There was some complicated latch upon it that
defied all his knowledge of latches, and all his perseverance; and yet,
no doubt, it was something that only required a touch; but he might be
hours in finding out in the dark where to apply that touch. He still heard the voices in the parlour. More than five minutes--precious minutes to him--had already been
consumed in fumbling at the lock of the street door; and then Todd gave
it up as useless, and he crept to the parlour-door to listen to the
speakers, and so, perhaps, ascertain the force that was within. A female voice was speaking. "Oh, dear me, yes, I daresay," it said. "You no doubt think that house
can be kept for nothing, and that a respectable female wants no clothes
to her back; but I can tell you, Mr. Simmons, that you will find
yourself wonderfully mistaken, sir." "Pshaw!" said a man's voice. "Pshaw! I know what I mean, and so do you. You be quiet wife, and think yourself well off, that you are as you
are." "Well off?" "Yes, to be sure, well off." "Well off, when I was forced to go to Mr. Rickup's party, in the same
dress they saw me in last Easter. Oh! you brute!" "What's the matter with the dress?" "The matter? Why I'll tell you what the matter is. The matter is, and
the long and short of everything, that you are a brute." "Very conclusive indeed. The deuce take me if it ain't." "I suppose by the deuce, you mean the devil, Mr. Simmons; and if he
don't take you some day, he won't have his own. Ha! ha! you may laugh,
but there's many a true word spoken in jest, Mr. Simmons." "Oh, you are in jest, are you?" "No sir, I am not, and I should like to know what woman could jest with
only one black silk, and, that turned. Yes, Mr. Simmons, you often call
upon the deuce to take this, and to take that. Mind he don't come some
day to you when you least expect it sir, and say--"

"Lend me a light!" said Todd, popping his awfully ugly face right over
the top of the half open door, a feat which he was able to accomplish by
standing on his tip toes. There are things that can be described, but certainly the consternation
of Mr. and Mrs. Simmons cannot be included in the list. They gazed upon
the face of Todd in speechless horror, nor did he render himself a bit
less attractive by several of his most hideous contortions of visage. Finding then that both husband and wife appeared spell-bound, Todd
stepped into the room, and taking a candle from the table, he stalked
into the passage with it. The light in his hand threw a light upon the mystery of the lock. Todd
opened the street-door, and passed out in a moment. To hurl the candle
and candlestick into the passage, and close the door, was the next
movement of Todd, but then he saw two figures upon the steps leading to
Colonel Jeffery's house, and he shrunk back a moment. "Now William," said Colonel Jeffery himself, "you will take this letter
to Sir Richard Blunt, and tell him to use his own discretion about it." "Yes, sir." "Be quick, and give it into no hands but his own." "Certainly, sir." "Remember, William, this is important." The groom touched his hat, and went away at a good pace, and Colonel
Jeffery himself closed the door. "Indeed," muttered Todd. "Indeed. So, Sir Richard Blunt, who is called
an active magistrate, is to know of my little adventure here? Well--well--we shall see." He darted from the door of the house, through which he had made so
highly successful and adventurous a progress, and pursued William with
such strides as soon brought him close up to him. But the thoroughfare
in which they were was too public a one for Todd to venture upon any
overt act in it. He followed William sufficiently closely however to be enabled to take
advantage of any opportunity that might present itself to possess
himself by violence of the letter. Now William had been told the affair was urgent, so of course he took
all the nearest cuts he could to the house of Sir Richard Blunt, and
such a mode of progress soon brought him into a sufficiently quiet
street for Todd's purpose. The latter looked right and left. He turned completely round, and no one
was coming--a more favourable opportunity could not be. Stepping lightly
up to William he by one heavy blow upon the back of his neck felled him. The groom lay insensible. Todd had seen him place the colonel's letter in his breast-pocket, and
at once he dived his huge hand into that receptacle to find it. He was
successful--one glance at the epistle that he drew forth sufficed to
assure him that it was the one he sought. It was duly addressed to Sir
Richard Blunt--"With speed and private." "Indeed, very private," said Todd. "Wretch! Wretch!" cried some one from a window, and Todd knew then that
the deed of violence had been witnessed by some one from one of the
houses. With an execration, he darted off at full speed, and soon placed a
perfect labyrinth of streets between him and all pursuit. He thrust the
letter all crumbled up into his pocket, and he would not pause to read
it until he was much nearer to Fleet-street than to the colonel's house,
or the scene of his attack upon the groom. Then, by the light of a more
than usually brilliant lamp, which with its expiring energies was
showing the world what an old oil lamp could do, he opened and read the
brief letter. It was as follows. "DEAR SIR RICHARD. "Todd has been here upon murderous thoughts intent. Poor Tobias has,
    I fear, broken a blood-vessel, and is in a most precarious
    condition. I leave all to you. The villain escaped, but is injured I
    think." "Yours very faithfully,
    "JOHN JEFFERY." "To SIR RICHARD BLUNT. "Broken a blood-vessel," said Todd. "Ha! ha! Broken a blood-vessel. Ha! Then Tobias may yet be food for worms, and the meat of the pretty
crawlers to the banquet. Ha!" He walked on with quite a feeling of elation; and yet there was, as he
came to think, a something--he could not exactly define what--about the
tone of the letter, that began upon second thoughts to give him no small
share of uneasiness. The familiar way in which he was mentioned as Todd merely, without
further description, argued some foregone conclusion. It seemed to say,
Todd, the man whom we both know so well, and have our eyes upon. Did it mean that? A cold perspiration broke out upon the forehead of the
guilty wretch. What was he to think? What was he to do? He read the letter again. It sounded much more unmeaning and strange
now. He had at first been too much dazzled by the pleasant intelligence
regarding Tobias, to comprehend fully the alarming tone of the epistle;
but now it waked upon his imagination, and his brain soon became vexed
and troubled. "Off--off, and away," he muttered. "Yes, I must be off before the dawn. The interception of this letter saves me for some few hours. In the
morning, the colonel will see Sir Richard Blunt, and then they will come
to arrest me; but I shall be upon the German Ocean by then. Yes, the
Hamburgh ship for me."