The captive cook was still.
"Stop!" cried Sir Richard Blunt again.
"Good God! who is that?" said the voice from the region of the oven.
"Your good genius, if I save you from doing anything rash; who and what are you? Tell me all."
"To be betrayed. Ah, you are some spy of Mrs. Lovett's of course, and you only wish to draw me into conversation for my destruction."
"What were you going to do just now?"
"Take my own life."
"Well, if you find I am an enemy instead of a friend, as I profess to be, you can but carry out your intention."
"That's true."
The captive cook pronounced these two words in such a solemn tone, that the magistrate was more than ever convinced of his sincerity, and that he was far more a victim of Mrs. Lovett and her associate, the barber, than an accomplice.