UC-NRLF SUE: A PLAY COPYRIGHT IN GREAT BRITAIN IN THE DOMINION OF CANADA AND IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA September 1902 Photo by London Stereoscopic Co.] MISS ANNIE RUSSELL AS "SUE SUE: A PLAY IN THREE ACTS x x BY BRET HARTE AND T. EDGAR PEMBERTON X ADAPTED FROM BRET HARTE S STORY THE JUDG MENT OF BOLINAS PLAIN X LONDON GREENING & CO. LIMITED 20 CECIL COURT CHARING CROSS ROAD MCMII One touch of Nature makes the whole world kin, That all, with one consent, praise new-born gawds Though they are made and moulded of things past ; And give to dust, that is a little gilt, More laud than gilt o er-dusted." NOTE The Acting Rights in this Play are the Property of MR CHARLES FROHMAN Empire Theatre, New York, U.S.A. and Duke of York s Theatre, London Without his permission it cannot be performed. INTRODUCTORY NOTE IN the early days of 1895 I read, in the pages of the Pall Mall Magazine, my old friend Bret Harte s story, "The Judgment of Bolinas Plain." Seeing in it great dramatic possibilities, I asked him if he would permit me to adapt it to the stage. He readily assented, but, at the same time, said that he thought I was mistaken in my view of his work, and that my hours would be wasted. When I sent him my scenario, however, he at once saw how his slender story, by the introduction of other char acters, and the putting into action things only hinted at or suggested in the narrative, might be made into a three-act play. Indeed, he was so delighted that he expressed a wish to write it with me. To this, of course, I more than readily agreed, and many happy days were spent over the completion of "Sue." x INTRODUCTORY NOTE It was accepted by Mr Charles Frohman, and presented by him in New York on 15th September 1896. Neither of us could be there, and on the eve of the production of the play Bret Harte grew very anxious as to its fate. On the following day I was able to reassure him with a comforting telegram from the management, which ran as follows : " Well received. Fine acting. Press praises." Having exhausted her time in New York, "Sue" was taken on a prolonged tour throughout the States, and everywhere Miss Annie Russell made a triumph as Bret Harte s tenderly drawn little heroine of Bolinas Plain. On 10th June 1898 Mr Frohman produced the play in London. On that occasion Bret Harte and I were present, and it was pleasant to witness his delight at the perfect way in which, by one and all con cerned in it, the piece was acted, and how every line seemed to go home to the hearts of a crowded and distinguished audience. Its artistic success in its English home was immediately secured ; and Miss Annie Russell, by the force, humour, and pathos of her acting, moved the house in no INTRODUCTORY NOTE xi ordinary way. The subsequent judgment of the critics was as gratifying to her as it was to the writers of the play. How much they owed to her charming personality, and her deft handling of a difficult part they freely and gratefully ac knowledged. During his last weeks of ill-health, Bret Harte expressed a wish that "Sue" should be published in book form ; and we were in correspondence on the subject when the terrible news of his shock ingly sudden death came to me. I am glad to be able to fulfil my dear friend s desire. Save to say that Mr Frohman assures me that "Sue" will soon be seen and heard again in stage -land, I have nothing to add. T. EDGAR PEMBERTON. llth September 1902. First produced at HOYT S THEATRE, New York, Tuesday Evening, 15th September 1896 First Production on any Stage of a Comedy in Three Acts, entitled "SUE" By BRET HARTE and T. EDGAR PEMBERTON Management of CHARLES FROHMAN CAST Ira Beasley Silas Prescott Parson Davies Jim Wynd . John Scott . Jeff Bragg . Will Olber . Judge Lynch No. 22 Saleratus Bill The Softy from Frisco Jack Miller Napoleon Hopkins A Patrol . Annie Olber Sue. ACT I. MR JOSEPH HAWORTH MR HORACE LEWIS MR Louis MASSEN MR GUY STANDING MR THEODORE ROBERTS MR WILLIAM BONELLI MR JAMES KEARNEY MR SAM REED MR CHARLES BAGSHAW MR COLLIN SADISTON MR W. H. POST MR W. C. MASSON MR G. A. NICHOLS MR THOMAS WALLER Miss ANITA ROTHE Miss ANNIE RUSSELL THE CLOUD GATHERS (A. Voegtlin) (Three months elapse) ACT II. THE CLOUD BURSTS (E. G. Unitt) (Three months later) ACT III. THE CLEAR SKY (A. Voegtlin) Subsequently produced at THE GARRICK THEATRE, London, Friday, 10th June 1898. Mr CHARLES FROHMAN (by arrangement with Mr H. T. BRICKWELL) presents MISS ANNIE RUSSELL In a Play in Three Acts, entitled "SUE" By BRET HARTE and T. EDGAR PEMBERTON Adaptedfrom Bret Harte s Story, The Judgment of Bolinas Plain* Ira Beasley (of Lone Farm, Bolinas Plain] .... Silas Prescott (Sue s Father) . Parson Davies . John Scott (the Sheriff of Bolinas) Jeff Bragg (his Constable) Jim Wynd (an Acrobat) . WillOlber .... Judge Lynch (of the Vigilance Com mittee) . . . . . No. 22 (Secretary to Committee} (Members of\ Vigilance I Committee, I with power j to add tot heir \ number j Sue Annie Olber . MR EDWARD MORGAN MR WILLIAM SAMPSON MR LIONEL ADAMS MR JOSEPH BRENNAN MR JOSEPH FRANCCEUR MR FRANK MILLS MR W. B. SMITH MR SAMUEL REED MR JOSEPH A. WEBER MR WILLIAM WHITE MR HERBERT BOSTWICK MR ERNEST WALLACE MR WALTER BELASCO Miss ANNIE RUSSELL Miss IDA WATERMAN Negro Servants, Lynching Committee, etc. ACT I. THE CLOUD GATHERS ACT II. THE CLOUD BURSTS ACT III. THE CLEAR SKY ACT I THE CLOUD GATHERS ACT II THE CLOUD BURSTS ACT III THE CLEAR SKY DRAMATIS PERSONS IRA BEASLEY SILAS PRESCOTT . PARSON DAVIES JOHN SCOTT JEFF BRAGG JIM WYND WILL OLBER JUDGE LYNCH . No. 22 SALERATUS BILL THE SOFTY FROM FRISCO . JACK MILLER NAPOLEON HOPKINS . SUE ANNIE OLBER Negro Servants, Of Lone Farm, Bolinas Plain Sue s Father Sheriff of Bolinas His Constable An Acrobat Of the Vigilance Committee Secretary to Committee Members of the Vigilance Committee,, with power to add to their number Lynching Committee, etc. SUE: A PLAY ACT I SCENE : Interior of Lone Farm See Stage Plan (Silas Prescott discovered. He has pencil and paper in his hand } and is feebly trying to make some calcula tions.) SILAS (Looking at his figures; seated at L. of table C. His hat is on table.) Yes it might do. There s a livin to be got out of it ; and the Lord wot knows every thing knows that Silas Prescott is bound to get a livin out o suthin . But that gal s in the way. That s the hitch of it. My daughter Sue Prescott s in the way. If she d marry and settle down, I might get on and settle down, but Providence seems to have ordained that children stand in their parents ways even unto the third and fourth generation. (Sound of footsteps heard rvithout.) 2 SUE: A PLAY (Listening. ) Now, what s that ? Just my luck ! Someone s comin round interferin with my cal culations ! (Rises and goes to chair L., which should be close against wing and might be unobserved by anyone entering door in fiat R.C.) (Enter Parson Davies R.C., carrying stick and travel ling bag. Sets down bag and stick without observing Silas and goes to window.} PARSON (Looking ojfJ) That s a new face in Bolinas Plain and at Ira Beasley s farm too. (Looking at flowers in window seat.) And flowers too in Ira Beasley s room ! I am not the only guest here ! Well,, so much the better for this lonely bachelor of Lone Farm and so much the better for me. (Sits medita tively at table.) (During this speech Silas watches him attentively, trying to listen and yet pretending to scribble in book when Parson seems to turn in his direction.) When I accepted Ira s invitation I thought it might afford me a chance to watch that scoundrel Jim Wynd, who has been haunting this vicinity as criminals haunt the scenes of their crimes ; and since he ruined my daughter s home at Lowville, he has been seen in company with my young friends the SUE: A PLAY 3 Olbers, too, and this is my chance to warn them also. With other guests here, Ira will be too pre occupied to watch me, and I can look after that scoundrel without betraying my poor child s secret. (Rises, but suddenly discovers Silas, who puts book before his face and pretends to be writing.} I beg your pardon. (Taking off hat.) I thought I was alone. Is Ira Beasley around ? SILAS Ay he s around. I reckon he ll be here any minute. PARSON Let me see you re his guest, are you not ? SILAS Well, I reckon we ve been stayin here a matter of three or four days. PARSON We? SILAS Me and my daughter. PARSON (At window.) That pretty girl, as pretty as those flowers she has gathered ? 4 SUE: A PLAY SILAS Yes, that s my daughter that s Sue Prescott. PARSON (In a surprised tone.) Indeed ! SILAS Sartain! Seems to me you re thinking that as far as good looks goes she takes after her mother. PARSON (Evading this.) Then you are both Ira s guests, and so am I. We shall be friends, I hope. No one wants them more than poor Ira. Perhaps you are relations ? SILAS No. PARSON (At table.) Then I m wrong. He has got friend* ? SILAS None that I knows of. PARSON But you and your daughter are staying in his house ? SUE: A PLAY 5 SILAS Well, that ain t always calculated to make folks friends. As fur as we re concerned, it s like this. Me and my wife and daughter come along here in our emigrant waggon, me calkilatin to put what cash I had got into land out Lowville way. Me and my wife could have made a go of it. She hed a good head for business, but now she s gone I ain t in it somehow. PARSON Your wife has gone, do you say ? SILAS Yes ; she sorter branched off in the dear departed line with no return ticket. She died two weeks ago in that thar emigrant waggon. PARSON (Sympathetically.) Dear me ! I m very sorry to hear it. SILAS Yes, I reckon it wasn t what she d have chosen, either. It warn t too comfortable for her; she grumbled considerable, and it caused a lot of un pleasantness with her fellow-passengers not to speak of the day we took in hevin to pull up and 6 SUE: A PLAY plant her. (Crosses L.) Me and my daughter had had enough of that thar emigrant waggon when it pulled up afore this yer Lone Farm. PARSON And Ira Beasley took you in ? (Puts hat on table.) SILAS Yes, Parson; to make free with your language, "we was strangers and he took us in." You are a parson, aren t you ? PARSON Certainly. SILAS And it s your business to give advice? PARSON To the best of my ability yes. (Crosses down to C. and sits on table.) SILAS And without pay ? PARSON (Laughing.) Oh yes. Invariably without pay. SUE: A PLAY 7 SILAS Ah ! (Sits.) Now to me that s where the parson gets the pull over the doctor, and, for the matter o that, the lawyer too. No fees is what draws the honest, hard-working man who takes a proper pride in himself; and that s why I allus feels like letting business in the way of the deserving parson. I always was of a religious turn of mind. PARSON (Quietly.) What do you want me to tell you ? SILAS Why do you call Beasley, "poor" Beasley ? PARSON (Warmly.) I call any man poor who lives the life he does friendless and alone ; and I call him all the more poor because it is his own fault. SILAS If I m following of you correctly, Parson and as a man with a religious turn of mind such is my desire you don t call Ira Beasley poor, except from a parson s soul-con victin kind o way ? 8 SUE: A PLAY PARSON From a worldly point of view a man might envy Ira Beasley. His well-stocked farm is his own ; he can not only earn an income, but can save for the rainy day, that must, sooner or later, overtake us all. But what is the good of all that if he does not take his hands to the fire of life and warm them ? SILAS Why, it s mighty rough on the fire of life, Parson, and I reckon the collectin plates in your church is a good deal lighter for it. Now, who s to light that thar fire for him ? PARSON There s no one could do it so well as a wife. SILAS (Delighted, and rising.) Darned if you haven t hit it, Parson. (Crosses to C.) If you d been doctor or lawyer you d have been worth some of your fees. Beasley does want a wife, and I m thinkin of leavin my Sue with him. PARSON (In consternation.) Your Sue ? (Rises.) SUE: A PLAY 9 SILAS My daughter. PARSON That pretty girl ? (Crosses to window.} SILAS (Leaning on table.) Her prettiness against his land and stock. PARSON (In remonstrance.) That pretty girl the wife of that unhappy, self-neglected man, Ira Beasley? No ! no ! I meant a wife of his own age, and his own way of life. SILAS If he ll have Sue, why not? Wouldn t she be better off with him than with me? PARSON (At door R.C. going off, and speaking with sup pressed indignation. At table and taking hat.) There, I believe you are right ! (Crosses to door.) SILAS Ain t you goin to wait to see Beasley ? io SUE: A PLAY PARSON I shall call again. I want a little fresh air. (Exit Parson Dames R.C.) SILAS (C.) Easily satisfied, parsons is ! If I could do with a little fresh air I could do with Sue, but nature s made me want more than that. (Taking bottle from pocket and drinking.} Yes, there s a livin to be got out of this if Sue wasn t in the way, and I must see as Sue stops here. Beasley s land and stocks seem safe. The Parson wouldn t tell me that if he didn t know it. That s the best of a parson. He s bound to tell the truth to keep his job. I must see as Sue stops here. (Sue without, laughing.) SILAS That s her, just playin with the stock agin his stock too. Sue stops here. (Calling.) Sue ! O Sue ! (Crosses L.) SUE (Without.) Odad! (Noise of chains, etc., heard outside R.) SUE: A PLAY n SILAS Come here, will ye ? (Crosses to L.C.) (Enter Sue R.C., laughing, yet shyly. She holds behind her back a wisp of straw.) SILAS Up to your tricks with the stock again ? Do you call that company manners, and you only com pany here ? SUE I was only tryin to teach the brindled calf, and make him kneel afore me. (C.) SILAS (L.C.) Kneel afore ye ! (Snatching the wisp of straw from her hand and throwing it down.) And that s your bait, is it ? You d a darned sight better make somebody else kneel afore ye ! (Checking him self quickly.) Look here, Sue you re altogether too frisky. You re as bad as the calves you play with. Ain t you never goin to grow up ? SUE (Laughing.) And be a decent cow, dad ? And come home regularly and stand at the bars to be let 12 SUE: A PLAY in when the time comes ? Maybe, some day. But it s good fun to play with them now, dad, and Bos is just the sweetest calf you ever saw, for all he s a little wild. You ought to have seen the chase we had yesterday from the far Spring, and Ira Beasley and the Parson just staring and looking on ! (Swings her sun-bonnet by the strings.) SILAS (Sharply.) And Ira saw you makin a sight of yourself? SUE (Folding her apron demurely, yet with a half-childish, half-thoughtful coquetry.) I reckon he didn t seem to think I was such an awful sight, dad. SILAS (Correcting himself.) I meant the Parson. SUE Oh (demurely), you needn t mind about the Parson. (Crosses to stool, laughing.) Lord ! he d hardly time to look, for Bos ran between his legs and gave him plenty to think about. (Sits.) SUE: A PLAY 13 SILAS And you ll have to think too. Look here, Sue you re gettin too old for this sorter nonsense. SUE (Thoughtfully.) Too old? Why, I ve never seemed to have been young enough for it, dad. I ve never had a doll or anything to play with like other girls. SILAS (C.) Didn t you? No doll? Where s your grati tude ? I suppose you didn t have our yaller dog all to yourself from St Jo here, and part of that nigger girl, till we had to sell her afore we entered the free settlements. What are ye talkin of? And who gave you your mother s hymn-book and all her patent medicine bottles with the coloured labels ? There s gratitude ! (Crosses L.) Go away. You re makin me tired. (Sits.) SUE And there s nothing that moves on the Bolinas Plain but the wind and the dust, and so it s a com fort to start up the calves and