"All's right," whispered Lupin. "The less we say now, Todd, the better, for our voices will go farther now that we shall be clear of this passage. Come on. Follow me!"
They both emerged into the night air; and crouching3 down, Lupin ran along the little yard in which they were, and which was not above half-a-dozen yards across. He paused at a door, and then suddenly starting away from it, he muttered—
"It is not this one. Ah! this is it! Stand quite close up against the wall, and then there will be the less chance of any one seeing you. I must work away at this door."
"Where does it lead to?" whispered Todd.
Todd screwed himself up into the smallest space that he possibly could against the wall, close to the door, while Lupin tried to open it. That door for more than ten minutes baffled him. Probably that fact was owing in some degree to the circumstance of his being in the dark, for of course, before emerging from the vaulted5 passage, he had thought it prudent6 to extinguish the little light he had.
"It baffles you," said Todd, in a voice of great anxiety.
"As yet, yes. No. It is open."
Todd breathed more freely.
"Come in," said Lupin. "Come in. We have done wonders as yet, my friend, and we will do wonders yet, I think, if Providence7 only looks with a gracious—There I go again. When shall I forget that chapel, I wonder?"
"It don't matter," said Todd. "I used to find a little religion answer very well myself."
With the aid of one of his matches, Lupin again illuminated9 the little wax end of the candle, and then Todd found that he was in a small kind of vestibule from which a green baize door led directly into the chapel. In fact, that was the entrance by which the lower class of offenders10 confined in Newgate were brought to the chapel on Sundays. The little building looked much larger by the faint light of that one candle than it really was, and Todd glared around him with a feeling of terror, as he had not felt since he had left his cell. Perhaps, after all, a good deal of that was owing to the low temperature of the chapel, that lent a chill to his system.
"Look at that seat," said Lupin, pointing to one. "Do you know what it is?"
"Only a seat," said Todd. "Is there anything particular in it?"
"Nothing, except the kind of interest it might have for you, as being the one upon which the condemned11 prisoners sit, on the Sunday previous to their execution, that is all."
"Enough," he said. "Enough. That is enough. Let us get on, and not waste time in idle talking about such idle matters as these. I do not feel very well."
"And I," said Lupin, "would give a few bright pieces out of those hundreds that you have hidden, for a glass of brandy. But that's not to be thought of now. This is a door that leads from the chapel to the Governor's house, through which the parson, and the Governor and Sheriffs come on the occasion of Sunday service here. It is by that we must attempt an escape in this place."
Sweeney Todd, and Mr. Lupin looked like two spectres, as they crept noiselessly through the chapel of Newgate; but Lupin appeared to know perfectly13 well the route which it was necessary for him to take, and he soon went up three small steps, and applied14 his ear to the panel of a door to listen, as he said—
"Through here lies our route."
"Is all still?" said Todd.
"Quite. I don't believe, except ourselves, there is any one up and about in Newgate except a couple of lazy fellows in the vestibule; but we are too far off them to be in any danger of their overhearing us. This door will not give any trouble. Ah!"
"What is the matter?"
"It is bolted on the other side."
"Then we are foiled?"
Todd handed it to him; and then holding the light for Lupin, the latter set to work upon the panelling of the door, to cut away sufficient of it to enable him to get his head through, to draw back the bolts, one of which was at the top of the door and another at the bottom of it.
The door, though, was not built for strength, for it was scarcely imagined that it would ever be attacked, so that the panelling was only of an ordinary character; and as the chisel was a good one, and Mr. Lupin was tolerably expert in its use, the chips from the wood soon began noiselessly to fall about him. He worked in a circle, so that when he should get fairly through the panel, there would be quite space enough for him to get his arm through, and unfasten both the bolts; and this he completed in about ten minutes.
"I should never have got on without you," said Todd. "The only notion I had of the affair, was to try and fight my way out of the prison, and if I fell in doing so, I was no worse off than I should be on Monday morning—or, indeed, rather better, for I could not endure the agony of waiting for death."
