“According to Blake, yeah. He used to refer to his after-hours class as a ‘nursery for dictators’—because that was what he was proposing. He even outlined a general plan for success. Let me remember: ‘A man could succeed by seizing upon an area of unrest—’ ”

Preston Haller hesitated and looked at Driscoll, who nodded and said, “Don’t stop now.”

“ ‘By taking over as a negative force, spouting a communist-­inspired line—to gain the support of the sheep who would not yet consciously understand the concept of single authority—then, by instituting small pogroms and purges, destroying all but the single power, keeping the minor counselors in a state of nameless and faceless flux, he could switch carefully to a semi-fascist line, and become a dictator before the people’s eyes without anyone’s seeing it happen.’ Unquote. His dicta were ‘Play on their ignorance; underline and reflect their prejudices; make them afraid.’ But, of course, this is a pocket edition of several months’ discussions, before I quit—it was all vague and diffuse.

“ ‘Be ruthless!’ he told us, though. ‘Be ruthless! If you’re to be a dictator, employ every low trick there is. Deceive, cheat, lie, steal, murder. Show no mercy whatever. In that fashion, perhaps you will succeed. The Great Unwashed’—no; he said, ‘The Great Unwashable’—live on fear and hate alone; their prejudices keep them afloat—it is the only strength they have. Your success, ipso facto, will demonstrate the gift of man; it will raise your estate a bit higher than that of the animals . . . for what animal ever led more than a small pack?’

“That’s the gist of what Max Blake had to say. I said it was complicated because fascism itself isn’t acceptable to him. Some of the literate Fascists, like Alfredo Rocco, or even Ernest Renan, talked of the glorification of man; but the point that was important to Blake was the glorification of men, at the expense of others. That was his big bit. One great man, devil or saint, he said, is quite adequate. ‘History is not Man, but men—and very few of them, at that.’

“Well, Adam begged me to keep going to the classes, but I couldn’t see it. Fun was fun, and it was okay for a man to exercise his mind but this was too thick. With Adam, no. He told me that Max Blake had helped him find the thing he had been looking for, had acted as a catalyst to his thoughts.