Ghetto Comedies Part 56

The shudder at the first mention of the _pogrom_ was not so violent as that which followed the mention of bandages. Each man felt warm blood trickling down his limbs. To what end, then, had he escaped the conscription? The landlord at the window wiped the cold beads off his brow, and was surprised to find his hand not scarlet.

'Brethren,' Koski the timber-merchant burst out, 'this is a Haman in disguise. To hold firearms is the surest way of provoking----'

'I don't say _you_ shall hold firearms!' David interrupted. 'It is your young men who must defend the town. But the _Kahal_ (congregation) must pay the expenses--say, ten thousand roubles to start with.'

'Ten thousand roubles for a few pistols!' cried Mendel the horse-dealer. 'It is a swindle.'

David flushed. 'We have to buy three pistols for every one we get safely into the town. But one revolver may save ten thousand roubles of property, not to mention your life.'

'It will end our lives, not save them!' persisted the timber-merchant.

'This is a plot to destroy us!'

A growl of a.s.sent burst from the others.

'My friends,' said David quietly. 'A plot to destroy you has already been hatched; the question is, are you going to be destroyed like rats or like men?'

'Pooh!' said the horse-dealer. 'This is not the first time we have been threatened, if not with death, at least with extra taxes; but we have always sent _Shtadlonim_ (amba.s.sadors). We will make a collection, and the president of the _Kahal_ shall go at once to the Governor, and present it to him'--here Mendel winked--'to enable him to take measures against the _pogrom_.'

'The Governor is in the plot,' said David.

'He can be bought out,' said the timber-merchant.

'_Pogroms_ are more profitable than presents,' rejoined David drily.

'Let us rather prepare bombs.' A fresh shudder traversed the beds and the chairs, and agitated the window-curtain.

'Bombs! Presents!' burst forth the old Rabbi. 'These are G.o.dless instruments. We are in the hands of the Holy One--blessed be He! The _Shomer_ (Guardian) of Israel neither slumbereth nor sleepeth.'

'Neither does the _Shochet_ (slaughterer) of Israel,' said David savagely.

'Hush! Epicurean!' came from every quarter at this grim jest; for the _Shomer_ and the _Shochet_ are the official twain of ritual butchery.

The landlord, seeing how the tide was turning, added, 'Brazen _Marshallik_ (buffoon)!'

'I will appoint a day of fasting and prayer,' concluded the Rabbi solemnly.

A breath of rea.s.surance wafted through the room. 'And I, Rabbi,' said Gutels the grocer, 'will supply the synagogue with candles to equal in length the graves of all your predecessors.'

'May thy strength increase, Gutels!' came the universal grat.i.tude, and the landlord at the window-curtain drew a great sigh of relief.

'Still, gentlemen,' he said, 'if I may intrude my humble opinion--Reb Mendel's advice is also good. G.o.d is, of course, our only protection.

But there can be no harm in getting, _lehavdil_ (not to compare them), the Governor's protection too.'

'True, true.' And the faces grew still cheerier.

'In G.o.d's name, wake up!' David burst forth. 'In _Samooborona_ lies your only salvation. Give the money to us, not to the Governor. We can meet and practise in your Talmud-Torah Hall!'

'The holy hall of study!' gasped the Rabbi. 'Given over to unlawful meetings!'

'The hooligans will meet there, if you don't,' said David grimly.

'Don't you see it is the safest place for us? The police a.s.sociate it only with learned weaklings.'

'Hush, Haman!' said the timber-merchant, and rose to go. David's voice changed to pa.s.sion; memories of things he had seen came over him as in a red mist: an old man scalped with a sharp ladle; a white-hot poker driven through a woman's eye; a baby's skull ground under a True Russian's heel. 'Bourgeois!' he thundered, 'I will save you despite yourselves.' The landlord signalled in a frenzy, but David continued recklessly, 'Will you never learn manli----'

They flung themselves upon him in a panic, and held him hand-gagged and struggling upon the bed.

Suddenly a new figure burst into the room. There was a blood-freezing instant in which all gave themselves up for lost. Their grip on David relaxed. Then the mist cleared, and they saw it was only Ezekiel Leven.

'Blessed art thou who comest!' cried David, jumping to his feet. 'You and I, Ezekiel, will save Milovka.'

'Alas!' Ezekiel groaned. 'I drew a low number--I go to fight for Russia.'

V

Fifteen thousand roubles were soon collected for the Governor, but even before they were presented to him the Rabbi, in mortal terror of that firebrand of a David, had rushed to inquire whether Self-Defence was legal, and might the Talmud-Torah Hall be legitimately used for drilling. Sharp came an order that Jews found with firearms or in conclave for non-religious purposes should be summarily shot. And so, when the _Shtadlonim_ arrived with the fifteen thousand roubles, the Governor was able to point out severely that if a _pogrom_ did occur they would have only themselves to blame. The Jews of Milovka had begun to carry pistols like revolutionaries; they planned illegal a.s.semblies in halls; was it to be wondered at if the League of True Russians grew restive? However, he would do his best with these inadequate roubles to have extra precautions taken, but let them root out the evil weeds that had sprung up in their midst, else even his authority might be overborne by the righteous indignation of the loyal children of the Little Father. Tremblingly the Amba.s.sadors crept back with their empty money-bags.

Poor David now found it impossible to get anybody to a meeting. His landlord had forbidden any more gatherings in the inn, and his original audience would have called as a deputation upon David to beg him to withdraw from the town, but that might have been considered a conspirative meeting. So one of the Amba.s.sadors was sent to inform the landlord instead.

'Don't you think I've already ordered him off my premises?'

'But he is still here!'

'Alas! He threatens to shoot me--or anybody who _ma.s.sers_ (informs),'

said the poor landlord.

The Amba.s.sador shivered.

'As if I would betray a brother-in-Israel!' added the landlord reproachfully.

'No, no--of course not,' said the Amba.s.sador. 'These fellows are best left alone; they wear fuses under their waistcoats instead of _Tsitsith_ (ritual fringes). Let us hope, however, a sudden death may rid us of him.'

'Amen,' said the landlord fervently.

Not that David had any reason for clinging to so squalid a hostel. But his blood was up, and he took a malicious pleasure in inflicting his perilous presence upon his prudential host.

Reduced now to b.u.t.tonholing individuals, he consoled himself with the thought that the population was best tackled by units. One fool or coward was enough to infect or betray a whole gathering.

Still intent on the sinews of war, he sallied out after breakfast, and approached Erbstein the Banker. Erbstein held up his hands. 'But I've just given a thousand roubles to guard us from a _pogrom_!'

'That was for the Governor. Give me only a hundred for Self-Defence.'

The Banker puffed tranquilly at his big cigar. 'But our rights are bound to come in the end. We can only get them gradually. Full rights now are nonsense--impossible. It is bad tactics to ask for what you cannot get. Only in common with Russia can our emanc.i.p.ation----'

'I am not talking of our rights, but of our lives.' David grew impatient.

Being a Banker, Erbstein never listened, though he invariably replied.

His success in finance had made him an authority upon religion and politics.