"bill white," said todd.
"well, what now?" said the boy, in a sulky tone.
todd pointed to the pistol, and merely uttered the one word—"remember!" and then, with a horrible misgiving at his heart, he let the lad pull into the landing-place. some half-dozen lazy-looking fellows were smoking their pipes upon the dirty beach, and todd, concealing the pistol within his capacious cuff, sprang on the shore. he turned and looked at the boy, who slowly pushed off, and gained the deep water again.
"he is afraid," thought todd, "he is afraid, and will be too glad to get away and say nothing."
bill white's actions were now not a little curious, and they soon attracted the observation of all the idlers on the beach, and put todd in a perfect agony of apprehension. when the boy was about half a dozen boats' length from the shore, he shipped one of his oars, and then, with his disengaged hand, he lifted from the bottom of the boat an old saucepan, which he held up in an odd, dodging kind of way before his face, with an evident idea that if todd fired the pistol at him, he could interrupt the bullet in that way. then, in a loud clear voice, he cried—
"hilloa! don't have anything to do with that mr. smith. he has been threatening to shoot me, and he has got a pistol in his hand. he's a bad 'un, he is. take him up! that's the best thing you can do. he's well-nigh as bad as old todd the murderer of fleet street, that they can't catch. take him up. i advises you. blaze away, old curmudgeon."
todd's rage was excessive, but he thought that the best plan would be to try to laugh the thing over, and with a hideous affectation of mirth, he cried out—
"good-by, bill—good-by. remember me to your father, and tell him all the joke."
"it wasn't a joke," said bill white.
"ha! ha!" laughed todd. "well—well, i forgive you, bill—i forgive you. mind you take my message to your aunt, and tell her i shall be at the chapel on wednesday."
"oh, go to the deuce with you," said bill, as he put down the saucepan upon finding that his late fare was not disposed to carry his threat of shooting him into effect. "you are an old rogue, that you are, and i daresay you have done something that it would be well worth while to take you up for."
with this, bill began vigorously to pull away against the stream, puffing and blowing, and looking as indignant as he possibly could. todd turned with a sigh to the men at the little landing, and affecting to wipe a tear from his left eye, he said—
"you would not believe, gentlemen, that that boy could say such things to his poor old uncle, and yet you wouldn't believe if i were to tell you the pounds and pounds that boy has cost me and his poor aunt. he don't behave well to either of us; but we are as fond of him as possible. it's in our natures to love him, and we can't help it."
"lor!" said one of the men.
"you looks tender-hearted," said another.
the others all laughed at this, and todd thought it was as well to seem as if he thought that some very capital joke was going on, so he laughed too.
"i was thinking," he said, when the merriment had a little subsided, "i was thinking of going right on to gravesend. what do you say to taking me now, a couple of you? there's the tide nicely with you all the way, and i am always a liberal enough paymaster."
"what will you give?" said one with a voice like a cracked trumpet with a bad cold.
"why, name your price, and i shall not say no to it."
"what shall we take the gemman for, bill?" said this man to another, who was smoking a short pipe.
"a rum 'un," was the reply of bill.
"don't be a hass. i didn't go for to ask you what sort of indiwiddle he was, but what we'd take him to gravesend for."
"oh, that's the caper, is it?"
"yes it is, idiot."
"well—fifteen bob and a tanner."
"will that do, sir?" said the other to todd, who thought that it would look bad to acquiesce too readily in the amount, so he said—
"i will give the fifteen shillings."
"very good. we won't go to loggerheads about the tanner; so come along, sir, and we'll soon get you to gravesend, with this tide a-running all the way there, as comfortably as it can, all of a purpose."
todd was well enough pleased to find that these two men owned the longest and strongest-looking wherry that was at the landing-place. he ensconced himself snugly enough in the stern of the boat and they put aside their pipes, and soon pushed off into the middle of the stream.
"once more," thought todd, "once more i am on the road to escape; and all may yet be well."
the two men now set to work with the oars in earnest. they felt, that as they were paid by the job, the best way was to get it over as quickly as possible; and, aided by the tide, it was perfectly astonishing what progress they made down the river.
todd every now and then cast a long and anxious glance behind him; and presently he saw a boat shooting along, by the aid of six rowers, at great speed, and evidently turning into the little landing-place from where he had just come. his eyesight was either sharpened by the morning light, or fancy deceived him, for he thought he saw the boy, bill white, seated in the stern of the boat.
todd was in an agony. he knew not whether to attract the attention of the two watermen to the large boat with all its rowers, so that he might get an opinion from them concerning it or not; and then again, he thought that at the moment, there would be a good chance of working upon the cupidity of the men, if any real danger should befall him of capture.
"i say, bill," said one.
"well, say it."
"there's one of the police officer's gone into the old stairs. there's something afloat this here morning."
