CHAPTER 21 - The Desert Claims its Own, Operation Nili and a Last Picture
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| Aron & Major Wyndham Deedes with Army Driver, Sinai Desert |
Sinai Desert, Sheikh Zowa’id, day. Aron with Major Wyndham Deedes, driven by a cheerful young squaddy in an army truck with union jack flying on the bonnet.
The young squaddy, who insists on making jokes on the long journey, may be wondering why his passengers are so glum.
A Bedouin on horseback rides up to them. Major Deedes questions him. The Bedouin shakes his head.
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| Major Deedes and Bedouin Scout |
“He says there is nothing - The desert has swallowed him up - There is no sign of him nor any grave.”
Major Deedes is sorrowful. A deeply observant Christian, he finds himself more and more drawn to Aron and to the Zionist cause.
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| Aron & Deedes in the Desert |
Aron too, is overcome by emotion. This time, he lets the tears stream down his face.
****
In his diary, he writes: ‘And so Absa, the brave Absa, has fallen by the bullet of a Bedouin,’ he writes in his diary. ‘A hunter, looking for prey; he fell, and died, amongst those for whom his trust was so great. What appals the mind is that it is thanks to us, to him and to me, that he must be left to lie, unidentified in the desert; that he is buried without leaving a trace. This idea in itself is enough to send one mad.’
****
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| Aron’s Office, British Headquarters, Cairo |
Aron’s Office. British Headquarters, Cairo. A sign ‘Lieutenant Aron Aronson - Organisation A’ on the door. Aron in British Army uniform at the desk of his new office. The door opens.
Joe stands framed in the door way - his arm still in a sling, his face contrite.
Aron, his antagonism towards Joe, all too clear: “You’ve got a bloody nerve to show up here!”
“I swear it wasn’t my fault! I loved him like a brother! It was all chaos, hundreds of them, bullets everywhere. I nearly died too!”
Aron glares: “Shut up, shut the door and sit down - Just remember that as far as Sara is concerned he is still alive! Is that clear?”
Joe nods but continues to stand.
Without any warning, Joe removes his sling and gesticulating wildly wildly and flexing the muscles of his injured arm, says: “Good as new! I can ride, I can shoot, I’m not afraid of anything - except snakes - I’m ready to work - whatever the risks - to avenge Absa’s name!”
This histrionic action makes Aron question how severe Joe's wound was in the first place, but this is not the time or place for such an inquiry.
****
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| Aron on the Monegam, Near Atlit |
That impatience builds. Two days before the planned voyage the donkey driver, Leibel is sent to Port Said. Aron meets Leibel to prepare him and they each stay in a different hotel in Port Said. The permits are brought by Charley Boutagy who will accompany them on the small British naval ship, the Monegam. Captain Smith meets them at the harbour. At dawn the next day they approach the coast of Palestine.
Aron has not been back for eight months and is full of trepidation. He writes in his diary of the mounting excitement at the renewed contact and the view through his new British binoculars: ‘9 o’clock. We’re approaching Jaffa. We pass Caesarea, Tantura and finally at half-past three, Atlit. At first we didn’t see a solitary person at the Station. Giddiness passed over me. My fear increased when I noticed that the wall of the balcony was black, as though after a fire. A moment of fear, and suddenly I realised that it was only the shadow of the Station which was darkening the wall.’
Aron takes Leibel to the captain’s bridge and explains where he must go.
“Here are the ruins of the Crusader Castle. At night, the ship will be opposite the castle, to cover her outline from the eyes of those on land. But we hope that no one will be watching. See those table-shaped rocks on the shore? You’ll go to the shore alongside those rocks, and you follow the wadi until you get to the highway.”
“ No problem,” says intrepid Leibel: “I’ve passed over the highway many times at night.”
Aron nods impatiently: “ From the highway you take the road to the Station and there you call out the name of Rabb, that’s the man who works at the station and he will let you in. When he opens the door, you go in give him what you get from me. Take what he’ll give you. And tell Haim Cohen - he’s the one with the glasses - he’s to come back with us to Egypt.”
****
The Mediterranean sea coast near Atlit. Night. Lightning flashes over wet palm trees. The small British naval ship, the Monegam, moves through the stormy sea.
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| Anxious Aron, Nervous Joe, Leibel and Captain Smith on the Monegam Deck |
On deck stands Leibel, the donkey driver, nervous Joe, anxious Aron and Captain Smith with spy-glasses - the very same man as that in British High Command, which causes Aron some concern - but the Captain is professional and polite - his little altercation with Aron, apparently firmly in the past. At a respectful distance Abdullah, the boatman and his sons, crouched ready for action.
“Have you got the gold?” asks Aron.
Joe nods and heaves his heavy bag onto his back, careful not to wince at the sharp twinge in his right arm.
“And remember not a word to her!”
Joe nods again.
Abdullah shouts to Leibel: “Yallah! Are you ready to jump?”
Leibel nods, as if this adventure is no more dangerous than his job of driving a donkey carriage round the narrow streets of Jaffa.
****
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| Leo Watching the Sea |
Leo in the tower room on the balcony, writing in his journal, eyes watching the sea, his glasses, more owl-like than ever.
His view: Thick black ship’s smoke spiralling from the funnel. He rushes to Sara who is dozing in a chair.
“Sara! Come quickly. They’re here!” he yells.
“At last!” Sara murmurs and they hug each other with excitement.
Leo writes: ‘So we prepare ourselves for the night. We arrange everything in the yard as agreed before-hand. The workers are working. The horses are in the stables. It’s good that Nazir isn’t here - he is one of the guards - and we gave him the dog to take away with him on an errand. It’s safest that way. Some people even came to see the herbarium but we sent them away. Visitors are not very welcome this evening. Thank God they went away. From Zikhron come Itzhak Halperin and Reuven Schwartz, who is in charge of security at the Station and Baruch Raab, Station Manager, is here too. They will go to the shore to the wadi to meet the 'guests'.
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| Reuven Schwartz and Itzhak Halperin in the Station Grounds |
We blacked out all the lights in the Station. Now we are waiting. For whom? For what? We are nervous. The whole business is so full of mystery and secrecy and so dangerous. One careless step and everything is lost.’
****
The Coast at Atlit. Aron’s view of the Research Station. A white sheet appears at the balcony of the tower room.
The white sheet flapping in the wind as Sara pegs it to the balcony, signalling their readiness.
