The title comes halfway through the book in a quote, "Workers of the world, unite; you have nothing to lose but your chains; you have a world to win!", when the German occupation of Europe is almost complete, and war by Germany against Russia is imminent and expected.
A World to Win, seventh volume in the World's End series, begins where the previous one, Dragon Harvest, had left off - Paris taken, France overrun and humiliated as the temporary finale of Germany occupying Europe- beginning with Rhineland and going on to Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Denmark, Norway, low countries or Benelux as they are now called, and the final humiliation, armistice signed at the spot where WWI armistice was signed - and now, Lanny is in Vichy, talking to Pierre Laval, who heads the supposedly unoccupied France.
"“It has happened just about as I told you, M. Budd.” Lanny said it was so, and thought that the death of something like a hundred and twenty-five thousand Frenchmen, and the captivity of ten or twelve times as many, signified less to Pierre Laval than the ability to say: “C’est moi qui avait raison!”"
Laval invited Lanny home and he dined with the family that thought France had victory in saving Paris from destruction unlike Warsaw and Rotterdam; Laval ranted about Blum and Mandel whom he hated because they, unlike him, hadn't betrayed the workers who had brought them to power like he was, and he didn't believe Lanny was non political; after all, he had taken messages from Comtesse De Portes and Marshal Petain.
"And then the old Maréchal. No serpent ever slipped into its hole more silently than Pierre Laval trying to slip into the mind of Lanny Budd and find out why he wanted to see the head of the French State and what he was going to say to that venerable warrior. Lanny was all innocence; the Maréchal was a friend, Lanny’s father had known him since World War I and before that, and as salesman for Budd Gunmakers had tried to persuade him that America had a better light machine gun than France. Now the Maréchal had asked Lanny to try to bring Britain into the armistice, and Lanny had failed, and wanted to tell the old gentleman how sorry he was.
"Tactfully the host imparted the fact that when a man is eighty-four years of age his mind is not so active, he tires easily, his memory fails, and he needs guidance. The Maréchal had around him a horde of self-seekers, all trying to pull him in different directions. They played upon his pride in France and his memories of French glory; it was hard for him to face the fact that France was beaten, and that her future was in German hands, and nowhere else. “We cannot have it two ways,” declared this black serpent with a white necktie. “If we are going to be friends we have to mean it and act accordingly.” When the visitor said, “I agree with you wholeheartedly,” Pierre went on to suggest that Lanny Budd should advise his aged friend to declare war upon Britain, and to turn over to the Germans the remainder of that French Fleet which the British had just attacked with shameless treachery in the ports of North Africa."
Laval offered to pay Lanny, who said that Hitler and Göring had offered it too, and he didn't need money, and preferred to get by on his income as an art expert. Laval reminded him in crass terms that money was necessary. Lanny was driven back to Vichy next day, from Châteldon where Laval had bought the castle in the town he had been born and had grown up in, and he questioned Lanny, which Lanny didn't mind because that told Lanny what Laval thought, knew, and didn't know. Lanny came to know that Laval hated Maréchal, the venerated old soldier, and was counting weeks that the old man might live, but nazis needed Pétain, France respected the Verdun hero, nobody respected laval; so Laval had to stand it. He told Lanny Pétain was playing both sides and had to choose.
"Pétain wouldn’t let the Nazis have the French Fleet, or the air force in Africa, or the troops in Syria; he clung to these things as the last pawns in a lost game; he promised this and that, and then delayed to keep the promise, and argued over petty details in his stubborn dotard’s way, and not even the shrewd Vice-Premier could be sure whether it was stupidity or malice."
Lanny was checked into a smaller hotel, and went strolling into art galleries, before ordering a light lunch in a sidewalk cafe.
"There were several million refugees in Vichy France, and as many discharged soldiers who had no place to go and nothing to do; many had no shelter but the trees in the park, and no food but what they could beg or steal."
Lanny had received a code communication from Raoul and met him, they strolled out along the river before meeting. They talked about the situation. Lanny told him Britain would go on fighting, not give up, and the workers in France had to give priority to fighting Hitler, and forget class struggle.
"The Nazis want us to hate the British, because Britain is the last bulwark against them; and that tells us what to do. If Hitler can get the use of what is left of the French Fleet he can control the Mediterranean, and take the Suez Canal and the oil of Mesopotamia. That is where the fight is going, and where we have to help.”"
Lanny returned to town, walking alone, and went to meet Pétain. He remembered Lanny, and wanted to know about Hitler and his thinking, and Lanny had learned to respond so that he wasn't exposed but truth was there plain to see.
" When he tried to talk about the Fleet, and the infamy which the British had committed, his hands shook and he broke down, and one of his military aides had to come to the rescue. “I will never give up the Fleet, either to the British or Germans!” And then: “Go and see Darlan; he will tell you.” To the aide he added: “Take him to the Admiral.”"
Lanny had the appointment next morning and met Darlan, reminding him that he knew not only Robbie but Beauty too, and had been at Bienvenu for tea shortly after WWI. Lanny let him know Lanny knew of his Cagoulard association through the De Bruyne men.
"“There is one report which I have often wondered about, Monsieur l’Amiral: that you had planned to put those officers of the Fleet who supported the corrupt regime on board the Jean Bart and take her out to sea and sink her.”
"“I meant it, absolutely. We could have spared that old battleship, and that kennel full of Red dogs would never have been missed by my service.”"
News about Lanny being interested in buying paintings had spread, and he was invited to many homes. He found one worth buying and managed the transaction, and mansged to rent a car with a driver, and was driven to Bienvenu. Riviera was overflowing with refugees from North, and Bienvenu had more than its share, but Lanny told Beauty that he had to go back to England and U.S. soon enough, anyway, and that his father needed his help was cover enough. He arranged through Jerry Pendleton who ran a travel bureau to fly to Madrid via Cannes and Marseille, to thence take a train to Lisbon and fly onwards to London.
"To Lanny Madrid had seemed the most desolate of capitals. The Nazis, with all their crimes, were at least efficient and put up a fine show; whereas Franco was nothing but a little wholesale murderer in the cause of his medieval Church. He didn’t even know how to repair the buildings he had smashed in the course of three years of civil war, and they stood there, gaping wrecks open to the sky. The Germans, who wanted his iron ore and copper, had to come and supervise the getting of it, the only means of collecting the huge debt due them for having set the Caudillo on his throne. He had two or three million of his people in prisons and concentration camps; shootings went on night after night, and famine stalked the streets of the great metropolis. On the stairs of the subway swarms of miserable, half-starved child bandits clamored to sell you lottery tickets and filthy postcards.
"The landlords and the ecclesiastics—often the same persons—had won their war, and were prosperous and fat as always through the centuries. Lanny did not need to enter their palaces and ask questions, because he had got it all in Vichy and Cannes. He knew that Hitler had Franco’s written permission to march through Spain whenever he felt strong enough to take Gibraltar; he knew about the arrangements for Il Duce to send the bombing planes, and about the submarine refueling system from Spanish ports.
"Lisbon, which had become the spy center of Western Europe. The dictator who ruled this little country couldn’t be sure which side was going to win, and he shrewdly played each against the other and raked in the cash. In his capital was the same contrast of riches with bitter poverty; you could buy costly perfumes stolen from the shops of Paris, and you could see barefooted women carrying huge loads of farm produce upon their heads. Nowhere could you escape the sight of German “tourists” wearing golf costumes, and if you talked in any café on the swanky Avenida da Liberdade, you might discover several persons trying to overhear what you said."
Croydon had been bombed. After finally landing, they were taken to London in a bus.
" ... you could see how the fields of Southern England had trenches dug across them, and logs, carts, cast-off motor cars, and other obstructions to make trouble for planes and gliders that might drop down in the night. Lanny was astonished to see how much of such defense work had been done since his last visit; also by the number of bomb craters, even in the open fields. Homeguardsmen were active everywhere."
He called The Reaches and was told Rick was in town working at the Daily Clarion. They met at the predetermined obscure hotel and talked, Lanny telling him about everything he'd been at, since Dunkirk. Vichy was persecuting Jews and leftists at behest of the nazis. Rick spoke about situation of Britain. A considerably large quantity of equipment from tanks to guns had been lost to Germany when evacuating soldiers at Dunkirk, and defence of the island was left to what was left, and old equipment had been brought out to service.
"England for twenty miles back from the coast had been declared a military zone, and day and night labor was turning it into one vast fortification. Every beach was mined, and covered with a tangle of tightly strung barbed wire; there was hidden artillery of all sizes, and no end of pillboxes with machine guns, carefully camouflaged. There were great railway guns which could be rushed from place to place. Most important of all, the period of the Sitzkrieg had been utilized to devise and install a series of pipes extending out under the sea, connected with oil tanks and heavy pumps. In case of an invasion attempt, oil would be poured out in floods; it would rise to the surface, and there was a magnesium device to ignite it, so that the invaders would find themselves caught in an inferno of flame. And even when they came to the shore, they would find the beaches ablaze, and flamethrowers concealed behind garden hedges. Rick told about the situation he had discovered on his return from Dunkirk. Tanks, artillery, trucks, machine guns, all the costly equipment of an army of two or three hundred thousand men had been lost in Flanders; the Germans had it, and the British had only one fully equipped brigade to defend their shores; troops guarding the beaches had to be armed with shotguns, sporting rifles, even muskets out of museums. “Your President saved us,” declared the baronet’s, son. “Have you heard what he did?”
"“I didn’t see an American or British paper till I got to Lisbon.”
"“This hasn’t been published yet, that I know of. You had a million World War I rifles in your arsenals, and Roosevelt had them loaded onto fast steamers and sent over to us. They are out-of-date, but they saved us once and might have done it again. He’s been letting us buy some torpedo boats and other small stuff that your navy can spare. They are sold to private dealers who resell them to us; that’s according to your laws, it appears.”
"“It wouldn’t appear so well during an election year,” was the reply.
"“I know, I know,” said Rick. “You have about a hundred over-age destroyers, left from the last war. We need them the worst way in the world, to keep our convoys on top of the water. We’re trying our best to buy them ..."
They spoke about what if the nazi invasion of the island happened, and Rick was definite about the British spirit of determination to fight at every step. Lanny reminded him civilians couldn't fight panders and bombers, and what about the fleet?
"We’ll do another Dunkirk—put our fighting men on board every sort of ship we can get together, and the Fleet will escort them to Canada. We’ll fight from there, and come back home some day. My understanding is, we have already given that promise to Roosevelt in writing; and we’ve taken the first step by shipping every ounce of gold in the Bank of England’s vaults to New York and Montreal and other places of safety. That was quite an adventure, believe me—and it’s strictly hush-hush!”"
They exchanged news of friends and family. Rick's father, Sir Alfred Pomeroy-Nielson, was working despite his age, and Rick's younger son Rick junior was following his father and older brother alfy by joining the air force. Alfy was married to a neighbour's daughter and she was expecting. Lanny asked if he could meet Alfy to question him about the planes, which Robbie would find valuable as test in field.
Rick told him that there was news in the wind about Wickthorpe resigning due to his political stance, and lanny asked him not to report that story, since that would instantly connect Rick with Lanny, and this wouldn't go well with the image Lanny was trying to maintain as cover. Lanny visited Wickthorpe, and heard it himself from the couple after dinner. They were definite about the war being a mistake, and Wickthorpe was trying to bring about a truce. They consulted him, and he spoke about Wickthorpe influencing the government.
He saw Frances, and she was growing up, and thrilled with his visits. He had to hurry this time, though, across the Atlantic, staying at Wickthorpe only long enough to make a couple of visits to Rosemary to buy another painting. Her younger son had been evacuated at Dunkirk, and older one was a prisoner of war. Lanny had his Clipper seat arranged through his father's lawyer, and Rick called to say Alfy would be meeting him, so he went up to London.
Alfy was definitely red, unlike his pink parents; "he saw this war as a deliberate assault of the German cartels—steel, coal, power, and munitions—upon the labor movements of the rest of the world. Hitler was a puppet of these interests; they had bought him the guns, without which he would have remained a street-corner rabble-rouser. The end of the war “must be the overthrow of those giant exploiters, not merely in Germany but all over the world; otherwise it would be a “defeat in the victory,” as Lanny’s friend Herron had written after the last war—and what a prophet he had proved to be!
"Alfy explained that the Hun flyers were trying to counter the British blockade. They had their bases close to the coast of France; indeed they had them all along the coast of Europe, from Narvik in Northern Norway all the way to the Spanish border. They were trying to establish command of the Channel and block off the British ports; they were coming in flights of five hundred at a time; bombing ships and shipping, docks and harbor installations, oil depots, and everything of military value. For the most part they came at night, because their daytime losses had been too heavy. But night bombing wasn’t accurate; and now the British had a wonderful new night-fighter with a device for seeing in the dark so ultra-secret that even Alfy didn’t know what it was. He revealed also that the British had constructed great numbers of imitation air bases to fool the Germans; they were so good that the Germans were dropping more bombs on them than on the real ones; so good that the British flyers had trouble in remembering not to land on them.
"Like the century-old duel between gun and armor on battleships was the duel between safety and maneuverability on pursuit planes. Alfy pointed out that there was such a thing as having too much maneuverability; more than the human organism could make use of. If you turned at a speed of more than two hundred miles, you were pretty sure to black out, and you might not come to until you had hit the ground, or until the enemy had drilled you through. The Englishman drew an extraordinary picture of what it meant to be carrying on an air duel four or five miles above the ground, breathing from an oxygen tank, pursuing an enemy who was ducking and dodging at the terrific speeds these planes could now attain. The Hun was swerving; you almost had him in your sights, and if you could swerve a tiny fraction more you would have him; but there came, as it were, a yellowish-gray curtain before your eyes, the first warning of the blackout; you had to know exactly how far you could go toward unconsciousness, and you might have to make that decision a dozen times in the course of a prolonged duel of wits with your opponent—he facing exactly the same problem. If you straightened out, you would lose your man; also, you might discover another enemy plane on your tail, one who might get you in his sights."
Lanny told him of a new idea Robbie was working out but asked him not to speak of it, a flight suit. Alfy talked about how it was easier for Germans, and how serious for his colleagues, who were determined and serious.
"The Royal Air Force had been a volunteer organization, and the pilots were mostly of the upper class. Alfy said: “I hate to admit it, but it’s the old school tie that is doing the job, because there’s nobody else. But that won’t be true for long; we’re having to take qualified men wherever we can find them now. And that’s all to the good; if we don’t break down England’s caste system, we’ll find this war was hardly worth fighting.”"
They spoke about U.S. isolationism and Roosevelt, and party politics compulsions that turned republican politics opposite of Lincoln policies. They had dinner in a small place.
"They talked about their two families, home news which would be of no interest to enemy ears; everyone was on the alert just then, because more than fifty empty parachutes had been found in various open places in England and Scotland—which meant that enemy spies had come down during the night. These spies would undoubtedly be English-looking and English-speaking men and perhaps women, so the newspapers warned; they would be saboteurs, equipped with explosives and incendiary materials; or they would carry suitcases containing radio transmitting sets, powerful enough to reach the French coast or submarines lying close to shore."
Air raid sirens sounded as they were finishing dinner, and they went out, there were hundreds of planes in the sky, and then waves of larger ones came, bombers, which bombed some houses close. So they walked to the tube, which was crowded.
"The place was packed almost to suffocation, and the conditions were not pleasing to persons of refined sensibilities. There was public clamor for Government to “do something about it,” but Government had a lot of other things on their hands at the moment. It seemed more important to use steel for guns and ammunition than for the building of an underground city for seven million Londoners, to say nothing of the inhabitants of Portsmouth and Southampton and Sheffield and Birmingham and all the rest.
"There were many, especially women and old people, who had taken up the tube as their dwelling place; they brought a pallet or a blanket to sleep on, they brought baskets of food, and refused to be driven out into the open. The sanitary arrangements were inadequate and the filth shocking. At first the police had tried to force people out, but as the danger increased and more homes were wrecked and people buried under them, the authorities had to give up and allow this subterranean way of life to become general. ... The son of Budd-Erling, squeezed like a sardine in a can and jarred to the marrow of his bones by blast after blast of the bombs, would have had to be superhuman if he had not thought with a certain amount of relief about a ticket for tomorrow’s Clipper reposing safely in a pocket over his heart!
"He groped his way through the blackout to his hotel, and spent the night without sleep, listening to the uproar of that infernal battle. He had made the mistake of choosing a hotel which was just across the street from Hyde Park, and all London parks were full of antiaircraft guns. Every time one of these went off the blast of air shot the window curtains straight out into the room and tried to lift the covers off Lanny’s bed. The walls shook as in an earthquake, and small objects on bureau and tables jumped and rattled. Lanny decided that it was folly to risk staying in bed, and put on his clothes and went down into a crowded shelter. His knees were shaking and his teeth chattering—not merely for himself but for England. He knew this was the real blitz, this was the supreme effort, which both Hitler and Göring had told him was coming. Up there in black sky the night-fighter pilots were racing at a speed of four hundred miles an hour, hunting the murderers, trying to save England, trying to save the democratic world. Lanny’s prayers went up for them, and his thoughts were those that Winston Churchill was soon to put into immortal words: that never in history had so many owed so much to so few."
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Lanny arrived in N.Y. on the Clipper and called Baker, and was flown to Washington D.C. that evening for a meeting with his boss. FDR was full of questions.
