 10. The Colonel and his friend Colonel Geoffrey was not at all satisfied with the state of affairs as regarded the disappearance of Mr. Thornhill for whom he entertained a very sincere regard both on account of the private estimation in which he held him and on account of actual services rendered by Thornhill to him. Not to retain Joanna Oakley in the temple gardens, he had stopped his narrative, completely at the point when what concerned her had seized, and had said nothing of much danger which the ship Neptune and its crew and passengers has gone through after Mr. Thornhill had been taken on board with his dog. The fact is, the storm which he had mentioned was only the first of a series of gales of wind that buffeted the ship for some weeks, doing it much damage and enforcing almost the necessity of puffing in somewhere for repairs. But a glance at the map will be sufficient to show that situated as the Neptune was, the nearest port at which they could at all expect assistance was the British colony at the Cape of Good Hope. But such was the contrary nature of the winds and waves that just upon the evening of a tempestuous day they found themselves bearing down clothes inshore on the eastern coast of Madagascar. There was much apprehension that the vessel would strike on a rocky shore, but the water was deep and the vessel rode well. There was a squall and they let go both anchors to secure the vessel. As they were so close inshore, lest they should be driven in and stranded. It was fortunate they had so secured themselves for the gale while it lasted blew half a hurricane, and the ship lost some of her mast and some other trifling damage, which however entailed upon them the necessity of remaining there a few days to cut timber to repair their mast and to obtain a few supplies. There is but little to interest a general reader in the description of a gale. Order after order was given until the mast and spars went one by one, and then the orders for clearing the wreck were given. There was much work to be done, and worth little pleasure in doing it, for it was wet and miserable while it lasted, and there was the danger of being driven upon a lee shore and knocked two pieces upon the rocks. This danger was averted and they anchored safe at a very short distance from the shore in comparative safety and security. We are safe now," remarked the captain, as he gave his second-in-command charge of the deck and approached Mr. Thornhill and Colonel Geoffrey. I am happy it is so," replied Geoffrey. Well, captain said Mr. Thornhill, I am glad we have done with being knocked about. We are anchored, and the water here appears smooth enough. It is so, and I dare say it will remain so. It is a beautiful basin of deep water, deep and good anchorage, but you see it is not large enough to make a fine harbor. True, but it is rocky. It is, and that may make it sometimes dangerous, though I don't know that it would be so in some gales. The sea may beat in at the opening, which is deep enough for anything to enter, even Noah's Ark would enter there easily enough. What will you do now? Stay here for a day or so, and send boats ashore to cut some pine trees to refit the ship with mass. You have no staffs then? Not enough for such a purpose, and we never do go outstored with such things. You obtain them wherever you may go to? Yes, any part of the world will furnish them in some shape or other. When you send ashore, will you permit me to accompany the boats crew? said Jeffrey. Certainly, but the natives of this country are violent and intractable, and should you get into any row with them? There is every probability of you being captured, or some bodily injury done to you. But I will take care to avoid that. Very well, Colonel. You shall be welcome to go. I must beg the same permission, said Mr. Tharnal, for I should much like to see the country, as well as to have some acquaintance with the natives themselves. By no means trust yourself alone with them, said the captain, for if you live, you will have cause to repent it, depend upon what I say. I will, said Tharnal, I will go nowhere but where the boats company goes. You will be safe then. But do you prehend any hostile attack from the natives? inquired Colonel Jeffrey. No, I do not expect it, but such things have happened before today. And I have seen them when least expected, though I have been on this coast before, and yet I have never met with any ill treatment. But there have been many who have touched on this coast, who have had a brush with the natives and come off second best. The natives generally retiring when the ship's company musters strong in number, and calling out the chiefs, who come down in great force that we may not conquer them. The next morning the boats were ordered out to go ashore with crews, prepared for the cutting of timber, and obtaining such staffs as the ship was in want of. With these boats, Mr. Tharnal and Colonel Jeffrey went both of them on board, and after a short ride, they reached the shore of Madagascar. It was a beautiful country, and one in which vegetables appeared abundant and luxuriant. And the party in search of timber for shipbuilding purposes soon came to some lordly monarchs of the forest, which would have made vessels of themselves. But this was not what was wanted, but where the trees grew thicker and taller, they began to cut some small pine trees down. This was the wood they most desired, in fact it was exactly what they wanted, but they hardly got through a few such trees when the natives came down upon them, apparently to reconnoitre. At first they were quite and tractable enough, but anxious to see and inspect everything, being very inquisitive and curious. However, that was easily borne, but at length they became more numerous, and began to pilfer all they could lay their hands upon, which of course brought resentment and after some time a blow or two was exchanged. Colonel Geoffrey was forward and endeavouring to prevent some violence being offered to one of the woodcutters. In fact, he was interposing himself between the two contending parties, and tried to restore order and peace. But several armed natives rushed suddenly upon him, secured him, and were hurrying him away to death before anyone could stir in his behalf. His doom appeared certain for had they succeeded, they would have cruelly and brutally murdered him. However, just at that moment, aid was at hand, and Mr. Thornill, seeing how matters stood, seized a musket from one of the sailors and rushed after the natives, who had Colonel Geoffrey. There were three of them, two others had gone on to a prize, it was presumed the chiefs. When Mr. Thornill arrived, they had thrown a blanket over the head of Geoffrey, but Mr. Thornill in an instant hurled one with a blow from the butt end of his musket, and the second met the same fate, as he turned to see what was the matter. The third, seeing the Colonel free, and the musket leveled at his own head, immediately ran after the other two, to avoid any serious consequences to himself. Thornill, you have saved my life, said Colonel Geoffrey excitedly. Come away, don't stop here, to the ship, to the ship, and as he spoke, they hurried after the crew, and they succeeded in reaching the boats and the ship in safety. Congratulating themselves not a little upon so lucky an escape from a people quite warlike enough to do mischief, but not civilized enough to distinguish when to do it. When men are far away from home and in foreign lands, with the skies of other climes above them, their hearts become more closely knit together in those ties of brotherhood, which certainly ought to actuate the whole universe, but which as certainly do not do so. Except in very narrow circumstances. One of these instances, however, would probably be found in the conduct of Colonel Geoffrey and Mr. Thornill, even under any circumstances, for they were most emphatically what might be termed kindred spirits. But when we come to unite to the fact, the remarkable manner in which they had been thrown together, and the mutual services that they had had it in their power to render to each other, we should not be surprised at the almost romantic friendship that arose between them. It was then that Thornill made the Colonel's breast the repository of all his thoughts and all his vises, and a freedom of intercourse and a community of feeling ensued between them, which, when it does take place between persons of really congenial dispositions, produces the most delightful results of human companionship. No one who has not endured the tedium of a sea voyage can at all be aware of what a pleasant thing it is to have someone on board in the rich stores of whose intellect and fancy one can find a never-ending amusement. The winds might now whistle through chordage, and the waves toss the great ship on their foaming crests. Still Thornill and Geoffrey were together, finding in the midst of danger, soulless in each other's society, and each animating the other to the performance of deeds of daring that astionist the crew. The whole voyage was one of the greatest peril, and some of the oldest seamen on board did not scruple during the continuance of their night watches to intimate to their companions that the ship in their opinion would never reach England, and that she would found her somewhere along the long stretch of the African coast. The captain, of course, made every possible exertion to put a stop to such prophetic sayings, but when once they commenced in short time there is no such thing as completely eradicating them, and they, of course, produced the most injurious effect, paralyzing the exertions of the crew in times of danger and making them believe that they are in a doomed ship, and consequently all they can do is useless. Sailors are extremely superstitious on such matters, and there cannot be any reasonable doubt, but that some of the disasters that befell the Neptune on her homeward voyage from India may be attributable to this feeling of fatality, getting hold of the seamen, and inducing them to think that, let them try what they might, they could not save the ship. It happened that after they had rounded the cape, a dense fog came on, such as had not been known on that coast for many a year, although the western shore of Africa at some season of the year is subject to such a species of vaporous exhalation. Every object was wrapped in the most profound gloom, and yet there was a strong eddy or current of the ocean, flowing parallel with the land, and as the captain hoped, rather off than on the shore. In consequence of this fear, the greatest anxiety prevailed on board the vessel, and lights were left burning on all parts of the deck, while two men were continually engaged making soundings. It was about half an hour after midnight, as the chronometer indicated a storm, that suddenly the men who were on watch on the deck raised a loud cry of alarm. They had suddenly seen close to the laboured bow lights, which must belong to some vessel that, like the Neptune was encompassed in the fog, and a collision was quite inevitable, for neither ship had time to put about. The only doubt which was a fearful and an agonising one to have solved was whether the stronger vessel was a sufficient bulk and power to run them down, or they it, and that fearful question was one which a few moments must settle. In fact almost before the echo of that cry of horror, which had come from the men, had died away, the vessels met. There was a hideous crash, one shriek of dismay and horror, and then all was still. The Neptune, with considerable damage, and some of the bulwarks stove in, sailed on, but the other ship went with a surging sound to the bottom of the sea. Alas, nothing could be done. The fog was so dense, that coupled to, with the darkness of the night, there could be no hope of rescuing one of the ill-fated crew of the ship, and the officers and seamen of the Neptune, although they shouted for some time, and then listened to hear if any of the survivors of the ship that had been run down, where, swimming, no answers came to them. And when, in about six hours more, they sailed out of the fog into a clear sunshine, where there was not so much as a cloud to be seen, they looked at each other like men newly awakened from some strange and fearful dream. They never discovered the name of the ship they had run down, and the whole affair remained a profound mystery. When the Neptune reached the port of London, the affair was repeated, and every exertion made to obtain some