As Aron records: ‘Then I saw two people hanging out the sheet on the balcony. The ship’s smoke had been seen, and the white sheet was the sign that it was safe to return at night. And so the way is open.’
****
The Monegam. Joe squatting on deck with his heavy bag. Aron hands Leibel a bottle of Scotch whisky and an oilskin package, which he puts into his bag and they are ready to go.
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| Small Boat, rowed by Abdullah and his Sons in a Stormy Sea |
The water, stormy and dangerous. Leibel with the whisky bottle and Joe with his sack, tossed about in the small boat, rowed by Abdullah and his sons.
Abdullah calls through the waves: “It’s too rough Mr. Joe, we can’t land - and you can’t swim with that heavy bag.”
The two young Arabs, Scanda and Elias, whisper that there’s no way the new man will swim ashore in these high seas. Leibel, of course, understands Arabic, but says nothing.
Before anyone can stop him, he strips naked to the waist and, stuffs his clothes into the leather sack - in which he also has a fresh pair of trousers, a torch, a loaded gun and the whisky Aron has given him - and heaves it on to his scrawny back.
“I’m going!” shouts Leibel and without any hesitation, jumps into the black, stormy waters.
Abdullah who knows the waves and currents since his boyhood, follows closely after Leibel, who despite his bravado is soon exhausted. The boatman urges him to rest, floating on the inflated leather bag. They continue swimming and finally reach the shore.
Leibel asks Abdullah to wait for him - his eye sight is poor, he says - another disability he has not declared - but the boatman must return at once to the boat. His sons will fetch Leibel, later. All Leibel has to do is flash his torch as a sign.
Shivering, Leibel shakes himself off like a wet dog, and warms himself with a big sip from the still intact bottle of Johnnie Walker.
****
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| Liebel Emerges from the Sea |
A strong wind, bursts of rain, Goliath barks loudly. A light at the tower room window.
Torchlight flashes like a warning, up the metal stairway. Baruch and Reuven march a blind-folded figure wrapped in a blanket into the room. They have no idea who he is. Sara tells them to go downstairs and make some tea for the half-drowned man.
Sara and Leo confront the naked, shivering, incoherent man, with strands of sea weed in his hair - who certainly prefers whisky to tea - and quickly downs another slug.
As Leo writes in his journal: ‘A man, half demented, with no clothes on, looking with startled eyes at his surroundings, stammers unintelligible word. The smell of alcohol is on his breath, and he is trembling from shock.’
Goliath growls menacingly at his ankles. Then lies down like a puppy, and rolls over to be petted.
Leo catches the drunken, Caliban monster by the throat: “Who sent you? ”
The man is frozen in shock and his mouth gapes but no words come.
“Can’t you talk?! Speak up or I’ll set the dog on you!”
Leibel stammers: ‘Leibel. R..afael’s friend.. I'm Mr. H..Halperin’s driver..”
“Who sent you?” Sara asks calmly.
“ - Mr. A...ron. He sent me.”
“How do we know you’re telling the truth?” Leo doesn’t trust this bedraggled Neptune who emerges from the sea, draped in seaweed, gabbling all kinds of nonsense.
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| Leo's Diary Entry & Aron's Medallion |
For answer, Leibel fumbles in the buttoned pocket of his oilskin sack and produces a medallion which he hands to Sara. The medallion inscribed ‘A. Aronson, for work in the services of agriculture and mankind, from the US Government’, calms Leo’s suspicions - he will later write about the event in his diary - and almost breaks Sara’s heart.
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| Leibel & Goliath |
Later, when Leibel is restored to calm and fully clothed, Leo suddenly remembers that he had once or twice been taken in Leibel’s carriage from Petach Tikva to one or other destination. Leibel had worked for Mr. Halperin, the father of none other than Yitzhak Halperin. Who just now brings the tea - on a tray which he nearly drops when he recognises the little man who had certainly been his father's driver!
“So,” Leo exclaims to Sara, using the ironic, honourific term 'Reb', “this is the courier of good deeds, Reb Leibel Bornstein.”
Leibel swallows two cups of scalding tea and Sara manages to secrete the whisky bottle.
Leo relaxes a little, Goliath lies on his back with his legs in the air, waiting to be patted.
Leibel recovers himself: “He wants Haim Cohen to come back with me.”
“Haim Cohen?” Sara is perplexed.
“That’s me,” says Leo.
“Bring him some more tea and blankets,” says Sara.
Leibel wrapped in blankets drinking another mug of hot tea, patting the dog who has clearly decided to vouch for him and chattering of all he has seen and done: Charley Boutagy who brought the permits, the difficulty of the swim, the cold water, Gallipoli, mules, poverty in Egypt and Raphael Aboulafia, the fixer, who he knew from the Zion Mule Corps, and of course, his hero, Mr. Aron.
Sara hastens to gather her documents and only catches snatches of what seems to her, to be an utterly, fantastic story.
“We’ll come every month at new moon. But Miss Sara mustn’t come down to the shore. Mr. Aron says it’s not allowed! He forbids it.” says Leibel, whose stutter seems to be forgotten in the urgency of his communication.
“Never mind about me - What has happened to Avshalom? Where is he?” demands Sara.
Leibel shakes his head with a puzzled look: “Mr Avshalom? I don’t know him. We must hurry now! They’ll be waiting for me on the shore. Mr. Cohen” he addresses Leo, “You are to come with me. Can you swim?”
“Of course I can swim! On the Neva in Russia in the middle of winter we used to - ”
“You Russians!” Sara interrupts with an unbidden smile, “Always a long story, but we’ve no time to lose!”
Quickly she hands Leo/Owl/Haim Cohen, the wrapped leather pouch with its reports.
****
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| Abdullah and his Sons wait on the Shore |
Leo will later write with his usual mixture of documentary fact and Edgar Alan Poe style, romantic fiction: ‘The storm is wild, the waves are as high as five-story house, and they look as if they would crush us like worms. White foam froths from the mouths of the waves. Terrible. Three horsemen of the apocalypse, like angels of horror, emerge from the darkness. They shiver and chatter with cold. These are Leibel’s Arab friends who have come to take me to the ship.’
The sea is indeed rough. Abdullah in the little boat on the strong waves with his sons, Scanda and Elias, stripped to the waist. The waves are high, it seems impossible that the boat can make land.
Leibel and Leo, huddled on the beach in oilskins, with packs on their backs as they see the little boat.
“There they are!” shouts Leibel.
