merica, whose ships
are already crowding the seas, and whose young manhood has taken the
oath which ours has taken. This isn't the time for peace. I am not
speaking in the dark when I tell you that we have a great movement
pending in the West which may completely alter the whole military
situation. Give us a chance. If you carry out your threat, you plunge
this country into revolution, you dishonour us in the face of our
Allies; you will go through the rest of your lives, every one of you,
with a guilt upon your souls, a stain upon your consciences, which
nothing will ever obliterate. You see, I have kept my word--I haven't
said much. I cannot ask for the armistice you suggest. If you take this
step you threaten--I do not deny its significance you will probably
stop the war. One of you will come in and take my place. There will be
turmoil, confusion, very likely bloodshed. I know what the issue will
be, and yet I know my duty. There is not one member of my Cabinet who is
not with me. We refuse your appeal."

Every one at the table seemed to be talking at the same time to every
one else. Then Cross's voice rose above the others. He rose to his feet
to ensure attention.

"Bishop," he said, "there is one point in what Mr. Stenson has been
saying which I think we might and ought to consider a little more fully,
and that is, what guarantees have we that Freistner really has the
people at the back of him, that he'll be able to cleanse that rat pit
at Berlin of the Hohenzollern and his clan of junkers--the most accursed
type of politician who ever breathed? We ought to be very sure about
this. Fenn's our man. What about it, Fenn?"

"Freistner's letters for weeks," Fenn answered, "have spoken of the
wonderful wave of socialistic feeling throughout the country. He is
an honest man, and he does not exaggerate. He assures us that half the
nation is pledged."

"One man," David Sands remarked thoughtfully. "If, there is a weak point
about this business, which I am not prepared wholly to admit, it is that
the entire job on that side seems to be run by one man. There's a score
of us. I should like to hear of more on the other side."

"It is strange," Mr. Stenson pointed out, "that so little news of this
gain of strength on the part of the Socialists has been allowed to
escape from Germany. However rigid their censorship, copies of German
newspapers reach us every day from neutral countries. I cannot believe
that Socialism has ma