"Are you afraid?" demanded the kaiser sternly.
The Crown Prince was not to be bluffed like that.
"Maybe I am, and maybe I'm not," he said doggedly; "but I'm not going to be left in any such plight as this. You may wager on that, sir. If you abdicate in my favor, I shall follow suit, your majesty."
"As you will," said the kaiser. "I, at least, shall abdicate, and that at once. General Ludendorff; how soon can you have the necessary papers prepared?"
"I have already had them prepared, your majesty," was General Ludendorff's response. "I had hoped that you might see the light."
"Play the coward, you mean, eh?" said the kaiser. "But no matter. Put the paper before me and I shall sign."
From his pocket the general produced a long parchment, which he laid on the table. As his officers gathered about him, the German emperor read the paper carefully.
"You don't seem to have had much doubt about how I would act," he commented dryly. "Well, perhaps it is for the best."
He seized a pen and scrawled his name across the paper. He stepped back and looked at General Ludendorff.
"Perhaps," he said, "you have Had a similar paper drawn for the Crown Prince to sign?"