Scanda and Elias, shaking with cold, impatiently gesture for Leibel and Leo to come: “Ya! Leib, yallah!”
Leibel yells: “I’m going. If I don’t go now, they’ll leave without us. Are you coming?”
Before Leo can answer he dives beneath the next wave and disappears.
Leo tries to follow but is quickly swamped and swallowing water, splutters into the implacable and indifferent night: “Wait!! It’s too rough! I can’t do it!”
But Leibel has gone and as Leo writes: ‘They all vanish, as if they have never been.’
****
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| Sara Watches the Sea |
The tower room. Sara looking out at the implacable sea.
The door opens and a disappointed, dripping Leo dumps his pack down, his glasses tied to him with string, are broken. He dumps his pack down on the floor:
“I’m sorry, so sorry Sara. I couldn’t do it! I nearly drowned!”
“Poor Leo!” she says and hugs him.
“Now you’re wet too!” he says emotionally.
Sara smiles: “Never mind. They’ll be back soon to fetch you. Now let’s warm you up.”
She fetches tea and Leo, wrapped in a blanket, drinks the steaming brew, the colour visibly returning to his cheeks.
“If Avshalom were here, he’d have been braver.”
“But, he’s not here” says Sara.
“I love you Sara, I’ve always loved you!” Leo cannot stop himself.
“Poor Leo,” she says again and kisses him gently on the cheek. “If things had been different - But I know he’ll be back ”.
****
Later Sara will write to ‘poor’ Leo with sympathy and affection: ‘And if there were a few people who could understand me, there aren’t many of them left. The dearest and most special one who knew and understood me so well is no longer with us... I prefer not to speak of him, because the heart aches too much and silence, in this case, is a better cure than words.’
The sky is still dark. They sit silently with the lamp lit. Suddenly the loud clatter of a pebble on the shutter.
Leo goes onto the balcony. From below, he hears a soft whistle.
“What’s this?” Sara whispers.
Leo wants to go downstairs to see who it is but Sara insists on accompanying him with the lamp.
At the front door stands Leibel, stripped to the waist, dripping wet and trembling with cold.
“ I c...couldn’t get to the boat. I l..ost them - ”
“This time, all really is lost!” groans Leo.
“No. You did well to come back. You might have drowned otherwise. Aron will know we are waiting,” says the lady with the lamp and she makes another cup of nettle tea - Urtica membranacea - as she recalls from Aron’s long ago lessons, in the fields of her childhood.
****
At nine o'clock the next evening the Monegam or in Hebrew, the ‘Menachem’, anchors again at Atlit. An anxious Aron paces the deck, watching the shore for any sign of life. There is none.
Joe in the background moodily smoking: “Where are they?? They didn’t make it!”
Aron tries to be positive, but he too is worried.
“At dawn, you’ll have your turn. They’re sure to come soon.”
****
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| Pre Dawn on the Shore |
A pale, pre-dawn sky reveals that very unlikely tableau: four figures and a dog, on the shore; Leo with his pack, Leibel in his donkey-jacket, with heavy sack, Abu Farrid with the oilcloth bag.
Sara, in her black shawl, once Malka’s, carrying a lantern, stands a little further back, holding on to Goliath’s collar. Rules are rules, she thinks and Aron has forbidden her to go any further though it pains her to listen to what she sees as an unnecessary caution.
Abdullah and his sons, row Joe to the shore.
Joe stripped to the waist, climbs from the rowboat into the sea on the strong back of Scanda, one of Abdullah’s sons and they disappear into the dark foaming waves.
As the sun rises, a two-headed figure emerges from the shallows - Joe carrying a bag and crate on his shoulder, riding like Poseidon, on the back of Scanda who tosses off his heavy burden, leaving Joe to steady himself on the slippery rocks before he manages to hurl the crate to a patiently waiting Abu Farrid.
Meanwhile, Goliath has managed to loosen himself from Sara's grip and he leaps into the foamy water to help Abu Farrid drag the crate ashore.
Sara steps out from behind the bushes - despite her anxiety, she can't help smiling at all the chaos.
Leibel throws off his jacket and gives it to a shivering Leo - it’s much too small, but he takes it.
“Like ships that pass in the night.” Joe salutes his replacements with an upheld hand.
Leo and Leibel, wade into the sea, water reaching their knees. Leo waves to Sara.
She waves encouragingly back.
The boatman hauls Leo unceremoniously over the side of the little boat. Only his boots are visible before they too disappear.
“Good bye and good luck!” Joe shouts after them.
Then he sees Sara standing on the shore
“We’ll need more than good luck, dear Joe,” she says.
****
The tower room. Joe wrapped in blankets drinking a mug of tea. Two small leather pouches of gold on the desk.
Joe’s bravado has returned: “Freezes your balls off! But I’ll get used to it.”
He spits the tea out: “Eeegh. Tastes like boiled goat shit.”
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| Joe & Sara in the Tower Room |
“It’s nettle tea.” she laughs. “ It’s winter. The fig tree is bare.”
“Next time we’ll bring more gold and some real tea,” boasts Joe.
Sara weighs the coin bags in her hands.
“We need medicines, food. There’s dysentry and malaria in the villages. And everyone’s hungry. How often will you come?”
“Every month at new moon! Just hang the white sheet if the coast is clear. We’ll take turns, Leo and I and the donkey man.”
He finishes the bitter tea with a grimace.
Sara’s voice is deceptively calm: “What’s happened to Avshalom? Where is he?”
Joe responds blithely: “He’s fine. He’ll write soon. But we must hurry now! They are waiting for me. I won’t forget the medicines. Or the tea - ”
Sara gives him a look as she hands him the wrapped leather pouch with its reports.
****
A misty dawn. Leibel in the prow with Scanda and Elias, rowing the little boat, as Aron and Leo, wrapped in a rough blanket, embrace.
Aron has not given himself the luxury of seeing Sara but he immediately inquires as to her well being.
“She’s well, she sends you her love. But she needs to know where Absa is - ” says Leo.
“I can’t tell her that,” Aron is only too clear.
“Can you tell me?” Leo asks, as a shiver runs down his spine.
“We shall not see him again in this life - ”
Aron’s answers is unequivocal confirmation of the catastrophe.
Leo’s tears run down his cheeks, mixing with the salt spray.
Aron turns away, hating to see Leo’s emotion and fearing that his own might engulf him and threaten both his sanity and the operation.
