Pumpkins' Glow: 200+ Eerie Tales for Halloween. Джек Лондон

I will keep my word, madam, you may depend. You want two hundred pies at nine o'clock, and you will see that they shall come up quite punctually to the minute.

      'Very good. I am glad you are better satisfied than you were.'

      'I am quite satisfied now, Mrs Lovett. I am quite in a different mood of mind to what I was before. I can assure you, madam, that I have no complaints to make, and I think the place has done me some good; and if at nine o'clock you let down the platform, you shall have two hundred pies up, as sure as fate, and something else, too,' he added to himself, 'or I shall be of a very different mind to what I now am.'

      We have already seen that Mrs Lovett was not deceived by this seeming submission on the part of the cook, for she used that as an argument with Todd, when she was expatiating upon the necessity of getting rid of him that night.

      But the cleverest people make mistakes at times, and probably, when the nine o'clock batch of pies makes its appearance, something may occur at the same time which will surprise a great many more persons than Mrs Lovett and the reader.

      But we must not anticipate, merely saying with the eastern sage, what will be will be, and what's impossible don't often come to pass; certain it is that the nine o'clock batch of two hundred pies were made and put in the ovens; and equally certain is it that the cook remarked, as he did so,-

      'Yes, I'll do it - it may succeed; nay, it must succeed; and if so, woe be to you, Mrs Lovett, and all who are joined with you in this horrible speculation, at which I sicken.'

      XXXVIII. Sweeney Todd Shaves a Good Customer. The Arrest.

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      Johanna is still alone in the barber's shop. Her head is resting upon her hands, and she is thinking of times gone past, when she had hoped for happiness with Mark Ingestrie. When we say alone, we must not be presumed to have forgotten the two officers who were so snugly packed in the cupboard. But Johanna, as her mind wandered back to her last interview with him whom she had loved so well, and clung to so fondly, and so constantly, almost for a time forgot where she was and that there was such a person as Sweeney Todd in existence.

      'Alas, alas!' she said, 'it seems likely enough that by the adoption of this disguise, so unsuited to me, I may achieve vengeance, but nothing more. Where are you, Mark Ingestrie? Oh, horror! something seems to tell me that no mortal voice can answer me.'

      Tears came trickling to her relief; and as she felt them trickling through her fingers, she started as she thought that the hour which Todd had said would expire before he returned must have nearly gone.

      'I must control these thoughts,' she said, 'and this emotion. I must seem that which I am not.'

      She rose, and ceased weeping; she trimmed the little miserable lamp, and then she was about to go to the door to look for the return of Todd, when that individual, with a slow and sneaking footstep, made his appearance, as if he had been hiding just within the doorway.

      Todd hung his hat upon a peg, and then turning his eyes enquiringly upon Johanna, he said, 'Well, has anyone been?'

      'Yes.'

      'Who? Speak, speak out. Confound you, you mumble so, I can hardly hear you.'

      'A gentleman to be shaved, and he went away again. I don't know what puts you in such a passion, Mr Todd; I'm sure nothing -'

      'What is it to you? Get out of my way, will you, and you may begin to think of shutting up, I think, for we shall have no more customers tonight. I am tired and weary. You are to sleep under the counter, you know.'

      'Yes, sir, you told me so. I dare say I shall be very comfortable there.'

      'And you have not been peeping and prying about, have you?'

      'Not at all.'

      'Not looking even into that cupboard, I suppose, eh? It's not locked, but that's no reason why you should look into it - not that there is any secret in it, but I object to peeping and prying upon principle.'

      Todd, as he spoke, advanced towards the cupboard, and Johanna thought that in another moment a discovery would undoubtedly take place of the two officers who were there concealed; and probably that would have been the case had not the handle of the shop-door been turned at that moment and a man presented himself, at which Todd turned quickly, and saw that he was a substantial-looking farmer with dirty top boots, as if he had just come off a journey.

      'Well, master,' said the visitor, 'I want a clean shave.'

      'Oh,' said Todd, not in the best of humours, 'it's rather late. I suppose you would not like to wait till morning, for I don't know if I have any hot water?'

      'Oh, cold will do.'

      'Cold, oh dear, no; we never shave in cold water; but if you must, you must; so sit down, sir, and we will soon settle the business.'

      'Thank you, thank you, I can't go to bed comfortable without a clean shave, do you see? I have come up from Braintree with beasts on commission, and I'm staying at the Bull's Head, you see.'

      'Oh, indeed,' said Todd, as he adjusted the shaving cloth, 'the Bull's Head.'

      'Yes, master; why I brought up a matter o'220 beasts, I did, do you see, and was on my pooney, as good a stepper as you'd wish to see; and I sold 'em all, do you see, for 550 pun. Ho, ho! good work, that, do you see, and only forty-two on 'em was my beasts, do you see; I've got a missus at home, and a daughter; my girl's called Johanna - ahem!'

      Up to this point, Johanna had not suspected that the game had begun, and that this was the magistrate who had come to put an end to the malpractices of Sweeney Todd; but his marked pronunciation of her name at once opened her eyes to the fact, and she knew that something interesting must soon happen.

      'And so you sold them all,' said Todd.

      'Yes, master, I did, and I've got the money in my pocket now, in bank-notes; I never leaves my money about at inns, do you see, master; safe bind, safe find, you see; I carries it about with me.'

      'A good plan, too,' said Todd; 'Charley, some hot water; that's a good lad - and - and, Charley.'

      'Yes, sir.'

      'While I am just finishing off this gentleman, you may as well just run to the Temple to Mr Serjeant Toldrunis and ask for his wig; we shall have to do it in the morning, and may as well have it the first thing in the day to begin upon, and you need not hurry, Charley, as we shall shut up when you come back.'

      Johanna walked out, but went no further than the shop window, close to which she placed her eyes so that, between a pomatum jar and a lot of hair brushes, she could clearly see what was going on.

      'A nice-looking little lad, that,' said Todd's customer.

      'Very, sir; an orphan boy; I took him out of charity, poor little fellow; but there, we ought to try to do all the good we can.'

      'Just so; I'm glad I have come to be shaved here. Mine's a rather strong beard, I think, do you see.'

      'Why, sir, in a manner of speaking,' replied Todd, it is a strong beard. I suppose you didn't come to London alone, sir?'

      'Oh, yes, quite alone; except the drovers, I had no company with me; why do you ask?'

      'Why, sir, I thought if you had any gentleman with you who might be waiting at the Bull's Head, you would recommend him to me if anything was wanting in my way, you know, sir; you might have just left him, saying you were going to Todd, the barber's, to have a clean shave, sir.'

      'No, not at all; the fact is, I did not come out to have a shave, but a walk, and it wasn't till I gave my chin a stroke, and found what a beard I had, that I thought of it, and then passing your shop, in I popped, do you see.'

      'Exactly, sir, I comprehend; you are quite alone in London.'

      'Oh, quite, but when I come again, I'll come to you to be shaved,