The Gift of the Sailor: The String of Pearls & Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street — page 16: what you’re looking at

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

object of the dog is to get me to follow him to see what it’s about.” “Think you so? It is a warning, if it be such at all, that I should not be inclined to neglect; and if you will follow the dog, I will accompany you; there may be more in it than we think of, and we ought not to allow Mr. Thornhill to be in want of any assistance that we can render him, when we consider what great assistance he has been to us. Look how anxious the poor beast is.” The captain ordered a boat to be launched at once, and manned by four stout rowers. He then sprang into it, followed by the passenger, who was a Colonel Jeffery, of the Indian Army,® and the dog immediately followed them, testifying by his manner great pleasure at the expedition they were undertaking, and carrying the hat with him, which he evidently showed an immense disinclination to part with. The captain ordered the boat to proceed up the river towards the Temple stairs where Hector’s master had expressed his intention of proceeding, and, when the faithful animal saw the direction in which they were going, he lay down in the bottom of the boat perfectly satisfied, and gave himself up to that repose, of which he was evidently so much in need. It cannot be said that Colonel Jeffery suspected that anything of a very serious nature had happened; indeed, their principal anticipation, when they came to talk it over, consisted in the probability that Thornhill had, with an impetuosity of character they knew very well he possessed, interfered to redress what he considered some street grievance, and had got himself into the custody of the civil power in consequence. “Of course,” said the captain, “Master Hector would view that as a very serious affair, and finding himself denied access to his master, you see he has come off to us, which was certainly the most prudent thing he could do, and I should not be at all surprised if he takes us to the door of some watch-house, * where we shall find our friend snug enough.” The tide was running up; and that Thornhill had not saved the turn of it, by dropping down earlier to the vessel, was one of the things that surprised the captain. However, they got up quickly, and as at that hour there was was not much on the river to impede their progress, and as at that time the Thames was not a thoroughfare for little stinking steam-boats, they soon reached the ancient Temple stairs. The dog, who had until then seemed to be asleep, suddenly sprung up, and seizing the hat again in his mouth, rushed again on shore, and was closely followed by the captain and colonel. He led them through the temple with great rapidity, pursuing with admirable tact the precise path that his master had taken towards the entrance to the Temple, in Fleet Street, opposite Chancery Lane. Darting across the road then, he stopped with a low growl at the shop of Sweeney Todd—a proceeding which very much surprised those who followed him, and caused them to pause to hold a consultation ere they proceeded further. While his was proceeding, Todd suddenly opened the door, and aimed a blow at the dog with an iron bar, but the latter dexterously avoided it, and, but that the door was suddenly closed again, he would have made Sweeney Todd regret such an interference. “We must inquire into this,” said the captain; “there seems to be mutual ill-will between that man and the dog.” They both tried to enter the barber’s shop, but it was fast on the inside; and, after repeated knockings, Todd called from within, saying ,— “T won’t open the door while that dog is there. He is mad, or has a spite against me—I don’t know nor care which—it’s a fact, that’s all I am aware of.” “T will undertake,” said the captain, “that the dog shall do you no harm; but open the door, for in we must come, and will.” “T will take your promise,” said Sweeney Todd; “but mind you keep it, or I shall protect myself, and take the creature’s life; so if you value it, you had better hold it fast.” The captain pacified Hector as well as he could, and likewise tied one end of a silk handkerchief round his neck, and held the other firmly in his grasp, after which Todd, who seemed to have some means from within of seeing what was going on, opened the door, and admitted his visitors. “Well, gentlemen, shaved, or cut, or dressed, I am at your service; which shall I begin with?” The dog never took his eyes off Todd, but kept up a low growl from the first moment of his entrance. “Tt’s rather a remarkable circumstance,” said the captain, “but this is a very sagacious dog, you see, and he belongs to a friend of ours, who has most unaccountably disappeared.” “Has he really?” said Todd. “Tobias! Tobias!” “Yes, sir.” “Run to Mr. Phillips’s, in Cateaton Street, and get me six-pennyworth of figs, and don’t say that I don’t give you the money this time when you go a message. I think I did before, but you swallowed it; and when you come back, just please to remember the insight into business I gave you yesterday.” “Yes,” said the boy, with a shudder, for he had a great horror of Sweeney Todd, as well he might, after the severe discipline he had received at his hands, and away he went. “Well, gentlemen,” said Todd, “what is it you require of me?” “We want to know if any one having the appearance of an officer in the navy came to your house?” “Yes—a rather good-looking man, weather-beaten, with a bright blue eye, and rather fair hair.” “Yes, yes! the same.” “Oh! to be sure, he came here, and I shaved him and polished him off.” “What do you mean by polishing him off?” CORniclooo S CO)