****
And so it is that either Joe or Leo, return every month to Atlit to
become the co coordinators of Nili’s activities, although Sara still
retains firm control. Joe's intimate knowledge of the country helps him
keep contact with the various operatives wherever they are. Sometimes he
stays in Atlit, at Nili’s base, and other times, he travels around the
country between the various agents, collecting reports, copying those
reports in his own handwriting and taking them to Egypt using the
British ship the Monegam. He also manages and supervises the transfer of
funds from Egypt to Palestine. But he is always careful to skirt the
issue of Sara’s lost loved one, as Aron has so strictly, instructed. And there is brief friction between Leo and Joe, on the short occasions when they meet: ‘like ships passing in the night.’
It is, of course, inevitable that Sara senses the truth about her loved one and it is only a matter of time before Joe can no longer keep his secret.
****
Sara and Joe walking briskly along the rocky beach at Atlit.
“Where is he, Joe? You must tell me!” she asks.
Joe waves his arms evasively: “We can’t tell anybody, in case they guess - ”
“Am I supposed to guess too? You left him in the desert - dead, dying - ? How am I supposed to know?!”
“Yes, yes, that’s exactly how it was! It wasn’t my fault!” he blurts out. “He told me how much he loved you - That he would see you again - There was so much sand and confusion!”
He bursts into noisy sobs.
Sara brushes her own angry tears away: “So he is dead, my good kind Absa is dead - ”
She composes herself with great effort: “No one must know especially his and my family. The news of our actions will be known in minutes if they do.”
We cutaway to the waves breaking on the beach.
****
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| Sara Stronger than Iron |
From now on the light hearted young woman with the ready smile, turns to stone. Her relationship with Joe, tinged always with the knowledge that he has been a party to Avshalom’s death, will remain polite and functional. Absa's passing will colour her every waking moment and many of her nightmares too.
But there is no time for self-pity. Her habitual resilience and fortitude turn to active resistance.
She writes to Aron of her intentions: ‘To continue what my dear one began - that is all I wish. And vengeance, great vengeance, on the wild ones of the desert, and on the cruel Turk. May God only give us life to continue.’
‘It’s hard for me to out down on paper what I feel... It’s terrible, terrible and there’s no comfort. But I must tell you: I’m stronger than iron and very cool. I would never have believed I could find such strength in myself. There are times when I feel I am dead or a worthless vessel; for how is it possible that I am able to restrain myself in the face of such awful sacrifice? Maybe it’s the work allotted to me, the debt I owe: to continue the work our dear one began. Yes, I want only to continue. And I want revenge.’
****
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| Aron on Deck of the Monegam |
Back on board the Monegam, Leo and Aron stand miserably on deck in the early morning light. Leo looks sea-sick, he has a Bible in his hands - a gift, as it happens, from Avshalom - and he fervently mutters a prayer, something he has not done for a long time.
A young New Zealand naval officer comes up to Leo: “Haven’t seen you around before? What’s your password, then mate?”
Aron looks worried. There isn’t one.
Leo looks blank for a second, then he lifts his finger: “Wait a moment.”
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| Leo & his Bible on Board Ship |
He flicks open his Bible at random and it opens on 1 Samuel XV - the passage where King Saul comes to the priest, Samuel, when he is facing defeat by the Philistines, but he does not listen to the Prophet's instruction, instead offering a sacrifice himself, an act of disobedience that leads to God's rejection of Saul and an angry admonition and warning, that Saul will lose his Kingdom for his rejection of the Lord, summed up in the rather curious phrase: 'the eternity of Israel will never lie'.
It is this passage that Leo reads aloud with quiet conviction: “Netzach Yisrael lo yishaker - ‘N - I - L - I’ ”
The young officer looks puzzled: “What’s that?” he asks.
Leo smiles broadly, his owlish face gilded with the rising sun shining off the sea.
“ ‘The eternity of Israel will not lie.’ That’s our password - ‘Nili’.”
The young officer nods as if, he knew that all the time: “Nellie? She must be a looker then?”
And he goes off whistling: “I once knew a girrrly called Nellie -”
Aron and Leo exchange a smile and a shrug.
“‘Nili’? It’s better than “Operation A”!” Aron says appreciatively.
At last, the espionage group have a proper name, sanctified by its biblical origins and approved of by a young Kiwi naval officer.
****
Sara’s reaction after the news of her loved one’s death is not perhaps, a surprising one. Practical measures must be taken for the job in hand. This calms her mind. Silence and deep interiority are her usual habit and refuge. She remains watchful and vigilant. Nothing must give away her terrible secret. Especially not to those closest to her. Her restraint should not be mistaken for a lack of feeling. Her heart is broken and can never be fixed. What must sustain her now is her passionate love of her Land and her eternal devotion to her dead lover.
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| Sara & Toba at Work |
Back home in Zikhron, her face pale and composed, at Aron’s desk with pregnant Toba, who takes notes in the agreed code - they have now discarded the ancient Aramaic as too troublesome - while Sara dictates from a pile of documents.
It is time to get as much information as possible from all over the country but this requires permits for each destination.
Toba is enlisted to take documents to Damascus. She claims an ill family member and for reasons unknown - perhaps her sweet smile - is given a permit.
‘It wasn’t easy,’ Toba wrote. ‘The trains were choc-a-bloc. I was alone without an escort. I had dressed like an Arab dancer in a white dress which showed off my tummy and was wearing many bracelets. Somehow I got a seat. Throughout the journey, I didn’t say a word, for I knew no Turkish. Luckily nobody bothered me and I returned safely to Atlit.’
Meanwhile Joe is tasked with arranging permits for the forthcoming journey.
In their absence, Max Bronstein and Yitzhak Halperin are to run the Station with Reuven in charge.
****
Joe returns empty handed. The permits are not forthcoming. This, however, does not stop Sara from planning the necessary excursion and taking the necessary precautions.
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| Sara Ready to Go |
“We‘ll visit the Bey in Haifa, he must help us,” Sara says matter of factly, as she take the gun from the secret panel in the living room and puts it into her handbag.
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| Joe & Sara's Pistol |
Joe checks his own weapon and puts it in his pocket.
“A woman shouldn't carry a gun!” he protests.
Sara is amused: “Well this woman does. Are you ready?”
She picks up her hat from the dresser, and hands Joe her overnight bag. Joe follows her meekly into the back room with his load.
