Kurt

“ Kurt must be armed, for he would not be so confident unless he had a weapon he could now turn on Ross. On the other hand, if what Ross guessed were true, this was the time to play the hero—when there was only Kurt to handle. Better to be a dead hero than a live captive in the hands of Kurt's dear friends across the pole.
Without warning, Ross threw his body to the left, striving to pin Kurt against the driver's side of the cabin, his hands clawing at the fur ruff bordering the other's hood, trying for a throat hold. ”

“ He tottered to his feet and went out to find Kurt, bare feet jammed into sneakers, bare chest and bandages covered up with a jacket. He found Kurt cutting through the park, dragging his heels in the bloody dawn light.
Kurt looked at his expression, then said, “What happened?” He had his fists at his sides, he looked tensed to run. Alan felt that he was waiting for an order.
“He got away.”
“How?”
Alan shook his head. “Can you help me get dressed? I don’t think I can get a shirt on by myself.” ”

“ Kurt started and ran slowly by the damaged car.
"He knocked a wheel off. I'll have to send back."
"Oh, I thought it was all over when we hit!" said the girl.
Kurt experienced a relaxation that was weakening. He could hardly hold the wheel and his mood became one of exaltation.
"Father suspected this Ruenke," went on Lenore. "But he wanted to find out things from him. And I—I undertook—to twist Mr. Germany round my finger. I made a mess of it.... He lied. I didn't make love to him. But I listened to his love-making, and arrogant German love-making it was! ”

“ Was then enfellowed. "Yes," said I, "he's young.
Kurt, he is young; but see, a wiry frame;
A chamois footing and a face for deeds;
An eye that likes me not; too quick to turn;
But that may be the restless soul within;
A soul perhaps with virtues that have been
Severely tried and could not stand the test;
These be thy care, Kurt; and if not too deep
In vices of the flesh, discover them,
As divers bring lost riches up from ooze.
Thou hast a daughter; let him be thy son."
A year thereafter was it that I heard
Of Rudolf's passion for Kurt's Ilsabe ”

“ Trast. I should like a few words with you, Herr Muhlingk.
Kurt. Sorry, but I am very pressed for time; my father is waiting for me!
Trast. (Aside) Oho!-- (To Kurt) It's a personal favor.
Kurt. I have no secrets from my friends, Count. (They sit down)
Trast. Someone, a great friend of mine, has suffered deeply because of his honor. On my advice and as a favor to me he has foregone sending you a challenge.
Kurt. You are mistaken, Count; Herr Heinecke received satisfaction. ”

“ Kurt ground his fists into his eyes and groaned. “I’m such a fuck-up,” he said.
Alan tugged Kurt’s hand away from his face. “Stop that. You’re an extraordinary person. I’ve never met anyone who has the gifts you possess, and I’ve met some gifted people. You should be very proud of the work you’re doing, and you should be with someone who’s equally proud of you.” ”

“ Kurt with Lux and his enterprising sister Clevi were at the extreme front.
When it became very still, Kurt turned around.
"Come along! Where are you all?" he called back.
"We are coming," several voices answered from some children immediately behind him. It was Max, Hans and Simi, and then Stoffi and Rudi behind them, but they were all. Kurt halted.
"Where is the whole troup?" asked Kurt. "Let us wait till they catch up. We must all stay together up there." ”

“ With his hand on his gun and hugging the bulging coat pockets close to him, Kurt settled himself for what he believed would be interminable hours. He strained eyes and ears for a possible attack from the riffraff I.W.W. men hidden there in the car. ”

“ By so much he overtops his younger brother Kurt, in a literal sense; and Kurt has definitively abandoned the idea of rivalling his senior, who has in so marked a degree the high slender stature of the Zehrens, and will evidently be even taller than his tall father. But Kurt has no cause to complain: he has the deep chest, the long powerful arms, and, under thick curly hair, the broad brow, of the workman. He is very modest and unpretending ”

“ This answer put the mettled Kurt into some perplexity; and tuned him to another key. “Wait a little, neighbour,” said he; “perhaps my master knows about the thing.” Thereupon he ran to the Count, and whispered the tidings in his ear. The feeling they awoke was complex; made up in equal proportions of joy and consternation. Count Ernst perceived that his dream, or the interpretation of it, had misled him; and that the conceit of marrying his fair travelling companion might easily be baulked. ”

