r now to be in London, Monks was afraid that by some accident he
might yet find out what a fortune had been willed him. If he could only
make Oliver dishonest, Monks reflected, half their father's fortune
would become his own. With this thought in mind he had gone to Fagin
and had made him his offer of money to make the boy a thief.

Fagin, of course, had agreed, and now, to find his victim was out of his
power made the Jew grind his teeth with rage.

All these things made Fagin determined to gain possession of Oliver
again, and to do this he got the help of two others--a young woman named
Nancy and her lover, a brutal robber named Bill Sikes. These two
discovered that Oliver was at Mr. Brownlow's house, and lay in wait to
kidnap him if he ever came out.

The chance they waited for occurred before many days. Mr. Brownlow sent
Oliver to take some money to the very book-stall in front of which the
Artful Dodger had stolen the handkerchief, and Oliver went without
dreaming of any danger.

Suddenly a young woman in a cap and apron screamed out behind him very
loudly: "Oh, my dear little brother!" and threw her arms tight around
him. "Oh, my gracious, I've found him!" she cried. "Come home directly,
you naughty boy! For shame, to treat your poor mother so!"

Oliver struggled, but to no purpose. Nancy (for it was she) told the
people that crowded about them that it was her little brother, who had
run away from home and nearly broken his mother's heart, and that she
wanted to take him back.

Oliver insisted that he didn't know her at all and hadn't any sister,
but just then Bill Sikes appeared (as he had planned) and said the young
woman was telling the truth and that Oliver was a little rascal and a
liar. The people were all convinced at this, and when Sikes struck
Oliver and seized him by the collar they said, "Serves him right!" And
so Oliver found himself dragged away from Mr. Brownlow to the filthy
house where lived Fagin.

The wily old Jew was overjoyed to see them. He smiled such a fiendish
smile that Oliver screamed for help as loud as he could, and at this
Fagin picked up a great jagged club to beat him with.

Now, Nancy had been very wicked all her life, but in spite of this there
was a little good in her. She had already begun to repent having helped
steal the boy, and now his plight touched her heart. She seized the club
and threw it into the fire, and so saved him the beating for that time.

For many day