CHAPTER XXIV.

COLONEL JEFFERY MAKES ANOTHER EFFORT TO COME AT SWEENEY TODD'S SECRET.

If we were to say that Colonel Jeffery was satisfied with the state of

affairs as regarded the disappearance of his friend Thornhill, or that

he made up his mind now contentedly to wait until chance, or the mere

progress of time, blew something of a more defined nature in his way, we

should be doing that gentleman a very great injustice indeed. On the

contrary, he was one of those chivalrous persons who when they do

commence anything, take the most ample means to bring it to a

conclusion, and are not satisfied that they have made one great effort,

which, having failed, is sufficient to satisfy them. Far from this, he

was a man who, when he commenced any enterprise, looked forward to but

one circumstance that could possibly end it, and that was its full and

complete accomplishment in every respect; so that in this affair of Mr.

Thornhill, he certainly did not intend by any means to abandon it. But

he was not precipitate. His habits of military discipline, and the long

life he had led in camps, where anything in the shape of hurry and

confusion is much reprobated, made him pause before he decided upon any

particular course of action; and this pause was not one contingent upon

a belief, or even a surmise in the danger of the course that suggested

itself, for such a consideration had no effect whatever upon him; and if

some other mode had suddenly suggested itself, which, while it placed

his life in the most imminent peril, would have seemed more likely to

accomplish his object, it would have been at once most gladly welcomed.

And now, therefore, he set about thinking deeply over what could

possibly be done further in a matter that as yet appeared to be involved

in the most profound of possible mysteries. That the barber's boy, who

had been addressed by him, and by his friend, the captain, knew

something of an extraordinary character, which fear prevented him from

disclosing, he had no doubt, and, as the colonel remarked--

"If fear keeps that lad silent upon the subject, fear may make him

speak; and I do not see why we should not endeavour to make ourselves a

match for Sweeney Todd in such a matter."

"What do you propose then?" said the captain.

"I should say that the best plan would be, to watch the barber's shop,

and take possession of the boy, as we may chance to find an opportunity

of so doing."

"Carry him off?"

"Yes, certainly; and as in all likelihood his fear of the barber is but

a visionary affair after all, it can easily, when we have him to

ourselves, be dispelled; and then, when he finds that we can and will

protect him, we shall hear all he has to say."

After some further conversation, the plan was resolved upon; and the

captain and the colonel, after making a careful "reconnoissance," as

they called it, of Fleet-street, found that by taking up a station at

the window of a tavern, which was nearly opposite to the barber's shop,

they should be able to take such effectual notice of whoever went in and

came out, that they would be sure to see the boy some time during the

course of the day. This plan of operations would no doubt have been

greatly successful, and Tobias would have fallen into their hands, had

he not, alas! for him, poor fellow, already been treated by Sweeney Todd

as we have described by being incarcerated in that fearful madhouse on

Peckham Rye, which was kept by so unscrupulous a personage as Fogg. And

we cannot but consider that it was most unfortunate for the happiness of

all those persons in whose fate we take so deep an interest--and in whom

we hope, as regards the reader, we have likewise awakened a feeling of

great sympathy--if Tobias had not been so infatuated as to make the

search he did of the barber's house, but had waited even for twenty-four

hours before doing so; in that case, not only would he have escaped the

dreadful doom which had awaited him, but Johanna Oakley would have been

saved from much danger which afterwards befel her. But we must not

anticipate; and the fearful adventures which it was her doom to pass

through, before she met with the reward of her great virtue, and her

noble perseverance will speak for themselves, trumpet-tongued indeed. It

was at a very early hour in the morning that the two friends took up

their station at the public-house so nearly opposite to Sweeney Todd's,

in Fleet street; and then, having made an arrangement with the landlord

of the house, that they were to have undisturbed possession of the room

as long as they liked, they both sat at the window, and kept an eye upon

Todd's house. It was during the period of time there spent, that Colonel

Jeffery first made the captain acquainted with the fact of his great

affection for Johanna, and that in her he thought he had at length fixed

his wandering fancy, and found, really, the only being with whom he

thought he could, in this world taste the sweets of domestic life, and

know no regret.

