"_C'est une chose jugee_!" thundered the president.
He reached for his quill pen.
But Billy, with Claire in his heart, with the injustice of it 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.
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