The String of Pearls 97Mr. Oakley'S Anxieties Much Diminish
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Literature · Crime, Thrillers & Mystery
The String of Pearls 97
Mr. Oakley'S Anxieties Much Diminish
PrestEnglish
For some few moments after this meeting, neither Mr. Oakley nor Johanna could speak. At length the old spectacle-maker was just able to say--
"Great God, I thank thee, that once again I hold my darling to my heart."
"Father--father," said Johanna. "Did you think for one moment that I could have left you?"
"No my dear, no; but I was bewildered by all I heard. I was half mad I think until I was told all; and now we will go home, my pretty darling, at once, and we will have no secrets from each other. Dear heart, what a pretty boy you make to be sure. But come--come. I am in an agony until I have you home again."
"Father, listen to me."
"Yes my child--my darling. Yes."
"If it had not been for Sir Richard Blunt I should now have been with the dead, and you and I would never have met again, but in another world, father. I owe him, therefore, you will say, some gratitude."
"Some gratitude, my darling? We owe him a world of gratitude. Alas, we shall never be able to repay him, but we will pray that he may be as happy as his noble heart deserves, my dear. God bless him!"
"And, father, we will do any little thing he asks of us."
"We will fly to obey his commands, my dear, in all things. Night or day, he will only have to speak to us, and what he says shall be our law."
"Then, father, he asks of me, for the cause of public justice, that I should go back to Todd's, and wear this dress for the remainder only of to-day. Can we refuse him?"
"Alas! Alas!" said the old man, "more trouble--more anxiety--more danger."
"No, father. No danger. He will watch over me, and I have faith that Heaven is with me."
"Can I part with you again?"
"Yes, for such an object. Do not, father, say no to me, for you may say, and I will obey you; but with your own free consent, let me go now, and do the bidding of the great and the good man who has saved me to once more rest upon your breast, and kiss your cheek."
The old man shook for a moment, and then he said--
"Go, go, my child. Go, and take with you my blessing, and the blessing of God, for surely that must be yours; but, oh! be careful. Remember, my darling, that upon your safety hangs my life; for if I were to hear that anything had happened to you, it would kill me. I have nothing now but you in the world to live for."
"Oh, father, you do not mean to tell me that my mother is no more?"
"No, my dear. No.--Ask me nothing now. You shall know all at another time. Only tell me when I shall see you again."
"At sunset," said Sir Richard Blunt, as he stepped into the room at this moment. "At sunset, I hope, Mr. Oakley; and in the meantime be assured of her perfect safety. I offer my life as security for hers, and would not hesitate to sacrifice it for her."
The manner of the magistrate was such that no one could for one moment doubt that he spoke the genuine sentiments at his heart; and such words, coming from such a quarter, it may be well supposed were calculated to produce a great impression.
"I am satisfied," said Mr. Oakley. "I should be more than an unreasonable man if I were not fully convinced now of the safety of Johanna."
When she had got her father to say this much, Johanna was anxious to be off, and she signified as much to Sir Richard Blunt, who fully acquiesced in the propriety of the measure, for already her absence had been quite long enough from the shop, and Todd might not be in the best of humours at her return.
After one more embrace, Johanna tore herself from her father's arms, and followed the magistrate from the fruiterer's house, by the same route which had conducted her to it.
On their way, he explained to her some little matters of which she was in ignorance, or at least concerning which she could only conjecture.
"Both the persons, whom you left in Todd's shop," he said, "belong to my force; and the one only went for the protection of the other, as I, of course, surmised that you would be at once sent out of the way upon some real or mock errand, to give Todd opportunity of committing a murder. My great object is to find out precisely how he does the deed; and the man who came in to be shaved was to make what observations of the place he could during the ceremony, while the other distracted Todd's attention."
"I understand," said Johanna. "I of course knew that they were friends when they mentioned the watchword of St. Dunstan to me."
"Exactly. I gave them instructions to seize the very first opportunity of letting you hear the watch-word. Are there any large cupboards in the shop?"
"Yes. There is one of great size."
"Would it, do you think, hold two men?"
"Oh, yes. Perchance you, who are tall, might have to stoop a little; but with that exception as to height, there is most ample space."
"That will do then. I cannot tell you, of course, the exact hour; but be it when it may, the moment Todd leaves the shop to day to go upon any business out of doors, two persons from me will come to hide themselves in that cupboard."
"They will use the watch-word?"
"Yes, certainly; and you will so dispose any movable article in the shop, as to take away any idea that the cupboard had been visited, or in the slightest degree interfered with."
"That I can easily do."
"Well, here we are, then, in Fleet-street again; and mind all this that I have planned has nothing to do with your proceedings to call for assistance, if any special or unforeseen danger should occur to you."
Johanna, upon this, showed him the jagged stone she had in her pocket, to cast through the window.
"Yes, that would do," said Sir Richard; "but I would gladly supply you with arms. Do you think you could manage a pistol, if you had one?"