the colts and have a 14 SUE: A PLAY race with them. (Rises.) They re at least real things and not shadows. (Crosses up to window R.) SILAS Real things, you bet, and they cost money. (Aside.) If she don t cotton to Ira, she will to his stock. SUE (Looking dreamily through window over plain.) When I m just sick of the dust-clouds that never turn into anything, and the wind that keeps on murmuring and never telling you anything, it s real fun to have the calves and colts for company. Maybe it s because they ain t grown up, and are young like me. SILAS (Aside.) That s mighty rough on Ira ! (Aloud.) There s Mr Beasley isn t he company? SUE (Crosses to table, laughing.) Fancy him chasing me! Why he can t run a dozen yards without limping. Why, I m only a girl, and I can out-run and out-jump him. Are all single men like that, dad? SUE: A PLAY 15 SILAS Yes that is, if they don t care to run after tom boys. SUE (Simply.) But I think Mr Beasley doesn t mind racing after me sometimes. SILAS (Aside.) Oho ! (Aloud.) Then he does chase you sometimes ? (Rises.) SUE (Simply.) Yes but he never catches me. (Crosses to C.) Oh, it s too funny ! SILAS (Taking her hand with simulated playfulness.) But girls needn t run so fast sometimes. SUE (In utter astonishment.) Eh ? And get caught ? What s the fun of that? (Crosses to R.C.) SILAS (Impatiently and aside.) The girl s a fool or knows what she s about. (Aloud.) Look here, 1 6 SUE: A PLAY Sue should you like to have them colts and calves all for your own ? SUE Of course I should ; but that s not likely unless you bought em for me. SILAS Me buy em? And me with hardly enough to struggle through life with? No. It seems to me if you want em you can have em, but you ll have to do the buying. SUE (C.) But I ve got no money. SILAS Money ! Listen. Some folks kin buy without money. SUE That s nonsense ! What could I buy without money ? SILAS A husband ! who s got money. SUE (Laughing.) You know nothing about such things. Girls don t buy husbands. (Crosses to window.) SUE: A PLAY 17 SILAS (C. rather angrily.) Now look here, Sue I reckon it s about time you rewarded me for all the lovin care I ve took of you in emigrant waggons, to say nothing of less expensive homes, and got settled. (Goes to chair L. and sits.) SUE Settled ? (Crosses to table C.) SILAS Yes to put it squarer married. SUE Was mother settled when she married you ? SILAS Settled for life. If she wasn t dead she d tell you so. SUE (Crosses to L.C. after a little pause.) Father, I don t seem to keer to be married. SILAS Not keer to be married ? What ain t you a woman ? Not keer to be married ? B 1 8 SUE: A PLAY SUE (Rather scornfully.} I don t believe any woman ever wanted to be married until she saw the man she d like to have for a husband. SILAS (Angrily.) Ah, you re a high-toned miss, you are ! It s lucky for you your mother didn t give herself such airs ! SUE (At table, with a sigh.) Poor mother ! (Then gaily.) But I promised to draw poor Bossy some fresh water. (Exit Sue R.) SILAS (Contemptuously. Rises.) Why, it s fresh water now ! Parsons live on fresh air (crosses to C.), and girls and calves grow up on fresh water, and it s only unfortunate men like me that wants other food and has to work to get it. (At table. Drinks.) Yes, there s a right smart livin to be got out of it if it wasn t for Sue. Good Lord! what a regular buck-jumper she is ! What s the use of me trying to be religious (crosses L.) when I ve got a double serpent s tooth of a child like Sue. (Sits.) (Enter Ira Beasley L. He is very shabbily dressed, SUE: A PLAY 19 untidy and slovenly in person and uncouth in manner. He is rather lame. He comes in awkwardly, and with an embarrassed and discontented expression. He looks round the room, and seeing only Silas, is making his way to go off R. when Silas speaks.) SILAS (Insinuatingly.) Looking for anything ? IRA No (awkwardly mumbling) only wondering where that cussed calf had got to. That is, I reckoned maybe that Sue (looking around vacantly) might know. (Cautiously.) You ain t seen her ? SILAS Yes ; she s just gone to draw some water. IRA (Crosses to door R.) Oh yes I see of course (hesitatingly). SILAS You re going ? IRA Yes. (Awkwardly and going.) Ye see, I d better ask her about that calf. 20 SUE: A PLAY SILAS (Quietly. Rises.) That calf s in the barn. Come here, Ira. I want to talk with you. (Ira approaches him awkwardly, discontentedly, and half -sullenly, glancing at window for Sue.) IRA (C.) Well ? SILAS (L.C.) I m thinking me and Sue must be moving on to-day. IRA (Eagerly.) Why ? You know you re both wel come here? SILAS Maybe ; but a religious father like me owes a good-looking girl like my Sue a duty. I must take my Sue where there s more society. There s many a well-to-do young chap at Lowville just lying low to get a look at my Sue. IRA (Uneasily.) Ah ! I was thinking that might be so. SUE: A PLAY 21 SILAS Yes ; and I must see her well married. That s what s due to a good-looking girl like my Sue ; and I ve got the right man in my eye for her. (Musingly.) He s six foot three, twenty-three,, as good-looking as his photograph, and making his eternal fortune. IRA (Distressed.) Ah ! And no doubt she thinks all the world of him ? (Sits on table.) SILAS Sue ? Not much. She s been too well brought up to think of any man until her father comes to her and says : " Sue, that s the man that your father has chosen for you. Marry him, for better or worse ; me and the Parson gives you to each other marry him, and make him a good, good-looking wife." IRA (Crosses to window.) And she d do it ? SILAS Oh yes, she d do it ; though maybe, being but a woman after all, she ll be glad he s twenty-three, six foot three, as good-looking as his photograph, 22 SUE: A PLAY and making his fortune. (Crossing up C., and taking hat) Yes ; as a religious man, I must do my duty by Sue, so I reckon this afternoon we ll pack and go. (Exit Silas Prescott R.C.) IRA (At window , dazed.) Goin away this afternoon ! Eh, but the place will seem cold and lonesome without her ! There she is now alongside the well, standing there like a picture, with her soft round arms, her little feet, and her pretty curly hair and all (hat on bench) the colts and calves canoodlin round her, just lovin her and admirin her. Why shouldn t I love and admire her too ? Twenty-three, is he ? Ah, I m more than that. Six foot three, is he ? Ah, I m less than that. As good-looking as his photograph, is he ? D n his photograph ! Well, if ever I had mine took, perhaps I d catch him up there ; and as to his fortune well maybe I can lay over him there easy! Darned if she isn t prettier I must go to her! (Goes out quickly R. as if acting on a sudden and irresistible impulse.) (Enter Parson Dames R.C.) PARSON No Ira yet ? (Crosses to C. back). I ve hunted all SUE: A PLAY 23 round and can t find him. It seems unnatural to think of a pure young girl mated to such a self- neglected man as Ira Beasley, and yet the poor fellow s heart may be in the right place, and she might be better off in the quiet protection of this lonely spot than exposed to the gaudy glitter and feverish life of a mushroom town like Lowville. (Sits.) No, I fear such a marriage would be fatal. I ve seen enough of that with my own poor daughter. Would Ira really love her ? Would he know what love is ? No ; his coarseness only shocks her, and therein lies her safety. (Rises.) Poor Ira ! He s hopeless hopeless ! (Crosses to window R. At window looking out.) I wonder if I m wrong ? He s with her now, paying her uncouth attentions. As I live, his plain face is lit up by a tenderness I never saw before ; even his timidity and shyness have softened his harsh ways. If he were only wise now he would (In half comic distress.) Oh dear, dear ! No not that ! He s tried to snatch a kiss ! Ah serves him right ! ( With satisfaction. ) The girl knows her value. (With a little laugh.) Well, he won t want to see me just now. (He goes off R.C.) (Slight noise and Sue s laugh heard without.) 24 SUE: A PLAY (Enter Ira R., dripping with water, dazed and disconcerted.} IRA (C.) Now, what did that mean ? I only tried to kiss her, and she up and heaved a bucketful of water over me. I don t know much about such doings, but I don t believe that s the reg lar thing. (Enter Sue R., laughing.) SUE (C.) Goodness me! what a sight you are! I do believe you are wet through ! IRA (Rather sullenly, L.C.) Tain t your fault if I m not. SUE (Throwing him her apron.) My fault? It was all your fault. There, dry yourself with that. IRA (Using the apron.) There you go again ! Always making me think what a useful thing it is to have a young woman about the place ; and yet whenever I try to come near you SUE: A PLAY 25 SUE (Interrupting him with a little stamp of her foot.) What do you want to come near me for ? It makes me mad. IRA Well ; but you ought to know as well as I do it s the reg lar thing, ain t it ? SUE (R.C.) What s the reg lar thing ? I don t know what you re driving at, unless you want to drive me away. IRA It s your father wants you to go away. He s talking of taking you away this afternoon, and (awkwardly) that s why (Crosses to R.C., approach ing her.) SUE (Retreating.) That ll do don t. If I can t bear you near me when you re dry, what must my feelings be now you re wet? (Sits on stool.) Do you mean to say Dad talks of taking me away from that little soft-nosed Bossy this afternoon ? IRA (With inspiration.) Ah! You wouldn t like to 26 SUE: A PLAY leave the colts and the calves and the lambs would you, now ? SUE (Scornfully.) No. I d miss them. And I believe they d miss me. IRA (R.C.) And I d miss you too, Sue. SUE I wasn t thinking of you. (With a little sigh.) Poor Bossy ! IRA But, Sue, if you d only stay here after your Dad s gone, all the young stock, and for the matter of that all the old stock too, might be yours. SUE Me stay on with you ? What for ? IRA (Awkwardly.) Oh well for whatever s the reg lar thing. SUE If I stayed, should I feed all the young things and do just as I liked with em ? SUE: A PLAY 27 IRA Yes ; that s light work. You d do all that and I d do the heavy work. SUE (Musingly). And maybe I could live there in the barn, so as to be near em ? IRA (Very awkwardly.) I don t know as that would be just the reg lar thing. You see (Approaching her.) SUE (Rising.) That ll do. This is all talk. I ain t gone yet, and I ll go and feed my Bossy while I can - (Exit Sue R., calling : "Bos Bossy ! ") IRA (C., wiping his forehead with Sue s apron.) I wish to the Lord I know d what was the reg lar thing. Who d have thought she d have served me like this ? ( Exit Ira mopp i n g himself L.) (Enter Jim Wynd stealthily R.C. He looks cautiously round the room, and seeing he is alone, goes cautiously to window R. and looks out.) JIM There s the mysterious little beauty of Lone 28 SUE: A PLAY Farm again and alone now, eh ? Well, then, I ll make so bold as to join you and introduce myself. This will be better than having the yard fence be tween us. (He has his hand on the latch of door R., when Parson enters quickly R.C., puts hat on bench, and seises him by the shoulder.) PARSON (Passionately.) You scoundrel ! What brings you here ? JIM (Impudently, though evidently somewhat disconcerted.) Why, Parson, is that you ? Well, and how are you, Parson, eh ? PARSON (Trying to suppress his anger.) How dare you show your wicked face again near my wrecked home ! / JIM Steady, Parson, steady. Lone Farm don t belong to you, nor yet Bolinas Plain ; and if it comes to faces you ll allow there are those who like to look at mine. PARSON It has done enough wicked work already. Go ! (Crosses to L.C.) SUE: A PLAY 29 JIM (At table.) Come considering you re a parson, you re a bit in a hurry. How (mockingly) do you know I haven t come to confess my sins to you ? How do you know that supposing you treat me as a parson should treat a gentleman I haven t come to say that after all I m willing to own up I was wrong and make you happy by marrying your daughter ? I can t make her husband take her back, can I ? PARSON (Crosses to table, in hot indignation.) No ! De graded and disgraced though she is, broken in heart and spirit though she is, cast off by her husband though she be, I would rather she remained so than have her join her lot with yours. JIM ( With a sneer.) Oh, that s it, is it ? Well then, if you take it like that you may be glad to know I didn t come here to say anything of the sort. I m not a marrying man. (Rises.) PARSON (Veryjirmly.) Are you going ? 30 SUE: A PLAY JIM (Insolently.) No. I feel inclined to stop. (Crosses to window.) Who s that pretty girl over there in the yard ? PARSON (Startled.) What ? You have seen her ? JIM (With an insolent laugh.) Hullo! Have you got your eye on her too ? (Parson goes L.) And you a widower and a parson ! Oh ! Well, you are a marrying man ! PARSON (With an effort.) Has she seen you ? JIM No. But she s going to. (Crossing to door and about to go off.) PARSON Stop ! Now, listen to me. ( Speaking with intense decision.) Unless you leave this house im mediately I will expose you to the wrath of the rough but honest folk who live in and about it. If you dare to speak to that girl they shall know your true character. They are my friends, and well you shall take the consequences. SUE: A PLAY 31 JIM (Maliciously.} Oh, no you won t. (At door R.) PARSON I will and at once. JIM No, Parson, you won t. (Crossing to table.) Because (deliberately) if you do PARSON (Interrupting him.} Well ? JIM I reckon you ll have to say suthin about your own daughter, too. You and me have kept that quiet until now. (With a cruel sneer.} I ve too much respect for her to speak, and if you come to think it over you ll find that s so with you. PARSON (At table.} No ! Heaven knows how I long to shield my child ; but not even the protection of her name shall stand between me and my duty. Come ; your time is short are you going ? (Cross ing to L.} JIM (Astonished.} Why, Parson you really mean it? 32 SUE: A PLAY PARSON (Z/.) Yes. At any cost, I mean it. (Menacingly.} Are you going ? JIM (Coming to Parson bullyingly and threateningly} Look here ! Do you know that there are times when the black coat of a parson ain t enough to protect his skin? PARSON (Significantly opening his coat and clenching his Jist.} Perfectly ! And that s the time when it isn t enough to restrain his muscles ! Will you go ? JIM Yes, but I ll most likely come back. PARSON If you dare ! JIM (Coolly} Oh yes, I ll come back through the dust clouds when I hear that pretty girl has got married. And if Parson PARSON (Making an angry movement towards him.} Will you go! SUE: A PLAY 33 JIM (Crossing to door R.C.) Oh, you needn t trouble to see me to the door. Good-day, Parson good- day ! (The Parson following him, Jim Wynd goes off rather quickly H.C., with an air showing he feels he has said enough.} (By open door Parson watches him for a moment as he goes down the road. He then closes the door.} PARSON He s gone ! (Crosses to chair.) Thank heaven he was a coward as well as a bully, and his own fear of danger frightened him away. (Sits.) No one here save I saw him. First my child, and now her ! (In great agitation he buries his face in his hands.) (Enter Ira Beasley L.) IRA Why, Parson, what s the matter ? PARSON (Making an effort to recover himself.) Nothing. (Rises.) Nothing. IRA (Crosses to L.) You don t look right, Parson. Try a drop of whisky ? 