The String of Pearls 39Tobias'S Mother Awakens Old Recollections
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Literature · Crime, Thrillers & Mystery
The String of Pearls 39
Tobias'S Mother Awakens Old Recollections
PrestEnglish
Poor Tobias still remains upon his bed of sickness. The number of hours at the expiration of which the medical man had expected him to recover were nearly gone. In Colonel Jeffery's parlour three persons, besides himself, were assembled. These three were his friend the captain, Sir Richard Blunt, and Mrs. Ragg. The lady was sitting with a not over clean handkerchief at her eyes, and keeping up a perpetual motion with her knee, as though she were nursing some fractious baby, and Mrs. Ragg had been used of late to go out as a monthly nurse occasionally, which, perhaps, accounted for this little peculiarity.
"Now, madam," said the colonel, "you quite understand, I hope, that you are not to mention to any living soul the fact of your son Tobias being with me."
"Oh, dear me, no, sir. Who should I mention it to?"
"That we can't tell," interrupted the captain, "you are simply desired not to tell it."
"I'm sure I don't see anybody once in a week, sir."
"Good God! woman," cried the colonel, "does that mean that when you do see any one you will tell it?"
"Lord love you, sir, it's few people as comes to see you when you are down in the world. I'm sure it's seldom enough a soul taps at my door with a 'Mrs. Ragg, how are you?'"
"Now was there ever such an incorrigible woman as this?"
"If you were to talk to her for a month," said Sir Robert Blunt, "you would not get a direct answer from her. Allow me to try something else--Mrs. Ragg."
"Yes, sir--humbly at your service, sir."
"If you tell any one that Tobias is here, or indeed anywhere within your knowledge, I will apprehend you about a certain candlestick."
"Goodness gracious, deliver us."
"Do you understand that, Mrs. Ragg? You keep silence about Tobias, and I keep silence about the candlestick. You speak about Tobias, and I speak about the candlestick."
Mrs. Ragg shook her head and let fall a torrent of tears, which the magistrate took as sufficient evidence that she did understand him and would act accordingly, so he added--
"Shall we all proceed up stairs? for a great deal will depend upon the boy's first impression when he awakens--and in this case we should not lose a chance."
In pursuance of this sound advice they all proceeded to poor Tobias's bed-room, and there he lay in that profound repose which the powerful opiate administered to him had had the effect of producing. It did not seem as though he had moved head or foot since they had left him. His face was very pale, and when Mrs. Ragg saw him she burst into tears, exclaiming--
"He is dead--he is dead!"
"No such thing, madam," said Colonel Jeffery. "He only sleeps."
"But, oh deary me, what makes him look so old and so strange now? He was bad enough when I saw him last, poor fellow, but not like this."
"He has received ill-usage from someone, and that is precisely what we want to find out. If you can get from him the particulars of what he has suffered, we will take care those who have made him suffer shall not escape."
"Bless you, gentlemen, what's the use of that if my poor boy is killed?"
There was a good home truth in these words from Mrs. Ragg, although, upon the score of general social policy, they might well be answered. An argument with Mrs. Ragg, however, upon such a subject was not very a-propos. The colonel made her sit down by Tobias's bed-side, and he was then upon the point of remarking to his friend, the captain, that it would be as well, since so many hours had passed, to send for the medical man, when that personage made his appearance.
"Has he awakened?" he asked.
"No--not yet."
"Oh, I see you have a nurse."
"It is his mother. We hope that she, by talking to him familiarly, may produce a good effect, and possibly rid him of that bewilderment of intellect under which he now labours. What think you, sir?"
"That it is a good thought. Let us darken the room as much as possible, as twilight will be most grateful to him upon awakening, which he must do shortly."
The curtains of the window were so arranged that the room was in a state of semi-darkness, and then they all waited with no small anxiety for Tobias to recover from the deep and death-like sleep that had come over him. After about five minutes he moved uneasily and uttered a low moan.
"Speak to him, Mrs. a--a--what's your name?"
"Ragg, sir."
"Aye, Ragg, just speak to him; of course he is well acquainted with your voice, and it may have the effect of greatly rousing him from his lethargic condition."
Poor Mrs. Ragg considered that she had some very extraordinary post to perform, and accordingly she collected to her aid all her learning, which, interrupted by her tears, and now and then by a sob, which she had to gulp down like a large globule of castor oil, had certainly rather a droll effect.
