Put the sentences in the right order. 1)Sikes, pointing to the street-door with the pistol-barrel, briefly advised him to take notice that he was within shot all the way

1)______ boy decided that, whether he could die or not, he would make ______ effort to run upstairs from ______ hall, and alarm ______ family.

2) ______ kitchen was ______ old low-roofed room.

3) Oliver could eat nothing but ______ small crust of bread which they made him swallow.

4) Sikes pointed to ______ street-door with ______ pistol-barrel.

5) Oliver drew ______ stool towards ______ fire.

Complete the sentences.

1)He was about to throw himself on the ground and make one struggle for his young life when …

2) Oliver hastily swallowed the contents of the glass, and …

3) Sikes caught Oliver under the arms, and …

4) And now, for the first time, Oliver, mad with grief and terror, saw that …

5) The window was so small that the inmates …

What do you think?

1)Why did Sikes address Oliver as Ned?

2) Why didn't Oliver say to the driver of the cart that Bill Sikes was a robber?

3) Why do you think Oliver didn't try to run away from Bill Sikes and Toby Crackit when they were going to the house?

4) Why did Oliver ask Sikes to let him run away and die in the fields?

5) Why did Oliver decide to alarm the family?

CHAPTER 12

A Mysterious Character Appears upon the Scene

Mr. Fagin was brooding over a smoky fire when Toby Crackit entered the room. He was tired and unwashed.

'What!' cried the old man, 'alone?'

'Don't look at me that way, man. All in good time. I can't talk about business till I have something to eat and drink.'

Fagin put some food on the table and, seating himself opposite the housebreaker, watched him. Mr. Crackit was not in a hurry to open the conversation. Toby continued to eat with the utmost indifference,until he could eat no more. Then he mixed a glass of spirits and water.

'Where are they? Sikes and the boy! Where are they?' cried Fagin, stamping furiously on the ground. 'Where have they been? Where are they hiding? Why have they not been here?'

'The crackfailed,' said Toby faintly.

'I know it,' replied Fagin, tearing a newspaper from his pocket and pointing to it. 'What more?'

'They fired and hit the boy. The whole country was awake.'

'Where is the boy? The boy!'

'Bill had him on his back. Then we stopped to take him between us; his head hung down, and he was cold. They were close upon our heels, and we left the boy lying in a ditch. Alive or dead, that's all I know about him.'

The old man uttered a yell and rushed from the room, and from the house. First he walked very fast but then fell into his usual shuffling paceand seemed to breathe more freely. In some time he reached a narrow alley.

In its filthy shops were exposed for sale huge bunches of second-hand silk handkerchiefs of all sizes; for there resided the traders who purchased them from pickpockets.

It was into this place that Fagin turned.  'The Three Cripples',or rather 'The Cripples', which was the sign by which the establishment was well known to everybody in the neighbourhood: was a public-house. Fagin walked straight upstairs. The room was illuminated by two gas-lights; and the place was full of dense tobacco smoke.

Fagin looked from face to face and at last he caught the eye of the man he was looking for. Fagin made a sign and left the room, as quietly as he entered it.

'What can I do for you, Mr. Fagin?' inquired the man, as he followed him out to the landing. 'Won't you join us? They'll be delighted, every one of them.'

The old man shook his head impatiently, and said in a whisper, 'Is he here?'

'No,' replied the man.

'Will he be here to-night?' asked Fagin.

'Monks, do you mean?' inquired the man, hesitating.

'Hush!' said Fagin. 'Yes.'

'Yes,' replied the man, drawing a gold watch from his pocket. 'If you wait ten minutes, he'll be -'

'No, no,' said the old man, hastily. 'Tell him I came here to see him; and that he must come to me to-night.'

'Good!' said the man. 'Nothing more?'

'Not a word,' said Fagin, descending the stairs.

Fagin called a coach. He dismissedit within some quarter of a mile of Mr. Sikes's residence, and performed the short remainder of the distance on foot.

'Now,' muttered the old man, as he knocked at the door, 'if there is any deep play here, I shall have it out of you, my girl, cunning as you are.'

She was in her room, the woman said. Fagin crept softly upstairs, and entered it without any previous ceremony. Nancy was alone; lying with her head upon the table.

'She was drinking,' thought Fagin, coolly. He came up to the girl and woke her up. Then he told her Toby Crackit's story. The girl eyed his face but spoke not a word.

'Nancy, dear, and where do you think Bill is now? And the boy, too,' said Fagin, looking straight into her eyes. 'Poor little child! Left in a ditch, Nancy; only think!'

'The child,' said the girl, suddenly looking up, 'is better where he is, than among us.'

'What!' cried Fagin in amazement.

'I shall be glad to have him away from my eyes, and to know that the worst is over. I can't bear to have him about me. The sight of him turns me against myself, and all of you. And what is that boy for you?'

'What is the boy for me?' cried Fagin, mad with rage. 'When the boy's worth hundreds of pounds to me —'

The old man stammeredfor a word and in that instant changed the theme of their conversation. 'Regardingthis boy, my dear?' said the old man, rubbing the palms of his hands nervously together.

'The boy must take his chance with the rest,' interrupted Nancy, hastily; 'and I say again, I hope he is dead, and out of harm's way, and out of yours.'