"What was Schneider doing, and was Le Creusot going all out for German munitions production? Lanny said: “He is greatly humiliated, because the Germans have reported that his works are out-of-date and they can’t make much use of them.” “And what about the British? Will they bomb these and other plants, or will there be a gentlemen’s agreement, as before?” Lanny replied: “This time they will go all out. This isn’t going to be a gentlemen’s war. ... There were rumors when I left London that an attempt had been made to embark an invasion army from Belgium. I didn’t have time to find out if it was true.””
"“It was a rehearsal; the Germans were practicing embarkation, but the British didn’t see any reason for sparing them on that account. The bombers dropped large tanks of oil with devices to ignite them. From my accounts there were thousands of enemy troops consumed in the holocaust.”
"“They will try it again,” the agent opined. “Hitler has a million men whom he considers expendable, because he expected to lose them in France and didn’t. But first he has to knock out the R.A.F.”
"He did not spare the Budd-Erling plane, but told what Alfy had said about its weaknesses. “I thought it was the best in the world,” remarked F.D., and Lanny replied: “It was, a year ago; but these days a year’s improvements are crowded into a month. As Alfy said: ‘Your father is making planes for money, but we are making them for our lives.’”"
Lanny asked about the old destroyers British were supposed to get from U.S..
"‘It’s a curious situation, which can’t be talked about because it would be taken as putting blame on Churchill. We’ve been reconditioning fifty of those old four-stackers and have them practically ready—torpedoes in the tubes, oil in the tanks, food in the storerooms—they could be in Halifax in a few days. But you see, it was my idea to exchange these ships for the bases we must have in British territory on this side of the water. I want to call it a trade, and it seems a fair one, considering the fact that we have to build the bases and that they will be as important for British defense as for ours.”
"“And Churchill can’t see it?”
"“Darned if I can make out what is in his mind. Apparently it’s something ancestral, perhaps racial. He is a Tory imperialist—or is that a redundant phrase?”
"“I suppose one could think of an imperialist who isn’t a Tory. Cecil Rhodes might be an example. Does Churchill think you want to get possession of his islands?”
"“I have sworn to him that he couldn’t give them to me if he tried. Believe me, they have been my fishing ground, and I know them. They would be nothing but headaches, and we have enough already in Porto Rico and the Virgins. They are economic vacuums; worse yet, their populations are mostly Negro, and we have enough race problems already. Imagine me having to administer the affairs of colored people who have been brought up in the British fashion, to sit in their local councils and be received as social equals! Imagine what our Southern congressmen would say, and what our Harlem population would answer!”
"“Churchill can’t see that?”
"“I don’t think he doubts my word, but apparently he doesn’t trust the future. He has some queer idea of prestige; he thinks it would be more noble and dignified to make us a present of the concessions, and then we’d make him a present of the fifty destroyers. But I tell him our people wouldn’t see it that way. Every Yankee knows what a horse trade is; but a gift, that is something else, and it would raise a hullabaloo, it might cost me the election. There’s a grave question whether the deal will be constitutional anyhow; Jackson, my attorney general, has been tearing the law books to pieces trying to find some justification. But I can’t get Churchill to see it my way; I think he has the idea that if he makes us a free and generous gift, some President ninety-nine years from now may be less tempted to hold onto the lease!”"
Lanny suggested FDR tell the negotiators to split the difference, and FDR promptly called and had it done. FDR asked about his future travel plans, and lanny said he could travel to Britain as his father's son, while Wickthorpe would arrange sending him to Vichy, but Germany seemed iffy, and he might call Hess from Switzerland and Hess might arrange it. They talked of the reason Hess and Lanny had a strong bond, their interest in psychic matters.
"“At this moment,” continued the Chief, “the important question is whether Hitler can get a toehold on the British Isles. Bill Donovan, whose business it is to find out, tells me that the Germans haven’t enough landing craft, and can’t build them in time; the British navy will smash them—unless they can win complete control of the air. We ought to know about that in the next couple of months."
FDR asked how soon he'd leave, and Lanny said he needed two weeks to deal with his business. FDR asked him to call before leaving for Europe.
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Lanny visited the Holdenhurst family before proceeding to N.Y. and further, although he'd have avoided it if possible, since Lizbeth had set her cap at him and both his father's family and Reverdy Holdenhurst had made it explicitly clear they wished the match to proceed. But Holdenhurst was a major stockholder of Budd-Erling and had asked for more stock, and couldn't be ignored. Furthermore he'd developed an interest in old classic paintings, and had asked Lanny to get him some. This could only be done with a personal discussion about what Lanny was able to get him.
Lizbeth was lovelier every time he saw her, he thought; she was now twenty, no longer a child, and seemed thoughtful. Not getting her watched perhaps been good for her. She drove him to country club, and the modern swimwear left little to imagination. Reverdy ordered paintings worth several thousand dollars in commission, and it wouldn't be polite to go off soon after that, but Lanny had made it clear his being soon in Newcastle was necessary, and he left to take a series of trains to arrive in an hour.
"Robbie Budd was like the man in the Arabian Nights who pulled the cork from the bottle and let the genie out; the most unimaginable monstrous genie, that spread out over the Connecticut countryside, on the river which flowed through it, and in the skies above it. Robbie had thought that he had vision, and he had foreseen a big business, but it had been a nice little big business, so to speak, never the big big business which was now turning him and his community upside down. Concrete floors were laid down by the acre, and ships and trains and barges came loaded with structural steel, and buildings arose with the speed of Jack’s beanstalk. And the same thing was going on with the still more immense property of Budd Gunmakers, turning out machine guns, carbines, and automatic pistols. ... The town had prayed for prosperity, but this was too much, and the Chamber of Commerce wanted to say: “Lord, can’t you take a joke?”"
Esther had hoped her son's would take charge and free Robbie, but he was completely in charge and energised at this venture taking off. He had been slighted by bureaucrats as warmonger and his philosophy about it had distanced Lanny, but now Hitler's actions had brought them together; Lanny saw the need of defence, and Robbie had been funded by the New Deal he had despised, FDR using the logic that airplane industry workers needed it too. Things had changed thereafter now.
"Congress, in a panic, was voting defense funds; first, in the spring, a billion dollars and then another billion; in midsummer five billion, and then another five; compulsory military service was being talked of—and right in the midst of a presidential campaign! So now Robbie could get respectable contracts from the Army and the Navy, contracts which he didn’t have to keep secret, nor blush when his golfing friends found out about them. Also the British had come down off their high horses; the Colonel Blimps who had been so toplofty and had plagued Robbie through the years—except the years numbered 1914–1918! They came now to Newcastle and begged almost on their knees for planes and then more planes and still more planes, even while claiming that these planes weren’t good enough to fight with, and demanding more changes at every stage of manufacture!
"Lanny’s first duty was to sit down with his father and tell what he had been able to find out concerning the performance of the Budd-Erling Typhoon. In just what respects had the Spitfire managed to surpass it, and even more important, what was the Messerschmitt 109 now able to do? Robbie already had a mass of information, and drawings and plans and specifications for improvements; but he wanted the personal experiences of Alfy and his mates.
"It was going to be this way right along, only more so, and Robbie, in his middle sixties, had to keep his mind flexible and make life-and-death decisions between firepower and armor on the one hand and speed and maneuverability on the other. Upon his judgment would depend the lives of hundreds of British flyers, and perhaps of Britain itself. The president of Budd-Erling Aircraft, who had been an extreme isolationist, had been suddenly brought to face the fact that if Hitler got the British Fleet he would not merely have all Europe at his mercy but could cross to Africa, and from there with his bombers and paratroopers to Brazil; he would build his airports there, and might be at the Panama Canal before we were in position to offer him serious resistance. “What do you think, Lanny?”
"The bombing attacks upon London were going on without cessation. Day and night the swarms of bombers and fighter planes came over. It was indeed the blitz; Göring der Dicke had been preparing it for almost eight years, and had boasted about it to both the elder and the younger Budd. Now the elder, deeply concerned, gazed at the younger, asking: “Can he get away with it?” All Lanny could say was: “It’s the test of battle, and I doubt if anybody living can tell how it will turn out. Göring will send planes as long as he has any; and sooner or later one side or the other will be exhausted.”
"“This much I know,” declared Robbie, “the British here in Newcastle are scared stiff; they aren’t just play-acting.”
"“What will decide the issue, I am guessing, is how many planes the Generalstab will insist upon keeping on the eastern border. Somewhere they will have to draw the line and say: ‘Not one more!’”
"“You think the Russians might attack them?”
"“I think either side will attack the moment it can see a certainty of victory. That is a war that has got to be fought some day.”
"“Well,” said the father, “you know Abraham Lincoln’s story of the pioneer who came home to his cabin and found his wife in hand-to-hand conflict with a bear?”
"“I don’t think I’ve heard it.”
"“The old fellow rested his gun against the rail fence, took a seat on the top rail, and called: ‘Go it, woman; go it, bear!’”"
Lanny was invited to give talks and declined, but answered those he was brought to meet privately by the Budd family. There were young eligible girls and if people talked about their assumptions that he was interested in one, Esther asked him if she should invite her for tea. Miss Priscilla Hoyle had meanwhile married a local schoolteacher, but went on working at the library, which saved Esther a bother about how to replace so good a librarian. His being uninterested in them and in Lizbeth made her think there was someone else, and to her Europe's decadence in these matters was cause of Europe's wars. And since everyone now had a radio, and were listening, often they heard it live.
"It was the genuine “all out.” It went on for weeks, day and night. The Germans had decided to destroy London, the brain of the British Empire; they would break the nerve of its seven million inhabitants and end their will to resist. The Reichsmarschall, head of the Luftwaffe, had told Lanny Budd that Warsaw would be nothing in comparison; Warsaw had been far from Berlin, but London was close to the new bases in France and Belgium, and it would be merely a freighting proposition, a routine job. Impossible to miss the target, ten miles or more in every direction; no need to aim, you could drop the loads from twenty thousand feet, even thirty thousand, above the reach of ack-ack, and wipe out everything and everybody in the world’s most populated metropolis.
"And now they were doing it. An endless procession of planes, bombers, and fighters, by day and by night, and no rest for anybody down below. The newspapers were filled with the ghastly details; whole blocks of the city wrecked and burning, a pall of black smoke everywhere, hiding the sky and making it difficult to breathe. The firefighters worked without rest, but they could hardly get about through streets blocked with rubble; their hoselines were dragged here and there through the ruins. An appalling thing to see a six-story office building collapse and fall inward, all in a few seconds, and to know that scores, perhaps hundreds of people were trapped within those ruins; many would still be alive, and would hear the crackling flames and smell the acrid smoke and feel the deadly heat stealing closer.
"The fires and the searchlights made night into day, and after a day’s work people toiled at rescuing the wounded. Sirens screamed, and the roar of the anti-aircraft guns was one continuous sound, like the pounding of a freight train when you are “riding the rods.” The air blasts deprived people of breath, and often killed them; there were whole districts of London without a window intact, and oftentimes a single giant blast would blow in every door in a city block. Yet people went on with their work, through all these horrors. They traveled to and fro between their homes and their jobs; they worked in shops and offices with the roofs or the walls missing; there were stories of men who set up their desks in the street and went on with their duties. Business as usual! Never say die! There will always be an England!
"Lanny heard these stories, and read them in the papers, and it was as if it were his own home being destroyed. He had known this grimy old city since childhood, and loved it and the people in it. The poor were easy to know, and had “guts,” as they called it, and a cheery courage; their “betters” were not so easy, but kindly and agreeable when you had broken the ice. Now they were all on a level—the bombs made no distinction. Buckingham Palace was hit, and the House of Commons wiped out. The West End, the fashionable district, suffered greatly; and Lanny thought of the splendid mansions, many of them historic, in which he had dined and danced, the luxury shops to which he had accompanied his mother in boyhood, the theaters in which he had seen Shakespeare played. Hermann Göring wouldn’t spare Shakespeare; he wouldn’t spare the hospitals filled with the wounded, nor the morgues in which the dead were piled. Make way for the Neue Ordnung!"
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Lanny had the use of a sports car from the half a dozen at Robbie's home, and visited the Robin homes. He finally gave in to temptation to meet Laurel, since she was one of the rare women he could talk to, and they met. After lunch at an obscure little place he asked her if she'd like to go for a drive, and finally they could talk.
"“I have been making note of the reports, and have observed that the daylight raids are becoming less frequent and the night raids more so. That is an acknowledgment of failure on the Germans’ part. They have lost as many as two hundred planes in a single daylight raid, and they can’t keep that up.”
"“But night raids can destroy London!”
"“They are far less effective, because it is impossible to pick the targets. It doesn’t do much good to drop bombs on Hampstead Heath or in the Thames.”
They talked about British defence in the long run.
"“It is all very secret and I can only pick up hints. The German bombers start fires at strategic places by daylight, and then use them as targets by night. The British trick them by starting great bonfires just outside the city. Also, you may notice that you don’t hear so much about searchlights as you did; the reason is that they betray the location of a city. I am told that the British have an electronic device which determines the altitude of planes in the darkness; so they can put up a box barrage and get many of the enemy; the greater the number that come, the more will be hit. I have heard hints that they have developed night-fighters which use the same electronic instruments. Be sure the Nazis haven’t all the scientists on their side.”"
They returned from the drive around Long Island with lights of N.Y. making Lanny talk about the London blackout. He dropped her around the corner, and she stopped him from apologising by saying she understood and didn't and wouldn't mention him to anyone, and told him to call when he was again in town. Lanny thought about her, but while everything was fine now, he couldn't know if later they would come to differ as Hansi and Bess now did, despite having been so much in love and overcome so much that was against them.
Meanwhile he had to attend to business, and called Forrest Quadratt who had written to him at Newcastle, and was invited for dinner, where he was introduced to Baldur Heinsch. He wanted Lanny to meet Hearst to suggest he should do more.
"“We Americans have got ourselves hypnotized by the idea of elections. We think that votes settle everything, votes come from God. But Hitler and Mussolini have shown us that governments are not immutable, and that the rabble doesn’t have to have its way.”
"I had in mind to ask you about it. Their favorite formula is: ‘Somebody ought to shoot him!’”
"“I don’t mean anything so extreme. Assassination would have a bad effect and might lead to reaction. All that is necessary is for a group of determined men to lead him away and keep him in some quiet spot until the trouble is over. Somebody should state: ‘You are still President, Mr. Roosevelt, but you’re not working at it for a time. The country is going to be run by men who are sane, and don’t intend to have their sons shot for the benefit of the British Empire and Bolshevik Russia.’ The men in this plan are all Americans, Herr Budd.”"
Heinsch said he'd furnish introduction from influential persons touching for lanny for Hearst and Lanny's art business should provide an opening for him. He said that if Lanny was going to meet Hearst, Lanny should see Hearst's art works in department stores and in warehouses in Bronx, and that he could arrange it if Lanny wished to see the storeroom. Hearst had purchased art works, furniture and even whole buildings in Europe, and shipped them out to U.S., but later financial situation changed, and one of the results was his putting large parts of this collection on sale, much of which he hadn't seen, and he had the new idea of doing it through department stores. Lanny went to see a warehouse.
"You couldn’t believe it without seeing it with your own eyes. In this place was an office with cabinets containing one hundred and fifty fat books composed of loose leaves, the catalog of this warehouse. Ten or eleven clerks were needed to keep them up-to-date. There were twelve thousand objects listed, Lanny was told, and that didn’t sound so formidable—until it was explained that an “object” included such things as a “complete medieval room,” and there were seventy of these. Another “object” was a whole monastery from Spain; you might think that was a joke, but no, here it was, in fourteen thousand cases which had cost seventy thousand dollars just to pack. The monastery had been built in the year 1141, and Hearst had bought it without seeing it, and had ordered it taken down, stone by stone, each labeled on the boxes, so that the structure could be set up in any part of America which felt the need of either a monastery or a tourist attraction."
Lanny called Baldur Heinsch and said hed preferred to not go through his connections since that would make it political, and would rather go as an art expert who might help him sell part of his art collection. Lanny had decided he'd like to see his country, and rather drive across. He called Robbie to ask if it was ok to keep the car for a couple of weeks, and Robbie said go ahead, if he needed one he'd buy one.
Lanny drove West, meeting various clients along the way, including some who were old friends and relatives of old friends - Murchisons in Pittsburgh, Timmons in Cincinnati who were relatives of Sophie, his mother's friend; Ezra Hackabury whose yacht he had been on for a cruise to Greece with family and friends - and others, including the Henry Ford family, and Mrs Fotheringay who collected paintings of babies and selected a Hoppner this time, from photographs he'd brought. She wrote a cheque for twenty seven thousand dollars and told him to have the painting sent by airmail for safety.
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Arriving via Nebraska, Utah, Nevada, and then through Riverside, where he spent a night at the Mission Inn, proceeding next day to drive along orange groves, lanny arrived at Beverly Wiltshire and called the De Lyle Armbrusters whom hed met at Savoy in London, Adlon in Berlin and Algiers while cruising on yacht; Irma had said they were now in Hollywood, and they invited him over for cocktails and dinner. The house in Benedict canyon was filled with Hollywood celebrities, and lanny fast became one after mentioning his visit to Berchtesgaden. Louella Parsons observed this, and asked about him, and asked for an introduction.
"It wasn’t that fate had been so especially kind to Lanny, but that he had been especially careful in figuring where and how to make his Hollywood debut."
