The guards were already striding down the long room. Gregory knew that he had not a second to lose and that any form of pleading was utterly useless. He cursed himself for a brainless fool for having wasted all these precious hours when he had had Goering on his own and might have thrown out a dozen hints of secret knowledge which would have intrigued the Marshal so that, at worst, he would have been put in cold storage for the night or until Goering could spare the time to give him a second interview. As it was, like any cocksure boy who had pulled off a cheap triumph he had been content to drink and laugh and boast about his own adventures.
His thoughts raced furiously, flashing one after the other through his mind with the speed of lightning, as was always the case when he was faced with a great emergency; yet it was not until the two guards came stiffly to attention, one on either side of him, that he spoke again.
"All right; just as you wish. I'll leave you to tackle the problem of Finland on your own, then."
Goering's jaw dropped at this supreme impertinence. “ Finland ' " he said. "What the hell do you know about Finland?"
"More than you do," lied Gregory with amazing calmness. "D'you think they'll fight?" asked the Marshal with sudden interest. '
"Yes if they're properly handled."
"What do you mean by that?"
Gregory shrugged. "Send these men away and I'll tell you."
"If this is just an excuse to delay your execution and waste my time I'll give orders that you're to be made to rue the day you were born before you're finally shot."
"That's a deal. If I can prove to you that I'm worth listening to I get a straight bullet, but if you consider that I've wasted your time you hand me over to your thugs to do what they like with me.
"Do you understand what you may be letting yourself in for?"
"I've got a pretty shrewd idea."
Goering signed to the guards. "You may go. Now, Sallust, I'm ready to let you teach one of the leading statesmen of Europe his business if you can."
Gregory relaxed, physically but not mentally. He knew that he was up against it as he had never been in his life before. Helping himself to another of the big Turkish cigarettes, he said: "May I have a map of Europe and another drink?"
"Certainly." The Marshal reached behind him and pressed a bell; then in six strides he crossed the room and flicked a switch which released a square of gorgeous tapestry. It whipped up on guides, disappearing through a slit at the top of the panel, to disclose a great map of Europe lit by concealed lighting. As he stepped back the white clad, deaf mute barman appeared wheeling in his trolley, which held the same array of bottles with the addition of a magnum of champagne in an ice bucket.
"What would you like?" Goering asked; but his voice was no longer cordial. The question was put with the curt formality that he might have used when asking a clerk if a telegram had been dispatched. He no longer showed the least trace of the alcohol he had drunk and his eyes were hard as he moved over to the trolley with brisk efficiency.
” Champagne, please," said Gregory, and at a sign from Goering the deaf mute opened the magnum. As soon as two goblets had been filled he signed to the man again to leave them and turned back to Gregory.
"Now let's hear what you've got to say about Finland."
Gregory took a drink, set down his glass and began to speak with a clarity and rapidity that made it very difficult to interrupt him. "You know what happened to Russia after the last world war. Four years of revolution and civil war devastated the country from end to end. When the Reds at last succeeded in suppressing the Whites so much blood had been spilled that Russia was utterly exhausted. Her whole social structure was in ruins; added to which, the Bolsheviks had not a friend in the world who would assist them with loans or trade or technical experts to help them bring order out of chaos. After their defeat in the Polish campaign of 1920 they abandoned all idea of trying to carry Communism across Europe by fire and sword. The only thing they could do was to crawl back into their own kennel, lick their wounds, clean it up as best they could and endeavour to keep themselves free of further quarrels. The one thing they needed was peace-peace internal and external; not five years of peace but fifty; a solid half century of peace during which they could exploit the vast resources of their enormous territories in the same way that the Americans exploited the United States in the '6o's and '70's of the last century so that in time they might become as rich as the United States and as independent.
"From 1920 on they realized that they had everything to lose by risking further wars. The only thing that they had to fear was an attack while they were still devoting all their energies to the construction of the new Russia. In consequence, the whole of Russian strategy, directed by Marshal Voroshilov, has since then been based upon the defensive; in the belief that Russia might be called upon to resist aggression herself but would never,- never become an aggressor."
"Yes, yes, I know all that," Goering broke in impatiently.
"Of course you do; but I must state the basic facts if I am to tell you anything," Gregory replied, quite unperturbed, and he rapidly continued. "After the World War Germany also was left exhausted and disorganized, but owing to the fact that she was far in advance of Russia before the World War opened she was able to recover much more quickly. With the coming to power of the National Socialist Party Germany began to grow strong again. By 1935 it was obvious to every thinking man that in a few more years she would once more constitute a threat to the peace of Europe; and such people began to ask themselves what form that threat would take.
"Would Germany endeavour to revenge herself for her defeat by entering into another death struggle with the Western Powers or would she march East into Poland, Czechoslovakia and the Ukraine? Nobody knew for certain, but the Nazi leader s made it abundantly clear, by the Anti Comintern Pact and practically every speech they made, that they considered Bolshevism as their implacable enemy.
"Stalin has no reason whatever to love Britain, France or Italy but he had no reason to fear an attack from any of them… In any case, they were too far removed from Russia ’s frontiers to cause him a moment's worry. Japan might give him a certain amount of trouble, but only in the Far East, and every other nation was either too weak or too remote to constitute a serious menace, with the one exception of Germany.
"Hitler had written in Mein Kampf that Germany should. turn her eyes eastward, to the great corn lands and oil wells of the Ukraine and Caucasus. Hitler had gained power and with every week he was growing stronger. Right up to the summer of 1939 Stalin must have regarded Germany as the one and only enemy really to be feared. Germany alone was in a position to nullify his twenty years of peaceful reconstruction and bring his whole regime crashing about his ears at any time she chose to launch her land, sea and air forces against him."
"I know, I know," Goering frowned. "This is all elementary, but the Russo German Pact of last August altered the whole situation."