information concerning the ill-fated ship that had met with so fearful a doom. Such were the circumstances which awakened all the liveliest feelings of gratitude on the part of Colonel Geoffrey towards Mr. Thornhill, and hence it was that he was in London, and had the necessary leisure so to do, to leave no stone unturned to discover what had become of him. After deep and anxious thought and feeling convinced that there was some mystery which it was beyond his power to discover, he resolved upon asking the opinion of a friend, likewise in the army, a captain wrath born, concerning the whole of the facts. This gentleman, and the gentleman he was in the fullest acceptation of the term, was in London, in fact he had retired from active service, and inhabited a small but pleasant house in the outskirts of the metropolis. It was one of those old-fashioned cottage residences, with all sorts of odd places and corners about it, and a thriving garden full of fine old wood, such as are rather rare near to London, and which are daily becoming more rare in consequence of the value of the land immediately contiguous to the metropolis, not permitting large pieces to remain attached to small residences. Captain Wrathborn had an amiable family about him, such as he was and might well be proud of, and was living in as great a state of domestic felicity as this world could very well afford him. It was to this gentleman then that Colonel Geoffrey resolved upon going to lay all the circumstances before him concerning the possible and probable fate of poor Thornhill. This distance was not so great, but that he could walk it conveniently, and he did so, arriving towards the dusk of the evening on the day following that which had witnessed his deeply interesting interview with Joanna Oakley in the temple gardens. There is nothing on earth so delightfully refreshing after a dusty and rather a long country walk as to suddenly enter a well-kept and extremely verdant garden, and this was the case especially to the feelings of Colonel Geoffrey when he arrived at Lime Tree Lodge, the residence of Captain Wrathborn. He was met with the most cordial and frank welcome, a welcome which he expected, but which was nonetheless delightful on that account, and after sitting a while with the family in the house, he and the captain strolled into the garden, and then Colonel Geoffrey commenced with his revelation. The captain with very few interruptions heard him to the end, and when he concluded by saying, and now I have come to ask your advice upon all these matters, the captain immediately replied in his warm, off-and-manner, You have to command me in the matter, and I am completely at your disposal. I was quite certain you would say as much, but not withstanding the manner in which you shrink from giving an opinion, I am anxious to know what you really think with regard to what are, you will allow most extraordinary circumstances. The most natural thing in the world, said Captain Wrathborn, at the first flush of affair, seemed to be that we ought to look for your friend Thornell at the point where he disappeared, at the barbers in Fleet Street. Precisely, did he leave or did he not? Sweeney Todd says that he left him and proceeded down the street towards the city. In pursuance of a direction he had given to Mr. Oakley, the spectacle-maker, and that he saw him get into some sort of disturbance at the end of the market, but to put against that, we have the fact of the dog remaining by the barbers door, and he is refusing to leave it on any amount of solicitation. Now, the very fact that a dog could act in such a way proclaims an amount of sagacity that seems to tell loudly against the presumption that such a creature could make any mistake. It does. What say you now to going into town tomorrow morning and making a call at the barbers without proclaiming we have any specialist and accept to be shaved and rest? Do you think he would know you again? Scarcely in plain clothes. I was in my undress uniform when I called with the captain of the Neptune, so that his impression of me must be decidedly of a military character, and the probability is that he would not know me at all in the clothes of a civilian. I like the idea of giving a call at the barbers. Do you think your friend Thornhill was a man likely to talk about the valuable pearls he had in his possession? Certainly not. I merely ask you because they might have offered a great temptation, and if he has experienced any foul play at the hands of the barber, the idea of becoming possessed of such a valuable treasure might have been the inducement. I do not think it probable, but it has struck me that if we obtain any information whatever of Thornhill it will be in consequence of these very pearls. They are of great value and not likely to be overlooked, and yet unless a customer be found for them they are of no value at all, and nobody buys jewels of that character but from the personal vanity of making, of course some public display of them. That is true, and so from hand to hand we might trace those pearls until we come to the individual who must have had them from Thornhill himself, and who might be forced to account most strictly for the manner in which they came into his position. After some more disultery conversation upon the subject it was agreed that Colonel Geoffrey should take a bed there for the night at Lime Tree Lodge, and that in the morning they should both start for London and disguising themselves as respectable citizens make some attempts by talking about jewels and precious stones to draw the barber into a confession that he had something of the sort to dispose of. And moreover they fully intended to take away the dog with the care of which Captain Rathbone charged himself. We may pass over the pleasant social evening which the Colonel passed with the amiable family of the Rathbones, and skipping likewise a conversation of some strange and confused dreams which Geoffrey had during the night concerning his friend Thornhill. We will presume that both the Colonel and the Captain have breakfasted, and that they have proceeded to London and are at the shop of a clothier in the neighbourhood of the Strand in order to procure coats, wigs and hats that should disguise them for their visit to Sweeney Todd. Then arm in arm they walked towards Fleet Street and soon arrived opposite the little shop within which there appears to be so much mystery. The dog you perceive is not here, said Colonel. I had my suspicions, however, when I passed with Joanna Oakley that something was amiss with him, and I have no doubt but that the rascally barber has fairly compassed his destruction. If the barber be innocent, said Captain Rathbone, you must admit that it would be one of the most confoundedly annoying things in the world to have a dog continually at his door, assuming such an aspect of accusation, and in that case I can scarcely wonder at his putting the creature out of the way. No presuming upon his innocence, certainly, but we will say nothing about all that, and remember we must come in as perfect strangers, knowing nothing whatever of the affair of the dog, and presuming nothing about the disappearance of anyone in this locality. Agreed, come on. If he should see us through the window hanging about at all or hesitating, his suspicions will be at once awakened, and we shall do no good. They both entered the shop and found Sweeney Todd wearing an extraordinary singular appearance, for there was a black patch over one of his eyes which was kept in its place by a green ribbon that went round his head, so that he looked more fierce and diabolical than ever. And having shaved off a small whisker that he used to wear, his countenance, although to the full as hideous as ever, certainly had a different character of ugliness to that which had before characterized it, and attracted the attention of the Colonel. The gentleman would hardly have known him again anywhere but in his own shop. In the course of the morning, perhaps to retail at that acknowledged mart for all sorts of gossip, a barber's shop, some of the very incidents which he was so well qualified himself to relate. Shaved and dressed gentleman, said Sweeney Todd as his customers made their appearance. Shaved only, said Captain Ratborne, who had agreed to be the principal spokesman, in case Sweeney Todd should have any reminiscent of the Colonel's voice and so suspect him. Pray be seated, said Sweeney Todd to Colonel Geoffrey. I'll soon polish off your friend, sir, and then I'll begin upon you. Would you like to see the morning paper, sir? I was just looking myself, sir, at a most mysterious circumstance, if it is true. But you can't believe, you know, all that is put in the papers. Thank you, thank you, said the Colonel. Captain Ratborne sat down to be shaved, but he had purposely omitted that operation at home in order that it should not appear a mere excuse to get into Sweeney Todd's shop. Why, sir, continued Sweeney Todd? As I was saying, it is a most remarkable circumstance. Indeed. Yes, sir. An old gentleman of the name Fiddler had been to receive a sum of money at the west end of the town, and has never been heard of since. That was only yesterday, sir, and there is a description of him in the papers of today. A snuff-coloured coat and velvet-smalls, black velvet, I should have said, silk stockings and silver shoe-buckles and a golden-headed cane with WDF upon it, meaning William Dumbledown Fiddler, a most mysterious affair, gentlemen. A sort of groan came from the corner of the shop, and on the impulse of the moment Colonel Geoffrey sprang to his feet, exclaiming, What's that? What's that? Oh, it's only my apprentice, Tobias Rag. He has got a pain in his stomach from eating too many off-loved spark-pies. Isn't that it, Tobias, my bud? Yes, sir, said Tobias with another groan. Oh, indeed, said the Colonel. It ought to make him more careful for the future. It's to be hoped it will, sir. Tobias, do you hear what the gentleman says? It ought to make you more careful in future. I am too indulgent to you. That's a fact. Now, sir, I believe you are as clean-shaved as ever you were in your life. Why, yes, said Captain Rathbone. I think that will do very well. And now, Mr. Green, dressing the Colonel by that assumed name. And now, Mr. Green, be quick, or we shall be too late for the dupe, and so lose the sale of some of our jewels. We shall indeed, said the Colonel, if we don't mind. We sat too long over our breakfast at the inn, and his grace is too rich and too good a customer to lose. He don't mind what price he gives for things that take his fancy, or the fancy of his duchess. Jewel merchants, gentlemen, I presume, said Sweeney Todd. Yes, we have been in that line for some time. And by one of us trading in one direction and the other in another, we manage extremely well. Because we exchange what suits our different customers, and keep up two distinct connections. A very good plan, said Sweeney Todd. I'll be as quick as I can with you, sir. Dealing in jewels is better than shaving. I dare say it is. Of course it is, sir. Here have I been, slaving for some years in the shop, and not done much good, that is to say. When I talk of not having done much good, I admit I have made enough to tire upon, quietly and comfortably, and I mean to do so very shortly. There you are, sir, shaved with celerity you seldom meet with, and as clean as possible, for the small charge of one penny. Thank you, gentlemen. There's your change. Good morning. They had no resource but to leave the shop, and when they had gone, Sweeney Todd, as he strapped the razor, he had been using upon his hand, gave a most diabolical grain muttering. Clever, very ingenious. But it wouldn't do. Oh, dear, no, not at all. I am not so easily taken in diamond merchants. Ah, ah, and no objection, of course, to deal in pearls. A good jest that, truly, a capital jest. If I had been accustomed to be so defeated, I had not now been here a living man. Tobias, Tobias, I say, yes, sir, said the lad, dejectedly. Have you forgotten your mother's danger in case you breathe a syllable of anything that has occurred here, or that you think has occurred here, or so much as dream of? No, said the boy. Indeed, I have not. I never can forget it. If I were to live a hundred years. That's well prudent, excellent, Tobias. God, now, and if those two persons who were here last relay you in the street, let them say what they will, and do you reply to them as shortly as possible. But be sure you come back to me