The Strange Story of Jonathan Small
A very patient man was that inspector in the cab, for it was a weary time before I rejoined him.His face clouded over when I showed him the empty box.
"There goes the reward!" said he, gloomily."Where there is no money there is no pay.This night's work would have been worth a tenner each to Sam Brown and me if the treasure had been there.""Mr.Thaddeus Sholto is a rich man," I said."He will see that you are rewarded, treasure or no."The inspector shook his head despondently, however."It's a bad job," he repeated; "and so Mr.Athelney Jones will think."His forecast proved to be correct, for the detective looked blank enough when I got to Baker Street and showed him the empty box.They had only just arrived, Holmes, the prisoner, and he, for they had changed their plans so far as to report themselves at a station upon the way.My companion lounged in his arm-chair with his usual listless expression, while Small sat stolidly opposite to him with his wooden leg cocked over his sound one.As I exhibited the empty box he leaned back in his chair and laughed aloud.
"This is your doing, Small," said Athelney Jones, angrily.
"Yes, I have put it away where you shall never lay hand upon it," he cried, exultantly."It is my treasure; and if I can't have the loot I'll take darned good care that no one else does.I tell you that no living man has any right to it, unless it is three men who are in the Andaman convict- barracks and myself.I know now that I cannot have the use of it, and I know that they cannot.I have acted all through for them as much as for myself.It's been the sign of four with us always.Well I know that they would have had me do just what I have done, and throw the treasure into the Thames rather than let it go to kith or kin of Sholto or of Morstan.It was not to make them rich that we did for Achmet.You'll find thetreasure where the key is, and where little Tonga is.When I saw that your launch must catch us, I put the loot away in a safe place.There are no rupees for you this journey.""You are deceiving us, Small," said Athelney Jones, sternly."If you had wished to throw the treasure into the Thames it would have been easier for you to have thrown box and all.""Easier for me to throw, and easier for you to recover," he answered, with a shrewd, sidelong look."The man that was clever enough to hunt me down is clever enough to pick an iron box from the bottom of a river.Now that they are scattered over five miles or so, it may be a harder job.It went to my heart to do it, though.I was half mad when you came up with us.However, there's no good grieving over it.I've had ups in my life, and I've had downs, but I've learned not to cry over spilled milk.""This is a very serious matter, Small," said the detective."If you had helped justice, instead of thwarting it in this way, you would have had a better chance at your trial.""Justice!" snarled the ex-convict."A pretty justice! Whose loot is this, if it is not ours? Where is the justice that I should give it up to those who have never earned it? Look how I have earned it! Twenty long years in that fever-ridden swamp, all day at work under the mangrove-tree, all night chained up in the filthy convict-huts, bitten by mosquitoes, racked with ague, bullied by every cursed black-faced policeman who loved to take it out of a white man.That was how I earned the Agra treasure; and you talk to me of justice because I cannot bear to feel that I have paid this price only that another may enjoy it! I would rather swing a score of times, or have one of Tonga's darts in my hide, than live in a convict's cell and feel that another man is at his ease in a palace with the money that should be mine." Small had dropped his mask of stoicism, and all this came out in a wild whirl of words, while his eyes blazed, and the handcuffs clanked together with the impassioned movement of his hands.I could understand, as I saw the fury and the passion of the man, that it was no groundless or unnatural terror which had possessed Major Sholto when he first learned that the injured convict was upon his track.
'You forget that we know nothing of all this," said Holmes quietly.
"We have not heard your story, and we cannot tell how far justice may originally have been on your side.""Well, sir, you have been very fair-spoken to me, though I can see that I have you to thank that I have these bracelets upon my wrists.Still, I bear no grudge for that.It is all fair and above-board.If you want to hear my story I have no wish to hold it back.What I say to you is God's truth, every word of it.Thank you; you can put the glass beside me here, and I'll put my lips to it if I am dry.
"I am a Worcestershire man myself,--born near Pershore.I dare say you would find a heap of Smalls living there now if you were to look.I have often thought of taking a look round there, but the truth is that I was never much of a credit to the family, and I doubt if they would be so very glad to see me.They were all steady, chapel-going folk, small farmers, well known and respected over the country-side, while I was always a bit of a rover.At last, however, when I was about eighteen, I gave them no more trouble, for I got into a mess over a girl, and could only get out of it again by taking the queen's shilling and joining the 3d Buffs, which was just starting for India.
