“Is anybody here, Barney?” inquired Fagin, speaking, now thatSikes was looking on, without raising his eyes from the ground.“Dot a shoul,” replied Barney; whose words, whether theyCharles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsOliver Twist 154came from the heart or not, made their way through the nose.“Nobody?” inquired Fagin, in a tone of surprise, which perhapsmight mean that Barney was at liberty to tell the truth.“Dobody but Biss Dadsy,” replied Barney.“Nancy!” exclaimed Sikes. “Where? Strike me blind, if I don’thonour that ’ere girl, for her native talents.”“She’s bid havid a plate of boiled beef id the bar,” repliedBarney.“Send her here,” said Sikes, pouring out a glass of liquor.“Send her here.”Barney looked timidly at Fagin, as if for permission; the Jewremaining silent, and not lifting his eyes from the ground, heretired; and presently returned, ushering in Nancy; who wasdecorated with the bonnet, apron, basket, and street door key,complete.“You are on the scent, are you, Nancy?” inquired Sikes,proffering the glass.“Yes, I am, Bill,” replied the young lady, disposing of itscontents; “and tired enough of it I am, too. The young brat’s beenill and confined to the crib; and—”“Ah, Nancy dear!” said Fagin, looking up.Now, whether a peculiar contraction of the Jew’s red eyebrows,and a half-closing of his deeply-set eyes,—warned Miss Nancy thatshe was disposed to be too communicative, is not a matter of muchimportance. The fact is all we need care for here; and the fact is,that she suddenly checked herself, and with several gracioussmiles upon Mr; Sikes, turned the conversation to other matters.In about ten minutes’ time, Mr. Fagin was seized with a fit ofcoughing; upon which Nancy pulled her shawl over her shoulders,Charles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsOliver Twist 155and declared it was time to go. Mr. Sikes, finding that he waswalking a short part of her way himself, expressed his intention ofaccompanying her; and they went away together, followed, at alittle distance, by the dog, who slunk out of a back-yard as soon ashis master was out of sight.The Jew thrust his head out of the room door when Sikes hadleft it; looked after him as he walked up the dark passage; shookhis clenched fist; muttered a deep curse; and then, with a horriblegrin, reseated himself at the table; where he was soon deeplyabsorbed in the interesting pages of the Hue-and-Cry.Meanwhile, Oliver Twist, little dreaming that he was within sovery short a distance of the merry old gentleman, was on his wayto the bookstall. When he got into Clerkenwell, he accidentallyturned down a by-street which was not exactly in his way: but notdiscovering his mistake until he had got half-way down it, andknowing it must lead in the right direction, he did not think itworth while to turn back; and so marched on, as quickly as hecould, with the books under his arm.He was walking along, thinking how happy and contented heought to feel, and how much he would give for only one look atpoor little Dick, who, starved and beaten, might be weepingbitterly at that very moment, when he was startled by a youngwoman screaming out very loud, “Oh, my dear brother!” And hehad hardly looked up to see what the matter was, when he wasstopped by having a pair of arms thrown right round his neck.“Don’t,” cried Oliver, struggling. “Let go of me. Who is it? Whatare you stopping me for?”The only reply to this, was a great number of loud lamentationsfrom the young woman who had embraced him, and who had aCharles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsOliver Twist 156little basket and a street door key in her hand.“Oh, my gracious!” said the young woman. “I’ve found him! Oh!Oliver! Oliver! Oh, you naughty boy, to make me suffer suchdistress on your account! Come home, dear, come. Oh, I’ve foundhim. Thank gracious goodness heavins, I’ve found him!” Withthese incoherent exclamations, the young woman burst intoanother fit of crying, and got so dreadfully hysterical, that a coupleof women who came up at the moment asked a butcher’s boy witha shiny head of hair anointed with suet, who was also looking on,whether he didn’t think he had better run for the doctor. Towhich, the butcher’s boy, who appeared of a lounging, not to sayindolent disposition, replied that he thought not.“Oh, no, no, never mind,” said the young woman, graspingOliver’s hand; “I’m better now. Come home directly, you cruelboy! Come!”“What’s the matter, ma’am?” inquired one of the women.“Oh, ma’am,” replied the young woman, “he ran away, near amonth ago, from his parents, who are hard-working andrespectable people, and went and joined a set of thieves and badcharacters, and almost broke his mother’s heart.”“Young wretch!” said the woman.“Go home, do, you little brute,” said the other.“I’m not,” replied Oliver, greatly alarmed. “I don’t know her. Ihaven’t any sister, or father and mother either. I’m an orphan; Ilive at Pentonville.”“Only hear him, how he braves it out!” cried the young woman.“Why, it’s Nancy!” exclaimed Oliver; who now saw her face forthe first time; and started back, in irrepressible astonishment.