Read Books Online, for Free |
Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes | Arthur Conan Doyle | |
Adventure IV - The "Gloria Scott" |
Page 10 of 14 |
"'"Hullo, chummy!" said he, "what's your 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 his case, for it was one which had 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 on incurably vicious habits, who had be an ingenious system of fraud obtained huge sums of money from the leading London merchants. "'"Ha, ha! You remember my case!" said he proudly. "'"Very well, indeed." "'"Then maybe you remember something queer about it?" "'"What was that, then?" "'"I'd had 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 have no idea," said I. "'"Right between my finger and thumb," he cried. "By God! I've go 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, you can do anything. Now, you don't think it likely that a man who could do anything is going to wear his breeches out sitting in the stinking hold of a rat-gutted, beetle-ridden, mouldy old coffin of a Chin China coaster. No, sir, such a man will look after himself and will 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." |
Who's On Your Reading List? Read Classic Books Online for Free at Page by Page Books.TM |
Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes Arthur Conan Doyle |
Home | More Books | About Us | Copyright 2004