Thieves in the Night by Arthur Koestler Read Free Book Online

started earnestly to discuss the weather and the crops. Then in due course the Turk came to the point. Smiling, emphatic and with every sign of sincerity, he explained that the settlers—nice, strong young people to whom he wished every good in the world—were victims of a cruel mistake in starting to build on this hill, for the land was not theirs andshortly of course they would have to evacuate it, according to the law. So why not go in peace at once, to avoid unpleasantness and remain friends?—He spoke with great simplicity, in a rapid and friendly way, while his hands milled round in smooth swift gestures as in a deaf-mute pantomime.
    Reuben interrupted him. “What is this nonsense about the land not being ours?” he asked evenly.
    The Turk laughed as if at an excellent joke. But surely, he explained, they all knew the law—the law of 1935 about the protection of tenants in cases of transfer of land? Of course the settlers knew it, they only played the innocents, ha-ha—and he winked his eye and slapped his knees and shook his finger at Reuben and Bauman, while the old man looked on, silent and impassive. Of course, the Turk went on, the settlers had offered some compensation to the dispossessed tenants, but was it enough? Was it fair? Of course it was not. The law guaranteed protection to dispossessed tenants, and the law was sacred. And if some of the tenants, poor, ignorant, uneducated fools, had in momentary confusion agreed to take some compensation money and signed some paper which they did not understand—what did that mean, and who was to prove that such an agreement was valid? “Oh, come, come,” the Turk said with paternal affability, “you are educated young people, you have been to schools and universities, surely you know all this? Surely you want to act according to the law, and avoid trouble and bloodshed?”
    Bauman and Reuben both rose at the same time, without having exchanged a glance. “We must get on with our work,” said Bauman. “This land has been lawfully acquired, and there is nothing more to be said about it.”
    The Turk’s face had grown a shade darker; it looked as if he had never smiled.
    â€œYou young fools and children of death,” he said quietly. “You don’t know what may happen to you.”
    â€œWe are prepared,” Bauman said curtly.
    There was a moment’s silence. One of Bauman’s boys cameup to them, carrying a copper tray with four small cups of unsweetened coffee. The Turk, after a short hesitation, took his cup; the old man refused. They sipped their coffee standing. Then the old man spoke for the first time.
    â€œI know not much about the law,” he said; his voice was gentle, almost soft. “A man who is rich and cunning may offer money to another one who is poor and ignorant, and this other man may sell him his cattle and his hut. There is no justice in this. This hill belonged to our fathers and our fathers’ fathers.”
    â€œAnd before that, it belonged to our fathers’ fathers,” said Bauman.
    â€œSo the books say. But your ancestors lost it. A country which one has lost one cannot buy back with money.”
    â€œThis hill has borne no crop since our ancestors left it,” said Reuben. “You have neglected the land. You let the terraces fall to ruin, and the rain carried the earth away. We shall clean the hill of the stones and bring tractors and fertilisers.”
    â€œWhat the valley bears is enough for us,” said the old man. “Where God put stones, man should not carry them away. We shall live as our fathers lived and we do not want your money and your tractors and your fertilisers, and we do not want your women whose sight offends the eye.”
    He had spoken angrily, but without raising his voice, as one accustomed to see young men take his words reverently and in blind obedience.
    â€œOur ideas differ,” Bauman said with