He told them stories of personal interest about adi, such as his fondness for Wagner's music and blond young women working at Berghof. He told about adi's kellner who sang Innthal songs.
"He explained Adi’s propaganda technique of choosing a big lie and repeating it incessantly until everybody believed it; he told the story of the Stierwäscher of the Innthal—the peasants who had wanted to enter a white bull in a prize competition, but they had no white bull, so they took a black one and washed it every day for a month and then insisted that it was white, and so they won the prize."
"To listen to all this was not merely idle curiosity on the part of Genie’s guests, for one of the stock products of Hollywood had become anti-Nazi pictures, and Lanny’s intimate stories would be useful to writers, producers, directors, costumers, property men, and on down the line."
Lanny's introduction and visit to Hearst was arranged by Louella Parsons, he was told to arrive at Burbank airport promptly at eleven and found that his co passenger was Marion Davies.
At the destination, Lanny was taken to a guest cottage named La Casa Del Sol - guests were put up at separate individual cottages, each with its own name - and went to the main house that was in style of after a Spanish mission, with acres of storehouse with boxed art treasures stored. There were swimming pools of fresh water and ocean water, one outdoors and one under the living quarters in the main house, and one could ride one's choice of animal with a trainer taking care, if one wished to ride. Watching a film starring Marion Davies after dinner was compulsory routine for all guests.
"What Hearst loved were the objects, as things to admire, to show, and above all, to possess. He unlocked a special cabinet and took out a rare vase of Venetian glass; it was something marvelous, a rich green fading into the color of milk, cloudy, translucent, and when you held it up to the light the colors wavered and pulsed as if the object were alive. “When you have something like that,” remarked the Duce of San Simeon, “you have a pleasure that endures; you come to think of it as a friend.” “Ah, yes,” replied the expert, who had learned something about the human heart as well as the price of paintings. “And it does not turn out to be something other than you had thought. It does not become corrupted; it does not betray you or slander you; it does not try to get anything out of you.”"
Looking at Hearst's art treasures and discussion of art led to Lanny mentioning his deals in art with Göring, and Hearst invited him for a private talk in his study next morning. He had questions about the situation, and Lanny explained how he was trusted by various people about what he could tell them; he mentioned his being free of financial ties to them, and refuses an offer of fifty thousand a year from Hearst, saying he'd be pleased to meet and talk on a friendly basis. Hearst asked if he wasn't worried about providing, and Lanny said he was provided for by Robbie, which put him on socially equal status. Hearst said he had carte blanche then on for telegraph of any length.
Lanny was invited to stay on, as Louella Parsons had said, and did, to see the guests of the estate. On the day of the election, after FDR won his third term, he had the talk with Hearst that he'd come for, to find out about Hearst's involvement if any in a Cagoulard style conspiracy with nazis, but Hearst asked him not to mention his name to any such conspirators ever. His editorials said he never questioned right of people to choose, while in his privacy he predicted doom of every sort. Lanny took his leave, and after a few days in Hollywood, drove back to Washington, this time via southern route.
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Lanny met FDR and he spoke about Britain holding out, and about having increased the quota of planes they could buy. They talked about Mussolini's attempted invasion of greece, foiled by British help, and his subsequent attempt to take over Egypt. FDR arranged a way for Lanny to mail reports from Vichy France, and asked him to get in touch with Jim Stotzlmann.
Lanny paid a call on the Holdenhurst family, required by etiquette and by Robbie, who asked about it and told him Reverdy had bought another block of stock of Budd-Erling; he spent another day with Laurel Creston, with a drive between lunch and dinner, and telling her about his Hollywood experience. He talked to Baldur Heinsch and said Hearst wanted to be involved but only through Lanny, and Baldur Heinsch almost told him names of his co-conspirators, but held back.
Lanny wrote to Jim Stotzlmann, who called him and came to meet him at the N.Y. hotel Lanny was staying. They talked about FDR, and Jim told Lanny about Harrison Dengue and other conspirators who were plotting against FDR, which reminded Lanny of Cagoulards and Darlan.
Lanny visited Newcastle, and met Peggy Remsen, a niece of Esther, who seemed to combine all the good points of Lizbeth and Laurel. She had just finished her education, read books and had a mind of her own, and spoke of workers making decisions. Lanny's passport was delayed, referred by war department to state, and a bureaucrat questioned him thoroughly in N.Y., refuting every necessity Lanny presented, including his family and work. Finally he hinted at Budd-Erling business, and the bureaucrat Titherington said he would consider. Lanny decided no not go back to Newcastle.
He contacted, instead, Forrest Quadratt and Baldur Heinsch, and found the latter not committing names. He asked the former about Harrison Dengue and was invited by Miss Van Zandt to meet him along with senator Reynolds, who was set to marry the daughter of Evelyn McLean Walsh who wore the Hope diamond. The two men and the hostess, after the hostess had each guest tell about his view or experience of nazis, discussed whether FDR was competent at all, after dinner, and asked Lanny to come tell them what the nazis said, when he told them he might meet them.
"The newspapers recorded the culmination of the struggle between Laval and Pétain. The aged Marshal had deposed his faithless subordinate and placed him under arrest, and Otto Abetz, Nazi Governor of Paris, had flown to Vichy to Laval’s rescue. It is at times of crisis such as this that men become excited and reveal secrets, and Lanny ought to have been there to avail himself of the opportunity."
Lanny's passport was still delayed, and finally he was able to see FDR after he returned from the cruise.
"F.D. looked bronzed and refreshed—it was truly amazing what a few days of rest and recreation could do for this overburdened man. He had been poking about in coves and inlets which had once been the haunt of pirates and were soon going to be sites of great naval and air installations, designed to keep enemy U-boats forever away from the southern approaches to the United States and the Panama Canal."
FDR said he'd arrange to have passports for both Lanny and Robbie delivered at their home in Newcastle. FDR asked about Jim Stotzlmann and they talked about Jim and about Harrison Dengue and the conspiracy. FDR wanted to know more about the french situation.
"The Nazis demand action, and this stubborn old martinet promises, and then finds excuses and delays, and nothing happens.”
"“What do you think the Germans will do to him?”
"“I wouldn’t like to guess, but it’s a safe bet that they won’t let him do anything to Laval; the Nazis need both of them too badly. They don’t want to have to occupy the rest of France in the present state of their affairs.”
"“Where are they going? Into the Balkans?”
"“It looks like that. If they could get Greece and Crete, they would be within bombing range of Suez, and that would make it hard for the British. They will be heading for oil, whether in Mesopotamia or the Caucasus. The fate of Europe hangs in the balance there.”"
FDR said he was convinced by Lord Lothian, and was about to help Britain in every way but military. He asked Lanny to look over the draft of his next fireside chat, and worked while Lanny read what FDR was to say.
"“The Axis not merely admits but proclaims that there can be no ultimate peace between their philosophy of government and our philosophy of government.… There can be no appeasement with ruthlessness. There can be no reasoning with an incendiary bomb. We know now that a nation can have peace with the Nazis only at the price of total surrender.… The British people are conducting an active war against this unholy alliance. Our own future security is greatly dependent on the outcome of that fight.… Democracy’s fight against world conquest is being greatly aided, and must be more greatly aided, by the rearmament of the United States and by sending every ounce and every ton of munitions and supplies that we can possibly spare to help the defenders who are in the front lines.… There will be no ‘bottlenecks’ in our determination to aid Great Britain. No dictator, no combination of dictators, will weaken that determination by threats of how they will construe that determination.”"
Lanny suggested a paraphrasing of what Sir Edward Grey had called U.S. during WWI, "The reserve arsenal of allies", and use "the great arsenal of democracy ", which FDR was pleased with, and asked him to insert it appropriately.
The passports came through and Robbie called the Pan Am to arrange a Clipper passage for Lanny after Xmas, which he got for the last day of the year.
"Meantime the dreadful bombing of Britain went on night after night. It was one city, then another, and the vast sprawling capital was seldom spared. The nights were long, and this was the time of death and destruction. One result was that telegrams and telephone calls besieged Robbie Budd, and visitors came from Washington and from overseas. They wanted planes, more planes, still more planes. They wanted Robbie to throw away caution and go ahead and expand, and when he tried to plead the interests of his stockholders they considered him a stubborn reactionary. What value would be left in the stocks of any American plant if Britain went down?
"The military men of both countries kept Robbie up late at night painting pictures of the calamities they foresaw as the result of the swift development of air war. If Hitler got Britain, he would surely get Gibraltar, and then Dakar at the western bulge of Africa. They repeated their strategical question: what was to keep him from flying an army of paratroopers from there to the eastern bulge of Brazil? And when he had an airbase there, wouldn’t he have all South America at his mercy? And what could we do about it? He could fly his bombers and destroy the Panama Canal, which would be the same as cutting America in halves; we should be two nations fighting two wars, one with Germany and one with Japan.
"There was a limit to the stubbornness even of Robbie Budd. The governments had the power; the British and the American governments had become for all practical purposes one, with Churchill and Roosevelt talking over the telephone every night. They could commandeer Budd-Erling if they wanted to; or they could carry out their unveiled threats to build more new plants in the Middle West and hire all Robbie’s experts away from him. All right, he would put up more buildings, and start a whole new schedule; but Washington must furnish every dollar, and must agree to take the plants back at cost after the war, if Robbie so desired. “After the war?” said bureaucrats. “Christ! Who is thinking about the war? Our job is not to be exterminated.”
"They were so scared that even Robbie got scared, and said to his son: “I suppose you’d better go over there and find out what Göring is up to.” An extraordinary concession."
Lanny visited Hansi and Bess, and played with Bess while Hansi practiced in another part of the house. He met Jim Stotzlmann and they went for a drive, and stopped to hear FDR on the radio.
"They listened with rapt attention to the warm friendly voice; and they noticed a curious phenomenon—passers-by on the street heard that voice and stopped. They stayed, regardless of a wintry wind and snow on the ground. Lanny didn’t know who they were; he didn’t turn to look at them, but lowered the window a crack for their benefit. More and more came and nobody went away. That was the sort of compliment the humble people paid to Franklin D. Roosevelt, all over the land; the plain people, of whom there were so many, whose names never got into the newspapers, but who discussed the country’s problems among themselves, made up their minds, and managed sooner or later to let the politicians know what they wanted.
"It was America burning her bridges behind her; America laying down the law that Nazi-Fascism wasn’t going to be permitted to take control of the world. America was going to become the great arsenal of democracy. Lanny’s phrase rang out, and his heart gave a jump when he heard it. He had promised to dance a jig, but the circumstances hardly permitted that. He and his friend patted each other on the back, and were so happy they had tears in their eyes. The impromptu audience faded away silently, as if they had been eavesdropping and were embarrassed. What they thought, Lanny would only learn in the course of years, when at the ballot box and at mass meetings and in other ways the people would register endorsement of their great President’s policies."
Lanny had taken Peggy Remsen on a drive to see the lovely winter scenery of upland Connecticut, and it would hardly be fair to not take Laurel Creston for such a drive. Lanny discovered that he liked to tell Laurel about what happened to him, and wished he was free to tell more.
"While F.D.R. had been giving his fireside chat, the Nazis had been carrying on another mass bombing of London. This time it had been with incendiaries; and while this happy couple enjoyed the winter scenery they turned on the radio and listened to details of the dreadful conflagration blazing in the very heart of the capital, the portion known as The City."
Lanny knew this part well because Lord Eversham-Watson, late husband of Margy, was a city man, and he told Laurel about the sights no one would ever see again. He was taken to airport by Robbie's man who would drive the car back, and found himself sharing the flight with Harry Hopkins, who worked on his papers throughout the flight, and doubtless was taking fine details of FDR's proposed aid to Churchill.
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Lanny found a room in Vichy by paying extra; Vichy was cold because Germany had taken fuel. He met a Paris journalist, Jacques Benoist-Méchin, who was now in government after having been a p.o.w., and he told about how the fracas about Laval happened. Jacques Benoist-Méchin had suggested that remains of Napoleon's son being sent from Austria, where he'd died a p.o.w., to Paris, would be a good gesture, and Pétain was supposed to go to Paris for in ceremony of putting them in a crypt, but he thought it was a plan of Laval to have him kept by Germans there, so had instead asked the cabinet to resign, had only accepted it from Laval, and imprisoned him. Otto Abetz who was now in charge in occupied France had exploded in fury and come to Vichy and ordered release of Laval but didn't dare touch Pétain, and finally had taken away Laval.
Jacques Benoist-Méchin had been private secretary of Hearst and suddenly discharged. He wrote for Nazi papers, and wanted to know about Roosevelt and his man in Vichy, Admiral Leahy. This meeting with Lanny had with Jacques Benoist-Méchin had Darlan asking him over and questioning him.
Herbert Hoover along with similar others in U.S. was clamouring for food for needy in Europe, which suited nazis because then they could take produce of Europe and not have the deprived starve to death, which meant free slave labour. Darlan wanted to send French fleet with merchant ships and wanted to know if British would do something, and asked about Wickthorpe. Lanny didnt go near Pétain or Leahy, but wrote his report and saw it delivered to Leahy going to bed in his overcoat.
One of the significant aspects of the siege was the economic squeeze Germans were applying to France, and Doktor Hjalmar Horace Greeley Schacht, who had asked Robbie for a job, was in charge. Germany was buying up concerns with the money france was paying for supposedly upkeep of German army. The guests whom Lanny had met at Schneider's, who said "better Hitler than Blum", were now pitiful refugees.
Jacques Benoist-Méchin invited Lanny to lunch and he met Doktor Jacckl, assistant to Schacht, whom he knew from Germany, and lanny asked about Kurt, and Jacckl was happy to take the message. A note to Lanny, saying Kurt was there, a few days later, and Lanny met him.
"It had taken Lanny a long time to wake up to the meaning of these intricate and subtle deceptions, but in the end he had come to understand clearly that you couldn’t be friends with a Nazi; a Nazi was the enemy of every non-Nazi in the world. Even if you, a non-German, adopted the hateful creed, you didn’t really get anywhere; the true Herrenvolk would use you, but in their hearts they would despise you as a traitor to your own kind and a dupe of the Nazi Weltbetrag. The Nazis had chosen Loki, god of lies, for their Nordic deity, and all other peoples had to learn to live under his scepter.
"Lanny had heard long ago the German saying: “When you are with the wolves you must howl with them,”" and so Lanny did. He told about his meetings with various people in U.S., who were displeased with the government, and Kurt told him not to worry, Germany had a new weapon. Lanny asked if he could see adi, and Kurt said he'd tell him. Lanny explained that various people who were meeting him and asking if Germany would go after Russia if Britain got off their back wanted to know if the intentions of the German leader were still same, and weren't completely satisfied with an assurance given six months or longer ago. Kurt said he'd deliver the message. They discussed Kurt's family and Emil, which brought it to German plans, and Kurt talked about post Greece plans, including Mesopotamia and Caucasus.
"When Lanny exclaimed: “But you can’t go into Turkey with your left flank exposed to the Russians for a thousand miles!” Kurt knew that he was talking to someone who had been looking at maps and at least hearing about the principles of the great Clausewitz.
"“Don’t worry too much,” he answered. “I am quite sure that before this year is over you will see the Bolshevik menace eliminated from Europe.”"
Lanny said he wouldn't ask about confidential or sensitive information, but asked him if what was just said could be repeated to those who believed in the nazi doctrine, and others on the side, such as Wickthorpe. Kurt thought about it, and said it was confidential, but he'd got it directly from his boss, he'd made up his mind to get rid of the menace at eastern border, no later than June. He said the military was confident they would have no difficulty at all.
"Lanny went back to his unheated room, set up his little portable, wrapped himself in the blankets, blew on his chilled fingers, and wrote: “Hitler has decided to attack Russia this spring, not later than June. This is positive, as of this date. He expects to finish the job in six weeks.”"
Lanny met Darlan who got him a seat on a flight to Vichy, and his companion was a navy officer who found him interesting enough that Lanny was offered a seat in the car he was driven in the direction Lanny was going, with three others. At Cannes they took a detour, and at Bienvenu they were invited to stay for coffee and dinner, which they were happy to. Bienvenu grew it's own food and Beauty now drove a horse carriage in style.
Lanny waited for a communication from Monck or Raoul Palma, and got one from the latter, so he arranged with Jerry Pendleton to get him transport to Toulon. But Raoul wasn't in the bookstore he'd said he'd be, and after going there several times for a couple of days, Lanny was about to do more. But that morning he was met by a young woman of upper strata who invited him to see paintings in another home, having heard of his having done so in one, and when he went with her it was a ruse to kidnap him, by a band of anti nazi men; Lanny couldn't tell them about Raoul, for fear they might include a Nazi spy. But later at night one freed him for a bounty, and took him into hiding in the mountain. Next day they hid, expecting pursuit, but there was none, so they walked down, found the road, and eventually managed to get to Cannes where Lanny paid off the guy. Back at Bienvenu Lanny found another note from Raoul which had arrived after he left, warning him, and then another that said Raoul was glad he'd escaped and was ok. Lanny wrote to Hess and was invited to come via Bern, where his visa to Germany was arranged.
