The String of Pearls; Or, The Barber of Fleet Street. A Domestic Romance.
after, and we have every reason to think that he is somewhere about
here, and it is a large reward that is offered for him, I can tell you."
"Ah! I should like to get it."
"Not a doubt of it. Good-day, marm. If you should see any
suspicious-looking fellow about the fields, just give notice of it in
some sort of a way, if you can, for you may depend upon it, it will be
Todd."
"Oh, yes, I will. How very fractious this little thing is to-day, to be
sure. I hardly ever knew it to be so before."
"Ah, well, they will be so, at times. But I'm off. Mind, now, you get
the reward if you see anything of Todd."
"Oh, yes. Trust me for that."
The man left the room. What a reprieve from death that was for Todd! He
thought that during all the perils that he had passed through, he had
surely never been quite so near to destruction as then; and when he
found that he was saved, temporarily, he could hardly hold himself up in
the cupboard, and a sensation of faintness came over him.
It was not safe for him yet, by any means, to think of emerging from his
place of concealment. Indeed, he felt that the young mother would be the
best judge upon that hand, so he did not stir nor speak, and at last he
heard the cot with the now sleeping child in it, being gently moved from
before the cupboard-door. Then it was opened, and Todd, with his face
pale and haggard, stepped out into the room.
The young woman only pointed to the door of the little apartment
steadily and significantly.
"What do you mean?" said Todd.
"Go," she said. "I have done that which you require of me. Now go."
"To death?"
"No. Your enemies are no longer here. At the sacrifice of truth and of
feeling I saved you. It was all you asked of me, and now I tell you to
go, and no longer pollute this place by your presence. I know who and
what you are, now. You are Sweeney Todd, the murderer."
"Well, and if I am, what then?"
"Nothing--nothing! I ask nothing of you, but that you should leave this
house; I have kept my word. I will let the memory of this hour's work
sink deeply into my heart, and there remain untold to any one. Not even
to my husband will I breathe it. I only ask you to go."
"I am going--I am going."
Todd felt awed by her manner. He cowered before the look that, full of
horror, she bent upon him, and he crept towards the cottage door. But
the dread that some of his enemies might be lurking about the spot
detained him.
"Tell me," he said, "oh! tell me truly--are they gone?"
"Wait," she said, "and I will see again."
She took the child in her arms, and left the cottage. Todd found, now
that the child was no longer in his power as a kind of hostage for the
faith of the mother, that he had trusted her too far; but it was too
late, now, for him to recede from the position in which he had placed
himself, and with all his terror, he had no resource but to
calmly--calmly as he could--wait her return.
She came back again in a few moments.
"You can go with safety. They are all away."
"I will trust you, and take your word for it," said Todd. "I thank you
for the service you have rendered to me, and I am not ungrateful. Accept
of this in remembrance of me, and of this day's adventure."
He took from his pocket a splendid gold watch and laid it upon the
table, in the outer room, but with vehemence, the woman cried--
"No--no! Take it up, I will not have it. Take it up, or even now I will
dare everything and call for help. I will take nothing from your
blood-stained hands. Take up the watch, or I will destroy it."
"As you please," said Todd, as he placed the watch in his pocket again.
"I wish not to force it upon you. I am gone."
He went out into the little garden, but he looked about him very
nervously indeed, before he trusted himself to walk towards the little
white gate that opened upon the high road. Each moment, however, that
passed without any one springing upon and attacking him, was a moment of
confidence gained. He carried a pistol in his hand, and keeping his eyes
keenly around him, he reached the road.
"All is safe," he said. "I do, indeed, think she is right, and that they
have given up the chase for me. She has not deceived me, and I may yet
escape."
He kept close to the road-side, so that he was very much covered by the
hedge, and then, at as fast a pace as he thought he could keep up for
any length of time, he ran on.
He had not gone far when he heard the sound of wheels behind him, and he
got over a hedge and hid behind it until he could see what sort of
vehicle it was that approached. It turned out to be a cart driven by a
couple of countrymen, who were talking upon their own affairs in rather
loud tones; as they came on, Todd listened intently, and was satisfied
that his supposed escape into that neighbourhood was not the subject of
their discourse.
CHAPTER CLXVI.
THE SHIP BOUND FOR HAVRE TAKES A PASSENGER.
"Hilloa!" cried Todd, as he came out into the middle of the road and
confronted the cart with the two men in it. "Hilloa! Which way are you
going?"
"One would think you might see that," said one of the men, "by the way
the horse's nose points."
"What do you want?" said the other, rather sharply.
"Not to intrude upon you at all, if you don't like it," replied Todd;
"but I am going to Gravesend, and if you will help me on a part of the
way, I will pay you well for it. I thought it would be good for my
constitution to walk, but I find I am older than I thought I was."
"What will you give?" said one of the men, in a dubious tone of voice.
"Name your price," said Todd, "and I will give it. I know you will not
be unreasonable with me."
"Will you give half a guinea?" said the other.
"Yes, for I am foot-weary."