34 SUE: A PLAY PARSON No. There s nothing the matter with me, but there s something very wrong with you. Come what is it? (C.) IRA (Simply. L.C.) Well, it s the reg lar thing a woman. PARSON I thought so. My friend, you ve been meddling with matters you don t understand. IRA Well, it rather looks like that ; but before a man kin strike gold he s got to prospect a little. (Sits in chair L.) PARSON No doubt ; but the wise man only prospects where there are indications. Let me speak plainly. IRA It s what you seldom do in the church, Parson, but I m that off the track I d listen to anybody. PARSON (C.) Do you mean to marry Sue Prescott ? SUE: A PLAY 35 IRA You ve hit it ! But there s a man in the way. PARSON (Startled.} What ? She has heard of him ? IRA (Gloomily.) I m afraid so. He s six foot three, he s twenty-three, and he s had his photograph took. PARSON I understand. Just the thing to fascinate a foolish girl. You must get that man out of the way. IRA How? PARSON Marry Sue, get rid of her father, and keep her quietly at Lone Farm. I ll help you to take care of her then. IRA That s what I want, but she s that skittish she d want fencin in. PARSON You must make yourself attractive to her. 36 SUE: A PLAY IRA Ah ! Lay out some money on some clothes and fancy fixin s. PARSON Yes; and then try to hold yourself upright, don t limp so much ; and above all, my good fellow, when you ve won and wedded your wife, guard her closely and keep her free from designing scoundrels. IRA It s the winnin as bothers me. The weddin s your business. PARSON She s to be won, believe me. But really you must take more pains with your personal appearance. IRA Ah ! Something smart and fetching ! (Rises, as if with sudden inspiration.) Darn me, if I don t think the deer-skin trousers and velvet jacket as the Mexican vacquero left here mightn t do the trick ! PARSON I see you understand what I mean. (Laughing.) There, you ve had my little bit of friendly counsel, SUE: A PLAY 37 and I (crosses R.) hope you will profit by it. And when you ve secured your wife, come to me and we ll tie the knot in no time. (Takes hat Exit Parson Davies B.C.) IRA (Sitting on table.) I wonder if there s anything in what he says ? From an infant I ve been brought up to know thar ain t much in anything as any parson ever said, and in times o trouble it s been a comfort to feel that s so. But, through finding time hang heavy on their hands, mebee parsons gets a insight into many queer things, and I ve heard folks say they know a lot about women. I wonder (Silas Prescott heard whistling without.) IRA That s her father. Before I daze her with that velvet jacket maybe it would be the reg lar thing to put a word or two to him. (Goes to door R.C.) IRA Oh, Prescott ! (Cross to C.) 38 SUE: A PLAY (Enter Silas Prescott R.C.) SILAS Well, what s up now ? IRA (C.) Is it all fixed between your girl Sue and that six foot three-er as has had his photograph took and fools away his time in trying to look like it ? SILAS (R. C.) Well, no we haven t come to any arrange ment, and no man marries my Sue without that. IRA And arrangement, maybe, means money ? SILAS Money, or property. That s so. IRA (Nervously.) Then maybe you d make that ar rangement with me ? SILAS For Sue ? IRA Yes. SILAS You mean business ? SUE: A PLAY 39 IRA Square business. SILAS ( With intense satisfaction.) Count me in your little game. (They sit each side of table.) IRA (L. of table.) Well, you see, as far as my land goes SILAS (H. of table, interrupting him.) You needn t say a word about your land; I ve stepped it, every inch. IRA And as for the stock SILAS (Interrupting him.) You can leave off about the stock ; I ve counted it, every head. IRA And the house SILAS The house is quite good enough for Sue. Have you got anything put by besides all this ? 40 SUE: A PLAY IRA Yes. I ve worked hard, I ve spent nothing, and I ve saved a decent pile. SILAS Then it s your duty to go down on your knees and thank the Lord for all His mercies. I suppose half of all this would be your wife s, and you could show it me in black and white ? You ve got your books? IRA She ll share everything with me while I live ; she ll have all I ve got when I die. And when she says she ll have me, you can see the books. SILAS (Rises.) As I m a religious man, it s a deal. (Shakes hands.) Sue s yours, and I ll call her in and tell her so. (Going to door R.). IRA (C., nervously.) Wait a minute. D ye think she ll have me ? SILAS (R.C., indignantly.) Do I think she ll have ye ? SUE: A PLAY 41 Well I ll allow as Sue don t know much about the ways o the world, but I ve no occasion to think that any daughter of mine would turn at marrying age into a blithering idiot. (At door R., calling). Oh, Sue ! IRA (C.) Wait a minute. I d like her to see what I d look like in my photograph. If the Parson ain t wrong, I ve a coat upstairs as would bring any woman round. I ll daze her with it. (Exit Ira hastily L.) SILAS (At door K, calling.) Oh, Sue ! SUE (Without.) I m coming, father. (Enter Sue R.) SILAS (L., seated in rocker.) Well, Sue, you re in luck you re fixed. SUE (C.) Fixed ? SILAS I m goin to get ye married. 42 SUE: A PLAY SUE (Petulantly.) I won t be married. I don t want to be married. SILAS Not want to be married to a man who would give you half of what he s got while he lives, and all of it when he dies ? SUE If I was married to a man I shouldn t want him to die. SILAS Bah ! You know nothing about the ways o the world. When you re a bit older you ll bless your father for finding such a man for ye. SUE (Astonished.) You ve found the man ? SILAS Yes. The man and the man s property too. See what it is to have a thoughtful father. SUE (Breathlessly.) Who is he ? SILAS Ira Beasley. SUE: A PLAY 43 SUE (With a sharp cry.) Oh no ! no, no ! SILAS Oh yes ! yes, yes ! And that s what the Parson will make ye say ; only being, as he thinks, a busy man, he ll make ye say it once and not three times. Of course it s Ira Beasley. SUE Father don t. Why, only just now he tried to kiss me ! SILAS (Exasperated.) D n this girl ! (Rises.) She s too much for anything. Why, doesn t that show plainer than anything that he wants to marry ye ? SUE But I don t want to be kissed any more than I want to be married. Even if I did marry him 1 shouldn t let him kiss me. SILAS (L.C.) You ll have to do as he pleases about that. 44 SUE: A PLAY SUE (R.C.) Married people don t always kiss. I never saw you kiss mother. SILAS If you expect all men to be as considerate to their womankind as I ve been you ll find out your mistake. Now let s have no more of this yer foolishness. You re goin to marry Ira Beasley, and if you don t name the day I ll name it for ye. SUE (At table, with decision.) Father, I won t marry Ira Beasley. SILAS (In amazed anger.) You won t ? SUE (Very decidedly. ) I won t. SILAS Then by the Lord (He is beginning in hot anger,, when he is interrupted by the sudden entrance of Will and Anne Olber R.C.) (Will and Anne Olber are a good-looking, happy, and homely young couple. He is rather smartly dressed, SUE: A PLAY 45 evidently tries to make the most and best of himself, and seems amused as well as delighted with all his wife says to and of him). (Silas in rocking chair.) WILL (Drawing back.) I beg your pardon ; I didn t reckon to intrude; but the fact is I kalkilated to pick up a stranger here at Lone Farm (looking round the room) and just stopped my team to do it. SILAS (Rudely.) I reckon thar ain t any stranger here waitin to be picked up by another stranger. WILL (R.C., aside to his wife, who is regarding Sue kindly.) Amiable old coyote ain t he? There s suthin wrong here that we ve just dropped into. (Aloud.) Are you the proprietor ? SILAS (Grimly.) Not yet ; though (with a glance at Sue) I may have a kind of interest a family interest in the concern. 46 SUE: A PLAY ANNE (R., turning from Silas to Sue kindly.) Perhaps, as there ain t no gentleman here, you are the lady of the house ? (Significantly.) SILAS (Interrupting.) Well, not yet ; but perhaps ye ain t far off the track thai*. SUE (L. of table, speaking kindly to Anne.) This is Ira Beasley s house. We are only visitors here strangers indeed, like yourselves ; but I will call him. (Crosses L.) (She is going out, but is stopped by the entrance of Parson Davies R.C.) PARSON (Annoyed, yet delighted.) What, my old friends ! (Puts hat on bench.) William and Anne Olber ! I thought I was not mistaken ! What are you doing here ? (Shaking hands.) SILAS (Impatiently.) That s just what I m waitin to know ! SUE: A PLAY 47 WILL (Turning to Parson, C.) Then perhaps you ll explain to this yer barkeeper that we re not tramps, but stopped here only to pick up a young chap. PARSON (Crossing to C., starting, and aside.} Then that scoundrel spoke the truth ! (Aloud and nervously.) Yes a young chap of course but he has gone on. SILAS (Aside, watching Parson.) He don t believe it either. These folks are just interferin . Shouldn t wonder if that gal had her eye on Ira. PARSON (C., recovering himself, and cheerily to Will.) No matter how you came. Here you are, and here you shall be welcome. For Ira Beasley, who owns this house, is my friend and shall be yours too. SILAS Make yourself at home, Parson ! make yourself at home ! (Rising and crossing L. to Sue) 48 SUE: A PLAY PARSON (C., not heeding Silas.) And how well and happy you both look. Let me see how long ago is it since I married you? WILL (With a grin, R.C.) Six months. ANNE (R.) And how dead set you were against the match, Parson. If I d minded your preachin , Will Olber and me would never have been man and wife. PARSON Well although I always knew that Will had his good points, I confess I doubted him as a husband. You see, he was so wild. ANNE He s tame enough now. WILL Tame as a lap-dog. PARSON (To Anne.) And he is a good husband ? SUE: A PLAY 49 ANNE He s what I made him ; and when I set my hand to a thing I don t allow it to turn out wrong. (Sits R on stool.) WILL It won t do to contradict her eh, Parson ? PARSON Certainly not. You are evidently very happy together, and that shows you are a good husband. I am very glad to find I was mistaken. SUE (L., to Anne.) And are you very happy ? ANNE Bless my soul, dear ! if a young woman isn t happy when she s first married I should like to know when she s going to be happy ? SUE But suppose you had married a rough, common man ? ANNE Good gracious, child ! don t you know that men are just what women choose to make them ? D 50 SUE: A PLAY WILL (With a chuckle.} It won t do to contradict her eh, Parson ? PARSON Not for you, most assuredly. She s so improved you that I should hardly have known you. ANNE Yes, and he s so pleased with the way he s got on that I m taking him for a little treat to Lowville to see the circus and the theatre. PARSON (Amused.) Oh, you are taking him, are you ? WILL (Laughing heartily and aside to Parson.) Yes, in my waggon and with my purse in her pocket ! But it won t do to contradict her eh, Parson ? SUE (Simply, to Anne.) What is a circus ? ANNE Save us ! don t you know ? Have you never seen them lovely men riding standing on cream- SUE: A PLAY 51 coloured horses and dressed as near their beautiful human natures as sparkling spangles will allow ? Why, it was one of them we promised to pick up with the waggon. He was walking on just for training you know, but he beat us for all that. I wonder where he is ? PARSON (Quickly.) He s gone on! he s gone on! (To Will anxiously.) Tell me, do you know him well ? Is he your friend ? WILL Oh no. A mere acquaintance on the road. SUE I should like to have seen him. ANNE Oh, no doubt you will some day. PARSON God forbid ! SUE And what s a theatre ? ANNE Well, that s more difficult to put in words, because 52 SUE: A PLAY in theatres there s scenes and plots and murders ; but it s lovely oh ! it s all lovelier than I can say ! SUE (With a sigh.) How I should like to see such things ! ANNE (Kindly.) Well, dear, make haste and get a husband and he will take you. SUE (Simply.) Or I might take him, just as you are taking your husband ? WILL (In intense delight.) That s the plan, Missie. You take lessons from my wife, and you ll find your husband just ready to do anything. (Enter Ira Beasley very shyly L. } clumsily dressed as the vacquero. He crosses down L.) ANNE Why, what s this scarecrow ? (Rises.) (Sue crosses round to R.C.) PARSON. (Aside.) Hush ! (Aloud.) This is our kind host, Ira Beasley. (They bow mutually.) SUE: A PLAY 53 ANNE (Aside to Sue.) But what s he doing? Going circussing on his own account ? PARSON (Aside.) Poor Ira; he has taken my advice literally ! IRA (Nervously, L.) What s the matter? Ain t the things put on straight ? I ll allow I feel strange in em but I thought ANNE But save the man ! what have ye done it all for? IRA Well, ye see,, I thought it would please (Seeing Sue.) Oh, Sue ye re there! (Will, at table, bursts out into peals of derisive laughter.) SUE (R.C., hotly.) Stop! What are you laughing at ? He looks very well ; and hasn t he a right to do as he pleases? WILL (Unable to control his mirth.) Well, darn me, of all the 54 SUE: A PLAY ANNE (Stopping him, and in tones of authority.} Stop ! (Will suddenly becomes comically silent.} The girl s right. It is his own house he ought to do as he pleases ; and you ve no business to be laughing at him. (Crosses to Will.) PARSON Well said, Anne. (Sue sits.) IRA (Ignoring Anne, and speaking gratefully to Sue.) Thank ye, Sue. WILL Come, oughtn t it to be, " Thank ye, Anne " ? ANNE No ; if thanks are wanted he s put em in the right place. There, just as I do. But you understand, you silly boy ! (Kissing him.) SUE (Seated, who has been watching the kiss in wonder.) Then you do kiss each other though you re married ? SUE: A PLAY 55 ANNE Lor bless the girl! what does she think married life is like ? SUE I don t know. It seems a puzzle. Sometimes it seems one thing, sometimes another. ANNE (Crossing to Sue.) I ve told ye the secret,, child. It s just what the woman chooses to make of it; and when you re thinking of marrying just you bear that in mind. (Kissing her kindly.} Now then, Parson, come and see us start. (Crossing to door R.C.) Come, Mr Beasley, and have a look at our new waggon. (Exeunt Anne, Will, Parson, and Ira, R.C.) (Silas, who during this scene has been sulking in the background, now comes forward.} SILAS (L.C.) Well, and now that all this torn-fool chatter is over, tell me, have ye changed your mind ? 56 SUE: A PLAY SUE (R. C.) About marrying Ira Beasley ? No, I won t marry him ! SILAS (Threateningly.) You mean it ? You won t ? Not after sticking up for him just now ? SUE (Firmly.) No. When he was laughed at I took his part, but I never thought of him like that. Slouching about as he does, he doesn t seem to be like a man, or to have the spirit of a man. I don t want to marry him and I wont ! SILAS (In a towering passion.} Won t you ? Then, by the Lord, we ll see what a little persuasion will do! And no pryin fools will stop me now. (He takes her roughly by the arm, and raises his other hand as if to strike her. Sue cowers.