Stranica 104 [104]
OCR
68 if he were bewildered and could scarcely understand what passed; but when Bill Sikes concluded, he ess suddenly to his feet, and tore wildly from the room, uttering shrieks for help that made the bare old house echo to the roof. : Keep back the dog, Bill!” cried Nancy, springing before the door, and closing it as the Jew and his two pupils darted out in pursuit; "keep back the dog; hel tear the boy to pieces." “Serve him right!” cried Sikes, struggling to disengage himself from the girl’s grasp. " Stand off from me, or I 11 split your skull against the wall!” “1 don’t care for that, Bill; I don’t care for that,” screamed the girl, struggling violently with the man: “ the child shan’t be torn down by the dog, unless you kill me first.” “Shan’t he!" said Sikes, setting his teeth fiercely. ‘I’Jl soon do that, if you don’t keep off.” The housebreaker flung the girl from him to the further end of the room, just as the Jew and the two boys returned, dragging Oliver among them. c What’s the matter here?” said the Jew, looking round. “The girl’s gone mad, I think,” replied Sikes savagely. * No, she hasn’t,” said Nancy, pale and breathless from the scuffle; "no, she hasn’t, Fagin: don’t think it.” “Then keep quiet, will you?” said the Jew with a threatening look. ‘No, I w ont do that either,” replied Nancy, speaking very loud. ‘Come, what do you think of that?” Mr. Fagin was sufficiently well acquainted with the manners and customs of that particular species of humanity to which Miss Nancy belonged, to feel tolerably certain that it would be rather unsafe to prolong any conversation with her at present. With the view of diverting the attention of the company, he turned to Oliver. “So you wanted to get away, my dear, did you?” said the Jew, taking up a jagged and knotted club which lay in a corner of the fire-place; “eh?” Oliver made no reply, but he watched the Jew’s motions and breathed quickly. “ Wanted to get assistance,—called for the police, did you?" sneered the Jew, catching the boy by the arm. “We’ll cure you of that, my dear.” | The Jew inflicted a smart blow on Olivers shoulders with the club, and was raising it for a second, when the girl, rush flung it into the fire with a force that brought some of the glowing coals whirling out into the room. 6] won’t stand by and see it done, Fagin," cried the girl. “You’ve got the boy, and what more would you have? Let him be—let him be, or I shall put the mark on some of you that will bring me to the gallows before my time !" The girl stamped her foot violently on the floor as she vented this threat; and with her lips compressed, and her hands clenched, looking alternately at the Jew and the other robber, her face quite cowhich she had gradually worked herself. “Why, Nancy!” said the Jew in a soothing tone, after a pause, during which he and Mr. Sikes had stared at one another in a disconcerted manner, § you— sg re more clever than ever to-night. a! ha! my dear, you are acting beautifully.” “Am I!" said the girl. " "Take care I don’t overdo it: you will be the worse for it, Fagin, if I do; and so I tell you in time to keep clear of me.” There is something about a roused wo- | man, especially if she add to all her other strong passions the fierce impulses of recklessness and despair, which few men like to provoke. The Jew saw that it would be hopeless to affect any further mistake regarding the reality of Miss Nancy’s rage; and, shrinking involuntarily back, a few paces, cast a glance, halfimploring and half-cowardly, at Sikes, as if to hint that he was the fittest person to pursue the dialogue. Mr. Sikes thus mutely appealed to, and possibly feeling his personal pride and influence interested in the immediate reduction of Miss Nancy to reason, gave utterance to about a couple of score of curses and threats, the rapid delivery of which reflected great credit on the fertility of his invention. As they produced no visible effect on the object against whom they were discharged, however, he resorted to more tangible arguments. : c What do you mean by this?” said Sikes, backing the inquiry with a very common imprecation concerning the most beautiful of human features, which, if it were heard above, only once out of every fifty thousand times it is uttered below, would render blindness as common a disorder as measles; " "what do yoy mean by it? Burn my body! do you know who you are, and what you are ?” ‘Oh, yes, I know all about it,” replied
