Upton Sinclair - Dragons’s teeth

The sum of more than four hundred thousand marks which had been paid for Detaze pictures had been deposited in Berlin banks. It would be up to Lanny and Zoltan to use those marks in purchasing art works for their American clients, who would make their payments in New York; thus the pair would have to ask no favors of the Nazis. Lanny had obtained information from a list of clients in America, and Zoltan had a list which he had been accumulating over a period of many years; so there would be no difficulty in doing a sufficient amount of business. They had agreed to go fifty-fifty on all transactions.

Lanny had suggested taking the show to Munich for-a week, and his friend had approved. Here was a great art-loving public, and sales were certain; moreover, Beauty got fun out of it, and Lanny knew of pictures which might be bought there. Jerry Pendleton, who had been waiting in Berlin to take the unsold Detazes back to France, would see to packing and transporting them to Munich. The Herr Privatdozent assured them that he enjoyed even more influence in the Bavarian city, the cradle of National Socialism. He would be paid another fifteen thousand marks for his services, plus his expenses for two weeks. He was planning to live high;

Hugo Behr returned to Berlin, reporting that he had made contact with an old party acquaintance who was now one of the S.A. guards in the camp of Dachau. To this man Hugo had explained that he had a friend who was owed money by a young Jew, and wondered if the debtor was still alive and if there was any prospect of his coming out. The report had been that Freddi Robin had been in the camp for four or five months; had been pretty roughly treated before he came there, and now was kept by himself, for what reason the S.A. man didn’t know. What he had meant by reporting Freddi as "well" was that he was alive and not being abused, so far as the informant had heard. Nobody was happy in Dachau, and least of all any Jew.

Hugo added: "We might be able to trust that fellow, because I had a long talk with him and he feels about events pretty much as I do. He’s sick of his job, which isn’t at all what he bargained for. He says there are plenty of others who feel the same, though they don’t always talk. You know, Lanny, the Germans aren’t naturally a cruel people, and they don’t like having the most brutal and rowdyish fellows among them picked out and put in charge."

"Did he say that?" inquired Lanny.

"He said even more. He said he’d like to see every Jew put out of Germany, but he didn’t see any sense in locking them up and kicking them around, just for being what they were born. I told him my idea that the party is being led astray and that it’s up to the rank and file to set it straight. He was interested, and maybe we’ll have an organized group in Dachau."

"That’s fine," commented the American; "and I’m ever so much obliged to you. I’m going to Munich pretty soon and perhaps you can come again, and I’ll have some other message for your friend." At the same time he took a little roll of hundred-mark notes out of his pocket and slipped them into his friend’s—a matter of only a few inches as they sat side by side in the car.

To his wife Lanny said: "There might be a possibility of getting Freddi out without waiting forever on the fat General."

"Oh, do be careful!" exclaimed Irma. "That would be a fearful risk to take!"

"Only as a last resort. But I really think Göring has had time enough to peer into all the concentration camps in the Reich."

He made up his mind to call up Oberleutnant Furtwaengler and inquire concerning the promised investigation. But he put it off till the next morning, and before he got round to it the young staff officer was announced and ushered up to the suite. "Herr Budd," he said, "are you free for the next two or three days?"

"I could get free."

"Seine Exzellenz has earned a holiday after the strain of his court appearances." The serious young officer said this without the least trace of a smile, and Lanny assented with the gravest of nods. "Seine Exzellenz is taking a shooting trip to the estate of Prinz von Schwarzerober in the Schorfheide, and would be pleased if you would accompany him."

"That is very kind indeed," replied the American, with a carefully measured amount of cordiality. "I appreciate the honor and will enjoy the opportunity to know the General better."

"Unfortunately," added the other, "this is what you Americans, I believe, call a stag affair."

"A stag affair in two senses of the word," smiled Lanny, who knew about shooting in the German forests. "My wife won’t object to staying here, for she has friends who keep her entertained."

"Very well, then," replied the Oberleutnant. "The car will call for you at fifteen o’clock tomorrow."

Later, the young couple went driving and talked over the situation. "He wants something," declared the husband. "I suppose I’m going to find out about it now."

"Let him do the talking," cautioned Irma. "You saw that he expects it." She was nine years younger than her husband, and had met the General only once, but she knew all about his Prunksucht, his delight in self-display, both physical and mental. "He has to prove that he’s the greatest man in the company, the greatest in the government, perhaps the greatest in the world. He will do anything for you if you convince him you believe that."

Lanny’s mother had been supplying him with that sort of instruction all through his life. He wondered: had Irma got it from Beauty —or from the Great Mother of them all?

LANNY in his boyhood had observed the feudal system operating in Stubendorf, and had found it paternal and pleasant; so he could understand how the Nazis had made the same discovery. The party was bound for the hunting preserve of one of those great landlords who had been the friends of Hauptmann Göring in the days when he was an ace aviator, successor to von Richthofen in command of that famous squadron. These wealthy Junkers had allied themselves with the Hitler party upon Göring’s assurance that they would be properly cared for, and Göring now was seeing that the pledge was kept. There wasn’t going to be any "Second Revolution" in Prussia if the head of the government could prevent it, and he thought that he could.

The party traveled in that six-wheeled Mercedes which Lanny had come to call "the tank." The chauffeur and the guard who rode beside him were black-uniformed Schutzstaffel men, both well armed. The very large General lolled in the back seat, with Lanny in the place of honor beside him. In two retractable seats rode Oberst Siemans, a Reichswehr officer who was a World War buddy of the General’s, and Hauptmann Einstoss, an S.A. man who had accompanied Göring in his flight to Switzerland after the Beerhall Putsch. A second car followed with Furtwaengler and another staff officer, a secretary, a telephone operator, and a valet.

The party in the "tank" talked about the trial. Lanny wished he might hear what they would have said if he hadn’t been along, but there was no way to arrange that. They talked on the assumption that the five prisoners were the spawn of Satan, and that the General had completely annihilated Dimitroff. When they asked Lanny what would be the opinion of the outside world, he replied that all people were inclined to believe what it was in their interest to believe, and the outside world was afraid of the Nazis because it suspected that they meant to rearm Germany. Thus, if one was cautious, it was possible to avoid lying and at the same time avoid giving offense.

They drove at high speed, with a powerful horn giving notice to all the world to clear the way. Toward dusk they left the highway and entered a heavy forest; they drove many miles on a private road before coming to a hunting lodge, well lighted for their reception. A spacious hall, with bearskins on the floor and trophies on the walls; a glass-cased rack of guns at one end, a banquet-table at the other, and a great stone fireplace with logs blazing. There was no host—the place had been turned over to the General. Servants in green foresters' uniforms brought drinks, and when Seine Exzellenz called for supper there came a procession of men, each bearing a silver platter: the first containing a huge roasted boar’s head, steaming hot, the second a haunch of venison, the third several capercailzie, a kind of grouse bigger than any chicken, and the fourth some fricasseed hares. Lanny, dining under the feudal system, could only laugh and beg for mercy. His host, proud of his prowess as a trencherman, was not displeased to have others take an attitude of inferiority.