The String of Pearls; Or, The Barber of Fleet Street. A Domestic Romance.
dangerous indeed it was to no small extent, but he was desperate; and
with a resolution that scarcely could have been expected from him, he
determined upon taking that step, above all others, which Todd was
almost sure to punish with death. He closed the shop door, and bolted it
upon the inside, so that he could not be suddenly interrupted, and then
he looked round him carefully for some weapon, by the aid of which he
should be able to break his way into the parlour, which the barber
always kept closed and locked in his absence. A weapon that would answer
the purpose of breaking any lock, if he, Tobias, chose to proceed so
roughly to work, was close at hand in the iron bar, which, when the
place was closed at night, secured a shutter to the door. Wrought up as
he was to almost frenzy, Tobias seized this bar, and, advancing towards
the parlour door, he with one blow smashed the lock to atoms, and the
door yielded. The moment it did so, there was a crash of glass, and when
Tobias entered the room he saw that upon its threshold lay a wine-glass
shattered to atoms, and he felt certain that it had been placed in some
artful position by Sweeney Todd as a detector, when he should return, of
any attempt that had been made upon the door of the parlour. And now
Tobias felt that he was so far committed that he might as well go on
with his work, and accordingly he lit a candle, which he found upon the
parlour table, and then proceeded to make what discoveries he could.
Several of the cupboards in the room yielded at once to his hands, and
in them he found nothing remarkable; but there was one that he could not
open; so, without a moment's hesitation, he had recourse to the bar of
iron again, and broke its lock, when the door swung open,--and to his
astonishment there tumbled out of this cupboard such a volley of hats of
all sorts and descriptions, some looped with silver, some
three-cornered, and some square, that they formed quite a museum of that
article of attire, and excited the greatest surprise in the mind of
Tobias, at the same time that they tended very greatly to confirm some
other thoughts and feelings which he had concerning Sweeney Todd. This
was the only cupboard which was fast, although there was another door
which looked as if it opened into one, but when Tobias broke that down
with the bar of iron, he found it was the door which led to the
staircase conducting to the upper part of the house--that upper part
which Sweeney Todd, with all his avarice, would never let, and of which
the shutters were kept continually closed, so that the opposite
neighbours never caught a glimpse into any of the apartments. With
cautious and slow steps, which he adopted instantaneously, although he
knew that there was no one in the house but himself, Tobias ascended the
staircase.
"I will go to the very top rooms first," he said to himself, "and so
examine them all as I come down, and then if Todd should return
suddenly, I shall have a better chance of hearing him, than as if I
began below and went upwards."
Acting upon this prudent scheme, he went up to the attics, all the doors
of which were swinging open, and there was nothing in any of them
whatever. He descended to the second floor with the like result, and a
feeling of great disappointment began to creep over him at the thought
that, after all, the barber's house might not repay the trouble of
examination. But when he reached the first floor he soon found abundant
reason to alter his opinion. The doors were fast, and he had to burst
them open; and, when he got in, he found that those rooms were partially
furnished, and that they contained a great quantity of miscellaneous
property of all kinds and descriptions. In one corner was an enormous
quantity of walking-sticks, some of which were of a very costly and
expensive character, with gold and silver chased tops to them, and in
another corner was a great number of umbrellas--in fact, at least a
hundred of them. Then there were boots and shoes lying upon the floor,
partially covered up, as if to keep them from dirt; there were thirty or
forty swords of different styles and patterns, many of them appearing to
be very firm blades, and in one or two cases the scabbards were richly
ornamented. At one end of the front and larger of these two rooms, was
an old-fashioned-looking bureau of great size, and with as much
wood-work in it as seemed required to make at least a couple of such
articles of furniture. This was very securely locked, and presented more
difficulties in the way of opening it than any of the doors had done,
for the lock was of great strength and apparent durability. Moreover it
was not so easily got at, but at length by using the bar as a sort of
lever, instead of as a mere machine to strike with, Tobias succeeded in
forcing this bureau open, and then his eyes were perfectly dazzled with
the amount of jewellery and trinkets of all kinds and descriptions that
were exhibited to his gaze. There was a great number of watches, gold
chains, silver and gold snuff-boxes, and a large assortment of rings,
shoe-buckles, and brooches. These articles must have been of great
value, and Tobias could not help exclaiming aloud--
"How could Sweeney Todd come by these articles, except by the murder of
their owners?"
This, indeed, seemed but too probable a supposition, and the more
especially so, as in a further part of this bureau a great quantity of
apparel was found by Tobias. He stood with a candle in his hand, looking
upon these various objects for more than a quarter of an hour, and then
as a sudden and a natural thought came across him of how completely a
few of them even would satisfy his wants and his mother's for a long
time to come, he stretched forth his hand towards the glittering mass,
but he drew it back again with a shudder, saying--
"No--no, these things are the plunder of the dead. Let Sweeney Todd keep
them to himself, and look upon them, if he can, with eyes of enjoyment.
I will have none of them; they would bring misfortune along with every
guinea that they might be turned into."
