Free Flotsam by Erich Maria Remarque Page B

He tried to remember how the worldly heroes of the many books he had read had behaved in similar situations, but his memory had dried up and probably, too,the heroes had never found themselves in a refugee’s hotel in Prague.
    “Isn’t it too dark to read?” he asked finally.
    The girl started as though her thoughts had been far away. Then she slammed shut the book that was lying in front of her. “No. But I’m not going to read any more anyway. There’s no point in it.”
    “Sometimes it’s a distraction,” Kern said. “When I can get hold of a detective story I read it through at one sitting.”
    The girl smiled wearily. “This is no detective story, it’s a textbook on inorganic chemistry.”
    “Really? Then you were in college?”
    “Yes. In Würzburg.”
    “I was at Leipzig. At first I took my textbooks with me too. I didn’t want to forget anything. But then later on I sold them. They were too heavy to carry around. And I bought toilet water and soap with the money so I would have something to peddle. That’s the way I make my living now.”
    The girl looked at him. “I don’t find you very encouraging.”
    “I certainly don’t want to discourage you,” Kern said quickly. “My case was entirely different. I had no papers at all. You probably have a passport.”
    The girl nodded. “I have a passport but it expires in six weeks.”
    “That’s nothing. You can surely get it extended.”
    “I don’t believe so.”
    The girl got up.
    “Won’t you have another cigarette?” Kern asked.
    “No thanks. I smoke a great deal too much.”
    “Someone said to me once that a cigarette at the right moment is better than all the ideals in the world.”
    “That’s right.” The girl smiled, and all at once she seemed very beautiful to Kern. He would have given a great deal to go on talking with her but he didn’t know what to do to make her stay.
    “If I can be helpful in any way,” he said hastily, “I should be glad. I know my way around here in Prague. I’ve been here twice before. My name is Ludwig Kern and I live in the room to the right beside yours.”
    The girl glanced at him quickly. Kern thought he had given himself away. But she casually extended her hand. He felt a firm pressure. “I shall gladly call on you if there’s anything I don’t know about,” she said. “Many thanks.”
    She took her books from the table and went up the stairs. Kern stayed for a while in the sitting room. Suddenly he knew all the things he should have said.
    * * *
    “Try it again, Steiner,” the cardsharp said. “Heaven knows I’m more nervous about your debut at that clip joint over there than if I were going to play at the Jockey Club.”
    They were sitting in the bar and Fred was giving Steiner a final rehearsal before turning him loose for the first time against a couple of minor cardsharps in a neighboring dive. This was the only way Steiner could see to get some money—aside, of course, from burglary and highway robbery.
    They practised the ace trick for about half an hour. Then the pickpocket was satisfied and got up. He was wearing a dinner coat. “I must be off now. To the opera. A big first-night crowd. Lotte Lehmann is singing. Really important art always makes good business for us. People get absent-minded, see?” He shook hands with Steiner. “One thing more that’s just occurred to me. How much money have you?”
    “Thirty-two schillings.”
    “That’s not enough. The boys will have to see more than that before they’ll bite.” He reached in his pocket and drew out a hundred-schilling note. “Here, pay for your coffee with this; then one of them will come up to you. Give the money back to the proprietor for me; he knows me. And now: play fast and look out when you get the four queens. They’re out for blood then!”
    Steiner took the bill. “If I lose this money I can’t pay you back.”
    The pickpocket shrugged his shoulders. “Then it’s gone and that’s all there is to