"I don't know," replied Sikes, clenching his teeth and turning white at the mere suggestion. "I'd do something in the jail that 'ud get me put in irons; and if I was tried along with you, I'd fall upon you with them in the open court, and beat your brains out afore the people. I should have such strength," muttered the robber, poising his brawny arm, "that I could smash your head as if a loaded wagon had gone over it."
"You would?"
"Would I!" said the housebreaker. "Try me."
"If it was Charley, or the Dodger, or Bet, or--"
"I don't care who," replied Sikes impatiently. "Whoever it was, I'd serve them the same."
Fagin looked hard at the robber; and, motioning him to be silent, stooped over the bed upon the floor, and shook the sleeper to rouse him. Sikes leant forward in his chair, looking on with his hands upon his knees, as if wondering much what all this questioning and preparation was to end in.
"Bolter, Bolter! Poor lad!" said Fagin, looking up with an expression of devilish anticipation, and speaking slowly and with marked emphasis. "He's tired--tired with watching for her so long--watching for her, Bill."
"Wot d'ye mean?" asked Sikes, drawing back.
Fagin made no answer, but bending over the sleeper again, hauled him into a sitting posture. When his assumed name had been repeated several times, Noah rubbed his eyes and, giving a heavy yawn, looked sleepily about him.
"Tell me that again--once again, just for him to hear," said the Jew, pointing to Sikes as he spoke.
"Tell yer what?" asked the sleepy Noah, shaking himself pettishly.
"That about--NANCY," said Fagin, clutching Sikes by the wrist, as if to prevent his leaving the house before he had heard enough. "You followed her?"
"Yes."
"To London Bridge?"
"Yes."
"Where she met two people?"
"So she did."
"A gentleman and a lady that she had gone to of her own accord before, who asked her to give up all her pals, and Monks first, which she did--and to describe him, which she did--and to tell her what house it was that we meet at, and go to, which she did--and where it could be best watched from, which she did--and what time the people went there, which she did. She did all this. She told it all every word without a threat, without a murmur--she did--did she not?" cried Fagin, half mad with fury.
"All right," replied Noah, scratching his head. "That's just what it was!"
"What did they say, about last Sunday?"
"About last Sunday!" replied Noah, considering. "Why I told yer that before."
"Again. Tell it again!" cried Fagin, tightening his grasp on Sikes, and brandishing his other hand aloft, as the foam flew from his lips.
"They asked her," said Noah, who, as he grew more wakeful, seemed to have a dawning perception who Sikes was, "they asked her why she didn't come last Sunday as she promised. She said she couldn't."
"Why--why? Tell him that."
"Because she was forcibly kept at home by Bill, the man she had told them of before," replied Noah.
"What more of him?" cried Fagin. "What more of the man she had told them of before? Tell him that, tell him that."
"Why, that she couldn't very easily get out of doors unless he knew where she was going to," said Noah; "and so the first time she went to see the lady, she--ha! ha! ha! it made me laugh when she said it, that it did--she gave him a drink of laudanum."
"Hell's fire!" cried Sikes, breaking fiercely from the Jew. "Let me go!"
Flinging the old man from him, he rushed from the room and darted, wildly and furiously, up the stairs.
"Bill, Bill!" cried Fagin, following him hastily. "A word. Only a word."
The word would not have been exchanged, but that the housebreaker was unable, to open the door, on which he was expending fruitless oaths and violence when the Jew came panting up.
"Let me out," said Sikes. "Don't speak to me; it's not safe. Let me out, say!"
"Hear me speak a word," rejoined Fagin, laying his hand upon the lock. "You won't be--"
"Well," replied the other.
"You won't be--too--violent. Bill?"
The day was breaking, and there was light enough for the men to see each other's faces. They exchanged one brief glance; there was a fire in the eyes of both, which could not be mistaken.
"I mean," said Fagin, showing that he felt all disguise was now useless, "not too violent for safety. Be crafty, Bill, and not too bold."
Sikes made no reply; but, pulling open the door, of which Fagin had turned the lock, dashed into the silent streets.
