“Not a bit of it,” observed Charley.

“He's a rum dog. Don't he look fierce at any strange cove that laughs or sings when he's in company!” pursued the Dodger. “Won't he growl at all, when he hears a fiddle playing! And don't he hate other dogs as ain't of his breed! Oh, no!”

“He's an out-and-out Christian,” said Charley.

This was merely intended as a tribute to the animal's abilities, but it was an appropriate remark in another sense, if Master Bates had only known it; for there are a good many ladies and gentlemen, claiming to be out-and-out Christians, between whom, and Mr. Sikes' dog, there exist strong and singular points of resemblance.

“Well, well,” said the Dodger, recurring to the point from which they had strayed: with that mindfulness of his profession which influenced all his proceedings. “This hasn't got anything to do with young Green here.”

“No more it has,” said Charley. “Why don't you put yourself under Fagin, Oliver?”

“And make your fortun' out of hand?” added the Dodger, with a grin.

“And so be able to retire on your property, and do the gen-teel: as I mean to, in the very next leap-year but four that ever comes, and the forty-second Tuesday in Trinityweek,” said Charley Bates.

“I don't like it,” rejoined Oliver, timidly; “I wish they would let me go. I – I – would rather go.”

“And Fagin would rather not!” rejoined Charley.

Oliver knew this too well; but thinking it might be dangerous to express his feelings more openly, he only sighed, and went on with his boot-cleaning.

“Go!” exclaimed the Dodger. “Why, where's your spirit? Don't you take any pride out of yourself? Would you go and be dependent on your friends?”

“Oh, blow that!” said Master Bates: drawing two or three silk handkerchiefs from his pocket, and tossing them into a cupboard, “that's too mean; that is.”

“I couldn't do it,” said the Dodger, with an air of haughty disgust.

“You can leave your friends, though,” said Oliver with a half smile; “and let them be punished for what you did.”

“That,” rejoined the Dodger, with a wave of his pipe, “That was all out of consideration for Fagin, 'cause the traps know that we work together, and he might have got into trouble if we hadn't made our lucky; that was the move, wasn't it, Charley?”

Master Bates nodded assent, and would have spoken; but the recollection of Oliver's flight came so suddenly upon him, that the smoke he was inhaling got entangled with a laugh, and went up into his head, and down into his throat: and brought on a fit of coughing and stamping, about five minutes long.

“Look here!” said the Dodger, drawing forth a handful of shillings and half-pence. “Here's a jolly life! What's the odds where it comes from? Here, catch hold; there's plenty more where they were took from. You won't, won't you? Oh, you precious flat!”

“It's naughty, ain't it, Oliver?” inquired Charley Bates. “He'll come to be scragged, won't he?”