"No. If that were liable to happen at all it would have happened already. Goering's got that Cross now and he's had it for hours; otherwise we should never have been kept waiting all this time. He has evidently decided to get through his routine work before he turns his attention to the intriguing little mystery as to why von Pleisen's Iron Cross should have been brought to him; but he'll personally see the man who brought it, all right."
"I must say that, in spite of everything, I'm looking forward to meeting him," Freddie remarked. "You see, aircraft has been my passion ever since I was old enough to collect toy aeroplanes and to read the simplest books about flying. In the last war the German pilots put up a magnificent show and, after von Richthofen, Goering was the best man they had, so he's always been one of my heroes. I never have been able to understand how such a brave sportsman got himself mixed up with these dirty, double crossing Nazis."
"It was through his intense patriotism," Gregory replied quickly. "He absolutely refused to believe that Germany was defeated in the field and still declares that the Army was let down by the home front. After the Armistice he was ordered to surrender the planes of his famous air circus to the Americans; instead, he gave a farewell party to all his officers at which they burnt their planes and solemnly pledged themselves to devote the rest of their lives to lifting Germany from humiliation to greatness again."
"Yes, I know all that. But why should such people have allied themselves with blackguards like Hitler and Goebbels and Himmler?"
"Goering has never really been in sympathy with Goebbels and Himmler in fact, they're poison to him but Hitler is another matter. Say what you like, Hitler has extraordinary personal magnetism. In 1922, after having failed to make any headway on his own, Goering heard Hitler speak at Munich. He realized at once that here was a fanatic with all a fanatic's power to influence the masses a man who was preaching the same doctrine as himself and one whose wild flights of oratory people would listen to, while they only shrugged their shoulders at his reasoned arguments. From that day they joined forces. Hitler did the talking while Goering secured for him his first really influential audiences and spent his own wife's fortune on entertaining for the Party, thereby giving Hitler a background that he had never had before. He is a brilliant organizer and it was he who planned, step by step, Hitler's rise to power. The very fact that the two men are utterly unlike in character makes them a perfect combination and Hitler owes every bit as much to Goering as Goering does to Hitler."
"Is that really so?" Freddie raised an eyebrow. "I thought Goering was just an honest, bluff fellow who had been a bit misled, and, having been the head of Hitler’s' personal bodyguard in the early days, had risen with him."
"Not a bit of it," Gregory laughed. "Hitler is the visionary the dreamer of great dreams; but he lacks courage both physically and mentally. He listens first to one man then to another and is always swayed in his opinions by the last commer. It's absolute torture to him to make decisions. Goering, on the other hand, is a realist a man of action, with an extraordinary ability to assess values and get right to the root of a matter almost instantly. He is a man of enormous energy and a tireless worker.
"While Hitler has lain in bed at Berchtesgaden as he does on many a morning staring out across the Bavarian Alps into a mythical future where by move after move Germany gains sufficient strength to dominate the world, Goering has one by one transformed those dreams of his mythical partner into realities.
"When Hitler came to power in 1933 Germany had not even an Air Ministry. Goering became Air Minister and immediately formed the Air Sports League for teaching young Germans to fly. Two years later he gave them uniforms and foreign statesmen woke up to the fact that without their knowing anything about it Germany had the strongest Air Force in the world an Air Force that has been a threat to the peace of Europe ever since. All that was done by Goering, secretly, swiftly and with incredible efficiency. He himself is not only an ace airman but a brilliant engineer. There are probably few people in the world who know more about the construction and engines of aircraft than Hermann Goering. He chose the types; he created the factories for the thousand and one parts and products necessary to build and supply this great fighting arm. Yet at the same time he was acting as Prime Minister of Prussia; re creating the German army, playing a great part in the diplomatic sphere and doing a hundred other jobs as well."
"Yes," Freddie murmured, "everyone knows that he holds scores of posts and has a different uniform for every day, but I had no idea that he was a really brainy chap; he doesn't look it."
Gregory grinned. "Take a good look at that fine head of his when you see him, and try to recall some of his earlier photographs when he wasn't quite so fat. The weight he's put on makes his appearance deceptive now, but doesn't affect the brains inside the skull. His forehead is not only broad but high and the width of his cranium from ear to ear gives him tremendous driving force for the application of his ideas. Nose, chin, eyes, ears and mouth are all beautifully balanced and any phrenologist will tell you that it is balance which prevents one quality in a man from developing to the detriment of others plus skull capacity that is the index of real power."
"Yes, I remember those early photographs but of, course, one has come to regard him since as the fat play boy of the Nazi Party who loves food and drink and showy splendour."
"He does," Gregory agreed; "and that's why he's far and away the most popular of the Nazi leaders. People like a jovial man who has human qualities and Goering has plenty of them. He's a romantic, too, and was desperately in love with his first wife, the beautiful Karin von Fock, after whom this place is named. Everyone knows that he adores his children and is passionately fond of animals. He has made it a penal offence to destroy many kinds of birds and to ill treat dogs and horses; yet he is utterly ruthless so far as human life is concerned. In any spot of bother his orders always are, `Shoot first and inquire afterwards'. In addition to organizing Germany 's Five Year Plan for the reconditioning of every single industry in the country he has organized every Putsch and blood bath for which the Nazis have been responsible. That's why the Germans have nicknamed him `Iron Hermann'.'°
"What an extraordinary mixture he must be."
"No. It's just that he was born out of his time. He ought to have been a Spanish conquistador or a Saracen general like Suliman the Magnificent. They recognized only those who were for their religion or their country, and were capable of the most incredible barbarities against anyone who opposed them. He has the same mentality. Just like them, too, he has a passion for personal adornment and love of surrounding himself with riches and splendour. After all, the gilt and marble of this place is only the modern version of a Borgia's palace and, as you know, beneath such places there were always dungeons, torture chambers and an execution room."
Freddie Charlton shivered slightly as he glanced round the great apartment with its rich carpet and ornate furnishings. It seemed impossible to believe that perhaps. under their very feet there lay cells where men suffered and died; and that before the night was out he and Gregory might be thrown into them. Yet he knew that Gregory was right.
Unnoticed, the door had opened quietly behind them and a voice suddenly said: "His Excellency, the Field Marshal, will receive the Herr Oberst now."
Chapter IX
"He Who Sups With the Devil Needs a Long Spoon"
THEY both stood up and Freddie followed Gregory to the door, but the official raised his ‘hand.