had coming up in the mornin’; and he won’t be long a-doing of it.Here’s luck to him! Ecod! he’s a good un.”Charles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsOliver Twist 224“Could you give my boy and me a lift as far as there?”demanded Sikes, pushing the ale towards his new friend.“If you’re going directly, I can,” replied the man, looking out ofthe pot. “Are you going to Halliford?”“Going on to Shepperton,” replied Sikes.“I’m your man, as far I go,” replied the other. “Is all paid,Becky?”“Yes, the other gentleman’s paid,” replied the girl.“I say!” said the man, with tipsy gravity; “that won’t do, youknow.”“Why not?” rejoined Sikes. “You’re a-going to accommodate us,and wot’s to prevent my standing treat for a pint or so, in return?”The stranger reflected upon this argument, with a veryprofound face; and having done so, seized Sikes by the hand, anddeclared he was a real good fellow. To which Mr. Sikes replied, hewas joking; as, if he had been sober, there would have been strongreason to suppose he was.After the exchange of a few more compliments, they bade thecompany good-night, and went out; the girl gathering up the potsand glasses as they did so, and lounging out to the door, with herhands full, to see the party start.The horse, whose health had been drunk in his absence, wasstanding outside, ready harnessed to the cart. Oliver and Sikes gotin without any further ceremony; and the man to whom hebelonged, having lingered for a minute or two to bear him up,”and to defy the hostler and the world to produce his equal,mounted also. Then, the hostler was told to give the horse hishead; and, his head being given to him, he made a very unpleasantuse of it, tossing it into the air with great disdain, and running intoCharles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsOliver Twist 225the parlour windows over the way; after performing those feats,and supporting himself for a short time on his hind legs, he startedoff at great speed, and rattled out of the town right gallantly.The night was very dark. A damp mist rose from the river andthe marshy ground about, and spread itself over the dreary fields.It was piercing cold, too; all was gloomy and black. Not a word wasspoken, for the driver had grown sleepy; and Sikes was in nomood to lead him into conversation. Oliver sat huddled together,in a corner of the cart, bewildered with alarm and apprehension,and figuring strange objects in the gaunt trees, whose brancheswaved grimly to and fro, as if in some fantastic joy at thedesolation of the scene.As they passed Sunbury Church, the clock struck seven. Therewas a light in the ferry-house window opposite, which streamedacross the road, and threw into more sombre shadow a dark yew-tree with graves beneath it. There was a dull sound of falling waternot far off; and the leaves of the old tree stirred gently in the nightwind. It seemed like quiet music for the repose of the dead.Sunbury was passed through; and they came again into thelonely road. Two or three miles more, and the cart stopped. Sikesalighted, took Oliver by the hand, and they once again walked on.They turned into no house at Shepperton, as the weary boy hadexpected; but still kept walking on, in mud and darkness, throughgloomy lanes and over cold open wastes, until they came withinsight of the lights of a town at no great distance. On lookingintently forward. Oliver saw that the water was just below them,and that they were coming to the foot of a bridge.Sikes kept straight on, until they were close upon the bridge;then turned suddenly down a bank upon the left.Charles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsOliver Twist 226“The water!” thought Oliver, turning sick with fear. “He hasbrought me to this lonely place to murder me!”He was about to throw himself on the ground, and make onestruggle for his young life, when he saw that they stood before asolitary house, all ruinous and decayed. There was a window oneach side of the dilapidated entrance; and one storey above; but nolight was visible. The building was dark, dismantled, and to, allappearance, uninhabited. Sikes, with Oliver’s hand still in his,softly approached the low porch, and raised the latch. The dooryielded to the pressure, and they passed in together.Charles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsOliver Twist 227Chapter 22The Burglary.“H ollo!” cried a loud, hoarse voice, as soon as they setfoot in the passage.“Don’t make such a row,” said Sikes, bolting thedoor. “Show a glim, Toby.”“Aha! my pal!” cried the same voice. “A glim, Barney, a glim!Show the gentleman in, Barney; wake up first, if convenient.”The speaker appeared to throw a boot-jack, or some sucharticle, at the person he addressed, to rouse him from hisslumbers; for the noise of a wooden body, falling violently, washeard; and then an indistinct muttering, as of a man betweenasleep and awake.“Do you hear?” cried the same voice. “There’s Bill Sikes in thepassage with nobody to do the civil to him; and you sleeping there,as if you took laudanum with your meals, and nothing stronger.Are you any fresher now, or do you want the iron candlestick towake you thoroughly?”A pair of slipshod feet shuffled, hastily, across the bare floor ofthe room, as this interrogatory was put; and there issued, from adoor on the right hand, first, a feeble candle, and next, the form ofthe same individual who has been heretofore described aslabouring under the infirmity of speaking through his nose, andofficiating as waiter at the public-house on Saffron Hill.