UC-NRLF B M DTI fl03 GOLD PLAYS BY EUGENE G. O NEILL THE MOON OF THE CARIBBEES AND Six OTHER PLAYS OF THE SEA BEYOND THE HORIZON THE STRAW GOLD G O D A PLAY IN FOUR ACTS BY EUGENE G. O NEILL BONI AND PUBLISHERS LIVERIGHT NEW YORK GOLD COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY BONI & LlVERIGHT, INC. Printed in the United States of America SCENES OF ACTS ACT ONE A barren coral island on the [fringe of the Malay archipelago Noon. A.CT Two Interior of a boat shed on the wharf of the Bartlett place on the California coast. An afternoon six months later. ACT THREE Exterior of the Bartlett house dawn of the following morning. ACT FOUR Bartlett s "cabin" his lookout post at the top of the house. A night one year later. Time of the play About the year 1900 055 ACT I CHARACTERS CAPTAIN ISAIAH BAETLETT, of the whaling ship, Triton SILAS HORNE, boatswain of the Triton BEN CATES 1 T ^ T 7 j rof the Tritons crew JIMMY KANAKA, an Islander] BUTLER, cool: of the Triton ABEL, the ship s boy SARAH ALLEN BARTLETT, the captain s wife SUE, their daughter NAT, their son DANIEL DREW, officer of a freight steamer DOCTOR BERRY ACT ONE SCENE A small, barren coral island on the southern fringe of the Malay Archipelago. The coral sand, blazing white under the full glare of the sun, lifts m the right foreground to a long hum- muck a few feet above sea-level. A stunted coco palm rises from the center of this eleva tion, its bunch of scraggly leaves drooping motionlessly, casting a small circular patch of shadow directly beneath on the ground about the trunk. About a hundred yards in the dis tance the lagoon is seen, its vivid blue contrast ing with the white coral beach which borders its circular outline. The far horizon to sea ward is marked by a broad band of purplish haze which separates the bright blue of the water from the metallic grey-blue of the sky. The island bakes. The intensity of the sun s rays is -flung back skyward in a quivering mist of heat-waves which distorts the outlines of things, giving the visible world an intangible eerie quality, as if it were -floating submerged in some colorless molten fluid . As the curtain rises, ABEL is discovered ly- 1 GOLD mg asleep, curled up in the patch of shade beneath the coco palm. He is a runty, under- sized boy of fifteen, with a shrivelled old face, tanned to parchment by the sun. He has on a suit of dirty dungarees, man s size, much too large for him, which hang in loose folds from his puny frame. A thatch of brown hair strag gles in limp wisps from under the peaked canvas cap he wears. He looks terribly ex hausted. His dreams are evidently fraught with terror, for he twitches convulsively and moans with fright. BUTLER enters hurriedly, panting, from the right, rear. He is a tall man of over middle age, dressed in the faded remainder of what was once a brown suit. The coat, tlie buttons of which have been torn off, hangs open, revealing his nakedness beneath. A cloth cap covers his bald head, with its halo of dirty thin grey hair. His body is emaciated. His face, with its round, blue eyes, is weathered and cracked by the sun s rays. The wreck of a pair of heavy shoes flop about his bare feet. He looks back cautiously, as if he were afraid of being followed; then satisfied that he is not, he approaches the sleeping boy, and bending down, puts his hand on ABEL S forehead. ABEL groans and opens his eyes. He stares about furtively, as if seeking someone whose presence he dreads to find. GOLD 3 ABEL [In a husky voice.] Where s Capt n and the rest, Butts? BUTLER [In a hoarse, cracked whisper.] On the beach down there. [He makes an exhausted gesture, right, and then sinks with a groan at the foot of the tree, leaning back against the trunk, try ing vainly to hunch his long legs up so as to be completely m the shade.] ABEL What re they doin ? [With avid eyes.] They ain t found no water yet? BUTLER [Shaking his head, his eyes closing wearily.] No. How would they when there ain t any not on this devil s island dry as a bone, my sonny sand and sun that s all. ABEL [Remomtratingly his? lips trembling a little.] Aw maybe you don t know no different. BUTLER No. Might as