"There's the cupboard, Mr. Todd. To be sure there is some dirty
saucepans and a frying-pan in it, and of course it aint a fit place to
ask you to go into." "Never mind that--never mind that; only you be careful, for the sake of
Tobias's very life, to keep secret that I am here." The knocking at the door increased each moment in vehemence, and
scarcely had Sweeney Todd succeeded in getting into the cupboard along
with Mrs. Ragg's pots and pans, and thoroughly concealed himself, when
she opened the door; and, sure enough--Tobias, heated, tired, and
looking ghastly pale--staggered into the room. "Mother," he said, "I have taken a new thought, and have come back to
you." "Well, I thought you would, Tobias; and a very good thing it is that you
have." "Listen to me: I thought of flying from England for ever, and of never
again setting foot upon its shores. I have altered that determination
completely, and I feel now that it is my duty to do something else." "To do what, Tobias?" "To tell all I know--to make a clean breast, mother, and, let the
consequences be what they may, to let justice take its course." "What do you mean, Tobias?" "Mother, I have come to a conclusion, that what I have to tell is of
such vast importance, compared with any consequences that may arise from
the petty robbery of the candlestick, which you know of, that I ought
not to hesitate a moment in revealing everything." "But, my dear Tobias, remember that that is a dreadful secret, and one
that must be kept." "It cannot matter--it cannot matter; and, besides, it is more than
probable that by revealing what I actually know, and which is of such
great magnitude, I may, mother, in a manner of speaking, perchance
completely exonerate you from the consequences of that transaction. Besides, it was long ago, and the prosecutor may have mercy; but, be all
that how it may, and be the consequences what they may, I must and will
tell what I now know." "But what is it Tobias, that you know?" "Something too dreadful for me to utter to you alone. Go into the
Temple, mother, to some of the chambers you attend to, and ask them to
come to me, and listen to what I have got to say. They will be amply
repaid for their trouble, for they will hear that which may, perhaps,
save their own lives." "He is quite gone," thought Mrs. Ragg, "and Mr. Todd is correct; poor
Tobias is as mad as he can be!" "Alas, alas, Tobias, why don't you try
to reason yourself into a better state of mind! You don't know a bit
what you are saying, any more than the man in the moon." "I know I am half mad, mother, but yet I know what I am saying well; so
do not fancy that it is not to be relied upon, but go and fetch some one
at once to listen to what I have to relate." "Perhaps," thought Mrs. Ragg, "if I were to pretend to humour him, it
would be as well, and, while I am gone, Mr. Todd can speak to him." This was a bright idea of Mrs. Ragg's, and she forthwith proceeded to
carry it into execution, saying--

"Well, my dear, if it must be, it must be--and I will go; but I hope
while I have gone, somebody will speak to you, and convince you that you
ought to try to quiet yourself." These words Mrs. Ragg uttered aloud, for the special benefit of Sweeney
Todd, who, she considered, would have been there to take the hint
accordingly. It is needless to say he did hear them, and how far he
profited by them, we shall quickly perceive. As for poor Tobias, he had
not the remotest idea of the close proximity of his arch enemy; if he
had, he would quickly have left that spot, where he might well to
conjecture so much danger awaited him; for although Sweeney Todd, under
the circumstances, probably felt that he dared not take Tobias's life,
still he might exchange something that could place it in his power to do
so shortly, with the least personal danger to himself. The door closed
after the retreating form of Mrs. Ragg, and as, considering the mission
she was gone upon, it was very clear some minutes must elapse before she
could return, Sweeney Todd did not feel that there was any very
particular hurry in the transaction. "What shall I do?" he said to himself. "Shall I await his mother's
coming again, and get her to aid me, or shall I of myself adopt some
means which will put an end to trouble on this boy's account?" Sweeney Todd was a man tolerably rapid in thought, and he contrived to
make up his mind that the best plan, unquestionably, would be to lay
hold of Tobias at once, and so prevent the possibility of any appeal to
his mother becoming effective. Tobias, when his mother left the place,
as he imagined, for the purpose of procuring some one to listen to what
he considered to be Sweeney Todd's delinquencies, rested his face upon
his hands, and gave himself up to painful and deep thought. He felt that
he had arrived at quite a crisis in his history, and that the next few
hours could not surely but be very important to him in their results;
and so they were indeed, but not certainly exactly in the way that he
all along anticipated, for he thought of nothing but of the arrest and
discomfiture of Todd, little expecting how close was his proximity to
that formidable personage. "Surely," thought Tobias, "I shall, by disclosing all that I know about
Todd, gain some consideration for my mother, and after all, she may not
be prosecuted for the robbery of the candlestick, for how very trifling
is that affair compared to the much more dreadful things which I more
than suspect Sweeney Todd to be guilty of. He is and must be, from all
that I have seen and heard, a murderer, although how he disposes of his
victims is involved in the most complete mystery, and is to me a matter
past all human power of comprehension. I have no idea even upon that
subject whatever." This, indeed, was a great mystery; for, even admitting that Sweeney Todd
was a murderer, and it must be allowed that as yet we have only
circumstantial evidence of that fact, we can form no conclusion from
such evidence as to how he perpetrated the deed, or how afterwards he
disposed of the body of his victim. This grand and principal difficulty
in the way of committing murder with impunity, namely, the disposal of a
corpse, certainly did not seem at all to have any effect upon Sweeney
Todd; for if he made corpses, he had some means of getting rid of them
with the most wonderful expedition as well as secrecy. "He is a murderer," thought Tobias. "I know he is, although I have never
seen him do the deed, or seen any appearances in the shop of a deed of
blood having been committed. Yet why is it that occasionally, when a
better dressed person than usual comes into the shop, that he sends me
out on some errand to a distant part of the town?"