quickly and report what did you say? They turned to the left towards the city. Now, be off with you. It's of no use, said Colonel Geoffrey to the captain. The barber is either too cunning for me, or he is really innocent of all participation in the disappearance of Thornhill. And yet, there are suspicious circumstances. I watched his countenance when the subject of Jewels was mentioned, and I saw a sudden change come over it. It was but momentary, but still it gave me a suspicion that he knew something which caution alone kept within the recess of his breast. The conduct of the boy, too, was strange, and then again, if he has the string of pearls, their value would give him all the power to do what he says he is about to do. Like to retire from business with an independence. Hush! There, did you see the lad? Yes. Why? It's the barber's boy. It's the same lad he called Tobias. Shall we speak to him? Let's make a bolder push and offer him an ample reward for any information he may give us. Agreed. Agreed. They both walked up to Tobias, who was listlessly walking along the streets. And when they reached him, they were both struck with the appearance of care and sadness that was upon the boy's face. He looked perfectly haggard and care-worn, an expression sad to see upon the face of one so young, and when the Colonel accosted him in a kindly tone, he seemed so unnerved that tears immediately darted to his eyes, although at the same time he shrank back as if alarmed. My lad, said the Colonel, you reside, I think, with Sweeney Todd the barber. Is he not a kind master to you that you seem so unhappy? No, no. That is, I mean, yes. I have nothing to tell. Let me pass on. What is the meaning of this confusion? Nothing, nothing. I say, my lad, here's a guinea for you. If you tell us what became of the man of a seafaring appearance who came with a dog to your master's house, some days since to be shaved. I cannot tell you, said the boy. I cannot tell you what I do not know. But you have some idea probably. Come, we'll make it worth your while, and thereby protect you from Sweeney Todd. We have the power to do so, and all the inclination. But you must be quite explicit with us, and tell us frankly what you think, and what you know concerning the man in whose weight we are interested. I know nothing. I think nothing, said Tobias. Let me go. I have nothing to say except that he was shaved and went away. But how came he to leave his dog behind him? I cannot tell. I know nothing. It is evident that you do know something, but hesitate either from fear or some other motive to tell it. As you are inaccessible to fair means, we must resort to others, and you shall at once come before a magistrate, which will force you to speak out. Do with me what you will, said Tobias. I cannot help it. I have nothing to say to you. Nothing, whatever. Oh my poor mother, if it were not for you. What then? Nothing, nothing, nothing. It was but a threat of the Colonel to take the boy before a magistrate, for he really had no grounds for so doing. And if the boy chose to keep a secret, if he had one, not all the magistrates in the world could force words from his lips that he felt not inclined to utter. And so, after one more effort, they felt that they must leave him. Boy, said the Colonel, you are young and cannot well judge of the consequences of particular lines of conduct. You ought to weigh well what you are about, and hesitate long before you determine keeping dangerous secrets. We can convince you that we have the power of completely protecting you from all that Sweeney Todd could possibly attempt. Think again, for this is an opportunity of saving yourself, perhaps from much future misery that may never arise again. I have nothing to say, said the boy. I have nothing to say. He uttered those words with such an agonized expression of countenance that they were both convinced he had something to say. And that, too, of the first importance, a something which would be valuable to them in the way of information. Extremely valuable, probably, and yet, which they felt the utter impossibility of ringing from him. They were compelled to leave him, and likewise with the additional modification that far from making any advance in the matter, they had placed themselves, and their cause in a much worse position. In so far as, they had awakened all Sweeney Todd's suspicions if he were guilty, and yet advanced not one step in the transaction. And then, to make matters all the more perplexing, there was still the possibility that they might be altogether upon a wrong scent, and that the barber of Fleet Street had no more to do with the disappearance of Mr. Tharnhill than they had themselves. End of CHAPTER X. CHAPTER XI. The Stranger at Lovitz. Towards the dusk of the evening in that day, after the last batch of pies at Lovitz had been disposed of, they walked into the shop a man most miserably clad, and who stood for a few moments staring with weakness and hunger at the counter before he spoke. Mrs. Lovitz was there, but she had no smile for him, and instead of its usual bland expression, her countenance wore an aspect of anger, as she forestalled what the man had to say by exclaiming, Go away, we never give to beggars. There came a flash of colour for a moment across the features of the Stranger, and then he replied, Mistress Lovitz, I do not come to ask arms of you, but to know if you can recommend me to any employment. Recommend you, recommend a ragged wretch like you? I am a ragged wretch, and moreover quite destitute. In better times I have sat at your counter, and paid cheerfully for what I have wanted, and then one of your softest smiles has been ever at my disposal. I do not say this as an approach to you, because the cause of your smile was well known to be a self-interested one, and when that cause has passed away I can no longer expect it, but I am so situated that I am willing to do anything for a mere subsistence. Oh yes, and then when you have got into a better case again, I have no doubt that you have quite sufficient insolence to make you unbearable. Besides, what employment can we have but pie-making, and we have a man already who suits us very well, with the exception that he, as you would do if you were to exchange with him, has grown insolent, and fancies himself master of the place. Well well, said the stranger, of course there is always sufficient argument against the poor and destitute to keep them so. If you will assert that my conduct would be of the nature you describe it, it is quite impossible for me to prove the contrary. He turned and was about to leave the shop, when Mrs. Lovett called after him, saying, Come in again, in two hours. He paused a moment or two, and then, turning his emaciated counselence upon her, said, I will, if my strength permits me, water from the pumps in the streets is but a poor thing for a man to subsist upon for twenty-four hours. You may take one pie. The half-famished, miserable-looking man seized upon a pie, and devoured it in an instant. My name, he said, is Jarvis Williams. I'll be here, never fear, Mrs. Lovett, in two hours, and notwithstanding all you have said, you shall find no change in my behaviour, because I may be well-kept and better clothed, but if I should feel dissatisfied with my situation, I will leave it, and no harm done. So saying, he walked from the shop, and after he was gone, a strange expression came across the countenance of Mrs. Lovett, and she said in a low tone to herself, He might suit for a few months, like the rest, and it is clear we must get rid of the one we have. I must think of it. There is a cellar of vast extent, and of dim and sepulchral aspect. Some rough red tiles are laid upon the floor, and pieces of flint and large jagged stones have been hammered into the earthen walls to strengthen them, while here and there rough huge pillars made by beams of timber rise perpendicularly from the floor, and prop large flat pieces of wood against the ceiling to support it. Here and there gleaming lights seem to be peeping out from furnaces, and there is a strange hissing, simmering sound going on, while the whole air is impregnated with a rich and savoury vapour. This is Lovett's pie-manufactory, beneath the pavement of Belyard, and at this time a night-batch of some thousands is being made for the purpose of being sent by carts, the first thing in the morning all over the suburbs of London. By the earliest dawn of the day a crowd of itinerant hawkers of pies would make their appearance, carrying off a large quantity to regular customers who had them daily, and no more thought of being without them than of forbidding the milkman or the baker to call at their residences. It will be seen and understood, therefore, that the retail part of Mrs. Lovett's business, which took place principally between the hours of twelve and one, was by no means the most important or profitable portion of a concern which was really of immense magnitude and which brought in a large yearly income. To stand in the cellar when this immense manufacture of what, at first sight, would appear such a trivial article was carried on, and to look about as far as the eye could reach was by no means to have a sufficient idea of the extent of the place, for there were as many doors in different directions, and singular low arched entrances to different vaults, which all appeared as black as midnight, that one might almost suppose the inhabitants of all the surrounding neighbourhood had, by common consent, given up their cellars to Lovett's pie-factory. There is but one miserable light except the occasional fitful glare that comes from the ovens where the pies are stewing, hissing, and spluttering in their own luscious gravy. There is but one man, too, throughout all the place, and he is sitting on a low three-legged stall in one corner, with his head resting upon his hands, and gently rocking to and fro as he at his scarcely audible moans. He is but lightly clad, in fact he seems to have but little on him except a shirt and a pair of loose canvas trousers. The sleeves of the former are turned up beyond his elbows, and on his head he has a white nightcap. It seems astonishing that such a man, even with the assistance of Mrs. Lovett, could make so many pies as are required in a day, but the system does wonders, and in those cellars there are various mechanical contrivances for kneading the dough, chopping up the meat, etc., which greatly reduce the labour. But what a miserable object is this man! What a sad and soul-stricken wretch he looks! His face is pale and haggard, his eyes deeply sunken, and as he removes his hands from before his visage, and looks about him, a more perfect picture of horror could not have been found. I must leave to-night, he said in coarse accents. I must leave to-night. I know too much. My brain is full of horrors. I have not slept now for five nights, nor dare I eat anything but the raw flour. I will leave to-night if they do not watch me too closely. Oh, if I could but get into the streets! If I could but once again breathe the fresh air! How short's that? I thought I heard a noise. He rose and stood, trembling and listening, but all was still, save the simmering and hissing of the pies, and then he resumed his seat with a deep sigh. All the doors fastened upon me, he said, what can it mean? It's very horrible, and my heart dies within me. Six weeks only have I been here. Only six weeks! I was starving before I came. Alas! Alas! How much better to have starved? I should have been dead before now, and spared all this agony. Skinner cried a voice, and it was a female one. Skinner, how long will the ovens be? A quarter of an hour, he replied. A quarter of an hour, Mrs. Lovett, God help me. What is that you say? I said, God help me. Surely a man may say that without offence. A door slammed shut, and the miserable man was alone again. How strangely, he said, on this night my thoughts go back to early days and to what I once was. The pleasant scenes of my youth recur to me. I see again the ivy-mantle porch and the pleasant green. I hear again the merry ringing laughter of my playmates, and there, in my mind's eye, appears to me the bubbling stream and the ancient mill, the old mansion-house with its tall turrets and its air of silent grandeur. I hear the music of the birds and the winds making rough melody among the trees. It is very strange that all these sights and sounds should come back to me at such a time as this, as if just to remind me what a wretch I am. He was silent for a few