"She is all," he said, "in beauty that the warmest imagination can

possibly picture, and along with these personal charms, which certainly

are most peerless, I have seen enough of her to feel convinced that she

has a mind of the purest order that ever belonged to any human being in

the world."

"With such sentiments and feelings towards her, the wonder would be,"

said the captain, "if you did not love her, as you now avow you do."

"I could not be insensible to her attractions. But, understand me, my

dear friend, I do not, on account of my own suddenly-conceived

partiality for this young and beautiful creature, intend to commit the

injustice of not trying might and main, and with heart and hand, to

discover if, as she supposes, it be true that Thornhill and Mark

Ingestrie be one and the same person; and when I say that I love her

with a depth and a sincerity of affection that makes her happiness of

greater importance to me than my own--you know, I think, enough of me to

feel convinced that I am speaking only what I really feel."

"I can," said the captain, "and I do give you credit for the greatest

possible amount of sincerity, and I feel sufficiently interested myself

in the future fate of this fair young creature to wish that she may be

convinced her lover is no more, and may so much better herself, as I am

quite certain she would, by becoming your wife; for all we can hear of

this Ingestrie seems to prove that he is not the most stable-minded of

individuals the world ever produced, and perhaps not exactly the sort of

man--however, of course, she may think to the contrary, and he may in

all sincerity think so likewise--to make such a girl as Johanna Oakley

happy."

"I thank you for the kind feeling towards me, my friend, which has

dictated that speech, but--"

"Hush!" said the captain, suddenly, "hush! look at the barber!"

"The barber? Sweeney Todd?"

"Yes, yes, there he is; do you not see him? There he is, and he looks as

if he had come off a long journey. What can he have been about, I

wonder? He is draggled in mud!"

Yes, there was Sweeney Todd, opening his shop from the outside with a

key, that after a vast amount of fumbling, he took from his pocket; and,

as the captain said, he did indeed look as if he had come off a long

journey, for he was draggled with mud, and his appearance altogether was

such as to convince any one that he must have been out in most of the

heavy rain which had fallen during the early part of the morning upon

London and its suburbs. And this was just the fact, for after staying

with the madhouse-keeper in the hope that the bad weather which had set

in would be alleviated, he had been compelled to give up all chance of

such a thing, and as no conveyance of any description was to be had, he

enjoyed the pleasure, if it could be called such, of walking home up to

his knees in the mud of that dirty neighbourhood. It was, however, some

satisfaction to him to feel that he had got rid of Tobias, who, from

what he had done as regarded the examination of the house, had become

extremely troublesome indeed, and perhaps the most serious enemy that

Sweeney Todd had ever had.

"Ha!" he said, as he came within sight of his shop in

Fleet-street,--"ha! Master Tobias is safe enough; he will give me no

more trouble, that is quite clear. What a wonderfully convenient thing

it is to have such a friend as Fogg, who for a consideration will do so

much towards ridding one of an uncomfortable encumbrance. It is possible

enough that that boy might have compassed my destruction. I wish I dared

now chance, with the means I have for the sale of the string of pearls,

joined to my other resources, leaving business, and so not be obliged to

run the risk and have the trouble of another boy."

Yes, Sweeney Todd would have been glad now to shut up his shop in

Fleet-street at once and for ever, but he dreaded that when John Mundel

found that his customer did not come back to him to redeem the pearls,

that he (John Mundel) would proceed to sell them, and that then their

beauty and great worth would excite much attention, and some one might

come forward who knew more about their early history than he did.

"I must keep quiet," he thought,--"I must keep quiet; for although I

think I was pretty well disguised, and it is not at all likely that any

one--no, not even the acute John Mundel himself--would recognise in

Sweeney Todd, the poor barber of Fleet-street, the nobleman who came

from the queen to borrow £8,000 upon a string of pearls; yet there is a

remote possibility of danger; and should there be a disturbance about

the precious stones, it is better that I should remain in obscurity

until that disturbance is completely over."

