Elsie Park Gowan
A COMEDY IN THREE ACTS
Characters
BEN DAVY [A fisherman-farmer]
STACIA DAVY [His wife]
DENZIL DAVY [Their son, about 17, but none too bright]
JOHN DUNCAN [A veteran, about 32]
MIRANDA FORTESCUE [About 25, poised, thoughtful]
MRS. POTTER [A fluttery matron, fair and fortyish]
HOWARD POTTER [A young businessman, Rotarian]
JIM BRYAN [A young engineering student on survey]
HERB JOHNSON [A hard-boiled surveyor]
BILL SEARS [The local big-shot of a small village]
COLONEL HECTOR FORTESCUE [OBE, DSO]
The Last Caveman was first produced by the Edmonton Little Theatre at the Masonic Temple, 4 and 5 February 1938, directed by William R. Wallace. For the 18 November 1946-17 May 1947 Everyman Theatre tour, the cast of The Last Cavemen, directed by Sidney Risk, was as follows:
BEN DAVY a fisherman-farmer: David Major
STACIA DAVY his wife: Esther Nelson and Lois McLean
DENZIL DAVY their son, about 17 but none too bright: Ted Follows
JOHN DUNCAN a veteran, about 25: Floyd Caza
MIRANDA FORTESCUE about 25, poised, thoughtful: Peggy Hassard
and Shirley Kerr
MRS. POTTER a fluttery matron, fair and 40ish: Esther Nelson
and Hilda Nual
HOWARD POTTER a young businessman, Rotarian: Andrew Johnston
and Arthur Hill
JIM BRYAN a young engineering student on survey: Murray Westgate
and Ronald Rosvold
HERB JOHNSON a hard-boiled surveyor: Murray Westgate
BILL SEARS a local big-shot of a small village: Edward
McNamara
COLONEL HECTOR FORTESCUE OBE, DSO: Drew Thompson and Sidney
Risk
ACT 1
SCENE 1
[Setting: The clearing in front of BEN DAVY's shack, just back from the shore of Lake Minnetaska, Alberta, - 1946. A crude pole fence runs across the back of the clearing, but the bars of the gate are down. There is a rough table and broken chair on the right, towards the house (which is out of sight.) A few nondescript boxes and old 'broody coops' clutter up the yard.]
MR. and MRS. BEN DAVY come through the gate carrying a fish net, which they drape along the fence to dry. DAVY is a sturdy man between 50 and 60, cheerful, independent. His wife is shapeless and vigorous, with very few teeth. Both have traces of Somerset in their speech.]
DAVY: Eh, that's a great hole, Ma. Happen a whale went by.
MRS. DAVY: Be there whales in the lake, Ben?
DAVY: [Hopefully] Never saw none yet, Ma.
MRS. DAVY: Don't ye get swallowed then.
DAVY: Book says Jonah came up again.
MRS. DAVY: I wouldn't be tempting the Lord twice, Ben! [Calling] Denzil ... Denzil!
DENZIL: [From the left] Coming, Ma. I'm coming.
MRS. DAVY: Hurry, then.
[DENZIL appears from beyond the gate. A thin, weedy boy, he might be anywhere from 15 to 18. He wears dirty overalls, a battered felt hat, enormous boots, and carries a gutted fish.]
MRS. DAVY: Did you clean the fish?
DENZIL: Sure. I cleaned it good, Ma. [With satisfaction] It was a female.
MRS. DAVY: You mind your language. Put her in water and come help your Pa with the net.
DENZIL: Okay, Ma.
[They fall quietly to work. MRS. DAVY mends an old coat at the table. DENZIL, when he comes back, helps mend the net with string. BEN begins humming 'In the Sweet Bye and Bye'.]
MRS. DAVY: [Taking it up] We shall meet on the beautiful shore.
ALL: In the sweet... .
DAVY: In the sweet...
ALL: Bye and Bye... .
DENZIL: Bye and Bye... .
ALL: We shall meet on the bee-yew-ti-ful shore!
MRS. DAVY: You got a real nice voice, Ben.
DAVY: Guess I ain't no opry singer, Ma.
DENZIL: Bet you could of been if you'd wanted to, eh Pa?
DAVY: Never thought on it, Denzil, Never thought on it.
DENZIL: What's an opry, Pa? Did you ever see one?
DAVY: Sure, I seen one, time I went up to London with my father, when I was a young lad. Kind of play acting it was, but nought was said plain-like. It war all singing and shouting and hollering, and fiddles drowning the singing out. There war a devil in it, too.
DENZIL: A real devil, Pa?
DAVY: I doubt he war an imitation, Denzil. But he war surely a good singer. They couldn't drown him out.
DENZIL: I guess you seen about everything, ain't you, Pa?
DAVY: Well, I don't say I seen everything, but I been a traveller. I seen a dancing bear in Tolpuddle once, and I seen the Rocky Mountains, and the Atlantic Ocean. That's a lot of water, ain't it, Ma?
DENZIL: More water'n our lake?
MRS. DAVY: What with fog and stormy seas, we was sailing for seven days and nights, Denzil.
DENZIL: Gosh, I wisht I'd been there.
[JOHN DUNCAN comes down the path through the gate. JOHN is about 32, well built, with a restless what-the-hell look about him. He wears dirty pants, and an old khaki shirt with sleeves rolled up. He carries a tin bucket.]
DAVY: Good day, Johnny.
JOHN: Afternoon. How's the fishing?
MRS. DAVY: The fishing's naught to do with you, Mr. Duncan. Must you cry fishing from the top of the hill?
JOHN: Hey ... I'm sorry! [Grins] I'll swear your nets have been out of the water since Friday.
DAVY: It's a cruel shame to tell a man he can fish one day a week, and his belly aching with hunger and the fish out there jumping up to laugh at him.
JOHN: [Sits down and starts rolling a cigarette] Well ... that's the law ...
DAVY: 'Law!' (Spits) It's what they call 'conserving the natural resources.' What about yuman beings? Ain't we natural resources, too?
MRS. DAVY: That's right, Ben. Us tries to be natural.
DAVY: License for fishing, license for listening, license for carrying ... it'll soon be a man can't ... a man can't do a damn thing in this country without a license.
MRS. DAVY: [Taking up JOHN's pail] The chickens lays every day. That's one thing they can't stop. Will a dozen be right, Johnny?
JOHN: Yes, fine; thanks. [MRS. DAVY goes out towards the house]
DAVY: How's the book getting on, Johnny?
JOHN: That's a long story.
DENZIL: I can read. I been in the fourth grade.
JOHN: Good for you, Denzil. I'll remember that.
DENZIL: What's it going to be about, hunh?
JOHN: [Taking a while to answer] Oh ... cops and robbers.
DAVY: [Hesitating] Ah ... Joe Lambert up to the g'rage is looking for a handy man.
JOHN: That's alright, Davy, I don't want a job.
DAVY: No harm in mentioning it...
JOHN: Sure, sure.
DAVY: And Joe's boy, that was in the Navy, he's buying a farm with what the gov'ment paid him ...
JOHN: All the soldiers settling down to raise a crop of mortgages. Isn't that just dandy. [He gets up, strolls towards the house] Nice patch of corn you got there.
DAVY: Aye, it's doing fine. Us be real proud of that garden. There's a sight of work and sweat gone into that patch of ground.
JOHN: How long you been on this place, Davy?
DAVY: Twenty years come next March... .
JOHN: Weren't planning to sell, were you?
DAVY: Sell our place? No!
[MRS. DAVY has come in with the egg pail. She stops dead at JOHN's question.]
MRS. DAVY: Us'll never sell this place!
JOHN: [Surprised at their vehemence] Okay, okay ... I guess I got it wrong. [They still look at him] Something I heard in the beer parlor at Gainford last night.
MRS. DAVY: [Belligerent] Who was talking about we at Gainford?
JOHN: A surveyor - Johnson, I think his name was. He must have meant some other part of the lake shore.
DAVY: And what did he say?
JOHN: Look ... the guy had had five beers ... what does it matter?
DAVY: Us be asking you ... what did he say?
JOHN: Oh, he was talking about surveying a road through and building cottages somewhere ...
DAVY: Sears came smelling around about this land, year before the war.
MRS. DAVY: And he don't get it away from we!
JOHN: Okay, if you don't want to sell, that's the end of it.
DAVY: Happen it might not be. That Sears ... he's a slippery customer.
JOHN: [To MRS. DAVY] How much? [He takes the eggs]
MRS. DAVY: Eggs is twenty-five. I put in a bit of Devonshire cream that's a present, and no charge.
JOHN: Devonshire cream! Man, that's more'n I got in Devon ...
DAVY: [Eagerly] Was you in Somerset? Lulcambe?
JOHN: I spent a leave in the west country, when we were at Salisbury. Lulcambe ... there's a pub there called the ... the Drowning Man ...
DAVY: 'The Drowning Man!' Many a pint of ale I've had at the Drowning Man when I was a young lad. That was many a year ago. Happen they've forgot Ben Davy in Lulcambe ...
MRS. DAVY: It's a rare place, Somerset, when the hedges is white ...
JOHN: Why did you leave England, Ben?
DAVY: [Slowly] The reason I left England was to be my own man. In Lulcambe I was Squire's man. Live in Squire's cottage and plow Squire's field. Me and Ma had been married seven years then, ain't that right, 'Stacia?
MRS. DAVY: Seven year, Ben.
DAVY: One day in Lulcambe post office I saw a picture the railway company put up. It was a picture of a yellow corn field. That's wheat, we call it now ... and a house and two young 'uns riding a white horse down a field. 'Come to Canada,' it says. 'Come to Canada and own your own farm.' Well, me and 'Stacia looked at that picture for a long time. Every day for maybe six months we'd go into the post office and look at the house with the red roof.
MRS. DAVY: And them two young 'uns riding down the field ...
DAVY: End of it was, we sold our cows and bits of furniture - took ship and come.
JOHN: Right here to Minnetaska?
DAVY: No, we was on a homestead, north of Beaver Lake, them first years. It couldn't have been where the man painted that picture. Terrible lot of bush there was up there, and muskegg. I wasn't so handy building with logs as I was when we put up this place ... and it was cold in the winters. That was when we lost Denzil's brother Albert and his little sister Gwladys. After that Ma didn't have no heart to stay on the homestead and we moved down here to this lake. And here we be, ever since.
