What that something heavy was, Mr. Crotchet had his suspicions, and they were right.
"This way, your worship," he said, "this way; it goes right into this hedge as nicely as possible, though the branches of these bushes are placed all smooth again."
As he spoke, Crotchet began to beat the obstructing branches of a wild nut tree and a blackberry-bush, that seemed, by their entwining arms, to have struck up a very close sort of acquaintance with each other; and then he suddenly cried out—
"Here it is, sir."
"What, Crotchet?"
"The dead 'un."
"Dead! You don't mean to say that one such is here, and that the dead body of Todd is in the thicket?"
"Come on, sir, I don't think it is him. It don't seem long enough; but here's somebody, as safe as possible, sir, for all that. Push your way through sir: it's only prickles."
The magistrate did push his way through, despite the vigorous opposition of the blackberry-bush; and then—lying upon its face—he saw the dead body of a man.
The readers of this narrative could have told Sir Richard Blunt what that body had been named while the breath of life was in it; but neither he nor Crotchet could at first make up their minds upon the subject.
"Do you know him?" said Sir Richard.
"I guess only."
"Yes, and you guess as I do. This is Lupin, Todd's prison companion, and the companion in his escape."
Crotchet nodded.
"I went to Newgate," he said, "and had a good look at him, so that I should know him, sir, dead or alive; so I'll just turn him over, and have a good look at his face."
With this, Crotchet carefully—by the aid of his foot—turned over the body, and the first glance he got at the dead face satisfied him.
"Yes, your worship," he said, "Lupin it is, and Todd has killed him. You may take your oath of that."
"Not a doubt of it: such is the result of the association of such men. Todd has found him, or fancied he should find him, an encumbrance in the way of his own escape, and has sought this wood to take his life."
"That's about it, sir."
"And now, Crotchet, we may make certain of one thing, and that is, that Todd is not in this wood, nor in this neighbourhood either. I should say, that after this deed, the first thing he would do would be to fly from this spot."
"Not a doubt of that, your worship; but the deuce of it is to find out which way he has gone."
"We must be guided in that by the same mode of inquiry, Crotchet, that brought us here. We were successful in tracing him to this wood, and we may be equally successful in tracing him from it. We must go into the village of Hampstead, and give information about this dead body; and we will make there what inquiries we can."
They were neither of them very anxious to remain in Caen Wood, after discovering how it was tenanted; and in a very short time they were mounted again, and went along the lane until they emerged upon Hampstead Heath, and so took the road to the village, where Sir Richard gave information to the authorities concerning the finding of the body of Lupin.
There, too, he heard that a man answering the description of Todd had passed through the village, and refused to partake some questionable brandy, at a public-house, on its outskirts. This man was evidently proceeding to London. Crotchet heard this information with great attention; and when he and Sir Richard Blunt were alone, he said—
"I tell you what it is, sir—the country will never suit Todd."
"How do you mean, Crotchet?"
"I mean, sir, that, in my opinion, he has gone back to London again. The country, sir, ain't the sort of place for such men as he is. You may depend upon it, he only came to the little wood to get rid of Lupin, and he has gone back to try and hide in London till the row is over."
"You really think so?"
"I do, sir; and if we want to find him, we must go, too."
"Well, Crotchet, of one thing I am pretty well convinced, and that is, that he is not in this part of the country, for after the murder in the wood, which he will be in continual fear of being discovered, it is not likely he would stay about here; and so, as we have traced him a little on the road to London, we may as well, for all we know to the contrary, assume that he has gone there at once."
"Come on, then, sir," said Crotchet; "I feel's what you call's a sort of a—Oh, dear me, what is it? A presentment—"
"A presentiment, Crotchet."
"Ah, sir, that's it. I feel that sort of thing that old Todd will try and hide himself in some old crib in London, and not at all trust to the country, where everybody is looked at for all the world as though he were a strange cat. Lord bless you, sir, if I had done anything and wanted to hide, I should go into the very thick of the people of London, and I ain't quite sure but I'd take a lodging in Bow Street."
Sir Richard Blunt was himself very much of Crotchet's opinion regarding Todd's proceedings, for his experience of the movements of malefactors had taught him that they generally, after their first attempt to try to get away, hover about the spot of their crimes; and it is a strange thing, that with regard to persons who have committed great crimes, there is a great similarity of action, as though the species of mind that could induce the commission of murder from example, were the same in other respects in all murderers.
To London, then, with what expedition they could make, Sir Richard Blunt and Crotchet went, and although they made what inquiry they could, they found no news of Todd. And now we must leave them for awhile, thrown completely out in all their researches for the escaped criminal, while we once more proceed to the house in Fleet Street, where we left Todd in rather an uncomfortable situation.
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CHAPTER CXLVII. SIR RICHARD BLUNT AND CROTCHET COMMENCE THEIR SEARCH FOR TODD.
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CHAPTER CXLIX. TODD IS IN GREAT PERIL IN THE EARLY MORNING IN LONDON.
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