"What did you say, Sir Richard?" "I merely said that I was apprehensive Todd might have concocted some means of blowing up the church, that is all." "And me in it! And me in it! Conwulsions!" The beadle did not pause for another moment, but rushing to the door, he flew out of the church as if a barrel of gunpowder had been rolling after him, nor did he stop until he got right through Templebar and some distance down the Strand. "I am afraid I have frightened away our friend, the beadle," said Sir Richard Blunt. "And I don't wonder at it," replied Sir Christopher Wren. "I should not like exactly to be blown up along with the fragments of old St. Dunstan's Church myself, so I will go." "Ah, I am sorry I mentioned it." "Are you though? I am very much obliged to you for so doing. Excuse me, Sir Richard, for bidding you goodmorning rather abruptly, if you please." Sir Richard Blunt laughed as he bade Sir Christopher and his friend goodmorningbytheby, the friend had already made his way outside the churchdoor, and was waiting for Sir Christopher in no small degree of trepidation. "For God's sake," he said, "come along at once, or we may all be blown up together." "Well," said Sir Richard Blunt, as he paced up the aisle of the old church, "I would risk a little scorching, if at the end of it I could only lay my hand upon the shoulder of Sweeney Todd. What on earth can have become of the rascal? But I must be patientyes, patience will do it, for that we shall come face to face again, I feel to be as established a fact for the future, as that of my own existence now." "Oh," thought Todd, "if I now only dared to shoot him! If I only dared do it! And I would if it were not for the other one in the vaultsthat wretch they call Crotchet. And yet I have a pistol here. If I thought that after shooting him through the head or through the heart, I could by one bold rush get out of this church, what a glorious piece of work it would be! This Sir Richard Blunt is the only man that I dread. Were he no more, I should feel completely at peace. I could shoot him now." Todd took a pistol from his pocket and presented it through the little crevice of the very slightly open door of the pulpit. The door would open a little in spite of him. "Yes, oh, yes, I could shoot him now; but the report of the pistol would perhaps bring that other villain they call Crotchet from the vaults, and then who shall say what would happen? And yet I have another pistol, and could shoot him too. Oh, how glorious, if I could take the lives of both these men! It would indeed be a good work." The magistrate paced to and fro waiting for Crotchet, and little suspecting that Todd was so near to him, and with a pistol aimed at him! If he had only guessed as much, he would have freely risked the shot, and would soon have been in the pulpit along with Todd. But it was not to be. Sir Richard Blunt had not any supernatural power by which he could tell of the proximity of Todd from no evidence of that fact at all. "Yes," said Todd suddenly, "I will shoot him. I will risk all and shoot him now. If I die for it, I shall have, at least, had a great and glorious revenge! I will shoot him now, when he turns and walks up the aisle again." Todd felt calm and pleased now that he had actually made up his mind to shoot Sir Richard. He projected the barrel of the pistol about an inch or so through the crevice caused by the spring of the door, and he calmly waited for the opportunity of sending its deadly contents into the heart of the magistrate. The aisle down which Sir Richard had slowly paced was rather a long one, and he had walked down it some halfdozen times, in deep thought, and waiting for Crotchet. There was no reason on earth why he should not come up it again, and so expose himself to the deadly aim of Todd. He did commence the walk up it. If he had taken twenty steps he would have been a dead man; but chance, or providenceit is not for us to say whichhad it otherwise. After going about ten paces, he turned abruptly to the left, and made his way down a long narrow passage between the pews to the opening that led down to the vaults, where Crotchet was pursuing his inquiries. Todd was foiled. He drew back with a deep sigh. "He is saved!" he said. "He is saved! It is not to be!" Quite unconscious of the serious danger he had so narrowly escaped, Sir Richard went to the mouth of the opening to the vaults, and called out "Crotchet! Crotchet!" "Here you is, sir," replied Crotchet; "I was just coming. It's all right. The old wagabone hasn't done nothing, sir, to spread the fire out of his own blessed premises, as I can see. The church isn't in danger, sir, I take it." "Very good, Crotchet; then we need not remain here any longer. I cannot, for the life of me, think what has become of our man that we left in Todd's house. In all the riot and racket of the fire, no one seems to be at all aware of what has become of him. Is he a steady sort of a man, Crotchet?" "Why yes, Sir Richard, he is. But if the truth must be told, he has got the fault of many. He is fond of the" Here Crotchet went through expressively the pantomime of placing a glass to his lips and draining it off, after which he rubbed his stomach, as much as to say"Isn't it nice!" "I understand, Crotchet he drinks." "Rather, Sir Richard." "Ah, that is the case of allor of nearly allmen in his class of life. I should not wonder now, at all, if he has not been taking a glass of something, in consequence of feeling lonely, and so set fire to the old house." CHAPTER CLIII. TODD ASTONISHES THE BEADLE, AND ESCAPES PROM ST. DUNSTAN'S. "Oh!" groaned Todd to himself. "Oh, if I had but shot the villain before the other one came up from the vaults, and all would have been well; but I cannot shoot them both at once. It is not often that I lose anything by procrastination, but I have nowOh, yes, I have now! It is maddening!It is quite maddening! and I could find in my own heart almost to turn this pistol against my own life, only that I hope yet to live a little while for vengeance." A smart tap came against the church door. "Open the door, Crotchet," said Sir Richard. "We are alone in the church now, for the beadle was too careful of himself to remain after he found that there was some little danger." "Oh, sir," said Crotchet, with an expression of disgust in his face, "beadles is humbugs, sir; and this beadle of St. Dunstan's is the very worst of the worst of beadles. Didn't you notice, sir, what an old humbug he was before, when we was acoming here on the hunt about Todd and that beautiful creature Mrs. Lovett? Then, sir, we found out what sort of a beadle that was. I rather think I despises beadles, sir; I does, your worship." Tap came the knock at the church door again. "You forget, Crotchet," said Sir Richard, pointing to the door. "Lor, yer worship, so I did. I begs his blessed pardon whosomever it is. Come in. There's nobody but the right sort here, whoever it is. Hilloa! it's our friend, Green." "Ah, Green, are you looking for me?" said Sir Richard. "I was, sir." "Then you have news. What is it?" "Todd is in the neighbourhood, sir, or was an hour or two ago, I am well assured." "Todd?" "Yes, sir. He was in his own house. A man came to the door of it to see the person minding it, and the door was opened a little way, and Todd tried to pull him in, and would have pulled him in, but his neckcloth gave way, and then the fire broke out directly after. The man has been in too great a fright till just a little while ago to venture into the street again." "You have seen him?" "I have, sir." "Bring him here, Green." Green immediately left the church, and Mr. Crotchet set up a long and melancholy whistle. "In my heart I thought this might be," said Sir Richard, "and yet having no evidence to justify the suggestion of my fancy, I did not like to nurse the idea. Todd in this neighbourhoodTodd in his own house! Oh, what a chance!" "Your worship," said Crotchet, shaking his head and speaking slowly, with an appearance of great wisdom. "Your worship, it's mostly always the case. There's a special providence that always brings back folks as has done a murder back again to the place where they has done it; and the next time I'm on the lay for a cove as has done a slaughtering job, I shall sit myself down, yer worship, in the room where he did it and wait for him. It's a special thing of Providence, it is, sir, I feel as sure as though I did it myself, as isn't Providence at all, but just Crotchet, and no sort of mistake." "You are right, Crotchet, as far as examples go. We will only just listen to what this man that Green has gone for has got to say, and then we will be off and do our best." "Yes, yer worship, we will; and here he is." Green, the officer, now brought into the church the very man with whom Todd had had the little adventure at the door of his shop; and notwithstanding the time that had elapsed since that little incident, the man was still in a state of terror, which was quite manifest in every feature of his face. "Why, what's the matter with you?" said Crotchet, as he dealt the man a blow on the back that nearly took all his breath away. "You look as scared as if you had just seen a ghost, old fellow, that you do." "It was worse than a ghost." Sir Richard Blunt stepped up to the man, and said "Do you know me? I am Sir Richard Blunt the magistrate." "Oh, yes, sir, I know you." "Answer me then, clearly and distinctly, for much may depend upon it. Who was it opened the door of Todd's house for you, and strove, as I hear, to drag you into it?" "Sweeney Todd, sir." "Are you quite sure? Do you know him well by sight?" "Oh, yes, sir, I could swear it." "And you thought it very natural that he should be there, and if anybody there had so laid hold of you in the dark, you would, of course, at once have naturally concluded that it must be Todd?" "Oh, dear no, sir, I hadn't an idea that it could be him, sir; and if I hadn't seen his face, that I know quite well, I couldn't possibly have believed it to be him." "That is enough. I will not trouble you any further. I am much obliged to you for your information." "You are very welcome, Sir Richard; and I do hope you may catch the rascal soon. I shall never forget his having hold of me, for the longest day I have to live." Still shaking at the bare remembrance of the danger that he had run, the man left the church; and peeping over his shoulder every now and then as he went, for fear Todd should be close at hand, he took his route to quite a different quarter of the town, where he fancied he should feel more secure; for he could not make up his mind to anything but that Todd must have some special desire to lay hold of him, and add him to the already formidable musterroll of his victims. When he left the church, Sir Richard Blunt turned to Crotchet, and said "Crotchet, you may depend, now, that Todd is in London, and fancies that among its crowds will be his greatest chance of safety. I will take measures at once to discover him. Come along with me to Cravenstreet, and you too, Green, and I will explain to you both what I think will be the best plan to adopt." "All's right, sir; we'll have him," said Crotchet. "I think we shall," said Green, "for, large as London is, I rather think we know how to search it as well as most folks. I attend you, sir, and I will run any risk in the world to take the scoundrel prisoner." "And so will I," said Crotchet. "I know you both well," said Sir Richard, "and I cannot desire to be aided by better men than you both are. Come on. I will not speak further of any plans or projects except in my own office, where I know that there are no spies or eavesdroppers." "This blessed church is pretty safe," said Crotchet. "It ain't very likely that anybody is on the listening lay in it. It would be rather cold work, I take it. But, howsomdever, there's nothing like being on the right side of the hedge, and in