This was no doubt admirable policy on the part of Todd, who, although he

found himself a rich man, had not, as many people do when they make that

most gratifying and interesting discovery, forgotten all the prudence

and tact that made him one of that most envied class of personages. He

was some few minutes before he could get the key to turn in the lock of

his street door, but at length he effected that object and disappeared

from before the eyes of the colonel and his friend into his own house,

and the door was instantly again closed upon him.

"Well," said Colonel Jeffery, "what do you think of that?"

"I don't know what to think, further than that your friend Todd has been

out of town, as the state of his boots abundantly testifies."

"They do, indeed, and he has the appearance of having been a

considerable distance, for the mud that is upon his boots is not London

mud."

"Certainly not; it is quite of a different character altogether. But

see, he is coming out again."

Sweeney Todd strode out of his house, bareheaded now, and proceeded to

take down the shutters of his shop, which, there being but three, he

accomplished in a few seconds of time, and walked in again with them in

his hand, along with the iron bar which had secured them, and which he

had released from the inside. This was all the ceremony that took place

at the opening of Sweeney Todd's shop, and the only surprise our

friends, who were at the public-house window, had upon the subject was,

that having a boy, he, Todd, should condescend to make himself so useful

as to open his own shop. And nothing could be seen of the lad, although

the hour, surely, for his attendance must have arrived; and Todd,

equally surely, was not the sort of man to be so indulgent to a boy,

whom he employed to make himself generally useful, as to allow him to

come when all the dirty work of the early morning was over. But yet such

to all appearance would seem to be the case, for presently Todd appeared

with a broom in his hand, sweeping out his shop with a rapidity and a

vengeance which seemed to say, that he did not perform that operation

with the very best grace in the world.

"Where can the boy be?" said the captain. "Do you know, little reason as

I may really appear to have for such a supposition, I cannot help in my

own mind connecting Todd's having been out of town somehow with the fact

of that boy's non-appearance this morning."

"Indeed!--the coincidence is curious, for such was my own thought

likewise upon the occasion; and the more I do think of it, the more I

feel convinced that such must be the case, and that our watch will be a

fruitless one completely. Is it likely--for possible enough it is--that

the villain has found out that we have been asking some questions of the

boy, and has thought proper to take his life?"

"Do not let us go too far," said the captain, "in mere conjecture;

recollect that as yet, let us suspect what we may, we know nothing, and

that the mere facts of our not being able to trace Thornhill beyond the

shop of this man, will not be sufficient to found an action upon."

"I know all that, and I feel how very cautious we must be; and yet to my

mind the whole of the circumstances have been day by day assuming a most

hideous air of probability, and I look upon Todd as a murderer already."

"Shall we continue our watch?"

"I scarcely see its utility. Perchance we may see some proceedings which

may interest us; but I have a powerful impression that we certainly

shall not see the boy we want. But, at all events, the barber, you

perceive, has a customer already."

As they looked across the way, they saw a well dressed looking man, who,

from a certain air and manner which he had, could be detected not to be

a Londoner. He rather resembled some substantial yeoman, who had come to

town to pay or to receive money, and, as he came near to Sweeney Todd's

shop he might have been observed to stroke his chin, as debating in his

mind the necessity or otherwise of a shave. The debate, if it were

taking place in his mind, ended by the ayes having it, for he walked

into Todd's shop, being most unquestionably the first customer which he

had had that morning. Situated as the colonel and his friend were, they

could not see into Todd's shop, even if the door had been opened, but

they saw that after the customer had been in for a few moments, it was

closed, so that, had they been close to it, all the interior of the

shaving establishment would have been concealed. They felt no great

degree of interest in this man, who was a commonplace personage enough,

who had entered Sweeney Todd's shop; but when an unreasonable time had

elapsed, and he did not come out, they did begin to feel a little

uneasy. And when another man, went in and was only about five minutes

before he emerged, shaved, and yet the first man did not come, they knew

not what to make of it, and looked at each other for some few moments in

silence. At length the colonel spoke--and he did so in a tone of

excitement, saying--

"My friend, have we waited here for nothing now? What can have become of

that man whom we saw go into the barber's shop; but who, I suppose, we

feel ourselves to be in a condition to take our oaths never came out?"

