Some Danger Involved by Will Thomas Read Free Book Online Page B

gentle smile. I didn’t have to ask if it was this man’s note which had summoned us to Aldgate. Barker stopped and bowed low.
    “Sir Moses,” he murmured.

5
    O F COURSE, I HAD READ OF SIR MOSES MONTEFIORE. Who hadn’t? He was the unofficial ambassador of his people to the world, unofficial only because the Jews had no country of their own. Among his titles were knight, baronet, sheriff of London, deputy lieutenant for Kent, magistrate for Middlesex and the Cinque Ports, and president of the Board of Deputies. Since the 1840s he had been crisscrossing Europe, getting Jews out of scrapes in Russia, Romania, Italy, and countless other countries. Now, it seemed, he was finding trouble closer to home.
    “Mr. Barker,” he began, “pray be seated. You, too, young fellow. Thank you for coming on such short notice, and forgive an old man for calling you away from your observation of the Sabbath. Your devotion does you credit. This is, I believe, the second time we have availed ourselves of your services, is it not?”
    “It is,” Barker said, sitting relaxed but upright in his chair. “We have just returned from the City Morgue, where we have been examining poor Mr. Pokrzywa.”
    The old man stiffened. “You have not…”
    “Touched the body? No, sir, or I would not have entered this residence. The stick I used to examine the corpse is out on the curb.”
    Sir Moses relaxed. “You know your Jewish customs, Mr. Barker. So, was he literally crucified? I have not viewed the body.”
    My employer tented his fingers in front of him. “He was tied and nailed to a board that was hung from a telegraph pole.”
    “Barbaric. A Gentile custom, despite our unwarranted title as ‘Christ-killers.’ Stoning is the only form of execution permitted to the Jews.”
    “Perhaps,” my employer said, “but Gentiles haven’t used crucifixion as a means of execution for over a thousand years. This form of killing is an anachronism, and as such, anyone with enough motivation could have done it to prove a point, regardless of their race or religion.”
    “Do you consider yourself a Christian apologist, Mr. Barker?” Montefiore asked, looking at him through shrewd eyes. “If so, you have much to answer for.”
    Barker gave a rare smile. “I am but a humble Baptist, Sir Moses, and have enough to apologize for among my own people. I find that, like the Jews, we tend to divide the world between ourselves and everybody else.”
    The old man tipped his head back and laughed. “You argue well. You should have been a Torah scholar.”
    “I read Torah as well as the next man, Sir Moses. But come, I believe we’re dancing around the main issue. Are you engaging me to find the killer of Louis Pokrzywa?”
    The elderly man knit his brow. “There is more to it than that. Perhaps much more. In Germany the Anti-Semitic Party has been gobbling up parliamentary seats. There have been major pogroms in Kiev, Odessa, and several other Russian towns. Jews in Poland are starving or fleeing because of government sanctions in the Pale. And all of the refugees are coming here by the thousands, by the tens of thousands! We Jews take care of our own, but this is not a mere exodus, it is a deluge. Feeding and housing them all would beggar even a Rothschild. Hundreds are arriving in London by steamer every day. They are good people, though green to the ways of England. They don’t speak English and have nothing but the clothes on their back. They want a place to live and employment, but they are taking work and housing from the English workers and from other immigrant groups, such as the Irish and Italians. They don’t know any better.”
    Barker moved forward to the edge of his seat. “You think things will get out of hand? You fear a pogrom here in England?”
    “I do, and I forbid it!” Sir Moses cried, punctuating his remark with a thump of his cane. “I will not have a pogrom on my watch. I have not fought against anti-Semitism so long only to