one's own crib, that one knows all the ins and all the outs of, after all." They both followed Sir Richard Blunt from the church, and Todd felt that he was once again alone within that sacred edifice, the very atmosphere of which was profaned by the presence of such a wretch, so loaded with crimes as he was. "Gone," said Todd, looking up put of the pulpit, "and may all" We cannot repeat the maledictions of Todd. They were additionally awful spoken in such a building, and from such a place in that building. It was dreadful that the roof of a place reared to the worship of God, should be desecrated by the raving curses of such a man as Todd. He was silent after he had satisfied his first ebullition of rage, and then he was afraid that he had gone too far, and endangered his safety by making an appearance at all above the level of the pulpit, or by speaking. How did he know but that Sir Richard Blunt might, after all, have some sort of suspicion that he was not far off, and be listening close at hand? As this supposition, wild and vague as it was, and quite unsupported by any evidence, found a home in the brain of Todd, the perspiration of intense fear broke out upon his brow, and again he shook to the extent of making the old pulpit creak dreadfully. "Oh, hush! hush!" he moaned. "Be stillbe still. I am safe yet. There is no one here. I am safe, surely. There is no one in the church. Why do I suffer more, much more, from what does not happen, than from what does?" Still the notion clung to him for a little while, and he remained at the bottom of the pulpit quite needlessly for the next half hour, listening with all his might, in order to detect the slightest noise that might be indicative of the presence of a foe. But all was as still as the grave, and by slow degrees Sweeney Todd got more assured. "I breathe again," he said. "They do not suspect that I am here. It is much too unlikely a place for them to dream of for a moment. Even Sir Richard Blunt, with his utmost prescience, does not think of looking for me in the pulpit of St. Dunstan's Church. I am safeI am safe for the present." He agreed with this feeling that he was quite alone in the church, and he was right. He looked over the edge of the pulpit. How still and solemn the place looked! The morning had advanced quite sufficiently now to shed a dim light into the church, and the noise in the street contingent upon the fire had nearly passed away. The fact was, that the firemen had, after making a few efforts and finding them of no use, let Todd's house burn to the ground, and turned all their efforts towards saving the edifices on either side. In that object they were successful, so that the conflagration was over, and nothing remained but the frail wall of Todd's house. And so the clank of the enginepumps no longer sounded in his ears, but he could yet be certain that there was a great crowd in Fleet Street, for he heard the hum of voices, and occasionally the trouble that ensued when a vehicle tried to force its way through the dense mass of people that blocked up the thoroughfare, which at the best of times was none of the clearest. "Is there a chance now of escape," said Todd, "if I could only make up my mind to it? I do not forget that I am disguisedI ought not to forget that. Who will know me? and yet that man knew methat man that I missed killing at the old place. Yes, he knew me. He said he could swear to me. Confound him! I wish I could have sworn to his dead body. I wonder if they have left the churchdoor open, or, rather, only upon the latch? II will descend from here, and make a bold attempt." He opened the pulpitdoor, and had got about three steps down the little ornamental flight of winding stairs that led from the pulpit to the body of the building, when the churchdoor was suddenly opened, and he fled back with a precipitation that made some noise, when he might have done so in perfect quietness, for it was not very likely that any one would have looked up to the pulpit immediately upon their entrance to the building. A glance towards the door convinced Mr. Todd that it was the beadle. "Oh, dear, I thought I heard something," said the beadle, as he closed the door after him. "But I suppose it was only fancy, after all. Now they say that all the fire is out, and that it is quite impossible for the church to be blowed up, I suppose I may come in without any danger. Lor bless us, that Sir Richard Blunt, I do believe, would think no more of blowing up a beadle, than he would of eating a penny bun, that's my opinion of him." "Curses on your head!" muttered Todd. "Bless me, what a world we live in," said the beadle. "Wretchbeast," muttered Todd; "what does he want here at this time of day?" "Yes, tomorrow's Sunday," said the beadle, as if pursuing a train of thought that had found a home in his brain. "How the weeks do run round, to be sure, and one Sunday comes after another at such a rate, that it seems as if there was weeks and weeks and weeks of 'em, without any of the other days at all. I wish I hadn't to come here." Todd uttered faintly some dreadful imprecations, and the beadle continued talking to himself to keep his courage up, as was evident from his nervous and fidgetty manner. "Ah, dear, me. Conwulsions! I tried to persuade my wife to come and dust the communion table and the pulpitcushions for tomorrow, but she politely declined; she needn't have thrown the bellows at my head though, for all that." "Dust the pulpitcushions!" thought Todd. "The wretch is coming up here! I shall have to cut his throat, and leave him at the bottom of the pulpit for the parson to tread upon the first thing he does tomorrow, upon coming up here to preach." As Todd spoke, he took a clasped knife out of his pocket, and opened it with his teeth. "Oh, yes, my old friend, I shall, I see, be under the painful necessity of cutting your throat, that I shall, and I shall not hesitate about it at all." "Yes," added the beadle, "I mean to say that to throw the bellows at the man is like adding insult to injury, for it is blowing him up in a kind of way that's anything but agreeable. Lor! how cold and rum the church does feel. Rum? why did I say rum and put myself in mind of it? Oh, don't I like it, rather! If I only now had a glass of real fine old Jamaica rum at this moment, I'd be as happy as a bishop." "Oh, I'll rum you!" growled Todd. "Eh? Eh?" The beadle turned round three times, as though he were going to begin a game at blindman'sbluff, and then he said "I thought I heard something. Oh dear, how shivery I do get to be sure, when I'm alone in the church. I'll just get through the dusting job as quick as I can, and no mistake. Amen! Amen! I'm a miserable sinnerAmen!" CHAPTER CLIV. DETAILS THE PERILOUS SITUATION OF THE BEADLE. Todd had heard all this with anger and impatience rankling at his heart. He began to have the most serious thoughts of sacrificing the beadleindeed, if any good could have been got to himself by so doing, he would not have scrupled to do so with the greatest speed. As it was, however, he could not concoct any plan of proceedings quickly which would benefit him, and so he was compelled to remain an auditor of the beadle's private thoughts, and a spectator of what he was about, when he chose to peep over the edge of the pulpit. "Well, it's astonishing," continued the beadle, "what a fever that fellow Todd has kept me in for I don't know how long, one way or another me and Fleet Street have been regularly bothered by him. First of all, I was in all sorts of doubts and uncertainties about the matter before they took him and tried him, and was agoing to hang him, and then I did think that he was asgoodas donefor" As he uttered these last words, the beadle was banging one of the cushions of the communiontable, so that he was compelled for want of breath to utter them at intervals. "Oh, confound you!" muttered Todd, "if I only had hold of you, I would throttle you, and then think of what to do afterwards." Todd's great difficulty arose from the fact that he thought if he tried to descend from the pulpit, the beadle might see him and get the start of him in leaving the church, in which event the alarm that he would raise in Fleet Street would be such, that any attempt to escape would be attended by the greatest hazard. "There is nothing for it but to wait," said Todd to himself gloomily. "I can do nothing else; but woe to him when I do catch him!" "This dusting job on a Saturday," said the beadle, "does seem to me to be one of the most disagreeable of all that has to be done with the church. I don't mind one's duty on a Sunday, but this is horrid. On a Sunday there's lots of people, and the old place has a sort of cheerful look about it, but now I don't like it, and I've a good mind to get one of the charityboys of the blessed parish to keep me company." "I will kill him, too, if you do," muttered Todd. The beadle paused upon this thought concerning the charityboy; but as he had finished the communiontable, he did not think that for the mere dusting the pulpit and its cushions, it was worth while to make any fuss. "It will soon be over," he said, "very soon. I'll just pop up and settle the pulpit, and then get home again as quick as I possibly can. I do wonder, now, if that old Todd will be caught soon? The old wretch!" The beadle began the ascent of the pulpit. "It's my opinion," he said, "that Toddas he had other folks made up into piesought to be made into one himself, and then given to mad dogs for a supperHa! ha! That's a very good thought of mine, and when I go to the 'Pig'seye, Tooth, and Tinderbox,' tonight, I will out with it, and they will knock their pots and glasses against the table beautifully, and cry out'Well done, bravo!bravo!' I rather think I'm a great man at the 'Pig'seye, Tooth and Tinderbox.'" By this time the beadle had got quite to the top of the pulpit stairs, and had his hand on the door. Todd was crouched down at the bottom of the pulpit, waiting for him like some famished tiger ready to pounce upon his prey. He fully intended to murder the unfortunate beadle. "Well, here goes," said that most unhappilysituated functionary, as he stepped into the pulpit. Todd immediately grasped his legs. "If you say one word, you are a dead man!" The shock was too much for the nerves of the poor beadle of St. Dunstan's, and on the instant he fainted, and fell huddled up at the bottom of the little place. Todd immediately stood upon the prostrate form of the parochial authority. "Ha! ha!" he laughed, "I have him now, and I shall be able to leave St. Dunstan's yet." He trampled as hard upon the beadle as he could, and then he took the clasp knife from his pocket, and said "It will be better to kill him. Rise, idiot, rise, and tell me if you can, why I should not cut your throat?" The beadle neither moved nor spoke. "Is he dead?" said Todd. "Has the fright killed him? It is strange; but I have heard of such things. Why it surely must be so. The sudden shock has been the death of him, and it would be a waste of time for me to touch him. He is deadhe must be dead!" Todd, full of this feeling, retreated two or three steps down the little winding staircase of the pulpit, and then reaching in his hand, he caught hold of the poor beadle by the hair of his head, and dragged him sufficiently out of the pulpit to be enabled to look him in the face. The eyes were closed, the inspiration seemed to be stopped, and there was, in truth, every appearance of death about the unfortunate functionary of the old church. "Yes, dead," said Todd; "but it will be better for me. He will be found here, and as no violence will show upon him, the doctors will learnedly pronounce it a case of apoplexy, and there will arise no suspicion of my having been here at all. It is much better, oh, much, than as if I had killed him." With this feeling, Todd pushed what he considered to be the dead body of the beadle