The annex covered with red tiles, kelim rug and heavy, linen bureau in the corner from which she takes two large pillows. Sara gestures for her helpmate to move the heavy bureau out of the way - he rolls away the rug, revealing the concealed trap-door, which he lifts to expose a steep, metal ladder, descending into the earth.
She hands him the pillows and lifts her skirts in ladylike manner and without any fear, proceeds to climb down the ladder into the musty darkness. Her sobriety in dress and manner, as ever, conceals a passionate, rebellious heart.
****
Joe and Sara emerge out of the door at the bottom of the hillside covered in leaves and spider webs. They dust themselves off. Joe starts to sneeze - he blames the feather pillows and the dust. A large, syringa tree with creamy, white blossoms does nothing to stop Joe's hayfever, a remnant of childhood asthma apparently. A sudden scuffling sound in the bushes, stops the sneezing.
Nervous Joe takes out his gun.
Sara starts to laugh: “It’s only a poor, hungry beastie!”
A large brown and white cow moos with surprise and continues with her meal.
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| Abu Farrid Outside the Cellar |
Under the tree, Abu Farrid, shaking with laughter, waiting with the ramshackle, station carriage and two tired-looking horses.
****
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| The Road to Haifa |
Sara and Joe being driven by Abu Farrid in the rickety carriage on the road to Haifa. An arid landscape streams by, fields are bare, the road is rough and they are thrown about in the back of the carriage, like sacks of potatoes. At the roadside, pitiful locals beg for food with their dusty little ones. An old man on a donkey eats a prickly pear, carefully taking out the prickles.
Suddenly, a military Coast Guard gallops past with his troops. Joe grips the gun on his lap.
“Put it away. They may stop us,” Sara warns quietly.
But the Coast Guard and his troops ride on with other business on their minds.
“Lucky they’re not looking for us,” Joe shakes his head: “If they knew who we were...”
He mock aims his gun at his temple until Sara's glance implies his weapon should be returned to the safety of his pocket.
The carriage continues on its jolting way as it climbs into the Carmel hills. In the distance, the German Colony of Haifa appears in the valley.
****
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| The Djemal Pasha |
The Turkish Government Office, Haifa. A large portrait of the Djemal Pasha, hangs on the wall, its painted eyes, peering down with an uncanny intensity, that seem to follow Sara's gaze.
Sara with an adamant Hassan Bey - whilst Joe nonchalantly jiggles his pockets.
“We need a permit to get to Jerusalem via Nazareth - I must continue my brother’s work or we will all starve - ” she asks undaunted.
“I would like to help you, Miss Sara, like in the old days” says the Bey, sighing deeply, remembering the very generous baksheesh he was wont to receive from Sara's absent brother, “But unfortunately there are no permits. And I have orders to impound all carriages and horses for the war.”
Sara is taken aback. Without transport their work will be severely compromised.
“If you take the carriage from us, how can we continue with my brother’s work?” she says.
“Ah Mr. Satan, Aron, a very good friend of mine. Very unfortunate that the British have caught him. Very unfortunate indeed.”
Joe nods sagely. He is ready for his part in the art of deception and persuasion and hands over an envelope of gold coins from his jiggling pocket.
“In appreciation and out of deference to the Pasha,” he glances reverently at the large portrait staring down at them with those sinister, following eyes.
The Bey ignores Joe, slides the envelope into a draw of his desk and sighs again: “These are terrible times, Miss Sara - very unfortunate indeed. I am happy your conveyance will be put to good use in the war effort but there are no permits. The Pasha has forbidden it.”
****
 |
| Haifa Bay, Dusk |
Dusk. Haifa, with its beautiful blue bay, not yet ruined by oil and progress. Abu Farrid waiting with the carriage and horses. Joe curses at the failure to get any permits, and gives the carriage wheel a sharp kick.
A crumbling chunk of dessicated wood falls off the rim.
Joe: “What now?”
Sara: “We'll go with or without permission.”
****
 |
| The First of Many Trips |
And so Joe and Sara begin the first of their many trips across the country in search of information. Not always in agreement it must be said - though Joe understands the pecking order and has promised Aron to follow Sara's orders. They are always in full view of the villagers, who are, after all used to seeing Sara in the Station carriage driven by faithful Abu Farrid. Sometimes alone and sometimes in tandem. Sometimes at night, more often in the day. Sometimes in disguise, sometimes in plain sight. Sara's serenity and staid demeanour means that for a while, they escape the net at roadblocks and passing patrols. The Turks would have seen a quiet, composed, young woman. Her habitual hat and prim outfit might have been that of any respectable lady of the area out on an errand. And what her staid appearance and modest dress did not convince was quickly settled with a ruse, or a coin or two.
****
But Joe is getting on her nerves. He is a fidgety passenger, nervous of
every roadblock, is rude to Abu Farrid - and worst of all, they must share lodgings to save money - and Joe has nightmares where he shouts Absa's name which naturally upsets Sara and keeps her from sleeping.
“It’s not safe. You’re a woman!”
“Therefore they won’t suspect me - and you being a man - can catch up later,” she says sweetly.
Joe’s face. Not happy.
“Get a horse and go to Be’er Sheva. There's an arm's depot there I want you to check. I'll be fine with Abu Farrid. Then meet me in ten days at the Jordan Bridge near Gesher and we’ll visit Doctor Neumann in Afullah.”
Sara is, as usual, firmly in charge and not averse to a little subterfuge as we shall see.
****
A favoured ploy - Sara, in the back of the bumpy carriage, face veiled, body swathed in robes, those useful pillows tucked into her waist to give the impression of a large, elderly, Arab lady.
On this occasion, it is night. A light appears in the middle of the track. Sara draws her veil closer and her 'tummy' more central, as Abu Farrid lurches to a stop.
A Turkish Patrol with lanterns, at the side of the road, stops the carriage.
“Where are you going at this time of night?” asks the Patrol Captain suspiciously.
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| Abu Farrid Wishes Peace on the Patrol Captain |
Abu Farrid drops the reins and salaams obsequiously: “A family wedding in Nazareth, effendi. Lots of people.”
“Where is your permit?!” demands the Patrol Captain.
“It’s only my mother, Captain - it’s just that she has the bellyache and the runs - It may be typhoid,” he adds helpfully.
The huddled Arab lady joins in with a chorus of muffled groans.
The Captain waves them on hurriedly: “Go! Go! Get out of here! Yallah! I hope the wedding doesn’t turn into a hundred funerals!”
