Adventure, February 20, 1922 — page 47: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

The Seventeen Thieves of El-Kalil simple, although it has a way of seeming subtly baffling to the onlooker. It would be absurd to pretend that I, or any one but Grim himself, saw until after- ward the thin thread of principle he fol- lowed to the final solution. But you can see it now. He established a clear issue. Without once showing his own hand, he pinned the Moslems down to a definite claim against the Jews. All that remained after that was to get the Jews to pay the claim. - Even a fanat- ically angry mob that receives what it demands needs time in which to formulate a new cause; and time meant the arrival of Sikhs and their machine guns. But the Jews of Hebron are a cagey, self- reliant and suspicious crew. Any one who had survived among Moslems under Turk- ish rule in that place would have to be. They no more trusted Grim and de Cres- pigny than Aaron Cohen, whom they des- pised as a renegade; and to get them to see the point and play Grim’s game until troops should come was about as easy as getting Scottish Highlanders to invest in foreign loans. The crowd dispersed sulkily, shepherded by the lone policeman gamely parading his authority, and leaving the Rabbi and his friends in the Governorate, where they crowded the hall full and noisily abused de Crespigny for having permitted their Chief Rabbi to be outraged. They seemed to _ think, or pretended to think that the whole - affair was his sole fault, and that he could restore order in a minute if he chose to. We went and fetched Cohen from the hospital and thrust our way through their midst into the sitting-room, where Grim sent for the Rabbi at once. He refused to come in alone, but brought three {iends with him, so we made a party of eight, facing one another across the table; and the din in the hall was so prodigious that who- ever spoke had to bellow in order to be heard. Have you ever noticed how the need to shout at a man makes for rising temper? There was not much love lost at that session. The Rabbi began by refusing point- blank to have anything to do with the fire- gift. He consulted his friends in Spanish, which none of us could understand and they agreed with him. You would have thought we were asking for a loan of money on poor . ‘ h . “ ~ + r - | - i os “. if - as ~~ ~~ =e y - ~ se? - 2 ee et ss —_—— a SS Se hee eS eee Lo 7 : pe aa ie 45 security to see the look of scandalized dis- approval on their faces. _ Asked by de Crespigny why he should refuse to countenance a plan that had been ~ devised for the safety of himself and his people, the Rabbi answered that he had nothing to do with politics and refused to interfere. “Suppose we were to refuse to interfere ~ and just let you get massacred?” de Cres- pigny retorted. “But that is your business!” said the . Rabbi. “You are the governor. You re- ceive a salary to keep the peace. I am Rabbi, not governor!” “Have you any alternative suggestion?” de Crespigny asked him. “Give us rifles! We will defend our- selves.”’ “In the first place,’ said de Crespigny, “T haven’t them.” | The Rabbi looked utterly incredulous. “‘There’s one each here for the police and the jailer, two or three revolvers and 4 pistol. That’s all. There’s hardly any ammunition. What other suggestion can you make?” Grim was sitting back watching faces. | I don’t know whether he had a solution in mind or not; it looked like an impasse. The Rabbi turned and talked in Spanish with . his friends. “It is your business,” he said at last in Arabic. ‘We are not able to do anything. If we are attacked, we shall defend our- selves to the last. If you wish to prevent a massacre you should send for Sikhs.” “There’s no knowing when the Sikhs can get here,” said de Crespigny. ‘‘You’re ‘asked to help us gain time by pretending to return that fire-gift to the tomb of Abraham. Surely that’s not much?” “Ah! It will be said afterward that we took liberties with the Moslem religion. It will only be a further excuse for a massacre.” We must have made a strange picture arguing the point over that table with its near-art cover and the flowers between us crammed into two brass cartridge cases that the Germans had left behind. De Cres- pigny and Cohen were the only men in modern costume. The Rabbi and _ his friends were dressed pretty much as the Pharisees were in Bible days, and bearded in keeping with it. Their faces wore the ivory pallor that comes of ghetto life, and were blanched beneath it with fear that has _ dint # . v vs 7 @ré ee j ie