Mrs. Ragg, when she met Sweeney Todd, after he had so comfortably put out of this world of care, John Mundell, the usurer, was really upon a mission to Minna Gray, to tell her that Tobias was, to use her own expressive phraseology--"Never so much better." Together with this news, Mrs. Ragg, at the colonel's suggestion, sought the company of Minna to tea upon that afternoon; and the consent of all parties whom it might concern being duly obtained to that arrangement, we will suppose Minna upon her way to Colonel Jeffery's. Timidly, and with a bashful boldness, if we may use the expression, did the fair young girl ring the area bell at the colonel's. But he and his friend, Captain Rathbone, were both in the parlour, and saw her advance, so that she was at once welcomed into that portion of the house. The colonel, like most gentlemen, had the happy knack of making those with whom he spoke at their ease, so that Minna in a very short time recovered her first agitation--for if she had gone a thousand times to that house, agitated she would have been at first--and was able to discourse with all that gentle fervour and candid simplicity which belongs to such minds as hers.
"A most favourable change," said the colonel, "has taken place in Tobias--a change which I attribute to the strong influence which your visit had upon him; such an opinion is not a mere fancy of mine, for the medical gentleman who is in attendance upon him fully concurs in that view of the case."
Minna had no need to say that she was pleased, for she looked all the delight that such a communication was calculated to give her.
"Under these circumstances, then," continued the colonel, "that which was only a faint hope of his recovery, has become a certainty."
Minna's eyes filled with tears.
"Yes," added Captain Rathbone, "and we expect that to you he will make such revelations as shall bring proper punishment upon all those who have in any way been the cause of this calamity."
"Oh, forgive them all, now," said Minna. "Since he recovers, we can forgive them all, you know, now."
"That cannot be, for the persecution that Tobias has endured is but part of a system which he will be the means of exposing. Will you come up stairs at once now, Miss Gray, and see him?"
"Oh, yes--yes."
How her heart beat as she ascended the staircase, and how quickly she inspired and respired when she actually got to the door of Tobias's room. But then she heard the kind, although not very musical voice of Mrs. Ragg from within, say--
"But, my dear, you will give her time to come?"
"A long time, mother," said Tobias.
Ah, how well Minna knew that voice. It was the voice of Tobias as of old. The same voice, in tone perhaps only a little weakened, and rendered more soft by sickness than it had been, but to her it was like the soft memory of some well remembered tone that she had heard, and wept with joy to hear in happier days.
"I am here, Tobias! I am here."
"Minna--Minna!"
She entered the room radiant and beautiful as some fairy come to breathe joy by the magic of some spell, Tobias stretched out his arms towards her. She paused a moment, and then with a soft and gentle movement, embraced him. It was but for an instant she held him in her arms, and then she stepped back a pace or two and looked at him.
"Quite well," said Tobias, understanding the look.
"Quite?"
"Oh, yes, Minna, and as happy--as--as--fifty kings."
"Are kings happy?"
"Well, I don't know that they are, Minna, but at all events if they are, they can't possibly be happier than I am."
"Bless the boy," said Mrs. Ragg, "how he does talk, to be sure."
"Why, Tobias," said Colonel Jeffery, "you are wonderfully improved within this last hour."
"Yes, sir, and still more wonderfully since the best physician in the world has come to see me."
The direction of his eyes towards Minna Gray let them know, if they had not guessed it before, who Tobias considered the best physician in the world to him. Minna shook her head, and said--
"But, Tobias, it is to this gentleman that you owe your life."
"Yes," replied Tobias, "and if ever I forget to be grateful to him for all that he has done for me, I shall consider myself the worst person in the world. Aye, as bad, quite as--as Sweeney Todd."
Tobias shuddered perceptibly as he pronounced Todd's name, and it was quite evident that even in safety, as he could not but feel himself, and profoundly protected from the deadly malice of his late master, he could not divest himself of the absolute horror which even a mere remembrance of him engendered.
"Well, Tobias," said the colonel, as he drew a chair close to him, "since you have named Todd, pray tell us all about him."
"All?"
"Yes, all, Tobias."
"I will tell all I know. Come closer to me, Minna; I feel, when you are near me, as though God had sent one of his angels to keep Todd from me. Oh, yes, I will tell all I know. How can he harm me now?"
"How indeed, Tobias?" said Minna.
Tobias still trembled. What a shock that bold, bad, unscrupulous man had given to the nerves of that boy. His bodily health might be restored, and his mind once more be brought back to sanity, but if Tobias Ragg were to live to the age of a patriarch, the name of Todd would be to him a something yet to shrink from, and the tone of his nervous system could never be what it once was. Minna looked up in his face, and the colonel, too, gazed fully upon him, so that Tobias found he was absolutely called upon to say something.
"Yes," he began, "I remember that people came to the shop, and--and that they never went out of it again."