moments, during which he trembled with emotion, then he spoke again, saying, Thus the forms of those whom I once knew, and many of whom have gone already to the silent tomb, appear to come thronging round me. They bend their eyes momentarily upon me, and with settled expressions show acutely the sympathy they feel for me. I see her too, who first in my bosom lit up the flame of soft affection. I see her gliding past me like the dim vision of a dream, indistinct but beautiful, no more than a shadow, and yet to me most palpable. What am I now? What am I now? He resumed his former position, with his head resting upon his hands, he rocked himself slowly to and fro, uttering those moans of a tortured spirit which we have before noticed. But see, one of the small arch-doors opens in the gloom of those vaults, and a man in a stooping posture creeps in, a half-mask is upon his face, and he wears a cloak. But both his hands are at liberty. In one of them he carries a double-headed hammer with a powerful handle of about ten inches in length. He has probably come out of a darker place than the one into which he now so cautiously creeps, for he shades the light from his eyes, as if it was suddenly rather too much for him, and then he looks cautiously round the vault until he sees the crouched-up figure of the man whose duty it is to attend to the ovens. From that moment he looks at nothing else, but advances towards him steadily and cautiously. It is evident that great secrecy is his object, for he is walking on his stocking-souls only, and it is impossible to hear the slightest sound of his footsteps. Nearer and nearer he comes, so slowly, and yet so surely, towards him, who still keeps up the low moaning sound, indicative of mental anguish. Now he is close to him, and he bends over him for a moment with a look of fiendish malice. It is a look which, despite his mask, glances full from his eyes, and then, grasping the hammer tightly in both hands, he raises it slowly above his head, and gives it a swinging motion through the air. There is no knowing what induced the man that was crouching upon the stool to rise at that moment, but he did so, and paced about with great quickness. A sudden shriek burst from his lips as he beheld so terrific an apparition before him, but before he could repeat the word, the hammer descended, crushing into his skull, and he fell lifeless without a moan. "'And say, Mr. Jarvis-Williams, you have kept your word,' said Mrs. Lovett, to the emaciated, care-worn stranger, who had solicited employment of her, and say, Mr. Jarvis-Williams, you have kept your word and come for employment. I have, madam, and hope that you can give it to me. I frankly tell you that I would seek for something better and more congenial to my disposition if I could, but who would employ one presenting such a wretched appearance as I do? You see that I am all in rags, and I have told you that I have been half-starved, and therefore it is only some common and ordinary employment that I can hope to get, and that made me come to you. Well, I don't see why we should not make a trial of you at all events, so if you like to go down into the bake-house, I will follow you, and show you what you have to do. You remember that you have to live entirely upon the pies, unless you like to purchase for yourself anything else, which you may do if you can get the money. We give none, and you must likewise agree never to leave the bake-house. Never to leave it. Never, unless you leave it for good and for all, if upon these conditions you choose to accept the situation, you may, and if not, you can go about your business at once, and leave it alone. Alas, madam, I have no resource, but you spoke of having a man already. Yes, but he has gone to some of his very oldest friends, who will be quite glad to see him, so now say the word. Are you willing, or are you not, to take the situation? My poverty and my destitution consent, if my will be adverse, Mrs. Lovett, but of course I quite understand that I leave when I please. Oh, of course, we never think of keeping anybody many hours after they begin to feel uncomfortable, if you are ready, follow me. I am quite ready, and thankful for a shelter. All the brightest visions of my early life have long since faded away, and it matters little, or indeed nothing, what now becomes of me. I will follow you, madam, freely, upon the condition you have mentioned. Mrs. Lovett lifted up a portion of the counter which permitted him to pass behind it, and then he followed her into a small room, which was at the back of the shop. She then took a key from her pocket, and opened an old door which was in the wainscoting, and immediately behind which was a flight of stairs. These she descended, and Jarvis Williams followed her, to a considerable depth, after which she took an iron bar from behind another door, and flung it open, showing to her new assistant the interior of that vault, which we have already very briefly described. These, she said, are the ovens, and I will proceed to show you how you can manufacture the pies, feed the furnaces, and make yourself generally useful. Flour will be always let down through a trap-door from the upper shop, as well as everything required for making the pies but the meat, and that you will always find ranged upon shelves, either in lumps or steaks, in a small room through this door, but it is only at particular times you will find the door open, and whenever you do so, you had better always take out what meat you think you will require for the next batch. I understand all that, madam, said Williams, but how does it get there? That's no business of yours, so long as you are supplied with it, that is sufficient for you, and now I will go through the process of making one pie, so that you may know how to proceed, and you will find with what amazing quickness they can be manufactured if you set about them in the proper manner. She then showed how a piece of meat thrown into a machine became finely minced up by merely turning a handle, and then how flour and water and lard were mixed up together to make the crusts of the pies by another machine which, throughout the paste, thus manufactured in small pieces, each just large enough for a pie. Lastly, she showed him how a tray, which just held a hundred, could be filled and by turning a windlass sent up to the shop, through a square trap-door which went right up to the very counter. And now she said, I must leave you, as long as you are industrious you will get on very well, but as soon as you begin to be idle and neglect the orders that are sent to you by me, you will get a piece of information which will be useful, and which, if you are a prudent man, will enable you to know what you are about. What is that? You may as well give it to me now. No, we but seldom find there is occasion for it at first, but after a time when you get well-fed you are pretty sure to want it. So saying she left the place, and he heard the door by which he had entered, carefully barred after her. Suddenly then he heard her voice again, and so clearly and distinctly too, that he thought she must have come back again, but upon looking up at the door he found that that arose from the fact of her speaking through a small grating at the upper part of it, to which her mouth was closely placed. Remember your duty, she said, and I warn you that any attempt to leave here will be as futile as it will be dangerous, except with your consent when I relinquish the situation. Oh, certainly, certainly, you are quite right there, everybody who relinquishes the situation goes to his old friends whom he has not seen for many years, perhaps. What a strange manner of talking she has, said Jarvis Williams to himself, when he found he was alone. There seems to be some singular and hidden meaning in every word she utters. What can she mean by a communication being made to me, if I neglect my duty? It is very strange. And what a singular-looking place this is. I think it would be quite unbearable if it were not for the delicious odor of the pies, and they are indeed delicious, perhaps more delicious to me who has been famished so long, and has gone through so much wretchedness. There is no one here but myself, and I am hungry now, frightfully hungry, and whether the pies are done or not, I'll have half a dozen of them at any rate, so here goes. He opened one of the ovens, and the fragrant steam that came out was perfectly delicious, and he sniffed it up with a satisfaction such as he had never felt before, as regarded anything that was eatable. Is it possible, he said, that I shall be able to make such delicious pies? At all events one can't starve here, and if it is a kind of imprisonment, it's a pleasant one. Upon my soul they are nice, even half cooked, delicious. I'll have another half dozen. There are lots of them, delightful. I can't keep the gravy from running out of the corners of my mouth. Upon my soul, Mrs. Lovett, I don't know where you get your meat, but it's all as tender as young chickens, and the fat actually melts away in one's mouth. Ah, these are pies, something like pies, they are positively fit for the gods. Mrs. Lovett's new man ate twelve Thrapini pies, and then he thought of leaving off. It was a little drawback not to have anything to wash them down with but cold water, but he reconciled himself to this. For, as he said, after all, it would be a pity to take the flavour of such pies out of one's mouth. Indeed, it would be a thousand pities, so I won't think of it, but just put up with what I have got, and not complain. I might have gone further and fared worse with the vengeance, and I cannot help looking upon it as a singular piece of good fortune that made me think of coming here in my deep distress to try and get something to do. I have no friends and no money, she whom I loved is faithless, and here I am, master of as many pies as I like, and to all appearance monarch of all I survey, for there really seems to be no one to dispute my supremacy. To be sure my kingdom is rather a gloomy one, but then I can abdicate it when I like, and when I am tired of those delicious pies, if such a thing be possible, which I really very much doubt, I can give up my situation and think of something else. If I do that I will leave England for ever, it's no place for me after the many disappointments I have had. No friend left me, my girl, false, not a relation, but who would turn his back upon me. I will go somewhere where I am unknown and can form new connections, and perhaps make new friendships of a more permanent and stable character than the old ones, which have all proved so false to me, and in the meantime I'll make an eat pies as fast as I can. To be sure my kingdom is rather a gloomy one, but then I will leave England for ever, and then I will leave England for ever, and then I will leave England for ever, and in the meantime I will leave England for ever, and in the meantime I will make an eat pies as fast as I can. But lingered on the staircase to hear what ensued, and if anything in her dejected state of mind could have given her amusements, it would certainly have been the way in which the beef eats are exacted a retribution from the reverend, personage, who was not likely again to intrude himself into the house of the spectacle maker. But when he was gone, and she heard that a sort of peace had been patched up with her mother, a peace which, from her knowledge of the high contracting parties, she conjectured would not last long. She returned to her room and locked herself in, so that if any attempt was made to get her down to partake of the supper, it might be supposed she was asleep, for she felt herself totally unequal to the task of making one in any party, however much she might respect the individual members that composed it. And she did respect Ben the beef eater, for she had a lively recollection of much kindness from him during her early years, and she knew that he had never come to the house when she was a child without bringing her some token of his regard in the shape of a plaything or some little article of Doll's finery, which at this time was very precious. She was not wrong in her conjecture that Ben would make an attempt to get her downstairs, for her father came up at the beef eater's request and tapped at her door. She thought the best plan, as indeed it was, would be to make no answer, so that the old spectacle maker concluded at once what she wished him to conclude, namely that she had gone to sleep. And he walked quietly down the