The String of Pearls; Or, The Barber of Fleet Street. A Domestic Romance.
The curtains of the window were so arranged that the room was in a state
of semi-darkness, and then they all waited with no small anxiety for
Tobias to recover from the deep and death-like sleep that had come over
him. After about five minutes he moved uneasily and uttered a low moan.
"Speak to him, Mrs. a--a--what's your name?"
"Ragg, sir."
"Aye, Ragg, just speak to him; of course he is well acquainted with your
voice, and it may have the effect of greatly rousing him from his
lethargic condition."
Poor Mrs. Ragg considered that she had some very extraordinary post to
perform, and accordingly she collected to her aid all her learning,
which, interrupted by her tears, and now and then by a sob, which she
had to gulp down like a large globule of castor oil, had certainly
rather a droll effect.
"My dear Tobias--my dear--lie a bed, sluggard, you know--well, I
never--Put the kettle on, Polly, and let's all have tea. Tobias, my
dear--bless us and save us, are you going to stay in bed all day?"
Another groan from Tobias.
"Well, my dear, perhaps you won't mind getting up and just running
towards the corner for a bunch of water cresses? Dear heart alive, there
goes the muffin-man like a lamplighter!"
It was by such domestic themes that Mrs. Ragg sought to recall the
wandering senses of poor Tobias to a cognizance of the present. But
alas! his thoughts were still in the dim and misty land of visions.
Suddenly he spoke--
"Hush--hush! There they come!--elephants!--elephants!--on--on--on. Now
for the soldiers, and all mad--mad--mad! Hide me in the straw--deep in a
world of straw. Hush! He comes. Sing, oh sing again!--and he--he will
not suspect."
The surgeon made a sign to Mrs. Ragg to speak again.
"Why, Tobias, my dear, what are you talking about? Do you mean the
Elephant and Castle?"
"Call to his remembrance," said the surgeon, "some old scenes."
"Yes, sir, but when one's heart and all that sort of thing is in one's
mouth it's very difficult to recollect things oneself. Tobias!"
"Yes--yes. Ha-ha!"
It was a low, plaintive, strange laugh that, that came from the poor boy
whose mind had been so overthrown, and it jarred upon the feelings of
all who heard it.
"Tobias, do you recollect the little cottage down the lane at Holloway,
where we lived, and the cock roaches, and the strange cat, you know,
Tobias, that would not go away? Don't you recollect, Tobias, how the
coals there were all slates, and how your poor father, as is dead and
gone--"
"Yes, I see him now."
Mrs. Ragg gave a faint scream.
"Father!--father!" said Tobias, as he held out his arms, and the big
tears rolled down his cheeks. "Father--father, Todd has not got me now.
Don't cry so, father. Stand out of the way of the elephants."
"My dear! my dear!" cried Mrs. Ragg, "do you want to break my heart?"
Tobias rose to a sitting position in the bed, and looked his mother in
the face--
"Are you, too, mad?" he said. "Are you, too, mad? Did you tell of Todd?"
"Yes, the only way," said Colonel Jeffery, "for people not to be mad, is
to tell of Todd."
"Yes--yes."
"And so you, Tobias, will tell us all you know. That is what we want you
to do, and then you will be quite happy and comfortable for the
remainder of your days, and live with your mother again far from any
apprehension from Todd. Do you understand me?"
Tobias opened his mouth several times in an eager, gasping sort of
manner, as though he would have said something rapidly, but he could
not. He placed his hands upon his brain, and rocked to and fro for a few
moments, and then he broke out into the same low, peculiar laugh that
had before so strangely affected Colonel Jeffery and the others who were
there present in that room. The surgeon shook his head as he said,
mournfully--
"It is of no use!"
"Do you really think so?" said the colonel.
"For the present, I am convinced that it is of no use to attempt to
recall his wandering senses. Time will do wonders, and he has the one
grand element of youth in his favour. That, as well as time, will do
wonders. The case is a bad one, and the shock the brain of this lad has
received must be a most fearful one."
"Do not," said Sir Richard Blunt, "give up so readily, Mrs. Ragg; I
would have you try him again. Speak to him again of his father--that
seemed to be the topic that most moved him."
Mrs. Ragg could hardly do so for her tears, but she managed to stammer
out--
"Tobias, do you recollect when your father bought you the rabbit, and
out of vexation, the creature eat its way out of a willow-work cage in
the night? Do you remember your poor father's funeral, Tobias, and how
we went, you and I, my poor boy, to take the last look at the only one
who--who--who--"
Mrs. Ragg could get no further.
"Ha--ha--ha!" laughed Tobias, "who told of Todd?"
"Who is this Todd," said the surgeon, "that he continually speaks of,
and shudders at the very name of?"
Colonel Jeffery glanced at Sir Richard Blunt, and the latter, who wished
the affair by no means to transpire, merely said--
"We are quite as much in the dark as you, sir. It is just what we should
like to know, who this Todd is, whose very name seems to hold the
imagination of this poor boy in a grasp of iron. I begin to think that
nothing more can be done now."
"Nothing, gentlemen, you may depend," said the surgeon. "How old is the
lad?"
"Sixteen as never was," replied Mrs. Ragg, "and a hard time I had of it,
sir, as you may suppose."
