han theft. (To Quinola) He is dead and buried in his work.

Quinola
He suspects nothing as yet.

Monipodio
Neither they nor any one else suspect us. Each piece is wrapped up
like a jewel and hidden in a cellar. But we need thirty ducats.

Quinola
Zounds!

Monipodio
Thirty rascals built like those fellows eat as much as sixty ordinary
men.

Quinola
Quinola and Company have failed, and I am a fugitive!

Monipodio
From protests?

Quinola
Stupid! They want me bodily. Fortunately, I have two or three suits of
old clothes which may serve to deliver Quinola from the clutches of
the keenest sleuths, until I can make payment.

Monipodio
Payment? That is folly.

Quinola
Yes, I have kept a little nest-egg against our thirst. Put on that
ragbag of the begging friar and go to Lothundiaz and have a talk with
the duenna.

Monipodio
Alas! Lopez has returned from Algeria so often that our dear duenna
begins to suspect us.

Quinola
I merely wish her to carry this letter to Senorita Marie Lothundiaz
(handing a letter). It is a masterpiece of eloquence, inspired by that
which inspires all masterpieces. See! We have been living for ten days
on bread and water.

Monipodio
And what could we look for? To eat ortolans? If our men had expected
fine fare they would have struck long ago.

Quinola
If love would only cash my note of hand, we might still get out of
this hole.

(Exit Monipodio.)

SCENE THIRD

Quinola and Fontanares.

Quinola (rubbing an onion into his bread)
This is the way we are told the Egyptian pyramid-builders were fed,
but they must also have had the sauce which gives us an appetite, and
that is faith. (Drinks water.) You don't appear to be hungry, senor?
Take care that the machine in your head doesn't go wrong!

Fontanares
I am nearing the final solution--

Quinola (whose sleeve splits up as he puts back the crock)
And I have found one in the continuity of my sleeve. In this trade my
clothes are becoming as uncertain as an unknown quantity in algebra.

Fontanares
You are a fine fellow! Always merry, even in the depths of misfortune.

Quinola
And why not, gadzooks! Fortune loves the merry almost as much as the
merry love her.

SCENE FOURTH

The same persons and Mathieu Magis.

Quinola
Ah! Here comes our dear Lombard; he looks at all these pieces of
machinery as if they were already his lawful property.

Mathieu Mag