} (Ira enters quickly R.C., dashes at Silas, shakes him as if he were a mere doll in his hands, and sends him reeling across the stage.) IRA (C.) Stop that! I ve heard tell there s some SUE: A PLAY 57 skunks as will strike women, but I m d- d if it s done in my house least of all to this woman ! (As he stands upright and panting in his anger, he seems to acquire a sort of rude dignity .) (Sue, who has evidently been greatly frightened by Silas, looks at him in amazement.) (A short pause.) SUE (R.C., timidly.) Ira Beasley, is it true that you want to marry me ? IRA (C.) Is it true ? Haven t I made ye see it s true ? (Parson Davies enters R.C., and pauses unperceived.) SUE And you think you would be happier if I were your wife ? IRA I d be so happy I wouldn t know what to do. SUE Very well. I don t want to go away with father. I ll marry you. PARSON (As if involuntarily.) Oh! 58 SUE: A PLAY IRA (In high glee.) Oh, the Parson ! Well, you were right, Parson. The velvet jacket s done it. SILAS (L.C.) You can be easy, Parson you ve got the job ; and now, Sue, it s for you to thank your father and name the day. Eh, Ira ? (Jovially.) IRA Cert ly. Anything as strikes her as bein the reg lar thing. SUE (To Ira.) I m quite willing to leave it to you. SILAS (Triumphantly .) That s the way she s been brought up. She leaves it to you and you ll say this afternoon. IRA (Simply.) That ll be quite soon enough for me. SUE (To Parson.) And for you ? SUE: A PLAY 59 PARSON (R.) Yes. (Aside.) It s hurried, perhaps ; but at least she will be safe from Jim Wynd. SILAS And when you ve tied Sue s knot you ll have untied mine, and I ll set off for Lowville. (Crosses L. and sits.) SUE (R.C., to Ira.) And when we ve left the church and come back here, you ll let me play with the calves ? CURTAIN ACT II SCENE : Exterior of Lone Farm See Stage Plan An interval of three years between 1st and 2nd Acts (Sue discovered washing plates by house door. Wind moaning without. She has a weary and rather sad look, and is doing her work listlessly, when suddenly her atten tion is arrested as if she heard a noise, and putting down the plate she is washing, she goes stealthily to door, quietly opens small door, and listens.} (Ira s coat hangs in porch, with gun caps and wad in pocket. Blanket hangs on barn door.} SUE (With a sigh, closing door.} When the last gust o wind shook the house, I thought I heard a noise as if suthin had dropped out of it. (Crosses down C.} I d go into the road and look, but even if thar was 60 SUE: A PLAY 61 anything, I couldn t see it for the dust clouds. (Sits on well R.) Ears is as good as eyes for them folks as lives on Bolinas Plain, and they can t do much, for there s nobody to hear, nobody to see. Day in and day out it s all the same ; and, as far as that goes, all the days have been just the same since I married Ira (with sigh) three years ago ! (Another sigh.) IRA (From within the house.) Sue, what yer yawpin at out thar ? SUE (Rising.) Reckoned as I heard somebody on the stage road, but tain t nothing nor nobody. I might have known it. (Crosses, and resumes dish washing. (Ira enters from house L.) (He is shabbier, dirtier, and even less attractive than in 1st Act, having evidently allowed himself to "go back" He carries his gun, powder flask and graduated shot flask.) IRA Why might ye have known it ? SUE (Wearily.) Because nothing nor nobody ever comes to Lone Farm. 62 SUE: A PLAY IRA (Contentedly.) No. Well, I reckon that s pretty much why I m livin in it. (Puts shot flask on chair.) SUE And you never want to see anybody in it or to go away from it even for a day. (Crosses R) I suppose I m never going to be taken to Lowville to see the circus and the theatre ? (Sits on well.) IRA (Evasively.) Oh, maybe some day. SUE That some day s been coming for the last three years. IRA Well, some day s always coming, ain t it ? Have some horse-sense, can t ye ? (Crosses to R.) SUE Ira, do you know what day this is ? IRA No. What ? SUE It s three years ago to-day we was married. SUE: A PLAY 63 IRA To-day, eh ? SUE Yes, and I ve had a party these yellow daisies, wading out yonder in the dust. I found them. They re the only folks that s come to my party. IRA Daisies ? Why, they re dirty old dandelions. (Crosses up R.) (Sue sprinkles daisies with water from well, and leaves them on lower end of well.) SUE Going to look after the stock ? IRA Yes. SUE You might see to them calves for me. IRA Seems to me you re not so gone on feedin the calves and young things as you used to be ? SUE It s so hard to get to love the critters, and for 64 SUE: A PLAY them to get to love you, and then for them to be sold and took away took away to be killed \ Oh, its horrid \ IRA But you ll allow it s horse-sense ? SUE (Dreamily.} I want something to love that I could love always, that would grow up loving me, and that I know would cry when I grow old and die. IRA (Aside.} Thar she is again wishin she had a child. I suppose women ain t got any horse- sense anyway. (ExitR.U. by door.} SUE (Rise. With a sigh resumes plate washing.} Poor calves ! Their big eyes look sad enough at me ; but anyway they won t know what it is to pass all the days of their lives on Bolinas Plain. As for me, I suppose I ll grow old and die without seeing any thing but Ira and the dust clouds the dust clouds and Ira. (Puts down dish she is washing, with towel lapped over her bare arms.} (Tap heard at small door} SUE: A PLAY 65 SUE (On the alert.) Thar ! I knew it was suthin . (Goes quickly to door and opens it.) (Through it, half -stealthily , half -hurriedly , Jim Wynd enters. He is covered with dust, and is panting for breath. He wears a long light buttoned-up linen dust- coat which reaches to his feet.} JIM (In a broken, gasping voice.) Look here, I say ! hide me somewhere, won t you? Just for a minute. You see the fact is, I m chased ! They re huntin me now they re just behind me, but they couldn t see me for the dust clouds. Anywhere will do till they go by! Tell you all about it another time. Quick! Please, do! (He gives a half-apologetic, half-bitter laugh. Sue glances quickly towards house and makes a step in that direction.) JIM (Breathlessly.) Don t tell on me ! Don t let any one see me. I m trusting you. SUE (After a quick but steady look at him.) Come. Get on this side. (She goes up outside steps leading to door 66 SUE: A PLAY of barn loft, he, half-creeping, half-crouching, like a dog, behind her skirts.) (Sue opens loft door quickly.) SUE In there, among the hay. (Noise of horse without.) (He goes quickly into loft, and she as quickly closes door upon him. She, after a sharp and cautious look round, has begun to descend the steps when he opens the door and speaks hurriedly.) JIM I wanted to tell you it was a man who insulted a woman ! I went for him, you see and SUE (Interrupting him and impatiently.) Ssh ! You ll be heard. (Jim quickly disappears and closes door.) SUE (Discontentedly, as she descends steps.) I didn t want to hear about no woman ! (Goes down to house and resumes plate washing, but whereas she was before careless and listless, she now does SUE: A PLAY 67 it carefully and deliberately; and though she hums a tune, is evidently on the alert for the least noise.) (Sheriff heard speaking without. ) SHERIFF Hitch up the horses outside here ! (Sound of bits, chains, etc.) (Large barn doors thrown noisily open, and the Sheriff and Constable enter.) (At same moment Ira enters by shed door R.) (Sue unconcernedly holds up a dish and examines it minutely for the cracks.) SHERIFF (C., to Ira, sharply.) Has anybody been here just now? IRA (R.C.) No. SHERIFF Seen anybody go by ? IRA No. What s up ? SHERIFF One of them circus jumpers stabbed Hal Dudley over the table in Dolores Monte shop last night and 68 SUE: A PLAY got away to-day. We hunted him into the plain and lost him somewhere in this d d dust. (Sits on well.) IRA (With a flash of recollection.) Why, Sue reckoned she saw or heard suthin just now. Didn t ye, Sue ? SHERIFF Why the h 11 didn t she say it before ? (Turning to Sue.) I beg your pardon, ma am. Didn t see you you ll excuse haste. (Rises.) (Sue comes forward; her interest being strongly aroused, she looks bright and pretty. Sheriff and Con stable take off their hats, and exchange glances of admiration, which are noticed both by Sue and Ira. Sue regards them coquettishly.) IRA (R., aside and uneasily.) I never saw Sue look like that before. She never looked like that at me ! SUE (To Sheriff, pointing R.) It was somewhere over there, but I ain t sure it was anyone. SUE: A PLAY 69 SHERIFF Over thar ! Oho ! Then he d already passed the house afore you saw him ? SUE I reckon if it was him. SHERIFF He must have lit out! Eh? (Looking at Con stable.) But then he runs like a deer; it s his trade. (Sits on well) SUE Wot trade? SHERIFF Acrobat. SUE Wot sthat? (Sheriff and Constable exchange looks and laugh. Constable sits on steps C.) SHERIFF A man who runs, jumps, climbs, and all that sort of a thing, in a circus. SUE (Innocently.) Well, doesn t it seem as if he s running, jumping and climbing away from you? 70 SUE: A PLAY CONSTABLE (Stiffly, to Sheriff.} She s right. (Rising.) SHERIFF (Rising, resuming his gravity. ) Yes, and we must be after him. We re bound to come up with him before he reaches Lowville ; and between that and this house is a dead level where a gopher couldn t leave his hole without your seem him a mile off ! Good-bye. Now then, the horses quick ! (Crosses up C. to doors.) (As the Sheriff and Constable go off through large barn doors, they give a parting glance of admiration at Sue. Ira closes door behind them) (Sound of bits, chains, etc., on their exit) IRA (Uneasily.) Well, they won t ketch much if they go on yawpin and dawdlin with women-folk like this. SUE (Disdainfully.) Not much I reckon ! (Noise of hoofs.) IRA (Pleased.) Oh, ye don t think much of them then ? (Crosses down L.) (Sue puts pan on table back) SUE: A PLAY 71 SUE (Scornfully.} I think nothin of era ! IRA (Looking at her curiously.} Ah ! You ve summed em up I see ; that s the kind of official trash we have to pay rates and taxes to keep up. (Aside, as he goes off, and again uneasily.} But Sue never looked like that at me ! (Exit into house.} (Sue complacently resumes plate washing. A short pause, during which Sue looks anxiously at loft door, and then, with a little start, at Iras gun.} SUE (At table.} Ira, what be ye doin ? IRA (From within.} Mending the riata. SUE Shall ye be long ? IRA Maybe. I have no need to hurry over it. SUE Did you notice them two men carried guns ? (Sits on stool.} 72 SUE: A PLAY IRA Of course they carried guns. SUE What for ? IRA (With a surly laugh.) Maybe to shoot with. SUE To shoot what with ? IRA Circus chaps, if they don t hand themselves over mighty spry ! SUE (With a swift glance at loft door and with a little shudder.) Ok ! Then their guns are loaded ? IRA Oh yes you bet they re loaded. SUE Is your gun loaded ? IRA No. There s nothing I m hankering to shoot just now. SUE: A PLAY 73 SUE Don t you think I ought to know how to load a gun ? IRA You ? what for ? SUE Well, with these circus-riders running away, and officers after them as don t seem too particular in the way they look at a woman IRA (Interrupting her.) Oh, ye thought that, did ye ? SUE (Not heeding him.) I say, with such fine folks about, and me often left alone here while you look after the stock, I think I ought to be taught how to take care of myself. IRA Ah ! Maybe you re right, and some day I ll show ye how to load a gun. SUE Why not show me now ? (Turns.) IRA I m busy. 74 SUE: A PLAY SUE But the gun s here (crosses L.) } and the powder, and the shot. Tell me now while you go on mendin the riata. It would be real fun for me. IRA I never see sich a woman. You seem to live on real fun. SUE (With a sigh.) No, I don t. I live on Bolinas Plain. (With gun in hand, and a little impatiently.) Come tell me. (Crosses to stool.) IRA Well, you put the powder in first. (Sue takes up powder flask.) Wait till I come out and I ll show ye how to measure it. SUE (Commencing to load gun.) I know how to do that, for I ve watched you. I thought perhaps the shot had to go in first. IRA Ah ! bein a woman, that s just the kind o thing you would think ! Is the powder in ? SUE Yes. SUE: A PLAY 75 IRA Well, now then, a wad on the top of the powder. You ll find some in my pocket, along with a box o caps. SUE (Crosses and gets caps and wad, crosses back to stool, continuing to load gun.) Yes. And then the shot ? IRA Yes. Now be careful how you measure the shot. It s all I ve got in the house. SUE (With shot flask in hand.) Oh, that s easy your flask measures itself. How many measures? IRA One, of course. Be careful ; the flask s quite full. SUE (With gun in one hand, flask in the other.) What shall you be shootin the next time you go out with the gun, Ira ? IRA Rabbits, I reckon. ;6 SUE: A PLAY SUE (Eagerly.) I suppose one of these measures would be enough to kill a man ? IRA If you was near enough to the man it would. SUE But two measures would make it more certain ? IRA Well, maybe if you was the man you d rather have the one than the two. SUE (Aside, as she quietly puts down gun and puts flask in her pocket.) I ll wait till Ira s gone, and then I ll put in two measures. There s two men after him (with a glance at the loft), poor fellow ! I ll have a measure for each. IRA Then another wad. SUE (Puts back caps.) That s all right. There, now you ve taught me how to look after myself. (Crosses up to table.) SUE: A PLAY 77 IRA (With a rough laugh.) Ha! ha! It s one thing to load a gun and another thing to fire it off. I don t believe you d dare do that. SUE (Resuming plate washing.) If my blood was up I would. Wait a bit and perhaps you ll see. (Aside.) And perhaps the Sheriff 11 see. (After a little pause, in which the " click " of the plates is heard as she puts them down.) Wonder if that Sheriff s caught any thing yet ? I ve a good mind to meander up the road and see. IRA (Quickly appearing at door.) What for ? SUE Because I want to know. I shan t be long. IRA You re going ? SUE Yes. Why not ? I want ter know. IRA Then I reckon I ll go myself. You d better stay and look after the house. (Takes coat.) 78 SUE: A PLAY SUE Very well. You could go farther than me. (Ira is about to take gun.) (C.) Don t take the gun. IRA Why not ? SUE If there s any shootin why should you be in it ? It s the Sheriffs business not yours. IRA Ah well, perhaps you re right. (Goes towards barn door } putting on coat, and when he is near it turns and faces Sue.) I suppose if / didn t go and see what the Sheriff is doing, you would ? SUE (R.C.) Yes, I would. IRA (Significantly.} Ah, well then I reckon I ll go. (Exit through small door in barn.) (Sue closes door after him, listens for a moment to his retreating footsteps, and then comes quickly to loft steps and seems about to ascend them, when she suddenly changes her mind, and goes quickly into house. Immedi ately she reappears with a small hand-mirror, which she SUE: A PLAY 79 brings into the light, and, smiling at herself in it, runs her fingers through her hair. Then she puts the little mirror down and hastens up the loft steps. She seems to have J or gotten all about the gun.) SUE (At loft door, knocking.) It s safe now ; you can come out. JIM (From within.) Wait a minute. I m changing. SUE (Aside.) Changing ! Poor fellow ! he can t have much to change. (Aloud.) Can I get you anything ? JIM No ; I m ready now. (Jim Wynd appears at door and joins Sue on little platform. He has discarded the long coat in which he was concealed, and now appears in the fieshings and spangles of the circus-rider or acrobat. He is a well- made man, and his costume shows off his muscular, well- knit figure to the highest advantage. He has washed his face and hands, and his wet hair is plastered in curls on his low forehead.) 8o SUE: A PLAY SUE (Regarding him with astonishment and admiration.