stairs again, glad that he had not disturbed her, and told Ben as much. Now feeling herself quite secure from interruption for the night, Joanna did not attempt to seek repose, but set herself seriously to reflect upon what had happened. She almost repeated to herself word for word what Colonel Jeffery had told her, and as she revolved the matter over and over again in her brain, a strange thought took possession of her, which she could not banish, and which, when once it found a home within her breast, began to gather probability from every slight circumstance that was in any way connected with it. This thought, strange as it may appear, was that the Mr. Thornhill, of whom Colonel Jeffery spoke in terms of such high eulogium, was no other than Mark Ingestry himself. It is astonishing when once a thought occurs to the mind that makes a strong impression how, with immense rapidity, a rush of evidence will appear to come to support it, and thus it was with regard to this supposition of Joanna Oakley. She immediately remembered a host of little things which favored the idea, and among the rest, she fully recollected that Mark Ingestry had told her he meant to change his name when he left England, for that he wished her and her only to know anything of him, or what had become of him, and that his intention was to baffle inquiry in case it should be made particularly by Mr. Grant, towards whom he felt a far greater amount of indignation than the circumstances that all warranted him in feeling. Then she recollected all that Colonel Jeffery had said, with regard to the gallant and noble conduct of this Mr. Thornhill and, girl-like, she thought that those high and noble qualities could surely belong to no one but her own lover, to such an extent, and that therefore Mr. Thornhill and Mark Ingestry must be one and the same person. Over and over again she regretted she had not asked Colonel Jeffery for a personal description of Mr. Thornhill, for that would have settled all her doubts at once, and the idea that she had it still in her power to do so, in consequence of the appointment he had made with her for that day week, brought her some consolation. It must have been he, she said. His anxiety to leave the ship and get here by the day he mentions proves it. Besides, how improbable it is that at the burning of the ill-fated vessel Ingestry should place in the hands of another what he intended for me. When that other was quite as likely and perhaps more so to meet with Death as Mark himself, thus she reasoned, forcing herself each moment into a stronger belief at the identity of Thornhill with Mark Ingestry, and so certainly narrowing her anxieties to a consideration of the fate of one person instead of two. I will meet Colonel Jeffery, she said, and ask him if his Mr. Thornhill had fair hair and a soft and pleasing expression about the eyes that could not fail to be remembered. I will ask him how he spoke and how he looked, and get him, if he can, to describe to me even the very tones of his voice, and then I shall be sure, without the shadow of a doubt, that it is Mark. But then, oh, then comes the anxious question of what has been his fate. When poor Joanna began to consider the multitude of things that might have happened to her lover during his progress from Sweeney Todd's in Fleet Street, to her father's house she became quite lost in a perfect maze of conjecture, and then her thoughts always painfully revert back to the barber's shop where the dog had been stationed, and she trembled reflect for a moment upon the frightful danger to which that string of pearls might have subjected him. Alas, alas, she cried, I can well conceive that the man whom I saw attempting to poison the dog would be capable of any enormity. I saw his face, but for a moment, and yet it was one never again to be forgotten. It was a face in which might be read cruelty and evil passions. Besides, the man who would put an unoffending animal to a cruel death shows an absence of feeling and a baseness of mind, which makes him capable of any crime he thinks he can commit with impunity. What can I do? Oh, what can I do to unravel this mystery? No one could have been more tenderly and more gently brought up than Joanna Oakley, but yet, an inhabitant of her heart was a spirit and a determination which few indeed could have given her credit for, by merely looking on the gentle and affectionate countenance which she ordinarily presented. But it is no new phenomenon in the history of the human heart to find that some of the most gentle and loveliest of human creatures are capable of the highest efforts of perversion. And when Joanna Oakley told herself what she did, she was determined to devote her existence to a discovery of the mystery that enveloped the fate of Mark and Gesture. She likewise made up her mind that the most likely means for accomplishing that object should not be rejected by her on the score of danger, and she at once said to work considering what those means should be. This seemed an endless task, but still she thought that if, by any means whatever, she could get admittance to the barber's house, she might be able to come to some conclusion as to whether or not it was there where Thornhill, whom she believed to be in gesturing, had been stayed in his progress. Aids my heaven, she cried. In the adoption of some means of action on the occasion, is there anyone with whom I dare advise? Alas, I fear not, for the only person in whom I have put my whole heart is my father, and his affection for me would prompt him at once to interpose every possible obstacle to my proceeding for fear danger should come of it. To be sure, there is Arabella Wilmot, my old school fellow and bosom friend. She would advise me to the best of her ability, but I much fear she is too romantic and full of odd strange notions that she has taken from books to be a good advisor. And yet what can I do? I must speak to someone. If it be but in case of any accident happening to me, my father may get news of it, and I know of no one else whom I can trust but Arabella. After some little more consideration, Joanna made up her mind that on the following morning she would go immediately to the house of her old school friend, which was in the immediate vicinity, and hold a conversation with her. I shall hear something, she said, at least of a kindly and consoling character for what Arabella may want in calm and steady judgment she fully compensates for an actual feeling. And what is most of all? I know I can trust her word implicitly, and that my secret will remain as safely locked in her breast as if it were in my own. It was something to come to a conclusion to ask advice, and she felt that some portion of her anxiety was lifted from her mind by the mere fact that she had made so firm a mental resolution, that neither danger nor difficulty should deter her from seeking to know the fate of her lover. She retired to rest now with a greater hope, and while she is courting repose, notwithstanding the chance of the discovered images that fancy may present to her in her slumbers, we will take a glance at the parlor below, and see how far Mrs. Oakley is conveying out the pacific intention she had so textedly expressed, and how the supper is going forward which, with not the best grace in the world, she is preparing for her husband, who for the first time in his life had begun to assert his rights, and for Big Ben, the beef eater, whom she has cordially disliked as it was possible for any woman to detest any man, Mrs. Oakley, by no means, preserved her tax return demeanor, for after a little while she spoke, saying, There is nothing tasty in this house. Suppose I run over the way to Wagarji's and get some of those eppin' sausages with the peculiar flavour. Ah, do, said Mrs. Oakley. They are beautiful, Ben. I can assure you. Well, I don't know, said Ben the beef eater. Sausages are all very well in their way, but you need such a plagued lot of them, for if you only eat them at one at a time, how soon will you get through a dozen or two? A dozen or two, said Mrs. Oakley. Why, there are only five to a pound. Then, said Ben, making a mental calculation, then I think, ma'am, you ought not to get more than nine pounds of them, and that will be a matter of forty-five mouthfuls each. Get nine pounds of them, said Mr. Oakley, if they are wanted. I know Ben has an appetite. Indeed, said Ben, but I have fell off lately, and don't take to my widdles as I used. You can order, Mrs., if you please, a gallon of half-and-half as you go along. One must have a drain of drink of some sort, and mind you don't be going to any expense on my account. And getting anything, but the little snack I have mentioned, for ten to one I shall take supper when I get to the tower. The only human nature is weak, you know, Mrs., and requires something to be a continually a-holding of it off. Certainly, said Mr. Oakley, certainly have what you like. Ben, just say the word before Mrs. Oakley goes out. Is there anything else? No, no, said Ben. Oh dear, no, nothing to speak of, but if you should pass a sharp where they sell fat bacon, about four or five pounds cut into rashes, you'll find, Mrs., will help down the blessed sausages. Gracious providence, said Mrs. Oakley. Who is to cook it? Who is to cook it, ma'am? Why, the kitchen fire, I suppose, but mind you if the man ain't got any sausages, there's a shop where they sell biled beef at the corner, and I shall be quite satisfied if you bring me in about ten or twelve pounds of that. You can make it up into about half a dozen sandwiches. Go, my dear, go at once, said Mr. Oakley, and get Ben his supper. I am quite sure he wants it, and be as quick as you can. Ah, said Ben, when Mrs. Oakley was gone, I didn't tell you howl, was salved last week at Mrs. Savie's. You know they are so precious gentile there that they won't speak about their blessed breaths for fear of wearing themselves out, and they sit down in a chair as if it was balanced only on one leg, and a little more one way or t other would upset them. Then, if they see the crumballion on the floor, they ring the bell, and a poor half star devil of a servant comes and says, Did you ring, ma'am? And then they say, Yes, bring a dust shovel and broom. There is a crumballion there. And then says I, Damn you all, says I, Bring a scavenger's cart, and a half dozen birch brooms. There's a cinder just fell out of the fire. Then in cause they get shocked, and looks as blue as possible. And out of that, when they see as I ain't going, one of them says, Mr. Benjamin Blomegatz, would you like to take a glass of wine? I should think so, says I. Then he says, says he, Which would you prefer, red or white, says he? White, says I, While you are screwing up your courage to pull out the red. So out they pull it. And as soon as I get hold of the bottle, I knock to the neck of it, off over the top of the fireplace, and then drag it all up. Now, Damn you, says I, You think as all this is a mighty genteel and fine, but I don't. And consider you to be the blessedest set of unbugs ever I set eyes on. And if you ever catch me here again, I'll be genteel too. And I can't say more than that. Go to the devil, all of you. So out I went. Only I met with a little accident in the hall. For they had a sort of lamp hanging there, and somehow or another, my head went bang into it. And I carried it out round my neck. But when I did get out, I took it off and shried it slap in at the pile of window. You never heard such a smash in all your life. I dare say they all fainted away for about a week, the blessed unbugs. Well I should not wonder, so Mr. Oakley. I never go near them, because I don't like their foolish pomposity and pride, which, upon various lender resources, tries to ape what to date, at all understand. But here is Mrs. Oakley with the sausages, and I hope you will make yourself comfortable then. Comfortable? I believe you. I rather shall. I means it, and no mistake. I have brought three pounds, said Mrs. Oakley, and told the man to call in a quarter of an hour, in case there is more wanted. The devil you have, and the bacon, Mrs. Oakley, the bacon. I couldn't get any. The man had nothing but amms. Lord, ma'am, I had to put up with a ham cut thick and never have said a word about it. I am an angel of a temper, if you did but know it. Hello! Look, is that the fellow with the half and half? Yes, here it is. A pot. A what? A pot to be sure. Well, I never. You are getting gentile, Mrs. Oakley, and give us a hold of it. Ben took the pot and emptied it