Page 140 - LEIBY

140 Leiby – Border Smuggler

like water even now, after the last sounds of warfare had faded
away.

Late at night, the group set out on their way. Dovid and Pesach,
the breichniks, were tense. They had never led a group of this
size, the groups they had taken to the border up till now had
numbered only ten to twenty people, all young and healthy. The
current group numbered scores of people, among them babies,
elderly people, children, and survivors of the concentration
camps who had arrived here to search for relatives, and barely
had strength to stand on their own two feet.

A pale moon illuminated the way for them. Pesach walked at
the head of the group, Dovid at his right, while Leiby brought
up the rear. Alexander waved goodbye and smiled at Leiby.

“Will you be alright, boy?”

“When it comes to border smuggling, I can outdo everyone
here hands down,” Leiby boasted. “To cross a border that’s
guarded by Poles and Slovaks is mere child’s play. I got people
out of the ghetto under the German guards’ noses. Now that
was a real achievement!”

Suddenly Leiby tripped over a stone and fell face-down onto
the ground. He got up quickly, wiped his scratched-up face and
remarked, “As they say, pride comes before a fall!”

Alexander clapped him on his shoulder. “You have what to be
proud of, boy.”

“No, no one in the world has any reason to be proud,” Leiby
protested. “We’re all just small people doing great things.”

Alexander raised two fingers in the victory sign, wished them
all the best of luck, and turned around to return to the farm.

Leiby felt quite stressed. His task as the group’s rear guard
required maximum vigilance and responsibility. He had to
make sure that no one would fall out of line and accidentally
be left behind, and also that they would leave no signs of their