with accuracy; and you could carry it in your
mouth; or in your vest pocket, if you had one. I
made them of several sizes--one size so large that
it would carry the equivalent of a dollar. Using
shot for money was a good thing for the govern-
ment; the metal cost nothing, and the money
couldn't be counterfeited, for I was the only person
in the kingdom who knew how to manage a shot-
tower. "Paying the shot" soon came to be a com-
mon phrase. Yes, and I knew it would still be
passing men's lips, away down in the nineteenth
century, yet none would suspect how and when it
originated.

The king joined us, about this time, mightily
refreshed by his nap, and feeling good. Anything
could make me nervous now, I was so uneasy--for
our lives were in danger; and so it worried me to
detect a complacent something in the king's eye
which seemed to indicate that he had been loading
himself up for a performance of some kind or other;
confound it, why must he go and choose such
time as this?

I was right. He began, straight off, in the most
innocently artful, and transparent, and lubberly
way, to lead up to the subject of agriculture. The
cold sweat broke out all over me. I wanted to
whisper in his ear, "Man, we are in awful danger!
every moment is worth a principality till we get
back these men's confidence; don't waste any of this
golden time." But of course I couldn't do it.
Whisper to him? It would look as if we were con-
spiring. So I had to sit there and look calm and

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