"Yes. I have often looked at some fire-arms that my father had in his shop to sell once, and I have seen them used."
"I am glad of that," continued Sir Richard. "Here are two very small pistols loaded. They may be thoroughly depended upon in a room; but they would not carry any distance, in consequence of the shortness of the barrel. If, however, you should be in any sudden and extreme danger from Todd, anywhere else than in the shop, or there, if you are pushed for time, one of these fired in his face will be tolerably effective. You can keep them both in your pocket."
The magistrate, as he spoke, handed to Johanna a pair of very small, but exquisitely made pistols, encircled with silver mounting, and she carefully concealed them, feeling still more secure from any treachery upon the part of Todd, now that she held his life as much, if not more, in her hands, than he held hers in his.
She shook her kind friend warmly by the hand, and then hastened to the barber's shop. As she got near to it, she saw the tall thin man who had so perplexed Todd about the religious tract, come out, and Todd followed him to the door, looking after him with such an expression of deadly malice, that Johanna could not but pause a moment to look at him.
He suddenly turned his eyes towards her, and saw her. He beckoned with his finger, and she entered the shop.
"Well, Charley," he said, with quite an affectation of good humour. "You are a good lad."
"I am glad you think so, sir," she replied, seeing that Todd paused for an answer.
"I cannot but think so. I shall have to look over some accounts in the parlour this morning, and if anybody--any female, I mean--comes for me, say I have gone to the city, and that, after that, I said I would call in Bell Yard before I came home. You well remember that, Bell Yard. Be vigilant and discreet, and you shall have the reward that I have all along intended for you, and which you should not miss upon any account."
"I am much beholden to you, sir. But if any one should come to be shaved while you are in the parlour, what shall I say to them?"
"You can say I have gone to the Temple to dress Mr. Block's new wig, if you like, so that you got rid of them, for I must not be disturbed on any consideration."
"Very well, sir."
"Put another turf on the fire, Charley, and make yourself quite comfortable."
What inconsistent amenity this was upon the part of Todd. It seemed as though he had turned over a new leaf completely, and intended to put an end to all suspicions, if he had any, of Charley Green; and after that--after that, Todd still preserved his kind intention of cutting his throat with one of the razors.
"The very best thing you can do with people," muttered Todd to himself, as he went into the parlour, "is to cut their throats as soon as they cease to be useful to you, for from that moment, if you do not put them out of the way, they are almost certain to be mischievous to you."
What a pleasant lot of maxims Todd had, and what a beautiful system of moral philosophy his was, to be sure!
One thing was quite evident, and that was that he fully expected and dreaded the visit of Mrs. Lovett upon money matters. It will be recollected that ten o'clock was named as about the hour when that lady was to bring in her little account in the partnership affair of Todd, Lovett, & Co.; and as he (Todd) had for once in his life been fairly bothered to make any further excuses to so pertinacious a creditor as Mrs. Lovett, he had hit upon the plan of trying to put her off during the day by one means or another, and at night he would, at an earlier hour than he had before intended, be off and away.
Everything was in readiness, and he considered Mrs. Lovett his only hindrance--a danger he scarcely thought her--for, at the very worst, he could not conceive that even her passion would be sufficient to induce her to sacrifice herself, for the sake of revenge upon him.
His house was prepared so that a match would at any moment suffice to give the touch that would set it in a blaze; and then, as he said--"Who shall say where the conflagration among the old well-dried wooden houses of Fleet-street may reach to?"
His passage in the Hamburgh ship was secure--the fearful proceeds of his life of rapine and murder were in her hold. How uncommonly safe Todd thought himself, and how well he considered he had managed his affairs.
Short-sighted mortals that we are! How often we mistake the shifting morass of difficulty for the terra firma of prosperity, and how often do we weep for those events, which, in themselves and their results, form the ground-work of the happiness of a life! Truly we are
"Such things as air is made of."
If Todd now for one moment could have imagined that his plunder, which he believed was so safe on board the Hamburgh ship, was actually, on the contrary, at the office of Sir Richard Blunt, in Craven-street, what would have been his sensations? Would he have laughed and sniggered over the bumper of brandy he was holding to his lips in his parlour? No, indeed.
If he could but have guessed that the ship in which he had intended to embark, was then twenty-four hours on her route, and battling with the surging waves of the German Ocean, how would he have felt!
Strange to say, he never had felt so confident of success and triumph as upon that day. He could have said with Romeo in Mantua--
"My bosom's lord sits lightly on its throne,"
while, like Romeo, he was on the eve of a blow that at once was to topple to the dust the very structure of all his hopes. He of course fully expected a visit from Mrs. Lovett, but he did hope that she would take an answer from Charley, and go away again. If she did not he trusted to the inspiration of the moment to be able to say something to her which might have the effect of producing that which he wanted only, namely, delay.
