is grasp, and struck him
on the head.

Weak with recent illness, stupefied by the blows and the suddenness of
the attack, terrified by the brutality of the man--who was none other
than Bill Sikes, the roughest of all Fagin's pupils--what could one poor
child do? Darkness had set in; it was a low neighbourhood; resistance
was useless. Sikes and Nancy hurried the boy on between them through
courts and alleys till, once more, he was within the dreadful house
where the Dodger had first brought him. Long after the gas-lamps were
lighted, Mr. Brownlow sat waiting in his parlour. The servant had run up
the street twenty times to see if there were any traces of Oliver. The
housekeeper had waited anxiously at the open door. But no Oliver
returned.

_IV.--Oliver Falls among Friends_

Mr. Bill Sikes having an important house-breaking engagement with his
fellow-robber, Mr. Toby Crackit, at Shepperton, decided that Oliver must
accompany him.

It was a detached house, and the night was dark as pitch when Sikes and
Crackit, dragging Oliver along, climbed the wall and approached a
narrow, shuttered window. In vain Oliver implored them to let him go.

"Listen, you young limb," whispered Sikes, when a crowbar had overcome
the shutter, and the lattice had been opened. "I'm going to put you
through there." Drawing a dark lantern from his pocket, he added, "Take
this light; go softly up the steps straight afore you, and along the
hall to the street door; unfasten it, and let us in."

The boy was put through the window, and Sikes, pointing to the door with
his pistol, told him if he faltered he would shoot him.

Hardly had Oliver advanced a few yards before Sikes called out, "Back!
back!"

Startled, the boy dropped the lantern, uncertain whether to advance or
fly.

The cry was repeated--a light appeared--a vision of two terrified,
half-dressed men at the top of the stairs swam before his eyes--a
flash--a loud noise--and he staggered back.

Sikes got him out of the window before the smoke cleared away, and fired
his pistol after the men, who were already in retreat.

"Clasp your arm tighter," said Sikes. "Give me a shawl here. They've hit
him. Quick! The boy is bleeding."

Then came the loud ringing of a bell, and the shouts of men, and the
sensation of being carried over uneven ground at a rapid pace. And then
the noises grew confused in the distance, and Oliver saw and heard no
more.

Sikes, finding the chase too hot,