As he spoke, he heard St. Dunstan's clock strike nine, and he started at
the sound, for it let him know that already Sweeney Todd had been away
an hour beyond the time he said he would be absent, so that there was a
probability of his quick return now, and it would scarcely be safe to
linger longer in his house.
"I must be gone--I must be gone. I should like to look upon my mother's
face once more before I leave London for ever perhaps. I may tell her of
the danger she is in from Todd's knowledge of her secret; no--no, I
cannot speak to her of that; I must go, and leave her to those chances
which I hope and trust will work favourably for her."
Flinging down the iron bar which had done him such good service, Tobias
stopped not to close any of those receptacles which contained the
plunder that Sweeney Todd had taken most probably from murdered persons,
but he rushed down stairs into the parlour again, where the boots that
had fallen out of the cupboard still lay upon the floor in wild
disorder. It was a strange and sudden whim that took him, rather than a
matter of reflection, that induced him, instead of his own hat, to take
one of those which were lying so indiscriminately at his feet; and he
did so. By mere accident it turned out to be an exceedingly handsome
hat, of rich workmanship and material, and then Tobias, feeling
terrified lest Sweeney Todd should return before he could leave the
place, paid no attention to anything, but turned from the shop, merely
pulling the door after him, and then darting over the road towards the
Temple like a hunted hare; for his great wish was to see his mother, and
then he had an undefined notion that his best plan for escaping the
clutches of Sweeney Todd would be to go to sea. In common with all boys
of his age, who know nothing whatever of the life of a sailor, it
presented itself in the most fascinating colours. A sailor ashore and a
sailor afloat, are about as two different things as the world can
present; but, to the imagination of Tobias Ragg, a sailor was somebody
who was always dancing hornpipes, spending money, and telling wonderful
stories. No wonder, then, that the profession presented itself under
such fascinating colours to all such persons as Tobias; and as it
seemed, and seems still, to be a sort of general understanding that the
real condition of a sailor should be mystified in every possible way and
shape by both novelist and dramatist, it is no wonder that it requires
actual experience to enable those parties who are in the habit of being
carried away by just what they hear, to come to a correct conclusion.
"I will go to sea!" ejaculated Tobias. "Yes, I will go to sea!"
As he spoke these words he passed out of the gate of the Temple leading
into Whitefriars, in which ancient vicinity his mother dwelt,
endeavouring to eke out a living as best she might. She was very much
surprised (for she happened to be at home) at the unexpected visit of
her son, Tobias, and uttered a faint scream as she let fall a flat-iron
very nearly upon his toes.
"Mother," he said, "I cannot stay with Sweeney Todd any longer, so do
not ask me."
"Not stay with such a respectable man?"
"A respectable man, mother! Alas, alas, how little you know of him! But
what am I saying? I dare not speak! Oh, that fatal, fatal candlestick!"
"But how are you to live, and what do you mean by a fatal candlestick?"
"Forgive me--I did not mean to say that! Farewell, mother! I am going to
sea."
"To see what, my dear?" said Mrs. Ragg, who was much more difficult to
talk to, than even Hamlet's grave-digger. "You don't know how much I am
obliged to Sweeney Todd."
"Yes, I do, and that's what drives me mad to think of. Farewell, mother,
perhaps for ever! If I can, of course I will communicate with you, but
now I dare not stay."
"Oh! what have you done, Tobias--what have you done?"
"Nothing--nothing! but Sweeney Todd is--"
"What--what?"
"No matter--no matter! Nothing--nothing! And yet at this last moment I
am almost tempted to ask you concerning a candlestick."
"Don't mention that," said Mrs. Ragg; "I don't want to hear anything
said about it."
"It is true, then?"
"Yes; but did Mr. Todd tell you?"
"He did--he did. I have now asked the question I never thought could
have passed my lips. Farewell, mother; for ever farewell!"
Tobias rushed out of the place, leaving old Mrs. Ragg astonished at his
behaviour, and with a strong suspicion that some accession of insanity
had come over him.
"The Lord have mercy upon us!" she said, "what shall I do? I am
astonished at Mr. Todd telling him about the candlestick; it's true
enough, though, for all that. I recollect it as well as though it were
yesterday; it was a very hard winter, and I was minding a set of
chambers, when Todd came to shave the gentleman, and I saw him with my
own eyes put a silver candlestick in his pocket. Then I went over to his
shop and reasoned with him about it, and he gave it me back again, and I
brought it to the chambers, and laid it down exactly on the spot where
he took it from."
"To be sure," said Mrs. Ragg, after a pause of a few moments, "to be
sure, he has been a very good friend to me ever since, but that I
suppose is for fear I should tell, and get him hung or transported. But,
however, we must take the good with the bad, and when Tobias comes to
think of it, he will go back again to his work, I dare say; for, after
all, it's a very foolish thing for him to trouble his head whether Mr.
Todd stole a silver candlestick or not."
CHAPTER XVI.
THE STRANGE ODOUR IN OLD ST. DUNSTAN'S CHURCH.