aumann.
'These formal resolutions "Buy! buy!" put his back up. We'll go to him
as brothers--all Israel are brethren, and blood is thicker than
water.'

'Chutney is thicker than blood,' put in the _Parnass_ mysteriously.
'He'll simply try to palm off his stock on the deputation.'

Ephraim Mendel and Solomon Barzinsky jumped up simultaneously. 'What a
good idea,' said Ephraim. 'There you have hit it!' said Solomon. Their
simultaneous popping-up had an air of finality--like the long and the
short of it!

'You mean?' said the _Parnass_, befogged in his turn.

'I mean,' said Barzinsky, 'we could buy up his stock, me and the other
marine-dealers between us, and he could clear out!'

'If he sold it reasonably,' added Mendel.

'Even unreasonably you must make a sacrifice for the Sabbath,' said
the _Parnass_. 'Besides, divided among the lot of you, the loss would
be little.'

'And you can buy in my barometer with the rest,' added Peleg.

'We could call a meeting of marine-dealers,' said Barzinsky,
disregarding him. 'We could say to them we must sacrifice ourselves
for our religion.'

'Tell that to the marine-dealers!' murmured Straumann.

'And that we must buy out the Sabbath-breaker at any cost.'

'Buy! buy!' said Straumann. 'If you'd only thought of that sort of
"Buy! buy!" at the first!'

'Order, order!' said the _Parnass_.

'It would be more in order,' said Straumann, 'to appoint an executive
sub-committee to deal with the question. I'm sick of it. And surely we
as a Synagogue Council can't be in order in ordering some of our
members to buy out another.'

'Hear, hear!' His suggestion found general approval. It took a long
discussion, however, before the synagogue decided to wash its hands of
responsibility, and give over to a sub-committee of three the task of
ridding Sudminster of its plague-spot by any means that commended
itself to them.

Solomon Barzinsky, Ephraim Mendel, and Peleg the pawnbroker were
elected to constitute this Council of Three.

XVII

The glad news spread through the Sudminster Congregation that Simeon
Samuels had at last been bought out--at a terrible loss to the
martyred marine-dealers who had had to load themselves with chutney
and other unheard-of and unsaleable stock. But they would get back
their losses, it was felt, by the removal of his rivalry. Carts were
drawn up before the dismantled plate-glass window carrying off its
criminal contents, and Simeon Samuels stood stro