At lunch in the canteen we hear that three Arabs were taken prisoner and that Jamus, our Egyptian, is guarding them.
"Come on, let’s go and see," says Tarzan.
The three Arabs are in one of the empty barracks. They are sitting on the ground and talking quietly. All three are very young, between fifteen and twenty-five years old. Good looking lads, well built. Fear is written on their faces.
Jamus is listening to them but pretending not to understand. He was born in Egypt and looks like an Arab Effendi. Rather fat and sporting a very impressive black mustache. He used to work illegally in Arab countries. That got too boring for him, so he signed up for the army when the war broke out. An outsider would not recognize him as the most interesting person in the company: he studied at a British college in Egypt, and had a higher rank in the British Navy. He is a member of a kibbutz near the border and is an ordinary soldier here.
The Arabs are discussing something inside, and outside Jamus translates their words for us. The three are brothers. They were arrested during the night, because the machine gun could not be found, that was on the Mukhtar’s list.
"Why did Jaber run off with the machine gun?" asks the eldest, the one with the curly hair and the gigantic mustache. "We should get him back."
"He must have run away to Ramie."
"The Jews will beat us up first and then kill us."
"No they won’t. The Jews know that we are innocent."
"The Jews wouldn’t do a thing like that. They will put us on trial and so find out that we are innocent."
"But before that they will beat us up."
Tarzan goes in and offers them cigarettes. "Mayia. Mayia." pleads the youngest.
Tarzan picks up an empty jug and walks past us without looking at us. "I was going to the mess hall in any case, to drink something." He returns with lemonade.
The eldest stands up and wants to go to the toilet. He puts a blind-fold on himself. I take him by the arm and guide him to the latrine on the other side of the road. I wait until he has finished. I even give him an old newspaper.