Mr. Monday and other tales of Jewish Amsterdam

GENERAL EISENHOWER CALLED HIM 14 7

׳THE GREATEST LIVING EXPERT ON SECURITY׳

out of their minds. Up they reared, pressed against the gate, heads up, sticking their pointed beards up in the air. Present arms!

The chimpanzee behaved like an old friend should. She made funny noises and performed all sorts of acrobatics, showing off as if to say, "Look at all the things I've learned."

Later, when we had a cup of tea together, Oreste asked me what I thought of the chimp. My voice sounded hoarse when I replied "In the Middle Ages they would have accused you of being possessed by the devil. You would have been burned at the stake for witchcraft."

"Maybe I have been burned at the stake," Oreste retorted in perfect seriousness.

"Don't be silly," I said. "Now please give me an honest explanation."

"I'm convinced that it is just a matter of smell, "he said pensively. "If someone is really fond of animals, he smells different to them."

When he was a young man, living with his parents on Weesperzijde Street in Amsterdam, Oreste had little money. He started to do some trading on the side and then he decided he would earn his living by being a boxer. He did quite well in that profession as a lightweight or something, and one day, when he had a boxing match in Paris, a stranger visited him in his dressing room. The stranger told him he was a police inspector. Would Oreste Pinto be willing to accept a well-paid job in France? Be the personal bodyguard of Monsieur the High-Up? That bigwig was afraid that someday, someone would take a pot shot at him.