Oliver Twist 446
Chapter 42
An Old Acquaintance Of Oliver’s, Exhibiting
Decided Marks Of Genius, Becomes A Public
Character In The Metropolis.
Upon the night when Nancy, having lulled Mr. Sikes to
sleep, hurried on her self-imposed mission to Rose
Maylie, there advanced towards London, by the Great
North Road, two persons, upon whom it is expedient that this
history should bestow some attention.
They were a man and a woman; or perhaps they would be
better described as a male and female; for the former was one of
those long-limbed, knock-kneed, shambling, bony people, to whom
it is difficult to assign any precise age—looking as they do, when
they are yet boys, like undergrown men, and when they are almost
men, like overgrown boys. The woman was young, but of a robust
and hardy make, as she need have been to bear the weight of the
heavy bundle which was strapped to her back. Her companion
was not encumbered with much luggage, as there merely dangled
from a stick which he carried over his shoulder, a small parcel
wrapped in a common handkerchief, and apparently light enough.
This circumstance, added to the length of his legs, which were of
unusual extent, enabled him with much ease to keep some half-
dozen paces in advance of his companion, to whom he occasionally
turned with an impatient jerk of the head, as if reproaching her
tardiness, and urging her to greater exertion.
Thus, they had toiled along the dusty road, taking little heed of
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any object within sight, save when they stepped aside to allow a
wider passage for the mail-coaches which were whirling out of
town, until they passed through Highgate archway; when the
foremost traveller stopped and called impatiently to his
companion.
“Come on, can’t yer? What a lazybones ye are, Charlotte.”
“It’s a heavy load, I can tell you,” said the female, coming up,
almost breathless with fatigue.
“Heavy! What are yer talking about! What are yer made for?”
rejoined the male traveller, changing his own little bundle as he
spoke, to the other shoulder. “Oh, there yer are, resting again!
Well, if yer ain’t enough to tire anybody’s patience out, I don’t
know what is!”
“Is it much farther?” asked the woman, resting herself against a
bank, and looking up with the perspiration streaming from her
face.
“Much farther! Yer as good as there,” said the long-legged
tramper, pointing out before him. “Look there! Those are the
lights of London.”
“They’re a good two mile off, at least,” said the woman
despondingly.
“Never mind whether they’re two mile off, or twenty,” said
Noah Claypole, for he it was; “but get up and come on, or I’ll kick
yer, and so I give yer notice.”
As Noah’s red nose grew redder with anger, and as he crossed
the road while speaking, as if fully prepared to put his threat into
execution, the woman rose without any further remark, and
trudged onward by his side.
“Where do you mean to stop for the night, Noah?” she asked,
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after they had walked a few hundred yards.
“How should I know?” replied Noah, whose temper had been
considerably impaired by walking.
“Near, I hope,” said Charlotte.
“No, not near,” replied Mr. Claypole. ‘‘There! Not near; so don’t
think it.”
“Why not?”
“When I tell yer that I don’t mean to do a thing, that’s enough,
without any why or because either,” replied Mr. Claypole, with
dignity.
“Well, you needn’t be so cross,” said his companion.
“A pretty thing it would be, wouldn’t it, to go and stop at the
very first public-house outside the town, so that Sowerberry, if he
came up after us, might poke in his old nose, and have us taken
back in a cart with handcuffs on,” said Mr Claypole, in a jeering
tone. “No! I shall go and lose myself among the narrowest streets I
can find, and not stop till we come to the very out-of-the-wayest
house I can set eyes on. ’Cod, yer may thank yer stars I’ve got a
head; for if we hadn’t gone, at first, the wrong road a purpose, and
come back across country, yer’d have been locked up hard and
fast a week ago, my lady. And serve yer right for being a fool.”
“I know I ain’t as cunning as you are,” replied Charlotte; “but
don’t put all the blame on me, and say I should have been locked
up. You would have been if I had been, anyway.”
“Yer took the money from the till, yer know yer did,” said Mr.
Claypole.
“I took it for you, Noah dear,” rejoined Charlotte.
“Did I keep it?” asked Mr. Claypole.
“No; you trusted in me, and let me carry it like a dear, and so
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you are,” said the lady, chucking him under the chin, and drawing
her arm through his.
This was indeed the case; but as it was not Mr. Claypole’s habit
to repose a blind and foolish confidence in anybody, it should be
observed, in justice to that gentleman, that he had trusted
Charlotte to this extent, in order that, if they were pursued, the
money might be found on her; which would leave him an
opportunity of asserting his innocence of any theft, and would
greatly facilitate his chances of escape. Of course, he entered at
this juncture into no explanation of his motives, and they walked
on very leisurely together.
