"I got you," assented St. Clair. "I'm to 'register' pride."
"Exactly!" said Billy. "The more pride you register, the better for us."
Inwardly cold with alarm, outwardly frigidly polite, Billy presented "Lieutenant Hardy." He had come, Billy explained, in answer to the call for help sent by himself to the Secretary of State, which by wireless had been communicated to the Louisiana. Lieutenant Hardy begged him to say to the president that he was desolate at having to approach His Excellency so unceremoniously. But His Excellency, having threatened the life of an American citizen, the captain of the Louisiana was forced to act quickly.
"And this officer?" demanded President Ham; "what does he want?"
"He says," Billy translated to St. Clair, "that he is very glad to meet you, and he wants to know how much you earn a week."
The actor suppressed his surprise and with pardonable pride said that his salary was six hundred dollars a week and royalties on each film.
Billy bowed to the president.
"He says," translated Billy, "he is here to see that I get my ten thousand francs, and that if I don't get them in ten minutes he will return to the ship and land marines."
To St. Clair it seemed as though the president received his statement as to the amount of his salary with a disapproval that was hardly flattering. With the heel of his giant fist the president beat upon the table, his curls shook, his gorilla-like shoulders heaved.
In an explanatory aside Billy made this clear.