"Can you particularise any instance?"
"Yes, the gentleman with the dog."
Colonel Jeffery showed by his countenance how much he was interested.
"Go on," he said. "What about the gentleman with the dog?"
"I don't know how it was," added Tobias, "but that circumstance seemed to tell more upon my fancy than any other. I suppose it was the conduct of the dog."
"What sort of a dog was it?"
"A large handsome dog, and Todd would not let it remain in the shop, so his master made him wait outside."
"Did he name the dog?"
Tobias passed his hand across his brow several times, and then his countenance suddenly brightening up, he said--
"Hector! Yes, Hector!"
Colonel Jeffery nodded.
"What then happened, Tobias?" said Minna.
"Why, I think Todd sent me out upon some message, and when I came back the gentleman was gone, but not the dog."
"Now, Tobias, can you tell us what sort of a man the man with the dog was?"
"Yes, fresh-coloured, and good-looking rather, with hair that curled. I should know him again."
"Ah, Tobias," said the colonel, "I am afraid we shall none of us ever see him again in this world."
"Never!" said Tobias. "Todd killed him. How he did it, or what he did with the body, I know not; but he did kill him, and many more, I am certain as that I am now here. Many people came into the shop that never left it again."
"No doubt; and now, Tobias, how came you in the street by London Bridge so utterly overcome and destitute?"
"The madhouse."
"Madhouse?"
"Yes, I shall recollect it all. Where are you, mother?"
"Bless us and save us!--here, to be sure," said Mrs. Ragg.
"Did I not come to you at your room and find you ironing, and did I not tell you that I had something to say about Todd, and ask you to fetch somebody?"
"To be sure."
"Well, when you left, Todd came, and after once looking in his face, I almost forgot what happened, except that there was a madhouse and a man named Watson."
"Watson?" said Colonel Jeffery, as he made a note of the name.
"Yes," added Tobias, "and Fogg."
"Good! Fogg, I have it. Now, Tobias, where did you encounter this Fogg and Watson?"
"That I cannot tell. I recollect trees, and a large house, and rooms, and a kind of garden, and some dark and dismal cells, and then my mind seems, when I think of all those things, like some large room full of horrors, and anything comes before me just like some dreadful dream. I recollect falling, I think, from some wall, and then running at my utmost speed until I fell, and then the next thing that I remember was hearing the voice of Minna in this house."
"One thing," said Captain Rathbone, "is pretty certain, and that is, that this madhouse, if it were one in reality, must be in the immediate vicinity of London, or else the strength of Tobias would not have enabled him to run so far as to London from it."
"Mrs. Ragg, I believe Todd told you that he had placed Tobias in a madhouse, did he not?" said the colonel.
"Yes, sir, he did, the wagabone!"
"Well, I am inclined to think that it was a madhouse--one of those private dens of iniquity which are, and have been for many years, a disgrace to the jurisprudence of this country."
"If so, then," said the captain, "there will be no great difficulty in finding it with the clue that Tobias has given us respecting the names."
"I will not be satisfied until I have rooted out that den," said the colonel, "but at present all our exertions must be directed to ascertain the fate of poor Ingestrie. Every circumstance appears really to combine in favour of the opinion of Johanna Oakley, to the effect that this Thornhill and Mark Ingestrie were the same."
"It does look marvellously probable," said the captain.
"Do you recollect any more, Tobias?" said Minna.
"Not clearly, Minna, and I am afraid that what I have recollected is not very clear, but it was the dog that made an impression upon my memory. Many things are, however, now each moment crowding to my mind, and I think that I shall soon be able to recollect much more."
"Not a doubt, Tobias. Do not attempt to strain your memory too far now. Things will come back to you gently, and by degrees."
"I have no doubt of that, sir, but--but--"
"But what, Tobias?"
"Oh, sir, you are quite sure--"
"Sure of what?"
"That when I least expect it, round the curtains of my bed, or from behind some chair, or from some cupboard about twilight, I shall not see the hideous face of Sweeney Todd, and feel his eyes glancing upon me?"
Poor Tobias covered his eyes with both his hands, as he gave almost frenzied utterance to these words, and both Colonel Jeffery and his friend, the captain, looked on with aspects of deep commiseration. The former, after the pause of a few moments, to allow the renewed excitement of Tobias fully to subside, spoke to him in a kind but firm voice.
"Tobias, listen to me. Do you hear me?"
"Yes, sir--oh, yes."
"Then I have to tell you that it is impossible Sweeney Todd can now come upon you in the way you mention, or in any other way."
"Impossible, sir?"
"Yes, quite. He is now watched by the officers of justice, day and night. His house door is never lost sight of for a moment while he is within it, and when he is abroad, he is closely followed and carefully watched by men, any one of whom is more than a match for him; so be at peace upon that head, for Sweeney Todd is more securely kept now than any wild beast in his den."