'And about what I was saying, my dear?' observed Fagin, keeping his glistening eye steadily upon her.

'You must say it all over again if it's anything you want me to do,' rejoined Nancy; 'and if it is, you had better wait till to-morrow. You woke me up for a minute; but now I'm stupid again.'

He put several other questions, but she didn't answer them. His original impression that she was more than a trifle in liquorwas confirmed.

Fagin saw with his own eyes that Sikes did not return and he again turned his face homeward: leaving his young friend asleep, with her head upon the table.

He reached the corner of his own street, and was already fumbling in his pocket for the door-key, when a dark figure emerged from an entrance which lay in deep shadow, and, crossing the road, glided up to him.

'Fagin!' whispered a voice close to his ear. 'I'm waiting for you! Where the devil have you been?'

'On your business, my dear Monks,' replied the old man, glancing uneasily at his companion. 'On your business all night.'

'Oh, of course!' said the stranger, with a sneer. 'Well; and what's come of it?'

'Nothing good,' said Fagin.

'Nothing bad, I hope?' said the stranger, stopping short, and turning a startled look on his companion.

The old man unlocked the door.

'It's as dark as the grave,' said the man, groping forward a few steps. 'Make haste!'

After a short absence Fagin returned with a lighted candle and said that Toby Crackit was asleep in the back room below, and that the boys were in the front one. Then he went upstairs, and Monks followed him.

'We can say the few words we've got to say in here, my dear,' said the old man, throwing open a door on the first floor; 'and as there are holes in the shutters, and we never show lights to our neighbours, we'll set the candle on the stairs. There!' With those words he placed the candle on an upper flight of stairs, exactly opposite to the room door.

'I tell you again, it was badly planned,' said Monks. 'Why not to keep the boy here among the rest, and make a real pickpocket of him at once? Haven't you done it with other boys scoresof times?'

'Whose turn would that serve, my dear?' inquired the Jew humbly.

'Mine,' replied Monks.

'But not mine,' said Fagin. 'He may be of some use to me. When there are two parties to a bargain,it is only reasonable that the interests of both should be observed, is it, my good friend?'

'What then?' demanded Monks.

'I saw it was not easy to train him to the business,' replied the old man; 'he was not like other boys in the same circumstances.I had nothing to frighten him with; which we always must have in the beginning, or we labour in vain. What could I do? Send him out with the Dodger and Charley? We had enough of that, at first, my dear; I trembled for us all.'

'That was not my doing,' observed Monks.

'No, no, my dear!' continued Fagin. 'Well! I got him back for you by means of the girl; and then she begins to favour him.'

'Throttle the girl!' said Monks, impatiently.

'Why, we can't do that just now, my dear,' replied the old man, smiling; 'and, besides, that sort of thing is not in our way. I know what these girls are, Monks, well. As soon as the boy begins to harden, she'll care no more for him, than for a block of wood. You want me to make him a thief. If he is alive, I can make him one, but if the worst comes to the worst, and he is dead —'

'It's no fault of mine if he is!' replied the other man, with a look of terror, and clasping Fagin's arm with trembling hands. 'Mind that, Fagin! I had no hand in it. Anything

 but his death, I told you from the first. It's always found out, and hauntsa man besides. If they shot him dead, I was not the cause; do you hear me? What's that?'

'What!' cried Fagin, grasping Monks with both arms, as^he sprung to his feet. 'Where?'

'Yonder!' replied the man, glaring at the opposite wall. 'The shadow! I saw the shadow of a woman, in a cloak and bonnet!'

The old man released his hold, and they rushed from the room. The candle was standing where it had been placed. It showed them only the empty staircase, and their own white faces.

'Nobody,' said Fagin, taking up the light and turning to his companion.

'I'll swear I saw it!' replied Monks, trembling.

They looked into all the rooms; they were cold, bare, and empty. They descended into the passage and into the cellar below.

'What do you think now?' said the old man. 'Besides ourselves, there's not a creature in the house except Toby and the boys; and they're safe enough. See here!'

Mr. Monks confessedit could only be his excited imagination.

It was some minutes past one when the two men parted.

Helpful Words & Notes

indifferencen — безразличие crackn — зд. грабеж со взломом

shuffling pace— шаркающая походка

'The Three Cripples'— «Три Калеки»; название пивного заведения

dismissv — отпускать

stammerv — произносить с запинкой

regardv — высоко ценить, уважать

she was more than a trifle in liquor— она была более чем навеселе

Where the devil have you been?— Черт побери, где вы были?

scoren — два десятка

bargainn — сделка

circumstancesn pl — обстоятельства

hauntn — преследовать, не давать покоя (в мыслях)

confessv — признаваться, сознаваться

Activities

Answer the questions.

1)What did Toby Crackit look like?

2) What did he say to Fagin?

3) What did the robbers do with Oliver?

4) Where did Fagin go?

5) What did Fagin speak with the man about?

6) What did Nancy say about Oliver?

7) Who was waiting for Fagin near his house?

8) What did the two men speak about?

9) What did Monks want Fagin to do?

10) What did Monks see all of a sudden?

11) What did the two men do?

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