Chapter 6

In complete silence Jack and Charlie followed obediently behind Max as they crossed London, going down streets they had never heard of before and others that were less familiar but recognisable to the two streetwise boys. It took them about half an hour before Max finally come to a stop outside a dreary yet evidently rich residence. The street was not an overall 'rich' area and the house they stood in front of seemed to be one of the wealthiest if not the richest of the all.

People were scarce and Max was clearly using this to his advantage. He took no time at all to find his way to the back of the house to avoid looking suspicious when somebody did decide to take a stroll down the street.

Safely secluded from prying eyes Max started to unload the picklocking equipment and shoved it into Charlie's hands.

"Do your worst!" Max grinned at Charlie.

Walking up to the door, Charlie's hands shook like crazy, the whole housebreaking idea had suddenly become very real and so had the consequences of such a crime. Desperately trying to get the horrible images out of his head Charlie forced the picklocker into the keyhole and toyed it around until he heard a faint 'click'.

Max must have had exquisite hearing for as soon as the click was heard he had shoved past Charlie and let himself into the deserted toffken. Charlie and Jack took a more cautious entrance into the house.

By the time the two of them had reached the middle of the first room, Max had already bagged a considerable amount of goods. The boys watched him as he worked, curious to his system which at first seemed very odd. He wasn't taking simply everything and anything like they thought he would but certain items from certain places. It did not take a genius to work out that these items were the more valuable ones or ones that could easily be forged as the more valuable of items.

Although they were against the raiding of someone's home, Jack and Charlie did see the benefit of handpicking the loot. This way, at first glance, it didn't look as though a break in had happened, nothing was broken, trashed or moved that wasn't necessary to obtain the desired loot. It also made the getaway much easier, if the house looked untouched it would take longer for the owners to realise they had been robbed.

Uninformed as to which objects would be considered of value or would be easily flogged, Jack and Charlie had no choice but to stand and watch as Max picked up picked up items individually, examined them and then put it in the bag. He seemed so absorbed in his task that the fact he had two new apprentices seemed to have slipped his mind.

So when he finally looked up to find them idly standing around, he quickly thought up something for them to do.

"Go upstairs, the door on your left, go in, under the bed there will be a small box, bring it down here." He commanded them.

Neither hesitated, they didn't need to be told twice, following their orders they went up the stairs and through the door on their left. It was Jack who reached underneath the bed and pulled out the box. Both boys then stared at the box. The act had succeeded in impressing them and at the same time also slightly scaring them, for to be able to be so accurate in the precise location of the small box meant Max had done his research extremely well and it concerned them greatly in how he had managed it. When they put their mind to it, Max must have taken the same amount of researching to know about Fagin and the gang and to know that he would have at least two apprentices by the end of his visit. When put like that it came to a whole new level of threat. This bloke was more cunning and clever than your average housebreaker, having skills which could so easily be used against one of his own kind if he was to so wish.

Bringing the box downstairs, they handed it to Max who promptly put it in the bag with all the other stuff he had piled in. Taking one last look around the room he concluded that their work was complete and so therefore he strode out the room to the back down which they had entered through. Of course his expectancy was that his two apprentice would follow was rightly assumed for they were not willing to spend any more time in this Toffken then they needed to.

Charlie was last out and as he stepped out of the threshold he received a glare from Max. Immediately Charlie fretted over what he had done. Nothing came to mind that could have possibly made him deserve such a stare. His eyes widen in panic as Max's glare stabbed through him.

"Door." Max hissed.

Charlie turned, the door was wide open. He was beginning to get the picture of how this all worked. He closed the door making sure that the lock had fixed in place, as if nothing had happened.

Max gave Charlie a nod of approval before continuing out of the grounds and towards 'home'.

As they trailed Max through the alleyways, Jack was paying close attention to their route, with his streetwise knowledge it didn't not take long to work out that they were taking a different route back to that of what they came by, another way of preventing capture.

"You see boys now you've seen how it's done, follow that technique and you'll never go wrong!" Max said when he felt they were far enough away from the house.

Jack and Charlie nodded to show they had heard and understood, making Max press on for the safety of his den. With Max's fast pace it did not take long at all to reach the den and once again the boys emerged into the darkened rooms.

The first thing that Max did was to hide the contraband away; clearly his new apprentices were not getting their fair share of that bounty.

"See that wasn't so hard now was it?" Max's tone suggested it was more of a statement then a question.

Regrettably both boys shook their heads, it was true it hadn't been hard, in fact they had found it surprisingly easy despite the higher risk factor then their usual job. It had been an interesting change from the same old rounds, the same old job that they had been doing as long as they could recall.

"Good, now be back here for nine tomorrow, I have another Toffken on my list that should be an easy picking, a little harder than this morning's, the old dear never leaves the place."

Repulsed at the idea that they were to rob a reclusive old lady with not even the strength to defend herself, it seriously crossed Jack's mind to refuse to complete his task and proceed to give Max a lecture on the many different ways he considered the act to be wrong but he thought better of it.

Ushered out of the building, Jack and Charlie wandered back home in silence. They let themselves in for it was only a few minutes passed 1 o'clock meaning everyone else was still out on the job.

But of course Fagin was still there counting out the week's takings. He bolted upright on the boys return; no one had seen him grow so tall!

"What are you doing back so early?" he asked with a hint of honest concern buried deep within.

"Max wants us back tomorrow morning so for now we've got the rest of the day off." Jack replied taking his jacket off and slinging on his bed.

"So you better have some of that ale left!" He added heading towards the makeshift kitchen where he knew Fagin had hid it somewhere.

The old man hurried down from his seat and pushed Jack aside, gesturing them both to turn their backs so as not to reveal the hiding place.

"We haven't much left so don't go wasting it all." Fagin warned placing the small barrel on the table.

"We won't." Charlie promised and with that Fagin returned to his counting and left them to their drink.

No reviews for my last chapter, I hope that this one will get some more, pretty please!