well look the devil in the face, sonny. There s no water here. Not a damn drop. No nor a scrap to eat, neither. Only the damn sun. [Weakly touching the skin of his face with trembling fingers.] God ! My face is like the raw inside of a wet hide ! If it d only rain ! [After a pause kindly.] But how are you, eh? Had a good sleep? ABEL I was dreamin awful. [With a sudden, shrill agony his lips twitching.] I need a drink of water something awful! My mouth s burnin up. [With tremulous pleading.] Say, ain t you got nother drink left? honest, ain t you? 4 GOLD BUTLER [Looking around him cautiously.] Not so loud! [Fixing his- eyes sternly on the boy.] This is a dead secret, mind ! You ll swear you won t blab not to him? ABEL Sure, Butts, sure! Gawd strike me dead! BUTLER [Takes a pint bottle from the hip- pocket of his pants. It is about half full of water.] He don t know I ve got this, remember! He and the rest they d kill me like a dog and you too, sonny remember that! ABEL Sure! I ain t goin* to tell em, Butts. [Stretching out his hands frenziedly.] Aw, give it to me, Butts ! Give me a drink, for Christ s sake ! BUTLER No, you don t ! I ll hold it for you. Only a few drops. You d have it all down your throat. And we ve got to be careful. It s got to last til the ship comes past that ll pick us up. That s the only hope. [Holding the bottle at arm 9 s length from the boy.] Hands down, now or you don t get a drop! [The boy lets his hands drop to his sides. BUTLER puts the bottle carefully to his lips, and allows the boy two gulps then snatches It away.] That s all now. More later. [He takes one gulp himself, and making a tremendous effort of will, jerks the bottle from his lips, and corking It quickly, thrusts it back in his pocket and heaves c, shudder ing sigh.] ABEL Aw, more! Just another swaller BUTLER [Determinedly.] No ! GOLD 5 ABEL [Crying weakly. ] Yuh dirty mut! BUTLER [Quietly.] There! Don t get riled. It only makes you hotter and thirstier. [The boy sinks back exhausted and closes his eyes. BUTLER begins to talk in a more assured voice, as if the sip of water had renewed his courage.] That ll save us yet, that bit of water. A lucky notion of mine to think of it at the last moment. They were just lowering the boats. I could hear you call ing to me to hurry and come. They didn t care if I went down with that stinking whaling ship or not, damn them! What did the dirty cook matter to them? But I thought of filling this bottle. It d been lying there in the galley for two years almost. I d had it on my hip, full of whiskey, that night in Oakland when I was shanghied. So I filled it out of a bucket before I ran to the boat. Lucky I did, son for you and me not for them damn em ! ABEL [Struggling to a sitting posture, evidently strengthened by his drink.] Gee if the Old Man was wise you got it BUTLER He won t know nor Home, nor Gates, nor Jimmy Kanaka, neither. [As if in self-justifi cation.] Why should I tell em, eh? Did I ever get anything better than a kick or a curse from one of them? [Vindictively] Would they give it to me if they had it? They d see me in hell first! And be sides, it s too late for them. They re mad as hatters right now, the four of them. They ain t had a drop 6 GOLD since three nights back, when the water in the cask gave out and we rowed up against this island in the dark. Think of it, and them out walking and roast ing in the sun all day, looking for water where there ain t any. Wouldn t you be crazy? [Suddenly he laughs queerly.~] Didn t you hear them shouting and yelling like lunatics just before I came? ABEL I thought I heard something on y maybe I was dreamin*. BUTLER It s them that are doing the dreaming. I was with them. I had to go. [With rising anger.] He kicked me awake and every time I tried to get away he beat me back. He s strong yet [With threatening mndictiveness.] but he can t last long, damn him! [Controlling himself, goes on with his story excitedly.] Well, we went looking for water on this sand pile. Then Jimmy Kanaka saw a boat sunk half under down inside the reef a Ma lay canoe, only bigger. They got down in her the best way they could, up to their waists in water. They