Читать интересную книгу o 3b3e7475144cf77c - Пользователь

when they are important."

"I suppose that has happened now and then," said Lanny, showing a coming on disposition,

but not too much.

"What I should like to have is, not an agent, but a friend; a gentleman, whose sense of honor

I could trust, and who would not be indifferent to the importance of our task in putting down

the Red menace in Germany, and perhaps later wiping out the nest where those vipers are

being incubated. Surely one does not have to be a German in order to approve such an aim."

"I agree with you, Exzellenz." "Call me Göring," commanded the great one. "Perhaps you can

understand how tired one gets of dealing with lackeys and flatterers. You are a man who says

what he thinks, and when I box with you I get some competition."

"Thank you, Ex—Göring."

"I am sure you understand that we Nazis are playing for no small stakes. You are one of the

few who possess imagination enough to know that if you become my friend you will be able to

have anything you care to ask for. I am going to become one of the richest men in the world—

not because I am greedy for money, but because I have a job to do, and that is one of the tools.

We are going to build a colossal industry, which will become the heritage of the future, and

most certainly we are not going to leave it in the hands of Jews or other Bolshevist agencies.

Sooner or later we shall take over the industry of Russia and bring it into line with modern

practices. For all that we need brains and ability. I personally need men who see eye to eye

with me, and I am prepared to pay on a royal scale. There is no limit to what I would do for

a man who would be a real associate and partner."

"I appreciate the compliment, my dear Göring, but I doubt my own qualifications for any

such role. Surely you must have among your own Germans men with special training—"

"No German can do what I am suggesting to you—an American, who is assumed to be above

the battle. You can go into France or England and meet anybody you wish, and execute

commissions of the most delicate sort without waste of time or sacrifice of your own or your

wife's enjoyment. Be assured that I would never ask you to do anything dishonorable, or to

betray any trust. If, for example, you were to meet certain persons in those countries and talk

politics with them, and report on their true attitudes, so that I could know which of them

really want to have the Reds put down and which would rather see those devils entrench

themselves than to see Germany get upon her feet—that would be information almost priceless

to me, and believe me, you would have to do no more than hint your desires. If you would

come now and then on an art-buying expedition to Berlin and visit me in some quiet retreat

like this, the information would be used without any label upon it, and I would pledge you my

word never to name you to anyone."

III

Lanny perceived that he was receiving a really distinguished offer, and for a moment he was

sorry that he didn't like the Nazis. He had a feeling that Irma would be willing for him to say

yes, and would enjoy helping on such international errands. Doubtless the General had invited

her to lunch in order that he might size her up from that point of view.

"My dear Göring," said Irma's husband, "you are paying me a compliment, and I wish I could

believe that I deserve it. To be sure, I sometimes meet important persons and hear their talk

when they are off their guard; I suppose I could have more such opportunities if I sought them.

Also I find Berlin an agreeable city to visit, and if I should run over now and then to watch your

interesting work, it would be natural for you to ask me questions and for me to tell you what

I had heard. But when you offer to pay me, that is another matter. Then I should feel that I

was under obligations; and I have always been a Taugenichts— even before I happened to acquire

a rich wife I liked to flit from one place to another, look at pictures, listen to good music or play

it not so well, chat with my friends, and amuse myself watching the human spectacle. It happens

that I have made some money, but I have never felt that I was earning it, and I would hate to

feel that I had to."

It was the sort of answer a man would make if he wished to raise his price; and how was a

would-be employer to know? "My dear Budd," said the General, in the same cautious style, "the

last thing in the world I desired was to put you under any sense of obligation, or to interfere

with your enjoyments. It is just because of that way of life that you could be of help to me."

"It would be pleasant indeed, Exzellenz, to discover that my weaknesses have become my

virtues."

The great man smiled, but went on trying to get what he wanted.

"Suppose you were to render me such services as happened to amuse you, and which

required no greater sacrifice on your part than to motor to Berlin two or three times a year; and

suppose that some day, purely out of friendship, I should be moved to present you with a

shooting preserve such as this, a matter of one or two hundred square kilometers—surely that

wouldn't have to be taken as a humiliation or indignity."

"Gott behüte!" exclaimed the playboy. "If I owned such a property, I would have to pay

taxes and upkeep, and right away I should be under moral pressure to get some use out of it."

"Can you think of nothing I might do for you?"

Lanny perceived that he was being handled with masterly diplomacy. The General wasn't

saying: "You know I have a hold on you, and this is the way you might induce me to release

it!" He wasn't compelling Lanny to say: "You know that you are holding out on me and not

keeping your promise!" He was making things easy for both of them; and Lanny was surely not

going to miss his chance! "Yes, Göring," he said, quickly, "there is one thing—to have your

wonderful governmental machine make some special effort and find that young son of

Johannes Robin."

"You are still worried about that Yiddisher?"

"How can I help it? He is a sort of relative—my half-sister is married to his brother, and

naturally the family is distressed. When I started out for Berlin to show my Detaze paintings,

I had to promise to do everything in my power to find him. I have hesitated to trouble you

again, knowing the enormous responsibilities you are carrying—"

"But I have already told you, my dear Budd, that I have tried to find the man without

success."

"Yes, but I know how great the confusion of the past few months has been; I know of cases

where individuals and groups have assumed authority which they did not legally possess. If

you want to do me a favor I shall never forget, have one of your staff make a thorough

investigation, not merely in Berlin but throughout the Reich, and enable me to get this utterly

harmless young fellow off my conscience."

"All right," said the Minister-Prasident; "if that is your heart's desire, I will try to grant it. But

remember, it may be beyond my power. I cannot bring back the dead."

IV

Back in Berlin, Lanny and his wife went for a drive and talked out this new development.

