'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!'
'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_ (ambassadors). 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 godless 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 reassurance wafted through the room. 'And I, Rabbi,' said Gütels the grocer, 'will supply the synagogue with candles to equal in length the graves of all your predecessors.'
'May thy strength increase, Gütels!' came the universal gratitude, 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. God is, of course, our only protection. But there can be no harm in getting, _lehavdil_ (not to compare them), the Governor's protection too.'