thought there might be something to drink on her. I was trying to sneak off, scared to go in on account of sharks. All of a sudden they gave an awful yell. I thought they d found something to drink and ran back. They was all standing about a box they d forced open, yelling and cursing and out of their heads completely. When I looked I seen the box was full of all sorts of metal junk bracelets and bands and necklaces that I guess the Malays wear. GOLD 7 Nothing but brass and copper, and bum imitations of diamonds and things not worth a dam; and there they were, shouting with joy and slapping each other on the back. And that hellion of a skipper shouts at me : "Get out of this ! No share here for a stinking cook !" he yells. I didn t say nothing but just picked up some of the stuff to make sure. Then I told him straight. "This ain t gold. It s brass and copper not worth a damn." God, he got wild ! I had to run, or he d knifed me then and there. That was when I woke you up. ABEL, And ain t it worth nothin , honest? How d you know it ain t ? BUTLER D you think I ain t learned to know gold in my time? And polished enough copper and brass to know them, too? Just as if it was gold it d do em any good! You can t drink gold, can you? [With sudden violence.] It serves em right, all that s happened and going to happen. Kicks and smacks in the face if I even winked an eye two years of it ! And me shanghied when I was drunk taken away from a good job and forced to cook the swill on a rotten whaler. Oh, I ll pay him back for it! His damn ship is wrecked and lost to him that s the first of it. I ll see him rot and die and the three with him ! But you and me ll be saved ! D you know why I ve let you go halves on this water, instead of hogging it all myself? It s be cause you were the only one on board that didn t 8 GOLD treat me like a dog and they kicked and beat you, too. We were in the same boat. And now we ll get even ! Them and their dirty box of junk ! [He sinks back, exhausted by this outburst. ~\ ABEL [Suddenly, in a piteous voice. ] Gee, I wisht I was back home again ! BUTLER You ll get back. We both will. [He closes his eyes. After a pause weakly] When I close my eyes, everything gets to rocking under me, like I was in that open boat again. I won t forget these four days in a hurry. Up and down Nothing but sun and water. [They are both silent, leaning with closed eyes against the bole of the tree, panting exhaust edly. A murmur of men s voices comes from the right, rear, and gradually get nearer. ~\ ABEL [Opening his eyes with a start.] Butts! I hear em comin ! BUTLER [Listening, wide-eyed, -for a moment. ] Yes, it s them. [He gets to his feet weakly.] Come, let s get out of this. [ABEL staggers to his feet. They both move to the left. BUTLER shades his eyes with his hands and looks toward the beach] Look! They re dragging along that box of junk with em, the damn fools! [Warningly] They re crazy as hell. Don t give em no chance to pick on you, d you hear? They d stop at nothing when they re this way. [There is a scuffling of heavy foot steps in the sand, and CAPTAIN BARTLETT appears, GOLD 9 followed by HORNE, who in turn is followed by GATES and JIMMY KANAKA. BARTLETT is a tall, huge- framed figure of a man, dressed* in a blue double- breasted coat, pants of the same material, and rubber sea-boots turned dow-n from the knees. In spite of the ravages of hunger and thirst there is still a suggestion of immense strength in his heavy-r muscled body. His head is massive, thickly covered with tangled, iron-grey hair. His face is large, bony, and leather-tanned, with a long aquiline nose and a gash of a mouth shadowed by a bristling grey mustache. His broad jaw sticks out at an angle of implacable stubbornness. Bushy grey brows over hang the obsessed glare of his sombre dark eyes. SILAS HORNE is a thin, parrot-nosed, angular old man, his lean face marked by a life-time of crass lusts and mean cruelty. He is dressed in grey cotton trousers, and a singlet torn open across his hairy cJiest. The exposed skin of his arms and shoulders and chest has been blistered and seared by the sun. A cap is on his head. GATES