Judith
After a while one of the old women appeared with a stew-pot and a tin plate and spoon and set them down before her with smiles. Judith ate ravenously while the woman watched happily. She spoke a little imperfect Yiddish and, struck by her gypsy-like appearance, Judith questioned her, only to find that she was a Jewess from Bessarabia who had been in the country a number of years. “Then you speak Hebrew?” said Judith in Hebrew, which she spoke slowly but with tolerable correctness. The old woman chuckled and made an indefinite sign with her hand: “I am still learning. It is hard.”
She gathered up the eating utensils and took herself off again, closing the door softly behind her and leaving Judith once more alone. Time hung heavy that afternoon, and the girl was thoroughly bored with her own company by the time the doctor reappeared in the doorway; she was dusty but exultant as she threw her satchel on the table. “I’ve had a stroke of luck. I got the papers we need. Usually they take time to obtain. I was afraid you might be stuck here for a week. How are you feeling?”
“I’m quite fit.”
“Good. Then we can start right away. But first of all here is your identity card.” She rummaged in her satchel and produced a suitably creased and thumbed document. Judith saw with surprise that it actually had a photograph of herself stapled to it. “How did they get that?” The doctor smiled. “The Agency boys think up everything. You should have no trouble anyway. Especially once you are up at Ras Shamir with us.” She consulted her wrist-watch briefly and reflected. “I think we should move off,” she said, “as I still have three more people to pick up.”
A dilapidated lorry was parked off the road under the trees with a fat morose-looking girl at the wheel. Its interior was loaded with light wooden crates such as are used for fruit-packing. As they climbed in, the doctor introduced Judith to the girl, whose name was Anna, and in response to her greeting Judith received an ill-tempered nod. They set off along the dusty road with a roar, travelling northward, Anna driving with sullen concentration. The road ran for the most part along the sea-line and Judith looked curiously about her at the new landscape with its exotic vegetation. The jogging of the ancient vehicle was pleasant and conducive to drowsiness — indeed already the doctor nodded beside her. Twice they turned off the main road and ran into an olive-grove to halt somewhere near a cluster of tattered and abandoned-looking sheds, out of which emerged other passengers; two weary-looking girls of Judith’s own age, approximately, and a stout rosy woman in her late forties. They were each given an identity card before being shoved aboard over the tail of the lorry, to make themselves as comfortable as possible among the crates. Anna greeted them all with the same brusque contempt. “Come on,” she said sharply. “We’re late as it is.”
They ran northwards now, into the eye of the westering sun along the peaceful olive-groves powdered silver with dust. There was a good deal of military traffic on the road but it all seemed to be moving in the opposite direction. “Must be something up in Jerusalem,” commented the doctor, “I expect we’ll hear about it this evening.” Anna shook her head and muttered. The rest of them did not speak. The girls looked dazed and tired, while the ruddy-faced woman had wrapped her head in a scarf and fallen into a doze. They were all perhaps as recent arrivals as herself, thought Judith, dazed by haphazard travel and the dangers they had traversed. The lorry jogged on steadily with the sea to their left and the rough red outcrops of sandstone and granite on their right, cradling little valleys of green vegetation. A smudge of smoke appeared on the further edge of the coastline and the doctor pointed to it and said, “Haifa.”
The road began to curve and twist now, and on one of these curves they suddenly saw a figure detach itself from the shadow of an olive-tree and come racing down to the road waving its arms. It cleared the ditch at a bound and stood on the crown of the road with its arms outspread. A ripple of anxiety ran through them at the sight, and Anna for a moment increased speed as if she intended to run down the signalling figure, but all of a sudden she grunted and slammed on her brakes. “It’s Aaron,” she said, and her ugly face split into a smile. “So it is,” said the doctor. “What is he doing here?”
