Lupin laughed, as he with a light step now crept along the vaulted
passage, and reached a massive door at the end of it, up and down which
he passed the light several times. Then he muttered to himself--

"Good! Only the lock, and it will need to be a good one if it resist me. I used to be rather an adept at this sort of thing." "Then you are," said Todd, "a professional--"

He paused, for he did not like to say thief; but Lupin himself added the
word, cracksman, and Todd nodded. "Yes," added Lupin, "I was a cracksman, but I got known, so I thought
the chapel dodge would suit me, and it did for a time, and would for
some time longer, but that the little accident of which you have heard
something took place in the chapel, and that idiot Mrs. Oakley found me
out. Ah! you never after all can be a match for a crafty old woman. They
will have you at some moment when you least expect it. She regularly
sold me." CHAPTER CXXXIV. THE ESCAPE, AND THE RETREAT IN CAEN WOOD, HAMPSTEAD. While Mr. Lupin talked, he did not lose time, but he was working away at
the lock of the door at the end of the passage. After a few moments
there was a crackling sound, and then the lock yielded to the exertion
of Mr. Lupin, and went back into its home. The door, with a wheezing
sound, slowly opened. "All's right," whispered Lupin. "The less we say now, Todd, the better,
for our voices will go farther now that we shall be clear of this
passage. Come on. Follow me!" They both emerged into the night air; and crouching down, Lupin ran
along the little yard in which they were, and which was not above
half-a-dozen yards across. He paused at a door, and then suddenly
starting away from it, he muttered--

"It is not this one. Ah! this is it! Stand quite close up against the
wall, and then there will be the less chance of any one seeing you. I
must work away at this door." "Where does it lead to?" whispered Todd. "To the chapel." Todd screwed himself up into the smallest space that he possibly could
against the wall, close to the door, while Lupin tried to open it. That
door for more than ten minutes baffled him. Probably that fact was owing
in some degree to the circumstance of his being in the dark, for of
course, before emerging from the vaulted passage, he had thought it
prudent to extinguish the little light he had. "It baffles you," said Todd, in a voice of great anxiety. "As yet, yes. No. It is open." Todd breathed more freely. "Come in," said Lupin. "Come in. We have done wonders as yet, my friend,
and we will do wonders yet, I think, if Providence only looks with a
gracious--There I go again. When shall I forget that chapel, I wonder?" "It don't matter," said Todd. "I used to find a little religion answer
very well myself." "Not a doubt of it. Now, then, that the door is fast, we may muster up a
light again." With the aid of one of his matches, Lupin again illuminated the little
wax end of the candle, and then Todd found that he was in a small kind
of vestibule from which a green baize door led directly into the chapel. In fact, that was the entrance by which the lower class of offenders
confined in Newgate were brought to the chapel on Sundays. The little
building looked much larger by the faint light of that one candle than
it really was, and Todd glared around him with a feeling of terror, as
he had not felt since he had left his cell. Perhaps, after all, a good
deal of that was owing to the low temperature of the chapel, that lent a
chill to his system. "Look at that seat," said Lupin, pointing to one. "Do you know what it
is?" "Only a seat," said Todd. "Is there anything particular in it?" "Nothing, except the kind of interest it might have for you, as being
the one upon which the condemned prisoners sit, on the Sunday previous
to their execution, that is all." Todd turned aside with a shudder. "Enough," he said. "Enough. That is enough. Let us get on, and not waste
time in idle talking about such idle matters as these. I do not feel
very well." "And I," said Lupin, "would give a few bright pieces out of those
hundreds that you have hidden, for a glass of brandy. But that's not to
be thought of now. This is a door that leads from the chapel to the
Governor's house, through which the parson, and the Governor and
Sheriffs come on the occasion of Sunday service here. It is by that we
must attempt an escape in this place." Sweeney Todd, and Mr. Lupin looked like two spectres, as they crept
noiselessly through the chapel of Newgate; but Lupin appeared to know
perfectly well the route which it was necessary for him to take, and he
soon went up three small steps, and applied his ear to the panel of a
door to listen, as he said--

"Through here lies our route." "Is all still?" said Todd. "Quite. I don't believe, except ourselves, there is any one up and about
in Newgate except a couple of lazy fellows in the vestibule; but we are
too far off them to be in any danger of their overhearing us. This door
will not give any trouble. Ah!" "What is the matter?" "It is bolted on the other side." "Then we are foiled?" "Not at all. It will take us a little time to unbolt it, that's all. Hand me the chisel." Todd handed it to him; and then holding the light for Lupin, the latter
set to work upon the panelling of the door, to cut away sufficient of it
to enable him to get his head through, to draw back the bolts, one of
which was at the top of the door and another at the bottom of it. The door, though, was not built for strength, for it was scarcely
imagined that it would ever be attacked, so that the panelling was only
of an ordinary character; and as the chisel was a good one, and Mr.
Lupin was tolerably expert in its use, the chips from the wood soon
began noiselessly to fall about him. He worked in a circle, so that when
he should get fairly through the panel, there would be quite space
enough for him to get his arm through, and unfasten both the bolts; and
this he completed in about ten minutes. "I should never have got on without you," said Todd. "The only notion I
had of the affair, was to try and fight my way out of the prison, and if
I fell in doing so, I was no worse off than I should be on Monday
morning--or, indeed, rather better, for I could not endure the agony of
waiting for death." "They would not have killed you." "They must." "Nay, they will go through fire and water here, and suffer anything,
rather than that a man should escape the gallows. They would have flung
themselves upon you, and overpowered you by numbers, and on Monday
morning, if you had a breath of life left in you, you would have been
dragged out to death." Todd shuddered. "And you so innocent, too," added Lupin. "But it is the innocent that in
this world, verily, are chastened alway." "You are getting into your old habit of preaching again," said Todd,
roughly. "So I am. I am much obliged to you, my friend, to put me in mind of it. Very much obliged.