is squat and broad- chested, with thick, stumpy legs and arms. His square., stupid face, with its greedy pig s eyes, is terribly pock-marked. He is gross and bestial, an unintelligent brute. He is dressed in dungaree pants and a dirty white sailor s blouse, and wears a brown cap. JIMMY KANAKA is a tall, sinewy, bronzed young Islander. He wears only a loin cloth and a leather belt with a sheath-knife. The last two are 10 GOLD staggering beneath the weight of a heavy Maid chest. The eyes of the three white men are wild. They pant exhaustedly, their legs tremblmg with weakness beneath them. Their lips are puffed and cracked, their voices muffled by tjieir swollen tongues. But there is a mad air of happiness, of excitement, about their scorched faces.] BARTLETT [In a crooning, monotonous voice. ] It s heavy, I know, heavy that chest. Up, bullies ! Up with her! [He flings himself in the shade, rest ing his back agamst the tree, and points to the sand at his feet.] Put er there, bullies there where I kin see! HORNE [Echoing his words mechanically] Put er there ! GATES [In thick, stupid tones.] Aye-aye, sir! Down she goes, Jimmy! [They set the chest down.] BARTLETT Sit down, lads, sit down. Ye ve earned your spell of rest. [The three men throw themselves on the sand in attitudes of spent weari ness. Bartlett s eyes are fixed gloatingly on the chest. There is a silence suddenly broken by Cates, who leaps to a kneeling position with a choked cry.] GATES [His eyes staring at the Captain with fierce msistence.] I want a drink water! [The others are startled into a rigid, dazzed attention, HORNE S lips move painfully in a soundless repeti tion of the word. There is a pause. Then Bartlett strikes the side of his head with his fist, as if to drive GOLD 11 this obsession from his brain. BUTLER and ABEL stand looking at them with frightened eyes.] BARTLETT [Having regamed control over him self, in a determined voice, deep-toned and menac- mg.] If ye speak that word ever again, Ben Gates if ye say it once again ye ll be food for the sharks! Ye hear? GATES [Terrified.] Yes, sir. [He collapses limply on the sand again. HORNE and the KANAKA relax hopelessly.] BARTLETT [With heavy scorn.] Are ye a child to take on like a sick woman cryin* for what ye know we ve not got? Can t ye stand up under a little thirst like a man? [Resolutely.] There ll be water enough if ye ll wait and keep a stiff upper lip on ye. We ll all be picked up today. I ll stake my word on it. This state o things can t last. [His eyes fall on the chest.] Ye ought to be singin stead o cryin after the find we ve made. What s the lack of water amount to when ye ve gold before you? [With mad exultation.] Gold! Enough of it in your share alone to buy ye rum, and wine, and women, too, for the rest o your life ! GATES [Straightening up to a sitting posture his small eyes staring at the box fascmatedly in a stupid mumble.] Aye aye rum and wine ! BARTLETT [Half closing his eyes as if the better to enjoy his vision.] Yes, rum and wine and women for you and Home and Jimmy. No more hard work 12 GOLD on the dirty sea for ye, bullies, but a full pay-day in your pockets to spend each day o the year. [The three strain their ears, listening eagerly. Even BUT LER and ABEL advance a step or two toward him, as if they, too, were half hypnotized. ] And Gates grumbling because he s thirsty! I d be the proper one to complain if complainin there was to do ! Ain t I lost my ship and the work o two years with her? And what have ye lost, all three, but a few rags o clothes? [With savage emphasis.] I tell ye, I be glad the Triton went down! [He taps the box with his fingers. ] They s more in this than ever was earned by all the whalin ships afloat. They s gold heavy and solid and diamonds and emeralds and rubies ! red and green, they be. GATES [Licking his lips. ] Aye, I seen em there and emeralds be green, I know, and sell for a ton of gold ! BARTLETT [As if he hadn 9 t heard and was dreaming out loud to himself. ] Rum and wine for you three, and rest for me. Aye, I ll rest to home til the day I die. Aye, woman, I be comin home now for good. Aye, Nat and Sue, your father be comin