I speak to you for your own sake; you can do yourself no
good, but you can do yourself a great deal of harm. You know we keep a
cart-whip here. Come along." Tobias said not a word in answer to this piece of altogether gratuitous
advice, but he made up his mind that, if the physician was not
absolutely deaf, he should hear him. Before, however, the unhappy boy
was taken into the room where old Dr. Popplejoy was waiting, he was
washed and brushed down generally, so that he presented a much more
respectable appearance than he would have done had he been ushered in in
his soiled state, as he was taken from the dirty mad-house cell. "Surely, surely," thought Tobias, "the extent of cool impudence can go
no further than this; but I will speak to the physician, if my life
should be sacrificed for so doing. Yes, of that I am determined." In another minute he was in the room, face to face with Mr. Fogg and Dr.
Popplejoy. "What--what?--eugh! eugh!" coughed the old doctor; "a boy, Mr. Fogg, a
mere boy. Dear me! I--I--eugh! eugh! eugh! My cough is a little
troublesome I think, to-day--eugh! eugh!" "Yes, sir," said Fogg, with a deep sigh, and making a pretence to dash a
tear from his eye; "here you have a mere boy. I am always affected when
I look upon him, doctor. We were boys ourselves once, you know, and to
think that the divine spark of intelligence has gone out in one so
young, is enough to make any feeling heart throb with agony. This lad
though, sir, is only a monomaniac. He has a fancy that some one named
Sweeney Todd is a murderer, and that he can discover his bad practices. On all other subjects he is sane enough; but upon that, and upon his
presumed freedom from mental derangement, he is furious." "It is false, sir, it is false!" said Tobias, stepping up. "Oh, sir, if
you are not one of the creatures of this horrible place, I beg that you
will hear me, and let justice be done." "Oh, yes--I--I--eugh! Of course--I--eugh!" "Sir, I am not mad, but I am placed here because I have become dangerous
to the safety of criminal persons." "Oh, indeed! Ah--oh--yes." "I am a poor lad, sir, but I hate wickedness; and because I found out
that Sweeney Todd was a murderer, I am placed here." "You hear him, sir," said Fogg; "just as I said." "Oh, yes, yes. Who is Sweeney Todd, Mr. Fogg?" "Oh, sir, there is no such person in the world." "Ah, I thought as much--I thought as much--a sad case, a very sad case,
indeed. Be calm, my little lad, and Mr. Fogg will do all that can be
done for you, I'm sure." "Oh! how can you be so foolish, sir," cried Tobias, "as to be deceived
by that man, who is making a mere instrument of you to cover his own
villany? What I say to you is true, and I am not mad!" "I think, Dr. Popplejoy," said Fogg, with a smile, "it would take rather
a cleverer fellow than I am to make a fool of you; but you perceive,
sir, that in a little while the boy would get quite furious, that he
would. Shall I take him away?" "Yes, yes--poor fellow!" "Hear me--oh, hear me," shrieked Tobias. "Sir, on your death-bed you may
repent this day's work--I am not mad--Sweeney Todd is a murderer--he is
a barber in Fleet-street--I am not mad!" "It's melancholy, sir, is it not?" said Fogg, as he again made an effort
to wipe away a tear from his eyes. "It's very melancholy." "Oh! very, very." "Watson, take away poor Tobias Ragg, but take him very gently, and stay
with him a little, in his nice comfortable room, and try to soothe him;
speak to him of his mother, Watson, and get him round if you can. Alas,
poor child! my heart quite bleeds to see him. I am not fit exactly for
this life, doctor, I ought to be made of sterner stuff, indeed I ought." *       *       *       *       *

"Well," said Mr. Watson, as he saluted poor Tobias with a kick outside
the door, "what a deal of good you have done!" The boy's patience was exhausted; he had borne all that he could bear,
and this last insult maddened him. He turned with the quickness of
thought, and sprang at Mr. Watson's throat. So sudden was the attack,
and so completely unprepared for it was that gentleman, that down he
fell in the passage, with such a blow of his head against the stone
floor that he was nearly insensible; and, before anybody could get to
his assistance, Tobias had so pommelled and clawed his face, that there
was scarcely a feature discernible, and one of his eyes seemed to be in
fearful jeopardy. The noise of this assault soon brought Mr. Fogg to the
spot, as well as old Dr. Popplejoy, and the former tore Tobias from his
victim, whom he seemed intent upon murdering. CHAPTER XXVII. THE CONSULTATION OF COLONEL JEFFERY WITH THE MAGISTRATE. The advice which his friend had given to Colonel Jeffery was certainly
the very best that could have been tendered to him; and, under the whole
of these circumstances, it would have been something little short of
absolute folly to have ventured into the shop of Sweeney Todd without
previously taking every possible precaution to ensure the safety of so
doing. Sir Richard was within when they reached his house, and, with the
acuteness of a man of business, he at once entered into the affair. As
the colonel, who was the spokesman, proceeded, it was evident that the
magistrate became deeply interested. Colonel Jeffery concluded by
saying--

"You will thus, at all events, perceive that there is great mystery
somewhere." "And guilt, I should say," replied the magistrate. "You are of that opinion, Sir Richard?" "I am, most decidedly." "Then what would you propose to do? Believe me, I do not ask out of any
idle curiosity, but from a firm faith, that what you set about will be
accomplished in a satisfactory manner." "Why, in the first place, I shall certainly go and get shaved at Todd's
shop." "You will venture that?" "Oh, yes; but do not fancy that I am so headstrong and foolish as to run
any unnecessary risks in the matter--I shall do no such thing: you may
be assured that I will do all in my power to provide for my own safety;
and if I did not think I could do that most effectually, I should not be
at all in love with the adventure; but, on the contrary, carefully avoid
it to the best of my ability. We have before heard something of Mr. Todd." "Indeed!--and of a criminal character?" "Yes; a lady once in the street took a fancy to a pair of shoe-buckles
of imitation diamonds that Todd had on, when he was going to some city
entertainment; she screamed out, and declared that they had belonged to
her husband, who had gone out one morning, from his house in
Fetter-lane, to get himself shaved. The case came before me, but the
buckles were of too common a kind to enable the lady to persevere in her
statement; and Todd, who preserved the most imperturbable coolness
throughout the affair, was, of course, discharged." "But the matter left a suspicion upon your mind?"