The String of Pearls; Or, The Barber of Fleet Street. A Domestic Romance.
Then he held on to a post so faint and weak, that a little child might
have apprehended him.
"Curse them all," he said. "I wish they all had but one throat, and I a
knife at it. All who cross me, I mean."
Time was rather an important element now in Todd's affairs, and he felt
that he could not allow himself a long period even to recover from the
state of exhaustion in which he was.
After a few minutes rest, he pushed on.
One of those sudden changes that the climate of this country is subject
to, now took place; and although the sky had looked serene and bright,
and there had been twinkling stars in the blue firmament but a short
time before, Todd began to find that his clothing was but little
protection against the steady rain that commenced falling with a
perseverance that threatened something lasting.
"All is against me," he said. "All is against me."
He struggled on with the rain dashing in his face, and trickling,
despite all his exertions to the contrary, down his neck. Suddenly he
paused, and laid his finger upon his forehead, as though a sudden
thought of more than ordinary importance had come across his mind.
"The turpentine!" he said. "The turpentine. Confound it, I forget the
turpentine."
What this might mean was one of Todd's own secrets; but before he went
home, he ran down several streets until he came to a kind of wholesale
drug warehouse.
He rang the bell violently.
"What is it?" said a voice.
"The small keg of turpentine that was to be sent to Mr. Todd's in Fleet
Street, is particularly wanted."
"It was sent about half an hour ago."
"Oh, thank you--thank you. That will do. A wet night."
In a few minutes more he was at his own shop-door.
CHAPTER LXXXV.
SIR RICHARD MAKES PLANS.
Johanna had had a long time to herself in Todd's shop now. When first he
left upon that expedition of murder, she had almost been afraid to stir,
for she had feared he might momentarily return; but as his stay became
longer and longer protracted, she plucked up courage.
She began to look about her.
"As yet," she said to herself, "what has been done towards arriving at a
solution of the mysteries of this dreadful place?"
The more she thought, the more she felt compelled to answer this inquiry
in an unsatisfactory manner. What had been done?
The only thing that could be said to be settled, was the fact that Todd
was guilty, and that Mrs. Lovett was his accomplice. That he, by some
diabolical means, murdered people who came into his shop to be shaved,
was a fact, incontestable; but how he did the deed, still remained a
mystery.
The care which Todd always bestowed for the purpose of concealing the
manner in which he committed the murder, had hitherto been successful.
No one but himself, and probably Mrs. Lovett, knew exactly how he did
the deed.
It has been of course sufficiently observed that he never attempted
anything amiss when two people were in the shop. That he always made it
a point to get rid of Johanna upon occasions when he thought he had a
chance of making a victim; and that in fact he had, by the very fact
that Sir Richard Blunt and his officers had in various disguises
followed people into his shop, been for some time prevented from the
commission of his usual murders.
Now without in the smallest degree disguising what he did know, it is
quite clear that Sir Richard Blunt up to that time did not know how Todd
did the deeds of blood for which his shop was to become famous, and
himself infamous.
That people went in and never came out again, was about the extent of
what was really known.
The authorities, including Sir Richard Blunt, were extremely anxious to
know exactly how these murders were committed, and hence they waited
with the hope, that something would occur to throw a light upon that
part of the subject, before they apprehended Todd.
At any moment, of course, he could have been seized, and he little
suspected that he was upon such a mine.
If anything, however, could be said to expedite the arrest of Todd, it
would certainly be what had taken place at the colonel's house.
Now, to all appearance, when the colonel came home so close upon the
events that had happened in his absence, and had so very nearly been
fatal to both Minna Gray and Tobias, Todd had made his escape.
A rapid, but effective search of his, the colonel's house, sufficed to
prove that there he was not.
The appearance of Tobias, with blood gushing from his mouth, was
sufficiently alarming, and it was under the impression that he was dying
from the rupture of a blood-vessel, that the colonel wrote the note to
Sir Richard Blunt, which was intercepted by Sweeney Todd himself.
Upon the arrival, however, of the surgeon, who was immediately sent for,
it was soon ascertained that the blood-vessel which had given way in
poor Tobias, was not on the lungs, and that the danger arising from it
was by no means great, provided he were kept quiet and properly attended
to.
Minna Gray received this information with deep thankfulness, and the
colonel, upon hearing it, immediately sought Sir Richard to consult with
him upon the subject in its now altered state, for the idea that Tobias
was dying, had made him, the colonel, view the affair much more
passionately than prudently.
By dint of some trouble, the colonel found Sir Richard Blunt, and then
to his no small surprise, for he had known his groom long, and thought
he could thoroughly depend upon him, he found that the magistrate had
received no note at all upon the subject, so that of course no steps had
been taken.
Upon hearing the affair detailed to him, Sir Richard Blunt said--
"I regret this much, as it will put Todd in a fright and expedite his
departure."
