CHAPTER XXXI.

SHOWS HOW TOBIAS GOT TO LONDON.

We will now take a peep at Tobias. On--on--on, like the wind, went the

poor belated boy from the vicinity of that frightful prison-house at

Peckham. Terror was behind him--terror with dishevelled locks was upon

his right hand, and terror shrieking in his ear was upon his left.

On--on, he flew like a whirlwind. Alas, poor Tobias, will your young

intellects yet stand these trials? We shall see! Through the deep mud of

the Surrey roads--past pedestrians--past horsemen, and past coaches flew

poor Tobias, on--on. He had but one thought, and that was to place miles

and miles of space between him and Mr. Fogg's establishment. The

perspiration poured down his face--his knees shook under him--his heart

beat as though in some wild pulsation it would burst, but he passed on

until he saw afar off the old Bridge of London. The route to Blackfriars

he had by some chance avoided. Many, who for the last two miles of

Tobias's progress, had seen him, had tried to stop him. They had called

after him, but he had heeded them not. Some fast runners had pursued him

for a short distance, and then given up the chase in despair. He reached

the bridge.

"Stop that boy!" cried a man, "he looks mad!"

"No--no," shrieked Tobias, "I am not mad! I am not mad!"

A man held out his arms to stop him, but Tobias dashed past him like a

flash of lightning, and was off again.

"Stop him!" cried twenty voices. "Stop thief!" shouted some who could

not conceive that anybody was to be stopped on any other account.

"No, no," gasped Tobias, as he flew onwards--"not mad, not mad!"

[Illustration: The Flight Of Tobias From Peckham Mad-House.]

His feet failed him. He reeled a few more paces like a drunken man, and

then fell heavily upon some stone steps, where he lay bathed in

perspiration. Blood too gushed from his mouth. A gentleman's horse was

standing at the door, and the man came out to mount him at that moment,

and he saw the rapidly collecting crowd. With the reins of his steed in

his hand, he pushed his way through the mob, saying--

"What is it? what is it?"

"A mad boy, sir," said some. "Only look at him. Did you ever see the

like. He looks as if he had run a hundred miles."

"Good God!" cried the gentleman. "It is he! It is he!"

"Who, sir? who, sir?"

"A poor lad that I know, I will take charge of him. My name is Jeffery,

I am Colonel Jeffery. A couple of guineas to any strong man who will

carry him to the nearest surgeon's. Alas! poor boy, what a state is this

to meet him in."

It was quite astonishing the numbers of strong men that there were all

of a sudden in the crowd, who were each anxious and willing to earn the

colonel's two guineas. There was danger of a fight arising upon the

subject, when one man, after knocking down two others and threatening

the remainder, stepped up, and lifting Tobias as though he had been an

infant, exclaimed--

"Ale does it! ale does it! Come on, my little 'un."

All gave way before the gigantic proportions of no other than our old

friend Big Ben the Beef Eater, who, as chance would have it, was upon

the spot, and who, without a thought of the colonel's two guineas, only

heard that a poor sick boy had to be carried to the nearest medical man.

Tobias could not be in better hands than Ben's, for the latter carried

him much more carefully than ever nursemaid carried a child out of sight

of its mother.

"Follow me," said Colonel Jeffery, as he saw in the distance a

party-coloured lamp, which hung over a door appertaining to a chemist.

"Follow, and I will reward you."

"Doesn't want it," said Ben. "It's ale as does it."

"What?"

"Ale does it. Here you is. Come on."

Colonel Jeffery was rather surprised at the droll customer he had picked

up in the street, but provided he carried Tobias in safety, which

by-the-bye he (the colonel) would not have scrupled to do himself, had

he not been encumbered by his horse, it was all one to him, and that he

saw Ben was effectually doing. Tobias had shown some slight symptoms of

vitality before being lifted from the step of the door close to which he

had fallen, but by the time they all reached the chemist's shop, he was

in a complete state of insensibility. Of course the usual crowd that

collects on such occasions followed them, and during the walk the

colonel had time to think, and the result of those thoughts was, that it

would be a most desirable thing to keep the knowledge to himself that

Tobias _was_ Tobias. He had, in order to awe the mob from any

interference with him, announced who he was, but had not announced

Tobias. At least if he had uttered his name, he felt certain that it was

in an interjectional sort of way, and not calculated to awaken any

suspicion.

