'"Ah!" said I, "but you must allow me first to settle this matter with my employers. You must really be mad. We do not hear of young ladies carrying deeds and parchments about them when they are in their senses."
'"You do not mean to betray me?" she said, springing up wildly, and running towards the deed, which I carefully placed in my breastcoat-pocket.
'"Oh dear no! but I shall retain the deed, and speak to your brother about this matter."
'"My God! my God!" she exclaimed, and then she sank back on her bed, and in another moment she was covered with blood. She had burst a blood vessel.
'I sent for a surgeon and physician, and they both gave it as their opinion that she could not be saved, and that a few hours would see the last of her.
'That was the fact. She was dead before another half hour, and then I sent to the authorities for the purpose of burial; and, producing the certificate of the medical men, I had no difficulty, and she was buried all comfortably without any trouble.
* * * * *
'"Well," thought I, "this is a very comfortable affair, but it will be more profitable than I had any idea of, and I must get my first reward first; and if there should be any difficulty, I have the deed to fall back upon."
'He came down next day, and appeared with rather a long face.
'"Well," said he, "how do matters go here?"
"Very well," said I; "how is your throat?"
'I thought he cast a malicious look at me, as much as to imply he laid it all to my charge.
'"Pretty well," he replied; "but I was ill for three days. How is the patient?"
'"As well as you could possibly wish," said I.
'"She takes it kindly, eh? Well, I hardly expected it - but no matter. She'll be a long while on hand, I perceive. You haven't tried the frightening system yet, then?"
'"Hadn't any need," I replied, putting the certificate of her burial in his hand.
'He jumped as if he had been stung by an adder, and turned pale; but he soon recovered, and smiled complaisantly as he said, "Ah! well, I see you have been diligent; but I should have liked to have seen her, to have asked her about a missing deed, but no matter."
'"Now, about the two hundred pounds," said I.
'"Why," said he, "I think one will do when you come to consider what you have received, and the short space of time and all: you have had a year's board in advance."
'"I know I had; but because I have done more than you expected, and in a shorter time, instead of giving me more, you have the conscience to offer me less."
'"No, no, not the - the - what did you call it? - we'll have nothing said about that - but here is a hundred pounds, and you are well paid."
"Well," said I, taking the money, "I must have five hundred pounds at any rate, and unless you give it me, I will tell other parties where a certain deed is to be found."
'"What deed?"
'"The one you were alluding to. Give me four hundred more, and you shall have the deed."
'After much conversation and trouble he gave it to me, and I gave him the deed, with which he was well pleased, but looked hard at the money, and seemed to grieve at it very much.
'Since that time I have heard that he was challenged by his sister's lover, and they went out to fight a duel, and he fell - and died. The lover went to the continent, where he has since lived.'
'Ah,' said Sweeney Todd, 'you had decidedly the best of this affair: nobody gained anything but you.'
'Nobody at all that I know of, save distant relations, and I did very well; but then you know I can't live upon nothing: it costs me something to keep my house and cellar, but I stick to business, and so I shall as long as business sticks to me.'
XXVI. Colonel Jeffrey Makes Another Effort to Come at Sweeney Todd's Secret
We were to say that Colonel Jeffery was satisfied with the state of affairs as regarded the disappearance of his friend Thornhill, or that he had made up his mind now contentedly to wait until chance, or the mere progress of time, blew something of a more defined nature in his way, we should be doing that gentleman a very great injustice indeed.
On the contrary, he was one of those chivalrous persons who, when they do commence anything, take the most ample means to bring it to a conclusion, and are not satisfied that they have made one great effort, which, having failed, is sufficient to satisfy them.
Far from this, he was a man who, when he commenced any enterprise, looked forward to but one circumstance that could possibly end it, and that was its full and complete accomplishment in every respect; so that in this affair of Mr Thornhill, he certainly did not intend by any means to abandon it.
But he was not precipitate. His habits of military discipline, and the long life he had led in camps, where anything in the shape of hurry and confusion is much reprobated, made him pause before he decided upon any particular course of action; and this pause was not one contingent upon a belief, or even a surmise, in the danger of the course that suggested itself, for such a consideration had no effect whatever upon him; and if some other mode had suddenly suggested itself, which, while it placed his life in the most imminent peril, would have seemed more likely to accomplish his object, it would have been at once most gladly welcomed.
And now, therefore, he set about thinking deeply over what could possibly be done in a matter that as yet appeared to be involved in the most profound of possible mysteries.
That the barber's boy, who had been addressed by him, and by his friend, the captain, knew something of an extraordinary character, which fear prevented him from disclosing, he had no doubt, and, as the colonel remarked, 'If fear keeps that lad silent upon the subject, fear may make him speak; and I do not see why we should not endeavour to make ourselves a match for Sweeney Todd in such a matter.'
'What do you propose, then?' said the captain.
'I should say that the best plan would be, to watch the barber's shop, and take possession of the boy, as we may find an opportunity of so doing.'
'Carry him off!'
'Yes, certainly; and as in all likelihood his fear of the barber is but a visionary affair, after all, it can really, when we have him to ourselves, be dispelled; and then when he finds that we can and will protect him, we shall hear all he has to say.'
After some further conversation, the plan was resolved upon; and the captain and the colonel, after making a careful reconnaissance, as they called it, of Fleet-street, found that by taking up a station at the window of a tavern, which was very nearly opposite to the barber's shop, they should be able to take such effectual notice of whoever went in and came out, that they would be sure to see the boy sometime during the course of the day.
This plan of operations would no doubt have been greatly successful,
