Oliver Twist: Chapter 26 Summary & Analysis

Fagin begins slackening his pace, however, and regaining his cool as he enters a small market neighborhood not too far from his apartment; he stops and talks to a trader of stolen merchandise, who knows Fagin in a business capacity, named Lively. Fagin asks Lively if anyone is at the Three Cripples, a nearby pub and hangout for local criminals; Lively says he doesn't know, nor does he know (as Fagin follows up by asking) if Sikes is present at that pub, in particular. Lively says he'll join Fagin for a drink there, but Fagin waves him away, and proceeds to the pub on his own.

Fagin walks into the smoky pub, filled as it is with criminals whom Fagin recognizes. Fagin speaks to a man the narrator refers to as the chairmen, and asks him whether he (the chairman) has seen Barney or Sikes that night. He also asks the chairman, who is the landlord of the establishment, whether a man named Monks will be at the pub that evening. The chairmen replies that none of the men are present. Fagin asks the chairmen to tell Monks to visit Fagin the next day.

Satisfied with this intelligence received at the Three Cripples, Fagin finds a hack-cab on the street and takes it to near Nancy's and Sikes' apartment. He gets out of the cab and vows to get more information out of Nancy, whom he believes to be there. He knocks on the door and is let in by Nancy. Fagin sees no evidence of Sikes in the apartment.

Fagin asks Nancy where Sikes and Oliver are; Nancy replies that she doesn't know, and she exclaims (coincidentally), that if Oliver is lying dead in a ditch somewhere, he is better dead than under Fagin's and Sikes' control. Fagin tells Nancy to be quiet, since she is obviously inebriated and distraught. Fagin tells Nancy, further, that if Sikes comes back to the apartment without the boy, Nancy should kill Sikes, and Fagin will protect her—the boy is worth a good deal to Fagin, and Fagin cannot allow Sikes to live after having taken so little care of Oliver during the botched robbery. Nancy is shocked that Fagin would turn on Sikes so quickly, and she defends Sikes. She does not promise Fagin anything.

Fagin leaves Nancy, drunk, in the apartment, and is satisfied, since he has informed Nancy that Sikes has left Oliver (believing he can gain more control of Nancy if she knows that Sikes cares nothing for the boy), and has confirmed that Sikes is not in the apartment. On his way back to his own abode, Fagin runs into a man who has been waiting for him on the street.

The man is Monks, whom Fagin had been seeking out. Fagin takes him into a spare room on a lower floor of the tenement building. There the men converse in low voices (the narrator does not describe their exact conversation), but then the narrator reveals that Monks is chastising Fagin for placing Oliver so quickly into harm's way, and for not raising Oliver in the craft of pickpocketing, which, after a while, would have paid Fagin a good deal of money, and after which Fagin could have simply sent Oliver far away.

It appears that Monks has a mysterious vested interest in Oliver, and, especially, in Oliver being sent away, but he does not elaborate on what this interest might be. Monks claims, further, that he does not want Oliver killed, as Oliver's death would somehow get back to Monks, and Monks wishes to avoid all penalty regarding Oliver's disappearance. Fagin explains to Monks that Nancy has taken a liking to Oliver, but Fagin appears to believe that, if Oliver survives the robbery and becomes a hardened criminal, Nancy will no longer pity him.

Monks, paranoid that someone has heard them speak, tells Fagin they must search the dark abandoned rooms of the tenement for intruders, but after this is done, and no one is found, Monks take his leave of Fagin at around one in the morning, and Fagin returns to his own apartment.