"I could take my oath; and what conclusion can we come to?"

"None, but that he met his death there; and that, let his fate be what

it may, it is the same which poor Thornhill has suffered. I can endure

this no longer. Do you stay here, and let me go alone."

"Not for worlds--you would rush into an unknown danger; you cannot know

what may be the powers of mischief that man possesses. You shall not go

alone, colonel, you shall not indeed; but something must be done."

"Agreed; and yet that something surely need not be of the desperate

character you meditate."

"Desperate emergencies require desperate remedies; and yet I think that

in this case everything is to be lost by precipitation, and nothing is

to be gained. We have to do with one who, to all appearance, is keen and

subtle, and if anything is to be accomplished contrary to his wishes, it

is not to be done by that open career, which for its own sake, under

ordinary circumstances, both you and I would gladly embrace."

"Well, well," said the colonel, "I do not and will not say but you are

right."

"I know I am--I am certain I am; and now hear me: I think we have gone

quite far enough unaided in this transaction, and that it is time we

drew some others into the plot."

"I do not understand what you mean."

"I will soon explain. I mean, that if in the pursuit of this enterprise,

which grows each moment to my mind more serious, anything should happen

to you and me, it is absolutely frightful to think that there would then

be an end of it."

"True, true; and as for poor Johanna and her friend Arabella, what could

they do?"

"Nothing, but expose themselves to great danger. Come, now, colonel, I

am glad to see that we understand each other better about this business;

you have heard, of course, of Sir Richard Blunt?"

"Sir Richard Blunt--Blunt--oh, you mean the magistrate?"

"I do; and what I propose is that we have a private and confidential

interview with him about the matter--that we make him possessed of all

the circumstances, and take his advice what to do. The result of placing

the affair in such hands will, at all events, be that if, in anything we

may attempt, we may by force or fraud be overpowered, we shall not fall

wholly unavenged."

"Reason backs your proposition."

"I knew it would, when you came to reflect. Oh, Colonel Jeffery, you are

too much a creature of impulse."

"Well," said the colonel, half jestingly, "I must say that I do not

think the accusation comes well from you, for I have certainly seen you

do some rather impulsive things, I think."

"We won't dispute about that; but since you think with me upon the

matter, you will have no objection to accompany me at once to Sir

Richard Blunt's?"

"None in the least; on the contrary, if anything is to be done at all,

for Heaven's sake let it be done quickly. I am quite convinced that some

fearful tragedy is in progress, and that, if we are not most prompt in

our measures, we shall be too late to counteract its dire influence upon

the fortunes of those in whom we have become deeply interested."

"Agreed, agreed! Come this way, and let us now for a brief space, at all

events, leave Mr. Todd and his shop to take care of each other, while we

take an effectual means of circumventing him. Why do you linger?"

"I do linger. Some mysterious influence seems to chain me to the spot."

"Some mysterious fiddlestick! Why, you are getting superstitious,

colonel."

"No, no! Well, I suppose I must come with you. Lead the way, lead the

way; and believe me that it requires all my reason to induce me to give

up a hope of making some important discovery by going to Sweeney Todd's

shop."

"Yes, you might make an important discovery; and only suppose now that

the discovery you did make was that he murdered some of his customers.

If he does so, you may depend that such a man takes good care to do the

deed effectually, and you might make the discovery just a little too

late. You understand that?"

"I do, I do. Come along, for I positively declare, that if we see

anybody else go into the barber's, I shall not be able to resist rushing

forward at once, and giving an alarm."

It was certainly a good thing that the colonel's friend was not quite so

enthusiastic as he was, or from what we happen actually to know of

Sweeney Todd, and from what we suspect, the greatest amount of danger

might have befallen Jeffery, and instead of being in a position to help

others in unravelling the mysteries connected with Sweeney Todd's

establishment, he might himself have been past all help, and most

absolutely one of the mysteries. But such was not to be.