"They would not have killed you."
"They must."
"Nay16, they will go through fire and water here, and suffer anything, rather than that a man should escape the gallows17. They would have flung themselves upon you, and overpowered you by numbers, and on Monday morning, if you had a breath of life left in you, you would have been dragged out to death."
"And you so innocent, too," added Lupin. "But it is the innocent that in this world, verily, are chastened alway."
"You are getting into your old habit of preaching again," said Todd, roughly.
"So I am. I am much obliged to you, my friend, to put me in mind of it. Very much obliged. I was for a moment preaching; but here is the door open, and now I beg that you will tread as though you trod upon a mine, for we do not know what persons in this portion of this confounded building may be upon the alert."
"Oh, that we were only in the open air!" said Todd.
The villain20 Lupin, almost as bad in his way as Todd was in his, now shaded the little light with his hands, and crept on slowly and cautiously, until he reached the staircase, which was nicely empanelled, and up that he slowly took his way. Before he got to the top of it, he blew out the light, and waiting there until Todd was close to him, he said, in the smallest possible whisper—
"Follow me, and be careful, I am afraid the light might gleam through some key-hole, and betray us. Come on, and recollect21 that a slip or a stumble may be fatal. Think that the rope is about your neck."
"I will," said Todd. "I will. I almost seem to feel it actually. Oh, yes, I will be very careful."
"Hush! hush! Are you mad to go on talking so?"
Todd said no more, and Lupin crept on until he got right to the top of the stairs. Then holding by a balustrade that was continued along the landing, he reached the head of another flight of steps, which led directly down to the hall or passage of the Governor's house. Lupin was terribly afraid that Todd would come upon these second stairs at unawares, and stumble down some of them, so he waited at the head of them, until Todd touched him, and then he whispered the one word, "Stairs."
"Yes," replied Todd, and then Lupin commenced the descent, followed by his trembling companion, and for the matter of that, Lupin himself shook now like an aspen leaf.
The steps were fourteen in number, and then, by the feel of a mat at the foot of them, Lupin was satisfied that he had actually gained the hall of the Governor's house. Todd was close behind him.
"Stop!" whispered Lupin, and Todd stopped as suddenly as though he had been some piece of machinery22 that could be in a moment arrested in its progress.
Lupin well knew now that without a light it would be folly23 to attempt opening the door of the Governor's house, which, as a matter of course, was well secured; and very reluctantly he lit another match, and ignited the wax candle-end again. He placed Todd in such a position on the mat at the foot of the stairs, that his bulky tall form acted as a screen against the rays of the light ascending24 the staircase, and then, with something of his old nervousness and abject25 fear of manner and expression, he narrowly scrutinized26 the door.
"Curses on all these precautions!" he muttered. "We may be detained here until morning."
In good truth, the door of the Governor's house was very well fastened up, and Mr. Lupin might well feel a little staggered at the sight of it. A chain that was up across it, he easily removed, and the bolts offered no obstacles; but what was the most serious consisted of a small, but exquisitely27 made lock that was on the door, and the key of which, no doubt, at such an hour was under the Governor's pillow.
Todd at that moment would have given anything to be able just to say—
"How are you getting on?" but in such a place, with, for all he knew to the contrary, the Governor of Newgate within a dozen yards of him, he dared not open his lips.
And now Lupin brought all his old skill to bear upon that one little lock upon the Governor's door, and yet it resisted him. One five minutes' attempt to pick it was to him pretty conclusive28 evidence that it was not to be done.
He had the chisel in his pocket, and in despair he inserted it between the door and the post. It broke short off by the handle. Lupin uttered a groan29, which was echoed by Todd, and then they both stood glaring at each other in solemn silence. Todd crept towards Lupin, and leaning forward he whispered faintly—
"It can't be done?"
"No," said Lupin, "that lock stops us."