} My ! How lovely ! JIM (With a conceited laugh.) A bit better than when you saw me last, eh ? (Aside.) It s the pretty girl I saw here three years ago, when I told the Parson I d come back. Well, I ve come back. SUE (Almost awe-stricken.) Are ye quite sure ye re the same man ? JIM Not a doubt about that ; but finding a bucket of water in here, I managed to wash the dust off me. SUE Do you always wear them beautiful clothes ? JIM No ; but ye see I had to get off in such a hurry, I had no chance to change. Now tell me, what s been up ? I could hear a rumpus, but could make nothing out. SUE The Sheriff and the Constable have been here. SUE: A PLAY 81 JIM After me ? SUE Yes. JIM (Nervously.) Where are they now ? SUE Huntin you over Bolinas Plain. JIM That s because you didn t let on I was here ? SUE Yes. (With undisguised admiration and quite in nocently.) And I didn t know how beautiful you were then. JIM (With a low laugh.) You re the right sort, you are ; we could get on well together, me and you. (Then, anxiously.) There s no getting away just yet. Could ye keep me in here to-night ? SUE Yes, but ye must lie low in the loft. F 82 SUE: A PLAY JIM And could you ye see I ve eaten nothing since last night could you SUE (Turning to go down steps.) Yes,, I ll bring you something. (Going.) JIM (Stopping her.) And if you had anything like a coat, or any other clothing SUE (Half way down steps, and disappointed.) What ! You don t mean to say you re going to change them splendid things ? JIM Well, you see, it would disguise me and put em off the track. SUE (With alacrity.) I see and I ll fetch em. (Aside, when she has reached the bottom of steps.) He d look just sweet in the vacquero s clothes as Ira tried to wear the day I (with a sigh) the day I married him. (She is going into the house, when Jim leans over the steps and softly calls to her.) SUE: A PLAY 83 JIM (With a forced smile.) Did they say did they tell you anything about me ? SUE (Rather troubled.) Yes. JIM You see I ll tell you how it was. SUE (Quickly.) No, don t. I don t want to hear any thing about it. (Aside.) Especially about that woman. (Aloud.) I must go and get the things before he comes back. JIM Who s he ? SUE My husband. (Turning, as she goes off.) What s your name ? JIM Jim. What s yours ? SUE Sue. Sue Beasley. (Aside.) Jim ! It s a pretty name ! (Exit Sue into house.) 84 SUE: A PLAY JIM Sue, eh ? And so Sue s married ? and she didn t marry the Parson. Well, so much the better for him. She s (with intense satisfaction) clean gone on me, and I m safe with her. Ah ! if I lived in a land o women there d be no danger for me. It s these yer cursed men who ain t got my luck with the girls who try to run me down but I ll fix em yet ! (Enter Sue from house. She carries provisions and a flask of whisky. She is smiling and pulsating Like a schoolgirl. She runs up steps and deposits her packages by the side of Jim.) SUE There ! JIM (Gloating over the provisions.) Well that looks rather like business ! (Begins to eat ravenously.) SUE And now for the disguise. (Running down steps and going towards house, but pausing at bottom and looking at him with admiration.) I suppose you must have them, but it does seem a pity to change them lovely clothes. (Jim, as he continues eating, gives her a patronising wave of his hand, and Sue goes gaily into house.) SUE: A PLAY 85 JIM (With his mouth half full.) She s purty you bet ! Purty as a pink ! A fetching face, and a trim figure and (with a conceited laugh) she s dead gone on me. Well, well ; if I ve time to spare after I ve finished this meal (taking a swig of whisky) if I ve time to spare I may be able to show her I m not un grateful. (Re-enter Sue from house. She carries the vacquero costume, and, ascending steps, lays it at Jim s feet.) SUE There ! JIM Why that s the very thing, if it will fit. SUE (Looking at him admiringly.) Oh, it will fit! You ll fill it out beautiful. He didn t fill it out. (Shaking her head.) It hung about him anyhow. JIM (Still eating.) Who s him ? SUE My (hesitates) oh, nobody ! 86 SUE: A PLAY JIM Oh ! Well, just you wait a spell and you ll see what I can do with em. SUE (Clasping her hands and delighted.) I should like that. JIM All right. (Drinking.) You just hold on ! SUE Can ye listen to me for a moment ? JIM What is it ? SUE In case ye should be hard put to get away, I ll show ye how. JIM Why, you don t want me to go, do you ? SUE No. But I don t want you to stay here to be shot. JIM That means you d like me to stay here alive eh ? SUE: A PLAY 87 SUE (Innocently. ) Yes, I should. JIM I thought as much. (With a coarse laugh.) You women are pretty much alike. But if it comes to shooting I ve got a loaded revolver in my coat pocket (pointing to loft and speaking with bravado) and perhaps I could teach Mr Sheriff something. (Then suddenly altering his tone and speaking very timidly .) But as you say you wouldn t like me to be shot ; and so, for your sake, you might just as well show me how to get out. SUE Well, inside the loft there, in the far corner, you ll find a trap door ; drop through that. By the way, I suppose you could drop through ? It s rather high, but I ve done it often when no one s been looking. JIM (Contemptuously.) Drop through ? Why I could drop from the moon to the earth and turn a double- somersault in between, if there was any building big enough to roof in the show. 88 SUE: A PLAY SUE (Enthusiastically.*) I suppose there never was any one so brave as you ? JIM Well (boastfully) I never met him, and if I did he d have a challenge. (Then very nervously.) Now, go on tell me how to get out. SUE Well, when you ve dropped through the trap door you ll find yourself opposite another door. That ll take you into the lean-to shed. (Points to R.) Run along that until you come to the little covered in shed at the end. (Again points R.) In that you ll find a door that ll lead you straight on to the plain. JIM (Doubtfully.) Oh ! SUE But mind you, you needn t do all this until I give you a signal, and (with a toss of her head and in a tone of determination) when I do that you won t have much to fear from Mr Sheriff and his Constable. JIM (Taking her hand tenderly in his.) Darling, you seem as if you d do anything for me and SUE: A PLAY 89 SUE (Suddenly interrupting him and very quickly with drawing her hand.) Be quiet ! JIM (Amazed.) Why, ye re not riled, are ye? I thought SUE (Quickly.) Hush! (Then turning to him tenderly.) It s not that. You d be welcome to hold my hand any time you could spare for it but hush ! (On the alert.) Don t you hear something ? JIM (Frightened.) Where ? SUE Outside the barn. (Walk of horses heard outside.) Yes. I m right ! They re coming back ! JIM Who? SUE The Sheriff and his man ! Into the loft ! Quick ! (Jim makes an ignominious exit into lojt. Sue, speaking very quietly, and in a hushed voice, throws things after him.) 90 SUE: A PLAY SUE There s plenty of food there yet, and whisky in the flask, and there s the dress ; but you must lie still. JIM (In a muffled voice from within.} And you ll be sure and give me some signal if there s danger about ? for your own sake, you know. SUE Yes you can trust me. JIM (As before.) Yes I believe you re a brave girl. SUE (To herself, as she descends steps.} I don t know as I m brave, but I m a woman ; and something seems to be telling me to-day what a woman can do for Jim. Jim ! it s a pretty name ! (When she reaches bottom of steps she turns and kisses her hand to loft door, and then goes into house. In meantime voices of Ira, Sheriff, and Constable are heard outside barn doors.) (The large doors are thrown open and Ira, the Sheriff and Constable enter.) SUE: A PLAY 91 SHERIFF (R.C.) No. My mind s made up. Reckon I shan t go any further to-day, but just camp down here for a spell. IRA (#.) You mean to say you ain t goin to shove on to Lowville ? SHERIFF No. (To Constable, and giving him his gun.} See that the horses are properly stabled and then come back to me. (Exit Constable through barn doors, with guns.) IRA What are you going to do then ? Don t ye want to take your man ? SHERIFF The chances are with him and against us. May be, while we re hunting the plain he s lying down behind some low wire grass ridge, watching us, and only waiting for the night to draw a bead of us. IRA (Vaguely repeating himself.) What are ye goin to do, then ? (Helplessly.) You re not goin to stop here ? 92 SUE: A PLAY SHERIFF Yes. IRA What in my house ? SHERIFF Certainly. (With a laugh.) Ye know I have the right to summon ye as my posse to aid and assist me in carrying out the law ; but I ain t the man to be rough on my friends, so I reckon it will do just as well if I "requisition" your house. IRA (Indignantly.) D ye mean to say ye ve the right ? SHERIFF (Interrupting him, and dratvlingly.) Yes ; and if it comes to rights, I could send you and my Constable there to hunt the plain while I stayed here to see that no harm came to Mrs Beasley. (Aside.) I reckon that ll fetch him ! (Crosses to L.) IRA (With a gasp.) Oh! But I ll stop here with ye and make ye welcome. (Enter Constable through barn doors. Stands L., near Sheriff.) SUE: A PLAY 93 SHERIFF ( With a good-natured laugh, taking a seat L. on chair, and lighting a cigar.) That s right. (Sue enters from the house. She has taken some pains with her dress, has changed her cuffs and collar, taken off her apron, and re-dressed her hair.) SUE (Aside, C). I can t be as fine as Jim, but when he sees me again he shall see a difference. IRA (Looking at her in amazement.) Oh ! SUE (Turning upon him sharply.) What s the matter ? IRA (R.) Nothin . Seems tho as if you was expectin company. (Aside.) Sue never dressed like that for me. SUE (Saucilv, and looking very graciously at Sheriff".) Well, and I ve got company, haven t I ? (Aside.) Ira s jealous of the Sheriff. So much the better. 94 SUE: A PLAY IRA (Aside, very uneasily.) Sue never looked like that at me. SHERIFF Certainly you ve got company and the right sort o company to be looked after by a pretty woman. (To Ira.) Didn t I hear ye say something about a drop of whisky ? IRA (Sulkily.) There s a full bottle in the house. I ll fetch it. (Moving towards house.) SUE (C. y quickly stopping him.) No ! Ef you men can t get along with the coffee and flap-jacks I m goin to give ye, ye kin just toddle right along to the first bar, and order your " tangle-foot " there. Ef it s a bar-keeper you re lookin for, and not a lady, say so. (Exit Sue into house. Sheriff and Constable laugh heartily.) SHERIFF (To Ira.) You re in luck with your wife, my friend ; reckon the time slips by pretty freely, even in Bolinas Plain, with her for a partner ? SUE: A PLAY 95 CONSTABLE Free with her tongue too (crosses to C.) ain t she ? Why, it s a treat to hear her. IRA (At well, troubled.} Well, ye see, she s natur ally a bit excited at seeing strangers ; we don t see much company at Lone Farm, and if her manners ain t quite company manners, ye ll maybe make allowances. SHERIFF Allowances ! Why, she s just lovely ! (Rises. To Constable.) We wouldn t have her altered would we ? CONSTABLE Not one little bit of her. (Both go up.) IRA (Distressed.) Ah ! I was thinkin ye seemed satisfied with her. (Aside.) What s come to Sue ? I don t seem to know Sue to-day. (Sue enters from house, carrying tray bearing cakes and steaming coffee. Places tray on table.) Note. During this scene gradually lowered lights suggest the setting sun. 9 6 SUE: A PLAY SHERIFF (Coming down C.) And what a housekeeper she is ! Now, I ll bet these cakes are of your own baking ? SUE There s no one else to bake em here. (Places table down between chair and stool L.) SHERIFF Ah ! Beasley s a wise man. When he s got a good thing he knows how to keep it to himself. And yet, ye know, friend Beasley, there s such a thing as being extra selfish. (Sits R. of table.) SUE That s what I m always telling him. Now, oughtn t he to take me for a trip to Lowville? CONSTABLE Gosh ! She d cut a splash at Lowville ! (Seated L. of table.) SHERIFF And she shall, too. (To Sue.) You leave that to me. We ll arrange all that before I go. SUE: A PLAY 97 SUE (Saucily to Ira.) There, now see what it is to make friends. IRA (Distressed.) It s getting dark. (Touching Sheriff on shoulder.) SHERIFF Well, what s that matter? except that when it gets darker we shan t be able to see so much of Mrs Beasley. IRA (Quickly yet hesitatingly, C.) But, look yar ! Ain t you goin to have another look round for your man afore night comes on ? SHERIFF (Lazily.) Well, I don t know as I shall I m very comfortable where I am. SUE Well, I m glad of that ! IRA (Glancing suspiciously from Sheriff to Sue and from 98 SUE: A PLAY Sue to Sheriff.} And then, ye see, I ve got the cows and things to look to and SUE If they (interrupting him} go man-huntin again they ll want you along with em. I ll see to the cows. (Aside.) And to Jim. SHERIFF (To Ira.) I suppose you re right. We ought to have another look. (To Constable.) Go and get the horses ready quick ! (Exit Constable through bam door.) SHERIFF (To Ira.) You and he shall go and look, and (gallantly) I ll stop here and help Mrs Beasley with the cows. IRA (With sudden determination.) No ! I m d d! SUE (Interrupting him, and speaking sharply.) Be quiet. (To Sheriff.) Ef I propose to do Ira s work, it s SUE: A PLAY 99 because I reckon he ll do more good helpin you as a man to catch your man than you ll do helpin me as a woman ! So clear out, both of ye SHERIFF (Rising, and with a laugh.) Well, I suppose I m bound to do as ye bid me. All right. (To Ira.) We ll go. (To Sue.) But we ll come back. (Crosses up.) IRA You ll come back? (With a gasp. Back of well.) SHERIFF Certainly. Didn t I say we d camp the night here ? Where can you shake us down ? Any room in the house ? IRA (Decidedly.) No ! SUE Not unless ye d have me turn out. SHERIFF (Gallantly.) Not for the world. (Looking round yard.) I m an old soldier, and (pointing to shed ioo SUE: A PLAY at R.) if I can have a rug or a blanket I ll do very well in there, and the Constable can make shift in the barn. IRA (R.U.) But if we catch our man, won t ye have to take him to Lowville ? SHERIFF Not to-night. I d bring him back here. SUE Would you, indeed, and where would you stow him ? SHERIFF (Pointing to loft.} Well, I should think we might make him snug up there. SUE Well I never ! Yes, perhaps you could ! IRA (At door.} We d best be going. SHERIFF (To Sue.) When I come back I shall expect that drop of whisky. (Crosses up to door.) SUE: A PLAY 101 SUE Very well. Will the man ye catch want any whisky ? SHERIFF No. His whisky days are over. SUE Poor man ! Now go and catch him. (Sue laughs merrily, and Ira and Sheriff go off through barn doors. Then she listens intently for a moment, and bolts the doors upon them.} (Noise of horses without.) (Sue ascends steps to loft.) SUE (Tapping at loft door.) Ye can come out now. JIM (Opening door and appearing at it.) I thought you were never coming. (He still wears his tights and spangles.) Where have they gone ? (Steps out.) SUE (Laughing.) They ve gone to catch ye. 102 SUE: A PLAY JIM ( With a movement towards loft door.") Oh ! SUE Gone to catch ye, I said. If they thought ye was here, d ye think they d go ! (Laughing.) And where d ye think they re goin to put ye when ye re caught ? JIM (Bitterly.) Ye needn t ask me that. SUE But ye don t know. (Pointing to loft.) They re goin to put ye in there ! JIM What for ? SUE Because they re coming back. JIM What for? SUE For the night and whisky. JIM D n! SUE D ye want some more whisky ? cause if you do (About to descend steps.) SUE: A PLAY 103 JIM No. D ye think I d be what I am (regarding his rvell-made limbs) if I soaked myself in whisky ? I m a gentleman. SUE (Excitedly.) I thought so ! Oh, do tell me all about yourself. JIM (Nervously.) But are ye quite sure I m I mean were safe ? SUE (Firmly.) Ye re safer here with me about the place to look after ye than ye could be anywhere. Let the men come back ; let em stay here. I ll keep em off ye, never fear. You just trust me ! (Her eyes flash.) JIM (Looking at her approvingly.) I will ! SUE And now sit down and tell me everything that a gentleman does. (They sit together on top of steps.) JIM (Boastfully.) Well, that s a difficult question to io 4 SUE: A PLAY answer offhand. If you could only watch me through a week of my life you d understand all about it. SUE Ah ! if I only could ! JIM (Looking at her curiously.) You d come with me then ? SUE For a week ? Oh yes ! That is, if he d let me. JIM He? SUE My husband. JIM Oh ! I think I wouldn t consult him. If I took you for a week I reckon he d expect you to stay away altogether. SUE (Dreamily. ) Would he ? JIM Yes. SUE: A PLAY 105 SUE (Innocently.) Why ? JIM (Awkwardly.) Well that s a way men have. SUE Ah, yes. I forgot he s only a man. If he was a gentleman like you he d see things differently. Now do tell me about yourself. JIM (Arrogantly.) I don t know that there s much to tell. It s the old story of the public character. All the men you meet want you to go and drink with them in bars. All the ladies who see you want you to come and waste your time in salons. SUE (Quickly.) I hope you go to the bars. JIM Well I never heard a woman say that before. Why? SUE Why because it would keep you out of the salons. 