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diff --git a/3418-0.txt b/3418-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9ba7f11 --- /dev/null +++ b/3418-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4155 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook of Captain Brassbound’s Conversion, by George Bernard Shaw + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and +most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms +of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you +will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before +using this eBook. + +Title: Captain Brassbound’s Conversion + +Author: George Bernard Shaw + +Release Date: April 11, 2001 [eBook #3418] +[Most recently updated: August 18, 2021] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +Produced by: Eve Sobol and David Widger + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAPTAIN BRASSBOUND’S CONVERSION *** + + + + +CAPTAIN BRASSBOUND'S CONVERSION + +By Bernard Shaw + + + + +ACT I + +On the heights overlooking the harbor of Mogador, a seaport on the west +coast of Morocco, the missionary, in the coolness of the late afternoon, +is following the precept of Voltaire by cultivating his garden. He is +an elderly Scotchman, spiritually a little weatherbeaten, as having to +navigate his creed in strange waters crowded with other craft but still +a convinced son of the Free Church and the North African Mission, with +a faithful brown eye, and a peaceful soul. Physically a wiry small-knit +man, well tanned, clean shaven, with delicate resolute features and +a twinkle of mild humor. He wears the sun helmet and pagri, the +neutral-tinted spectacles, and the white canvas Spanish sand shoes of +the modern Scotch missionary: but instead of a cheap tourist's suit from +Glasgow, a grey flannel shirt with white collar, a green sailor knot tie +with a cheap pin in it, he wears a suit of clean white linen, acceptable +in color, if not in cut, to the Moorish mind. + +The view from the garden includes much Atlantic Ocean and a long stretch +of sandy coast to the south, swept by the north east trade wind, +and scantily nourishing a few stunted pepper trees, mangy palms, and +tamarisks. The prospect ends, as far as the land is concerned, in +little hills that come nearly to the sea: rudiments, these, of the Atlas +Mountains. The missionary, having had daily opportunities of looking at +this seascape for thirty years or so, pays no heed to it, being absorbed +in trimming a huge red geranium bush, to English eyes unnaturally +big, which, with a dusty smilax or two, is the sole product of his pet +flower-bed. He is sitting to his work on a Moorish stool. In the middle +of the garden there is a pleasant seat in the shade of a tamarisk tree. +The house is in the south west corner of the garden, and the geranium +bush in the north east corner. + +At the garden-door of the house there appears presently a man who is +clearly no barbarian, being in fact a less agreeable product peculiar +to modern commercial civilization. His frame and flesh are those of an +ill-nourished lad of seventeen; but his age is inscrutable: only the +absence of any sign of grey in his mud colored hair suggests that he is +at all events probably under forty, without prejudice to the possibility +of his being under twenty. A Londoner would recognize him at once as an +extreme but hardy specimen of the abortion produced by nature in a city +slum. His utterance, affectedly pumped and hearty, and naturally vulgar +and nasal, is ready and fluent: nature, a Board School education, and +some kerbstone practice having made him a bit of an orator. His dialect, +apart from its base nasal delivery, is not unlike that of smart London +society in its tendency to replace diphthongs by vowels (sometimes +rather prettily) and to shuffle all the traditional vowel +pronunciations. He pronounces ow as ah, and i as aw, using the ordinary +ow for o, i for a, a for u, and e for a, with this reservation, that +when any vowel is followed by an r he signifies its presence, not by +pronouncing the r, which he never does under these circumstances, but by +prolonging and modifyinq the vowel, sometimes even to the extreme degree +of pronouncing it properly. As to his yol for l (a compendious delivery +of the provincial eh-al), and other metropolitan refinements, amazing to +all but cockneys, they cannot be indicated, save in the above imperfect +manner, without the aid of a phonetic alphabet. He is dressed in +somebody else's very second best as a coast-guardsman, and gives himself +the airs of a stage tar with sufficient success to pass as a possible +fish porter of bad character in casual employment during busy times +at Billingsgate. His manner shows an earnest disposition to ingratiate +himself with the missionary, probably for some dishonest purpose. + +THE MAN. Awtenoon, Mr. Renkin. (The missionary sits up quickly, and +turns, resigning himself dutifully to the interruption.) Yr honor's +eolth. + +RANKIN (reservedly). Good afternoon, Mr. Drinkwotter. + +DRINKWATER. You're not best pleased to be hinterrupted in yr bit o +gawdnin bow the lawk o me, gavner. + +RANKIN. A missionary knows nothing of leks of that soart, or of disleks +either, Mr. Drinkwotter. What can I do for ye? + +DRINKWATER (heartily). Nathink, gavner. Awve brort noos fer yer. + +RANKIN. Well, sit ye doon. + +DRINKWATER. Aw thenk yr honor. (He sits down on the seat under the tree +and composes himself for conversation.) Hever ear o Jadge Ellam? + +RANKIN. Sir Howrrd Hallam? + +DRINKWATER. Thet's im-enginest jadge in Hingland!--awlus gives the ket +wen it's robbry with voylence, bless is awt. Aw sy nathink agin im: awm +all fer lor mawseolf, AW em. + +RANKIN. Well? + +DRINKWATER. Hever ear of is sist-in-lor: Lidy Sisly Winefleet? + +RANKIN. Do ye mean the celebrated Leddy--the traveller? + +DRINKWATER. Yuss: should think aw doo. Walked acrost Harfricar with +nathink but a little dawg, and wrowt abaht it in the Dily Mile (the +Daily Mail, a popular London newspaper), she did. + +RANKIN. Is she Sir Howrrd Hallam's sister-in-law? + +DRINKWATER. Deeceased wawfe's sister: yuss: thet's wot SHE is. + +RANKIN. Well, what about them? + +DRINKWATER. Wot abaht them! Waw, they're EAH. Lannid aht of a steam +yacht in Mogador awber not twenty minnits agow. Gorn to the British +cornsl's. E'll send em orn to you: e ynt got naowheres to put em. Sor em +awr (hire) a Harab an two Krooboys to kerry their laggige. Thort awd cam +an teoll yer. + +RANKIN. Thank you. It's verra kind of you, Mr. Drinkwotter. + +DRINKWATER. Down't mention it, gavner. Lor bless yer, wawn't it you as +converted me? Wot was aw wen aw cam eah but a pore lorst sinner? Down't +aw ow y'a turn fer thet? Besawds, gavner, this Lidy Sisly Winefleet mawt +wor't to tike a walk crost Morocker--a rawd inter the mahntns or sech +lawk. Weoll, as you knaow, gavner, thet cawn't be done eah withaht a +hescort. + +RANKIN. It's impoassible: th' would oall b' murrdered. Morocco is not +lek the rest of Africa. + +DRINKWATER. No, gavner: these eah Moors ez their religion; an it mikes +em dinegerous. Hever convert a Moor, gavner? + +RANKIN (with a rueful smile). No. + +DRINKWATER (solemnly). Nor never will, gavner. + +RANKIN. I have been at work here for twenty-five years, Mr. Drinkwotter; +and you are my first and only convert. + +DRINKWATER. Down't seem naow good, do it, gavner? + +RANKIN. I don't say that. I hope I have done some good. They come to me +for medicine when they are ill; and they call me the Christian who is +not a thief. THAT is something. + +DRINKWATER. Their mawnds kennot rawse to Christiennity lawk hahrs +ken, gavner: thet's ah it is. Weoll, ez haw was syin, if a hescort +is wornted, there's maw friend and commawnder Kepn Brarsbahnd of the +schooner Thenksgivin, an is crew, incloodin mawseolf, will see the lidy +an Jadge Ellam through henny little excursion in reason. Yr honor mawt +mention it. + +RANKIN. I will certainly not propose anything so dangerous as an +excursion. + +DRINKWATER (virtuously). Naow, gavner, nor would I awst you to. (Shaking +his head.) Naow, naow: it IS dinegerous. But hall the more call for a +hescort if they should ev it hin their mawnds to gow. + +RANKIN. I hope they won't. + +DRINKWATER. An sow aw do too, gavner. + +RANKIN (pondering). 'Tis strange that they should come to Mogador, of +all places; and to my house! I once met Sir Howrrd Hallam, years ago. + +DRINKWATER (amazed). Naow! didger? Think o thet, gavner! Waw, sow aw did +too. But it were a misunnerstedin, thet wors. Lef the court withaht a +stine on maw kerrickter, aw did. + +RANKIN (with some indignation). I hope you don't think I met Sir Howrrd +in that way. + +DRINKWATER. Mawt yeppn to the honestest, best meanin pusson, aw do +assure yer, gavner. + +RANKIN. I would have you to know that I met him privately, Mr. +Drinkwotter. His brother was a dear friend of mine. Years ago. He went +out to the West Indies. + +DRINKWATER. The Wust Hindies! Jist acrost there, tather sawd thet +howcean (pointing seaward)! Dear me! We cams hin with vennity, an we +deepawts in dawkness. Down't we, gavner? + +RANKIN (pricking up his ears). Eh? Have you been reading that little +book I gave you? + +DRINKWATER. Aw hev, et odd tawms. Very camfitn, gavner. (He rises, +apprehensive lest further catechism should find him unprepared.) Awll +sy good awtenoon, gavner: you're busy hexpectin o Sr Ahrd an Lidy Sisly, +ynt yer? (About to go.) + +RANKIN (stopping him). No, stop: we're oalways ready for travellers +here. I have something else to say--a question to ask you. + +DRINKWATER (with a misgiving, which he masks by exaggerating his hearty +sailor manner). An weollcome, yr honor. + +RANKIN. Who is this Captain Brassbound? + +DRINKWATER (guiltily). Kepn Brarsbahnd! E's-weoll, e's maw Kepn, gavner. + +RANKIN. Yes. Well? + +DRINKWATER (feebly). Kepn of the schooner Thenksgivin, gavner. + +RANKIN (searchingly). Have ye ever haird of a bad character in these +seas called Black Paquito? + +DRINKWATER (with a sudden radiance of complete enlightenment). Aoh, nar +aw tikes yer wiv me, yr honor. Nah sammun es bin a teolln you thet Kepn +Brarsbahnd an Bleck Pakeetow is hawdentically the sime pussn. Ynt thet +sow? + +RANKIN. That is so. (Drinkwater slaps his knee triumphantly. The +missionary proceeds determinedly) And the someone was a verra honest, +straightforward man, as far as I could judge. + +DRINKWATER (embracing the implication). Course a wors, gavner: Ev aw +said a word agin him? Ev aw nah? + +RANKIN. But is Captain Brassbound Black Paquito then? + +DRINKWATER. Waw, it's the nime is blessed mather give im at er +knee, bless is little awt! Ther ynt naow awm in it. She ware a Wust +Hinjin--howver there agin, yer see (pointing seaward)--leastwaws, naow +she worn't: she were a Brazilian, aw think; an Pakeetow's Brazilian for +a bloomin little perrit--awskin yr pawdn for the word. (Sentimentally) +Lawk as a Hinglish lidy mawt call er little boy Birdie. + +RANKIN (not quite convinced). But why BLACK Paquito? + +DRINKWATER (artlessly). Waw, the bird in its netral stite bein green, an +e evin bleck air, y' knaow-- + +RANKIN (cutting him short). I see. And now I will put ye another +question. WHAT is Captain Brassbound, or Paquito, or whatever he calls +himself? + +DRINKWATER (officiously). Brarsbahnd, gavner. Awlus calls isseolf +Brarsbahnd. + +RANKIN. Well. Brassbound, then. What is he? + +DRINKWATER (fervently). You awsks me wot e is, gavner? + +RANKIN (firmly). I do. + +DRINKWATER (with rising enthusiasm). An shll aw teoll yer wot e is, yr +honor? + +RANKIN (not at all impressed). If ye will be so good, Mr. Drinkwotter. + +DRINKWATER (with overwhelming conviction). Then awll teoll you, gavner, +wot he is. Ee's a Paffick Genlmn: thet's wot e is. + +RANKIN (gravely). Mr. Drinkwotter: pairfection is an attribute, not +of West Coast captains, but of thr Maaker. And there are gentlemen and +gentlemen in the world, espaecially in these latitudes. Which sort of +gentleman is he? + +DRINKWATER. Hinglish genlmn, gavner. Hinglish speakin; Hinglish fawther; +West Hinjin plawnter; Hinglish true blue breed. (Reflectively) Tech o +brahn from the mather, preps, she bein Brazilian. + +RANKIN. Now on your faith as a Christian, Felix Drinkwotter, is Captain +Brassbound a slaver or not? + +DRINKWATER (surprised into his natural cockney pertness). Naow e ynt. + +RANKIN. Are ye SURE? + +DRINKWATER. Waw, a sliver is abaht the wanne thing in the wy of a genlmn +o fortn thet e YNT. + +RANKIN. I've haird that expression "gentleman of fortune" before, Mr. +Drinkwotter. It means pirate. Do ye know that? + +DRINKWATER. Bless y'r awt, y' cawnt be a pawrit naradys. Waw, the aw +seas is wuss pleest nor Piccadilly Suckus. If aw was to do orn thet +there Hetlentic Howcean the things aw did as a bwoy in the Worterleoo +Rowd, awd ev maw air cat afore aw could turn maw ed. Pawrit be +blaowed!--awskink yr pawdn, gavner. Nah, jest to shaow you ah little +thet there striteforard man y' mide mention on knaowed wot e was atorkin +abaht: oo would you spowse was the marster to wich Kepn Brarsbahnd +served apprentice, as yr mawt sy? + +RANKIN. I don't know. + +DRINKWATER. Gawdn, gavner, Gawdn. Gawdn o Kawtoom--stetcher stends in +Trifawlgr Square to this dy. Trined Bleck Pakeetow in smawshin hap the +slive riders, e did. Promist Gawdn e wouldn't never smaggle slives nor +gin, an (with suppressed aggravation) WOWN'T, gavner, not if we gows +dahn on ahr bloomin bended knees to im to do it. + +RANKIN (drily). And DO ye go down on your bended knees to him to do it? + +DRINKWATER (somewhat abashed). Some of huz is hanconverted men, gavner; +an they sy: You smaggles wanne thing, Kepn; waw not hanather? + +RANKIN. We've come to it at last. I thought so. Captain Brassbound is a +smuggler. + +DRINKWATER. Weoll, waw not? Waw not, gavner? Ahrs is a Free Tride +nition. It gows agin us as Hinglishmen to see these bloomin furriners +settin ap their Castoms Ahses and spheres o hinfluence and sich lawk +hall owver Arfricar. Daown't Harfricar belong as much to huz as to them? +thet's wot we sy. Ennywys, there ynt naow awm in ahr business. All we +daz is hescort, tourist HOR commercial. Cook's hexcursions to the Hatlas +Mahntns: thet's hall it is. Waw, it's spreadin civlawzytion, it is. Ynt +it nah? + +RANKIN. You think Captain Brassbound's crew sufficiently equipped for +that, do you? + +DRINKWATER. Hee-quipped! Haw should think sow. Lawtnin rawfles, twelve +shots in the meggezine! Oo's to storp us? + +RANKIN. The most dangerous chieftain in these parts, the Sheikh Sidi el +Assif, has a new American machine pistol which fires ten bullets without +loadin; and his rifle has sixteen shots in the magazine. + +DRINKWATER (indignantly). Yuss; an the people that sells sich +things into the ends o' them eathen bleck niggers calls theirseolves +Christians! It's a crool shime, sow it is. + +RANKIN. If a man has the heart to pull the trigger, it matters little +what color his hand is, Mr. Drinkwotter. Have ye anything else to say to +me this afternoon? + +DRINKWATER (rising). Nathink, gavner, cept to wishyer the bust o yolth, +and a many cornverts. Awtenoon, gavner. + +RANKIN. Good afternoon to ye, Mr. Drinkwotter. + +As Drinkwater turns to go, a Moorish porter comes from the house with +two Krooboys. + +THE PORTER (at the door, addressing Rankin). Bikouros (Moroccan for +Epicurus, a general Moorish name for the missionaries, who are supposed +by the Moors to have chosen their calling through a love of luxurious +idleness): I have brought to your house a Christian dog and his woman. + +DRINKWATER. There's eathen menners fer yer! Calls Sr Ahrd Ellam an Lidy +Winefleet a Christian dorg and is woman! If ee ed you in the dorck +et the Centl Crimnal, you'd fawnd aht oo was the dorg and oo was is +marster, pretty quick, you would. + +RANKIN. Have you broat their boxes? + +THE PORTER. By Allah, two camel loads! + +RANKIN. Have you been paid? + +THE PORTER. Only one miserable dollar, Bikouros. I have brought them to +your house. They will pay you. Give me something for bringing gold to +your door. + +DRINKWATER. Yah! You oughter bin bawn a Christian, you ought. You knaow +too mach. + +RANKIN. You have broat onnly trouble and expense to my door, Hassan; +and you know it. Have I ever charged your wife and children for my +medicines? + +HASSAN (philosophically). It is always permitted by the Prophet to ask, +Bikouros. (He goes cheerfully into the house with the Krooboys.) + +DRINKWATER. Jist thort eed trah it orn, a did. Hooman nitre is the sime +everywheres. Them eathens is jast lawk you an' me, gavner. + +A lady and gentleman, both English, come into the garden. The gentleman, +more than elderly, is facing old age on compulsion, not resignedly. He +is clean shaven, and has a brainy rectangular forehead, a resolute nose +with strongly governed nostrils, and a tightly fastened down mouth which +has evidently shut in much temper and anger in its time. He has a habit +of deliberately assumed authority and dignity, but is trying to take +life more genially and easily in his character of tourist, which is +further borne out by his white hat and summery racecourse attire. + +The lady is between thirty and forty, tall, very goodlooking, +sympathetic, intelligent, tender and humorous, dressed with cunning +simplicity not as a businesslike, tailor made, gaitered tourist, but as +if she lived at the next cottage and had dropped in for tea in blouse +and flowered straw hat. A woman of great vitality and humanity, who +begins a casual acquaintance at the point usually attained by English +people after thirty years acquaintance when they are capable of reaching +it at all. She pounces genially on Drinkwater, who is smirking at her, +hat in hand, with an air of hearty welcome. The gentleman, on the other +hand, comes down the side of the garden next the house, instinctively +maintaining a distance between himself and the others. + +THE LADY (to Drinkwater). How dye do? Are you the missionary? + +DRINKWATER (modestly). Naow, lidy, aw will not deceive you, thow the +mistike his but netral. Awm wanne of the missionary's good works, +lidy--is first cornvert, a umble British seaman--countrymen o yours, +lidy, and of is lawdship's. This eah is Mr. Renkin, the bust worker in +the wust cowst vawnyawd. (Introducing the judge) Mr. Renkin: is lawdship +Sr Ahrd Ellam. (He withdraws discreetly into the house.) + +SIR HOWARD (to Rankin). I am sorry to intrude on you, Mr. Rankin; but in +the absence of a hotel there seems to be no alternative. + +LADY CICELY (beaming on him). Besides, we would so much RATHER stay with +you, if you will have us, Mr. Rankin. + +SIR HOWARD (introducing her). My sister-in-law, Lady Cicely Waynflete, +Mr. Rankin. + +RANKIN. I am glad to be of service to your leddyship. You will be +wishing to have some tea after your journey, I'm thinking. + +LADY CICELY. Thoughtful man that you are, Mr. Rankin! But we've had +some already on board the yacht. And I've arranged everything with your +servants; so you must go on gardening just as if we were not here. + +SIR HOWARD. I am sorry to have to warn you, Mr. Rankin, that Lady +Cicely, from travelling in Africa, has acquired a habit of walking into +people's houses and behaving as if she were in her own. + +LADY CICELY. But, my dear Howard, I assure you the natives like it. + +RANKIN (gallantly). So do I. + +LADY CICELY (delighted). Oh, that is so nice of you, Mr. Rankin. This +is a delicious country! And the people seem so good! They have such +nice faces! We had such a handsome Moor to carry our luggage up! And two +perfect pets of Krooboys! Did you notice their faces, Howard? + +SIR HOWARD. I did; and I can confidently say, after a long experience of +faces of the worst type looking at me from the dock, that I have never +seen so entirely villainous a trio as that Moor and the two Krooboys, to +whom you gave five dollars when they would have been perfectly satisfied +with one. + +RANKIN (throwing up his hands). Five dollars! 