Lanny took a train to Geneva, and established himself as an art expert and buyer, but didn't see Monck until he arranged an interview in newspapers about his business. They met later after establishing contact and spoke in a spot in park where they were in shade but could see around clearly. Lanny told him he'dbeen worried, and Monck said he'd been caught by two nazi agents but they'd run away when someone else appeared, he'd been hospitalised and questioned by police who suspected him, and had laid traps; if they confirmed his political activity he'd be thrown out of country, but had so far avoided that. He told Lanny his contact had disappeared and he didn't know more about it.
"Is the underground meeting with any success in Germany?”
"“I wish to God I could say yes, but I cannot. The enemy is utterly ruthless; they will kill a thousand innocent persons to get one guilty. They are extirpating us root and branch.”
"“I am to tell my friends outside that they are not to count upon any uprising from within?”
"“They can count upon a few persons to gather information, and even that will be greatly restricted, for facts are suppressed and it is difficult to obtain them. If your friends count upon more than that, they will be disappointed. Tell them not to blame the people too severely; all those who have brains and conscience have been murdered, or else are in the concentration camps, which are a slower form of murder. This war will be fought to the end, and with a bitterness never known in modern times.”
"“Not in Spain?” inquired the P.A.
"“The Spanish are an incompetent people; the Germans are the most competent in Europe, and perhaps in the world. If you Americans wish us to think otherwise, you will have to prove it."
"“I think you can count upon us not to let Britain go down.”
"“That will mean a long war. You will have to conquer half a continent.”
"“Our people do not realize it yet. They will move step by step, but in the end, I believe, they will do what they have to.”"
Monck confirmed Lanny's information about eastward movement after Balkans, expected no later than summer. Lanny asked if he was ok to go to Germany, and Monck replied that he'd never mentioned Lanny, but if Göring had missed the supercharger the suspicion was bound to point to the Budds. Lanny said he'd met him since, and didn't think that was a problem; Robbie had said they'd improved it so much Göring wouldn't know it. They didn't know how much the disappeared contact had talked, and Lanny returned looking about to make sure he wasn't followed.
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Lanny got his visa in Bern and arrived at Adlon, after taking a train to Berlin, where American journalists were still around as were men of importance. Berlin wasn't as damaged as London, since Germans could fly from French coast but RAG had to fly from Kent. He visited Hilde Donnerstein, who invited him but was in mourning, her eldest son was dead in Poland after the war was over, someone had thrown a grenade. She asked about Irma, and about women of his mother's circle, all of whom she'd met in Berlin and Riviera and London, before the war.
"That bright world of dining and drinking and setting off verbal fireworks was gone forever, and it seemed to Lanny that the princess was in mourning for it as much as for her son. (She could only wear this costume in the house, she told him; outside it was verboten as being bad for morale.)"
Hess had invited Lanny to a restaurant with a private room arranged for their dining, and Lanny told about his various travels and meetings since they met, until the dinner was over. Then he talked about the conspiracy against FDR and nazi agrnts in U.S., and more. Hess was startled when lanny mentioned Germany moving East by July, and Lanny pointed out that people asked him about German intentions, and he needed fresh assurances from top if he were to convince them. Hess was in agreement and said he'll see what he could do.
Lanny called Furtwaengler and talked about his family, and about paintings, and read newspapers while he waited for him to contact about meeting Göring.
"German people were not told the details of how the British had swept the Italians almost all the way out of Libya; they were told about the achievements of the German air corps which was stationed in Sicily and was closing the Eastern Mediterranean to the British and making Malta all but untenable to the foe. They were told that pro-Nazi governments were now firmly established in the Balkan states and that a pact had just been signed with Yugoslavia; they were not told that the people of Yugoslavia were in revolt against this deal—something which Lanny had learned from the newspapers of Switzerland."
Furtwaengler called to say Lanny would be required to fly for the meeting, blindfolded, which Lanny accepted. He had to go shopping for stationary, because carbon paper had been stolen from his suitcase, but he found none in shops, and although windows had things that weren't available inside. He had dinner with a client who seemed in need of funds, even of dinner, and thanked him for the prospect of selling a painting before hurrying off, since berlin expected british bombers at night.
"The British bombers left their homeland at about dusk. They had become wary after a year and a half of conflict with the Luftwaffe and with the anti-aircraft guns which surrounded every German target of importance. If they were bound for Central or Eastern Germany they would fly over the North Sea and come in by unexpected routes. It seemed that one of their purposes was to deprive good Germans of their sleep, for they would aim for one city and then veer off to another. They were due over Berlin shortly after midnight, but they would vary this, too. All good Berliners now slept in their underwear, and kept their shoes and trousers and overcoats close at hand. They loudly cursed the malicious foe, calling him an enemy of humanity, a throwback to barbarism, a monster out of hell. Lanny, listening, would have liked to ask: “Did you never hear of Guernica and Madrid, of Warsaw and Rotterdam, of London and Coventry?”"
Lanny hurried down to the hotel shelter for guests when sirens sounded, and found a face familiar next to him - it was Bragescu, then captain and now general, who had caught a long green moral when Lanny in his early teens had taken him torch fishing at Bienvenu. Now he represented the new fascist government of his country, Romania, and told Lanny about what went on.
Lanny was taken to the airfield next morning, and blindfolded before take off, until he was driven from the field where they touched down to the Chateau where Göring had his field headquarters. Göring wanted to fund and direct the nazi operations in U.S. and said he had his own men, but Lanny cautioned him saying major names in the country would disassociate if they got wind that it was foreign operation. They got on to art, and Göring was bubbling with glee, all the art of Belgium and Holland and France now was in his possession. He said he was going to make thus own museum. About the coming war in the East, he remained non committal.
Göring had him see the decoration ceremony of his young officers, among whom one had the unusual name of Bummelhausen, and he said Lanny had met his younger brother when he was a guest at the forest camp. Lanny asked after him, even as shivers ran down his spine.
Back to Berlin, he met Heinrich Jung, who met him privately at Adlon, and in midst of it Lanny got a call telling him about his appointment at the chancellory the next morning. Lanny met adi, who had questions about his travels and people he met, and about the conspiracy against FDR and Churchill. He proposed immediate assassinations, by sending his own people, but Lanny cautioned him against it, and it resulted in Lanny being assigned an agent's code name, with name of another who was in German embassy in Washington D.C., whom Lanny was supposed to send information through. Before parting Lanny spoke about what people were saying concerning adi's plans to conquer Russia, and asked what he wanted them to be told. He was invited to lunch with adi and the entourage.
On his return, Hess invited him to visit his home. He spoke freely about the coming campaign.
"April had arrived, and the Wehrmacht was driving gloriously into the mountainous land of Greece, routing not merely those troops which had soundly beaten the Italians but a couple of divisions of British troops who had been sent from North Africa to their aid. “Not many of those chaps are going to get away alive,” declared Hess; “and as soon as we finish that clean-up, we shall begin moving our troops to the Ukraine. The Russians will know it then if they don’t know it already.”"
Hess said he was meeting someone from England in Madrid and wanted Lanny to go with him, but Lanny proposed coming independentlyvia Paris, so no suspicions would be raised. He arrived in Paris and got a ride on a peasant' s cart to town and got room at a small hotel.
"By the ingenious device of paper francs the Germans had pretty well cleaned out France, both Occupied and Unoccupied, and food was now strictly rationed. The Parisians were allowed less than a pound of meat per week, and bread, their principal food, was of poor quality; the ration was being reduced almost every month. Ersatz foods, a German device, were coming in. Acorns, nettles, and other garden weeds were being chemically treated to make them edible, and you had “mink butter,” made of tallow and chemicals. “Coffee” was roasted oats and barley; so no wonder the people of Paris were dropping their practice of two hours for lunch. “Back to work!” was the Nazi slogan."
Lanny met Schneider and was invited to a dinner in his honour. They asked him and what the nazis intended.
"Lanny repeated what the Nazis One, Two, and Three had authorized him to say. The masters of France found it agreeable, for there was nothing in this world they wanted so much as the overthrow of the Red menace in the east. If there was a single one among them who had any doubt as to the ultimate victory of the Wehrmacht in this war, he did not raise his voice in Schneider’s palace."
Lanny dropped a note to Julie Palma and met her on the street in her neighbourhood, where nobody would know him. He told about the kidnapping in Toulon, and said hed be more careful next. Julie said the money they took from him had gone to Raoul, for whom lanny had brought it in the first place. He told her about the eastern campaign plan, and asked her to not publish that for a couple of weeks and say she got it from German officers.
Lanny arrived in Madrid. There were no restorations since Franco had bombed it, people were starving, and there was a scare that Spain was being asked to join the war.
"The Germans had begun a huge campaign for Spanish participation, and Lanny had seen enough in other cities to know how they must be pouring out money. When bands of hoodlums who called themselves the Falange and presumed to run the affairs of the country were parading the streets waving banners and shouting for blood. ... There were rumors all over town that the British were preparing for a landing, to use Spain as a base to attack Hitler, as they had done with Napoleon nearly a century and a half ago. Lanny didn’t have to be told that it was agents of the Gestapo who were circulating such reports. Hilde von Donnerstein had told him how they were practicing this same technique in Berlin, where the story was that all Germans in the United States were forced to wear black swastikas on their left breasts, and that the persecution of Jews in Germany was in reprisal for the persecution of Germans by the Jew-dominated governments of New York and Washington."
From General Aguilar he learned about the new motorways being built in direction of Gibraltar.
"Meantime, remarked the elderly General, the troops would be busy with another attempt to put down the rebels who were still hiding in the Guadarrama mountains, less than an hour’s drive from the capital. Also, his secret service would be occupied in trying to nab those Communists who, incredible as it might seem, were managing to publish a weekly paper in the heart of the city."
Darlan was in Madrid and asked Lanny to lunch, to talk. Pétain wanted to come to Madrid to consult Franco whom he'd admired, but Hitler hadn't allowed that. So Madame Pétain had come with military staff, which, considering women didn't vote in France, was a joke. Also, Juan March was in town
"The Xueta had suggested to General Franco a wonderful scheme for making cheap motorcars for the people of Spain, and Franco had thought well of it, but Hitler had not; he had pointed out that as soon as the war was won, Germany would be in position to make all the cars the Spanish people might want, and Germany would be wanting oranges and olive oil, cork and copper and mercury and other Spanish products in exchange. “He wants us to be a colony,” said Señor Juan.
"Serrano Suñer, Franco’s son-in-law and Spain’s Foreign Minister, had made a deal with the Nazis, pledging his country to raise a million volunteers to fight the Reds. “They will be the same sort of ‘volunteers’ as the Führer and Il Duce sent to us,” remarked Señor Juan glumly, and Lanny said: “That won’t be very popular with the Spanish people, will it?” The reply was: “It will start the civil war all over again.” The visitor gathered that his host didn’t think much of Suñer, who was the most ardent of Falangistas and a reckless talker."
Hess sent a car and an agent to pick up Lanny, and they had used caution in not bringing the car to the hotel. Lanny was brought to the palatial mansion Hess was put up in, he was perturbed - the Englishman he had come to meet wasn't there. Hess disclosed the identity of this man, Lord Beaverbrook, surprising Lanny, for he was too well known to be able to keep it a secret had he arrived.
"“I wonder if you know about ‘The Link.’”
"“I have a vague impression of it.”
"“The secret has been well kept. It is a group of Englishmen who are working for friendship with us. You probably know some of them; the Duke of Hamilton is one of the most active. I have been in correspondence with him for more than a year. You know Kirkpatrick, who used to be counselor to the British Embassy in Berlin? ... He is the one who arranged this date. His letters have been so encouraging—I really thought the deal was going through. Won’t you see him in London for me and find out what the devil has gone wrong?”
Lanny offered, instead, to speak directly with Beaverbrook, and waited for Hess to tell him more.
""The Führer authorized me to say that he would agree to withdraw entirely from Western Europe. That means Norway, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, and France—exclusive of Alsace-Lorraine, of course. ... That was supposed to come as the climax of negotiations, and to settle the matter.””
They discussed Gibraltar, which hess said spain owed Germany.
"When you got it, the Mediterranean would be your sea—that is, unless you chose to share it with Il Duce.”
"“Leave him out! The Italians are a liability, except for the munitions they produce. But we have to resist the temptation to scatter our forces in too many fields. Look at what the British did in Greece—the most frightful military blunder, for which they are paying now. To have sent two whole divisions in a perfectly futile effort to save that miserable little country! As a result, they have weakened their forces in Libya, and, we are driving them in rout and probably will not stop until we have taken Suez. If we do that, the Mediterranean will be ours; for what use will it be to the British if they cannot get to India by it?”"
Hess told him about the dressing down Franco got from him.
""But he isn’t going to take Gibraltar?”
"“Not until we can spare troops enough to do the work and let him take the glory, as he did last time.”"
Hess waited for Beaverbrook who didn't show up.
"He had had the extraordinary idea to send an airmail letter to the Governor of Gibraltar; he had somehow got the idea that this Lord Gort was a member of The Link, and Rudi had offered to fly to Gibraltar for a meeting. He was startled by the reply he received—to the effect that he was free to fly to Gibraltar, but that if he landed there his lordship would have him shot!"
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Here the author has Hess think up, and discuss with Lanny, his famous unorthodox idea - to fly alone a small plane to England, and either land it in a relatively remote safe place or, use a parachute to come down if the plane is shot, in full uniform so that he isnt shot as a spy, and contact The Link and make talks go forth so war between Germany and Britain stops.
""Hamilton has an estate in Scotland. I could just as well fly there, coming in over Norway.”
"He named persons, some of whom Lanny knew, and others whom he guessed must be members of that mysterious organization, The Link. Evidently the collaborationist movement was far stronger than he had guessed."
............................................................................
Hess smoothed Lanny's flight to Lisbon from Madrid, and the onwards flight was done through Robbie's London lawyers. Lanny identified himself at The Bank Of The Holy Ghost, to draw on his London bankers, and it was done.
"Tourists were sometimes surprised to learn that the Holy Ghost had gone into the banking business in Lisbon; also, when they went for a stroll in the city’s most showy boulevard, they wondered why it was called Avenida da Liberdade—in a city and country ruled by an iron-handed dictator.
"The soil of Portugal was at the mercy of the Nazi armies, and its harbors at the mercy of the British Fleet. Therefore the government was carefully and systematically neutral, and this attitude was tolerated because both warring powers found it convenient. Passenger and cargo planes flew in from all points of the compass, and military aviators from Britain and Germany drank at the same bars, eying one another but not speaking. Spies of every sort swarmed in the city; and the air or ether or whatever it is that carries radio messages in secret codes got no rest day or night. In the poverty-stricken countryside laborers toiled for fifty cents per day, but in Lisbon cafés and brothels and gambling casinos money flowed like water in the river Tejo, which the English call Tagus."
Tegus had been clear where Lanny had helped Alfy across to flee his prison to freedom and life, but here at the estuary it was dull.
"If men had the price, they sipped oversweet coffee; if not, they stared at the foreign women—mostly at the legs, which were novelties in a Catholic capital where the women wore skirts down to their ankle-bones. This Portuguese habit of staring had been utilized by the Nazis for their propaganda. The newspapers were rigidly controlled and their falsehoods divided equally, so the Germans hired store windows and set up exhibits of the wonders of their New Order. They had speedily made the discovery that the Lisbonites had no interest in statistics as to the increase in German coal production, but would stand for hours gazing at photographs of sturdy blonde Aryan Mädchen in abbreviated or non-existent swim-suits. Heil Hitler!"
Lanny kept off the haunts of smart society where he'd meet people he knew, especially refugees in need, to avoid the nazi spies detecting him helping those fleeing nazis. He met Japanese agents, and whiled away time between chatting them, golf, and beach, before taking a British flight to London.
"When his hour of departure arrived and a British flying boat lifted him into the air, he decided that the white stone and stucco capital looked much more attractive from that point of view."
............................................................................
In London Lanny sent off detailed report to FDR, and then called Rick, who came to London and met him in the obscure hotel they'd picked. Lanny asked him not to publish about Hess's scheme. They discussed the more serious part, The Link and the names Hess had given. Rick didn't think Hess was right about Kirkpatrick who was a career diplomat, and Beaverbrook publications were gung ho about war against Germany. He wondered if the B4 were writing to Hess in the names of various people whose names were plausible enough to lure Germans, as revenge against the Venloo incident when Germans had captured British agents across the border. He said Lanny should take care he wasn't kidnapped, so Lanny told him about Toulon. Rick told about Alfy who had crashed and was in hospital, and would teach then on.
Lanny thought of an idea and called Lord Beaverbrook's office, telling the secretary he knew Lanny and might be interested in a report he'd seen in Berlin where he had recently been. He was asked to lunch at Carlton Club next day. He questioned Lanny about various things, and found it incredible that lanny was conducting art business under the circumstances. Lanny offered to show him the paintings he had in the hotel. Lanny asked if he knew The Link, and he was clueless; Lanny mentioned casually that there was talk in Madrid that he was coming, and Beaverbrook said he'd never planned such a trip. Lanny called Rick to let him know.
Lanny called Wickthorpe and asked if he could visit his daughter, and Irma said she asked about him every day. Frances came to the station with the car and held his hand through the drive home. She'd decided he was a wonderful person, and she had been meanwhile allowed to meet the refugee children, who were now well scrubbed and well mannered, going to village school, and well integrated in the village; they as well as village children had been invited to her eleventh birthday. Lanny hadn't been allowed to teach her about democracy, but war had done that.
The author has a moving description here of the little girl growing up and Lanny seeing her, and an aside about Irma's two little sons.