back into the pulpit again, and then himself rapidly descended the little spiral flight of stairs. The clock of St. Dunstan's struck the hour of ten, and Todd carefully counted the strokes. "Ten," he said. "A busy houra hour of broad daylight, and I with such a price upon my head, and the hands of all men lifted against me, in one of the most populous streets in the City of London! It is a fearful risk!" It was a fearful risk, and Todd might well shudder to find that his temerity had brought him into such a position; but yet he felt that if anything were to save him, it would be boldness, and not shrinking timidity. One great cause of dread had passed away from Todd when Sir Richard Blunt left the church. If in any way Todd had had to encounter him, he would have shrunk back appalled at the frightful risk. When he gained the body of the church, he glanced again up to the pulpit, but all was there profoundly still; and the fact of the death of the beadle appeared to him, Todd, to be so very firmly established, now, as to require no further confirmation. Although the beadle had closed the church door, he had placed the key, most probably for security, in the inner side of the lock, and there Todd found it. He thought it would be a good thing to put it in his pocket, and he did so accordingly; and when the key was removed, he placed his eye to the keyhole, and peeped out into Fleet Street. Todd could see the people passing quickly, but no one cast a glance towards the old church, and he began to reason with himself, that surely there could be no difficulty in getting into the street quite unnoticed, if not quite unobserved. Again he told himself that he was well disguised. "I dread no eye," he said, "but that of Sir Richard Blunt, and he is not here to look upon me. There is not one else, I think, in London that would know me through this disguise. There was never but one who could do so, and she is dead. Yes, Mrs. Lovett might have known me, but she is no more so I will venture. Yes, I will venture now." His heart failed him a little as he placed his hand upon the lock of the churchdoor. It well might do so, for the risk he run, or was about to run, was truly fearful. He was on the point of sallying out among a population, the whole of whom were familiar with his name, and to whom he was as a being accursed, who would upon the slightest hint of identity be gladly hunted to the death. Truly, Todd might well hesitate. But yet to hesitate was perhaps to be lost. How could he tell now one moment from another when some one might come to the churchdoor? and then he would be in a worse position than before. Yes, he felt that he must make the attempt to leave, whether that attempt should involve him in destruction or not, for to stay were far worse. He opened the door and coolly closed it again, and marched into Fleet Street. We say he did this coolly, but it were better to say that he acted a coolness that he was far from feeling. A very tempest of terror was at his heart. His brain for a moment or two felt like a volcano, and he reeled as he felt himself in the broad open light of day in Fleet Street among the throng of the population, and yet in that throng was in truth his greatest safety. "Ain't you well, sir?" said a man. Todd started and placed his hand upon the knife that he had handy in his pocket; and then he thought that after all it might only be a civil inquiry, and he replied "Oh, yes, thank youthank you, sir. But I am old." "I beg your pardon, sir." The man passed on. "Oh, curse you! I should like to settle you," said Todd to himself as he passed through Temple Bar; but what a relief it was to pass through Temple Bar at all! To leave that now frightfully dangerous Fleet Street behind him. Oh, yes, that was a relief indeed; and Todd felt as if some heavy weight had been taken off his heart upon the moment that he set foot in the Strand. "Am I safe?" he muttered. "Am I safe? Oh, no, no. Do not let me be too confident." He was superstitiously afraid of pluming himself upon the fact of having got so far in safety, lest at the moment that he did so, malignant destiny might be revenged upon him, by bringing in his way some one who might know him, even though his capital disguise; so he went on tremblingly. Todd did not like large open thoroughfares now, and yet, perhaps, if he had set to work reasoning upon the subject, he would have come to the conclusion that they were quite as safe, if not a few degrees safer for him, than bystreets but there was something in the glaring publicity of such a thoroughfare as the Strand that he shrunk from, and he was glad to get from it into the gloomy precincts of Holywell Street. That street then, as now, was certainly not the resort of the most choice of the population of London, but Todd liked it, and he was wonderfully attracted by a dirtylooking little publichouse which was then in it. A murder was committed in that house afterwards, and it lost its licence, and was eventually destroyed by fire. "Dare I go in here?" said Todd. "I am faint for want of food, and if I do not have something soon I feel that I shall sink, and then there will be a fuss, and who knows what horrible discovery might then take place? This house is dark and gloomy, and in all likelihood is the resort of gentlemen who are not in the habit of having any superfluous questions asked of them; so it will suit me well." He dived in at the narrow doorway, and found himself in one of the smallest and darkest publichouses that he had ever beheld in all his life, for although he had lived so long in Fleet Street so close at hand, he had never ventured into that den. "A nice parlour to the right, sir," said a rather masculinelooking specimen of the fair sex in the bar. "Thank you, madam." Todd went to the right, and opening a little door, which, in consequence of having a cord and pulley attached to it, made a great resistance, he entered a little grimy room, the walls of which were of wainscot, but so begrimed with tobacco smoke were they, that they were of the colour of the darkest rosewood, and the ceiling in no way differed from them in tint. A fire was burning in a little wretched grate, and the floor was covered with coarse sand, which crackled under Todd's feet. The furniture of this little den, which certainly had the name of 'Parlour' from courtesy only, consisted of the coldestlooking rigid wooden chairs and tables that could be imagined. Two men sat by the fire trying to warm themselves, for a cold wind was blowing in the streets of London, and the season was chilly and wintry for the time of the year. Todd, when he found the parlour had some one in it, would gladly have effected a retreat; but to do so, after he had made his way into the middle of the room, would have only aroused suspicion, so he resolved to go on, and carry the affair through; and for greater safety, he put on a very infirm aspect, and appeared to be bent double by age and disease. He coughed dreadfully. "You don't seem to be very well, sir," said one of the men. "Oh, dear me, no," said Todd. "When you are as old as I am, young man, you won't wonder at infirmities coming upon you." "Young man, do you call me? I am forty." "Ah, forty! When I was forty, and that was thirty years ago, I thought myself quite a youth. Oh, dear me, but what with the gout, and the lumbago, and two or three more little things, I am nearly done for now. Oh, dear me, life's a burthen." "What would you like to have, sir?" said a girl who waited upon the parlour guests, and who came in for Todd's order. "Anything, my dear, you have in the house to eat, and some brandy to drink, if you please." "Sit by the fire, sir," said one of the men; "you will be more comfortable. We ought to make way for age." "Oh, dear no, I thank you. I must be somewhere where I can rest my poor back at times, so I like this corner." It was a dark corner, and Todd preferred it. "It will do very well for me, if you please.


Oh, dear me; don't disturb yourselves, gentlemen, on my account, I beg of you. I am an old brokendown man, and have not long to live now in this world of care and sorrow." CHAPTER CLV. TODD GETS THE BETTER OF THE SHARPERS, AND TAKES A BOAT. The girl brought Todd a plate of roastbeef, a loaf, and some brandy, with which he regaled himself tolerably well; but he was uncomfortably conscious that the two men were looking at him all the while. "Gentlemen," he said, "it's a very odd thing, but my appetite continues good notwithstanding all my infirmities. I eat well, and I drink well, and the doctors say that that is what keeps me alive." "I should not wonder," said one of the men drily. "Yes," said the other, with a laugh, "you are like us, old gentleman; we live by victuals and drink." "Ah, I didn't mean that," said Todd; "you young people are so fond of your jokes. Dear me, when I was young I used to be fond of my joke, likewise, but now I am so old, that what with my winter cough, and the gout, and all that sort of thing, my joking days are long since gone by. I lost my poor wife, too, a little while agobless her heart! Ah, me!" Todd had the greatest inclination in the world to make up one of his old diabolical faces at this juncture; but he restrained himself, for he felt the danger of doing so; and then affecting to wipe away a tear, he added "But I find my consolation in religion. There's where, gentlemen, an old man may look for comfort, and that strength of heart and soul, which in this world is denied to him." "Very true, sirvery true." "Ah, gentlemen, it is true; and there's nothing in all the world like an easy conscience. That's the sort of thing to make a man feel serene and happy in this world, while he is preparing for the joys of the next." "How delightful it is, sir," said one of the men, "for us to meet with a gentleman who has the same opinion as ourselves. Will you join us in a glass, sir, if you please?" "Oh, yesyes, with pleasure. What a shocking bad fire, they tell me, has been in Fleet Street." "Yes, it's the notorious Todd's house." "Indeed!" The man who had proposed the social glass rang the bell, and ordered three tumblers of brandyandwater, and then he said "Ah, sir! if you or I could only lay hold of Sweeney Todd it would be rather a good day's work." "Oh, dear, God forbid!" said Todd. "He would soon lay me low if I were to try to lay hold of him, with, as I may say in a manner of speaking, one foot in the grave. I am not, in the natural order of things, long for this world, gentlemen, and it is not for me to lay hold of desperate characters." "That's true, sir; but do you know the reward that is offered for him by the Secretary of State?" "No! Is there really a reward for him?" "Yes, a thousand pounds clear to any one who will lodge him in any jail. A thousand pounds! Why, it makes a man's mouth water to think of it. One might retire, Bill, mightn't one, and give up all sorts of" Bill gave his enthusiastic comrade rather a severe cautionary kick under the table, and it seemed to have the effect of stopping the word 'thieving' from coming past his lips quite at unawaresat least that was the way Todd translated it. He had not the smallest doubt but that the publichouse was a very indifferent one, and that the two men whom he was in company with in it were two of the most arrant thieves in all London. Todd resolved to act accordingly, and he did not let them see that he had the least suspicion of them; but he kept such a wary eye upon their movements, that nothing they did or looked escaped him. They little supposed that so keen an observer watched them as Sweeney Todd was. The brandyandwater that had been ordered soon made its appearance; and Todd, while perpetrating a very wellacted fit of coughing, saw one of the men just slightly wink at the other, and take a little way from his waistcoat pocket a small bottle. "Oh!" thought Todd, "my brandyandwater will be prepared, I see; and