o 3b3e7475144cf77c

on the mountain roads, but he thought he could make it by noon the next day. "What is the

deadline?" he asked, and Lanny replied: "Two o'clock." Jerry sang: "O.K." and Lanny lay

down and tried to sleep, but found it difficult, because he kept imagining himself in the hands

of the Gestapo, who had prisons inside of prisons. What would he say? And more im portant

yet, what would they do?

Next morning the conspirator received a telephone call from "Herr Boecklin," and drove to

meet his friend and receive some bad news; one of the men concerned was demanding more

money, because the thing was so very dangerous. Lanny asked how much, and the answer was,

another five thousand marks. Lanny said all right, he would get it at once; but Hugo wanted to

change the arrangement. He hadn't paid out the money, and wanted to refuse to pay more

than half until the prisoner was actually delivered. His idea now was to drive to Dachau with

Lanny at the appointed time, and to keep watch near by. If Freddi was produced and everything

seemed all right, he would emerge and pay the rest of the money.

Lanny said: "That's a lot more dangerous for you, Hugo." "Not so very," was the reply. "I'm

sure it's not a trap; but if it were, they could get me anyhow. What I want to do is to keep

you from paying the money and then not getting your man."

XII

Lanny went back to his hotel and waited until early afternoon, on pins and needles. At last

came a telephone call; Jerry Pendleton was at the hotel in Munich to which Lanny had told him to

come. "Evervthing hunkydory, not a scratch."

Lanny said: "Be out on the street; I'll pick you up."

"Give me ten minutes to shave and change my shirt," countered the ex-lieutenant from

Kansas.

Delightful indeed to set eyes on somebody from home; somebody who could be trusted, and

who didn't say "Heil Hitler!" The ex-lieutenant was over forty, his red hair was losing its sheen

and he had put on some weight; but to Lanny he was still America, prompt, efficient, and full of

what it called "pep," "zip," and "ginger." A lady's man all his life, Lanny was still impressed by

the masculine type, with hair on its chest. Though he would have died before admitting it, he

was both lonely and scared in Naziland.

Driving in the traffic of the Ludwigstrasse, he couldn't look at his ex-tutor, but he said: "Gee

whiz, Jerry, you're a sight for sore eyes!"

"The same to you, kid!"

"You won't be so glad of my company when you hear what I'm in this town for."

"Why, what's the matter? I thought you were buying pictures."

"I am buying Freddi Robin out of the Dachau concentration camp."

"Jesus Christ!" exclaimed Jerry.

He's to be delivered to me at ten o'clock tonight, and you've got to help me smuggle him out

of this goddam Nazi country!"

27

A Deed of Dreadful Note

I

JERRY had known that Freddi Robin was a prisoner in Germany, but hadn't known where

or why or how. Now, in the car, safe from eavesdroppers, Lanny told the story and expounded

his plan. He was proposing to take his own photograph from his passport and substitute that of

Freddi Robin which he had brought with him. Then he would pick up Freddi in Dachau, drive to

some other part of the town and get Jerry, and let Jerry drive Freddi out of Germany under

the name of Lanning Prescott Budd. Such was the genial scheme.

"At first," Lanny explained, "I had the idea of fixing up your passport for Freddi to use, and I

would drive him out. But I realized, there's very little danger in the driving part—the passports

will be all right, and once you get clear of Dachau everything will be O.K. But the fellow

who's left behind without a passport may have a bit of trouble; so that's why I'm offering you

the driving part."

"But, my God!" cried the bewildered Kansan. "Just what do you expect to do about getting

out?"

"I'll go to the American consul and tell him my passport has been stolen. I have made

friends with him and he'll probably give me some sort of duplicate. If he won't, it'll be up to

me to find a way to sneak out by some of the mountain passes."

"But, Lanny, you're out of your mind! In the first place, the moment Freddi's escape is

discovered they'll know he's heading for the Austrian border, and they'll block the passes."

"It'll take you only an hour or two to get to the border from Dachau, and you'll be over and

gone. You're to drive my car, understand, not the camion."

"But there will be the record of the Lanny Budd passport and of mine at the border."

"What then? They'll draw the conclusion that you are the man who stole my passport. But it's

not an extraditable offense."

"They'll know it was a put-up job! You're the brother-in-law of Freddi's brother and you've

been trying to get him released. It'll be obvious that you gave me your papers."

"They won't have a particle of evidence to prove it."

"They'll sweat it out of you, Lanny. I tell you, it's a bum steer! I could never look your

mother or your father or your wife in the face if I let you put your foot into such a trap." As