Lanny talked after dinner with Wickthorpe and Irma, and they weren't happy about either the war or the prospects of Wickthorpe being able to change the situation, or achieving leadership as Irma expected.
""Sentiment in England has been steadily hardening, on account of the bombing of districts where there are no military objectives and where the purpose can only be that of terrorizing. Also, the torpedoings have been so merciless, and so cruel, especially in winter. I am afraid we have to concede that Churchill has the country in his hands.”
"“Tell me,” put in Irma, “do you still feel that the Führer can be trusted?”
"“I don’t think I have ever said quite that, Irma. I think he can be trusted so far as his immediate objectives are concerned. He wants peace very much, because it is obviously to his interest. What his attitude will be later depends upon the arrangements you make with him and how matters work out.”"
They asked about the next step in war, as did the guests at weekend. Lanny went back to London and wrote the report. The hotel informed him there was a Branscome waiting for him at reception, and Lanny went down. He gave the code name, Kurvenal, which Lanny had given Hess for communications, and asked if that's a woman. Lanny didnt commit, but when asked for a message, said he'd been working and the situation was favourable. Branscome vanished quickly, and Lanny thought about it all, and decided not to fall into another situation like Toulon and let Kurvenal be a woman from now on, and go to Wickthorpe and be with his daughter. He did that until May 9th, 1941, when he got a plain paper note mailed from London saying "I am coming, Kurvenal", not in handwriting of Hess. Hess had dictated the message, by radio, and it was mailed that morning in London.
Lanny walked over to the castle and told Wickthorpe he needed to speak with them urgently. He told them what was happening, and Ceddy said he would be blackened for life. Lanny pointed out that he had never seen or talked to Hess, so he could simply sit tight, do nothing and deny any knowledge. They spent next few days in suspense and came to know the story later.
Hess had gone to Bavaria to speak and inspect the Messerschmit factory, and he did a test flight. Next day he returned for another, and took off.
"The adventurer must have flown northward, avoiding the Channel, which the German flyers called Niemandswasser—No Man’s Water. He crossed the North Sea and approached Scotland from the east. Was it by accident or design that this same hour was chosen for one of the fiercest bombing attacks upon London? Some five hundred tons were unloaded, and as a result the most intense activity existed in the underground plotting room of the R.A.F. Fighter Command. New waves of bombers were being reported every few minutes, and when an isolated station on the eastern coast of Scotland announced an unidentified plane it was naturally guessed that it must be British. A few minutes later came a second report: the solitary plane had failed to identify itself, and its speed proved it to be a fighter.
"That Scottish coast was a long way off, and fighter planes didn’t get there—not if they were expecting to get back. In the plotting room of the Fighter Command was a large table that was a map, and when a hostile plane was detected a red pin was stuck in, with a tiny red arrow indicating the direction of the plane. For British fighters to take off in pursuit of such a plane was a matter of seconds, but in this case the defenders received an order never before and perhaps never since given in this war: “Force him down, but under no circumstances shoot at him!” Two Hurricanes were soon on the trail of the plane, and the air was full of radio: “Don’t shoot him down! Don’t fire a shot!” The pursuing pilots could hardly believe their ears."
He approached Scotland from East and flew almost all the way West before being forced to parachute down.
"Striking the ground, he wrenched one ankle, and by the time he had managed to extricate himself from the parachute cords, there was a farmer standing over him with a pitchfork, demanding to know whether he was British or enemy. His reply was that he was a “friendly German,” and unarmed, so the farmer helped him to the house. He gave the name of Alfred Horn, and said that he wanted to see the Duke of Hamilton, whose great estate was near by; or if the Duke was not at the estate, he wanted to see the Earl of Wickthorpe, whose shooting box must be somewhere in this neighborhood. Home guardsmen of the neighborhood had arrived at the farmhouse, and one of them hurried to telephone the Duke of Hamilton’s estate. This Duke, as it happened, was a Wing Commander of the R.A.F., and was not at home; instead, there was a group of B4 agents at the place, knowing that Hess was coming, and ready to take him in charge. It was they who had set this trap and baited it—and they had caught the biggest prize of the war!"
Albany called Ceddy and told him, and asked about his role. Wickthorpe said he had no dealings, unless Lanny meeting Hess was counted.
"In the course of the morning came two men who identified themselves as representatives of Intelligence, and they gave his lordship a respectful but thorough grilling. When Ceddy denied that he had ever sent any messages, directly or indirectly, to Rudolf Hess, he was taking a risk, for Hess might have stated that Lanny Budd brought such messages. However, Ceddy would say that Hess was lying, and Lanny, if he was ever put on the griddle, would say that he had merely reported to Hess the opinions he had heard Ceddy expressing to guests at the Castle. Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive!"
Lanny said he'd go to London for a few days until he left for U.S., so as to avoid the guests at Wickthorpe. Irma thought that was best, although she said she hated sending him to danger, London being bombed, and cautioned him about talking. He stayed in his hotel in London, and two men from B4 came to question him. He was quite willing to tell them about his travels, art deals and meeting various people, his working for his father and at the Peace Conference. They weren't quite satisfied, and asked why he met political people more than art, did he carry political messages, and he assured them that while he did answer questions from people, he'd never taken any money from the political persona, and his art dealings were usually paid for by his clients who were mostly wealthy Americans. They questioned his relationship with Hess, which brought up the seances.
Lanny asked them, when their conversation led to the topic of Hess coming to England, if he'd in fact come. They said he could see papers tomorrow. They pit him under house arrest, and later informed him he had to leave and couldn't return during war. His flight was arranged. Lanny was quite amused at his own plans to leave thus being expedited.
"Lanny couldn’t resist a small bit of devilment. “Permit me to make a proposal, Mr. Fordyce. A wager.”
"“A wager, Mr. Budd?”
"“Just a small one. If I am not in England within three months from today, I will remit you a fiver, and you can take your lady to dinner and a show. On the other hand, if I am back again you will blow me to a dinner.”
"The other looked at him sharply. Then, after a pause: “I suppose you are meaning to tell me that we are making a mistake in this matter.”
"Lanny grinned. “That is something about which I have to leave you to speculate. But how about my wager?”
"“I’m afraid it wouldn’t be quite what you Americans call ‘protocol,’ Mr. Budd; but if you do come. I hope you will not fail to let me know.” Who ever said that the English have no sense of humor?"
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Lanny called Robbie and spoke briefly, and went off to Washington D.C. for his appointment with FDR. He'd informed FDR about Hess, and Churchill hadn't believed FDR when told, so it was a feather in Lanny's cap. Lanny told about his wager, and FDR said he'd see to it Lanny gets his dinner with Mr. Fordyce.
"Said Lanny: “I take it I’m correct in my idea that his B4 had planned the whole thing from the beginning?”
"“Absolutely! They had been writing letters to Hess in the name of Ivone Kirkpatrick, the Duke of Hamilton, the Duke of Bedford, and Lord Beaverbrook, and other important Englishmen. And did Winston give his Intelligence a dressing down when he discovered what they had been up to!”
"“Not on behalf of Hess, I hope.”
"“No, but of the Englishmen. It wasn’t considered to be cricket to use their names.”
"“Tell me what has happened since. Has Rudi talked?”
"“He’s been interviewed by several of the men who were supposed to be writing to him. They have all been told to play the game, so Hess thinks he is in the midst of important diplomatic negotiations. That is why the matter is being kept so closely under wraps. Don’t you say anything about it.”"
Lanny said he wouldn't, since he didn't want reporters to come after him. They talked about the impending Russian campaign by Germany and what to expect, and lanny said Russia would fight to the last, if necessary from Urals, not giving in. FDR told Lanny that Jesse Blackless was in N.Y., having been in Russia.
"He would probably tell you more than he would tell a stranger.”
"“He always has,” replied the nephew. “He’s a rare old boy, and I got my start in social thinking from him. He’s something of a saint—though he wouldn’t take that for a compliment.”
"“We shouldn’t like the saints in the least if we met them at a Washington cocktail party,” remarked F.D. with one of his grins."
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Lanny visited the Holdenhurst family, as required by Robbie. Again he went through the duel with himself. She had thought over the problem of why he wasn't marrying her and had decided, or was told, that she needed to know more, so she was trying, and even had a lady teacher. But Lanny had more serious concerns and couldn't explain to her why he kept off. He talked with Reverdy about Europe, but had learned from Toulon and B4 to talk less, and left for Newcastle by train. He talked to Robbie about Europe, and said he was going off on business and would use the car. Robbie said, always.
Peggy Remsen was set to be an art expert and run a museum, and Esther invited her and suggested she see the Metropolitan Museum of N.Y. with Lanny. Lanny made a day of it, with a show before putting her on the night train to Boston. On the way back he saw Bluebook on the stands, and read a story by Laurel Creston, and spent the next day with her, driving into Berkshires and talking of war, politics, his travels and more.
Lanny visited Hansi and Bess, whose relationship was now precarious, since Bess was true to the puritan spirit in her leftist ideal and Hansi was the gentle spirit who was unable to forget the sufferings of his family and others under nazis, so her equating all non communists was abhorrent to him. Lanny asked him to have patience, and talked to her aside, telling her about the imminent attack against Russia by nazis after making her promise secrecy, and advising her to make up with her precious love of her life. He assured her that it wasn't a secret from either Russia or from their ambassador to U.S., as the border now was not in Germany so everyone local saw the military movements in the former case, and the latter was no longer disbelieving as he had been two months ago when informed by a much higher authority. He advised Bess about making up with Hansi by letting him think he was changing her mind, not by letting him know what Lanny told her.
Bess gave him uncle Jesse's address, and he met him with precautions, driving to be able to talk.
The title comes here, halfway through the book, in a quote, "Workers of the world, unite; you have nothing to lose but your chains; you have a world to win!", when the German occupation of Europe is almost complete, and war by Germany against Russia is imminent and expected.
Jesse didn't know if nazis were going to attack Russia, he said the leaders feared it and were straining to prepare; they better, Lanny said, not naming sources but generally telling him everyone seemed to think so.
"Said the Red painter: “You can tell the S.O.B. that he won’t get any oil out of the Ukraine—at least not for several years. The Russians won’t leave a peasant’s hut or a blade of grass for the enemy. The oil fields will be completely demolished, and every hole filled solid with concrete. The Nazis will have to start all over again.”
"“That is very important, Uncle Jesse, for it will give Britain time to arm, and this country time to help her.”
"“It happens that I know about it through friends. The Russians are preparing to move whole factories to the Urals, and even to Siberia, and set them up and have them started again in a few weeks. The procedure has been planned to the smallest detail; everything will be put into trains, not merely machinery but office equipment and records. Hitler will find nothing but empty shells—and these will serve as forts until he blows them to pieces with bombing planes or artillery.”"
Lanny wrote his report about this, and went to meet Forrest Quadratt, who asked him to take him on a drive, he suspected he was watched. Lanny was cautious telling him things.
"At this time the Nazis and their friends were carrying on a desperate campaign to keep America from giving any more aid to Britain. Their broadcasts were beamed to this country day and night, boasting of the havoc their submarines were wreaking and of the gains their armies were making in the Near East; they had Crete and Libya; they were ready to take Syria and Suez; the British no longer dared use the Canal, but were obliged to route their ships all the way around Africa, a fearful tax. “Beware, beware!” intoned Dr. Goebbels; and of course Quadratt had to write like all the others."
But Quadratt was shrewd, and he wasn't satisfied, he was worried about the Germans not doing as well as expected and British holding on, and he wanted Lanny to speak publicly for Germany. Lanny refused, taking cover under his claimed stage fright and need to be apolitical as the art dealer, and said he had to go off to meet various people including Hearst.
Lanny dreamt of taking Lauren on the tour, or on more than the one outing they had, but when it came to work he went off on the tour alone, after having met art dealers in N.Y. with Zoltan Kertezsi. He went through his old clients who were friends since decades, Murchison and Timmons, Petries and Hackabury. He saw their factories during the visits.
"Everywhere in this vast Allegheny inferno the mills were pouring out products, working in three shifts. Of the depression which had caused such panic among the New Dealers barely three years ago, there was no longer a trace.
"And it was the same all over America; the god of war had waved his magic wand over the land."
In Cincinnati, Detroit, Chicago, even Reubens, Indiana.
"You might have thought that all this material activity made a poor time to sell works of art; but Lanny found it otherwise. All these people were feeling good; they were sitting on the top of the world, and without any of the discomfort and danger. Old masters? Sure thing! If they are really good, they belong over here.
"The old soapman, to whom Lanny was still the gay and eager little boy who had sailed on the Bluebird, had decided that he wanted all the paintings that Marcel had made on board the yacht and all that he had painted later as a result of the trip. That was a way to bring back old times, and to leave something for people to remember you by. Much better than a lot of jealous and quarreling inlaws! The soapman wanted to spend the money quickly, before the inlaws got wind of it.
"Lanny had brought a complete set of photographs, with the prices on the backs; Ezra marked those he wanted, and it figured up to something like two hundred thousand dollars. Without batting an eyelid he wrote a check for the amount, dating it three days ahead so he could have time to market some securities and have the money in the bank. Lanny was to employ Zoltan Kertezsi to travel to Baltimore and get the right paintings out of the vault and have them shipped; meantime Ezra would start the building of a proper fireproof gallery in the center of the town. “Imagine putting Reubens, Indiana, on the map!” chuckled the old codger. Lanny thought he got more fun out of disappointing his sons’ wives than he did out of looking at Marcel’s paintings of Greek and North African ruins."
"On the evening of Saturday the 21st of June, he attended a dinner-dance at the mansion of old Mrs. Fotheringay on the North Shore Drive of Chicago. The affair was in honor of a visiting niece; dinner was at eighty-thirty and dancing began two hours later. At one in the morning Lanny strolled into one of the rooms where a large group of the older people were gathered about a radio “console.” They were getting the news which Lanny had been expecting for the past three months. The German Armies were invading Russia, all the way from the Baltic to the Black Sea.
"Interesting indeed to see and hear the reaction of this fashionable company! Here was the stronghold of isolationism, within the very shadow of the Tribune tower, where for more than two decades there had been a veritable arsenal of machine guns, awaiting an expected attack by the Reds. Now these gloating ladies and gentlemen seemed to have but one thought—that the news would destroy at one blow the wicked cause of their enemies, the “interventionists.” Now everybody would believe in Hitler, and help him! Now even Britain would have to make peace with him! Now it was unthinkable that any American would wish to send arms to the Führer’s enemies!
"Later that same morning Lanny was motoring eastward, and over the radio in his car he listened to the rolling periods which “good old Winnie” had been rehearsing before his friends for the past couple of months. A speech in which he pledged full and complete solidarity with Stalin! Lanny would have given a lot to see the faces of the Chicago ladies and gentlemen.
"To himself Lanny said: “The Nazis have committed suicide!”"
............................................................................
It was when Lanny was in Cleveland that Robbie called him and said Lanny had a call from Washington, and Lanny was to wait in his room for a call at two in the afternoon. He was called, and the voice said no names, it was his Paris employer, and how soon could he be there to meet him in the place they met before? Lann y said twelve hours, and Professor Alston told him to drive but rest at night before continuing. Lanny knew it would be serious.
Professor Alston said there was an assignment that needed him to go into Germany to bring out some information.
"“What I am about to entrust to you is beyond any question the most important secret in the modern world. The fate of the war and of the whole future may depend upon it. ... You will need considerable training before you go, in order to understand the information and to be able to remember it, since not a word of it may be put on paper. The man in Germany from whom you will get the information is one whom we have every reason to trust, and I do not think you will run any greater risk than you have been running in the past; but there is always the chance of a slip, and nobody can guarantee safety in such work. That you will understand without my telling you.
"“Let me make it plain—you don’t have to accept this commission. I don’t put the slightest pressure upon you. The Governor agrees with me that what you have done for him is plenty; and if you have other things that you want to do, you have only to say so. All I tell you is that you may have a chance to do more than any other one man to help in knocking out the Nazi-Fascists. I don’t say it will work out—nobody on earth can say that—but I say there is a first-class chance.””
Lanny said he didn't need time to think over since the offer was from Professor Alston, and FDR. Professor Professor Alston asked if lanny had any personal ties, and lanny said no; he asked if there was anything pending, and lanny said there were a couple of art deals, which Professor Alston said were a good cover so should go on. Professor Alston asked if he could go back into Germany, and Lanny thought his best bet was Göring who had entrusted him with his art heist to be turned into a museum. Professor Alston asked if he knew any physics, and told him the job involved learning it fast and keeping nothing written on him but having everything in his head. He was to meet someone who would coach him, and then contact someone in Germany for the information.
Lanny had taken precautions about checking if anyone could hear, and turned the tap on, but now he interrupted and proposed driving, and asked Professor Alston to walk on and get picked up, so they could speak in privacy. Professor Professor Alston asked if lanny knew any higher mathematics, and Lanny said he'd forgotten even the high school level which had seemed high to him, and Professor Alston told him he'd be learning at the top level.
"You are going to Princeton and cram the mathematical formulas and experimental techniques of nuclear physics. You will have a competent teacher, and your work will be under the personal direction of Professor Einstein. ... “It sounds rather mad, but this is the situation we face: there are many physicists who know the subject, but they are known to be physicists and they don’t happen to have access to Nazi Germany at war. We can’t advertise for such a man, we can’t even talk about the problem except among a very few persons. The only solution we could think of was to pick out a man who does have access to Germany and then make a physicist out of him.”"