106 SUE: A PLAY JIM (Bumptiously.) I ve my name to keep up, and I steer a middle course between the two. I don t let the men make me drink too much, and, as far as I can, I don t allow the ladies to love me too much. SUE I suppose they re very pretty, and beautifully dressed ? ^ JIM They re dressed like so many queens ; but, as far as prettiness goes, dern me if I ever saw one of em as could hold a candle to you. (He puts his arm round Sues waist.) SUE (With a little cry of delight.) Oh, it s just lovely to hear you say that ! JIM (Pressing her more closely to him.) And you don t mind this ? SUE (Suddenly.) Hark ! JIM Ah ! you re trying to put me off again but SUE: A PLAY 107 not this time, darling. (Draws her to him and kisses her.) SUE (Having warmly returned his kiss, and after a moment in his arms.) Oh stop stop ! Don t you hear them coming back ? JIM Are they ? SUE Yes. You see (with a little laugh) they haven t caught you. (Noise of horses without.) But I know every echo of this place, and they re near at hand. But you must go in again ; and mind ye change your dress this time so that ye 11 be ready to go when I let ye know the coast s clear. Ye needn t be afraid they ll hear ye. I ll keep em going. (Rattling heard outside barn doors as of people trying to get in.) (Sue about to descend steps.) JIM (Stopping her.) Come again to-night, dear do ! (Sue hesitates, then raises his hand suddenly to her lips and as quickly disengaging it, comes down steps.) (Jim IVynd goes back into loft.) (Rattling of doors heard again, and Ira s voice without.) io8 SUE: A PLAY IRA Oh, Sue ! Where are ye ? SUE Here. I m coming. (Sue unbolts doors, and Ira, Sheriff, and Constable enter.) IRA What did ye bolt the doors for ? SUE (Cross down.) I thought that, as ye were huntin that circus chap, if he thought I -was alone he might try to run in here before you d time to come up. IRA Have ye seen to the cows? (Crosses to R. and hangs up coat and hat.) SUE (L.C., audaciously.) Yes. (Then saucily to the Sheriff.) Well, where s your man ? SHERIFF (JR.C.) The Lord only knows; and as for me, he can be where he pleases to-night. SUE: A PLAY 109 SUE (Mockingly.) What a pity ! And I d gone up to see as the loft was nice and ready for him. SHERIFF (To Constable.) You d better have it now. May be you ll be more comfortable there than in the barn. SUE (Quickly.) No ! Even if you d caught your man he couldn t have the loft. (To Ira.) The yeller hen we reckoned lost is sitting up there, and mustn t be disturbed, must she ? IRA ( With decision.) Certainly not ! You may have the right to come and fasten on us like this, but you don t disturb my yeller hen. So thar ! SHERIFF (C., surlily.) Oh d n your yeller hen ! CONSTABLE (L.) Oh, it s all right. I can make shift with the barn. I don t want to be kept awake with no yeller hens ! no SUE: A PLAY SUE (L.C., to Constable."} You re a wise man, you are. You d better let my yeller hen alone. (Then to Sheriff.} Now I ll see what I can do to make you comfortable. (Exit Sue into house.} SHERIFF If she wants to make me comfortable, she ll fetch me a drop of whisky, and that quick. I m dog tired. (Sits at table.} IRA (Hovering about nervously.} Ye only looked to the north just now now when the moon comes up if ye went to the south SHERIFF (Interrupting him.} D n your north and your south. (Constable puts gun back of porch.} CONSTABLE And d n your moon. (Sits L. of table.) IRA (As if continuing.} And SUE: A PLAY in SHERIFF (Impatiently.) Oh, and d n you too, if it comes to that ! We re here for the night. (Re-enter Sue from house with rugs and blankets.) SUE (Throwing these down.) There ! They ll do, I reckon. SHERIFF Just what we want. They ll do, and you ll do. Now come and cheer us up. Sit down, won t ye ? SUE I can t, if I ve got to get supper for ye. That ll take me a good hour. SHERIFF I d rather have you than supper ; and where s that little drop of whisky that you promised me ? SUE (C.) Now you ve earned it you shall have the whisky, and I ll fetch it. (Exit into house.) H2 SUE: A PLAY IRA (R.) You ain t goin to drink whisky afore takin any grub ? That s a fool s game. SHERIFF (Crossly.) Anyway, it s my game. CONSTABLE And mine too. If I ve got to sleep in that barn I ll want to sleep sound. IRA (In an altered tone and almost cheerily.} Ah ! a drop o whisky afore food will make us all sleep sound, and we ll have it. Lord knows you re welcome to a drop o whisky and a good night s sleep. (Enter Sue from house.} (She carries a full bottle of whisky, glasses } etc., and places them on table by house door.} SUE Why, it s quite dark here. I ll get a lamp. (Exit into house.} SHERIFF She needn t have said that. She d light up any place. SUE: A PLAY 113 IRA Yes, and maybe you d see her better in the dark. I ll (Is going towards house when he encounters Sue, who is coming from it carrying a lighted lamp.} SHERIFF (Looking at Sue in admiration.) She s right ! Sue s one of them women as can stand the test of lamp light. SUE (Putting lamp on table.} And now for supper. IRA (R.C.) They re reckonin they don t want no supper. SHERIFF No. It s too hot to eat. SUE Oh, if I d been you, I d have said it was too hot to cook. SHERIFF (With a laugh.) What if I meant that whether it s hot or cold, or whether I m hungry or not, I couldn t bear to lose sight of the cook ? H ii4 SUE: A PLAY SUE Meaning me ? SHERIFF (Gallantly.) What else could I mean ? SUE Oh well now I know it wasn t only whisky ye came back for, I ll show you that Sue Beasley is no slouch of a bar-keeper either. (She rolls her sleeves above her pretty arms, and mixes a cocktail in delightful imitation of the fashionable bar-keeper s dexterity.) SHERIFF (Delighted and laughing.) Bravo! bravo! Why, she might have been brought up to it ! CONSTABLE It s my belief she was brought up to it. IRA (In great trouble.) Now Sue, wherever did you learn to do that ? SUE (Handing glass to Sheriff.) It s the only thing that father ever taught me. Taste it, and you will see it ain t all show. SUE: A PLAY 115 SHERIFF Not till you ve sweetened it with your red lips. (Sue laughs, and raises glass to her mouth.} IRA ( With a pained cry, and raising his hand as if to stop her.} Sue ! SUE (Silencing him with a motion of her hand and sipping from glass.} There! (Making a comical little face.} Ugh ! how nasty ! Whisky wasn t made for women. (Hands glass to Sheriff.} SHERIFF (Taking glass.} And what was women made for, I wonder ? SUE Why,, to mix men s whisky, for to be sure ! (She mixes another glass and hands it to Constable.) SHERIFF (Tossing off his glass.} Splendid! (To the Con stable.) What do you say ? CONSTABLE (After drinking.} Say ? What would anybody say ? She d make a fortune behind a bar. ii6 SUE: A PLAY SHERIFF (Rising.) So she would. (Clapping Ira on back.) Say, old man d ye want to make your fortune? If so, send your wife along o me. (Crosses back to table). IRA (R.C., with suppressed passion.) I d rather SHERIFF Of course you would. Any man would rather do anything than his straightforward duty to himself and his fellow-men. But you re not drinking anything. (Very familiarly to Sue, rvho is handing another glass to Sheriff.) Ain t you goin to mix him one, my dear? Or are you so fond of your husband that you don t want to give him " pisin " ? SUE Oh, he ll take it straight. He likes everything straight. SHERIFF Especially when he chooses a wife, eh ? Don t allow any meanderin not even as far as Lowville ? SUE No, indeed. SUE: A PLAY 117 IRA (Crossing to table, taking great gulp of whisky ; looking at Sue in a dazed fashion, aside.) This ain t my Sue it s another Sue as is here to-night ; but for all that she must be took care of. (Crosses R.) SUE (Mixing two more drinks, and handing them to Sheriff and Constable.) There that s all you ll get from me to-night. I m tired ; I m goin to bed. SHERIFF (Seated.) But we can t spare ye yet. SUE You shouldn t have made me drink whisky. (Yawns.) I m that sleepy I don t know what to do. But if I must go, I ll leave the bottle behind me and you can help yourselves. Good-night. (Aside.) It ll make them sleep while Jim gets away. (Exit Sue into house.) Note. The moon has now risen and lights the stage. (Shortly after Sues departure light appears in window above doorway.) n8 SUE: A PLAY SHERIFF (Surlily to Ira.} Seems to me your wife gets her own way. IRA Seems to me you ain t married, or you d know that that was the way with wives. Have some more whisky ? (Crosses up.) SHERIFF Yes ! (Helping himself, and passing bottle to Con stable.) And shan t we see any more of Mrs Beasley to-night ? IRA (Decidedly). No. And I was thinkin now the moon s up, you d maybe like to have another look round after your man ? SHERIFF (Helpi?ig himself to whisky.) No. I ve done with men for to-day. (Light seen in Sue s room.) CONSTABLE (Mischievously). And with women too, I m thinkin . SHERIFF (Very angrily.) What do you mean by that ? SUE: A PLAY 119 CONSTABLE Nothing or anyway, no offence. I m tired too, and if I m not wanted I ll turn in. SHERIFF All right, go. (Throwing his rugs over his arm, Constable goes off into barn.) IRA (Crossing down, filling first the Sheriff s glass, then his own.) Have some more whisky ? It ll make ye sleep. SHERIFF Just one last spot and then I ll turn in too. (Drinking.) I suppose I ll not see Mrs Beasley until the morning? IRA Why should you see her till morning ? SHERIFF Why, what a cantankerous cuss you are. Do you know I ve a notion to send you out huntin that circus coyote right now. IRA Oh, you have ! 120 SUE: A PLAY SHERIFF Yes, I have ; and then I ll stand here and sing coaxin songs at her window. IRA You let her alone, I tell ye ! SHERIFF Then maybe she ll come down again in that yeller dress. IRA What s her dress to you ? SHERIFF Oh, nothin ; she can come down without any if she wants to. IRA Hold on ! You re talkin about my wife ! SHERIFF You simmer down and tend to your knittin . She s got eyes, and the right man can win her and whose wife would she be then ? IRA A dead man s. SUE: A PLAY 121 SHERIFF Well, while men and women let me, I ll make ready for em and sleep. (Carrying his rugs, Sheriff goes off into shed R., laughing.) IRA (Alone, sits with his head sunk on his chest, at well.) What s come over Sue ? Sue and everything seems changed to-night. My God ! What s come over me ? (Clasping his forehead.) It seems as if my head would burst. I must think what No ; I must stop thiiikin or I ll go mad. Bah ! I m a fool ! He ll go to-morrow, and then she ll be the same again. But why did she never look like that at me? Perhaps it s " women s ways" women s ways as I ve heard men talk of women s ways she s never shown to me. Would she have been different with that derned grinning Sheriff if she had married him instead of me ? Blast him ! it was him that made her look like that ! (Pauses then meditatively.) Yes (Suddenly checking himself, he half fills a glass with whisky and drinks it at one gulp.) It s got no taste ! it doesn t even burn ! but everything s different to-night. (Crosses R. Glances at fight in window above doorway.) She ain t turned down the light in her room yet. Her room ? ain t it our room ? Yet I 122 SUE: A PLAY don t seem to have the right to go into it to-night. (Pauses.) What if the Parson was right? Maybe I am rough and ill-favoured. What if Sue s been noticing that all these years without saying any thing. (Starts to drink.) No there s no taste in it; and maybe that s because I ve no longer a taste for anything, but to get even get even Bah ! I m a fool. I ll go to bed and forget. (As he moves towards house he suddenly stops. Seeing his gun in the porch he snatches it, and carries it and lamp into house.) (After a brief pause he appears at the window above doorway and partly opens it.) (A short pause; then the shed door at R. is opened and the Sheriff comes out.) SHERIFF What a head I ve got and what a thirst ! That whisky must have been d d bad. (Approaching well.) IRA How close it is. The whole world seems to me to be burning around me to-night but (With a sigh.) Thank God, she s sleeping soundly ! SUE: A PLAY 123 SHERIFF Ah ! that s it ! (Kneeling down and getting a drink of water.} That s better ! (Bathing his head and hands. With a laugh.) There ! I m all right. I shouldn t mind now having a chat with my pretty little bare-armed hostess. How she kept watching me, the little witch ! Well ! (Curling moustache, and with a conceited laugh. Suddenly on the alert and sniffing the air.) What s that ? Tobacco ! A pipe ? Yes, by the livin Jingo, a pipe ! Why, none of us smoked to-night, except me, and I had a cigar. Ha ! why ! (Approaching loft steps.) It comes from there. Soho ! soho ! my lady. Yellow hens smoke pipes, do they ? We ll see, my dear we ll see. (Very stealthily he begins to ascend steps.) (Sue, draped and hooded, enters from house.) (At sound of door opening, Sheriff, half way up steps, crouches and listens.) SUE (Aside.) Ira s in a heavy sleep. I ought not to come, but something draws me and I can t help it. (Approaching steps, and noticing listening Sheriff.) Oh! (With a sharp cry.) They ve found Jim ! Maybe I can get him away. (Aloud.) W T hy Mr Sheriff! i2 4 SUE: A PLAY SHERIFF Who was you expectin to meet ? SUE Why, you, of course. SHERIFF I told him the right man could win her. (Jim Wynd, revolver in hand, appears at top of steps.) (Sheriff is about to come down steps to Sue, when Jim Wynd shoots at him from the back. Immediately Ira Jiresfrom window. Sheriff rolls over side of steps on to stage and lies there apparently dead.) (Sue, with a quick cry, dashes by steps and hides her self by the door below the loft.) SUE (Frantically to Wynd, and showing that she thinks only of saving him.) Quick ! To the horses ! for your life. It s your only chance, now ! Fly ! JIM (In the vacquero s dress he has dropped from the loft, and is by her side.) (Frightened and agitated.) But you will go with me ? SUE: A PLAY 125 SUE (Despairingly.} Yes, yes ! (Exeunt into shed R.) SHERIFF (On the ground, incoherently. ] What was it ? what s happened? The earth seemed to open before me. Ah I remember ! Shot shot by Jim Wynd, hidden in the loft by that she-devil ! Fooled ! tricked by her ! (Noise of hoofs.} Ah ! she s helping him off ! Steady,, man ! I left Blueskin ready saddled and nobbled outside for the morn ing, and Briggs is in the shed. (Stopping himself.} No ! not he ! Nobody must know it, until I ve brought the hound back myself alone ! (During this speech he has tied his cartridge belt round his wounded leg.) Now then, Jim Wynd, you ve been helped off by one of your own kind ; but I am on your track and afore the chase is over ye ll want God to help ye ! (Exit through barn doors.) (Enter Ira.) IRA (Breathlessly.) I warned him. I gave him warn ing and I killed him. (Looking round stage.) What ! 126 SUE: A PLAY gone ! I saw him fall drop in his tracks just there and he s gone ! (Horses hoofs heard loudly without .) Gone ! Yes I could have sworn I killed him ! I believe I did kill him ! But the constable has taken him away ! and (Starting.) My God ! Sue ! (Calling.) Sue ! Sue ! She has gone, too and with him ! Yes ! I was right ! They have gone together ! (Sound of hoofs fade away in distance.