"Lost—lost!" said Todd. "We are lost, then?"
"Hush. Let me think. The key of this lock is with the Governor, of course. Now, Todd, you are a man of strong nerves, you know, or else it would have been quite impossible for you to have gone through life in the way you have done. What do you say to going and trying to get the key?"
"I—I?"
"Yes, to be sure. I have, up to this moment, you know, done all the work, and if this lock had not baffled me, I would have done the remainder cheerfully; but could you not take one of these files—the end of it is very sharp—and persuade the Governor to give up the key?"
"Kill him, you mean?"
"If I thought it could be done with anything like a certainty of result, I would make no more of the life of the Governor than—than—"
Todd nodded.
"Now, hark you," continued Lupin, speaking in the same very low whisper, indeed, that he had conducted the conversation in. "It is quite a maddening thing, you see, to find that there is nothing between us and liberty but this door. Every moment is of the greatest possible importance. Will you do it?"
"Are you mad?"
"No. I am quite sane33, I confess, though that I have not the pluck to do it. You ought to be a man of courage. What is it to you, if you were to murder everybody in this house, so that you got this door open? That is the great object, the only object; and to you, you know, three or four more deaths will not make much consequence."
"My friend," said Todd, with a sickly smile, "I am afraid you believe the calumnies34 that have been heaped upon my innocent head. But, if nothing can be done, but what you say, I will make the attempt. There are two files, though, and they are equally sharp. Do you take one, and I will take the other."
"You want me with you?"
"I do, most, surely."
"Well—well; if it must be so, it must. I will come. Let us set about it at once, and—"
Before Mr. Lupin could say another word, there came a sharp rap at the door from the outside with the knocker; and so sudden and so utterly35 unexpected was the sound at such an hour, that Lupin and Todd fell on each other in their hurry to escape, they knew not where.
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1
exertion
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| n.尽力，努力 | |
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wheezing
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| v.喘息，发出呼哧呼哧的喘息声( wheeze的现在分词 )；哮鸣 | |
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crouching
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的现在分词 ) | |
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chapel
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| n.小教堂，殡仪馆 | |
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vaulted
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| adj.拱状的 | |
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prudent
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| adj.谨慎的，有远见的，精打细算的 | |
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providence
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| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
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8
muster
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| v.集合，收集，鼓起，激起；n.集合，检阅，集合人员，点名册 | |
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illuminated
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| adj.被照明的；受启迪的 | |
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offenders
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| n.冒犯者( offender的名词复数 )；犯规者；罪犯；妨害…的人（或事物） | |
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condemned
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| adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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shudder
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| v.战粟，震动，剧烈地摇晃；n.战粟，抖动 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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chisel
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| n.凿子；v.用凿子刻，雕，凿 | |
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nay
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| adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者 | |
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gallows
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| n.绞刑架，绞台 | |
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shuddered
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| v.战栗( shudder的过去式和过去分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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hush
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| int.嘘，别出声；n.沉默，静寂；v.使安静 | |
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villain
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| n.反派演员，反面人物；恶棍；问题的起因 | |
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recollect
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| v.回忆，想起，记起，忆起，记得 | |
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machinery
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| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
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folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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ascending
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| adj.上升的，向上的 | |
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abject
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| adj.极可怜的，卑屈的 | |
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scrutinized
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| v.仔细检查，详审( scrutinize的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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exquisitely
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| adv.精致地；强烈地；剧烈地；异常地 | |
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conclusive
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| adj.最后的，结论的；确凿的，消除怀疑的 | |
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groan
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| vi./n.呻吟，抱怨；(发出)呻吟般的声音 | |
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30
killing
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| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
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simile
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| n.直喻，明喻 | |
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veal
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| n.小牛肉 | |
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sane
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| adj.心智健全的，神志清醒的，明智的，稳健的 | |
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calumnies
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| n.诬蔑，诽谤，中伤（的话）( calumny的名词复数 ) | |
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utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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