In pursuance of this cautious plan, Mr. Claypole went on,
without halting, until he arrived at the Angel at Islington, where
he wisely judged, from the crowd of passengers and number of
vehicles, that London began in earnest. Just pausing to observe
which appeared the most crowded streets, and consequently the
most to be avoided, he crossed into St. John’s Road, and was soon
deep in the obscurity of the intricate and dirty ways, which, lying
between Gray’s Inn Lane and Smithfield, render that part of the
town one of the lowest and worst that improvement has left in the
midst of London.
Through these streets, Noah Claypole walked, dragging
Charlotte after him; now stepping into the kennel to embrace at a
glance the whole external character of some small public-house;
and now jogging on again, as some fancied appearance induced
him to believe it too public for his purpose. At length, he stopped
in front of one, more humble in appearance and more dirty than
any he had yet seen; and, having crossed over and surveyed it
from the opposite pavement, graciously announced his intention
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of putting up there, for the night.
“So give us the bundle,” said Noah, unstrapping it from the
woman’s shoulders, and slinging it over his own; “and don’t yer
speak, except when yer spoke to. What’s the name of the house—th-r—three what?”
“Cripples,” said Charlotte.
“Three Cripples,” repeated Noah, “and a very good sign too.
Now, then! Keep close at my heels, and come along.” With these
injunctions, he pushed the rattling door with his shoulder, and
entered the house, followed by his companion.
There was nobody in the bar but a young Jew, who, with his
two elbows on the counter, was reading a dirty newspaper. He
stared very hard at Noah, and Noah stared very hard at him.
If Noah had been attired in his charity-boy’s dress, there might
have been some reason for the Jew opening his eyes so wide; but
as he had discarded the coat and badge, and wore a short smock-
frock over his leathers, there seemed no particular reason for his
appearance exciting so much attention in a public-house.
“Is this the Three Cripples?” asked Noah.
“That is the dabe of this ’ouse,” replied the Jew.
“A gentleman we met on the road, coming up from the country,
recommended us here,” said Noah, nudging Charlotte, perhaps to
call her attention to this most ingenious device for attracting
respect, and perhaps to warn her to betray no surprise. “We want
to sleep here tonight.”
“I’b dot certaid you cad,” said Barney, who was the attendant
sprite; “but I’ll idquire.”
“Show us the tap, and give us a bit of cold meat and a drop of
beer while yer inquiring, will yer?” said Noah. Barney complied
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by ushering them into a small back room, and setting the required
viands before them; having done which, he informed the travellers
that they could be lodged that night, and left the amiable couple to
their refreshment.
Now, this back room was immediately behind the bar, and
some steps lower, so that any person connected with the house,
undrawing a small curtain which concealed a single pane of glass
fixed in the wall of the last-named apartment, about five feet from
its flooring, could not only look down upon any guests in the back
room without any great hazard of being observed (the glass being
in a dark angle of the wall, between which and a large upright
beam the observer had to thrust himself), but could, by applying
his ear to the partition, ascertain with tolerable distinctness, their
subject of conversation. The landlord of the house had not
withdrawn his eye from this place of espial for five minutes, and
Barney had only just returned from making the communication
above related, when Fagin, in the course of his evening’s business,
came into the bar to inquire after some of his young pupils.
“Hush!” said Barney; “stradegers id the next roob.”
“Strangers!” repeated the old man in a whisper.
“Ah! Ad rud uds too,” added Barney. “Frob the cuttry, but
subthig in your way, or I’b bistaked.”
Fagin appeared to receive this communication with great
interest. Mounting a stool, he cautiously applied his eye to the
pane of glass, from which secret post he could see Mr. Claypole
taking cold beef from the dish, and porter from the pot, and
administering homeopathic doses of both to Charlotte, who sat
patiently by, eating and drinking at his pleasure.
“Aha!” he whispered, looking round to Barney, “I like that
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fellow’s looks. He’d be of use to us; he knows how to train the girl
already. Don’t make as much noise as a mouse, my dear, and let
me hear ’em talk—let me hear ’em.”
He again applied his eye to the glass, and turning his ear to the
partition, listened attentively; with a subtle and eager look upon
his face, that might have appertained to some old goblin.
“So I mean to be a gentleman,” said Mr. Claypole, kicking out
his legs, and continuing a conversation, the commencement of
which Fagin had arrived too late to hear. “No more jolly old
coffins, Charlotte, but a gentleman’s life for me; and, if yer like, yer
shall be a lady.”
