more ominous than she had conceived.
Was the answer in the Bertholde dossier? Elizabeth wondered. “i gather from
your tone that this full ckarance is a new developmejit”
“I was informed this morning.”
Then it must be in the Bertholde dossier, thought Elizabeth… of course it
wasi Even Matthew Canfield had begun to perceive itl Only his perception
had been based solely on the recognition of certain words, names. He had
marked the pages. Elizabeth picked up the file.
,Touowing the war, the Ruhr Valley interests repurchased… offices in
Stuttgart and Tassing
Tassin&
Germany.
An economic crisis.
The Weimar Republic.
253
A series of economic crisesl A major and constant political crisis I
“. . . partners in the importing firm are Mr. Sydney Masterson and Mr.
Harold Leacock …..
Masterson and Leacock. Zurichl
Tassingl
“Does the city of Tassing mean anything to you?”
“It’s not a city. It is an outlying district of Munich. In Bavaria. Why do
you ask?”
“My son spent a good deal of time and money there … among other places.
Does it have-any special meaning for you?”
“Munich?”
“I suppose so.”
“Hotbed of radicalism. Breeding ground of malcontents.”
“Malcontents? … Communi ts?”
“Hardly. They’d shoot a Red on sight. Or a Jew. Call themselves
Schutzstaflel. Go around clubbing people. Consider themselves a race apart
from the rest of the world.”
A race apart.
0h, Godl
Elizabeth looked at the dossier in her hands. Slowly she replaced it in the
manila -envelope and stood up. Without saving a word to the Englishman, she
crossed to her bedroom door and let herself in. She closed the door behind
her.
James Derek remained in the center of the room. He didn’t understand.
Inside her bedroom Elizabeth went to her writing desk where papers were
scattered across the top. She sorted them out until she found the Zurich
Est.
She read each name carefully.
AvERY LANDoR, U.S.A.–Oil. Louis GIBSON, U.S.A.–Oil.
THOMAS RAwLiNs, U.S.A.-Securities.
HowARD THORNTON, U.S.A.-Industrial Construction. SYDNEY MASTERSON, GREAT
BRITAIN-Imports. DAvm INNEs-BowEN, GREAT BRITAiN-Textiles. HAROLD LEACOCK,
GRP-AT BRiTAiN-Securities.
Louis FRANgois DALMMA, FRANcE-Railroady. PIERRE DAUDET, FRANcE–Ship lines.
INGMAR MYRDAL, SwEDEN–Securities.
254
CHRISTIAN OLAIFFSEN, SWEDEN-Steel. OTTO VON ScHNrrZLER, GERMANY-1. G.
Farben.
FRiTz THYSSEN, GERMANY-Steel. ERicH KINDORF, GERmANY-Coal.
One might say that the Zurich list was a cross-section of the most powerful
men in the Western hemisphere.
Elizabeth put the list down and reached for a leatherbound notebook in
which she kept telephone numbers and addresses. She thumbed to the letter
0.
Ogilvie and Storm, Ltd., Publishers, Bayswater Road, London.
She would phone Thomas Ogilvie and have him send her whatever information
he could unearth on the Schutzstaflel.
She knew something about it already. She remembered reading its political
name was the National Socialists and they were led by a man named Adolph
11itler.
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CHAPTER 33
The man’s name was Basil Hawkwood, and Canfield quickly pictured the
trademark hawkwood-small letter h-as it appeared on a variety of leather
goods. Hawkwood Leather was one of the largest firms in England, only a
short distance behind Mark Cross.
The nervous Basil led Canfield in-to the huge reading room of his club,
Knights. They chose two chairs by the Knightsbridge window, where there
were no other members within earshot.
Basil’s fear caused him to stutter, and when his words came, the phrases
tumbled over one another. He assumed, because he wanted to assume, that the
young man facing him would help him.
Canfield sat back in the comfortable chair and listened with incredulity to
Hawkwood’s-story.
The chairman of Hawkwood Leather had been sending shipment aftei shipment
of “damaged” leather goods to a little-known firm in Munith. For over a
year the directors of Hawkwood accepted the losses on the basis of the
-damage.XI classification. Now, however, they had ordered a complete report
on the excess malfunctions of the pknts. The Hawkwood heir was trapped.
There could be no more shipments for an indeterminate time.
He pleaded with Matthew Canfield to understand. He begged the young man to
report and confirm his loyalty, but the boots, the belts, the holsters
Would have to come from someone else.
‘Vhy do you wear the cuff Unksr’ asked Canfield.
