And it is a young man's work. I am not
young."
Then he would pay his score, but never by any chance Rudolph's or
the others, and go home to his empty house. But recently the plant
had gone on double turn, and Herman was soon to go on at night.
Here was the gang's opportunity. Everything was ready but Herman
himself. He continued interested, but impersonal. For the sake
of the Fatherland he was willing to have the plant go, and to lose
his work. He was not at all daunted by the thought of the deaths
that would follow. That was war. Anything that killed and
destroyed was fair in war. But he did not care to place himself
in danger. Let those young hot-heads do the work.
Rudolph, watching him, bided his time. The ground was plowed and
harrowed, ready for the seed, and Rudolph had only to find the seed.
The night he had carried Anna into the cottage on the hill, he had
found it.
Herman had not beaten Anna. Rudolph had carried her up to her bed,
and Herman, following slowly, strap in hand, had been confronted by
the younger man in the doorway of the room where Anna lay, conscious
but unmoving, on the bed.
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