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have him."
"And very proper too," said Todd. "Can you spare a bill, my friend?"
"Oh, yes. There's hand ones as well as posters. Here's one, sir, and
you'll find a description of him. Oh, don't I only wish I could come
across him, that's all; I'd make rather a tidy day's work then, I think.
That would be a little better, sir, than the paste-pot, wouldn't it?"
"Rather," said Todd; "but he might be rather a dear bargain; for such
a man, I should think, would not be very easily taken!"
"There's something in that, sir, as you say, but yet I would have a
try. Five hundred pounds, you know, sir, is not to be picked up
everyday on the road-side."
"Certainly not! Is that Hampstead where the lights are, to the left,
there?"
"Yes, right on. I live at west-end, and my way lays this way. Good
night, sir!"
"Good night," said Todd. "I hope you may have the luck of meeting
with this Todd, and so earning the five hundred pounds you
mention; but I am afraid, after all, there is not much chance, for I
heard he had gone down to the coast, and had got on board a
vessel and was off by this time. That may not be true, though.
Goodnight!"
 CHAPTER CXLIII.
TODD TAKES A LOOK AT HIS OLD QUARTERS IN
FLEET STREET.

The village of Hampstead was, at the time of which we write, really

a village. It still retains many of its old houses and picturesque
beauties, but it is not quite such a little retired spot as it was. If ever
any one walked through Hampstead, however, who was less inclined
than another to pause and speculate upon its beauties, certainly that
man was our doubtful acquaintance, Sweeney Todd.
He did not think it quite prudent to stop in the High Street to solace
himself with any worldly comforts, although he saw several public-
houses very temptingly open, but passing right on, he descended
Red Lion Hill, and paused at a little inn at the foot of it, that is to
say, on the London side of the pretty village.
Brandy was Todd's request, and he was met by a prompt, "Yes, sir;"
but Todd had, among his varied experiences, to find out what
Hampstead brandy was, and the moment he placed a portion of it in
his mouth, his eyes goggled furiously, and spitting it out, he said, in
a voice of anger—
"This is some mistake."
"Mistake, sir?"
"Yes; I asked for brandy, and you have given me the rinsings of
some bottles and dirty glasses."
"Oh, dear no, sir; that brandy is the very best that you will get in all
Hampstead."
"The best in all Hampstead!" repeated Todd, with a groan; "what
must the worst be, I wonder?"
"I assure you, sir, it is considered to be very good."
"Considered?" said Todd. "Then, my friend, there's your money, and
as the brandy is considered to be so good, you can drink it; but
having some respect, from old companionship, for my inside, I
decline it. Good evening."
With these words, Todd laid a shilling upon the bar, and strode away.
"Well," said the publican, "how singular! that's the eighth person
who has refused that one quartern of brandy and paid for it. Here,
wife, put this back into the bottle again, and shake it up well."
Todd pursued his route down Haverstock Hill, until he came to the
then straggling district of Camden Town, and there he did find a
house at which he got just a tolerable glass of brandy, and feeling
very much invigorated by the drop, he walked on more rapidly still;
and a thought took possession of him, which, although it was
perhaps not unattended with danger, might turn out to be a very
felicitous one.
During his career in the shop in Fleet Street, he had collected a
number of watches from the pockets of the murdered persons, but
he had always been afraid to attempt the disposal of the best of
them.
The fact was, that at that time everybody had not a watch as at
present. It was an expensive article, and Mr. So-and-so's watch was
as well known as Mr. So-and-so himself; so that it would have been
one of the most hazardous things possible for Todd to have brought
suspicion upon himself by going about disposing of the watches of
his victims. It was the same, too, with some other costly articles,
such as rings, lockets, and so on; and as he had realised as much
money as he could previous to his arrangements for leaving
England, Todd had left some of this description of property to perish
in the fire, which he hoped to be the means of igniting in old Fleet
Street upon his departure.
Now, as he crept along by Tottenham-Court-Road, he mused upon
the state of things.
"If," he muttered, "I could only get into my late house in Fleet
Street, I know where to lay my hand upon portable property, which
was not worth my consideration while I had thousands of pounds in
gold, but which now would be a fortune to me in my reduced
circumstances. If I could but lay my hand upon it!"
The more Todd thought over this proposition, the more pleased he
was with it; and by the time he had indulged himself with two more
glasses of brandy, it began to assume, to his mind, a much more
tangible shape.
"It may be done," he said, "it surely may be done. If I could only
make my way in the church it might be done well, and surely one of
these picklocks that I have about me might enable me to do that."
The picklock he alluded to was one that he had put in his pocket to
accommodate Mr. Lupin, when they were both so intent upon their
escape from Newgate, and when Mr. Lupin was foolish enough to
believe that Todd really had two thousand pounds buried in Caen
Wood, Hampstead. There was one thing, however, which made Todd
pause. He did not think he was sufficiently disguised to venture into
the locality of his old residence, and, unfortunately for him, he was
rather a peculiar-looking man. His great chance, however, was, that
in Fleet Street surely no one would now think of looking for Sweeney
Todd.
"I must be bold," he said, "I must be bold and resolute. It will not do
to shrink now. I will buy a knife."
This was a pleasant idea to Todd. Buying a knife seemed almost like
getting half-way to his revenge, and he went into an obscure cutler's
shop, and bought a long double-edged knife, for which he gave two
shillings. He then carefully concealed it in his clothing.
After this, he hit upon a plan of operations which he thought would
have the effect of disguising him. At that period, wigs were so
commonly worn that it was nothing at all particular for a person to
go into a wig-makers, and select one—put it on—pay for it—and go
away!
"Yes," said Todd, "I will buy a wig; for I have art enough and
knowledge of wigs to enable me to do so—as shall produce the
greatest possible change in my appearance. A wig, a wig will be the
thing."
