Пользователь - o 3b3e7475144cf77c

my darling, my little one, my Schatz! You know, Lanny, I would give my life in a minute if I

could save him. Oh, we must save him!"

"I know, Mama; but you have to think about the others. Papa is going to have to start life

over, and will need your counsel as he did in the old days. Also, don't forget that you have

Freddi's son."

"I cannot believe any good thing, ever again! I cannot believe that any of us will ever get out of

Germany alive. I cannot believe that God is still alive."

VI

Oberleutnant Furtwaengler telephoned, reporting that the prisoner had signed the necessary

documents and that the arrangements were in process of completion. He asked what Lanny

intended to do with him, and Lanny replied that he would take the family to Belgium as soon as

he was at liberty to do so. The businesslike young officer jotted down the names of the persons

and said he would have the exit permits and visas ready on time.

It would have been natural for Lanny to say: "Freddi Robin is missing. Please find him and

put me in touch with him." But after thinking and talking it over for days and nights, he had

decided that if Freddi was still alive, he could probably survive for another week or two, until the

rest of his family had been got out of the country.

Lanny had no way to hold Goring to his bargain if he didn't choose to keep it, and as half a

loaf is better than no bread, so four-fifths of a Jewish family would be better than none of them—

unless you took the Nazi view of Jewish families!

However, it might be the part of wisdom to prepare for the future, so Lanny invited the

Oberleutnant to lunch; the officer was pleased to come, and to bring his wife, a tall sturdy girl

from the country, obviously very much flustered at being the guest of a fashionable pair who

talked freely about Paris and London and New York, and knew all the important people. The

Nazis might be ever so nationalistic, but the great world capitals still commanded prestige.

Seeking to cover up his evil past, Lanny referred to his former Pinkness, and said that one

outgrew such things as one grew older; what really concerned him was to find out how the

problem of unemployment could be solved and the products of modern machinery distributed; he

intended to come back to Germany and see if the Führer was able to carry out his promises.

A young devotee could ask no more, and the Oberleutnant warmed to his host and hostess.

Afterward Irma said: "They really do believe in their doctrine with all their hearts!" Lanny saw

that she found it much easier to credit the good things about the Hitler system than the evil.

She accepted at face value the idea current among her leisure-class friends, that Mussolini had

saved Italy from Bolshevism and that Hitler was now doing the same for Germany. "What good

would it do to upset everything," she wished to know, "and get in a set of men who are just as

bad as the Nazis or worse?"

One little hint Lanny had dropped to the officer: "I'm keeping away from the Robin family

and all their friends, because I don't want to involve myself in any way in political affairs. I am

hoping that nothing of an unhappy nature will happen to the Robins while we are waiting. If

anything of the sort should come up I will count upon Seine Exzellenz to have it corrected."

"Ja, gewiss!" replied the officer. "Seine Exzellenz would not permit harm to come to them—in

fact, I assure you that no harm is coming to any Jewish persons, unless they themselves are

making some sort of trouble."

The latter half of this statement rather tended to cancel the former half; it was a part of the

Nazi propaganda. That was what made it so difficult to deal with them; you had to pick every

sentence apart and figure out which portions they might mean and which were bait for suckers.

The Oberleutnant was cordial, and seemed to admire Lanny and his wife greatly; but would

this keep him from lying blandly, if, for example, his chief was holding Freddi Robin as a

hostage and wished to conceal the fact? Would it keep him from committing any other act of

treachery which might appear necessary to the cause of National Socialism? Lanny had to keep

reminding himself that these young men had been reared on Mein Kampf; he had to keep

reminding his wife, who had never read that book, but instead had heard Lord Wickthorpe cite

passages from Lenin, proclaiming doctrines of political cynicism which sounded embarrassingly

like Hitler's.

VII

Heinrich Jung also had earned a right to hospitality, so he and his devoted little blue-eyed

Hausfrau were invited to a dinner which was an outstanding event in her life. She had

presented the Fatherland with three little Aryans, so she didn't get out very often, she confessed.

She exclaimed with naive delight over the wonders of the Hotel Adlon, and had to have Irma

assure her that her home-made dress was adequate for such a grand occasion. Heinrich talked

N.S.D.A.P. politics, and incidentally fished around to find out what had happened in the case

of Johannes Robin, about which there was no end of curiosity in party circles, he reported.

Lanny could only say that he had orders not to talk. A little later he asked: "Have you seen Frau

Reichsminister Goebbels since our meeting?"

Yes, Heinrich had been invited to tea at her home; so Lanny didn't have to ask who had

manifested the curiosity in party circles. Presently Heinrich said that Magda had wished to

know whether Mr. and Mrs. Budd would care to be invited to one of her receptions. Irma

hastened to say that she would be pleased, and Heinrich undertook to communicate this

attitude. So it is that one advances in die grosse Welt; if one has money, plus the right clothes

and manners, one can go from drawing-room to drawing-room, filling one's stomach with choice

food and drink and one's ears with choice gossip.