'Tis easy to see you are +not Scotch, my leddy. + +LADY CICELY. Oh, poor things, they must want it more than we do; and you +know, Howard, that Mahometans never spend money in drink. + +RANKIN. Excuse me a moment, my leddy. I have a word in season to say to +that same Moor. (He goes into the house.) + +LADY CICELY (walking about the garden, looking at the view and at the +flowers). I think this is a perfectly heavenly place. + +Drinkwater returns from the house with a chair. + +DRINKWATER (placing the chair for Sir Howard). Awskink yr pawdn for the +libbety, Sr Ahrd. + +SIR HOWARD (looking a him). I have seen you before somewhere. + +DRINKWATER. You ev, Sr Ahrd. But aw do assure yer it were hall a +mistike. + +SIR HOWARD. As usual. (He sits down.) Wrongfully convicted, of course. + +DRINKWATER (with sly delight). Naow, gavner. (Half whispering, with an +ineffable grin) Wrorngfully hacquittid! + +SIR HOWARD. Indeed! That's the first case of the kind I have ever met. + +DRINKWATER. Lawd, Sr Ahrd, wot jagginses them jurymen was! You an me +knaowed it too, didn't we? + +SIR HOWARD. I daresay we did. I am sorry to say I forget the exact +nature of the difficulty you were in. Can you refresh my memory? + +DRINKWATER. Owny the aw sperrits o youth, y' lawdship. Worterleoo Rowd +kice. Wot they calls Ooliganism. + +SIR HOWARD. Oh! You were a Hooligan, were you? + +LADY CICELY (puzzled). A Hooligan! + +DRINKWATER (deprecatingly). Nime giv huz pore thortless leds baw a gent +on the Dily Chrornicle, lidy. (Rankin returns. Drinkwater immediately +withdraws, stopping the missionary for a moment near the threshold to +say, touching his forelock) Awll eng abaht within ile, gavner, hin kice +aw should be wornted. (He goes into the house with soft steps.) + +Lady Cicely sits down on the bench under the tamarisk. Rankin takes his +stool from the flowerbed and sits down on her left, Sir Howard being on +her right. + +LADY CICELY. What a pleasant face your sailor friend has, Mr. Rankin! He +has been so frank and truthful with us. You know I don't think anybody +can pay me a greater compliment than to be quite sincere with me at +first sight. It's the perfection of natural good manners. + +SIR HOWARD. You must not suppose, Mr. Rankin, that my sister-in-law +talks nonsense on purpose. She will continue to believe in your friend +until he steals her watch; and even then she will find excuses for him. + +RANKIN (drily changing the subject). And how have ye been, Sir Howrrd, +since our last meeting that morning nigh forty year ago down at the +docks in London? + +SIR HOWARD (greatly surprised, pulling himself together) Our last +meeting! Mr. Rankin: have I been unfortunate enough to forget an old +acquaintance? + +RANKIN. Well, perhaps hardly an acquaintance, Sir Howrrd. But I was a +close friend of your brother Miles: and when he sailed for Brazil I +was one of the little party that saw him off. You were one of the party +also, if I'm not mistaken. I took particular notice of you because you +were Miles's brother and I had never seen ye before. But ye had no call +to take notice of me. + +SIR HOWARD (reflecting). Yes: there was a young friend of my brother's +who might well be you. But the name, as I recollect it, was Leslie. + +RANKIN. That was me, sir. My name is Leslie Rankin; and your brother and +I were always Miles and Leslie to one another. + +SIR HOWARD (pluming himself a little). Ah! that explains it. I can trust +my memory still, Mr. Rankin; though some people do complain that I am +growing old. + +RANKIN. And where may Miles be now, Sir Howard? + +SIR HOWARD (abruptly). Don't you know that he is dead? + +RANKIN (much shocked). Never haird of it. Dear, dear: I shall never see +him again; and I can scarcely bring his face to mind after all these +years. (With moistening eyes, which at once touch Lady Cicely's +sympathy) I'm right sorry--right sorry. + +SIR HOWARD (decorously subduing his voice). Yes: he did not live long: +indeed, he never came back to England. It must be nearly thirty years +ago now that he died in the West Indies on his property there. + +RANKIN (surprised). His proaperty! Miles with a proaperty! + +SIR HOWARD. Yes: he became a planter, and did well out there, Mr. +Rankin. The history of that property is a very curious and interesting +one--at least it is so to a lawyer like myself. + +RANKIN. I should be glad to hear it for Miles's sake, though I am no +lawyer, Sir Howrrd. + +LADY CICELY. I never knew you had a brother, Howard. + +SIR HOWARD (not pleased by this remark). Perhaps because you never asked +me. (Turning more blandly to Rankin) I will tell you the story, Mr. +Rankin. When Miles died, he left an estate in one of the West Indian +islands. It was in charge of an agent who was a sharpish fellow, with +all his wits about him. Now, sir, that man did a thing which probably +could hardly be done with impunity even here in Morocco, under the most +barbarous of surviving civilizations. He quite simply took the estate +for himself and kept it. + +RANKIN. But how about the law? + +SIR HOWARD. The law, sir, in that island, consisted practically of the +Attorney General and the Solicitor General; and these gentlemen were +both retained by the agent. Consequently there was no solicitor in the +island to take up the case against him. + +RANKIN. Is such a thing possible to-day in the British Empire? + +SIR HOWARD (calmly). Oh, quite. Quite. + +LADY CICELY. But could not a firstrate solicitor have been sent out from +London? + +SIR HOWARD. No doubt, by paying him enough to compensate him for +giving up his London practice: that is, rather more than there was any +reasonable likelihood of the estate proving worth. + +RANKIN. Then the estate was lost? + +SIR HOWARD. Not permanently. It is in my hands at present. + +RANKIN. Then how did ye get it back? + +SIR HOWARD (with crafty enjoyment of his own cunning). By hoisting the +rogue with his own petard. I had to leave matters as they were for many +years; for I had my own position in the world to make. But at last I +made it. In the course of a holiday trip to the West Indies, I found +that this dishonest agent had left the island, and placed the estate in +the hands of an agent of his own, whom he was foolish enough to pay very +badly. I put the case before that agent; and he decided to treat the +estate as my property. The robber now found himself in exactly the same +position he had formerly forced me into. Nobody in the island would +act against me, least of all the Attorney and Solicitor General, who +appreciated my influence at the Colonial Office. And so I got the estate +back. "The mills of the gods grind slowly," Mr. Rankin; "but they grind +exceeding small." + +LADY CICELY. Now I suppose if I'd done such a clever thing in England, +you'd have sent me to prison. + +SIR HOWARD. Probably, unless you had taken care to keep outside the law +against conspiracy. Whenever you wish to do anything against the law, +Cicely, always consult a good solicitor first. + +LADY CICELY. So I do. But suppose your agent takes it into his head to +give the estate back to his wicked old employer! + +SIR HOWARD. I heartily wish he would. + +RANKIN (openeyed). You wish he WOULD!! + +SIR HOWARD. Yes. A few years ago the collapse of the West Indian sugar +industry converted the income of the estate into an annual loss of +about 150 pounds a year. If I can't sell it soon, I shall simply abandon +it--unless you, Mr. Rankin, would like to take it as a present. + +RANKIN (laughing). I thank your lordship: we have estates enough of +that sort in Scotland. You're setting with your back to the sun, Leddy +Ceecily, and losing something worth looking at. See there. (He rises and +points seaward, where the rapid twilight of the latitude has begun.) + +LADY CICELY (getting up to look and uttering a cry of admiration). Oh, +how lovely! + +SIR HOWARD (also rising). What are those hills over there to the +southeast? + +RANKIN. They are the outposts, so to speak, of the Atlas Mountains. + +LADY CICELY. The Atlas Mountains! Where Shelley's witch lived! We'll +make an excursion to them to-morrow, Howard. + +RANKIN. That's impoassible, my leddy. The natives are verra dangerous. + +LADY CICELY. Why? Has any explorer been shooting them? + +RANKIN. No. But every man of them believes he will go to heaven if he +kills an unbeliever. + +LADY CICELY. Bless you, dear Mr. Rankin, the people in England believe +that they will go to heaven if they give all their property to the poor. +But they don't do it. I'm not a bit afraid of that. + +RANKIN. But they are not accustomed to see women going about unveiled. + +LADY CICELY. I always get on best with people when they can see my face. + +SIR HOWARD. Cicely: you are talking great nonsense and you know it. +These people have no laws to restrain them, which means, in plain +English, that they are habitual thieves and murderers. + +RANKIN. Nay, nay: not exactly that. + +LADY CICELY (indignantly). Of course not. You always think, Howard, that +nothing prevents people killing each other but the fear of your hanging +them for it. But what nonsense that is! And how wicked! If these people +weren't here for some good purpose, they wouldn't have been made, would +they, Mr. Rankin? + +RANKIN. That is a point, certainly, Leddy Ceecily. + +SIR HOWARD. Oh, if you are going to talk theology-- + +LADY CICELY. Well, why not? theology is as respectable as law, I should +think. Besides, I'm only talking commonsense. Why do people get +killed by savages? Because instead of being polite to them, and +saying Howdyedo? like me, people aim pistols at them. I've been among +savages--cannibals and all sorts. Everybody said they'd kill me. But +when I met them, I said Howdyedo? and they were quite nice. The kings +always wanted to marry me. + +SIR HOWARD. That does not seem to me to make you any safer here, Cicely. +You shall certainly not stir a step beyond the protection of the consul, +if I can help it, without a strong escort. + +LADY CICELY. I don't want an escort. + +SIR HOWARD. I do. And I suppose you will expect me to accompany you. + +RANKIN. 'Tis not safe, Leddy Ceecily. Really and truly, 'tis not safe. +The tribes are verra fierce; and there are cities here that no Christian +has ever set foot in. If you go without being well protected, the first +chief you meet well seize you and send you back again to prevent his +followers murdering you. + +LADY CICELY. Oh, how nice of him, Mr. Rankin! + +RANKIN. He would not do it for your sake, Leddy Ceecily, but for his +own. The Sultan would get into trouble with England if you were killed; +and the Sultan would kill the chief to pacify the English government. + +LADY CICELY. But I always go everywhere. I KNOW the people here won't +touch me. They have such nice faces and such pretty scenery. + +SIR HOWARD (to Rankin, sitting down again resignedly). You can imagine +how much use there is in talking to a woman who admires the faces of the +ruffians who infest these ports, Mr. Rankin. Can anything be done in the +way of an escort? + +RANKIN. There is a certain Captain Brassbound here who trades along the +coast, and occasionally escorts parties of merchants on journeys into +the interior. I understand that he served under Gordon in the Soudan. + +SIR HOWARD. That sounds promising. But I should like to know a little +more about him before I trust myself in his hands. + +RANKIN. I quite agree with you, Sir Howrrd. I'll send Felix Drinkwotter +for him. (He claps his hands. An Arab boy appears at the house door.) +Muley: is sailor man here? (Muley nods.) Tell sailor man bring captain. +(Muley nods and goes.) + +SIR HOWARD. Who is Drinkwater? + +RANKIN. His agent, or mate: I don't rightly know which. + +LADY CICELY. Oh, if he has a mate named Felix Drinkwater, it must be +quite a respectable crew. It is such a nice name. + +RANKIN. You saw him here just now. He is a convert of mine. + +LADY CICELY (delighted). That nice truthful sailor! + +SIR HOWARD (horrified). What! The Hooligan! + +RANKIN (puzzled). Hooligan? No, my lord: he is an Englishman. + +SIR HOWARD. My dear Mr. Rankin, this man was tried before me on a charge +of street ruffianism. + +RANKIN. So he told me. He was badly broat up, I am afraid. But he is now +a converted man. + +LADY CICELY. Of course he is. His telling you so frankly proves it. You +know, really, Howard, all those poor people whom you try are more sinned +against than sinning. If you would only talk to them in a friendly way +instead of passing cruel sentences on them, you would find them quite +nice to you. (Indignantly) I won't have this poor man trampled on merely +because his mother brought him up as a Hooligan. I am sure nobody could +be nicer than he was when he spoke to us. + +SIR HOWARD. In short, we are to have an escort of Hooligans commanded +by a filibuster. Very well, very well. You will most likely admire all +their faces; and I have no doubt at all that they will admire yours. + +Drinkwater comes from the house with an Italian dressed in a much worn +suit of blue serge, a dilapidated Alpine hat, and boots laced with +scraps of twine. He remains near the door, whilst Drinkwater comes +forward between Sir Howard and Lady Cicely. + +DRINKWATER. Yr honor's servant. (To the Italian) Mawtzow: is lawdship Sr +Ahrd Ellam. (Marzo touches his hat.) Er Lidyship Lidy Winefleet. (Marzo +touches his hat.) Hawtellian shipmite, lidy. Hahr chef. + +LADY CICELY (nodding affably to Marzo). Howdyedo? I love Italy. What +part of it were you born in? + +DRINKWATER. Worn't bawn in Hitly at all, lidy. Bawn in Ettn Gawdn +(Hatton Garden). Hawce barrer an street pianner Hawtellian, lidy: +thet's wot e is. Kepn Brarsbahnd's respects to yr honors; an e awites yr +commawnds. + +RANKIN. Shall we go indoors to see him? + +SIR HOWARD. I think we had better have a look at him by daylight. + +RANKIN. Then we must lose no time: the dark is soon down in this +latitude. (To Drinkwater) Will ye ask him to step out here to us, Mr. +Drinkwotter? + +DRINKWATER. Rawt you aw, gavner. (He goes officiously into the house.) + +Lady Cicely and Rankin sit down as before to receive the Captain. The +light is by this time waning rapidly, the darkness creeping west into +the orange crimson. + +LADY CICELY (whispering). Don't you feel rather creepy, Mr. Rankin? I +wonder what he'll be like. + +RANKIN. I misdoubt me he will not answer, your leddyship. + +There is a scuffling noise in the house; and Drinkwater shoots out +through the doorway across the garden with every appearance of having +been violently kicked. Marzo immediately hurries down the garden on Sir +Howard's right out of the neighborhood of the doorway. + +DRINKWATER (trying to put a cheerful air on much mortification and +bodily anguish). Narsty step to thet ere door tripped me hap, it +did. (Raising his voice and narrowly escaping a squeak of pain) Kepn +Brarsbahnd. (He gets as far from the house as possible, on Rankin's +left. Rankin rises to receive his guest.) + +An olive complexioned man with dark southern eyes and hair comes from +the house. Age about 36. Handsome features, but joyless; dark eyebrows +drawn towards one another; mouth set grimly; nostrils large and +strained: a face set to one tragic purpose. A man of few words, fewer +gestures, and much significance. On the whole, interesting, and even +attractive, but not friendly. He stands for a moment, saturnine in the +ruddy light, to see who is present, looking in a singular and rather +deadly way at Sir Howard; then with some surprise and uneasiness at +Lady Cicely. Finally he comes down into the middle of the garden, and +confronts Rankin, who has been glaring at him in consternation from the +moment of his entrance, and continues to do so in so marked a way that +the glow in Brassbound's eyes deepens as he begins to take offence. + +BRASSBOUND. Well, sir, have you stared your fill at me? + +RANKIN (recovering himself with a start). I ask your pardon for my bad +manners, Captain Brassbound. Ye are extraordinair lek an auld college +friend of mine, whose face I said not ten minutes gone that I could no +longer bring to mind. It was as if he had come from the grave to remind +me of it. + +BRASSBOUND. Why have you sent for me? + +RANKIN. We have a matter of business with ye, Captain. + +BRASSBOUND. Who are "we"? + +RANKIN. This is Sir Howrrd Hallam, who will be well known to ye as one +of Her Majesty's judges. + +BRASSBOUND (turning the singular look again on Sir Howard). The friend +of the widow! the protector of the fatherless! + +SIR HOWARD (startled). I did not know I was so favorably spoken of in +these parts, Captain Brassbound. We want an escort for a trip into the +mountains. + +BRASSBOUND (ignoring this announcement). Who is the lady? + +RANKIN. Lady Ceecily Waynflete, his lordship's sister-in-law. + +LADY CICELY. Howdyedo, Captain Brassbound? (He bows gravely.) + +SIR HOWARD (a little impatient of these questions, which strike him as +somewhat impertinent). Let us come to business, if you please. We are +thinking of making a short excursion to see the country about here. Can +you provide us with an escort of respectable, trustworthy men? + +BRASSBOUND. No. + +DRINKWATER (in strong remonstrance). Nah, nah, nah! Nah look eah, Kepn, +y'knaow-- + +BRASSBOUND (between his teeth). Hold your tongue. + +DRINKWATER (abjectly). Yuss, Kepn. + +RANKIN. I understood it was your business to provide escorts, Captain +Brassbound. + +BRASSBOUND. You were rightly informed. That IS my business. + +LADY CICELY. Then why won't you do it for us? + +BRASSBOUND. You are not content with an escort. You want respectable, +trustworthy men. You should have brought a division of London policemen +with you. My men are neither respectable nor trustworthy. + +DRINKWATER (unable to contain himself). Nah, nah, look eah, Kepn. If you +want to be moddist, be moddist on your aown accahnt, nort on mawn. + +BRASSBOUND. You see what my men are like. That rascal (indicating Marzo) +would cut a throat for a dollar if he had courage enough. + +MARZO. I not understand. I no spik Englis. + +BRASSBOUND. This thing (pointing to Drinkwater) is the greatest liar, +thief, drunkard, and rapscallion on the west coast. + +DRINKWATER (affecting an ironic indifference). Gow orn, Gow orn. Sr Ahrd +ez erd witnesses to maw kerrickter afoah. E knaows ah mech to believe of +em. + +LADY CICELY. Captain Brassbound: I have heard all that before about +the blacks; and I found them very nice people when they were properly +treated. + +DRINKWATER (chuckling: the Italian is also grinning). Nah, Kepn, nah! +Owp yr prahd o y'seolf nah. + +BRASSBOUND. I quite understand the proper treatment for him, madam. If +he opens his mouth again without my leave, I will break every bone in +his skin. + +LADY CICELY (in her most sunnily matter-of-fact way). Does Captain +Brassbound always treat you like this, Mr. Drinkwater? + +Drinkwater hesitates, and looks apprehensively at the Captain. + +BRASSBOUND. Answer, you dog, when the lady orders you. (To Lady Cicely) +Do not address him as Mr. Drinkwater, madam: he is accustomed to be +called Brandyfaced Jack. + +DRINKWATER (indignantly). Eah, aw sy! nah look eah, Kepn: maw nime is +Drinkworter. You awsk em et Sin Jorn's in the Worterleoo Rowd. Orn maw +grenfawther's tombstown, it is. + +BRASSBOUND. It will be on your own tombstone, presently, if you cannot +hold your tongue. (Turning to the others) Let us understand one another, +if you please. An escort here, or anywhere where there are no regular +disciplined forces, is what its captain makes it. If I undertake this +business, I shall be your escort. I may require a dozen men, just as I +may require a dozen horses. Some of the horses will be vicious; so will +all the men. If either horse or man tries any of his viciousness on me, +so much the worse for him; but it will make no difference to you. I will +order my men to behave themselves before the lady; and they shall obey +their orders. But the lady will please understand that I take my own way +with them and suffer no interference. + +LADY CICELY. Captain Brassbound: I don't want an escort at all. It will +simply get us all into danger; and I shall have the trouble of getting +it out again. That's what escorts always do. But since Sir Howard +prefers an escort, I think you had better stay at home and let me take +charge of it. I know your men will get on perfectly well if they're +properly treated. + +DRINKWATER (with enthusiasm). Feed aht o yr and, lidy, we would. + +BRASSBOUND (with sardonic assent). Good. I agree. (To Drinkwater) You +shall go without me. + +DRINKWATER. (terrified). Eah! Wot are you a syin orn? We cawn't gow +withaht yer. (To Lady Cicely) Naow, lidy: it wouldn't be for yr hown +good. Yer cawn't hexpect a lot o poor honeddikited men lawk huz to ran +ahrseolvs into dineger withaht naow Kepn to teoll us wot to do. Naow, +lidy: hoonawted we stend: deevawdid we fall. + +LADY CICELY. Oh, if you prefer your captain, have him by all means. Do +you LIKE to be treated as he treats you? + +DRINKWATER (with a smile of vanity). Weoll, lidy: y cawn't deenaw that +e's a Paffick Genlmn. Bit hawbitrairy, preps; but hin a genlmn you looks +for sich. It tikes a hawbitrairy wanne to knock aht them eathen Shikes, +aw teoll yer. + +BRASSBOUND. That's enough. Go. + +DRINKWATER. Weoll, aw was hownly a teolln the lidy thet-- (A threatening +movement from Brassbound cuts him short. He flies for his life into the +house, followed by the Italian.) + +BRASSBOUND. Your ladyship sees. These men serve me by their own free +choice. If they are dissatisfied, they go. If I am dissatisfied, they +go. They take care that I am not dissatisfied. + +SIR HOWARD (who has listened with approval and growing confidence). +Captain Brassbound: you are the man I want. If your terms are at +all reasonable, I will accept your services if we decide to make an +excursion. You do not object, Cicely, I hope. + +LADY CICELY. Oh no. After all, those men must really like you, Captain +Brassbound. I feel sure you have a kind heart. You have such nice eyes. + +SIR HOWARD (scandalized). My DEAR Cicely: you really must restrain your +expressions of confidence in people's eyes and faces. (To Brassbound) +Now, about terms, Captain? + +BRASSBOUND. Where do you propose to go? + +SIR HOWARD. I hardly know. Where CAN we go, Mr. Rankin? + +RANKIN. Take my advice, Sir Howrrd. Don't go far. + +BRASSBOUND. I can take you to Meskala, from which you can see the Atlas +Mountains. From Meskala I can take you to an ancient castle in the +hills, where you can put up as long as you please. The customary charge +is half a dollar a man per day and his food. I charge double. + +SIR HOWARD. I suppose you answer for your men being sturdy fellows, who +will stand to their guns if necessary. + +BRASSBOUND. I can answer for their being more afraid of me than of the +Moors. + +LADY CICELY. That doesn't matter in the least, Howard. The important +thing, Captain Brassbound, is: first, that we should have as few men as +possible, because men give such a lot of trouble travelling. And then, +they must have good lungs and not be always catching cold. Above all, +their clothes must be of good wearing material. Otherwise I shall be +nursing and stitching and mending all the way; and it will be trouble +enough, I assure you, to keep them washed and fed without that. + +BRASSBOUND (haughtily). My men, madam, are not children in the nursery. + +LADY CICELY (with unanswerable conviction). Captain Brassbound: all men +are children in the nursery. I see that you don't notice things. That +poor Italian had only one proper bootlace: the other was a bit of +string. And I am sure from Mr. Drinkwater's complexion that he ought to +have some medicine. + +BRASSBOUND (outwardly determined not to be trifled with: inwardly +puzzled and rather daunted). Madam: if you want an escort, I can provide +you with an escort. If you want a Sunday School treat, I can NOT provide +it. + +LADY CICELY (with sweet melancholy). Ah, don't you wish you could, +Captain? Oh, if I could only show you my children from Waynflete Sunday +School! The darlings would love this place, with all the camels +and black men. I'm sure you would enjoy having them here, Captain +Brassbound; and it would be such an education for your men! (Brassbound +stares at her with drying lips.) + +SIR HOWARD. Cicely: when you have quite done talking nonsense to Captain +Brassbound, we can proceed to make some definite arrangement with him. + +LADY CICELY. But it's arranged already. We'll start at eight o'clock +to-morrow morning, if you please, Captain. Never mind about the Italian: +I have a big box of clothes with me for my brother in Rome; and there +are some bootlaces in it. Now go home to bed and don't fuss yourself. +All you have to do is to bring your men round; and I'll see to the rest. +Men are always so nervous about moving. Goodnight. (She offers him her +hand. Surprised, he pulls off his cap for the first time. Some scruple +prevents him from taking her hand at once. He hesitates; then turns to +Sir Howard and addresses him with warning earnestness.) + +BRASSBOUND. Sir Howard Hallam: I advise you not to attempt this +expedition. + +SIR HOWARD. Indeed! Why? + +BRASSBOUND. You are safe here. I warn you, in those hills there is a +justice that is not the justice of your courts in England. If you have +wronged a man, you may meet that man there. If you have wronged a woman, +you may meet her son there. The justice of those hills is the justice of +vengeance. + +SIR HOWARD (faintly amused). You are superstitious, Captain. Most +sailors are, I notice. However, I have complete confidence in your +escort. + +BRASSBOUND (almost threateningly). Take care. The avenger may be one of +the escort. + +SIR HOWARD. I have already met the only member of your escort who might +have borne a grudge against me, Captain; and he was acquitted. + +BRASSBOUND. You are fated to come, then? + +SIR HOWARD (smiling). It seems so. + +BRASSBOUND. On your head be it! (To Lady Cicely, accepting her hand at +last) Goodnight. + +He goes. It is by this time starry night. + + + + +ACT II + +Midday. A roam in a Moorish castle. A divan seat runs round the +dilapidated adobe walls, which are partly painted, partly faced with +white tiles patterned in green and yellow. The ceiling is made up +of little squares, painted in bright colors, with gilded edges, +and ornamented with gilt knobs. On the cement floor are mattings, +sheepskins, and leathern cushions with geometrical patterns on them. +There is a tiny Moorish table in the middle; and at it a huge saddle, +with saddle cloths of various colors, showing that the room is used by +foreigners accustomed to chairs. Anyone sitting at the table in this +seat would have the chief entrance, a large horseshoe arch, on his left, +and another saddle seat between him and the arch; whilst, if susceptible +to draughts, he would probably catch cold from a little Moorish door in +the wall behind him to his right. + +Two or three of Brassbound's men, overcome by the midday heat, sprawl +supine on the floor, with their reefer coats under their heads, their +knees uplifted, and their calves laid comfortably on the divan. Those +who wear shirts have them open at the throat for greater coolness. Some +have jerseys. All wear boots and belts, and have guns ready to their +hands. One of them, lying with his head against the second saddle seat, +wears what was once a fashionable white English yachting suit. He is +evidently a pleasantly worthless young English gentleman gone to the +bad, but retaining sufficient self-respect to shave carefully and +brush his hair, which is wearing thin, and does not seem to have been +luxuriant even in its best days. + +The silence is broken only by the snores of the young gentleman, whose +mouth has fallen open, until a few distant shots half waken him. He +shuts his mouth convulsively, and opens his eyes sleepily. A door is +violently kicked outside; and the voice of Drinkwater is heard raising +urgent alarm. + +DRINKWATER. Wot ow! Wike ap there, will yr. Wike ap. (He rushes in +through the horseshoe arch, hot and excited, and runs round, kicking the +sleepers) Nah then. Git ap. Git ap, will yr, Kiddy Redbrook. (He gives +the young qentleman a rude shove.) + +REDBOOK (sitting up). Stow that, will you. What's amiss? + +DRINKWATER (disgusted). Wot's amiss! Didn't eah naow fawrin, I spowse. + +REDBROOK. No. + +DRINKWATER (sneering). Naow. Thort it sifer nort, didn't yr? + +REDBROOK (with crisp intelligence). What! You're running away, are +you? (He springs up, crying) Look alive, Johnnies: there's danger. +Brandyfaced Jack's on the run. (They spring up hastily, grasping their +guns.) + +DRINKWATER. Dineger! Yuss: should think there wors dineger. It's howver, +thow, as it mowstly his baw the tawm YOU'RE awike. (They relapse +into lassitude.) Waw wasn't you on the look-aht to give us a end? Bin +hattecked baw the Benny Seeras (Beni Siras), we ev, an ed to rawd for it +pretty strite, too, aw teoll yr. Mawtzow is it: the bullet glawnst all +rahnd is bloomin brisket. Brarsbahnd e dropt the Shike's oss at six +unnern fifty yawds. (Bustling them about) Nah then: git the plice ready +for the British herristoracy, Lawd Ellam and Lidy Wineflete. + +REDBOOK. Lady faint, eh? + +DRINKWATER. Fynt! Not lawkly. Wornted to gow an talk, to the Benny +Seeras: blaow me if she didn't! huz wot we was frahtnd of. Tyin up +Mawtzow's wound, she is, like a bloomin orspittle nass. (Sir Howard, +with a copious pagri on his white hat, enters through the horseshoe +arch, followed by a couple of men supporting the wounded Marzo, who, +weeping and terrorstricken by the prospect of death and of subsequent +torments for which he is conscious of having eminently qualified +himself, has his coat off and a bandage round his chest. One of his +supporters is a blackbearded, thickset, slow, middle-aged man with an +air of damaged respectability, named--as it afterwards appears--Johnson. +Lady Cicely walks beside Marzo. Redbrook, a little shamefaced, crosses +the room to the opposite wall as far away as possible from the visitors. +Drinkwater turns and receives them with jocular ceremony.) Weolcome +to Brarsbahnd Cawstl, Sr Ahrd an lidy. This eah is the corfee and +commercial room. + +Sir Howard goes to the table and sits on the saddle, rather exhausted. +Lady Cicely comes to Drinkwater. + +LADY CICELY. Where is Marzo's bed? + +DRINKWATER. Is bed, lidy? Weoll: e ynt petickler, lidy. E ez is chawce +of henny flegstown agin thet wall. + +They deposit Marzo on the flags against the wall close to the little +door. He groans. Johnson phlegmatically leaves him and joins Redbrook. + +LADY CICELY. But you can't leave him there in that state. + +DRINKWATER. Ow: e's hall rawt. (Strolling up callously to Marzo) You're +hall rawt, ynt yer, Mawtzow? (Marzo whimpers.) Corse y'aw. + +LADY CICELY (to Sir Howard). Did you ever see such a helpless lot of +poor creatures? (She makes for the little door.) + +DRINKWATER. Eah! (He runs to the door and places himself before it.) +Where mawt yr lidyship be gowin? + +LADY CICELY. I'm going through every room in this castle to find a +proper place to put that man. And now I'll tell you where YOU'RE going. +You're going to get some water for Marzo, who is very thirsty. And then, +when I've chosen a room for him, you're going to make a bed for him +there. + +DRINKWATER (sarcastically). Ow! Henny ather little suvvice? Mike yrseolf +at owm, y' knaow, lidy. + +LADY CICELY (considerately). Don't go if you'd rather not, Mr. +Drinkwater. Perhaps you're too tired. (Turning to the archway) I'll ask +Captain Brassbound: he won't mind. + +DRINKWATER (terrified, running after her and getting between her and the +arch). Naow, naow! Naow, lidy: doesn't you goes disturbin the Kepn. Awll +see to it. + +LADY CICELY (gravely). I was sure you would, Mr. Drinkwater. You have +such a kind face. (She turns back and goes out through the small door.) + +DRINKWATER (looking after her). Garn! + +SIR HOWARD (to Drinkwater). Will you ask one of your friends to show me +to my room whilst you are getting the water? + +DRINKWATER (insolently). Yr room! Ow: this ynt good enaf fr yr, ynt it? +(Ferociously) Oo a you orderin abaht, ih? + +SIR HOWARD (rising quietly, and taking refuge between Redbrook and +Johnson, whom he addresses). Can you find me a more private room than +this? + +JOHNSON (shaking his head). I've no orders. You must wait til the capn +comes, sir. + +DRINKWATER (following Sir Howard). Yuss; an whawl you're witin, yll tike +your horders from me: see? + +JOHNSON (with slow severity, to Drinkwater). Look here: do you see three +genlmen talkin to one another here, civil and private, eh? + +DRINKWATER (chapfallen). No offence, Miste Jornsn-- + +JOHNSON (ominously). Ay; but there is offence. Where's your manners, +you guttersnipe? (Turning to Sir Howard) That's the curse o this kind o +life, sir: you got to associate with all sorts. My father, sir, was +Capn Johnson o Hull--owned his own schooner, sir. We're mostly gentlemen +here, sir, as you'll find, except the poor ignorant foreigner and +that there scum of the submerged tenth. (Contemptuously looking at +Drinkwater) HE ain't nobody's son: he's only a offspring o coster folk +or such. + +DRINKWATER (bursting into tears). Clawss feelin! thet's wot it is: +clawss feelin! Wot are yer, arter all, bat a bloomin gang o west cowst +cazhls (casual ward paupers)? (Johnson is scandalized; and there is a +general thrill of indignation.) Better ev naow fembly, an rawse aht of +it, lawk me, than ev a specble one and disgrice it, lawk you. + +JOHNSON. Brandyfaced Jack: I name you for conduct and language +unbecoming to a gentleman. Those who agree will signify the same in the +usual manner. + +ALL (vehemently). Aye. + +DRINKWATER (wildly). Naow. + +JOHNSON. Felix Drinkwater: are you goin out, or are you goin to wait til +you're chucked out? You can cry in the passage. If you give any trouble, +you'll have something to cry for. + +They make a threatenng movement towards Drinkwater. + +DRINKWATER (whimpering). You lee me alown: awm gowin. There's n'maw true +demmecrettick feelin eah than there is in the owl bloomin M division of +Noontn Corzwy coppers (Newington Causeway policemen). + +As he slinks away in tears towards the arch, Brassbound enters. +Drinkwater promptly shelters himself on the captain's left hand, the +others retreating to the opposite side as Brassbound advances to the +middle of the room. Sir Howard retires behind them and seats himself on +the divan, much fatigued. + +BRASSBOUND (to Drinkwater). What are you snivelling at? + +DRINKWATER. You awsk the wust cowst herristorcracy. They fawnds maw +cornduck hanbecammin to a genlmn. + +Brassbound is about to ask Johnson for an explanation, when Lady Cicely +returns through the little door, and comes between Brassbound and +Drinkwater. + +LADY CICELY (to Drinkwater). Have you fetched the water? + +DRINKWATER. Yuss: nah YOU begin orn me. (He weeps afresh.) + +LADY CICELY (surprised). Oh! This won't do, Mr. Drinkwater. If you cry, +I can't let you nurse your friend. + +DRINKWATER (frantic). Thet'll brike maw awt, wown't it nah? (With a +lamentable sob, he throws himself down on the divan, raging like an +angry child.) + +LADY CICELY (after contemplating him in astonishment for a moment). +Captain Brassbound: are there any charwomen in the Atlas Mountains? + +BRASSBOUND. There are people here who will work if you pay them, as +there are elsewhere. + +LADY CICELY. This castle is very romantic, Captain; but it hasn't had a +spring cleaning since the Prophet lived in it. There's only one room I +can put that wounded man into. It's the only one that has a bed in it: +the second room on the right out of that passage. + +BRASSBOUND (haughtily). That is my room, madam. + +LADY CICELY (relieved). Oh, that's all right. It would have been so +awkward if I had had to ask one of your men to turn out. You won't mind, +I know. (All the men stare at her. Even Drinkwater forgets his sorrows +in his stupefaction.) + +BRASSBOUND. Pray, madam, have you made any arrangements for my +accommodation? + +LADY CICELY (reassuringly). Yes: you can have my room instead wherever +it may be: I'm sure you chose me a nice one. I must be near my +patient; and I don't mind roughing it. Now I must have Marzo moved very +carefully. Where is that truly gentlemanly Mr. Johnson?--oh, there you +are, Mr. Johnson. (She runs to Johnson, past Brassbound, who has to step +back hastily out of her way with every expression frozen out of his face +except one of extreme and indignant dumbfoundedness). Will you ask +your strong friend to help you with Marzo: strong people are always so +gentle. + +JOHNSON. Let me introdooce Mr. Redbrook. Your ladyship may know his +father, the very Rev. Dean Redbrook. (He goes to Marzo.) + +REDBROOK. Happy to oblige you, Lady Cicely. + +LADY CICELY (shaking hands). Howdyedo? Of course I knew your +father--Dunham, wasn't it? Were you ever called-- + +REDBROOK. The kid? Yes. + +LADY CICELY. But why-- + +REDBROOK (anticipating the rest of the question). Cards and drink, Lady +Sis. (He follows Johnson to the patient. Lady Cicely goes too.) Now, +Count Marzo. (Marzo groans as Johnson and Redbrook raise him.) + +LADY CICELY. Now they're NOT hurting you, Marzo. They couldn't be more +gentle. + +MARZO. Drink. + +LADY CICELY. I'll get you some water myself. Your friend Mr. Drinkwater +was too overcome--take care of the corner--that's it--the second door on +the right. (She goes out with Marzo and his bearers through the little +door.) + +BRASSBOUND (still staring). Well, I AM damned--! + +DRINKWATER (getting up). Weoll, blimey! + +BRASSBOUND (turning irritably on him). What did you say? + +DRINKWATER. Weoll, wot did yer sy yrseolf, kepn? Fust tawm aw yever see +y' afride of ennybody. (The others laugh.) + +BRASSBOUND. Afraid! + +DRINKWATER (maliciously). She's took y' bed from hander yr for a bloomin +penny hawcemen. If y' ynt afride, let's eah yer speak ap to er wen she +cams bawck agin. + +BRASSBOUND (to Sir Howard). I wish you to understand, Sir Howard, that +in this castle, it is I who give orders, and no one else. Will you be +good enough to let Lady Cicely Waynflete know that. + +SIR HOWARD (sitting up on the divan and pulling himself together). You +will have ample opportunity for speaking to Lady Cicely yourself when +she returns. (Drinkwater chuckles: and the rest grin.) + +BRASSBOUND. My manners are rough, Sir Howard. I have no wish to frighten +the lady. + +SIR HOWARD. Captain Brassbound: if you can frighten Lady Cicely, you +will confer a great obligation on her family. If she had any sense of +danger, perhaps she would keep out of it. + +BRASSBOUND. Well, sir, if she were ten Lady Cicelys, she must consult me +while she is here. + +DRINKWATER. Thet's rawt, kepn. Let's eah you steblish yr hawthority. +(Brassbound turns impatiently on him: He retreats remonstrating) Nah, +nah, nah! + +SIR HOWARD. If you feel at all nervous, Captain Brassbound, I will +mention the matter with pleasure. + +BRASSBOUND. Nervous, sir! no. Nervousness is not in my line. You +will find me perfectly capable of saying what I want to say--with +considerable emphasis, if necessary. (Sir Howard assents with a polite +but incredulous nod.) + +DRINKWATER. Eah, eah! + +Lady Cicely returns with Johnson and Redbrook. She carries a jar. + +LADY CICELY (stopping between the door and the arch). Now for the water. +Where is it? + +REDBROOK. There's a well in the courtyard. I'll come and work the +bucket. + +LADY CICELY. So good of you, Mr. Redbrook. (She makes for the horseshoe +arch, followed by Redbrook.) + +DRINKWATER. Nah, Kepn Brassbound: you got sathink to sy to the lidy, ynt +yr? + +LADY CICELY (stopping). I'll come back to hear it presently, Captain. +And oh, while I remember it (coming forward between Brassbound and +Drinkwater), do please tell me Captain, if I interfere with your +arrangements in any way. It I disturb you the least bit in the world, +stop me at once. You have all the responsibility; and your comfort and +your authority must be the first thing. You'll tell me, won't you? + +BRASSBOUND (awkwardly, quite beaten). Pray do as you please, madam. + +LADY CICELY. Thank you. That's so like you, Captain. Thank you. Now, Mr. +Redbrook! Show me the way to the well. (She follows Redbrook out through +the arch.) + +DRINKWATER. Yah! Yah! Shime! Beat baw a woman! + +JOHNSON (coming forward on Brassbound's right). What's wrong now? + +DRINKWATER (with an air of disappointment and disillusion). Down't awsk +me, Miste Jornsn. The kepn's naow clawss arter all. + +BRASSBOUND (a little shamefacedly). What has she been fixing up in +there, Johnson? + +JOHNSON. Well: Marzo's in your bed. Lady wants to make a kitchen of +the Sheikh's audience chamber, and to put me and the Kid handy in his +bedroom in case Marzo gets erysipelas and breaks out violent. From what +I can make out, she means to make herself matron of this institution. I +spose it's all right, isn't it? + +DRINKWATER. Yuss, an horder huz abaht as if we was keb tahts! An the +kepn afride to talk bawck at er! + +Lady Cicely returns with Redbrook. She carries the jar full of water. + +LADY CICELY (putting down the jar, and coming between Brassbound and +Drinkwater as before). And now, Captain, before I go to poor Marzo, what +have you to say to me? + +BRASSBOUND. I! Nothing. + +DRINKWATER. Down't fank it, gavner. Be a men! + +LADY CICELY (looking at Drinkwater, puzzled). Mr. Drinkwater said you +had. + +BRASSBOUND (recovering himself). It was only this. That fellow there +(pointing to Drinkwater) is subject to fits of insolence. If he is +impertinent to your ladyship, or disobedient, you have my authority to +order him as many kicks as you think good for him; and I will see that +he gets them. + +DRINKWATER (lifting up his voice in protest). Nah, nah-- + +LADY CICELY. Oh, I couldn't think of such a thing, Captain Brassbound. I +am sure it would hurt Mr. Drinkwater. + +DRINKWATER (lachrymosely). Lidy's hinkyp'ble o sich bawbrous usage. + +LADY CICELY. But there's one thing I SHOULD like, if Mr. Drinkwater +won't mind my mentioning it. It's so important if he's to attend on +Marzo. + +BRASSBOUND. What is that? + +LADY CICELY. Well--you WON'T mind, Mr. Drinkwater, will you? + +DRINKWATER (suspiciously). Wot is it? + +LADY CICELY. There would be so much less danger of erysipelas if you +would be so good as to take a bath. + +DRINKWATER (aghast). A bawth! + +BRASSBOUND (in tones of command). Stand by, all hands. (They stand by.) +Take that man and wash him. (With a roar of laughter they