"I will keep it to myself," he thought, "that Tobias is in my

possession, otherwise if such a fact should travel round to Sweeney

Todd, there's no saying to what extent it might put that scoundrel upon

his guard."

By the time the colonel had arrived at this conclusion the whole party

had reached the chemist's, and Big Ben walked in with Tobias, and placed

him at once upon the top of a plate-glass counter, which had upon it a

large collection of trumpery scent bottles and wonderful specifics for

everything, through which Tobias went with a crash.

"There he is!" said Ben--"ale does it."

"Fire! murder! my glass case!" cried the chemist, "Oh, you monster!"

"Ale does it. What do you mean, eh?"

Big Ben backed a pace or two and went head and shoulders through a glass

case of similar varieties that was against the wall.

"Gracious bless the beasteses," said Ben, "is your house made of glass?

What do you mean by it, eh? A fellow can't turn round here without going

through something. You ought to be persecuted according to law, that you

ought."

Now this learned chemist had in the glass case against which Big Ben had

tumbled a skeleton, which, from the stunning and terrible look it had in

his shop, brought him many customers, and it was against this remnant of

humanity that Big Ben's head met, after going through the glass as a

preparatory step. By some means or another Ben caught his head under the

skeleton's ribs, and the consequence was that out he hooked him from the

glass case, and the first intimation Ben had of anything unusual,

consisted of seeing a pair of bony legs dangling down on each side of

him. So unexpected a phenomenon gave Ben what he called a "blessed

turn," and out he bounced from the shop, carrying the skeleton for all

the world like what is called pick-a-back, for the wires that supplied

the place of cartilages held it erect, and so awful a sight surely was

never seen in the streets of London as Big Ben with a skeleton upon his

back. People fled before--some turned in at shop doors; and an old lady

with a large umbrella and a pair of gigantic pattens went clean through

a silversmith's window. But we must leave Ben and the skeleton to get on

as well as they can _en route_ to the Tower, while we turn our attention

to Tobias.

"Are you a surgeon?" cried Colonel Jeffery.

"A--a surgeon? No, I'm only a druggist; but is that any reason why a

second Goliath should come into my shop and destroy everything?"

Colonel Jeffery did not wait for anything more, but snatching Tobias

from the remnants of the plate glass, he ran to the door with him, and

handing him to the first person he saw there, he cried--

"When I am mounted give me the boy."

"Yes, sir."

He sprang upon his horse; Tobias was handed to him like a bale of goods,

and laying him comfortably as he could upon the saddle before him, off

set the colonel at a good round trot through Finsbury to his own house.

Colonel Jeffery had no sort of intention that the chemist should be a

sufferer, but in his hurry to be off with Tobias, and speedily get

medical advice for him, he forgot to say so, and accordingly there stood

the man of physic then fairly bewildered by the events of the last few

moments, during which his stock in trade had been materially damaged and

a valuable amount of glass broken, to say nothing of the singular and

most unexpected abduction of his friend the skeleton.

"Here's a pretty day's work!" he said. "Here's a pretty day's work! More

mischief done than enough, and the worst of it is, my wife will hear of

it, and then there will be a deal of peace in the house. Oh, dear--oh,

dear--was there ever such an unfort--I knew it--"

A good rap upon his head from a pair of bellows wielded by a little

meagre-faced woman, that he was big enough to have swallowed, confined

his words. While all this was going on, Colonel Jeffery had ridden fast,

and passing through Finsbury and up the City-road, had reached his house

in the fashionable--but now quite the reverse, as the man says in the

play--district of Pentonville.

"This is a prize," thought the colonel, "worth the taking. It will go

hard with me but I will extract from this boy all that he knows of

Sweeney Todd, and we shall see how far that knowledge will go towards

the confirmation of my suspicions regarding him."

He carried Tobias himself to a comfortable bed-room, and immediately

sent for a medical practitioner of good repute in the neighbourhood, who

happening fortunately to be at home, obeyed the summons immediately. He

sent likewise for his friend the captain, whom he knew would be

overjoyed to hear of what he would call the capture of Tobias Ragg. The

medical man made his appearance first, as being much closer at hand, and

the colonel led him to the apartment of the invalid boy, saying to him

as he went--

"I know nothing of what is the matter with this lad--I have been very

anxious to see him on account of certain information that he possesses,

and only found him this morning upon a door step in the street, in the

state you see him."

