alf-past one. Gentlemen: we will wait on the governor of the gaol on
our way to the harbor (He goes out, following his officers, and followed
by the bluejackets and the petty officer.)

SIR HOWARD (to Lady Cicely). Cicely: in the course of my professional
career I have met with unscrupulous witnesses, and, I am sorry to say,
unscrupulous counsel also. But the combination of unscrupulous witness
and unscrupulous counsel I have met to-day has taken away my breath You
have made me your accomplice in defeating justice.

LADY CICELY. Yes: aren't you glad it's been defeated for once? (She
takes his arm to go out with him.) Captain Brassbound: I will come back
to say goodbye before I go. (He nods gloomily. She goes out with Sir
Howard, following the Captain and his staff.)

RANKIN (running to Brassbound and taking both his hands). I'm right glad
ye're cleared. I'll come back and have a crack with ye when yon lunch is
over. God bless ye. (Hs goes out quickly.)

Brassbound and his men, left by themselves in the room, free and
unobserved, go straight out of their senses. They laugh; they dance;
they embrace one another; they set to partners and waltz clumsily; they
shake hands repeatedly and maudlinly. Three only retain some sort of
self-possession. Marzo, proud of having successfully thrust himself into
a leading part in the recent proceedings and made a dramatic speech,
inflates his chest, curls his scanty moustache, and throws himself
into a swaggering pose, chin up and right foot forward, despising the
emotional English barbarians around him. Brassbound's eyes and
the working of his mouth show that he is infected with the general
excitement; but he bridles himself savagely. Redbrook, trained to affect
indifference, grins cynically; winks at Brassbound; and finally relieves
himself by assuming the character of a circus ringmaster, flourishing an
imaginary whip and egging on the rest to wilder exertions. A climax is
reached when Drinkwater, let loose without a stain on his character for
the second time, is rapt by belief in his star into an ecstasy in which,
scorning all partnership, he becomes as it were a whirling dervish,
and executes so miraculous a clog dance that the others gradually cease
their slower antics to stare at him.

BRASSBOUND (tearing off his hat and striding forward as Drinkwater
collapses, exhausted, and is picked up by Redbrook). Now to get rid of
this respectable clobber and feel like a man again. Stan