Bill's Paper Chase
| "Bill's Paper Chase" | |
|---|---|
| Short story by W. W. Jacobs | |
 Title card drawn by Will Owen | |
 Text available at Wikisource | |
| Country | England |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Crime, short story |
| Publication | |
| Published in | The Strand Magazine |
| Media type | Magazine |
| Publication date | May 1901 |
"Bill's Paper Chase" is a crime short story by W. W. Jacobs. It was published in The Strand Magazine in the May 1901 issue. That version contains illustrations by Will Owen.[1] It follows as two men search a ship for a dead man's money, of which they question a boy involved in its whereabouts.
Plot
[edit]The story takes place in a nested narrative from the perspective of an unnamed night watchman as he monologues the story.
Thomas Geary, the skipper of the Grenada, passes away due to old age at sea on a voyage from Sydney to London. The unnamed night watchman and Bill are eager to inherent Thomas' wealth of £160,000 (equivalent to £25,131,766.27 in June 2025), when they find out that Thomas gave it away to his assistant stewardess, a sixteen-year-old boy named Jimmy. Thomas says on his deathbed that he gave the money to Jimmy to throw it overboard. Panicking, Bill asks Jimmy if he did it. Jimmy says he did, but Bill has suspicions.
After an interrogation down in the forecastle, Bill and the night watchman learn that Jimmy did not throw it overboard. Whether, whilst he was cleaning the second mate's mattress, he discovered a hole and stuffed the money into the mattress. Eager to get the cash, Bill goes to the second mate and offers him a pound for the mattress, to supposedly keep as a souvenir of the trip. The mate declines, but accepts after Bill offers him more than a pound.
When they land ashore in London, the second mate gives Bill the mattress. Bill cuts it open, and after searching through the stuffing, he finds the money to not be there. Confused, he goes back on the boat to search for the boy. Nevertheless, the boy is missing.
References
[edit]- ^ George Newnes. "The Strand Magazine 1901: Vol 21 Index" (PDF). Retrieved 21 June 2025.