Halstead smiled and shook the hand of a Captain Ernst Röhm as the staff officer from the Army’s Munich headquarters passed by to take up a prearranged position just inside the entrance to the beer hall. “Everything shall be revealed in very short time, Hess. I suggest you go get yourself a good seat.”
“Yes, I’ll go do that.” Hess started off in the same direction as Röhm, but then turned his head back. “There’s a funny thing.”
“Yes?” Halstead prompted, his smile flashing for yet another passerby.
“You seem to be a bit taller than I remember you from the List Regiment.”
Halstead’s smile did not change, and he did not look at Hess as he replied, “War has a funny way of changing people, Hess.” And he laughed while shaking yet another hand.
“Yes, I suppose war does have a way of changing things.” With a somewhat confused look on his face, Hess headed off in the same direction as Röhm and left Halstead to greet many more arrivals in the last few minutes before the start of the meeting.
############
Less than an hour later, Halstead waited for Haushofer to retake his seat after a mediocre lecture on geopolitics, waited for the chairman Harrer to introduce him as the main speaker, and then took the podium to a smattering of applause. He looked out upon the sea of three thousand faces gathered in defiance of the Bavarian Communist regime, focused his eyes on the party faithful in the first few rows whom he was counting on for applause support, and then began to speak.
|