“Bister Sikes!” exclaimed Barney, with real or counterfeit joy;“cub id, sir; cub id.”Charles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsOliver Twist 228“Here! you get on first,” said Sikes, putting Oliver in front ofhim. “Quicker! or I shall tread upon your heels.”Muttering a curse upon his tardiness, Sikes pushed Oliverbefore him; and they entered a low, dark room with a smoky fire,two or three broken chairs, a table, and a very old couch; onwhich, with his legs much higher than his head, a man wasreposing at full length, smoking a long clay pipe. He was dressedin a smartly-cut snuff-coloured coat, with large brass buttons; anorange neckerchief; a coarse, staring, shawl-pattern waistcoat; anddrab breeches. Mr. Crackit (for he it was) had no very greatquantity of hair, either upon his head or face; but what he had,was of a reddish dye, and tortured into long corkscrew curls,through which he occasionally thrust some very dirty fingers,ornamented with large, common rings. He was a trifle above themiddle size, and apparently rather weak in the legs; but thiscircumstance by no means detracted from his own admiration ofhis top-boots, which he contemplated, in their elevated situation,with lively satisfaction.“Bill, my boy!” said this figure, turning his head towards thedoor, “I’m glad to see you. I was almost afraid you’d given it up; inwhich case I should have made a personal wentur. Hallo!”Uttering this exclamation in a tone of great surprise, as his eyesrested on Oliver, Mr. Toby Crackit brought himself into a sittingposture, and demanded who that was.“The boy. Only the boy!” replied Sikes, drawing a chair towardsthe fire.“Wud of Bister Fagid’s lads,” exclaimed Barney, with a grin.“Fagin’s, eh!” exclaimed Toby, looking at Oliver. “Wot aninwalable boy that’ll make, for the old ladies’ pockets in chapels!Charles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsOliver Twist 229His mug is a fortun’ to him.”“There—that’s enough of that,” interposed Sikes impatiently;and stooping over his recumbent friend, he whispered a few wordsin his ear; at which Mr. Crackit laughed immensely, and honouredOliver with a long stare of astonishment.“Now,” said Sikes, as he resumed his seat, “if you’ll give ussomething to eat and drink while we’re waiting, you’ll put someheart in us; or in me, at all events. Sit down by the fire, younker,and rest yourself; for you’ll have to go out with us again tonight,though not very far off.”Oliver looked at Sikes, in mute and timid wonder; and drawinga stool to the fire, sat with his aching head upon his hands,scarcely knowing where he was, or what was passing around him.“Here,” said Toby, as the young Jew placed some fragments offood and a bottle upon the table; “success to the crack!” He rose tohonour the toast; and carefully depositing his empty pipe in acorner, advanced to the table, filled a glass with spirits, and drankoff its contents. Mr. Sikes did the same.“A drain for the boy,” said Toby, half-filling a wine glass.“Down with it, innocence.”“Indeed,” said Oliver, looking piteously up into the man’s face;“indeed, I—”“Down with it!” echoed Toby. “Do you think I don’t knowwhat’s good for you? Tell him to drink it, Bill.”“He had better!” said Sikes, clapping his hand upon his pocket.“Burn my body, if he isn’t more trouble than a whole family ofDodgers. Drink it, you perwerse imp; drink it!”Frightened by the menacing gestures of the two men, Oliverhastily swallowed the contents of the glass, and immediately fellCharles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsOliver Twist 230into a violent fit of coughing; which delighted Toby Crackit andBarney, and even drew a smile from the surly Mr. Sikes.This done, and Sikes having finished his appetite (Oliver couldeat nothing but a small crust of bread which they made himswallow), the two men laid themselves down on chairs for a shortnap. Oliver retained his stool by the fire; and Barney, wrapped in ablanket, stretched himself on the floor, close outside the fender.They slept, or appeared to sleep, for some time; nobody stirringbut Barney, who rose once or twice to throw coals upon the fire.Oliver fell into a heavy doze, imagining himself straying along thegloomy lanes, or wandering about the dark churchyard, orretracing some one or other of the scenes of the past day, when hewas roused by Toby Crackit jumping up and declaring it was half-past one.In an instant, the other two were on their legs, and all wereactively engaged in busy preparation. Sikes and his companionenveloped their necks and chins in large, dark shawls, and drewon their greatcoats; while Barney, opening a cupboard, broughtforth several articles, which he hastily crammed into the pockets.“Barkers for me, Barney,” said Toby Crackit.“Here they are,” replied Barney, producing a pair of pistols.“You loaded them yourself.”“All right!” replied Toby, stowing them away. “Thepersuaders?”“I’ve got ’em,” replied Sikes.”