A tall, gigantic figure marched three paces into the room. "_Todd!_" shouted Tobias. "_It is Todd!_"

It was Sweeney Todd! With one glance round the room, he recognised an
enemy in every face. With a perfect yell of fear and rage, he turned,
and dashed down the staircase. The servant who had conducted him up to
the drawing-room, and whom he met in his way, he knocked down with one
blow, and in another moment he was in the street. The colonel's horse
was close to the door. Todd felled the man who held it by a blow on the
top of the head, that took him so suddenly, he could not guard against
it, and then springing upon the horse, the murderer raised another wild
unearthly kind of shout, and set off at a gallop. [Illustration: Todd Seizes The Colonel's Horse, Mounts, And Makes
Another Escape.] So sudden--so totally unexpected, and so appalling had been the presence
of Todd in the drawing-room, that if a spectre had appeared among the
people there assembled, and they had had no possible means of escaping
from the belief that it was a spectre, they could not have been more
confounded than they were upon this occasion. Poor Tobias, after uttering the exclamation that we have recorded, fell
flat upon the floor. Ben swung backwards in his chair, and went with a
tremendous crash right away into a corner. Ingestrie and the colonel
rose together, and impeded each other in their efforts to follow Todd. Johanna, shrieking, clung to Ingestrie, and Arabella made a vain attempt
to delay the colonel. "By Heaven he is off!" cried the colonel, as he heard the clatter of the
horse's feet. "No!" shouted Ingestrie; "it cannot be!" "Easy does it," said Ben, from the corner into which he had fallen. "Easy--Easy!" "Johanna, unhand me, I implore you," cried Mark Ingestrie. "Do you wish
the murderer to be lost sight of? Come on, colonel--you and I must
engage in this pursuit. God of Heaven! the idea of me saving Todd from
the waves!" The colonel and Ingestrie seized their hats, and rushed down the stairs,
tumbling over the servant in the hall. The next object they came across
was the groom who had had charge of the horse. They found him sitting on
the pavement, looking as confused as possible. "Which way has he gone?" cried the colonel. "The--the man. Round that corner, and Hector has gone after him, like
mad, sir. Oh, dear!" "Hector? Then he will be taken, for I will back Hector to hang upon him
like grim death. Come with me to the nearest stable, Ingestrie, and let
us get horses! Come--come!" CHAPTER CLXXII. THE PURSUIT OF TODD ON THE LONDON ROAD. The whole of these proceedings had really come with such a rush upon the
senses of Mark Ingestrie, that he might well have been excused had he
not been able to act with the energy that he did; but the strong desire
to capture Sweeney Todd, and so to put an end to all the doubts and
fears that were felt concerning him, upon the parts of those to whom he
was fondly attached, roused the young man to action. Colonel Jeffrey was cooler than Ingestrie in the affair; but he was not
a whit the less determined upon that account. In the course of seven or eight minutes at the outside, they were both
mounted, and as there were plenty of people who could tell them in which
direction Todd had gone, they were soon upon his track. [Illustration: Todd Pursued By The Colonel And Mark.] Todd had taken the London Road, and had really got a considerable
distance onward, and if he had been, which he was far from being, a good
horseman, there is very little doubt but that he would either have led
his pursuers a long distance, or possibly escaped them altogether, for
the animal that he rode was one that in skilful hands would have done
wonders. It was no small aggravation to Colonel Jeffrey to be pursuing his own
horse, while he himself was mounted upon a hack that was by no means
equal to it. Skill, however, will get more work out of an indifferent steed than
absolute ignorance will achieve from a first-rate one, so that after
getting to the top of a rising ground about three miles out of Brighton,
our friends saw Todd not three quarters of a mile in advance, coasting a
little water-course to find a safe place to cross at. Notwithstanding
the distance was great, the colonel knew his own horse in a moment. "Come on, Ingestrie," he said. "There he is!" "Are you sure?" "Quite. That's the rascal. Ah, there he goes through the water! The
horse will carry him well across it, but he did not know that, so it is
a bold step. On--on!" They had let their horses come rather easy up the ascent, for the
colonel was too good a horseman to break down his steed, merely with an
useless burst, when there might be a chase before it of some twenty or
thirty miles yet, for all he knew to the contrary; and so, as the
country, from the hill-top, sloped very gently right away to the north,
they got on wonderfully, and without giving the cattle too much to do. To keep Todd in sight was everything now, for in that case they felt
certain that they must eventually have him. From his actions, it did not
seem that he was at all aware of his being so closely pursued, but
suddenly they saw him pull up on an eminence and turn his horse's head
in the direction of Brighton. They saw him shade his eyes with his
hands, and take a long look, and then by the sudden start that he gave,
and which caused the horse to plunge in alarm, they knew that he had
seen them, and that from that moment he would strain every nerve to
escape. The slight pause that Todd had made in order to look back and see if he
were pursued or not, had given his foes the advantage of about one
hundred yards, for they had pushed on during that pause with renewed
vigour; but now bending low in the saddle, it was evident that he was
doing his best to urge the colonel's horse onwards, and it went like the
wind. "There he goes, colonel!" cried Ingestrie. "That pace will do for us
pretty quickly. He is leaving us behind fast enough." "He is, by Heaven, and if he gets to a turn of the road, there is no
knowing what fox-like trick he may play us. On--on, Ingestrie! There is
no help for it, but to do our very best." For another minute and a half, now, not a word was exchanged between the
friends. The road did take a turn, and for some time they were out of
all sight of Todd, but the moment they themselves got round the elbow of
the road, the colonel raised a shout of gratification, and then cried--

"There he is! He has had a fall. On--on!" Todd was in the middle of the road-way trying to mount the horse, from
which it would appear as though he had been thrown, for the creature was
rearing in evident alarm, and swerving every time that Todd put his foot
in the stirrup. Maddened, then, at the idea that each moment his foes
were gaining upon him, Todd made such a vigorous effort to mount, that
he succeeded in doing so, although both his feet were out of the
stirrups.