seize him.) + +DRINKWATER (in an agony of protest). Naow, naow. Look eah-- + +BRASSBOUND (ruthlessly). In COLD water. + +DRINKWATER (shrieking). Na-a-a-a-ow. Aw eawn't, aw toel yer. Naow. Aw +sy, look eah. Naow, naow, naow, naow, naow, NAOW!!! + +He is dragged away through the arch in a whirlwind of laughter, protests +and tears. + +LADY CICELY. I'm afraid he isn't used to it, poor fellow; but REALLY it +will do him good, Captain Brassbound. Now I must be off to my patient. +(She takes up her jar and goes out by the little door, leaving +Brassbound and Sir Howard alone together.) + +SIR HOWARD (rising). And now, Captain Brass-- + +BRASSBOUND (cutting him short with a fierce contempt that astonishes +him). I will attend to you presently. (Calling) Johnson. Send me Johnson +there. And Osman. (He pulls off his coat and throws it on the table, +standing at his ease in his blue jersey.) + +SIR HOWARD (after a momentary flush of anger, with a controlled force +that compels Brassbound's attention in spite of himself). You seem to be +in a strong position with reference to these men of yours. + +BRASSBOUND. I am in a strong position with reference to everyone in this +castle. + +SIR HOWARD (politely but threateningly). I have just been noticing that +you think so. I do not agree with you. Her Majesty's Government, Captain +Brassbound, has a strong arm and a long arm. If anything disagreeable +happens to me or to my sister-in-law, that arm will be stretched out. If +that happens you will not be in a strong position. Excuse my reminding +you of it. + +BRASSBOUND (grimly). Much good may it do you! (Johnson comes in through +the arch.) Where is Osman, the Sheikh's messenger? I want him too. + +JOHNSON. Coming, Captain. He had a prayer to finish. + +Osman, a tall, skinny, whiteclad, elderly Moor, appears in the archway. + +BRASSBOUND. Osman Ali (Osman comes forward between Brassbound and +Johnson): you have seen this unbeliever (indicating Sir Howard) come in +with us? + +OSMAN. Yea, and the shameless one with the naked face, who flattered my +countenance and offered me her hand. + +JOHNSON. Yes; and you took it too, Johnny, didn't you? + +BRASSBOUND. Take horse, then; and ride fast to your master the Sheikh +Sidi el Assif. + +OSMAN (proudly). Kinsman to the Prophet. + +BRASSBOUND. Tell him what you have seen here. That is all. Johnson: give +him a dollar; and note the hour of his going, that his master may know +how fast he rides. + +OSMAN. The believer's word shall prevail with Allah and his servant Sidi +el Assif. + +BRASSBOUND. Off with you. + +OSMAN. Make good thy master's word ere I go out from his presence, O +Johnson el Hull. + +JOHNSON. He wants the dollar. + +Brassbound gives Osman a coin. + +OSMAN (bowing). Allah will make hell easy for the friend of Sidi el +Assif and his servant. (He goes out through the arch.) + +BRASSBOUND (to Johnson). Keep the men out of this until the Sheikh +comes. I have business to talk over. When he does come, we must keep +together all: Sidi el Assif's natural instinct will be to cut every +Christian throat here. + +JOHNSON. We look to you, Captain, to square him, since you invited him +over. + +BRASSBOUND. You can depend on me; and you know it, I think. + +JOHNSON (phlegmatically). Yes: we know it. (He is going out when Sir +Howard speaks.) + +SIR HOWARD. You know also, Mr. Johnson, I hope, that you can depend on +ME. + +JOHNSON (turning). On YOU, sir? + +SIR HOWARD. Yes: on me. If my throat is cut, the Sultan of Morocco may +send Sidi's head with a hundred thousand dollars blood-money to the +Colonial Office; but it will not be enough to save his kingdom--any more +than it would saw your life, if your Captain here did the same thing. + +JOHNSON (struck). Is that so, Captain? + +BRASSBOUND. I know the gentleman's value--better perhaps than he knows +it himself. I shall not lose sight of it. + +Johnson nods gravely, and is going out when Lady Cicely returns softly +by the little door and calls to him in a whisper. She has taken off her +travelling things and put on an apron. At her chatelaine is a case of +sewing materials. + +LADY CICELY. Mr. Johnson. (He turns.) I've got Marzo to sleep. Would you +mind asking the gentlemen not to make a noise under his window in the +courtyard. + +JOHNSON. Right, maam. (He goes out.) + +Lady Cicely sits down at the tiny table, and begins stitching at a sling +bandage for Marzo's arm. Brassbound walks up and down on her right, +muttering to himself so ominously that Sir Howard quietly gets out of +his way by crossing to the other side and sitting down on the second +saddle seat. + +SIR HOWARD. Are you yet able to attend to me for a moment, Captain +Brassbound? + +BRASSBOUND (still walking about). What do you want? + +SIR HOWARD. Well, I am afraid I want a little privacy, and, if you will +allow me to say so, a little civility. I am greatly obliged to you for +bringing us safely off to-day when we were attacked. So far, you have +carried out your contract. But since we have been your guests here, +your tone and that of the worst of your men has changed--intentionally +changed, I think. + +BRASSBOUND (stopping abruptly and flinging the announcement at him). You +are not my guest: you are my prisoner. + +SIR HOWARD. Prisoner! + +Lady Cicely, after a single glance up, continues stitching, apparently +quite unconcerned. + +BRASSBOUND. I warned you. You should have taken my warning. + +SIR HOWARD (immediately taking the tone of cold disgust for moral +delinquency). Am I to understand, then, that you are a brigand? Is this +a matter of ransom? + +BRASSBOUND (with unaccountable intensity). All the wealth of England +shall not ransom you. + +SIR HOWARD. Then what do you expect to gain by this? + +BRASSBOUND. Justice on a thief and a murderer. + +Lady Cicely lays down her work and looks up anxiously. + +SIR HOWARD (deeply outraged, rising with venerable dignity). Sir: do you +apply those terms to me? + +BRASSBOUND. I do. (He turns to Lady Cicely, and adds, pointing +contemptuously to Sir Howard) Look at him. You would not take this +virtuously indignant gentleman for the uncle of a brigand, would you? + +Sir Howard starts. The shock is too much for him: he sits down again, +looking very old; and his hands tremble; but his eyes and mouth are +intrepid, resolute, and angry. + +LADY CICELY. Uncle! What do you mean? + +BRASSBOUND. Has he never told you about my mother? this fellow who puts +on ermine and scarlet and calls himself Justice. + +SIR HOWARD (almost voiceless). You are the son of that woman! + +BRASSBOUND (fiercely). "That woman!" (He makes a movement as if to rush +at Sir Howard.) + +LADY CICELY (rising quickly and putting her hand on his arm). Take care. +You mustn't strike an old man. + +BRASSBOUND (raging). He did not spare my mother--"that woman," he +calls her--because of her sex. I will not spare him because of his age. +(Lowering his tone to one of sullen vindictiveness) But I am not going +to strike him. (Lady Cicely releases him, and sits down, much perplexed. +Brassbound continues, with an evil glance at Sir Howard) I shall do no +more than justice. + +SIR HOWARD (recovering his voice and vigor). Justice! I think you mean +vengeance, disguised as justice by your passions. + +BRASSBOUND. To many and many a poor wretch in the dock YOU have brought +vengeance in that disguise--the vengeance of society, disguised as +justice by ITS passions. Now the justice you have outraged meets you +disguised as vengeance. How do you like it? + +SIR HOWARD. I shall meet it, I trust, as becomes an innocent man and an +upright judge. What do you charge against me? + +BRASSBOUND. I charge you with the death of my mother and the theft of my +inheritance. + +SIR HOWARD. As to your inheritance, sir, it was yours whenever you came +forward to claim it. Three minutes ago I did not know of your existence. +I affirm that most solemnly. I never knew--never dreamt--that my brother +Miles left a son. As to your mother, her case was a hard one--perhaps +the hardest that has come within even my experience. I mentioned it, as +such, to Mr. Rankin, the missionary, the evening we met you. As to her +death, you know--you MUST know--that she died in her native country, +years after our last meeting. Perhaps you were too young to know that +she could hardly have expected to live long. + +BRASSBOUND. You mean that she drank. + +SIR HOWARD. I did not say so. I do not think she was always accountable +for what she did. + +BRASSBOUND. Yes: she was mad too; and whether drink drove her to madness +or madness drove her to drink matters little. The question is, who drove +her to both? + +SIR HOWARD. I presume the dishonest agent who seized her estate did. I +repeat, it was a hard case--a frightful injustice. But it could not be +remedied. + +BRASSBOUND. You told her so. When she would not take that false answer +you drove her from your doors. When she exposed you in the street and +threatened to take with her own hands the redress the law denied her, +you had her imprisoned, and forced her to write you an apology and +leave the country to regain her liberty and save herself from a lunatic +asylum. And when she was gone, and dead, and forgotten, you found for +yourself the remedy you could not find for her. You recovered the estate +easily enough then, robber and rascal that you are. Did he tell the +missionary that, Lady Cicely, eh? + +LADY CICELY (sympathetically). Poor woman! (To Sir Howard) Couldn't you +have helped her, Howard? + +SIR HOWARD. No. This man may be ignorant enough to suppose that when +I was a struggling barrister I could do everything I did when I was +Attorney General. You know better. There is some excuse for his mother. +She was an uneducated Brazilian, knowing nothing of English society, and +driven mad by injustice. + +BRASSBOUND. Your defence-- + +SIR HOWARD (interrupting him determinedly). I do not defend myself. I +call on you to obey the law. + +BRASSBOUND. I intend to do so. The law of the Atlas Mountains is +administered by the Sheikh Sidi el Assif. He will be here within an +hour. He is a judge like yourself. You can talk law to him. He will give +you both the law and the prophets. + +SIR HOWARD. Does he know what the power of England is? + +BRASSBOUND. He knows that the Mahdi killed my master Gordon, and that +the Mahdi died in his bed and went to paradise. + +SIR HOWARD. Then he knows also that England's vengeance was on the +Mahdi's track. + +BRASSBOUND. Ay, on the track of the railway from the Cape to Cairo. Who +are you, that a nation should go to war for you? If you are missing, +what will your newspapers say? A foolhardy tourist. What will your +learned friends at the bar say? That it was time for you to make room +for younger and better men. YOU a national hero! You had better find +a goldfield in the Atlas Mountains. Then all the governments of Europe +will rush to your rescue. Until then, take care of yourself; for you are +going to see at last the hypocrisy in the sanctimonious speech of the +judge who is sentencing you, instead of the despair in the white face of +the wretch you are recommending to the mercy of your God. + +SIR HOWARD (deeply and personally offended by this slight to his +profession, and for the first time throwing away his assumed dignity +and rising to approach Brassbound with his fists clenched; so that Lady +Cicely lifts one eye from her work to assure herself that the table is +between them). I have no more to say to you, sir. I am not afraid +of you, nor of any bandit with whom you may be in league. As to your +property, it is ready for you as soon as you come to your senses and +claim it as your father's heir. Commit a crime, and you will become +an outlaw, and not only lose the property, but shut the doors of +civilization against yourself for ever. + +BRASSBOUND. I will not sell my mother's revenge for ten properties. + +LADY CICELY (placidly). Besides, really, Howard, as the property now +costs 150 pounds a year to keep up instead of bringing in anything, I am +afraid it would not be of much use to him. (Brassbound stands amazed at +this revelation.) + +SIR HOWARD (taken aback). I must say, Cicely, I think you might have +chosen a more suitable moment to mention that fact. + +BRASSBOUND (with disgust). Agh! Trickster! Lawyer! Even the price you +offer for your life is to be paid in false coin. (Calling) Hallo there! +Johnson! Redbrook! Some of you there! (To Sir Howard) You ask for a +little privacy: you shall have it. I will not endure the company of such +a fellow-- + +SIR HOWARD (very angry, and full of the crustiest pluck). You insult me, +sir. You are a rascal. You are a rascal. + +Johnson, Redbrook, and a few others come in through the arch. + +BRASSBOUND. Take this man away. + +JOHNSON. Where are we to put him? + +BRASSBOUND. Put him where you please so long as you can find him when he +is wanted. + +SIR HOWARD. You will be laid by the heels yet, my friend. + +REDBROOK (with cheerful tact). Tut tut, Sir Howard: what's the use of +talking back? Come along: we'll make you comfortable. + +Sir Howard goes out through the arch between Johnson and Redbrook, +muttering wrathfully. The rest, except Brassbound and Lady Cicely, +follow. + +Brassbound walks up and down the room, nursing his indignation. In doing +so he unconsciously enters upon an unequal contest with Lady Cicely, who +sits quietly stitching. It soon becomes clear that a tranquil woman +can go on sewing longer than an angry man can go on fuming. Further, it +begins to dawn on Brassbound's wrath-blurred perception that Lady Cicely +has at some unnoticed stage in the proceedings finished Marzo's bandage, +and is now stitching a coat. He stops; glances at his shirtsleeves; +finally realizes the situation. + +BRASSBOUND. What are you doing there, madam? + +LADY CICELY. Mending your coat, Captain Brassbound. + +BRASSBOUND. I have no recollection of asking you to take that trouble. + +LADY CICELY. No: I don't suppose you even knew it was torn. Some men +are BORN untidy. You cannot very well receive Sidi el--what's his +name?--with your sleeve half out. + +BRASSBOUND (disconcerted). I--I don't know how it got torn. + +LADY CICELY. You should not get virtuously indignant with people. It +bursts clothes more than anything else, Mr. Hallam. + +BRASSBOUND (flushing, quickly). I beg you will not call me Mr. Hallam. I +hate the name. + +LADY CICELY. Black Paquito is your pet name, isn't it? + +BRASSBOUND (huffily). I am not usually called so to my face. + +LADY CICELY (turning the coat a little). I'm so sorry. (She takes +another piece of thread and puts it into her needle, looking placidly +and reflectively upward meanwhile.) Do you know, You are wonderfully +like your uncle. + +BRASSBOUND. Damnation! + +LADY CICELY. Eh? + +BRASSBOUND. If I thought my veins contained a drop of his black blood, +I would drain them empty with my knife. I have no relations. I had a +mother: that was all. + +LADY CICELY (unconvinced) I daresay you have your mother's complexion. +But didn't you notice Sir Howard's temper, his doggedness, his high +spirit: above all, his belief in ruling people by force, as you rule +your men; and in revenge and punishment, just as you want to revenge +your mother? Didn't you recognize yourself in that? + +BRASSBOUND (startled). Myself!--in that! + +LADY CECILY (returning to the tailoring question as if her last remark +were of no consequence whatever). Did this sleeve catch you at all under +the arm? Perhaps I had better make it a little easier for you. + +BRASSBOUND (irritably). Let my coat alone. It will do very well as it +is. Put it down. + +LADY CICILY. Oh, don't ask me to sit doing nothing. It bores me so. + +BRASSBOUND. In Heaven's name then, do what you like! Only don't worry me +with it. + +LADY CICELY. I'm so sorry. All the Hallams are irritable. + +BRASSBOUND (penning up his fury with difficulty). As I have already +said, that remark has no application to me. + +LADY CICELY (resuming her stitching). That's so funny! They all hate to +be told that they are like one another. + +BRASSBOUND (with the beginnings of despair in his voice). Why did you +come here? My trap was laid for him, not for you. Do you know the danger +you are in? + +LADY CICELY. There's always a danger of something or other. Do you think +it's worth bothering about? + +BRASSBOUND (scolding her). Do I THINK! Do you think my coat's worth +mending? + +LADY CICELY (prosaically). Oh yes: it's not so far gone as that. + +BRASSBOUND. Have you any feeling? Or are you a fool? + +LADY CICELY. I'm afraid I'm a dreadful fool. But I can't help it. I was +made so, I suppose. + +BRASSBOUND. Perhaps you don't realize that your friend my good uncle +will be pretty fortunate if he is allowed to live out his life as a +slave with a set of chains on him? + +LADY CICELY. Oh, I don't know about that, Mr. H--I mean Captain +Brassbound. Men are always thinking that they are going to do something +grandly wicked to their enemies; but when it comes to the point, really +bad men are just as rare as really good ones. + +BRASSBOUND. You forget that I am like my uncle, according to you. Have +you any doubt as to the reality of HIS badness? + +LADY CICELY. Bless me! your uncle Howard is one of the most harmless +of men--much nicer than most professional people. Of course he does +dreadful things as a judge; but then if you take a man and pay him 5,000 +pounds a year to be wicked, and praise him for it, and have policemen +and courts and laws and juries to drive him into it so that he can't +help doing it, what can you expect? Sir Howard's all right when he's +left to himself. We caught a burglar one night at Waynflete when he was +staying with us; and I insisted on his locking the poor man up until the +police came, in a room with a window opening on the lawn. The man came +back next day and said he must return to a life of crime unless I gave +him a job in the garden; and I did. It was much more sensible than +giving him ten years penal servitude: Howard admitted it. So you see +he's not a bit bad really. + +BRASSBOUND. He had a fellow feeling for a thief, knowing he was a thief +himself. Do you forget that he sent my mother to prison? + +LADY CICELY (softly). Were you very fond of your poor mother, and always +very good to her? + +BRASSBOUND (rather taken aback). I was not worse than other sons, I +suppose. + +LADY CICELY (opening her eyes very widely). Oh! Was THAT all? + +BRASSBOUND (exculpating himself, full of gloomy remembrances). You don't +understand. It was not always possible to be very tender with my mother. +She had unfortunately a very violent temper; and she--she-- + +LADY CICELY. Yes: so you told Howard. (With genuine pity for him) You +must have had a very unhappy childhood. + +BRASSBOUND (grimily). Hell. That was what my childhood was. Hell. + +LADY CICELY. Do you think she would really have killed Howard, as she +threatened, if he hadn't sent her to prison? + +BRASSBOUND (breaking out again, with a growing sense of being morally +trapped). What if she did? Why did he rob her? Why did he not help her +to get the estate, as he got it for himself afterwards? + +LADY CICELY. He says he couldn't, you know. But perhaps the real reason +was that he didn't like her. You know, don't you, that if you don't like +people you think of all the reasons for not helping them, and if you +like them you think of all the opposite reasons. + +BRASSBOUND. But his duty as a brother! + +LADY CICELY. Are you going to do your duty as a nephew? + +BRASSBOUND. Don't quibble with me. I am going to do my duty as a son; +and you know it. + +LADY CICELY. But I should have thought that the time for that was in +your mother's lifetime, when you could have been kind and forbearing +with her. Hurting your uncle won't do her any good, you know. + +BRASSBOUND. It will teach other scoundrels to respect widows and +orphans. Do you forget that there is such a thing as justice? + +LADY CICELY (gaily shaking out the finished coat). Oh, if you are going +to dress yourself in ermine and call yourself Justice, I give you up. +You are just your uncle over again; only he gets £5,000 a year for it, +and you do it for nothing. + +(She holds the coat up to see whether any further repairs are needed.) + +BRASSBOUND (sulkily). You twist my words very cleverly. But no man or +woman has ever changed me. + +LADY CICELY. Dear me! That must be very nice for the people you deal +with, because they can always depend on you; but isn't it rather +inconvenient for yourself when you change your mind? + +BRASSBOUND. I never change my mind. + +LADY CICELY (rising with the coat in her hands). Oh! Oh!! Nothing will +ever persuade me that you are as pigheaded as that. + +BRASSBOUND (offended). Pigheaded! + +LADY CICELY (with quick, caressing apology). No, no, no. I didn't mean +that. Firm! Unalterable! Resolute! Ironwilled! Stonewall Jackson! That's +the idea, isn't it? + +BRASSBOUND (hopelessly). You are laughing at me. + +LADY CICELY. No: trembling, I assure you. Now will you try this on for +me: I'm SO afraid I have made it too tight under the arm. (She holds it +behind him.) + +BRASSBOUND (obeying mechanically). You take me for a fool I think. (He +misses the sleeve.) + +LADY CICELY. No: all men look foolish when they are feeling for their +sleeves. + +BRASSBOUND. Agh! (He turns and snatches the coat from her; then puts it +on himself and buttons the lowest button.) + +LADY CICELY (horrified). Stop. No. You must NEVER pull a coat at the +skirts, Captain Brassbound: it spoils the sit of it. Allow me. (She +pulls the lappels of his coat vigorously forward) Put back your +shoulders. (He frowns, but obeys.) That's better. (She buttons the top +button.) Now button the rest from the top down. DOES it catch you at all +under the arm? + +BRASSBOUND (miserably--all resistance beaten out of him). No. + +LADY CICELY. That's right. Now before I go back to poor Marzo, say thank +you to me for mending your jacket, like a nice polite sailor. + +BRASSBOUND (sitting down at the table in great agitation). Damn you! +you have belittled my whole life to me. (He bows his head on his hands, +convulsed.) + +LADY CICELY (quite understanding, and putting her hand kindly on his +shoulder). Oh no. I am sure you have done lots of kind things and brave +things, if you could only recollect them. With Gordon for instance? +Nobody can belittle that. + +He looks up at her for a moment; then kisses her hand. She presses his +and turns away with her eyes so wet that she sees Drinkwater, coming in +through the arch just then, with a prismatic halo round him. Even when +she sees him clearly, she hardly recognizes him; for he is ludicrously +clean and smoothly brushed; and his hair, formerly mud color, is now a +lively red. + +DRINKWATER. Look eah, kepn. (Brassbound springs up and recovers himself +quickly.) Eahs the bloomin Shike jest appeahd on the orawzn wiv abaht +fifty men. Thy'll be eah insawd o ten minnits, they will. + +LADY CICELY. The Sheikh! + +BRASSBOUND. Sidi el Assif and fifty men! (To Lady Cicely) You were too +late: I gave you up my vengeance when it was no longer in my hand. (To +Drinkwater) Call all hands to stand by and shut the gates. Then all here +to me for orders; and bring the prisoner. + +DRINKWATER. Rawt, kepn. (He runs out.) + +LADY CICELY. Is there really any danger for Howard? + +BRASSBOUND. Yes. Danger for all of us unless I keep to my bargain with +this fanatic. + +LADY CICELY. What bargain? + +BRASSBOUND. I pay him so much a head for every party I escort through to +the interior. In return he protects me and lets my caravans alone. But +I have sworn an oath to him to take only Jews and true believers--no +Christians, you understand. + +LADY CICELY. Then why did you take us? + +BRASSBOUND. I took my uncle on purpose--and sent word to Sidi that he +was here. + +LADY CICELY. Well, that's a pretty kettle of fish, isn't it? + +BRASSBOUND. I will do what I can to save him--and you. But I fear my +repentance has come too late, as repentance usually does. + +LADY CICELY (cheerfully). Well, I must go and look after Marzo, at all +events. (She goes out through the little door. Johnson, Redbrook and the +rest come in through the arch, with Sir Howard, still very crusty and +determined. He keeps close to Johnson, who comes to Brassbound's right, +Redbrook taking the other side.) + +BRASSBOUND. Where's Drinkwater? + +JOHNSON. On the lookout. Look here, Capn: we don't half like this job. +The gentleman has been talking to us a bit; and we think that he IS a +gentleman, and talks straight sense. + +REDBROOK. Righto, Brother Johnson. (To Brassbound) Won't do, governor. +Not good enough. + +BRASSBOUND (fiercely). Mutiny, eh? + +REDBROOK. Not at all, governor. Don't talk Tommy rot with Brother Sidi +only five minutes gallop off. Can't hand over an Englishman to a nigger +to have his throat cut. + +BRASSBOUND (unexpectedly acquiescing). Very good. You know, I suppose, +that if you break my bargain with Sidi, you'll have to defend this place +and fight for your lives in five minutes. That can't be done without +discipline: you know that too. I'll take my part with the rest under +whatever leader you are willing to obey. So choose your captain and look +sharp about it. (Murmurs of surprise and discontent.) + +VOICES. No, no. Brassbound must command. + +BRASSBOUND. You're wasting your five minutes. Try Johnson. + +JOHNSON. No. I haven't the head for it. + +BRASSBOUND. Well, Redbrook. + +REDBROOK. Not this Johnny, thank you. Haven't character enough. + +BRASSBOUND. Well, there's Sir Howard Hallam for You! HE has character +enough. + +A VOICE. He's too old. + +ALL. No, no. Brassbound, Brassbound. + +JOHNSON. There's nobody but you, Captain. + +REDRROOK. The mutiny's over, governor. You win, hands down. + +BRASSBOUND (turning on them). Now listen, you, all of you. If I am to +command here, I am going to do what I like, not what you like. I'll give +this gentleman here to Sidi or to the devil if I choose. I'll not be +intimidated or talked back to. Is that understood? + +REDBROOK (diplomatically). He's offered a present of five hundred quid +if he gets safe back to Mogador, governor. Excuse my mentioning it. + +SIR HOWARD. Myself AND Lady Cicely. + +BRASSBOUND. What! A judge compound a felony! You greenhorns, he is more +likely to send you all to penal servitude if you are fools enough to +give him the chance. + +VOICES. So he would. Whew! (Murmurs of conviction.) + +REDBROOK. Righto, governor. That's the ace of trumps. + +BRASSBOUND (to Sir Howard). Now, have you any other card to play? Any +other bribe? Any other threat? Quick. Time presses. + +SIR HOWARD. My life is in the hands of Providence. Do your worst. + +BRASSBOUND. Or my best. I still have that choice. + +DRINKWATER (running in). Look eah, kepn. Eah's anather lot cammin from +the sahth heast. Hunnerds of em, this tawm. The owl dezzit is lawk a +bloomin Awd Pawk demonstrition. Aw blieve it's the Kidy from Kintorfy. +(General alarm. All look to Brassbound.) + +BRASSBOUND (eagerly). The Cadi! How far off? + +DRINKWATER. Matter o two mawl. + +BRASSBOUND. We're saved. Open the gates to the Sheikh. + +DRINKWATER (appalled, almost in tears). Naow, naow. Lissn, kepn +(Pointing to Sir Howard): e'll give huz fawv unnerd red uns. (To the +others) Ynt yer spowk to im, Miste Jornsn--Miste Redbrook-- + +BRASSBOUND (cutting him short). Now then, do you understand plain +English? Johnson and Redbrook: take what men you want and open the gates +to the Sheikh. Let him come straight to me. Look alive, will you. + +JOHNSON. Ay ay, sir. + +REDBROOK. Righto, governor. + +They hurry out, with a few others. Drinkwater stares after them, +dumbfounded by their obedience. + +BRASSBOUND (taking out a pistol). You wanted to sell me to my prisoner, +did you, you dog. + +DRINKWATER (falling on his knees with a yell). Naow! (Brassbound turns +on him as if to kick him. He scrambles away and takes refuge behind Sir +Howard.) + +BRASSBOUND. Sir Howard Hallam: you have one chance left. The Cadi of +Kintafi stands superior to the Sheikh as the responsible governor of the +whole province. It is the Cadi who will be sacrificed by the Sultan if +England demands satisfaction for any injury to you. If we can hold the +Sheikh in parley until the Cadi arrives, you may frighten the Cadi into +forcing the Sheikh to release you. The Cadi's coming is a lucky chance +for YOU. + +SIR HOWARD. If it were a real chance, you would not tell me of it. Don't +try to play cat and mouse with me, man. + +DRINKWATER (aside to Sir Howard, as Brassbound turns contemptuously away +to the other side of the room). It ynt mach of a chawnst, Sr Ahrd. But +if there was a ganbowt in Mogador Awbr, awd put a bit on it, aw would. + +Johnson, Redbrook, and the others return, rather mistrustfully ushering +in Sidi el Assif, attended by Osman and a troop of Arabs. Brassbound's +men keep together on the archway side, backing their captain. Sidi's +followers cross the room behind the table and assemble near Sir Howard, +who stands his ground. Drinkwater runs across to Brassbound and stands +at his elbow as he turns to face Sidi. + +Sidi el Aasif, clad in spotless white, is a nobly handsome Arab, hardly +thirty, with fine eyes, bronzed complexion, and instinctively dignified +carriage. He places himself between the two groups, with Osman in +attendance at his right hand. + +OSMAN (pointing out Sir Howard). This is the infidel Cadi. (Sir Howard +bows to Sidi, but, being an infidel, receives only the haughtiest stare +in acknowledgement.) This (pointing to Brassbound) is Brassbound the +Franguestani captain, the servant of Sidi. + +DRINKWATER (not to be outdone, points out the Sheikh and Osman to +Brassbound). This eah is the Commawnder of the Fythful an is Vizzeer +Rosman. + +SIDI. Where is the woman? + +OSMAN. The shameless one is not here. + +BRASSBOUND. Sidi el Assif, kinsman of the Prophet: you are welcome. + +REDBROOK (with much aplomb). There is no majesty and no might save in +Allah, the Glorious, the Great! + +DRINKWATER. Eah, eah! + +OSMAN (to Sidi). The servant of the captain makes his profession of +faith as a true believer. + +SIDI. It is well. + +BRASSBOUND (aside to Redbrook). Where did you pick that up? + +REDRROOK (aside to Brassbound). Captain Burton's Arabian Nights--copy in +the library of the National Liberal Club. + +LADY CICELY (calling without). Mr. Drinkwater. Come and help me with +Marzo. (The Sheikh pricks up his ears. His nostrils and eyes expand.) + +OSMAN. The shameless one! + +BRASSBOUND (to Drinkwater, seizing him by the collar and slinging him +towards the door). Off with you. + +Drinkwater goes out through the little door. + +OSMAN. Shall we hide her face before she enters? + +SIDI. NO. + +Lady Cicely, who has resumed her travelling equipment, and has her hat +slung across her arm, comes through the little door supporting Marzo, +who is very white, but able to get about. Drinkwater has his other arm. +Redbrook hastens to relieve Lady Cicely of Marzo, taking him into the +group behind Brassbound. Lady Cicely comes forward between Brassbound +and the Sheikh, to whom she turns affably. + +LADY CICELY (proffering her hand). Sidi el Assif, isn't it? How dye do? +(He recoils, blushing somewhat.) + +OSMAN (scandalized). Woman; touch not the kinsman of the Prophet. + +LADY CICELY. Oh, I see. I'm being presented at court. Very good. (She +makes a presentation curtsey.) + +REDBROOK. Sidi el Assif: this is one of the mighty women Sheikhs of +Franguestan. She goes unveiled among Kings; and only princes may touch +her hand. + +LADY CICELY. Allah upon thee, Sidi el Assif! Be a good little Sheikh, +and shake hands. + +SIDI (timidly touching her hand). Now this is a wonderful thing, and +worthy to be chronicled with the story of Solomon and the Queen of +Sheba. Is it not so, Osman Ali? + +OSMAN. Allah upon thee, master! it is so. + +SIDI. Brassbound Ali: the oath of a just man fulfils itself without many +words. The infidel Cadi, thy captive, falls to my share. + +BRASSBOUND (firmly). It cannot be, Sidi el Assif. (Sidi's brows contract +gravely.) The price of his blood will be required of our lord the +Sultan. I will take him to Morocco and deliver him up there. + +SIDI (impressively). Brassbound: I am in mine own house and amid mine +own people. I am the Sultan here. Consider what you say; for when my +word goes forth for life or death, it may not be recalled. + +BRASSBOUND. Sidi el Assif: I will buy the man from you at what price you +choose to name; and if I do not pay faithfully, you shall take my head +for his. + +SIDI. It is well. You shall keep the man, and give me the woman in +payment. + +SIR HOWARD AND BRASSBOUND (with the same impulse). No, no. + +LADY CICELY (eagerly). Yes, yes. Certainly, Mr. Sidi. Certainly. + +Sidi smiles gravely. + +SIR HOWARD. Impossible. + +BRASSBOUND. You don't know what you're doing. + +LADY CICELY. Oh, don't I? I've not crossed Africa and stayed with six +cannibal chiefs for nothing. (To the Sheikh) It's all right, Mr. Sidi: I +shall be delighted. + +SIR HOWARD. You are mad. Do you suppose this man will treat you as a +European gentleman would? + +LADY CICELY. No: he'll treat me like one of Nature's gentlemen: look at +his perfectly splendid face! (Addressing Osman as if he were her oldest +and most attached retainer.) Osman: be sure you choose me a good horse; +and get a nice strong camel for my luggage. + +Osman, after a moment of stupefaction, hurries out. Lady Cicely puts +on her hat and pins it to her hair, the Sheikh gazing at her during the +process with timid admiration. + +DRINKWATER (chuckling). She'll mawch em all to church next Sunder lawk a +bloomin lot o' cherrity kids: you see if she doesn't. + +LADY CICELY (busily). Goodbye, Howard: don't be anxious about me; and +above all, don't bring a parcel of men with guns to rescue me. I +shall be all right now that I am getting away from the escort. Captain +Brassbound: I rely on you to see that Sir Howard gets safe to Mogador. +(Whispering) Take your hand off that pistol. (He takes his hand out of +his pocket, reluctantly.) Goodbye. + +A tumult without. They all turn apprehensively to the arch. Osman rushes +in. + +OSMAN. The Cadi, the Cadi. He is in anger. His men are upon us. Defend-- + +The Cadi, a vigorous, fatfeatured, choleric, whitehaired and bearded +elder, rushes in, cudgel in hand, with an overwhelming retinue, and +silences Osman with a sounding thwack. In a moment the back of the room +is crowded with his followers. The Sheikh retreats a little towards his +men; and the Cadi comes impetuously forward between him and Lady Cicely. + +THE CADI. Now woe upon thee, Sidi el Assif, thou child of mischief! + +SIDI (sternly). Am I a dog, Muley Othman, that thou speakest thus to me? + +THE CADI. Wilt thou destroy thy country, and give us all into the hands +of them that set the sea on fire but yesterday with their ships of war? +Where are the Franguestani captives? + +LADY CICELY. Here we are, Cadi. How dye do? + +THE CADI. Allah upon thee, thou moon at the full! Where is thy kinsman, +the Cadi of Franguestan? I am his friend, his servant. I come on behalf +of my master the Sultan to do him honor, and to cast down his enemies. + +SIR HOWARD. You are very good, I am sure. + +SIDI (graver than ever). Muley Othman-- + +TAE CADI (fumbling in his breast). Peace, peace, thou inconsiderate one. +(He takes out a letter.) + +BRASSBOUND. Cadi-- + +THE CADI. Oh thou dog, thou, thou accursed Brassbound, son of a wanton: +it is thou hast led Sidi el Assif into this wrongdoing. Read this +writing that thou hast brought upon me from the commander of the +warship. + +BRASSBOUND. Warship! (He takes the letter and opens it, his men +whispering to one another very low-spiritedly meanwhile.) + +REDBROOK. Warship! Whew! + +JOHNSON. Gunboat, praps. + +DRINKWATER. Lawk bloomin Worterleoo buses, they are, on this cowst. + +Brassbound folds up the letter, looking glum. + +SIR HOWARD (sharply). Well, sir, are we not to have the benefit of that +letter? Your men are waiting to hear it, I think. + +BRASSBOUND. It is not a British ship. (Sir Howard's face falls.) + +LADY CICELY. What is it, then? + +BRASSBOUND. An American cruiser. The Santiago. + +THE CADI (tearing his beard). Woe! alas! it is where they set the sea on +fire. + +SIDI. Peace, Muley Othman: Allah is still above us. + +JOHNSON. Would you mind readin it to us, capn? + +BRASSBOUND (grimly). Oh, I'll read it to you. "Mogador Harbor. 26 Sept. +1899. Captain Hamlin Kearney, of the cruiser Santiago, presents the +compliments of the United States to the Cadi Muley Othman el Kintafi, +and announces that he is coming to look for the two British travellers +Sir Howard Hallam and Lady Cicely Waynflete, in the Cadi's jurisdiction. +As the search will be conducted with machine guns, the prompt return of +the travellers to Mogador Harbor will save much trouble to all parties." + +THE CADI. As I live, O Cadi, and thou, moon of loveliness, ye shall be +led back to Mogador with honor. And thou, accursed Brassbound, shalt go +thither a prisoner in chains, thou and thy people. (Brassbound and his +men make a movement to defend themselves.) Seize them. + +LADY CICELY. Oh, please don't fight. (Brassbound, seeing that his men +are hopelessly outnumbered, makes no resistance. They are made prisoners +by the Cadi's followers.) + +SIDI (attempting to draw his scimitar). The woman is mine: I will not +forego her. (He is seized and overpowered after a Homeric struggle.) + +SIR HOWARD (drily). I told you you were not in a strong position, +Captain Brassbound. (Looking implacably at him.) You are laid by the +heels, my friend, as I said you would be. + +LADY CICELY. But I assure you-- + +BRASSBOUND (interrupting her). What have you to assure him of? You +persuaded me to spare him. Look at his face. Will you be able to +persuade him to spare me? + + + + +ACT III + +Torrid forenoon filtered through small Moorish windows high up in the +adobe walls of the largest room in Leslie Rankin's house. A clean +cool room, with the table (a Christian article) set in the middle, a +presidentially elbowed chair behind it, and an inkstand and paper ready +for the sitter. A couple of cheap American chairs right and left of the +table, facing the same way as the presidential chair, give a judicial +aspect to the arrangement. Rankin is placing a little tray with a jug +and some glasses near the inkstand when Lady Cicely's voice is heard at +the door, which is behind him in the corner to his right. + +LADE CICELY. Good morning. May I come in? + +RANKIN. Certainly. (She comes in, to the nearest end of the table. She +has discarded all travelling equipment, and is dressed exactly as she +might be in Surrey on a very hot day.) Sit ye doon, Leddy Ceecily. + +LADY CICELY (sitting down). How nice you've made the room for the +inquiry! + +RANKIN (doubtfully). I could wish there were more chairs. Yon American +captain will preside in this; and that leaves but one for Sir Howrrd and +one for your leddyship. I could almost be tempted to call it a maircy +that your friend that owns the yacht has sprained his ankle and cannot +come. I misdoubt me it will not look judeecial to have Captain Kearney's +officers squatting on the floor. + +LADY CICELY. Oh, they won't mind. What about the prisoners? + +RANKIN. They are to be broat here from the town gaol presently. + +LADY CICELY. And where is that silly old Cadi, and my handsome Sheikh +Sidi? I must see them before the inquiry,or they'll give Captain Kearney +quite a false impression of what happened. + +RANKIN. But ye cannot see them. They decamped last night, back to their +castles in the Atlas. + +LADY CICELY (delighted). No! + +RANKIN. Indeed and they did. The poor Cadi is so terrified by all he +has haird of the destruction of the Spanish fleet, that he daren't trust +himself in the captain's hands. (Looking reproachfully at her) On your +journey back here, ye seem to have frightened the poor man yourself, +Leddy Ceecily, by talking to him about the fanatical Chreestianity of +the Americans. Ye have largely yourself to thank if he's gone. + +LADY CICELY. Allah be praised! WHAT a weight off our minds, Mr. Rankin! + +RANKIN (puzzled). And why? Do ye not understand how necessary their +evidence is? + +LADY CICELY. THEIR evidence! It would spoil everything. They would +perjure themselves out of pure spite against poor Captain Brassbound. + +RANKIN (amazed). Do ye call him POOR Captain Brassbound! Does not your +leddyship know that this Brasshound is--Heaven forgive me for judging +him!