'You bought without us last summer.' They shook hands with the innkeeper and took no notice of Slimak.
Josel looked after them until their footsteps could no longer be heard, then, still smiling, he turned to Slimak.
'Do you see now, gospodarz, that it is a bad thing to take the bread out of a Jew's mouth? I have lost fifty roubles through you and you have made twenty-five, but you have bought a hundred roubles' worth of trouble, for the whole village is against you.'
'They really mean to buy the squire's land without me?'
'Why shouldn't they? What do they care about your loss if they can gain?'
'Well…well,' muttered the peasant sadly.
'I,' said Josel, 'might perhaps be able to arrange the affair for you, but what should I gain by it? You have never been well disposed towards me, and you have already done me harm.'
'So you won't arrange it?'
'I might, but on my own terms.'
'What are they?'