"Either he doesn't trust me," said Lanny, "or else I ought to hear from him very soon."

"He must pretend to make an investigation," put in Irma.

"It needn't take long to discover a blunder. He can say: 'I am embarrassed to discover that my

supposed-to-be-efficient organization has slipped up. Your friend was in Dachau all along and

I have ordered him brought to Berlin.' If he doesn't do that, it's because he's not satisfied with

my promises."

"Maybe he knows too much about you, Lanny."

"That is possible; but he hasn't given any hint of it."

"Would he, unless it suited his convenience? Freddi is his only hold on you, and he knows

that. Probably he thinks you'd go straight out of Germany and spill the story of Johannes."

"That story is pretty old stuff by now. Johannes is a poor down-and-out, and I doubt if

anybody could be got to take much interest in him. The Brown Book is published and he isn't

in it."

"Listen," said the wife; "this is a question which has been troubling my mind. Can it be that

Freddi has been doing something serious, and that Göring knows it, and assumes that you

know it?"

"That depends on what you mean by serious. Freddi helped to finance and run a Socialist

school; he tried to teach the workers a set of theories which are democratic and liberal. That's

a crime to this Regierung, and people who are guilty of it are luckier if they are dead."

"I don't mean that, Lanny. I mean some sort of plot or conspiracy, an attempt to overthrow

the government."

"You know that Freddi didn't believe in anything of the sort. I've heard him say a thousand

times that he believed in government by popular consent, such as we have in America, and such

as the Weimar Republic tried to be—or anyhow, was supposed to be."

"But isn't it conceivable that Freddi might have changed after the Reichstag fire, and after

seeing what was done to his comrades? It wouldn't have been the Weimar Republic he was

trying to overthrow, but Hitler. Isn't it likely that he and many of his friends changed their

minds?"

"Many did, no doubt; but hardly Freddi. What good would he have been? He shuts his eyes

when he aims a gun!"

"There are plenty of others who would do the shooting. What Freddi had was money—scads

of it that he could have got from his father. There were the months of March and April—and

how do you know what he was doing, or what his comrades were planning and drawing him

into?"

"I think he would have told us about it, Irma. He would have felt in honor, bound."

"He might have been in honor bound the other way, he couldn't talk about those comrades. It

might even be that he didn't know what was going on, but that others were using him. Some of

those fellows I met at the school—they were men who would have fought back, I know. Ludi

Schultz, for example—do you imagine he'd lie down and let the Nazi machine roll over him?

Wouldn't he have tried to arouse the workers to what they call 'mass action'? And wouldn't his

wife have helped him? Then again, suppose there was some Nazi agent among them, trying to

lure them into a trap, to catch them in some act of violence so that they could be arrested?"

"The Nazis don't have to have any excuses, Irma; they arrest people wholesale."

"I'm talking about the possibility that there might be some real guilt, or at any rate a charge

against Freddi. Some reason why Göring would consider him dangerous and hold onto him."

"The people who are in the concentration camps aren't those against whom they have

criminal charges. The latter are in the prisons, and the Nazis torture them to make them betray

their associates; then they shoot them in the back of the neck and cremate them. The men

who are in Dachau are Socialist politicians and editors and labor leaders—intellectuals of all

the groups that stand for freedom and justice and peace."

"You mean they're there without any charge against them?" "Exactly that. They've had no

trial, and they don't know what they're there for or how long they're going to stay. Two or

three thousand of the finest persons in Bavaria—and my guess is that Freddi has done no more

than any of the others."

Irma didn't say any more, and her husband knew the reason—she couldn't believe what he

said. It was too terrible to be true. All over the world people were saying that, and would go on

saying it, to Lanny's great exasperation.

V

The days passed, and it was time for the Munich opening, and still nobody had called to

admit a blunder on the part of an infallible governmental machine. Lanny brooded over the

problem continually. Did the fat General expect him to go ahead delivering the goods on credit,

and without ever presenting any bill? Lanny thought: "He can go to hell! And let it be soon!"

In his annoyance, the Socialist in disguise began thinking about those comrades whom he had

met at the school receptions. Rahel had given him addresses, and in his spare hours he had

dropped in at place after place, always taking the precaution to park his car some distance

away and to make sure that he was not followed. In no single case had he been able to find the

persons, or to find anyone who would admit knowing their whereabouts. In most cases people

wouldn't even admit having heard of them. They had vanished off the face of the Fatherland.

Was he to assume that they were all in prisons or concentration camps? Or had some of them

"gone underground"? Once more he debated how he might find his way to that nether region—

always being able to get back to the Hotel Adlon in time to receive a message from the second in

command of the Nazi government!

Irma went to àthé dansant at the American Embassy, and Lanny went to look at some

paintings in a near-by palace. But he didn't find anything he cared to recommend to his

clients, and the prices seemed high; he didn't feel like dancing, and could be sure that his wife

had other partners. His thoughts turned to a serious-minded young "commercial artist" who

wore large horn-rimmed spectacles and hated his work—the making of drawings of abnormally

slender Aryan ladies wearing lingerie, hosiery, and eccentric millinery. Also Lanny thought about

the young man's wife, a consecrated soul, and an art student with a genuine talent. Ludwig

and Gertrude Schultz —there was nothing striking about these names, but Ludi and Trudi

sounded like a vaudeville team or a comic strip.

Lanny had phoned to the advertising concern and been informed that the young man was no

longer employed there. He had called the art school and learned that the former student was

no longer studying. In neither place did he hear any tone of cordiality or have any information

volunteered. He guessed that if the young people had fled abroad they would surely have sent a

message to Bienvenu. If they were "sleeping out" in Germany, what would they be doing?

Would they go about only at night, or would they be wearing some sort of disguise? He could