Oliver Twist(雾都孤儿(孤星血泪))-20

“Who’s that?” inquired Tom Chitling, casting a contemptuouslook at Oliver.“A young friend of mine, my dear,” replied the Jew.“He’s in luck, then,” said the young man, with a meaning lookat Fagin. “Never mind where I come from, young ’un; you’ll findyour way there, soon enough, I’ll bet a crown!”At this sally, the boys laughed. After some more jokes on thesame subject, they exchanged a few short whispers with Fagin,and withdrew.After some words apart between the last comer and Fagin, theydrew their chairs towards the fire: and the Jew, telling Oliver tocome and sit by him, led the conversation to the topics mostcalculated to interest his hearers. These were, the greatadvantages of the trade, the proficiency of the Dodger, andamiability of Charles Bates, and the liberality of the Jew himself.At length these subjects displayed signs of being thoroughlyexhausted; and Mr. Chitling did the same; for the house ofcorrection becomes fatiguing after a week or two. Miss Betsyaccordingly withdrew, and left the party to their repose.From this day, Oliver was seldom left alone; but was placed inalmost constant communication with the two boys, who played theold game with the Jew every day: whether for their ownimprovement or Oliver’s, Mr. Fagin best knew. At other times theCharles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsOliver Twist 194old man would tell them stories of robberies he had committed inhis younger days; mixed up with so much that was droll andcurious, that Oliver could not help laughing heartily, and showingthat he was amused in spite of all his better feelings.In short, the wily old Jew had the boy in his toils; and havingprepared his mind, by solitude and gloom, to prefer any society tothe companionship of his own sad thoughts in such a dreary place,was now slowly instilling into his soul the poison which he hopedwould blacken it, and change its hue for ever.Charles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsOliver Twist 195Chapter 19In Which A Notable Plan Is Discussed AndDetermined On.It was a chill, damp, windy night, when the Jew, buttoning hisgreatcoat tight round his shrivelled body, and pulling thecollar up over his ears so as completely to obscure the lowerpart of his face, emerged from his den. He paused on the step asthe door was locked and chained behind him; and having listenedwhile the boys made all secure, and until their retreating footstepswere no longer audible, slunk down the street as quickly as hecould.The house to which Oliver had been conveyed, was in theneighbourhood of Whitechapel. The Jew stopped for an instant atthe corner of the street; and, glancing suspiciously round, crossedthe road, and struck off in the direction of Spitalfields.The mud lay thick upon the stones, and a black mist hung overthe streets; the rain fell sluggishly down, and everything felt coldand clammy to the touch. It seemed just the night when it befittedsuch a being as the Jew to be abroad. As he glided stealthily along,creeping beneath the shelter of the walls and doorways, thehideous old man seemed like some loathsome reptile, engenderedin the slime and darkness through which he moved, crawlingforth, by night, in search of some rich offal for a meal.He kept on his course, through many winding and narrowways, until he reached Bethnal Green; then, turning suddenly offto the left, he soon became involved in a maze of the mean andCharles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsOliver Twist 196dirty streets which abound in that close and densely populatedquarter.The Jew was evidently too familiar with the ground hetraversed to be at all bewildered, either by the darkness of thenight, or the intricacies of the way. He hurried through severalalleys and streets, and at length turned into one, lighted only by asingle lamp at the farther end. At the door of a house in this street,he knocked; and having exchanged a few muttered words with theperson who opened it, he walked upstairs.A dog growled as he touched the handle of a room door; and aman’s voice demanded who was there.“Only me, Bill; only me, my dear,” said the Jew, looking in.“Bring in your body then,” said Sikes. “Lie down, you stupidbrute! Don’t you know the devil when he’s got a greatcoat on?”Apparently, the dog had been somewhat deceived by Mr.Fagin’s outer garment; for as the Jew unbuttoned it, and threw itover the back of a chair, he retired to the corner from which hehad risen, wagging his tail as he went, to show that he was as wellsatisfied as it was in his nature to be.“Well!” said Sikes.“Well, my dear,” replied the Jew.