it and draws out a rich velvet
garment. He holds it up._) What 's the meaning o' this here loot we
took at Castle Crag? I asks yer. Ain 't we been by that castle a
hundred times? The Earl, he don 't wear clothes like this. None o' the
arstocky does, 'cept when they struts on Piccadilly. I asks yer,
Patch. I asks yer who wears a thing like that.

(_He puts the garment around Patch's shoulders._)

DARLIN': Yer looks like the Archbishop o' Canterbury.

PATCH: (_with strut and gesture_). His Grice takin' the air--pluckin'
posies.

DUKE: Lookin' like a silly jackass.

PATCH: Yer hurts me feelin's, Duke.

(_The Duke folds the cloak and puts it back again in the chest. He
sits at the table in meditation._)

DUKE: I does n't like it, Patch. I does n't understand it. And what I
does n't understand, I does n't like.

PATCH: What?

DUKE: Them gay clothes. Who owned 'em, I asks yer, afore we stole 'em.

PATCH: Darlin'! Me friend, the Duke, is thirsty. Yer had better mix
another pot. Our cups is low. Yer does n't want ter be a foolish
virgin and get ketched without no grog.

DUKE: With this bit o' slop what 's left I drinks to yer shinin'
lamps--Wenus's flashin' gigs.

DARLIN': I loves yer, Duke.

(_She fills, mixes and stirs the pot. She tastes it like a practiced
house-wife. Her apron is maid of all work. It is towel, dust-rag, mop
and handkerchief._)

[Illustration: Her apron is towel, dust rag, mop and handkerchief]

DUKE: What does yer make, ol' Cyclops, o' the new recruit?

PATCH: Red Joe?

DUKE: Him.

PATCH: He 's a right smart pirate, I says. I never seen a feller as
could shoot so straight.

DUKE: I says so. But he 's a wee bit nobby--kinder stiff in the nose.

PATCH: Looks as if he knowed he was kinder good.

DUKE: It 's queer how he come ter us. Jest settin' on top his dory on
the beach, when we found him. And what he said about his ship goin'
down! Blast me ol' stump, but it were queer.

PATCH: Queer?

DUKE: Yer said it, Patch. Queerer than mermaids. Did we ever see a
stick o' that ship? I 'm askin' yer, Patch.

PATCH: Ain 't I listenin'?

DUKE: Ain 't I tellin' yer? Nary a bit washed in. Did yer ever know a
wreck 'long here where nothin' washed in--jest nothin'? I 'm askin'
yer.

PATCH: You and me would starve if it happened regular.

DUKE: It 's what we lives by--pickin's on the beach.

PATCH: He 's a right smart pirate, 's Red Joe. The Captain--the most
'ticerler man I know--he t