The String of Pearls; Or, The Barber of Fleet Street. A Domestic Romance.
make as much change in his appearance as possible, for fear he should
come across any of the parties who had chased him, and who, for all he
knew to the contrary, might, quite unsuspectingly, drop in to be shaved
in the course of the morning, perhaps to retail at that acknowledged
mart for all sorts of gossip--a barber's shop--some of the very
incidents which he has so well qualified himself to relate.
"Shaved and dressed, gentlemen?" said Sweeney Todd, as his customers
made their appearance.
"Shaved only." said Captain Rathbone, who had agreed to be principal
spokesman, in case Sweeney Todd should have any remembrance of the
colonel's voice, and so suspect him.
"Pray be seated," said Sweeney Todd to Colonel Jeffery. "I'll soon
polish off your friend, sir, and then I'll begin upon you. Would you
like to see the morning paper, sir? it's at your service. I was just
looking myself, sir, at a most mysterious circumstance, if it's true,
but you can't believe, you know sir, all that is put in newspapers."
"Thank you--thank you," said the colonel.
Captain Rathbone sat down to be shaved, for he had purposely omitted
that operation at home, in order that it should not appear a mere excuse
to get into Sweeney Todd's shop.
"Why, sir," continued Sweeney Todd, "as I was saying, it is a most
remarkable circumstance."
"Indeed!"
"Yes, sir, an old gentleman of the name of Fidler had been to receive a
sum of money at the west-end of the town, and has never been heard of
since; that was yesterday, sir, and here is a description of him in the
papers of to-day. 'A snuff-coloured coat, and velvet smalls--black
velvet, I should have said--silk stockings, and silver shoe-buckles, and
a gold-headed cane, with W. D. F. upon it, meaning "William Dumpledown
Fidler"--a most mysterious affair, gentlemen.'"
A sort of groan came from the corner of the shop, and, on the impulse of
the moment, Colonel Jeffery sprang to his feet, exclaiming--
"What's that--what's that?"
"Oh, it's only my apprentice, Tobias Ragg. He has got a pain in his
stomach from eating too many of Lovett's pork pies. Aint that it,
Tobias, my bud?"
"Yes, sir," said Tobias with another groan.
"Oh, indeed," said the colonel, "it ought to make him more careful for
the future."
"It's to be hoped it will, sir; Tobias, do you hear what this gentleman
says: it ought to make you more careful in future. I am too indulgent to
you, that's the fact. Now, sir, I believe you are as clean shaved as
ever you were in your life."
"Why, yes," said Captain Rathbone, "I think that will do very well; and
now, Mr. Green"--addressing the colonel by that assumed named--"and now,
Mr. Green, be quick, or we shall be too late for the duke, and so lose
the sale of some of our jewels."
"We shall indeed," said the colonel, "if we don't mind. We sat too long
over our breakfast at the inn, and his grace is too rich and too good a
customer to lose--he don't mind what price he gives for things that take
his fancy, or the fancy of his duchess."
"Jewel merchants, gentlemen, I presume," said Sweeney Todd.
"Yes, we have been in that line for some time; and by one of us trading
in one direction, and the other in another, we manage extremely well,
because we exchange what suits our different customers, and keep up two
distinct connexions."
"A very good plan," said Sweeney Todd. "I'll be as quick as I can with
you, sir. Dealing in jewels is better than shaving."
"I dare say it is."
"Of course, it is, sir; here have I been slaving for some years in this
shop, and not done much good--that is to say, when I talk of not having
done much good, I admit I have made enough to retire upon quietly and
comfortably, and I mean to do so very shortly. There you are, sir,
shaved with celerity you seldom meet with, and as clean as possible, for
the small charge of one penny. Thank you, gentlemen--there's your
change; good morning."
They had no resource but to leave the shop; and when they had gone
Sweeney Todd, as he stropped the razor he had been using upon his hand,
gave a most diabolical grin, muttering--
"Clever--very ingenious--but it won't do. Oh dear, no, not at all! I am
not so easily taken in--diamond merchants, ah! ah! and no objection, of
course, to deal in pearls--a good jest that, truly, a capital jest. If I
had been accustomed to be so easily defeated, I had not now been here a
living man. Tobias, Tobias, I say."
"Yes, sir," said the lad, dejectedly.
"Have you forgotten your mother's danger in case you breathe a syllable
of anything that has occurred here, or that you think has occurred here,
or so much as dream of?"
"No," said the boy, "indeed I have not. I never can forget it, if I were
to live a hundred years."
"That's well, prudent, excellent, Tobias. Go out now, and if those two
persons who were here last, waylay you in the street, let them say what
they will, and do you reply to them as shortly as possible; but be sure
you come back to me quickly and report what they do say. They turned to
the left, towards the city--now be off with you."
* * * * *
"It's of no use," said Colonel Jeffery to the captain; "the barber is
either too cunning for me, or he is really innocent of all participation
in the disappearance of Thornhill."
