“I’ve thought of it all,” said the Jew with energy. “I’ve—I’ve had my eye upon him, my dears, close—close. Once let him feel that he is one of us; once fill his mind with the idea that he has been a thief, and he’s ours,—ours for his life! Oho! It couldn’t have come about better!” The old man crossed his arms upon his breast, and, drawing his head and shoulders into a heap, literally hugged himself for joy. “Ours!” said Sikes. “Yours, you mean.” “Perhaps I do, my dear,” said the Jew with a shrill chuckle. “Mine, if you like, Bill.” “And wot,” said Sikes, scowling fiercely on his agreeable friend,—“wot makes you take so much pains about one chalk-faced kid, when you know there are fifty boys snoozing about Common Garden every night, as you might pick and choose from?” “Because they’re of no use to me, my dear,” replied the Jew with some confusion, “not worth the taking; for their looks convict ’em when they get into trouble, and I lose ’em all. With this boy properly managed, my dears, I could do what I couldn’t with twenty of them. Besides,” said the Jew, recovering his self-possession, “he has us now if he could only give us leg-bail again; and he _must_ be in the same boat with us. Never mind how he came there, it’s quite enough for my power over him that he was in a robbery, that’s all I want. Now how much better this is than being obliged to put the poor leetle boy out of the way, which would be dangerous, and we should lose by it besides.” “When is it to be done?” asked Nancy, stopping some turbulent exclamation on the part of Mr. Sikes, expressive of the disgust with which he received Fagin’s affectation of humanity. “Ah, to be sure,” said the Jew, “when is it to be done, Bill?” “I planned with Toby, the night arter to-morrow,” rejoined Sikes in a surly voice, “if he heard nothing from me to the contrairy.” “Good,” said the Jew; “there’s no moon.” “No,” rejoined Sikes. “It’s all arranged about bringing off the swag,[A] is it?” asked the Jew. Sikes nodded. “And about——” “Oh, ah, it’s all planned,” rejoined Sikes, interrupting him; “never mind particulars. You’d better bring the boy here to-morrow night; I shall get off the stones an hour arter day-break. Then you hold your tongue, and keep the melting-pot ready, and that’s all you’ll have to do.”