"My dear Tobias--my dear--lie a bed, sluggard, you know--well, I never--Put the kettle on, Polly, and let's all have tea. Tobias, my dear--bless us and save us, are you going to stay in bed all day?"
Another groan from Tobias.
"Well, my dear, perhaps you won't mind getting up and just running towards the corner for a bunch of water cresses? Dear heart alive, there goes the muffin-man like a lamplighter!"
It was by such domestic themes that Mrs. Ragg sought to recall the wandering senses of poor Tobias to a cognizance of the present. But alas! his thoughts were still in the dim and misty land of visions. Suddenly he spoke--
"Hush--hush! There they come!--elephants!--elephants!--on--on--on. Now for the soldiers, and all mad--mad--mad! Hide me in the straw--deep in a world of straw. Hush! He comes. Sing, oh sing again!--and he--he will not suspect."
The surgeon made a sign to Mrs. Ragg to speak again.
"Why, Tobias, my dear, what are you talking about? Do you mean the Elephant and Castle?"
"Call to his remembrance," said the surgeon, "some old scenes."
"Yes, sir, but when one's heart and all that sort of thing is in one's mouth it's very difficult to recollect things oneself. Tobias!"
"Yes--yes. Ha-ha!"
It was a low, plaintive, strange laugh that, that came from the poor boy whose mind had been so overthrown, and it jarred upon the feelings of all who heard it.
"Tobias, do you recollect the little cottage down the lane at Holloway, where we lived, and the cock roaches, and the strange cat, you know, Tobias, that would not go away? Don't you recollect, Tobias, how the coals there were all slates, and how your poor father, as is dead and gone--"
"Yes, I see him now."
Mrs. Ragg gave a faint scream.
"Father!--father!" said Tobias, as he held out his arms, and the big tears rolled down his cheeks. "Father--father, Todd has not got me now. Don't cry so, father. Stand out of the way of the elephants."
"My dear! my dear!" cried Mrs. Ragg, "do you want to break my heart?"
Tobias rose to a sitting position in the bed, and looked his mother in the face--
"Are you, too, mad?" he said. "Are you, too, mad? Did you tell of Todd?"
"Yes, the only way," said Colonel Jeffery, "for people not to be mad, is to tell of Todd."
"Yes--yes."
"And so you, Tobias, will tell us all you know. That is what we want you to do, and then you will be quite happy and comfortable for the remainder of your days, and live with your mother again far from any apprehension from Todd. Do you understand me?"
Tobias opened his mouth several times in an eager, gasping sort of manner, as though he would have said something rapidly, but he could not. He placed his hands upon his brain, and rocked to and fro for a few moments, and then he broke out into the same low, peculiar laugh that had before so strangely affected Colonel Jeffery and the others who were there present in that room. The surgeon shook his head as he said, mournfully--
"It is of no use!"
"Do you really think so?" said the colonel.
"For the present, I am convinced that it is of no use to attempt to recall his wandering senses. Time will do wonders, and he has the one grand element of youth in his favour. That, as well as time, will do wonders. The case is a bad one, and the shock the brain of this lad has received must be a most fearful one."
"Do not," said Sir Richard Blunt, "give up so readily, Mrs. Ragg; I would have you try him again. Speak to him again of his father--that seemed to be the topic that most moved him."
Mrs. Ragg could hardly do so for her tears, but she managed to stammer out--
"Tobias, do you recollect when your father bought you the rabbit, and out of vexation, the creature eat its way out of a willow-work cage in the night? Do you remember your poor father's funeral, Tobias, and how we went, you and I, my poor boy, to take the last look at the only one who--who--who--"
Mrs. Ragg could get no further.
"Ha--ha--ha!" laughed Tobias, "who told of Todd?"
"Who is this Todd," said the surgeon, "that he continually speaks of, and shudders at the very name of?"
Colonel Jeffery glanced at Sir Richard Blunt, and the latter, who wished the affair by no means to transpire, merely said--
"We are quite as much in the dark as you, sir. It is just what we should like to know, who this Todd is, whose very name seems to hold the imagination of this poor boy in a grasp of iron. I begin to think that nothing more can be done now."