The surgeon did not exactly see how he was called upon to suppose
anything of the sort; however he made no further remark to Mrs. Ragg,
but continued in conversation for some time with Colonel Jeffery, who
informed him that Tobias should remain for a time where he was, so that
there should be every possible chance given for his recovery.
"I wish you to continue attending upon him, sir," he added, "for I would
spare nothing that medical advice can suggest to restore him. He has, I
am convinced, been a great sufferer."
"That is sufficiently clear, sir. You may rely upon my utmost
attention."
"Mrs. Ragg," said the colonel, "can you cook?"
"Cook, sir? Lord bless you, sir. I can cook as well as here and there a
one, though I say it that oughtn't, and if poor Tobias was but all
right, I should not go to be after making myself miserable now about
bygones. What's to be cured must be endured--it's a long lane as hasn't
a turning. As poor Mr. Ragg often used to say when he was
alive--'Grizzling ain't fattening.'"
"I should think it was not. It so happens, Mrs. Ragg, that there is a
vacancy in my house for a cook, and if you like to come and take the
place, you can look after Tobias as well, you know, for I intend him to
remain here for the present. Only remember, you tell this to no one."
"Me, sir! Lord bless you, sir, who do I see?"
The colonel was by no means anxious to convince himself a second time of
the impossibility of bringing Mrs. Ragg to a precise answer, so he
changed the subject, and it was finally arranged that without a word to
any one upon the subject, that very night Mrs. Ragg was to take up her
abode with Tobias. After this had been all arranged, the three gentlemen
proceeded to the dining room, and held a consultation.
"Of the guilt of Todd," said the magistrate, "I entertain no doubt, but
I own that I am extremely anxious to bring the crime legally home to
him."
"Exactly," said the colonel, "and I can only say that every plan you can
suggest will be cheerfully acquiesced in by me and my friend here."
The captain signified his assent.
"Be assured, gentlemen," added Sir Richard Blunt, "that something shall
be done of a decisive character before many days are past. I have seen
the higher powers upon the subject, and have full authority, and you may
rest satisfied that I shall not mind running a little personal risk to
unravel the mysteries that surround the career of Sweeney Todd. I think
one thing may be done conveniently."
"What is that, sir?"
"Why, It seems to be pretty well understood that no one resides in
Todd's house but himself, and as now he has no boy--unless he has
provided himself with one already--he must go out sometimes and leave
the place to itself, and upon one of those occasions an opportunity
might be found of thoroughly searching the upper part, at all events, of
his house."
"Could that be done with safety?"
"I think so. At all events, I feel inclined to try it. If I do so, and
make any discovery, you may depend upon my letting you know without an
hour's delay, and I sincerely hope that all that will take place may
have the effect of setting your mind at rest regarding your friend, Mr.
Ingestrie."
"But not of restoring him to us?"
The magistrate shook his head.
"I think, sir," he said, "that you ought to consider that he has, if any
one has, fallen a victim to Sweeney Todd."
"Alas! I fear so."
"All the evidence points that way, and we can only take measures in the
best way possible to bring his murderer to justice--that that murderer
is Sweeney Todd, I cannot for one moment of time bring myself to doubt."
Sir Richard Blunt shortly afterwards left Colonel Jeffery's house and
proceeded to the execution of a plan of proceeding, with the particulars
of which he had not thought proper to entrust to the colonel, and his
friend the captain. Long habits of caution had led the magistrate--who
was not one of the fancy magistrates of the present day, but a real
police officer--active, cool, and determined--to trust no one but
himself with his secrets, and so he kept to himself what he meant to do
that night. When he was gone, Colonel Jeffery had a long talk with his
friend, and the subject gradually turned to Johanna, whom the colonel
yet hoped, he said, to be able one day to call his own.
"No one," he remarked, "would be more truly rejoiced than I to restore
Mark Ingestrie to her whom he loves, and whose affection for him is of
so enduring and remarkable a character, but if, as Sir Richard Blunt
supposes, he is really no more, I think Johanna, by being mine, would
stand a better chance of recovering her serenity, if not of enjoying all
the happiness in this world that she deserves."
"Hope for the best," said the captain, "and recollect what the surgeon
said as regarded Tobias, that time works wonders."
CHAPTER XXXVII.
THE SEARCH AT TODD'S.
The house in Fleet Street, next door to Todd's, was kept by a shoemaker,
named Whittle, and in this shoemaker's window was a bill, only put up on
the very day of poor Tobias's escape from Peckham, announcing--"An Attic
to Let." This was rather an alluring announcement to Sir Richard Blunt.
At about half an hour after sunset on the same evening that had
witnessed the utter discomfiture of the attempt to restore poor Tobias
Ragg to his senses, two men stood in the deep recess of a doorway
immediately opposite to the house of Sweeney Todd. These two men were
none other than Sir Richard and his esteemed but rather eccentric
officer, Mr. Crotchet. After some few moments' silence, Sir Richard
spoke, saying--
"Well, Crotchet--what do you think of the affair now?"
"Nothink."
"Nothing? You do not mean that, Crotchet?"
"Says what I means--means what I says, and then leaves it alone."
"But you have some opinion, Crotchet?"
"Had, master--had--"
"Well, Crotchet; I think we can now cross over the way, and endeavour to
get possession of the shoemaker's attic, from which we can get into
Todd's house."
"And find nothink criminatory."
"You think not; but do you know, Crotchet, I am of opinion that the
greatest and cleverest rogues not unfrequently leave themselves open to