o 3b3e7475144cf77c

Lanny answered: "I was one of many Americans at the Peace Conference who pleaded

against that mistake."

So the Führer warmed to his visitor. "The shallow-minded call my attitude imperialism; but

that is an abuse of language. It is not imperialism to recognize the plain evidence of history

that certain peoples have the capacity to build a culture while others are lacking in it entirely.

It is not imperialism to say that a vigorous and great-souled people like the Germans shall not

be surrounded and penned in by jealous and greedy rivals. It is not imperialism to say that these

little children shall not suffer all their lives the deprivations which they have suffered so far."

The speaker was running his hand over the closely cropped blond head of the little boy. "This

Bübchen was born in the year of the great shame, that wicked Versailles Diktat. You can see

that he is thin and undersized, because of the starvation blockade. But I have told him that his

children will be as sturdy as his father was, because I intend to deliver the Fatherland from the

possibility of blockades—and I shall not worry if my enemies call me an imperialist. I have written

that every man becomes an imperialist when he begets a child, for he obligates himself to see

to it that that child has the means of life provided."

Lanny, a Socialist not untainted with internationalism, could have thought of many things to

answer; but he had no desire to spoil this most amiable of interviews. So long as a tiger was

willing to purr, Lanny was pleased to study tigers. He might have been influenced by the many

gracious words which had been spoken to him, if it had not been for having read Mein Kampf.

How could the author of that book imagine that he could claim, for example, to have no

enmity against France? Or had he changed his mind in five years? Apparently not, for he had

formed a publishing-house which was selling his bible to all the loyal followers of the National

Socialist German Workingmen's Party, and at the price of twelve marks per copy somebody

was making a fortune.

IX

Lanny thought: "I am taking a lot of a busy man's time." But he knew that when you are

calling on royalty you do not leave until you are dismissed; and perhaps it would be the same

here. The children had been sent away, it being their suppertime; but still the Führer went on

talking. Heinrich Jung sat leaning forward with an aspect of strained attention, and there was

nothing for Lanny to do but follow his example.

The Führer retold the wrongs which had been done to his country; and as he went on he

became more and more aroused, his voice swelled and he became the orator. Lanny

remembered having read somewhere of Queen Victoria's complaining about her audiences

with Gladstone: "He treats me as if I were a public meeting." Lanny found it somewhat

embarrassing to be shouted at from a distance of six feet. He thought: "Good Lord, with this

much energy the man could address all Germany!" But apparently Adolf Hitler had enough

energy for all Germany and for a foreign visitor also; it was for him to decide how much to

expend, and for the visitor to sit and gaze at him like a fascinated rabbit at a hissing snake.

Lanny had seen this same thing happen at several meetings. The Führer took fire from his own

phrases; he was moved to action by his own eloquence. Now, now was the moment to

overthrow these enemies of the Fatherland, to punish them for their crimes. Heads will roll in

the sand! The orator forgot all about being sweet and reasonable for the benefit of a member

of two of these enemy nations. Perhaps he thought that Lanny, having heard the whole story

of Versailles, of reparations and starvation blockade and Ruhr invasion and Polish alliance and all

the rest, must now be completely a convert. Away with the pretense that the Führer of the Nazis

did not hate the French for their avarice, the British for their arrogance, the Americans for their

upstart pretensions, the Bolsheviks for being bloodthirsty monsters, the Jews for being the

spawn of hell. In short, he became that man of frenzy whom Lanny and Rick had first heard

in the Burgerbraukeller in Munich seven years ago. Lanny had said: "One must admit that he

is sincere," and Rick had replied: "So are most lunatics."

How long this would have continued no one could say. The housekeeper opened the door and

said: "Verzeihung, mein Führer. Herr Strasser." Behind her came, without delay, a large

man in S.A. uniform. He had large, rather coarse features, a somewhat bulbous nose, a

drooping mouth with deep lines at the sides. According to the practice with which Lanny was

familiar he should have halted in the doorway, clicked his heels, given the Nazi salute, and

said: "Heil Hitler!" Instead he came forward, remarking in a nonchalant way: "Grüß Gott,

Adolf." This meant that he was an old friend, and also that he came from Bavaria.