Lanny protested that he lacked the ability, and Professor Alston said he'd seen him at the Peace Conference, and also he played music. Lanny said he loved it.
"“All right; you will learn to love the nucleus of the atom, because you will know that it may afford you the means of blowing Nazi-Fascism off the face of the earth.
"We have in Germany one absolutely priceless man: a physicist, one of the greatest in the world, who is believed to be a loyal Nazi and is trusted as such, but who is really an anti-Nazi. This man is working in the very heart of the most important war project now known to science. It is a race between the Germans and Italians on the one side, and the British and ourselves on the other. Whichever side wins this race has won the war. I am not speaking loosely, but precisely; whoever solves first the laboratory and then the production problem will wipe the other off the map of the world. This man I speak of is willing to tell us everything the Germans have learned and are doing on the project; the only difficulty is how to contact him. If he puts it on paper the formulas are instantly recognizable and point directly to him, with only two or three colleagues as alternative possibilities. If he entrusts it to a messenger in Germany, there is the problem of how that messenger is to get out, and the possibility that he might prove to be a Nazi agent. You must get it clear that the Nazis realize the importance of this secret exactly as we do and are taking every precaution they can think of. ... It is conceivable that a man with a remarkable verbal memory might learn mathematical formulas and repeat them ad litteram, but the slightest error might be ruinous to the whole thing, and anyhow, there are questions you will have to ask, and you must understand the answers so as to know what additional questions may be necessary. There seems no way out of it but for you to cram like the devil. ... You will be told exactly what you need to learn, and there will be somebody to answer your questions.””
They had arranged it so Lanny was to visit an art patron, Mr Alonzo Curtice, and stay in a cottage on his estate where he'd be provided with everything, at Princeton, but to not speak to anyone about himself and not have a social life at Princeton , and he'd get all the coaching without being seen in the neighbourhood of the university or the institute where Nazi agents might be watching. Professor Alston explained to him what he knew about the atom splitting and practical problems as they returned after lunch from the drive.
"Give him your best attention, and while you listen bear in mind that upon your understanding may depend the question whether we shall wipe out Berlin or whether Berlin shall wipe out New York.”"
Lanny was established in a cottage on the Curtice estate, four generations old, and ostensibly busy with the art collection, which he duly inspected and had papers spread on table in the cottage. Meanwhile he was visited by the figure familiar at Princeton, explaining to him rudiments of nuclear fission and the relevance to current situation thereof.
"We have reason to think that the Germans are using heavy water for this purpose. Do you know what heavy water is?”
"“I believe I have read that it is water whose molecule contains a heavier hydrogen isotope than normal water.”
"“It is called deuterium oxide. One of the things our British friends would like very much to know is where the Germans are making this heavy water, so that they could bomb the plant; also, of course, the place where their atomic work is being done. It is desired to know the techniques they are employing, and what progress they have made; whether they are still in the laboratory stage, as we are, or whether they have reached the production stage."
Lanny was asked to repeat what hed been told, and passed. Thereafter he was to be visited by Professor Braunschweig, another gift of nazis to U.S. due to their persecution. He was thorough in teaching Lanny.
"The formulas were appalling, but Lanny said: “I will learn them. I will work the way you have worked.” He remembered, but did not repeat, the story of the Boston aristocrat who said to his indolent son: “If you don’t brace up and do something I’ll send you to Harvard to compete with the Jews.” Lanny knew that was the real reason why the Nazis hated the Jews—they were so hard to compete with."
Alston had said he'd learn to love physics, and so it proved. Meanwhile the battle went on in East Europe, and panzer divisions rolled through Russia, with a bitter siege of Leningrad that was saved only because Peter had built it in marshes and panders couldn't get closer. In August FDR met Churchill in Newfoundland and they established what came to be known as the Atlantic Charter. A few days later Lanny was informed he was through, and to get ready for the next step.
Back in N.Y., Lanny met Zoltan Kertezsi and they packed and shipped the Detazes selected by Ezra Hackabury to Reubens, Indiana. Lanny met Forrest Quadratt who was unhappy about the nazi campaign against Russia.
"F.B.I. was hounding him, he reported, and he might soon be needing help from his friends. This clearsighted man wasn’t fooling himself; he said the situation was bad in the United States, and he wasn’t altogether happy about the Russian campaign either. “Our friends count the number of miles we advanced and the number of prisoners we take; they fail to realize the number of miles that barbarous country has, and the endless masses of human cattle. Also, the dreadful winter is coming on.”"
Lanny met Baldur Heinsch who did not divulge any names and said they'd all gone underground. Lanny told him there was a new design using jet propulsion, and he thanked Lanny, so Lanny knew that Germans didn't think he was valuable enough to know latest levels of inventions.
Next morning Lanny had letters to write and bank to visit, and then lunch at the hotel; it turned out that Reverdy knew Alonzo Curtice, and was interested to hear that Lanny was cataloguing the Curtice collection. He asked if Lanny would do it for him, and then invited him for the cruise to orient in November, where he was taking a lady doctor who was going to work in China. He said Lizbeth would come if Lanny did, and Lanny said he was otherwise engaged for the time. Privately Lanny thought this persistence was bad form, and didn't think Reverdy liked him for himself but thought Lizbeth should have him if she wanted him.
Lanny naturally thought of Laurel Creston and called her, proposing to take her on a drive up Hudson valley near a town where she could watch a show for two or three hours while he met a client. She accepted, and he met Jesse Blackless before going to meet her, and they spoke about the war, and politics. Jesse said he was returning to Russia.
Lanny picked up Laurel on a street near her place, and she was serious enough about his concern to walk around a block to check thst she wasnt followed. They talked of her proposed novel and a story shed brought a copy of, and she expressed concern about his proposed trip.
"“I hope it is not too dangerous a mission you are going on.”"
He told her he'd had lunch with Reverdy, and she said she was going to lunch with him next day.
"“Have you told him that you are Mary Morrow?”
"“I don’t think he would be interested in my stories; I’m not sure that he approves of women writing at all, and certainly not of their finding fault with the social order.""
They spoke about his marital problems, and Laurel said it was Beauty who had told her about it, and that neither of Lizbeth's parents had forgiven the other. Lanny drove into Poughkeepsie and found a movie theatre near a hotel, and told her he'll find her in the hotel if not in the theatre. He parked the car and strolled and was picked up by Baker and another man, and they entered Krum Elbow by the Xmas tree forest entrance. Lanny would have liked more sentries than there were.
"America wasn’t used to war and didn’t yet realize that it was at war. American destroyers were being attacked by German submarines, but the American public hadn’t been told."
He saw FDR and after a moment they talked about the proposed trip to Europe for Lanny.
"“You won’t let me put up your expenses for this trip?”
"“I have just sold a bunch of my former stepfather’s paintings and I am flush. What troubles me is how I’m going to get into Britain without making myself known as your agent.”
"“You won’t need to be in England more than a day or two, and I am having Baker provide you with a passport under an assumed name.”"
FDR arranged his meeting Churchill with his code name told by FDR to Churchill a day before someone with access to Churchill would bring Lanny to him, and Lanny proposed Rick's father for this. Lanny told him about what Rick said.
"“He is playing his role as consciously as any other stage star. I think I told you of the report that Rick gave me—as early as last spring he had made up his mind that Hitler was going after Russia, and Churchill had written the speech he was going to deliver and was boring his friends making them listen to it.”"
FDR spoke of the Atlantic Charter, and they spoke about the people involved, Churchill, and FDR said Beaverbrook was there. He remarked that Beaverbrook had been the first to see Hess after his landing in Scotland, and Lanny remarked hon Hess having been the most loyal person of the nazis and that being why Lanny had given him the code name Kurvenal. Lanny wondered what would it be like if he were to meet Hess now, and FDR said that could be arranged by lanny speaking to Winston about it, but Lanny thought it was risking Nazi agents in Britain finding out.
"“You might think up a plausible pretext for having been allowed to see him. You might be going to Hitler with some message from Hess.”"
Lanny was driven back to Poughkeepsie by Baker who arranged matters about passports and more with Lanny for the proposed trip. He picked up Laurel, and since he couldn't afford to let her guess, made up a story about an old client whose wife wouldn't let him buy. That brought the discussion to distortions money brought to character, especially unearned. Lanny told about Miss Van Zandt who thought that the workers walking around eating sandwiches for lunch in her district were red revolutionaries, since they were Jewish, and so she gave huge amounts to nazis. Laurel spoke of her relatives and their quirky behaviour regarding inherited money, and consequences. He said inheritance of money was at the root, and when she asked what was the remedy, said abolishing inheritance and bringing up children to know they had to earn when finished with education, would be the key. When they were close to her apartment complex, she again asked him if this was a dangerous mission he was going on, and he said it was hard to be sure but one couldn't be less willing than enemies to take risks.
Next day Lanny finished the passports business with help of Baker, and Baker arranged how Lanny could get in touch with him from Lisbon to get passage on the way back. Lanny got a call from Laurel asking him to meet her, and she was frightened. She'd had a seance with a friend observing, and Otto Kahn had said there was Eli Budd warning Lanny of danger, and asking him to postpone the trip. Lanny spoke to her soothingly, and they parted with his assurance of sending her a postcard after arrival.
Lanny arrived in Newfoundland with nothing identifying him other than the passport in his own name sewn in the lining of his coat, and waited for his next leg of the trip, mentally going over the memorised stuff he'd learned at Princeton. A young navigator joined him and talked about weather systems in the region, and then a jittery co-passenger who said he'd not only a bad feeling but had a dream that his mother told him to not take that plane. He talked with Lanny, and then walked away, saying he wouldn't go.
The captain noticed, and was surprised about a passenger missing. They put off his baggage. The plane was not fitted comfortably as usual, was filled with crates and had little space.
"There would be no heat in this transport, so everybody had to put on a soft flying suit, like overalls, and over that a waterproof and windproof sort of jumper, and over that a life jacket, called a “Mae West.” There were parachutes, also, but what good would they do in the middle of the North Atlantic? Nobody put them on. ... One by one the passengers were fastened to the wall by heavy leather belts, and while this ceremony was going on Lanny remarked: “I hope these crates don’t roll over on us.”"
En route to Iceland the plane was caught in bad weather and had to land in sea, and Lanny lost consciousness after his body was affected by the shock. He was rescued by a strong co-passenger, but consciousness returned later, not all at once. He recalled his mission and couldn't face having failed, and fainted again; he wondered if he was dead, but heard Robbie and wondered if he too was, until he heard him say, repeatedly, that he'd be all right. He eventually came to, in pain, and realised Robbie was really there.
"Lanny was suffering from both shock and exposure, and in addition he had both leg bones, the tibias, broken below the knees. The hospital authorities considered it a miracle that he survived; they attributed it to a sound constitution and a temperate life, plus modern remedies which are so close to miracles. When this battered body had been carried in they had searched the clothing, and found a passport in the coat pocket and another sewed up in the lining. Manifestly, this meant some sort of secret war work, and since he didn’t look like a Nazi, they guessed that he was an American agent. They sent two telegrams, one addressed to the next of kin of Richard Thurston Harrison at the New York address in the passport; since it was a fictitious address, this telegram was reported undeliverable. The other was addressed to the next of kin of Lanning Prescott Budd, care Budd-Erling Aircraft Corporation, Newcastle, Connecticut, and that brought a result startling to a hospital superintendent. A voice over the telephone said: “This is Robert Budd, President of Budd-Erling Aircraft. Lanning Budd is my son. How is he?” When the answer was: “His condition is critical,” the voice said: “I will fly immediately. I should be there in a few hours.” Then, being a businessman, Robbie-added: “I will pay all his bills, and if you save his life I will contribute two thousand dollars to your hospital fund.” That is one way to assist a miracle, if not to cause it!
"So Lanny was in a, comfortable bed in a private room, and his father in the room adjoining. That busy man had shown where his heart was; he had dropped everything and come to sit by Lanny’s bedside and whisper to him that everything was all right and that he was going to live."
Lanny kept worrying, and the doctors feared his recovery might be affected; Robbie returned from Newcastle and told him he'd talked with Alston who said they'd sent someone else. The accident wasn't reported, so his possession of two passports wasn't known beyond the hospital in Nova Scotia. He wrote to various people including Rick and Laurel, he'd asked Robbie to let Beauty know, and Reverdy called asking him to join the cruise, and said Lanny wouldn't have a problem and Reverdy had a doctor and sturdy men to help on the yacht. Robbie thought it was a good idea, and so did the doctors. Lanny objected to being obliged to marry Lizbeth, which Robbie said was a good idea unless there was another woman. Lanny talked of his duty, and Robbie said his possession of two passports must be whispered about, so he couldn't go back into Germany. Robbie had Alston call him, and he assured Lanny the work was done, and FDR had ordered him away for six months until he was well.
Lanny was exhausted by his ordeal and dreaded the coming prospects of winter cold of Nova Scotia, and found the idea of yacht trip in warm waters attractive. He was probably no longer of any use as an agent, especially not for going into Germany, and besides he wasn't required to commit unless and until he felt. Reverdy called again, and Lanny voiced his doubts, which Reverdy brushed aside. So Lanny accepted joining them in Miami, flown from Nova Scotia by his father.
Lanny joined the yacht at Miami, and Reverdy said they were to wait for his niece Laurel Creston who was to arrive next day and join them. They were introduced by him next day and acted the part they had set for themselves, of strangers meeting anew, due to the necessity of safekeeping of Lanny's role in bringing her out of Germany.
............................................................................
Lizbeth took charge of Lanny, and attempted to fall in with his wishes; he listened to news on radio, and wasn't anticommunist but said Europe always had had wars. German armies were around Moscow and suddenly retreated, and Lizbeth consulted the globe. Laurel went with the rest of the yacht in treating them and didn't seek to speak with him, but when she made a remark Lanny laughed, and Lizbeth was peeved. The yacht went via Caribbean but didn't dawdle, and Reverdy told Lanny they had to take Althea Carroll, the doctor, to her post speedily. Lanny asked where, and was told Hong Kong! The only person on board who knew what that meant to him wasn't available to him to talk to, and this continued as they went through Panama and West via southern route of islands that were British or French.
Lanny found it increasingly beyond endurance as he got well, for he was left alone with Lizbeth except when alone in his cabin, and he had nothing to converse with her about. Her mind was literal, and she was striving to learn more with the tutor who was on board, but it was little use, and he couldn't begin to change it since it would involve him asking not to tell anyone what he said. The prospect of being married to her and living as he now did was beyond endurance. He became aware that what he really wanted was to talk to Laurel Creston. They were past Samoa after two weeks into the cruise, and Lanny was well enough to walk, so he took to reading in his cabin through the day and only coming up at night, although the yacht was brightly lit due to war. He saw Laurel at the rail, and went up to her and spoke.
"She was startled, and whispered: “Oh, Lanny!” Then she added quickly: “We must not be seen together.”
"“Why not?”—somewhat hypocritically, it must be granted.
"“You know perfectly well.” She stopped abruptly, as if she had meant to say “Lanny” again, but she did not repeat it during the talk. “It would make somebody else unhappy and ruin the cruise.”
"“Listen,” he said. “I want you to understand, once for all, I am not under any obligation in that quarter.” He was taking her hint and not speaking names.
"“Do you really mean that?”
"“I mean it most positively.”
"“Well, certainly someone has a different idea.”
"“If she has that idea, it is because she has made it for herself. More than a year ago the father asked me in plain words to state my intentions, and I did so. I said that the nature of my work made it impossible for me to remain at home long enough to make any woman happy. My ‘no’ was as positive as politeness permitted.”"
He asked to see her manuscript, and she agreed to give it. She did so after they were past Pago-Pago, and he went back to his cabin and read it. He made notes for her, and all this being done was taking time away from Lizbeth who was upset, while Lanny was finding it exasperating to have to sneak about for a chance to talk to Laurel. One afternoon, when the yacht was being navigated away after visiting Solomon islands, he found her on deck, and talked to her. They discussed why they couldn't talk, why she was on the cruise, and she pointed out that Lizbeth and everyone else was going to pin the blame on her when Lizbeth was finally disappointed. He moved away, and Lizbeth came. Lanny spoke to her and walked with her, but now was not in a mood to be complying. After they'd crossed Philippines he deliberately one day sat next to Dr Althea Carroll and asked about tropical diseases they'd seen, and she talked to him about it at length. Lizbeth came up in midst of it and wasn't pleased.
Lanny continued talking to Althea about China, and was pleasantly surprised to discover that here was a very intelligent young woman with a mind and knowledge. She was silent until then, but was pleased to talk now. Lizbeth was more and more upset, and Lanny told Laurel that she had been right. This while they were crossing the Bismarck sea, and proceeding along coast of New Guinea, but not close. Then on to Davao, Mindanao and San Bernardino strait.
"From the Manila Times the son of Budd-Erling learned that the Russians were fighting furiously on their snowbound steppes and in their shell-blasted towns; the enemy had been driven back from the suburbs of Moscow and had not quite got into those of Leningrad. The British were holding out at Tobruk, and the Germans had not managed to break through to Alexandria and the Suez Canal, as everybody, including Lanny, had feared they would."
They were past Bataan peninsula when he saw Lizbeth upset and uncommunicative, Laurel said she'd had a letter from Emily Chattersworth. They met on the deck late at night and Laurel told him Lizbeth had accused her of trying to break up Lanny away, and of having kept her visiting Bienvenu a secret. The replies hadnt been convincing enough to Lizbeth and Laurel had told her shed leave at Hong Kong, but Lanny too wanted to leave at Hong Kong and fly back.
