“No,” Phil replied quickly; “unless it’s yours.”
“It belongs to the emperor of Germany,” was the rather startling announcement.
The boy was silent for some moments. He was in doubt at first whether to believe “the count’s” statement or to regard it as a bit of frivolous fiction. Then he decided it was best to appear, at least, to accept it as worthy of his credence.
“Is that so?” he said with affected eagerness of interest. “I’ll have something big to tell my friends when I get back home—that I rode in the kaiser’s car.”
“That is, if you ever get back home,” interposed “the count.”
“To be sure,” Phil agreed quickly. “The fortunes of war are very uncertain.”
“Yes, in most wars; but in this war the fortunes and misfortunes are absolutely fixed and have been fixed ever since it started,” said Topoff, with unpleasant insinuation in his tone of voice. “I suppose you know how this war is going to result.”
“No, I can’t say that I do. Can you tell me how it’s going to result?”
“Certainly. It’s going to result in complete victory for the central allies. You ought to have been able to answer that question.”
“I suppose so,” Phil returned slowly. “But the question that now interests me most is, what is going to become of me in the meantime?”