"Your humble servant, Sir Richard. I hope I have not kept you waiting
long? I was only in the neighbourhood." "No, Hardman, thank you, it's all right. I have not been here above a
quarter of an hour." "I am glad of that, sir. How do you do, Mr. Ben?" "Pretty well," said Ben, "only a little hungry and thirsty, that's all;
but don't trouble yourself about that, Mr. Hardman; I always do get
hungry when I look at Julia." "I hope, Mr. Ben, that don't mean that you will dine off her some day
when you are married?" "Oh, lor, no. Bless her heart, no. She loves me more and more, Mr. Hardman." "I am glad to hear it, Ben--very glad to hear it. But I presume, Sir
Richard, that you have some orders for me?" "Why, yes, Hardman. There's that rascal Todd, you know, still continues
to elude us. What I want you to do is, to take charge entirely on the
river, and to make what arrangements you like at the various quays and
landing-places, and with all the watermen, so that he shall not have a
chance of escaping in that way." "Certainly, sir; I will set about it directly." "Do so, Hardman. Expense in this case is of no object, for the Secretary
of State will guarantee all that; but of course I don't wish you to be
extravagant on that account." "I quite understand you, Sir Richard, and will do my best." "That I am sure you will, Hardman; and now I will go. I shall feel no
peace of mind until that man is dead, or in the cell again at Newgate." Todd popped his head out from under the clothes, and making the most
hideous face, he shook one of his clenched fists in the direction of the
front room. It would have been some satisfaction to him to have given a
loud howl of rage but he dared not venture upon it; so he was forced to
content himself with the pantomime of passion instead of its vocal
expression. "I do hope, sir, we shall soon have him," said Hardman. "It seems to me
to be next thing to impossible he should escape us for long. Do you
think he has any money, sir?" "He cannot have much, for all he has, if any, must be but the produce of
depredation since his escape from Newgate. He certainly has not
extensive means, Hardman." "Then he must fall into our hands, sir. Julia, is that your mother just
arrived, do you think?" "Yes, pa, it is ma's step. She has been out to get something or another,
but I don't know what, as I was out myself all the morning; but it is
ma, I know." Mrs. Hardman came into the room, looking very red and flushed, and with
a large basket on her arm. She looked from one to the other of the
assembled guests with surprise and horror. "What's the matter?" said her husband. "Why wife, you look
panic-stricken. What has happened?" "Oh, gracious! where's the gentleman?" "The gentleman?" cried everybody. "Yes, the lodger. The highly respectable gentleman who took the
first-floor only a couple of hours ago. Oh, gracious, where is he? and a
capital lodger too, who paid in advance, and didn't mind extras at all." "But what lodger, mother?" said Julia. "Oh, mum, I forgot--I forgot," said Martha, suddenly coming into the
room, "I forgot to tell Miss Julia, mum, that an old gentleman had taken
the first floor, mum, and gone to bed in the next room." "In bed in the next room?" said Sir Richard Blunt. "I am lost!" thought Todd. "I am lost now, I am quite lost! and the only
thing I can do is to kill as many of them as possible, and then blow my
own brains out." "Do you mean to say, ma," said Julia, "that there's a gentleman asleep
in the next room in the bed?" "Lor!" said Ben, "you don't mean to say that, Mrs. Hardman?" "He may be in bed, but if he is asleep," said Sir Richard, "he is a
remarkable man; of course if we had had the least idea of such a thing,
we should not have come up here; but here we were shown by the servant." "Oh, yes, it's all that frightful Martha's fault. I'll--I'll
kill--no--I'll discharge that odious hussy without a character, and
leave her to drown herself! For Heaven's sake go down stairs all of you,
and I'll go and speak to the old gentleman, and apologise to him." "Let me go," said Ben, "and roll on him on the bed, and if that don't
settle him I don't know what will." "Shall I apologise to him?" said Sir Richard. Todd nearly fainted when he heard this proposition; but when Mrs.
Hardman rejected it, and insisted upon going herself, he felt quite a
gush of gratitude towards her, and breathed a little more freely once
again. CHAPTER CLVIII. TODD'S FEARFUL ADVENTURES ON THE RIVER. "Shall I lay hold of her," thought Todd, "and choke her the moment she
comes into the room, or shall I answer her, and let her go again? Which
will be the safest course? I suppose I must let her go, for she might
possibly make a noise. Ah! how I should like to have my hand upon all
their throats!" Mrs. Hardman came into the room on tip-toe, leaving the folding-door
just a little ajar. "My dear sir," she said, "are you awake?" "Oh, go to the deuce," said Todd. "What did you remark, my dear sir?" "Go along--go along--Eugh!--eugh! Oh, dear, how bad my cough is. I
dreamt that no end of people were talking and talking away in the next
room; but that can't be, as I have paid for it. Oh, dear!--oh!" Mrs. Hardman took her cue from this; and she was at once resolved to
pass off the disturbance in the next room as merely a dream of her new
lodger. "Dear me, sir," she said in the blandest possible accents; "have you
indeed had a dream? What a singular thing!" "Eugh! Is it? I don't think so." "Well, sir, when I say singular, of course I mean that it's very
natural. I always dream when I sleep in a strange bed, do you know, sir,
and sometimes the most horrid dreams." "Oh, go along." "Yes, sir, directly. Would you like anything got for you, sir? A nice
mutton chop for instance, or--or--"

"No--no! Good God, why don't you go?" "I am going, sir. Thank you. There will be a very quiet house here, I
assure you, sir." With these words, Mrs. Hardman was about to leave the room, flattering
herself that it was all passing off quite comfortably as a mere dream,
when Ben, thinking it incumbent upon him to do something civil, suddenly
popped his head into the room, and in a voice that sounded like the
growl of some bear for his food, he said--

"Take it easy, old gentleman. You'll find that easy does it all the
world over; and if so be as you ever comes near the Tower, just you ask
for Ben, and I'll show you the beasteses, all gratis, and for nothing. Feeding time at four o'clock." "Oh, you great ugly wretch!" cried Mrs. Hardman, dealing Ben a sound box
on the ear. "How dared you interfere, I should like to know, you monster
in inhuman shape?" "Oh, lor!" said Ben, "I only hope another of the family ain't so handy
with her front paws." "Oh--oh!" said Todd. "No peace!--no peace!"