xplained reprovingly, "there is one sign
that uses more bulbs than there are in the whole of Hayti!"

"New York is a large town!" exclaimed Claire.

"It's a large sign," corrected Billy. "But," he pointed out, "with no
money we'll never see it. So to-morrow I'm going to make a social call
on Grandpa Ham and demand my ten thousand francs."

Claire grasped his arm.

"Be careful," she pleaded. "Remember the chicken soup. If he offers you
the champagne, refuse it!"

"He won't offer me the champagne," Billy assured her. "It won't be that
kind of a call."

Billy left the Cafe Ducrot and made his way to the water-front. He was
expecting some electrical supplies by the _Prinz der Nederlanden_, and
she had already come to anchor.

He was late, and save for a group of his countrymen, who with the
customs officials were having troubles of their own, the customs shed
was all but deserted. Billy saw his freight cleared and was going away
when one of those in trouble signalled for assistance.

He was a good-looking young man in a Panama hat and his manner seemed to
take it for granted that Billy knew who he was.

"They want us to pay duty on our trunks," he explained, "and we want to
leave them in bond. We'll be here only until to-night, when we're going
on down the coast to Santo Domingo. But we don't speak French, and we
can't make them understand that."

"You don't need to speak any language to give a man ten dollars," said
Billy.

"Oh!" exclaimed the man in the Panama. "I was afraid if I tried that
they might arrest us."

"They may arrest you if you don't," said Billy.

Acting both as interpreter and disbursing agent, Billy satisfied the
demands of his fellow employees of the government, and his fellow
countrymen he directed to the Hotel Ducrot.

As some one was sure to take their money, he thought it might as well go
to his mother-in-law elect. The young man in the Panama expressed the
deepest gratitude, and Billy, assuring him he would see him later,
continued to the power-house, still wondering where he had seen him
before.

At the power-house he found seated at his desk a large, bearded stranger
whose derby hat and ready-to-wear clothes showed that he also had but
just arrived on the _Prinz der Nederlanden_.

"You William Barlow?" demanded the stranger. "I understand you been
threatening, unless you get your pay raised, to commit sabotage on these
works?"

"Who the devil are you?" inquired Billy.

The