Exodus - Leon Uris [239]
Dov and Akiva were placed in tiny cells in the north wing. The walls, ceiling, and floors were made of stone. The cells’ dimensions were six feet by eight feet. The outside wall was sixteen feet thick. There was no light and no toilet. A stink of mustiness was present continuously. Each door was a solid sheet of iron with a tiny peephole for viewing, covered from the outside. The only other opening in the cells was a slit two inches wide and twelve inches high cut through from the outside wall, that allowed in a thin ray of light. Through it Dov could see the tops of some trees and the rim of Napoleon’s Hill, which marked the farthest advance point in the drive to conquer India.
Akiva fared badly. The ceilings and walls dripped, and the clammy damp penetrated his ancient inflamed joints and put him in agonizing pain.
Two or three times each day British officials came to plead for some sort of compromise to prevent the hanging. Dov merely ignored them. Akiva sent them out with quotations from the Bible ringing in their ears.
Six days remained before the hanging. Akiva and Dov were moved to the death cells adjoining the hanging room. These were conventional barred cells in another wing of the prison: four concrete walls, a deep hole under the floor, and a trap door under a steel-beamed rigging to hold the rope. A sandbag of the weight of a man was used in testing; the guards pulled the lever to release the trap door and let the sandbag fall with a crunching thud.
Dov and Akiva were dressed in scarlet pants and shirts, the traditional English hanging dress.
Chapter Fifteen
IT WAS ONE O’CLOCK in the morning. Bruce Sutherland dozed in his library with his head bowed over a book. He sat up quickly, awakened by a sharp knocking. His servant ushered Karen Clement into the room.
Sutherland rubbed his eyes. “What the devil are you doing here this time of night?”
Karen stood before him, trembling.
“Does Kitty know you are here?”
Karen shook her head.
Sutherland led her to a chair. Karen was white and tense. “Have you eaten, Karen?”
“I’m not hungry,” she said.
“Bring her a sandwich and some milk,” Sutherland ordered his servant. “Now see here, young lady, what is all this about?”
“I want to see Dov Landau. You are the only one I know who can help me.”
Sutherland snorted and paced the room with his hands clasped behind him. “Even if I can help you this can only hurt you more. You and Kitty will be leaving Palestine in a few weeks. Why don’t you try to forget him, child?”
“Please,” she pleaded. “I know all the reasons why I have thought of nothing else since he was captured. I must see him once more. Please help me, General Sutherland, please.”
“I’ll do what I can,” he said. “First, let me call Kitty and tell her you are here. She is probably half out of her mind. You had no business traveling through Arab country as you did.”
The next morning Sutherland called Jerusalem. The high commissioner was quick in granting the request. The British were still trying to get Dov and Akiva to change their minds and were willing to grab at any straws. There was a possibility that Karen’s visit could break the armor of Dov’s defiance. It was arranged quickly. Kitty left Gan Dafna and was picked up in Safed by Sutherland, whence the three drove to Nahariya on the coast. There from the police station an escort took them directly into Acre jail, where they were taken to the warden’s office.
Karen had been in a daze all the way to Acre. Now, in the prison, it seemed even more unreal to her.
The warden came in.
“All right, young lady.”
“I’d better go with you,” Kitty said.
“I want to see him alone,” Karen said firmly.
A pair of armed guards waited for Karen outside the warden’s office. They led her through a series of iron doors and into a huge stone courtyard surrounded by barred windows. Karen could see the eyes of the prisoners leering at her. Some catcalls echoed in the hollow yard. She looked straight ahead. They walked up narrow steps into