home for the rest o his life ! No more stinkin* blubber on the deck. I ll give up whalin like ye ve always been askin me, Sarah. Aye, I ll go to meetin with ye on a Sunday like ye ve always prayed I would. We ll make the damn neighbors open their eyes, curse em! Carriages and silks for ye they ll GOLD 13 be nothin too good and for Sue and the boy. Fve been dreamin o this in my sleep for years. I never give a damn bout the oil that s just trade but I always hoped on some voyage I d pick up ambergris a whole lot of it and that s worth gold! HORNE [His head bobbing up from his chest drowsily.] Aye, ambergris ! It s costly truck. BUTLER [In a whisper to tlie boy cautiously. There! Wasn t I right? Mad as hatters, all of em! Come on away! ABEL [Staring at the Captain fascinatedly.] No. I wanter see em open it. BUTLER Look out ! You ll be going batty your self, first thing you know. [But he also stays."] BARTLETT [His voice more and more that of a somnambulist .] It s time I settled down to home with ye, Sarah, after twenty years o whalin . They s plenty o big trees on my place, bullies, and shade and green grass, and a cool wind off the sea. [He shakes off the growing drowsiness and glares about him in a rage.] Hell s fire! What crazy truck be I thinkin of? [But he and the others sink back im mediately into stupor. After a pause he begins to relate a tale in a droning voice.] Years ago, when I was whalin out o New Bedford just after I got my rst ship, it was a man come to me Spanish- looking, he was and wanted to charter my ship and me go shares. He showed me a map o some island off the coast of South America somewhere. They was 14 GOLD a cross marked on it where treasure had been buried by the old pirates. That was what he said. But I was a fool. I didn t believe him. I didn t see s I could take a chance. He got old Scott s schooner finally. She sailed and never was heard o since. But I ve never forgot him and his map. And often I ve thought if I d a went that vige [He straightens up and shouts with aggressive vio lence.] But here she be! Run right into it with out no map nor nothin . Gold and diamonds and all all them things he said was there there they be in front o our eyes! [To the now alert JIMMY.] Open er up, Jimmy! JIMMY [Getting up m his soft voice. ~\ Aye, Captain. [He reaches down to lift the lid.~\ BARTLETT [A sudden change of feeling comes over him, and he knocks JIMMY S arm aside sav agely.] Hands off, ye dog! I m takin care o this chest, and no man s hand s goin to touch it but mine! JIMMY [Stepping back docilely in the same un moved, soft tone.] Aye, Captain. [He squats down to the left of the chest.] BARTLETT [Seeming suddenly to notice the cook for the first time.] So there you be, eh? [His voice growing thick with rage.] I ain t forgot what ye said down by the shore there ! Lucky for ye I didn t catch ye then ! "Brass and copper junk," ye said "not gold! Not worth a damn," ye said! Ye GOLD 15 blasted son o a liar! No share for ye! I ll not forget. And keep your distance o me if ye want your hide! [Looking at ABEL.] Ye ve been tellin that boy your lies too, I kin tell by the look o him. [Sternly.] Come here, boy ! ABEL [Advances with faltering steps.] Y-yes, s-sir? BARTLETT Open up that chest! Open it up, ye brat! [With a desperate movement of fear ABEL reaches down and flings open the lid of the chest. As he does so, BARTLETT S huge hand fastens on the collar of his coat, and holds him with face bent over the boa:. HORNE, GATES, and JIMMY KANAKA pull themselves close, their necks craning for a look in side. BUTLER takes a few steps toward them.] BUTLER [In a low uncertain tone.] Maybe I was wrong, Captain Bartlett, sir. BARTLETT [Shaking the terror-stricken boy.] What d ye see there, ye little swab? What d ye see there ? ABEL Aw leggo I m chokin* ! BARTLETT [Grimly.] Ye 11 choke in earnest if ye don t answer me. What d ye see? Is it gold? Answer me is it gold? ABEL [Stutteringly.] Yes sure gold I see it! BARTLETT [Thrusts him away. The boy stag gers and falls to the sand. BARTLETT turns to BUT- LER triumphantly.] Ye see, ye liar? Gold! Gold. 1 16 GOLD Even a child can tell it at a look. [With