Without one pause or moment's consideration, without once turning his head to the right or left, or raising his eyes to the sky, or lowering them to the ground, but looking straight before him with savage resolution, his teeth so tightly compressed that the strained jaw seemed starting through his skin, the robber held on his headlong course, nor muttered a word, nor relaxed a muscle, until he reached his own door. He opened it softly with a key, strode lightly up the stairs, and entering his own room, double-locked the door, and lifting a heavy table against it, drew back the curtain of the bed.
The girl was lying, half-dressed, upon it. He had roused her from her sleep, for she raised herself with a hurried and startled look.
"Get up!" said the man.
"It is you, Bill!" said the girl, with an expression of pleasure at his return.
"It is," was the reply. "Get up."
There was a candle burning, but the man hastily drew it from the candlestick, and hurled it under the grate. Seeing the faint light of early day without, the girl rose to undraw the curtain.
"Let it be," said Sikes, thrusting his hand before her. "There's light enough for wot I've got to do."
"Bill," said the girl, in the low voice of alarm, "why do you look like that at me!"
The robber sat regarding her for a few seconds with dilated nostrils and heaving breast, and then, grasping her by the head and throat, dragged her into the middle of the room, and looking once towards the door, placed his heavy hand upon her mouth.
"Bill, Bill!" gasped the girl, wrestling with the strength of mortal fear--"I--I won't scream or cry--not once--hear me--speak to me--tell me what I have done!"
"You know, you she-devil!" returned the robber, suppressing his breath. "You were watched tonight; every word you said was heard."
"Then spare my life for the love of Heaven, as I spared yours," rejoined the girl, clinging to him. "Bill, dear Bill, you cannot have the heart to kill me. Oh! think of all I have given up, only this one night, for you. You shall have time to think, and save yourself this crime; I will not loose my hold, you cannot throw me off. Bill, Bill, for dear God's sake, for your own, for mine, stop before you spill my blood! I have been true to you, upon my guilty soul I have!"
The man struggled violently to release his arms; but those of the girl were clasped round his, and tear her as he would, he could not tear them away.
"Bill," cried the girl, striving to lay her head upon his breast, "the gentleman and that dear lady told me tonight of a home in some foreign country where I could end my days in solitude and peace. Let me see them again, and beg them, on my knees, to show the same mercy and goodness to you; and let us both leave this dreadful place, and far apart lead better lives, and forget how we have lived, except in prayers, and never see each other more. It is never too late to repent. They told me so--I feel it now--but we must have time--a little, little time!"
The housebreaker freed one arm and grasped his pistol. The certainty of immediate detection if he fired, lashed across his mind even in the midst of his fury; and he beat it twice with all the force he could summon, upon the upturned face that almost touched his own.
She staggered and fell, nearly blinded with the blood that rained down from a deep gash in her forehead, but raising her self, with difficulty, on her knees, drew from her bosom a white handkerchief--Rose Maylie's own--and holding it up, in her folded hands, as high towards Heaven as her feeble strength w
ould allow, breathed one prayer for mercy to her Maker.
It was a ghastly figure to look upon. The murderer, stagger ing backward to the wall and shutting out the sight with his hand, seized a heavy club and struck her down.
CHAPTER XLVIII
The flight of Sikes.
OF ALL BAD DEEDS THAT, UNDER COVER OF THE DARKNESS, HAD been committed within wide London's bounds since night hung over it, that was the worst. Of all the horrors that rose with an ill scent upon the morning air, that was the foulest and most cruel.
The sun--the bright sun that brings back, not light alone, but new life, and hope, and freshness to man--burst upon the crowded city in clear and radiant glory. Through costly-coloured glass and paper-mended window, through cathedral dome and rotten crevice, it shed its equal ray. It lighted up the room where the murdered woman lay. It did. He tried to shut it out, but it would stream in. If the sight had been a ghastly one in the dull morning, what was it now, in all that brilliant light!
