There were only a couple of women in the dock,who were nodding to their admiring friends,while the clerk read some depositions to a couple of policemen and a man in plain clothes who leant over the table. A jailer stood reclining against the dock-rail, tapping his nose listlessly with a large key, except when he repressed an undue tendency to conversation among the idlers, by proclaiming silence; or looked sternly up to bid some woman “Take that baby out,” when the gravity of justice was disturbed by feeble cries, half-smothered in the mother’s shawl, from some meagre infant. The room smelt close and unwholesome; the walls were dirt-discoloured; and the ceiling blackened. There was an old smoky bust over the mantel-shelf, and a dusty clock above the dock—the only thing present, that seemed to go on as it ought; for depravity, or poverty, or an habitual acquaintance with both, had left a taint on all the animate matter, hardly less unpleasant than the thick greasy scum on every inanimate object that frowned upon it.
Noah looked eagerly about him for the Dodger;but although there were several women who would have done very well for that distinguished character’s mother or sister, and more than one man who might be supposed to bear a strong resemblance to his father, nobody at all answering the description given him of Mr. Dawkins was to be seen. He waited in a state of much suspense and uncertainty until the women, being committed for trial, went flaunting out; and then was quickly relieved by the appearance of another prisoner who he felt at once could be no other than the object of his visit.
It was indeed Mr. Dawkins, who,shuffling into the office with the big coat sleeves tucked up as usual,his left hand in his pocket,and his hat in his right hand, preceded the jailer,with a rolling gait altogether indescribable, and,taking his place in the dock,requested in an audible voice to know what he was placed in that ’ere disgraceful sitivation for.
“Hold your tongue, will you?” said the jailer.
“I’m an Englishman, ain’t I?” rejoined the Dodger. “Where are my priwileges?”
“You’ll get your privileges soon enough,” retorted the jailer, “and pepper with ’em.”
“We’ll see wot the Secretary of State for the Home Affairs has got to say to the beaks, if I don’t,” replied Mr. Dawkins. “Now then!Wot is this here business?I shall thank the madg’strates to dispose of this here little affair,and not to keep me while they read the paper,for I’ve got an appointment with a genelman in the City,and as I am a man of my word and wery punctual in business matters,he’ll go away if I ain’t there to my time,and then pr’aps ther won’t be an action for damage against them as kep me away.Oh no, certainly not!”
At this point, the Dodger,with a show of being very particular with a view to proceedings to be had thereafter, desired the jailer to communicate “the names of them two files as was on the bench.” Which so tickled the spectators, that they laughed almost as heartily as Master Bates could have done if he had heard the request.
“Silence there!” cried the jailer.
“What is this?” inquired one of the magistrates.
“A pick-pocketing case, your worship.”
“Has the boy ever been here before?”
“He ought to have been, a many times,” replied the jailer.“He has been pretty well everywhere else._I_ know him well, your worship.”
“Oh!you know me, do you?” cried the Artful, making a note of the statement.“Wery good. That’s a case of deformation of character, any way.”
Here there was another laugh,and another cry of silence.
“Now then, where are the witnesses?” said the clerk.
“Ah!that’s right,” added the Dodger. “Where are they?I should like to see ’em.”
This wish was immediately gratified,for a policeman stepped forward who had seen the prisoner attempt the pocket of an unknown gentleman in a crowd, and indeed take a handkerchief therefrom, which, being a very old one, he deliberately put back again, after trying it on his own countenance. For this reason, he took the Dodger into custody as soon as he could get near him, and the said Dodger, being searched, had upon his person a silver snuff-box, with the owner’s name engraved upon the lid. This gentleman had been discovered on reference to the Court Guide, and being then and there present, swore that the snuff-box was his, and that he had missed it on the previous day, the moment he had disengaged himself from the crowd before referred to. He had also remarked a young gentleman in the throng, particularly active in making his way about, and that young gentleman was the prisoner before him.
“Have you anything to ask this witness, boy?” said the magistrate.
“I wouldn’t abase myself by descending to hold no conversation with him,” replied the Dodger.
“Have you anything to say at all?”
“Do you hear his worship ask if you’ve anything to say?” inquired the jailer,nudging the silent Dodger with his elbow.
“I beg your pardon,” said the Dodger,looking up with an air of abstraction.“Did you redress yourself to me, my man?”
“I never see such an out-and-out young wagabond,your worship,” observed the officer with a grin.“Do you mean to say anything, you young shaver?”
“No,” replied the Dodger, “not here,for this ain’t the shop for justice: besides which,my attorney is a-breakfasting this morning with the Wice President of the House of Commons; but I shall have something to say elsewhere, and so will he, and so will a wery numerous and’spectable circle of acquaintance as’ll make them beaks wish they’d never been born, or that they’d got their footmen to hang ’em up to their own hat-pegs, afore they let ’em come out this morning to try it on upon me. I’ll—”
“There!He’s fully committed!” interposed the clerk. “Take him away.”
“Come on,” said the jailer.
“Oh ah!I’ll come on,” replied the Dodger,brushing his hat with the palm of his hand. “Ah!(to the Bench) it’s no use your looking frightened;I won’t show you no mercy, not a ha’porth of it._You’ll_ pay for this, my fine fellers.I wouldn’t be you for something!I wouldn’t go free, now,if you was to fall down on your knees and ask me. Here,carry me off to prison!Take me away!”
With these last words,the Dodger suffered himself to be led off by the collar;threatening, till he got into the yard,to make a parliamentary business of it;and then grinning in the officer’s face,with great glee and self-approval.
Having seen him locked up by himself in a little cell,Noah made the best of his way back to where he had left Master Bates.After waiting here some time,he was joined by that young gentleman,who had prudently abstained from showing himself until he had looked carefully abroad from a snug retreat, and ascertained that his new friend had not been followed by any impertinent person.
The two hastened back together, to bear to Mr.Fagin the animating news that the Dodger was doing full justice to his bringing-up, and establishing for himself a glorious reputation.
CHAPTER XLIV. THE TIME ARRIVES FOR NANCY TO REDEEM HER PLEDGE TO ROSE MAYLIE. SHE FAILS.
Adept as she was, in all the arts of cunning and dissimulation,the girl Nancy could not wholly conceal the effect which the knowledge of the step she had taken, wrought upon her mind. She remembered that both the crafty Jew and the brutal Sikes had confided to her schemes, which had been hidden from all others: in the full confidence that she was trustworthy and beyond the reach of their suspicion. Vile as those schemes were, desperate as were their originators, and bitter as were her feelings towards Fagin, who had led her, step by step, deeper and deeper down into an abyss of crime and misery, whence was no escape; still, there were times when, even towards him, she felt some relenting, lest her disclosure should bring him within the iron grasp he had so long eluded, and he should fall at last—richly as he merited such a fate—by her hand.