"Who's supposed to be interested in that?" asks Kebab.
"He says that if we take his herd away from him, he will be desti-tute. He has a wife and four children."
"They always have four children," Kebab grumbles. "What does he want from us? Did we father his children?"
"Tell him that the Israeli Army is confiscating his herd and that he should disappear before he gets a bullet in the head." The Arab screams, begs, cries. I only understand some isolated words, "Fellah," "poor," "children."
"He says he won’t leave without the herd," Jamus explains.
"Tell him that if he doesn’t get out of here quickly, he’ll never see his children again," says Kebab.
"He says he would rather die than watch his children starve to death." What can one do with such a stubborn donkey? It is clear to all of us that we have no other course of action but to bump him off. But no one wants to do it. Even the wildest among us are not enthusiastic.
A military vehicle is approaching, manned by several Palmach people. We call to them and they stop.
"What’s this stinking Arab doing with you?" They belong to a unit stationed in the area. We tell them the story. "You know what?" they suggest after brief consideration. "Hand him over to us. We’ll know what to do with him." We are glad to be rid of him. They get him on their vehicle and drive to the next village.
"At last that’s over! Come on, let’s get back to work," Nachshe drives us on.
We don’t have much time. The sun is already low. We choose the best cows and load them up. We have no patience left. The incident with the Arab played on our nerves. Brutally we beat the cows. In the end eight cows are on the truck. Enough. We will have to do without the rest.
"What about the battalion kitchen?" asks Tarzan.
"They can go to hell," Sancho suggests. "We’ll give them two cows and that’s it. If we sell six on the black market in Tel Aviv, that’ll cover our goggles."
We are tired and thirsty, but in a good mood. Instead of heading back to base, we drive into the next village and drink a cool beer in the soldiers’ club. We send Sancho and Nehemia into town with the