The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-11-22

US DON DT IhE COLLAR AND KAN Tearing her hair in mysteries. she made rush at Fagin, and would sure ly have left signal marks on the cow aring wretch if her wrists had not been seized by Sfkes. on which she made a few intellectual struggles and tainted. oliver was kept q close prisoner for many weeks. At last one night ne was awakened to find Fagin and Bill sikes hanging over hiul He was told to dress and come to the table, There. In the light of a taliow dip, Sikes showed him a pistol. and. putting it suddenly to his temple. gTowled: Nov you're a-going out with me. And if you speak word without my leave that load will be in your head without noticel"
 Taking the trembling boy by the hand. Sixes strode forth into the stormy night, They walked smartiy out of London until day came, when they entered a public house and stayed there till dark, Then they made their way to Q deserted house, where they found a gentleman whom Sikes ad- dressed at Toby Craclyit
 After a few hours spent in drinking and slumber the two filled their pockets with weapons and ordered Oliver to come. They went straight to a coun-
 
 As they were climbing the wall, oliver, who realized now what they were going to do. fell on his knees and clasped his hands, begging the men to let him go.
 With q curse slkes cooked his pistol. but Craciit said, sHushi I've seen older hands than him took the same way the first time" sikes swearing frightfully, dragged the boy to the house. Wielding his erowhar viEor- ously but noiseIessly, be soon man. aged to open a small lattice window just large enough for a dimtnutive boy to crawl through.
 SilSes told him in a whisper that he would be lifted in at the window and that he was to so straight to the front door and unlock it. You're in range of my shot all the. wayl' said he. %If you so much as stop second, youIl fall dead that seeond."
 The next instant Oliver was swung through the window and lowered by the cuilar to the floor inside. With his legs trembling under him, he advanced, but almost insensible from terror th ough he was; he was determined not to open the door to the househreakers, but to make an effort to dart up stairs and alarm the inmates.
 Come back! Back!" cried Sikes aloud before Oliver had gone ten feet. There came a flash, a loud noise, and he fell to the floor.
 Once more fate, that seemed on the point of abandoning him, had turned in his favor. The house which Sikes and Crackit had attempted to rob was in- habtted- by two women whoss sympa-. thy was enlisted the moment they saw the boa; ana when. Oliver recovered frons his wound sufficiently to tell his story, they decided to keep and edu-l cate him. ~ 8F2f
 Oiiver,s new friends were Mrs. Mayiie. a wealthy old lady, and her companion. Rose. who passed for her niece, Rose was little moro than IT, cast in a slight and exquisite mold and with a face as beautiful as it was pure and good. She became a great friend of Oliver and in the months of peace and simple quiet that followed she became his teacher as well as his friend, till he loved the very ground that she trod.
 As soon as Oliver was able to speak, he begged them to write to Mir. Brown low. but that gentleman had gone abroad. That this his first benefactor should be left to believe him dish onest was the one sorrow that the lad felt now.
 When sikes and crackit returned without the boy Fagin's rage was so
 great that the housebreakers looked at him in bewiIderment, They per- ceived that he had stronger reason for wanting the lad than merely his pretended fear that he would betray them. Of that indeed there was little danger for Olivers protectors could not set the police on the tracks of his enemies without rendering him liable to, arrest and examination as to his share in the burglary.
 One night while Nancy was in the house alone Fagin entered quietly with a tall dark-faced haggard man whose eyes were deeply sunken and whose dis sipated face was withered and worn like that of an old man though he was evidently not more than 25 or 26.
 The two men went into a room at the top of the house and Nancy followed them silently. They talked a long while and when they were done Nancy had learned something that awoke anew in her the one last poor rem nant of better feeling that had hared up when she rescued Oliver from the beating. Degraded, lost. miserable this melancholy shade of life stiIl had in her distorted soul a touch of what God plants in all his creatures.
 Late that night she appeared at the hotel where the MayIies were lodging and asked for Miss Rose Maylie. Hur- riedly she explained that she had heard AARE AletlAAC anu aANA NSS tAtSAANASAC0 LAdE night, and then she went on wildly to tell her story.
 The dark man who had conferred with Fagin, she said. was a man who passed under the name of Monks. Un- til that night she had not known what his business with Fagin was. Her cu- riosity had led her to strange dis covery.
 Monks had referred to Oliver Twist as his brother, and he and Fa- gin had discussed the failure of their plans to make a thief of him. which Monks, for some reason, seemed bent on accomplishing. It appeared from his ally when he was taken to the police onice, and struck by his resemblance to his father. had traced him back to the woFkhouse.