“What is a blessing to a Christian is a curse to a writer!”

Both men laughed heartily.

“What are you teaching on tonight?” asked the baron.

“I was hoping perhaps I could convince you to address the men, my friend,” said Bonhoeffer.

“You don’t think I would drive all this way to hear myself!” exclaimed Dortmann. “I have my own little flock to tend, and my own gardens to cultivate, spiritual and temporal. When I come here, it is I who am the learner, the listener, the hungry, the seeking. Especially today. We have been working from sunup to sundown getting in our wheat and rye. Every muscle in my body aches and I have blisters upon blisters on every finger. I have come to rest my weary body, as well as refresh my soul. No, I will drink from your storehouse.”

“You can’t blame me for trying!”

The baron laughed.

“To answer your question, then,” Bonhoeffer said, “I am planning to discuss a few passages from Matthew 10.”

29 Private Scheme

29

Private Scheme

It was more than he could reasonably have hoped for!

Emil Korsch stared down at the report on his desk. He never dreamed following the license plate would turn over a stone this size! To link the illegal seminary to the brother of one of Berlin’s most influential bankers—how could such a plum have fallen so easily into his lap!

And he was the only one who knew!

Not Himmler, not Göring, not even Hitler himself! Otto von Dortmann, wealthy aristocrat and financier, friend of the Führer, they said—and now he held the power to bring him down.

It wasn’t quite as choice a tidbit, he admitted to himself, as if he had learned that Jewish blood flowed through the man’s veins. But it still might prove sufficient to induce the millionaire to pay handsomely for his silence.

It was just what he had been looking for, a way to put this climate of fear to use in lining his own pockets. What good was power if it didn’t yield something to stash away in a Swiss bank account?

Emil Korsch was more than Russian, more than German, more than Nazi. He was above all an opportunist. And here was opportunity of grand proportion staring him right in the face!

It would be good, however, if he could find out more, if he could strengthen the links. He needed to know for certain if there was indeed a connection between the fellow and the illegal Christian church or if there were some other explanation. His position was not so secure that he could afford a major blunder. He had to walk with some degree of caution until Himmler saw that he could be trusted completely.