Chapter IV: Act II: Scene, a boarding-house parlor. Enter DISSOLUTE COLONEL

and KATRINA.

DISSOLUTE COLONEL. "You are in my power. Be mine, and you shall have as many bonnets and things as you can wish. Refuse, and I'll send every reporter in the city to interview you."

KATRINA. "Base villain! I despise you. Let the torturers do their worst."

(_Enter_ FRITZ, _disguised as a member of the Sorosis_.)

KATRINA. "You here! Be cautious. The hash is drugged. Save me, my beloved."

FRITZ. "Ja. Das ist nicht gut. Herr Colonel, Ich bin KATRINA'S aunt. Ich habe gekommen to take her away wid me, ye owdacious spalpeen."

DISSOLUTE COLONEL. "Glad to see you. Take some hash, madam?"

FRITZ. "Ja. Das ist gut. Take some yourself, you murtherin' thafe of the worruld."

(_The_ DISSOLUTE COLONEL _forgets that the hash is drugged. He takes it and falls insensible_. FRITZ _and_ KATRINA _escape. Scene changes to Judge_ DOWLING'S _court-room_.)

FRITZ. (_Having left off his Sorosis disguise_.) "Ja. Das is nicht gut. Behold, O wise young judge, the misguided person who put my trunk in his pocket and ran away with it."

JUDGE. "Prove your case."

FRITZ. "Ja. Das ist gut. Begar! I proves him _toute de suite_--what you call to wunst. You see those Limburger cheese in the villain's mouth. He got them out of my trunk. So you see I have him ein thief geproven."

JUDGE. "Your case is proved. Let the prisoner be removed."

FRITZ. "Ja. Das ist sehr gut. Now I'm a gwine to de saloon, where dis niggah has a ningagement for to sing."

(_Scene changes to a concert saloon_. FRITZ _enters and goes through an entire programme of negro minstrelsy, to the wild delight of the gallery. At last the lazy curtain slowly consents to fall_.)