Page 51 - LEIBY

Chapter 6 51

Leiby asked him to give them some of his clothes so that they
would not be conspicuous in the villages that they had to enter
in their uniforms and city apparel and instructed the soldiers to
put them on.

The soldiers looked strange in the farmer’s coarse clothing,
and even just putting them on was a complicated task for
them. Leiby and Yosef laughed out loud when they saw them
struggling to tie the cord at the neck of the shirt, and when they
tried on the wide trousers and forgot to tie them closed with a
rope at the waist.

Eventually they all got onto the cart, and Leiby sat in the
driver’s seat. Expertly he led the horse along the paths, whistling
a popular Polish folk tune as they rode. Once again, the group
encountered crowds of people who had come to market day in
the village, but this time they looked just like everyone else and
attracted no attention at all. Suddenly, at the end of a bumpy
path, they saw a band of armed Polish rebels lying on either
side of the road, guns drawn and pointed straight at them. A
chopped-down tree stump had been placed in the middle of the
road to serve as a barrier and to stop anyone going past.

“Where are the soldiers, have you seen them?” they asked as
soon as the cart approached them.

“They’ll get here soon, just have a little patience, and you’ll be
able to give them what they deserve,” Leiby answered in perfect
Polish.“Poland for the Polish, long live Poland, and long live our
exiled government in London!14 And now, let us pass please.”

The rebels cheered and moved the tree stump aside. The cart
passed, and they immediately put it back in place in the middle
of the road. All the passengers in the cart were drenched in a
cold sweat and paralyzed with fear.The cart continued on its way
down the dusty path until it had disappeared from the rebels’

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