JOHN: Alright. Don't sell it. Who wants a bunch of cottages ... damn people all dressed up and civilized ...
MRS. DAVY: Dressed up! They city people don't wear no clothes at all, you might say ... running round blistering the hide off their selves. Even Colonel Fortescue, at his age.
JOHN: [Interested] Fortescue? Does he come out here?
DAVY: That's his cottage at the end of the point ... the little one with the flag pole ...
DENZIL: And the fancy fence around the backhouse.
MRS. DAVY: Denzil! You mind your manners!
JOHN: Where's that dog of yours, Denzil?
DENZIL: Tiger? We ain't seen him for five days.
JOHN: What happened? Somebody took a shot at him?
DAVY: Not that us knows of.
DENZIL: Best dog I ever had. Bite the hand off a strange guy, quick as look at him.
JOHN: [Drily] Yeah, Well ... so long ... [Starts to go]
DENZIL: G'bye, Johnny ... .
JOHN: Bring the milk down in the morning, will you?
MRS. DAVY: Denzil will fetch it. Good-bye ... .
JOHN: [Turning] G'bye ... thanks for the cream. [He goes]
MRS. DAVY: [Looking after him] Something be the matter with that boy. Reminds me of that barred rock hen that never knew if her was broody or if her wasn't ...
DENZIL: Aw, he's a bum.
MRS. DAVY: He was a captain in the army, wasn't he? I heard tell he won a medal ...
DENZIL: Any guy that lives like he does is a bum.
DAVY: [Who has been sitting quietly] 'Stacia ...
MRS. DAVY: Yes, Ben ...
DAVY: We ain't never had a white horse. All the horses we had was kind of brown.
MRS. DAVY: They was good horses to work, Ben.
DAVY: That's true. [Pause] You baint sorry we come from Lulcambe, be you, Ma?
MRS. DAVY: I baint sorry. Us have had a interesting voyage. [Pause] Her'd be ... twenty-five years old, now.
DENZIL: Who would, Ma?
MRS. DAVY: Your sister Gwladys. Her'd be a nice looking young lady. Maybe her'd took after your Pa's sister Jennie. Her had curly hair, too ...
DAVY: [Suddenly intense] Ma!
MRS. DAVY: Yes, Ben?
DAVY: Something's come into my mind ...
DENZIL: Gee whiz, Pa!
DAVY: Joe Lambert told me he seen two surveyors in Gainsford, day before yesterday. And what Johnny heard about cottages ... and the dog being gone ... Bill Sears is trying to get this land!
MRS. DAVY: Ben!
DAVY: That was his game afore ... trying to prove the line of 53 runs west of my stakes. And the dog ... that'd be the first step. Bill Sears knows no sneaking surveyor'd cross that fence without Tiger'd chew his leg off ...
DENZIL: [Excited and mystified] Where's Tiger at, Pa?
DAVY: He could be poisoned, Denzil ...
DENZIL: Who done it?
DAVY: Happen it were Bill Sears ...
DENZIL: Well, the dirty bastard ... !
MRS. DAVY: [Slapping him across the mouth] Stop that! Us be going to fight, yes ... but us be going to fight clean!
[The two elder DAVYS stand shoulder to shoulder in an attitude
of defiance as the lights dim and the curtain falls]
ACT 1
SCENE 2
As the curtain rises and the lights go up, we are looking at another
part of the lakeshore, outside the present home of JOHN DUNCAN. His
shack, part cabin and part dug-out, is just out of sight on our left.
With his typewriter on an applebox, another up-ended box stacked
with papers, JOHN is trying to work, but not making much progress.
He stops, lights a cigarette, gets up, and walks over to scowl at the lake.
He comes back and scowls at the page in the typewriter.
DENZIL DAVY comes up the shore path on the right. He carries a quart
bottle of milk and a small dead animal.
DENZIL: Hi, Johnny.
JOHN: Hello, Denzil. [He doesn't look up]
DENZIL: I brung the milk.
JOHN: Good. Stick it in the creek, will you. [DENZIL goes out to the left and comes back shortly without the milk. JOHN begins stabbing at the machine]
DENZIL: I can write, too, but I don't need no machine. [He gets no answer and edges closer] I got a boil on the back of my neck. It only come this morning. [JOHN pays no heed. DENZIL gets very close] I found this here gopher in a trap this morning, and I scrunched him with a stone. He just went Eeeeeek! an' then he died.
JOHN: [Tense] My god, isn't there enough pain in the world, without ... [He looks at DENZIL and realizes it is no use]
DENZIL: [Cheerfully] I got four gophers last week an' two squirrels and one skunk.
JOHN: That I can believe.
DENZIL: And yesterday I got a meadow lark with my sling shot. Zing! Right on the head, first try.
JOHN: Look, Denzil ... didn't they teach you in the fourth grade to be kind to dumb animals?
DENZIL: Aw, sure. Teacher was always talking about 'Our feathered friends' and 'Our little brown brothers of the woods.' But heck, she was crazy. She didn't know nothing. That's why I quit school.
JOHN: But what's the idea, anyway, murdering things ... ?
DENZIL: Well, gosh, it's right to kill gophers. They eat Pa's pertatoes and cabbages.
JOHN: And the meadow lark?
DENZIL: [Squirming] Well ... it'd took me all morning fixin' the sling shot, and I had to see if it'd aim straight. [Whips the sling shot out of his back pocket] Look it here. Ain't it a dandy, tho'?
JOHN: [Flexing it] Not a bad job. 'A sling and a stone. With this weapon David slew Goliath ...'
DENZIL: [Grabbing it] He did not ... this is brand new! [Importantly] We're going to need this at our place pretty soon. I'm going to use it on something bigger than a meadow lark. Zing! Right on the ear! Pa and Ma are fixing a pile of rocks by our place right now.
JOHN: Pile of rocks?
DENZIL: And Pa's getting the shotgun oiled. We're getting ready. Just let that dirty double-crossing Bill Sears come around ... he'll find out!
JOHN: Denzil, I think you're crazy with the heat. Go take a jump in the lake.
DENZIL: Who, me? Say, I got more sense than that? There's a sea-serpent in that lake. I seen it. Maybe you don't believe that.
JOHN: Sure I believe it ... every word you say. Now for the love of Pete, scram out of here ... .
DENZIL: You mean you don't want to talk no more?
JOHN: That's the idea, chum.
DENZIL: A'right, I was just going. G'bye, Johnny.
JOHN: So long, sargeant.
[DENZIL goes. JOHN pecks out a few words. DENZIL returns]
DENZIL: Don't blame me if you're swimming out there and it bites off your leg!
JOHN: What?
DENZIL: The sea serpent.
JOHN: Get out! [DENZIL goes] Damn that boy.
[JOHN tries to work in grim earnest. A girl appears on the shore path. She is slight and blonde, wearing attractive but practical camp clothes. Her manner is cool, composed, but friendly. She is very clean. In a lull in the typing, she comes along the path, looking out at the lake. A clatter of typing takes by surprise]
MIRANDA: [Turning] Oh ...
JOHN: [Not looking up] I told you to get the hell out of here.
MIRANDA: Did you?
JOHN: [Whirling] Eh? ... [Taking her in] Well!
MIRANDA: I'm sorry ...
JOHN: [Turning back to work. Her clean poised look irritates him, conscious of his own unshaven chin] It's alright. You're not trespassing. There's a public right of way along the shore.
MIRANDA: [Demurely] Thank you. [She sees the cabin] Oh! You've fixed up the cave!
JOHN: [Grimly] Yes. Isn't it cute?
MIRANDA: Howard and I used to play Indians in that dug-out.
JOHN: I live here.
MIRANDA: Why not? The McGreevey's never used it for a chicken house.
JOHN: [Startled] Chicken house!
MIRANDA: That's what they made it for ... cut out the bank and put those logs in front. But they lost the place for taxes, and moved away. Are you squatting?
JOHN: Am I what?
MIRANDA: Are you squatting, or did you buy the place?
JOHN: I'm renting from the municipality.
MIRANDA: That's nice. That makes you legitimate, doesn't it?
[She starts to go. In spite of himself, he yields to a need to talk to her]
JOHN: [Getting up] Ah ... what's your hurry? Have a cigarette.
MIRANDA: No thanks.
JOHN: [Takes it as a rebuff] Sorry. Haven't any tailormades.
MIRANDA: I don't smoke.
JOHN: You weren't in the services.
MIRANDA: No. [Smiles. She senses his loneliness] What's the book about?
JOHN: Who told you?
MIRANDA: Oh, I read the evidence. Young veteran, with a book in his system, finds a quiet place and digs himself in ...
JOHN: Where he can live on jackfish, boiled nettles, and spam. Correct, up to a point.
MIRANDA: Well?
JOHN: That was some time ago. Now I know there won't be any book. [Harshly] Go on, say it!
MIRANDA: Say what?
JOHN: [Gushy] 'Oh, that's too bad. I'm sure it's very interesting.'
MIRANDA: [Drily] I think you've been eating too many jackfish.
JOHN: I guess you're right at that. [Grins] My name's Duncan ... make it Johnny. What's yours?
MIRANDA: Miranda ...
JOHN: Come again?
MIRANDA: My name is Miranda. My parents saw The Tempest on their honeymoon.
JOHN: The Tempest. That's the one where somebody says 'Oh brave new world ... '
MIRANDA: Yes.
JOHN: [With irony] 'Oh brave new world.' [He goes and stares out at the lake] My book was about the federation of mankind.
MIRANDA: [Quietly] I'm listening.
JOHN: The rule of law among nations and the control of armed force.
MIRANDA: By a league?
JOHN: The League was a first attempt, but it sidestepped a fundamental cause of war.
MIRANDA: Which is?
JOHN: Which is the obsolete idiocy of dividing one world into seventy bits and giving each the right ... the divine right, mind you ... to start shooting.
MIRANDA: In other words ... national sovereignty.
