“Allow me to offer you a glass of bitters, sir,” said the queer-looking personage before mentioned; he was a corpulent man, very short, and his legs particularly so.  His dress consisted of a greasy snuff-coloured coat, dirty white trousers, and dirtier stockings.  On his head he wore a rusty silk hat, the eaves of which had a tendency to turn up before and behind.  I had observed that, during my conversation with the hamalos, he had several times uplifted his eyes from the newspaper, and on the production of the shekel had grinned very significantly, and had inspected it when in the hand of the capitaz.  “Allow me to offer you a glass of bitters,” said he; “I guessed you was one of our people before you spoke to the hamalos.  Sir, it does my heart good to see a gentleman of your appearance not above speaking to his poor brethren.  It is what I do myself not unfrequently, and I hope God will blot out my name, and that is Solomons, when I despise them.  I do not pretend to much Arabic myself, yet I understood you tolerably well, and I liked your discourse much.  You must have a great deal of shillam eidri, nevertheless you startled me when you asked the hamalo if he ever read the Torah; of course you meant with the meforshim; poor as he is, I do not believe him becoresh enough to read the Torah without the commentators.  So help me, sir, I believe you to be a Salamancan Jew; I am told there are still some of the old families to be found there.  Ever at Tudela, sir? not very far from Salamanca, I believe; one of my own kindred once lived there:  a great traveller, sir, like yourself; went over all the world to look for the Jews,—­went to the top of Sinai.  Anything that I can do for you at Gibraltar, sir?  Any commission; will execute it as reasonably, and more expeditiously than any one else.  My name is Solomons.  I am tolerably well known at Gibraltar; yes, sir, and in the Crooked Friars, and, for that matter, in the Neuen Stein Steg, at Hamburgh; so help me, sir, I think I once saw your face at the fair at Bremen.  Speak German, sir? though of course you do.  Allow me, sir, to offer you a glass of bitters.  I wish, sir, they were mayim, hayim for your sake, I do indeed, sir, I wish they were living waters.  Now, sir, do give me your opinion as to this matter (lowering his voice and striking the newspaper).  Do you not think it is very hard that one Yudken should betray the other?  When I put my little secret beyad peluni,—­you understand me, sir?—­when I entrust my poor secret to the custody of an individual, and that individual a Jew, a Yudken, sir, I do not wish to be blown, indeed, I do not expect it.  In a word, what do you think of the gold dust robbery, and what will be done to those unfortunate people, who I see are convicted?”