CHAPTER CLXV.

TODD HIDES IN A CUPBOARD.

"It is in vain," said Todd; "my safety is wound up now with the safety

of this little one. If you would save it, you will save me."

"Oh, no, no. Why should it be so? I cannot save you."

"You can, I think. At all events, I will be satisfied if you make the

effort to do so. I tell you I am pursued by the officers of the law. It

does not matter to you what I am, or who I am, or what crime it is that

they lay to my charge; your child's life is as dear to you in any case.

Hide me in the cottage, and deny my being seen here, and the child shall

live. Betray me, and as sure as the sun gives light, it dies."

"Oh, no, no, no!"

"But, I say, yes. Your course is easy. It is all but certain that my

prosecutors will come to this cottage, as it is the only habitation on

the route that I have taken. They will ask you if you have seen such a

man as I am, and they will tell you that you may earn a large reward by

giving such information as may deliver me into the hands of justice; but

what reward--what sum of money would pay you for your child's life?"

"Oh, not all the world's worth!"

"So I thought; and so you will deny seeing me, or knowing ought of me,

for your child's sake? Is it agreed?"

"It is--it is! God knows who you are, or what you have done that the

hands of your fellow creatures should be raised against you; but I will

not betray you. You may depend upon my word. If you are found in this

place, it shall not be by any information of mine."

"Can you hide me?"

"I will try to do so. Come into the cottage. Ah! what noise is that? I

hear the tread of feet, and the shouts of men!"

Todd paused to listen. He shook for a moment or two; and then, with a

bitter tone, he said--

"My pursuers come! They begin to suspect the trick that I have played

them!--they now know--or think they know, that I have turned upon my

route. They come--they come!"

"Oh, give me the child! I swear to you that I will hide you to the

utmost of my means; but give me the child!"

"Not yet."

The woman looked at him in an agony of tears.

"Listen to me," she said. "If they discover you it will not be my fault,

nor the fault of this little innocent--you feel that! Ah! then tell me

upon what principle of justice can you take its life?"

"I will be just," said Todd. "All I ask of you is, to hide me to the

best of your ability, and to keep secret the fact of my presence here.

If, after you have done all that, you still find that I am taken, it

will be no fault of yours. I do not ask impossibilities of any one, nor

do I threaten punishment against you for not performing improbable

feats. Come in--come in at once! They come--they come! Do you not hear

them now?"

It was quite evident now that a number of persons were approaching, and

beating the bushes as they came on. The tread of a horse's feet, too,

upon the road convinced Todd that among his foes, now, was the mounted

man whom he had seen, and whom he thought he saw point to him as he lay

crouching down behind the hedge, half hidden in the ditch.

With the little child still in his arms, he rushed into the cottage, and

the woman followed him, wringing her hands with terror. And yet Todd was

gentle with the child. He knew that from the mother he had everything to

hope, and everything to dread, and he did not wish to drive her to

despair by any display of harshness to the little one.

"This way," she cried, "this way," as she led the way into an

inner-room. "There is a cupboard here in which you can conceal yourself.

If they do not search the house, they will not find you, and I will do

all that I can to prevent them."

"That will do," said Todd; "but, remember, I will have the child near

me, so that upon the least symptom of treachery from you, I can put it

to death; and I shall not, under any circumstances, at all scruple so to

do. Where is this cupboard that you speak of?"

"It is here--it is here!"

"Ah! that will do." Todd now cast his eyes around the room, and

perceived a little cot, that, at night, was devoted to the slumbers of

the child. "Take that," he said, pointing to it, "and place it against

the door of the cupboard with the child in it. It will seem then not

likely that I am hidden here."

"I will do so."

Todd did not feel any apprehension of treachery from the mother of the

child. He was not slow to perceive that every other feeling was in her

breast weak in comparison with the all-absorbing one of love for the

infant; and so he calculated that, rather than run the shadow of a risk

of injury to it, she would do all that he required. The cupboard was a

deep one; but it was not high enough for Todd quite to stand upright in.