"“It would be a scandal if we both left the yacht at the same port, Lanny. If you are going, I shall have to stay.”
"“But that will be pretty miserable for you. Lizbeth will be sure that you drove me away, and she will not forgive you.”
"“The decision rests with you. One or the other must stay.”
"He couldn’t keep from seeing the humor of this. “If you go and I stay, Lizbeth will eat me alive. She may get into a position where I feel that I have compromised her and have to do the honorable thing. You had better hang on and protect me!”"
They had a dilemma, but Lizbeth appeared and Lanny called her to say they were talking about her; she took charge and said she meant to behave, and they had a right to be in love, which they denied being, having never said a word of it, but she was firm and told them they were in love whether they knew or not.
Everyone had warned Reverdy about venturing to Hong Kong, but he was stubborn, and Lanny could have suggested to him to put Althea Carroll down further but he didn't want to pay heed to warning based on astrology, and also Althea had promised to introduce him to the widow of Sun Yat Sen. So they anchored at Hong Kong to finish refuelling and leave quickly after Althea went. Reverdy was an old friend of the new governor and was invited with his daughter at the government house, which could have included Lanny if he had wanted, but he preferred to go with Althea and Laurel and visit Madame Sun Yat Sen. They heard her speak about her late husband's principles, and Lanny was cautious in maintaining his cover so said only that it was interesting. He had given his itinerary to Reverdy, and late at night Lanny got a call from him saying they were leaving at daybreak, since the governor thought the situation was serious.
"Japs have just doubled their forces in Indo-China, and also that a battlefleet has been observed near their mandated islands, very close to where we passed. Sir Mark thinks they are contemplating some move against British positions."
Lanny told his company about this, and the gentleman who had brought them to the house of Madame Sun Yat Sen said the army and navy didn't necessarily act according to policies set forth, or even in cooperation, unlike in west.
"The great Kwantung Army undoubtedly wanted to cut the Trans-Siberian railroad and squeeze the Russians out of Eastern Asia; the Navy undoubtedly wanted to get hold of the Dutch East Indies, with their fabulous wealth of rubber and oil and tin. Why they should be reinforcing their troops in Indo-China was hard to imagine, unless they were aiming an attack upon Singapore. Why they should send a battlefleet to their mandated islands so far to the east was even harder to explain—unless they were mad enough to be contemplating a raid upon Australia.
"That Saturday night was Friday on the other side of the world; it was December 5 in “the States,” and December 6 in Hongkong and Manila."
Reverdy had said Lizbeth had gone with friends to the Peninsular Hotel for dance, and Lanny might join them, which he wasn't interested but when he told them about it Madame Sun Yat Sen said it might be good for her to be seen, and they went.
"To the American observer the strangest thing was to see British and Chinese dancing to that music which was called “modern,” and which had come out of the jungles of Africa and been refashioned in the dives of Mississippi river towns and of New York’s Harlem."
Lanny saw Lizbeth dancing in arms of a tall, handsome blond young British officer, and she looked happy. Lanny thought this might be the great romance of her life, and this man might follow her to her home and everyone would be happier about Lanny. He didn't intrude.
They were invited to supper at the hotel's dining room, and went back up afterwards, but suddenly a man announced on megaphone that all men on duty in harbour were to return to duty at once, and the room was emptied except women and local men. Their host said there was Japanese fleet close and they better return quickly to the yacht. But when they went the launch of the yacht wasn't there, and it was far too risky to hire a local boat to try to find the yacht. Reverdy's instructions were to wait at this spot. They waited, and presently Lanny said they had to think the yacht had departed. He thought it was even possible that their not telling Holdenhursts about their having known one another, and having come together on the cruise while Lizbeth was supposed to be the person Lanny was expected to be a beau of, might have been part of making it easier for Reverdy to depart without waiting. Laurel said she thought that was horrible and wouldn't think it was possible of Reverdy.
"“All right; and maybe when the fog lifts, and we see the trim white Oriole resting at anchor, I’ll be ashamed of having said it. We’ll tell ourselves that all this is a nightmare, and it will be very romantic that we sat out all night on a Hongkong dock with coolies stumbling over our feet!”"
They talked about the astrologer's prediction. When it was broad daylight and they couldn't see the yacht, they went to a hotel and called the house of Mr Foo, the host of Dr Althea Carroll, and he sent a car to bring them and said they were welcome to stay as long as necessary. They tried a seance later in the day, but it didn't work very well. They woke next morning to sounds of shelling.
"It was Monday, the 8th of December, Hongkong time, and Sunday, the 7th, at Pearl Harbor. The latter place being to the east, its time is ahead of China’s; already the American battleships lay at the bottom of the harbor, and the great airfield was a mass of smoldering ruins."
Mr Foo got the news on the radio, and they looked at one another. Was U.S. at war? News of the Japanese having bombed the airfield and destroyed the bomber force was only given as their having dropped bombs, and Lanny had now experience enough that he knew Hong Kong would fall. Althea decided to stick it out and be useful, and that decided it for Laurel and Lanny too. Laurel said she'd help Althea, and Lanny offered to drive ambulances. They stuck it out for a while until British seemed unlikely to be able to hold, although they refused to surrender, and Mr Foo came to rake the three to lunch where they could decide the next move. Lanny could leave, and Althea thought she should stay, but Laurel told her there were plenty everywhere she could help. Lanny needed to return, and Mr Foo convinced Althea that her help in this was necessary. They made arrangements for the travel, and talked while hearing shelling.
"Lanny listened for a while, and then, when there came a lull, declared: “Mr. Foo, I have a special favor to ask of you. At first it may seem to be rude, but there is a reason for it.”
"“I am sure you never rude, Mr. Budd,” said the old gentleman. “My house, all I have, is yours.”
"“What I wish to ask is that you and Dr. Carroll leave me alone with Miss Creston for a while. The reason is that I wish to ask her to marry me.”"
They left the couple alone, and Lanny talked to her, beginning his proposal with sensible necessities of travel together, and his wish for her to inherit if he were to die, before he came to question of love; she asked if he'dbeen in love with Lizbeth, and he explained; he told her about Trudi, which she'd had no clue. She remarked about how dreadful that was and why it must have been difficult for him to contemplate a third marriage, and when he further spoke of his problem, informed him that she'd guessed who he worked for while sitting in the movie theatre in Poughkeepsie. Lanny managed finally to convince her of his sincere proposal and get her to accept it, and she said she'd been in love without expecting him to return it. They told others, and got the Church of England clergyman to come over and perform the ceremony, Lanny arguing him out of scruples over legality regarding license and more. Finally he performed the ceremony, and left. Mr Foo took the three to hide until they were taken out by boat, and provided them with money and Chinese clothing for the two women. Lanny had arranged the money to be reimbursed by his father. Finally they managed to escape Hong Kong.
............................................................................
Hong Kong had surrendered by Xmas, by which time they were in Kwangtung province, having walked through paddy fields after landing, ridden donkeys and palanquins, and stayed at a Chinese inn. Next they could travel by boat along a canal, and all along the Chinese were led to believe it was a rich white American with two wives who were both simultaneously equally pregnant, since Mr Foo in Hong Kong had outfitted them with money belts for safety. So they had no privacy until they reached the home of Althea's parents.
They parted from the boat when they came to hills with tea plantations, and took back to palanquins, often walking along with carriers. Next they got a bus and were glad they didn't have to go through uncertainty of travel in mountains. They saw soldiers taking men bound with ropes, and were told about recruitment of villagers which all able bodied men tried to escape by hiding away, while rich bought their way out. In the next town they heard the news on radio.
"Manila was being attacked; so also the Dutch East Indies. Of more immediate concern, Chungking claimed a great victory at Changsha, the capital city of Hunan Province; the large and well-mechanized army of the Japanese had been routed and was in part surrounded."
Next they arrived in a comparatively civilised place, but they saw refugees and soldiers going in opposite direction, in pitiful state, and trains were crowded, but Althea said they'd get on. They sent telegraphs, Althea to her parents which didn't arrive, and Lanny to his father telling him he was alive, safe and married, and telling him to notify Beauty, Rick, Irma and Alston. He learned later that it did arrive. The telegraph operator knew no English but could send Morse code. They found a good inn, we're able to have baths, and Althea dealing with officials in Chinese way was able to get them a compartment. Lanny watched the scene, the crowds and buildings, and told Laurel it was exactly what he saw in the crystal ball years ago; but they reasoned it away. They arrived late at night at home of Althea's parents, and Lanny and Laurel finally were alone together. She thought they ought to not waste time about having children, since his work might resume on arrival in U.S., and he was able to reassure her.
Lanny found to his surprise that the Episcopalian church in China, unlike in French Riviera or in Newcastle where it was conservative, was sympathetic with the leftist cause. Lanny asked the priest of the mission to marry them again so it was legal, and sent a cable to Robbie, since in case of the predicted fate catching up, he should be aware of Lanny's marriage.
"The Germans had had to give up efforts to take Moscow that winter, but they had taken Rostov, at the eastern end of the Black Sea, and that was serious because it was so close to the oil of the Caucasus. The Japanese were coming down on Singapore, amazing the world by the speed with which they moved in what were supposed to be impenetrable jungles. They had taken the Solomons, those cannibal islands through which the Oriole had passed; the cannibals wouldn’t be of any use to them, but they had that fine harbor of Tulagi, and were on their way to Australia, or Pearl Harbor, or both.
"Their armies in China had been definitely checked at Changsha in the north and on the Canton front in the south, which meant a respite for the missioners. But it could be only temporary, for manifestly the Japanese had to have that railroad, the only north and south line through the country. They would continue to send reinforcements, and to attack. The missioners confronted the dreadful prospect of having to leave this place and emigrate to the west. How were they to do it, with such poor means of transport? Some fifty million Chinese had already done it, leaving everything except what they could carry in wheelbarrows or on their backs. There had been no such mass migration in history—and it was still going on, impelled by the continuing atrocities of the Japanese."
Althea went to work immediately while Lanny and Laurel took it easy, and read about Agnes Smedley who, born poor in U.S., had travelled to China as a journalist and worked for and written about people's revolution. Laurel wanted to see it and they discussed going via North instead of Chungking, and take a flight to Moscow thereafter. They spoke to Althea's father who said it was dangerous to attempt, since if they asked permission they'd be branded as dangerous, and if not they'd be caught by border guards. Some young Chinese, interested in universities in North, we're so caught and sent to "reform schools" until they were cured.
............................................................................
The author here is living, and writing, in the era when various supposed ideals were making a great many people see things with rosy tinted vision, and we've since come to know of the horrors perpetrated by totalitarian regimes that were supposedly leftist but in effect not different from right wing, except for this - the right wing might have a few privileged who were safe for the time being due to money, and the left had similar privileged due to political status. Other than that, the genocide toll of left is estimated above twenty and a hundred million respectively in the two single largest leftist regime nations of twentieth century.
Hong Kong had surrendered by Xmas, by which time they were in Kwangtung province, having walked through paddy fields after landing, ridden donkeys and palanquins, and stayed at a Chinese inn. Next they could travel by boat along a canal, and all along the Chinese were led to believe it was a rich white American with two wives who were both simultaneously equally pregnant, since Mr Foo in Hong Kong had outfitted them with money belts for safety. So they had no privacy until they reached the home of Althea's parents.
They parted from the boat when they came to hills with tea plantations, and took back to palanquins, often walking along with carriers. Next they got a bus and were glad they didn't have to go through uncertainty of travel in mountains. They saw soldiers taking men bound with ropes, and were told about recruitment of villagers which all able bodied men tried to escape by hiding away, while rich bought their way out. In the next town they heard the news on radio.
"Manila was being attacked; so also the Dutch East Indies. Of more immediate concern, Chungking claimed a great victory at Changsha, the capital city of Hunan Province; the large and well-mechanized army of the Japanese had been routed and was in part surrounded."
Next they arrived in a comparatively civilised place, but they saw refugees and soldiers going in opposite direction, in pitiful state, and trains were crowded, but Althea said they'd get on. They sent telegraphs, Althea to her parents which didn't arrive, and Lanny to his father telling him he was alive, safe and married, and telling him to notify Beauty, Rick, Irma and Alston. He learned later that it did arrive. The telegraph operator knew no English but could send Morse code. They found a good inn, we're able to have baths, and Althea dealing with officials in Chinese way was able to get them a compartment. Lanny watched the scene, the crowds and buildings, and told Laurel it was exactly what he saw in the crystal ball years ago; but they reasoned it away. They arrived late at night at home of Althea's parents, and Lanny and Laurel finally were alone together. She thought they ought to not waste time about having children, since his work might resume on arrival in U.S., and he was able to reassure her.
Lanny found to his surprise that the Episcopalian church in China, unlike in French Riviera or in Newcastle where it was conservative, was sympathetic with the leftist cause. Lanny asked the priest of the mission to marry them again so it was legal, and sent a cable to Robbie, since in case of the predicted fate catching up, he should be aware of Lanny's marriage.
"The Germans had had to give up efforts to take Moscow that winter, but they had taken Rostov, at the eastern end of the Black Sea, and that was serious because it was so close to the oil of the Caucasus. The Japanese were coming down on Singapore, amazing the world by the speed with which they moved in what were supposed to be impenetrable jungles. They had taken the Solomons, those cannibal islands through which the Oriole had passed; the cannibals wouldn’t be of any use to them, but they had that fine harbor of Tulagi, and were on their way to Australia, or Pearl Harbor, or both.
"Their armies in China had been definitely checked at Changsha in the north and on the Canton front in the south, which meant a respite for the missioners. But it could be only temporary, for manifestly the Japanese had to have that railroad, the only north and south line through the country. They would continue to send reinforcements, and to attack. The missioners confronted the dreadful prospect of having to leave this place and emigrate to the west. How were they to do it, with such poor means of transport? Some fifty million Chinese had already done it, leaving everything except what they could carry in wheelbarrows or on their backs. There had been no such mass migration in history—and it was still going on, impelled by the continuing atrocities of the Japanese."
Althea went to work immediately while Lanny and Laurel took it easy, and read about Agnes Smedley who, born poor in U.S., had travelled to China as a journalist and worked for and written about people's revolution. Laurel wanted to see it and they discussed going via North instead of Chungking, and take a flight to Moscow thereafter. They spoke to Althea's father who said it was dangerous to attempt, since if they asked permission they'd be branded as dangerous, and if not they'd be caught by border guards. Some young Chinese, interested in universities in North, we're so caught and sent to "reform schools" until they were cured.
............................................................................
The author here is living, and writing, in the era when various supposed ideals were making a great many people see things with rosy tinted vision, and we've since come to know of the horrors perpetrated by totalitarian regimes that were supposedly leftist but in effect not different from right wing, except for this - the right wing might have a few privileged who were safe for the time being due to money, and the left had similar privileged due to political status. Other than that, the genocide toll of left is estimated above twenty and a hundred million respectively in the two single largest leftist regime nations of twentieth century.
............................................................................
Lanny and Laurel decided they'd go North anyway, and Dr Carroll found a guide for them, named Han Hua. Lanny realised he was interviewing them, and was an agent of the North. Lanny told him of his pink credentials, and the guide said it wasn't difficult to go north. They prepared by shopping and arranging payments, and Dr Carroll gave a letter to mission at Hupeh. They arrived there via Yichang, and left onwards via mountainous region where they were soon with the red underground. Eventually they arrived at Yenan, and the couple fell in live with the community.
"Yenan was the center from which all this propaganda went out to four hundred million Chinese. Yenan was the capital of the Border Government and the headquarters of its army. Lanny had come to realize what tremendous forces that movement had; not merely the Balu Chün, the regular Eighth Route Army, but the irregulars, the guerrillas, well organized and keeping up incessant resistance in every province of this immense land. The Japs were supposed to have the whole of northeastern China, but it wasn’t so; they had only the ports, the navigable rivers, and the railroads, plus as much territory as they could reach by short marches; all the rest was in the hands of the Chinese partisans, who were continually raiding, sabotaging, destroying. The Japs would send punitive expeditions, which would wipe out whole villages; as soon as they left, the peasants would start rebuilding—and meantime the partisans would be raiding at some other spot.
"“Where do they get the supplies?” Lanny asked. The answer was that everything came from the enemy; arms, ammunition, food—they even got a tank now and then. The Japs could not guard every place, and the little handful they left behind would be overwhelmed in the night. “Everything they have becomes ours,” said one of the generals.
"The reason this could go on was that the whole peasant population was with the partisans; for the first time in the history of this land, the people had an army which they regarded as their own. The armies of the war lords had plundered even their own provinces, and had been hated and feared by their own people; but the Red Army educated as it went. “So it can never be put down,” said Mao Tse-tung, its cool-headed political leader, chairman of the Party. “It may be scattered, but it will reassemble. It may be wiped out, but it will spring up again.”"
They met Mao, and saw much, since the community was enthusiastic in showing them everything. Laurel asked Lanny if he feared her going red, and he cautioned her about becoming fanatic like Bess. He pointed out the obvious.
""Those we meet are doing what they believe in; but there is no room for any who believe differently and might like to say so.”"