Todd had hardly well made this declaration than he came upon a
wig-makers, and in he went. Pointing to a wig that was on a block,
and which had a very clerical kind of look, he inquired the price of it.
"Oh, my dear sir," said the wig-maker, "that is much too old looking
a perriwig for you. Let me recommend you a much younger wig.
Now, sir, here's one that will take a matter of ten years off your age
in a moment."
Todd had discretion enough to know well that he could not make up
young, so he merely pointed to the wig again and enquired the
price.
"Well, sir, it is a couple of guineas, but—"
Without another word, Todd laid down the couple of guineas, and
putting the wig upon his head he left the shop, certainly having
given the wig-maker an impression that he was the oddest customer
he had had for some time; but little did he suspect that that odd
customer was the criminal with whose name all London was ringing,
and upon whose head—with or without a wig—so heavy a price was
set.
After this, Todd made his way to a shop where second-hand clothing
was bought and sold, and there he got accommodated with an old
gray coat that reached down to the calves of his legs, and he bought
likewise a very voluminous white cravat; and when he got into the
street with these articles, and purchased at another shop a walking
cane, with a great silver top to it, and put one hand behind his back
and stooped very much, and moved along as if he were afflicted
with all the corns and bunions that his toes could carry, and by
bending his knees, decreased his height six inches, no one could
have known him.
At least, so Todd flattered himself.
In this way he tottered on until he got to the immediate
neighbourhood of Fleet Street. To be sure, with all his coolness and
courage, he could not help shaking a little when he came to that
well remembered neighbourhood.
"And I," he thought to himself, "and I by this time hoped and
expected to be far over the sea, instead of being such a wretch as I
am now, crawling about, as it were, amid pitfalls and all sorts of
dangers! Alas! alas!"
He really shook now, and it was quite astonishing how, with his old
wig, and his old gray coat and his stick, and his stooping posture,
old and venerable, yes, positively venerable, Sweeney Todd actually
looked.
"Ain't you well, sir?" said a respectable man, stepping up to him.
"Can I assist you?"
Todd perpetrated about half a dozen wheezing coughs, and then,
not sorry for an opportunity of trying his powers of imitation of age,
he replied in a tremulous voice—
"Ah, sir! Yes—old age—old age, sir—eugh!—eugh!—oh, dear me, I
feel that I am on my last legs, and that they are on the shake—old
age, sir, will come on; but it's a comfort to look back upon a long life
well spent in deeds of charity!"
"Not a doubt of it," said the stranger. "I was only afraid, sir, you
were taken suddenly ill, as you stood there."
"Oh, no—no—eugh!—no. Thank you, sir."
"Good evening, sir."
"Good evening, my good sir. Oh, if I had you only in my old shop
with a razor at your throat, wouldn't I polish you off!" muttered
Todd, as the stranger left him.
In the course of another minute, Todd was on the Fleet Street side
of Temple Bar.
He could almost see his old house—that house in which he had
passed years of deep iniquity, and which he had hoped, ere that
time, would have been a heap of ruins. There it was, tall, dismal,
and gaunt looking. The clock of St. Dunstan's struck eleven.
"Eleven," he muttered. "A good hour. The streets are getting
deserted now, and no one will know me. I will stoop yet more, and
try to look older—older still."
Todd a little over acted his part, as he tottered down Fleet Street, so
that some individuals turned to look after him, which was a thing he
certainly did not wish, as his great object was to escape all
observation if possibly he could; so he corrected that, and went on
rather more strongly; and finally he came exactly opposite to his
own house, and getting partially into a door-way, he looked long and
fixedly at it.
What thoughts, at that time, chased each other through the guilty
mind of that man, it is hard to say; but he stood like a statue, fixing
his regards upon the house for the space of about a quarter of an
hour.
Once only he clapped his teeth together, and gave a sort of savage
growl.
It was lucky for Todd that no one saw him just then, or they would
have thought him rather an extraordinary old man.
The house was perfectly dark from top to bottom. The shutters of
the shop, of course, were all up, and the shutters of the first-floor
windows were likewise closed. The other windows had their old
dingy blinds all down; and, to all outward appearance, that den of
murder was deserted.
But Todd could not believe such to be the case. In his own mind, he
felt fully sure, that Sir Richard Blunt was not the man to leave the
house without some sort of custody; and he quite settled with
himself, that there was some one or more persons minding it, and,
no doubt, by order, sitting there in one of the back rooms, so that no
light should show in front.
"Curses on them all!" he muttered.
"Ah! you are looking at old Todd's house, sir?" said a voice.
Todd started; and close to him was a person smoking a pipe, and
looking as jolly as possible.
"Yes—yes," stammered Todd, for he was taken by surprise rather.
"Oh, yes, sir. I am amazed at the great wickedness of human
nature."
"You may well, sir—you may well! Lord bless me! I never thought
him a good looking man, but I never thought any ill of him neither,
and I have seen him lots of times."
"Indeed, sir? Pray, what sort of man was he? I never saw him, as I
live in Soho; and I am so much in years now, that in the bustling
day-time I don't care to come into streets like this; for you see, sir, I
can't move about as I could sixty years ago; and the people—God
help them—are all in such a hurry now, and they push me here and
there in such a way, that my failing breath and limbs won't stand it;
and—and—eugh!—eugh! Oh, dear."
"Poor old gentleman! I don't wonder at your not liking the crowds.
How old may you be, sir?'"
"A matter of eighty-nine, sir. It's an old age to get to, but I—I am
younger than my brother, yet—Ha! ha! Oh dear, if it wasn't now for
the rheumatism and the lumbago and a pain in my shoulder, and a
few other little things, I should get on very well."
"Not a doubt of it. But you asked me what Todd was like, and I'll tell
you, sir. He was nigh upon six feet high, and his face was two feet of
it. He was just as ugly as any one you would wish to see for a
pattern in that way, and that's his house where he murdered all the
people."