That, however, was a trifling inconvenience, and he got into it at once.

The child's cot was placed against the door; and the young mother, with

a thousand fears tugging at her heart, pretended to busy herself about

her household affairs.

The little interval that now ensued, before Todd's pursuers reached the

spot, was certainly to him rather a fearful one; and he felt that his

fate hung upon the proceedings of the next few moments. He called to the

woman in an earnest tone--

"Courage--courage--all will be well."

"Oh, peace--peace!" she said. "They come!"

Todd quite held his breath now in the painful effort that he made to

listen, so that not the slightest sound that might be indicative of the

approach of his enemies might escape him; and he gave such a start, that

he nearly threw open the cupboard-door, and upset the cot, as he heard a

hoarse man's voice suddenly call out from the garden--

"Hilloa!--House here--house--Hilloa!"

"Now--now," he gasped. "Now I live or die! Upon the next few moments

hangs my fate!"

The cold dew of intense fear stood upon his brow, and his sense of

hearing appeared to be getting preternaturally acute. Not a word that

was said escaped him, although it was right away in the garden that

this, to him, fearfully interesting conversation took place.

"What is the matter?" he heard the woman say, and then the rough voice

replied to her--

"We are the police, my good woman, and we are in search of a man who is

hidden somewhere about this neighbourhood. Has any one come into your

place, or have you seen a tall man pass the cottage?"

"No," said the woman.

Todd breathed a little more freely.

"It's very odd," said another voice; "for he must be about this spot,

that is quite clear, as he was dodging about the field at the back of

here, and hiding in the hedge. We must have passed him."

"Well, he can't get away," said a third; "but after all, he may be lying

down somewhere in the garden, for all we know to the contrary."

"I don't think it," said the woman.

At this moment, the child began to cry violently.

"Oh, confound you for a brat!" said Todd, "I wish it was only safe to

throttle you."

"Is that your child?" said one of the officers.

"Oh, yes--yes," said the young mother, and hastening into the cottage,

she placed a chair by the side of the cot, and began to rock it to and

fro, singing while she did so, to lull the child to sleep.

"She will keep her word," thought Todd. "I feel confident that she will

keep her word, now, with me."

"You look all round the garden, while I take a peep about the house,"

said the principal officer.

"Oh, I am lost!" moaned Todd. "I am surely lost now! If the house should

be searched well, so obvious a place of concealment as a cupboard will

not escape them. All is lost now, indeed."

He almost gave up all thought, now, of keeping life or liberty, and he

waited only for the fatal moment when the officers should approach and

place their hands upon that cupboard door to open it. The child still

cried, and the mother sang to it.

"'Sleep, sleep, little baby--

Oh, sleep all the day;

The sunshine is hiding,

The birds fly away.

Away, away--far away.

The sunshine is hiding,

The birds fly away--'"

"Hilloa! What cupboard is that behind the child's cot?"

"'And when they return

You may open your eyes.'

"Oh, it's where we keep our best crockery. Don't disturb the child--I do

think it is sickening with the measles.

"'And see how the sunset

Is gilding the skies,

Away, away--far away.

And see how the sunset

Is gilding the skies.'

"Have you found him in the garden? I shall be almost out of my wits,

now, till my husband comes home. Who is it that you are looking for, and

pray what has he done? He would need to be clever, indeed, to come in

here without my knowing it; and as for the garden, why, I was hanging

out the clothes there for the last half hour, I tell you."

"Oh, he's not here," said the officer. "It would be no bad thing, marm,

for any one who could lend a helping hand to find him."

"Ah, indeed?"

"Yes. You have heard of Todd, the murderer? Well, that's the man we are

after, and we have every reason to think that he is somewhere about

here, and it is a large reward that is offered for him, I can tell you."

"Ah! I should like to get it."

