MORNING IN FLEET STREET AGAIN.
Another day has dawned upon the great city--another sun has risen upon
the iniquities of hosts of men, but upon no amount of cold-blooded,
hardened, pitiless criminality that could come near to that of Sweeney
Todd. No, he certainly held the position of being in London, then, the
worst of the worst.
But who shall take upon himself now to say that in this pest-ridden,
loyalty-mad, abuse-loving city of London, there are not some who are
more than even Sweeney Todd's equals? Who shall say that hidden scenes
of guilt and horror are not transacting all around us, that would, in
their black iniquity, far transcend anything that Sweeney Todd has done
or dreamt of doing? Let the imagination run riot in its fanciful
conjectures of what human nature is capable of, and in London there
shall be found those who will reduce to practice the worst frenzied
deeds that can be conceived.
Yes, the dawn of another day had come, and Todd had made all his
preparations. Nothing was wanting, but the match that was to set Fleet
Street, he fondly hoped, in a blaze. His own house, he felt quite
certain, could not escape. It would be a charred mass long before any
effectual means could be procured to check the devastation of the
flames, and then as the good ship spread its swelling sails to the wind
to bear him to another shore, he should be lighted upon his way by the
glare of the great fire in Fleet Street, that no one would be able to
guess the origin of.
So he told himself.
Short-sighted mortals that we are! How little Todd, with all his
cleverness--all his far-seeing thrift and fancy--dreamt of the volcano
upon which he stood. How little he for one moment imagined it was
possible that the sword of justice hung over him by so slender a thread.
How he would have glared at any one who might have told him that he only
moved about by sufferance; and yet such was the fact.
Sir Richard Blunt could put his hand upon him at any moment, and say,
"Todd, you are my prisoner. To Newgate--to Newgate, from whence only you
will emerge to your trial, and to the scaffold!"
No, Todd, good easy soul, had not the slightest idea of his real
position upon that morning.
He waited rather impatiently for the arrival of Johanna to take down the
shutters, and she urged upon Sir Richard Blunt and her friends at the
fruiterer's, the propriety of her going and doing that morning piece of
work; but they would not hear of it. She at length used an argument
which made Sir Richard adopt another course than keeping her at the
fruiterer's until Todd should get out of all patience and open his shop
himself.
"It is possible," she said, "that I may be subjected to ill-usage if I
am not there; and then being compelled to call for aid as I might, you
would feel that you were forced to take Todd into custody before the
time at which you have resolved so to do."
"That is true," said Sir Richard; and then, after some little
consideration, he added, "I have a plan that will save you both ways.
You shall be in time, and yet you shall not take down Todd's shutters."
They could none of them conceive at the moment how Sir Richard intended
to manage this; but they quickly saw that it was easy enough. Opening
just a little way one of the windows of the first floor at the
fruiterer's, he blew a whistle that he had suspended round his neck by a
small chain. In the course of a few moments, Crotchet walked into the
shop.
"Governor here?" he said. "I heard him a chirping for me just
now--didn't I?"
"Yes, Crotchet," said the fruiterer, who knew him quite well. "Step
up-stairs; you will find him there."
Crotchet was soon in the presence of Sir Richard, and Johanna, and the
fruiterer's daughter. He made a rough sort of salute to the whole party,
and then remarked again that he had heard the governor a chirping, he
rather thought.
"Yes, Crotchet," said Sir Richard, "you're quite right. You know this
young lady here?"--indicating Johanna.
"Reether!" said Crotchet.
"Well, then, you will seem to be passing Todd's shop when she commences
taking down the shutters; and, seeing that they are too heavy for such a
mere boy, you good-naturedly take them down for him--you understand? It
is the last time that they will be taken down for Todd, I think."
"All's right," said Crotchet; "I understands--it's as good as done.
Lord! what a scrouge there will be at the hanging o' that barber, to be
sure, unless he manages to cheat the gallows; and I takes notice in my
_hexperieace_ as them 'ere wery bad 'uns seldom does try that 'ere game
on, with all their bounce."
"Now, Miss Oakley," said Sir Richard Blunt, "I think, then, your time
has come; and, as Crotchet will take down the shutters, you may as well
go over at once. I think you thoroughly understand what you have to
do--and if Todd asks you where you lodged, you had better say that the
servants here offered to let you sleep by the kitchen fire, and you
accepted the offer--for he may be watching for you now, and see you come
out of this house, for all we know to the contrary. And now remember,
without any reference to my plans or what I would rather do, if you feel
yourself, or fancy you feel yourself in the least danger, take the means
I have pointed out to you of summoning aid, and aid will come to you."
"I will," said Johanna.
"Heaven speed you, then! This will be the last day, I think, of the
career of that bold bad man. I intend to make such an effort to get
under his house to-day, as I hope and expect will enable me to come at
the grand secret, namely, of how he disposes of his victims so
quickly--for that there is some wonderful jugglery in it, I am certain."
