Stranica 228 [228]
170
CHAPTER THE SIXTH.
Wherein is shown how the artful Dodger got into
trouble.
4 AND so it was you that was your own
friend, was it?" asked Mr. Claypole,
otherwise Bolter, when, by virtue of the
compact entered into between them, he
had removed next day to the Jew’s house.
cc Cod, I thought as much last night !”
tt Every
dear,” replied Fagin, with his most in¬
sinuating grin. “ He has’nt as gooda
one as himself anywhere."
“ Except sometimes,” replied Morris
Bolter, assuming the air of a man of the
world. ‘ Some people are nobody’s ene¬
mies but their own, you know.”
6 Dont believe that,” said the Jew.
“ When a man’s his own enemy, it’s only
because he’s too much his own friend, not
because he’s eareful for everybody but
himself. Pooh! pooh! there ain’t such a
thing in nature.”
“ There oughtn’t to be, if there is,” re¬
plied Mr. Bolter.
“ That stands to reason,” said the Jew.
c Some conjurers say that number three
is the magie number, and some say num¬
ber seven. It’s neither, my friend, nei¬
ther. It’s number one.”
s Ha! ha!” cried Mr. Bolter.
ber one for ever!"
“In a little community like ours, my
dear,” said the Jew, who felt it necessary
to qualify this position, “ we have a gen¬
eral number one; that is, you can’t con¬
sider yourself as number one without
considering me too as the same, and all
the other young people.”
* Oh, the devil!" exclaimed Mr. Bolter.
4 You see,” pursued the Jew, affecting
to disregard this interruption, “ we are so
mixed up together and identified in our
interests that it must be so. For instance,
it’s your object to take care of number
one—meaning yourself.”
“ Certainly,” replied Mr. Bolter. “ Yer
about right there.”
“ Well, you can’t take care of yourself,
number one, without taking care of me,
number one.”
6 Number two, you mean,” said Mr.
Bolter, who was largely endowed with
the quality of selfishness.
6 No, I dont!" retorted the Jew. “I’m
of the same importance to you as you are
tv yourself.”
“Tsay,” interrupted Mr. Bolter, “ yer
66 Num¬
“ Only think,” said the Jew, shrugging
his shoulders and stretching out his hands,
“only consider, §You’ve done what’s
a very pretty thing, and what I love you
for doing; but what at the same time
would put the cravat round your throat
that’s so very easily tied, and so very dif¬
ficult to unloose — in plain English, the
halter.”
Mr. Bolter put his hand to his necker¬
chief, as if he felt it inconveniently tight,
and murmured an assent, qualified in tone
but not in substance.
s The gallows,” continued Fagin, " the
gallows, my dear, is an ugly finger-post,
which points out a very short and sharp
turning that has stopped many a bold fel¬
low’s career on the broad highway. To
keep in the easy road, and to keep it at
a distance, 1s object number one with
you.”
6 Of course it is,” replied Mr. Bolter.
: What do yer talk about such things
or?”
6 Only to show you my meaning clear
ly,” said the Jew, raising his eyebrows.
* Fo be able to do that, you depend upon
me ; to keep my little business all snug, I
depend upon you. The first is your num¬
ber one, the second my number one. The
more you value your number one, the
more careful you must be of mine; so we
come at last to what I told you at first—
that a regard for number one holds us all
together, and must do so, unless we would
all go to pieces in company.”
“'That’s true,” rejomed Mr. Bolter
thoughtfully. “Oh! yer a cunning old
codger !"
Mr. Fagin saw with delight that this
tribute to his powers was not mere com¬
phiment, but that he had really impressed
his recruit with a sense of his wily ge¬
nius, which it was most important that he
should entertain in the outset of their ac¬
guaintance. "To strengthen an impression
so desirable and useful, he followed up
the blow by acquainting him in some de¬
operations ; blending truth and fiction to¬
gether as best served his purpose, and
that Mr. Bolter’s respect visibly increased,
and became tempered, at the same time,
with a degree of wholesome fear, which
it was highly desirable to awaken.
“ It’s this mutual trust we have in each
other that consoles me under heavy loss¬
es," said the Jew. ‘ My best hand was
yer; but we ain’t quite so thiek together
as all that comes to.”
‘“ Yer don’t mean to say he died?”
cried Mr. Bolter.