The horses gallop off and Sara in the creaky carriage, pulls the pillows from under her skirt, and settles back on them to have a quick nap.
****
Sara's view as Nazareth appears on the horizon.
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| Sara & Turkish Soldiers, Carmelite Convent, Nazareth |
A poor Arab town with hungry Turkish soldiers marching past the walls of the Carmelite Convent.
Sara spends a week in Nazareth where she has a friend a sympathetic Carmelite nun, Sister Agnes, who gives her lodging in a spartan, monastic cell in the Convent - while Abu Farrid is placed in the stables.
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| Carmelite Nun Sister Agnes |
Sister Agnes, confides to Sara, in a soft Irish brogue: “There’s an arms dump in the courtyard - and there are troops too, as you see, a couple thousand here in Nazareth. The soldiers are all starving, the officers steal their rations. Everyone wants change! The British must come!”
Sara lists all she sees and hears.
****
Meanwhile other members of the group continue their efforts with new determination, now that the contact is restored.
 |
| Eitan Belkind in Damascus |
Eitan Belkind has returned to Damascus where he has been appointed commissioner of vegetables and milk supply to the military hospitals there. This gives him plenty of opportunity to prepare his assessment of the situation, including the supplies being prepared for what must be a planned offensive.
He writes: ‘Five long-barreled artillery guns, but only a handful of soldiers in Aleppo, much larger numbers in Beirut and Damascus - Now just to get details of the offensive.’
He reports too of a German Radio Station situated near Damascus and ascertains through a friend, Eliezer Lipson, who works there, that a certain code, is key to the transmissions. A code, soon revealed and quickly passed on.
Toba is back in Zikhron and awaits her baby, still receiving messages from Sara and other Nili members.
****
 |
| Joe & Turkish Arms Depot |
In the desert town of Be’er Sheva, a heavily disguised Joe, in his ubiquitous robes, observes a Turkish arms’ depot where he peers through the half-obscured, dirty window of a warehouse.
He whistles in surprise at the vast amount of ordinance spread out on dozens of shelves.
“Tens of millions of cartridges and tens of thousands of high-explosive shells near Be’er Sheva - Wait 'til the British hear about this!” he will report to Sara when they meet up.
****
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| Hotel Faust, Jerusalem |
In the art deco Hotel Faust, overlooking Jerusalem‘s Old City, the Germans have set up their headquarters, and here, Eitan’s brother, Naaman, seeks news of his own. At the bar, officers drinking copious amounts of Jägermeister or some similar deadly spirits.
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| Commander Von Kressenstein with Albanian Officer, Felix |
Commander Von Kressenstein, who we recall from not very long ago, with distinctive Albanian officer, Felix and other officers, regarding a map of the region.
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| Naaman & Felix |
Naaman delivering some crates of Rishon wine to the bartender, piling the crates behind the counter. From his vantage point, he can clearly see the map with its troop routes and destination - the Suez Canal.
Naaman informs Sara: “It’s only a matter of time before they attack the Canal!”
****
 |
| Tiberius on the Sea of Galilee |
Restless Joe, having a few free days before he meets Sara on the appointed date, has decided to take a short holiday - of sorts. He stops in Beit Gan near Tiberius, on the Sea of Galilee or as we call it, the Kinneret. A farming community of small houses set in a circle of black hills. Joe’s former home.
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| Joe at Beit Gan |
Joe ties his horse to a gate with a spring in his step.
“Home sweet home at last! Doesn’t the air smell sweet?” he addresses a giant of a man, his brother in law Avram, carrying a bulky rifle.
Behind the giant, a thin bedraggled woman, hanging washing, Joe’s abandoned wife with two children hidden in her skirts.
Joe approaches them with a big smile, as if it was only the other day that he saw them.
“It’s Aba - daddy - Ivriya, Tuvia!” he says in a sing-song voice, which elicits no response from his unhappy offspring.
The wife turns her face away and drags the children inside the small house.
“I have money for you,” he shouts. “I’ll bring it every month”.
Avram blocks his way: “Yosef Lishansky! You’re not welcome here! You’ve brought us nothing but trouble!”
Joe puffs himself up, insulted: “Avrami! That’s no way to greet your brother in law. And I’ve got money for my wife.”
“I’m not your brother in law after what you’ve done and they’re not your kids anymore! You left my sister and these poor fatherless kids! I wonder you’ve got the chutzpah to show your face here!”
Joe looks hurt, then he recovers: “My friend, I’m only here because I want to recruit you to our cause - ”
Avram laughs - not a pleasant sound: “You want us to spy for you? Now why should we do that, when we get anything we want with a little baksheesh?”
He aims his rifle at Joe: “Now get out of here, before I blast your dishonest backside off - ”
Joe raises his hands in the air and retreats like a cartoon mouse at the claws of a nasty tomcat:
“OK, OK, I’m going - ”
He throws a small purse at Avram’s feet and quickly climbs on his horse and rides off.
Avram spits after him, then picks up the purse and carefully counts out the money - then curses at the paltry amount.
****
Joe keeps his word, however, and every month, money is transferred to his wife and his kids, Ivriya a girl and Tuvia, a little boy. Admittedly, the transaction is done through an intermediary - Joe himself never showed up there again. Until the end, that is.
The corollary, however is that suspicions arise when British sterling coins are found in the market place. These coins were part of the financial support sent to Joe’s family, and their housemaid - a young Arab girl - uses them as payment in the market.
Because the Ottomans are at war with Britain, using its currency is strictly forbidden. The discovery of the coins by the police, although they do not know who sent them, strengthens the suspicion of espionage in support of Britain.
****
 |
| Sara at Jisr el-Majami Bridge |
The sound of rushing water. Joe and Sara meet up at the appointed place, near Gesher in the Jezreel Valley. The Jisr el-Majami Bridge over the Jordan. A narrow, stone bridge of Roman origin and Mamluk engineering, with a large arch and six smaller ones, which spans the river.
On the near bank, Abu Farrid and the carriage. He shakes his head. Too narrow. Joe leads a shying horse across the bridge. Abu Farrid leads the other horse across. The carriage is pushed across the precarious bridge by Joe and pulled by Abu Farrid, helped by a young road worker.
Joe slips and almost falls into the river.
Sara conceals an involuntary smile. How surreal everything is! We see the crossing of the river in hypnotic slow-motion as the carriage threatens to topple over into the water below and the two men heave it upright again with all the force they can muster.