} Ira finds the daisies Sue has left on the well and, pressing them to his lips, falls sobbing on the stage crying Sue ! Sue ! CURTAIN ACT III SCENE : Bar-room at Lowville See Stage Plan An interval of three months between Acts II. and III. (Entrances C., R. and L. Rough furniture, tables, chairs, etc. Large window R.) (Silas Prescott and the Constable discovered, seated. Silas has a half filled glass before him, from which he sips while he lazily smokes. The Constable is very eagerly talking to him.} SILAS (Calling off.} Bar-keep ! (Enter negro servant.) SILAS (Handing his glass.) Take that to your bar-keeper and say I want some decent whisky. You kin tell him from me that I m a religious man,, and I kalkilate to keep away from hell -fire in this world as I hope to do in the next \ (Exit servant.) 127 128 SUE: A PLAY CONSTABLE (Looking up across table.) I reckon that s the whisky they re servin out to the Lynchers in the next room. Kills at forty rods. SILAS The Lynchers ? CONSTABLE Yes the house is full of them. SILAS And what might your business be, young man ? CONSTABLE Oh ! I am a County Constable the old deputy of the late Sheriff of Bolinas. SILAS And what might you, an officer of the law, be doin here ? CONSTABLE I m one of their witnesses the principal witness. SILAS You I a witness for them ? SUE: A PLAY 129 CONSTABLE Well, well, I ll tell you how it was ! My principal, ye know my boss my friend, Sheriff Scott ez white a man ez ever trod, by God ! was murdered three months ago at a farmhouse by an acrobat whom he had a warrant against. He was murdered at night decoyed out into the courtyard while I was sleepin in the barn, and I never knew it till mornin , when I found that acrobat s clothes and spangles just as we chased him in the loft, and poor Scott s hat, covered with blood, lyin agin the door, and he nowhere ! SILAS And how do you know he was murdered ? CONSTABLE How do I know it ? (Scornfully.} Don t I tell ye the acrobat had got away and Scott was never seen from that day to this ? Do ye suppose if Scott was limn he wouldn t have tracked that acrobat down ? Stranger, ye don t know Scott ! No ; his body was spirited away to some marsh and we never found it. SILAS Well, ye ain t hankerin after a three months old 1 30 SUE: A PLAY corpse, are ye ? Ye kin get fresher ones out of the Vigilance Committee, I reckon. CONSTABLE (Impatiently,} Yes ; but, as ye see, thar warn t no corpse, so to speak, to be found thar warn t no corpus dilicti accordin to the law ; and con sequently there warn t no murder ! And so John Scott, my old friend, warn t, accordin to Jaw, dead and there warn t any murderer ! But they reckoned without me ; for I hunted that acrobat night and day I had his livin face and figure in my mind night and day ; and (excitedly) I kum across that livin face two days ago at Lowville, and I wait for it ! SILAS And not having your friend s corpus convenient, ye was helpless ? CONSTABLE (Rising excitedly from table.} No ! For I knew the Vigilance Committee was in session here, and was just spilin for something to do. Their ways ain t my ways, but it was my only chance. So 1 just dropped a sort of hint that I had a villain in my hands that I couldn t hold by law \ See ? (Pause, and then very significantly.} And the most singular SUE: A PLAY 131 thing about it is that it was true. And that there Vigilance Committee broke the door of the room where I had him locked up, took him outer my hands, and have got him upstairs now ! SILAS And you re the only witness ? CONSTABLE Yes. For when the Sheriff was killed that night thar warn t no man else up at Lone Farm. Ira Beasley slept through the hull shootin . SILAS (With lazy interest.} Lone Farm ? Ira Beasley ? CONSTABLE What, you know him ? SILAS (Lazily.} Well, as far as a man kin know the man who has married his daughter, and I reckon she don t often know much more either. CONSTABLE What ! Mrs Beasley your daughter that pretty woman ? SILAS (Sipping his liquor.} Oh, she s growed outer a 132 SUE: A PLAY colty gal into a pretty woman, has she ? She gets the pull over her mother then. CONSTABLE Then of course you know where she is ? (Eagerly.*) She disappeared after the murder at least Beasley gave out that she d gone to stay with her relatives ! (More eagerly.) Of course, I see, it was with you. SILAS (Scornfully.) With me ! Young man, I m a religious man, and when I hand over my daughter to any man, it holds. She don t come rurniin back on me if I know it. (Aside.) I wonder if Sue had anything to do with that murder. Two or three years with Ira Beasley might have been developin I CONSTABLE Did you speak ? SILAS I was only thinkin that when married women leave their husbands they don t always go to relatives ! CONSTABLE I don t seem to foller ye. I don t catch on. I ain t on your track. SUE: A PLAY 133 SILAS Of course not, for you re a detective. Humph ! (As if musing aloud.) " I love my love with an A because he s an acrobat." CONSTABLE (Aside, starting.) Mebbee she did talk a little too much of that yeller hen in the loft ! But why should he say it? (Aloud and scornfully.) I don t care where she s gone, but if I did, the last man I d give her away to would be her father ! SILAS If I gave her away to Ira Beasley, you needn t be so d d particular. (Enter Saleratus Bill and the Softy from Frisco, L.) BILL (L.C., to Silas and Constable.) I reckon it s about time you two scooted out o this. We re wantin this room for the Committee. CONSTABLE But I m one of the witnesses on this trial. BILL I didn t hear as we was wantin any witnesses to hang that man. Did you, Softy ? 134 SUE: A PLAY SOFTY (L.) Not much at least (looking contemptuously at Constable) not that kind. SILAS (Aside.) Looks as if I d dropped in for suthin interestin . (Aloud.) But I m a free and inde pendent citizen, and shouldn t mind sittin on your Committee. I m a religious man, an unprejudiced man, and one who kin give a verdict without pre judice. BILL (Scornfully.) Ye are? Well then,, stranger, I reckon ye kin just get. What rve want is a man that has made up his mind a man that knows what he s got to do, and ain t goin to shilly-shally over what these yer witnesses say. Sabe ? (Crosses to C.) Why, you look like one o them cranks that don t read the papers because he s afeared o bein pre judiced ! Ye kin scoot out o this quick ! (Go up.) SOFTY (L., politely.) If the gentlemen are very perse- verin we might accommodate them with a place SUE: A PLAY 135 alongside the prisoner, before and after \ (Indicating hanging.} (Constable and Silas hurriedly retreat to door R.) SOFTY Not that way, gentlemen; we ll be wantin that room. SILAS (Eagerly.) What for? SOFTY (Carelessly.) To lay out the corpse in. This way, please. (Pointing to L.) (Exeunt Constable and Silas hurriedly L., as door in centre opens to Judge Lynch, Members of Committee, Jack Miller, and Napoleon Hopkins. They are dressed with trousers tucked in high boots and gaily -coloured silk handkerchiefs loosely hung about their necks. Judge Lynch alone wears a black frock coat, buttoned up to the chin. He is clean shaven except for the American chin or "goatee" beard. He is not comic or grot esque. Members sit in wooden arm-chairs, brought in by negro attendants on one side. Judge sits in rocking-chair at R. of table R., 136 SUE: A PLAY facing Committee. Witnesses, etc., come in at door C., where they stand. All action takes place there, or in cleared space between Judge and Committee. Jim Wynd is led in and put in chair at L. No. 22 (the secre tary) closes and locks door C. and takes list from his pocket. Saleratus Bill places three chairs to represent witness-box, well back L. Softy places three chairs to repre sent prisoner s box well down L.) No. 22 (C.) Gentlemen will please answer the roll Jack Miller ? MILLER Here. No. 22 Napoleon Hopkins ! HOPKINS Here! SALERATUS BILL (JR., rising and speaking to Judge.} I reckon we kin drop this. It s understood that members who don t attend will be fined the whisky as usual. (Sits.) SUE: A PLAY 137 JUDGE Very well. We will dispense with the roll. (Rises.) Now, gentlemen,, I must remind you that you are upon your solemn oath not to divulge the names of fellow-members,, nor any secret proceeding. SALERATUS BILL (Rising and interrupting.) I reckon ye kin drop that,, too, Judge. It s understood that the man who blabs kin be shot on sight as usual. (Sits.) JUDGE Then, gentlemen, to proceed with the case before me. It is rather a complicated one. Not that there is any doubt about the general guilt of the prisoner, nor that there never was a time in his youthful career when he couldn t have been hung if his fellow-citizens had been public-spirited enough to do it. But that, gentlemen, isn t his fault. And as fair-minded men we ain t going to allow the weakness of the community to tell agin the in dividual. ALL That s so. JUDGE But it s necessary, accordin to our rules, in such 138 SUE: A PLAY cases to select some particular thing to try him for, and if that don t fit, in the interests of strict justice, to try him for another, and to keep on trying until it does fit ! You see, gentlemen, we ve got to justify what these lawyers are always calling " the irregu larity" of our arrests and detentions. Well, gentle men, if this Court understands itself, and she thinks she does, there ain t a man among us as isn t willin 5 to risk his own life, and the prisoner s to justify it. (Sit*.) ALL That s so you bet ! JUDGE And now let us take the first charge. It s said by that Constable that the prisoner killed a man over in Bolinas City three months ago. It s rather a stale corpse that this Constable is ringin in on us, gentlemen, and I d like to know something more about it than mere testimony. Did anyone here know the deceased ? HOPKINS (Rising.) I did, Judge. JUDGE What kind of man was he ? W T hat was his general gait ? SUE: A PLAY 139 HOPKINS Bout as bad as they make em. He was a short cardsharp, and cleaned the Excelsior boys outer a thousand dollars. JIM (L., eagerly.} That s so,, Judge ! He was ringing in a cold deck on me when I shot him. JUDGE (Sternly.) Silence ! JIM (Excitedly.) Ain t a man got a chance to speak for his life? JUDGE Not until after the verdict. (To Hopkins.) Then the deceased was about as bad as the prisoner ? HOPKINS Thar warn t much to choose, Judge. Whichever one you d have happened to kill, you d have been sure it oughter been the other. (Sits.) JUDGE The first charge is dismissed. ( To prisoner, gravely.) It is the business of this yer Court to temper justice with mercy and it may take this triflin act o 140 SUE: A PLAY yours into account. But (to Jury) this complicates the second charge, which is that the prisoner shot the Sheriff, who was pursuing him. Now, gentlemen, if that Sheriff was pursuing him on a charge that we have just dismissed as triflin , it s a mighty ticklish question how fur the killin of the Sheriff by the prisoner warn t an act of self-defence. (Bill takes stool, and crosses back of table.) JIM (Eagerly.) That s what I said ! JUDGE Silence ! SALERATUS BILL There s a good deal in what you say, Judge and I don t go much on the looks of that Constable. (Whispers eagerly to fellow-jurors; then to Judge.) We might tackle that Constable again. JUDGE (To Softy.) Bring him in. SALERATUS BILL (To Softy.) And bring in that measley psalm- singin chap that wanted to serve on the Committee. SUE: A PLAY 141 (Exit Softy L.j quickly re-entering with Constable and Silas.) I reckon if this charge agin the prisoner peters out, we may find suthin against him ! (Sits.) SILAS (C., obsequiously to Judge.) I was just sayin I was willin JUDGE (Sternly interrupting.) Shut up! (To Softy.) Who is this man ? Another prisoner ? SOFTY (L.C.) Not yet, Judge; but we have hopes and expectations. Just now he was anxious very anxious to serve on the Jury. JUDGE Ah ! Was he ? We all know what that means ! Shove him in there, alongside the prisoner ! SILAS (Protesting.) But I m a religious man, and JUDGE What ? Say that again ! 142 SUE: A PLAY SILAS I m a religious man JUDGE (Interrupting him.) Gag him if he don t dry up. (Silas is thrust ignominiously into chair beside Jim Wynd.) (Constable goes to witness bench. Softy sits.) JUDGE (To Constable.) Now we all know your evidence. Have you anything to add to or take away from it? CONSTABLE Nothing. JUDGE And you are certain the Sheriff was shot by the prisoner ? CONSTABLE It s as clear as day. We were out huntin him. That he was hid away in the loft at Lone Farm is proved by his circus get-up, in which he got away from Lowville, being found there ; that he got away again directly after the murder is proved by his stealing Ira Beasley s horse. SUE: A PLAY 143 ALL (Rising and drawing pistols.) (Excitedly and angrily.) Hoss-stealin ! JIM (Appealingh/.) In self-defence, gentlemen in self-defence only ! (During this excitement and its suppression by the Judge, Ira slips in through door C.) JUDGE (To Constable.) Is there any other witness ? CONSTABLE No. (Ira Beasley comes forward. He limps painfully and seems exhausted, but is better dressed than in the last Act ; his hair has been cut and his beard cropped, and an evident effort made to "smarten himself up.") (Ira arrests the attention of everyone.) IRA Yes. JUDGE (To Ira, and having quelled the buzz oj excitement that his appearance has elicited.) Who are you ? 144 SUE: A PLAY IRA (C., faintly, and as if tired out.) Ira Beasley. JUDGE Of Lone Farm ? IRA Yes. (Renewed excitement on part of bystanders.) JUDGE (To crowd.) Silence ! (To Ira.) Do you know the prisoner ? IRA (Looking at Jim Wynd and shaking his head.) No. (Faintly.) Never saw him before. JUDGE (Sternly.) Then what are you doing here ? IRA (Collecting himself with an evident effort.) Because / killed the Sheriff. (Manifest ll sensation " on part of all present, which ee silences " itself in the evident eager excitement of everyone to hear more.) SUE: A PLAY 145 IRA (With outstretched hand, and gaming strength, and even dignity, as he speaks and turns his head slowly around the circle of eager listeners.) I killed him because he made love to my wife. I killed him because he wanted to run away with her. I killed him because I saw him waitin for her at the dead o night, when she d got outer bed to join him. He hadn t no gun, he hadn t no fight. I killed him in his tracks. That man (pointing to Wynd) wasn t in it at all. (Pausing, loosening his collar and baring his throat.) Now, take me out and hang me ! JUDGE (To Ira.) What proof have we of this ? Where s your wife ? Does she corroborate this ? IRA (With a tremor in his voice and bearing.) She ran away that night, and never come back again. JUDGE (To Ira.) Why did she run away ? IRA (Slowly.) P r aps because she loved him and 146 SUE: A PLAY couldn t bear me. P r aps, as I ve sometimes allowed to myself, gentlemen, it was because she didn t want to bear evidence against me. JIM May I speak now ? JUDGE Yes. (To the auditors.) We ll hear him. (All sit.) JIM (Audaciously and confidentially.) What that man says (indicating Ira) is true. After I stole the horse to get away,, and my life being in danger I had to get away somehow, I found his wife runnin wild down the road crying and sobbing. At first I thought she d done the shooting and then she told me it was that man (indicating Ira), her husband. It made her afraid to go back to him, and she begged me to take her along with me. It was a risky thing for me to do, gentlemen, but I took her up on the horse and got her away to Lowville. It was that much dead weight agin my chances, but I took it. She was a woman, and I ain t a dog ! (Murmurs of approbation from all present.) SUE: A PLAY 147 IRA (Limping across the room and extending his hand to Jim.) Shake ! (Sits.) (Renewed murmurs of approbation.) JUDGE (To Constable.) What do you know of the Sheriffs attentions to Mrs Beasley? Were they enough to justify the husband s jealousy? Did he make love to her ? (All turn to Constable.) (Auditors await Constable s reply in intense excite ment. Constable hesitates.) JUDGE You must answer my question. Did the Sheriff make love to her? (All lean forward.) (Constable seems about to speak, and then resumes his awkward silence.) JUDGE (Turns to Constable and exposes pistol from his hip pocket.) Did he make love to her ? CONSTABLE (After a pause ; slowly and half defiantly. ) Well , Judge, he was a man ! (Everyone laughs violently and unrestrainedly.) 