256
“I wore them today to remind Bertholde of my contribution. He presented
them to me himself. You’re not wearing yours.”
“My oontribution doesn’t call for them.”
“Well, damn it, mine doesl I haven’t stinted in the past and I won’t in the
futurel” Hawkwood leaned forward -in his chair. ‘The present circumstances
don’t change my feelingst You can report that God damn Jewsl Radir-alsl
Bolshevikst All over Buropel A conspiracy to destroy every decent principle
good Christian men have lived by for centuriest They’ll murder us in our
bedsl Rape our daughtprsl Pollute the -racesl I’ve never doubted itl I’ll
help again. You have my wordl Soon there’ll be millions at our disposall”
Matthew Canfield suddenly felt sick. What in God’s name had he done? He got
out of the chair and his legs felt weak.
“I’ll report what you said, Mr. Hawkwood.”
“Good fellow. Knew you’d understand.”
“I’m beginning to.” He walked rapidly away from the Englishman toward the
arch to the outer hallway.
As he stood on the curb under the Knights’ canopy waiting for a taxi,
Canfield was numb with fear. He was no longer dealing with a world he
understood. He was dealing with giants, with concepts, with commitments be-
yond his comprehension.
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CHAPTER 34
Elizabeth had the newspaper and magazine articles spread over the couch.
Ogilvie and Storm, publishers, had done an excellent job. There was more
material here than Elizabeth or Canfield could digest in a week.
The National Socialist German Workers party emerged as ragtail fanatics.
The Schutzstaftel were brutes but no one took them seriously. The articles,
the photographs, even the short headlines were slanted in such a way as to
give a comic-opera effea
Why Work in the Fatherland
if You Can Dress Up
and Pretend IVs Wagner?
Canfield picked up a portion of a Sunday supplement and read the names of
the leaders. Adolf Hitler, Erich Ludendorff, Rudolf Hess, Gregor Strasser.
They read like a team of vaudeville jugglers. Adolf, Erich, Rudolf, and
Gregor. However, toward the end of the article his amusement waned. There
were the phrases.
conspiracy of Jews and Communists . . daughters raped by Bolshevik
terrorists I. . Aryan blood soiled by scheming Semites I . . a plan for
a thousand yearst . . .”
Canfield could see the face of Basil Hawkwood, owner of one of the largest
industries in England, whispering with great intensity many of these same
words. He thought of the shipments of leather to Munich. The leather
without the trademark hawkwoot4 but the leather
258
that became part of the uniforms in these photographs. He recalled the
manipulations of the dead Bertholde. the road in Wales, the mass murders at
York.
Elizabeth was sitting at the desk jotting down notes from an article. A
picture was beginning to emerge for her. But it was incomplete, as if part
of a background was missing. It bothered her, but she’d learned enough.
“It staggers your imagination, doesn’t it?” said Elizabeth, rising from her
chair.
“What do you make of itT’
“Enough to frighten me. An obscure but volatile political organization is
being quietly, slowly financed by a number of the wealthiest men on eartlL
The men of Zurich. And my son is part of them.”
“But why?”
“I’m not sure yet” Elizabeth walked to the window. “Theres more to learn.
However, one thing is clear. If this band of fanatics make solid progress
in Germanyin the Reicbstag-the men of Zurich could control unheard-of
economic power. It’s a long-range concept, I think It could be – brilliant
strategy.”
“Then I’ve got to get back to Washingtonl”
“They may already know or suspeot.”
“Then we’ve got to move inl”
‘-Y,ou can’t move ini” Elizabeth turned back to Canfield, raising her
voice. “No government has the right to interfere with the internal politics
of another. No government has that nghL Theres another way. A far more
effective way. But there’s an enormous risk and I must consider it.” The
old woman brought her cupped hands up to her lips and walked away from
Canfield.
“What is it? What’s the risk?”
Elizabeth, however, did not hear him. She was concentrating deeply. After
several minutes she spoke to him from across the room.
‘-Fhere is an island in a remote lake in Canada. My husband, in a rash
moment, bought it years and years ago. There are several dwellings on it,
primitive but habitable. . . . If I put at your disposal whatever funds
were necessary, could you have this island so guarded that it would be
impregnableT’
“I think $0.11
“That’s not good enough. There can be no element of doubt. The lives of my
entire family would depend on
259
total isolation. The funds I mention are, frankly, limitless.11
“All right, then. Yes, I could.”
“Could you have them taken there in complete secrecy?”