Hugo Behr, the Gausportführer, had expressed his desire to meet Lanny again. Heinrich,

reporting this, said: "I think I ought to warn you, Lanny. Hugo and I are still friends, but there

are differences of opinion developing between us." Lanny asked questions and learned that some

among the Nazis were impatient because the Führer was not carrying out the radical economic

planks upon which he had founded the party. He seemed to be growing conservative, allying

himself with Goring's friends, the great industrialists, and forgetting the promises he had

made to the common man. Heinrich said it was easy to find fault, but it was the duty of good

party members to realize what heavy burdens had been heaped upon the Führer's shoulders, and

to trust him and give him time. He had to reorganize the government, and the new men he put

in power had to learn their jobs before they could start on any fundamental changes. However,

there were people who were naturally impatient, and perhaps jealous, unwilling to give the

Führer the trust he deserved; if they could have their way, the party would be destroyed by

factional strife before it got fairly started.

Heinrich talked at length, and with great seriousness, as always, and his devoted little wife

listened as if it were the Führer himself speaking. From the discourse Lanny gathered that the

dissension was really serious; the right wing had won all along the line, and the left was in

confusion. Gregor Strasser, who had taken such a dressing down from Hitler in Lanny's

presence, had resigned his high party posts and retired to the country in disgust. Ernst Rohm,

Chief of Staff of the S.A. and one of Hitler's oldest friends, was active in protest and reported to

be in touch with Schleicher, the "labor general," whom Hitler had ousted from the

chancellorship. A most dangerous situation, and Hugo was making a tragic mistake in letting

himself be drawn into it.

"But you know how it is," Heinrich explained. "Hugo was a Social-Democrat, and when the

Marxist poison has once got into your veins it's hard to get it out."

Lanny said yes, he could understand; he had been in that camp a while himself; but there

was no use expecting everything to be changed in a few months. "You have two elements in your

party, Nationalism and Socialism, and I suppose it isn't always easy to preserve the balance

between them."

"It will be easy if only they trust the Führer. He knows that our Socialism must be German

and fitted to the understanding of the German people. He will give it to them as rapidly as they

can adjust themselves to it."

After their guests had left, Lanny said to his wife: "If we want to collect the dirt, Hugo's the

boy to give it to us."

VIII

Mama had agreed with Lanny and Irma that there was nothing to be gained by telling the

family in Paris about Freddi's disappearance. They could hardly fail to talk about it, and so

imperil the fate of Johannes. It might even be that Hansi or Bess would insist on coming into

Germany—and the least hint of that threw poor Mama into another panic. So Lanny wrote

vague letters to his mother: "Everything is being arranged. The less publicity the better. Tell

our friends to go to Juan and rest; living is cheap there, and I feel sure that times are going to

be hard financially." Little hints like that!

Beauty herself didn't go to Juan. Her next letter was written on stationery of the Chateau de

Balincourt. "Do you remember Lady Caillard? She is the widow of Sir Vincent Caillard, who was

one of Sir Basil's closest associates in Vickers. She is an ardent spiritualist, and has published a

pamphlet of messages received from her husband in the spirit world. She is immensely impressed

by Madame, and wants to borrow her for as long as Sir Basil will spare her. He invited me out

here, and we have had several seances. One thing that came up worries me. Tecumseh said: 'There

is a man who speaks German. Does anyone know German?' Sir Basil said: 'I know a little,' and the

control said: 'Clarinet ist verstimmt.' That was all. Madame began to moan, and when she

came out of the trance she was greatly depressed and could do no more that day. I didn't get

the idea for a while. Now I wonder, can there be anything the matter with your Clarinet? I shall

say nothing to anybody else until I hear from you."

So there it was again; one of those mysterious hints out of the subconscious world. The word

verstimmt can mean either "out of tune" or "out of humor." Beauty had known that "Clarinet"

meant Freddi, and it was easy to imagine Tecumseh getting that out of her subconscious mind;

but Beauty had no reason to imagine that Freddi was in trouble. Was it to be supposed that

when Beauty sat in a "circle," her subconscious mind became merged with her son's, and his

worries passed over into hers? Or was it easier to believe that some Socialist had been kicked

or beaten or shot into the spirit world by the Nazis and was now trying to bring help to his

comrade?

Lanny sent a telegram to his mother: "Clarinet music interesting send more if possible." He

decided that here was a way he could pass some time while waiting upon the convenience of

Minister-Prasident Goring. Like Paris and London, Berlin was full of mediums and fortune

tellers of all varieties; it was reported that the Führer himself consulted an astrologer—oddly