something in this confounded hole.'

Fagin stealthily descended the kitchen stairs. After a short

absence, he returned with a lighted candle, and the intelligence

that Toby Crackit was asleep in the back room below, and that the

boys were in the front one. Beckoning the man to follow him, he

'We can say the few words we've got to say in here, my dear,'

said the Jew, throwing open a door on the first floor; 'and as

there are holes in the shutters, and we never show lights to our