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‘The name of bourgeois would be better applied to those who include the landed peasants among their forces,’ said Simon’s wife angrily.

‘If I might venture to suggest,’ said David soothingly, ‘all these differences would be immaterial if you joined the Samooborona. I could make excellent use of you ladies in the ambulance department.’

‘Outrageous!’ cried Simon angrily. ‘Our place is shoulder to shoulder with our fellow-Poles.’

Simon’s sister intervened gently. Perhaps the mention of ambulances had awakened sympathy in her S.R. soul. ‘You ought to look among your own Party,’ she said.

‘My Party?’

‘The Ghetto reactionaries–Zionists, Territorialists, Itoists, or whatever they call themselves nowadays.’

‘Are there any here?’ cried David eagerly.

‘One heard of nothing else,’ cried Simon bitterly. ‘Fortunately, when the police found they weren’t really emigrating to Zion or Uganda, the meetings were stopped.’

David eagerly took down names. Simon particularly recommended two young men, Grodsky and Lerkoff, who had at least the grace of Socialism.

But Grodsky, David found, had his own panacea. ‘Only the S.S.’s,’ he said, ‘can save Israel.’

‘What are S.S.’s?’ David asked.

‘Socialistes Sionistes.’

‘But can’t there be Socialism outside Zion?’

‘Of course. We have evolved from Zionism. The unconditional historic necessity is for a land, but not for a particular land. Our Minsk members already call themselves S.T.’s–Socialist Territorialists.’

‘But while awaiting your territory, there are the hooligans,’ David reminded him. ‘Simon Rubensky thought you would be a good man for the self-defence corps.’

‘Join Rubensky! A P.P.S.! Never will I associate with a bourgeois like that!’

‘He isn’t joining.’

The S.S. hesitated. ‘I must consult my fellow-members. I must write to headquarters.’

‘Letters do not travel very quickly or safely nowadays.’

‘But Party Discipline is everything,’ urged Grodsky.

David left him, and hunted up Lerkoff, who proved to be a doctor.

‘I want to get together a Samooborona branch,’ he explained. ‘Herr Grodsky has half promised—-‘

‘That bourgeois!’ cried Lerkoff in disgust. ‘We can have nothing to do with traitors like that!’

‘Why are they traitors?’ David asked.

‘All Territorialists are traitors. We Poali Zion must jealously guard the sacred flame of Socialism and Nationality, since only in Palestine can our social problem be solved.’

‘Why only in Palestine?’ inquired David mildly.

The P.Z. glared. ‘Palestine is an unconditional historic necessity. The attempt to form a Jewish State elsewhere can only result in failure and disappointment. Do you not see how the folk-instinct leads them to Palestine? No less than four thousand have gone there this year.’

‘And a hundred and fifty thousand to America. How about that folk-instinct?’

‘Oh, these are the mere bourgeois. I see you are an Americanist Assimilator.’

‘I am no more an A.A. than I am a Z.Z.,’ said David tartly, adding with a smile, ‘if there is such a thing as a Z.Z.’

‘Would to Heaven there were not!’ said Lerkoff fervently. ‘It is these miserable Zioni-Zionists, with their incapacity for political concepts, who—-‘

Milovka, amid all its medievalism, possessed a few incongruous telephones, and one of these now started ringing violently in Dr. Lerkoff’s study.

‘Ah!’ he exclaimed, ‘talk of the devil. There is a man who combines all the worst qualities of the Z.Z.’s and the Mizrachi. He also imagines he has a throat disease due to swallowing flecks of the furs he deals in.’ After which harangue he collogued amiably with his patient, and said he would come instantly.

‘Hasn’t he the disease, then?’ asked David.

‘He has no disease except too much vanity and too much money.’

‘While you cure him of the first, I should like to try my hand at the second,’ said David laughingly.

‘Oh, I’ll introduce you, if you let me off.’

‘You I don’t ask for money, but your medical services would be invaluable. Milovka is in danger.’

‘Milovka to the deuce!’ cried Lerkoff. ‘Our future lies not in Russia.’

‘I talk of our present. Do let me appoint you army surgeon.’

‘Next year–in Jerusalem!’ replied the doctor airily.

VI

Lerkoff asked David to wait in another room while he saw Herr Cantberg professionally. There was an Ark with scrolls of the Law in the room, betiding a piety and a purse beyond the normal. Presently Lerkoff reappeared chuckling.