The Gloria Scott

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 measured less than six and a half feet. It 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 a fire in 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 managed to cut an opening in the board which separated us. > > “ ‘ “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 of incurably vicious habits, who had by an ingenious system of fraud obtained huge sums of money from the leading London merchants. > > “ ‘ “Ha, ha! You remember my case!” said he proudly.