babes do we learn,' said he. 'But tell me now,
and I will not call you a babe but a Rabbi, why did the King sign the
roll of the New Law at Runnymede? For he was a King.'

Dan looked sideways at his sister. It was her turn.

'Because he jolly well had to,' said Una softly. 'The Barons made
him.' 'Nay,' Kadmiel answered, shaking his head. 'You Christians
always forget that gold does more than the sword. Our good King signed
because he could not borrow more money from us bad Jews.' He curved
his shoulders as he spoke. 'A King without gold is a snake with a
broken back, and'--his nose sneered up and his eyebrows frowned
down--'it is a good deed to break a snake's back. That was my work,'
he cried, triumphantly, to Puck. 'Spirit of Earth, bear witness that
that was my work!' He shot up to his full towering height, and his
words rang like a trumpet. He had a voice that changed its tone almost
as an opal changes colour--sometimes deep and thundery, sometimes thin
and waily, but always it made you listen.

'Many people can bear witness to that,' Puck answered. 'Tell these
babes how it was done. Remember, Master, they do not know Doubt or
Fear.'

'So I saw in their faces when we met,' said Kadmiel. 'Yet surely,
surely they are taught to spit upon Jews?'

'Are they?' said Dan, much interested. 'Where at?'

Puck fell back a pace, laughing. 'Kadmiel is thinking of King John's
reign,' he explained. 'His people were badly treated then.'

'Oh, we know that.' they answered, and (it was very rude of them, but
they could not help it) they stared straight at Kadmiel's mouth to see
if his teeth were all there. It stuck in their lesson-memory that King
John used to pull out Jews' teeth to make them lend him money.

Kadmiel understood the look and smiled bitterly.

'No. Your King never drew my teeth: I think, perhaps, I drew his.
Listen! I was not born among Christians, but among Moors--in Spain--in
a little white town under the mountains. Yes, the Moors are cruel, but
at least their learned men dare to think. It was prophesied of me at
my birth that I should be a Lawgiver to a People of a strange speech
and a hard language. We Jews are always looking for the Prince and the
Lawgiver to come. Why not? My people in the town (we were very few)
set me apart as a child of the prophecy--the Chosen of the Chosen. We
Jews dream so many dreams. You would never guess it to see us slink
about the rubbish-heaps in