"Nothing, gentlemen, you may depend," said the surgeon. "How old is the lad?"
"Sixteen as never was," replied Mrs. Ragg, "and a hard time I had of it, sir, as you may suppose."
The surgeon did not exactly see how he was called upon to suppose anything of the sort; however he made no further remark to Mrs. Ragg, but continued in conversation for some time with Colonel Jeffery, who informed him that Tobias should remain for a time where he was, so that there should be every possible chance given for his recovery.
"I wish you to continue attending upon him, sir," he added, "for I would spare nothing that medical advice can suggest to restore him. He has, I am convinced, been a great sufferer."
"That is sufficiently clear, sir. You may rely upon my utmost attention."
"Mrs. Ragg," said the colonel, "can you cook?"
"Cook, sir? Lord bless you, sir. I can cook as well as here and there a one, though I say it that oughtn't, and if poor Tobias was but all right, I should not go to be after making myself miserable now about bygones. What's to be cured must be endured--it's a long lane as hasn't a turning. As poor Mr. Ragg often used to say when he was alive--'Grizzling ain't fattening.'"
"I should think it was not. It so happens, Mrs. Ragg, that there is a vacancy in my house for a cook, and if you like to come and take the place, you can look after Tobias as well, you know, for I intend him to remain here for the present. Only remember, you tell this to no one."
"Me, sir! Lord bless you, sir, who do I see?"
The colonel was by no means anxious to convince himself a second time of the impossibility of bringing Mrs. Ragg to a precise answer, so he changed the subject, and it was finally arranged that without a word to any one upon the subject, that very night Mrs. Ragg was to take up her abode with Tobias. After this had been all arranged, the three gentlemen proceeded to the dining room, and held a consultation.
"Of the guilt of Todd," said the magistrate, "I entertain no doubt, but I own that I am extremely anxious to bring the crime legally home to him."
"Exactly," said the colonel, "and I can only say that every plan you can suggest will be cheerfully acquiesced in by me and my friend here."
The captain signified his assent.
"Be assured, gentlemen," added Sir Richard Blunt, "that something shall be done of a decisive character before many days are past. I have seen the higher powers upon the subject, and have full authority, and you may rest satisfied that I shall not mind running a little personal risk to unravel the mysteries that surround the career of Sweeney Todd. I think one thing may be done conveniently."
"What is that, sir?"
"Why, It seems to be pretty well understood that no one resides in Todd's house but himself, and as now he has no boy--unless he has provided himself with one already--he must go out sometimes and leave the place to itself, and upon one of those occasions an opportunity might be found of thoroughly searching the upper part, at all events, of his house."
"Could that be done with safety?"
"I think so. At all events, I feel inclined to try it. If I do so, and make any discovery, you may depend upon my letting you know without an hour's delay, and I sincerely hope that all that will take place may have the effect of setting your mind at rest regarding your friend, Mr. Ingestrie."
"But not of restoring him to us?"
The magistrate shook his head.
"I think, sir," he said, "that you ought to consider that he has, if any one has, fallen a victim to Sweeney Todd."
"Alas! I fear so."
"All the evidence points that way, and we can only take measures in the best way possible to bring his murderer to justice--that that murderer is Sweeney Todd, I cannot for one moment of time bring myself to doubt."
Sir Richard Blunt shortly afterwards left Colonel Jeffery's house and proceeded to the execution of a plan of proceeding, with the particulars of which he had not thought proper to entrust to the colonel, and his friend the captain. Long habits of caution had led the magistrate--who was not one of the fancy magistrates of the present day, but a real police officer--active, cool, and determined--to trust no one but himself with his secrets, and so he kept to himself what he meant to do that night. When he was gone, Colonel Jeffery had a long talk with his friend, and the subject gradually turned to Johanna, whom the colonel yet hoped, he said, to be able one day to call his own.
"No one," he remarked, "would be more truly rejoiced than I to restore Mark Ingestrie to her whom he loves, and whose affection for him is of so enduring and remarkable a character, but if, as Sir Richard Blunt supposes, he is really no more, I think Johanna, by being mine, would stand a better chance of recovering her serenity, if not of enjoying all the happiness in this world that she deserves."
"Hope for the best," said the captain, "and recollect what the surgeon said as regarded Tobias, that time works wonders."
