The String of Pearls (1850), p. 637

man began to hammer away at the door, and the very worst thing that could happen to Todd, just then, would have been that man going away from the door of the shop with an impression that all was not right within it, and spreading an alarm to that effect.
"I will open the door just wide enough/ muttered Todd, "and then I will drag him in and cut his throat, and throw him down into the cellar along with the two others. That will only make three this morning—yes, this morning, I may say, for it is morning now."
Acting upon this resolve, which certainly was diabolically to the purpose, Todd spoke to the man again, saying in the same assumed tone in which he had before addressed him—
"All's right—all's right. I'll open the door."
"That's the thing; but you seem to have a bad cold."
"So I have—so I have. A very bad cold; and it has affected my voice so that I can hardly speak at all."
"So I hear."
Todd slowly undid the fastenings of the door, and an infernal feeling of joy came over him at the idea of murdering this unhappy man likewise. It quite raconciled him to the danger in which he was, for he could not but know that the daylight was rapidly approaching, and that each moment increased his
peril.
"Yes," he muttered, "he will make three this morning, three idiots who fancy they are a match for me ; but I will soon convince them of the contrary, I will soon put him out of his pains and anxieties in this world. Ha! he shall be an independent man, for he shall have no wants, and that is true independence."
Todd drew the last bolt back that held the door.
"Come, Joe, are you coming?" said the man.
"Soon enough, my dear friend, soon enough," said Todd. "You will find me quite soon enough. Come in."
Todd felt quite certain that if the man caught but the slightest glance at him, it would be sufficient to convince him that it was not Joe, and, therefore, he only now opened the door wide enough to let him slip into the shop, and kept himself back partially behind it, so as to be, with the exception of one arm, quite out of sight.
The man hesitated.
"Come in," said Todd. "Come in."
"Why, what's the matter with you," said the man, "that makes you so mighty mysterious, eh? What is it, old fellow?" Oh, nothing. Come in."
The man stepped one foot across the threshold, and put his head in at the shop-door.
"Come, now," he said. " None of your jokes, Joe. Where are you?"
Todd felt that that was a critical moment, and that if he failed to take advantage of it, the least thing would give the man the alarm, and he might draw back from the door altogether, and so stop him from executing that summary proceeding against him which he, Todd, thought essential to his interests.
"No, old fellow. There's no trick. "Come in."
"Oh, but I—"
The man was drawing back his head, and Todd saw that the moment for action had come. Darting forward, he stretched out his riobt hand and caught
the man by the throat, saying as he did so, in the voice of a demon—
"In, wretch—in, I say!"
The man's cravat came away m the hand of Todd, who rolled upon his back on the floor of the shop. The man finding himself free from the terrific gripe that had been laid upon him, fled along Fleet Street, crying—
"Help—help! thieves!—murder! Todd!—help! fire! murder—murder!"
Todd lay upon his back with the cravat in his hand, and so utterly confounded