JOHN: [He nods] I got the idea going back from Dieppe. I thought maybe enough men had died. Bravely. Needlessly. Oh, there's plenty of books, but not one written by and for the Joe on the landing barge. Why we get a job like that and why our fathers got it, and how we could change the pitch for our sons. Those of us who had any sons. [A pause. He moves] I took a pretty good degree in law in '39 ... never practiced ... figured on the foreign service. Well, I got a bellyful of foreign service. Five years army and six months occupation. But I thought ... maybe we'll get it this time ... law and decency. I kidded myself. The Atlantic Charter ... San Francisco ... the UNO ... and maybe the book was the one thing I could give ... [He makes a savage gesture] Then I got back and I woke up. Nothing had changed. People forget. They want to forget. They talk peace but they won't give up the junk that stands in the way. They don't want to think. Don't want to fight for a new world. What scares me is that I don't want to fight myself any more. I turn on the radio and the greed and hate that come squawking out of it makes me sick at my stomach. I don't give a damn any more about the human race. I'm not even telling it to go to hell. It's doing that of its own accord. But fast.
[There is a pause. MIRANDA too comes to look across the water]
MIRANDA: You see that cliff on the west shore?
JOHN: Want me to chuck myself off it?
MIRANDA: That cliff looks mighty permanent. But it lay under water for ten thousand years ... until one day deep rocks moved, and the face of the earth was changed.
JOHN: I am not impressed by examples from evolution.
MIRANDA: Isn't that what your idea is ... evolution? Caveman to tribe to city to nation state to one world ...
JOHN: What kind of a girl are you anyway?
MIRANDA: That's not what we're discussing at the moment.
JOHN: And what did you come around here for?
MIRANDA: To make up my mind about something.
JOHN: I'll say this for life in Europe. It simplified the woman problem.
MIRANDA: In what way?
JOHN: If you can't speak a woman's language, you don't bother to talk to her. You cut the intellectual chit-chat, and kiss her first. Then if you don't get your face slapped ...
MIRANDA: [Quite pleasantly] And if you do get your face slapped? [She moves away] I didn't fight in the war, Johnny. I was drafted to teach other students, because it seems we needed engineers and they had to know some geology. But I've studied how the earth was made. I know the story of mankind. And I believe in life and its power to renew itself. I honestly think what you have here may be the next chapter ...
JOHN: [Forgetting himself, explodes into enthusiasm] It's got to be the next chapter. It's one world or no world! All I'm asking is to get on with the inevitable.
MIRANDA: Who was going to publish this book ... if you had written it?
JOHN: I sent McDougall's the first six chapters. No dice.
MIRANDA: Did you try Fortescue?
JOHN: That old fire-eater? He made a speech to our O.T.C. once. Been in three wars and enjoyed them.
MIRANDA: He's a smart publisher.
JOHN: Last man on earth to back this book. He believes that war is good for a nation. 'Brings out the best that's in them, by God.'
MIRANDA: To do him justice, he hasn't said that since 1940.
JOHN: I hear he has a house out there on the point.
MIRANDA: Yes. Come over tonight and I'll introduce you.
JOHN: Hey ... you sound as if you knew the old turkey buzzard.
MIRANDA: I do know him. He's my father.
JOHN: But I've seen the man. It can't be true
MIRANDA: We have documents to prove it, and our fingernails are identical.
JOHN: Well, I'm not taking back a word ...
MIRANDA: You don't have to. But there's law and order in the family, too. My grandfather marched across the prairie in a scarlet coat when the West was young.
JOHN: How did the old ... how did the colonel ever get mixed up with books?
MIRANDA: My uncle Thomas left them in his will. When he died, fifteen years ago, Father came back from the Peace River country and ran the company as if it were a regiment. He just might publish your book ... the struggle would be to get him to read it.
JOHN: [Grabbing her arms, rather roughly] Don't give me a line! You think it has a chance? On the level ...
MIRANDA: On the level, I think it has.
JOHN: [Still holding her] And what did you come over here to make up your mind about?
[Before she can answer, a clear soprano is heard from the shore path, singing the 'Indian Love Call' from 'Rose Marie']
JOHN: Oh damn that woman!
MIRANDA: Who is it?
JOHN: Mrs. Potter ... can't you tell? She sneaked up on me one day it was ninety in the shade. Since then, she sings.
MRS. POTTER: [Off] Captain Duncan ... Oh, Captain Duncan.
JOHN: Hello?
MIRANDA: [Sotto voce] 'Captain' she says!
MRS. POTTER: May I come in? [She appears on the path, a fluttery lady in her early forties] Oh, good morning! And Miranda dear ... this is a pleasant surprise!
MIRANDA: Yes. I came down last night.
MRS. POTTER: And you know this interesting man ...
MIRANDA: Oh yes, we're old college friends. [JOHN gapes]
MRS. POTTER: Isn't that lovely! There's nobody understands us like the people we went to school with, I always say. Isn't the lake perfectly beautiful this morning ... so calm, so still, so unutterably peaceful. It must be a great inspiration in your work.
JOHN: Terrific.
MRS. POTTER: Howard and I have been down to the village and I brought up your mail. Just this paper.
JOHN: Thanks.
MRS. POTTER: Not that there's anything very pleasant in it. Strikes, and those men fighting over the peace conference, and that dreadful famine in Europe. We heard something about it on the radio last night ... quite by accident of course, we were trying to get the Kelly Soup Program, and really, it made me feel quite upset. I mean, it's not as if there were anything more we could do ...
JOHN: [Grimly, to MIRANDA] In 1946 already yet.
MRS. POTTER: [By the path] I wonder what can be keeping Howard. He went down to Davy's for the vegetables. Captain Duncan, you'll have supper with us this evening, won't you?
MIRANDA: Sorry, he's dated up. I asked him first.
JOHN: Hey ... did I promise ... ?
MRS. POTTER: Oh, you'll get a good dinner at Miranda's. You may not think it to look at her, but she's a very good cook, besides being a doctor of geneology.
MIRANDA: Geology, Mrs. Potter. Geneology is family trees.
MRS. POTTER: Is it really? Well I wish you'd take a look at the trees at our house in town. The best nursery stock, and the way they die off is a scandal.
MIRANDA: [With mischief] Are you doing any writing just now, Mrs. Potter?
MRS. POTTER: Nothing to speak of ...
MIRANDA: Mrs. Potter is a highly successful poet. She comes out in all the women's magazines.
MRS. POTTER: [With a gay laugh] Oh I don't suppose Captain Duncan ever reads them, Miranda. just a few simple, homely little thoughts
[Calling] How-ard!
HOWARD: [Off] Be right there.
[HOWARD POTTER comes along the path. He is a tall, fairly good looking boy, with a pleasant charm of manner, very little concerned about anything but himself, his job and his golf score. His slacks, sports shirt and ascot scarf make JOHN irritatingly conscious of his own dirty trousers]
MRS. POTTER: You remember my nephew ... he was out on the 24th of May ...
JOHN: Yes, of course
HOWARD: Hello, Duncan ... [Sees MIRANDA and is very delighted] Well ... how do you do? I didn't expect you till tomorrow.
MIRANDA: [Smiling slightly] It was too hot in town... .
HOWARD: Plenty hot out here. Don't know why we can't get a road along this shore.
MRS. POTTER: The Colonel should speak to the government, Miranda.
MIRANDA: Father doesn't want a road. He says he comes out here for peace and quiet.
HOWARD: Well, that's darn selfish of him. Packing stuff along that track is killing me.
MRS. POTTER: Now, Howie, you know you walk further than that playing a round of golf.
HOWARD: What's going on down there at the Davy place, anyway? I went in for the potatoes. That half witted boy yelled 'Stay back of that fence' and nearly took my ear off with a sling shot.
JOHN: The Davys seem to think there's dirty work at the crossroads.
MIRANDA: Oh?
JOHN: They've got it in their heads Bill Sears is trying to pinch the farm.
MIRANDA: I wouldn't be surprised. Bill Sears is a crook.
MRS. POTTER: Oh, Miranda!
HOWARD: The post-master? Smart business man, I'd say. I guess he owns half the village now.
MIRANDA: And how did he get it? By giving credit in the Depression and foreclosing when they couldn't pay.
JOHN: [Dryly] Nice fella.
HOWARD: It wouldn't hurt if somebody cleaned up the lakeshore and built some neat cottages.
JOHN: But dammit, that's the Davys' home. They don't want to sell.
HOWARD: Did you see their title deed? Poor white trash like that ... probably squatting on the land ...
MIRANDA: The Davys are not poor white trash!
HOWARD: What would you call them ... God's chosen people?
MIRANDA: They're crazy ... but I love them. [Smiles] Denzil believes the heat wave will get you if you walk down the track at night. They're like something left over from primitive times ...
HOWARD: You said it. Before the invention of soap and water. Well, let's go. I don't want to miss the World Series. [To JOHN] I got a bet on the Cards to take New York. You coming, beautiful?
MIRANDA: My canoe's on the beach. But I can't take you. She leaks.
HOWARD: Too bad. Can't have Aunt Edna getting her ... feet wet.
MRS. POTTER: Perhaps you'll come to supper some night next week, Captain.
JOHN: Thank you very much.
MRS. POTTER: Howard will be fishing and we'll have some nice jackfish. Well, good-bye... .
MIRANDA: Bet I beat you home!
HOWARD: I'll take that. [Looks at the lake] The wind's against you. [To JOHN] Come over if you feel like sailing, Duncan.
JOHN: Thanks. So long. [The POTTERS leave. JOHN is standing tense, holding in his anger] Those kind of people! It's those kind of people we're up against, kid. Soft. Selfish. Cushioned by their little bit of money and security. Mrs. Henry B. Potter ... sticks her hand in the sand and listens to the Kelly Soup program. If she ever looked a fact in the face, she'd faint dead away. And that darn glamor boy ... uses the right kind of shaving soap and keeps his pants pressed. He'd push the Davy's in the lake and call it smart business ... .
MIRANDA: What do you care? You're through fighting for anybody.
JOHN: [Suddenly remembering how HOWARD looked at her] My god in heaven ... he's not mixed up in your life?
MIRANDA: I expect you for supper at half past six. Wear a clean shirt, if you have one. Good-bye. [She goes]
JOHN: Miranda ... [He stares after her] Hey, Miranda ...