“You see he knows me!” cried Nancy, appealing to theCharles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsOliver Twist 157bystanders. “He can’t help himself. Make him come home, there’sgood people, or he’ll kill his dear mother and father, and break myheart!”“What the devil’s this?” said a man, bursting out of a beer-shop,with a white dog at his heels; “young Oliver! Come home to yourpoor mother, you young dog! Come home directly.”“I don’t belong to them. I don’t know them. Help! help!” criedOliver, struggling in the man’s powerful grasp.“Help!” repeated the man. “Yes; I’ll help you, you young rascal!What books are these? You’ve been a-stealin’ ’em, have you? Give’em here.” With these words, the man tore the volumes from hisgrasp, and struck him on the head.“That’s right!” cried a looker-on, from a garret window. “That’sthe only way of bringing him to his senses!”“To be sure!” cried a sleepy-faced carpenter, casting anapproving look at the garret window.“It’ll do him good!” said the two women.“And he shall have it, too!” rejoined the man, administeringanother blow, and seizing Oliver by the collar. “Come on, youyoung villain! Here, Bull’s-eye, mind him, boy! Mind him!”Weak with recent illness; stupefied by the blows and thesuddenness of the attack; terrified by the fierce growling of thedog, and the brutality of the man; overpowered by the convictionof the bystanders that he really was the hardened little wretch hewas described to be; what could one poor child do! Darkness hadset in; it was a low neighbourhood; no help was near; resistancewas useless. In another moment, he was dragged into a labyrinthof dark, narrow courts, and was forced along them at a pace whichrendered the few cries he dared to give utterance to, whollyCharles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsOliver Twist 158unintelligible. It was of little moment, indeed, whether they wereintelligible or no; for there was nobody to care for them, had theybeen ever so plain.*****The gas-lamps were lighted; Mrs. Bedwin was waitinganxiously at the open door;—the servant had run up the streettwenty times to see if there were any traces of Oliver; and still thetwo old gentlemen sat, perseveringly, in the dark parlour, with thewatch between them.Charles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsOliver Twist 159Chapter 16Relates What Became Of Oliver Twist, After He HadBeen Claimed By Nancy.The narrow streets and courts, at length, terminated in alarge open space; scattered about which, were pens forbeasts, and other indications of a cattle-market. Sikesslackened his pace when they reached this spot, the girl beingquite unable to support any longer the rapid rate at which theyhad hitherto walked. Turning to Oliver, he roughly commandedhim to take hold of Nancy’s hand.“Do you hear?” growled Sikes, as Oliver hesitated, and lookedround.They were in a dark corner, quite out of the track of passengers.Oliver saw, but too plainly, that resistance would be of no avail. Heheld out his hand, which Nancy clasped tight in hers.“Give me the other,” said Sikes, seizing Oliver’s unoccupiedhand. “Here, Bull’s-Eye!”The dog looked up, and growled.“See here, boy!” said Sikes, putting his other hand to Oliver’sthroat; “if he speaks ever so soft a word, hold him! D’ye mind!”The dog growled again; and licking his lips, eyed Oliver as if hewere anxious to attach himself to his windpipe without delay.“He’s as willing as a Christian, strike me blind if he isn’t!” saidSikes, regarding the animal with a kind of grim and ferociousapproval. “Now, you know what you’ve got to expect, master, socall away as quick as you like; the dog will soon stop that game.Charles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsOliver Twist 160Get on, young ’un!”Bull’s-eye wagged his tail in acknowledgement of this unusuallyendearing form of speech; and, giving vent to another admonitorygrowl for the benefit of Oliver, led the way onward.It was Smithfield that they were crossing, although it mighthave been Grosvenor Square, for anything Oliver knew to thecontrary. The night was dark and foggy. The lights in the shopscould scarcely struggle through the heavy mist, which thickenedevery moment and shrouded the streets and houses in gloom;rendering the strange place still stranger in Oliver’s eyes; andmaking his uncertainty the more dismal and depressing.They had hurried on a few paces, when a deep church-bellstruck the hour. With its first stroke, his two conductors stopped,and turned their heads in the direction whence the soundproceeded.“Eight o’clock, Bill,” said Nancy, when the bell ceased.“What’s the good of telling me that; I can hear it, can’t I!”replied Sikes.“I wonder whether they can hear it,” said Nancy.“Of course they can,” replied Sikes. “It was Bartlemy timewhen I was shopped; and there warn’t a penny trumpet in the fair,as I couldn’t hear the squeaking on. Arter I was locked up for thenight, the row and din outside made the thundering old jail sosilent, that I could almost have beat my brains out against the ironplates of the door.”“Poor fellows!” said Nancy, who still had her face turnedtowards the quarter in which the bell had sounded. “Oh, Bill, suchfine young chaps as them!”