Stubborn as mules!'
He thrust his face into the other's. 'Criminals, all the lot of you!'
He indicated the garden beyond the window.
'You could have prevented that, but you would not.'
'I could not have prevented you from killing that young man.
That was your own doing.'
The Gestapo officer said, gloomily: 'I did not want to kill him.
He forced me to do it, you and he between you.
You are both to blame for his death.
You left me with no other course.'
There was a silence.
Then the German said: 'All your time you spend lymg and scheming against us.
Your Churchill and your Chamberlain, goading us on, provoking us to war.
And you are just another one.'
The old man did not answer that.
The German pulled himself together, crossed the room, and sat down at a table.
'This story of yours about sending these children to America,' he said.
'I do not believe a word of it.'
The old man was very, very tired.
He said, indifferently:
'I can't help that.
That is what I meant to do with them.'
'You still say that you would have sent them to your married daughter?'
'Yes.'
'Where does she live in America?'
'At a place called Coates Harbor, on Long Island.'
'Long Island.
That is where the wealthy live.
Is your daughter very wealthy?'
The old man said: 'She is married to an American business man.
Yes, they are quite well off.'
The German said incredulously: 'You still wish me to believe that a wealthy woman such as that would make a home in her own house for all these dirty little children that you have picked up?'
Howard said: 'She will do that.'
He paused, and then he said, 'You do not understand.
Over there, they want to help us.
If they make a home for children, refugees from Europe, they feel that they are doing something worth while.
And they are.'
The German glanced at him curiously.
'You have travelled in America?'
'A little.'
'Do you know a town called White Falls?'
Howard shook his head.
'That sounds like quite a common name, but I don't recollect it.
What state is it in?'
'In Minnesota.
Is that far from Long Island?'
'It's right in the middle.
I should think it's about a thousand miles.'
This conversation was becoming very odd, the old man thought.
The German said: 'Now about mademoiselle.