"Peace be to their souls!"
"Amen! And there are underground places that lead right away
through the vaults of St. Dunstan's to Bell-yard, where Mrs. Lovett's
pie-shop was, you know, sir."
"I have heard. Ah, dear—dear, I have heard. A very wicked woman,
indeed—very wicked; and yet, sir, it is to be hoped she has found
mercy in another world."
"There would need be plenty of it," said the man with the pipe, "if
Mrs. Lovett is to be accommodated with any."
"My friend," said Todd, "don't be profane; and now I must go, as I
don't like being out late."
"And so must I, for my pipe's out. I shall turn in, now. Good night,
sir, and a pleasant walk home to you."
"Thank you, sir, thank you—eugh! eugh! I think if it were not for my
cough, I should do very well."
Todd hobbled away, and the man, who lived in Bouverie Street, went
home. Todd had not got any real information from this man; but the
brief conversation he had had with him, had given him a sort of
confidence in his disguise, and in his power of acting, that he had
not had before, so that, upon the whole, he was not sorry for the
little incident.
And now it was quite evident that the streets were getting very
much deserted. During the whole length of Fleet Street there was
not half a dozen persons to be seen at all, and Todd, after casting a
rapid glance around him to note if he were observed, suddenly
crossed the way, and boldly went up to the door of old St. Dunstan's
Church.
When once close to the door of the old building, he was so much in
shadow that he felt tolerably secure from observation, but still he
lingered a little, for he did not want to do anything so hastily as to
rob it of its caution.
With his back against the church-door he glanced right and left, and
then for the space of five minutes he bent all his faculties to the one
task of ascertaining if any one was sufficiently near to watch him,
and he got perfectly satisfied that such was not the case. He stood
securely against the old church-door.
"So far," he muttered, "I am safe—quite safe."
 CHAPTER CXLIV.
TODD MAKES HIS WAY INTO HIS OWN HOUSE.

When Todd was satisfied that he was not watched or even observed
by any one, he turned and commenced operations upon the door of
the church. The cunning person who had put on the lock, had had a
notion in his necromantic head, that the larger you made a lock the
better it was, and the less likely to be picked; and the consequence
of this was, that Todd found no difficulty in opening the church-door.
The moment he felt the lock yield to the false key he employed, he
took another keen glance around him, and, seeing no one, slipped
into the sacred edifice and closed the door behind him. Feeling,
then, up and down the door until his hand touched a bolt, he shot it
into its socket, and then a feeling of great security took possession
of him, although the interior of the church was most profoundly
dark, and any one would have thought that such a man as Todd—in
such a place—could hardly have been free from some superstitious
terrors. An overbearing selfishness, however, mingled with the most
vengeful and angry feelings, kept Todd above all these sensations,
which are mostly the result of vacant mindedness.
The church felt cold, and the silence had about it a character such as
the silence of no other kind of place has. It may be imagination, but
the silence of a church deserted, always appears to us to be a
silence different from any other, as the silence in a wood is entirely
different from any other description of stillness.
"All is quiet enough here," whispered Todd. "I and the dead have
this place to ourselves now, and so we have often had it. Many a
time have I waded about this building in the still hours of the night,
when all London slept, and opened some little window, with the
hope of letting out the stench from the dead bodies before the
morning should bring people to the building; but it would not do.
The smell of decomposition lingered in the air, and it is here still,
though not so bad. Yes, it is here still! I can smell it now, and I know
the odour well."
Todd was sufficiently familiar with St. Dunstan's church almost to go
over it even at that hour, and amid that darkness, without running
against anything; but yet he was very careful as he went, and kept
his arms outstretched before him. He dreaded to get a light,
although he had the means of doing so, for Mr. Lupin had, at his
request, given him some of the matches and little wax-candle-ends
that the pious lady had supplied him with. Yet Todd knew how small
a light would suffice to shine through some of the richly stained
glass windows of the church, and therefore he dreaded to give
himself a light.
He felt confident that he should have no sort of difficulty in getting
into the vaults, for in consequence of recent events the stone that
covered up the entrance could not be fast, and he knew from past
experience that his strength was sufficient to raise it if he once got
hold of it, and if it were not fastened down by cement, which, no
doubt, was not the case now.
"I shall yet get," he said, "into my old house. The time has been
rather short, and the goods there deposited by me in old times may
there remain; and if so, I will carry away enough with me to keep
me far above the necessities of life, and when once I have achieved
that much, I will from some obscure place meditate upon my
revenge."
In the course of about ten minutes he found the flat stone that led
into the vaults, and to his satisfaction he found that it was merely
laid crosswise over the aperture, in order to prevent any one in day
time from heedlessly tumbling in, but at night it was not, of course,
expected that any one would be there to fall into such a danger.
With one effort Todd removed it.
"Good," he said. "Now I can make my way, and once below the level
of the floor of the church, there will be no danger in at once
accommodating myself with a light, which will be useful enough in
the vaults."
Getting upon his hands and knees now, Todd, for fear of a fall down
the stone steps, cautiously got down the first few of them, and then
he paused to light one of the bits of taper with which he was
provided. In the course of a few moments the tiny flame was clear
and bright, and shading it with his hand, Todd carefully descended
the remainder of the stairs.
How still everything was in those vaults of old St. Dunstan's. Were
there no spirits from another world—spirits of the murdered, to flit in
horrible palpability before the eyes of that man who had cut short
their thread of life? Surely if ever a visitant from another world could
have been expected, it would have been to appear to Todd to
convince him that there was more beyond the grave than a forgotten
name and a mouldering skeleton.
When he reached the foot of the stairs and was satisfied that the
little light was burning well, he held it up above his head and bent a
keen glance around him.
