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or out of it might be watched.

They stopped for a while on a quiet residence street and talked. Freddi's mind was absorbed by

the subject of concentration camps; he had heard so many horrible stories, some of which he

couldn't repeat in Irma's presence. He said: "Oh, suppose they are doing such things to Papa!"

Later he said: "Have you thought what you would do if you had to stand such things?"

Lanny had to answer no, he hadn't thought much about it. "I suppose one stands what one

has to."

Freddi persisted: "I can't help thinking about it all the time. No Jew can help it now. They

mean it to break your spirit; to wreck you for the rest of your life. And you have to set your spirit

against theirs. You have to refuse to be broken."

"It can be done," said Lanny, but rather weakly. He didn't want to think of it, at least not

while Irma was there. Irma was afraid enough already. But the Jewish lad had two thousand

years of it in his blood.

"Do you believe in the soul, Lanny? I mean, something in us that is greater than ourselves? I

have had to think a lot about it. When they take you down into the cellar, all alone, with

nobody to help you—you have no party, no comrades—it's just what you have in yourself. What I

decided is, you have to learn to pray."

"That's what Parsifal has been trying to tell us."

"I know, and I think he is right. He's the one they couldn't conquer. I'm sorry I didn't talk

more about it with him while I had the chance."

"You'll have more chances," said Lanny, with determination.

Parting is a serious matter when you have thoughts like that. Freddi said: "I oughtn't to keep

you from whatever you're planning to do. Put me off near a subway entrance and I'll ride to die

Palme."

So they drove on. Lanny said: "Cheerio," English fashion, and the young Jew replied:

"Thanks a million," which he knew was American. The car slowed up and he stepped out, and

the great hole in the Berlin sidewalk swallowed him up. Irma had a mist in her eyes, but she

winked it away and said: "I could do with some sleep." She too had learned to admire the English

manner.

IV

The Reichstag met in the Kroll Opera House that afternoon and listened to Adolf Hitler's

speech on foreign affairs. The speech took three-quarters of an hour and immediately

afterward Goring moved approval, which was voted unanimously, and the Reichstag

adjourned. Soon afterward the newsboys were crying the extra editions, and there was the full

text, under banner headlines. Of course these gleichgeschaltete papers called it the most

extraordinary piece of statesmanship.

Lanny glanced through it swiftly, and saw that it was a speech like none other in the Führer's

career. It was the first time he had ever read a prepared address; as it happened, the

Wilhelmstrasse, the German foreign office, had put pressure on him and persuaded him that there

was real danger of overt action by France. The Fatherland had no means of resisting, and

certainly it was the last thing the infant Nazi regime wanted.

So here was a new Hitler. Such a convenient thing to be able to be something new whenever

you wished, unhampered by anything you had been hitherto! The Führer spoke more in sorrow

than in anger of the wrongs his country had suffered, and he told the Reichstag that he was a man

utterly devoted to peace and justice among the nations; all he asked of the rest of the world was

that it should follow the example of Germany and disarm. There was to be no more "force"

among the nations; he called this "the eruption of insanity without end," and said that it would

result in "a Europe sinking into Communistic chaos."

France and Britain, which had been worried, breathed a sigh of relief. The Führer really

wasn't as bad as he had been painted; his soup wasn't going to scald anybody's tongue. He would

settle down and let others write his speeches for him and govern the country sanely. To the

diplomats and statesmen of foreign lands it was obvious that a mere corporal and painter of

picture-postcards couldn't manage a great modern state. That called for trained men, and

Germany had plenty of them. In an emergency they would take control.

Lanny wasn't sure about it; but he saw that today's speech was the best possible of omens for

the Robin family. Adi was singing low; he wouldn't want any family rows, any scandals going

out to the world; he was in a position where he could be mildly and politely blackmailed, and

Lanny had an idea how to set about it.

The telephone rang. His note to Heinrich Jung had been delivered promptly. Heinrich had

attended the Reichstag meeting, and now he was taking the first opportunity to call his friend.

"Oh, Lanny, the most marvelous affair! Have you read the speech?"

"Indeed I have, and I consider it a great piece of statesmanship."

"Wundervoll!" exclaimed Heinrich.

"Kolossal!" echoed Lanny. In German you sing it, with the accent on the last syllable,

prolonging it like a tenor.

"Ganz grosse Staatskunst!"

"Absolut!" Another word which you accent on the last syllable; it sounds like a popgun.

"Wirkliches Genie!" declared the Nazi official.

So they chanted in bel canto, like a love duet in Italian opera. They sang the praises of Adolf,

his speech, his party, his doctrine, his Fatherland. Heinrich, enraptured, exclaimed: "You really

see it now!"

"I didn't think he could do it," admitted the genial visitor.

"But he is doing it! He will go on doing it!" Heinrich remained lyrical; he even tried to become

American. "How is it that you say— er geht damit hinweg?"

