The String of Pearls; Or, The Barber of Fleet Street. A Domestic Romance.
gathering his cue from their looks, he, after a brief space, continued--
"Well, we will pass over that, seeing it is not necessary, but you must
tell us what you are--cutpurse, footpad, or what not?"
"I am neither."
"Then tell us in your own words," said the man, "and be candid with us.
What are you?"
"I am an artificial pearl-maker--or sham pearl-maker, whichever way you
please to call it."
"A sham pearl-maker! that may be an honest trade for all we know, and
that will hardly be your passport to our house, friend sham
pearl-maker!"
"That may be as you say," replied Todd, "but I will challenge any man to
equal me in my calling. I have made pearls that would pass with almost a
lapidary, and which would pass with nearly all the nobility."
"I begin to understand you, friend; but I would wish to have some proof
of what you say; we may hear a very good tale, and yet none of it shall
be true; we are not men to be made dupes of, besides, there are enough
to take vengeance, if we desire it."
"Ay, to be sure there is," said a gruff voice from the other end of the
table, which was echoed from one to the other, till it came to the top
of the table.
"Proof! proof! proof!" now resounded from one end of the room to the
other.
"My friends," said Sweeney Todd, rising up, and advancing to the table,
and thrusting his hand into his bosom and drawing out the string of
twenty-four pearls, "I challenge you, or any one, to make a set of
artificial pearls equal to these; they are my make, and I'll stand to it
in any reasonable sum, that you cannot bring a man who shall beat me in
my calling."
"Just hand them to me," said the man who had made himself interrogator.
Sweeney Todd threw the pearls on the table carelessly, and then said--
"There, look at them well, they'll bear it, and I reckon, though there
may be some good judges amongst you, that you cannot any of you tell
them from real pearls, if you had not been told so."
"Oh, yes, we know pretty well," said the man, "what these things are, we
have now and then a good string in our possession, and that helps us to
judge of them. Well, this is certainly a good imitation."
"Let me see it," said a fat man: "I was bred a jeweller, and I might say
born, only I couldn't stick to it; nobody likes working for years upon
little pay, and no fun with the gals. I say, hand it here!"
"Well," said Todd, "if you or anybody ever produced as good an
imitation, I'll swallow the whole string; and knowing there's poison in
the composition, it would not be a comfortable thing to think of."
"Certainly not," said the big man, "certainly not, but hand them over,
and I'll tell you all about it."
The pearls were given into his hands; and Sweeney Todd felt some
misgivings about his precious charge, and yet he showed it not, for he
turned to the man who sat beside him, saying--
"If he can tell true pearls from them, he knows more than I think he
does, for I am a maker, and have often had the true pearl in my hand."
"And I suppose," said the man, "you have tried your hand at putting the
one for the other, and so doing your confiding customers."
"Yes, yes, that is the dodge, I can see very well," said another man,
winking at the first; "and a good one too, I have known them do so with
diamonds."
"Yes, but never with pearls; however, there are some trades that it is
desirable to know."
"You're right."
The fat man now carefully examined the pearls, set them down on the
table, and looked hard at them.
"There now, I told you I could bother you. You are not so good a judge
that you would not have known, if you had not been told they were sham
pearls, but what they were real."
"I must say, you have produced the best imitations I have ever seen. Why
you ought to make your fortune in a few years--a handsome fortune!"
"So I should, but for one thing."
"And what is that?"
"The difficulty," said Todd, "of getting rid of them; if you ask
anything below their value, you are suspected, and you run the chance of
being stopped and losing them at the least, and perhaps entail a
prosecution."
"Very true; but there is risk in everything; we all run risks; but then
the harvest!"
"That may be," said Todd, "but this is peculiarly dangerous. I have not
the means of getting introduction to the nobility themselves, and if I
had I should be doubted, for they would say a working man cannot come
honestly by such valuable things, and then I must concoct a tale to
escape the Mayor of London."
"Ha!--ha!--ha!"
"Well, then, you can take them to a goldsmith."
"There are not many of them who would do so: they would not deal in
them; and, moreover, I have been to one or two of them; as for a
lapidary, why, he is not so easily cheated."
"Have you tried?"
"I did, and had to make the best of my way out, pursued as quickly as
they could run, and I thought at one time I must have been stopped, but
a few lucky turns brought me clear, when I was told to turn up this
court; and I came in here."
"Well," said one man, who had been examining the pearls, "and did the
lapidary find out they were not real?"
"Yes, he did; and he wanted to stop me and the string together, for
trying to impose upon him; however, I made a rush at the door, which he
tried to shut, but I was the stronger man, and here I am."
"It has been a close chance for you," said one.
"Yes, it just has," replied Sweeney, taking up the string of pearls,
which he replaced in his clothes, and continued to converse with some of
those around him.