"Ha! ha!" he laughed, "so they have been doing their best—poor
fools as they are to meddle with such rubbish—to rid the family
vaults of some of the new tenants that I took occasion to introduce
into them. Well, let them, let them! I did play a little havoc with the
gentility of the dead, I must admit!"
With this highly jocose remark, Todd passed on, taking a route well
known to him, which would conduct him to the cellar that it will be
recollected was immediately underneath his shop. It was from this
that he hoped to get into the house.
 Todd In The Scene Of His Murders.

It took Todd much less time than it would have taken any one else
to make his way to that cellar; but then no one was or could be so
well acquainted with all the windings and turnings of the excavation
that led to it as he, and finally he reached it, just as he found the
necessity of lighting up another little piece of wax candle, as the one
he had already lit had burnt right to his hand. He found a piece of
wood, into which he stuck the new one securely, so that it was much
handier to hold.
Todd now felt the absolute necessity of being much more cautious
than before, for he did know who might be in the shop above, and
he did know that a very small sound below would make itself heard.
Holding up the light, he saw that his nice little mechanical
arrangement regarding the two chairs, remained just as it had been
as he used to use it.
"Ah!" he cried, "it will be some time in London again before people
will sit down in a barber's chair with anything like confidence,
particularly if it should chance to be a fixture. Ha!"
Todd was getting quite merry now. The sight of the old familiar
objects of that place had certainly raised his spirits very
considerably, and no doubt the brandy had helped a little. Setting
the light down in a corner of the cellar, he placed himself in an
attitude of intense listening, which he kept up for about five
minutes, at the end of which time he gave a nod, and muttered—
"There may be some one in the parlour—that I will not pretend to
say no to; but the shop is free of human occupants. And now for the
means of getting into it. If anybody can, I can, and that with
tolerable ease, too."
The apparatus by which Todd had been in the habit of letting down
his customers, consisted of a slight system of lever, which he could
move from the parlour, but provided he could reach so high, he
could just as easily release the loose plank from where he was; in
which case the chair that was above would have a preponderating
influence, as that was on the heaviest arm of the plank from the
centre upon which it turned.
"I can manage that," he said; and then taking the knife from his
pocket, he found that by its aid he could just reach high enough to
touch the lever that acted as a kind of bolt to keep the plank in its
place. The moment he removed that bolt the plank slowly moved,
and then Todd caught the end of it in his hand, and pulled it right
down, so that it assumed a perpendicular aspect completely. Holding
then the piece of wood to which he had attached the wax light in his
mouth, he climbed carefully and noiselessly up into his old shop; and
when there he replaced the plank, and on the end of the board
which was the counterpoise to the chair, he placed a weight, which
he knew where to lay his hands upon, and which kept the chair in its
place, although a very little would have overcome the counterpoise,
and sent it down to the cellar below.
Todd extinguished his light, and the moment he did so, he saw a
very faint illumination coming from the parlour through a portion of
the door, into which a square of glass was let in, and through which
he, Todd, used to glare at poor Tobias.
The sound of voices, too, came upon his ears, and he laid himself
flat down on the floor, close to the wall, under a kind of bench that
ran along it for a considerable distance.
"I am certain I heard something," said a voice, and then the parlour-
door was opened, and a broad flash of light came into the shop. "I
am quite sure I heard an odd noise."
"Oh, nonsense," said some one else. "Nonsense."
"But I did, I tell you."
"Yes, you fancied it half-an-hour ago, and it turned out to be nothing
at all. Lord bless you, if I were to go on fancying things out of what I
have heard since I have been in this house, minding it for Sir
Richard Blunt, I should have been out of my mind long before this, I
can tell you."
"But it was very odd."
"Well, the shop is not so large: you can soon see if Todd is in it. Ha!
ha! ha!"
"No, no, I don't expect to see Todd there exactly, I confess; it would
not be a very likely place in which to find him."
"Well, is there anything now?"
"No—no. It all seems much as usual, and yet I thought I did hear a
noise; but I suppose it was nothing, or a rat, perhaps, for there are
lots, they say, below. It might have been a rat. I did not think that
before, and I feel all the easier now at the idea."
"Then, come and finish our game."
"Very good—all's right. You make a little drop of brandy-and-water,
and we will just have this game out before we go to rest, for I am
getting tired and it's late."
"Not quite twelve yet."
"Ain't it? There it goes by St. Dunstan's clock."
Todd counted the strokes of the clock, and by the time they ceased
to reverberate in the night air, the man who most unquestionably
had heard a noise in the shop, had gone into the parlour again, half
satisfied that it was a rat, and sat down to the game at cards that
had been interrupted.
These were two men that had been put into the house to mind it,
until the authorities should determine what to do with it, by Sir
Richard Blunt. They were not officers of any skill or repute, although
they were both constables; but then Sir Richard did not consider that
anything in the shape of great intelligence was required in merely
taking care of an empty house—for the idea of Todd ever visiting
that place again, had certainly been one that did not even enter the
far-seeing brain of the magistrate.
"It's my deal," Todd heard one of them say, "but you go on, while I
mix the brandy-and-water."
"Indeed!" muttered Todd, as he gathered up his gaunt form from
under the bench. "Indeed! So there are two of you, are there? Well,
if there is another world, you can keep each other company on your
road to it, for I am not going to let your lives stand in the way of my
projects. No—no, I shall yet polish off somebody in my old place,
and it is a pleasure that it should be two friends of that man Blunt,
whom I so hate, that I have no words in which to express it!"
Todd crept up to the parlour door with the long knife in his hand that
he had bought at the cutler's in Camden Town, and putting his eyes
close to the pane of glass in the door, he looked in at the two men.
