The String of Pearls; Or, The Barber of Fleet Street. A Domestic Romance.
He commenced now upon the other wrist, and by the little experience he
had gathered from his practice at the one which he had already filed in
two, he got on more quickly with this one. He found that a long light
movement of the file did more work than a rapid grating process. In much
less time, then, this other wrist manacle was off, and he could lift up
both his arm in freedom.
"This is something," he said, "Nay, it is much, very much indeed. I feel
it, and accept it as a kind of earnest of success. Where is the
man--where are the two or three men, that will dare to stand in my
desperate way, when I have one of these files in each hand, and are free
from fetters. They will need be mad to do it. Such an amount of zeal is
not to be found. No, they will step aside and let me pass."
It now became a matter of great importance with him, to get the other
two fetters that bound his ankles undone. He felt as if he should go
mad, if he did not quickly release himself from them now.
Sitting upon the floor of the cell, he set to work; but he found that
the file he had been using did not bite very well. The work it had done
already had dulled its powers; but the other was fresh and keen, and
with it he made great progress.
The left-hand shackle was entirely removed, and now only by his right
ankle was he connected with that hundredweight of iron, which held him
to the ground.
"I shall be free!" he muttered. "I shall be free! Did they think to hold
me with these chains? Ha! ha! No. It may be, that there is a dark spirit
of evil that aids men, such as I am; and if it be so, I will consent to
be wholly his, if--"
Todd started, for the same noise that had before come upon his ears, now
attracted him. It was plainer though than before; and at the moment he
thought that it must be in his cell. A cry of terror rose to his lips,
but he smothered it in the utterance, and bent again all his faculties
to listen.
The sound did not now pass away like an echo as it had done before, but
it went on steadily, and he could trace it as localising itself against
one of the walls of the cell.
It was a profound mystery. He could not make out what it meant. It was a
strange dull scraping noise. At times he thought it was some animal in
the cell--a rat, probably; but then the sound was too continuous, and
although he stamped once, and said 'Hush!' several times, it steadily
continued.
The darkness in the cell was now so intense, that it was in vain to
attempt to pierce it. Any straining of the eyes only peopled the
palpable black atmosphere with all sorts of strange shapes, conjured up
by the imagination; so Todd was glad to close his eyes after a few
moments' experience of that character.
"I will know what this is," he said. "I must know what this is, and I
will know!"
He held out his arms, and he slowly advanced towards the side of the
cell from whence the sound came.
"Speak," he said, "if you are mortal, speak. If immortal, I fear you
not. I am now past all such terrors. You can but kill me."
His hands touched the cold stone wall; and then he felt it from the
floor upwards, but nothing but the chill surface of the stones was
perceptible; and yet the scraping noise continued, and at last he felt
convinced that it came from the other side of the wall.
Now he did not know what to think, for he had no means of knowing what
was upon the other side of that wall. It might be a corridor of the
prison. It might be a room belonging to one of the officials, who was
about some work that, if explained, would not appear singular at all.
He placed his ear to the exact spot from whence the noise came, and he
listened attentively.
As he so listened, Todd began to have other notions about that noise,
and for more than once the square block of stone, against which his ear
reposed, shook in its place.
"It must be a cell like this," he said, "that is on the other side of
the wall, and that, no doubt, is some prisoner at work, trying to effect
his escape. If so, it is fortunate. He must be a bold man, and we can
help each other."
Still Todd hesitated what he should do, notwithstanding the hypothesis
regarding the noise he heard appeared so very probable. He was resolved
to spend a little more time in listening, for he felt that once to
commit himself would possibly be to spoil his own chances of escape. He
kept his ear to the stone of the wall, then which shook more and more
each passing moment.
Suddenly he heard a voice. In a drawling accent, it sang a few lines of
a popular thieves' song--
"The beak looked big, and shook his head,
Heigho, the beak!
He wished such family cares were dead,
That honest folks might get their bread,
Heigho, the beak!
The family cove, he grinned a grin,
Heigho, the cove!
Says he, to prig I think no sin;
For sure a Romany must have tin:
Heigho, the cove!"
"It must be all right," thought Todd, "or he would not sing that song;
but what good it can do him to get from his own cell into this, I cannot
imagine. He would be equally confined here as there, and all his labour
thrown away. But together, we may do something. I will speak to him.
Yes, I think I will speak to him."
Todd still waited and lingered before he gave any intimation of his
presence and knowledge of what was going on, and then the song ceased,
and by the renewed vigour with which the tenant of the next cell worked
at the stone, it would seem that he had got very impatient at the length
of time it took him.
Suddenly, the stone, which was about a foot square, shook so, that Todd
withdrew from it, thinking that it would come out of its place
altogether; and as it was evidently the object of the prisoner at the
other side to push it through into Todd's cell, he thought it better to
stand on one side, and let it come.
Suddenly, with a crash, it fell through, and then Todd spoke, for the
first time, to the prisoner.
CHAPTER CXXXIII.
