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Nazis had got Germany! Most of his friends had thought it unlikely; and now that it had

happened, they preferred to believe that it hadn't. Hitler wasn't really in power, they said,

and could last but a week or two. The German people had too much sense, the governing

classes were too able and well trained; they would tone the fanatic down, and the soup would

be eaten cool.

But Adolf Hitler had got, and Adolf Hitler would keep, the power which was most

important to him—that of propaganda. He was executive head of the German government, and

whatever manifesto he chose to issue took the front page of all the newspapers. Hermann

Goring was Prussian Minister of the Interior and could say to the world over the radio: "Bread

and work for our countrymen, freedom and honor for the nation!" Dwarfish little Jupp

Goebbels, President of the Propaganda Committee of the Party, found himself Minister of

Propaganda and Popular Enlightenment of the German Republic. The Nazi movement had been

made out of propaganda, and now it would cover Germany like an explosion.

Hitler refused to make any concessions to the other parties, and thus forced Hindenburg to

dissolve the Reichstag and order a new election. This meant that for a month the country

would be in the turmoil of a campaign. But what a different campaign! No trouble about lack

of funds, because Hitler had the funds of the nation, and his tirades were state documents.

Goebbels could say anything he pleased about his enemies and suppress their replies. Goring,

having control of the Berlin police, could throw his political opponents into jail and nobody

could even find out where they were. These were the things of which Adi Schicklgruber had

been dreaming ever since the end of the World War; and where else but in the Arabian Nights

had it happened that a man awoke and found such dreams come true?

V

Lanny Budd lived externally the life of a young man of fashion. He accompanied his wife to

various functions, and when she entertained he played the host with dignity. Having been

married nearly four years, he was entitled to enjoy mild flirtations with various charming

ladies of society; they expected it, and his good looks and conversation gave him reason to

expect success. But instead, he would pick out some diplomat or man of affairs and disappear

into the library to discuss the problems of Europe. These gentlemen were impressed by a

young man's wide range of knowledge, but they thought he was unduly anxious concerning

this new movement of Nazism; they had learned what a French revolution was, and a Russian

one, but had difficulty in recognizing a revolution that happened in small instalments and under

ingenious camouflage. Hardly a man of wealth and importance in France who didn't accept

Nazism as a business man's answer to Bolshevism. When they read in the papers that

Communists were being shot pretty freely throughout Germany, they shrugged their French

shoulders and said: "Eh, Men? Do the Reds complain of illegality?"

Lanny ran up a large telephone bill calling his friends in Berlin. It was his one form of

dissipation, and Irma learned to share it; she would take the wire when he got through and

ask Rahel about the baby, or Mama about anything—for Mama's Yiddish-English was as

delightful as a vaudeville turn. Lanny was worried about the safety of his friends, but

Johannes said: "Nu, nu! Don't bother your head. I have assurances that I cannot tell you

about. I wear the Tarnhelm."

He would retail the latest smart trick of those Nazis, whose cleverness and efficiency he

couldn't help admiring. "No, they will not outlaw the Communist party, because if they did,

the vote would go to the Sozis, and there would be the same old deadlock in the Reichstag. But

if they let the Communist deputies be elected, and then exclude them from their seats, the

Nazis may have a majority of what is left! What is it that you say about skinning a cat? There

are nine ways of doing it?"

How long would a Jew, even the richest, be allowed to tell the inmost secrets of the Führer

over the telephone to Paris? Lanny wondered about that, and he wondered about the magic

cap which Johannes thought he was wearing. Might he not be fooling himself, like so many

other persons who put their trust in political adventurers? Who was there among the Nazi

powers who had any respect for a Jew, or would keep faith with one for a moment after it

suited his purpose? To go to a rich Schieber to beg money for a struggling outcast party was

one thing; but to pay the debt when you had got the powers of the state into your hands—that

was something else again, as the Jews said in New York.

Lanny worried especially about Hansi, who was not merely of the hated race, but of the hated

party, and had proclaimed it from public platforms. The Nazi press had made note of him;

they had called him a tenth-rate fiddler who couldn't even play in tune. Would they permit

him to go on playing out of tune at Red meetings? The Stormtroopers were now turned loose

to wreak their will upon the Reds, and how long would it be before some ardent young patriot

would take it into his head to stop this Jewish swine from profaning German music?

Lanny wrote, begging Hansi to come to Paris. He wrote to Bess, who admitted that she was

afraid; but she was a granddaughter of the Puritans, who hadn't run away from the Indians.

She pointed out that she and her husband had helped to make Communists in Berlin, and now

to desert them in the hour of trial wouldn't be exactly heroic, would it? Lanny argued that a

great artist was a special kind of being, different from a fighting man and not to be held to the

military code. Lanny wrote to Mama, telling her that it was her business to take charge of the

family in a time like this. But it wasn't so easy to manage Red children as it had been in the

days of Moses and the Ten Commandments.

However, there was still a Providence overseeing human affairs. At this moment it came

about that a certain Italian diva, popular in Paris, was struck by a taxicab. The kind

Providence didn't let her be seriously hurt, just a couple of ribs broken, enough to put her out

of the diva business for a while. The news appeared in the papers while Lanny and Irma were

at Bienvenu, having run down to see the baby and to attend one of Emily's social functions.

Lanny recalled that the diva was scheduled with one of the Paris symphony orchestras; she

would have to be replaced, and Lanny asked Emily to get busy on the long distance telephone.

She knew the conductor of this orchestra, and suggested Hansi Robin to replace the damaged

singer; Mrs. Chattersworth being a well-known patron of the arts, it was natural that she

should offer to contribute to the funds of the symphony society an amount equal to the fee

which Hansi Robin would expect to receive.

The bargain was struck, and Lanny got to work on Hansi at some twenty francs per minute,

to persuade him that German music ought to be promoted in France; that every such

performance was a service to world culture, also to the Jewish race, now so much in need of

international sympathy. After the Paris appearance, Emily would have a soiree at Sept Chênes,

and other engagements would help to make the trip worth while.

"All right," replied the violinist, anxious to cut short the expendi ture of francs. "I'm

scheduled to give a concert at Cologne, and that is half way."

Lanny said: "For God's sake, keep off the streets at night, and don't go out alone!"