Sara’s face as she waits on the opposite bank with the young road worker.
The young man is glib: “If you want to cut the Turks off all you have to do is blow up this bridge! It’s the only way for troops from Damascus to get from here to the front!” he says.
Sara smiles. It’s not that she hasn’t thought the same thing herself.
****
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| Doctor Neumann at the Railway Station in the town of Afullah |
A dusty chaotic railway junction in the town of Afullah.
Cows and goats on the railway track, being chased away by station officials as trains arrive from every direction - from Istanbul, Aleppo, Damascus. Turkish soldiers and German officers spill onto the crowded platform, en route to the front. The Turks are badly equipped and hungry, the Germans, organised, well-armed and condescending towards the Ottomans, who they perceive as a distinctly, lesser species.
****
A brass plaque reads: ‘Chief Military Doctor Neumann - Afullah’ - Joe knocks loudly at the door.
An elderly woman answers the door nervously - Dr. Neumann’s mother. A pleasant middle class home. On the wall a framed photo of the doctor in Turkish military uniform, as if to reinforce his strong loyalty to the Ottoman powers.
 |
| Dr. Neumann as a Young Man in the Turkish Army |
A cautious bachelor, in his thirties, Dr. Moshe ‘Max’ Neumann, cannot imagine what Sara wants from him. All he wants is a quiet life in this Ottoman backwater.
The doctor’s mother potters about anxiously serving tea - real tea - in her best china, German porcelain cups and saucers.
“We need your help, doctor,” says Sara, sipping her tea genteelly.
The bachelor doctor looks even more cautious and anxious. She hands him a list.
Dr. Neumann reads the letter from Aron that Sara has given him. She sips her tea. Joe admires the porcelain tea cup, testing the quality of the fine china with a few raps of his rather grubbly, finger nails.
“I’ll be playing with my head, if I do this!” says the poor man.
Sara smiles patiently: “I’m playing with mine all the time - and it’s still here on my shoulders, as you see - If you’re Aron’s friend, you’ll do the same. ”
Dr. Neumann swallows his tea with a gulp, looking positively terrified.
“We need to know troop movements, numbers, all that, and every train that moves through the station.”
The doctor’s mother hovers anxiously: “Would you like more tea?” she asks her guests.
“I’d love some more tea!” says our intrepid recruiter of spies and lover of tea.
****
But despite her calm demeanour, Sara’s head is filled with all kinds of unspoken fears.
By nature, she is frank, straight forward, a no frills person with neither guile nor deceit. She prefers not to answer at all, rather than answer without complete honesty. Now subterfuge and dissimulation are part of her every day lexicon. To be a spy, requires double-dealing and duplicity. All this sits heavily with our heroine’s inner thoughts and her core morality. She reconciles herself with the constant belief that Absa would have wanted her to continue her task, at all costs to psyche, psychology and peace of mind.
Sara is the quintessential controller of her own destiny and she will risk everything for her cause. But will the good doctor do the same?
****
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| Dr. Neumann Inspects Turkish Troops |
Afullah Military Compound grounds. Dr. Neumann, with a stethoscope, inspects line after line of Turkish Soldiers, who are stripped to the waist. We hear his voice over: “The Turks have sent some fifty thousand men to the city - I have personally inspected half of that number - but their health is poor - many have advanced tuberculosis and their weapons are outdated - If you want to stop the movement of troops from here to the front, you will need to attack the old bridge at Jisr el-Majami.”
Our cautious military Doctor did indeed became braver by the minute. A respected and valuable member of Nili, he did indeed risk his head, with daily inspections of the trains that arrived at that dusty, chaotic station. In this way, the British were informed of the reinforcements of both Germans and Turks who were pouring into Palestine for the next stage of the war. Most startlingly, he even went out in the full light of day to measure the tracks - sometimes with his brother, Mendel, who held one end of the measuring tape - so that when the British built their railway line it would have the same gauge as the Ottoman railways allowing troops and supplies to reach Damascus from the start point of Egypt into Palestine. Such an action would definitely have cost his head, had he been discovered.
Ironically the first railway line in Turkey began in 1856, and was constructed by a British company. By the time of our story, nearly half of the almost forty thousand, million pounds of British investment in the Ottoman Empire was in the railways. The Hejaz railway in question was a narrow-gauge railway, three and a half foot wide, that ran from Damascus to Medina, through the Hejaz region of modern-day Saudi Arabia. The project was ordered by Sultan Abdul Hamid II in March 1900. It’s branch line to Haifa, via Afullah, known by the Yishuvniks as the ‘Valley Train’, ran through the Jezreel Valley and would provide the link to the entire Ottoman and Arab lands, so desired by the British. It was also the line used by many members of the Nili spies in our story.
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| Dr. Neumann Writes his Reports at Atlit |
Afullah was the major railway junction in the country and Dr. Neumann listed military installations, number of trains engines and warehouses in his intelligence and brought this information to the Station at Atlit where he had his own desk. In his memoirs we read something of his audacity and the many risks he took:
‘In between medical examinations, I would take a seat in the officers’ compartment on the train, invite them for a glass of wine, while my brother, Mendel, would be making a count of the train’s cars and their load of ammunition. When there were too many soldiers to be examined, not leaving me free to chat to individual officers... I declared one or two of them to be ill - many suffered from sexual diseases - I would hospitalise them and then I had free rein to examine them. The fact that I had the rank of an officer helped to loosen their tongues.’
‘I paid special attention to German officers and air pilots - they were drawn to me because I spoke German. I served as interpreter between them and the Railway Control Officer at the station. The pilots explained to me the type of planes they used; submarine officers told me of their adventures. British prisoners-of-war who came through Afullah found a faithful friend in me.’
At one time, the good Doctor even examined Djemal Pasha - he had an enlarged heart and poor lungs. Djemal was so impressed by the Doctor’s diligence that he gave him fifteen days’ leave in Jerusalem and there, Dr. N. made sure to visit him and pass on every word that the Pasha told him. All this information and much more - daily train schedules, names of Turkish divisions coming from Constantinople and Salonika, with numbers of soldiers and their countries of origin - was sent direct to Atlit.
When the doctor was transferred to Ramle - his predecessor having gone on leave - he continued writing his diary, and reported from a German airfield - that he made a tour with none other than, Joe Lishansky, and showed him ‘all the important sites, the airfield, the radio station, ammunition dumps, the hospital, etc’.