He had not moved; he had been afraid to stir. There had been a moan and motion of the hand; and, with terror added to rage, he had struck and struck again. Once he threw a rug over it; but it was worse to fancy the eyes and imagine them moving towards him than to see them glaring upward, as if watching the reflection of the pool of gore that quivered and danced in the sunlight on the ceiling. He had plucked it off again. And there was the body--mere flesh and blood, no more--but such flesh, and so much blood!
He struck a light, kindled a fire, and thrust the club into it. There was hair upon the end, which blazed and shrunk into a light cinder and, caught by the air, whirled up the chimney. Even that frightened him, sturdy as he was; but he held the weapon till it broke, and then piled it on the coals to burn away and smoulder into ashes. He washed himself, and rubbed his clothes; there were spots that would not be removed, but he cut the pieces out, and burnt them. How those stains were dispersed about the room! The very feet of the dog were bloody.
All this time he had never once turned his back upon the corpse, no, not for a moment. Such preparations completed, he moved backward towards the door, dragging the dog with him lest he should soil his feet anew and carry out new evidences of the crime into the streets. He shut the door softly, locked it, took the key, and left the house.
He crossed over and glanced up at the window, to be sure that nothing was visible from the outside. There was the curtain still drawn, which she would have opened to admit the light she never saw again. It lay nearly under there. He knew that. God, how the sun poured down upon the very spot!
The glance was instantaneous: It was a relief to have got free of the room. He whistled on the dog, and walked rapidly away.
He went through Islington, strode up the hill at Highgate on which stands the stone in honour of Whittington, turned down to Highgate Hill, unsteady of purpose and uncertain where to go--struck off to the right again almost as soon as he began to descend it, and taking the foot-path across the fields, skirted Caen Wood and so came out on Hampstead Heath. Traversing the hollow by the Vale of Health, he mounted the opposite bank, and crossing the road which joins the villages of Hampstead and Highgate, made along the remaining portion of the heath to the fields at North End, in one of which he laid himself down under a hedge and slept.
Soon he was up again, and away--not far into the country, but back towards London by the high road--then back again--then over another part of the same ground as he already traversed--then wandering up and down in fields, and lying on ditches' brinks to rest, and starting up to make for some other spot, and do the same, and ramble on again.
Where could he go that was near, and not too public, to get some meat and drink? Hendon. That was a good place, not far off, and put of most people's way. Thither he directed his steps--running sometimes, and sometimes, with a strange perversity, loitering at a snail's pace, or stopping altogether and idly breaking the hedges with his stick. But when he got there, all the people he met--the very children at the doors--seemed to view him with suspicion. Back he turned again, without the courage to purchase bit or drop, though he had tasted no food for many hours; and once more he lingered on the Heath, uncertain where to go.
He wandered over miles and miles of ground, and still came back to the old place. Morning and noon had passed, and the day was on the wane, and still he rambled to and fro, and up and down, and round and round, and still lingered about the same spot. At last he got away and shaped his course for Hatfield.
It was nine o'clock at night when the man, quite tired out, and the dog, limping and lame from the unaccustomed exercise, turned down the hill by the church of the quiet village and, plodding along the little street, crept into a small public-house, whose scanty light had guided them to the spot. There was a fire in the tap-room, and some country-labourers were drinking before it. They made room for the stranger; but he sat down in the furthest corner, and ate and drank alone, or rather with his dog, to whom he cast a morsel of food from time to time.
The conversation of the men assembled here, turned upon the neighbouring land, and farmers, and when those topics were exhausted, upon the age of some old man who had been buried on the previous Sunday, the young men present considering him very old and the old men present declaring him to have been quite young--not older, one white-haired grandfather said, than he was--with ten or fifteen year of life in him at least--if he had taken care, if he had taken care.
There was nothing to attract attention or excite alarm in this. The robber, after paying his reckoning, sat silent and unnoticed in his comer, and had almost dropped asleep when he was half wakened by the noisy entrance of a new-comer.
This was an antic fellow, half pedlar and half mountebank, who travelled about the country on foot to vend hones, strops, razors, washballs, harness-paste, medicine for dogs and horses, cheap perfumery, cosmetics, and such-like wares, which he carried in a case slung to his back. His entrance was the signal for various homely jokes with the countrymen, which slackened not until he had made his supper and opened his box of treasurers, when he ingeniously contrived to unite business with amusement.