Johanna took a kind leave of the fruiterer's daughter, who had lavished
upon her all those attentions which, in Johanna's position, became so
precious from one of her own sex; and then, assuming a careless manner,
with her hat put on in a boyish slovenly sort of way, she boldly crossed
the road to Sweeney Todd's.
He had been watching through a hole in the upper part of one of the
shutters. In a moment all sorts of ugly suspicions took possession of
his mind. What could Charley Green, his errand-boy from Oxford, who knew
no one, and was unknown to all London, doing at a tradesman's house in
Fleet Street at such an hour in the morning? How came he to know the
people of that house? How came he to dream of going there?
Todd was boiling with anger and curiosity when he opened the door and
admitted Johanna, a thing that he was unmindful enough to do before she
knocked for admission, which alone would have been amply sufficient to
point out to her that she had been watched from some peep-hole in the
house.
He stretched out his hand and dragged her in. He controlled his temper
sufficiently to enable him to gratify his curiosity. He made quite
certain that Charley Green would tell him some story of where he had
been, which should not convict the fruiterer. By the light of a
miserable candle that Todd had burning in the dark closed shop, he
glared at Johanna.
"Well--well," he said. "A good night's rest, Charley?"
"Tolerable, sir!"
"Humph! ha! And did you find a place to sleep at cheaply and decently,
my good lad, eh?"
"I was very fortunate indeed, sir."
"Oh, you were very fortunate indeed?"
"Yes, sir. I am, through being country bred I suppose, fond of fruit, so
when I left you last night, I bought an apple at a shop opposite."
"Oh, at Mr. a--a--"
"I don't know the name, sir," said Johanna, "but I can run out and
ascertain, I dare say."
Todd gave a low sort of growl. He did not know if he were being foiled
by innocence or by art. With an impatient gesture, he added--
"Never mind the apples, I wish to know where you slept, Charley, that I
may judge if it was a proper place, there are so many wicked people in
London."
"Are there, sir?"
"Bah! Go on. Where did you sleep?"
"Well, sir, as there was a kind tempered-looking servant in the
fruiterer's shop, I thought she might be able to tell me of some place
where I could lodge, and when she had heard my story--"
"Story--story? What story?"
"How destitute I was, sir, and how kind you had been to employ me
without a character, and how happy and contented I was in your service,
sir. So when she had heard all that, she said, 'It is too late for you
to go lodging-hunting to-night. There is an old bench in our kitchen,
and if you like you may sleep on that.'"
Todd gave a growl.
"And so you slept there?"
"Yes, sir."
He paced the shop for some few moments in deep thought, knitting his
brows and trying to make something out of what he had heard, contrary to
what it seemed; but Johanna's story was too straightforward and simple
for him to find any flaw in it, and after a few moments he felt
compelled to admit to himself that it must be the truth. Turning to her
with something of the amount of amiability one might expect from a bear,
he said--
"Open the shop!"
"Yes, sir, directly."
Johanna propped the door wide open, and then having, by the dim light of
the miserable candle, found a screw which fastened a bar across the
shutters, she speedily released it, and then went into the street. At
that moment Crotchet came along, whistling in so thoroughly careless a
manner, that even Johanna thought he had forgotten his instructions and
was about to pass the shop. She had her hand upon the bar when he
stopped, saying, in an off-handed manner--
"Why little 'un, them 'ere shutters is too much for you, I'll give you a
helping hand. Lor bless you, don't say anything about it. It ain't no
sort o' trouble to me my little chap. Here goes."
Mr. Crotchet began opening Todd's shop with such a fury and a vengeance,
that the clatter and the speed with which the operation was being
accomplished, brought Todd out of the parlour to see what on earth
Charley was about. When he saw Crotchet coming in with three shutters in
his arms at once, he could scarcely believe his eyes, and he roared
out--
"What's this? Who are you?"
"Easy--easy," said Crotchet. "Don't get in the way old gentleman. Easy.
There now!"
Crotchet managed to give Todd such a rap on the side of the head with
the shutters, that a thousand lights danced in his eyes, and he writhed
with pain.
"Well, I never," said Crotchet, "I hope I haven't hurt you, old man? You
see I was a passing, and seed as these here shutters was rather a bit
top-heavy for your little son here, and I thought I'd give him a helping
hand. To be sure he didn't want me to, but you see I would, and perhaps
as your old head is getting better, you wouldn't mind a pint of beer,
old gentleman?"
"You atrocious villain," yelled Todd, "I'll cut your throat. I'll polish
you off. I'll--I'll--would you like to be shaved?"
"I've had a scrape already," said Crotchet, "and if you won't stand the
beer, why you won't, and there's no bones broke arter all. Good morning,
old Grampus. Good morning my little chap, I wishes you good luck; and if
I am passing again, I don't mind lending you a helping hand, though the
governor is about one o' the ugliest, nastiest tempered brutes, I ever
came near in all my life."
Crotchet went away whistling with great composure.