looked with an aspect of great perplexity into the Jew’s face, and reading no satisfactory explanation of the riddle there, clenched his coat collar in his huge hand and shook him soundly.
‘Speak, will you!’ he said; ‘or if you don’t, it shall be for want of breath. Open your mouth and say wot you’ve got to say in plain words. Out with it, you thundering old cur, out with it!’
‘Suppose that lad that’s laying there — ‘ Fagin began.
Sikes turned round to where Noah was sleeping, as if he had not previously observed him. ‘Well!’ he said, resuming his former position.
‘Suppose that lad,’ pursued Fagin, ‘was to peach — to blow upon us all — first seeking out the right folks for the purpose, and then having a meeting with ‘em in the street to paint our likenesses, describe every mark that they might know us by, and the crib where we might be most easily taken. Suppose he was to do all this, and besides to blow upon a plant we’ve all been in, more or less — of his own fancy; not grabbed, trapped, tried, earwigged by the parson and brought to it on bread and water, — but of his own fancy; to please his own taste; stealing out at nights to find those most interested against us, and peaching to them. Do you hear me?’ cried the Jew, his eyes flashing with rage. ‘Suppose he did all this, what then?’
‘What then!’ replied Sikes; with a tremendous oath. ‘If he was left alive till I came, I’d grind his skull under the iron heel of my boot into as many grains as there are hairs upon his head.’
‘What if I did it!’ cried Fagin almost in a yell. ‘I, that knows so much, and could hang so many besides myself!’
‘I don’t know,’ replied Sikes, clenching his teeth and turning white at the mere suggestion. ‘I’d do something in the jail that ‘ud get me put in irons; and if I was tried along with you, I’d fall upon you with them in the open court, and beat your brains out afore the people. I should have such strength,’ muttered the robber, poising his brawny arm, ‘that I could smash your head as if a loaded waggon had gone over it.’
‘You would?’
‘Would I!’ said the housebreaker. ‘Try me.’
‘If it was Charley, or the Dodger, or Bet, or — ‘
‘I don’t care who,’ replied Sikes impatiently. ‘Whoever it was, I’d serve them the same.’
Fagin looked hard at the robber; and, motioning him to be silent, stooped over the bed upon the floor, and shook the sleeper to rouse him. Sikes leant forward in his chair: looking on with his hands upon his knees, as if wondering much what all this questioning and preparation was to end in.
‘Bolter, Bolter! Poor lad!’ said Fagin, looking up with an expression of devilish anticipation, and speaking slowly and with marked emphasis. ‘He’s tired — tired with watching for her so long, — watching for her, Bill.’
‘Wot d’ye mean?’ asked Sikes, drawing back.
Fagin made no answer, but bending over the sleeper again, hauled him into a sitting posture. When his assumed name had been repeated several times, Noah rubbed his eyes, and, giving a heavy yawn, looked sleepily about him.
‘Tell me that again — once again, just for him to hear,’ said the Jew, pointing to Sikes as he spoke.
‘Tell yer what?’ asked the sleepy Noah, shaking himself pettishly.
‘That about — Nancy,’ said Fagin, clutching Sikes by the wrist, as if to prevent his leaving the house before he had heard enough. ‘You followed her?’
‘Yes.’
‘To London Bridge?’
‘Yes.’
‘Where she met two people.’
‘So she did.’
‘A gentleman and a lady that she had gone to of her own accord before, who asked her to give up all her pals, and Monks first, which she did — and to describe him, which she did — and to tell her what house it was that we meet at, and go to, which she did — and where it could be best watched from, which she did — and what time the people went there, which she did. She did all this. She told it all every word without a threat, without a murmur — she did — did she not?’ cried Fagin, half mad with fury.
‘All right,’ replied Noah, scratching his head. ‘That’s just what it was!’
‘What did they say, about last Sunday?’
‘About last Sunday!’ replied Noah, considering. ‘Why I told yer that before.’
‘Again. Tell it again!’ cried Fagin, tightening his grasp on Sikes, and brandishing his other hand aloft, as the foam flew from his lips.
‘They asked her,’ said Noah, who, as he grew more wakeful, seemed to have a dawning perception who Sikes was, ‘they asked her why she didn’t come, last Sunday, as she promised. She said she couldn’t.’
‘Why — why? Tell him that.’
‘Because she was forcibly kept at home by Bill, the man she had told them of before,’ replied Noah.
‘What more of him?’ cried Fagin. ‘What more of the man she had told them of before? Tell him that, tell him that.’
‘Why, that she couldn’t very easily get out of doors unless he knew where she was going to,’ said Noah; ‘and so the first time she went to see the lady, she — ha! ha! ha! it made me laugh when she said it, that it did — she gave him a drink of laudanum.’
‘Hell’s fire!’ cried Sikes, breaking fiercely from the Jew. ‘Let me go!’
Flinging the old man from him, he rushed from the room, and darted, wildly and furiously, up the stairs.
‘Bill, Bill!’ cried Fagin, following him hastily. ‘A word. Only a word.’
The word would not have been exchanged, but that the housebreaker was unable to open the door: on which he was expending fruitless oaths and violence, when the Jew came panting up.
‘Let me out,’ said Sikes. ‘Don’t speak to me; it’s not safe. Let me out, I say!’
‘Hear me speak a word,’ rejoined Fagin, laying his hand upon the lock. ‘You won’t be — ‘
‘Well,’ replied the other.
‘You won’t be — too — violent, Bill?’
The day was breaking, and there was light enough for the men to see each other’s faces. They exchanged one brief glance; there was a fire in the eyes of both, which could not be mistaken.
‘I mean,’ said Fagin, showing that he felt all disguise was now useless, ‘not too violent for safety. Be crafty, Bill, and not too bold.’
Sikes made no reply; but, pulling open the door, of which Fagin had turned the lock, dashed into the silent streets.
Without one pause, or moment’s consideration; without once turning his head to the right or left, or raising his eyes to the sky, or lowering them to the ground, but looking straight before him with savage resolution: his teeth so tightly compressed that the strained jaw seemed starting through his skin; the robber held on his headlong course, nor muttered a word, nor relaxed a muscle, until he reached his own door. He opened it, softly, with a key; strode lightly up the stairs; and entering his own room, double-locked the door, and lifting a heavy table against it, drew back the curtain of the bed.
The girl was lying, half-dressed, upon it. He had roused her from her sleep, for she raised herself with a hurried and startled look.
‘Get up!’ said the man.
‘It is you, Bill!’ said the girl, with an expression of pleasure at his return.
‘It is,’ was the reply. ‘Get up.’
There