[MIRANDA by now is launching her canoe. She waves. He grins and answers
with a wave like a salute, then his face hardens. He comes back to the
typewriter] Mrs. Potter writes poetry, does she? She gets it published,
does she? [He shoves paper in and types a heading. Remembering ... ]
'Deep
rocks moved and the face of the earth was changed ... .' [He begins
to type furiously, as the lights dim and the curtain comes down]
ACT II
The Davy place. The bars of the gate are up. There is a pile of rocks roughly the size of baseballs a little way inside the gate.
MRS. DAVY and MIRANDA come slowly in from the direction of
the house. MRS. DAVY has a club, which she lays down on the rickety
table. MIRANDA carries a paper bag, probably full of lettuce. She
looks worried and annoyed.
MRS. DAVY: That's how it's been, Miranda, this whole week past. No work done, no fishing done. Him sitting here with the shot gun, like Sir Francis Drake on a monyimint, waiting for the Spanish Armada.
MIRANDA: I wish Mr. Davy would talk to Father. He was a magistrate in the North country.
MRS. DAVY: Eh, ye know what a man is when he's made up his mind. [With a look at her] Or maybe ye don't know ... yet.
MIRANDA: [Ignoring this] You've worked so hard on this place. It used to be nothing but bush and slough from here to the lake ... .
MRS. DAVY: It baint much of a house ... but it's all us has.
MIRANDA: Remember the day I fell off the roof and cut my knee open ... and Mr. Davy carried me home... .
MRS. DAVY: [Laughing] Eh, what a child ye were for climbing and jumping!
[JOHN appears suddenly behind the gate. He looks cleaner than when we saw him last. He carries a flat parcel, his manuscript]
JOHN: Too bad she's changed, eh Mrs. Davy? [He looks at the gate] Hey, what's this, the Maginot line? [He leaps over it]
MRS. DAVY: Bless me, Johnny, you came down that road quietly... .
JOHN: Tomorrow I'll fire two rounds and send up a flare. No ... I've been trying for a week to get this woman to climb up to the cliff with me ... but will she go... .
MRS. DAVY: No girl hereabouts walks up there with a man unless she's certain sure what she be going to say to him. They must come back to-gether ... there's no path down the other side. Did ye see Ben on the track?
JOHN: No.
MRS. DAVY: Happen they're down at the shore. He told me to watch this gate, but now there's two of ye, I'll go get my bread out of the oven.
JOHN: What are we watching for?
MRS. DAVY: Any strange body.
JOHN: Or the sea serpent! Sure, we'll put salt on his tail.
[MRS. DAVY goes off to the house. When they are left alone there is evident tension between JOHN and MIRANDA]
JOHN: Hello.
MIRANDA: Hello.
JOHN: I finished it. [Hands her the parcel]
MIRANDA: Swell!
JOHN: Typed the last chapter by candlelight. It was as good a way to waste an evening as any other. So that's why the gal won't go up the cliff with me. She's not certain sure what she's going to say ...
MIRANDA: Are you and I sure about anything?
JOHN: Yes, I am. I'm sure that nothing's changed since last Friday. The world's evil is no less. Man has still no comfort on the face of the earth. And yet when I'm with you ... God, I want to believe that life could have some sort of meaning. Some beauty or dignity ...
MIRANDA: Why won't you believe it?
JOHN: [Harshly] Maybe it's the wrong setting. Look at this lay-out. Poverty. Ignorance. [He shakes the gate] They're gunning for trouble all right.
MIRANDA: Well, why don't you help them?
JOHN: Who ... me?
MIRANDA: Davy likes you. He'd listen to you.
JOHN: Thanks. I'm not sticking my neck out.
MIRANDA: Well, let's go talk to Bill Sears ... find out what's back of it.
JOHN: As if he'd tell us.
MIRANDA: [Turning away] You're still all twisted inside, aren't you?
JOHN: [With light bitterness] Can't get rehabilitated. That's my trouble. They say there's nothing like the love of a good woman ... .
MIRANDA: You finished the book. You did the one thing you could do to help 'the world's evil'. And it's good! But writing it hasn't helped you ... because somewhere along the line you stopped believing in people ... or liking them. Even the Joe on the landing barge ... you don't really care about him... .
JOHN: So Davy is Joe at the moment, is he?
MIRANDA: He could be. And you ... [She hesitates] You don't trust your feelings for me ... .
JOHN: What would a nice little girl like you know about that?
MIRANDA: I know it didn't happen just because there's been a moon this week. It's more important than that. Or it could be ... if you'd let it.
JOHN: [Sincerely] Miranda ... for God's sake ... I haven't anything... .
MIRANDA: You've got courage. Or I thought you had. Some men came back from war with nothing inside their minds but a dreadful emptiness.
JOHN: [Quickly] Who, for instance?
MIRANDA: They threw away that whole experience. They won't think about it. They burrow down into their jobs and good times and pull the covers over their heads. But you were angry. And there's hope in your anger. Maybe it's the only hope we've got. And I could help you ... if you didn't shut yourself away. If you'd come alive ...
JOHN: Now listen, my girl... .
[DAVY and DENZIL can be heard on the path]
DENZIL: [Off] Sure, I can carry it, Pa. [MRS. DAVY comes in quickly and takes up her club]
MRS. DAVY: Pa and Denzil is coming.
MIRANDA: I'm going. And Father's going to see this, Johnny.
JOHN: He'll never publish it.
MIRANDA: Maybe not. But he'll look at it, if I have to feed it to him in his porridge! Look Mrs. Davy ... I can still climb ... when I want to! [She makes a neat job of the gate, and whips off down the path, turning to the right]
MRS. DAVY: [Looking after her] Eh, times have changed, since my young days.
JOHN: Have they?
MRS. DAVY: I had two children, afore I was Miranda's age. But now that Howard's home and settled, happen it may be soon. [She takes up guard with her club] Remember ... us has been here constantly.
[DAVY and DENZIL come along the path. DENZIL carries a large stone. DAVY has half a dozen more rolled in a gunny sack. DAVY is very chirpy. He has an air of excited expectancy]
DAVY: Well, 'Stacia... .
MRS. DAVY: Well, Ben. Not a soul been by, except Miranda and Johnny here.
[DAVY puts down his stones, takes down the bars one by one. He and DENZIL come through, and DAVY puts the bars up again]
DENZIL: Look what I brung, Ma.
MRS. DAVY: Eh, that's a purty one, Denzil.
DENZIL: Think us can hoist it, Ma?
MRS. DAVY: Us'll have a try, Denzil. Us'll have a try. [ The rock is added to the pile]
DAVY: Well, Johnny ... we hasn't seen you since many a day.
JOHN: No. I've been sticking to my knitting. [Flips a coin to DENZIL] Here's the two bits for packing the milk.
DENZIL: Gee, thanks.
DAVY: Get the gun, Denzil.
DENZIL: [Skipping out] Yes, Pa!
MRS. DAVY: You'll have that gun wore out a-cleaning it, Ben.
DAVY: Pooh ... women doesn't understand fire-arms. Does they Johnny?
JOHN: [Who is lounging against a box, rolling a cigarette] Nope. Fundamental principle, Mrs. Davy ... the artillery must be in perfect shape.
DAVY: I know what I'm doing. I met Len Walters by the fish house this morning. Told me them two surveyors was in the post office last night. One old fellow and one young, kind of green, Len says.
MRS. DAVY: Well, us be three.
DAVY: Aye, us be three. Len heard them say they'd finish the road job this morning, and you know what that signifies. Us be next.
[DENZIL brings back the shot gun, some oil and a rag]
DENZIL: Can I clean her this time, Pa?
DAVY: No, Denzil. I'll tend to her myself.
DENZIL: [Looking at John with suspicion] Pa ... what about ... him?
JOHN: Don't mind me, Denzil. I'm strictly on the fence.
[He goes and leans against the gate]
DAVY: Johnny knows a man's got to defend his home. That's what he was doing hisself, over in Europe. [to DENZIL] You go to work and fix another sling shot. One you make last week is all wore out.
DENZIL: Okay! Boy, this'll murder them!
[He starts work. DAVY cleans the gun]
DAVY: Happen us'll get our name in the papers, Ma.
MRS. DAVY: What for, Pa?
DAVY: McGreevey's was in when they had trouble about that liquor brewing.
MRS. DAVY: Notoriety is something I never crave for, Ben. [Thinking] I hope they spells it proper, tho'. 'Eustacia'. T'aint a common name.
JOHN: [After a glance behind him] There's somebody coming from the track.
[DAVY jumps up. DENZIL gets behind him]
DENZIL: Is it them, Pa, is it them? [They watch] Naw, it's only that crazy Potter woman.
MRS. DAVY: Don't you talk that way about Mrs. Potter, now.
DENZIL: Aw, she is too crazy.
MRS. DAVY: A nice kind woman, even if she be ignorant, poor soul.
DENZIL: [Falsetto] 'Well, my little man, and how are you to-day?' She makes me tired.
MRS. DAVY: You mind your manners, now. [MRS. POTTER appears, with a bundle of magazines]
MRS. POTTER: Good afternoon, Mr. Davy!
DAVY: 'Afternon, ma'am. [He takes down one bar, and after some hesitation MRS. POTTER gets a leg over the other two and comes in]
MRS. POTTER: Thank you. Ah ... thank you very much. Hello, Captain Duncan!
JOHN: Hi.
MRS. POTTER: Oh, Mrs. Davy ... what a fascinating pile of stones! Don't tell me you're going to make a rock garden?
MRS. DAVY: Not persactly ... we ... .
MRS. POTTER: With dear little creeping plants behind the stones! That will be charming. Well, young man, and how are you to-day?
DENZIL: The boil on the back of my neck's getting bigger all the time.
MRS. DAVY: Show Mrs. Potter your boil, Denzil.
MRS. POTTER: [Hastily] Some other time, some other time
DAVY: Didn't see two strange looking fellows on the track now, did you ma'am?
MRS. POTTER: No, Mr. Davy. Are you expecting company?
DAVY: That I am.
MRS. POTTER: The hospitality of you country people is just wonderful, I always say. Mrs. Davy ... I brought you a few magazines.
