"Ah! ah!" sneered Jankiel, "what does it matter? One more Edomite will become a beggar!"
Here the speaker stopped and began to quiver as if with rage or terror; he saw Meir coming into the room. His two companions also saw him. Kalman's mouth opened wide. Abraham looked threatening, but his eyes fell before the bold, yet sorrowful glance of his nephew, and his hands began to tremble.
Meir slowly crossed the room and entered into the next, where Johel stood near the stove staring absently at his bare toes.
Jankiel sent a malediction after the retreating figure; the two others were silent.
"Why did you bring us in such an unsafe place?" asked Kalman at last, in his even voice.
"Why did you not warn us that somebody might hear from the other side of the wall?" asked Abraham impetuously. Jankiel explained that it was his son's room, who did not know anything about business and never paid the slightest attention to what was going on around him.
"How should I know that cursed lad was there? He must have entered like a thief, through the window. Well!" he said, after a while, "what does it matter if he heard? He is an Israelite, one of us, and dare not betray his own people."
"He may dare," repeated Kalman; "but we will keep an eye on him, and if he as much as breathes a syllable of what he heard we will crush him."
Abraham rose.
"You may do what you like," he said impulsively. "I wash my hands of the whole business."