if I do not look sharp, these fellows will rob me of all that I have run so much risk, and took so much trouble to get out of the old house." After a moment's thought, he rose and said "I will only go and pay for what I have had at the bar, and you must permit me likewise to pay for this." "Oh, nono!" "Oh, yes, but I willI will! I dare say that I have the most money, after all, for I have been very careful in my time, and saved a trifle, so you must permit me." The two thieves were so delighted at getting rid of him for a few moments, that although they declared it was too bad, they let him go. The moment he was gone, one said to the other, with a grin "Bill, put a good dose into the old chap's glass. He has got a rare gold watch in his pocket, and there's a ring on his finger, that if it isn't a diamond, it's as near like one as ever I heard of. Give him a good dose." "Well, but you know that even a few drops will settle him?" "Never mind that. It's all right enough; pour it in." They put enough of some deadly drug into the glass of brandyand water that stood next to where Todd had been sitting to kill a horse; and then he returned and sat down with a groan, as he said "It's quite a funny thing! There's a man at the bar inquiring for somebody; and he's got a red waistcoat on." "A red waistcoat!" cried both the the thieves, jumping up. "Did you say a red waistcoat?" "Why, yes; and I think he is what they call a Bow Street thingamyLord bless my old brain! what do they call them" "A runner?" "Ah, to be sure, a Bow Street runner, to be sure." Both the thieves bundled out of the parlour in a moment, and Todd was not idle while they were gone. The first thing he did was to decant his own brandyandwaterwhich had been druggedinto an empty glass. Then he filled his glass with the contents of one of the thieves' glasses. After that, he half filled that glass with the drugged spirit, and filled it up from the other thief's glass, and that again he filled up with the drugged spirit. By this means, each of them had half from the glass they hadas they thoughtso very cleverly drugged for him, to drink from; and as they had not scrupled to put in an over dose, it may be fairly presumed that there was in each of their glasses quite enough to make them very uncomfortable. They both returned. "There's nobody there now," said one. "Are you sure you saw him, sir? We can't see any one." "Didn't I tell you he was going away when I saw him? It was only the latch of the door catching his topcoat that made me see his red waistcoat; and it was a wonder then that I saw it, for I am not very noticeable in those things. Oh, dear, how bad my cough is." "Take some of your brandyandwater, sir," said one of the thieves, as he winked at the other. "It will do you good, sir." "Not a doubt of it," said the other. "Do you think so? Wellwell, perhaps it may. Here's my friendship to both of you, gentlemen; and I hope we shall none of us repent of this happy meeting. I am much pleased, gentlemen, to see you both, and hope the brandyandwater will do us all a world of good. I will give you a toast, gentlemen." "Ah, a toast!a toast!" "But mind gentlemen, you must take a good draught, if you drink my toastWill you?" "Will we? Ay, to be sure, if you will." "I promise, gentlemen; so here's the toastIt's to the very cunning fox who laid a trap for another, and caught his own tail in it!" "What a droll toast!" said the two thieves. They paused a moment, but as they saw their new friend drink at least onehalf of his brandyandwater in honour of the toast, they did the same thing, and looked at each other quite contented and pleased as possible that the drugged spirit, at the very first pull, had been so freely partaken offor they had found, by experience, the victims they would have made perceived a disagreeable taste, and would not drink twice. "Hilloa!" said Todd. "What's the matter, old gentleman?" "Do you know, this is very good brandyandwater?" "Glad you like it." "Like it?I couldn't be off liking it. It's capital! Let's finish these glasses, and have others at once." As he spoke he finished his glass, and the two thieves were so delighted that he had taken it all, that they at once finished theirs likewise; and then they looked at him, and then at each other, until one said to the other, as he made a wry face "I say, Bill, II don't much like my glass. How did yours taste, eh, old fellow?" "Very queer." "How strange," said Todd; "mine was beautiful! I hope, gentlemen, you have not made a mistake and put anything out of the way in your own glasses instead of mine?" "Oh, dear. Ohoh! I am going, Bill." "And so am I. Oh, murder! My head is going round and round like a hummingtop as big as St. Paul's." "And so is mine." "Then, gentlemen," said Todd, rising, "I shall have the pleasure of bidding you good day, and I hope you have just sense enough left to appreciate the toast of the 'cunning fox that laid a trap for another, in which he caught his own tail,' and I have the further pleasure of informing you that I am Sweeney Todd." The two thieves, quite overcome by the powerful and deathdealing narcotic they had placed in the liquor, fell to the floor in a state of perfect insensibility, and Todd very calmly walked out of the publichouse. Todd Turns The Tables On The Two Sharpers, And Escapes. Todd Turns The Tables On The Two Sharpers, And Escapes. "This will not do," he said, when he reached the westend of Holywell Street. "I must not run such risks as this. I must now be off. But where to? That is the question. Out of London, of course. The river, I thinkay, the river. That will be the best. I will house myself until night, and then I will hire a boat and go to Gravesend. From there I shall not find much difficulty in getting on board some foreign vessel, and with what I have in my pockets I will bid adieu to England for a little while, until I can sell my watches and jewels, and then I will come back and have my revenge yet upon those whom I only live now to destroy." Full of these thoughts, Todd went down one of the narrow streets leading to the Thames, and as he saw a bill in a window of lodgings to let, he thought he should be safer there than in a house of public entertainment. He resolved upon taking a lodging for a week at any cost, and then leaving it in the evening after he should have had some rest at it, which he might do for the remainder of the day, provided the people would take him in, which he had very little doubt of them doing, as he did not intend to object to their terms, and he did intend to pay in advance. Todd knocked at the door. It was answered by a woman of the true landlady species, who, upon hearing that it was the lodging Todd was after, was all smiles and sweetness immediately. "I have come up from the country, madam," said Todd, "and my luggage is at an inn in Gracechurch Street. I intend to send for it in the morning; and as I am weary, if you can accommodate me with a lodging, as I have some business to transact for my son, the Deacon, in London, I shall be much obliged." "Oh, dear, yes sir; walk in. We have every accommodation. The drawingroom floor, sir, at three guineas and a few extras." "That will just do," said Todd. "Will you be so good as to show me the rooms, madam?" Todd saw the rooms, and of course admired them very much; and then he said, in the blandest manner "I think the rooms very cheap, madam, and will take them at once, if you please. The reference I will give you, is to the Principal of Magdalen College, Oxford, the Reverend Peter Sly, madam. My own name is Bones, and my son is the Reverend Archdeacon Bones. I will pay you now a week in advance; and all I have to beg of you is, that you do yourself justice as to charges. I will lie down and rest for a few hours, if you please, madam." "Oh, dear, sir! yes, certainly, Mr. Bones. There shall be no noise to disturb you, and anything you want, if you will be so good as to ring for, I will supply you with the greatest pleasure." "Thank you, madam." Thus then was it that Todd secured himself what appeared to be a wonderfully safe asylum until night. He got into the bed with all his clothes on; for he did not know how sudden the emergency might be that might induce him to rise; and he soon fell into a deep sleep, for he had undergone the greatest fatigues of late. CHAPTER CLVI. SIR RICHARD BLUNT IS VERY NEAR TAKING HIS PRISONER. We left the poor beadle in anything but a pleasant situation in the pulpit of St. Dunstan's Church. Now it so happened that the beadle was particularly wanted at home; and as he did not make his appearance, his wife repaired to the church to search for him; but it was locked by Todd, who had swung the door shut after him, and as he had taken the key with him, she could not make her way into the sacred edifice. As she stood at the door, however, she distinctly heard deep groans issuing from some one within the church; and in a state of great alarm, she ran off to one of the churchwardens, who had a duplicate key, and related what she had heard. The churchwarden not being one of the most valorous of men, rather, upon the whole, declined to go into the church with no other escort than the beadle's wife; and as he, too, upon listening at the keyhole, heard the groans distinctly, he called upon the passersby to assist, and got together quickly enough about twenty people to go into the church with him. "Gentlemen," he said, "I don't know what it is, but there's groans; and in these horrid times, when, for all we know, Sweeney Todd is about the neighbourhood, one can't be too cautious." "Certainly," said everybody. "Then, gentlemen, if we all go in together when I open the door, it will be the very best plan." This was duly agreed to; and the churchwarden, with a trembling hand, turned his key in the lock, and opened the door. He then stepped aside, and let all the crowd go in first, thinking that, as he was a man in office, the parish could not afford to lose him, in case anything serious should happen. "Well, gentlemen," he cried, "what is it?" "Nothing," said everybody. "Then I will soon let nothing see that I, a churchwarden, am not to be frightened with impunitythat is to say, when I say frightened, I don't exactly mean that, but astonished, I mean. Come, comeif any one be here, I call upon them to surrender in the king's name!" A deep groan was the only response to this valorous speech; and the moment the churchwarden heard it, he bolted out of the church, and ran right across the way into a shop opposite. For a moment or two, this precipitate retreat of the churchwarden had something contagious in it, and the whole of the men who had been induced to stop and go into the church with him were inclined to retreat likewise; but curiosity detained some three of four of them, and that gave courage to the others. "What was it?" said one. "A groan," said another; "and it came from the pulpit." "The pulpit!" cried everybody. "Who ever heard of a pulpit groaning?" cried a third. "You stupid!" cried the second speaker "might it not be some one in the pulpit?andOh Lordthere's a head!" At this they all took to flight; but at the door they encountered a man, who called out "What's the matter? Can't you tell a fellow what the blessed row iseh?" This was no other than our old friend Crotchet, who was returning from a conference with Sir Richard Blunt at his private office in Craven Street. "Oh, it's a ghost! A ghost!" "A what?" "A ghost in the pulpit, and there is his head." "You don't say so?" said Crotchet, as he peered into the church, and shading his eyes with his hand, saw the beadle's head just peeping over the side of the pulpit in a most mysterious kind of way. "I'll soon have him out, ghost or no ghost." Courage is as contagious as fear, especially when somebody else volunteers to run all the risk; and so when Crotchet said he would soon have the somebody out of the pulpit, the whole crowd