The Gift of the Sailor: The String of Pearls & Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street — page 313: what you’re looking at

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

for the appearance. He thought that it must be some combustible, which, in the course of a few moments, would go off with a stunning report, and blow his street-door to atoms; but then again, what could be the object of such a thing? The more he considered the affair from above, the more he was puzzled and terrified; so at last, with a feeling of desperation, he ran down stairs and began to unfasten the street-door. He did not pause in his work until he had flung it open, and then the mystery was explained. A man, half asleep, with a lighted pipe in his mouth, rolled backwards into the shop; and as he did so, with the dreamy half- consciousness that he was upon some sort of duty, he said— “T’ll watch him, Mrs. Lovett. He shan’t get away without your knowing of it, ma’am.” Todd understood the man’s errand in a moment. Of course he had been employed to watch him by Mrs. Lovett, who had a slight idea that he might not be forthcoming for the promised morning settlement. Todd seized the man by the collar, and dragging him fairly into the shop, closed the door again. “ Ah!” he said, “a good joke.” “What’s a joke, sir?” said the man. “What’s a joke? Murder! Where am I?—where am I?—Help!” “Hush!” said Todd. “Hush! It’s of no consequence. I know all about it man. Mrs. Lovett employed you to watch me. She was a little jealous, but we have made it all right now, and she asked me, if I saw you, to pay you and give you a glass of something, beside.” “Did she, sir?” “To be sure she did; so come in, and you can tell her when you see her in the morning, that you had of me a glass of as good liquor as could be found in London. By-the-bye, what am I to pay you?” “A guinea, sir.” “Exactly. It was a guinea, of course. This way, my friend, this way. Don’t fall over the shaving-chair, I beg of you. You can’t hurt it, for it is a fixture: but you might hurt yourself, and that is of more importance to you, you know. While we do live in this world, if it be for ever so short a time, we may as well live comfortably.” Talking away thus all suspicion from the man who was not one of the brightest of geniuses in the world, Todd led the way to the parlour—that fatal parlour which had been the last scene of more than one mortal life. He closed the door, and then in quite a good-humoured way, he pointed to the seat, saying— “Rest yourself, my friend—rest yourself, while I get out the bottle. And it is one guinea that I am to give you, eh?” “Yes sir; and all I can say is that I am very glad to hear that you and Mrs. Lovett have made matters all right again. Very glad indeed, sir, I may say. In course, I shouldn’t have took the liberty of sitting down by your door, sir, if she had not told me to watch the house and let her know if so be as you come out of it, or if I saw any packages moving. She didn’t say anything to me what it was for; but a guinea is just as well earned easy as not, you see, sir!” “Certainly, my friend, certainly. Drink that.” The man tossed off the glass of something that Todd gave him, and then he licked his lips, as he said— “What is it, sir? It’s strong, but can’t say, for my part, that I like the flavour of it much.” “Not like it?” “Not much, sir.” “Why it’s a most expensive foreign liquor, that is, and by all the best judges in the kingdom is never found fault with. Very few persons, indeed, have tasted it; but of those few, not one has come to me to say, Mr. Todd———” “Good God!” said the man, as he clasped his head with both of his hands. “Good God, how strange I feel. I must be going mad!” “Mad!” cried Todd, as he leant far over the table so as to bring his face quite close to the man’s. “Mad! not at all. What you feel now is part of your death-pang. You are dying—I have poisoned you. Do you hear that? You have watched me, and I have in return poisoned you. Do you understand that?” The dying man made an ineffectual effort to rise from the chair, but he could not. With a gasping sob he let his head sink upon his breast—he was dead. “They perish,” said Todd, “one by one; they who oppose me, perish, and so shall they all. Ha! so shall they all; and she who set this fool on to his destruction shall feel, yet, the pang of death, and know that she owes it to me! Yes, Mrs. Lovett, yes.” He closed his arms over his breast, and looked at the body for some moments in silence; and then, with a sneer upon his lips, he added— “No, Mrs. Lovett, you did not show your judgment in this matter. Had you wished to watch me, you should have done it yourself, and not employed this poor weak wretch who has paid the price of his folly. Go—go!” He struck the chair from under the dead man with his foot, and the corpse that had partially been supported by it and the table, fell to the floor. Another kick sent it under the large table, and then, as another of Todd’s victims had once done, it disappeared. “To-morrow night, by this time,” said Todd, musingly, “where shall I be!” @9OOO0GOOO CORniclooo S CO)