familiar, and meantime, safe from prying ears, they had much to talk about. The Robins were
informed that they owned some money which the Nazis had not been able to keep track of—those
sums which Johannes had spent in entertaining Irma Barnes. They would be repaid in
installments, as the family needed it, and the money was not to be considered a loan or a gift,
but board and passenger fares long overdue. Irma said this with the decisiveness which she was
acquiring; she had learned that her money gave her power to settle the destinies of other
people, and she found it pleasant exercising this power—always for their own good, of course.
There was the estate of Bienvenu with nobody in it but Hansi and Bess and Baby Frances
with her attendants. Mama and Rahel and her little one were to settle down in the Lodge and
learn to count their blessings. Johannes would probably wish to go to New York with Irma and
Lanny, for they had some business to transact with Robbie, and Johannes might be of help.
Lanny gave him Robbie's letter to read, and the spirits of this born trader began to show faint
signs of life. Yes, he might have ideas about the selling of Budd products; if Robbie should get
charge of the company, Johannes would offer to take his job as European representative. Or, if
Robbie preferred, he would see what he could do with the South American trade—he had sold
all sorts of goods there, including military, and had much information about revolutions, past,
present, and to come.
"Sufferance is the badge of all our tribe." So Shylock had spoken, and now these three
wearers of the badge confronted their future, for the most part in silence. Their long siege of
fear had exhausted them, and they still found it hard to believe that they were free, that the
papers which Lanny was carrying would actually have power to get them over the border. They
thought about the dear one they were leaving in the Hitler hell, and the tears would steal down
their cheeks; they wiped them away furtively, having no right to add to the unhappiness of
friends who had done so much for them. They ate the food and drank the bottled drinks
which Lanny put into their hands; a lovely dark-eyed little boy with curly black hair lay still in
his mother's or his grandmother's arms and never gave a whimper of complaint. He was only
three years and as many months old, but already he had learned that he was in a world full of
mysterious awful powers, which for some reason beyond his comprehension meant to harm him.
Sufferance was his badge.
V
They were traveling by way of Hanover and Cologne. The roads were perfect, and three or
four hundred miles was nothing to Lanny; they reached Aachen before nightfall, and then
came the border, and the critical moment—which proved to be anticlimactic. The examination of
baggage and persons for concealed money was usually made as disagreeable as possible for Jews;
but perhaps there was some special mark on their exit permits, or perhaps it was because they
were traveling in an expensive car and under the chaperonage of expensive-looking Americans—
anyhow the questioning was not too severe, and much sooner than anyone had expected the
anxious refugees were signaled to proceed across the line. The inspection of their passports on
the Belgian side was a matter that took only a minute or two; and when the last formality was
completed and the car rolled on through a peaceful countryside that wasn't Nazi, Mama broke
down and wept in the arms of her spouse. She just hadn't been able to believe that it would
happen.
They spent the night in the city of Liege, where Lanny's first duty was to send telegrams to
his mother and father, to Hansi, to Zoltan and Emily and Rick. In the morning they drove on to
Paris; and from there he telephoned to his friend Oberleutnant Furtwaengler in Berlin. What
news was there about Freddi Robin? The officer reported that the young man was nowhere in
the hands of the German authorities; unless by chance he had given a false name when arrested,
something which was often attempted but rarely successful. Lanny said he was quite certain
that Freddi would have no motive for doing this. The Oberleutnant promised to continue the
search, and if anything came of it he would send a telegram to Lanny at his permanent
address, Juan-les-Pins, Cap d'Antibes, Frankreich.
Lanny hung up and reported what he had heard. It meant little, of course. Long ago Lanny
had learned that diplomats lie when it suits their country's purposes, and police and other
officials do the same; among the Nazis, lying in the interest of party and
action. The statement of Göring's aide meant simply that if Göring had Freddi he meant to keep
him. If and when he released him, he would doubtless say that an unfortunate mistake had
been made.
Beauty had gone to London with her husband, as guests of Lady Caillard. She now wired
Lanny to come and see if he could get any hints through Madame. Since it was as easy to go
