AT THE LAST MINUTE HE STEPPED OUT OF THE WAY OF A woman leaving the Bremenhaus, laughing as she turned to the person with her. The fur collar of her coat brushed against his cheek. No one noticed but him. Clown noses and masks in the window displays; it was Fat Tuesday.

He found Schmuederrich outside the Schaller & Weber butcher’s shop. He was again wearing the military uniform of the German American Bund. The eyes in his chubby-cheeked face were narrow and bleary from lack of sleep. He held one hand out to shake Josef’s and clapped him on the shoulder with the other. “Let them do the talking, all right?”

The air in the Old Heidelberg was stale and overheated. It smelled of pot roast, beer, and cigars. Someone had thrown streamers onto the red-checkered tablecloths. They wound around the vases, which held little swastika flags. A small band played German Carnival songs.

For Carnival comes only once a year, Carnival on the Rhine.

Schmuederrich pointed to a table way in the back. From that distance, Josef recognized Dörsam. The men broke off their discussion and leaned back, but none of them stood up. An elegantly dressed gentleman with brilliantined hair said mockingly, “Good heavens, Schmuederrich, you really dressed to the hilt, didn’t you! Now I feel like Hitler wearing a raincoat when he met Mussolini.”

Schmuederrich laughed, but the man cut him off with a hand gesture. “This guy here? This is the one with the radio?” Schmuederrich made introductions. The man’s name was Dr. Ritter. He was in the textiles business. The third man at the table was a normal-looking guy, blond, big boned, baby faced. “Max has just arrived from Hamburg, but he lived in New York for a few years. He’s also a radio hobbyist,” said Dr. Ritter, looking at Josef with interest.

Josef took a seat next to Dörsam. Dr. Ritter talked about his grand hotel in Times Square, the Taft—“Old world, you know”—and about the luxury cabin on his ship. Whenever someone else was speaking, he drummed softly on the table with his fingers.

A girl in a yellow silk dress, dressed up in Chinese costume, walked among the tables with a basket of roses, flirting. Max kept sniffing, every few seconds. He seemed not to notice it, but at times this wet rasping sound was all Josef could hear.