OCR Text |
Show they saw Margaret's parents coming com-ing because they were afraid to be seen speaking to Jews. They tried and tried to get away and every door was shut against them. They stood it as long as they could. They were a brave and gallant pair. But that day Margaret told you about, her mother's spirit broke. She tried to ' kill Margaret, and she succeeded with herself. She was a doctor and there were still a few drugs in the house. The only reason she didn't succeed with Margaret was that she wanted the child's death to be quick and easy, and she gave her too much." Cherry was staring at him, unconscious uncon-scious that there were tears in her wide-stretched eyes. "And her father?'.' Dick blurted. "He and I came in together. We had been out to buy food. We had to stand in line to buy it, and I tried to help him, because as I am not Jewish things were easier for me. But I can't stand in line very long, or carry any parcels except what I can put Into my pockets. We used to do the buying, it was too frightful for Margaret and her mother on the street. When we came In we thought ,,... Tk 111 TnE STORY THUS FAR: Spratt Herlong, Her-long, motion picture producer, met and married Elizabeth, whose first husband, Arthur Klttrcdge, was reported killed In World War I, but who later appeared In Hollywood and secured a Job with Spratt. Under the name of Kessler, and with bis disfigurements, he was not recognized rec-ognized and became a good friend to all of the Ilcrlongs. Arthur promised to talk with Dick and explain to him what the war really meant to him personally. On Christmas Margaret was to give a party o Dick, Cherry and Elizabeth went to help decorate the tree. Margaret almost fell and became scared, she explained she was cut when she fell and a man kicked her the man who killed her mother. CHAPTER XVin Dick swallowed and wet his lips. He had heard stories like this before, be-fore, but hitherto they had been something that happened to people who had the far-off quality of anonymity. Hearing It reported as a matter of course by a little girl In his own home town was something some-thing else again. He looked at Kessler, Kess-ler, and back at Margaret. Cherry, who had sat down on top of the ladder, lad-der, was looking at Kessler too, as though they both wanted him to say It hadn't really happened like this. "Coma here, Margaret," laid Kessler gently. She went to him, and he put his arms around her. "It was dreadful In Germany," eatd Kessler. "But we aren't afraid any more." She looked up at him artlessly. "Oh no, of course not. Not here." "Nobody does things like that here," said Kessler. "There aren't any Nazis In America." "Oh no," Margaret said again. She laughed at a recollection. "When we first came here," she ald to the others, "I was scared of the men In uniform. But they were Just policemen and soldiers. They didn't bother anybody." "No, everybody is safe here," Kessler went on. "Nobody comes Into a house without being asked. If they want to come in they ring the bell, and If you tell them not to come In they stay outside. Nobody Is scared In the United States. Margaret Mar-garet used to be scared, but she Isn't any more." "It's different here," said Margaret. Mar-garet. "And your supper is getting cold," Kessler suggested. "You'd better go eat It." "All right." "And aren't you going to thank Mrs. Herlong and Dick and Cherry for helping you with the tree?" "Oh yes I It's just wonderful. Thank you so much." "We're glad we could help," said Elizabeth. She took Margaret's hand and went with her Into the dining room where her supper was ready. Margaret started to eat with a healthy appetite, evidently not appalled ap-palled by the story she had told. When Elizabeth returned to the front room Dick was still standing by the tree and Cherry still sat on the ladder, lad-der, apparently too horrified to move. Kessler was speaking to them. ( "If It seems cruel to let her go on talking, it's less cruel than making her shut it up inside herself. I thought it was easier on you to listen lis-ten than it would have been on her if I had told her to stop." "But what sort of cattle are they7" Dick exclaimed. "We hear a lot of things about them, cruel and vicious and all that, but not just going go-ing around kicking little girls!" "I told your mother once," said Kessler, "that your only fault was that you didn't realize how superior you were to your neighbors." "To my neighbors? But I don't know anybody like that!" "No, you don't know anybody like that." "Gee whiz," said Dick. He went over to another side of the room and Bat down. "Why did they kill her parents?" Cherry asked breathlessly. "They didn't. Her parents killed themselves." "Ah!" Cherry let go her breath audibly. "Margaret thinks the Nazis killed them. They killed so many others. I haven't tried to tell her any differently. dif-ferently. She doesn't understand Buicide." "But why?" exclaimed Cherry. Then she added apologetically, "I'm Borry. I guess it's none of my business." busi-ness." "There's no reason why you ahouldn't know," Kessler answered. He glanced at Elizabeth. "Shall I go on, Mrs. Herlong?" "Yes, if you can bear it. After all, Mr. Kessler, we've heard It before. It's been in the papers and on the radio." Cherry said what they had all been thinking. "But it's different when it happens to somebody you know! You mean it happened to Margaret's family like what we read about?" "Why yes, the same old story," Kessler answered. "She and her mother were shoved off the sidewalk, side-walk, she didn't have enough to eat and even when her parents went without there wasn't enough for her, they saw other children beaten and starved and knew there was nothing else in store for Margaret. Their old friends crossed the street when why should you want to kill a doctor doc-tor who might save your life? You might get sick and need just what he could do for you don't they ever think about that? It doesn't make sense," he said again. Kessler did not try to tell Dick that he was asking a question that half the human race had already asked. He only replied, "It doesn't make sense, and I don't get it either, ei-ther, Dick. The Nazis and their babble, bab-ble, and then a child like Margaret." "A nice sweet helpless little girl!" Cherry exclaimed. Kessler turned toward her, and spoke earnestly. "It's not only that, Cherry. There are people in the world who haven't your sense of hi-manity hi-manity toward helpless little girls. But it's what Dick said even if you had no sense of humanity, why should you do