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and put me up for court-martial. They get three generals to try one cavalry man; three generals with medals from the Turkish campaign.
    ARYE-LEIB : Do they do this to everyone or only the Jews?
    LEVKA: When a Jew gets on a horse he stops being a Jew …
    There was a cross-reference to Fitzgerald, F. Scott,
The Last Tycoon
. Monroe Stahr “guessed that the Jews had taken over the worship of horses as a symbol – for years it had been the Cossacks mounted and the Jews afoot. Now the Jews had the horses …”
    Another entry, this one penciled in, read:
    See Alberto Gerchunoff:
The Jewish Gauchos of the Pampas
.
    Also Rothschild’s horsemen. The web of messengers.
    The Horseman. Right now, Jake thought, maybe this very minute, he is out riding somewhere. Over the olive-green hills of the Upper Galilee or maybe in Mexico again. Or Catalonia. But, most likely, Paraguay.
    â€œAll right, then,” Uncle Abe had said, seething. “Chew on this, Jake. From what I know of your cousin, if he is actually searching for Mengele, which I don’t believe for a minute, if he is hunting thisNazi down and finds him,” Uncle Abe had shouted, pounding the table, “he won’t kill him, he’ll blackmail him.”
    No, Jake thought, shutting out the obtruding voice, Uncle Abe was only trying to justify his own chicanery,
no, no
, and Jake imagined the avenging Horseman seeking out the villa with the barred windows off an unmarked road in the jungle, between Puerto San Vincente and the border fortress of Carlos Antonio López, on the Paraná River.
    Joey, Joey.
    In his mind’s eye, Jake saw him cantering on a magnificent Pleven stallion. Galloping, thundering. Planning fresh campaigns, more daring maneuvers.

5
    S HE CONTINUED:
    â€œSo I says to the fella, what do you think, I’ve never flown before, I don’t know how
other
airlines do things? You’re talking to a world traveler, a jet-setter yet. He doesn’t even crack a smile, I tell you it takes all kinds. With Air Canada I says if you had to wait two hours for the take-off there would be sandwiches,
individually wrapped
. (We have this Saran Wrap now, I don’t know if you get it here, I’ll send you some, you can’t do without it. Honestly, doll, what they can do nowadays, it’s remarkable, who has to slave over a hot stove any more like I did?) With Air Canada I says to him, we wouldn’t be treated like cattle, we would be served tea. Well, you should have seen him jump.
Yes, madame. Certainly, madame
. Good for you, the Indian lady says when I sit down again. Who even knew she could speak English, we’d been sitting side by side for an hour maybe? So I says I hope you don’t mind me asking, but why is it you people paints dots on your forehead? Forgive me, I’m not the nosy type, but if you don’t ask you never find out, isn’t that so? Is it a Christian symbol, I says? No, she says, in India they’re Hindu. You know, like the Beatles. And the dot means she’s married. Oh, isn’t that fascinating, I says. Now I’ve learned something. So we get to talking and she tells me that in India, you know, there is respect for the mother. Such respect. Her mother is a widow, she says, and they all live in one house, her family, her brother’s family, heryounger sister’s family, all in one house, and the mother, well, the mother is the head of the family and everybody respects her, it’s a time-honored Indian custom. Now isn’t that interesting?”
    Mrs. Hersh and Nancy reached the top of the stairs, Jake flitted into the bedroom, unseen he hoped.
    Heh-heh-heh.
    The bedroom door opened. Oh God, no, Jake thought. But it was Nancy.
“Ketzelle,”
she squealed, “nipple-biter, so there you are!”
    Jake giggled.
    â€œLet me come to court today.”
    â€œAbsolutely no.”
    â€œJake,” she began tentatively, “there’s