—“Ah! Nancy.”The latter recognition was uttered with just enough ofembarrassment to imply a doubt of its reception; for Mr. Faginand his young friend had not met, since she had interfered inbehalf of Oliver. All doubts upon the subject, if he had any, werespeedily removed by the young lady’s behaviour. She took her feetoff the fender, pushed back her chair, and bade Fagin draw up his,without saying more about it; for it was a cold night, and nomistake.Charles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsOliver Twist 197“It is cold, Nancy, dear,” said the Jew, as he warmed his skinnyhands over the fire. “It seems to go right through one,” added theold man, touching his side.“It must be a piercer, if it finds its way through your heart,”said Mr. Sikes. “Give him something to drink, Nancy. Burn mybody, make haste! It’s enough to turn a man ill, to see his lean oldcarcass shivering in that way, like a ugly ghost just rose from thegrave.”Nancy quickly brought a bottle from a cupboard, in which therewere many; which, to judge from the diversity of their appearance,were filled with several kinds of liquids. Sikes, pouring out a glassof brandy, bade the Jew drink it off.“Quite enough, quite, thank ye, Bill” replied the Jew, puttingdown the glass after just setting his lips to it.“What! You’re afraid of our getting the better of you, are you?”inquired Sikes, fixing his eyes on the Jew. “Ugh!” With a hoarsegrunt of contempt, Mr. Sikes seized the glass, and threw theremainder of its contents into the ashes: as a preparatoryceremony to filling it again for himself, which he did at once.The Jew glanced round the room, as his companion tosseddown the second glassful; not in curiosity, for he had seen it oftenbefore; but in a restless and suspicious manner habitual to him. Itwas a meanly furnished apartment, with nothing but the contentsof the closet to induce the belief that its occupier was anything buta working man; and with no more suspicious articles displayed toview than two or three heavy bludgeons which stood in a cornerand a “life-preserver” that hung over the chimney-piece.“There,” said Sikes, smacking his lips. “Now I’m ready.”“For business?” inquired the Jew.Charles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsOliver Twist 198“For business,” replied Sikes; “so say what you’ve got to say.”“About the crib at Chertsey, Bill?” said the Jew, drawing hischair forward, and speaking in a very low voice.“Yes. Wot about it?” inquired Sikes.“Ah! you know what I mean, my dear,” said the Jew. “He knowswhat I mean, Nancy; don’t he?”“No, he don’t,” sneered Mr. Sikes. “Or he won’t, and that’s thesame thing. Speak out, and call things by their right names; don’tsit there, winking and blinking, and talking to me in hints, as if youwarn’t the very first that thought about the robbery. Wot d’yemean?”“Hush, Bill, hush!” said the Jew, who had in vain attempted tostop this burst of indignation; “somebody will hear us, my dear.Somebody will hear us.”“Let ’em hear!” said Sikes; “I don’t care.” But as Mr. Sikes didcare, on reflection, he dropped his voice as he said the words, andgrew calmer.“There, there,” said the Jew coaxingly. “It was only my caution,nothing more. Now, my dear, about that crib at Chertsey; when isit to be done, Bill, eh? When is it to be done? Such plate, my dear,such plate!” said the Jew, rubbing his hands, and elevating hiseyebrows in a rapture of anticipation.“Not at all,” replied Sikes coldly.“Not to be done at all!” echoed the Jew, leaning back in hischair.“No, not at all,” rejoined Sikes. “At least it can’t be a put-up job,as we expected.”“Then it hasn’t been properly gone about,” said the Jew,turning pale with anger. “Don’t tell me!”Charles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsOliver Twist 199“But I will tell you,” retorted Sikes. “Who are you that’s not tobe told? I tell you that Toby Crackit has been hanging about theplace for a fortnight, and he can’t get one of the servants into aline.”“Do you mean to tell me, Bill,” said the Jew, softening as theother grew heated, “that neither of the two men in the house canbe got over?”“Yes, I do mean to tell you so,” replied Sikes. “The old lady hashad ’em these twenty year; and, if you were to give ’em fivehundred pound, they wouldn’t be in it.”“But do you mean to say, my dear,” remonstrated the Jew,“that the women can’t be got over?”“Not a bit of it,” replied Sikes.“Not by flash Toby Crackit?” said the Jew incredulously.“Think what women are, Bill.”“No; not even by flash Toby Crackit,” replied Sikes. “He sayshe’s worn sham whiskers, and a canary waistcoat, the wholeblessed time he’s been loitering down there, and it’s all of no use.”“He should have tried moustachios and a pair of militarytrousers, my dear,” said the Jew.“So he did,” rejoined Sikes, “and they warn’t of no more usethan the other plant.”The Jew looked blank at this information. After ruminating forsome minutes with his chin sunk on his breast, he raised his head,and said, with a deep sigh, that if flash Toby Crackit reportedaright, he feared the game was up.