Chap­ter 17 begins with Vice-Bun­des­fuehrer August Krapp­tauer, whose unex­pect­ed burst of youth­ful ener­gy sur­pris­es every­one around him. He descends the stairs to retrieve Helga’s lug­gage from Jones’ lim­ou­sine, an action that caus­es imme­di­ate con­cern for both Jones and Kee­ley due to Krapptauer’s frail health and a heart con­di­tion. Despite their protests and clear appre­hen­sion about his phys­i­cal lim­i­ta­tions, Krapp­tauer insists that risk­ing his life for Howard Camp­bel­l’s wife—who is linked to Adolf Hitler—is a mat­ter of deep hon­or. How­ev­er, his deter­mi­na­tion trag­i­cal­ly proves to be too much for his weak­ened body as he col­laps­es and dies right in front of them.

The futile attempts to revive Krapp­tauer result in Dr. Abra­ham Epstein being called to con­firm his death. The con­fir­ma­tion is deliv­ered in a harsh and some­what insen­si­tive man­ner, which is typ­i­cal of Epstein’s no-non­sense approach to sit­u­a­tions. Despite the ten­sion between Jones, Kee­ley, and the doc­tor, a mutu­al respect exists, per­haps due to their shared his­to­ry and sim­i­lar ide­olo­gies. Jones, while express­ing sad­ness at Krapptauer’s death, cov­ers his body with a blan­ket and reflects on how Krapp­tauer had recent­ly begun to find new pur­pose in his life. He had start­ed orga­niz­ing a group called the Iron Guard of the White Sons of the Amer­i­can Con­sti­tu­tion, which aimed to unite young peo­ple in a dis­ci­plined man­ner, and was begin­ning to find mean­ing in this new ven­ture. The nos­tal­gia sur­round­ing Krapp­tauer paints him as a com­mit­ted and inspi­ra­tional fig­ure, one who hoped to instill val­ues of order and uni­ty in the younger gen­er­a­tion, and this loss res­onates deeply with those who knew him.

Jones goes on to rem­i­nisce about how Krapp­tauer had admired Camp­bell dur­ing his radio broad­casts, a ded­i­ca­tion that per­sist­ed even dur­ing Krapptauer’s impris­on­ment. He recalls how Krapp­tauer lis­tened with great atten­tion, almost reli­gious­ly, despite the hard­ships he faced. There’s a clear sense of respect in Jones’ voice as he talks about how he hoped Camp­bell would one day become the Ide­al­ism Offi­cer of the Iron Guard, some­one who could ele­vate the movement’s cause to new heights. This hope reflects the high regard in which Jones holds Camp­bell, believ­ing him to be a fig­ure capa­ble of inspir­ing young peo­ple to rise above the chaos that sur­rounds them. The con­ver­sa­tion becomes tinged with sad­ness, as they both acknowl­edge that Krapp­tauer had so much more to offer, par­tic­u­lar­ly with his vision for bring­ing togeth­er the youth of the nation under the ban­ner of the Iron Guard. The weight of missed oppor­tu­ni­ties feels espe­cial­ly heavy in light of his sud­den death, leav­ing both men to reflect on what might have been.

The ten­sion in the air thick­ens as Jones’ chauf­feur, Robert, enters the scene. Robert is no ordi­nary man; he is an elder­ly fig­ure with a com­pli­cat­ed his­to­ry as a for­mer Japan­ese ally and some­one who dubs him­self the “Black Fuehrer of Harlem.” His pres­ence imme­di­ate­ly dis­rupts the somber atmos­phere, as Robert makes no effort to greet Camp­bell and instead express­es a deep dis­dain for him. His remarks intro­duce a com­plete­ly dif­fer­ent ide­o­log­i­cal per­spec­tive, one root­ed in his belief that the racial pow­er dynam­ics of the future will shift dra­mat­i­cal­ly. Robert pre­dicts that the black pop­u­la­tion will rise up and even­tu­al­ly dom­i­nate, dis­plac­ing the white pop­u­lace, and this dec­la­ra­tion sets the stage for a charged dia­logue about race and iden­ti­ty. The ten­sion between Camp­bell and Robert builds quick­ly as their dif­fer­ing views come into sharp con­flict, espe­cial­ly as Camp­bell ques­tions Robert’s assump­tions about race, iden­ti­ty, and the future.

The con­ver­sa­tion turns increas­ing­ly uncom­fort­able as Robert’s rad­i­cal ideas chal­lenge Campbell’s own per­spec­tives, forc­ing him to grap­ple with dif­fi­cult ques­tions about race, pow­er, and soci­etal struc­ture. Robert’s words sug­gest a world that will be dra­mat­i­cal­ly dif­fer­ent from the one Camp­bell knows, one where the old pow­er struc­tures will no longer hold. This dia­logue, laced with his­tor­i­cal ref­er­ences and ten­sions, prompts Camp­bell to exam­ine his own beliefs and assump­tions about race and social order. The con­ver­sa­tion is not just ide­o­log­i­cal but deeply per­son­al, as both men con­front uncom­fort­able truths about their soci­ety and their roles with­in it. The conversation’s inten­si­ty reflects the larg­er theme of racial dis­cord and ten­sion that runs through­out the chap­ter, touch­ing on issues that are not just the­o­ret­i­cal but deeply tied to the char­ac­ters’ lives and futures.

The chap­ter cul­mi­nates in a tense stand­off between the two men, with ide­o­log­i­cal dif­fer­ences mak­ing clear the emo­tion­al and intel­lec­tu­al chasm that exists between them. Robert’s vision of a future dom­i­nat­ed by col­ored peo­ple direct­ly con­tra­dicts Campbell’s more tra­di­tion­al out­look on race, forc­ing the pro­tag­o­nist to reflect on the com­plex­i­ties of racial iden­ti­ty in a world that is shift­ing rapid­ly. This ide­o­log­i­cal clash speaks to the broad­er issues that Camp­bell and those around him are strug­gling with, high­light­ing the dif­fi­cul­ties of rec­on­cil­ing past beliefs with the chang­ing real­i­ties of their envi­ron­ment. The dis­cus­sion leaves the read­er ques­tion­ing the assump­tions each char­ac­ter holds and won­der­ing how these dif­fer­ing world­views will shape the events to come.