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for him to say: "Mr. Budd, I know nothing about the matter and have no desire to." Was Lanny

to reply: "I do not believe you, Exzellenz!"?

It seemed clear that all Lanny could accomplish was to center the attention of the Gestapo upon

the Robin family. If they set out to look for Freddi they would have to inquire among his friends.

They might ask Lanny for a list of these friends; and what could Lanny say? "I do not trust you,

meine Herren von der Geheimen Staats Polizei"? On the other hand, to give the names might

condemn all these friends to concentration camps. The wife of Johannes was hiding with one

of her former servants. The Gestapo would get a list of these and hunt them out—Jews, most of

them, and doubtless possessing secrets of Johannes and his associates. Who could guess what they

might reveal, or what anybody might invent under the new scientific forms of torture?

II

Lanny and his wife attended the very grand inauguration ceremonies of the Minister-Prasident

of Prussia. They were met by Ober-leutnant Furtwaengler and introduced to Ministerialdirektor

Doktor X and General Ritter von Y. They were surrounded by Nazis in magnificent uniforms

covered with medals and orders, behaving themselves with dignity and even with charm. Very

difficult indeed to believe that they were the most dangerous miscreants in the world! Irma in

her heart couldn't believe it, and when she and Lanny were driving afterward they had a bit of

an argument, as married couples have been known to do.

Irma was a daughter of civilization. When she suspected a crime she went to the police. But

now, it appeared, the police were the criminals! Irma had listened to Lanny's Red and Pink

friends denouncing the police of all lands, and it had annoyed her more than she had cared to

say; there were still traces of that annoyance in her soul, and Lanny had to exclaim: "My God,

didn't Goring tell me with his own lips that he would find a hundred of Johannes's relatives

and friends and torture them?"

"Yes, darling," replied the wife, with that bland manner which could be so exasperating. "But

couldn't it have been that he was trying to frighten you?"

"Jesus!" he exploded. "For years I've been trying to tell the world what the Nazis are, and now it

appears that I haven't convinced even my own wife!" He saw that he had offended her, and

right away was sorry.

He had been through all this with his mother, starting a full decade ago. Beauty had never

been able to believe that Mussolini was as bad as her son had portrayed him; she had never

been able to think of an Italian refugee as other than some sort of misdoer. Beauty's own

friends had come out of Italy, reporting everything improved, the streets clean, the trains running

on time. Finally, she had gone and seen for herself; had she seen anybody beaten, or any signs of

terror? Of course not!

And now, here was the same thing in Germany. Wherever you drove you saw perfect order.

The people were clean and appeared well fed; they were polite and friendly—in short, it was a

charming country, a pleasure to visit, and how was anybody to credit these horror tales? Irma

was in a continual struggle between what she wanted to believe and what was being forced

upon her reluctant mind. Casting about for something to do for poor Freddi, she had a bright

idea. "Mightn't it be possible for me to go and talk to Goring?"

"To appeal to his better nature, you mean?"

"Well, I thought I might be able to tell him things about the Robins."

"If you went to Goring, he would want just one thing from you, and it wouldn't be stories

about any Jews."

What could Irma say to that? She knew that if she refused to believe it, she would annoy her

husband. But she persisted: "Would it do any harm to try?"

"It might do great harm," replied the anti-Nazi. "If you refused him, he would be enraged,

and avenge the affront by punishing the Robins."

"Do you really know that he's that kind of man, Lanny?"

"I'm tired of telling you about these people," he answered. "Get the Fürstin Donnerstein off

in a corner and ask her to give you the dirt!"

III

Any pleasure they might have got out of a visit to Berlin was ruined. They sat in their rooms

expecting a telephone call; they waited for every mail. They could think of nothing to do that

might not make matters worse; yet to do nothing seemed abominable. They thought: "Even if

he's in a concentration camp, he'll find some way to smuggle out a message! Surely all the

guards can't be loyal, surely some one can be bribed!"

Lanny bothered himself with the question: was he committing an act of bad faith with

Johannes in not informing him of this new situation? He had assured Johannes that the family

was all well. Was it now his duty to see the prisoner again and say: "Freddi has disappeared"? To

do so would be equivalent to telling the Gestapo— and so there was the same round of problems

to be gone over again. Even if he told Johannes, what could Johannes do? Was he going to say:

"No, Exzellenz, I will not sign the papers until I know where my younger son is. Go ahead and

torture me if you please." Suppose Goring should answer: "I have no idea where your son is. I

have tried to find him and failed. Sign—or be tortured!"

The agonizing thing was that anywhere Lanny tried asking a question, he might be involving

somebody else in the troubles of the Robin family. Friends or relatives, they would all be on

the Gestapo list—or he might get them on! Was he being followed? So far he had seen no signs of

it, but that didn't prove it mightn't be happening, or mightn't begin with his next step outdoors.

The people he went to see, whoever they were, would know about the danger, and their first

thought would be: "Um Gottes Willen, go somewhere else."

Rahel's parents, for example; he knew their names, and they were in the telephone book. But

Freddi had said: "Don't ever call them. It would endanger them." The family were not

Socialists; the father was a small lawyer, and along with all the other Jewish lawyers, had been

forbidden to practice his profession, and thus was deprived of his livelihood. What would happen if

a phone call were overheard and reported? Or if a rich American were to visit a third-class

apartment house, where Jews were despised and spied upon, where the Nazis boasted that

they had one of their followers in every building, keeping track of the tenants and reporting

everything suspicious or even unusual? The Brown Terror!

Was Lanny at liberty to ignore Freddi's request, even in an effort to save Freddi's life? Would

Freddi want his life saved at the risk of involving his wife and child? Would he even want his

wife to know about his disappearance? What could she do if she knew it, except to fret herself ill,

and perhaps refuse to let Lanny and Irma take her out of the country? No, Freddi would surely

want her to go, and he wouldn't thank Lanny for thwarting his wishes. Possibly he hadn't told

Rahel where Lanny and Irma were staying, but she must have learned it from the newspapers or

from her parents; and surely, if she knew where Freddi was, and if he needed help, she would

risk everything to get word to Lanny. Was she, too, in an agony of dread, hesitating to

communicate with Lanny, because Freddi had forbidden her to do so?

IV

Lanny bethought himself of the Schultzes, the young artist couple. Having got some of Trudi's

work published in Paris, he had a legitimate reason for calling upon her. They lived in one of the