“I should like that well enough, dear,” replied Charlotte; “but
tills ain’t to be emptied every day, and people to get clear off after
it.”
“Tills be blowed!” said Mr. Claypole; “there’s more things
besides tills to be emptied.”
“What do you mean?” asked his companion.
“Pockets, women’s ridicules, houses, mail-coaches, banks!” said
Mr. Claypole, rising with the porter.
“But you can’t do all that, dear,” said Charlotte.
“I shall look out to get into company with them as can,” replied
Noah. “They’ll be able to make us useful some way or another.
Why, you yourself are worth fifty women; I never see such a
precious sly and deceitful creetur as yer can be when I let yer.”
“Lor, how nice it is to hear you say so!” exclaimed Charlotte,
imprinting a kiss on his ugly face.
“There, that’ll do; don’t yer be too affectionate, in case I’m cross
with yer,” said Noah, disengaging himself with great gravity. “I
should like to be the captain of some band, and have the whopping
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of ’em, and follering ’em about, unbeknown to themselves. That
would suit me, if there was good profit; and if we could only get in
with some gentleman of this sort, I say it would be cheap at that
twenty-pound note you’ve got—especially as we don’t very well
know how to get rid of it ourselves.”
After expressing this opinion, Mr. Claypole looked into the
porter-pot with an aspect of deep wisdom; and having well shaken
its contents, nodded condescendingly to Charlotte, and took a
draught, wherewith he appeared greatly refreshed. He was
meditating another, when the sudden opening of the door, and the
appearance of a stranger, interrupted him.
The stranger was Mr. Fagin. And very amiable he looked, and
a-very low bow he made, as he advanced, and setting himself
down at the nearest table, ordered something to drink of the
grinning Barney.
“A pleasant night, sir, but cool for the time of year,” said Fagin,
rubbing his hands. “From the country, I see, sir?”
“How do yer see that?” asked Noah Claypole.
“We have not so much dust as that in London,” replied Fagin,
pointing from Noah’s shoes to that of his companion and from
them to the two bundles.
“Yer a sharp feller,” said Noah. “Ha! ha! only hear that,
Charlotte!”
“Why, one need be sharp in this town, my dear,” replied the
Jew, sinking his voice to a confidential whisper; “and that’s the
truth.”
Fagin followed up this remark by striking the side of his nose
with his right forefinger—a gesture which Noah attempted to
imitate, though not with complete success, in consequence of his
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own nose not being large enough for the purpose. However, Mr.
Fagin seemed to interpret the endeavour as expressing a perfect
coincidence with his opinion, and put about the liquor which
Barney reappeared with, in a very friendly manner.
“Good stuff that,” observed Mr. Claypole, smacking his lips.
“Dear!” said Fagin. “A man need be always emptying a till, or a
pocket, or a woman’s reticule, or a house, or a mail-coach, or a
bank, if he drinks it regularly.”
Mr. Claypole no sooner heard this extract from his own
remarks than he fell back in his chair, and looked from the Jew to
Charlotte with a countenance of ashy paleness and excessive
terror.
“Don’t mind me, my dear,” said Fagin, drawing his chair closer.
“Ha! ha! it was lucky it was only me that heard you by chance. It
was very lucky it was only me.”
“I didn’t take it,” stammered Noah, no longer stretching out his
legs like an independent gentleman, but coiling them up as well as
he could under his chair; “it was all her doing: yer’ve got it now,
Charlotte, yer know yer have.”
“No matter who’s got it, or who did it, my dear!” replied Fagin,
glancing, nevertheless, with a hawk’s eye at the girl and the two
bundles. “I’m in that way myself, and I like you for it.”
“In what way?” asked Mr. Claypole, a little recovering.
“In that way of business,” rejoined Fagin; “and so are the
people of the house. You’ve hit the right nail upon the head, and
are as safe here as you could be. There is not a safer place in all
this town than is the Cripples; that is, when I like to make it so.
And I have taken a fancy to you and the young woman; so I’ve said
the word, and you may make your minds easy.”
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Noah Claypole’s mind might have been at ease after this
assurance, but his body certainly was not; for he snuffled and
writhed about, into various uncouth positions, eyeing his new
friend meanwhile with mingled fear and suspicion.
“I’ll tell you more,” said Fagin, after he had reassured the girl,
by dint of friendly nods and muttered encouragements. “I have got
a friend that I think can gratify your darling wish, and put you in
the right way, where you can take whatever department of the
business you think will suit you best at first, and be taught all the
others.”
“Yer speak as if yer were in earnest,” replied Noah.
“What advantage would it be to me to be anything else?”