that to yourself?" "To yourself?" said Cherry, puzzled. puz-zled. "Why yes. Why should you want to destroy your own hope in the future? Margaret's heredity includes in-cludes two of the finest minds in Germany. If parents give their children chil-dren anything of themselves, and we know they do, the chances are a hundred to one that Margaret is a genius. Nobody knows what she's capable of becoming, but they tried to destroy her." "Gosh!" said Dick. "Mr. Kessler you mean that kid's liable to do something like discover radium, and she nearly got killed?" "That's exactly what I mean. I don't know that Margaret's a genius, it's too soon to tell. But I know that in this mad killing of theirs the fascists from Berlin to Tokyo have destroyed genius, and they're still doing It. They're destroying de-stroying their future, and yours. That's the real tragedy of our time. It's so terrible we don't often think about it because we can't bear it. Margaret's parents had at least had a chance to contribute something some-thing to the world. But she's never had any, and those other children who didn't escape had never had any. And what it amounts to," he said clearly to Dick and Cherry, "is that your children may die of loathsome loath-some diseases because the scientists who could have saved them were killed when they were four years old." "Oh, my gosh!" cried Cherry from the top of the ladder. Her hand caught at her throat. "That's what they're doing. I never thought of that till this minute. That's what it's about." Dick stood up. "Holy smoke," he said slowly. "It's ghastly. You're right it's too awful to think about. You just think of kids as kids, but golly when you do think about them as growing up, or not growing up, I mean the important ones suppose sup-pose the Germans had blitzed England Eng-land fifty years ago and had got Churchill, I mean, and now we'd never know." Elizabeth put her hands over her eyes. It seemed to her that she could suddenly see them, little boys like Brian, little girls with fat pigtails pig-tails like Margaret, the Einsteins, Chiangs, Curies of the future, going in a horrible procession to annihilation. annihi-lation. Suppose the bombs had dropped fifty years ago. She thought of sulfanilamide and the Four Freedoms, Free-doms, television and cargo planes, vitamins and the Panama Canal. Her generation had these because the men and women who brought them into being had been allowed to grow up. She could hear Kessler's voice, passionate with a great grief. "That's the real horror of fascism. We are sick at what they are doing today, but this is such a little part of it. Their awful crime is what they are doing tomorrow. We don't know what they've already destroyed de-stroyed a cure for cancer, a new philosophical system, a rocket to the moon. Margaret got out, but the others who didn't get out think of the books that will never be written, the work that will never be done. They're destroying tomorrow, and tomorrow is forever." Several days after the turn of the New Year, Kessler received a letter let-ter from Dick: Dear Mr. Kessler, I guess there is no use trying to tell you how shocked I was at what you said the other day. My sister felt the same way I did. I do not write very well and it is hard to say what I mean. But this is what I am getting at. I know you are a very busy man but if there is a day, maybe a Sunday, when you have some time to spare would you let me come over and see you? I did not want to bother you until after Christmas, Christ-mas, but there are some things I have been thinking about and I would like to talk to you anyway. You seem to understand our family very well and I know they like you and would not mind anything I said to you. Let me know if this would be convenient. Sincerely yours, Richard Spratt Herlong, Jr. After he had read Dick's letter, Kessler sat for some time thinking, his forehead resting on his big thick hand. These months in Beverly Hills had been more difficult than he had thought they were going to be. Most things were, when you came down to them. (TO BE CONTINUED) "But what sort of cattle are they?" Dick exclaimed. they were both dead. We knew the house had been searched because it was in such disorder. Jacoby Margaret's Mar-garet's father knew they would come back for him. With Margaret and her mother gone he had no more reason to keep trying. He was like an insane man. He had no gun they had taken that long before so he stepped out of the window." "But Margaret?" Elizabeth exclaimed ex-claimed as he paused. "I don't know how I ever realized, just then, that the child wasn't dead. I knew something about first aid, and I did the best I could for her, and got help from a doctor at the hospital where her father had worked before the Nazis took over. We worked with her, asking ourselves our-selves every ten minutes why we were doing it. We almost agreed with her mother that it would be better to let her die. But I managed to get a letter to the French studio that had bought two of my books, and they gave us help. That was just before the war began. A few more weeks and it would have been too late." There was a moment of stricken silence. Then Elizabeth demanded, "How can you talk about it so quietly! Your friends driven to death, a mother trying to kill her own child and you might be talking talk-ing about the weather!" "You have to learn to talk about it like that," Kessler said. "If you don't " He shrugged. "Was he a very good friend of yours?" Dick asked. "My best friend. He saved my life after the last war, and made it possible pos-sible for me to walk instead of spending these years in a wheelchair. wheel-chair. He was a very great man." "He was one of the most famous surgeons in Germany. And more than that, he was, as I said, a very great man. Through the worst disastersand dis-astersand there were plenty of them in Germany after the last war he had clung to his belief that no matter what happens there is always something worth saving, in one's self and in humanity. Then when he had lost everything else he lost that too. I'm not blaming him for it, but I'm sorry for it." "I don't get it!" Dick exclaimed abruptly. "I hear about such things and hear about them, but I don't get it. Why were Margaret's parents par-ents treated so?" "Because they were Jews, for one thing." Dick shook his head, as though the room had got dark and he was trying try-ing to see. "But I still don't get it, Mr. Kessler. It doesn't make any serpse at all. Even if you were brutal bru-tal and anti-Semitic and ail that, |