"
He then began to hint in such a way that it became obvious to me that
refusal on my part would not be at all to the liking of the
Wilhelmstrasse. Refusal would mean loss of favor and with it the
choice jobs. As an added inducement, von Stammer promised double the
usual remuneration. Frankly this was a point. I considered that the
mission would not take me over three or four weeks and he had agreed
to pay me $2,500, aside from the bonus always attached to successful
and quick work. Still, I wasn't sure that I wanted to go. I knew
there was the danger of recognition, and I knew the kind of
irresponsible, hotheaded, temperamental people I was going among. It
was far more difficult, far more hazardous, than any mission I had
ever undertaken, in England or France; even the tremendous
responsibilities of the affair in the Black Forest carried with them
none of the personal dangers that this did. When he pressed me for a
decision I requested some little time to think things over. Asking me
to telephone his home before midnight and let him know what I was
going to do, he departed.
I hope I am still a Christian, but contact and intercourse with the
mysticism of Africa and India has made me superstitious. I have a
curious habit at momentous times of indecision of taking two full
packages of cards and playing Napoleon's solitaire. If I get it out
once in three times, I generally go into the matter in hand without
question.
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