“Yes; that’s all you women think of,” answered Sikes. “FineCharles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsOliver Twist 161young chaps! Well, they’re as good as dead, so it don’t mattermuch.”With this consolation, Mr. Sikes appeared to repress a risingtendency to jealousy? and, clasping Oliver’s wrist more firmly, toldhim to step out again.“Wait a minute!” said the girl; “I wouldn’t hurry by, if it wasyou that was coming out to be hung, the next time eight o’clockstruck, Bill. I’d walk round and round the place till I dropped, ifthe snow was on the ground, and I haven’t a shawl to cover me.”“And what good would that do?” inquired the unsentimentalMr. Sikes. “Unless you could pitch over a file and twenty yards ofgood stout rope, you might as well be walking fifty mile off, or notwalking at all, for all the good it would do me. Come on, and don’tstand preaching there.”The girl burst into a laugh; drew her shawl more closely roundher; and they walked away. But Oliver felt her hand tremble, and,looking up in her face as they passed a gas lamp saw that it hadturned a deadly white.They walked on, by little frequented and dirty ways, for a fullhalf-hour, meeting very few people, and those appearing fromtheir looks to hold much the same position in society as Mr. Sikeshimself. At length they turned into a very filthy narrow street,nearly full of old-clothes shops: the dog running forward, as ifconscious that there was no further occasion for his keeping onguard, stopped before the door of a shop that was closed andapparently untenanted. The house was in a ruinous condition, andon the door was nailed a board, intimating that it was to let, whichlooked as if it had hung there for many years.“All right,” cried Sikes, glancing cautiously about.Charles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsOliver Twist 162Nancy stooped below the shutters; and Oliver heard the soundof a bell. They crossed to the opposite side of the street and stoodfor a few moments under a lamp. A noise, as if a sash-windowwere gently raised, was heard; and soon afterwards the door softlyopened. Mr. Sikes then seized the terrified boy by the collar withvery little ceremony; and all three were quickly inside the house.The passage was perfectly dark. They waited, while the personwho had let him in chained and barred the door.“Anybody here?” inquired Sikes.“No,” replied a voice, which Oliver thought he had heardbefore.“Is the old ’un here?” asked the robber.“Yes,” replied the voice; “and precious down in the mouth hehas been. Won’t he be glad to see you? Oh, no!” The style of thisreply, as well as the voice which delivered it, seemed familiar toOliver’s ears; but it was impossible to distinguish even the form ofthe speaker in the darkness.“Let’s have a glim,” said Sikes, “or we shall go breaking ournecks, or treading on the dog. Look after your legs if you do!That’s all.”“Stand still a moment, and I’ll get you one,” replied the voiceThe receding footsteps of the speaker were heard; and, in anotherminute, the form of Mr. John Dawkins, otherwise the ArtfulDodger, appeared. He bore in his right hand a tallow candle stuckin the end of a cleft stick.The young gentleman did not stop to bestow any other mark ofrecognition upon Oliver than a humorous grin; but, turning away,beckoned the visitors to follow him down a flight of stairs. Theycrossed an empty kitchen, and, opening the door of a low, earthy-Charles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsOliver Twist 163smelling room, which seemed to have been built in a small backyard were received with a shout of laughter.“Oh, my wig, my wig!” cried Master Charles Bates from whoselungs the laughter had proceeded; “here he is! oh cry, here he is!Oh, Fagin, look at him! Fagin do look at him! I can’t bear it; it issuch a jolly game, I can’t bear it. Hold me, somebody, while I laughit out.”With this irrepressible ebullition of mirth, Master Bates laidhimself flat on the floor, and kicked convulsively for five minutes,in an ecstasy of facetious joy. Then jumping to his feet, hesnatched the cleft stick from the Dodger; and, advancing to Oliver,viewed him round and round; while the Jew, taking off his nightcap, made a great number of low bows to the bewildered boy. TheArtful, meantime, who was of a rather saturnine disposition, andseldom gave way to merriment when it interfered with business,rifled Oliver’s pockets with steady assiduity.“Look at his togs, Fagin!” said Charley, putting the light soclose to his new jacket as nearly to set him on fire. “Look at histogs! Superfine cloth, and the heavy swell cut! Oh, my eye, what agame! And his books, too! Nothing but a gentleman, Fagin!”“Delighted to see you looking so well, my dear,” said the Jew,bowing with mock humility. “The Artful shall give you anothersuit, my dear, for fear you should spoil that Sunday one. Why,didn’t you write, my dear, and say you were coming. We’d have gotsomething warm for supper.”At this, Master Bates roared again; so loud, that Fagin himselfrelaxed, and even the Dodger smiled; but as the Artful drew forth