Stranica 100 [100]
through the heavy mist, which thickened
every moment, and shrouded the streets
and houses in gloom, rendering the
strange place still stranger in Oliver's
eyes, and making his uncertainty the
more dismal and depressing.
They had hurried on a few paces, when
a deep church-bell struck the hour. With
its first stroke his two conductors stopped,
whence the sound proceeded.
“ Kight o’clock, Bill,” said Nancy, when
the bell ceased.
*‘'What’s the good of telling me that;
I can hear, can’t I?" replied Sikes.
“| wonder whether they can hear it,”
said Nancy.
“Of course they can,” replied Sikes.
* It was Bartlemy time when I was shop¬
ped, and there warn’t a penny trumpet in
the fair as I couldn’t hear the squeaking
on. Arter I was locked up for the night,
the row and din outside made the thun¬
dering old jail so silent, that I could almost
have beat my brains out against the iron
plates of the door.”
“ Poor fellows!” said Nancy, who still
had her face turned towards the quarter
in which the bell had sounded. "Oh,
6 Yes; that’s all you women think of,”
answered Sikes. " Fine young chaps!
Well, they "re as good as dead ; so it don’t
much matter.”
With this consolation Mr. Sikes ap¬
peared to repress a rising tendency to
jealousy, and, clasping Oliver’s wrist
more firmly, told him to step out again.
“ Wait a minute,” said the girl; “I
coming out to be hung the next time eight
o’clock struck, Bill. I’d walk round and
round the place till I dropped, if the snow
was on the ground, and I hadn’t a shawl
“And what good would that do?” in¬
quired the unsentimental Mr. Sikes. “ Un¬
less you could pitch over a file and twenty
yards of good stout rope, you might as
well be walking fifty miles off, or not
walking at all, for all the it would
do me. Come on, will you, and don’t
stand preaching there.”
The girl burst into a laugh, drew her
shawl more closely round her, 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 had
turned a deadly white.
They walked on by little-frequented
and dirty ways, for u full halfhour, meet¬
ing very few people, for it now rained
heavily, and those they did meet appear.
ing from their looks to hold much the
same position in society as Mr. Sikes him- .
self. At length they turned into a very
filthy narrow street, nearly full of old¬
clothes shops; and, the dog running for¬
ward as if conscious that there was no
further occasion of his keeping on guard,
stopped before the door of a shop which
was closed and apparently untenanted,
for the house was in a ruinous condition,
and upon the door was nailed a board in
timatine that it was to let, which looked
as if it had hung there for many years.
“All right,” said Sikes, looking cau
tiously about.
Nancy stooped below the shutters, and
Oliver heard the sound of a bell. They
crossed to the opposite side of the street,
and stood for a few moments under a lam
A noise, as if a sash-window were gently
raised, was heard, and soon afterwards
the door softly opened; upon which Mr.
Sikes seized the terrified boy by the col
lar with very little ceremony, and all
three were quickly inside the house.
The passage was perfectly dark, and
they waited while the person who had let
them in, chained and barred thedoor.
“ Anybody here?" inquired Sikes.
“No,” replied a voice, which Oliver
thought he had heard before.
sc Is the old "un here ?" asked the robber.
“ Yes,” replied the voice; "and pre¬
cious down in the mouth he has been.
Won’t he be glad to see you? Oh, no.”
The style of this reply, as well as the
voice that delivered it, seemed familiar to
Oliver’s ears; but it was impossible to
distinguish even the form of the speaker
in the darkness.
6 Let’s have a glim,” said Sikes, “ or
we shall go breaking our necks, or tread¬
ing on the dog. Look after your legs if
you do, that’s all.”
“ Stand still a moment, and I "11 get you
one,” replied the voice. ‘The recedin
footsteps of the speaker were heard, an
in another minute the form of Mr. John
Dawkins, otherwise the artful Dodger, ap¬
peared, bearing in his right hand a tallow
candle stuck in the end of a cleft stick,
The young gentleman did not stop ta
bestow any other mark of recognition
upon Oliver than a humorous grin; but,
turning away, beckoned the visitors to
follow him down a flight of stairs. They
crossed an empty kitchen, and, opening
the door of a low earthy-smellmg room,
which seemed to have been built in a
small back-yard, were received with a