Night Journey Read Free Page A

very profound. I was invited to give them because I had been a friend and confidant of Kaufmann in Vienna. I was reporting some of the original ideas of a great man. There was little original of my own in them. And anyway—as you will know—that is really a branch of atomic physics.”
    He had risen and gone to his desk, picked up a paper and read through it. “ But I understand from this that you did some work on poison gases when you were in Vienna.”
    â€œAh, yes, a little, when I was younger. But when I was twenty-six I gave all that up.”
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œBy then many of us in Austria could see the writing on the wall. As an Austrian, Hitler would never be content without possessing Austria. If he did take it I knew I would not want to stay. (Always, of course, I have been half English in sentiment.) But if my work there was such that it could contribute to military knowledge I knew I should not be allowed to leave. So I turned to other things.”
    â€œVery far sighted of you.” He was still staring at the paper.
    â€œYou see,” I said, “in spite of having avoided a liberal education I am really rather a jack of all trades. It is not really the way to achieve eminence.”
    â€œSuppose,” he said, “you were to see a gas manufactured in a laboratory, and demonstrated; would you be able to tell in what way it differed from a known gas, and—and recognise and remember the elements going to its composition?”
    â€œOh, yes. If I had full access to the laboratory.”
    He nodded, “Perhaps it’s time we stopped beating about the bush, Dr Mencken.”
    I said I thought it was.
    â€œYou have been very patient. But in a letter to your sister—I’m so sorry but these things are always intercepted—in a letter to your sister written last Satuday you complain rather bitterly of this country’s lack of confidence in your patriotism. I think we can prove to you now that we have a very real confidence in your patriotism—if you’ll allow us to make use of it.”
    â€œI hope I can.”
    â€œWell … it’s no sinecure that we offer.”
    Outside, some machine was at work. I think it was a reaper, cutting and gathering the mixed corn that grew on the one-time lawn in front of the house.
    â€œMy name is Brown,” he said. “ I belong to the Special Branch of the British Intelligence Department. A little while ago we had a word from the head of our northers Italian organisation, appealing for extra help for a job which had come their way and asking if we could supply it. This we have been considering. The help they need is only one man. But unless that man conforms to certain definite requirements he would be better not sent.”
    I sipped my whisky. Now I needed it. “ I conform to these requirements?”
    He smiled suddenly. “ That, for the last two weeks, we have been trying to decide. The requirements are that he must be completely trustworthy, and able to keep his mouth shut if things go right—or still more if they go wrong. He must speak Italian like a native and know German too. And he must be a first-class chemist. That is the great difficulty.”
    â€œWith some knowledge on the subject of poison gases?”
    â€œAs you say.”
    â€œAnything else?” I asked with a touch of sarcasm.
    â€œHe must be prepared to face all that such a mission would entail. Since we are at war, I imagine that goes without saying.”
    I felt rather unwell. Half an hour ago I had been an interned alien with no immediate prospect of release and with only one prospect before me If I were released: a return to the seclusion of a laboratory. Now a sudden new world was open. I felt like a bird suddenly freed and too suddenly confronted with the menaces which were a part of freedom—there was already a yearning for the protection of the cage.
    Adventure and danger were well enough