“ She looked at the car wistfully.
“I haven’t been in this poor, little old car since that first ride to Top Hill,” she said reminiscently.
He made no reply, but got into the car and put his hand on the wheel.
“Jo!”
“Well,” he answered in the tone of one balked in his intentions.
“He’ll get over it.”
“No; men like Kurt don’t get over anything like that. I know what it is to love 259 without hope. I am sorry for Kurt. You’ll be sorry for him, too, some day.” ”

“ Kurt and Conrad gave themselves great airs, for, being tall and robust and well skilled in all games of strength, they laid down the law whenever they appeared on the village green, and bragged so loudly that most people were afraid to contradict them, more especially as their father backed them up in everything. He thought they could do no wrong, whereas Hans was always wrong and of no use at all; he ought, in fact, to have been a girl, always pinned to his mother’s apron-string. ”

“ From a very intelligible feeling of shyness I had refrained from telling Paula what it was that lay so heavy on my mind; but Kurt, who worked in the establishment under Klaus's direction, and almost every evening, when he came from work, spent an hour with me, could not be kept ignorant of what I had in hand, and he had told all to his sister.
"You must not be angry with Kurt for it," said Paula; "he cannot imagine that you would wish to keep anything secret from your sister." ”

“ With an old blunderbuss of a shot-gun he had routed the I.W.W. It meant relief to Olsen's men; but Kurt had yet no satisfaction for the burning of his wheat, for the cruel shock that had killed his father.
"Come on, Olsen!" he yelled, at the top of his lungs. "They're a lot of cowards!"
Then in his wild eagerness he leaped off the car. The long jump landed him jarringly, but he did not fall or lose hold of the gun. Recovering his balance, he broke into a run. Kurt was fast on his feet. Not a young man of his neighborhood nor any of his college-mates could outfoot him in a race. ”

“ Trius has occasion to frighten with a stick," said the mother. "I hope that it won't ever happen to you."
"Oh, he often threatens innocent people," Kurt replied. "Listen to a true description of him."
The mother could not help smiling a little bit during the perusal, but now she said seriously: "This song must under no condition fall into Mr. Trius' hands. He might not look at it as a joke, and you must not offend him. I advise you, Kurt, not to challenge Mr. Trius in any way, for he might reply to you in some unexpected fashion. He has his own ways and means of getting rid of people." ”

“ From him?" demanded Kurt. "What is he?"
"He's a German!" returned Lenore, and red burned out of the white of her cheeks. "Secret agent—I.W.W.!... Plotter against my father's life!... Oh, he knocked father off the car—dragged him!... He ran the car away—with me—forced me back—he struck me!... Oh, if I were a man!"
Nash responded with a passion that made his face drip with sweat and distort into savage fury of defeat and hate.
"You two-faced cat!" he hissed. "You made love to me! You fooled me! You let me—"
"Shut up!" thundered Kurt. "You German dog! I can't murder you, because I'm American. ”

“ The Count clapped loud applause to this well-grounded scheme of his wise Squire; it was as if the mettled Kurt had read it in his master’s eyes. Whether the fulfilment of it might be clogged with difficulties or not, was a point not taken into view in the first fire of the romantic project: Love removes all mountains, overleaps walls and trenches, bounds across abyss and chasm, and steps the barrier of a city as lightly as it does a straw. At the next lecture, the Count disclosed the plan to his beloved catechumena. ”

“ Kurt's laugh was full of anger, not amusement. "Oh, yes. They have many tricks here. They are big brains, eggheads, all of them with their favorite gadgets. They put you through a machine to get you registered on a tape. Then, my boy, you cannot get outside the base without ringing all the alarms! Neat, eh? So if you want to make a break, you must try it before they tape you."
Ross did not trust Kurt, but he was listening to him attentively. ”

“ You drink like a fish, swagger and bully like a sergeant-major--all very well, and most pleasing to me. But do you think that you can go on loafing infinitum?"
Kurt controlled his resentment with difficulty.
"I don't understand, father," he said, "how you can call it loafing. Periods of inactive development are as necessary to the mind as the winter-time of hibernating is to Nature. While I am to all appearances idle, I work incessantly at my individuality. I cultivate my manhood; my personality is maturing. That is worth more than any book learning." ”