MRS. DAVY: [Taking the bundle] Thank you kindly, I'm sure.
MRS. POTTER: I hope you liked the others I left with you?
MRS. DAVY: Oh yes indeed, papers comes in real handy. The thickest ones Pa used to paste on the chicken house walls
DENZIL: And the thinnest ones we ... .
MRS. DAVY: [Loudly] Denzil! [To MRS. POTTER] Yes, indeed, us used them all.
DENZIL: Is there any funny papers in the bunch, Ma?
MRS. POTTER: No, Denzil, I'm afraid I don't approve of funny papers. So crude, so ugly. Giving young people such a distorted view of life. But there's a nice story about an Indian legend. Don't you like Indians, Denzil?
DENZIL: Naw. All the Indians around here is lousy.
MRS. DAVY: [Firmly] Take the paper, Denzil.
DENZIL: [Reluctant] Okay. [He takes it]
JOHN: [Who has been more and more irritated by MRS. POTTER]
Do you like Indians, Mrs. Potter?
MRS. POTTER: Well of course! We saw the parade at Banff this summer. So picturesque ... so colorful! And their wonderful handicraft ... I'm very interested.
JOHN: [Savagely] But do you know conditions among Canadian Indians? Do you know their T.B. rate ... or why, as Denzil says, their children are likely to be lousy?
MRS. POTTER: [Taken aback] Why, no ... no
JOHN: Why no! It was a good show at Banff, but you don't really give a damn about them... .
MRS. DAVY: Johnny! Mrs. Potter is a visitor to we.
JOHN: Excuse me.
MRS. POTTER: [Bright and forgiving] I did meet Miranda on the path just now. She told me that you had finished your book.
JOHN: Yes.
MRS. POTTER: The Colonel is a very shrewd publisher. He put out such a good murder mystery last year, 'The Body in the Beer Keg'.
DAVY: Eh, that was a tragic thing.
MRS. POTTER: Did you read it, Mr. Davy?
DAVY: Not I. I was thinking on the waste of good beer.
MRS. POTTER: I like a good thriller, I'm afraid. Because ... well ... there's so much won't stand thinking about in this world, isn't there ... but a mystery always comes right in the end. What is your book called, Captain Duncan?
JOHN: If you'll read it, Mrs. Potter, I'll call it 'The Case of the Last Caveman'.
MRS. POTTER: 'The Case of the Last Caveman'. Oh, that's very good! Is the Colonel going to publish it?
JOHN: Off hand, I'd say it has as much chance as a snowflake in hell.
MRS. POTTER: That reminds me, I must see Mr. Walters about getting more ice. This hot weather, you know. Are you going that way, Captain Duncan?
JOHN: No, I think I'll walk to the post office. Mrs. Potter, do me a favor, will you? Let's forget the 'Captain,' eh?
MRS. POTTER: Well of course if you ... I only mean it as a compliment... .
JOHN: Yeah, yeah, I know. But I'm back in the ranks now.
DAVY: I should think a man'd not want to forget an honour that come to him.
JOHN: [Quietly] I'll never forget why it came, and when. But let's drop the handle, shall we?
MRS. POTTER: just as you say, Cap ... ah, Mr. Duncan. After all if there should be another war ... of course, there won't be, but we said that before, didn't we ... but if there should be ... you might eventually be a general!
JOHN: God forbid. [DAVY has let down a bar and MRS. POTTER struggles over]
MRS. POTTER: Oh, thank you, Mr. Davy. Good-bye ... good-bye Denzil.
DENZIL: [Glum] G'bye. [MRS. POTTER goes]
JOHN: Every time I talk to that woman, I feel like shooting either her or myself.
DAVY: [Drawing a bead] Her back view makes a damn good target... .
DENZIL: Go on, Pop, shoot one off! Shoot one off just to scare the pants off her.
JOHN: [Businesslike, Mrs. Potter has annoyed him out of his pose of indifference] Look, Davy, you're a full grown man. Don't you think you've played with that shot gun long enough?
DAVY: And who said I be playing?
JOHN: Sure, sure ... you're defending your home. But doing it with a gun won't land you anywhere except in jail.
DAVY: They can't jail a man for shooting a thievin' scoundrel
JOHN: Don't you think they wouldn't. A prosecution for manslaughter is no joke.
DAVY: An Englishman's home is his castle. I'm an Englishman, I hope ...
JOHN: Yeah. But the Battle of Hastings was fought quite some time ago. You own this land, okay. Have you got a title deed?
DAVY: [After a pause] That's my business.
MRS. DAVY: Tell him, Ben. He's a good lad.
DAVY: [Slowly] I bought this piece from old man Jeffries and he give me a receipt, all made out proper.
JOHN: Well, that's good enough! [He sees their glum looks] Oh. Where is the receipt?
DAVY: I figured it was in the tobacco jar with them grocery bills, but it ain't.
MRS. DAVY: I'd of swore it was in the Bible with my marriage lines. But it baint there.
DENZIL: I never seen it.
JOHN: Well ... where is old man Jeffries?
MRS. DAVY: Us don't know.
DAVY: Old man Jeffries is dead.
DENZIL: He fell off the cliff one night when he was liquored up and bust his head right open.
JOHN: Listen ... I'll be in town some day next week, I'll look up this section in the land titles office ... .
DAVY: Nothing in them books is going to stop a skunk like Bill Sears.
JOHN: Oh for God's sake, use a little sense ... .
DAVY: Did Sears send you down here to cry us off?
JOHN: Don't be a damn fool! It's nothing to me what you do. Only I'm telling you ... .
DENZIL: You're a bum. What'd you know about it, anyway?
JOHN: Not very much ... but after all, I started out to be a lawyer ... .
MRS. DAVY: [As if he had uttered an obscenity] A lawyer! Us never knowed that about you.
DAVY: My father always said he'd trust a Cornishman before he'd trust a Welshman. And a Welshman before he'd trust a lawyer. Now get away from here over that fence and keep your thumb out of my affairs.
JOHN: Mrs. Davy ... !
MRS. DAVY: You heard what Ben said.
DAVY: Go on, git!
JOHN: You're a stubborn, pig-headed fool, Ben Davy, and your own worst enemy. [He jumps the gate] In fact, you're so darn human I can't help liking you. But remember ... if that gun goes off ... I'll have to tell the judge I warned you. So long.
[He goes off, whistling a march]
MRS. DAVY: [Sadly] A lawyer. And I thought him a clean living lad like any other.
DENZIL: He's a bum. I told you, any guy that lives like he does is a bum.
DAVY: Don't pay it no mind, 'Stacia.
MRS. DAVY: Maybe us should take advice in the matter, Ben. The Colonel be gentry. He'd know the way of it... .
DAVY: I need no gentry nor colonels to teach me my duty. Right is right and no fancy talk can change it. Denzil, come and hold the gun while I go after the cows.
DENZIL: [Thrilled] Can I, Pa?
MRS. DAVY: Denzil could go after the cows.
DAVY: I'd rather go myself. I might spy something out. I'll go round by the shore and come back by the track. [He gives DENZIL the gun] You keep watch now.
DENZIL: Sure.
MRS. DAVY: I think I seen the cows heading east this morning.
DAVY: I'll find 'em. [He goes out past the house]
DENZIL: Ma.
MRS. DAVY: Aye?
DENZIL: What does surveyors look like, Ma?
MRS. DAVY: They looks like men for the most part, Denzil.
DENZIL: Will I shoot them in the head, Ma, or shoot them in the belly?
MRS. DAVY: Shoot them in the legs. Then they can't run away.
DENZIL: I wisht they'd get here while Pa's gone.
MRS. DAVY: I doubt they'll be here before supper. Sun's getting around.
DENZIL: What are we going to have for supper, Ma? Fish?
MRS. DAVY: And where would I get a fish, you and your Pa being too busy with they weapons to get out on the lake? There's eggs, and I'll take up some turnips afore the worms gets to them.
DENZIL: You could go now, Ma. I'll keep watch.
MRS. DAVY: Maybe I'll do that. Then we can eat when your Pa gets back. [She starts out] Don't you let no strange body cross that gate!
DENZIL: Don't you worry, Ma.
[MRS. DAVY goes out toward the house. DENZIL has a good time with the gun. He examines it all over, takes out the cartridges, puts them back, looks down the muzzle once or twice, and draws a bead on various points.]
MRS. DAVY: [Off, yelling] Den-zil! Denzil! The pigs is in the garden!
DENZIL: [Leaping to his feet] Will I bring the gun, Ma?
MRS. DAVY: Head 'em off! Run around the house and head them off. They're making for the bush!
[DENZIL puts down the gun and runs out. From behind the house comes yelling and grunting which fades as the pigs escape into the bush. For a moment the yard is empty.
HERB JOHNSON and JIM BRYAN appear beyond the gate. HERB is about fifty; short, weatherbeaten and hard boiled. JIM is an easy-going youngster of twenty. He carries a surveyor's transit.]
HERB: [Pushing back his hat] There y'are, Jim. That's 53 over beyond them trees.
JIM: Boy, what a lay-out! You mean people live in there?
HERB: Sure, that's the Davy place. Sweet looking joint, ain't it? They say it's a wonder the house don't get up and walk away. Don't seem to be anybody home.
JIM: There's one of the kids over in the bush ... .
HERB: There's only one kid and he's only half there, Bill says. Ignorant as hell, the whole outfit. Funny thing, too ... they ain't Hunk or Ukes. Some kind of God-forsaken English. Well, guess we'll run a line from here ... .
[DENZIL comes tearing around the corner of the house, He sees the men and stops dead, staring, then be rushes out, yelling]
DENZIL: Ma! ... Ma! They're here! I seen them ... Ma!
JIM: Hey, what's the matter with him?
HERB: Aw, don't pay no attention. Gone to tell his mother we're here. Maybe they're going to serve tea. Set up the transit, will you?
JIM: Okay.
[The transit is swung over the gate and set up in the yard. While they adjust it, MRS. DAVY rushes in and snatches up the shot gun]
MRS. DAVY: You get out of here! You get back over that fence or I'll shoot you dead!
HERB: Afternoon, Mrs. Davy. My name's Johnson and I'm...
