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notion that you had no right to money; that having got it, you must look down upon it, spurn
it, and thwart the very purposes for which it existed, the reasons why your forefathers had
worked so hard! If that was not madness, who could find anything that deserved the name?
III
All social engagements were called off while this duel was fought out. Irma said that she had a
bad headache; but as this affliction had not been known to trouble her hitherto, the rumor
spread that the Irma Barneses were having a quarrel; everybody tried to guess what it could be
about, but nobody succeeded. Only three persons were taken into the secret; Rick, and the
mothers of the two quarrelers. Rick said: "I wish I could help you, old chap; but you know
I'm a marked man in Germany; I have written articles." Lanny said: "Of course."
As for Fanny Barnes, she considered it her duty to give Lanny a lecture on the wrongness of
deserting his family on account of any Jew or all of them. Lanny, in turn, considered it his
duty to hear politely all that his mother-in-law had to say. He knew it wasn't any good
talking to her about "causes"; he just said: "I'm sorry, Mother, but I feel that I have incurred
obligations, and I have to repay them. Do what you can to keep Irma cheerful until I get
back." It was a rather solemn occasion; he might not come back, and he had a feeling that his
mother-in-law would rind that a not altogether intolerable solution of the problem.
As for Beauty, she wasn't much good in this crisis; the sheer horridness of it seemed to
paralyze her will. She knew her boy's feeling for the Robin boys, and that it couldn't be
overcome. She knew also that he suspected her concern about Irma's happiness as being not
altogether disinterested. The mother dared not say what was in the deeps of her heart, her
fear that Lanny might lose his ultra-precious wife if he neglected her and opposed her so
recklessly. And of all places to leave her—on the doorstep of Lord Wickthorpe! Beauty developed a
crise des nerfs, with a real headache, and this didn't diminish the gossip and speculation.
Meanwhile, Lanny went ahead with his preparations. He wrote Rahel to have a photograph
of Freddi reduced to that small size which is used on passports, and to airmail it to him at
once; he had a reason for that, which she was at liberty to guess. He wrote Jerry Pendleton to
hold himself in readiness for a call to bring a camion to Germany and return the Detaze
paintings to their home. That would be no hardship, because the tourist season was over and
Cerise could run the office.
Lanny gave his friend Zoltan a check covering a good part of the money he had in the
Hellstein banks in Berlin and Munich; Zoltan would transfer the money to his own account, and
thus the Nazis wouldn't be able to confiscate it. In case Lanny needed the money, he could
telegraph and Zoltan could airmail him a check. The ever discreet friend asked no questions, and
thus would be able to say that he knew nothing about the matter. Lanny talked about a
picture deal which he thought he could put through in Munich, and Zoltan gave him advice
on this. Having been pondering all these matters for more than a year, Lanny was thoroughly
prepared.
When it came to the parting, Lanny's young wife and Lanny's would-be-young mother both
broke down. Both offered to go with him; but he said No. Neither approved his mission, and
neither's heart would be in the disagreeable task. He didn't tell the plain truth, which was
that he was sick of arguments and excitements; it is one of the painful facts about marital
disputes that they cause each of the disputants to grow weary of the sound of the other's voice,
and to count quiet and the freedom to have one's own way as the greatest of life's blessings.
Lanny believed that he could do this job himself, and could think better if he didn't have
opposition. He said: "No, dear," and "No, darling; I'm going to be very careful, and. it won't
take long."
IV
So, bright and early one morning, Margy Petries's servants deposited his bags in his car, and
not without some moisture in his eyes and some sinkings in his inside, he set out for the ferry
to Calais, whose name Queen Mary had said was written on her heart, and which surely
existed as some sort of scar on Lanny's. He went by way of Metz and Strasbourg, for the fewer
countries one entered in unhappy Europe, the less bother with visas and customs
declarations. How glorious the country seemed in the last days of June; and how pitiful by
contrast that Missgeburt of nature which had developed the frontal lobes of its brain so
enormously, in order to create new and more dreadful ways of destroying millions of other
members of its own species! "Nature's insurgent son" had cast off chain-mail and dropped
lances and battle-axes, only to take up bombing-planes and Nazi propaganda.
