Page:Taras Bulba. A Tale of the Cossacks. 1916.djvu/258

252 "O, it can't be done, dear noble lord, it's impossible!" "No, it can't be done!" chimed in another Jew.

The three Jews exchanged glances.

"We might try," said the third, with a timid glance at the other two. "Perhaps God will favour us."

All three Jews began to talk in German. Strain his ears as he might, Bulba could make nothing of it: he only caught the word "Mardokhai" often repeated, nothing more.

"Listen, noble lord," said Yankel. "We must consult with a man such as there never was before in all the world…! as wise as Solomon he is; and if he will do nothing, then no one in the world can do anything. Sit here: this is the key; admit no one!" Thereupon the Jews went out into the street.

Taras locked the door, and gazed from the tiny window upon the dirty Jewish prospect. The three Jews halted in the middle of the street, and began to talk with a good deal of warmth: a fourth soon joined them, and, finally, a fifth. Again he heard repeated, "Mardokhai, Mardokhai!" The Jews kept glancing incessantly towards one side of the street; at last, at the end of it, from behind a dirty house, there emerged a foot in a Jewish shoe, and there was a brief glimpse of the