MRS. DAVY: I know who ye be and who sent ye here. You get back over that fence, quick.
DENZIL: Go, Ma. Shoot 'em! Shoot 'em in the legs!
HERB: All we're trying to do, lady, is ...
MRS. DAVY: You're trying to get this place away from we!
HERB: Bill Sears hired us to run a line across here to ... .
MRS. DAVY: Well, he ain't running nothing across it. It ain't his land. Ye go back and tell him that.
HERB: Sister, if you'd only listen to reason ... .
MRS. DAVY: Go, git!
HERB: [Shrugs] You run into this in our business, Jim. Guess we'll wait till the old man gets here.
MRS. DAVY: You take that infernal contraption out of our yard, or us'll knock it into bits!
HERB: Take it out for now, Jim. [The transit is swung back over the gate, MRS. DAVY covering the move with the shot gun. The surveyors have a short conference and HERB goes off down the road, MRS. DAVY watches this manoeuvre suspiciously]
MRS. DAVY: Denzil ...
DENZIL: Yes, Ma?
MRS. DAVY: Hold the gun.
DENZIL: Yes, Ma!
MRS. DAVY: If that young fellow comes across the fence, you shoot, d'ye hear?
DENZIL: Bet your life, Ma.
MRS. DAVY: I'm going for your Pa. [She goes out right, DENZIL squats on the rock pile, keeping the gun trained on Jim who lounges by the gate. Silence, Jim takes a cigarette. As he reaches out to strike his match on the date, DENZIL waves the gun]
JIM: Take it easy, brother.
DENZIL: Don't you make no false moves.
JIM: Okay, bud.
[Silence again]
DENZIL: Anyway, I ain't your brother.
JIM: Kinda too bad.
DENZIL: Why is it too bad?
JIM: If I was, we'd be on the same side of the fence. I could sit down on that box and rest my feet.
DENZIL: You can set down on the ground.
JIM: It looks kind of damp right here.
DENZIL: All city guys is sissies.
[Silence]
DENZIL: What do you want to come round here making trouble for?
JIM: I'm not making any trouble.
DENZIL: You are too.
JIM: Did I ask to get mixed up in any war? I need the money or I wouldn't be here. [Silence]
DENZIL: What do you need the money for?
JIM: Well if it's any of your business, Superman, I pay my fees at Tech.
DENZIL: What's Tech?
JIM: It's a college.
DENZIL: I don't need to go to no college. Only sissies go there.
JIM: Get in a rugby game and you'll find out. I broke my leg last fall.
DENZIL: I got a boil on the back of my neck.
JIM: [Clicking his tongue ironically] Tck-tck-tck-tck ...
DENZIL: Bet it hurts worse'n a busted leg.
JIM: I bet it don't.
DENZIL: It does too. It's as big as a mountain.
[Silence]
DENZIL: What's that game you were playing?
JIM: Rugby?
DENZIL: Yeah. What is it?
JIM: It's a football game.
DENZIL: Bet I could play it.
JIM: You gotta know the rules to play it.
DENZIL: Why?
JIM: If you don't the referee takes you off the field. Say, don't you see any movies?
DENZIL: No.
JIM: [Studies DENZIL] It's amazing! Well, like I said, the referee is the boss of the game.
DENZIL: Do you know the rules?
JIM: Do I? I was quarterback.
DENZIL: You Could tell them to me now.
JIM: Not from here, I couldn't. Have to sit down and draw lines on the ground. [DENZIL considers this, he is tempted]
DENZIL: Ma and Pa might get here.
JIM: There's no harm in drawing lines. Anyway, we could hear them coming.
DENZIL: Will you get back of the fence then?
JIM: Damn tooting I will.
DENZIL: Okay. [He lays down the gun and carries a box near the gate]
JIM: Thanks, Bud. [He vaults over, sits down, stretches his legs] Feels kind of good to sit down. Now, gimme that little stick. [He draws lines on the ground] Now, here's the playing field. There's a goal at each end, the idea is to get the ball past the other fellow's back line. Catch on?
DENZIL: Sure.
JIM: Well, first they kick off in the middle, then they catch the ball and run it back here.
DENZIL: Heck, that's easy.
JIM: Yeah, but while you're running the other side tackle. That's how I got my leg broken.
DENZIL: [Unimpressed] Uh-hunh. What's tackle?
JIM: Well now, I'll show you.
[He looks round for something to use for a ball, sees MRS. DAVY's gunny sack by the rock pile and starts for it, Like a flash DENZIL is ahead of him and has snatched the gun]
DENZIL: You get back there! You get back...
JIM: Now what's biting you?
DENZIL: Thought you'd fool me, didn't you? Thought you'd be smart and get the gun.
JIM: Aw, go chase yourself. I gotta have something for a ball. And put that damn gun away. It makes me nervous.
[He picks up the gunny sack, wads it together, and ties it round with a bit of string, DENZIL slowly puts the gun down on the table]
JIM: Now, the other guys line up behind the quarterback and he yells out signals, and then passes the ball. When I pass you this, you make a touchdown between the posts, understand?
DENZIL: What's a touchdown?
JIM: It's the best play in the game. All you got to do is get the sack over the line and fall on it. Now ... get behind me and kind of crouch over. Are you ready?
DENZIL: Sure.
JIM: 47-23-19-38-52 ... Hike!
[DENZIL gets the sack and whips across the yard and lands on his stomach under the gate]
DENZIL: Did I do it? Did I do it?
JIM: [Laughing] Oh man, if the coach could see this! Okay, we'll do it again, and this time I'll tackle. All set?
DENZIL: [Very pleased with himself] Okay, bud.
JIM: 19-38-52-47-23- ... Hike!
[DENZIL starts off, JIM tackles expertly, they land in a heap, DENZIL very astonished and howling.]
DENZIL: You lemme up! You get offen me. Ma ... Ma!
JIM: That's the game, don't you understand it? Shut up, you dumb kid... . [ While DENZIL howls, his parents arrive. DAVY takes up the gun, MRS. DAVY beats JIM with her fists.]
MRS. DAVY: Get off my boy! You get off my boy.
JIM: Listen, lady, this is all a mistake ...
DAVY: You put your hands up! You put your hands up, young feller, and keep them there.
DENZIL: He threw me down! He threw me down and stomped on me!
MRS. DAVY: [Punching him] Murderer! Murderer!
JIM: I wasn't trying to hurt the kid. I was showing him rugby ... it's a game.
DAVY: Go on, you get over that fence!
JIM: Don't worry, I'm going... . [He vaults the fence, as HERB, BILL SEARS and JOHN arrive down the path. SEARS is the local big shot. Outwardly smooth and plausible, he is actually quite unscrupulous and enjoys the power be holds over his neighbors]
SEARS: Now then, what's going on here?
DAVY: You ought to know, Bill Sears, you started this.
SEARS: What happened, Jim?
JIM: I was showing Lil' Abner how to play rugby when hell busted loose around the place ...
MRS. DAVY: Hell's going to keep on busting loose if you don't get away from here quick.
SEARS: Now listen, folks, all I want is for the boys here to run a line ...
DAVY: You ain't running nothing on my land! I paid for it in money once and we been paying for it in work and sweat ever since.
SEARS: If you paid for it, that can be proved at the proper time. I'm sure it's to the advantage of all of us to know exactly where we stand ...
DAVY: I'm standing in front of a damned swindling scoundrel, and if you move one step I'll shoot ye between the eyes.
JOHN: You're not getting anywhere, Sears. If you're as smart as I think you are, you'll call this whole thing off ... .
SEARS: I'm hiring these men by the day. I'll have the job done now ...
JOHN: I've stood beside other fellows that talked big like that. Two minutes later they were awfully dead pigeons.
SEARS: Are you encouraging these fools to use violence?
JOHN: [Getting sore] I'm asking somebody to use a little common sense!
SEARS: Let me tell you, there's law and order in this country. You young veterans will have to learn we no longer settle our affairs at the point of a gun.
JOHN: Damn right! If you really believe this survey's crooked, lay your information in the proper place.
SEARS: I'm satisfied I'm acting for the good of the community.
HERB: Aw, what are we waiting for? I been bluffed before this.
SEARS: I refuse to be intimidated. Bryan, take your instrument across ...
JOHN: Dammit man, leave the thing alone!
SEARS: Who do you think you are giving orders? The war's over ...
JOHN: The war's not over as long as a cheap little Mussolini is walking through the country ...
DENZIL: [With a sudden wail] My boil! Ma... he busted my boil! [Sobbing with rage he rushes for his sling-shot]
JIM: I wasn't trying to hurt the kid ... it's a game ...
DAVY: [Raising the gun] Us knows your game... .
JOHN: [Jumping into the yard and advancing on DAVY] Davy ... put that shot gun down ...
[DENZIL's stone catches JIM on the ear.]
JIM: [Starting for DENZIL] You dirty little so-and-so!
JOHN: Stay out of here!
[But it is too late. HERB and SEARS follow JIM
into the yard and the battle breaks out in real earnest. JIM grabs
DENZIL, and he falls howling. MRS. DAVY goes for HERB
with a club.
JOHN tries to wrest the gun from DAVY. DAVY
lets him have it, and goes for SEARS with his fists. A blow from
MRS. DAVY's club catches JOHN and he goes down. On a scene
of active and ruthless warfare, the curtain falls.]
ACT III
On another part of the shore, outside the summer cottage of COLONEL
HECTOR FORTESCUE, DSO, OBE. At the back, on our right, is a trellis
fence with a few poppies and marigolds growing against it. The little clearing
is set out with attractive beach canvas furniture. It is about seven in
the evening. MIRANDA, in a bright summer dress, is sitting composedly
in a deck chair. COLONEL FORTESCUE, an active choleric gentleman
in his late 60's, is pacing restlessly about. He wears a pair of shorts,
an open-necked shirt, and a deep tan. On the table beside MIRANDA lies
JOHN'S manuscript, in a bright blue folder.
MIRANDA: You haven't told me yet why you won't read it.
COLONEL: Because I've heard all that poppycock before, that's why. Disarmament ... League of Nations ...
MIRANDA: The book isn't about the League of Nations.
