"oh, quicker—quicker!" cried todd.
"that would be difficult," said bill. "but i rather think as we is a doing of it something out of the common way."
bang! went another gun from the pursuing boat, and this time there certainly was the greatest possible hint given by the police-galley that it was in earnest, for a bullet struck the water not above a couple of boats' length from todd's wherry.
"well," said bill, "that may be firing, but i'll be hanged if it is at all pleasant."
"oh, heed it not," said todd; "heed it not. they would have such a laugh at both me and you, if by any means they could frighten you into stopping, and so giving me up—no, no, i mean giving up the wager. what am i saying?"
"i tell you what it is," said bill, "to my mind this is a very odd sort of wager, and if you have no sort of objection to it, sir, we will just pull to the next stairs, and put you ashore. if you don't like that, why, i rather think you must be content to lose your wager."
"you will desert me? oh, no—no. surely you will not, and cannot. you have but to name your price, and you shall have it."
"no. that won't do. you must land now."
todd looked nervously along the bank of the river, and he saw a little miserable landing-place, towards which the men now began to urge the boat. he thought then that if he could get anything like a start of his pursuers on the shore, all might yet be well. "i could get across the country to gravesend, and if once there, i might find some vessel to take me off."
"pull to shore, then," he said; "i will take my chance. pull to shore at once, as swiftly as you possibly can."
when the boat's head was turned towards the shore, it was pretty evident that the police-galley was much more intent upon getting to todd than to gravesend, for the rowers in it on the instant turned the boat's head in the same direction, and it became then, truly, a case of life and death to todd.
vigorously as the boatmen worked, the little wherry was quickly so close to the shore, that todd saw he could land by a scramble through the water.
"there is your money," he cried, to the men; "and for what you have done, i thank you with all my heart. good-by to you."
he sprang over the side of the boat, although by so doing he was up to his knees in the river; but that he heeded not, and in the course of half a minute he had scrambled to the shore, and going at a great rate up the little steps at the landing-place, he gained the road and began to run at great speed.
the two boatmen were not a little amazed at this proceeding, and bill said,—
"i say, i rather think that this is another queer sort of a piece of work than a wager; but if we don't wish to get ourselves into trouble, we must stick to it tooth and nail, that that was what we believed it to be."
"ay," said the other. "i believe you, we must, or else we shall get into limbo for our share of the affair, and no mistake. here they come, hand over hand, and they don't look very well pleased, either."
the rowers in the police-galley had made such strenuous exertions to reach the landing-place quickly, that they were really not far behind the wherry that had conducted todd there, and the first thing that was done was to lay hold of the wherry with a boat-hook, and drag it alongside of them. then the officer in command of the police-boat called out in a voice hoarse with rage—
"what do you mean, you infernal rascals, by running off in this way, when you know by our flag that we were the police? but you will have leisure to repent of it in jail. clap handcuffs upon them both, my men."
"why, what have we done?" said bill. "you will win your wager yet, i should say, if you look sharp about it."
"wager? what wager? what do you mean?"
"why, the gentleman told us that he had a wager with you about who was to get to gravesend first, and he was to take what means he could, and you were to cut along in the galley, and there was to be quite a grand dinner on the strength of it."
"oh, nonsense—nonsense."
"well, that's what he told me, and that's why we pulled away so for; but if so be as it ain't, we are sorry enough, for why should we get into trouble about a man we never saw before, and ain't likely to see again?"
"this excuse won't serve you."
"but who is he, and what's he done?"
"for all we know to the contrary, he is the infamous todd, the murderer."
"what? the fellow that made the people into pies! oh, if we had only had half a quarter of an idea of that! but, hold—i saw the way he went. it was along that chalky bit of road. if you really want to nab him, why do you waste time here talking to us? come on shore, and i will go with you, and we will soon have him now, if that will do any good."
the officer saw at once that this was the only mode of proceeding that promised him the least chance of capturing the fugitive, whether he were todd or not; for, after all, the persons in the police-galley had nothing like positive evidence that it was todd of whom they were in pursuit. a couple of officers were left in the charge of the boats, and the whole of the remainder of them landed along with bill, and ran up the steps to the road along which todd had been seen to run.
they did not know, however, what a wily, cunning personage they had to deal with.
when todd found himself in such comparatively close quarters with the enemy, he felt perfectly sure that to continue scampering along the high road was not the most likely way to escape. if he were to succeed in eluding his foes, he felt that it must be by finesse, and not by speed.
with this idea, he did not go along the road for a greater distance than sufficed to bring him to a hedge, across which he then instantly made his way, and then turning, he crouched down and crept back towards the other direction. on the side of the hedge where he was now, there was not a very pleasant kind of field-drain, but todd's circumstances did not permit of his being very particular, and getting right down into the drain, he crept along, stooping so low that only a portion of his head and back were visible above it.
this was certainly the most likely way to baffle his pursuers, who were not very likely to think that he had so rapidly doubled upon them. knowing now that his destination was gravesend, they would in all probability run along the road after him, or if they took to the fields it would still be with the idea that he was ahead of them.
after proceeding for some distance, todd thought it would be just as well if he were to reconnoitre the foe a little, and, accordingly, he raised his head sufficiently to enable him just to peep through the hedge, and when he did so, he found that he was on sufficiently high ground to command a view of the road, and the landing-place, and the river. to his immense consternation, he saw the police advancing rapidly towards him.
