Now Shmuel is beaming. "Have you heard the latest?" he calls out as I approach him. "Our little Benjamin found a hole in a wall some-where in a house, with a rusty iron box in it. He worked on it for two hours, before he could get it open. And you know what was in it?"

"I don’t know."

"A pile of mil2 coins," Shmuel laughed. "Together with about five grush. It must have been a little boy’s savings."

Everybody laughs.

On the way back to our position I discover a house situated slightly out of the way, whose doors have not been broken open. I lean my bicycle against a tree and run over there. The wooden front door is strong and well secured. I hit it with the stock of my rifle, without effect. Is there another door? I walk around the house. Yes there is, but it is also locked.

I am now convinced that this house contains valuables. Why else would the owner have secured it so carefully when our shots were already whistling through the village? I must get in. But how? There is a window. But there are boards nailed over it. Back to the door. I shoot into the lock. But that too does not help.

In desperation I walk once more around the house. There, at last - a little window, a bit high perhaps, but protected only by one thin board. A few blows with the stock and the window is open. I pull myself up, lose my hold, and scrape my knee. On the second attempt I manage to get in.

A poorly furnished room. A bed, a big closet with a mirror, a stool. The closet is open. There are clothes and papers lying on its floor, as if the Arab had hurriedly searched for something before escaping.

I look in the drawers and the closet. Nothing special. A set of mas-baha prayer beads, a dagger, an agal. I am looking for a keffiyeh but can’t find one. What a cheek of these Arabs, to leave an agal in the house without a keffiyeh. In my annoyance I smash the mirror.

Among the papers there is an ID card from the time of the British mandate. Aha. Interesting to know whose property I am plundering.

Name: Attalla Abdallah Abu Salem

Pleased to meet you!

Place of residence: Chudad

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