with salt-water.

MARSH
(more and more amused).
'Tis as I said. Simple. Let's try him further. This tea you brew. It
must have a new flavor?

RICHARD.
Aye, a new flavor. Some will find it bitter. It is a brew that will be
long remembered.
MARSH.
I doubt not, if 'tis made as you have said.

PENROSE
(yawning impatiently).
Come! I am weary for adventure! (Draws his cloak about him. Marsh
somewhat reluctantly follows his example.) Let's see if there be sport
about the wharves----

RICHARD
(to himself).
The wharves----

MARSH
(still reluctant).
On such a night as this--! Why, but a moment since you swore it was too
cold! Besides, at the last tavern that we visited that fool of a Barton
took my sword in jest. (Darkly.) He thought 'twas a rare bit of
nonsense; but 'tis one I'll make him pay for! I'll not go roaming
without my sword.

PENROSE
(insisting).
But I have mine. One sword's enough for both. More than enough for any
Yankees we are like to meet. We could give some of them a rare fright,
comrade. Come, then, in search of----

RICHARD
(who has utilized the time in which they were talking by silently
taking a foil from the nearest chest).
Back! Do not come any nearer. You see this door is guarded.

[Stands before it, his mock humility gone, his voice resounding.

MARSH
(angrily).
What does this mean?

RICHARD
(suavely).
One of my crack-brained fancies. I wished to keep you, sirs, for twenty
minutes.

PENROSE
(insulted).
Even a crack-brained lout may go too far.

MARSH.
Have at him! He's but one----

RICHARD
(clearly and passionately, his voice a-thrill).
Behind me are a hundred--a thousand souls--all those who stand for
freedom. Although you do not see them, they are there!

PENROSE
(astounded).
What! Would he challenge us?

MARSH
(scornfully).
A turn of the wrist and the thing is done. Have at him, Penrose.

[Penrose and Richard engage. Richard fights coolly, with his back ever
to the door. Penrose grows more and more flustered. Marsh holds an iron
candelabrum aloft, for the other candles have gutted and the room is
shadowy.

PENROSE
(fear in his voice).
The candles--higher. They're getting low. I cannot see----

[Richard and Penrose engage a second time, and Penrose's foil is flung
across the room to left. Marsh is about to crash the candelabrum on
Richard's sword, when Richard, with a deft movement, seizes it and
hurls it to the floor, where it falls with a dull clatter. M