flash that revealed a fanatic
soul, a faith as firm as that of ancient Jerusalem's people, ever ready
to stone or crucify the new prophets; his beard, too, was black and firm
as that of a Maccabean warrior; black, also, was his curly hair, which
looked like an astrakhan cap. Zabulon figured as one of the most active
and respected members of the Jewish community,--an individual
indispensable to all beneficent works, a loud singer in the synagogue
and a great friend of the Rabbi, whom he called "our spiritual chief,"
an assiduous attendant at all homes where a fellow-religionist lay
suffering, ready to accompany with his prayers the gasps of the dying
man and afterwards lave the corpse according to custom with a profusion
of water that ran in a stream into the street. On Saturdays and special
holidays Zabulon would leave his house for the synagogue, soberly
arrayed in his frock and his gloves, wearing a silk hat and escorted by
three poor co-religionists who lived upon the crumbs of his business and
were for these occasions dressed in a style no less sober and fitting
than that of their protector.

"All hands on deck!" the wits of Royal Street would cry. "Make way, for
here comes a cruiser with four smokestacks!"

And the four smokestacks of well brushed silk sailed between the groups,
bound for the synagogue, looking now to this side and now to that so as
to see whether any wicked Hebrew was lounging about the streets instead
of attending synagogue; this would afterwards be reported to the
"spiritual head."

Aguirre, who was surprised at the poverty of the establishment, which
resembled a kitchen, was even more surprised at the facility with which
money rolled across the narrow counter. The packets of silver pieces
were quickly opened, passing rapidly through the shaggy, expert hands of
Zabulon; the pounds fairly sang, as they struck the wood, with the merry
ring of gold; the bank-notes, folded like unstitched folios, flashed for
a moment before concealing the colors of their nationality in the safe:
the simple, monotonous white of the English paper, the soft blue of the
Bank of France, the green and red mixture of the Spanish Bank. All the
Jews of Gibraltar flocked hither, with that same commercial solidarity
which leads them to patronize only establishments owned by members of
their race; Zabulon, all by himself, without the aid of clerks, and
without allowing his father (the venerable fetich of the family's
fortune