Lanny had contacted the Tass representatives, and now he told them he was nephew of Jesse Blackless, brother-in-law to Hansi Robin and half brother to Bessie Robin. He got communication from Jesse Blackless telling him of invitation to come via Ulan Bator. This wasn't easy, since it involved going across the Chinese wall designed precisely to discourage crossing, and there was no air transport from Yenan. They could go via Chungking but then would have their writings confiscated, and not allowed to go to Russia.
Lanny was about to begin hiring train of camels, but there was news of a small plane flown in by a Frenchman who was trading until Japs closed in, and he had decided to fly into Yenan instead. He asked Lanny to buy his plane, and Lanny countered by asking if he'd fly them to Ulan Bator. But when Lanny contacted Mao for permission, they said they'd charge him for fuel and give their own pilot and co-pilot. Lanny asked about the Frenchman, and was told he'd be put to useful work.
Lanny and Laurel decided they'd go North anyway, and Dr Carroll found a guide for them, named Han Hua. Lanny realised he was interviewing them, and was an agent of the North. Lanny told him of his pink credentials, and the guide said it wasn't difficult to go north. They prepared by shopping and arranging payments, and Dr Carroll gave a letter to mission at Hupeh. They arrived there via Yichang, and left onwards via mountainous region where they were soon with the red underground. Eventually they arrived at Yenan, and the couple fell in live with the community.
"Yenan was the center from which all this propaganda went out to four hundred million Chinese. Yenan was the capital of the Border Government and the headquarters of its army. Lanny had come to realize what tremendous forces that movement had; not merely the Balu Chün, the regular Eighth Route Army, but the irregulars, the guerrillas, well organized and keeping up incessant resistance in every province of this immense land. The Japs were supposed to have the whole of northeastern China, but it wasn’t so; they had only the ports, the navigable rivers, and the railroads, plus as much territory as they could reach by short marches; all the rest was in the hands of the Chinese partisans, who were continually raiding, sabotaging, destroying. The Japs would send punitive expeditions, which would wipe out whole villages; as soon as they left, the peasants would start rebuilding—and meantime the partisans would be raiding at some other spot.
"“Where do they get the supplies?” Lanny asked. The answer was that everything came from the enemy; arms, ammunition, food—they even got a tank now and then. The Japs could not guard every place, and the little handful they left behind would be overwhelmed in the night. “Everything they have becomes ours,” said one of the generals.
"The reason this could go on was that the whole peasant population was with the partisans; for the first time in the history of this land, the people had an army which they regarded as their own. The armies of the war lords had plundered even their own provinces, and had been hated and feared by their own people; but the Red Army educated as it went. “So it can never be put down,” said Mao Tse-tung, its cool-headed political leader, chairman of the Party. “It may be scattered, but it will reassemble. It may be wiped out, but it will spring up again.”"
They met Mao, and saw much, since the community was enthusiastic in showing them everything. Laurel asked Lanny if he feared her going red, and he cautioned her about becoming fanatic like Bess. He pointed out the obvious.
""Those we meet are doing what they believe in; but there is no room for any who believe differently and might like to say so.”"
Lanny had contacted the Tass representatives, and now he told them he was nephew of Jesse Blackless, brother-in-law to Hansi Robin and half brother to Bessie Robin. He got communication from Jesse Blackless telling him of invitation to come via Ulan Bator. This wasn't easy, since it involved going across the Chinese wall designed precisely to discourage crossing, and there was no air transport from Yenan. They could go via Chungking but then would have their writings confiscated, and not allowed to go to Russia.
Lanny was about to begin hiring train of camels, but there was news of a small plane flown in by a Frenchman who was trading until Japs closed in, and he had decided to fly into Yenan instead. He asked Lanny to buy his plane, and Lanny countered by asking if he'd fly them to Ulan Bator. But when Lanny contacted Mao for permission, they said they'd charge him for fuel and give their own pilot and co-pilot. Lanny asked about the Frenchman, and was told he'd be put to useful work.
............................................................................
Lanny and Laurel were flown over to Ulan Bator by two Chinese guys in the plane intended for goods transport and not equipped with any comfort for passengers. Laurel was lying down, and Lanny thought she was dreaming, so he bent to hear, and it was Lizbeth. He talked to her, and she said that Japanese had shelled and sunk the yacht, among many others, the morning they left Hong Kong. There had been no time to get into boats and other ships around had steamed away. When Lanny asked her what he could tell her mother, she talked of a rag doll in the trunk in attic and said mice had made a nest in it. Laurel woke up, and Lanny didn't tell her just then about it.
Here, as in every other instance that the author mentions about any such phenomena, the author goes into, has Lanny go into, rigmarole about whether it was subconscious or telepathy, and after a dozen or so such declarations by them, one gets pretty fed up with the stance of both the author and his protagonist in this regard. It compares quite well with the stance of flatearthers going on justifying their stance with alternative descriptions of reality that would fit in with the church accepted view.
Lanny and Laurel were flown over to Ulan Bator by two Chinese guys in the plane intended for goods transport and not equipped with any comfort for passengers. Laurel was lying down, and Lanny thought she was dreaming, so he bent to hear, and it was Lizbeth. He talked to her, and she said that Japanese had shelled and sunk the yacht, among many others, the morning they left Hong Kong. There had been no time to get into boats and other ships around had steamed away. When Lanny asked her what he could tell her mother, she talked of a rag doll in the trunk in attic and said mice had made a nest in it. Laurel woke up, and Lanny didn't tell her just then about it.
Here, as in every other instance that the author mentions about any such phenomena, the author goes into, has Lanny go into, rigmarole about whether it was subconscious or telepathy, and after a dozen or so such declarations by them, one gets pretty fed up with the stance of both the author and his protagonist in this regard. It compares quite well with the stance of flatearthers going on justifying their stance with alternative descriptions of reality that would fit in with the church accepted view.
............................................................................
They landed in Ulan Bator, which had modern buildings and an airfield built by Soviets, in addition to the Mongolian yurts in profusion, without incident, apparently not expected, but showed the telegram saying Kuybyshev invited them, and were taken to government office where they told their story and sent off a telegram to Jesse Blackless. They were taken to a hotel and given a room.
"Meantime the Americans were put up in a reasonably clean hotel room, and made the discovery which has become legendary among Americans traveling in Sovietland—the plumbing didn’t work. Lanny said it wouldn’t matter so much with Mongolians, for he had been told that they were the least-washed people in the world; water was applied to them only twice in a lifetime, first when they were born and second when they got married."
They wanted to see everything and began with the museum that had been the palace of residence of The Living Buddha whose "customary reincarnation had not been permitted by the Soviets", to paraphrase the author. When communication came from Kuybyshev they were treated as more important, but saw hurts by choice rather than all the modern buildings that the guide was proud to invite them to see.
Here again it's the hubris of West that's evident in the attitude of the author and characters, in describing the primitive character of everyone else and lack of hygiene thereof, although the prejudice held by the author and by his characters about cleanliness of Europe is based in little more than racism - several decades after the war, when most of West Europe is modernised as to central heating and plumbing, bathing habits of Europe remained weekly at best, and monthly in Bavaria as told proudly to colleagues from India whose daily routine of bathing was seen by the Bavarian colleagues as evidence of lack of cleanliness of India by said Bavarian colleagues, and of strange quirks by the English landlords who were quite puzzled at the bathroom of the rented house being not good enough, since they themselves declared they rarely showered.
Instructions came, they were to be flown to Ulan-Ude, whence they'd be flown West in regular passenger plane.
"The plane would be heated, so they would no longer have to wonder if they were going to freeze to death in a storm. If you think you don’t like civilization, just get out of its reach for a few weeks!"
In Ulan-Ude they had to wait, there were no commercial flights and the Soviet infrastructure was concentrated on the invasion by nazis.
"They were guests of the local soviet, and were taken about and shown all the modern improvements."
So, unlike in Mongolia, they didn't ask to see the primitive residence state and habits of the locals, although in this regard Siberia wasn't likely to be better historically than Mongolia, only much colder, nor are the local people different. So it's racism with the proviso of regard for controlling race accorded to others as long as it's not colonial occupation but a union.
During this waiting period Lanny told Laurel about her trance, and she was grieved, tears running down. Lanny said it might just have been a dream, but Laurel firmly said no, things did come to her. She made lanny repeat everything and then they tried again, but it was only Otto Kahn, and Lanny never heard the gentle Lizbeth again.
The plane came and they were flown across with stops for refreshments along the way, until Samaria, where Jesse Blackless was on the airfield waiting for them. He informed them that Laurel was already a celebrity in Russia, since Soviets don't let in people without checking up, and clippings of her works had been flown to Russia, and were going to be translated and published if she permitted. They were asked detailed questions about Yenan, and thrilled to know Laurel had notes, and they were asked if she would mind being interviewed by the leading Soviet journalist Ilya Ehrenburg. Lanny was increasingly aware that Gestapo agents which must be around would know everything, and his German contacts would too, soon.
"With the help of his uncle whom the censors knew, Lanny sent off two cablegrams: one to his father, reading: “Arrived safely from Hongkong via Yenan with wife Laurel Creston Reverdy’s niece stop what news concerning Oriole sailed from Hongkong December eight love to all reply Continental Hotel Kuibyshev Lanny Budd.” The other was to Charles T. Alston at his Washington hotel: “Escaped Hongkong traveled via Yenan wire instructions stop if wanted Washington please facilitate travel self and wife married writer Laurel Creston fellow-passenger yacht Oriole stop yacht left Hongkong December eight kindly mention news if available regards reply Continental Hotel Kuibyshev Lanny Budd.”"
Lanny told Laurel about his Peace Conference days, Lincoln Steffens and more, explaining why Soviets were distrustful of visitors, although their own reception wasn't so. They got reply from Robbie immediately, since he was prompt and didn't have to consult anybody unlike Alston
"“Congratulations and best love from all to you both stop please advise concerning your plans stop do you need money stop no news whatever from yacht Oriole stop family greatly distressed wire any information Robert Budd.”"
Laurel wept, and Lanny tried comforting her. He had known grief over various people he loved. He tried to divert her by assuring her of his love and fidelity.
But he too grieved for Lizbeth whose life had been cut short so young, and Reverdy who had been a friend, and others on the Oriole.
"The second cablegram arrived a couple of days later. “Lanning Prescott Budd Continental Hotel Kuibyshev retel delighted important service awaits your return notify when ready will arrange air transportation yourself and wife no news concerning Oriole sorry regards Charles T. Alston.”"
Laurel said she'd like a few days in Moscow, and Jesse Blackless said he guessed Lanny had a diplomatic job and reach to Roosevelt, in which case he should speak with Stalin. He was expected to take messages to FDR. They were flown to Moscow and put up at the Narkomindel in Moscow where everything worked, overwhelmed with more than every choice of food they marked on the list and outfitted with gifts of expensive complete fur from head to foot to suit the requirements of Moscow and flight via Archangel.
Lanny was afraid they'd miss Hansi and Bess, but they flew in for a concert in Moscow, and met them. Bess was happy to meet Laurel and said Laurel was just the woman Bess had wished for him. Lanny and Laurel went to the concert Hansi gave and Laurel saw the audience give him tremendous applause.
Lanny was later taken by officials for his meeting with Stalin, who asked him about Hong Kong and China situation. They spoke about Budd-Erling and routes to deliver the planes, which stalin preferred Archangel route via North pole but U.S. preferred Alaska and Siberia. Lanny asked the question he said everybody would ask him, would Russia hold out, and was told they would fight every step of the way, even if they had to fall back. They discussed the League of Nations and possibility of the new allies forming another. They drank a toast, and Lanny was escorted out into a city dark under blackout, with only stars shining.
They landed in Ulan Bator, which had modern buildings and an airfield built by Soviets, in addition to the Mongolian yurts in profusion, without incident, apparently not expected, but showed the telegram saying Kuybyshev invited them, and were taken to government office where they told their story and sent off a telegram to Jesse Blackless. They were taken to a hotel and given a room.
"Meantime the Americans were put up in a reasonably clean hotel room, and made the discovery which has become legendary among Americans traveling in Sovietland—the plumbing didn’t work. Lanny said it wouldn’t matter so much with Mongolians, for he had been told that they were the least-washed people in the world; water was applied to them only twice in a lifetime, first when they were born and second when they got married."
They wanted to see everything and began with the museum that had been the palace of residence of The Living Buddha whose "customary reincarnation had not been permitted by the Soviets", to paraphrase the author. When communication came from Kuybyshev they were treated as more important, but saw hurts by choice rather than all the modern buildings that the guide was proud to invite them to see.
Here again it's the hubris of West that's evident in the attitude of the author and characters, in describing the primitive character of everyone else and lack of hygiene thereof, although the prejudice held by the author and by his characters about cleanliness of Europe is based in little more than racism - several decades after the war, when most of West Europe is modernised as to central heating and plumbing, bathing habits of Europe remained weekly at best, and monthly in Bavaria as told proudly to colleagues from India whose daily routine of bathing was seen by the Bavarian colleagues as evidence of lack of cleanliness of India by said Bavarian colleagues, and of strange quirks by the English landlords who were quite puzzled at the bathroom of the rented house being not good enough, since they themselves declared they rarely showered.
Instructions came, they were to be flown to Ulan-Ude, whence they'd be flown West in regular passenger plane.
"The plane would be heated, so they would no longer have to wonder if they were going to freeze to death in a storm. If you think you don’t like civilization, just get out of its reach for a few weeks!"
In Ulan-Ude they had to wait, there were no commercial flights and the Soviet infrastructure was concentrated on the invasion by nazis.
"They were guests of the local soviet, and were taken about and shown all the modern improvements."
So, unlike in Mongolia, they didn't ask to see the primitive residence state and habits of the locals, although in this regard Siberia wasn't likely to be better historically than Mongolia, only much colder, nor are the local people different. So it's racism with the proviso of regard for controlling race accorded to others as long as it's not colonial occupation but a union.
During this waiting period Lanny told Laurel about her trance, and she was grieved, tears running down. Lanny said it might just have been a dream, but Laurel firmly said no, things did come to her. She made lanny repeat everything and then they tried again, but it was only Otto Kahn, and Lanny never heard the gentle Lizbeth again.
The plane came and they were flown across with stops for refreshments along the way, until Samaria, where Jesse Blackless was on the airfield waiting for them. He informed them that Laurel was already a celebrity in Russia, since Soviets don't let in people without checking up, and clippings of her works had been flown to Russia, and were going to be translated and published if she permitted. They were asked detailed questions about Yenan, and thrilled to know Laurel had notes, and they were asked if she would mind being interviewed by the leading Soviet journalist Ilya Ehrenburg. Lanny was increasingly aware that Gestapo agents which must be around would know everything, and his German contacts would too, soon.
"With the help of his uncle whom the censors knew, Lanny sent off two cablegrams: one to his father, reading: “Arrived safely from Hongkong via Yenan with wife Laurel Creston Reverdy’s niece stop what news concerning Oriole sailed from Hongkong December eight love to all reply Continental Hotel Kuibyshev Lanny Budd.” The other was to Charles T. Alston at his Washington hotel: “Escaped Hongkong traveled via Yenan wire instructions stop if wanted Washington please facilitate travel self and wife married writer Laurel Creston fellow-passenger yacht Oriole stop yacht left Hongkong December eight kindly mention news if available regards reply Continental Hotel Kuibyshev Lanny Budd.”"
Lanny told Laurel about his Peace Conference days, Lincoln Steffens and more, explaining why Soviets were distrustful of visitors, although their own reception wasn't so. They got reply from Robbie immediately, since he was prompt and didn't have to consult anybody unlike Alston
"“Congratulations and best love from all to you both stop please advise concerning your plans stop do you need money stop no news whatever from yacht Oriole stop family greatly distressed wire any information Robert Budd.”"
Laurel wept, and Lanny tried comforting her. He had known grief over various people he loved. He tried to divert her by assuring her of his love and fidelity.
But he too grieved for Lizbeth whose life had been cut short so young, and Reverdy who had been a friend, and others on the Oriole.
"The second cablegram arrived a couple of days later. “Lanning Prescott Budd Continental Hotel Kuibyshev retel delighted important service awaits your return notify when ready will arrange air transportation yourself and wife no news concerning Oriole sorry regards Charles T. Alston.”"
Laurel said she'd like a few days in Moscow, and Jesse Blackless said he guessed Lanny had a diplomatic job and reach to Roosevelt, in which case he should speak with Stalin. He was expected to take messages to FDR. They were flown to Moscow and put up at the Narkomindel in Moscow where everything worked, overwhelmed with more than every choice of food they marked on the list and outfitted with gifts of expensive complete fur from head to foot to suit the requirements of Moscow and flight via Archangel.
Lanny was afraid they'd miss Hansi and Bess, but they flew in for a concert in Moscow, and met them. Bess was happy to meet Laurel and said Laurel was just the woman Bess had wished for him. Lanny and Laurel went to the concert Hansi gave and Laurel saw the audience give him tremendous applause.
Lanny was later taken by officials for his meeting with Stalin, who asked him about Hong Kong and China situation. They spoke about Budd-Erling and routes to deliver the planes, which stalin preferred Archangel route via North pole but U.S. preferred Alaska and Siberia. Lanny asked the question he said everybody would ask him, would Russia hold out, and was told they would fight every step of the way, even if they had to fall back. They discussed the League of Nations and possibility of the new allies forming another. They drank a toast, and Lanny was escorted out into a city dark under blackout, with only stars shining.
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