with the right child.

LADY. Exactly! Wait here for me whilst I go into the church. If the
cafe were open I'd ask you please not to drink. But luckily it's
shut.

(The LADY exits. The STRANGER sits down again and draws in the
sand. Enter six funeral attendants in brown with some mourners. One
of them carries a banner with the insignia of the Carpenters,
draped in brown crepe; another a large axe decorated with spruce, a
third a cushion with a chairman's mallet. They stop outside the
cafe and wait.)

STRANGER. Excuse me, whose funeral have you been attending?

FIRST MOURNER. A house-breaker's. (He imitates the ticking of a
clock.)

STRANGER. A real house-breaker? Or the insect sort, that lodges in
the woodwork and goes 'tick-tick'?

FIRST MOURNER. Both--but mainly the insect sort. What do they call
them?

STRANGER (to himself). He wants to fool me into saying the
death-watch beetle. So I won't. You mean a burglar?

SECOND MOURNER. No. (The clock is again heard ticking.)

STRANGER. Are you trying to frighten me? Or does the dead man work