rankling in his mind, did not agree.

"It is not an affair closed," shouted Billy in his best French. "It
is an affair international, diplomatic; a cause for war!"

Believing he had gone mad, President Ham gazed at him speechless.

"From here I go to the cable Office, "shouted Billy. "I cable for
a warship! If, by to-night, I am not paid my money, marines will
surround our power-house, and the Wilmot people will back me up,
and my government will back me up!"

It was, so Billy thought, even as he launched it, a tirade
satisfying and magnificent. But in his turn the president did not
agree.

He rose. He was a large man. Billy wondered he had not previously
noticed how very large he was.

"To-night at nine o'clock," he said, "the German boat departs for
New York." As though aiming a pistol, he raised his arm and at
Billy pointed a finger. "If, after she departs, you are found in
Port-au-Prince, you will be shot! "

The audience-chamber was hung with great mirrors in frames of
tarnished gilt. In these Billy saw himself reproduced in a wavering
line of Billies that, like the ghost of Banquo, stretched to the
disappearing point. Of such images there was an army, but of the
real Billy, as he was acutely conscious, there was but one. Among
the black faces scowling from the doorways he felt the odds were