The String of Pearls; Or, The Barber of Fleet Street. A Domestic Romance.
injurious effect, paralysing the exertions of the crew in times of
danger, and making them believe that they are in a doomed ship, and
consequently all they can do is useless. Sailors are extremely
superstitious on such matters, and there cannot be any reasonable doubt,
but that some of the disasters that befel the Neptune on her homeward
voyage from India, may be attributed to this feeling of fatality getting
hold of the seamen, and inducing them to think that, let them try what
they might, they could not save the ship. It happened that after they
had rounded the Cape, a dense fog came on, such as had not been known on
that coast for many a year; although the western shore of Africa at some
seasons of the year is rather subject to such a species of vaporous
exhalation. Every object was wrapped in the most profound gloom, and yet
there was a strong eddy or current of the ocean, flowing parallel with
the land, and as the captain hoped, rather off than on the shore. Still
there was a suspicion that the ship was making lee-way, which must
eventually bring it on shore, by some of the low promontories that were
by the maps indicated to be upon the coast. In consequence of this fear,
the greatest anxiety prevailed on board the vessel, and lights were left
burning on all parts of the deck, while two men were continually engaged
making soundings. It was about half-an-hour after midnight, as the
chronometer indicated a storm, that suddenly the men, who were on watch
on the deck, raised a loud cry of dismay. They had suddenly seen close
on to the larboard bow, lights which must belong to some vessel that,
like the Neptune, was encompassed in the fog, and a collision was quite
inevitable, for neither ship had time to put about. The only doubt,
which was a fearful and an agonising one to have solved, was whether the
stronger vessel was of sufficient bulk and power to run them down, or
they it; and that fearful question was one which a few moments must
settle. In fact, almost before the echo of that cry of horror which had
come from the men, had died away, the vessels met. There was a hideous
crash--one shriek of dismay and horror, and then all was still. The
Neptune, with considerable damage, and some of her bulwarks stove in,
sailed on; but the other ship went, with a surging sound, to the bottom
of the sea. Alas! nothing could be done. The fog was so dense, that
coupled, too, as it was with the darkness of the night, there could be
no hope of rescuing one of the ill-fated crew of the ship; and the
officers and seamen of the Neptune, although they shouted for some time,
and then listened, to hear if any survivors of the ship that had been
run down were swimming, no answer came to them; and when in about six
hours more, they sailed out of the fog into a clear sunshine, where
there was not so much as a cloud to be seen, they looked at each other
like men newly awakened from some strange and fearful dream. They never
discovered the name of the ship they had run down, and the whole affair
remained a profound mystery. When the Neptune reached the port of
London, the affair was repeated, and every exertion was made to obtain
some information concerning the ill-fated ship that had met with so
fearful a doom. Such were the circumstances which awakened all the
liveliest feelings of gratitude on the part of Colonel Jeffery towards
Mr. Thornhill; and hence was it that he considered it a sacred duty, now
that he was in London, and had the necessary leisure to do so, to leave
no stone unturned to discover what had become of him. After deep and
anxious thought, and feeling convinced that there was some mystery which
it was beyond his power to discover, he resolved upon asking the opinion
of a friend, likewise in the army, a Captain Rathbone, concerning the
whole of the facts. This gentleman, and a gentleman he was in the
fullest acceptance of the term, was in London; in fact, he had retired
from active service, and inhabited a small but pleasant house in the
outskirts of the metropolis. It was one of those old-fashioned cottage
residences, with all sorts of odd places and corners about it, and a
thriving garden full of fine old wood, such as are rather rare near to
London, and which are daily becoming more rare, in consequence of the
value of land immediately contiguous to the metropolis not permitting
large pieces to remain attached to small residences. Captain Rathbone
had an amiable family about him, such as he was and might well be proud
of, and was living in as great a state of domestic felicity as this
world could very well afford him. It was to this gentleman, then, that
Colonel Jeffery resolved upon going to lay all the circumstances before
him concerning the probable fate of poor Thornhill. This distance was
not so great but that he could walk it conveniently, and he did so,
arriving, towards the dusk of the evening, on the following day to that
which had witnessed his deeply interesting interview with Johanna Oakley
in the Temple-gardens. There is nothing on earth so delightfully
refreshing, after a dusty and rather a long country walk, as to suddenly
enter a well-kept and extremely verdant garden; and this was the case
especially to the feelings of Colonel Jeffery, when he arrived at Lime
Tree Lodge, the residence of Captain Rathbone. He met him with a most
cordial and frank welcome--a welcome which he expected, but which was
none the less delightful on that account; and, after sitting awhile with
the family in the house, he and the captain strolled into the garden,
and then Colonel Jeffery commenced his revelation. The captain, with
very few interruptions, heard him to an end; and, when he concluded by
saying--
"And now I am come to ask your advice upon all these matters;" the
captain immediately replied, in his warm, off-hand manner--
"I am afraid you won't find my advice of much importance; but I offer
you my active co-operation in anything you think ought to be done or can
be done in this affair, which, I assure you deeply interests me, and
gives me the greatest possible impulse to exertion. You have but to
command me in the matter, and I am completely at your disposal."
