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forget about Freddi. "Grandfather, do you remember Bess's husband, and his young brother?

Can you find out anything about him?"

But Grandfather could be just as stubborn as Grandson. "Remember the Word of the Lord,"

the voice commanded; and then no more. Lanny spoke two or three times, but got no answer.

At last he heard a sigh in the darkness, and the soft fluorescent light was switched on, and

there sat Madame Diseuse, asking in a dull, tired voice: "Did you get what you wanted?"

X

Lanny arrived at the hotel just a few minutes before Irma, who had consulted two other

mediums, chosen from advertisements in the newspapers because they had English names.

"Well, did you get anything?" she asked, and Lanny said: "Nothing about Clarinet. Did you?"

"I didn't get anything at all. It was pure waste of time. One of the mediums was supposed to

be a Hindu woman, and she said I would get a letter from a handsome dark lover. The other

was a greasy old creature with false teeth that didn't fit, and all she said was that an old man

was trying to talk to me. She wouldn't tell me his name, and all he wanted was for me to learn

some words."

"Did you learn them?"

"I couldn't help it; he made me repeat them three times, and he kept saying: 'You will know

what they mean.' They sounded like they came from the Bible."

"Say them!" exclaimed Lanny.

"And that thou wilt not destroy my name out of my father's house."

"Oh, my God, Irma! It's a cross-correspondence!"

"What is that?"

"Don't you remember the first time you met Grandfather, he quoted a verse from the Bible,

telling you to have babies, and not to interfere with the Lord's will?"

"Yes, but I don't remember the words."

"That is a part of what he said. He came to me just now and gave me the beginning of it.

'Swear now therefore unto me by the Lord, that thou wilt not cut off my seed after me, and

that thou wilt not destroy my name out of my father's house.'"

"Lanny, how perfectly amazing!" exclaimed the young wife.

"He said he had already taken steps to convince me that it was really he. He had probably

already talked to you."

Irma had been living with the spirits now for nearly four years, and had got more or less used

to them; but this was the first time she had come upon such an incident. Lanny explained that the

literature of psychical research was full of "cross-correspondences." Sometimes one part of a

sentence would be given in England and another in Australia. Sometimes there would be

references by page and line to a book, and through another medium references to some other

book, and when the words were put together they made sense. It seemed to prove that whatever

intelligence was at work was bound by none of the limitations of time and space. The main

trouble was, it was all so hard to believe—people just couldn't and wouldn't face it.

"Well," said Lanny, "do you want to have another baby?"

"What do you suppose Grandfather will do if we don't?"

"You go and ask him," chuckled Lanny.

Irma didn't. But a day or two later came a letter from Robbie, telling what the old gentleman

would do if they obeyed him. He had established in his will a trust fund for Frances Barnes

Budd to the amount of fifty thousand dollars, and had provided the same amount for any other

child or children Irma Barnes Budd might bear within two years after his death. The old realist

had taken no chances, but added: "Lanny Budd being the father."

XI

The golden-haired and blue-eyed young sports director, Hugo Behr, came to see his

American friend, and was taken for a drive. Hugo didn't need any urging to induce him to

"spill the dirt" about the present tendencies of his National Socialist Party; he said he had joined

because he had believed it was a Socialist party and there were millions who felt as he did—

they wanted it to remain Socialist and they had a right to try to keep it so, and have it carry out

at least part of the program upon which it had won the faith of the German masses. Breaking

up the great landed estates, socializing basic industries and department stores, abolishing

interest slavery— these were the pledges which had been made, millions of times over. But now the

party was hand in glove with the Ruhr magnates, and the old program was forgotten; the

Führer had come under the spell of men who cared only about power, and if they could have

their way, all the energies of the country would go into military preparation and none into

social welfare.

"Yes," said Hugo, "many of the leaders feel as I do, and some of them are Hitler's oldest party

comrades. It is no threat to his leadership, but a loyal effort to make him realize the danger

and return to the true path." The young official offered to introduce Lanny to some of the men

who were active in this movement; but the visitor explained the peculiar position he was in, with

a Jewish relative in the toils of the law and the need of being discreet on his account.

That led to the subject of the Jews, and the apple-cheeked young Aryan proved that he was

loyal to his creed by denouncing this evil people and the part they had played in corrupting

German culture. But he added he did not approve the persecution of individual Jews who had

broken no law, and he thought the recent one-day boycott had been silly. It represented an

effort on the part of reactionary elements in the party to keep the people from remembering

the radical promises which had been made to them. "It's a lot cheaper and easier to beat up a

few poor Jews than to oust some of the great Junker landlords."

Lanny found this conversation promising, and ventured tactfully to give his young friend

some idea of the plight in which he found himself. His brother-in-law's brother had been

missing for more than a week, but he was afraid to initiate any inquiry for fear of arousing

those elements about which Hugo had spoken, the fanatics who were eager to find some

excuse for persecuting harmless, idealistic Jews. Lanny drew a picture of a shepherd boy out of

ancient Judea, watching his flocks, playing his pipe, and dreaming of the Lord and His angels.

Freddi Robin was a Socialist in the high sense of the word; desiring justice and kindness

among men, and willing to set an example by living a selfless life here and now. He was a fine

musician, a devoted husband and father, and his wife and mother were in an agony of dread

about him.

"Ach, leider!" exclaimed the sports director, and added the formula which Lanny already knew

by heart, that unfortunate incidents were bound to happen in the course of any great social

overturn.

"For that reason," said Lanny, "each of us has to do what he can in the cases which come to

his knowledge. What I need now is some person in the party whom I can trust, and who will do

me the service to try to locate Freddi and tell me what he is accused of."

"That might not be easy," replied the other. "Such information isn't given out freely—I mean,

assuming that he's in the hands of the authorities."

"I thought, that you, having so many contacts among the better elements of the party, might

be able to make inquiries without attracting too much attention. If you would do me this favor, I

would be most happy to pay you for your time—"

"Oh, I wouldn't want any pay, Herr Budd!"

"You would certainly have to have it. The work may call for a lot of time, and there is no

other way I can make it up to you. My wife is here, and neither of us can enjoy anything,