'Pimpernel' Smith1941

[Smith now caught by the gestapo]

Professor Horatio Smith:
This must be a big moment for you.

General von Graum:
A minor satisfaction. I wanted to get you out of my system before I turn my mind to more important matters. You've become a great nuisance to me, professor - almost an obsession - but everything comes to an end.

Professor Horatio Smith:
What particular end did you plan for me?

General von Graum:
Need we go into details? At least it will be quick.

Professor Horatio Smith:
But violent, I suppose - a strange end for one who despises violence - at the hands of those who worship it. The new German God...

General von Graum:
Of course we worship it. Violence means power, and power crushes opposition. The epoch of the council chamber is over, Herr Professor. I tell you that power and strength and violence will rule the world!

Professor Horatio Smith:
Why are you sweating, my dear general? It isn't very warm. Are you afraid of something?

General von Graum:
Afraid? We Germans fear nothing

Professor Horatio Smith:
Ah. Because you have a pistol?

General von Graum:
Yes, I have a pistol. It has eight bullets. Eight lives.

Professor Horatio Smith:
And I have twenty-eight lives.

General von Graum:
Huh?

Professor Horatio Smith:
Scientists, men of letters, artists, doctors... Twenty-eight saved from your pagan pistol, and all you've got is my humble self. Not a very profitable transaction.

General von Graum:
Mm. We can afford to make a loss, our profits will be tremendous. Tonight we march against Poland, and tomorrow we'll see the dawn of a new order. We shall make a German empire of the world. Why do I talk to you? You are a dead man.

Professor Horatio Smith:
May a dead man say a few words to you, General, for your enlightenment? You will never rule the world... because you are doomed. All of you who have demoralized and corrupted a nation are doomed. Tonight you will take the first step along a dark road from which there is no turning back. You will have to go on and on, from one madness to another, leaving behind you a wilderness of misery and hatred. And still, you will have to go on... because you will find no horizon... and see no dawn... until at last you are lost and destroyed. You are doomed, Captain of Murderers, and one day, sooner or later, you will remember my words.

[Train whistles]