Supper being ended—it may be easily conceived that Oliver had no great appetite for it—Mr. Sikes disposed of a couple of glasses of spirits and water, and threw himself on the bed; ordering Nancy, with many imprecations in case of failure, to call him at five precisely. Oliver stretched himself in his clothes, by command of the same authority, on a mattress upon the floor; and the girl, mending the fire, sat before it, in readiness to rouse them at the appointed time.
For a long time Oliver lay awake,thinking it not impossible that Nancy might seek that opportunity of whispering some further advice; but the girl sat brooding over the fire, without moving, save now and then to trim the light. Weary with watching and anxiety, he at length fell asleep.
When he awoke, the table was covered with tea-things,and Sikes was thrusting various articles into the pockets of his great-coat,which hung over the back of a chair.Nancy was busily engaged in preparing breakfast.It was not yet daylight;for the candle was still burning,and it was quite dark outside. A sharp rain, too,was beating against the window-panes;and the sky looked black and cloudy.
“Now, then!” growled Sikes, as Oliver started up; “half-past five!Look sharp, or you’ll get no breakfast;for it’s late as it is.”
Oliver was not long in making his toilet;having taken some breakfast,he replied to a surly inquiry from Sikes,by saying that he was quite ready.
Nancy, scarcely looking at the boy,threw him a handkerchief to tie round his throat;Sikes gave him a large rough cape to button over his shoulders.Thus attired, he gave his hand to the robber, who,merely pausing to show him with a menacing gesture that he had that same pistol in a side-pocket of his great-coat, clasped it firmly in his, and, exchanging a farewell with Nancy, led him away.
Oliver turned, for an instant,when they reached the door,in the hope of meeting a look from the girl.But she had resumed her old seat in front of the fire,and sat, perfectly motionless before it.
CHAPTER XXI. THE EXPEDITION
It was a cheerless morning when they got into the street;blowing and raining hard;and the clouds looking dull and stormy.The night had been very wet:large pools of water had collected in the road:and the kennels were overflowing.There was a faint glimmering of the coming day in the sky;but it rather aggravated than relieved the gloom of the scene:the sombre light only serving to pale that which the street lamps afforded,without shedding any warmer or brighter tints upon the wet house-tops,and dreary streets.There appeared to be nobody stirring in that quarter of the town;the windows of the houses were all closely shut;and the streets through which they passed,were noiseless and empty.
By the time they had turned into the Bethnal Green Road,the day had fairly begun to break.Many of the lamps were already extinguished;a few country waggons were slowly toiling on,towards London; now and then, a stage-coach,covered with mud, rattled briskly by:the driver bestowing, as he passed,an admonitory lash upon the heavy waggoner who,by keeping on the wrong side of the road,had endangered his arriving at the office,a quarter of a minute after his time.The public-houses, with gas-lights burning inside,were already open. By degrees,other shops began to be unclosed,and a few scattered people were met with. Then,came straggling groups of labourers going to their work;then, men and women with fish-baskets on their heads;donkey-carts laden with vegetables;chaise-carts filled with live-stock or whole carcasses of meat;milk-women with pails; an unbroken concourse of people,trudging out with various supplies to the eastern suburbs of the town.As they approached the City,the noise and traffic gradually increased;when they threaded the streets between Shoreditch and Smithfield,it had swelled into a roar of sound and bustle.It was as light as it was likely to be,till night came on again,and the busy morning of half the London population had begun.
Turning down Sun Street and Crown Street,and crossing Finsbury square, Mr. Sikes struck,by way of Chiswell Street, into Barbican:thence into Long Lane, and so into Smithfield;from which latter place arose a tumult of discordant sounds that filled Oliver Twist with amazement.
It was market-morning. The ground was covered,nearly ankle-deep, with filth and mire; a thick steam,perpetually rising from the reeking bodies of the cattle,and mingling with the fog,which seemed to rest upon the chimney-tops,hung heavily above.All the pens in the centre of the large area,and as many temporary pens as could be crowded into the vacant space,were filled with sheep;tied up to posts by the gutter side were long lines of beasts and oxen,three or four deep. Countrymen, butchers, drovers,hawkers, boys, thieves, idlers,and vagabonds of every low grade,were mingled together in a mass;the whistling of drovers, the barking dogs,the bellowing and plunging of the oxen,the bleating of sheep,the grunting and squeaking of pigs,the cries of hawkers, the shouts, oaths,and quarrelling on all sides;the ringing of bells and roar of voices,that issued from every public-house; the crowding,pushing, driving, beating, whooping and yelling;the hideous and discordant dim that resounded from every corner of the market;and the unwashed, unshaven, squalid,and dirty figures constantly running to and fro,and bursting in and out of the throng;rendered it a stunning and bewildering scene,which quite confounded the senses.
Mr. Sikes, dragging Oliver after him,elbowed his way through the thickest of the crowd,and bestowed very little attention on the numerous sights and sounds,which so astonished the boy. He nodded,twice or thrice, to a passing friend; and,resisting as many invitations to take a morning dram,pressed steadily onward,until they were clear of the turmoil,and had made their way through Hosier Lane into Holborn.
“Now, young ’un!” said Sikes, looking up at the clock of St.Andrew’s Church, “hard upon seven!you must step out. Come, don’t lag behind already, Lazy-legs!”
Mr. Sikes accompanied this speech with a jerk at his little companion’s wrist;Oliver, quickening his pace into a kind of trot between a fast walk and a run,kept up with the rapid strides of the house-breaker as well as he could.
They held their course at this rate,until they had passed Hyde Park corner,and were on their way to Kensington:when Sikes relaxed his pace,until an empty cart which was at some little distance behind,came up. Seeing “Hounslow” written on it,he asked the driver with as much civility as he could assume,if he would give them a lift as far as Isleworth.
“Jump up,” said the man. “Is that your boy?”
“Yes; he’s my boy,” replied Sikes,looking hard at Oliver,and putting his hand abstractedly into the pocket where the pistol was.
“Your father walks rather too quick for you, don’t he, my man?” inquired the driver:seeing that Oliver was out of breath.
“Not a bit of it,” replied Sikes, interposing.“He’s used to it. Here, take hold of my hand, Ned. In with you!”
Thus addressing Oliver, he helped him into the cart;and the driver, pointing to a heap of sacks,told him to lie down there, and rest himself.
As they passed the different mile-stones,Oliver wondered, more and more,where his companion meant to take him. Kensington,Hammersmith, Chiswick, Kew Bridge, Brentford,were all passed; and yet they went on as steadily as if they had only just begun their journey. At length, they came to a public-house called the Coach and Horses; a little way beyond which, another road appeared to run off. And here, the cart stopped.
Sikes dismounted with great precipitation,holding Oliver by the hand all the while;and lifting him down directly,bestowed a furious look upon him,and rapped the side-pocket with his fist,in a significant manner.