--a precious scoundrel? Did ye not hear what Sir Howrrd told me on +the yacht last night? + +LADY CICELY. All a mistake, Mr. Rankin: all a mistake, I assure you. +You said just now, Heaven forgive you for judging him! Well, that's just +what the whole quarrel is about. Captain Brassbound is just like you: +he thinks we have no right to judge one another; and its Sir Howard gets +£5,000 a year for doing nothing else but judging people, he thinks poor +Captain Brassbound a regular Anarchist. They quarreled dreadfully at +the castle. You mustn't mind what Sir Howard says about him: you really +mustn't. + +RANKIN. But his conduct-- + +LADY CICELY. Perfectly saintly, Mr. Rankin. Worthy of yourself in your +best moments. He forgave Sir Howard, and did all he could to save him. + +RANKIN. Ye astoanish me, Leddy Ceecily. + +LADY CICELY. And think of the temptation to behave badly when he had us +all there helpless! + +RANKIN. The temptation! ay: that's true. Ye're ower bonny to be cast +away among a parcel o lone, lawless men, my leddy. + +LADY CICELY (naively). Bless me, that's quite true; and I never thought +of it! Oh, after that you really must do all you can to help Captain +Brassbound. + +RANKIN (reservedly). No: I cannot say that, Leddy Ceecily. I doubt he +has imposed on your good nature and sweet disposeetion. I had a crack +with the Cadi as well as with Sir Howrrd; and there is little question in +my mind but that Captain Brassbound is no better than a breegand. + +LADY CICELY (apparently deeply impressed). I wonder whether he can be, +Mr. Rankin. If you think so, that's heavily against him in my opinion, +because you have more knowledge of men than anyone else here. Perhaps +I'm mistaken. I only thought you might like to help him as the son of +your old friend. + +RANKIN (startled). The son of my old friend! What d'ye mean? + +LADY CICELY. Oh! Didn't Sir Howard tell you that? Why, Captain +Brassbound turns out to be Sir Howard's nephew, the son of the brother +you knew. + +RANKIN (overwhelmed). I saw the likeness the night he came here! It's +true: it's true. Uncle and nephew! + +LADY CICELY. Yes: that's why they quarrelled so. + +RANKIN (with a momentary sense of ill usage). I think Sir Howrrd might +have told me that. + +LADY CICELY. Of course he OUGHT to have told you. You see he only tells +one side of the story. That comes from his training as a barrister. You +mustn't think he's naturally deceitful: if he'd been brought up as a +clergyman, he'd have told you the whole truth as a matter of course. + +RANKIN (too much perturbed to dwell on his grievance). Leddy Ceecily: I +must go to the prison and see the lad. He may have been a bit wild; but +I can't leave poor Miles's son unbefriended in a foreign gaol. + +LADY CICELY (rising, radiant). Oh, how good of you! You have a real kind +heart of gold, Mr. Rankin. Now, before you go, shall we just put our +heads together, and consider how to give Miles's son every chance--I +mean of course every chance that he ought to have. + +RANKIN (rather addled). I am so confused by this astoanishing news-- + +LADY CICELY. Yes, yes: of course you are. But don't you think he would +make a better impression on the American captain if he were a little +more respectably dressed? + +RANKIN. Mebbe. But how can that be remedied here in Mogador? + +LADY CICELY. Oh, I've thought of that. You know I'm going back to +England by way of Rome, Mr. Rankin; and I'm bringing a portmanteau full +of clothes for my brother there: he's ambassador, you know, and has to +be VERY particular as to what he wears. I had the portmanteau brought +here this morning. Now WOULD you mind taking it to the prison, and +smartening up Captain Brassbound a little. Tell him he ought to do it to +show his respect for me; and he will. It will be quite easy: there are +two Krooboys waiting to carry the portmanteau. You will: I know you +will. (She edges him to the door.) And do you think there is time to get +him shaved? + +RANKIN (succumbing, half bewildered). I'll do my best. + +LADY CICELY. I know you will. (As he is going out) Oh! one word, Mr. +Rankin. (He comes back.) The Cadi didn't know that Captain Brassbound +was Sir Howard's nephew, did he? + +RANKIN. No. + +LADY CICELY. Then he must have misunderstood everything quite +dreadfully. I'm afraid, Mr. Rankin--though you know best, of +course--that we are bound not to repeat anything at the inquiry that the +Cadi said. He didn't know, you see. + +RANKIN (cannily). I take your point, Leddy Ceecily. It alters the case. +I shall certainly make no allusion to it. + +LADY CICELY (magnanimously). Well, then, I won't either. There! They +shake hands on it. Sir Howard comes in. + +SIR HOWARD. Good morning Mr. Rankin. I hope you got home safely from the +yacht last night. + +RANKIN. Quite safe, thank ye, Sir Howrrd. + +LADY CICELY. Howard, he's in a hurry. Don't make him stop to talk. + +SIR HOWARD. Very good, very good. (He comes to the table and takes Lady +Cicely's chair.) + +RANKIN. Oo revoir, Leddy Ceecily. + +LADY CICELY. Bless you, Mr. Rankin. (Rankin goes out. She comes to +the other end of the table, looking at Sir Howard with a troubled, +sorrowfully sympathetic air, but unconsciously making her right hand +stalk about the table on the tips of its fingers in a tentative stealthy +way which would put Sir Howard on his guard if he were in a suspicious +frame of mind, which, as it happens, he is not.) I'm so sorry for you, +Howard, about this unfortunate inquiry. + +SIR HOWARD (swinging round on his chair, astonished). Sorry for ME! Why? + +LADY CICELY. It will look so dreadful. Your own nephew, you know. + +SIR HOWARD. Cicely: an English judge has no nephews, no sons even, when +he has to carry out the law. + +LADY CICELY. But then he oughtn't to have any property either. People +will never understand about the West Indian Estate. They'll think you're +the wicked uncle out of the Babes in the Wood. (With a fresh gush of +compassion) I'm so SO sorry for you. + +SIR HOWARD (rather stiffly). I really do not see how I need your +commiseration, Cicely. The woman was an impossible person, half mad, +half drunk. Do you understand what such a creature is when she has a +grievance, and imagines some innocent person to be the author of it? + +LADY CICELY (with a touch of impatience). Oh, quite. THAT'll be made +clear enough. I can see it all in the papers already: our half mad, +half drunk sister-in-law, making scenes with you in the street, with the +police called in, and prison and all the rest of it. The family will +be furious. (Sir Howard quails. She instantly follows up her advantage +with) Think of papa! + +SIR HOWARD. I shall expect Lord Waynflete to look at the matter as a +reasonable man. + +LADY CICELY. Do you think he's so greatly changed as that, Howard? + +SIR HOWARD (falling back on the fatalism of the depersonalized public +man). My dear Cicely: there is no use discussing the matter. It cannot +be helped, however disagreeable it may be. + +LADY CICELY. Of course not. That's what's so dreadful. Do you think +people will understand? + +SIR HOWARD. I really cannot say. Whether they do or not, I cannot help +it. + +LADY CICELY. If you were anybody but a judge, it wouldn't matter so +much. But a judge mustn't even be misunderstood. (Despairingly) Oh, it's +dreadful, Howard: it's terrible! What would poor Mary say if she were +alive now? + +SIR HOWARD (with emotion). I don't think, Cicely, that my dear wife +would misunderstand me. + +LADY CICELY. No: SHE'D know you mean well. And when you came home and +said, "Mary: I've just told all the world that your sister-in-law was a +police court criminal, and that I sent her to prison; and your nephew is +a brigand, and I'm sending HIM to prison." she'd have thought it must be +all right because you did it. But you don't think she would have LIKED +it, any more than papa and the rest of us, do you? + +SIR HOWARD (appalled). But what am I to do? Do you ask me to compound a +felony? + +LADY CICELY (sternly). Certainly not. I would not allow such a thing, +even if you were wicked enough to attempt it. No. What I say is, that +you ought not to tell the story yourself + +SIR HOWARD. Why? + +LADY CICELY. Because everybody would say you are such a clever lawyer +you could make a poor simple sailor like Captain Kearney believe +anything. The proper thing for you to do, Howard, is to let ME tell the +exact truth. Then you can simply say that you are bound to confirm me. +Nobody can blame you for that. + +SIR HOWARD (looking suspiciously at her). Cicely: you are up to some +devilment. + +LADY CICELY (promptly washing her hands of his interests). Oh, very +well. Tell the story yourself, in your own clever way. I only proposed +to tell the exact truth. You call that devilment. So it is, I daresay, +from a lawyer's point of view. + +SIR HOWARD. I hope you're not offended. + +LADY CICELY (with the utmost goodhumor). My dear Howard, not a bit. Of +course you're right: you know how these things ought to be done. I'll do +exactly what you tell me, and confirm everything you say. + +SIR HOWARD (alarmed by the completeness of his victory). Oh, my dear, +you mustn't act in MY interest. You must give your evidence with +absolute impartiality. (She nods, as if thoroughly impressed and +reproved, and gazes at him with the steadfast candor peculiar to liars +who read novels. His eyes turn to the ground; and his brow clouds +perplexedly. He rises; rubs his chin nervously with his forefinger; and +adds) I think, perhaps, on reflection, that there is something to be +said for your proposal to relieve me of the very painful duty of telling +what has occurred. + +LADI CICELY (holding off). But you'd do it so very much better. + +SIR HOWARD. For that very reason, perhaps, it had better come from you. + +LADY CICELY (reluctantly). Well, if you'd rather. + +SIR HOWARD. But mind, Cicely, the exact truth. + +LADY CICELY (with conviction). The exact truth. (They shake hands on +it.) + +SIR HOWARD (holding her hand). Fiat justitia: ruat coelum! + +LADY CICELY. Let Justice be done, though the ceiling fall. + +An American bluejacket appears at the door. + +BLUEJACKET. Captain Kearney's cawmpliments to Lady Waynflete; and may he +come in? + +LADY CICELY. Yes. By all means. Where are the prisoners? + +BLUEJACKET. Party gawn to the jail to fetch em, marm. + +LADY CICELY. Thank you. I should like to be told when they are coming, +if I might. + +BLUEJACKET. You shall so, marm. (He stands aside, saluting, to admit his +captain, and goes out.) + +Captain Hamlin Kearney is a robustly built western American, with the +keen, squeezed, wind beaten eyes and obstinately enduring mouth of his +profession. A curious ethnological specimen, with all the nations of +the old world at war in his veins, he is developing artificially in +the direction of sleekness and culture under the restraints of an +overwhelming dread of European criticism, and climatically in the +direction of the indiginous North American, who is already in possession +of his hair, his cheekbones, and the manlier instincts in him, which +the sea has rescued from civilization. The world, pondering on the great +part of its own future which is in his hands, contemplates him with +wonder as to what the devil he will evolve into in another century or +two. Meanwhile he presents himself to Lady Cicely as a blunt sailor who +has something to say to her concerning her conduct which he wishes to +put politely, as becomes an officer addressing a lady, but also with an +emphatically implied rebuke, as an American addressing an English person +who has taken a liberty. + +LADY CICELY (as he enters). So glad you've come, Captain Kearney. + +KEARNEY (coming between Sir Howard and Lady Cicely). When we parted +yesterday ahfternoon, Lady Waynflete, I was unaware that in the +course of your visit to my ship you had entirely altered the sleeping +arrangements of my stokers. I thahnk you. As captain of the ship, I +am customairily cawnsulted before the orders of English visitors are +carried out; but as your alterations appear to cawndooce to the comfort +of the men, I have not interfered with them. + +LADY CICELY. How clever of you to find out! I believe you know every +bolt in that ship. + +Kearney softens perceptibly. + +SIR HOWARD. I am really very sorry that my sister-in-law has taken so +serious a liberty, Captain Kearney. It is a mania of hers--simply a +mania. Why did your men pay any attention to her? + +KEARNEY (with gravely dissembled humor). Well, I ahsked that question +too. I said, Why did you obey that lady's orders instead of waiting for +mine? They said they didn't see exactly how they could refuse. I ahsked +whether they cawnsidered that discipline. They said, Well, sir, will you +talk to the lady yourself next time? + +LADY CICELY. I'm so sorry. But you know, Captain, the one thing that one +misses on board a man-of-war is a woman. + +KEARNEY. We often feel that deprivation verry keenly, Lady Waynflete. + +LADY CICELY. My uncle is first Lord of the Admiralty; and I am always +telling him what a scandal it is that an English captain should be +forbidden to take his wife on board to look after the ship. + +KEARNEY. Stranger still, Lady Waynflete, he is not forbidden to take any +other lady. Yours is an extraordinairy country--to an Amerrican. + +LADY CICELY. But it's most serious, Captain. The poor men go melancholy +mad, and ram each other's ships and do all sorts of things. + +SIR HOWARD. Cicely: I beg you will not talk nonsense to Captain Kearney. +Your ideas on some subjects are really hardly decorous. + +LADY CICELY (to Kearney). That's what English people are like, Captain +Kearney. They won't hear of anything concerning you poor sailors except +Nelson and Trafalgar. YOU understand me, don't you? + +KEARNEY (gallantly). I cawnsider that you have more sense in your +wedding ring finger than the British Ahdmiralty has in its whole +cawnstitootion, Lady Waynflete. + +LADY CICELY. Of course I have. Sailors always understand things. + +The bluejacket reappears. + +BLUEJACKET (to Lady Cicely). Prisoners coming up the hill, marm. + +KEARNEY (turning sharply on him). Who sent you in to say that? + +BLUEJACKET (calmly). British lady's orders, sir. (He goes out, +unruffled, leaving Kearney dumbfounded.) + +SIR HOWARD (contemplating Kearney's expression with dismay). I am really +very sorry, Captain Kearney. I am quite aware that Lady Cicely has no +right whatever to give orders to your men. + +LADY CICELY. I didn't give orders: I just asked him. He has such a nice +face! Don't you think so, Captain Kearney? (He gasps, speechless.) And +now will you excuse me a moment. I want to speak to somebody before the +inquiry begins. (She hurries out.) + +KEARNEY. There is sertnly a wonderful chahrn about the British +aristocracy, Sir Howard Hallam. Are they all like that? (He takes the +presidential chair.) + +SIR HOWARD (resuming his seat on Kearney's right). Fortunately not, +Captain Kearney. Half a dozen such women would make an end of law in +England in six months. + +The bluejacket comes to the door again. + +BLUEJACKET. All ready, sir. + +KEARNEY. Verry good. I'm waiting. + +The bluejacket turns and intimates this to those without. + +The officers of the Santiago enter. + +SIR HOWARD (rising and bobbing to them in a judicial manner). Good +morning, gentlemen. + +They acknowledge the greeting rather shyly, bowing or touching their +caps, and stand in a group behind Kearney. + +KEARNEY (to Sir Howard). You will be glahd to hear that I have a verry +good account of one of our prisoners from our chahplain, who visited +them in the gaol. He has expressed a wish to be cawnverted to +Episcopalianism. + +SIR HOWARD (drily). Yes, I think I know him. + +KEARNEY. Bring in the prisoners. + +BLUEJACKET (at the door). They are engaged with the British lady, sir. +Shall I ask her-- + +KEARNEY (jumping up and exploding in storm piercing tones). Bring in the +prisoners. Tell the lady those are my orders. Do you hear? Tell her so. +(The bluejacket goes out dubiously. The officers look at one another in +mute comment on the unaccountable pepperiness of their commander.) + +SIR HOWARD (suavely). Mr. Rankin will be present, I presume. + +KEARNEY (angrily). Rahnkin! Who is Rahnkin? + +SIR HOWARD. Our host the missionary. + +KEARNEY (subsiding unwillingly). Oh! Rahnkin, is he? He'd better look +sharp or he'll be late. (Again exploding.) What are they doing with +those prisoners? + +Rankin hurries in, and takes his place near Sir Howard. + +SIR HOWARD. This is Mr. Rankin, Captain Kearney. + +RANKIN. Excuse my delay, Captain Kearney. The leddy sent me on an +errand. (Kearney grunts.) I thought I should be late. But the first +thing I heard when I arrived was your officer giving your compliments to +Leddy Ceecily, and would she kindly allow the prisoners to come in, as +you were anxious to see her again. Then I knew I was in time. + +KEARNEY. Oh, that was it, was it? May I ask, sir, did you notice any +sign on Lady Waynflete's part of cawmplying with that verry moderate +request? + +LADY CICELY (outside). Coming, coming. + +The prisoners are brought in by a guard of armed bluejackets. + +Drinkwater first, again elaborately clean, and conveying by a virtuous +and steadfast smirk a cheerful confidence in his innocence. Johnson +solid and inexpressive, Redbrook unconcerned and debonair, Marzo uneasy. +These four form a little group together on the captain's left. The rest +wait unintelligently on Providence in a row against the wall on the +same side, shepherded by the bluejackets. The first bluejacket, a petty +officer, posts himself on the captain's right, behind Rankin and Sir +Howard. Finally Brassbound appears with Lady Cicely on his arm. He is +in fashionable frock coat and trousers, spotless collar and cuffs, +and elegant boots. He carries a glossy tall hat in his hand. To an +unsophisticated eye, the change is monstrous and appalling; and its +effect on himself is so unmanning that he is quite out of countenance--a +shaven Samson. Lady Cicely, however, is greatly pleased with it; and the +rest regard it as an unquestionable improvement. The officers fall back +gallantly to allow her to pass. Kearney rises to receive her, and stares +with some surprise at Brassbound as he stops at the table on his left. +Sir Howard rises punctiliously when Kearney rises and sits when he sits. + +KEARNEY. Is this another gentleman of your party, Lady Waynflete? I +presume I met you lahst night, sir, on board the yacht. + +BRASSBOUND. No. I am your prisoner. My name is Brassbound. + +DRINKWATER (officiously). Kepn Brarsbahnd, of the schooner Thenksgiv-- + +REDBROOK (hastily). Shut up, you fool. (He elbows Drinkwater into the +background.) + +KEARNEY (surprised and rather suspicious). Well, I hardly understahnd +this. However, if you are Captain Brassbound, you can take your place +with the rest. (Brassbound joins Redbrook and Johnson. Kearney sits down +again, after inviting Lady Cicely, with a solemn gesture, to take the +vacant chair.) Now let me see. You are a man of experience in these +matters, Sir Howard Hallam. If you had to conduct this business, how +would you start? + +LADY CICELY. He'd call on the counsel for the prosecution, wouldn't you, +Howard? + +SIR HOWARD. But there is no counsel for the prosecution, Cicely. + +LADY CICELY. Oh yes there is. I'm counsel for the prosecution. You +mustn't let Sir Howard make a speech, Captain Kearney: his doctors have +positively forbidden anything of that sort. Will you begin with me? + +KEARNEY. By your leave, Lady Waynfiete, I think I will just begin with +myself. Sailor fashion will do as well here as lawyer fashion. + +LADY CICELY. Ever so much better, dear Captain Kearney. (Silence. +Kearney composes himself to speak. She breaks out again). You look so +nice as a judge! + +A general smile. Drinkwater splutters into a half suppressed laugh. + +REDBROOK (in a fierce whisper). Shut up, you fool, will you? (Again he +pushes him back with a furtive kick.) + +SIR HOWARD (remonstrating). Cicely! + +KEARNEY (grimly keeping his countenance). Your ladyship's cawmpliments +will be in order at a later stage. Captain Brassbound: the position +is this. My ship, the United States cruiser Santiago, was spoken off +Mogador latest Thursday by the yacht Redgauntlet. The owner of the +aforesaid yacht, who is not present through having sprained his ankle, +gave me sertn information. In cawnsequence of that information the +Santiago made the twenty knots to Mogador Harbor inside of fifty-seven +minutes. Before noon next day a messenger of mine gave the Cadi of the +district sertn information. In cawnsequence of that information the Cadi +stimulated himself to some ten knots an hour, and lodged you and your +men in Mogador jail at my disposal. The Cadi then went back to his +mountain fahstnesses; so we shall not have the pleasure of his company +here to-day. Do you follow me so far? + +BRASSBOUND. Yes. I know what you did and what the Cadi did. The point +is, why did you do it? + +KEARNEY. With doo patience we shall come to that presently. Mr. Rahnkin: +will you kindly take up the parable? + +RANKIN. On the very day that Sir Howrrd and Lady Cicely started on their +excursion I was applied to for medicine by a follower of the Sheikh Sidi +el Assif. He told me I should never see Sir Howrrd again, because his +master knew he was a Christian and would take him out of the hands of +Captain Brassbound. I hurried on board the yacht and told the owner to +scour the coast for a gunboat or cruiser to come into the harbor and +put persuasion on the authorities. (Sir Howard turns and looks at Rankin +with a sudden doubt of his integrity as a witness.) + +KEARNEY. But I understood from our chahplain that you reported Captain +Brassbound as in league with the Sheikh to deliver Sir Howard up to him. + +RANKIN. That was my first hasty conclusion, Captain Kearney. But it +appears that the compact between them was that Captain Brassbound should +escort travellers under the Sheikh's protection at a certain payment +per head, provided none of them were Christians. As I understand it, he +tried to smuggle Sir Howrrd through under this compact, and the Sheikh +found him out. + +DRINKWATER. Rawt, gavner. Thet's jest ah it wors. The Kepn-- + +REDBROOK (again suppressing him). Shut up, you fool, I tell you. + +SIR HOWARD (to Rankin). May I ask have you had any conversation with +Lady Cicely on this subject? + +RANKIN (naively). Yes. (Sir Howard qrunts emphatically, as who should +say "I thought so." Rankin continues, addressing the court) May I say +how sorry I am that there are so few chairs, Captain and gentlemen. + +KEARNEY (with genial American courtesy). Oh, THAT's all right, Mr. +Rahnkin. Well, I see no harm so far: it's human fawlly, but not human +crime. Now the counsel for the prosecution can proceed to prosecute. The +floor is yours, Lady Waynflete. + +LADY CICELY (rising). I can only tell you the exact truth-- + +DRINKWATER (involuntarily). Naow, down't do thet, lidy-- + +REDBROOK (as before). SHUT up, you fool, will you? + +LADY CICELY. We had a most delightful trip in the hills; and Captain +Brassbound's men could not have been nicer--I must say that for +them--until we saw a tribe of Arabs--such nice looking men!