The blood of millions of Frenchmen and Germans had fertilized this soil and made it so
green and pleasant to Lanny's eyes. He knew that in all these copses and valleys were hidden
the direful secrets of the Maginot Line, that series of complicated and enormously expensive
fortifications by which France was counting upon preventing another German invasion. Safe
behind this barricade, Frenchmen could use their leisure to maim and mangle other
Frenchmen with iron railings torn from a beautiful park. Where Lanny crossed the Rhine was
where the child Marie Antoinette had come with her train of two or three hundred vehicles,
on her long journey from Vienna to marry the Dauphin of France. All sorts of history around
here, but the traveler had no time to think about it; his mind was occupied with the history he
was going to make.
Skirting the edge of the Alps, with snow-dad peaks always in view, he came to the city of
Munich on its little river Isar. He put up at a second-class hotel, for he didn't want newspaper
reporters after him, and wanted to be able to put on the suit of old clothes which he had
brought, and be able to walk about the city, and perhaps the town of Dachau, without
attracting any special attention. At the Polizeiwache he reported himself as coming for the
purpose of purchasing works of art; his first act after that was to call upon a certain Baron von
Zinszollern whom he had met at the Detaze show and who had many paintings in his home. This
gentleman was an avowed Nazi sympathizer, and Lanny planned to use him as his "brown
herring," so to speak. In case of exposure this might sow doubts and confusion in Nazi minds,
which would be so much to the good.
Lanny went to this art patron's fine home and looked at his collection, and brought up in his
tactful way whether any of the works could be bought; he intimated that the prices asked were
rather high, but promised to cable abroad and see what he could do. He did cable to Zoltan, and
to a couple of customers in America, and these messages would be a part of his defense in case
of trouble. All through his stay in Munich he would be stimulating the hopes of a somewhat
impoverished German aristocrat, and diminishing the prices of his good paintings.
V
Upon entering Germany the conspirator had telephoned to Hugo Behr in Berlin, inviting
that young Nazi to take the night train to Munich. Lanny was here on account of pictures, he
said, and would show his friend some fine specimens. Hugo had understood, and it hadn't
been necessary to add, "expenses paid." The young sports director had doubtless found some
use for the money which Lanny had paid him, and would be pleased to render further services.
He arrived next morning, going to a different hotel, as Lanny had directed. He telephoned,
and Lanny drove and picked him up on the street. A handsome young Pomeranian, alert and
with springy step, apple-cheeked and with wavy golden hair, Hugo was a walk ing advertisement
of the pure Nordic ideal. In his trim Brownshirt uniform, with insignia indicating his important
function, he received a salute from all other Nazis, and from many civilians wishing to keep on
the safe side. It was extremely reassuring to be with such a man in Germany—although the "Heil
Hitlers" became a bit monotonous after a while.
Lanny drove his guest out into the country, where they could be quiet and talk freely. He
encouraged the guest to assume that the invitation was purely out of friendship; rich men can
indulge their whims like that, and they do so. Lanny was deeply interested to know how
Hugo's movement for the reforming of the Nazi party was coming along, and as the reformer
wanted to talk about nothing else, they drove for a long time through the valleys of the Alpine
foothills. The trees were in full splendor, as yet untouched by any signs of wear. A beautiful
land, and Lanny's head was full of poetry about it. Die Fenster auf, die Herzen auf! Geschwinde,
geschwinde!
But Hugo's thoughts had no trace of poetic cheerfulness. His figure of a young Hermes was
slumped in the car seat, and his tone was bitter as he said: "Our Nazi revolution is kaput. We
haven't accomplished a thing. The Führer has put himself completely into the hands of the
reactionaries. They tell him what to do—it's no longer certain that he could carry out his own
program, even if he wanted to. He doesn't see his old friends any more, he doesn't trust them.