“And yet,” said the old man, dropping his hands on his knees,ait’s a sad thing, my dear, to lose so much when we had set ourhearts upon it.”Charles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsOliver Twist 200“So it is,” said Mr. Sikes. “Worse luck!”A long silence ensued, during which the Jew was plunged indeep thought with his face wrinkled into an expression of villainyperfectly demoniacal. Sikes eyed him furtively from time to time.Nancy, apparently fearful of irritating the housebreaker, sat withher eyes fixed upon the fire, as if she had been deaf to all thatpassed.“Fagin,” said Sikes, abruptly breaking the stillness thatprevailed, “is it worth fifty shiners extra, if it’s safely done from theoutside?”“Yes,” said the Jew, as suddenly rousing himself.“Is it a bargain?” inquired Sikes.“Yes, my dear, yes,” rejoined the Jew, his eyes glistening, andevery muscle in his face working, with the excitement that theinquiry had awakened.“Then,” said Sikes, thrusting aside the Jew’s hand, with somedisdain, “let it come off as soon as you like. Toby and I were overthe garden wall the night afore last, sounding the panels of thedoor and shutters. The crib’s barred up at night like a jail; butthere’s one part we can crack, safe and softly.”“Which is that, Bill?” asked the Jew eagerly.“Why,” whispered Sikes,” as you cross the lawn—”“Yes, yes,” said the Jew, bending his head forward with his eyesalmost staring out of it.“Umph!” cried Sikes, stopping short, as the girl, scarcelymoving her head, looked suddenly round, and pointed for aninstant to the Jew’s face. “Never mind what part it is. You can’t doit without me, I know; but it’s best to be on the safe side when onedeals with you.”Charles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsOliver Twist 201“As you like, my dear, as you like,” replied the Jew. “Is there nohelp wanted, but yours and Toby’s?”“None,” said Sikes. “’Cept a centre-bit and a boy. The firstwe’ve both got; the second you must find us.”“A boy!” exclaimed the Jew. “Oh! then it’s a panel, eh?”“Never mind wot it is!” replied Sikes. “I want a boy, and hemustn’t be a big ’un. Lord!” said Sikes reflectively, “if I’d only gotthat young boy of Ned, the chimbley-sweeper’s! He kept him smallon purpose, and let him out by the job. But the father gets lagged;and then the Juvenile Delinquent Society comes, and takes theboy away from a trade where he was earning money, teaches himto read and write, and in times makes ’prentice of him. And sothey go on,” said Mr. Sikes, his wrath rising with the recollectionof his wrongs, “so they go on; and, if they’d got money enough(which it’s a Providence they haven’t), we shouldn’t have half adozen boys left in the whole trade, in a year or two.”“No more we should,” acquiesced the Jew, who had beenconsidering during this speech, and had only caught the lastsentence. “Bill!”“What now?” inquired Sikes.The Jew nodded his head towards Nancy, who was still gazingat the fire; and intimated, by a sign, that he would have her told toleave the room. Sikes shrugged his shoulders impatiently, as if hethought the precaution unnecessary; but complied, nevertheless,by requesting Miss Nancy to fetch him a jug of beer.“You don’t want any beer,” said Nancy, folding her arms, andretaining her seat very composedly.“I tell you I do!” replied Sikes.“Nonsense,” rejoined the girl coolly. “Go on, Fagin. I knowCharles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsOliver Twist 202what he is going to say, Bill; he needn’t mind me.”The Jew still hesitated. Sikes looked from one to the other insome surprise.“Why, you don’t mind the old girl, do you, Fagin?” he asked atlength. “You’ve known her long enough to trust her, or the devil’sin it. She ain’t one to blab. Are you, Nancy?”“I should think not!” replied the young lady, drawing her chairup to the table, and putting her elbows upon it.“No, no, my dear, I know you’re not,” said the Jew; “but—” andagain the old man paused.“But wot?” inquired Sikes.“I didn’t know whether she mightn’t p’r’aps be out of sorts, youknow, my dear, as she was the other night,” replied the Jew.At this confession, Miss Nancy burst into a loud laugh; and,swallowing a glass of brandy, shook her head with an air ofdefiance, and burst into sundry exclamations of “Keep the game a-going!”“Never say die!” and the like. These seemed to have the effectof reassuring both gentlemen; for the Jew nodded his head with asatisfied air, and resumed his seat, as did Mr. Sikes likewise.“Now, Fagin,” said Nancy, with a laugh; “tell Bill at once, aboutOliver!”“Ha! you’re a clever one, my dear; the sharpest girl I ever saw!”said the Jew, patting her on the neck. “It was about Oliver I wasgoing to speak, sure enough. Ha! ha! ha!”“What about him?” demanded Sikes.“He’s the boy for you, my dear,” replied the Jew, in a hoarsewhisper, laying his finger on the side of his nose, and grinningfrightfully.Charles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsOliver Twist 203