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.
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.
it was quite a treat now to todd, and put him in mind of old times, to arrange his apparatus for giving this wretched man a tumble into the vaults below. he went into the parlour and drew the bolt, when away went the man and the chair, and the other chair that was on the reverse side of the plank took the place of that which had gone.
"ha! ha!" shouted todd. "this is grand—this is most glorious! ha! ha! who would have thought, now, that i should ever live to be at my old work again in this house? it is capital! if that fall has not broken his neck, it's a wonder. it used to kill five out of seven; that was about the average—ha!"
todd didn't fasten the bolt again, but went at once for the other man. he was sitting up!
todd staggered back for a moment, when he saw him in that position looking at him. the man rubbed his eyes with his hands and said in a weak voice—
"good god! what is it all about?"
todd placed the light on the floor within the parlour, so that it shed sufficient rays into the shop to let him see every object in it; and then, with a cry like that of some wild beast rushing upon his prey, he dashed at the man.
the struggle that ensued was a frightful one. despair, and a feeling that he was fighting for his life, nerved the man, who had recovered just in time to engage in such a contest, and they both fought their way into the shop together. todd made the greatest exertions to overcome the man, but it was not until he got him by the throat, and held him with a clutch of iron, that he could do so. then he flung him upon the chair, but the man, with a last effort, dragged todd after him, and down they both went together to the vault below!
