Bryce Courtenay - The Potato Factory

Ikey smelt a rat and thought David would bribe the captain to give him Ikey's letter, so he did not entrust it to the captain but gave it instead to the ship's chaplain whom he swore to secrecy and added further to the man of God's integrity with a nice little stipend for his ministry.

On a day of persistent drizzle, with swirling clouds obscuring the top of the great mountain, the Midas sailed from the river port bound for London. On board was Mr David Solomon, who had been carefully drilled in the description of each item in the safe and the value of the gem stones. Though Hannah was not as expert as Ikey in this she had a keen eye for appraisal and knew each precious stone individually. Also in his luggage was a set of scales for weighing gold and a new pistol of American design.

The voyage home to England was uneventful and the Midas berthed at Gravesend, where David immediately sent a letter by courier to Hawk at the hop farm where he worked asking him to come to London at once to meet him on board the Midas. On the same day Hawk received a message from the ship's chaplain that a letter awaited him from Mr Ikey Solomon which he was instructed to hand over to him personally on board.

When Hawk opened the letter Ikey was already dead. He had passed away not two weeks previously. His funeral had been a mixed affair, one of the first few to take place in the Hobart synagogue which had been open for five years. One hundred and eighty of the male Jews in Hobart Town attended Ikey's funeral and filled the tiny synagogue to overflowing. As well, standing outside, was a crowd which the polite society of Hobart found most undesirable. Publicans and whores, touts, con men, cock fight proprietors, sly grog merchants and most of the racing fraternity of Hobart Town stood outside the little synagogue.

The minyan of ten good men consisted of Hobart's most prominent Jews: Philip Levy, Samuel Moses, Jacob Frankel, Abraham Reuban, Judah Solomon, Isaac Feldman, Edward Magnus, Abraham Wolff, Isaac Marks and Philip Phillips. Ikey was buried in the Jewish cemetery according to the ancient rites and beliefs of his own people and though Mark and Moses attended, as only men are allowed to attend an orthodox funeral, Sarah stood outside the cemetery with Mary and both wept, while Hannah stood apart with Ann, dry-eyed and triumphant.

What transpired between Hawk and David is best revealed in the account David Solomon gave to his mother on his return to Van Diemen's Land. He told how the dumb nigger nodded in agreement when he asked if Ikey's letter contained his half of the combination to the Whitechapel safe. Then he proposed they both inspect and test the safe to ensure it had not been tampered with, and then remain present to observe while each worked his part of the combination. Finally, that the coin in the form of gold sovereigns be divided with one in eight going to Hawk, while the gold and silver ingots be weighed and that Hawk should receive one-eighth part of the total weight of each. The gem stones would be divided into lots of eight and then they would toss a coin to see who would have the first pick from each lot. To all this the schwarzer had silently agreed.

David then told of how they had set out in a carriage to the house in Whitechapel in the company of the shipwright from the Midas and his bag of tools. The shipwright had removed the heavy planking from the front door and then left. It was a miserably cold February day when the two men, each carrying a bull's eye lamp, entered the house, which had stood empty for over twenty years.

They moved along the dusty hallway, brushing aside cobwebs and going straight to the scullery, for both had a location plan, Hawk from Ikey and David from Hannah. David opened the closely fitted scullery door with a key given to him by his mother which had hung about her neck as long as he could remember.

The room contained no windows and the air within it was most stale, though surprisingly free of dust. While Hawk Solomon held the bull's eye lamp, David read the instructions which triggered the false nails in the floorboards, and carefully lifted each board until the door of the huge safe beneath was clearly exposed. David stooped down and tested the handle of the safe, giving it a firm pull. It was obviously locked. He rose and allowed Hawk to do the same.

David confessed that at this point his heart was pounding and his face must have shown his excitement, though he couldn't speak for the nigger, 'it being dark an' all'. His hands shook as he tried to hold the torch steady for Hawk as the black boy's numbers were the first part of the combination. Hawk had dialled quickly, his huge hands graceful to the touch and the numbers 690 appeared and then a distinct click sounded. Then Hawk rose and placed his torch on a shelf so that the room was dimly lit and then held David's torch directed at the wheels of the combination lock. David, his hands trembling, dialled 816 whereupon there was another click. For a moment all that could be heard was their rapid breathing, Hawk's steady and David's coming fast as though he were short of breath. Hawk tapped David on the shoulder and indicated that he should be the one to open the safe. David pulled, but nothing happened, the door remained shut.

'Oh Jesus!' David exclaimed.

Hawk pushed him aside and handed him back his bull's eye lamp, then he took the handle in both hands and pulled the safe open in a single jerk.

David would tell Hannah how he was not sure what might meet his eyes, perhaps small boxes and rotting canvas bags spilling over with gold and silver and precious jewels. But what they both witnessed was an empty safe, except for a single envelope sealed with red wax. It was addressed to 'The Solomon Family'.

Hawk, in his 'telling' of the same story to Mary, told how David was the first to react, dropping the lamp and commencing to hop from one foot to the other, wailing and moaning and tearing at his hair, while Hawk stood silent, his head bent, one hand covering his face though he continued to follow David by looking through his fingers.

Hawk told how he finally went down on one knee and reached into the empty safe to retrieve the envelope which he handed to David, whose hands were shaking so that he could barely break open the seal. Hawk had noticed a slight bulge in the envelope and now David removed from it a man's gold signet ring heavily crusted with diamonds and rubies. Then he withdrew the note and attempted to open its careful folds, but his fist had tightened around the ring and his remaining hand was shaking too violently to do so.

David, sobbing, handed the note to Hawk.

'Read it! Fer Chrissakes, read it!' he screamed at Hawk, forgetting that Hawk was a mute. Hawk slowly opened the note and held it up to David to read, without looking at it. In Ikey's handwriting were the words: Remember, always leave a little salt on the bread.

'What can it mean?' David sobbed. 'Whatever can it mean?' Then he fell on his knees. 'We are done for! My family is destroyed!' he wailed. 'Ikey Solomon has beaten us all hands up!'

Later that evening, Hawk wrote a letter to Mary.

My Ever Dear Mama,

Today I have met David Solomon, the son of Mistress Hannah Solomon of New Norfolk, whom I know to be Ikey's estranged wife. With him we have visited the premises of Ikey's old residence in Petticoat Lane, Whitechapel, on an errand entrusted to me by Ikey in a letter received this day of which he tells me you are unaware and in which he begs me now to acquaint you of the contents, as he is not sure that he will remain alive in the many months for it to arrive in England. Ikey is ever the pessimist and I expect he is as well as ever. However, I am happy to inform you that the letter instructed me to go with Master David Solomon, recently embarked from the ship, Midas, to the house in Whitechapel where Master Solomon had been acquainted by his mother as to the whereabouts of a certain safe hidden beneath the scullery floor.