The figure facing them was that of a robust and broad-shouldered man in his late thirties, clad in nondescript clothes which faintly suggested British battledress. “What luck!” he cried, almost dancing with delight, “Anna darling!” And having stopped the lorry he leaped lightly onto the footboard and planted a kiss upon the ugly but radiant face of the driver. Then, thrusting his grinning face forward, he explained himself with breathless elation, his white teeth bared under the dark circumflex of a moustache which gave his face a faintly Kalmuk cast. “My bloody motor-bike broke down: I hoped you’d take this road. And you did. Bravo, Anna, bravo, Naomi! At least I shan’t have to spend the night walking to Haifa. Make room for me, will you?” He smiled at Judith and jerked his thumb with the easy assumption of authority. “You climb into the back with the others,” he said. Judith felt a sudden wave of annoyance at his tone and opened her mouth to say something, but before she could formulate either a question or a protest he had vanished again, uttering a brief “Wait.” While she climbed awkwardly over the back of the seat, surrendering her place and exchanging it for an uncomfortable crate among the other passengers, he had started to race back among the trees. He seemed to do everything at top speed. He stooped down to gather up a bundle and then ran down to the road once more, grinning with pleasure. The doctor moved into the centre to make room for him and he climbed aboard in high good humour, banging the door and crying, “All aboard!” The two women smiled indulgently at him as the lorry once more got into gear. He expelled his breath and mopped his head. Around his throat he wore a blue scarf and, dangling below it, a pair of binoculars; his useless motor-cyclist’s goggles he had drawn up on one leg so that he was wearing them on his calf.
“Well,” he said, and his tone suggested that of a good-natured autocrat of a small circle, “everything is marvellous; increasingly marvellous. The situation is getting so bad now that we can really afford to stop worrying. Another big trouble this afternoon at the Jaffa Gate with fifteen killed. Six British, my dears, and two Jews. All the rest Arabs. Tonight they are going to have a go at the Haifa factory.”
“I don’t see why you sound so elated,” said the doctor with a little shudder. “It’s horrible.” He looked suddenly chastened, like a scolded puppy, and nodded in agreement, his face grave again. “The horror is not of our making, alas!” he said in a different tone. They jogged on in silence for a while and now Anna turned the lorry northeast upon a road skirting mountain landscape — rude red rock burnished to the colour of dried blood in the sun. “I bet the road will be picketed,” said Anna gloomily. “It always is after trouble.” He seemed to cheer up. He put his arm affectionately around the doctor and said: “If we get through Nazareth without a block then there will be nothing to worry about. The only other person to stop us might be Lawton — Major Lawton — and we can talk him round. But what’s wrong anyway? Aren’t our papers in order? You girls have your cards?” He suddenly turned a narrow-eyed gaze upon the passengers in the truck, his lip curling. They all nodded. Judith gazed at him with mounting contempt. His manner infuriated her. Their eyes met coldly for a moment. “And you?” he said. “Why don’t you answer me?” Judith’s eyes ignited rebelliously, but she controlled her feelings. “I have my card,” she said. “Good,” said Aaron, turning back once more, the curtness of the word softened by a smile. “Then we have nothing to worry about. God, I’m hungry.” He groped about in his bundle for a piece of dry bread which he ate ravenously as he talked. Then he tilted a water bottle and drank. His lips were wet with red wine. He licked them carefully and wiped his moustache on the back of his hand. “Anyway,” he said, “Jerusalem likes my plans; we are going to get some more weapons if the bloody British don’t capture them.” He gave a short laugh. “And the valley of Ras Shamir will become a strong point. Good.” He rubbed his hands and then scratched his a
rmpits. His buoyant, self-confident rudeness jarred on Judith. She found him one of the most disagreeable people she had ever met.
Nazareth, to their surprise, was quiet and they climbed the winding road into the mountains without incident. “There,” said Aaron when they were past the ugly straggle of streets and churches, “what did I say? We are in luck.” On they ran and the air turned colder; the sinking sun made the mountains glow like jewels. They passed a few mule-trains on the road, piloted by Druzes, but on the whole the countryside seemed deserted.