They really seemed to be quite comfortable, those two men. A bright
fire was burning in the grate, and a kettle was singing away upon
the hob at a great rate. A pack of cards, some pipes, and some
glasses, were upon the table that they had dragged up close to the
fire-side; and they were, take them altogether, about as comfortable
as anybody could well expect to be in that gloomy parlour of Todd's,
at his house of murder in Fleet Street.
They were stout strong men though, and as Todd looked, he thought
to himself, that with all his strength, and with all his desperate
fighting for life, as he would do, it was not a desirable thing for him
to come into personal contact with them.
"Cunning," he muttered, "will do more than strength. I must bide my
time—but I will kill them both if they are in my way, and that they
will be, is nearly past a doubt!"
"There," said the man who was mixing the brandy-and-water, "there,
you will find that a stiff comfortable glass; lots of brandy, and lots of
sugar, and only water enough to make it hot and steamy."
"You know how to mix, Bill," said the other, as he took a drop and
then was obliged to cough and wink again, it was so strong and hot.
"Ah!" thought Todd, "if it would only choke you!"
The other man then took his drink at the brandy, and he too
coughed and winked, and then they both laughed and declared how
precious strong it was, and one of them said—
"The fun of it is, that it was old Todd's; and when he laid in such
good stuff as this, he little thought that we would be enjoying it. I
wonder where he is?"
"Oh, he's far enough off by this time, poking about at some of the
sea-ports to try to get away, you may depend."
"Is he," muttered Todd; "you will find, my kind friend, that I am near
enough to cut your throat, I hope."
 CHAPTER CXLV.
TODD HAS A NARROW ESCAPE, AND HAS A BIT OF
REVENGE.

It was quite a provoking thing, and gall and wormwood to Todd in a

manner of speaking, to see those two boisterous men enjoying
themselves in his parlour. There could be no doubt in the world, but
that if he had had the means then and there to do so, he would
have hurled destruction upon them both forthwith; but he could only
look at them now, and wait for a better opportunity.
The fact was, that now, for the first time, Todd found that the
architecture of his old place of residence was far from being of the
most convenient order; inasmuch as you could not reach the
staircase leading to the upper part of the residence, without going
through the parlour; so that he was a prisoner in the shop.
"I tell you what it is, Bill," said one of the men, assuming quite a
philosophical look. "That fellow, Todd, as used to live here, after all,
was some use to society."
"Was he?"
"Yes, to be sure. Can't you guess?"
"Not I. I can't see what use a fellow can be to society who cuts folks'
throats."
"Can't you?"
"No, nor you neither, if you come to that."
"Yes I can. Don't it make folks careful of going into a strange
barber's shop, let me ask you that?"
"Oh, you idiot. That's always the way with you. You begins with
looking as wise as an owl as has found out something wonderful,
and then when one comes to find out what it is, it's just nothing at
all to nobody. I tell you what it is, old fellow, it strikes me you are
getting a drop too much."
"No—no; but I have got something on my mind."
"It stands on a very small place, then. What is it?"
"Just you listen and I'll tell you. I did think of not saying anything
about it, because you see I thought, that is to say, I was afraid if I
did, you would go off at once."
"Off? Off?"
"I don't mean dead—I mean out of this place, that's all, not out of
this world; but now I feel as if I ought to tell you all about it, you
know, and then you can judge for yourself. You know you slept here
last night on that large sofa in the corner?"
"Yes, in course."
"Very good; you had had what one may call just the other drop you
know, and so—"
"No I hadn't, but you had. I recollect quite well you dropped your
light, and had no end of trouble to get it lighted again, and kept
knocking your head against the mantel-shelf and saying 'Don't' as if
somebody was doing it to you."
"Go along with you. Will you listen, or won't you, while I tell the
horrid anecdote?"
"Horrid, is it?"
"Above a bit. It's enough to make all your hair stand on end, like
quills on a guinea hen, as the man says in the play; and I expect
you'll dream of it all night; so here goes, and don't you interrupt me
any more, now."
"Go on. I won't."
"Well, you know we had a pretty good fire here, as we have now;
and as twelve o'clock went ding-dong by old St. Dunstan's, we
thought it was time to have some sleep, and you lay down on the
sofa, saying as you could see by the fire light, while I took the
candle to go up stairs to bed with, you know—old Todd's bed, I
suppose it is, on the second-floor, and rather damp and thin, you
know."
"Goodness, gracious! tell me something I don't know, will you? Do
you want to drive a fellow out of his mind?"
"Well—well, don't be hasty! I'm getting on. I took the light, and
shading it with one hand, for there's always a furious draught upon
the stairs of this house; up I went, thinking of nothing at all. Well, in
course, I had to pass the first-floor, which is shut up, you know, and
has all sorts of things in it."
"Yes; go on—go on!"
"Is it interesting?"
"It is; only you go on. I'll warrant now it's a ghost you are coming
to."
"No, it ain't; but don't percipitate, and you shall hear all about it. Let
me see, where was I?—Oh, on the first-floor landing: But, as I say, I
was thinking of nothing at all, when, all of a sudden, I heard a very
odd kind of noise in the front room of the first-floor."
"I wonder you didn't fall headlong down stairs with fright, candle
and all."
"No, I didn't. It sounded like the murmur of people talking a long
way off. Then I began to think it must be in the next house; and I
thought of going up to bed, and paying no attention to it, and I did
get up two or three steps of the second-floor stairs, but still I heard
it; and it got such a hold of my mind, do you know, that I couldn't
leave it, but down I went again, and listened. I thought of coming to
you; but, somehow, I didn't do so."
"Now, go on!"
"Well, after listening with my ear against the door for some time, I
was certain that the sound was in the room; and I don't know how I
screwed up courage enough to open the door very gently, and look
in!"
"You did?"
