
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  Speaker 1: the land. However, the wind fell away and they lay
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  Speaker 1: were calmed, rising and falling on a long swell of
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  Speaker 1: a glassy sea. All Sunday they did not make a mile,
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  Speaker 1: and in the evening Yokohama still lay along the horizon.
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  Speaker 1: On Monday morning, down King Randolph Moore from Jenna and
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  Speaker 1: made straight for the offices. He gave a tip from
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  Speaker 1: someone that his clerks had been spreading themselves a bit,
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  Speaker 1: and that it made him come down out of his
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  Speaker 1: usual routine. But when he reached his place he found
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  Speaker 1: the three juniors waiting in the street with their hands
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  Speaker 1: in their pockets. He knew the matter was serious. What's this,
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  Speaker 1: he asked. He was a man of action and the
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  Speaker 1: nasty chap to deal with when he had his topmast lowered.
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  Speaker 1: We can't get instant clerks. Where's mister jelland he has
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  Speaker 1: not come to at mister McAvoy, he has not come either.
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  Speaker 1: Randolph Moore looked serious. We must have the door down,
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  Speaker 1: said he. They don't build houses very solid in that
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  Speaker 1: land of earthquakes. And as a brace of shakes they
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: were all in the office. Of course, the thing told
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  Speaker 1: its own story. The safe was open, the money gone,
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  Speaker 1: and the clerks fled their employer lost no time in talk.
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  Speaker 1: Where were they last seen? On Saturday? They bought the
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  Speaker 1: Matilda and started for a cruise Saturday. The matter seemed
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  Speaker 1: hopeless if they got two days start, but there was
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: still the shadow of a chance. He rushed to the
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  Speaker 1: beach and swept the ocean with his glasses. My God,
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  Speaker 1: he cried, there's the Matilda out yonder. I know her
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  Speaker 1: by the rake of her mast. I have my hand
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  Speaker 1: upon the villains after all. But there was a hitch.
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: Even then. No boat had steamed up, and the eager
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  Speaker 1: merchant had not patience to wait. Clouds were banking up
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: along the launch of the hills, and there was every
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  Speaker 1: sign of approaching change in weather. A police boat was
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  Speaker 1: ready with ten hor men in her, and Randolph Moore
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  Speaker 1: himself took a tiller as she shot out in pursuit
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: of the column. Y'all, Gellen and McAvoy, waiting wigiedly for
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: the breeze, which never came, saw the dark speck which
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: sprang out from the shadow of the land and grew
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: larger with every swish of the oars. As she drew nearer.
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  Speaker 1: They could see also that she was packed with men,
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: and the gleam of weapons, told what manner of men
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: they were. Jellen stood leaning against the tiller, and he
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: looked at the threatening sky, the limp sails, and the
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: approaching boat. It's a case with us, Willy said he.
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: By the Lord, we are two most unlucky devils, for
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: there's a wind in that sky. Another hour would have
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: brought it to us. McAvoy groaned. There's no good softening
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: over it, my lad, said John. It's the police boat
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: right enough, and there's old more driving than to row
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: like hell. It'll be a ten dollars job for every
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: man of them. Willie McAvoy crouched at the side with
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: his knees on the deck. My mother, my poor old mother,
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: he sobbed. She'll never hear that you have been in
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: the dock anyway, said Jellen. My people never did much
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: for me, but I will do that much for them.
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: It's no good Mac. We can chuck our hands. God
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: bless you, old man. Here's the pistol. He talked a
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: revolver and held the butt towards the youngster, but the
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: other shrank away from it with little gasping cries. Gillian
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: glanced at the approaching boat, who was not wor than
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: a few hundred yards away. There's no time for nonsense,
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: said he. Damn it, man, what's the use of flinching?
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: You swore it? No, No, Gelan, Well, anyhow, I swear
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: that neither of us would be taken. Will you do it?
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: I can't, I can't. Then I will for you. The
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: rowers in the boat saw him lean forward, They heard
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: two pistol shots, They saw him double himself across the tiller,
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: and then before the smoke had lifted, they found they
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: had something else to think of, for at that instant,
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: the storm broke one of those short, sudden squalls which
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: are common in the disease. The Matilda healed over, her
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: sails bellied out. She plunged her lee rail into a
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: wave and was off like a frightened deer. Jellan's body
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: had jammed the helm, and she kept the course right
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: before the wind and fluttered away over the rising sea
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: like a blown piece of paper. The rowers worked frantically,
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: but the yawl still drew ahead, and the five minutes
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: plunged into the storm rack, never to be seen again
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: by mortal eye. The boat put back and reached Yokohama
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: with the water washing halfway up with thwarts. And that's
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: how it came that the yawl Matilda, with a cargo
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: of five thousand pounds and a crew of two dead
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: young men, set sail across the Pacific. What the end
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: of Jellen's voyage may have been, no one knows. He
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: may have found it in that gale, or he may
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: have been picked up by some other candy merchantmen who
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: stuck to the bullion and kept his mouth shut. Or
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: he may be still cruising in that vast waste of waters,
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: blown north to the Burying Sea or south to the
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: Melee Islands. It's better to leave it unfinished than to
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: spoil a true story by inventing tag to it. End
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: of Chapter ten