This seemed a pleasant train of reflections to Sweeney Todd, and as the
coach entered Fleet-street, there sat such a grim smile upon his
countenance that he looked like some fiend in human shape, who had just
completed the destruction of a human soul. When he reached the livery
stables to which he directed them to drive, instead of his own shop, he
rewarded all who had gone with him most liberally, so that the coachman
and footman, who were both servants out of place, would have had no
objection for Sweeney Todd every day to have gone on some such an
expedition, so that they should receive as liberal wages for the small
part they enacted in it as they did upon that occasion. He then walked
from the stables toward his own house, but upon reaching there a little
disappointment awaited him, for he found to his surprise that no light
was burning; and when he placed his hand upon the shop-door, it opened,
but there was no trace of Tobias, although he, Sweeney Todd, called
loudly upon him the moment he set foot within the shop. Then a feeling
of apprehension crept across the barber, and he groped anxiously about
for some matches, by the aid of which he hoped to procure a light, and
then an explanation of the mysterious absence of Tobias. But in order
that we may, in its proper form, relate how it was that Tobias had had
the daring thus, in open contradiction of his master, to be away from
the shop, we must devote to Tobias a chapter, which will plead his
extenuation. CHAPTER XV. TOBIAS'S ADVENTURES DURING THE ABSENCE OF SWEENEY TODD. Tobias guessed, and guessed rightly too, that when Sweeney Todd said he
would be away half an hour, he only mentioned that short period of time,
in order to keep the lad's vigilance on the alert, and to prevent him
from taking any advantage of a more protracted absence. The very style
and manner in which he had gone out, precluded the likelihood of it
being for so short a period of time; and that circumstance set Tobias
seriously thinking over a situation which was becoming more intolerable
every day. The lad had the sense to feel that he could not go on much
longer as he was going on, and that in a short time such a life would
destroy him. "It is beyond endurance," he said, "and I know not what to do; and since
Sweeney Todd has told me that the boy he had before went out of his
senses, and is now in the cell of a mad-house, I feel that such will be
my fate, and that I too shall come to that dreadful end, and then no one
will believe a word I utter, but consider everything to be mere raving." After a time, as the darkness increased, he lit the lamp which hung in
the shop, and which, until it was closed for the night, usually shed a
dim ray from the window. Then he sat down to think again, and he said to
himself--

"If I could now but summon courage to ask my mother about this robbery
which Sweeney Todd imputes to her, she might assure me it was false, and
that she never did such a deed; but then it is dreadful for me to ask
her such a question, because it may be true; and then, how shocking it
would be for her to be forced to confess to me, her own son, such a
circumstance." These were the honourable feelings which prevented Tobias from
questioning his mother as regarded Todd's accusation of her--an
accusation too dreadful to believe implicitly, and yet sufficiently
probable for him to have a strong suspicion that it might be true after
all. It is to be deeply regretted that Tobias's philosophy did not carry
him a little further, and make him see, the moment the charge was made,
that he ought unquestionably to investigate it to the very utmost. But
still we could hardly expect, from a mere boy, that acute reasoning and
power of action, which depend so much upon the knowledge of the world
and an extensive practice in the usages of society. It was sufficient if
he felt correctly--we could scarcely expect him to reason so. But upon
this occasion, above all others, he seemed completely overcome by the
circumstances which surrounded him; and from his excited manner, one
might have almost imagined that the insanity he himself predicted at the
close of his career was really not far off. He wrung his hands, and he
wept, every now and then, in sad speech, bitterly bemoaning his
situation, until at length, with a sudden resolution, he sprang to his
feet, exclaiming--

"This night shall end it. I can endure it no more. I will fly from this
place, and seek my fortune elsewhere. Any amount of distress, danger, or
death itself even, is preferable to the dreadful life I lead." He walked some paces towards the door, and then he paused, as he said to
himself in a low tone--

"Todd will surely not be home yet awhile, and why should I then neglect
the only opportunity I may ever have of searching this house to satisfy
my mind as regards any of the mysteries that it contains?" He paused over this thought, and considered well its danger, for
dangerous indeed it was to no small extent, but he was desperate; and
with a resolution that scarcely could have been expected from him, he
determined upon taking that step, above all others, which Todd was
almost sure to punish with death. He closed the shop door, and bolted it
upon the inside, so that he could not be suddenly interrupted, and then
he looked round him carefully for some weapon, by the aid of which he
should be able to break his way into the parlour, which the barber
always kept closed and locked in his absence. A weapon that would answer
the purpose of breaking any lock, if he, Tobias, chose to proceed so
roughly to work, was close at hand in the iron bar, which, when the
place was closed at night, secured a shutter to the door. Wrought up as
he was to almost frenzy, Tobias seized this bar, and, advancing towards
the parlour door, he with one blow smashed the lock to atoms, and the
door yielded. The moment it did so, there was a crash of glass, and when
Tobias entered the room he saw that upon its threshold lay a wine-glass
shattered to atoms, and he felt certain that it had been placed in some
artful position by Sweeney Todd as a detector, when he should return, of
any attempt that had been made upon the door of the parlour. And now
Tobias felt that he was so far committed that he might as well go on
with his work, and accordingly he lit a candle, which he found upon the
parlour table, and then proceeded to make what discoveries he could.