followed him into the church, applauding him very greatly for his prowess, and declaring that if he had not then arrived, they would soon have had the ghost or no ghost out of the sacred building, that they would. But they kept within a few paces of the door for all that, so that they might be ready for a rush into Fleet Street, if Mr. Crotchet should be overcome in the adventure. That was only prudent. But Crotchet was not exactly the man to be overcome in any adventure, and with an utter oblivion of all fear, he marched right into the middle of the church, and commenced the ascent of the pulpit stairs. "Comecome," said Crotchet. "This won't do, Mr. Ghost, if you please; just let me get hold of you, that's all." "Oh!" groaned the beadle. "Oh, yer is remarkably bad, is yer? but that sort of thing won't answer, by no means. Where is yer?" Crotchet opened the pulpit door, and reaching in his hand, he caught hold of the beadle by the leg, and fairly dragged him out on to the little spiral stairs, down which he let him roll with a great many bumps, until he landed in the body of the church all over bruises. "Why, goodness gracious!" cried the beadle's wife, "it's my wretch of a husband after all!" The beadle had just strength to assume a sitting posture, and then he cried"Murder!murder!murder!" until Mr. Crotchet, seizing a cushion from a pew, held it up before his mouth, to the imminent danger of choking him, and said "Hold your row! If you wants to be murdered, can't you get it done quietly, without alarming of all the parish? If you has got anything to say, say it; and if you has got nothink, keep it to yourself, stupid." "Todd!" gasped the beadle, the moment the pewcushion was withdrawn from his mouth. "ToddSweeney Todd!" "What?" cried Crotchet. "Here!he has been here, and I'm a dead manno, I'm a beadle. Oh, murder! murder!" "Don't begin that again. Be quiet, will you? If you have got anything to say about Todd, say it, for I'm the very man of all the world as wants to hear it. Speak up, and don't wink." "Oh, I've seen him. He's been here. I came to dust the bellowses, you see, after my wife had thrown the pulpit at my head, for asking her to come with me." "Oh, he's araving gentlemen," said the wife. "As I'm a sinner, it was the bellowses as I throwed at his stupid head, and not the pulpit as never was." "Go on," said Crotchet. "Confound the pulpit and the bellows too. It's about Todd I want to hear. Drive on, will you?" "Oh, yes. I'm a coming to that; but it curdles my blood, and makes my wig stand on end. I had dusted the communion table, and banged the cushions, and up I goes to the pulpit, meaning to do for that as soon as I could, when who should be there but Sweeney Todd!" "In the pulpit!" cried everybody. "In the pulpit," said the beadle. "Why didn't you nab him at once?" roared Crotchet. "Because, my good friend, he nabbed me at once. He laid hold of me by this legno, it was thisno it wasn't. It was thisthat isno" "Confound both your legs! Where is he now?" "Why, really I can't exactly say, for after stamping upon my inside for about half an hour, he left me for dead, and I was about half gone that way, and I have been a groaning ever since, till now. I am going fastvery fast, and there will be an election for beadle again in this here parish. Oh dearoh dear! Murdermurdermur" "What, you is coming that agin, is you," cried Crotchet, as he again caught up the pewcushion. "I shall be obligated, after all, for to push this down your blessed throat. Hold your noise, will you, Mr. What'syourname." The beadle was so terrified at the idea of the pewcushion again nearly smothering him, that despite all his injuries, he sprang to his feet and bolted out of the church. "Well, did yer ever know sich a feller?" said Crotchet. "Why, one would think he was afraid of Todd." The spectators thought that nothing was more probable; and as Mr. Crotchet considered that he had got all the information he was at all likely to get from the beadle, he did not at all trouble himself to go after him, but after considering for a few moments, decided upon seeking Sir Richard Blunt, and telling him that he had heard some unexpected news of Todd. Crotchet knew where to pitch upon Sir Richard at once; and when he related to him what had taken place, a look of great chagrin came over the face of the magistrate. "Crotchet," he said, "I have missed Todd, then, by what may be considered a hair's breadth. He must have been in the pulpit while I was in the church alone. Oh, that I could but for a moment have guessed as much! You, if you recollect, Crotchet, were in the vaults, and I was waiting for you." "To be sure, Sir Richard." "And so the rascal was almost within arm's length, and yet escaped me." Sir Richard Blunt paced to and fro in an agony of impatience and regret. To be so near apprehending Todd, and yet to miss him, was truly terrific. "Lor, sir," said Crotchet, "what's the use of fretting and pining about it? That won't bring it back, sir, I can tell you. After all, sir, you can't do better than grin and bear it, you know, which is the out and outest policy on all these here occasions, you know, yer worship. I wish as I'd a knowed he'd been in the church as much as you do; but you don't see me a cussin and a knocking my own head about it, no how." "You are right, Crotchet, but in good truth it is most desperately provoking. You will proceed as I have directed you, and I will run down to Norfolk Street river, for fear Todd should try to escape us that way. You will be so good, Crotchet, as to be as vigilant as possible. You know how to find me if you want me." "Rather, sir." At this moment, and just as Crotchet was upon the point of leaving the room, an officer brought in a little slip of paper to Sir Richard Blunt, upon which was the word "Ben." "BenBen?" said Sir Richard, "who is Ben? Oh, I think I know. Pray show him in at once. It is my friend the beefeater, from the Tower." "Easy does it," said Ben, popping his head in at the door of the room. "Easy does it." "So it does, Ben. Come in. I am glad to see you. You can go, Crotchet. Pray be seated, Ben, and tell me how I can serve you in any way, my good friend, and you may be assured that I shall have exceeding pleasure in doing so, if I possibly can in any way." "Lord bless you," said Ben, "I hardly knows. There's ups and downs in this here world, and ins and outs." "Not a doubt of it, Ben." "And retreats within retreats, Sir Richard, and foxes, and laughing hyenas, as you can't concilliorate no how, if you wollop 'em till you can't wollop 'em no more." "Precisely, Ben. If I were a hyena, I don't exactly think, do you know, that such a process would conciliate me." "Oh, dear yesit's the only way. But what I've come about, Sir Richard, is what I calls a delicate affair. Oh, dear yesI tries to take it easy but I can'tI'mI'm" "What, Ben?" "I'm in love! Oh!" "Well, Ben, there is no great wonder in that. I have been in love myself, and I believe very few indeed escape the soft impeachment. I hope your love is prosperous, Ben?" "Thank you kindly, Sir Richard, thank you; but, you see, I thought you might tell me if there was any vice or natural kicking running in the family, and that's why I comed here." "I tell you, Ben? Why I don't even know the name of the family." "Yes, you does, Sir Richard. The young woman as I fell in love with, is Miss Julia Hardman, and her father is one of those chaps as nabs the bad un's for you, you know, Sir Richard." "One of my officers?" "To be sure he is." "Does he reside in Norfolk Street, Strand?" "Does he? Ay, he does; and that's how I came to know the little morsel of a cretur as has made for the first time an impression upon my heart. Oh, Ben, Ben, little could anybody think as you was a marrying sort of person, and here you is in love with Miss Julia!" "It does seem to me a little extraordinary, Ben, for I must confess I have heard you say some rather severe things against the married state." "I haveI have; and if it hadn't a been for all the marrying setout with those two girls, Johanna and Arabella, I never should have got sich a idea in my head. Howsomedever, there it is, and there it is likely to remain. It's a agravation, but there it is!" "And how did you get acquainted with Julia Hardman?" "Oh, dear! There's a public house at the corner of her street, and after I had been to Cousin Oakley's, I used to go there at times and get a drain of something, you see, and then she used to come tripping in with a mug for the family beer, you see; and once it rained, so I took her up and carried her home beer and all, and that was how we got acquainted, you see, Sir Richard." "A very natural way too, Ben. All I can say is, that I know her father to be a very worthy man indeed, and I believe the daughter is a good and virtuous girl." "You don't say so? Then as there's no vice and kicking, I do believe I shall have to marry her out of hand." CHAPTER CLVII. TODD FINDS THAT HE HAS GOT OUT OF THE FRYINGPAN INTO THE FIRE. After this little explanatory conversation between Ben and Sir Richard Blunt, the reader will probably guess that Todd's evil fortune had actually carried him to that very house in Norfolk Street, Strand, occupied by the Hardman family, to which he, Sir Richard, talked of going to, to give instructions to his officer, and in which resided the identical Julia, that Ben had carried home, beer and all, in the shower, and to whom his large heart had become so deeply attached. Todd could hardly have fairly expected to be waylaid by such a conjunction of events; and certainly when he laid himself down so comfortably and easily in the bed at the lodginghouse for the luxury of a few hours' sleep, for which, if sleep he could, he had paid the moderate price of three guineas, he little dreamt that his enemies were rallying, as it were, around that house, and that in a short time their voices would be actually within his hearing. Truly it seemed as though there were henceforth to be no peace in this world for Todd; although, by circumstances little short of absolutely miraculous, he did continue to avoid absolute capture, near as he was to it at times. The great fatigue he had undergone, combined with the little refreshment he had taken at the publichouse in Hollywell Street, induced a feeling of sleep in Todd's frame; and after he had lain in the bed at the lodginghouse for about a quarter of an hour, and found the house perfectly still, and that the bed was very comfortable, he pulled the clothes nearly right over his face, and fell fast asleep. Nothing but sheer fatigue could have given Todd so unbroken a repose as he now enjoyed. It was for an hour or more quite undisturbed by any images calculated to give him uneasiness; and then he beganfor there was some noise in the houseto dream that he was hunted through the streets of London by an infuriate mob; and by one of those changes incidental to dreams, when the reason sleeps and imagination ascends the mental throne, he thought that the heads of all the mob were armed with horns, like those of cattle, and that they come raging after him with a determination to toss him. This was not a dream upon which any one was likely to be very still for any length of time, and Todd groaned in his sleep, and tossed his arms to and fro, and more than once uttered the word"Mercy!mercy!" Suddenly he started wide awake as a knock came at the door and roused him. Todd blessed that knock at the moment; for by waking him it had rescued him from the dream of terrors that had been vexing his brain. He sat up in bed, and for a moment or two could hardly collect his scattered senses sufficiently to assure himself that it was all a dream, and that he was in the lodginghouse in Norfolk Street; but the brain rapidly recovers from such temporary confusions; and Todd, with a long breath of immense relief, gasped out "It was, after all, but a dreamonly a dream! Oh, God! but