Moeller shook his head. “But you would be wrong. You would disappear. Your employers and, no doubt, the Turkish Government would make inquiries about you. The Italian police would be informed. The British Foreign Office would address bombastic demands for information to the Italian Government. The Italian Government, conscious that its neutrality was being compromised, would bestir itself. I might find myself in serious difficulties, especially when you were released and could tell your story. It would be most inconvenient for me to be wanted by the Italian police. You see what I mean?”
“Yes, I see.”
“The straightforward course is to kill you. There is, however, a third possibility.” He paused and then said: “You are a very fortunate man, Mr. Graham.”
“What does that mean?”
“In times of peace only the fanatical nationalist demands that a man should surrender himself body and soul to the government of the country in which he was born. Yet, in war time, when men are being killed and there is emotion in the air, even an intelligent man may be so far carried away as to talk of his ‘duty to his country.’ You are fortunate because you happen to be in a business which sees these heroics for what they are: the emotional excesses of the stupid and brutish. ‘Love of country!’ There’s a curious phrase. Love of a particular patch of earth? Scarcely. Put a German down in a field in Northern France, tell him that it is Hanover, and he cannot contradict you. Love of fellow-countrymen? Surely not. A man will like some of them and dislike others. Love of the country’s culture? The men who know most of their countries’ cultures are usually the most intelligent and the least patriotic. Love of the country’s government? But governments are usually disliked by the people they govern. Love of country, we see, is merely a sloppy mysticism based on ignorance and fear. It has its uses, of course. When a ruling class wishes a people to do something which that people does not want to do, it appeals to patriotism. And, of course, one of the things that people most dislike is allowing themselves to be killed. But I must apologise. These are old arguments and I am sure you are familiar with them.”
“Yes, I’m familiar with them.”
“I am so relieved. I should not like to think that I had been wrong in judging you to be a man of intelligence. And it makes what I have to say so much easier.”
“Well, what have you got to say?”
Moeller stubbed his cigarette out. “The third possibility, Mr. Graham, is that you might be induced to retire from business for six weeks of your own free will-that you should take a holiday.”
“Are you mad?”