"I did; and the very moment I did so, out went the light as clean as
if you had taken your fingers and snuffed it out; but in the room
there was a strange pale kind of light, that wasn't exactly like
twilight, nor like moonlight, nor like any light that I ever saw, but
you could see everything by it as plain as possible."
"Well—well?"
"The room was crammed full of people, all dressed, and looking at
each other; and some of them were speaking; and upon all their
clothes and faces there was blood, sometimes more, and sometimes
less; and all their eyes looked like the eyes of the dead; and then
one voice more loud than the rest said—'All murdered!—All
murdered by Todd! The Lord have mercy upon his soul!'"
"Oh, gracious! What did you do?"
"I felt as if my breath was going from me, and my heart kept
swelling and swelling till I thought it would burst, and then I
dropped the candle; and the next time I come to my senses, I found
myself lying on the bed in the second floor, with all my clothes on!"
"You dreamt it?"
"Oh, no—no. It's no use telling me that. I only wish I thought so,
that's all."
"But, I tell you, you did."
"You may tell me as much as you like; but in the morning when I
came down, there was the candle on the first-floor landing, just as I
had dropped it. What do you think of that? Of course, after I drew
out my head again from the first-floor front room I must have gone
up stairs in the middle of my fright, and I dare say I fainted away,
and didn't come to myself again till the morning."
"Oh, stuff! Don't try to make me believe in your ghost stories. If—if I
thought it was true, I should bolt out of the house this minute."
"You would, really?"
"Yes, to be sure; is a fellow to stay in a place with his hair
continually standing on end, I should like to know? Hardly. But it's all
stuff. Take another drop of brandy! Now I tell you what, if you have
the courage to go with me, I will take the light now and go up to the
first-floor, and have a good look all about it! What do you say to
that, now? Will you do it?"
"I don't much mind."
"Only say the word, and I am quite ready."
"Well, I will. If so be they are there, they won't do us any harm, for
they took no more notice of me than as if I had been nothing at all.
But how you do shake!"
"I shake? You never were more mistaken in all your life. It's you
that's shaking, and that makes you think I am. You are shaking, if
you please; and if you don't like the job of going up stairs, only say
so; I won't press it upon you!"
"Oh, I'll go."
"You are sure of it, now? You don't think it will make you ill? because
I shouldn't like that. Come now, only say at once that you would
rather not go, and there's an end to it."
"Yes, but I rather would."
"Come on, then—come on. Courage, my friend, courage. Look at
me, and be courageous. You don't see me shivering and shaking and
shrinking. Keep up your heart, and come on!"
"You wretches," muttered Todd. "It shall go hard with me, now, but I
will play you some trick that shall go right to drive you out of your
shallow wits. Go! It is the very thing I would, of all others, have
wished you to do."
It was quite clear that the man who had proposed going up stairs to
explore the first-floor, was much the more alarmed of the two; and
now that he had made the proposal, he would gladly have seized
upon any excuse for backing out of it, short of actually confessing
that his fears had got the better of him. No doubt he had been
greatly in hopes that his companion, who had told the ghost story,
would have shrunk from such an ordeal; but as he did not do so,
there was no resource but to carry it out or confess that it was but a
piece of braggadocio, which he wanted the firmness to carry out. He
strove now to talk himself out of his fears.
"Come on—come on! Ghosts, indeed! There are no such things, of
course, as any reasonable man knows; and if there are, why, what
harm can they do us? I say, what harm can they do us?"
"I don't know!"
"You don't know? No, nor nobody else! Come on, I say. Of course
providence is providence, and if there are ghosts, I respect them
very much—very much indeed, and would do anything in the world
to oblige them!"
The valiant proposer of the experimental trip to the first floor uttered
these last sentences in a loud voice, no doubt with the hope that if
any of the ghostly company of the first-floor were within hearing,
they would be so good as to report the same to their friends, so that
he might make his way there with quite a good understanding.
They trimmed the candle now; and having each of them fortified
himself with a glass of brandy that Todd had laid in for his own
consumption, they commenced their exploit by leaving the parlour
and slowly ascending the staircase that led to the upper portion of
the house.
Of course, Todd knew well the capabilities of that house, and long
before the two men had actually left the parlour he had made up his
mind what to do. The door of communication between the shop and
the parlour was not fastened, so that he could on open at the
moment; and when the men left that latter room he at once entered
it. Todd's first movement, then, was to supply himself with a good
dose of his own brandy, which he took direct from the bottle to save
time.
"Ah!" he whispered, drawing a long breath after the draught, "I feel
myself again, now!"
In order to carry out his plan, he knew that he had no time to spare;
for he did not doubt but that the two men would make their visit as
short as possible to the first-floor; so—with cautious but rapid
footsteps—he slipped into the passage and at once commenced the
ascent of the staircase after them. The light they carried guided him
very well. How little they imagined that any of its beams shone upon
the diabolical face of Sweeney Todd!
"Can't you come on?" said one of the men to the other. "Damme,
how you do lag behind, to be sure. Any one would think you were
afraid."
"Afraid? Me afraid! that is a good joke."
"Well, come quicker, then."
"You will both of you," thought Todd, "come down a little quicker, or
I am very much mistaken indeed."
The distance was short, and the landing of the first floor was soon
gained by the men. He who had seen, or dreamed that he had seen,
the strange sight in the room upon a former occasion, was decidedly
the most courageous of the two. Perhaps, after all, he was the least
imaginative.
"I think you said it was the front room?" said the other.
"Oh, yes, I heard not a sound in the back one. Here's the door. You
hold the light while I listen a little."
"Yes—I—I'll hold it. Keep up your courage, and don't shake now. Oh,
what a coward you are!"
"Well, that's a good one. You are shaking so yourself that you will
have the light out, if you don't mind. Do try and be a little steady
with it; and your teeth chatter so in your head, that they are for all
the world like a set of castanets."