"He is getting away with it," chuckled Lanny.

"When can I see you?" demanded the young official.

"Are you busy this evening?"

"Nothing that I can't break."

"Well, come on over. We were just about to order something to eat. We'll wait for you."

Lanny hung up, and Irma said: "Isn't that overdoing it just a little?"

Lanny put his finger to his lips. "Let's dress and dine downstairs," he said. "Your best clothes.

The moral effect will be worth while."

V

There were three of them in the stately dining-room of the most fashionable hotel in Berlin;

the American heiress in the showiest rig she had brought, Lanny in a "smoking," and Heinrich

in the elegant dress uniform he had worn to the Kroll Opera House. Die grosse Welt stared at

them, and the heart of Heinrich Jung, the forester's son, was bursting with pride—not for

himself, of course, but for his Führer and the wonderful movement he had built. Respect for rank

and station had been bred into the very bones of a lad on the estate of Stubendorf, and this

was the highest he had ever climbed on the social pyramid. This smart American couple had been

guests on two occasions at the Schloss; it might even happen that the General Graf would enter

this room and be introduced to the son of his Oberförster! Lanny didn't fail to mention that he

had written to Seine Hochgeboren at his Berlin palace.

The orchestra played softly, and the waiters bowed obsequiously. Lanny, most gracious of

hosts, revealed his mastery of the gastronomic arts. Did Heinrich have any preference? No,

Heinrich would leave it to his host, and the host said they should have something echt

berlinerisch- how about some Krebse, billed as ecrevisses? Heinrich said that these would

please him greatly, and kept the dark secret that he had never before eaten them. They proved

to be small crayfish served steaming hot on a large silver platter with a much embossed silver

cover. The waiter exhibited the magnificence before he put some on separate plates. Heinrich

had to be shown how to extract the hot pink body from the thin shell, and then dip it into a

dish of hot butter. Yes, they were good!

And what would Heinrich like to drink? Heinrich left that, too, to his host, so he had

Rheinwein, the color of a yellow diamond, and later he had sparkling champagne. Also he had

wild strawberries with Schlagsahne, and tiny cakes with varicolored icing. "Shall we have the

coffee in our suite?" said the heiress; they went upstairs, and on the way were observed by

many, and Heinrich's uniform with its special insignia indicating party rank left no doubt that

Mr. and Mrs. Irma Barnes were all right; the word would go through the hotel, and the

reporters would hear of it, and the social doings of the young couple would be featured in the

controlled press. The Nazis would not love them, of course; the Nazis were not sentimental.

But they were ready to see people climbing onto their bandwagon, and would let them ride so

far as suited the convenience of the bandwagon Führer.

VI

Up in the room they had coffee, also brandy in large but very thin goblets. Heinrich never felt

better in his life, and he talked for a couple of hours about the N.S.D.A.P. and the wonders it

had achieved and was going to achieve. Lanny listened intently, and explained his own position

in a frank way. Twelve years ago, when the forester's son had first made known Adi

Schicklgruber's movement, Lanny hadn't had the faintest idea that it could succeed, or even

attain importance. But he had watched it growing, step by step, and of course couldn't help

being impressed; now he had come to realize that it was what the German people wanted, and of

course they had every right in the world to have it. Lanny couldn't say that he was a convert,

but he was a student of the movement; he was eager to talk with the leaders and question

them, so that he could take back to the outside world a true and honest account of the changes

taking place in the Fatherland. "I know a great many journalists," he said, "and I may be able

to exert a little influence."

"Indeed I am sure you can," responded Heinrich cordially.

Lanny took a deep breath and said a little prayer. "There's just one trouble, Heinrich. You

know, of course, that my sister is married to a Jew."

"Yes. It's too bad!" responded the young official, gravely.

"It happens that he's a fine violinist; the best I know. Have you ever heard him?"

"Never."

"He played the Beethoven concerto in Paris a few weeks ago, and it was considered

extraordinary."

"I don't think I'd care to hear a Jew play Beethoven," replied Heinrich. His enthusiasm had

sustained a sudden chill.

"Here is my position," continued Lanny. "Hansi's father has been my father's business

associate for a long time."

"They tell me he was a Schieber."

"Maybe so. There were plenty of good German Schieber; the biggest of all was Stinnes.

There's an open market, and men buy and sell, and nobody knows whom he's buying from or

selling to. The point is, I have ties with the Robin family, and it makes it awkward for me."

"They ought to get out of the country, Lanny. Let them go to America, if you like them and

can get along with them."

"Exactly! That is what I've been urging them to do, and they wanted to do it. But

unfortunately Johannes has disappeared."

"Disappeared? How do you mean?"

"He was about to go on board his yacht in Bremerhaven when some Brownshirts seized him

and carried him off, and nobody has any idea where he is."