Absently, I had taken off my white bandage and wound it about my right arm.

When the crowd noticed this, they began upon me.

They said: "Doubtless this sailor-man is his minister--observe his costly badge of office!" I let them go on until they got tired, and then I said: "Yes, I am his minister, The Boss; and to-morrow you will hear that from Camelot which--" I got no further.

They drowned me out with joyous derision.

But presently there was silence; for the sheriffs of London, in their official robes, with their subordinates, began to make a stir which indicated that business was about to begin.