roached the subject
of the Jewish massacres.

'_Be!_' commented the driver, shrugging his shoulders. 'We are in
_Goluth_ (exile)!' He spoke with resignation, but not with
apprehension, and David perceived at once that Milovka would not be
easy to arouse. As every man thought every other man mortal, so
Milovka regarded the massacres as a terrible reality--for other towns.
It was no longer even shocked; Kishineff had been a horror almost
beyond belief, but Jew-massacres had since become part of the natural
order, which babes were born into.

II

The landlord shook his head.

'All our rooms are full.'

David, still hugging his violin-case, looked at the dirty,
mustard-smeared tablecloth on the long table, and at the host's brats
playing on the floor. If this was the best, what in Heaven's name
awaited him elsewhere?

'For how long?' he asked.

The landlord shrugged his shoulders like the driver. 'Am I the
All-knowing?'

He wore a black velvet cap, but not with the apex that would have
professed piety. Its square cut indicated to the younger generation
that he was a man of the world, in touch with the times; to the old
its material and hue afforded sufficient guarantee of ritual
orthodoxy. He was a true host, the friend of all who eat and drink.

'But how many rooms have you?' inquired David.

'And how many shall I have but one?' protested the landlord.

'Only one room!' David turned upon the driver. 'And you said this was
the best inn! I suppose it's your brother-in-law's.'

'And what do I make out of it, if it is?' answered the driver. 'You
see he can't take you.'

'Then why did you bring me?'

'Because there is no room anywhere else either.'

'What!' David stared.

'Law of Moses!' corroborated the landlord good-humouredly, 'you've
just come at the recruiting. The young men have flocked here from all
the neighbouring villages to draw their numbers. There are heathen
peasants in all the Jewish inns--eating _kosher_,' he added with a
chuckle.

David frowned. But he reflected instantly that if this was so, the
_pogrom_ would probably be postponed till the Christian conscripts had
been packed off to their regiments or the lucky ones back to their
villages. He would have time, therefore, to organize his Jewish corps.
Yes, he reflected in grim amusement, Russia and he would be recruiting
simultaneously. Still, where was he to sleep?

'You can have the _lezhanka_,' said the host, following his thought