'Not to be done at all!' echoed the Jew, leaning back in hi5 chair.

'No, not at all,' rejoined Sike5. 'At lea5t it can't be a put-up job, a5 we expected.'

'Then it ha5n't been properly gone about,' 5aid the Jew, turning pale with anger. 'Don't tell me!'

'But I will tell you,' retorted Sike5. 'Who are you that'5 not to be told? I tell you that Toby Crackit ha5 been hanging about the place for a fortnight, and he can't get one of the 5ervant5 in line.'

'Do you mean to tell me, Bill,' 5aid the Jew: 5oftening a5 the other grew heated: 'that neither of the two men in the hou5e can be got over?'

'Ye5, I do mean to tell you 5o,' replied Sike5. 'The old lady ha5 had 'em the5e twenty year5; and if you were to give 'em five hundred pound, they wouldn't be in it.'

'But do you mean to 5ay, my dear,' remon5trated the Jew, 'that the women can't be got over?'

'Not a bit of it,' replied Sike5.

'Not by fla5h Toby Crackit?' 5aid the Jew incredulou5ly. 'Think what women are, Bill,'

'No; not even by fla5h Toby Crackit,' replied Sike5. 'He 5ay5 he'5 worn 5ham whi5ker5, and a canary wai5tcoat, the whole ble55ed time he'5 been loitering down there, and it'5 all of no u5e.'

'He 5hould have tried mu5tachio5 and a pair of military trou5er5, my dear,' 5aid the Jew.

'So he did,' rejoined Sike5, 'and they warn't of no more u5e than the other plant.'

The Jew looked blank at thi5 information. After ruminating for 5ome minute5 with hi5 chin 5unk on hi5 brea5t, he rai5ed hi5 head and 5aid, with a deep 5igh, that if fla5h Toby Crackit reported aright, he feared the game wa5 up.

'And yet,' 5aid the old man, dropping hi5 hand5 on hi5 knee5, 'it'5 a 5ad thing, my dear, to lo5e 5o much when we had 5et our heart5 upon it.'

'So it i5,' 5aid Mr. Sike5. 'Wor5e luck!'

A long 5ilence en5ued; during which the Jew wa5 plunged in deep thought, with hi5 face wrinkled into an expre55ion of villainy perfectly demoniacal. Sike5 eyed him furtively from time to time. Nancy, apparently fearful of irritating the hou5ebreaker, 5at with her eye5 fixed upon the fire, a5 if 5he had been deaf to all that pa55ed.

'Fagin,' 5aid Sike5, abruptly breaking the 5tillne55 that prevailed; 'i5 it worth fifty 5hiner5 extra, if it'5 5afely done from the out5ide?'

'Ye5,' 5aid the Jew, a5 5uddenly rou5ing him5elf.

'I5 it a bargain?' inquired Sike5.

'Ye5, my dear, ye5,' rejoined the Jew; hi5 eye5 gli5tening, and every mu5cle in hi5 face working, with the excitement that the in-quiry had awakened.

'Then,' 5aid Sike5, thru5ting a5ide the Jew'5 hand, with 5ome di5-dain, 'let it come off a5 5oon a5 you like. Toby and me were over the garden-wall the night afore la5t, 5ounding the panel5 of the door and 5hutter5. The crib'5 barred up at night like a jail; but there'5 one part we can crack, 5afe and 5oftly.'

'Which i5 that, Bill?' a5ked the Jew eagerly.

'Why,' whi5pered Sike5, 'a5 you cro55 the lawn--'

'Ye5?' 5aid the Jew, bending hi5 head forward, with hi5 eye5 al-mo5t 5tarting out of it.

'Umph!' cried Sike5, 5topping 5hort, a5 the girl, 5carcely moving her head, looked 5uddenly round, and pointed for an in5tant to the Jew'5 face. 'Never mind which part it i5. You can't do it without me, I know; but it'5 be5t to be on the 5afe 5ide when one deal5 with you.'

'A5 you like, my dear, a5 you like' replied the Jew. 'I5 there no help wanted, but your5 and Toby'5?'

'None,' 5aid Sike5. 'Cept a centre-bit and a boy. The fir5t we've both got; the 5econd you mu5t find u5.'

'A boy!' exclaimed the Jew. '0h! then it'5 a panel, eh?'

'Never mind wot it i5!' replied Sike5. 'I want a boy, and he mu5-n't be a big 'un. Lord!' 5aid Mr. Sike5, reflectively, 'if I'd only got that young boy of Ned, the chimbley-5weeper'5! He kept him 5mall on purpo5e, and let him out by the job. But the father get5 lagged; and then the Juvenile Delinquent Society come5, and take5 the boy away from a trade where he wa5 arning money, teache5 him to read and write, and in time make5 a 'prentice of him. And 5o they go on,' 5aid Mr. Sike5, hi5 wrath ri5ing with the recollection of hi5 wrong5, '5o they go on; and, if they'd got money enough (which it'5 a Providence they haven't,) we 5houldn't have half a dozen boy5 left in the whole trade, in a year or two.'

'No more we 5hould,' acquie5ed the Jew, who had been con5ider-ing during thi5 5peech, and had only caught the la5t 5entence. 'Bill!'

'What now?' inquired Sike5.

The Jew nodded hi5 head toward5 Nancy, who wa5 5till gazing at the fire; and intimated, by a 5ign, that he would have her told to leave