--and then +the poor things were frightened. + +KEARNEY. The Arabs? + +LADY CICELY. No: Arabs are never frightened. The escort, of course: +escorts are always frightened. I wanted to speak to the Arab chief; but +Captain Brassbound cruelly shot his horse; and the chief shot the Count; +and then-- + +KEARNEY. The Count! What Count? + +LADY CICELY. Marzo. That's Marzo (pointing to Marzo, who grins and +touches his forehead). + +KEARNEY (slightly overwhelmed by the unexpected profusion of incident +and character in her story). Well, what happened then? + +LADY CICELY. Then the escort ran away--all escorts do--and dragged me +into the castle, which you really ought to make them clean and whitewash +thoroughly, Captain Kearney. Then Captain Brassbound and Sir Howard +turned out to be related to one another (sensation); and then of course, +there was a quarrel. The Hallams always quarrel. + +SIR HOWARD (rising to protest). Cicely! Captain Kearney: this man told +me-- + +LADY CICELY (swiftly interrupting him). You mustn't say what people told +you: it's not evidence. (Sir Howard chokes with indignation.) + +KEARNEY (calmly). Allow the lady to proceed, Sir Howard Hallam. + +SIR HOWARD (recovering his self-control with a gulp, and resuming his +seat). I beg your pardon, Captain Kearney. + +LADY CICELY. Then Sidi came. + +KEARNEY. Sidney! Who was Sidney? + +LADY CICELY. No, Sidi. The Sheikh. Sidi el Assif. A noble creature, with +such a fine face! He fell in love with me at first sight-- + +SIR HOWARD (remonstrating). Cicely! + +LADY CICELY. He did: you know he did. You told me to tell the exact +truth. + +KEARNEY. I can readily believe it, madam. Proceed. + +LADY CICELY. Well, that put the poor fellow into a most cruel dilemma. +You see, he could claim to carry off Sir Howard, because Sir Howard is a +Christian. But as I am only a woman, he had no claim to me. + +KEARNEY (somewhat sternly, suspecting Lady Cicely of aristocratic +atheism). But you are a Christian woman. + +LADY CICELY. No: the Arabs don't count women. They don't believe we have +any souls. + +RANKIN. That is true, Captain: the poor benighted creatures! + +LADY CICELY. Well, what was he to do? He wasn't in love with Sir Howard; +and he WAS in love with me. So he naturally offered to swop Sir Howard +for me. Don't you think that was nice of him, Captain Kearney? + +KEARNEY. I should have done the same myself, Lady Waynflete. Proceed. + +LADY CICELY. Captain Brassbound, I must say, was nobleness itself, in +spite of the quarrel between himself and Sir Howard. He refused to give +up either of us, and was on the point of fighting for us when in came +the Cadi with your most amusing and delightful letter, captain, and +bundled us all back to Mogador after calling my poor Sidi the most +dreadful names, and putting all the blame on Captain Brassbound. So here +we are. Now, Howard, isn't that the exact truth, every word of it? + +SIR HOWARD. It is the truth, Cicely, and nothing but the truth. But the +English law requires a witness to tell the WHOLE truth. + +LADY CICELY. What nonsense! As if anybody ever knew the whole truth +about anything! (Sitting down, much hurt and discouraged.) I'm sorry you +wish Captain Kearney to understand that I am an untruthful witness. + +SIR HOWARD. No: but-- + +LADY CICELY. Very well, then: please don't say things that convey that +impression. + +KEARNEY. But Sir Howard told me yesterday that Captain Brassbound +threatened to sell him into slavery. + +LADY CICELY (springing up again). Did Sir Howard tell you the things he +said about Captain Brassbound's mother? (Renewed sensation.) I told you +they quarrelled, Captain Kearney. I said so, didn't I? + +REDBROOK (crisply). Distinctly. (Drinkwater opens his mouth to +corroborate.) Shut up, you fool. + +LADY CICELY. Of course I did. Now, Captain Kearney, do YOU want me--does +Sir Howard want me--does ANYBODY want me to go into the details of +that shocking family quarrel? Am I to stand here in the absence of any +individual of my own sex and repeat the language of two angry men? + +KEARNEY (rising impressively). The United States navy will have no +hahnd in offering any violence to the pure instincts of womanhood. Lady +Waynflete: I thahnk you for the delicacy with which you have given +your evidence. (Lady Cicely beams on him gratefully and sits down +triumphant.) Captain Brassbound: I shall not hold you respawnsible +for what you may have said when the English bench addressed you in the +language of the English forecastle-- (Sir Howard is about to protest.) +No, Sir Howard Hallam: excuse ME. In moments of pahssion I have called +a man that myself. We are glahd to find real flesh and blood beneath the +ermine of the judge. We will all now drop a subject that should never +have been broached in a lady's presence. (He resumes his seat, and adds, +in a businesslike tone) Is there anything further before we release +these men? + +BLUEJACKET. There are some dawcuments handed over by the Cadi, sir. He +reckoned they were sort of magic spells. The chahplain ordered them to +be reported to you and burnt, with your leave, sir. + +KEARNEY. What are they? + +BLUEJACKET (reading from a list). Four books, torn and dirty, made up of +separate numbers, value each wawn penny, and entitled Sweeny Todd, the +Demon Barber of London; The Skeleton Horseman-- + +DRINKWATER (rushing forward in painful alarm, and anxiety). It's maw +lawbrary, gavner. Down't burn em. + +KEARNEY. You'll be better without that sort of reading, my man. + +DRINKWATER (in intense distress, appealing to Lady Cicely) Down't let +em burn em, Lidy. They dasn't if you horder them not to. (With desperate +eloquence) Yer dunno wot them books is to me. They took me aht of the +sawdid reeyellities of the Worterleoo Rowd. They formed maw mawnd: they +shaowed me sathink awgher than the squalor of a corster's lawf-- + +REDBROOK (collaring him). Oh shut up, you fool. Get out. Hold your ton-- + +DRINKWATER (frantically breaking from him). Lidy, lidy: sy a word for +me. Ev a feelin awt. (His tears choke him: he clasps his hands in dumb +entreaty.) + +LADY CICELY (touched). Don't burn his books. Captain. Let me give them +back to him. + +KEARNEY. The books will be handed over to the lady. + +DRINKWATER (in a small voice). Thenkyer, Lidy. (He retires among his +comrades, snivelling subduedly.) + +REDBROOK (aside to him as he passes). You silly ass, you. (Drinkwater +sniffs and does not reply.) + +KEARNEY. I suppose you and your men accept this lady's account of what +passed, Captain Brassbound. + +BRASSBOUND (gloomily). Yes. It is true--as far as it goes. + +KEARNEY (impatiently). Do you wawnt it to go any further? + +MARZO. She leave out something. Arab shoot me. She nurse me. She cure +me. + +KEARNEY. And who are you, pray? + +MARZO (seized with a sanctimonious desire to demonstrate his higher +nature). Only dam thief. Dam liar. Dam rascal. She no lady. + +JOHNSON (revolted by the seeming insult to the English peerage from a +low Italian). What? What's that you say? + +MARZO. No lady nurse dam rascal. Only saint. She saint. She get me to +heaven--get us all to heaven. We do what we like now. + +LADY CICELY. Indeed you will do nothing of the sort Marzo, unless you +like to behave yourself very nicely indeed. What hour did you say we +were to lunch at, Captain Kearney? + +KEARNEY. You recall me to my dooty, Lady Waynflete. My barge will be +ready to take off you and Sir Howard to the Santiago at one o'clawk. (He +rises.) Captain Brassbound: this innquery has elicited no reason why I +should detain you or your men. I advise you to ahct as escort in future +to heathens exclusively. Mr. Rahnkin: I thahnk you in the name of the +United States for the hospitahlity you have extended to us today; and +I invite you to accompany me bahck to my ship with a view to lunch at +half-past one. Gentlemen: we will wait on the governor of the gaol on +our way to the harbor (He goes out, following his officers, and followed +by the bluejackets and the petty officer.) + +SIR HOWARD (to Lady Cicely). Cicely: in the course of my professional +career I have met with unscrupulous witnesses, and, I am sorry to say, +unscrupulous counsel also. But the combination of unscrupulous witness +and unscrupulous counsel I have met to-day has taken away my breath You +have made me your accomplice in defeating justice. + +LADY CICELY. Yes: aren't you glad it's been defeated for once? (She +takes his arm to go out with him.) Captain Brassbound: I will come back +to say goodbye before I go. (He nods gloomily. She goes out with Sir +Howard, following the Captain and his staff.) + +RANKIN (running to Brassbound and taking both his hands). I'm right glad +ye're cleared. I'll come back and have a crack with ye when yon lunch is +over. God bless ye. (Hs goes out quickly.) + +Brassbound and his men, left by themselves in the room, free and +unobserved, go straight out of their senses. They laugh; they dance; +they embrace one another; they set to partners and waltz clumsily; they +shake hands repeatedly and maudlinly. Three only retain some sort of +self-possession. Marzo, proud of having successfully thrust himself into +a leading part in the recent proceedings and made a dramatic speech, +inflates his chest, curls his scanty moustache, and throws himself +into a swaggering pose, chin up and right foot forward, despising the +emotional English barbarians around him. Brassbound's eyes and +the working of his mouth show that he is infected with the general +excitement; but he bridles himself savagely. Redbrook, trained to affect +indifference, grins cynically; winks at Brassbound; and finally relieves +himself by assuming the character of a circus ringmaster, flourishing an +imaginary whip and egging on the rest to wilder exertions. A climax is +reached when Drinkwater, let loose without a stain on his character for +the second time, is rapt by belief in his star into an ecstasy in which, +scorning all partnership, he becomes as it were a whirling dervish, +and executes so miraculous a clog dance that the others gradually cease +their slower antics to stare at him. + +BRASSBOUND (tearing off his hat and striding forward as Drinkwater +collapses, exhausted, and is picked up by Redbrook). Now to get rid of +this respectable clobber and feel like a man again. Stand by, all hands, +to jump on the captain's tall hat. (He puts the hat down and prepares to +jump on it. The effect is startling, and takes him completely aback. +His followers, far from appreciating his iconoclasm, are shocked into +scandalized sobriety, except Redbrook, who is immensely tickled by their +prudery.) + +DRINKWATER. Naow, look eah, kepn: that ynt rawt. Dror a lawn somewhere. + +JOHNSON. I say nothin agen a bit of fun, Capn, but let's be gentlemen. + +REDBROOK. I suggest to you, Brassbound, that the clobber belongs to Lady +Sis. Ain't you going to give it back to her? + +BRASSBOUND (picking up the hat and brushing the dust off it anxiously). +That's true. I'm a fool. All the same, she shall not see me again like +this. (He pulls off the coat and waistcoat together.) Does any man here +know how to fold up this sort of thing properly? + +REDBROOK. Allow me, governor. (He takes the coat and waistcoat to the +table, and folds them up.) + +BRASSBOUND (loosening his collar and the front of his shirt). +Brandyfaced Jack: you're looking at these studs. I know what's in your +mind. + +DRINKWATER (indignantly). Naow yer down't: nort a bit on it. Wot's in +maw mawnd is secrifawce, seolf-secrifawce. + +BRASSBOUND. If one brass pin of that lady's property is missing, I'll +hang you with my own hands at the gaff of the Thanksgiving--and would, +if she were lying under the guns of all the fleets in Europe. (He pulls +off the shirt and stands in his blue jersey, with his hair ruffled. He +passes his hand through it and exclaims) Now I am half a man, at any +rate. + +REDBROOK. A horrible combination, governor: churchwarden from the waist +down, and the rest pirate. Lady Sis won't speak to you in it. + +BRASSBOUND. I'll change altogether. (He leaves the room to get his own +trousers.) + +REDBROOK (softly). Look here, Johnson, and gents generally. (They gather +about him.) Spose she takes him back to England! + +MARZO (trying to repeat his success). Im! Im only dam pirate. She saint, +I tell you--no take any man nowhere. + +JOHNSON (severely). Don't you be a ignorant and immoral foreigner. (The +rebuke is well received; and Marzo is hustled into the background and +extinguished.) She won't take him for harm; but she might take him for +good. And then where should we be? + +DRINKWATER. Brarsbahnd ynt the ownly kepn in the world. Wot mikes a kepn +is brines an knollidge o lawf. It ynt thet ther's naow sitch pusson: +it's thet you dunno where to look fr im. (The implication that he is +such a person is so intolerable that they receive it with a prolonged +burst of booing.) + +BRASSBOUND (returning in his own clothes, getting into his jacket as +he comes). Stand by, all. (They start asunder guiltily, and wait for +orders.) Redbrook: you pack that clobber in the lady's portmanteau, and +put it aboard the yacht for her. Johnson: you take all hands aboard the +Thanksgiving; look through the stores: weigh anchor; and make all ready +for sea. Then send Jack to wait for me at the slip with a boat; and give +me a gunfire for a signal. Lose no time. + +JOHNSON. Ay, ay, air. All aboard, mates. + +ALL. Ay, ay. (They rush out tumultuously.) + +When they are gone, Brassbound sits down at the end of the table, with +his elbows on it and his head on his fists, gloomily thinking. Then he +takes from the breast pocket of his jacket a leather case, from which he +extracts a scrappy packet of dirty letters and newspaper cuttings. These +he throws on the table. Next comes a photograph in a cheap frame. He +throws it down untenderly beside the papers; then folds his arms, and +is looking at it with grim distaste when Lady Cicely enters. His back +is towards her; and he does not hear her. Perceiving this, she shuts the +door loudly enough to attract his attention. He starts up. + +LADY CICELY (coming to the opposite end of the table). So you've taken +off all my beautiful clothes! + +BRASSBOUND. Your brother's, you mean. A man should wear his own clothes; +and a man should tell his own lies. I'm sorry you had to tell mine for +me to-day. + +LADY CICELY. Oh, women spend half their lives telling little lies for +men, and sometimes big ones. We're used to it. But mind! I don't admit +that I told any to-day. + +BRASSBOUND. How did you square my uncle? + +LADY CICELY. I don't understand the expression. + +BRASSBOUND. I mean-- + +LADY CICELY. I'm afraid we haven't time to go into what you mean before +lunch. I want to speak to you about your future. May I? + +BRASSBOUND (darkening a little, but politely). Sit down. (She sits down. +So does he.) + +LADY CICELY. What are your plans? + +BRASSBOUND. I have no plans. You will hear a gun fired in the harbor +presently. That will mean that the Thanksgiving's anchor's weighed and +that she is waiting for her captain to put out to sea. And her captain +doesn't know now whether to turn her head north or south. + +LADY CICELY. Why not north for England? + +BRASSBOUND. Why not south for the Pole? + +LADY CICELY. But you must do something with yourself. + +BRASSBOUND (settling himself with his fists and elbows weightily on the +table and looking straight and powerfully at her). Look you: when you +and I first met, I was a man with a purpose. I stood alone: I saddled +no friend, woman or man, with that purpose, because it was against law, +against religion, against my own credit and safety. But I believed in +it; and I stood alone for it, as a man should stand for his belief, +against law and religion as much as against wickedness and selfishness. +Whatever I may be, I am none of your fairweather sailors that'll do +nothing for their creed but go to Heaven for it. I was ready to go to +hell for mine. Perhaps you don't understand that. + +LADY CICELY. Oh bless you, yes. It's so very like a certain sort of man. + +BRASSBOUND. I daresay but I've not met many of that sort. Anyhow, +that was what I was like. I don't say I was happy in it; but I wasn't +unhappy, because I wasn't drifting. I was steering a course and had work +in hand. Give a man health and a course to steer; and he'll never stop +to trouble about whether he's happy or not. + +LADY CICELY. Sometimes he won't even stop to trouble about whether other +people are happy or not. + +BRASSBOUND. I don't deny that: nothing makes a man so selfish as work. +But I was not self-seeking: it seemed to me that I had put justice above +self. I tell you life meant something to me then. Do you see that dirty +little bundle of scraps of paper? + +LADY CICELY. What are they? + +BRASSBOUND. Accounts cut out of newspapers. Speeches made by my uncle +at charitable dinners, or sentencing men to death--pious, highminded +speeches by a man who was to me a thief and a murderer! To my mind they +were more weighty, more momentous, better revelations of the wickedness +of law and respectability than the book of the prophet Amos. What are +they now? (He quietly tears the newspaper cuttings into little fragments +and throws them away, looking fixedly at her meanwhile.) + +LADY CICELY. Well, that's a comfort, at all events. + +BRASSBOUND. Yes; but it's a part of my life gone: YOUR doing, remember. +What have I left? See here! (He take up the letters) the letters +my uncle wrote to my mother, with her comments on their cold drawn +insolence, their treachery and cruelty. And the piteous letters she +wrote to him later on, returned unopened. Must they go too? + +LADY CICELY (uneasily). I can't ask you to destroy your mother's +letters. + +BRASSBOUND. Why not, now that you have taken the meaning out of them? +(He tears them.) Is that a comfort too? + +LADY CICELY. It's a little sad; but perhaps it is best so. + +BRASSBOUND. That leaves one relic: her portrait. (He plucks the +photograph out of its cheap case.) + +LADY CICELY (with vivid curiosity). Oh, let me see. (He hands it to +her. Before she can control herself, her expression changes to one of +unmistakable disappointment and repulsion.) + +BRASSBOUND (with a single sardonic cachinnation). Ha! You expected +something better than that. Well, you're right. Her face does not look +well opposite yours. + +LADY CICELY (distressed). I said nothing. + +BRASSBOUND. What could you say? (He takes back the portrait: she +relinquishes it without a word. He looks at it; shakes his head; and +takes it quietly between his finger and thumb to tear it.) + +LADY CICELY (staying his hand). Oh, not your mother's picture! + +BRASSBOUND. If that were your picture, would you like your son to keep +it for younger and better women to see? + +LADY CICELY (releasing his hand). Oh, you are dreadful! Tear it, tear +it. (She covers her eyes for a moment to shut out the sight.) + +BRASSBOUND (tearing it quietly). You killed her for me that day in the +castle; and I am better without her. (He throws away the fragments.) Now +everything is gone. You have taken the old meaning out of my life; but +you have put no new meaning into it. I can see that you have some clue +to the world that makes all its difficulties easy for you; but I'm not +clever enough to seize it. You've lamed me by showing me that I take +life the wrong way when I'm left to myself. + +LADY CICELY. Oh no. Why do you say that? + +BRASSBOUND. What else can I say? See what I've done! My uncle is no +worse a man than myself--better, most likely; for he has a better head +and a higher place. Well, I took him for a villain out of a storybook. +My mother would have opened anybody else's eyes: she shut mine. I'm +a stupider man than Brandyfaced