"lost! lost!" said todd, as he sunk down into the ditch, with a conviction that he was all but taken. he felt in his pocket for a pistol, and getting one out, he placed it to his ear, and there held it, for he had made up his mind now, to shoot himself, rather than be dragged back to prison, from where another escape would be quite out of the question.
"they shall not take me. i will die—i will die," he murmured; and then he concentrated all his attention to the act of listening to the proceedings of the police.
they came on in a straggling kind of way from the landing-place, and the principal officer cried out—
"you, jenkins, get up the first tree you come to, and take a long look about you. the country is flat enough, and he will find it no easy matter to hide from us, i should say."
"oh, it's all right, sir," said another voice. "we have him as safe as if he were lying at the bottom of our boat with the darbies on him; and as far as i can judge of him, sir, i should say it is todd."
"i hope so," said the officer. "it will not be a bad morning's work for you all, my lads, if it is."
not very far off from where todd lay concealed in the ditch, only, fortunately for him, on the other side of the road, was a stunted tree, rising about twenty feet from the barren soil, and upon this the man, who was named jenkins, made his way carefully, and took a long look all round him, and particularly in advance.
"do you see him?" said the officer commanding the party.
"no, sir, i don't."
"then he is hiding somewhere, and the only plan is to go right on, and hunt him up if he is among the hedges. come on, now, at once. we must have him. he cannot possibly escape us now."
todd, upon this, again gave himself up for lost; but, as luck would have it, although two of the men got over the hedge, and began looking about, and dashing their cutlasses into the hedge, the officer called to them—
"oh, he never came so far up the road. you don't suppose he was goose enough to come back again? if he is hiding, it will be more likely by the time he lost breath, i should say. come now; i saw him myself get past yonder little chestnut trees, and the white cottage."
upon this the men ran on, and todd felt, for the present, at all events, he was saved.
"the idiots!" said todd, as he looked up and listened. "the idiots!—so they think that i am as far gone in stupidity as they are, and that i have nothing to do, but to run on until they, younger and more fleet of foot, overtake me."
he crawled out of the ditch, and a most pitiable figure he was when he did so. in his anxiety to hide himself completely, he had, in fact, lain himself down comfortably enough, as far as regarded the softness of the place, right at the bottom of the ditch, and had only, in the midst of a thick growth of rank weeds, kept his face above the water.
"this is horrible," he said; "and they will be back soon, too. what on earth am i to do?"
he heard a loud shout at this moment, and he raised his head sufficiently to see along the road to observe the actions of the officers. he found that they had paused, and were talking to a man on horseback, who was pointing in the very direction where he (todd) stood, or rather crouched. the idea that this man had from some eminence, he being mounted, too, seen him (todd) hide in the ditch, at once crossed his mind, and from that moment he felt that he was not in the safety that he had fondly hoped he was.
to remain where he was, with such an idea prevailing in his mind, would have been madness and, accordingly, crawling down close to the hedge, he ran along, splashing, like some gigantic water-fowl, in the ditch, until he came to a thickly-planted fence, at right angles with the hedge that bordered the road. there he was forced to come to a stand-still.
the fence was composed of the common privet, so that there would have been neither difficulty nor danger in forcing his way through it; but what he might encounter upon the other side was a subject of consideration well worth his attention.
through the interstices of the foliage he could see that there was a pretty and well-kept mixed garden on the other side. roses and other flowers grew in quite loving companionship with all kinds of culinary vegetables, and the little plot of ground was well shadowed by some half-dozen fruit trees. a part of the ground was made into a kind of lawn, and upon that lawn was a child about one year old crawling about, and amusing itself by making weak efforts to pull up the grass.
while todd was observing these things, a woman came out of a little white-washed cottage that was at the farther end of the garden, with some clothes to hang up to dry. the woman spoke to the child, and from the tone in which she did so, it was quite evident she was the mother of it.
todd waited until she had hung the clothes up that she had brought out into the garden, and then when she went into the house for more, he burst his way through the hedge, and with a resolution and firmness that nothing but the exigencies of his situation could possibly have endowed him with, he took the child up in his arms and walked slowly across the lawn towards the cottage.
the woman, with another heap of wet clothes in her arms, met him, and uttered a loud scream.
"peace," said todd. "peace, i say. there is no danger unless you make some. listen to me, and i will tell you how you can do a service to me, and spare your child."
"help! help! murder! thieves!" cried the woman.
todd took one of his pistols from his pocket, and held it to the head of the child.
"another word," he said, "and i fire!"
todd resorts to a frightful stratagem with a mother and child.
todd resorts to a frightful stratagem with a mother and child.
the woman fell upon her knees, and holding up her hands in the attitude of prayer, she said—
"oh, have mercy! kill me, if you must take a life, but spare the child!"
"the child's life," said todd, "is in your own hands. why do you seek to destroy me?"
"i do not—i do not, indeed."
"then, peace, and do not cry out for help. do not shout that dreadful word 'murder!' for that will destroy me. i am hunted by my fellow-men. i am a poor proscribed wretch, and all i ask of you is that you will not betray me."
"you will spare my child?"
"i will. why should i harm the little innocent? i was once myself a little child, and considered to be rather a beauty."
as todd said this, he made one of his most hideous faces, so that the woman cried out with terror, and tried to snatch the child from him, but he held it with a firm grasp.
