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.

'He knows all about you, you infamous rascal,' he said.

'You have told him?'

'_He_ told _me_; he always knows everything. You are a baptized police
spy, posing as a P.P.S. I suppose he's heard of your visit to Herr
Rubensky.'

'But I shall undeceive him!'

'Not if you want his