Joe: We must speak of these things together. Another time when there is no interruption.
(Gently she touches his fingers.)
The Captain would be a frightful man to meet socially Betsy: I shall be lonely when you go.
(There is loud stamping at the door. Betsy goes quickly to the kitchen.
The Captain enters, followed by the Duke. Patch-Eye enters by way of the ladder. The Captain has a hook hand. This is the very hook mentioned in my preface—if you read prefaces—got from the corner butcher. The Captain would be a frightful man to meet socially. I can hear a host saying "Shake hands with the Captain." One quite loses his taste for dinner parties. There is a sabre cut across the Captain's cheek. He is even more disreputable in appearance than his followers, with a bluster that marks his rank.)
Captain: There 's news! There 's news, me men! I 've brought big news from the village.
(He wrings the water from his hat. He is provokingly deliberate. All of the pirates crowd around.)
Captain: By the bones of me ten fingers, it 's a blythe night fer our business. It 's wetter than a crocodile's nest. When I smells a fog, I feels good. I tastes it and is 'appy.
Patch: What 's yer news, Captain?