“Crape, keys, centre-bits, darkies—nothing forgotten?”inquired Toby, fastening a small crowbar to a loop inside the skirtof his coat.“All right,” rejoined his companion. “Bring them bits of timber,Charles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsOliver Twist 231Barney. That’s the time of day.”With these words, he took a thick stick from Barney’s hands,who, having delivered another to Toby, busied himself in fasteningOliver’s cape.“Now then!” said Sikes, holding out his hand.Oliver, who was completely stupefied by the unwonted exercise,and the air, and the drink which had been forced upon him, puthis hand mechanically into that which Sikes extended for thepurpose.“Take his other hand, Toby,” said Sikes. “Look out, Barney.”The man went to the door, and returned to announce that allwas quiet. The two robbers issued forth, with Oliver betweenthem. Barney, having made all fast, rolled himself up as before,and was soon asleep again.It was now intensely dark. The fog was much heavier than ithad been in the early part of the night, and the atmosphere was sodamp, that, although no rain fell, Oliver’s hair and eyebrows,within a few minutes after leaving the house, had become stiffwith the half-frozen moisture that was floating about. Theycrossed the bridge, and kept on towards the lights which he hadseen before. They were at no great distance off; and, as theywalked pretty briskly, they soon arrived at Chertsey.“Slap through the town,” whispered Sikes; “there’ll be nobodyin the way, tonight, to see us.”Toby acquiesced; and they hurried through the main street ofthe little town, which at that late hour was wholly deserted. A dimlight shone at intervals from some bedroom window; and thehoarse barking of dogs occasionally broke the silence of the night.But there was nobody abroad. They had cleared the town, as theCharles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsOliver Twist 232church bell struck two.Quickening their pace, they turned up a road upon the lefthand. After walking about a quarter of a mile, they stopped beforea detached house surrounded by a wall, to the top of which, TobyCrackit, scarcely pausing to take breath, climbed in a twinkling.“The boy next,” said Toby. “Hoist him up; I’ll catch hold ofhim.”Before Oliver had time to look round, Sikes had caught himunder the arms; and in three or four seconds he and Toby werelying on the grass on the other side. Sikes followed directly. Andthey stole cautiously towards the house.And now, for the first time, Oliver, well-nigh mad with grief andterror, saw that housebreaking and robbery, if not murder, werethe objects of the expedition. He clasped his hands together, andinvoluntarily uttered a subdued exclamation of horror. A mistcame before his eyes; the cold sweat stood upon his ashy face; hislimbs failed him; and he sank upon his knees.“Get up!” murmured Sikes, trembling with rage, and drawingthe pistol from his pocket; “get up, or I’ll strew your brains uponthe grass.”“Oh! for God’s sake let me go!” cried Oliver; “let me run awayand die in the fields. I will never come near London; never, never!Oh! pray have mercy on me, and do not make me steal. For thelove of all the bright angels that rest in heaven, have mercy uponme!”The man to whom this appeal was made, swore a dreadful oath,and had cocked the pistol, when Toby, striking it from his grasp,placed his hand upon the boy’s mouth, and dragged him to thehouse.Charles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsOliver Twist 233“Hush!” cried the man; “it won’t answer here. Say anotherword, and I’ll do your business myself with a crack on the head.That makes no noise, and is quite as certain, and more genteel.Here, Bill, wrench the shutter open. He’s game enough now, I’llengage. I’ve seen older hands of his age took the same way, for aminute or two, on a cold night.”Sikes, invoking terrific imprecations upon Fagin’s head forsending Oliver on such an errand, plied the crowbar vigorously,but with little noise. After some delay, and some assistance fromToby, the shutter to which he had referred, swung open on itshinges.It was a little lattice window, about five feet and a half above theground, at the back of the house, which belonged to a scullery, orsmall brewing-place, at the end of the passage. The aperture wasso small, that the inmates had probably not thought it worth whileto defend it more securely; but it was large enough to admit a boyof Oliver’s size nevertheless. A very brief exercise of Mr. Sikes’sart sufficed to overcome the fastening of the lattice; and it soonstood wide open also.“Now listen, you young limb,” whispered Sikes, drawing a darklamp from his pocket, and throwing the glare full on Oliver’s face;“I’m a-going to put you through there. Take this light; go softly upthe steps straight afore you, and along the little hall, to the streetdoor; unfasten it, and let us in.”“There’s a bolt at the top, you won’t be able to reach,”interposed Toby. “Stand upon one of the hall chairs. There arethree there, Bill, with a jolly large blue unicorn and gold pitchforkon ’em; which is the old lady’s arms.”“Keep quiet, can’t you?” replied Sikes, with a threatening look.Charles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsOliver Twist 234