"And yet there are suspicious circumstances. I watched his countenance
when the subject of jewels was mentioned, and I saw a sudden change come
over it; it was but momentary, but still it gave me a suspicion that he
knew something which caution alone kept within the recesses of his
breast. The conduct of the boy, too, was strange; and then again, if he
has the string of pearls, their value would give him all the power to do
what he says he is about to do--viz., to retire from business with an
independence."
"Hush! There, did you see that lad?"
"Yes; why it's the barber's boy."
"It is the same lad he called Tobias--shall we speak to him?"
"Let's make a bolder push, and offer him an ample reward for any
information he may give us."
"Agreed, agreed."
They both walked up to Tobias, who was listlessly walking along the
streets, and when they reached him, they were both struck with the
appearance of care and sadness that was upon the boy's face. He looked
perfectly haggard and careworn--an expression sad to see upon the face
of one so young; and, when the colonel accosted him in a kindly tone, he
seemed so unnerved that tears immediately darted to his eyes, although
at the same time he shrank back as if alarmed.
"My lad," said the colonel, "you reside, I think, with Sweeney Todd, the
barber. Is he not a kind master to you, that you seem so unhappy?"
"No, no--that is, I mean yes, I have nothing to tell. Let me pass on."
"What is the meaning of this confusion?"
"Nothing, nothing."
"I say, my lad, here is a guinea for you, if you will tell us what
became of the man of a sea-faring appearance, who came with a dog to
your master's house, some days since, to be shaved."
"I cannot tell you," said the boy, "I cannot tell you what I do not
know."
"But, you have some idea, probably. Come, we will make it worth your
while, and thereby protect you from Sweeney Todd. We have the power to
do so, and all the inclination; but you must be quite explicit with us,
and tell us frankly what you think, and what you know concerning the man
in whose fate we are interested."
"I know nothing, I think nothing," said Tobias. "Let me go, I have
nothing to say, except that he was shaved, and went away."
"But how came he to leave his dog behind him?"
"I cannot tell. I know nothing."
"It is evident that you do know something, but hesitate either from fear
or some other motive to tell it; as you are inaccessible to fair means,
we must resort to others, and you shall at once come before a
magistrate, who will force you to speak out."
"Do with me what you will," said Tobias, "I cannot help it. I have
nothing to say to you, nothing whatever. Oh, my poor mother, if it were
not for you--"
"What then?"
"Nothing! nothing! nothing!"
It was but a threat of the colonel to take the boy before a magistrate,
for he had really no grounds for so doing; and if the boy chose to keep
a secret, if he had one, not all the magistrates in the world could
force words from his lips that he felt not inclined to utter; and so,
after one more effort, they felt that they must leave him.
"Boy," said the colonel, "you are young, and cannot well judge of the
consequences of particular lines of conduct; you ought to weigh well
what you are about, and hesitate long before you determine keeping
dangerous secrets: we can convince you that we have the power of
completely protecting you from all that Sweeney Todd could possibly
attempt. Think again, for this is an opportunity of saving yourself
perhaps from much future misery, that may never arise again."
"I have nothing to say," said the boy, "I have nothing to say."
He uttered these words with such an agonized expression of countenance,
that they were both convinced he had something to say, and that, too, of
the first importance--a something which would be valuable to them in the
way of information, extremely valuable probably, and yet which they felt
the utter impossibility of wringing from him. They were compelled to
leave him, and likewise with the additional mortification, that, far
from making any advance in the matter, they had placed themselves and
their cause in a much worse position, in so far as they had awakened all
Sweeney Todd's suspicions if he were guilty, and yet advanced not one
step in the transaction. And then, to make the matter all the more
perplexing, there was still the possibility that they might be
altogether upon a wrong scent, and that the barber of Fleet-street had
no more to do with the disappearance of Mr. Thornhill than they had
themselves.
CHAPTER XI.
THE STRANGER AT LOVETT'S.
Towards the dusk of the evening of that day, after the last batch of
pies at Lovett's had been disposed of, there walked into the shop a man
most miserably clad, and who stood for a few moments staring with
weakness and hunger at the counter before he spoke. Mrs. Lovett was
there, but she had no smile for him, and instead of its usual bland
expression, her countenance wore an aspect of anger, as she forestalled
what the man had to say, by exclaiming--
"Go away, we never give anything to beggars."
There came a flush of colour for the moment across the features of the
stranger, and then he replied--
"Mistress Lovett, I do not come to ask alms of you, but to know if you
can recommend me to any employment?"
"Recommend you! recommend a ragged wretch like you?"
"I am a ragged wretch, and, moreover, quite destitute. In better times I
have sat at your counter, and paid cheerfully for what I wanted, and
then one of your softest smiles has ever been at my disposal. I do not
say this as a reproach to you, because the cause of your smile was well
known to be a self-interested one, and when that cause had passed away,
I can no longer expect it; but I am so situated, that I am willing to do
anything for a mere subsistence."
"Oh, yes, and then when you get into a better case again, I have no
doubt but you have quite sufficient insolence to make you unbearable;
besides, what employment can we have but pie-making, and we have a man
already who suits us very well with the exception that he, as you would
do if we were to exchange him, has grown insolent, and fancies himself
master of the place."
"Well, well," said the stranger, "of course, there is always sufficient