BARNABAS. I say nothing against the Chink's arguments. But what about my facts?
CONFUCIUS. If your facts include a case of a man living 283 years, I advise you to take a few weeks at the seaside.
BARNABAS. Let there be an end of this hinting that I am out of my mind. Come and look at the cinema record. I tell you this man is Archbishop Haslam, Archbishop Stickit, President Dickenson, General Bullyboy and himself into the bargain; all five of them.
THE ARCHBISHOP. I do not deny it. I never have denied it. Nobody has ever asked me.
BURGE-LUBIN. But damn it, man—I beg your pardon, Archbishop; but really, really—
THE ARCHBISHOP. Dont mention it. What were you going to say?
BURGE-LUBIN. Well, you were drowned four times over. You are not a cat, you know.
THE ARCHBISHOP. That is very easy to understand. Consider my situation when I first made the amazing discovery that I was destined to live three hundred years! I—
CONFUCIUS [interrupting him] Pardon me. Such a discovery was impossible. You have not made it yet. You may live a million years if you have already lived two hundred. There is no question of three hundred years. You have made a slip at the very beginning of your fairy tale, Mr Archbishop.
BURGE-LUBIN. Good, Confucius! [To the Archbishop] He has you there. I don't see how you can get over that.