Jack even; for he got his romantic +nonsense out of his penny numbers and such like trash; but I got just +the same nonsense out of life and experience. (Shaking his head) It was +vulgar--VULGAR. I see that now; for you've opened my eyes to the past; +but what good is that for the future? What am I to do? Where am I to go? + +LADY CICELY. It's quite simple. Do whatever you like. That's what I +always do. + +BRASSBOUND. That answer is no good to me. What I like is to have +something to do; and I have nothing. You might as well talk like the +missionary and tell me to do my duty. + +LADY CICELY (quickly). Oh no thank you. I've had quite enough of your +duty, and Howard's duty. Where would you both be now if I'd let you do +it? + +BRASSBOUND. We'd have been somewhere, at all events. It seems to me that +now I am nowhere. + +LADY CICELY. But aren't you coming back to England with us? + +BRASSBOUND. What for? + +LADY CICELY. Why, to make the most of your opportunities. + +BRASSBOUND. What opportunities? + +LADY CICELY. Don't you understand that when you are the nephew of a +great bigwig, and have influential connexions, and good friends among +them, lots of things can be done for you that are never done for +ordinary ship captains? + +BRASSBOUND. Ah; but I'm not an aristocrat, you see. And like most poor +men, I'm proud. I don't like being patronized. + +LADY CICELY. What is the use of saying that? In my world, which is now +your world--OUR world--getting patronage is the whole art of life. A man +can't have a career without it. + +BRASSBOUND. In my world a man can navigate a ship and get his living by +it. + +LADY CICELY. Oh, I see you're one of the Idealists--the Impossibilists! +We have them, too, occasionally, in our world. There's only one thing to +be done with them. + +BRASSBOUND. What's that? + +LADY CICELY. Marry them straight off to some girl with enough money for +them, and plenty of sentiment. That's their fate. + +BRASSBOUND. You've spoiled even that chance for me. Do you think I could +look at any ordinary woman after you? You seem to be able to make me +do pretty well what you like; but you can't make me marry anybody but +yourself. + +LADY CICELY. Do you know, Captain Paquito, that I've married no less +than seventeen men (Brassbound stares) to other women. And they all +opened the subject by saying that they would never marry anybody but me. + +BRASSBOUND. Then I shall be the first man you ever found to stand to his +word. + +LADY CICELY (part pleased, part amused, part sympathetic). Do you really +want a wife? + +BRASSBOUND. I want a commander. Don't undervalue me: I am a good man +when I have a good leader. I have courage: I have determination: I'm not +a drinker: I can command a schooner and a shore party if I can't command +a ship or an army. When work is put upon me, I turn neither to save my +life nor to fill my pocket. Gordon trusted me; and he never regretted +it. If you trust me, you shan't regret it. All the same, there's +something wanting in me: I suppose I'm stupid. + +LADY CICELY. Oh, you're not stupid. + +BRASSBOUND. Yes I am. Since you saw me for the first time in that +garden, you've heard me say nothing clever. And I've heard you say +nothing that didn't make me laugh, or make me feel friendly, as well +as telling me what to think and what to do. That's what I mean by real +cleverness. Well, I haven't got it. I can give an order when I know what +order to give. I can make men obey it, willing or unwilling. But I'm +stupid, I tell you: stupid. When there's no Gordon to command me, I +can't think of what to do. Left to myself, I've become half a brigand. +I can kick that little gutterscrub Drinkwater; but I find myself doing +what he puts into my head because I can't think of anything else. When +you came, I took your orders as naturally as I took Gordon's, though +I little thought my next commander would be a woman. I want to take +service under you. And there's no way in which that can be done except +marrying you. Will you let me do it? + +LADY CICELY. I'm afraid you don't quite know how odd a match it would be +for me according to the ideas of English society. + +BRASSBOUND. I care nothing about English society: let it mind its own +business. + +LADY CICELY (rising, a little alarmed). Captain Paquito: I am not in +love with you. + +BRASSBOUND (also rising, with his gaze still steadfastly on her). I +didn't suppose you were: the commander is not usually in love with his +subordinate. + +LADY CICELY. Nor the subordinate with the commander. + +BRASSBOUND (assenting firmly). Nor the subordinate with the commander. + +LADY CICELY (learning for the first time in her life what terror is, +as she finds that he is unconsciously mesmerizing her). Oh, you are +dangerous! + +BRASSBOUND. Come: are you in love with anybody else? That's the +question. + +LADY CICELY (shaking her head). I have never been in love with any real +person; and I never shall. How could I manage people if I had that mad +little bit of self left in me? That's my secret. + +BRASSBOUND. Then throw away the last bit of self. Marry me. + +LADY CICELY (vainly struggling to recall her wandering will). Must I? + +BRASSBOUND. There is no must. You CAN. I ask you to. My fate depends on +it. + +LADY CICELY. It's frightful; for I don't mean to--don't wish to. + +BRASSBOUND. But you will. + +LADY CICELY (quite lost, slowly stretches out her hand to give it to +him). I-- (Gunfire from the Thanksgiving. His eyes dilate. It wakes her +from her trance) What is that? + +BRASSBOUND. It is farewell. Rescue for you--safety, freedom! You were +made to be something better than the wife of Black Paquito. (He kneels +and takes her hands) You can do no more for me now: I have blundered +somehow on the secret of command at last (he kisses her hands): thanks +for that, and for a man's power and purpose restored and righted. And +farewell, farewell, farewell. + +LADY CICELY (in a strange ecstasy, holding his hands as he rises). Oh, +farewell. With my heart's deepest feeling, farewell, farewell. + +BRASSBOUND. With my heart's noblest honor and triumph, farewell. (He +turns and flies.) + +LADY CICELY. How glorious! how glorious! And what an escape! + +CURTAIN + + + +NOTES TO CAPTAIN BRASSBOUND'S CONVERSION + +SOURCES OF THE PLAY + +I claim as a notable merit in the authorship of this play that I have +been intelligent enough to steal its scenery, its surroundings, its +atmosphere, its geography, its knowledge of the east, its fascinating +Cadis and Kearneys and Sheikhs and mud castles from an excellent book of +philosophic travel and vivid adventure entitled Mogreb-el-Acksa (Morocco +the Most Holy) by Cunninghame Graham. My own first hand knowledge of +Morocco is based on a morning's walk through Tangier, and a cursory +observation of the coast through a binocular from the deck of an Orient +steamer, both later in date than the writing of the play. + +Cunninghame Graham is the hero of his own book; but I have not made +him the hero of my play, because so incredible a personage must have +destroyed its likelihood--such as it is. There are moments when I do +not myself believe in his existence. And yet he must be real; for I have +seen him with these eyes; and I am one of the few men living who can +decipher the curious alphabet in which he writes his private letters. +The man is on public record too. The battle of Trafalgar Square, in +which he personally and bodily assailed civilization as represented by +the concentrated military and constabular forces of the capital of the +world, can scarcely be forgotten by the more discreet spectators, +of whom I was one. On that occasion civilization, qualitatively his +inferior, was quantitatively so hugely in excess of him that it put him +in prison, but had not sense enough to keep him there. Yet his getting +out of prison was as nothing compared to his getting into the House of +Commons. How he did it I know not; but the thing certainly happened, +somehow. That he made pregnant utterances as a legislator may be taken +as proved by the keen philosophy of the travels and tales he has since +tossed to us; but the House, strong in stupidity, did not understand +him until in an inspired moment he voiced a universal impulse by bluntly +damning its hypocrisy. Of all the eloquence of that silly parliament, +there remains only one single damn. It has survived the front bench +speeches of the eighties as the word of Cervantes survives the +oraculations of the Dons and Deys who put him, too, in prison. The +shocked House demanded that he should withdraw his cruel word. "I never +withdraw," said he; and I promptly stole the potent phrase for the sake +of its perfect style, and used it as a cockade for the Bulgarian hero +of Arms and the Man. The theft prospered; and I naturally take the first +opportunity of repeating it. In what other Lepantos besides Trafalgar +Square Cunninghame Graham has fought, I cannot tell. He is a fascinating +mystery to a sedentary person like myself. The horse, a dangerous +animal whom, when I cannot avoid, I propitiate with apples and sugar, he +bestrides and dominates fearlessly, yet with a true republican sense of +the rights of the fourlegged fellowcreature whose martyrdom, and man's +shame therein, he has told most powerfully in his Calvary, a tale with +an edge that will cut the soft cruel hearts and strike fire from the +hard kind ones. He handles the other lethal weapons as familiarly as the +pen: medieval sword and modern Mauser are to him as umbrellas and kodaks +are to me. His tales of adventure have the true Cervantes touch of +the man who has been there--so refreshingly different from the scenes +imagined by bloody-minded clerks who escape from their servitude into +literature to tell us how men and cities are conceived in the counting +house and the volunteer corps. He is, I understand, a Spanish hidalgo: +hence the superbity of his portrait by Lavery (Velasquez being no +longer available). He is, I know, a Scotch laird. How he contrives to be +authentically the two things at the same time is no more intelligible to +me than the fact that everything that has ever happened to him seems to +have happened in Paraguay or Texas instead of in Spain or Scotland. He +is, I regret to add, an impenitent and unashamed dandy: such boots, such +a hat, would have dazzled D'Orsay himself. With that hat he once saluted +me in Regent St. when I was walking with my mother. Her interest was +instantly kindled; and the following conversation ensued. "Who is that?" +"Cunninghame Graham." "Nonsense! Cunninghame Graham is one of your +Socialists: that man is a gentleman." This is the punishment of vanity, +a fault I have myself always avoided, as I find conceit less troublesome +and much less expensive. Later on somebody told him of Tarudant, a city +in Morocco in which no Christian had ever set foot. Concluding at once +that it must be an exceptionally desirable place to live in, he took +ship and horse: changed the hat for a turban; and made straight for the +sacred city, via Mogador. How he fared, and how he fell into the hands +of the Cadi of Kintafi, who rightly held that there was more danger to +Islam in one Cunninghame Graham than in a thousand Christians, may be +learnt from his account of it in Mogreb-el-Acksa, without which Captain +Brassbound's Conversion would never have been written. + +I am equally guiltless of any exercise of invention concerning the story +of the West Indian estate which so very nearly serves as a peg to hang +Captain Brassbound. To Mr. Frederick Jackson of Hindhead, who, against +all his principles, encourages and abets me in my career as a dramatist, +I owe my knowledge of those main facts of the case which became public +through an attempt to make the House of Commons act on them. This being +so, I must add that the character of Captain Brassbound's mother, like +the recovery of the estate by the next heir, is an interpolation of my +own. It is not, however, an invention. One of the evils of the pretence +that our institutions represent abstract principles of justice +instead of being mere social scaffolding is that persons of a certain +temperament take the pretence seriously, and when the law is on the side +of injustice, will not accept the situation, and are driven mad by their +vain struggle against it. Dickens has drawn the type in his Man from +Shropshire in Bleak House. Most public men and all lawyers have been +appealed to by victims of this sense of injustice--the most unhelpable +of afflictions in a society like ours. + +ENGLISH AND AMERICAN DIALECTS + +The fact that English is spelt conventionally and not phonetically makes +the art of recording speech almost impossible. What is more, it places +the modern dramatist, who writes for America as well as England, in +a most trying position. Take for example my American captain and my +English lady. I have spelt the word conduce, as uttered by the +American captain, as cawndooce, to suggest (very roughly) the American +pronunciation to English readers. Then why not spell the same word, +when uttered by Lady Cicely, as kerndewce, to suggest the English +pronunciation to American readers? To this I have absolutely no defence: +I can only plead that an author who lives in England necessarily loses +his consciousness of the peculiarities of English speech, and sharpens +his consciousness of the points in which American speech differs from +it; so that it is more convenient to leave English peculiarities to be +recorded by American authors. I must, however, most vehemently disclaim +any intention of suggesting that English pronunciation is authoritative +and correct. My own tongue is neither American English nor English +English, but Irish English; so I am as nearly impartial in the matter +as it is in human nature to be. Besides, there is no standard English +pronunciation any more than there is an American one: in England every +county has its catchwords, just as no doubt every state in the Union +has. I cannot believe that the pioneer American, for example, can spare +time to learn that last refinement of modern speech, the exquisite +diphthong, a farfetched combination of the French eu and the English e, +with which a New Yorker pronounces such words as world, bird &c. I have +spent months without success in trying to achieve glibness with it. + +To Felix Drinkwater also I owe some apology for implying that all his +vowel pronunciations are unfashionable. They are very far from being so. +As far as my social experience goes (and I have kept very mixed company) +there is no class in English society in which a good deal of Drinkwater +pronunciation does not pass unchallenged save by the expert phonetician. +This is no mere rash and ignorant jibe of my own at the expense of my +English neighbors. Academic authority in the matter of English speech is +represented at present by Mr. Henry Sweet, of the University of Oxford, +whose Elementarbuch des gesprochenen Engliach, translated into his +native language for the use of British islanders as a Primer of Spoken +English, is the most accessible standard work on the subject. In such +words as plum, come, humbug, up, gum, etc., Mr. Sweet's evidence is +conclusive. Ladies and gentlemen in Southern England pronounce them as +plam, kam, hambag, ap, gan, etc., exactly as Felix Drinkwater does. I +could not claim Mr. Sweet's authority if I dared to whisper that such +coster English as the rather pretty dahn tahn for down town, or the +decidedly ugly cowcow for cocoa is current in very polite circles. The +entire nation, costers and all, would undoubtedly repudiate any such +pronunciation as vulgar. All the same, if I were to attempt to represent +current "smart" cockney speech as I have attempted to represent +Drinkwater's, without the niceties of Mr. Sweet's Romic alphabets, I +am afraid I should often have to write dahn tahn and cowcow as being +at least nearer to the actual sound than down town and cocoa. And this +would give such offence that I should have to leave the country; for +nothing annoys a native speaker of English more than a faithful setting +down in phonetic spelling of the sounds he utters. He imagines that +a departure from conventional spelling indicates a departure from the +correct standard English of good society. Alas! this correct standard +English of good society is unknown to phoneticians. It is only one of +the many figments that bewilder our poor snobbish brains. No such thing +exists; but what does that matter to people trained from infancy to make +a point of honor of belief in abstractions and incredibilities? And so I +am compelled to hide Lady Cicely's speech under the veil of conventional +orthography. + +I need not shield Drinkwater, because he will never read my book. So +I have taken the liberty of making a special example of him, as far as +that can be done without a phonetic alphabet, for the benefit of the +mass of readers outside London who still form their notions of cockney +dialect on Sam Weller. When I came to London in 1876, the Sam Weller +dialect had passed away so completely that I should have given it up as +a literary fiction if I had not discovered it surviving in a Middlesex +village, and heard of it from an Essex one. Some time in the eighties +the late Andrew Tuer called attention in the Pall Mall Gazette to +several peculiarities of modern cockney, and to the obsolescence of the +Dickens dialect that was still being copied from book to book by authors +who never dreamt of using their ears, much less of training them to +listen. Then came Mr. Anstey's cockney dialogues in Punch, a great +advance, and Mr. Chevalier's coster songs and patter. The Tompkins +verses contributed by Mr. Barry Pain to the London Daily Chronicle have +also done something to bring the literary convention for cockney English +up to date. But Tompkins sometimes perpetrates horrible solecisms. He +will pronounce face as fits, accurately enough; but he will rhyme it +quite impossibly to nice, which Tompkins would pronounce as newts: for +example Mawl Enn Rowd for Mile End Road. This aw for i, which I have +made Drinkwater use, is the latest stage of the old diphthongal oi, +which Mr. Chevalier still uses. Irish, Scotch and north country readers +must remember that Drinkwater's rs are absolutely unpronounced when they +follow a vowel, though they modify the vowel very considerably. Thus, +luggage is pronounced by him as laggige, but turn is not pronounced as +tern, but as teun with the eu sounded as in French. The London r seems +thoroughly understood in America, with the result, however, that the use +of the r by Artemus Ward and other American dialect writers causes Irish +people to misread them grotesquely. I once saw the pronunciation of +malheureux represented in a cockney handbook by mal-err-err: not at +all a bad makeshift to instruct a Londoner, but out of the question +elsewhere in the British Isles. In America, representations of English +speech dwell too derisively on the dropped or interpolated h. American +writers have apparently not noticed the fact that the south English h +is not the same as the never-dropped Irish and American h, and that to +ridicule an Englishman for dropping it is as absurd as to ridicule the +whole French and Italian nation for doing the same. The American +h, helped out by a general agreement to pronounce wh as hw, is +tempestuously audible, and cannot be dropped without being immediately +missed. The London h is so comparatively quiet at all times, and so +completely inaudible in wh, that it probably fell out of use simply by +escaping the ears of children learning to speak. However that may be, it +is kept alive only by the literate classes who are reminded constantly +of its existence by seeing it on paper. + +Roughly speaking, I should say that in England he who bothers about +his hs is a fool, and he who ridicules a dropped h a snob. As to the +interpolated h, my experience as a London vestryman has convinced me +that it is often effective as a means of emphasis, and that the London +language would be poorer without it. The objection to it is no more +respectable than the objection of a street boy to a black man or to a +lady in knickerbockers. + +I have made only the most perfunctory attempt to represent the dialect +of the missionary. There is no literary notation for the grave music of +good Scotch. + +BLACKDOWN, August 1900 + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAPTAIN BRASSBOUND’S CONVERSION *** + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the +United States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part +of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, +and may not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by following +the terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use +of the Project Gutenberg trademark. 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