"Oh, how you do talk. Come, listen at the door; I must say I don't
hear anything; but I have the greatest respect for ghosts, I have. I
never say one word against the dead—God bless 'em all!"
While this man held the light—or rather waved it to and fro in his
agitation—the other, with his ear placed flat against the panel of the
door, listened attentively. All was perfectly still in the first-floor, and
he said—
"Perhaps they haven't begun yet, you know."
"Perhaps not;—shall we go away, now?"
"Oh, no—no. There's no end of curious things in the room; and now
that we are here, let's go in, at all events, and have a little look
about us. Don't be afraid. Come—come."
"Oh—I—I ain't exactly afraid, only, you see, I don't see much the use
of going in, and—and, you know, we have already heard an odd
noise in the shop, to-night."
"But that was nothing, for I looked, you know."
"Yes—yes,—but—but I'm afraid the fire will go out below, do you
know."
"Let it go, then. If you are too much of a coward to come with me
into this room, say so at once, and you can go down stairs while I
have a look at it by myself. You can't have the candle, though, for it
is no use my going in by myself."
"What! do you expect me to go in the dark? Oh dear, no, I could not
do that; open the door, and I will follow you in; I ain't a bit afraid,
only, you see, I feel very much interested, that's all."
"Oh, well, that's quite another thing."
With this, the most courageous of the two men opened the door of
the front room on the first-floor, and peeped into it.
"All's right," he said. "There ain't so much as a mouse stirring. Come
on!"
Highly encouraged by this announcement, the other followed him;
and they allowed the door to creak nearly shut after them.
While this hesitation upon the stairs was going on, Todd had been
about half way up from the passage, crouching down for fear they
should by chance look that way, and see him; but when he found
that they had fairly gone into the front room, he made as much
speed to the top of the stairs as was consistent with extreme
caution, and laying his hand upon the handle of the lock of the door
of the back room on that floor, he noiselessly turned it, and the door
at once yielding, he glided in.
The two rooms communicated with each other by a pair of folding-
doors, and the light that the men carried sent some beams through
the ill-fitting junction of the two, so that Todd could see very well
about him.
 CHAPTER CXLVI.
THERE IS A FIRE IN FLEET STREET AFTER ALL.—
TODD ESCAPES.

When once he had gained that back room, Todd considered that his
design against the peace of mind of the two men was all but
accomplished; and it was with great difficulty that he kept himself
from giving a hideous chuckle, that would at once have opened their
ears to the fact that some one was close at hand, who, whether of
this world or the next, was a proficient in horrid noises.
He controlled this ebullition of ill-timed mirth, however, and listened
attentively.
"There don't seem much else beside lots of clothes," said one of the
men, "and hats, and sticks, and umbrellas."
"Ah!" said the other, "and they all belong to the murdered men that
Todd cut up to make pies of!"
"Horrible!—horrible!"
"You may say that, old friend. It's only a great pity that Sir Richard
has so expressly forbid anything to be touched in the old crib, or
else there's some nice enough things here, I should say, that would
make a fellow warm and comfortable in the winter nights."
"Not a doubt of that. Here's a cloak, now!"
"A beauty—quite a beauty, I say. He can't know what is really here.
Do you think he can?"
"What, Sir Richard?"
"Yes."
"Oh, don't he. I wouldn't venture to touch so much as an old hat
here, for I should feel, as sure as fate, he'd find it out."
"Oh, nonsense, he couldn't; and as for the ghosts, they don't seem
at all likely to interfere in the matter, for there's not one of them to
be seen or heard of to-night."
"No, I defy the ghosts—a-hem! I begin to think, do you know, that
ghosts are all a sham. Why here we are, two men as brave as lions,
or we should not have come here, and yet the deuce a ghost is to be
seen. I tell you what I'd do if one was to come. I'd say, 'Old fellow,
was this your cloak?' and then if he said 'yes,' I'd say, 'well, old
fellow, it's of no use to you now, you know; will you give it to me?'"
"Ha!—ha! Capital! Why you have quite got over all your fears."
"Fears? Rubbish! I was only amusing myself to hear what you would
say."
"Was you, though? Only acting, after all?"
"Precisely."
"Well, then, I must say you did it remarkably well, and if you take to
the stage you will make your fortune. Oh, here's a nice brown suit
now, that would be just my size. I should feel inclined to say to the
ghosts what you would say about the cloak."
"Well, let's say it, and if nobody says anything to the contrary, we
will take it for granted. I will take the cloak, and you the brown suit;
Sir Richard will be none the wiser, and we shall be a little the richer,
you know. 'Mr. Ghost, may I have this cloak, if you please, as you
can't possibly want it?'"
"Upon my life you are a funny fellow," said the other; and then
holding up the brown suit, he said, "Mr. Ghost who once owned this,
may I have this brown suit, as it is of no use to you now?"
It was at this moment that Todd dashed open the two folding doors,
and with one of the most frightful, fiendish yells that ever came from
the throat of man, he made one bound into the front room.
The effect of this appearance, and the sound that accompanied it,
was all that Todd could possibly wish or expect. The two men were
almost driven to madness. They dropped the light, and with shrieks
of dismay they rushed to the door—they tore it open, and then they
both fell headlong down the staircase to the passage below, where
they lay in a state of insensibility that was highly amusing to Todd.
 Todd Alarms The Two Bow Street Officers.

"Ha! ha!" he laughed, as he stood at the head of the stairs; "Ha!

ha!"
He listened, but not so much as a groan came from either of the
men, and then he clapped his huge hands together with a report like
the discharge of a pistol, and laughed again. Todd had not been so
well pleased since his escape from Newgate.
He slowly descended the stairs, and more than once he stopped to
laugh again. The passage was intensely dark, so that when he
reached it he trod upon one of the men, but that rather amused
him, and he jumped violently upon the body.
