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Isaac Bell strained his kee
n hearing to its utmost and heard, “You give gun. We let go.”
He ran down the slope and joined Wish in the lead auto. “They want our Maxim.”
“I would, too, in their position,” said Wish.
“They’re welcome to it,” said Bell.
“What?”
“We’ll trade it for a cease-fire and directions to Tiflis.”
“They’ll kill us,” said Rockefeller.
“That thought occurred to me,” said Bell. He looked at Wish.
Wish said, “Isaac, why don’t you talk to him? I’ll get the gun ready to travel.”
Bell cupped his hands and shouted very slowly and clearly, “Tell your friends to come out where we can see them. All of them.”
Josef shouted over his shoulder.
Twelve men started down the slope. They were dressed in workmen’s clothes and they looked very sure of themselves. Bell counted only three rifles. The rest carried pistols. They descended to the road and started toward the autos, fanning out and covering one another with military discipline.
“That’s close enough,” Bell called, stopping them at fifty feet.
“You act suspicious,” said Josef.
“I don’t like people who roll boulders at me.”
“Not us. Cossacks. We chase them.”
“So did we,” said Bell. From what he had seen, heavily armed Cossacks were not easily chased. If what the chauffeurs in the Hotel de L’Europe’s stables told him was true, then an Okhrana informer could arrange for the Cossacks to be called off or driven off by loyal troops if they were renegades. How had Josef found them here in the middle of nowhere? How had he known about the machine gun?
“Who are you, Josef? Who are these men?”
“Social Democrats.”
“Aren’t they illegal?”
Josef flashed his cheerful smile. “Reason we are wanting gun.”
“Are you their leader?”
“No, no, no. They ask me translating.”
“But you just said ‘we.’”
“Mistaking translating.”
“Translate this: Guide us to a road to Tiflis. When we see the town, the gun is yours.”
“Tiflis no safe. Much unrest.”
“Pogromy?”
“Politicals. General Prince Amilakhvari dead. Hateful Russian. Oppressing all Caucasia. Russians bringing for priests to pray on. People protest. Social Democrats protest. Police shooting Social Democrats.”
