'Let me see it,' said a fat man; 'I was bred a jeweller, and I might say born, only I couldn't stick to it; nobody likes working for years upon little pay, and no fun with the gals. I say, hand it here!'
'Well,' said Todd, 'if you or anybody ever produced as good an imitation, I'll swallow the whole string; and, knowing there's poison in the composition, it would certainly not be a comfortable thing to think of.'
'Certainly not,' said the big man, 'certainly not; but hand them over, and I'll tell you all about it.'
The pearls were given into his hands; and Sweeney Todd felt some misgivings about his precious charge, and yet he showed it not, for he turned to the man, who sat beside him, saying,-
'If he can tell true pearls from them, he knows more than I think he does, for I am a maker, and have often had the true pearl in my hand.'
'And I suppose,' said the man, 'you have tried your hand at puffing the one for the other, and so doing your confiding customers.'
'Yes, yes, that is the dodge, I can see very well,' said another man, winking at the first; 'and a good one too, I have known them do so with diamonds.'
'Yes, but never with pearls; however, there are some trades that it is desirable to know.'
'You're right.'
The fat man now carefully examined the pearls, and set them down on the table, and looked hard at them.
'There now, I told you I could bother you. You are not so good a judge that you would not have known, if you had not been told they were sham pearls, but what they were real.'
'I must say, you have produced the best imitations I have ever seen. Why, you ought to make your fortune in a few years - a handsome fortune.'
'So I should, but for one thing.'
'And what is that?'
'The difficulty,' said Todd, 'of getting rid of them; if you ask anything below their value, you are suspected, and you run the chance of being stopped and losing them at the least, and perhaps, entail a prosecution.'
'Very true; but there is risk in everything; we all run risks; but then the harvest.'
'That may be,' said Todd, 'but this is peculiarly dangerous. I have not the means of getting introductions to the nobility themselves, and if I had I should be doubted, for they would say a workman cannot come honestly by such valuable things, and then I must concoct a tale to escape the Mayor of London!'
'Ha! - ha! - ha!'
'Well, then, you can take them to a goldsmith.'
'There are not many of them who would do so; they would not deal in them; and, moreover, I have been to one or two of them; as for a lapidary, why, he is not so easily cheated.'
'Have you tried?'
'I did, and had to make the best of my way out, pursued as quickly as they could run, and I thought at one time I must have been stopped, but a few lucky turns brought me clear, when I was told to turn up this court, and I came in here.'
'Well,' said one man, who had been examining the pearls, 'and did the lapidary find out they were not real?'
'Yes, he did; and he wanted to stop me and the string altogether, for trying to impose upon him; however I made a rush at the door, which he tried to shut, but I was the stronger man, and here I am.'
'It has been a close chance for you,' said one.
'Yes, it just has,' replied Sweeney, taking up the string of pearls, which he replaced in his clothes, and continued to converse with some of those around him.
Things now subsided into their general course; and little notice was taken of Sweeney. There was some drink on the board, of which all partook. Sweeney had some, too, and took the precaution of emptying his pockets before them all, and gave a share of his money to pay their footing.
This was policy, and they all drank to his success, and were very good companions. Sweeney, however, was desirous of getting out as soon as he could, and more than once cast his eyes towards the door; but he saw there were eyes upon him, and dared not excite suspicion, for he might undo all that he had done.
To lose the precious treasure he possessed would be maddening; he had succeeded to admiration in inducing the belief that what he showed them was merely a counterfeit; but he knew so well that they were real, and that a latent feeling that they were humbugged might be hanging about; and that at the first suspicious movement he would be watched, and some desperate attempt would be made to make him give them up.
It was with no small violence to his own feelings that he listened to their conversation, and appeared to take an interest in their proceedings.
'Well,' said one, who sat next him, 'I'm just off for the north-road.'
'Any fortune there?'
'Not much; and yet I mustn't complain: these last three weeks the best I have had has been two sixties.'
'Well, that would do very well.'
'Yes, the last man I stopped was a regular looby Londoner; he appeared like a don, complete tip-top man of fashion; but Lord! when I came to look over him, he hadn't as much as would carry me twenty-four miles on the road.'
'Indeed! don't you think he had any hidden about him? they do so now.
'Ah, ah!' returned another, 'well said, old fellow; 'tis a true remark that we can't always judge a man from appearances. Lor! bless me, now, who'd a-thought your swell cove proved to be out of luck! Well, I'm sorry for you; but you know 'tis a long lane that has no turning, as Mr Somebody says - so, perhaps, you'll be more fortunate another time. But come, cheer up, whilst I relate an adventure that occurred a little time ago; 'twas a slice of good luck, I assure you, for I had no difficulty in bouncing my victim out of a good swag of tin; for you know farmers returning from market are not always too wary and careful, especially as the lots of wine they take at the market dinners make the cosy old boys ripe and mellow for sleep. Well, I met one of these jolly gentlemen, mounted on horseback, who declared he had nothing but a few paltry guineas about him; however, that would not do - I searched him, and found a hundred and four pounds secreted about his person.'
'Where did you find it?'
'About him. I tore his clothes to ribbons. A pretty figure he looked upon horseback, I assure you. By Jove, I could hardly help laughing at him; in fact, I did laugh at him, which so enraged him, that he immediately threatened to horsewhip me, and yet he dared not defend his money; but I threatened to shoot him, and that soon brought him to his senses.'
'I should imagine so. Did you ever have a fight for it?' enquired Sweeney Todd.
'Yes, several times. Ah! it's by no means an easy life, you may depend. It is free, but dangerous. I have been fired at six or seven times.
'So many?'
'Yes. I was near York once, when I stopped a gentleman; I thought him an easy conquest, but not so he turned out, for he was a regular devil.'
'Resisted you?'
'Yes, he did. I was coming along when I met him, and I demanded his money.
'"I can keep it myself," he said, "and do not want any assistance to take care of it."
'"But I want it," said I; "your money or your life."
'"You must have both, for we are not to be parted," he said, presenting his pistol at me; and then I had only time to escape from the effect of the shot. I struck the pistol up with my riding-whip, and the bullet passed by my temples, and almost stunned me.
'I cocked and fired; he did the same, but I hit him, and he fell. He fired, however, but missed me. I was down upon him; he begged hard for life.'
'Did you give it him?'
'Yes; I dragged him to one side of the road, and then left him.
'Having done