"Good," he said. "Perhaps they are both dead. Well, let them both
die. It will be a lesson to others how far they interfere with me.
Society and I are now fairly at war, and I will win as many battles as
I can. They can't say but this is a well-fought one, two to one. Ha!
They ought to make me a Field-Marshal. Ha!"
Making the most hideous faces, just for the fun of the thing, Todd
made his way to the parlour, and taking from a corner, where he
knew to lay his hands upon them in a moment, a couple of old
newspapers, he twisted them up into a kind of torch, and lighting it
then at the fire, he went with it flaming in his hand to the passage.
The two men lay profoundly still. Terror and the fall they had had,
combined to throw them quite into a swooning state, from which
probably it would be hours before they would recover.
"This is capital," said Todd. "Lie there, both of you, until I have
transacted the business in this house that brought me here. Then I
will, perhaps, think of some amusing way of finishing you both off—
ha!"
Still carrying the flaming papers in his hand, Todd now made his way
to the first-floor, and found the candle that the men had dropped.
That he lighted, as it would be much more convenient to him than
the papers; and then he trod them out, for he did not wish any great
light as yet to appear from the windows of that house, and
perchance awaken the attention of some passing traveller or curious
neighbour.
Shading the light with his hand, and looking like some grim ogre,
Todd took his way to the second-floor. As he went, he every now
and then muttered his satisfaction to himself, or gave utterance to
one of his unearthly laughs; for in the whole of that night's
adventure there was much to please him.
In the first place, he hoped, and fully expected, to get enough booty
from the house to place him a little at his ease as regarded money
matters, provided that with it he should be fortunate enough to get
away from England. Then, again, it was no small satisfaction to Todd
to do anything which looked like a triumph over Sir Richard Blunt,
and this not only looked like it, but really was.
"A good step," he muttered, "a capital step, and a bold one, too; but
bold steps are always good ones. Who knows but that from some
place of security I may laugh at them all yet; and then, if I do not
succeed in killing any of them before I go, I can at my leisure think
of and mature some scheme of revenge against them; and there is
much to be done with ingenuity, if you are quite unscrupulous. Ha!
ha! I have some dainty schemes, if I can but carry them out in the
time to come—ha!"
When Todd reached the second-floor, he at once went into the front-
room, in one corner of which was a large old fashioned bureau. Now
it was not to be supposed that this bureau had escaped the scrutiny
of Sir Richard Blunt; but then it had so happened that before he
came to search it he had all the evidence he wished against Todd, so
that the search was not so complete or so scrutinising as it might
have been.
We shall see that it was not.
"Ah" said Todd, as he drew out the drawers one after the other, "all
the locks forced! Well, be it so. That was just what I expected. But I
do not think they have moved it from the wall by the look of it."
The bureau, it was quite evident, had not been removed from the
wall. It was of immense weight, but Todd managed to move it by
short sudden jerks; and then when he had got it quite away at right
angles from the wall, he said—
"Here was it that I hid, until some favourable opportunity should
occur for the private disposal of them, various articles of value, that
I dare not try to convert into money in my open way, for fear of
detection. Here are watches, and rings, and jewels, that were
described in hand-bills, offering rewards for missing persons, and in
advertisements in the papers; so that it became most unsafe for me
to show them even to the not very scrupulous Hebrews, who have
from time to time bought goods of me."
As he spoke, he removed a portion of the back of the bureau, which
slid out of its place softly and easily, for it was made with great skill
and care. This sliding piece, when it was fairly removed, disclosed a
receptacle capable of holding a great quantity of small articles, and
filled up with narrow shelves, as if to hold them securely.
There were costly watches—wigs with rare jewels set in them; for
the fashion of wearing wigs was so common at the time, that many
wealthy residents of the Temple would pop into Todd's shop for a
little arrangement of their wigs or a puff of fresh powder, if they
were going somewhere in a hurry, and so lost their lives. Then there
were some pairs of rich diamond knee and shoe buckles, and a few
lockets, and a whole heap of chains of gold.
"Ah," said Todd; "here is enough to set me up for a time, if I can
dispose of them; and now I must run risks that I would not think of
while I had thousands at my command. I must take these things
that I was content enough to leave behind me, lest they should at
some inopportune moment lead to my detection. Now they shall do
me service."
Todd commenced filling his pockets with this dangerous kind of
property, each article of which was associated with the frightful
crime of murder!
A couple of thousand pounds certainly would not have paid for what
Todd upon this occasion managed to stow away about him; and he
thought that if he could get one-fourth of that amount for the
articles, that it would not be a very bad night's work, considering the
not very flourishing state of his finances at that time, compared with
what they had been.
During the process, though, of stocking himself with the contents of
the secret place in the bureau, he more than once crept to the door
of the room, and going out upon the landing, he leant over the
staircase and listened. All was most profoundly still, and he was
satisfied that Sir Richard Blunt's two men remained in the passage,
in the same state of insensibility—if not of death—in which he had
left them.
Leaving there some articles of smaller importance than those with
which he loaded himself, Todd pushed the bureau back into its place
again; and then, taking the light in his hand, cautiously descended
the stairs.
When he reached the passage, there lay the two men as he had left
them. Indeed, he had been absent much too short a space of time
for any very material change to take place in their condition.
"Well," he said. "Now to dispose of you two. What shall it be? Shall I
cut your throats as you lie there, or—no, no, I have hit it. No doubt
you have both been full of curious speculations respecting how I
disposed of those persons whom I polished off in my shop; so you
shall both know exactly how it was done. Ha! a good joke."
Todd's good joke consisted now of going into the parlour, and
fastening the levers which held up the shaving-chair. Then he lifted
up one of the insensible bodies of the men, and carried it into the
shop.
"Sit there, or lie there, how you like," he said, as he flung the man
into the large shaving-chair.