The Reichswehr crowd are plotting to get rid of the Stormtroopers altogether."
"You don't really mean all that, Hugo!" Lanny was much distressed.
"Haven't you heard about our vacation?"
"I only entered Germany yesterday."
"All the S.A. have been ordered to take a vacation during the month of July. They say we've
been overworked and have earned a rest. That sounds fine; but we're not permitted to wear
our uniforms, or to carry our arms. And what are they going to do while we're disarmed? What
are we going to find when we come back?"
"That looks serious, I admit."
"It seems to me the meaning is plain. We, the rank and file, have done our job and they're
through with us. We have all been hoping to be taken into the Reichswehr; but no, we're not
good enough for that. Those officers are Junkers, they're real gentlemen, while we're common
trash; we're too many, two million of us, and they can't afford to feed us or to train us, so we
have to be turned off—and go to begging on the streets, perhaps."
"You know, Hugo, Germany is supposed to have only a hundred thousand in its regular
army. Mayn't it be that the Führer doesn't feel strong enough to challenge France, and
Britain on that issue?"
"What was our revolution for, but to set us free from their control? And how can we ever
become strong, if we reject the services of the very men who have made National Socialism?
We put these leaders in power—and now they're getting themselves expensive villas and big
motor-cars, and they're afraid to let us of the rank and file even wear our uniforms! They talk
of disbanding us, because the Reich can't afford our magnificent salaries of forty-two pfennigs
a day."
"Is that what you get?"
"That is what the rank and file get. What is that in your money?"
"About ten cents."
"Does that sound so very extravagant?"
"The men in our American army get about ten times that. Of course both groups get food and
lodgings free."
"Pretty poor food for the S.A.; and besides, there are all the levies, which take half what
anybody earns. Our lads were made to expect so much, but now all the talk is that the Reich
is so poor. The propaganda line has changed; Herr Doktor Goebbels travels over the land
denouncing the Kritikaster and the Miessmacher and the Nörgler and the Besserwisser—"
Hugo gave a long list of the depraved groups who dared to suggest that the Nazi Regierung
was anything short of perfect. "In the old days we were told there would be plenty, because
we were going to take the machinery away from the Schieber and set it to work for the benefit
of the common folk. But now the peasants have been made into serfs, and the workingman
who asks for higher pay or tries to change his job is treated as a criminal. Prices are going up
and wages falling, and what are the people to do?"
"Somebody ought to point these things out to the Führer," suggested Lanny.
"Nobody can get near the Führer. Göring has taken charge of his mind—Göring, the
aristocrat, the friend of the princes and the Junker landlords and the gentlemen of the steel
Kartell. They are piling up bigger fortunes than ever; I'm told that Göring is doing the same—
and sending the money abroad where it will be safe."
"I've heard talk about that in Paris and London," admitted Lanny; "and on pretty good
authority. The money people know what's going on."
VI
They were high up in the foothills, close to the Austrian border. Auf die Berge will ich
steigen, wo die dunkeln Tannen ragen! The air was crystal clear and delightfully cool, but it
wasn't for the air that Lanny had come, nor yet on account of Heine's Harzreise. They sat on an
outdoor platform of a little inn looking up a valley to a mountain that was Austria; Lanny saw
that the slopes about him were not too precipitous, nor the stream in the valley too deep. He
remarked to his companion: "There's probably a lot of illegal traffic over these mountain
paths."
"Not so much as you might think," was the reply. "You don't see the sentries, but they're
watching, and they shoot first and ask questions afterward."
"But they can't do much shooting on a stormy night."
"They know where the paths are, and they guard them pretty closely. But I've no doubt some
of the mountaineers take bribes and share with them. The Jews are running money out of
Germany by every device they can think of. They want to bleed the country to death."
That didn't sound so promising; but Lanny had to take a chance somewhere. When they
were back in the car, safe from prying ears, he said: "You know, Hugo, you're so irritated with
