Kane & Abel

797 Pages·1979·2.2 MB·English

by  Archer Jeffrey

JEFFREY ARCHER
KANE AND ABEL
PAN BOOKS
TO MICHAEL AND JANE
CONTENTS
PART ONE
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
PART TWO
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
PART THREE
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
PART FOUR
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
PART FIVE
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
PART SIX
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
PART SEVEN
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
PART EIGHT
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
PART ONE
1906-1923
1
April 18, 1906, Slonim, Poland
SHE ONLY stopped screaming when she died. It was then that he
started to scream.
The young boy who was hunting rabbits in the forest was not
sure whether it was the woman’s last cry or the child’s first that
alerted his youthful ears. He turned, sensing possible danger, his
eyes searching for an animal that was obviously in pain. But he had
never known an animal to scream in quite that way before. He
edged towards the noise cautiously; the scream had now turned to
a whine, but it still did not sound like any animal he knew. He
hoped it would be small enough to kill; at least that would make a
change from rabbit for dinner.
He moved stealthily towards the river, where the strange noise
came from, darting from tree to tree, feeling the protection of the
bark against his shoulder blades, something to touch. Never stay in
the open, his father had taught him. When he reached the edge of
the forest he had a clear line of vision all the way down the valley
to the river, and even then it took him some time to realize that the
strange cry emanated from no ordinary animal. He crept towards
the whining, even though he was now out in the open.
Then he saw the woman, her dress above her waist, her bare legs
splayed. He had never seen a woman like that before. He ran
quickly to her side and stared down at her belly, too frightened to
touch. Lying between the woman’s legs was a small, pink animal,
covered in blood and attached to her by something that looked like
rope. The young hunter dropped his freshly caught rabbits and fell
to his knees beside the little creature.
He gazed at it for a long, stunned moment, then turned his eyes
to the woman. He immediately regretted the decision. She was
already blue with cold; her tired young face looked middle-aged to
the boy. He did not need to be told that she was dead. He picked
up the slippery little body that lay on the grass between her legs.
Had you asked him why, and no one ever did, he would have told
you that the tiny fingernails clawing at the crumpled face had
worried him.
The mother and child were bound together by the slimy rope.
The boy had watched the birth of a lamb a few days earlier and he
tried to remember. Yes, that’s what the shepherd had done. But
dare he, with a child? The whining suddenly stopped, and he
sensed that a decision was now urgent. He unsheathed his knife,
the one he skinned rabbits with, wiped it on his sleeve and,
hesitating only for a moment, cut the rope close to the child’s
body. Blood flowed freely from the severed ends. Then what had
the shepherd done when the lamb was born? He had tied a knot to
stop the blood. Of course, of course. The boy pulled some long
grass out of the earth beside him and hastily tied a crude knot in