The rumble of their engine flapped and boomed back at them through the dark ravines as they turned the last shoulder of mountain and were able to stare directly down on the valley. Here Aaron stopped the lorry and got down to sweep the ranges with his binoculars. “Nothing unusual,” he cried cheerily and proceeded with sang froid to relieve himself against a tree before rejoining the lorry. As they let in the clutch and began to roll down the hairpin bend of the mountains, Judith sat up straight and gazed at the valley herself. At last, on the shoulder of a high pass, they saw the ugly mass of a concrete fortress pricking the skyline and Aaron remarked: “There is Major Lawton’s country house.” The doctor turned to Judith and said: “The border starts along there; and just beyond is our valley, only to the right, we have to crawl down the mountain again from this point until we reach bottom again. You’ll see it all from the next pass.”
In the gathering twilight (for the sun had just sunk behind the mountains of Lebanon) they rounded a steep bluff and came upon a platoon of infantry blocking the road. “What did I say?” growled Anna, delighted as all pessimists are when one of their prophecies proves true. The lorry drew to a halt before the battle-clad figures. And now a surprising thing happened, for Aaron turned in his seat and, with the calmest air of self-possession, slipped a revolver into the throat of Judith’s dress. It settled between her breasts, the steel icy cold. Before she could open her mouth, Aaron had opened the door and stepped down into the road. “Ah, Sergeant Manning,” he said. The sergeant peered at him and grinned. “I think you know us all,” said Aaron with a confident air. “We are getting back to Ras Shamir with some stuff for the farm.”
“Well, I’ll have to search you,” said the sergeant, and a couple of privates barked. “Everyone out. Papers please.” Laboriously they climbed down into the road, Judith, confused, almost on the point of tears, feeling the weight of the pistol sagging between her breasts. While a couple of privates searched the lorry, a third examined the identity cards with a perfunctory air; it was obviously a routine gesture. Yet two of the girls trembled so much that Judith wondered how they could avoid arousing suspicion. Meanwhile, Aaron chatted to the duty sergeant in familiar fashion, amiably putting up his arms and allowing himself to be frisked.
“I shouldn’t go down to Ras Shamir tonight,” said the grizzled sergeant. “There was some shooting earlier on the hills and a patrol reported some Arab cavalry on the crest to the east.”
“We’ll risk it,” said Aaron blithely, “even though we are unarmed as you can see. It’s a question of urgency. The truck is needed tomorrow.”
“Well, it’s up to you. I’m just warning you.”
Aaron lit a cigarette as he watched the truck cleared and the girls helped back into it by a kindly private. “You can tell the Major from me,” he said, “that if the British are supposed to be responsible for this valley they are making a poor job of it. Things would be perfectly quiet if they patrolled enough and took some interest.”
The sergeant chuckled, showing yellow teeth. “The Major knows that as well as you. But they won’t give us the men. What can we do?”
“Leave it to us,” said Aaron mildly. “Instead of making our lives a misery on the kibbutz and trying to prevent us arming ourselves. You want us to be eaten by the Arabs.”
“Personally, I don’t care who eats who,” said the sergeant.
“That’s clear.”
“But I’ll tell the Major what you said.”
“Save your breath — I’ve told him myself more than once.”
The privates had cleared the lorry, and helped the occupants back into their uncomfortable seats. The sergeant sighed. “Okay,” he said, “off you go.”
And off they went, the rumble of the engine again flapping and booming at them. Without a word or a look, Aaron reached back and repossessed himself of his pistol. “Anna,” he said, “just stop at the head of the pass and let me have a look.”