Things now subsided into their general course; and little notice was
taken of Sweeney. There was some drink on the board, of which all
partook. Sweeney had some, too, and took the precaution of emptying his
pockets before them all, and gave them a share of his money to pay his
footing. This was policy, and they all drank to his success, and were
very good companions. Sweeney, however, was desirous of getting out as
soon as he could, and more than once cast his eyes towards the door; but
he saw there were eyes upon him, and dared not excite suspicion, for he
might undo all that he had done. To lose the precious treasure he
possessed would be maddening; he had succeeded to admiration in inducing
the belief that what he showed them was merely a counterfeit; but he
knew so well that they were real, and that a latent feeling that they
were humbugged might be hanging about; and that the first suspicious
movement he would be watched, and some desperate attempt made to make
him give them up. It was with no small violence to his own feelings that
he listened to their conversation, and appeared to take an interest in
their proceedings.
"Well," said one, who sat next him, "I'm just off for the north-road."
"Any fortune there?"
"Not much; and yet I mustn't complain: these last three weeks, the best
I have had has been two sixties."
"Well, that would do very well."
"Yes, the last man I stopped was a regular looby Londoner; he appeared
like a don, complete tip-top man of fashion; but, Lord! when I came to
look over him, he hadn't as much as would carry me twenty-four miles on
the road."
"Indeed! don't you think he had any hidden about him?--they do do so
now."
"Ah, ah!" returned another, "well said, old fellow; 'tis a true remark,
that we can't always judge a man from appearances. Lor! bless me, now,
who'd 'a thought your swell cove proved to be out o' luck? Well, I'm
sorry for you; but you know 'tis a long lane that has no turning, as Mr.
Somebody says--so, perhaps, you'll be more fortunate another time. But
come, cheer up, whilst I relate an adventure that occurred a little time
ago; 'twas a slice of good luck, I assure you, for I had no difficulty
in bouncing my victim, out of a good swag of tin; for you know farmers
returning from market are not always too wary and careful, especially as
the lots of wine they take at the market dinners make the cosy old boys
ripe and mellow for sleep. Well, I met one of these jolly gentlemen,
mounted on horseback, who declared he had nothing but a few paltry
guineas about him; however, that would not do--I searched him, and found
a hundred and four pounds secreted about his person."
"Where did you find it?"
"About him. I tore his clothes to ribands. A pretty figure he looked
upon horseback, I assure you. By Jove, I could hardly help laughing; in
fact, I did laugh at him, which so enraged him, that he immediately
threatened to horse-whip me, and yet he dared not defend his money; but
I threatened to shoot him, and that soon brought him to his senses."
"I should imagine so. Did you ever have a fight for it?" inquired
Sweeney Todd.
"Yes, several times. Ah! it's by no means an easy life, you may depend.
It is free, but dangerous. I have been fired at six or seven times."
"So many?"
"Yes. I was near York once, when I stopped a gentleman; I thought him an
easy conquest, but not as he turned out, for he was a regular devil."
"Resisted you?"
"Yes, he did. I was coming along when I met him, and I demanded his
money. 'I can keep it myself,' he said, 'and do not want any assistance
to take care of it.'"
"But I want it," said I; "your money or your life."
"You must have both, for we are not to be parted," he said, presenting
his pistol at me; "and then I had only time to escape from the effect of
the shot. I struck the pistol up with my riding-whip, and the bullet
passed by my temples, and almost stunned me. I cocked and fired; he did
the same, but I hit him, and he fell. He fired, however, but missed me.
I was down upon him; he begged hard for life."
"Did you give it him?"
"Yes; I dragged him to the side of the road, and then left him. Having
done so much, I mounted my horse and came away as fast as I could, and
then I made for London, and spent a merry day or two there."
"I can imagine you must enjoy your trips into the country, and then you
must have still greater relish for the change when you come to
London--the change is so great and so entire."
"So it is; but have you never any run of luck in your line? I should
think you must at times succeed in tricking the public."
"Yes, yes," said Todd, "now and then we do--but I tell you it is only
now and then; and I have been afraid of doing too much. In small sums I
have been a gainer; but I want to do something grand. I tried it on, but
at the same time I have failed."
"That is bad; but you may have more opportunities by and by. Luck is all
chance."
"Yes," said Todd, "that is true, but the sooner the better, for I am
growing impatient."
Conversation now went on; each man speaking of his exploits, which were
always some species of rascality and robbery, accompanied by violence
generally; some were midnight robbers and breakers into people's houses;
in fact, all the crimes that could be imagined. This place was, in fact,
a complete house of rendezvous for thieves, cutpurses, highwaymen,
footpads, and burglars of every grade and description--a formidable set
of men of the most determined and desperate appearance. Sweeney Todd
hardly knew how to rise and leave the place, though it was now growing
very late, and he was most anxious to get safe out of the den he was in;
but how to do that, was a problem yet to be solved.
"What is the time?" he muttered to the man next to him.
"Past midnight," was the reply.
"Then I must leave here," he answered, "for I have work that I must be
at in a very short time, and I shall not have too much time."
So saying he watched his opportunity, and rising, walked up to the door,
which he opened and went out; after that he walked up the five steps
that led to the passage, and this latter had hardly been gained when the
street-door opened, and another man came in at the same moment, and met