JUNGQUIST: Herr Lawyer, when little people like you and me meet a man like Bjorn Faulkner, we take our hats off and we bow, and sometimes we take orders; but we don't ask questions.
FLINT: Splendid, my dear Mr. Jungquist. Your devotion to your master is worthy of admiration. You would do anything for him, wouldn't you?
JUNGQUIST: Yes.
FLINT: Are you very devoted to Miss Andre, too?
JUNGQUIST: [Significantly] Miss Andre was dear to Herr Faulkner.
FLINT: Then such a little matter as a few lies for your master's sake would mean nothing to you?
STEVENS: We object, your Honor!
JUDGE HEATH: Objection sustained.
JUNGQUIST: [With quiet indignation] I not lied, Herr Lawyer. Herr Faulkner is dead and cannot tell me to lie. But if I had choice, I lie for Bjorn Faulkner rather than tell truth for you!
FLINT: For which statement I am more grateful than you can guess, Herr Jungquist. That is all.
[JUNGQUIST exits]
STEVENS: [Solemnly] Karen Andre!
[KAREN rises. She is calm. She steps up to the stand with the poise of a queen mounting a scaffold. The CLERK stops her]
CLERK: You solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you God?
KAREN: [Calmly] That's useless. I'm an atheist.
JUDGE HEATH: The witness has to affirm regardless.
KAREN: [Indifferently] I affirm.
STEVENS: What is your name?
KAREN: Karen Andre.
STEVENS: What was your last position?
KAREN: Secretary to Bjorn Faulkner.
STEVENS: How long have you held that position?
KAREN: Ten years.
STEVENS: Tell us about your first meeting with Bjorn Faulkner.
KAREN: I answered his advertisement for a stenographer. I saw him for the first time in his office, on an obscure side street of Stockholm. He was alone. It was my first job. It was his first office.
STEVENS: How did Faulkner meet you?
KAREN: He got up and didn't say a word. Just stood and looked at me. His mouth was insulting even when silent; you couldn't stand his gaze very long; I didn't know whether I wanted to kneel or slap his face. I didn't do either. I told him what I had come for.
STEVENS: Did he hire you then?
KAREN: He said I was too young and he didn't like me. But he threw a stenographer's pad at me and told me to get down to work, for he was in a hurry. So I did.
STEVENS: And you worked all day?
KAREN: All day. He dictated as fast -- almost faster than he could talk. He didn't give me time to say a word. He didn't smile once and he never took his eyes off me.
STEVENS: When did he first . . .
[He hesitates]
KAREN: When did he first take me? That first day I met him.
STEVENS: How did that happen?
KAREN: He seemed to take a delight in giving me orders. He acted as if he were cracking a whip over an animal he wanted to break. And I was afraid.
STEVENS: Because you didn't like that?
KAREN: Because I liked it . . . So when I finished my eight hours, I told him I was quitting. He looked at me and didn't answer. Then he asked me suddenly if I had ever belonged to a man. I said, No, I hadn't. He said he'd give me a thousand kroner if I would go into the inner office and take my skirt off. I said I wouldn't. He said if I didn't, he'd take me. I said, try it. He did . . . After a while, I picked up my clothes; but I didn't go. I stayed. I kept the job.
STEVENS: And you worked, and lived, and rose to success together ever since?
KAREN: For ten years. When we made our first million kroner, he took me to Vienna. We sat in a restaurant where the orchestra played "Sing, Gypsy." When we made ten million, he took me to Delhi. We stood on the shore of the Ganges, on the steps of an old temple where human slaves had been sacrificed to gods . . . When we made twenty-five million, he took me to New York. We hired a pilot to fly a plane above the city -- and the wind waved Bjorn's hair as a banner over the world at his feet.
STEVENS: Can you tell us the extent of Mr. Faulkner's personal fortune at the height of his success?
KAREN: No, and he couldn't tell you himself: he had no personal fortune. He took what he wanted. When he owed money to one of his companies -- it was crossed off the books and debited to the accounts of several other concerns. It was very simple. We prepared all the balance sheets ourselves.
STEVENS: Why did a man of Mr. Faulkner's genius resort to such methods?
KAREN: He wanted to build a gigantic net and to build it fast; a net over the world, held in his own hand. He had to draw unlimited sums of money; he had to establish his credit. So he paid dividends out of his capital, dividends much higher than we actually earned.
STEVENS: When did Mr. Faulkner's business difficulties start?
KAREN: Over a year ago.
STEVENS: What brought Mr. Faulkner to America, this time?
KAREN: A short term loan of ten million dollars from the Whitfield National Bank was due and we could not meet it. We had to have an extension. Whitfield refused it. Until his daughter came into the question.
STEVENS: How did that happen?
KAREN: Bjorn met her at a party. She made it obvious that she was greatly interested in him . . . Then, one day, he came to me and said: "Karen, we have only one piece of collateral left and you're holding it. You'll have to let me borrow it for a while." I said: "Certainly. What is it?" He said it was himself. I asked: "Nancy Whitfield?" and he nodded. I didn't answer at once -- it wasn't very easy to say -- then, I said: "All right, Bjorn." He asked: "Will that change things between us?" I said: "No."
STEVENS: Had Mr. Faulkner proposed to Miss Whitfield?
KAREN: No. She had proposed to him.
STEVENS: How did that happen?
KAREN: He told me about it. She took him for a drive and stopped on a lonely road. She said that they were lost, that she had kidnapped him and wouldn't release him. He answered that the ransom she wanted was not in circulation. Then she turned to him pointblank and said: "What's the use of pretending? I want you and you know it. You don't want me and I know that. But I pay for what I want, and I have the price." He asked: "And what is the price?" She said: "The extension of a certain ten million dollar loan which you'll need to save your business. If you stay out of jail as a swindler, it can be only in the custody of Mrs. Bjorn Faulkner!"
[NANCY LEE jumps up, trembling with indignation]
NANCY LEE: It's a lie! It's a shameless lie! How can you --
JUDGE HEATH: [Striking his gavel] Quiet, please! Anyone disturbing the proceedings will be asked to leave the courtroom!
[WHITFIELD whispers to NANCY LEE and forces her to sit down, patting her hand}
STEVENS: What was Mr. Faulkner's answer to that, Miss Andre?
KAREN: He said: "It will cost you an awful lot of money." She answered: "Money has never meant anything to me." Then he said: "Will you always remember that it's a business deal? You're not buying any feeling; you're not to expect any." And she answered: "I don't need any. You'll have your money and I'll have you." Such was the bargain.
STEVENS: Was Mr. Whitfield eager to accept that bargain?
KAREN: Bjorn said he thought Mr. Whitfield would have a stroke when his daughter's decision was announced to him. But Miss Whitfield insisted. She always had her way. It was agreed that the loan would be extended and that Whitfield would give Bjorn unlimited credit.
STEVENS: In other words, Faulkner sold himself as his last security?
KAREN: Yes. And like the others, it meant nothing to him.
STEVENS: Did you resent that marriage?
KAREN: No. I didn't. We had always faced our business as a war. We both looked at this as our hardest campaign.
STEVENS: Why did Mr. Faulkner dismiss you two weeks after his wedding?
KAREN: He was forced to do that. Whitfield refused to advance the money he had promised.