crimes.

"And several he invented," agreed Billy.

"And you can't do it with a gun, because they tell me the president
isn't afraid of anything except a voodoo priestess. What is your
secret?" coaxed the consul. "If you'll only sell it, I know several
Powers that would give you your price. Billy smiled modestly.

"It's very simple," he said. "The first time my wages were shy I
went to the palace and told him if he didn't come across I'd shut
off the juice. I think he was so stunned at anybody asking him for
real money that while he was still stunned he opened his safe and
handed me two thousand francs. I think he did it more in admiration
for my nerve than because he owed it. The next time pay-day
arrived, and the pay did not, I didn't go to the palace. I just
went to bed, and the lights went to bed, too. You may remember?"
The consul snorted indignantly.

"I was holding three queens at the time," he protested. "Was it YOU
did that?"

"It was," said Billy. "The police came for me to start the current
going again, but I said I was too ill. Then the president's own
doctor came, old Gautier, and Gautier examined me with a lantern
and said that in Hayti my disease frequently proved fatal, but he
thought if I turned on the lights I might recover. I told him I was
tired of life, anyway, but that if I could see three thousand
francs it might give me an incentive. He reported back to the
president and the three thousand francs arrived almost instantly,