V
Upon entering Germany the conspirator had telephoned to Hugo Behr in Berlin, inviting that young Nazi to take the night train to Munich. Lanny was here on account of pictures, he said, and would show his friend some fine specimens. Hugo had understood, and it hadn’t been necessary to add, "expenses paid." The young sports director had doubtless found some use for the money which Lanny had paid him, and would be pleased to render further services.
He arrived next morning, going to a different hotel, as Lanny had directed. He telephoned, and Lanny drove and picked him up on the street. A handsome young Pomeranian, alert and with springy step, apple-cheeked and with wavy golden hair, Hugo was a walking advertisement of the pure Nordic ideal. In his trim Brownshirt uniform, with insignia indicating his important function, he received a salute from all other Nazis, and from many civilians wishing to keep on the safe side. It was extremely reassuring to be with such a man in Germany—although the "Heil Hitlers" became a bit monotonous after a while.
Lanny drove his guest out into the country, where they could be quiet and talk freely. He encouraged the guest to assume that the invitation was purely out of friendship; rich men can indulge their whims like that, and they do so. Lanny was deeply interested to know how Hugo’s movement for the reforming of the Nazi party was coming along, and as the reformer wanted to talk about nothing else, they drove for a long time through the valleys of the Alpine foothills. The trees were in full splendor, as yet untouched by any signs of wear. A beautiful land, and Lanny’s head was full of poetry about it. Die Fenster auf, die Herzen auf! Geschwinde, geschwinde!
But Hugo’s thoughts had no trace of poetic cheerfulness. His figure of a young Hermes was slumped in the car seat, and his tone was bitter as he said: "Our Nazi revolution is kaput. We haven’t accomplished a thing. The Führer has put himself completely into the hands of the reactionaries. They tell him what to do—it’s no longer certain that he could carry out his own program, even if he wanted to. He doesn’t see his old friends any more, he doesn’t trust them. The Reichswehr crowd are plotting to get rid of the Stormtroopers altogether."
"You don’t really mean all that, Hugo!" Lanny was much distressed.
"Haven’t you heard about our vacation?"
"I only entered Germany yesterday."
"All the S.A. have been ordered to take a vacation during the month of July. They say we’ve been overworked and have earned a rest. That sounds fine; but we’re not permitted to wear our uniforms, or to carry our arms. And what are they going to do while we’re disarmed? What are we going to find when we come back?"
"That looks serious, I admit."
"It seems to me the meaning is plain. We, the rank and file, have done our job and they’re through with us. We have all been hoping to be taken into the Reichswehr; but no, we’re not good enough for that. Those officers are Junkers, they’re real gentlemen, while we’re common trash; we’re too many, two million of us, and they can’t afford to feed us or to train us, so we have to be turned off—and go to begging on the streets, perhaps."
"You know, Hugo, Germany is supposed to have only a hundred thousand in its regular army. Mayn’t it be that the Führer doesn’t feel strong enough to challenge France, and Britain on that issue?"
"What was our revolution for, but to set us free from their control? And how can we ever become strong, if we reject the services of the very men who have made National Socialism? We put these leaders in power—and now they’re getting themselves expensive villas and big motor-cars, and they’re afraid to let us of the rank and file even wear our uniforms! They talk of disbanding us, because the Reich can’t afford our magnificent salaries of forty-two pfennigs a day."
"Is that what you get?"
"That is what the rank and file get. What is that in your money?"
"About ten cents."
"Does that sound so very extravagant?"
"The men in our American army get about ten times that. Of course both groups get food and lodgings free."
"Pretty poor food for the S.A.; and besides, there are all the levies, which take half what anybody earns. Our lads were made to expect so much, but now all the talk is that the Reich is so poor. The propaganda line has changed; Herr Doktor Goebbels travels over the land denouncing the Kritikaster and the Miessmacher and the Nörgler and the Besserwisser—" Hugo gave a long list of the depraved groups who dared to suggest that the Nazi Regierung was anything short of perfect. "In the old days we were told there would be plenty, because we were going to take the machinery away from the Schieber and set it to work for the benefit of the common folk. But now the peasants have been made into serfs, and the workingman who asks for higher pay or tries to change his job is treated as a criminal. Prices are going up and wages falling, and what are the people to do?"
"Somebody ought to point these things out to the Führer," suggested Lanny.
"Nobody can get near the Führer. Göring has taken charge of his mind—Göring, the aristocrat, the friend of the princes and the Junker landlords and the gentlemen of the steel Kartell. They are piling up bigger fortunes than ever; I’m told that Göring is doing the same—and sending the money abroad where it will be safe."
"I’ve heard talk about that in Paris and London," admitted Lanny; "and on pretty good authority. The money people know what’s going on."
VI
They were high up in the foothills, close to the Austrian border. Auf die Berge will ich steigen, wo die dunkeln Tannen ragen! The air was crystal clear and delightfully cool, but it wasn’t for the air that Lanny had come, nor yet on account of Heine’s Harzreise. They sat on an outdoor platform of a little inn looking up a valley to a mountain that was Austria; Lanny saw that the slopes about him were not too precipitous, nor the stream in the valley too deep. He remarked to his companion: "There’s probably a lot of illegal traffic over these mountain paths."
"Not so much as you might think," was the reply. "You don’t see the sentries, but they’re watching, and they shoot first and ask questions afterward."
"But they can’t do much shooting on a stormy night."
"They know where the paths are, and they guard them pretty closely. But I’ve no doubt some of the mountaineers take bribes and share with them. The Jews are running money out of Germany by every device they can think of. They want to bleed the country to death."
That didn’t sound so promising; but Lanny had to take a chance somewhere. When they were back in the car, safe from prying ears, he said: "You know, Hugo, you’re so irritated with the Jews, and yet, when I hear you talk about the ideals of National Socialism, it sounds exactly like the talk of my friend Freddi Robin whom I’ve told you about."
"I don’t deny that there are good Jews; many of them, no doubt; and certainly they have plenty of brains."
"Freddi is one of the finest characters I have ever known. He is sensitive, delicate, considerate, and I’m sure he never had a vice. He was giving all his time and thought to the cause of social justice, exactly as you believe in it and have explained it today."
"Is he still in Dachau?"