Upton Sinclair - Dragons’s teeth

"Indeed I am sure you can," responded Heinrich cordially.

Lanny took a deep breath and said a little prayer. "There’s just one trouble, Heinrich. You know, of course, that my sister is married to a Jew."

"Yes. It’s too bad!" responded the young official, gravely.

"It happens that he’s a fine violinist; the best I know. Have you ever heard him?"

"Never."

"He played the Beethoven concerto in Paris a few weeks ago, and it was considered extraordinary."

"I don’t think I’d care to hear a Jew play Beethoven," replied Heinrich. His enthusiasm had sustained a sudden chill.

"Here is my position," continued Lanny. "Hansi’s father has been my father’s business associate for a long time."

"They tell me he was a Schieber."

"Maybe so. There were plenty of good German Schieber; the biggest of all was Stinnes. There’s an open market, and men buy and sell, and nobody knows whom he’s buying from or selling to. The point is, I have ties with the Robin family, and it makes it awkward for me."

"They ought to get out of the country, Lanny. Let them go to America, if you like them and can get along with them."

"Exactly! That is what I’ve been urging them to do, and they wanted to do it. But unfortunately Johannes has disappeared."

"Disappeared? How do you mean?"

"He was about to go on board his yacht in Bremerhaven when some Brownshirts seized him and carried him off, and nobody has any idea where he is."

"But that’s absurd, Lanny."

"I’m sure it doesn’t seem absurd to my old friend."

"What has he been doing? He must have broken some law."

"I have no idea and I doubt very much if he has."

"How do you know about it, Lanny?"

"I telephoned to the yacht and a strange voice answered. The man said he was a Reichsbetriebszellenabteilung Gruppenführerstellvertreter."

"That’s a part of Dr. Ley’s new Labor Front. What’s he got to do with a Jewish Schieber?"

"You may do me a great favor if you’ll find out for me, Heinrich."

"Well, you know what happens in revolutions. People take things into their own hands, and regrettable incidents occur. The Führer can’t know everything that’s going on."

"I’m quite sure of it," said Lanny. "The moment I heard about it, I said: "I know exactly where to go. Heinrich Jung is the person who will understand and help me. So here I am!"

The young Nazi executive wasn’t a fool, not even with the Rheinwein and the champagne and the brandy. He perceived at once why he had been receiving all this hospitality. But then, he had known Lanny Budd for some twelve years, and had had other meals at his expense and no favors asked. It is injurious to one’s vanity to have to suspect old friends, and Heinrich had a naturally confiding disposition. So he asked: "What do you want me to do?"

"First, I want you to understand my position in this unhappy matter. I have many friends in Germany, and I don’t want to hurt them; but at the same time I can’t let a member of my family rot in a concentration camp without at least trying to find out what he’s accused of. Can I, Heinrich?"

"No, I suppose not," the other admitted, reluctantly.

"So far, there hasn’t been any publicity that I have seen. Of course something may break loose abroad; Johannes has friends and business associates there, and when they don’t hear from him they, too, may get busy on the telephone. If that happens, it will make a scandal, and I think I’m doing a favor to you and to Kurt and to Seine Hochgeboren and even to the Führer, when I come and let you know the situation. The first person I meet in Berlin is likely to ask me: Where is Johannes? And what am I to say? Since he is my sister’s father-in-law and my father’s associate, I’d be bound to call at his home, or at least telephone and let him know of my arrival."

"It’s certainly awkward," conceded Heinrich.

"Another thing: when Seine Hochgeboren gets my letter in the morning he may call up. He’s a friend of Johannes—in fact, it was at Johannes’s palace that I first met him. Also, Irma expects to meet the Fürstin Bismarck tomorrow—perhaps you know her, a very charming Swedish lady. What is she going to say about the matter?"

Heinrich admitted that it was verteufelt; and Lanny went on: "If I tell these people what has happened, I am in the position of having come here to attack the Regierung; and that’s the last thing I want to do. But the story can’t be kept down indefinitely, and it’s going to make a frightful stink. So I said to Irma: Let’s get to Heinrich quickly, and have the thing stopped before it gets started. Johannes is absolutely a non-political person, and he has no interest in spreading scandals. I’m sure he’ll gladly agree to shut up and forget that it happened."

"But the man must have done something, Lanny! They don’t just grab people in Germany and drag them to jail for nothing."

"Not even Jews, Heinrich?"

"Not even Jews. You saw how orderly the boycott was. Or did the foreign press lie to you about it?"

"I have heard terrible stories; but I have refused to believe them and I don’t want to have to. I want to be able to go out and tell my friends that as soon as I reported this case to the Nazi authorities, the trouble was corrected. I offer you a chance to distinguish yourself, Heinrich, because your superiors will be grateful to you for helping to avoid a scandal in the outside world."

This conversation was being carried on in German, because Heinrich’s English was inadequate. Irma’s German was even poorer, but she had the advantage of having been told Lanny’s plan of campaign, and she could follow its progress on the young official’s face. A well-chiseled Nordic face, with two sky-blue eyes looking earnestly out, and a crown of straw-colored hair shaved so that a Pickelhaube might fit over it—though Heinrich had never worn that decoration. The face had been pink with pleasure at the evening’s start; it had become rosy with good food, wine, and friendship; now it appeared to be growing pale with anxiety and a crushing burden of thought.

"But what on earth could I do, Lanny?"

"It was my idea that you would help me to take the matter directly to the Führer."

"Oh, Lanny, I couldn’t possibly do that!"

"You have access to him, don’t you?"

"Not so much as I used to. Things have changed. In the old days he was just a party leader, but now he’s the head of the government. You’ve no idea of the pressure upon him, and the swarms of people trying to get at him all the time."

"I can understand that. But here is an emergency, and surely he would thank you for coming to him."

"I simply wouldn’t dare, Lanny. You must understand, I am nothing but an office-man. They give me a certain job, and I do it efficiently, and presently they give me more to do. But I have never had anything to do with politics."

"But is this politics, Heinrich?"

"You will soon find out that it is. If Dr. Ley has arrested a rich Jew, he has some reason; and he’s a powerful politician, and has friends at court—I mean, near the Führer. If I go and butt in, it will be like walking into No Man’s Land while the shooting is going on. What hold I have on the Führer is because I am an old admirer, who has never asked anything of him in all my life. Now, if I come to him, and he finds that I’m meddling in state affairs, he might be furious and say " Raus mit dir! " and never see me again."

"On the other hand, Heinrich, if it should ever come to his ears that you had advance knowledge of this matter and failed to give him warning, he wouldn’t think it was a high sort of friendship, would he?"