The twilight was lengthening into darkness. They were shivering with cold. At the next bluff the cliffs fell away and they saw, gleaming below them, a long diamond-shaped valley which thrust its muzzle deep between two mountain ranges. Light twinkled here and there in it, made furry by the atmosphere. “Ras Shamir,” said the doctor, pointing downwards. “The mountains are the border — Syria that side, Lebanon this.” Judith gazed uncomprehendingly down across the scarps and foothills into the fading hollow which was brimming now with inky darkness. But Aaron was out on the road, already sweeping the mountain range with his glasses. Finally he seemed satisfied for he returned and said: “No. It looks normal. There are all the lights up. It’s probably a false alarm. Anyway, what the hell. Let’s get moving.” From now on it was a steeply falling gradient, and Anna let the lorry gather speed. Judith was surprised that no one showed any undue alarm, in spite of the warning and, as if the doctor had surprised her thought and read it, she heard the gentle voice say: “All in the day’s work.” Down they swept round the hairpin bends, their lights cutting a dim path for them. And now, to increase Judith’s surprise, Anna began to sing an old Hebrew song and, after the first phrase, Aaron joined in with his deep baritone. It was infectious. The doctor, too, began to hum and one of the girls in the back who knew the song suddenly lent her voice to it. On rumbled the lorry with its freight of singers, and gradually the air became warmer as they descended, until they were once more on the valley level, rumbling across dusty roads lined with tall trees. Orchards stretched away on every side, the leaves of the trees dusted pollen-yellow in the faded gleam of their headlights. Darkness had fallen fully now, dense and deeply scented by flowers. They crossed a number of small bridges and traversed long areas of meadows where the water of the carp ponds gleamed back at them with a dull metallic lustre. Finally, they appeared to have traversed the whole valley, for the mountain range began to rise once more, etched on the sky. It was in its shadow that they turned aside, stumbled and rattled over a long dirt-track and arrived at a grove of trees with a perimeter of barbed wire and a gate. There was an unarmed man on sentry duty who flashed a torch and interrogated them hoarsely. Then the gate swung wide and they drove into the deep tree-grove. And here Aaron stopped the lorry and gathered his belongings together.
“I must be off,” he said, “I have a lot to discuss. Thank you Anna dear, and Naomi. Good-night.” He stalked into the shadow of the trees, disappearing even more suddenly than he had first appeared. The lorry grumbled slowly on in the dense green and finally came to a halt in front of a large structure which looked like a depot for tractors. Anna kept the lights on until they had all disembarked and then plunged them into darkness. The doctor took charge of the party with a pocket torch and led the way (their steps once more lagged with fatigue) along a number of twisting paths. They were obviously in a settlement of some kind, for here and there they saw lighted bungalows, but they were all deeply surrounded with greenery. Finally great walls loomed up, which later Judith was to recognize as the remains of a Crusader fortress. They entered a courtyard and stood under a long wooden balcony where the doctor called softly: “Miss Peterson!” A door opened abruptly and a tall gaunt figure appeared in silhouette above them, looking down. A deep hoarse voice said “Naomi” and the doctor answered immediately: “Yes, we’re back, Miss Peterson.” The figure grunted. “We are in darkness for another hour at least,” it said in the same hoarse, rather thrilling voice. “There’s been a power failure but Tonio is mending it.”
“So
I see.”
There was a long pause and then the figure said: “Is Judith Roth with you?” Judith jumped at the mention of her name.
“Yes,” said the doctor, and at once a torch flashed down upon them from the balcony, blinding them. “Which is she?” said the voice and the doctor answered: “Here she is,” pointing at her. Judith felt the light exploring her from the top of her clipped head to the soles of her ill-clad feet; it travelled slowly down her, and then once more settled on her face. Then it was abruptly switched off and the voice said, “Good. Now listen.” The deep authoritative tones brought the whole party to attention. The figure leaned further and said: “I have a meeting tonight and cannot receive you all as I wanted to. I shall welcome you tomorrow. Meanwhile, among the various other troubles of this settlement, the pump has broken and won’t be mended until morning. We can’t offer you hot water, but anyone who wants to can bathe in the Jordan. It runs through the end of this orchard.”
There was a pause. The Jordan! It seemed the strangest place and circumstance for this odd symbol to obtrude itself. The figure on the balcony stayed quiet for a moment, as if listening. Then it went on: “There is food in the dining-hall and all your quarters are ready for you. Eat well and sleep well. For there is a lot of work waiting for you here.” Nobody said a word. Then the voice went on. “And Naomi, I’d like to talk to Judith Roth but I am not sure if I shall be back tonight. Could you bring her back to the office after dinner, just to look in and see if I am?”