the large hotels where he would find a telephone booth, and there put in a call for Jerry
Pendleton, Pension Flavin, Cannes. It takes time to achieve such a feat in Europe, but he
waited patiently, and at last heard his old pal's sleepy voice.
Lanny said: "The Detazes are ready, and I'm waiting in Munich for you. I am buying some
others, and want to close the deal and move them on Friday. Do you think you can get here
then?"
"By heck!" said Jerry. It was Wednesday midnight, and his voice came suddenly awake. "I
can't get visas until morning."
"You can hunt up the consul tonight and pay him extra."
"I'll have to go and make sure about Cyprien first." That was a nephew of Leese, who did
truck-driving for Bienvenu.
"All right, get him or somebody else. Make note of my address, and phone me at noon
tomorrow and again late in the evening, letting me know where you are. Come by way of Verona
and the Brenner, and don't let anything keep you from being here. If you should have a
breakdown, let Cyprien come with the truck, and you take a train, or a plane if you have to. I
have somebody here I want you to meet on Friday."
"O.K." said the ex-tutor and ex-soldier; he sort of sang it, with the accent on the first
syllable, and it was like a signature over the telephone.
IX
Baron von Zinszollern possessed an Anton Mauve, a large and generous work portraying a
shepherd leading home his flock in a pearly gray and green twilight. It seemed to Lanny a fine
example of that painter's poetical and serious feeling, and he had got the price down to thirty
thousand marks. He had telegraphed Zoltan that he was disposed to buy it as a gamble, and
did his friend care to go halves? His friend replied Yes, so he went that morning and bought the
work, paying two thousand marks down and agreeing to pay the balance within a week. This
involved signing papers, which Lanny would have on his person; also, an influential Nazi
sympathizer would have an interest in testifying that he was really an art expert. Incidentally
it gave Lanny a pretext for going to the Munich branch of the Hellstein Bank, and having
them pay him thirty thousand marks in Nazi paper.
At noon the dependable Jerry telephoned. He and Cyprien and the
Genoa. They would eat and sleep on board, and keep moving. Lanny told him to
telephone about ten in the evening wherever they were. Jerry sang: "O.K."
A little later came a call from "Boecklin," and Lanny took him for a drive. He said: "It's all
fixed. You're to pay twenty-three thousand marks, and your man will be delivered to you
anywhere in Dachau at twenty-two o'clock tomorrow evening. Will you be ready?"
"I'm pretty sure to. Here's your money." Lanny took out his wallet, and handed it to his
friend beside him. "Help yourself."
It was improbable that Hugo Behr, son of a shipping clerk, had ever had so much money in his
hands before. The hands trembled slightly as he took out the bundle of crisp new banknotes,
each for one thousand marks; he counted out twenty-three of them, while Lanny went on
driving and didn't seem to be especially interested. Hugo counted them a second time, both
times out loud.
"You'd better take your own, also," suggested the lordly one. "You know I might get into
some trouble."
"If you do, I'd rather be able to say you hadn't paid me anything. I'm doing it purely for
friendship's sake, and because you're a friend of Heinrich and Kurt."
"Lay all the emphasis you can on them!" chuckled Lanny. "Mention that Heinrich told you
how he had taken Kurt and me to visit the Führer last winter; and also that I told you
about taking a hunting trip with Göring. So you were sure I must be all right."
Hugo had got some news about Freddi which the other heard gladly. Apparently Lanny had
been right in what he had said about the Jewish prisoner; he had won the respect even of those
who were trying to crush him. Unfortunately he was in the hands of the Gestapo, which kept
him apart from the regular run of inmates. A prison inside the prison, it appeared! The rumor
was that they had been trying to force Freddi to reveal the names of certain Social-Democrats
who were operating an illegal press in Berlin; but he insisted that he knew nothing about it.
"He wouldn't be apt to know," said Lanny. To himself he added: "Trudi Schultz!"
It had been his intention to make a casual remark to his friend: "Oh, by the way, I wonder if
you could find out if there's a man in Dachau by the name of Ludwig Schultz." But now he
realized that it was not so simple as he had thought. To tell Hugo that he was trying to help
another of the dreaded "Marxists" might sour him on the whole deal. And for Hugo to tell his
friends in the concentration camp might have the same effect upon them. Lanny could do
nothing for poor Trudi—at least not this trip.
X
He drove the car to Dachau, and they rolled about its streets, to decide upon a spot which
would be dark and quiet. They learned the exact description of this place, so that Hugo