I thank you for the idea, and if that
will do Tobias any good, he shall have the full benefit of it at my
hands. Shall we seek him now?" "Yes, I hope that he is in a state to fully comprehend what is said to
him, and in that case the sooner we say this from which we expect such
good results, the better it will be. I am most anxious to witness the
effect it will have upon his mind, colonel. If I mistake not, it will be
one far exceeding anything you can suppose." Upon this they both went up stairs to the chamber in which poor Tobias
lay. The boy was upon a bed, lying to all appearance bereft of sense. His breathing was rather laborious, and every now and then there was a
nervous twitching of the muscles of the face, which bespoke how ill at
ease the whole system was. At times too he would mutter some incoherent
words, during which both the medical man and the colonel thought they
could distinguish the name of Todd. "Yes," said the surgeon, "that is the spectre that is ever present to
the imagination of this poor boy and we must speedily get rid of it from
him, or it will assuredly kill him. I would not answer for his life
another twenty-four hours, if his fancy were still to continue to be
tortured by an expectation of the appearance of Todd." "Will you, or shall I, speak to him?" "You, if you please, colonel; he knows your voice better no doubt than
he does mine." Colonel Jeffery bent his head close down to Tobias's ear, and in a clear
correct voice spoke to him. "Tobias, I have come to say something very important to you. It is
something which I hope will do you good to hear. Do you comprehend me,
Tobias?" The sufferer uttered a faint groan, as he tossed one of his arms
uneasily about upon the coverlet. "You quite understand me, Tobias? Only say that you do so, and I shall
be satisfied to go on, and say to you what I have to say." "Todd, Todd!" gasped Tobias. "Oh, God! coming--he is coming." "You hear," said the surgeon. "That is what his imagination runs upon. That is proof conclusive." "It is, poor boy," said the colonel. "But I wish I could get him to say
that he fully comprehends my words." "Never mind that. I would recommend that you make the communication to
him at once, and abruptly. It will, in all likelihood, thus have more
effect than if you dilute it by any great note of preparation before it
reaches his ears." The Colonel nodded his acquiescence; and then, once more inclining his
mouth to Tobias's ear, he said, in clear and moderately loud accents--

"Sweeney Todd is dead!" Tobias at once sprang up to a sitting posture in the bed, and cried--

"No, no! Is it really so?" "Yes," added the colonel. "Sweeney Todd is dead." For a moment or two Tobias looked from the colonel to the surgeon, and
from the surgeon to the colonel, with a bewildered expression of
countenance, and then burst into tears. "That will do," said the surgeon. "It has succeeded?" whispered the colonel. "Fully. It could not do better. He will recover full consciousness now
when those tears are over. All will go well with him; but do not, by
word or look, insinuate the remotest doubt of the truth of what you have
told him. It would be better to say the same thing to any of the
servants that may come about him." "I will--I will; and particularly to his master, whom I would as soon
trust with a secret as I would with the command of a regiment of
cavalry." Tobias wept for the space of about ten minutes, and then he looked up
with a face in which there was a totally different expression to what it
had borne but a short time previously, and with a faltering voice he
spoke--

"And so Todd is gone at last?" "He has," replied the colonel; "and, therefore, you may now, Tobias,
make your mind quite easy about him." "Oh, quite--quite!" By the long breath that Tobias drew, it was evident what an exquisite
relief it was to him to be able to feel that the man who had been the
bane of his young life was no more. No assurance of protection from him
could have come near the feeling of satisfaction that he now felt in the
consciousness of such a release. But Todd being dead, settled the affair
at once. There was no drawback upon his satisfaction. "Oh!" he said, "I do indeed feel that life is with me again, and that I
can be happy. Where is Minna?" "She cannot remain here always," replied the colonel; "but she will be
in the house shortly, upon a visit to your mother, and you shall
yourself have the pleasure of communicating the welcome news of Todd's
death to her--news which to her bears as great a significance as it does
to you." "Oh, yes," replied Tobias. "Minna will be pleased. We ought not to
rejoice at the death of any one; but then Todd was so very, very bad a
man, that his dying is a good thing, as it keeps him from loading his
soul with more wickedness." "That," said the medical man, "is the proper view to take of the matter,
Tobias; but now you will permit me to say to you that you should not
talk too much, nor overtax your young strength. I will darken the room,
by closing the shutters; and it is highly desirable that you should
enjoy a few hours calm sleep, which now, with the conviction that Todd
is dead, I do not see any difficulty in your doing." "Oh, no--no," said Tobias, with quite a bright expression upon his face. "Oh, no. I shall sleep well now. Quite well, for what have I to fear
now?" These few words were spoken in such a tone of calm composure, that
the colonel had every reason to rejoice in the experiment he had tried,
upon the advice of the medical man. The latter closed the shutters of
the room all but one, so that there was but a soft and chastened light
in the room; and then, with a smile upon his face, Tobias--after hoping
that they would arouse him when Minna should come, and receiving a
promise that way--turned his face to his pillow, and composed himself to
the first pure rest he had had since the attack that the villain Todd
had made upon him in the colonel's house. "It is not much of a deception," said Colonel Jeffery to the surgeon,
when the latter was leaving the house, "for I believe now that Todd's
hours are indeed numbered. He will be arrested to-night." "I am glad to hear it," replied the surgeon. "Such a notable villain
ought to be as quickly as possible put out of the world." "He ought, indeed; and from what I hear from Sir Richard Blunt, I
believe that before twenty-four hours are gone over my head, the whole
of London will ring with the name of Todd, and the story of his
frightful criminality." Tobias slept quietly, and securely for four hours, during which space of
time he was twice visited by Minna Gray, who had arrived while he was in
that state of repose. The colonel, although he felt the danger of
letting Mrs. Ragg know that the report to Tobias of the death of Todd
was premature, felt no such scruple with regard to Minna. Indeed he
considered that it would have been an insult to her judgment not to have
told her exactly how the case stood.