"Not a doubt of it. Good-day, marm. If you should see any

suspicious-looking fellow about the fields, just give notice of it in

some sort of a way, if you can, for you may depend upon it, it will be

Todd."

"Oh, yes, I will. How very fractious this little thing is to-day, to be

sure. I hardly ever knew it to be so before."

"Ah, well, they will be so, at times. But I'm off. Mind, now, you get

the reward if you see anything of Todd."

"Oh, yes. Trust me for that."

The man left the room. What a reprieve from death that was for Todd! He

thought that during all the perils that he had passed through, he had

surely never been quite so near to destruction as then; and when he

found that he was saved, temporarily, he could hardly hold himself up in

the cupboard, and a sensation of faintness came over him.

It was not safe for him yet, by any means, to think of emerging from his

place of concealment. Indeed, he felt that the young mother would be the

best judge upon that hand, so he did not stir nor speak, and at last he

heard the cot with the now sleeping child in it, being gently moved from

before the cupboard-door. Then it was opened, and Todd, with his face

pale and haggard, stepped out into the room.

The young woman only pointed to the door of the little apartment

steadily and significantly.

"What do you mean?" said Todd.

"Go," she said. "I have done that which you require of me. Now go."

"To death?"

"No. Your enemies are no longer here. At the sacrifice of truth and of

feeling I saved you. It was all you asked of me, and now I tell you to

go, and no longer pollute this place by your presence. I know who and

what you are, now. You are Sweeney Todd, the murderer."

"Well, and if I am, what then?"

"Nothing--nothing! I ask nothing of you, but that you should leave this

house; I have kept my word. I will let the memory of this hour's work

sink deeply into my heart, and there remain untold to any one. Not even

to my husband will I breathe it. I only ask you to go."

"I am going--I am going."

Todd felt awed by her manner. He cowered before the look that, full of

horror, she bent upon him, and he crept towards the cottage door. But

the dread that some of his enemies might be lurking about the spot

detained him.

"Tell me," he said, "oh! tell me truly--are they gone?"

"Wait," she said, "and I will see again."

She took the child in her arms, and left the cottage. Todd found, now

that the child was no longer in his power as a kind of hostage for the

faith of the mother, that he had trusted her too far; but it was too

late, now, for him to recede from the position in which he had placed

himself, and with all his terror, he had no resource but to

calmly--calmly as he could--wait her return.

She came back again in a few moments.

"You can go with safety. They are all away."

"I will trust you, and take your word for it," said Todd. "I thank you

for the service you have rendered to me, and I am not ungrateful. Accept

of this in remembrance of me, and of this day's adventure."

He took from his pocket a splendid gold watch and laid it upon the

table, in the outer room, but with vehemence, the woman cried--

"No--no! Take it up, I will not have it. Take it up, or even now I will

dare everything and call for help. I will take nothing from your

blood-stained hands. Take up the watch, or I will destroy it."

"As you please," said Todd, as he placed the watch in his pocket again.

"I wish not to force it upon you. I am gone."

He went out into the little garden, but he looked about him very

nervously indeed, before he trusted himself to walk towards the little

white gate that opened upon the high road. Each moment, however, that

passed without any one springing upon and attacking him, was a moment of

confidence gained. He carried a pistol in his hand, and keeping his eyes

keenly around him, he reached the road.

"All is safe," he said. "I do, indeed, think she is right, and that they

have given up the chase for me. She has not deceived me, and I may yet

escape."

He kept close to the road-side, so that he was very much covered by the

hedge, and then, at as fast a pace as he thought he could keep up for

any length of time, he ran on.

He had not gone far when he heard the sound of wheels behind him, and he

got over a hedge and hid behind it until he could see what sort of

vehicle it was that approached. It turned out to be a cart driven by a

couple of countrymen, who were talking upon their own affairs in rather

loud tones; as they came on, Todd listened intently, and was satisfied

that his supposed escape into that neighbourhood was not the subject of

their discourse.