"Is he very ill?"

"I am afraid he is."

The medical man followed the colonel to the room in which poor Tobias

lay, and after gazing upon him for a few moments, and opening with his

fingers the closed eyelids of Tobias, he shook his head.

"I wish I knew," he said, "what has produced this state. Can you not

inform me, sir?"

"Indeed I cannot, but I suspect that the boy's imagination has been

cruelly acted upon by a man, whom you will excuse me from naming just at

present, but whom I sincerely hope to bring to justice shortly."

"The boy's brain, no doubt, is in a bad condition. I do not take upon

myself to say that, as an organ, it is diseased, but fractionally it is

damaged. However, we must do the best we can to recover him from this

condition of collapse in which he is."

"Can you form any opinion as to his probable recovery?"

"Indeed I cannot, but he is young, and youth is a great thing. The best

that can be done shall be done."

"I thank you. Spare nothing for the lad, and pay him every attention, as

though he were a son or a brother of my own; I long to hear him speak,

and to convince him that he is really among friends, who are not only

willing to protect him, but have likewise the power to do so."

The medical man bowed, as he said--

"May I ask his name, sir?"

He had his tablets in his hand ready to book the name of Tobias, but the

colonel was so very much afraid that Sweeney Todd might by some means

learn that Tobias was in his house, and so take an alarm, that he would

not trust even the medical man, who, no doubt, had no other motive in

asking the name than merely to place it in his list of calls.

"Smith," said the colonel.

The medical man gave a short dry sort of cough, as he wrote "Master

Smith" upon his tablets, and then promising to return in half an hour,

he took his leave. At the expiration of half an hour Tobias was put

under a course of treatment. His head was shaved, and a blister clapped

upon the back of his neck. The room was darkened, and strict quiet was

enjoined.

"As soon as he betrays any signs of consciousness, pray send for me,

sir," said the surgeon.

"Certainly."

In the course of the day the captain made his appearance, and Colonel

Jeffery detailed to him all that had taken place, only lamenting that,

after so happily getting possession of Tobias, he should be in so sorry

a condition. The captain expressed a wish to see him, and they both went

to the chamber, where a woman had been hired to sit with Tobias, in

order to give the first intimation of his stirring. Of course, as it was

her duty, and what she was specially hired for, to keep wide awake, she

was fast asleep, and snoring loud enough to awaken any one much worse

than poor Tobias. But that was to to be expected.

"Oh," said the captain, "this is a professional nurse."

"A professional devil!" said the colonel. "How did you know that?"

"By her dropping off so comfortably to sleep, and her utter neglect of

her charge. I never knew one that did not do so, and, in good truth, I

am inclined to think it is the very best thing they can do, for if they

are not asleep they are obnoxiously awake."

The colonel took a pin from his cravat, and rather roughly inserted its

point into the fat arm of the nurse. She started up, exclaiming--

"Drat the fleas, can't a mortal sleep in peace for them?"

"Madam," said the colonel, "how much is owing to you for sleeping here a

few hours?"

"Lord bless me, sir, is this you? The poor soul has never so much as

stirred. How my heart bleeds continually for him, to be sure. Ah, dear

me, we are all born like sparks, and keep continually flying upward, as

the psalm says."

"How much do I owe you?"

"Here to-day, and gone to-morrow. Bless his innocent face."

The colonel rung the bell, and a strapping footman made his appearance.

"You will see this woman to the door, John," he said, "and pay her for

being here about three hours."

"Why, you mangy skin-flint," cried the woman. "What do you--"

She was cut short in her vituperative eloquence by John, who handed her

down stairs with such dispatch that a pint bottle of gin rolled out of

her pocket and was smashed, filling the house with an odour that was

quite unmistakeable.

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

"Why, as we have dined, if you have no objection we will sit here and

keep this poor benighted one company for awhile. He is better with no

one than such as she whom I have dislodged; but before night he shall

have a more tender and less professional nurse. You know more of the

world, after all, than I do, captain."