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Halstead, with his growing lucidity, looked straight into the eyes of one of the men holding Drexler by his clothes, and recognized the man’s look of fear. Then Halstead looked back at the Luger pressed against the locksmith’s forehead, and slowly lowered it to his side once more. “There will be no more intrigues. You will be hearing from my lawyer first thing tomorrow morning, and you will have until Wednesday to retract your statements. There may not be much order in Germany these days, but there are certainly strong libel laws!” Halstead headed for the door, and turned back just before reaching it. “I will lead the Darbeitpartei and Germany to greatness, with or without you!” Halstead swiveled back to the door and marched out of the Sterneckerbräu with his retinue of followers in close pursuit.
############Wally was up early the next morning for the day’s first milking of the cows, which was closely followed by a breakfast Sally had cooked for the entire household. Wally insisted on helping his pregnant wife by setting the table with the plates of eggs, hotcakes, and breakfast meats before sitting down to join his sisters-in-law, Jim, and Gertrude the milkmaid. Breakfast table conversation revolved around the farm’s milk production and the school lessons of the two teenage Darcy sisters, like on any other morning, and lacked a single reference to the moonlight operation Wally was conducting on Peabody’s farm. The two Darcy girls left the table in a hurry to hitch a ride into town and to school with a neighbor, and Wally’s two employees stood up soon thereafter to resume their chores. Wally hardly noticed the departure of the other two, however, engrossed as he was in an article on the front page of the New York World he had happened to glance at out of the corner of his eye while cleaning his plate: |