"But was he not going by the Hamburgh packet before day-dawn? At any
rate, I understood you that by the manner in which you had dogged him,
you had thoroughly ascertained that fact?"
"I had, but had taken steps to prevent him."
"You would arrest him to-night?"
"No, I do not think it advisable to arrest him just yet. The fact is, I
do not know all that I want to know; but in order to stop him from
leaving his shop to-night, I have caused the Hamburgh Captain Owners, to
write to him, since he had taken a passage, telling him that the ships
stores would not be ready until to-morrow, when at one hour before
sunrise he would sail."
"Then you want to keep him in his shop another day?"
"I do. I hope and expect that during that day, something may occur to
clear up the mystery that still attaches to the mode in which he commits
his murders."
"It may so."
"I think I can take measures by running some little personal risk to
make it do so; but something must be hit upon to calm his mind,
regarding this affair at your house now, for he will expect nothing but
instant arrest on its account."
"What can I do?"
"If you will be guided by me you will write Todd a letter, threatening
him that if there is any more interference with Tobias, you will
prosecute him, but that you will, if you hear no more of him at your
house, say nothing of the past. You need be under no fear that he will
derive any future advantage from such a promise, as any charge against
him connected with poor Tobias will sink into insignificance, compared
with other offences."
"True! true!"
"Such a letter, couched with the one concerning the non-departure of the
ship, may keep him in his shop over to-morrow."
"And then--"
"Then he sleeps in Newgate, from which building he steps on to the
scaffold."
"But has he not sent many trunks and packages to the ship?"
"Yes, and I have as regularly removed them all to the police-office at
Bow Street. We have already some thousands of pounds worth of property
of the most costly description."
"But Johanna? What is to become of her?"
"You may depend upon it that Todd will pursue the same course with her
that he did with Tobias. He will give her a trifle of money, and tell
her to get a night's lodging out; and in that case she knows where to
come to be quite safe and comfortable. But if such should not be the
case, my protecting arm is over her; I think I can almost defy Todd to
do her any injury."
"Think you so?"
"Yes, I have made such arrangements that if she were missed only for ten
minutes, Todd's house would be searched from top to bottom. I would not,
for this right hand, that any harm should come to her."
"Nor I--nor I."
"Be at ease regarding her, colonel."
"I know how fully we may trust to you, and therefore I will be at ease
regarding her; and I will at once write the letter to Todd you suggest
to me."
"Do so. His fears upon your account must be calmed down."
The colonel accordingly wrote the necessary note to Todd. Of course,
neither he nor Sir Richard Blunt knew that Todd had another reason for
wishing to be off that night, which consisted in his great unwillingness
to meet Mrs. Lovett in the morning; for it will be recollected that he
had an appointment with that lady upon money matters at an early hour.
The reader is now fully aware of how matters stand, and will be able to
comprehend easily the remarkable events which rapidly ensued upon this
state of things, and therefore we can at once return to Todd.
We left him upon his door-step.
It was never Todd's custom to walk at once into his house as any one
else would do upon their arrival, whose
"Conscience was not redolent of guilt!"
but he would peep and pry about, and linger like a moth fluttering
around a candle, or a rat smelling at some tempting morsel, which might
be connected with some artfully contrived trap, before he entered.
He wanted sadly to get a peep at what Charley was doing.
Now, poor Johanna, fortunately at that moment, was only sitting before
the little miserable fire, holding her face in her hands, and deeply
thinking of the once happy past. She had brought out from beneath the
counter the sleeve of a sailor's jacket, which she had found upon her
former examination of the shop, and after sprinkling it with some tears,
for she fully believed it must have belonged to Mark Ingestrie, she had
hidden it again.
And now as she sat in that house of murder all alone, she was picturing
to herself every tone and look of her lover when he had first told her
that he loved her before, as she might have said in the words of the old
song--
"He loved me, and he sped away
Far o'er the raging sea,
To seek the gems of other lands,
And bring them all to me."
At that moment, with all external objects hidden from her perception she
could almost fancy she could hear his voice as he had said to her--"My
darling, I shall come back rich and prosperous, and we shall be happy."
Alas! how sadly had that dream ended. He who had escaped the perils of
the deep--he who had successfully battled with the tempest, and all the
perils by sea and by land incidental to the life he had embarked in, had
returned miserably to perish, almost within hearing of her for whom he
had adventured so much.
The thought was maddening!
"And I live!" she said; "I can live after that! Oh, Mark--Mark--I did
not love you well enough, or I could not have existed so long after the
horrible certainly of your fate has been revealed to me. They may say
what they will to try to make me calmer and happier, but I know that he
is Todd's victim."
After this she sat for a time in a kind of stupor, and it was during
that interval that Todd arrived home.
There was no light in the shop but what at times came from a little
flickering flame, that would splutter into a moment's brief existence in
the fire; but Todd, as he glared through the upper portion of the