it was horrible!" He fell back upon the pillow again; but sleep did not again come to him, and he began to feel a vague kind of curiosity to know who it was that had knocked at the door; and yet, he told himself, that it could not matter to him, for that in a house like that, of course, there must be plenty of people coming and going, and that, although the persons who kept it might control noises within the house, they could not possibly have any influence upon the knocker. "Oh, it's all right," said Todd. "It's all right. I will sleep againI must sleep again; for it yet wants hours and hours to the night, when I may, at least, make the attempt to get off fromfrom England for ever!" A faint sort of dozeit could not be called a sleepwas coming over Todd, when he suddenly heard the sound of voices; and he was startled wide awake by hearing his own name pronounced. Yes, he clearly heard some one say"Todd!" In a moment he sat up in bed, and intently listened. He held his breath, and he shook again, as his imagination began to picture to him a thousand dangers. There were footsteps upon the staircase, and in a few moments he heard persons go into the next roomthat is to say, the front one to that in which he lay, the room that he had paid for a few weeks' occupation of, and which was only divided from that in which he lay by a pair of foldingdoors, that he knew were just upon the latch, and might, at any moment, be opened to discover him. He then heard a female voice say "I do wish you would be quiet, Mr. Ben." "Ah," said another voice, "keep him in order, Julia, for he has been quite raving about your beauty as we came along the street, I can tell you. Do you think the servant will be able to find your father?" "Oh yes, Sir Richard. If ma were at home she could have said at once where he was; but Martha will find him, I dare say." Todd threw the bedclothes right over his head. It was no other than Sir Richard Blunt who was in the frontroom of that diabolical lodginghouse, and Todd looked upon himself as all but in custody. His sense of hearing seemed to be preternaturally acute, and although the bedclothes covered up his ears, and he could not be said to be exactly in his usual state, inasmuch as terror had half deprived him of his reasoning powers, yet he heard plainly, and with what might be called a perfect distinctness, every word that was spoken in the front room. Perhaps, even in the condemned cell of Newgate, Todd did not suffer such terrors as he was now assailed with in that lodging, where he thought he was so safe, and which he had, as he fancied, managed so cleverly. "Will you be quiet, Ben!" said the girl's voice again. "Make himmake him, Julia," said Sir Richard. "Lor bless your little bits of eyes," said Ben. "Do now come and sit in my lap, and I'll tell you such a lively story of how the leopard we have got at the Tower lost a bit off the end of his tail?" "I don't want to hear it." "You don't want to hear it? Comecome, my lambkin of a Juliawhen shall we be married? Oh, do name the day your Ben will be done for for life. I want it over." "Well, I'm sure," said Julia, "if you think you will be done for, you had better not think of it any more, Mr. Benjamin." "It won't bear thinking of, my dear. It's like a cold bath in January you had better shut yer eyes and tumble in." "Upon my word, Ben," said Sir Richard, laughing, "you are anything but gallant; and if I were Julia, I would not have you." "Not have me? Lord, yes, she'll have me. Only look at me." "Ah," said Julia, "you think, because you are a great monster of a fellow, that anybody would have you; but I can tell you that a husband half your size would be just as well, and I only wonder, after you have made all the neighbours laugh at me, that I have a word to say to such a mountain of a man, that I do, you wretch!" "Laugh!" cried Ben, "Why, my duck, what do they laugh at? I should like to catch them laughing.


" "Why, you know, you wretch, that that day it rained as if cats and dogs were coming down, you took me up as if I had been a baby, you did, and carried me home, and me with a jug of porter in my right hand, and the change out of a shilling in my left, so that I could not help myself a bit, and all the street laughing. Oh, I hate you!" "She hates me!" said Ben. "Oh!" "But she don't mean it, Ben," said Sir Richard. "Do you think she doesn't, sir?" "I am sure of it. Do you, now, Julia?" "Yes, Sir Richard, indeed I do, really now, for he is quite a horrid monster, and I only wonder they don't put him in one of the cages at the Tower along with the other wild beasts, and make a show of him. That's all that he is fit for." "Oh, you aggravating darling," said Ben, making a dart at Julia, and catching her up in his arms as you would some little child. "How can you go on so to your Ben?" "Murder!" cried Julia. "Oh, if you are going to have a fight for it," said Sir Richard, "I will go and wait down stairs, Julia." Bang came a knock at the streetdoor. "Oh, Ben, there's ma or pa," said Julia. "Let me down directly. Do Benoh, pray do. Let me down, Ben." "Do yer love your Ben?" "Anything you like, only let me down." "Very good. There yer is, then, agin on yer little mites of feet. Lor bless you, Sir Richard, that girl loves the very ground as I walks on, she does, and she has comed over me with her fascinations in such a way as never was known. Ain't she a nice 'un?sleek and shiny, with a capital mane. But you should see her at feedingtime, Sir Richard, how nice she does itquite delicate and pretty; and you should see her" The door of the room opened, and Hardman, the officer, made his appearance. "Your humble servant, Sir Richard. I hope I have not kept you waiting long? I was only in the neighbourhood." "No, Hardman, thank you, it's all right. I have not been here above a quarter of an hour." "I am glad of that, sir. How do you do, Mr. Ben?" "Pretty well," said Ben, "only a little hungry and thirsty, that's all; but don't trouble yourself about that, Mr. Hardman; I always do get hungry when I look at Julia." "I hope, Mr. Ben, that don't mean that you will dine off her some day when you are married?" "Oh, lor, no. Bless her heart, no. She loves me more and more, Mr. Hardman." "I am glad to hear it, Benvery glad to hear it. But I presume, Sir Richard, that you have some orders for me?" "Why, yes, Hardman. There's that rascal Todd, you know, still continues to elude us. What I want you to do is, to take charge entirely on the river, and to make what arrangements you like at the various quays and landingplaces, and with all the watermen, so that he shall not have a chance of escaping in that way." "Certainly, sir; I will set about it directly." "Do so, Hardman. Expense in this case is of no object, for the Secretary of State will guarantee all that; but of course I don't wish you to be extravagant on that account." "I quite understand you, Sir Richard, and will do my best." "That I am sure you will, Hardman; and now I will go. I shall feel no peace of mind until that man is dead, or in the cell again at Newgate." Todd popped his head out from under the clothes, and making the most hideous face, he shook one of his clenched fists in the direction of the front room. It would have been some satisfaction to him to have given a loud howl of rage but he dared not venture upon it; so he was forced to content himself with the pantomime of passion instead of its vocal expression. "I do hope, sir, we shall soon have him," said Hardman. "It seems to me to be next thing to impossible he should escape us for long. Do you think he has any money, sir?" "He cannot have much, for all he has, if any, must be but the produce of depredation since his escape from Newgate. He certainly has not extensive means, Hardman." "Then he must fall into our hands, sir. Julia, is that your mother just arrived, do you think?" "Yes, pa, it is ma's step. She has been out to get something or another, but I don't know what, as I was out myself all the morning; but it is ma, I know." Mrs. Hardman came into the room, looking very red and flushed, and with a large basket on her arm. She looked from one to the other of the assembled guests with surprise and horror. "What's the matter?" said her husband. "Why wife, you look panicstricken. What has happened?" "Oh, gracious! where's the gentleman?" "The gentleman?" cried everybody. "Yes, the lodger. The highly respectable gentleman who took the firstfloor only a couple of hours ago. Oh, gracious, where is he? and a capital lodger too, who paid in advance, and didn't mind extras at all." "But what lodger, mother?" said Julia. "Oh, mum, I forgotI forgot," said Martha, suddenly coming into the room, "I forgot to tell Miss Julia, mum, that an old gentleman had taken the first floor, mum, and gone to bed in the next room." "In bed in the next room?" said Sir Richard Blunt. "I am lost!" thought Todd. "I am lost now, I am quite lost! and the only thing I can do is to kill as many of them as possible, and then blow my own brains out." "Do you mean to say, ma," said Julia, "that there's a gentleman asleep in the next room in the bed?" "Lor!" said Ben, "you don't mean to say that, Mrs. Hardman?" "He may be in bed, but if he is asleep," said Sir Richard, "he is a remarkable man; of course if we had had the least idea of such a thing, we should not have come up here; but here we were shown by the servant." "Oh, yes, it's all that frightful Martha's fault. I'llI'll killnoI'll discharge that odious hussy without a character, and leave her to drown herself! For Heaven's sake go down stairs all of you, and I'll go and speak to the old gentleman, and apologise to him." "Let me go," said Ben, "and roll on him on the bed, and if that don't settle him I don't know what will." "Shall I apologise to him?" said Sir Richard. Todd nearly fainted when he heard this proposition; but when Mrs. Hardman rejected it, and insisted upon going herself, he felt quite a gush of gratitude towards her, and breathed a little more freely once again. CHAPTER CLVIII. TODD'S FEARFUL ADVENTURES ON THE RIVER. "Shall I lay hold of her," thought Todd, "and choke her the moment she comes into the room, or shall I answer her, and let her go again? Which will be the safest course? I suppose I must let her go, for she might possibly make a noise. Ah! how I should like to have my hand upon all their throats!" Mrs. Hardman came into the room on tiptoe, leaving the foldingdoor just a little ajar. "My dear sir," she said, "are you awake?" "Oh, go to the deuce," said Todd. "What did you remark, my dear sir?" "Go alonggo alongEugh!eugh! Oh, dear, how bad my cough is. I dreamt that no end of people were talking and talking away in the next room; but that can't be, as I have paid for it. Oh, dear!oh!" Mrs. Hardman took her cue from this; and she was at once resolved to pass off the disturbance in the next room as merely a dream of her new lodger. "Dear me, sir," she said in the blandest possible accents; "have you indeed had a dream? What a singular thing!" "Eugh! Is it? I don't think so." "Well, sir, when I say singular, of course I mean that it's very natural. I always dream when I sleep in a strange bed, do you know, sir, and sometimes the most horrid dreams." "Oh, go along." "Yes, sir, directly. Would you like anything got for you, sir? A nice mutton chop for instance, oror" "Nono! Good God, why don't you go?" "I am going, sir. Thank you. There will be a very quiet house here, I assure you, sir." With these words, Mrs. Hardman was about to leave the room, flattering herself that it was all passing off quite comfortably as a mere dream, when Ben, thinking it incumbent upon him to do something civil, suddenly popped his head into the room, and in a voice that sounded like the growl of some bear for his food, he said "Take it easy, old gentleman. You'll find that easy does it all the world over; and if so be as you ever comes near