At this point the chain of my reasoning snapped, for I was powerless to connect those two links. Obviously there was a link missing somewhere. Some kind of mystery.
Hard as I beat my brains, however, I could think of nothing plausible. And then that girl who said, "They will know." How scared she was!
After a few days of tormenting guess-work. I finally realised that unless I cracked the mystery I would probably crack up myself.
First of all I wanted to make sure that the Kraftstudt in question was that same war criminal.
4
Finding myself at the low door of Kraftstudt and Co. for the third time, I felt that what was to happen next would influence my whole life. For no reason I could understand then or later, I paid off the taxi and rang the bell only after the cab swung round the corner.
It seemed to me that the young man with his crumpled old-mannish face had been waiting for me. Without saying a word he took me by the hand and led me through the dark subterranean maze into the reception hall where I had been on the two previous occasions.
"Well, what brings you here this time?" he asked in what seemed to me a mocking tone of voice.
"I wish to speak to Herr Kraftstudt personally," I demanded.
"Our firm is not satisfying you in some way, Professor?" he asked.
"I wish to speak to Herr Kraftstudt," I insisted, trying not to look into his prominent black eyes, which now shone with malicious mockery.
"As you wish. It's none of my business," he said after a long scrutiny. "Wait here."
Then he disappeared through one of the doors behind the glass partition.
He was gone over half an hour arid I was dozing off when a rustle came to me from a corner and out of the semi-darkness stepped a white-smocked figure with a stethoscope in hand. "A doctor," flashed through my mind. "Come to examine me. Is this really necessary to see Herr Kraftstudt?"