calm. "You must have heard what Israel said last time. He would chew the head off anyone who maltreats a prisoner. We will have to hand him in."
Under interrogation the boy said almost nothing. He hadn’t left the village, because it was his village. Just that - his. Moshe, who was cross-questioning him in fluent Arabic, looked at him in amaze-ment. He had never heard this simple argument from an Arab pris-oner before.
"What shall we do with him?" he asked. That was one of the nice things about him. He discussed things with his subordinates, as though he were still in the Haganah. "I think we should send him to the other refugees. He can’t tell the Egyptians anything that they don’t already know."
The boy, understanding nothing, looked at the group of wildly bearded soldiers, one after another. "This is my village," he mur-mured. "Mine! Mine!"
Rafi gazed at him. In his mouth he still had that bitter taste from earlier on. He liked the boy. Perhaps he is an orphan. If he goes to the refugees, he will starve like them. Rafi had an idea.
"Maybe he can stay with us?" he suggested.
His comrades looked at him as if he was mad. "What do you mean - stay with us? What on earth for? So that he can run over to the enemy at any moment and provide them with information?"
Rafi tried to convince the others. "All this talk of spying, that’s just rubbish. An idiotic idea. And if he stays here," with the right argu-ment at last, "he could serve us. Bring food. Wash the dishes and sim-ply make our life easier. Why should we send him away? So that he can serve the Egyptians?"
"That is an idea," said Shmulik. And a general discussion broke out. Pro-Hassan (for that was his name) and anti-Hassan parties quickly formed. And it was the wildest who spoke in favor of Hassan. It soon became clear: Hassan would stay.
* * *
The village stood on a hill. One of those special hills that decorate the south of the country, and under which lie the ancient cities of the Israelites and the Philistines. Most of the houses were built into the slope. At the top stood some ruins from earlier times, overlooking a wonderful view across the landscape. Down below, at the foot of the