his hand, refusing.
‘Wothing for me, either,” added Ulster Scarlett as he sat in the chair to
the left of Rheinhart. Hess ignored the tray and also took his seat.
Goebbels retreated with his limp to the chair by the wall.
Scarlett spoke. “I apolq&e for the delay. Unforgivable but, I’m afraid,
unavoldablc There was pressing business with our associates In London.”
“Your name., please?” Rheinhart interrupted, speaking RnpJish with a thick
Teutonic a nt.
Scarlett looked briefly at Hen before replying. “Kroemar, Herr General.
Heinrich Kroeger.”
Rheinhart did not take his eyes off Scarlem “I do not
269
think that is your name, sir. You are not German.” His voice was flat.
“My sympathies are German. So much so that Heinrich Kroeger is the name I
have chosen to be known by.”
Hess interrupted. “Herr Kroeger has been invaluable to us all. Without him
we would never have made the progress we have, sir.”
“Amerikaner. . . . He is the reason we do not speak German?”
“That will be corrected in time,” Scarlett said. In fact~ -he spoke nearly
flawless German, but still felt at a disadvantage in the language.
“I am not an American, General. Scarlett returned Rheinhart’s stare and
gave no quarter. “I am a citizen of the new orderl … I have given as
much, if not more than anyone else alive or dead to see it come to pass….
Please remember that in our conversation.”
Rheinhart shrugged. “I’m sure you have your reasons, as I have, for being
at this table.”
“You may be assured of that.” Scarlett relaxed and pulled his chair up.
“Very well, gentlemen, to business. If it is possible, I should like to
leave Montb6liard tonight.” Rheinhart reached into his jacket pocket and
took out a page of folded stationery. “Your party has made certain not in-
consequential strides in the Reichsta& After your Munich fiasco, one might
even say remarkable progress – – .”
Hess broke in enthusiastically. “We have only begunI From the ignominy of
treacherous defeat, Germany Will risel We will be masters of all Europel”
Rheinhart held the folded paper in his hand and watched Hess. He replied
quietly, authoritatively. “To be masters of but Germany itself would be
sufficient for us. To be able to defend our country is all we ask.”
‘That will be the least of your guarantees from us, General.” Scarletts
voice rose no higher than Rheinhaes.
“It is the only guarantee we wish. We are not interested in the excesses
your Adolf Hitler preaches.”
At the mention of Hitlers name, Goebbels sat forward in his chair. He was
anger~d -by the fact that he could not comprehend.
“Was gibfs mit Hitler? Was sagen sie Uber ihn?”
Rheinhart answered Goebbels in his own tongue. “Er ist ein sehr storener
geriosse.”
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“Hitler ist der Wegl Hitler ist die Hoffnung filr Deutschland!”
“Vielleicht Mr Sie.”
Ulster Scarlett looked over at Goebbels. The little man’s eyes shone with
hatred and Scarlett guessed that one day Rheinhart would pay for his words.
The general continued as he unfolded the paper.
“The times our nation lives through call for unusual alliances…. I have
spoken with von Schnitzler and Kindorf. Krupp will not discuss the subject
as I’m sure you are aware…. German industry is no better off than the
army. We are both pawns for the Allied Controls Commission. The Versailles
restrictions inflate us one minute, puncture us the next. There is no
stability. There is nothing we can oount on. We have a common objective,
gentlemen. The Versailles treaty.”
“It is only ont of the objectives. There are others.” Scarlett was pleased,
but his pleasure was short-lived.
“It is the only objective which has brought me to Montb6liardl As German
industry must be allowed to breathe, to export unencumbered, so must the
German army be allowed to maintain adequate strengthl The limitation of one
hundred thousand troops with over sixteen hundred miles of borders to
protect is ludicrousl . . . There are promises, always promises–then
threats. Nothing to count on. No comprehension. No alliDwance for necessary
growth.”
