against him. Without making a reply he passed out between the racks
of rusty muskets in the anteroom, between the two Gatling guns
guarding the entrance, and on the palace steps, in indecision,
halted.

As Billy hesitated an officer followed him from the palace and
beckoned to the guard that sat in the bare dust of the Champ de
Mars playing cards for cartridges. Two abandoned the game, and,
having received their orders, picked their muskets from the dust
and stood looking expectantly at Billy.

They were his escort, and it was evident that until nine o'clock,
when he sailed, his movements would be spied upon; his acts
reported to the president.

Such being the situation, Billy determined that his first act to be
reported should be of a nature to cause the president active mental
anguish. With his guard at his heels he went directly to the cable
station, and to the Secretary of State of the United States
addressed this message: "President refuses my pay; threatens shoot;
wireless nearest war-ship proceed here full speed. William Barlow."

Billy and the director of telegraphs, who out of office hours was
a field-marshal, and when not in his shirt-sleeves always appeared
in uniform, went over each word of the cablegram together. When
Billy was assured that the field-marshal had grasped the full
significance of it he took it back and added, "Love to Aunt Maria."
The extra words cost four dollars and eighty cents gold, but, as
they suggested ties of blood between himself and the Secretary of
State, they seemed advisable. In the account-book in which he