at a draught, and then he gave a tap at the bottom of it with his knuckles to signify he had accomplished that feat. And then he said, I tell you what, ma'am. If he takes me for a baby, it's a great mistake. And anyone would think you did to see you offering me a pot merely. It's an insult, ma'am. Phil D.D., said Mrs. Oakley, it's a much greater insult to drink it all up and give nobody a drop. Is it? I want to know how you are to stop it, ma'am, when you get to your mouth. That's what I ask as you. How are you to stop it, ma'am? You didn't want me to spew it back yet again, did you, ma'am? You low vile wretch! Come, come, my dear, said Mr. Oakley. You know our cousin Ben, don't live among the most refined society. And so you ought to be able to look over a little of his, I may say. I am sure without a fence, roughness now and then. Come, come, there is no arm done, I'm sure. Forget and forgive, say I. That's my maxim. And always has been. And will always be. Well, said the Beefeater. It's a good one to get through the world, Wife. And so there's an end of it. Ah, forgives you, Mother Oakley. You forget, yes, to be sure. Though I am only a Beefeater. I suppose as I may forgive people for all that. Hey, cousin Oakley. Of course, Ben, of course. Come, come, Wife. You know as well as I that Ben has many good qualities. And that take him for all and all as the men in the play says. We shan't in a hurry look upon his like again. And I'm sure I don't want to look upon his like again. Said Mrs Oakley. I'd rather buy a good deal keep him a week than a fortnight. He's enough to breed a famine in the land that he is. Oh, bless you, no. Said Ben. That's amongst your little mistakes, ma'am. I can assure you, by the by, what a blessed long time that fellow was coming with the rest of the beer and the other sausages. Why, what's the matter with you, cousin Oakley? Hey, old chap. You look out of sorts. I don't feel just the thing, you know, do you know, Ben? Not the thing. Why, why now you come to mention it? I somehow feel as if all my blessed insight was on a turn and twist. The devil I don't feel comfortable at all. I don't. And I am getting very ill-gossiped, Mr Oakley. And I'm getting ill-a. Said the beef-eater, manufacturing a word for the occasion. Bless my soul, there's something gone wrong in my insight. I know there's murder, there's a go. Oh, Lord. It's a double in the op-ed-is. Oh, I feel as if it's my last hour as come, said Mr Oakley. I'm a... a dying man. I am... oh, good gracious there was a twinge. Mrs Oakley, with all the coolness in the world, took down her bonnet from behind the parlor door where it hung, and, as she put it on, said, I told you both that some judgement would come over you. And now you see it as... how do you like it? Providence is good, of course, to its own. And I have... What? Pissed the half-and-half. Big Ben, the beef-eater, fell off his chair with a deep groan, and poor Mr Oakley sat glaring at his wife, and shivering with apprehension, quite unable to speak. While she placed a shawl over his shoulder as she added, in the same tone of calmness, she had made the terrific announcement concerning the poisoning. Now... you wretches. You see what a woman can do when she makes up her mind for vengeance. As long as you all live, you'll recollect me. But if you don't, there won't much matter. For you won't live long, I can tell you. And now I'm going to my sister's Mrs Tiddleblow. So saying, Mrs Oakley turned quickly round, and with an insulting toss of her head, and not at all caring for the pangs and sufferings of her poor victims, she left the place, and proceeded to her sister's house, where she slept as comfortably as if she had not, by any means, committed two diabolical murders. But as she done so, or shall we, for the honour of human nature, discover that she went to a neighbouring chemist, and only purchased some dreadfully powerful medicinal compound, which she placed in half and half, and which began to give those pangs to Big Ben, the beef eater, and to Mr Oakley, concerning which they were so eloquent. This must have been the case, for Mrs Oakley could not have been such a fiend in human guise, as to laugh as she passed the chemist shop. Oh no. She might not have felt remorse, indeed, from laughing at the matter, unless it really, really laughable and not serious at all. Big Ben and Mr Oakley must have at length found out they had been hoaxed, and the most probable thing was that the before-mentioned chemist himself told them, for they sent for him in order to know if anything could be done to save their lives. Ben, from that day forth with, made a determination that he would not visit Mr Oakley, and the next time they met he said, I'll tell you what it is, that old hag your wife has won too many for us, that's a fact. She gets the better meal together. So, whenever it feels a little inclined for gossip about old times, just you come down to the tower. I will, Ben. Do. We can always find something to drink. And you can amuse yourself too by looking at the animals. Remember feeding time is two o'clock. So, now and then, I shall expect to see you and above all, be sure you let me know if that canteen passin' loopin' comes any more to your house. I will, Ben. I'll do. And I'll give him another lesson if he should. And I'll tell you how I'll do it. I'll get a free admission to the wild beastesses in the tower. And when he comes to see them, for their mere sort of fellas, always goes everywhere they can go for nothing. I'll just manage to pop him into a cage along of some of the most cantangorous creatures as we have. But would that not be dangerous? Oh, dear no. We as a laughing hyenas would frighten him out of his wits, but I don't think as he'd bite him much, do you now? He's as playful as a kitten and very fond of standing on his head. Well then, Ben. I have, of course, no objection. Although, I do think that the lesson you have already given to the reverent gentlemen will and ought to be fully sufficient for all purposes. And I don't expect we shall see him again. But how does Mrs. O behave, do you? Asked Ben. Well then, I don't think there's much difference. Sometimes she's a little civil and sometimes she ain't. It's just as she takes into her head. Ha! All that comes of marrying. I have often wondered, though, Ben, that you have never married. Ben gave a chuckle as he replied. Ha! Have you, though? Really? Well, cousin Oakley, I don't mind telling you, but the real fact is, once I was very near being served out in that sort of way, indeed, yes, I'll tell you how it was. There was a girl called Angelina Day and a nice looking enough creature she was as she wished to see as she was at all. Least ways, she kept them in, like a cat in mealtimes. Well, my word, Ben, you have a great knowledge of the world. I believe you, I have. Haven't I been brought up among the wild beasts in the tower all my life? That's the place to get knowledge of the world in my boy. I ought to know a thing or two, and of course I does. Well, but how was it, Ben, that you did not marry the Angelina you speak of? She thought she had made me as safe as a hair and a trap, and she was as amiable as a lump of cotton. You'd have thought to look at her that she did nothing but smile and to hear her, that she said nothing but nice, mild, pleasant things, and I really began to think as I had found the proper sort of animal. But you were mistaken. I believe you, I was. One day I'd been there to see her, I mean, at her father's house, and she'd been as amiable as she could be. I got up to go away with a determination that the next time I got there I would ask her to say yes. And when I had got a little way out of the garden of the house where they lived, it was out of town some distance. I found I left my walking cane behind me, so I goes back to get it. And when I get into the garden I heard a voice. A whose voice? Why Angelinas, to be sure. She was speaking to a poor little dab of a servant they had. Through my eye how she did rap out to be sure, such a speech as I never heard in all my life. She went on for a matter of ten minutes without stopping and every other word was some ill name or another. And her voice, oh gracious, it was like a bundle of wire all in a tangle it was. And what did you do then upon making such a discovery as that in so very odd and unexpected a manner? Do what do you suppose I did? I really cannot say as you are rather an eccentric fellow. Well then I'll tell you I went up to the house and just popped in my head and says I Angelina I find out that all cats have claws after all. Good evening and no more from your humble servant who don't mind the job of taming a wild animal but a woman and then off I walked Ah Ben it's true enough you never know them beforehand but after a little time as you say then out comes the claws they does they does and I suppose you since then made up your mind to be a bachelor for the rest of your life Ben of course I did after such an experience as that I should have deserved all I got and no mistake I can tell you and if you ever catches me paying any day and you'll see how I shall be off at once like a shot said Mr Oakley with a sigh Everybody Ben ain't born with your good luck I can tell you you are a most fortunate man Ben and that's a fact he must have been born under some lucky planet I think Ben or she never would have had such a warning as you have had about the claws I found them out Ben but it was a deal too late so I had to put up with my fate yes that's what learning folks call what's it's name Phil Phil something philosophy I suppose you mean Ben ah that's it you must put up with what you can't help it means I take it it's a fine name for saying you must grin and bear it I suppose that is about the truth Ben it cannot however be exactly said that the little incident connected with Mr Lupin had no good effect upon Mrs Oakley she took most alarmingly her confidence in that pious individual in the first place it was quite clear that he shrank from the horrors of martyrdom and indeed to escape any bodily inconvenience was perfectly willing to put up with any amount of degradation or humiliation that he could be subjected to and that was to the apprehension of Mrs Oakley a great departure from what a saint ought to be then again her faith in the fact that Mr Lupin was so as he had represented himself was shaken from the circumstance that no miracle in the shape of a judgement had taken place to save him from the malevolence of Big Ben the Beefeater so that taking one thing in connection with another Mrs Oakley was not near so religious a character after that evening as she had been before it and that was something gained then circumstances soon occurred of which the reader will very shortly be fully aware which were calculated to awaken Mrs Oakley if she really had any feelings to awaken and to force her to make common cause with her husband in an affair that touched him to the very soul that did succeed in awakening some feelings in her heart that had lain dormant for a long time but which were still far from being completely destroyed these circumstances were closely connected with the fate of one in whom we hope that by this time the reader has taken a deep and kindly interest in meeting Joanna the young and beautiful and artless creature who seems to have been created to be so very happy and yet whose fate has become so clouded by misfortune and it appears now to be doomed through her best affections to suffer so great an amount of sorrow and to go through so many sad difficulties alas poor Joanna Oakley better had you loved someone of less aspiring feelings and of less ardent imagination than him to whom you have given your hearts young affections it is true that Mark and Jester possesses a genius and perhaps it was the glorious light that hovers around that fatal gift which promised you to love him but genius is not only a blight and a desolation to its possessor but it is so to all who are bound to the gifted being by the ties of fond affection it brings with it that unhappy restlessness of intellect which is ever straining after the unattainable and which is never content to know the end and ultimatum of earthly hopes and wishes no the whole life of such persons is spent in one long struggle for a fancied happiness which like the Ignis Patius of the swamp glitters but to betray those who trust to its delusive and flickering beams this is the end of chapter 12 recording by Sean Arata Columbus, Ohio Chapter 13 of The String of Pearls