148 SUE: A PLAY (Violent knocking heard at door C. Everybody starts. Witness and spectators edge away from door, and whole assembly rises with revolvers drawn in their hands.] JUDGE (Standing with a certain calm dignity, addressing Saleratus Bill.) See who it is who dares to interrupt the Court at such a moment but let no living man enter. Are you ready, gentlemen ? (Draw ing pistol.) ALL (Raising revolvers.) Ready ! SALERATUS BILL (Goes to door, revolver in hand, and peers out ; then returns quickly, in amazement and, gasping.) It s a lady! ALL A lady ? SALERATUS BILL Yes, and a regular beauty ! JUDGE (Sternly.) She must wait. (Bill exits, and returns immediately.) SALERATUS BILL She says she has important business with the Court. SUE: A PLAY 149 JUDGE (Hurriedly buttoning his frock coat and pulling up his collar.) Admit her ! (All put pistols away.) (Bill opens door C. and admits Sue.) IRA (L.) My God! Sue! My wife ! JUDGE (R.) Your wife ? IRA (Dropping his head between his hands.) Yes. (Sensation. Every man passes his hand through his hair, pulls his moustache and straightens himself.) JUDGE (Solemnly to Jury.) Gentlemen, the last witness was correct. The Sheriff was a man ! (Murmurs of assent from the Jury.) JUDGE (Placing chair. To Sue.) Be seated, madam. (All sit.) You say you have important business with the 150 SUE: A PLAY Court. (Bowing and pulling up his collar.} It is at your service. (Slight pause. Sue seems to be agitated.) JUDGE (Very blandly.) What is your business here ? SUE (Excitedly.) To tell the truth ! JUDGE (Stepping down.) Well ? Go on. SUE (In evident agitation.) He he he didn t kill the Sheriff. JUDGE (Going back to table.) Who is "he" ? Please, be more explicit. SUE (With a shamefaced glance at Ira.) My husband he didn t do it. IRA (Seated L., addressing Judge.) You ll allow it s reasonable in a woman to want to get me off like that and, maybe, in my name, you ll take SUE: A PLAY 151 your chance of thanking her for it ; but I did it, and I m here to suffer for it. SUE (To Judge.} I know he meant to do it. I know he thought he did it. He was and it was all my fault mad jealous of the Sheriff, though Heaven knows he had no need to be ; but he didn t kill him. IRA (Doggedly.) I did, and I d do it again ! (All rise, and draw revolvers levelled at Ira, with cries of " Quit that !") JUDGE (Sharply.) Order, gentlemen ! What does this mean ? SALERATUS BILL He s contradicted a lady ! (Sullenly.) Don t let him do it again. (All sit down again. Pause.) SUE (Still addressing Judge.) He couldn t have killed him (in a broken voice) for I loaded the gun that day and put no shot in it. 152 SUE: A PLAY JUDGE This is an improbable story. How can you prove this ? SUE (Excitedly. ) He (indicating Ira) will remember that I asked him to teach me how to load the gun. He knows that all the shot he had in the house was in the flask. I never put any shot in the gun. I can prove it, for I ve got his shot flask here (pro ducing shot flask), and it s as full as the day when I loaded the gun. IRA My God ! She s right ! (Sits L.) JUDGE (At table.) Your evidence, madam, is interesting as to how a woman loads a shot gun, but it can hardly, I am afraid, be called conclusive. JIM (L., vehemently.) Can t you see it s all a put-up job between these two ? to make me swing instead of him ? What s that shot flask proved ? IRA (Simply.) It s made me see that Sue was right, and I was wrong. SUE: A PLAY 153 JIM D ye hear him ? playing into her hands as if they thought this Judge and Jury hadn t sense enough to know that that shot flask could have been filled and emptied twenty times over between then and now? SUE (Defiantly.) I m telling the truth. JIM (With scorn.) Upon my soul this is playing it a little bit too low down. Why, didn t I see him (indicating Ira) shoot the Sheriff, face to face ? IRA That s true. JUDGE (To Ira.) You freely admit that ? IRA (Simply.) There s no getting over it. I believe what my wife says,, but I meant to kill him and I m here to suffer. I suppose I deserve to suffer, and, anyway, I m tired o life and ready to do it. SUE (To Judge.) You hear what he says, sir? (Turn ing to men.) You hear what he says, gentlemen? 154 SUE: A PLAY Then let me speak too, for I m tired of life. I have brought him to this. I have been wicked, heartless, and and if you won t take me as a witness to save him, then for the sake of making all things square and even, let me, who am just as guilty as he is, stand by his side, and suffer with him. (During this, the Jury have become greatly interested, and at the conclusion, Saleratus Bill, listening eagerly, lets his revolver slip accidentally to the floor.) JUDGE Silence in Court ! The next man who SALERATUS BILL (Rebelliously.) Can t a man accidentally let up his feelings in your darned Court without yer raving. Look yer, boys (turning to Jury) there ain t no humanity in this yer Court ! Chorus of JURYMEN No ! No ! JUDGE Silence ! It strikes me, gentlemen, that this has gone on long enough. My opinion is, that this Court is being played upon and trifled with in its highest and noblest emotions. We are not here to answer conundrums perpetrated by cranks who on SUE: A PLAY 155 their own showin ain t competent to settle which is their own funeral. We are not here to usurp the functions of the fool-killer for this district. With the exception of the lady (Enter C. No. 22, who has gone off.) No. 22 (Excitedly.) Save yourselves,, boys ! There s a mounted posse of citizens and State troops comin up the stage road, not two miles away, howlin out for Regulators ! Some one has blabbed ! SALERATUS BILL (Furiously, and pointing to Silas and Constable.) There are the traitors ! I suspected them from the first ! Seize them ! (Great excitement. Silas and Constable are seised. Their first joy at the news is changed to terror. Jim Wynd slinks behind them. Ira and Judge alone remain calm. Patrol bolts door C.) JUDGE (With dignity and determination^) Order, gentle men, order ! (After a pause, and when silence is re stored.) There is no need, I believe, for a collision with the authorities. There is ample time for you 156 SUE: A PLAY all to slip quietly away and resume your occupations as simple American citizens. Release those two men (pointing to Silas and Constable}. They dared not have led the posse here, knowing, as they do, that they are themselves inculpated in these pro ceedings before the authorities, and that they are under our rules, which prescribe death to them if they divulge our secrets. Take them beyond the limits of the town and set them free. As to our prisoners, this one (pointing to Ira), who has volun tarily given himself up to us, we leave the same privilege of giving himself up to the Law, which has more time to look after those delicate distinctions he has raised than we have. As to this one (point ing to Jim Wynd) JIM Mercy ! Mercy ! (Cross to C.) JUDGE We might safely leave him to answer to the Law for that old-time corpse. JIM No ! No ! (Imploringly.*) Let me go ! JUDGE (Continuing, inflexibly.) But we propose to temper SUE: A PLAY 157 justice with mercy. We will give him one more chance for his life. (Cross to R.C. Regards Wynd critically. To Wynd.) You are an acrobat ? JIM I am. JUDGE Good at your trade, I believe ? JIM (Straightening himself, and with pride.) The best in the country. JUDGE Good ! Then, as you owe us some return for the trouble you have given us, you shall give us a taste of your quality now. (Taking him by the arm and pointing to window R.) Do you see that tree, with the one straight branch below the window ? JIM (Trembling.) Yes. JUDGE In ten minutes more you would have been dangling from it. Now is your one chance for escape. The branch is twenty feet from the ground, the tree fifteen feet from this window. Can 158 SUE: A PLAY you reach it with a run and a single bound from that window to the branch and another to the ground ? JIM (Hesitatingly.*) I I (then boldly) I can ! (Cries of "Good!" "Bully !" and great excitement, as men make a lane across the stage and Jim retires for his start. Chairs placed in oblique line.) HOPKINS Ten dollars that he breaks his neck ! SALERATUS BILL Fifteen his leg ! SOFTY Twenty that he gets clear away ! JUDGE Are you ready ? One ! Two ! Three ! (Jim runs to window and clears it with ajlying bound. All run eagerly to window .) SALERATUS BILL (At window.) He s done it, by God ! (Cries and shouts of " Bully for the acrobat ! "- "Beautiful!") SUE: A PLAY 159 SUE (Excitedly.} Thank God ! IRA ( Who has watched and applauded Jim s feat glancing at Sue.) Yes, that s the kind o man as takes a woman ! (Noise and shouts without. All turn to door C. and draw.) SUE (Anxiously.) Oh! Perhaps they ve caught him ! JUDGE No. It s only the coming of the posse. (To Committee.) Now, gentlemen ! Out the back way! We re just in time ! (The stage is cleared at once, the men passing out R. and L. Door at C. remains closed.) (Save for Ira and Sue the stage is empty.} IRA (C., approaching Sue awkwardly.} I reckon I ought to thank ye for coming here to save my life, and I do thank ye. I d clean forgotten about your loadin that gun, and even if I d remembered it, I shouldn t 160 SUE: A PLAY have known ye d put no shot in it. Well, I thank ye and well good-bye. (Turns and is going.) SUE (R.C., passionately.) Ira, I know how wrong I ve been, but Heaven knows I m sorry. Ira, can t you forgive me ? Won t you take me home ? IRA (L.C., slowly.) Maybe I ve nothing to forgive. God knows I ve a lot to be forgiven for. Ye see, I meant to shoot that man, and so it s as bad as if I did it. And (deliberately) I know I d do it again if the devil was in me as he was that night. SUE (C.) But won t you take me home and trust me? IRA I ve found out I can t trust myself. I don t know as I m fit to have a home. Though (touching his coat and beard with a faint display of pride] I ll allow I ve laid out a little money on myself, since since (with a deep sigh, and after a little pause) since you left me. SUE: A PLAY 161 SUE But you were all wrong about that man. IRA You never looked like that at me, you never dressed like that for me, and if I saw it again I know I d want to kill somebody. You see, I can t trust myself. I m not fit to have a wife ; I m not fit to have a home. The dead man stands between us. I m best alone. (Turns to go.) (Knocking heard at door.) (Sheriffs voice without.) SHERIFF Open, in the name of the law ! IRA That voice ! Who are you ? SHERIFF The Sheriff of Bolinas! IRA My God ! Impossible ! SUE Thank Heaven ! (Ira opens door C. and Sheriff enters.) i6z SUE: A PLAY SHERIFF (Looking round stage.] All cleared out eh ? (To Ira.] I m a witness ye didn t expect to see in this yer trial, eh ? SUE Then you weren t killed ? SHERIFF Well does it look like it ? Though I reckon it warn t your fault that bullet lodged itself in my leg instead of my head. And to think that I ve laid quiet so long and I ve tracked down my man only to see him get away ! (Crosses R.) IRA (Uneasily.) Alive ! And with me and Sue again. SHERIFF (To Ira.) And don t you worry about me either. If you want to keep clear o me take your wife home. (Enter Parson.) SHERIFF The Parson told me that you had come here to SUE: A PLAY 163 own up to my murder, and I came here as a witness to show I wasn t dead. Goodbye, and bad luck to Lone Farm ! (Exit Sheriff C.) SUE (R.C., to Ira.) There you see how wrong you have been. IRA (L.C., doggedly.) There s suthin I don t under stand yet. Where did you go to that night ? SUE (To Parson, in acute distress.) Oh, what shall I do ? I want to show him I am sorry ? PARSON Tell him the truth. SUE What would he say ? PARSON Shall I speak for you ? SUE Yes. 1 64 SUE: A PLAY PARSON (To Ira.) Jim Wynd was hidden in your loft that night. IRA (Indifferently). Well he d got to hide some where. PARSON He was secreted there, he was fed there, he was supplied there with a disguise by your wife. (Sue sits on chair L. of table R., covers her face with her hands, and sobs.) IRA (With a sudden burst of intense passion.) Then it was for him ! That was why she dressed her hair and made herself smart that (In a frenzy he raises his hand to strike Sue, who, without flinching, looks up at him, with folded hands.) IRA (Lowering his hand and turning away as if in intense shame.) You see, I can t trust myself. PARSON (Speaking very kindly.) You have just shown me SUE: A PLAY 165 that you can control yourself. On that night I found your wife and that man, Wynd, talking to each other in the road. IRA ( With a cry of pain.) Oh ! PARSON (C.) He had your horse by the bridle and he was begging her to go with him. She was resolutely declining, when I interfered between the two. IRA (Breathlessly.) Well ? PARSON He mounted your horse and rode away alone. IRA (L.) D n him he was welcome to my horse ; but my wife PARSON It had been in her mind to go with Wynd that night. IRA (In agony.) Oh ! 1 66 SUE: A PLAY PARSON But before I told her the truth about that scoundrel she despised him. When from his own wicked lips she knew that Wynd, thinking he had killed the Sheriff, meant to saddle you with the murder, she hated him. IRA But she promised to go. PARSON Man ! Can t you see that this trial in your lives was sure to come ? Your loveless marriage was bound to be followed by trouble, and can t you go down on your knees and thank God that the trouble has come in such a form that it s not too late to begin again ? SUE (Crosses to Ira.) But I didn t go. Can t you forgive me ? Can t you take me home and trust me ? (Kneels.) Don t you remember how we once lost a brown calf, one that we prized most, which had broken its rope and strayed away ? how we wandered about half the wet night looking for it, broken-hearted, in the darkness, and then at last SUE: A PLAY 167 came back sadly to the cow-shed and found it standing in the rain patiently by the door, waiting to be let in ? IRA It broke its rope. Yes ! that was because it was always frisky and venturesome. SUE No, Ira ; it was because it was young and tied up. IRA (To Parson.} What s she been doing since she left me ? PARSON I took her into my own family. Until to-day she has not left it. When I told her you were coming here, to give yourself up for the murder of the Sheriff, she determined to come too, and save your life. You see she s innocent and repentant. Why, man ! doesn t your heart tell you to forgive her ? (Crosses to Ira.) IRA (With outstretched arms.) Yes. O Sue Sue! (Sue rises.) In my own way I ve always loved you 1 68 SUE: A PLAY come to me again, and I ll try to make it a better way. (Sue, with a little cry of joy., goes to him and kisses him.} PARSON That s good ! (Crosses to C.) IRA Yes ; and, Parson (with Sue s face between his hands and gazing at her lovingly] Sue never looked like this at me before. 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