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 made the advance
Freistner claims for it, and I agree with our friends, Mr.
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