"Jump up, then, and we will soon take you to Gravesend. You ain't many
miles off from it now by the near cuts that we know. Come on."
Todd managed to scramble into the cart, and the man who was driving gave
the horse an impulse forward, and away they went at a good pace.
Todd began to feel a little easier in his mind now, for the quick motion
of the cart in the direction that he wished to go in was most
satisfactory to him. He felt quite delighted in a little time, when one
of the men pointing ahead, cried out--
"There's the first houses in Gravesend, if you really want to go there."
"Really," said Todd. "Indeed I do. Can you tell me what vessels are off
the Port?"
"Perhaps we can, and perhaps we can't, old fellow; but we will have some
talk about that soon. Ha! ha!"
There was something so peculiar in the laugh of the man, that Todd began
to wonder into what hands he had fallen. They, every now and then, too,
gave to each other a very significant look, as though there was some
secret between them which they would not converse of before him. All
this began to make Todd very uneasy, indeed, and the little amount of
felicitation which he had been giving to himself so short a time before,
rapidly subsided.
"Am I a prisoner?"
These were the words that occurred to him, but he had no ready means of
answering the question. All he could do was to keep upon his guard, and,
to tell the truth, well armed and desperate as he was, Todd was no very
despicable match for any two men.
Suddenly the man who was driving turned the horse's head down a deep
declivity that led towards the river, to the right of the road.
The country they were in was all of chalk, and this narrow road, or
rather lane, at right angles with the high road, was evidently a cutting
through the chalk foundation for the sake of a ready passage from the
side of the Thames to the high road.
A more picturesque spot could not well have been conceived. The small
amount of loam upon the surface of the chalk, bore a brilliant
vegetation; and upon the tall rugged sides of the deep cutting, wherever
a small portion of earth had lodged, tall weeds had grown up, while on
each side of the lane, close to the base of the chalky heights, there
was a mass of weeds and tall creeping plants, and here and there a young
tree, which lent a beautifully verdant aspect to the place.
Every step that the horse now went, conducted the cart and its occupants
deeper and deeper into the cutting, until, at last, the sky overhead
looked only like a thin streak of light, and the gloom of a premature
twilight was about the place.
"Halt!" cried the man who was not driving, and the horse was stopped in
the gloomiest portion of the lane. Todd turned ghastly pale, and kept
his hand plunged in his breast upon one of his pistols.
"What have you come down here for?" he said. "Why do you come to a stop
in such a place as this?"
"We will soon let you know," said the man who had not been driving,
knitting his brows. "No doubt, you thought you had nailed us nicely, my
fine fellow."
"Nailed you?"
"Yes. You need not put on such an innocent look, I can tell you. We are
pretty good judges in these matters, and it's quite sufficient for me to
tell you that we know you."
"Know me?"
"Yes, to be sure. Did you think we were taken in by any such nonsense as
your being tired, and so on?--No. We know you, I say, and this hour is
your last. You have placed yourself in our power, and we will take good
care of you now. There is a well in this lane which keeps secrets
capitally."
Todd drew his pistol, and held it against the breast of this man.
"Attempt any violence," he said, "and I fire!"
"Oh, indeed! You are well prepared, are you? I must say that, for an
exciseman, you are a bold fellow."
"A what?"
"An exciseman. You know well you have been on the look-out for us for
the last week; so it is of no use denying it. You thought you nabbed us,
when you got into our cart."
Todd lowered his pistol.
"This is a foolish enough mistake," he said, "I am no more an exciseman
than I am Commander-in-chief of the forces. What could have put such a
thing into your heads?"
"Say you so?" cried the other. "But how will you make us believe it?
That's the question."
"Well," said Todd, putting on a very candid look, "I don't know how a
man is to set about proving that he is not an exciseman. I only know
that I am not. The real truth is, that I am in debt, and being pressed
by my creditors, have thought proper to get out of their way; and so I
want to make the best of my way to Gravesend, that is all. I fancy, by
your anger at the idea of my being an exciseman, that you are smugglers;
and if so, I can only say that, with all my heart, you may go on
smuggling with the greatest success until the day of judgment, before I
would interfere with you in the matter."
"Dare we believe him?" said one of the men to the other.
"I hardly know," replied the other; "and yet it would be rather a sad
thing to take a man's life, when it might turn out that he was not what
we took him for."
"How on earth am I to convince you?" said Todd.
"Where do you want to go to?"
"I want to get on board some vessel, I don't care what, so that it is
bound to some continental port. My object, I tell you, is to get away,
and that is all."
"Would the Port of Havre in France suit you?"
"Perfectly well."
The two men now whispered together for a few moments, and then, one of
them, turning to Todd, said:--
"The fact is that we are somewhat connected with a vessel bound for
Havre, and it will sail to-night. If you are really what you pretend,
and truly want to leave England, you can come with us, and we will give
you a passage; but we expect to be paid for it."
"Nothing can be more reasonable," said Todd; "I will pay you a liberal
price, and as I wish to go on board as soon as I can, you may feel