The officer entered the reception room, clicked his heels, bowed from the waist, and remarked:
silver uniform of the S.S. with the white skull and crossbones. He said: "Herr Budd, I have the
honor to inform you that I was yesterday appointed to the personal staff of the Reichsminister
and Minister-Prasident of Prussia, Hauptmann Goring. I have the rank of Oberleutnant, but have
not had time to have new cards engraved. Seine Exzellenz wishes to invite you and Frau Budd to
his inauguration ceremonies, which take place the day after tomorrow."
"We are greatly honored, Herr Oberleutnant," said Lanny, concealing his surprise.
"I present you with this card of admission. You understand it will be necessary to have it with
you."
"Assuredly," said Lanny, and put the treasure safely into the inside breast pocket of his coat.
The other went on: "Seine Exzellenz the Minister-Prasident wishes you to know that he is
giving immediate personal attention to the matter of Johannes Robin."
"Well, thank you, Herr Oberleutnant," said the American. This time his surprise couldn't be
concealed. He explained: "Only a few minutes ago I had a call from the office of another
Reichsminister, and was told that
Said the officer: "I am instructed to inform you that if you will accompany me to the
residence of Seine Exzellenz the Minister-Prasident, he personally will give you information
about the matter."
"I am honored," replied Lanny, "and of course pleased to come. Excuse me while I inform my
wife."
Irma paled when told this news, for she had heard about Goring, who had so far no rival for
the title of the most brutal man in the Nazi government. "Can this be an arrest, Lanny?"
"It would be extremely bad form to suggest such an idea," he smiled. "I will phone you
without fail at the Furstin Donnerstein's by two o'clock. Wait there for me. If I do not call, it
will be serious. But meantime, don't spoil your lunch by worrying." He gave her a quick kiss
and went down to the big official car—a Mercedes, as big as a tank, having six wheels. It had a
chauffeur and guard, both in Nazi uniforms. Lanny thought: "By heck! Johannes must be
richer than I realized!"
II
A short drive up Unter den Linden and through the Brandenburger Tor to the Minister-
Prasident's official residence, just across the way from the Reichstag building with its burned-
out dome. Lanny had heard no end of discussion of the three-hundred-foot tunnel which ran
under the street, through which the S.A. men were said to have come on the night when they
filled the building with incendiary materials and touched them off with torches. All the non-
Nazi world believed that Hermann Wilhelm Goring had ordered and directed that job.
Certainly no one could question that it was he who had ordered and directed the hunting down
and killing, the jailing and torturing, of tens of thousands of Communists and Socialists,
democrats and pacifists, during the past three and a half months. In his capacity of Minister
without Portfolio of the German Reich he had issued an official decree instructing the police to
co-operate with the Nazi forces, and in a speech at Dortmund he had defended his decree:
"In future there will be only one man who will wield power and bear responsibility in Prussia
—that is myself. A bullet fired from the barrel of a police pistol is my bullet. If you say that is
murder, then I am a murderer. I know only two sorts of law because I know only two sorts of
men: those who are with us and those who are against us."
With such a host anything was possible, and it was futile for Lanny to try to guess what was
coming. How much would the Commandant of the Prussian Police and founder of the
"Gestapo," the Secret State Police, have been able to find out about a Franco-American Pink in
the course of a few hours? Lanny had been so indiscreet as to mention to Goebbels that he
had met Mussolini.
Would they have phoned to Rome and learned how the son of Budd's had been expelled from
that city for trying to spread news of the killing of Giacomo Matteotti? Would they have
phoned to Cannes and found out about the labor school? To Paris and learned about the Red
uncle, and the campaign contributions of Irma Barnes which had made him a Deputy of France?
Lanny could pose as a Nazi sympathizer before Heinrich Jung—but hardly before the Führer's
head triggerman!
It was all mystifying in the extreme. Lanny thought: "Has Goebbels turned the matter over
to Goring, or has Goring grabbed it away from Goebbels?" Everybody knew that the pair were
the bitterest of rivals; but since they had become Cabinet Ministers their two offices must be
compelled to collaborate on all sorts of matters. Did they have jurisdictional disputes? Would
they come to a fight over the possession of a wealthy Jew and the ransom which might be