"I was quite certain you would say as much. But, notwithstanding the
manner in which you shrink from giving an opinion, I am anxious to know
what you really think with regard to what are, you will allow, most
extraordinary circumstances."
"The most natural thing in the world," said Captain Rathbone, "at the
first flush of the affair, seemed to be, that we ought to look for your
friend Thornhill at the point where he disappeared."
"At the barber's in Fleet-street?"
"Precisely. Did he leave the barber, or did he not?"
"Sweeney Todd says that he left him, and proceeded down the street
towards the city, in pursuance of a direction he had given him to Mr.
Oakley, the spectacle-maker, and that he saw him get into some sort of
disturbance at the end of the market; but to put against that, we have
the fact of the dog remaining by the barber's door, and his refusing to
leave it on any amount of solicitation. Now the very fact that a dog
could act in such a way proclaims an amount of sagacity that seems to
tell loudly against the presumption that such a creature could make any
mistake."
"It does. What say you, now, to go into town to-morrow morning, and
making a call at the barber's, without proclaiming we have any special
errand, except to be shaved and dressed? Do you think he would know you
again?"
"Scarcely, in plain clothes. I was in my undress uniform when I called
with the captain of the Neptune, so that his impression of me must be of
decidedly a military character; and the probability is, that he would
not know me at all in the clothes of a civilian. I like the idea of
giving a call at the barber's."
"Do you think your friend Thornhill was a man likely to talk about the
valuable pearls he had in his possession?"
"Certainly not."
"I merely ask you, because they might have offered a great temptation;
and if he has experienced any foul play at the hands of the barber, the
idea of becoming possessed of such a valuable treasure might have been
the inducement."
"I do not think it probable, but it has struck me that, if we obtain any
information whatever of Thornhill, it will be in consequence of these
very pearls. They are of great value, and not likely to be overlooked;
and yet, unless a customer be found for them, they are of no value at
all; and nobody buys jewels of that character but from the personal
vanity of making, of course, some public display of them."
"That is true; and so, from hand to hand, we might trace those pearls
until we come to the individual who must have had them from Thornhill
himself, and who might be forced to account most strictly for the manner
in which they came into his possession."
After some more desultory conversation upon the subject, it was agreed
that Colonel Jeffery should take a bed for the night at Lime Tree Lodge,
and that, in the morning, they should both start for London, and,
disguising themselves as respectable citizens, make some attempts, by
talking about jewels and precious stones, to draw out the barber into a
confession that he had something of the sort to dispose of; and,
moreover, they fully intended to take away the dog, with the care of
which Captain Rathbone charged himself. We may pass over the pleasant,
social evening which the colonel passed with the amiable family of the
Rathbones, and, skipping likewise a conversation of some strange and
confused dreams which Jeffery had during the night concerning his friend
Thornhill, we will presume that both the colonel and the captain have
breakfasted, and that they have proceeded to London and are at the shop
of a clothier in the neighbourhood of the Strand, in order to procure
coats, wigs, and hats, that should disguise them for their visit to
Sweeney Todd. Then, arm in arm, they walked towards Fleet-street, and
soon arrived opposite the little shop within which there appears to be
so much mystery.
"The dog, you perceive, is not here," said the colonel; "I had my
suspicions, however, when I passed with Johanna Oakley that something
was amiss with him, and I have no doubt but that the rascally barber has
fairly compassed his destruction."
"If the barber be innocent," said Captain Rathbone, "you must admit that
it would be one of the most confoundedly annoying things in the world to
have a dog continually at his door assuming such an aspect of
accusation, and in that case I can scarcely wonder at his putting the
creature out of the way."
"No, presuming upon his innocence, certainly; but we will say nothing
about all that, and remember we must come in as perfect strangers,
knowing nothing of the affair of the dog, and presuming nothing about
the disappearance of any one in this locality."
"Agreed, come on; if he should see us through the window, hanging about
at all or hesitating, his suspicions will be at once awakened, and we
shall do no good."
They both entered the shop and found Sweeney Todd wearing an
extraordinary singular appearance, for there was a black patch over one
of his eyes, which was kept in its place by a green riband that went
round his head, so that he looked more fierce and diabolical than ever;
and having shaved off a small whisker that he used to wear, his
countenance, although to the full as hideous as ever, certainly had a
different character of ugliness to that which had before characterised
it, and attracted the attention of the colonel. That gentleman would
hardly have known him again any where but in his own shop, and when we
come to consider Sweeney Todd's adventures of the preceding evening, we
shall feel not surprised that he saw the necessity of endeavouring to