te a melancholy Report to Headquarters, but
a mysterious and persistent knocking prevented any concentration upon
his task. Presently he threw down his pen, and went to find out what
was the matter. The noises drew him downwards.

The landlord, alarmed at the footsteps, blew out his light.

'It's only I,' said David.

The landlord relit the candle. David saw a cellar strewn with iron
bars, instruments, boxes, and a confused heap of stones.

'Ah, hiding the vodka,' said David, with a smile.

'No, we are widening and fortifying the cellar--also provisioning the
loft.'

'_Samooborona?_' said David.

'Precisely--and a far more effective form than yours, my young
hot-head.'

'Perhaps you are right,' said David wearily. He went back to his
Report. He was glad to think that the little Bundist had an extra
chance. After all, he had achieved something, he would save some
lives. Perhaps he would end by preaching the landlord's way--passive
_Samooborona_ was better than none.

IX

But the Report refused to write itself. It was too dismal to confess
he had not collected a kopeck or one recruit. He picked up a greasy
fragment of a Russian newspaper, and read with a grim smile that the
Octobrists had excluded Jews from their meetings. That reminded him of
Erbstein the Banker, who had bidden him put his trust in them. Would
the Banker be more susceptible now, under this disillusionment? Alas!
the question was, _could_ a Banker be disillusioned? To be
disillusioned is to admit having been mistaken, and Bankers, like
Popes, were infallible.

David bethought himself instead of the owlish Mizrachi, his visit to
whom had been left unfinished.

He threw down his pen, and repaired again to the house with the Ark
and the telephone.

But as he reached Cantberg's door it opened suddenly, and a young man
shot out.

'Never, father!' he was shrieking--'Never do I enter this house
again.' And he banged the door upon the owl, and rushed into David's
arms.

'I beg your pardon,' he said.

'It is my fault,' murmured David politely. 'I was just going to see
your father.'

'You'll find him in a fiendish temper. He cannot argue without losing
it.'

'I hope you've not had a serious difference.'

'He's such a bigoted Zionist--he cannot understand that Zionism is
_ein ueberwundener Standpunkt_.'

'I know.'

'Ah!' said the young man eagerly. 'Then you can understand how I have
suffered since I evolved from Zionism.'

'What