will impress the Nazis. This job is not going to be one of a few hours, I'm afraid."
"But think what they may be doing to him, Lanny!"
"I've been thinking about it a lot, and I doubt if they'll do him serious harm. It must be
money they're after, and the job will be one of bargaining."
"He's a Jew, Lanny."
"I know; but he has a great many friends at home and abroad, and the Nazis know it, and I
don't believe they want any needless scandals. It's up to Irma and me to serve as mediators, as
friends to both sides; to meet the right people and find out what it's going to cost."
"You'll be exhausted when you arrive," objected Beauty, struggling with tears. She wanted
him to take the chauffeur.
"No," said Lanny. "We'll take turns sleeping on the back seat, and all we'll need when we get
there is a bath, a shave for me and some make-up for Irma. If we drive ourselves we can talk
freely, without fear of spies, and I wouldn't want to trust any servant, whether German or
French. That goes for all the time we're in Naziland."
XII
There was a phone call for Lanny: Jerry Pendleton calling from Paris, to report that a letter
from Germany had arrived. It bore no sender's name, but Jerry had guessed that it might have
some bearing on the situation. Lanny told him to open and read it. It proved to be an unsigned
letter from Freddi, who had reached Berlin. He wrote in English, telling the same news, but
adding that he and his wife were in hiding; they were not free to give the address, and were not
sure how long they could stay. If Lanny would come to the Adlon, they would hear of it and
arrange to meet him.
To Jerry, Lanny said: "My family is coming to Paris at once. Do what you can to help them.
I am telling them to trust you completely. You are to trust nobody but them."
"I get you."
"You are still
be refunded. Has the chauffeur left?"
"He left at four this morning. He thinks he can make it by ten."
"All right, thanks."
Lanny reported all this to the family, and his mother said: "You ought to get some sleep
before you start driving."
"I have too many things on my mind," he replied. "You go and sleep, Irma, and you can do
the first spell of driving."
Irma liked this new husband who seemed to know exactly what to do and spoke with so
much decisiveness. She had once had a father like that. Incidentally, she was extremely tired,
and glad to get away from demonstrative Jewish grief. Lanny said "Sleep," and she was a
healthy young animal, to whom it came easily. She had been half-hypnotized watching Parsifal
Dingle, who would sit for a long time in a chair with his eyes closed; if you didn't know him
well you would think he was asleep, but he was meditating. Was he asking God to save Johannes
Robin? Was he asking God to soften the hearts of the Nazis? God could do such things, no
doubt; but it was hard to think out the problem, because, why had God made the Nazis in the
beginning? If you said that the devil had made them, why had God made the devil?
There was no longer any reason for anyone's remaining in Calais, so Feathers went to buy
tickets for Paris and arrange to have the mountain of luggage transported. Meanwhile Hansi
and Bess and Lanny discussed the best way of getting Papa's misfortune made known to the
outside world. That would be an important means of help—perhaps the most important of all.
Lanny's first impulse was to call up the office of
realizing that if he was going to turn into a Nazi sympathizer, he oughtn't to be furnishing
explosive news items to a Socialist paper. Besides, this was not a Socialist or Communist story; it
had to do with a leading financier and belonged in the bourgeois press; it ought to come from
the victim's son, a distinguished person in his own right. Hansi and his wife should go to the
Hotel Crillon, and there summon the newspaper men, both French and foreign, and tell them
the news, and appeal for world sympathy. Lanny had met several of the American
correspondents in Paris, and now he gave Hansi their names.
"The Nazis lie freely," said the budding intriguer, "and they compel you to do the same. Don't
mention the rest of your family, and if the reporters ask, say that you have not heard from
them and have no idea where they are. Say that you got your information by telephoning to the
yacht and to the palace. Put the burden of responsibility off on Reichsbetriebszellenabteilung
Gruppenführerllvertreter Pressmann, and let his Hauptgruppenführer take him down into the
cellar and shoot him for it. Don't ever drop a hint that you are getting information from your
family, or from Irma or me. Make that clear to Jerry also. We must learn to watch our step
from this moment on, because the Nazis want one thing and we want another, and if they win,
we lose!"
17
I
Mr. and Mrs. Lanning Prescott Budd of Juan-les-Pins, France, registered themselves at the