THE PROGRESS OF THE OPERATIONS TO ESCAPE FROM NEWGATE.
"Who's there? Who are you?" cried Todd.
"The deuce!" said a voice, from the adjoining cell. "Sold at last, after
all my trouble. Confound you, why didn't you speak before, and save me
the last hour's work?"
"What do you mean?" cried Todd. "I am a desperate man. Do not tamper
with me. Do you belong to the prison, or do you not?"
"I belong to the prison! I should think not. Don't you?"
"Oh, no--no--no--no."
"Why, you don't mean to say that you are a prisoner?"
"I am, indeed, and condemned to die."
"All's right then. Bravo! This is capital. I thought I was in the end
cell, do you know, and that by working through the wall by the
assistance of Providence always--Bah! I can't get out of the old trade.
I mean to say, that I thought I was working through a wall that would
have taken me into one of the corridors of Newgate, and then there would
have been a chance of getting off, you know."
"I do not know, and did not know," said Todd; "but if there be really
any chance of escape, I am a desperate man, and will risk anything for
it. Only say that you will help me."
"Help you? Of course I will. Do you think I am in love with these cold
walls? No, I will get a light in a moment, and we can then have a look
at each other. Are you in fetters?"
"I was, but I have a file, and have succeeded in freeing myself from
them completely. Are you?"
"Yes, but I have muffled them with some pieces of my clothing that I
have torn up for the purpose, and please the Lord they will make no
noise."
Todd was rather amazed at the religious expressions of the other
prisoner; but he forbore to make any remark concerning them, and as
something had been said about getting a light, he resolved to wait
patiently until it was procured, when he would be able to see who it was
that chance had so very strangely thrown him into companionship with.
"You see," added the other prisoner, "a religious lady left me some
tracts, and as I told her they did not allow light here, she was kind
enough to smuggle me in some phosphorous matches, in case in the night I
should wish to read."
"Very kind of her," said Todd.
"Oh, very. Let us praise the--Bother, I shall never get out of the habit
of chaunting, I do believe."
In a moment, now, a faint blue light illumed the cell adjoining to
Todd's, and as the religious lady had been kind enough to bring some
little wax ends of candles, the prisoner lit one, and placing it upon
the ledge left by the displaced brick in the wall, he put his face close
to it, and looked at Todd.
Todd did the same thing, and looked at him.
"Humph," said the prisoner. "They are not going to hang you for your
beauty, whoever you are, my friend."
"Nor you," said Todd, who was a little stung by this cool remark, "for I
must say a more villanous looking countenance than yours I never saw in
all my life."
"Then you certainly never looked in a glass."
"Hark you, my friend," said Todd. "If we are to aid each other in
getting out of Newgate, it will not be by railing at each other through
a square hole in the wall of our cells. We had better leave all remarks
about our looks to other folks, and at once set to work about what is
much more important, namely, breaking our way out of this most
detestable of all places."
"Truly," said the other; "you speak wisdom, and the Lord--Pho! The deuce
take it, when shall I get rid of the cant of the conventicle? My dear
sir, you see before you a man who has been a great victim."
"What is your name?"
"Lupin they used to call me. The Reverend Josiah Lupin."
"Ah," said Todd. "I heard something of your case. I believe you murdered
a woman, did you not?"
"Why, my friend," said Mrs. Oakley's old acquaintance, for indeed it was
no other, "I don't mind confessing to you, that a woman met with a
slight accident at my place, and they say I did it. But now that I have
been so candid, pray who are you?"
"They call me Todd."
The Reverend Mr. Lupin screwed up his mouth, and whistled.
"Humph," he said. "The religious lady only this morning told me all
about you. You used to polish the people off in your barber's shop, and
then make them into pork pies, I believe?"
"Ha! ha!" said Todd.
"And you had a charming assistant in the shape of a lady, named Lovett,
I have been informed, who used to help you to scrape the bones of the
poor devils who had only just slipped in for a shave, and by no means
expected such a scrape."
"Ha! ha!" said Todd.
"Stop a bit," said Mr. Lupin, "don't come that sort of laugh again. It
don't sound at all pleasant. Well, I think we may manage to get out of
Newgate, do you know, by a little hard work, if you are willing; but
mind you, I don't want to be made a pork or a veal pie of, if you
please."
"I never ate them myself," said Todd, "so there is no temptation; but I
sincerely hope, my friend, that you do not believe one word of the many
calumnies that have been heaped upon my character?"
"Oh, dear no; and you, too, are well aware that I am the most falsely
accused and innocent clergyman that ever lived."
"Perfectly."
"My dear, sir, you are a very reasonable man, and I don't see any reason
on earth that we should not be capital friends from this moment. Just
help me to move another of these stones and I shall be able to creep
through the opening into your cell."
Todd very kindly assisted the Reverend Mr. Lupin, and in the course of a
few minutes, another of these large square blocks of stone that formed
the wall of the cell being removed, he was able to creep through the
aperture with the assistance of Todd.