o 3b3e7475144cf77c

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