This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Red Abrus The String of Pearls Author unknown Chapter 13 Johanna's interview with Arabella Wilmot and the advice Allah, poor Johanna Thou has chosen but an indifferent confident in the person of that young and inexperienced girl to whom it seems good to thee to impart thy griefs Not for one moment do we mean to say that the young creature to whom the spectacle maker's daughter made up her mind to unbosom herself was not all that anyone could wish as regards honor, goodness and friendship but she was one of those creatures who yet look upon the world as a fresh green garden and have not yet lost that romance of existence which the world and its ways soon banished from the breast of all She was young, almost to girlhood and having been the idol of her family circle she knew just about as little of the great world as a child but while we cannot but to some extent regret that Johanna should have chosen such a confident and admirer we with feelings of great freshness and pleasure proceed to accompany her to that young girl's house Now a visit from Johanna Oakley to the Wilmots was not so rare a thing that it should excite any unusual surprise but in this case it did excite unusual pleasure because she had not been there for some time and the reason she had not may well be found in the peculiar circumstances that had for a considerable period environed her she had a secret to keep which although it might not proclaim what it was most legibly upon her countenance yet proclaimed that it had an existence and as she had not made Arabella a confident she dreaded the others friendly questions it may seem surprising that Johanna Oakley had kept from one whom she so much esteemed and with whom she had made such a friendship the secret of her affections but that must be accounted for by a difference of ages between them to a sufficient extent in that early period of life to show itself palpeble that difference was not quite two years but when we likewise state that Arabella was of that small delicate style of beauty which makes her look like a child when even upon the verge of womanhood we shall not be surprised that the girl of 17 hesitated to confide a secret of the heart to what seemed but a beautiful child the last year however had made a great difference in the appearance of Arabella for although she still looked a year or so younger than she really was a more staid and thoughtful expression had come over her face and she no longer presented except at times when she laughed that childlike expression which had been as remarkable in her as it was delightful she was as different looking from Johanna as she could be for whereas Johanna's hair was of a rich and glossy brown so nearly allied to black which was called such the long waving ringlets that shaded the sweet countenance of Arabella were like amber silk blended to a pale beauty her eyes were really blue and not that pale grey which curtsy calls of that celestial colour and their long fringing lashes hung upon a cheek of the most delicate and exquisite hue that nature could produce such was the young, lovable and amiable creature who had made one of those girlish friendships with Johanna Oakley that when they do endure beyond the period of almost mere childhood endure forever and become one among the most dear and cherished sensations of the heart the acquaintance had commenced at school and might have been of that evanescent character of so many school friendships which in afterlife are scarcely so much remembered as the most dim visions of dream but it happened that they were congenial spirits which let them be thrown together under any circumstances whatever would have come together with a perfect and a most endearing confidence in each other's affections that they were school companions was the mere accident that brought them together and not the cause of their friendship such then was the being to whom Johanna Oakley looked for counsel and assistance and not withstanding all that we have said respecting the likelihood of that counsel being of an inactive and girlish character we cannot withhold our need of approbation to Johanna that she had selected one so much in every way worthy of her honest esteem the hour at which she called was such as to ensure Arabella being within and the pleasure which showed itself upon the countenance of the young girl as she welcomed her old playmate was a feeling of the most delightful and unaffecting character why Johanna she said you so seldom call upon me now that I suppose I must esteem it was a very special act of grace and favor to see you Arabella said Johanna I do not know what you will say to me when I tell you that my present visit to you is because I am in a difficulty and want your advice then you could not have come to a better person for I have read all the novels in London and know all the difficulties that anybody can possibly get into and what is more important I know all the means of getting out of them let them be what they may and yet Arabella scarcely in your novel reading will you find anything so strange and so eventful as the circumstances I grieve to say it is in my power to regard to you sit down and listen to me dear Arabella and you shall know all you surprise and alarm me by the serious countenance Johanna the subject is a serious one I love oh is that all so do I there is young captain Desbrook in the king's guards he comes here to buy his gloves and if you did but hear him sigh as he leans over the counter you would be ashenished ah but Arabella I know you well yours is one of those fleeting passions that like the forked lightning appear for a moment and here you can say behold is gone again mine is deeper in my heart so deep that to divorce it from it would be to destroy its home forever but why so serious Johanna you do not mean to tell me that it is possible for you to love any man without his loving you in return you are right there Arabella I do not come to speak to you of a hopeless passion far from it but you shall hear lend me my dear friend your serious attention and you shall hear of such mysterious matters mysterious then I shall be in my very element for know that I quite live and exult in mystery and you could not possibly have come to anyone who would more welcome me receive such a commission from you I am all impatient Johanna then with great earnestness related to her friend the whole of the particulars connected with her deep and sincere attachment to Mark Injustry she told her how in spite of all circumstances which appeared to have a tendency to cast a shadow and a blight upon their young affection they had loved and loved truly how Injustry disliking both from principle and distaste the study of the law had quarreled with his uncle Mr. Grant and then how as a bold adventurer he had gone to seek his fortunes in the Indian seas fortunes which promised to be splendid but which might end in disappointment and defeat and they had ended in such calamities most deeply and truly did she mourn to be compelled to state and now she concluded by saying and now Arabella you know all I have to tell you you know how truly I have loved and how after teaching myself to expect happiness I have met with nothing but despair and you may judge for yourself how sadly the fate of Mark Injustry must deeply affect me and how lost my mind must be in all kinds of conjecture concerning him the hilarity of spirits which had characterised Arabella in the earlier part of their interview entirely left her as Johanna proceeded in her mournful narration by the time she had concluded tears of the most genuine sympathy stood in her eyes she took the hands of Johanna in both her own and said to her why my dear Johanna I never expected to hear from your lips so sad a tale this is most mournful indeed very mournful and although I was half inclined before to quarrel with you for the stoddy confidence for you must recollect that it is the first I have heard of this whole affair but now the misfortunes that oppress you are quite sufficient heaven knows without me adding to them by the shadow of a reproach they are indeed Arabella and believe me if the course of my love ran smoothly instead of being as it has been full of misadventure you should have had nothing to complain of on the score of want of confidence but I will own I did hesitate to inflict upon you my miseries for miseries they have been an alas miseries they seem destined to remain Johanna you could not have used an argument more delusive than that it is not one which should have come from your lips to me but surely it was a good motive to spare you pain and did you think so lightly of my friendship that it was to be entrusted with nothing but what were a pleasant aspect true friendship is surely best shown in the encounter of difficulty and distress I grieve Johanna indeed that you have so much mistaken me nay now you do me an injustice it was not that I doubted your friendship for one moment but that I did indeed shrink from casting the shadow of my sorrows over what should be and what I hope is the sunshine of your heart that was the respect which deterred me from making you aware of what I suppose I must call this ill-fated passion no not ill-fated Johanna let us believe that the time will come when it will be far otherwise than ill-fated but what do you think of all that I have told you can you gather from it any hope abundance of hope Johanna you have no certainty of the death of industry I certainly have not as far as regards the loss of him in the indian sea but Arbela there is one supposition which from the moment it found a home in my breast has been growing stronger and stronger and that supposition is that this Mr. Tharnel was no other than Mark Injustry himself indeed think you so that would be a strange supposition have you any special reasons for such a thought none further than a something which seemed ever to tell my heart from the first moment that such was the case and a consideration of the improbability of the story related by Tharnel why should Mark Injustry have given him the string of pearls and the message to me trusting to the preservation of this Tharnel and assuming for some strange reason that he himself must fall there is a good argument in that Johanna and moreover Mark Injustry told me he intended altering his name upon the expedition it is strange but now you mention such a supposition it appears do you know Johanna each moment more probable to me oh that fatal string of pearls fatal indeed for if Mark Injustry and Tharnel be one and the same person the possessions of those pearls has been the temptation to destroy him there cannot be a doubt upon that point Johanna and so you will find in all the tales of love and romance that jealousy and wealth have been the sources of all the abundant evils which fond and attached hearts have from time to time suffered it is so I believe it is so Arabella but advise me what to do for truly I am myself incapable of action tell me what you think it is possible to do under these disastrous circumstances for there is nothing which I will not dare attempt why my dear Johanna you must perceive that all the evidence you have regarding this Tharnel follows him up to the barber shop in Fleet Street and no further it does indeed can you not imagine then that there lies the mystery of his fate and from what you have yourself seen of that man Todd do you think he is one who would hesitate even at a murder oh horror my own thoughts have taken that dreadful turn but I dreaded to pronounce the word which would embody them if indeed that fearful looking man fancied that by any deed of blood he could become possessed of such a treasure as that which belonged to Mark in justry un-Christian and illiberal as it may sound the belief clings to me that he would not hesitate to do it do not however conclude Johanna that such is the case it would appear from all you have heard and seen of these circumstances that there is some fearful mystery but do not Johanna conclude hastily that the mystery is one of death be it so or not said Johanna I must solve it or go distracted heaven have mercy upon me for even now I feel a fever in my brain that precludes almost the possibility of rational thought be calm be calm we will think the matter over calmly and seriously and who knows but that mere girls as we are we may think of some adventurous mode of arriving at a knowledge of the truth and now I am going to tell you something which your narrative has recalled to my mind say on