"ah! they are always at some manoeuvre or another. pull away. it ain't no business of our'n."
todd could almost have hugged the man for the sentiment he uttered; and how he longed to echo those two words, "pull away;" but he was afraid to do so, lest, by any seemingly undue anxiety just then for speed upon his part, he should provoke the idea that the police-boat was as interesting to him as it really was.
poor, wretched, guilty todd surely suffered a hundred times the pangs of death during his progress down the river; and now he sat in the stern of the boat, looking as pale as death itself.
"you don't seem very well," said one of the men.
"oh, yes—yes, i am quite well, i thank you."
"well, i'm glad to hear it; for you look just as if you had been buried a month, and then dug up again."
"ha! ha!" laughed todd,—what a hideous attempt at a laugh it was!—"that is very good."
"oh, lor! do you laugh that way when you are at home? 'cos if you do, i should expect the roof to tumble in with fright, i should."
"how funny you are," said todd. "pull away."
he did venture to say, "pull away!" and the men did pull with right good-will, so that the landing-place, and the long police-boat that was at it, looked just like two specks by the river-side; and, indeed it would have been a long pull and a strong one to catch todd's wherry.
the murderer breathed a little more freely.
"how far have we got to go now?" he said.
"oh, a matter of nine miles yet."
"and how long will it take you?"
"about one hour and a quarter, with the tide running at such a pace as it is. there's some wind, too, and what there is, is all with us, so we cut along favourably. what are they doing away yonder, bill?"
"where?" said bill.
"right in our wake, there. oh, they are getting up a sail. i'll be hanged if they ain't, and pulling away besides! why, what a hurry they must be in, to be sure, to get down the river. i never knew them do that before."
todd looked along the surface of the water, and he saw the police-boat coming along at such a rate, that the spray was tossed up in the air before her prow in millions of white particles.
a puff of smoke came from her side, and a slight sharp report rung upon the morning air. a musket or a pistol had been discharged on board of her.
"what's the meaning of that, bill?"
"i can tell you," said todd, sharply, before bill had done moving his head from side to side, which was a habit of his preparatory to replying to any very intricate question. "i can tell you easily."
the police-galley chasing todd to gravesend.
the police-galley chasing todd to gravesend.
"what is it then?"
"you pull away, and i'll tell you. you see that boat with the sail and the six rowers there?"
"yes, yes!"
"and you heard them fire a gun?"
"to be sure."
"well, pull away. it's enough to make a cat laugh; but it was mr. anthony strong that fired that gun."
"how very droll? but what did he do it for?"
"well, pull away, and i'll tell you. you must know that mr. anthony strong, who is in command of that police-boat, is my brother-in-law, and he laid a wager with me, that he would start from the pier at cheyne walk, chelsea, at daybreak this morning, and get to gravesend before me, if i started from blackfriars, and did the best i possibly could to get on that money and men could do for me. i allowed that he was to take all his six rowers with him, and hoist his sail if he liked, and i was to take no more than two watermen at a time. when he saw me, he was to fire a gun, you see; and the wager is for twenty pounds and a dinner. i should like to win it, and so, if you can fairly beat him, with the start you have, which is above a mile—"
"it's above two," said bill, "water's deceiving."
"well, i'm glad to hear it; and i was going to say, i would stand five guineas!"
"you will, old fellow?"
"i will; and to convince you of it, here they are, and i will place them in your hands at once; so now, i do hope that you will pull away like devils!"
"won't we! if mr. anthony strong, with all his sail and his six hands, catches us on this side of gravesend, i'll give him leave to skin me and eat me at the dinner that he would win. no, no! if we don't know the currents, and the shortcuts of the river a little bit better than ever a captain of police-boat that ever lived, or that ever will live, why you may set me down for a frog or a frenchman, which, i take it, are much of a muchness."
"they is," said the other.
todd shouted with delight, and it was real now the wild laughter that shook his frame, for he began to think he was safe. the confident tone in which the waterman spoke, had quite convinced him that he could do what he said. with a perfect confidence in the power of his two watermen, he looked at the police wherry without any alarm, and the foam that it dashed up as it came bounding on, did not seem to fall coldly upon his breast, as it had seemed to do before.
"two miles," he said. "that's a long start."
"in a stern chase," said bill, "it's half of the blessed world to get over is them two miles."
"yes, yes—exactly; and i shall beat mr. anthony strong, i feel now. you see, my little nephew, bill white, gave me the first start from blackfriars; but i knew i could not depend upon him all the way, so i—there's another gun. hal ha! mr. strong, it won't do."
"well," said bill, with a look of what he, no doubt, thought was great cleverness, "if i didn't know as this was a bit of fun between mr. anthony strong and you, sir, i should have said that them guns was for us to lie-to."
"that's just what he wants," cried todd.
"does he?"
"yes. he thinks that he will frighten whoever is rowing into a dead stop, when they find a police-galley firing guns; but i think he is mistaken in this matter, my friends."
"rather!" said dick, as he bent his back to the oars, and pulled away like a giant.
how the boat shot through the water! and yet to todd's apprehension, the police-galley gained upon him. of course, he told himself that it must gain with its sail and six rowers; but the question was, how much it would gain in the seven or eight miles they had got to go? with what a feverish action todd licked his lips.
