Tortoise:
Achilles:
Good idea. (Scrambles in behind the dresser.)
Who's there?
Voice: Open up-it's the cops.
Achilles: Come in, it's open.
(Two burly policemen walk in, wearing shiny badges.)
Cop: I'm Silva. This is Gould. (Points at his badge.) Is there an Achilles at
this address?
Achilles: That's met
Cop: Well, Achilles, we have reason to believe that there is a very gold
Asian box here, filled with one hundred Louis d'or. Someone
absconded with it from the museum this afternoon.
Achilles: Heavens to Betsy!
Cop: If it is here, Achilles, since you would be the only possible suspect, I
regret to say that I should have to take y~)U into custody. Now I have
here a search warrant-
Achilles: Oh, sirs, am I ever glad you arrived! All evening long, I have
been being terrorized by Mr. Tortoise and his very Asian gold box.
Now at last you have come to liberate me! Please, sirs, just take a look
behind that dresser, and there you will find the culprit!
(The cops look behind the dresser and spy the Tortoise huddled behind it,
holding his very gold Asian box, and trembling.)
Cop: So there it is! And so Mr. Tortoise is the varmint, eh? I never would
have suspected HIM. But he's caught, red-handed.
A chilies: Haul the villain away, kind sirs! Thank goodness, that's the last
I'll have to hear of him, and the Very Asian Gold Box!
Aria with Diverse Variations^405