the Tower, just you ask for Ben, and I'll show you the beasteses, all gratis, and for nothing. Feeding time at four o'clock." "Oh, you great ugly wretch!" cried Mrs. Hardman, dealing Ben a sound box on the ear. "How dared you interfere, I should like to know, you monster in inhuman shape?" "Oh, lor!" said Ben, "I only hope another of the family ain't so handy with her front paws." "Ohoh!" said Todd. "No peace!no peace!" Mrs. Hardman at once closed the door of communication between the two rooms; for she quite despaired now of being able to make any apology to her lodger, and she seemed much inclined to execute further vengeance upon Ben, but Sir Richard Blunt interfered, saying "Comecome, Mrs. Hardman, you should recollect that what Ben said was with the very best of motives, and any one, you know, may go wrong a little in trying to do good. Let us all adjourn down stairs, and be no further disturbance to this old gentleman, who, taking everything into consideration, has, I think, shown quite an exemplary amount of patience." Todd heard those words. They seemed to him quite like a reprieve from death. "I will come down stairs, of course," said Mrs. Hardman, in an under tone; "but for all that, this great monster of a Ben ought to be put in one of his own cages, at the Tower, and there kept as a warning to all people." "A warning o' what, mum?" said Ben. Mrs. Hardman was not very clear about what he would be a warning of, so she got out of the difficulty by saying"What's that to you, stupid?"and as Ben was rather slow in explaining that it did rather concern him, she walked down stairs with a look of triumph that was highly amusing to Sir Richard Blunt, as well as to Mr. Hardman, the officer. How Todd listened to the footsteps as they went down the stairs! How his heart beat responsive to every one of them! and when he felt for certain that that immediate and awful danger had passed away, he peeped out from amid the mass of bedclothes, with his eyes almost starting from his head. "Gone! gone!" he gasped. "He has really gone. My mortal enemythe only man who can make me tremble, that terrible Sir Richard Blunt! That he should be within halfadozen paces of me; that he should hear me speak; that he should only have to stretch out his hand to lay it upon my shoulder, and yet that I should escape him! Oh, it cannot be real!" Todd heard some accidental noise in the house, and he immediately dived his head under the bedclothes again. "They are coming again!they are coming again!" he gasped. The noise led to nothing, and after a few moments, Todd became convinced that it had nothing to do with him, so he ventured, halfsuffocated, to look up again. "I must listenI must listen," he said, in a low anxious tone. "I must listen until he has gone. When I hear the streetdoor of the house shut, I shall think that they have let him go and then I shall be able to breathe again; but not before. Oh, nono, not beforehushhush! What is that?" Every little accidental sound in the house now set the heart of Todd wildly beating. If one had come into the room, and said"You are my prisoner,"the probability was, that he would have fainted; but if he did not, it is quite certain that he could not have offered any resistance. A child might have captured him then, during the accession of terror that had come over him in that house, whither he had slunk purposely for safety and for secrecy. At length he heard a noise of voices in the passage, and then the streetdoor was opened. As he lay, he could feel a rush of cold air in consequence. Then it was closed again, and the house was very still. "He has gone! He has gone!" said Todd. The manner in which Todd pronounced these few words it would be impossible to describe. No shivering wretch reprieved upon the scaffold, with the rope round his neck, could feel a greater relief than did Todd, when he found that the door of that house was really closed upon Sir Richard Blunt. And then he began to felicitate himself upon the fact that, after all, he had come to that place; "for now," he thought, "I know that, although I have been in great danger, it has passed away; and as Sir Richard Blunt has transacted all his business in this house, he is not likely to come to it again." That was a pleasant thought, and as Todd dashed from his brow the heavy drops that intense fear had caused to assemble there, he almost smiled. A very profound stillness now reigned in the house, for Mrs. Hardman was resolved to make up to her lodgeras well as she couldfor the noise and disturbance that had been so unwittingly caused in her front room. She had made Ben go away, and as her husband had likewise gone, in pursuance of the orders of Sir Richard Blunt, to take measures lest Todd should make an escape by the Thames, the place remained as calm and still as if no one were in it but herself. Todd closed his eyes, and wearied nature sought relief in sleep. Even Sweeney Todd, with more than twenty mortal murders on his conscience, slept calmly for no less than six hours of that, to him, most eventful day. Twice during this long sleep of her lodger's had Mrs. Hardman stolen into the frontroom to listen, and been quite satisfied by the regular breathing, that, at all events, her lodger was not dead; and she kept herself upon the alert to attend to him whenever he should awake from that deep sleep. The long shadows of the houses on the other side of the street had fallen upon the windows of the Hardmans' abode, and a slight fog began to make itself perceptible in London, when Todd awoke. "Helphelp! Oh, God, where am I?" he cried. He sprang half out of the bed, and then the full tide of recollection came back to him, and he fully comprehended his situation in a moment. "Hush!hush!hush!" he said; and he listened most intently to hear if his sudden exclamation had attracted any attention. He heard a footstep on the stairs. "Hush!hush!" he said again, "hushwho is it? I must be very careful now!Oh, very!" The footstep paused at his door, and then he heard it in the next room, and Mrs. Hardman advancing to the folding doors, said, in the blandest of accents "Are you awake, sir, if you please?" Todd at once assumed the tone in which he had formerly addressed her, and replied "Yes, madam, yes. I am awake!" "And how do you feel now, sir, if you please?" "Oh, a great deal better, ma'am, a great deal better. Indeed, I feel quite refreshed. I will come out directly, my dear madam. Pray have the goodness to take this guinea. I shall want a cup of tea at times, and I think I could take a cup now, my dear madam. You can get it out of that, and keep the change, you know, till I want something else." "Oh, really, sir," said Mrs. Hardman, as she put her hand through a small opening of one of the folding doors and took the guinea. "It is quite delightful to have so pleasant a lodger as yourselfoh, quite.I will get the tea directly, my dear sir, and pray make yourself quite at home, if you please." "Yes, ma'am, I willI will." "Do, sir. I should be really unhappy now, if I did not think you were comfortable." "Oh it's all right, ma'am. Eugh! Oh, dear! I do think my cough has been better since I have been here." "How delightful to hear you say that!" exclaimed Mrs. Hardman, speaking in quite a tremulous voice of sympathetic emotion. "I will get the tea, directly, sir." She left the room, and as she went down the stairs, she said to herself "What a pearl of a lodger, to be sure! He pays for everything over and over again. I should not, now, in the least wonder but the dear old gentleman will quite forget the change out of this guinea; if he does, it is not for me to vex him by putting him in mind of it. I know well, that old people never like it to be supposed that their memory fails them; so if he says nothing about it, I am sure I shall not. Oh, dear, no!" "Wretch!" muttered Todd, as he crept out of the back room into the front. "Wretch, I find that money will purchase anything in this house; but am I surprised at that? Oh, nono. Will not money purchase anything in this great world? Of course it will. Why, then, should this house be an exception to the rule so general? Nono. It is no exception; and I may be very safe for a few guineas well spent; and they are well spent, indeed. Oh, so well!" Todd then, as he flung himself into the depths of an easy chair, that was really easy for a wonder, considering that it was in a lodginghouse, began to arrange in his own mind his course of proceeding for the night. "Let me thinklet me think," he muttered. "I am now very much refreshed indeed, and feel quite strong and well, and equal to any emergency. That sleep has done me a world of good, and it is strange, too, that it has been the calmest and the quietest sleep I have enjoyed for many a month. I hope it is not prophetic of some coming evil." He shuddered at the thought. Todd was each dayay, each hour, becoming more and more superstitious. "Nono. I will not think that. I will not be so mad as to disarm myself of my courage, by thinking that for a moment. I will take my tea here, and then I will sally forth, telling this woman that I will soon return, and then, after a dose of brandy, I will hire a boat and take to the river. What is that?" The wind with a sudden gust came dashing against the windows, giving them such a shake, that it seemed as if it were intent upon getting into the room to buffet Todd. He immediately rose, and going to the window, he placed his hideous face close to one of the panes, and looked out. The sky was getting very black, and huge clouds were careering about it. The wind was evidently rising, and there was every appearance of its being most squally and tempestuous. Todd bit his lips with vexation. "Always something!" he said. "Always something to annoy me, and to cross me. Alwaysalways!" "The tea, sir, if you please." Todd turned round so suddenly, that he almost upset the servant with the tea equipage. "Oh, very well. That will dothat will do. You are the servant of the house?" "If you please, sir." "Ah, you will then have to attend upon me while I am here, my dear, I presume?" "Yes, sir, if you please." "Very goodvery good. You are a very nice young woman, and there's halfaguinea for you. Eugh! I shall give you that sum every week while I stay here, you know." "Lor, sir, will you?" "Yes, yes. You can go now. Is the tea all right?" "Oh, dear, yes, sir. You are very good indeed. Misses said as you was a very good lodger, which I knowed to mean as you didn't be petikler about your money, and now I sees you ain't. Thank you, sir, for me. I'll get up in the night if you want anythink." CHAPTER CLIX. TODD MAKES A VIGOROUS ATTEMPT TO REACH GRAVESEND. The servant was so profuse in her acknowledgments for the halfguinea, that she seemed as if she would never get out of the room, and Todd had to say "Therethere, that will do. Now leave me, my good girlthat will do," before she, with a curtsey at every step, withdrew. "Well," she said, as she went down stairs. "If I tell misses of this, I'm a Prussian. Oh, dear, I keeps it to myself and says nothing to nobody, excepting to my Thomas as is in the horseguards. Ah, he is a nice fellow, and out o' this I'll make him a present of a most elegant watchribbon, that he can put a bullet at the end of, and let it hang out of his fob all as if he had a real watch in his pocket." "Humph!" said Todd. "I have bought her good opinion cheap. It was well worth tenandsixpence not to have the servant watching me, with, for all I know to the contrary, eyes of suspicionwell worth it." It was not very often that Todd indulged himself with a cup of tea. Something stronger was commonly more congenial to his appetite; but upon this occasion, after his long sleep, the tea had upon him a most refreshing effect, and he took it with real pleasure. Mrs. Hardman, in consideration of the guinea she had received beforehand, had done him justice, as far as the quality