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‘Ha! ha! ha! How do you know I’m not married?’

‘Married men don’t go shooting so lightheartedly. Come, let me take you in hand; my commission is a very small percentage of the dowry.’

‘Ah, so you’re a regular Shadchan‘ (marriage-broker).

‘And how else should I live? Do you think I get fat on this inn? But people stay here from all towns around; I get to know a great circle of marriageable parties. I can show you a much larger stock than the ordinary Shadchan.’

‘But I am so link‘ (irreligious).

‘Nu! Let your ear-locks grow–the dowry grows with them.’ Mine host had quite recovered his greasy familiarity.

‘I can’t wait for my locks to grow,’ said David, with a sudden thought. ‘But if you care to introduce me to Tinowitz, you will not fail to profit by it, if the thing turns out well.’

The landlord rubbed his hands. ‘Now you speak like a sage.’

III

Tinowitz read the landlord’s Hebrew note, and surveyed the suitor disapprovingly. And disapproval did not improve his face–a face in whose grotesque features David read a possible explanation of his surplus stock of daughters.

‘I cannot say I am very taken with you,’ the corn-factor said. ‘Nor is it possible to give you my youngest daughter. I have other plans. Even the eldest—-‘

David waved his hand. ‘I told my landlord as much. Am I a Talmud-sage that I should thus aspire? Forgive and forget my Chutzpah (impudence)!’

‘But the eldest–perhaps–with a smaller dowry—-‘

‘To tell the truth, Panie Tinowitz, it was the landlord who turned my head with false hopes. I came here not to promote marriages, but to prevent funerals!’

The corn-factor gasped, ‘Funerals!’

‘A pogrom is threatened—-‘

‘Open not your mouth to Satan!’ reprimanded Tinowitz, growing livid.

‘If you prefer silence and slaughter—-‘ said David, with a shrug.

‘It is impossible–here!’

‘And why not here, as well as in the six hundred and thirty-eight other towns?’

‘In those towns there must have been bad blood; here Jew and Russian live together like brothers.’

‘Cain and Abel were brothers. There were many peaceful years while Cain tilled the ground and Abel pastured his sheep.’

The Biblical reference was more convincing to Tinowitz than a wilderness of arguments.

‘Then, what do you propose?’ came from his white lips.

‘To form a branch of the Samooborona. You must first summon a meeting of householders.’

‘What for?’

‘For a general committee–and for the expenses.’

‘But how can we hold a meeting? The police—-‘

‘There’s the synagogue.’

‘Profane the synagogue!’

‘Did not the Jews always fly to the synagogue when there was danger?’

‘Yes, but to pray.’

‘We will pray by pistol.’

‘Guard your tongue!’

‘Guard your daughters.’

‘The Uppermost will guard them.’

‘The Uppermost guards them through me, as He feeds them through you. For the last time I ask you, will you or will you not summon me a meeting of householders?’

‘You rush like a wild horse. I thank Heaven you will not be my son-in-law.’

Tinowitz ended by demanding time to think it over. David was to call the next day.

When, after a sleepless night on the stove, he betook himself to the corn-factor’s house, he found it barred and shuttered. The neighbours reported that Tinowitz had gone off on sudden business, taking his wife and daughters with him for a little jaunt.

IV

The flight of Tinowitz brought two compensations, however. David was promoted from the stove to the bedroom. For the lodger he replaced had likewise departed hurriedly, and when it transpired that the landlord had betrothed this young man to the second of the Tinowitz girls, David divined that the corn-factor had made sure of a son-in-law. His other compensation was to find in the remaining bed a strapping young Jew named Ezekiel Leven, who had come up from an outlying village for the military lottery, and who proved to be a carl after his own heart. Half the night the young heroes planned the deeds of derringdo they might do for their people. Ezekiel Leven was indeed an ideal lieutenant, for he belonged to one of the rare farming colonies, and was already handy with his gun. He had even some kinsfolk in Milovka, and by their aid the Rabbi and a few householders were hurriedly prevailed upon to assemble in the bedroom on a business declared important. Ezekiel himself must, unfortunately, be away at the drawing, but he promised to hasten back to the meeting.