THE CARD OF “THE GUILELESS STRANGER FROM TOKYO”
“Of course. I just had a talk with Captain Von Papen right here in New York.”
“Ruroede” still insisted on having better proof that Von Knorr came directly from the Embassy, to which Von Knorr retorted that “Von Papen has had sufficient dealings with you for you to know that any one sent by him to you is all right.”
Finding himself dealing with a somewhat reluctant saviour, Von Knorr adopted a conciliatory mood and slapped his broad hand several times on “Ruroede’s” left breast, saying: “That chest ought to have something”—meaning a decoration from Berlin.
After some verbal sparring, Von Knorr was allowed to drift off the scene as innocently as he had entered it, and he has yet to learn that his visit was in an office of American law and that his dealings were with the officers of Justice.
But he left behind a legacy quite as valuable as his carefully remembered spoken words. This legacy was the paper which he had brought from Franz von Papen. This paper proved to be not a letter, but rather a typewritten memorandum—though all doubt as to its origin was removed by the innocent insistence of Von Knorr that he had come with it from Von Papen’s hand.