"And what be that stoof? Good to eat, Harry?" asked a grinning countryman, pointing to some composition cakes in one comer.
"This," said the fellow, producing one, "this is the infallible and invaluable composition for removing all sorts of stain, rust, dirt, mildew, spick, speck, spot, or spatter, from silk, satin, linen, cambric, cloth, crape, stuff, carpet, merino, muslin, bombazeen, or woollen stuff. Wine-stains, fruit-stains, beer-stains, water-stains, pitch-stains, any stains, all come out at one rub with the infallible and invaluable composition. If a lady stains her honour, she has only need to swallow one cake and she's cured at once--for it's poison. If a gentleman wants to prove this, he has only need to bolt one little square and he has put it beyond question--for it's quite as satisfactory as a pistol-bullet and a great deal nastier in the flavour, consequently the more credit in taking it. One penny a square. With all these virtues, one penny a square!"
There were two buyers directly, and more of the listeners plainly hesitated. The vendor, observing this, increased in lo quacity.
"It's all bought up as fast as it can be made," said the fellow. "There are fourteen water-mills, six steam-engines, and a galvanic battery always a-working upon it, and they can't make it fast enough, though the men work so hard that they die off, and the widows is pensioned directly, with twenty pound a-year for each of the children, and a premium of fifty for twins: One penny a square! Two halfpence is all the same, and four farthings is received with joy. One penny a square! Wine-stains, fruit-stains, beer-stains, blood-stains! Here is a stain upon the hat of a gentleman in company, that I'll take clean out before he can order me a pint of ale."
"Hah!" cried Sikes starting up. "Give that back."
"I'll take it clean out, sir," replied the man, winking to the company, "before you can come across the room to get it. Gentlemen all, observe the dark stain upon this gentleman's hat, no wider than a shil
ling, but thicker than a half-crown. Whether it is a wine-stain, fruit-stain, beer-stain, water-stain, paint-stain, pitch-stain, mud-stain, or blood-stain--"
The man got no further, for Sikes with a hideous imprecation overthrew the table, and tearing the hat from him, burst out of the house.
With the same perversity of feeling and irresolution that had fastened upon him despite himself all day, the murderer, finding that he was not followed and that they most probably considered him some drunken sullen fellow, turned back up the town and, getting out of the glare of the lamps of a stage coach that was standing in the street, was walking past when he recognized the mail from London, and saw that it was standing at the little post office. He almost knew what was to come, but he crossed over and listened.
The guard was standing at the door, waiting for the letter-bag. A man, dressed like a gamekeeper, came up at the moment, and he handed him a basket which lay ready on the pavement.
"That's for your people," said the guard. "Now, look alive in there, will you. Damn that 'ere bag, it warn't ready night afore last, this won't do, you know!"
"Anything new up in town, Ben?" asked the gamekeeper, drawing back to the window-shutters, the better to admire the horses.
"No, nothing that I knows on," replied the man, pulling on his gloves. "Corn's up a little. I heerd talk of a murder, too, down Spitalfields way, but I don't reckon much upon it."
"Oh, that's quite true," said a gentleman inside, who was looking our of the window. "And a dreadful murder it was."
"Was it, sir?" rejoined the guard, touching his hat. "Man or woman, pray, sir?"
"A woman," replied the gentleman. "It is supposed--"
"Now, Ben," replied the coachman impatiently.
"Damn that 'ere bag," said the guard; "are you gone to sleep in there?"
"Coming!" cried the office keeper, running out.
"Coming," growled the guard. "Ah, and so's the young 'ooman of property that's going to take a fancy to me, but I don't know when. Here, give hold. All ri--ight!"
The horn sounded a few cheerful notes, and the coach was gone.
Sikes remained standing in the street, apparently unmoved by what he had just heard, and agitated by no stronger feeling than a doubt where to go. At length he went back again, and took the road which leads from Hatfield to St. Albans.