my telling you a lie: I can take in most
captains, but not Captain Shotover, because he sold himself to the devil
in Zanzibar, and can divine water, spot gold, explode a cartridge in
your pocket with a glance of his eye, and see the truth hidden in the
heart of man. But I'm no burglar.

CAPTAIN SHOTOVER. Are you an honest man?

THE BURGLAR. I don't set up to be better than my fellow-creatures, and
never did, as you well know, Captain. But what I do is innocent and
pious. I enquire about for houses where the right sort of people live. I
work it on them same as I worked it here. I break into the house; put a
few spoons or diamonds in my pocket; make a noise; get caught; and take
up a collection. And you wouldn't believe how hard it is to get caught
when you're actually trying to. I have knocked over all the chairs in a
room without a soul paying any attention to me. In the end I have had to
walk out and leave the job.

RANDALL. When that happens, do you put back the spoons and diamonds?

THE BURGLAR. Well, I don't fly in the face of Providence, if that's what
you want to know.

CAPTAIN SHOTOVER. Guinness, you remember this man?

GUINNESS. I should think I do, seeing I was married to him, the
blackguard!

HESIONE } [exclaiming { Married to him! LADY UTTERWORD } together] {
Guinness!!

THE BURGLAR. It wasn't legal. I've been married to no end of women. No
use coming that over me.

CAPTAIN SHOTOVER. Take him to the forecastle [he flings him to the door
with a strength beyond his years].

GUINNESS. I suppose you mean the kitchen. They won't have him there. Do
you expect servants to keep company with thieves and all sorts?

CAPTAIN SHOTOVER. Land-thieves and water-thieves are the same flesh and
blood. I'll have no boatswain on my quarter-deck. Off with you both.

THE BURGLAR. Yes, Captain. [He goes out humbly].

MAZZINI. Will it be safe to have him in the house like that?

GUINNESS. Why didn't you shoot him, sir? If I'd known who he was, I'd
have shot him myself. [She goes out].

MRS HUSHABYE. Do sit down, everybody. [She sits down on the sofa].

They all move except Ellie. Mazzini resumes his seat. Randall sits down
in the window-seat near the starboard door, again making a pendulum of
his poker, and studying it as Galileo might have done. Hector sits on
his left, in the middle. Mangan, forgotten, sits in the port corner.
Lady Utterword takes the big chair. Captain Shotover goes into the
pantry in deep abs