COLONEL: What is it, then? Brotherly love ... sweetness and light ... the drivel we get from that female next door?
MIRANDA: Careful! She may be on the porch.
COLONEL: No, she's not. [Looks at his watch] 7.05. She's listening to Kelly's Soup.
MIRANDA: He tried to explain his point the other night, but you were too busy fighting the African campaign.
COLONEL: Can't understand the fellow. His Army record's good enough.
MIRANDA: Doesn't it occur to you that some young men, who have been through hell once, want to stop it happening again?
COLONEL: You can't stop war, Miranda ... because you can't change human nature.
MIRANDA: There hasn't been a war between New York and Pennsylvania for generations. And human nature was very human, when I was there last.
COLONEL: What the devil has Pennsylvania got to do with it?
MIRANDA: Suppose they had a dust-up ... not being sovereign states, neither of them claims the right to be judge and jury in their own case, and to settle the dispute by mass murder.
COLONEL: Don't be ridiculous! They're part of a federal union.
MIRANDA: But they haven't always been! Only a hundred and fifty years ago ... as long as the life of one of the big trees in the canyon ... they were little, quarrelling states, complete with customs barriers and local militia ... .
COLONEL: Since when did you become so damned historical, may I ask?
MIRANDA: Since I read 'The Union of the Free' by John Duncan.
COLONEL: By God, it's just occurred to me. You're in love with the fellow!
MIRANDA: I thought it was women who always get personal in an argument.
COLONEL: Now don't change the subject! You're too ... too theoretical, Miranda. It's all this blasted science ... evolution ... high-brow humbug. If you'd settle down with some decent chap ... like Howard Potter ...
MIRANDA: Do you really want me to marry Howard?
COLONEL: Why not? Steady fellow. Good job in the bank. She's only his aunt by marriage ... .
MIRANDA: I believe it's quite the thing right now for girls my age to grab a man, but fast.
COLONEL: Well, after a war ... men are in a marrying mood. I'm not a young fellow, m'dear. I'd like to see you happily settled, with some reasonable security ... .
MIRANDA: There is no security for any of us, in a world of anarchy.
COLONEL: Free peoples will not give up the right to defend themselves...
MIRANDA: You mean the right to make war. Pennsylvania gave it up.
COLONEL: To hell with Pennsylvania! [A shot sounds in the distance]
MIRANDA: What was that?
COLONEL: What was what?
MIRANDA: It sounded like shooting. [Another shot]
COLONEL: By Jupiter, you're right. If those damn villagers are after ducks out of season, I'll have them prosecuted! Now what were we talking about?
MIRANDA: Duncan's book.
COLONEL: You've never cared tuppence what I publish. If you're not in love with the blighter, why are you so interested?
MIRANDA: Because I'm tired of living in a world without freedom. [He tries to speak but she goes on] I don't call it freedom when we're all afraid. Deep down in ourselves, even when we're doing happy things ... sailing the boat, working at our jobs, dancing and laughing ... somewhere inside us we know it's only a breathing spell. The horror will come back. Bombs will fall, children scream, boys will die in flames. All for something called 'National Sovereignty'. All because of the stupid, criminal humbug of dividing the world ... which is one world ... into seventy pieces, and giving them all the divine right to start killing.
COLONEL: And what about patriotism? What about loyalty?
MIRANDA: I've got a high enough opinion of the human race to believe we could extend our loyalty to a federation of mankind. [She smiles] I know why.you won't read this book.
COLONEL: Oh indeed?
MIRANDA: You're afraid it might convince you. You know that what I've been saying is true ... because underneath all that bluster and bombast, you've got a logical mind and an honest heart...
COLONEL: That's a damn lie!
HOWARD: [Off to the right] Hello! Ahoy there ...
MIRANDA: It's Howard. [Calling] Hello... .
HOWARD: May I come in? [He strolls on from down right] Good evening, sir.
COLONEL: 'Evening, Howard.
HOWARD: Hot enough to suit you?
COLONEL: It's not hot. Why do you wear so damn many clothes?
MIRANDA: Not everyone has your progressive ideas, Father.
COLONEL: Hrphm.
HOWARD: Hear the golf final this afternoon, Colonel?
COLONEL: No ... .
HOWARD: Higgins took Woywitka, four and three.
COLONEL: Good game?
HOWARD: He did alright for a Ukrainian ... but not quite good enough. Aunt Ede sent me over to organize some bridge.
COLONEL: I don't mind ... if you'll play with her.
HOWARD: She's out in the back kitchen fixing a drink.
COLONEL: A collins? [HOWARD nods] My God, she puts so much sugar in it, it turns my stomach. [He starts out] Set up the chairs, Miranda. We'll play here, it's cooler. [He hurries out toward POTTER's; HOWARD and MIRANDA arrange chairs for bridge]
HOWARD: That's pretty. Have I seen it before?
MIRANDA: No. [She smiles] Thank you.
HOWARD: I heard from the boss, Miranda. He can get me a house.
MIRANDA: Where?
HOWARD: Sherwood Crescent.
MIRANDA: [Impressed] Wow!
HOWARD: I got to call him in the morning.
MIRANDA: I see.
HOWARD: Well? [Silence] What do I tell him? Look, beautiful, you can stall me for a couple of ice ages, but we can't stall a real estate agent.
MIRANDA: I don't know. Honest to Pete, Howard, I don't know... .
HOWARD: Would it be out of place to inquire just when you will know? I'm not sticking around for the berry picking. I figured we'd get this thing lined up a week ago.
MIRANDA: [Unhappily] I did, too. Common sense tells me I'm a dope. I ought to slip the handcuffs on you so fast ... .
HOWARD: Well ... what's got us stymied? This is what we been waiting for, isn't it?
MIRANDA: Yes.
HOWARD: The war's over, my job's okay, we find a house ...
MIRANDA: [Sadly] And we live happily ever after. You're a sweet guy, Howard. But every now and then ... we seem to be standing miles apart. I'm on the cliff and you're at the other end of the lake ...
HOWARD: That's fancy talk. For instance?
MIRANDA: For instance ... what you said about Woywitka.
HOWARD: Are you turning me down because a guy lost a golf game?
MIRANDA: But you called him a Ukrainian. Sure, I'll bet he's proud of it. But ... you label people in your mind... .
HOWARD: Hey! This sounds like our unshaven chum on the north shore. Has Duncan been beating my time? [She doesn't answer] What would a bird like that have to offer a girl?
MIRANDA: He's got nothing to offer anybody except his anger and his courage. You don't want to fight any more, do you, Howard? You'll jog along in the bank, getting a raise every year, getting a little balder ... .
HOWARD: Raising my kids the best I can and leading a normal human life. That's what you want, too, if you'd come in out of the moonlight and get wise to yourself. Damn right I don't want to fight any more. There's been too much fighting now... .
[There is a shot, closer than last time]
HOWARD: Good lord, what's that?
MIRANDA: I heard it before ... .
[They listen, There is sound of angry voices]
HOWARD: Sounds like trouble towards the village
MIRANDA: Howard! The Davys had a shot gun!
HOWARD: Nuts. That happens in the Kaintucky mountains
MIRANDA: They're coming, whoever it is ... .
[ The angry voices are louder, The COLONEL bounces back in indignantly, MRS. POTTER on his heels]
COLONEL: What the devil is all that row at this time of night?
HOWARD: Don't know, Sir... .
MRS. POTTER: Maybe it's a wedding. You know ... they make a noise to keep people awake all night. A shivaree they call it ... .
[SEARS, JOHN and DAVY appear on the path from the beach. SEARS carries the gun, DAVY's hands are tied behind him. JOHN's shirt is ripped off one shoulder, he looks as if he had been rolling in the DAVYS' yard]
HOWARD: [Amused] I don't think it's a wedding.
MIRANDA: Johnny ... !
JOHN: [Grinning] Well ... I fell off the fence. Here I am.
[MRS. DAVY arrives, her arms tied with strips of her own apron. DENZIL trots along beside her snivelling. JIM and HERB bring up the rear. HERB has a black eye]
DAVY: [Trying to be social] Good evening, Colonel.
COLONEL: May I ask what in blazes is the meaning of this? Duncan ... are you drunk?
JOHN: There's been a slight dust-up in the village, sir ... .
SEARS: I am on my way to Gainford to lay charges of assault, with violence and intention to do grievous bodily harm.
JOHN: I persuaded Mr. Sears to take your advice before going any further.
COLONEL: My advice?
SEARS: He said you was a magistrate.
MRS. DAVY: Us was willing to come. Us knowed we'd get justice from you, Colonel.
COLONEL: I see no reason whatever why my privacy should be invaded... .
MRS. POTTER: Oh please, Colonel ... 'Blessed are the peacemakers', you know.
HOWARD: Might get into the papers, sir. If we could stop it right here... .
COLONEL: [Weakening] Well.... [His eye falls on DENZIL] Dammit, boy, take your hat off!
DENZIL: Taint my hat. It's an old one of Pa's
COLONEL: Take it off, confound you! There are ladies present.
DENZIL: Gee whiz! [He takes off the old hat and stands turning and twisting it]
COLONEL: Bring a lamp, Miranda. Untie that woman's arms, one of you.
HERB: Do you think it's safe, Bill?
MRS. DAVY: I wouldn't soil my hands with ye, ye blackguard!
[JOHN undoes MRS. DAVY's bonds]
COLONEL: [Sitting down] Now then, what's all this?
[in unison] :
SEARS: Right now I want it understood that the only reason I came here was to ...
MRS. DAVY: These here are the villains, Sir, that came breaking into our place, murdering Denzil and ...
DAVY: We was defending our land, Colonel, that's all we was doing. We're British subjects and we got the right ... .
HERB: This afternoon we goes down to the Davy place, simply in the course of business, and before we could ... .
JIM: All I know about it is that this bunch of wild cats blames me busting
the kid's boil... .
COLONEL: [Shouting them all down] Stop it! By Christopher, I come out here for peace and quiet and I'm going to have it! If you can't control your tempers, you can get off my property!
DAVY: [To SEARS] There, you hear that? [To the COLONEL] Just what I said
to him, Colonel.
SEARS: The corner of 16 ain't your property!
DAVY: It is too!