“We were betrayedl We were viciously betrayed in
nineteen eighteen and that betrayal continuesl Traitors
stia exist throughout Germanyl” Hess wanted more thm
his life to be counted among the friends of Rheinhart
and his officers. Rheinhart understood and was not im
pressed. I
“Ja.. Ludendorff still holds to that theory. The MeuseArgonne is not easy
for him to live with.”
Ulster Scarlett smiled his grotesque smile. ‘It is for some of us, General
Rheirihart.”
Rheinh looked at him. “I will not pursue that
with
Y011- 11
“One day you should. Its why I’m here-4n part.”
“To repeat, Herr Kroeger. You have your reasons; have mine. I am not
interested in yours but you are forced to be interested in mine.” He looked
at Hess and
271
then over at the shadowed figure of Joseph Goebbels by the wall.
“I will be blunt, gentlemen. it is, at best, an ill-kept secret. . . .
Across the Polish borders in the lands of the Bolshevik are thousands of
frustrated German officers. Men without professions in their own country.
They train the Russian field commanderst They discipline the Red peasant
army. . . . Why? Some for simple employment. Others justify themselves
because a few Russian factories smuggle us cannon, armaments prohibited by
the Allied Commission… I do not like this state of affairs, gentlemen. I
do not trust the Russians. . . . Weimar is ineffectual. Ebert couldWt face
the truth. Hindenburg is worsel He lives in a monarchial past. The
politicians must be made to face the Versailles issuel We must be liberated
from withinl”
Rudolf Hess placed both his hands, palms down, on the table.
“You have the word of Adolf Hider and those of us in this room that the
first item on the political agenda of the National Socialist German Workers
party is the unconditional repudiation of the Versailles treaty and its
restrictionsl”
‘I assume that. My concern is whether you are capable of effectively
uniting the diverse political camps of the Reichstag. I will not deny that
you have appeal. Far more than the others. . . . The question we would like
answered, as I’m sure would our equals in commerce, Do you have the staying
power? Can you last? Will you last? . . . You were outlawed a few years
ago. We can not afford to be allied with a political comet which bums
itseff out’%
Ulster Scarlett rose from his chair and looked down at the aging German
generaL ‘TIhat would you say if I told you that we have financial resources
surpassing those of any political organization in Europe? Possibly the
Westeirn hemisphere.”
“I would say that you exaggerate.”
“Or if I told you that we possess territory-4and—sufficiently large
enough to train thousands upon thousands of elite troops beyond the
scrutiny of the Versailles inspection teams.”
“You would have to prove all this to me.”
“I can do just that.”
272
Rheinhart rose and faced Heinrich Kroeger.
“If you speak the truth . . . you will have the support of the imperial
German generals.”
273
CHAPTER 36
Janet Saxon Scarlett, eyes still shut, reached under the sheets for the body
of her lover. He was not there, so she opened her eyes and raised her head,
and the room spun around. Her lids were heavy and her stomach hurt. She was
still exhausted, still a bit drunk.
Matthew Canfield sat at the writing desk in his undershorts. His elbows
were on the desk, his chin cupped in his hands. He was staring down at a
paper in front of him.
Janet watched him, aware that he was oblivious to her. She rolled onto her
side so that she could observe him.
He was not an ordinary man, she thought, but on the other hand neither was
he particularly outstanding. except that she loved him. What, she wondered,
did she find so attractive about hun? He was not like the men from her
world-even her recently expanded world. Most of the men she knew were
quick, polished, overly groomed and only concerned with appearances. But
Matthew Canfield could not fit into this world. His quickness was an
intuitive alertness not related to the graces. And in other respects there
was a degree of awkwardness; what confidence he had was bom of considered
judgment, not simply born.
Others, too, were far more handsome, although he could be placed in the
category of “good-looking” in a rough-hewn way. . . . That was it, she
mused; he gave the appearance both in actions and in looks of secure
independence, but his private behavior was different. In private he was
extraordinarily gentle, almost weaL . . .
274
She wondered if he was weak. She knew he was deeply upset and she suspected
that Elizabeth had given himmoney to do her bidding…. He didn’t really
know how to be at ease with money. She’d learned that during their two weeks