“ Kurt commanded. "There are eight of us left to sing, so we must all sing very loud."
On they went speedily till they could see the end of the woods. One of the gray towers was peering between the trees. They had at last reached their goal.
"Here we stop!" said Kurt, "but we must not go outside the woods. The Wildenstein ghost might otherwise step up to us, if he walks around the terrace. Here we go!"
Kurt began and all the others vigorously joined him:
Everything was quiet roundabout, only the night wind was soughing in the old pine-trees. ”

“ Kurt, wrapped in his thoughts, walked heedlessly, and at last broke out again. "I've always felt young before, Smallways, but this morning I feel old--old. So old! Nearer to death than old men feel. And I've always thought life was a lark. It isn't.... This sort of thing has always been happening, I suppose--these things, wars and earthquakes, that sweep across all the decency of life. It's just as though I had woke up to it all for the first time. Every night since we were at New York I've dreamt of it.... And it's always been so--it's the way of life. ”

“ I carn' stand this," he said, and crept back from the rocks to the grass and crouched down, and suddenly wild sorrow for the death of Kurt, Kurt the brave, Kurt the kindly, came to his help and he broke from whimpering to weeping. He ceased to crouch; he sprawled upon the grass and clenched an impotent fist.
"This war," he cried, "this blarsted foolery of a war.
"O Kurt! Lieutenant Kurt!
"I done," he said, "I done. I've 'ad all I want, and more than I want. The world's all rot, and there ain't no sense in it. The night's coming.... If 'E comes after me--'E can't come after me--'E can't!... ”

“ He wants his money."
"Neuman holds the small end of that debt. I'll pay him. Anderson can wait."
Kurt felt no amaze. He expected anything. But he could scarcely contain his fury. How this old man, his father, whom he had loved—how he had responded to the influences that must destroy him!
"Anderson shall not wait," declared Kurt. "I've got some say in this matter. I've worked like a dog in those wheat-fields. I've a right to demand Anderson's money. He needs it. He has a tremendous harvest on his hands."
Old Dorn shook his huge head in somber and gloomy thought. ”

“ In a fury the old man had driven Jansen out into the road.
Sober and moody, Kurt put the horses away, and, washing the dust grime from sunburnt face and hands, he went to his little attic room, where he changed his damp and sweaty clothes. Then he went down to supper with mind made up to be lenient and silent with his old and sorely tried father.
Chris Dorn sat in the light of the kitchen lamps. He was a huge man with a great, round, bullet-shaped head and a shock of gray hair and bristling, grizzled beard. His face was broad, heavy, and seemed sodden with dark, brooding thought. ”

“ To one who was supremely impatient of restraint, the methods and aims of Kurt's employers were not only impossibly fantastic and illogical—they were to be opposed to the last ounce of any man's energy. ”

“ The mother looked a little frightened. "Are the two others his comrades, the Knippel boys?"
Kurt assented.
"I hope everything will go well," she continued. "When those three are together outside of school they always quarrel. When we came here first I was so glad that Bruno would have them for friends, but now I am in continual fear that they will clash."
"Yes, mother," Kurt asserted, "you would never have been glad of that friendship if you had really known them. Wherever they can harm anybody they are sure to do it, and always behind people's backs. ”

“ Kurt could not swim, and René hauled him out and screamed at him:
“You deserve to be killed! You deserve to be killed! Taking the bridge like that.”
Kurt grinned:
“You don’t know how funny you looked in the bath-chair toppling over. What a smash! What idiots to have a bridge like that. It’s no good for anything except a push-bike. I’ll get a car if the insurance people stump up.”
René was really shocked at his callousness, and as they sat in blankets while their clothes were being dried, he took him to task, delivered himself of a pedagogic exhortation and ended by saying:
“Kurt! Kurt! ”

“ His big red hands worked. "If fire starts we've got to hev a lot of men.... By Gawd! if I ain't mad!"
"Don't quit, Jerry," said Kurt, fiercely. "You never can tell. It looks hopeless. But we'll never give up. Hustle now!"
Jerry shuffled off as old Dorn came haltingly, as if stunned, toward Kurt. But Kurt did not want to face his father at that moment. He needed to fight to keep up his own courage.
"Never mind that!" yelled Kurt, pointing at Olsen's hill. "Keep looking for those damned pieces of phosphorus!" ”