SEARS: You can't prove it
MRS. DAVY: Us paid taxes for near twenty years
SEARS: You've paid no taxes for the last three years, as I know, being reeve of the district. The land is still on the books under the name of Harold B. Jeffries. [To the COLONEL] Shiftless and improvident people, Colonel, a drawback to the community.
MRS. DAVY: Liar. Murdering liar.
SEARS: [Ignoring this] The land therefore reverts to the municipality. My idea is to buy it, subdivide into building lots, and put up cottages. I employed Mr.'s Johnson and Bryan to survey the ground, when they were attacked with malice aforethought.
HERB: And with this here club. [He lays it on the table] That's what the old dame tried to use on me.
HOWARD: Looks like she made a birdie, too.
HERB: I dunno who you are, mister, but keep out of this, see?
HOWARD: Sorry.
JIM: And here's the sling shot little Abner used on me.
DENZIL: You throwed me down and jumped on me!
JIM: Aw shut up!
COLONEL: Did you attack the boy, Bryan?
JIM: No, Sir. We were talking by ourselves and he asked me to teach him rugby. I showed him a tackle and then his folks got back and the shooting started.
JOHN: Here's the shot gun. [He lays it on the table beside the other weapons] I warned Davy this afternoon that the law takes a serious view of violence with fire arms.
DAVY: They was trespassing! Us told them to stay out. Us has a right to defend our land ...
COLONEL: You've no right to endanger human life by taking the law into your own hands? [Breaks gun] This thing's loaded!
DAVY: Sure it's loaded.
SEARS: It went off where I dropped it on the track back there a piece ... .
DAVY: Eh, slippery customer?
JOHN: It was fired twice during the scrap at Davy's fence.
MIRANDA: [Setting a lamp on the table] We heard it, didn't we, Father? While we were talking about Pennsylvania.
COLONEL: Hrmph!
JOHN: The Davys are simple minded people, sir ... .
MRS. DAVY: Now there's a Judas for you!
JOHN: They've lived on that land for a long time, cleared it, improved it, and although they cannot prove title of ownership, they surely have some claim in equity ... .
COLONEL: Is that true, Davy?
DAVY: I can't prove nothing ... except that I'll fight for what's mine!
[A slip of paper falls from the lining of DENZIL's hat which be still twists in his hands]
DENZIL: Dam' right we will!
COLONEL: [Glaring] Be quiet, boy!
JOHN: Since they believed themselves about to be attacked, they fortified their property and got ready with these weapons ... .
COLONEL: Fortified, rubbish! Dammit, the Royal North West Mounted Police put an end to that sort of nonsense in 1874.
DAVY: Was we to sit still and let him walk all over us? It's more than human nature could stand ... .
COLONEL: Human nature has nothing to do with it. Let me remind you this province is no longer in a state of anarchy.
DAVY: I'm a free man! That's why I come to your bloody Canada...
COLONEL: If you're free, it's because there's a law in this country, sir, a law that protects human life and property! By resorting to armed force you make yourself the aggressor and become liable to trial and punishment. If this were a court of law, you'd go to jail... .
SEARS: Come on, boys. Thank you very much, Colonel, that's all I wanted to know. [He starts out]
JOHN: Just a minute. There's something I don't understand ... .
SEARS: You heard what the Colonel said ... .
JOHN: Davy ... you paid your taxes for seventeen years? [DAVY nods] Why did you stop paying them?
SEARS: What does it matter why the half-witted old fool ... .
COLONEL: Answer the question, Davy!
DAVY: [Dogged] Us stopped because Sears told me us didn't have to pay after Denzil stopped going to school.
[General sensation]
COLONEL: Aha!
MRS. POTTER: [Pained] Oh, Mr. Sears...
DENZIL: [Alarmed] I don't have to go to school! I don't have to go to school no more! I can read ... Lissen! [He snatches up the paper which fell from his hat] 'Ministik, March 5, 1924. Received from Benjamin Davy the sum of forty five dollars, being pay-ment for all that part of the east half of section 16, township 53, Range 5, west of the fifth mer ... mer... .
JOHN: [Softly] Meridian.
DENZIL: The fifth ... what he said. 'Sit-u-ated between the C.N.R. right of way and the shores of Lake Ministik, comp ... comp-rising 5 acres more or less, signed Harold B. Jeffries.' [Silence] Jeez, old man Jeffries was a funny writer. [Dead silence]
JOHN: [Gently] Where did you get that paper, Denzil?
DENZIL: On the ground. It fell out of my hat when he made me take it off. [JOHN takes the paper to the COLONEL, They examine it, JOHN goes back and cuts the rope on DAVY's hands]
COLONEL: [Quietly] I recognize old Mr. Jeffries' signature. It corresponds with my receipt for this property. The law will defend your ownership, Davy.
MRS. DAVY: [In a sudden loud sobbing cry of relief] Oh, Pa... .
DAVY: [Putting his arms round her] There, there, 'Stacia ... there, there, lass ... .
MRS. DAVY: Does it mean us be safe, Ben, after all?
DAVY: Aye, us be safe. The house and the pigs and the garden and the fishing boat on the shore.
SEARS: Oh well, in that case ...
COLONEL: Wait a minute, I've got something to say to you.
SEARS: Some other time, Colonel... .
COLONEL: I know your kind ... hiding behind the law. Using it to cheat and bamboozle these poor devils out of all they have in the world ... .
SEARS: I don't have to listen to this!
JIM: [Grabbing his arm] Oh yes you do, mister!
HERB: [Closing in on the other side] Getting me and Jim mixed up in your dirty business ... spolin' our good reputations ... .
COLONEL: You don't need money. You've got this village sewed up now with your fish house and your store and your post office. It's power you want. Power to bully and brow-beat your neighbors. Dammit, sir, you're a fascist, that's what you are! If I hear any more of it, by Jupiter ... [He picks up the gun, looks at it, lays it down] I'll have you in court for extortion, malfeasance, and skullduggery!
HERB: That's telling him! [They turn SEARS round and head him down the path]
SEARS: You'll be sorry for this, Johnson ... .
HERB: [Shoving him] Aw beat it! Go jump in the lake twice and come out once! [He comes back dusting off his hands]
MRS. DAVY: Well, Pa ... us best be getting home.
DAVY: Aye, the cow ain't milked... .
DENZIL: And them pigs'll be clear to Spruceville by now.
DAVY: Good-night, Colonel ... and thank you.
COLONEL: [Brusque] Quite all right ... quite all right.
JOHN: You'd better take this ... and don't lose it, hunh?
MRS. DAVY: [ Taking the receipt] Us'll keep it safe. [She looks at him] I'm sorry I spoke harsh to you, Johnny. You're a good lad ... .
JOHN: Even if I once was a lawyer?
MRS. DAVY: Eh, somebody has to do it, as I say to Pa when we cleans the chickenhouse. Come Denzil... .
DENZIL: Okay. Can I put my hat on now?
MIRANDA: Yes, you can put it on now. [DENZIL puts his hat on with a flourish and goes off swaggering]
DAVY: Good-night, Johnny ... G'night all... .
[Amid general good-nights the DAVYS leave. The COLONEL strolls to the end of the path watching them]
HERB: I want you folks to understand me and Jim had no idea this wasn't strictly on the level.
JOHN: That's alright, Herb. Many a good man gets killed in a bad cause.
MRS. POTTER: Oh, Mr. Johnson ... it is Mr. Johnson, isn't it?
HERB: Yes, ma'am.
MRS. POTTER: I have a nice piece of beefsteak in my ice box ... just the thing to take the swelling out of your eye ... .
HERB: Well ... .
HOWARD: There's a long cold drink on the kitchen table. How about it, Bryan?
JIM: Man, lead me to it!
HERB: Now you're talking!
MRS. POTTER: I take it our bridge game is off, Colonel?
COLONEL: [From the end of the path] If you don't mind.
MRS. POTTER: Oh, it's been a very interesting evening! What you said, Colonel ... about anarchy ... and ... well, freedom ... and the Mounted Police ... it certainly makes you think, doesn't it? [She thinks for a moment, then recovers herself] Well ... come along, boys ... the beefsteak!
[She goes off, followed by HERB, JIM and HOWARD. There is silence. The COLONEL comes slowly to the table, tired. JOHN and MIRANDA are in shadow, but the light shines full on the COLONEL as he stands looking at John's book]
COLONEL: I think I'll go in, Miranda.
MIRANDA: Yes, Father.
COLONEL: Duncan ... you brought those damn people here on purpose, didn't you?
JOHN: Yes, sir.
COLONEL: I realize that. Still, it was an admissible piece of strategy! (He slowly takes up the manuscript and the lamp) I'll take this with me ... might read for a while. Do you want this lamp? [He looks at them] No, I see you don't need this light. [Near the house be turns, barking again] Not that I promise anything, remember!
JOHN: I quite understand. Good-night. [The COLONEL goes]
JOHN: [Softly] By God, he took it!
MIRANDA: He talked himself into taking it ...
JOHN: It won't change the world overnight. But I did it. And doing has changed me ... .
MIRANDA: What changed you was getting your shirt ripped off and your face pushed in the dirt. Getting back in the fight.
JOHN: Anyway, I'll be alright. I'm in the clear... .
HOWARD: [Off, calling] Miranda!
MIRANDA: I'm here... .
HOWARD: [Coming back] Aren't you coming? Got one poured for you.... [He takes a good look at them] Oh ... !
MIRANDA: No. No, thank you. And Howard ... call the agent. Not Sherwood Crescent. Not anywhere ... .
HOWARD: [After a moment] I see. Going to live in a hole in the ground, are you?
MIRANDA: I'm going to live ... in the world as it really is. Terrifying ... but real.
HOWARD: I don't get it. But if that's how you want it... . G'night!
MIRANDA: Good-bye, Howard.
[He goes]
JOHN: Will you come up to the cliff with me, Miranda?
MIRANDA: It's a climb ... you've had a hard day... .
JOHN: I feel like climbing. [He folds his arms around her shoulders and smiles at her] Sure?
MIRANDA: Certain sure.
[He kisses her, taking his time]
MIRANDA: All right. We'll climb. [The moonlight is full on them as
they go up the slope together. And the play ends]
THE END