fallar! You tank Ay lat her
life be made sorry by you like her mo'der's vas by me! No, Ay svear!
She don't marry you if Ay gat kill you first!

BURKE--[Looks at him a moment, in astonishment--then laughing
uproariously.] Ho-ho! Glory be to God, it's bold talk you have for a
stumpy runt of a man!

CHRIS--[Threateningly.] Vell--you see!

BURKE--[With grinning defiance.] I'll see, surely! I'll see myself and
Anna married this day, I'm telling you! [Then with contemptuous
exasperation.] It's quare fool's blather you have about the sea done
this and the sea done that. You'd ought to be shamed to be saying the
like, and you an old sailor yourself. I'm after hearing a lot of it
from you and a lot more that Anna's told me you do be saying to her,
and I'm thinking it's a poor weak thing you are, and not a man at all!

CHRIS--[Darkly.] You see if Ay'm man--maybe quicker'n you tank.

BURKE--[Contemptuously.] Yerra, don't be boasting. I'm thinking 'tis
out of your wits you've got with fright of the sea. You'd be wishing
Anna married to a farmer, she told me. That'd be a swate match, surely!
Would you have a fine girl the like of Anna lying down at nights with a
muddy scut stinking of pigs and dung? Or would you have her tied for
life to the like of them skinny, shrivelled swabs does be working in
cities?

CHRIS--Dat's lie, you fool!

BURKE--'Tis not. 'Tis your own mad notions I'm after telling. But you
know the truth in your heart, if great fear of the sea has made you a
liar and coward itself. [Pounding the table.] The sea's the only life
for a man with guts in him isn't afraid of his own shadow! 'Tis only on
the sea he's free, and him roving the face of the world, seeing all
things, and not giving a damn for saving up money, or stealing from his
friends, or any of the black tricks that a landlubber'd waste his life
on. 'Twas yourself knew it once, and you a bo'sun for years.

CHRIS--[Sputtering with rage.] You vas crazy fool, Ay tal you!

BURKE--You've swallowed the anchor. The sea give you a clout once
knocked you down, and you're not man enough to get up for another, but
lie there for the rest of your life howling bloody murder. [Proudly.]
Isn't it myself the sea has nearly drowned, and me battered and bate
till I was that close to hell I could hear the flames roaring, and
never a groan out of me till the sea gave up and it seeing the great
strength and guts of a man was in me?

CHRIS--[Scornfully.] Yes, you vas he