Chapter XLV

Oliver Twist

by Charles Dickens

Noah Claypole is Employed by Fagin On a Secret Mission

The old man was up, betimes, next morning, and waited
impatiently for the appearance of his new associate, who after a
delay that seemed interminable, at length presented himself, and
commenced a voracious assault on the breakfast.

'Bolter,' said Fagin, drawing up a chair and seating himself
opposite Morris Bolter.

'Well, here I am,' returned Noah. 'What's the matter? Don't
yer ask me to do anything till I have done eating. That's a great
fault in this place. Yer never get time enough over yer meals.'

'You can talk as you eat, can't you?' said Fagin, cursing his
dear young friend's greediness from the very bottom of his heart.

'Oh yes, I can talk. I get on better when I talk,' said Noah,
cutting a monstrous slice of bread. 'Where's Charlotte?'

'Out,' said Fagin. 'I sent her out this morning with the other
young woman, because I wanted us to be alone.'

'Oh!' said Noah. 'I wish yer'd ordered her to make some
buttered toast first. Well. Talk away. Yer won't interrupt me.'

There seemed, indeed, no great fear of anything interrupting
him, as he had evidently sat down with a determination to do a great
deal of business.

'You did well yesterday, my dear,' said Fagin. 'Beautiful! Six
shillings and ninepence halfpenny on the very first day! The kinchin
lay will be a fortune to you.'

'Don't you forget to add three pint-pots and a milk-can,' said
Mr. Bolter.

'No, no, my dear. The pint-pots were great strokes of genius:
but the milk-can was a perfect masterpiece.'

'Pretty well, I think, for a beginner,' remarked Mr. Bolter
complacently. 'The pots I took off airy railings, and the milk-can
was standing by itself outside a public-house. I thought it might
get rusty with the rain, or catch cold, yer know. Eh? Ha! ha!
ha!'

Fagin affected to laugh very heartily; and Mr. Bolter having had
his laugh out, took a series of large bites, which finished his first
hunk of bread and butter, and assisted himself to a second.

'I want you, Bolter,' said Fagin, leaning over the table, 'to do
a piece of work for me, my dear, that needs great care and
caution.'

'I say,' rejoined Bolter, 'don't yer go shoving me into danger,
or sending me any more o' yer police-offices. That don't suit me,
that don't; and so I tell yer.'

'That's not the smallest danger in it--not the very smallest,'
said the Jew; 'it's only to dodge a woman.'

'An old woman?' demanded Mr. Bolter.

'A young one,' replied Fagin.

'I can do that pretty well, I know,' said Bolter. 'I was a
regular cunning sneak when I was at school. What am I to dodge her
for? Not to--'

'Not to do anything, but to tell me where she goes, who she
sees, and, if possible, what she says; to remember the street, if it
is a street, or the house, if it is a house; and to bring me back all
the information you can.'

'What'll yer give me?' asked Noah, setting down his cup, and
looking his employer, eagerly, in the face.

'If you do it well, a pound, my dear. One pound,' said Fagin,
wishing to interest him in the scent as much as possible. 'And
that's what I never gave yet, for any job of work where there wasn't
valuable consideration to be gained.'

'Who is she?' inquired Noah.

'One of us.'

'Oh Lor!' cried Noah, curling up his nose. 'Yer doubtful of
her, are yer?'

'She had found out some new friends, my dear, and I must know
who they are,' replied Fagin.

'I see,' said Noah. 'Just to have the pleasure of knowing them,
if they're respectable people, eh? Ha! ha! ha! I'm your man.'

'I knew you would be,' cried Fagin, eleated by the success of
his proposal.

'Of course, of course,' replied Noah. 'Where is she? Where am I
to wait for her? Where am I to go?'

'All that, my dear, you shall hear from me. I'll point her out
at the proper time,' said Fagin. 'You keep ready, and leave the rest
to me.'

That night, and the next, and the next again, the spy sat booted
and equipped in his carter's dress: ready to turn out at a word from
Fagin. Six nights passed--six long weary nights--and on each, Fagin
came home with a disappointed face, and briefly intimated that it was
not yet time. On the seventh, he returned earlier, and with an
exultation he could not conceal. It was Sunday.

'She goes abroad to-night,' said Fagin, 'and on the right
errand, I'm sure; for she has been alone all day, and the man she is
afraid of will not be back much before daybreak. Come with me.
Quick!'

Noah started up without saying a word; for the Jew was in a
state of such intense excitement that it infected him. They left the
house stealthily, and hurrying through a labyrinth of streets,
arrived at length before a public-house, which Noah recognised as the
same in which he had slept, on the night of his arrival in London.

It was past eleven o'clock, and the door was closed. It opened
softly on its hinges as Fagin gave a low whistle. They entered,
without noise; and the door was closed behind them.

Scarcely venturing to whisper, but substituting dumb show for
words, Fagin, and the young Jew who had admitted them, pointed out
the pane of glass to Noah, and signed to him to climb up and observe
the person in the adjoining room.

'Is that the woman?' he asked, scarcely above his breath.

Fagin nodded yes.

'I can't see her face well,' whispered Noah. 'She is looking
down, and the candle is behind her.

'Stay there,' whispered Fagin. He signed to Barney, who
withdrew. In an instant, the lad entered the room adjoining, and,
under pretence of snuffing the candle, moved it in the required
position, and, speaking to the girl, caused her to raise her face.

'I see her now,' cried the spy.

'Plainly?'

'I should know her among a thousand.'

He hastily descended, as the room-door opened, and the girl came
out. Fagin drew him behind a small partition which was curtained
off, and they held their breaths as she passed within a few feet of
their place of concealment, and emerged by the door at which they had
entered.

'Hist!' cried the lad who held the door. 'Dow.'

Noah exchanged a look with Fagin, and darted out.

'To the left,' whispered the lad; 'take the left had, and keep
od the other side.'

He did so; and, by the light of the lamps, saw the girl's
retreating figure, already at some distance before him. He advanced
as near as he considered prudent, and kept on the opposite side of
the street, the better to observe her motions. She looked nervously
round, twice or thrice, and once stopped to let two men who were
following close behind her, pass on. She seemed to gather courage as
she advanced, and to walk with a steadier and firmer step. The spy
preserved the same relative distance between them, and followed:
with his eye upon her.