be seated,' said Sweeney Todd to Colonel Jeffery. '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's true, but you can't believe, you know, all that is put in the papers.'
'Thank you - thank you,' said the colonel.
Captain Rathbone sat down to be shaved, for 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 of Fidler 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 W. D. F. upon it, meaning William Dumpledown Fidler" - a most mysterious affair, gentlemen.'
A sort of groan came from the corner of the shop, and, on the impulse of the moment, Colonel Jeffery sprang to his feet, exclaiming, 'What's that -what's that?'
'Oh, it's only my apprentice, Tobias Ragg. He has got a pain in his stomach from eating too many of Lovett's pork pies. Ain'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 the 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,' - addressing the colonel by that assumed name - 'and now, Mr Green, be quick, or we shall be too late for the duke, 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 this 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 retire 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 stropped the razor he had been using upon his hand, gave a most diabolical grin, 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. Go out now, and if those two persons who were here last waylay 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 they do say. They turned to the left, towards the city - now be off with you.'
* * * * *
'It's of no use,' said Colonel Jeffery 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 recesses 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 -viz., to retire from business with an independence.'
'Hush! there did you see the lad?'
'Yes; why it's the barber's boy.'
'It is 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 careworn - 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 is a guinea for you, if you will 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 will 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 fate 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