Arabella I shall listen to you with deep attention a short time since about six months I think an apprentice of my father in the last week of his servitude was sent to the west end of the town to take a considerable sum of money but he never came back with it and from that day to this we have heard nothing of him although from enquiry that my father made he ascertained that he received the money and that he met an acquaintance in the strand who parted from him at the corner of Milford Lane and to whom he said he intended to call at Sweeney Todd the barber in Fleet Street to have his hair dressed because there was to be a regatta on the themes and he was determined to go to it whether my father liked or not and he was never heard of never of course my father made every enquiry upon the subject and called upon Sweeney Todd for the purpose but as he declared that no such person had ever called at his shop the enquiry there terminated it's very strange and most mysterious for the friends of the youth were indefatigable in the searches for him and by subscribing together for the purpose they offered a large reward to anyone who could or would give them information regarding his fate and was it all in vain? all nothing could be learned whatever not when the remotest clue was obtained and there the fear has rested in the most profound of mysteries Joanna shuddered and for some few moments the two young girls were silent it was Joanna who broke that silence by exclaiming Arrabila, assist me with what advice you can so that I may go about what I purpose with the best prospect of success and the least danger not that I shrink on my own account from risk but if any misadventure were to occur to me I might thereby be incapacitated from pursuing that object to which I will now devote the remainder of my life but what can you do my dear Joanna it was but a short time since there was a placard in the barber's window to say that he wanted a lad as an assistant in his business but that has been removed or we might have procured someone to take the situation for the express purpose of playing the spy upon the barber's proceedings but perchance there still may be an opportunity of accomplishing something in that way if you knew of anyone that would undertake the adventure there will be no difficulty Joanna in discovering one willing to do so although we might be long in finding one of sufficient capacity that we could trust but I am adventurous Joanna as you know and I think I could have got my cousin Albert to personate the character only that he is rather a giddy youth and scarcely to be trusted with a mission of so much importance yes and a mission likewise Arabella which by a single false step might be made frightfully dangerous it might be indeed then it would be unfair to place it upon anyone but those who feel most deeply for its success Joanna the enthusiasm with which you speak awakens in me a thought which I shrank from expressing to you and which I fear perhaps more originates from a certain feeling of romance which I believe is a besetting sin than from any other cause name it Arabella name it it would be possible for you or I to accomplish the object by going disguised to the barber's and accepting such a situation if it were vacant for a period of about 24 hours in order that during that time some opportunity might be taken of searching in his house for some evidence upon the subject nearest to your heart it is a happy thought said Joanna and why should I hesitate at encountering any risk or toil or difficulty for him who has risked so much for me what is there to hinder me from carrying out such a resolution at any moment if great danger should beset me I can rush into the street and claim protection from the passes by and moreover Joanna if you went on with such a mission remember you go with my knowledge and that consequently I would bring you assistance if you appeared not in the specified time for your return each moment Arabella then assumes to my mind a better shape if Sweeney Todd be innocent of contriving anything against the life and liberty of those who seek his shop I have nothing to fear but if on the contrary he be guilty danger to me would be the proof of such guilt and that is a proof which I am willing to chance encountering for the sake of the great object I have in view but how am I to provide myself with the necessary means be at rest upon that score my cousin Albert and you are as nearly of a size as possible he will be staying here shortly and I will secrete from his wardrobe a suit of clothes which I am certain will answer your purpose but let me implore you to wait until you have had your second interview with Colonel Geoffrey that is well thought of I will meet him and question him closely as to the personal appearance of this Mr. Tharnel besides I shall hear if he has any confirmed suspicion on the subject that is well you will soon meet him for the week is running on and let me implore you Joanna to come to me the morning after you have met him and then we will again consult upon this plan of operations which appears to us feasible and desirable some more conversation of a similar character ensued between these young girls and upon the whole Joanna Oakley felt much comforted by her visit and more able to think calmly as well as seriously upon the subject which engrossed her whole thoughts and feelings and when she returned to her own home she found that much of the excitement of despair which had formerly had possession of her had given way to hope and with that natural feeling of joyousness and that elasticity of mind which belongs to the young she began to build in her imagination some airy fabrics of future happiness certainly these suppositions went upon the fact that Mark Injustry was a prisoner and not that his life had been taken by the mysterious barber for although the possibility of his having been murdered had found a home in her imagination still to her pure spirit it seemed by far too hideous to be true and she scarcely could be said really and truly to entertain it as a matter which was likely to be true End of Chapter 13 Recording by Red Abriss June 2008 Chapter 14 of String of Pearls This is a LibreVox recording All LibreVox recordings are in a public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibreVox.org Recording by Huijin The String of Pearls Author Unknown Chapter 14 Perhaps one of the most pitiable objects now in our history is poor Tobias Sweeney Todd's boy who certainly had his suspicions arouse in the most terrific manner but who was terrified by the threats of what the barber was capable of doing against his mother from making any disclosures The effect upon his personal appearance of this wearing tear of his intellect was striking and manifest the hue of youth and health entirely departed from his cheeks and he looked so sad and care-worn that it was quite a terrible thing to look upon a young lad so as it were upon the threshold of existence and in whom ancient thoughts were making such war upon the physical energies his cheeks were pale and sunken his eyes had an unnatural brightness about them and to look upon his lips one would think that they had never parted in a smile for many a day so sadly were they compressed together he seemed ever to be watching likewise for something fearful and even as he walked the streets he would frequently turn and look inquiringly around him with a shudder and in his brief interview with Colonel Jeffrey and his friend the captain we can have a tolerably good impression of the state of his mind oppressed with fears and all sorts of dreadful thoughts painting to give utterance to what he knew and to what he suspected and yet terrified into silence for his mother's sake we cannot by view him as signally entitled to the sympathy of the reader and as in all respects one sincerely to be pitied for the cruel circumstances in which he was placed the sun is shining brightly and even that busy region of trade and commerce Fleet Street is looking gay and beautiful but not for that poor spirit streaking lead are any of the sights and sounds which used to make up the delight of his existence reaching his eyes or ears now with their accustomed force he sits moody and alone and in the position which he always assumed when Sweeney Todd is from home that is to say with his head resting on his hand and looking the picture of melancholy abstraction what should I do he said to himself what will become of me I think if I live here any longer I should go out of my senses Sweeney Todd is a murderer I'm quite certain of it and I wish to say so but I dare not for my mother's sake alas alas the end of it will be that he will kill me or that I shall go out of my senses and then I shall die in some madhouse and no one will care what I say the boy wept bitterly after he had uttered these melancholy reflections and he felt his tears something of a relief to him so that he looked up after a little time and glanced around him what a strange thing he said that people should come into this shop to my certain knowledge who never go out of it again and yet what becomes of them I cannot tell he looked with the shuddering anxiety toward the parlor the door of which Sweeney Todd took care to lock always when he left the place and he thought that he should like much to have a thorough examination of that room I have been in it he said and it seems full of cupboard and strange holes and corners such as I never saw before and there is an odd stench in it that I cannot make out at all but it's out of the question thinking of ever being in it above a few minutes at a time for Sweeney Todd takes good care of that the boy rose and opened the cupboard that was in the shop it was perfectly empty now that's strange he said there was a walking stick with an ivory top to it here just before he went out and I could swear it belonged to a man who came in to be shaved more than once ah and more than twice too when I have come in suddenly I have seen people's hats and Sweeney Todd would try and make me believe that people go away after being shaved and leave their hats behind them he walked up to the shaving chair as it was cold which was a large old-fashioned piece of furniture made of oak and carved as the boy threw himself into it he said what an odd thing it is that this chair is screwed so tight to the floor here is a complete fixture and Sweeney Todd says that it is so because it's in the best possible light and if he were not to make it fast in such a way the customers would shift it about from place to place so that he could not conveniently shave them it may be true but I don't know and you have your doubts said the voice of Sweeney Todd as that individual with a noiseless step walked into the shop you have your doubts Tobias I shall have to cut your throat that is quite clear no no have mercy upon me I did not mean what I said then it's uncommonly imprudent to say it Tobias do you remember our last conversation do you remember that I can hang your mother when I pleased because if you do not I beg to put you in mind of that pleasant little circumstances I cannot forget I do not forget it is well and mark me I will not have you assume such an aspect as you were when I'm not here you don't look cheerful Tobias and not withstanding your excellent situation with little to do and the number of lovettes pies you eat you fall away I cannot help it said Tobias since you told me what you did concerning my mother I have been so anxious that I cannot help why should you be so anxious her preservation depends upon yourself and upon yourself wholly you have but to keep silent and she is safe but if you utter one word that shall be displeasing to me about my affairs mark me Tobias she comes to the scaffold and if I cannot conveniently place you in the same madhouse where the last boy I had was placed I should certainly be under the troublesome necessity of cutting your throat I will be silent I will say nothing Mr. Todd I know I should die soon and then you will get rid of me altogether and I don't care how soon that may be for I'm quite weary of my life I should be glad when it is over very good said the barber that's all a matter of taste and now Tobias I desire that you look cheerful and smile for a gentleman is outside feeling his chin with his hand and thinking he may as well come in and be safe I may want you Tobias to go to Billingsgate and bring me a penny worth of shrimps yes thought Tobias with a groan yes while you murder him end of chapter 14 recording by Huijin