And when he was sent to Petach Tikva, he reported with the detail that characterises his dedication to the task: ‘March 20th 1917: The train from Damascus carried one motor car, four cannons belonging to division No. 53; two cars of benzine; two cars of food - sauerkraut and bratwurst sausages; seventy soldiers for the 53rd division and one complete plane accompanied by a pilot and two German mechanics..’
The very obliging pilot and mechanics informed him of the state-of-the-art, Fokker aeroplane being readied for action, with its machine gun which could be adjusted to fire ‘upwards, downwards, left and right,’ but which had never been used, in case, his informants told him, that it might fall into the hands of the British, who might emulate its lethal design.
In a rather humorous exchange, a musical friend of the doctor’s, a Mr. Kowalsky, conductor of the 23rd Division Orchestra at Nazareth, who had gone in search of a train whistle for the instrumentation of ‘Die Bahn’ - the Train - which was very popular with off duty Germans, informed our dedicated spy, of Battalion 137 which had arrived from Lebanon:
‘All the men were weak, all were short of stature, and all dressed alike, that is barefoot, except for one who is wearing shoes, and he upsets the uniformity.’
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| David Sokolowitch & Paulette ‘Polk’ Glatzeanu/Glatzano |
In addition, Nili had a new agent, connected to the Aronson family, a certain David Sokolovitch, married to Paulette Glatzano - Malka’s niece. He was a farmer in the Jezreel Valley and began contributing reports too. At Sara’s request he replaced Dr. Neumann as eyes on the ground in Afullah, opening a station buffet and canteen and because of his excellent hospitality and his command of Turkish, German, Arabic and French, was able to pick up a great deal of information from his unwitting lunch guests. He too received a desk at Atlit.
****
The range of reports that reaches Aron’s ears is enormous, but never satisfied, Aron wants more.
‘Turkish ammunition, where is it stored? And food? And fodder? Where? In caves? What new roads are being built, how accurate are British raids, are any Turkish units being trained in the use of poison gas?’
All these questions are at the request of the British and all the answers are quickly transferred to Cairo.
****
Yet, at precisely the time when more information was coming in to the British, than ever before, so was the whole operation thrown into doubt. Captain Smith, always distrustful of Nili, had decided, in his wisdom, that ‘better information’ was available from ‘other quarters’ - though he never qualified what or who those mysterious, other quarters were.
Leo has just reported to Aron from Port Said, where he has been dropped off, that Smith has been more rude than his custom and that something is definitely afoot. It’s not the first time Leo has reported of Smith’s downright rudeness verging on aggression. Why now? Just when things are going better than ever?
Aron confronts Deedes, who denies any knowledge of a rift, but promises to discuss the matter with Smith the following day. More aggression and humiliation follows. Smith responds with counter arguments and accusations of high handedness on Aron’s part which does nothing to calm the situation. Captain Edmonds tries to help but nothing comes of it. Too much fuss, is being made of all this, is his response, which did not please Aron, who retorted again with the risks he and his people were taking and the lack of appreciation for taking those risks.
Aron is seething. Jealousy, antisemitism, arrogance, all raise their ugly heads as possible causes of the rift.
Aron writes in his diary: ‘Either the situation will be clarified and accepted without evasions, without dependence on this or that captain, or the vagaries of the weather, or we shall exchange farewells.’
****
Sara, of course, must know nothing of this furore, in case it breaks her will to continue, and neither must the many other agents busy gathering information.
Leo who has just been dropped off from the Monegam’s last trip, is sworn to silence and he requests a few days to be with his family in Hadera before he returns to Cairo.
Sara insists on a photograph to celebrate their success in the ingathering and dispersal of their findings.
“It may, she says be our last chance to be together,” she tells her co conspirators and rivals for her attention and affection, Joe and Leo.
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| Leo, Sara and Joe, a Last Picture |
That famous picture, Leo, Sara and Joe, posed full length against a painted sky with leafy trees, for all the world as if they are some innocent, young people who chance to be on a pleasant outing to the countryside. Sara looks directly at the camera, her pale face framed by a large straw hat, her eyes dark and full of pathos, mouth sealed in a look of mute appeal, hand firmly on the handle of a folded parasol. Joe, jostling to be in front, jaunty and cocky as ever, in a cream-coloured boater, on the left and serious Leo, on the right, in a boater of his own, staring straight ahead through his metal-framed eye glasses, without which, he is blind as a bat - keeps his fears to himself.
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| Memento Mori |
The moment, a memento mori, frozen forever in salt and silver nitrate and time, will endure longer than its subject matter.
Trouble indeed waits in the wings. Will this indeed be the last photograph?
****
Things come to a head in Cairo - another meeting with Deedes, Smith and Captain Malcolm - the latter, even higher up in the hierarchy - ended in stormy disagreement. Aron is stunned to hear both Smith and Malcolm insist that they had ever said there were ‘others’ who could do the job better. Deedes attempted to be referee and insisted both sides were at fault. Aron resented the fact that he was accused of being ‘as bad as’ his opponents and was ready to walk out. Eventually another meeting was held just with Aron and Malcolm. Aron was certain he was about to be given his marching orders but to his surprise Malcolm, insisted it had all been a ghastly mistake and that according to the higher echelons, Nili was more valuable than ever to British success in Palestine and to the war goals in general!
On 8th August 1917 a ‘top secret’ intelligence file signed by Deedes in Port Said, reported that it was established by GHQ that despite the costs, difficulties, slowness of the operation etc. it was not an option to close down the ‘very reliable ‘A’ - that is Aronson - organisation’.
This back hand compliment was as close to an apology as Aron would get.
****
Leo would have to wait until after the war was over to get his recognition.
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| General Deedes’ Acknowledgement of Leo’s Role |
The transcription of Deedes’ acknowledgement of Leo’s role and his appreciation for that role can be seen in one of the many notebooks Leo kept during those difficult years. A rather soiled, pencil note marked ‘copy’, which records:
‘I hereby certify that Lieutenant Lova - sic - Schneerson rendered valuable services to an organisation which was working during the years 1917, 18 for the General Staff (Intelligence) of the E.E.F. (Egyptian Expeditionary Force). He was engaged in work of considerable danger and carried it out with great success and in a manner to reflect great credit on himself.’
The note was presumably signed by ‘D.N. Deedes General Military Attaché’ and kept in a Foreign Office draw, though in the copy, Leo spells his name as ‘Deeds’ and there is no signature.
****
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