The String of Pearls; or, The Barber of Fleet Street — page 100: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

| 99 THE STRING OF PEARLS. aie i til oe ‘| looking bureau of ‘great size, and with as much wood-work in it as seemed mes ) i | to make at least a couple of such articles of furniture. This was ver securely locked, and presented more difficulties in the way of opening it than any of the doors | had done, for the lock was of great strength and apparent durability. Moreover it — | || was not so easily got at, but at length by using the bar as asort of lever, instead of as | ‘| amere machine to strike with, Tobias succeeded in forcing this bureau open, and | W] || then his eyes were perfectly dazzled with the amount of jewellery and trinkets of all ij) kinds and descriptions that were exhibited to his gaze. ‘There was a great | number of watches, gold chains, silver and gold snuff-boxes, and a large assort- ment of rings, shoe-buckles, and brooches. ‘These articles must have been of | great value, and Tobias could not help exclaiming aloud— | | “How could Sweeney Todd come by these articles, except by the murder of | their owners?” | = “Rh a RRR | This, indeed, seemed but too probable a supposition, and the more especially so, as in a further part of this bureau a great quantity of apparel was found by Tobias. | He stood with a candle in his hand, seer upon these various objects for more than a quarter of an hour, and then as a sudden and a natural thought came across bim of how completely a few of them even would satisfy his wants and his | | mother’s for a long time to come, he stretched forth his hand towards the glitter- ; |e ing mass, but he drew it back again with a shudder, saying— _ «“ No—no, these things are the plunder of the dead. Let Sweeney Todd pseu ! ‘ them to himself, and look upon them, if he can, with eyes of enjoyment. I wi 1} have none of them; they would bring misfortune along with every guinea that they might be turned into.” As he spoke, he heard St. Dunstan’s clock strike nine, and he started at the sound, for it let him know that already Sweeney Todd had been away an hour - re + o> i=} ; ~4 beyond the time he said he would be absent, so that there was a probability of his i | quick return now, and it would scarcely be safe to linger longer in his house. | ©T must be gone—2 must be gone. J should like to look upon my mother’s face once more before I leave London for ever perhaps. I may tell her of the | danger she is in from Todd’s knowledge of her secret; no-no, 1 cannot speak to pa her of that, I must go, and leave her to those chances which I hope and trust will ! | work favourably for her.”’ 7 a ihe beh Flinging down the iron bar which had done him such good service, Tobias oye stopped not to close any of those receptacles which contained the plunder that ' Sweeney Todd had taken most probably from murdered persons, but he rushed || iil down stairs into the parlour again, where the boots that had fallen out of the cup- tt, board still lay upon the floor in wild disorder. If was a strange and sudden whim Mit that took him, rather than a matter of reflection, that induced him, instead of his re own hat, to take one of those which were lying so indiscriminately at his feet ; Hock and he did so. By mere accident it turned out to be an exceedingly handsome P|) gare hat, of rich workmanship and material, and then Tobias, feeling terrified lest | Sweeney Todd should return before he could leave the place, paid no attention to. ‘Bim anything, but turned from the shop, merely pulling the door after him, and then bs h darting over the road towards the Temple like a hunted hare; for his great wish || ila i was to see his mother, and then he had an undefined notion that his best plan for ih | ae : escaping the clutches of Sweeney Todd would be to go to sea. In common with wh all boys of his age, who know nothing whatever of the life of a sailor, it presented We itself in the most fascinating colours. A sailor ashore and a sailor afloat, are about || as two different things as the world can present; but, to the imagination of Tobias Ragg, a sailor was somebody who was always dancing hornpipes, spending || money, and telling wonderful stories. No wonder, then, that the profession pre- sented itself under such fascinating colours to all such persons as Tobias; and as || it seemed, and seems still, to be a sort of general understanding that the real con- {| dition of a sailor should be mystified in every possible way and shape by both novelist and dramatist, it is no wonder that it requires actual experience to enable || those parties who are in the habit of being carried away by just what they hear, to come to a correct conclusion. | overewes | o . RD Sieh ere Oe Oe Cr TED ne tow - ' : j comicbooks.com