of the tea was concerned, and he had it good. "Well," he said, after his third cup, "I did not think that there was so much virtue in a cup of tea, after all; but of a surety, I feel wonderfully refreshed at it. How the wind blows." The wind did, indeed, blow, for all the while that Todd was taking his tea it banged and buffeted against the window at such a rate, that it was really quite a fearful thing to listen to it. A couple of candles had been lighted and brought into the room, but the gale without soon laid hold of their little flames, and tossed them about so, that they gave but a dim and sepulchral kind of light. Todd rose again, and went to the windowagain he placed his face close to the pane of glass, and shading his eyes with his hands, he looked out. A dashing rain was falling. "They say that when the rain comes the wind moderates," he muttered; "but I see no signs of that, yet, it is almost a gale already." At that moment there came such a gust of wind howling down the street, that Todd mechanically withdrew his head, as though it were some tangible enemy come to seek him. "Always something to foil me here," he said; "always something; but out I must go. Let it look as strange as it may, I cannot stay a night in this house, for if I were to do so, that would involve the staying a day likewise; and it would be this time tomorrow before I dared venture abroad; and who knows what awful things might happen in that space of time? No, I must go tonight. I must go tonight." He could not help feeling that his going out while the weather was in such a state would excite a great amount of wonder in the house; but that was a minor event in comparison to what might possibly ensue from remaining, so he put on his hat. Taptap! came against the panel of his door. Todd muttered an awful oath, and then said, "Come in." Mrs. Hardman entered the room. "I hope I don't intrude upon you, sir, but I was so very anxious to know if the tea was just as you like it, sir?" "Oh, yesyes. I am going out a little way, my good madam. Only a little way." "Out, sir?" "Yes, and why not?why not? Oh, dear me! How bad my cough is to be sure, tonight. Eugh!eugh!" "Goodness gracious! my dear sir, you will not think of venturing out tonight? Oh, sir!" "Why not, madam?" "The wind, sirthe rain, sirand the wind and the rain together, sir. Oh, dear! It isn't a night to turn out a dog in, not that I like dogs, but I beg, sir, you won't think of it. Only listen, sir. How it does blow, to be sure!" "Madam!" said Todd, putting on a solemn look, "I must go. It is my duty to go." "Your duty, sir?" "Yes. Whenever the wind blows and the rain comes down, I put a quantity of small change in my pocket, and I go out to see what objects of distress in the streets I can relieve. It is then that I feel myself called upon in the sacred name of heavenly charity to see to the wants of my poorer fellowcreatures. It is then that I can find many a one whom I can make happy and comfortable for a brief space, at all events; and that's the way that I am always, you see, madam, with a bad cold." "Generous man!" said Mrs. Hardman, wiping her eyes with the corner of her apron. "Not at all, madam, not at all. It is one's duty, and nothing else. I feel bound to do it. But I shall want a little something for supper. A nice boiled chicken, if you please, and you will be so good as to get it for me, madam. Take this guinea, if you please, and we can talk about the change, you know, when I want anything else, my good madam." "My word!" thought Mrs. Hardman. "He is a wonderful lodger, for he forgets all about his change. I feel that it would only vex the poor old gentleman to remind him of it, and that I do not feel justified in doing. Ahem! yes, sir. Oh, certainly, I will get the finest chicken, sir, that can be had." "Do so, madam, do so. Now I'm going." "Oh, Lord! there's a gust of wind!" "I like itI like it." "And there's a dash of rain!" "So much the better. Delightful, delightful, my dear madam, I shall find plenty of poor objects to relieve tonight. Under gateways, I shall find them, crouching upon doorsteps, and shivering on spots where a little shelter can be found from the inclemency of the weather. This is my time to try and do a little good with that superfluous wealth which Providence has given me." Mrs. Hardman made no further opposition to the benevolent intentions of a lodger who continually forgot his change, and Todd fairly left the house. Little did the landlady think, while she was grasping at the guineas, that there was a reward of a thousand pounds for the apprehension of her lodger, and that it would every pennypiece of it have been duly paid to her at the Treasury, if she could but have managed to lock him in a room until the officers of justice could be sent for, to pounce upon him and load him with irons, and take him off to prison. But poor Mrs. Hardman had really no idea of how near she was to fortune; and when the streetdoor closed upon Todd, she little suspected that she shut out such a sum as one thousand pounds sterling along with him. "That is managed so far," said Todd, as he shrank and cowed before the stormladen gale that dashed in his face the rain, as he reached the corner of the street. There Todd paused, for a new fear came across him. It was that no waterman would venture upon the river with him on such a night; and yet after reasoning with himself a little time, he said "Watermen are human, and they love gold as much as any one else. After all, it only resolves itself into a question of how much I will pay." Full of this idea, which, in its way, was a tolerably just one, he sneaked down the Strand until he got right to Charing Cross. He had thought of going down one of the quiet streets near that place, and taking a boat there; but now he considered that he would have a much better chance by going as far as Westminster Bridge; and, accordingly, despite the rain and the wind, he made his way along Whitehall, and reached the bridge. A few watermen were lounging about at the head of the stairs. They had little enough expectation of getting a fare at such a time, and upon such a day. One of them, however, seeing Todd pause, went up to him, and spoke "You didn't want a boat, did you, sir?" "Why, yes," said Todd, "I did; but, I suppose, you are all afraid to earn a couple of guineas?" "A couple of guineas?" "Yes, or three, for the matter of that; one more or less don't matter to me; but it may to you." "Indeed, it does, sir. You are right enough there. But where do you want to go to sir? Up or down?" "To Greenwich." Todd thought if he mentioned Gravesend, he might frighten the man at once. "Greenwich? Whew!" The waterman perpetrated a long whistle; and then, shaking his head, he said"I'm very much afraid, sir, that it isn't a question of guineas that will settle that; but I will speak to my mate. Halloa Jack!Jack! I say, old boy, where are you?" "Here you are," said an old weatherbeaten man coming up the steps. "I've only been making the little craft fast. What is the row now, Harryeh?" "No row, old mate; but this here gentleman offers a matter of three guineas for a cruise to Greenwich." "Ay, and why not, Harry?" "Why not? Don't you hear how it's blowing?" "Yes, I do, Harry; but it won't blow long. I've seen more gales than you have, lad, and I tell you that this one is all but over. The rain, in another quarter of an hour, will beat it all down. It's fast going now. It will be a wet night, and a dark night; but it won't blow, nor it won't be cold." "If you say as much as that, Jack," said the younger waterman, "I will swear to it." The old man smiled, as he added "Ah, dear me, yes, and so you may, Harry. I haven't been so long out of doors that I don't know the fancies of the weather. I can tell you a'most what it's a going to do beforehand, better than it knows itself. There, don't you hear how it's coming in puffs, now, the wind, and each one is a bit fainter nor the one as comed afore it? Lord bless you, it's nothing! We shall get a wet jacket, that's all; and if so be, sir, as you really do want a cruise down to Greenwich, come on, and Harry and me will soon manage it for you." These words were very satisfactory to Todd. He had no objection in the world to its being rather a bad night on the river; but he certainly had a great objection to risking his life. Discomfort was a thing that gave him no concern. He knew well that that would pass away. "If you are willing," he said, "let us, then, start at once, and I will not hold you to your bargain if the weather should happen to turn very bad. We can, in such a case, easily, I dare say, put in at some of the numerous stairs on one side or other of the river." "There will be no need of that, sir," said the old waterman. "If you go, and if you choose to go all the way, we will put you on shore at Greenwich." "How about London Bridge?" said the younger man, in a tone of some anxiety. "Better than usual," said Jack. "It is just the time to shoot it nicely, for the tide will be at a point, and won't know exactly whether to go one way or the other." "It's all right, then?" "It is." Todd himself had had his suspicions that the passage of old London Bridge would be one of no ordinary difficulty on such a night as that, but he knew that if the tide was at that point which the old man mentioned, that it might be passed with the most perfect safety, and it was a matter of no small gratification to him to hear from such a competent authority that such was the fact just then. "Let us go at once," he said. "All's right, sir. Our wherry is just at the foot of the stairs, here. I will pull her in, Harry." The old man ran down the slippery stairs with the activity of a boy, and as Todd and Harry followed him, the latter said, in quite a confidential tone of voice Todd Encounters Great Perils On The River Thames. Todd Encounters Great Perils On The River Thames. "Ah, sir, you may trust to his judgment on anything that has anything to do with the river." "I am glad to hear it." "Yes, sir, and so am I. Now I thought I knew something, and I shouldn't have ventured to take you, or if I had, it would have been with rather a faint heart; but now that the old man, sir, says it's all right, I feel as comfortable as needs be in the matter." By this time they had reached the foot of the steps, which was being laved by the tide, and there the old man had the boat safely in hand. "Now for it, sir," he said. "Jump in." Todd did so, and the younger waterman followed him. He and his aged companion immediately took their places, and Todd stretched himself in the stern of the little craft. The rain now came down in absolute torrents as the boat was pushed off by the two watermen into the middle of the stream. CHAPTER CLX. THE POLICEGALLEY ON THE THAMES. What an anxious and protracted glance Todd cast around him when he found that he was fairly upon the river. How his eyes, with foxlike cunning, glistening like two leadcoloured stars, were here, and there, and everywhere, in the course of a few moments. Then he contrived to speak, as he thought, craftily enough. "There are but few boats on the river." "No, sir," said the young waterman. "It isn't everybody that cares to come on the water in such weather as this." "Nono. But I have business." "Exactly so, sir. That's it." "Yes," added Todd, in quite a contemplative tone of voice, "the fact is, that I have just heard that at Gravesend there resides a family, with whom I was once intimate, but had lost sight of. They have, as I hear, dropped into poverty, amounting to destitution, and I could not rest until I had gone after them to relieve them." "Did you say Gravesend?" said the old man. "Why, yes; but I don't ask you to go so far. I will try and find a conveyance on land at Greenwich; butifyou like to pull all the way to Gravesend, I don't mind paying, for I prefer the water." "Couldn't do it," said the old man.