a sombre menace in his tone.] But ye don t believe do ye? BUTLER [F right enedly.] Maybe I was wrong, sir. I didn t look very careful. BARTLETT Come here ! [He stands up, his back against the tree.] Come here ! BUTLER Yes, sir. [But he looks about him shiftily, as if to run away.] BARTLETT Jimmy! [The KANAKA leaps to his feet.] Knife him, Jimmy, if he tries to run. JIMMY [His hand goes to his knife, his dark eyes lighting up with savagery in his soft voice.] Aye, Captain! BARTLETT [To the trembling cook.] Come here! BUTLER [Goes to him with the courage of des peration.] Yes, sir. BARTLETT [Pointing to the contents of the chest. ] Is it gold or not? BUTLER If I can feel of one BARTLETT Pick one up. BUTLER [Picks up a heavy anklet encrusted with colored glass, looks at it for a minute then feigning great assurance."] I was wrong, Captain. It s gold all right enough worth all kinds of money, I bet. BARTLETT [With mad triumph."] Ha! Ye ve come to your senses, have ye? Too late, ye swab! No share for ye! And here s to teach ye for lyin GOLD 17 to me before ! [His fist jerks out from his side, and BUTLER is knocked sprawling on the sand, where he lies groaning for a moment, the anklet still clutched in his hand. The boy gives a gasp of fright and scampers off, left.~\ BARTLETT That ll learn ye! [He sits down be side the chest. The others crouch close. Bartlett shoves in both of his hands in a tone of mad gloat ing. ] Gold! Better n whaling, ain t she, boys? Better n ambergris, .even if I ever had luck to find any! [BUTLER staggers to his feet. He examines the anklet with contemptuous scorn and even bites it to make sure. Then lie edges stealthily toward tlie left. A sudden transformation comes over his face and he glowers at the Captain with hatred, his fea tures distorted with furyJ] JIMMY KANAKA {Pointing to BUTLER.] He got him, Captain! BARTLETT [Glancing at the cook with contemp tuous scornJ] Sneakin away with that piece o the gold, be ye? Ye thievin swine! Ye know right enough it s gold now, don t ye? Well, ye kin keep it for your share for speakin the truth that once. HORNE [His cupidity protesting.] Don t give it to him, sir! It s so much the less for us that worked for it when he did nothin* ! BUTLER [Overcome by hysterical rage stam mering. ] Who asked you for it eh? Who wants the dam thing? Not me! No! You damned luna- 18 GOLD tics ! You oughter all be in the asylum ? [Holdmg the anklet out contemptuously.] Gold? Ha-ha! This junk? I just bit it to make sure. Gold? Brass, that s what and pieces of glass! Junk! Not worth a dam. Here ! Take it ! You can have it! [He -flings it on the sand before them. BART- LETT snatches it up protectingly.] BARTLETT [In a frenzy. ] Jimmy! [But BUT LER runs off left with a terrified cry. JIMMY springs to his feet and stands with his hand on his knife, waiting for a further order. ] JIMMY [Eagerly. ] I go catch go stick him, Captain ? BARTLETT [Pausing with a frown.~\ No. They s time enough for that if need be. Sit down. [JIMMY sits down again with a childish air of sulk ing* BARTLETT stares at the treasure, continuing to frown, as if Butler 9 s action had made him un easy, bewildered and confused him. He mutters half to himself. ] Queer! Queer! He threw it back as if twas a chunk of mud ! He knew and yet he said he didn t want it. Junk, he called it and he knows it s gold ! He said twas gold himself a second back. He s queer. Why would he say junk when he knows it s gold? D ye think he don t believe? HORNE He was mad because you knocked him down. BARTLETT [Shaking his head grimly."] It ain t the first time I ve knocked him down ; but he never GOLD 19 spoke up to me like that before. No, it s some- thin else is wrong with him somethin*. HORNE No share for him, you told him sir. That s what wrong with him. BARTLETT [Again shaking his head.] No. His eyes It s somethin he s got in his head somethin he s hidin ! His share maybe he thinks he ll get his share anyway, in spite o us! Maybe he thinks his share wouldn t be all he wants ! Maybe he thinks we ll die o hunger and thirst before we get picked up and that he ll live and then he ll come in for the whole chestful ! [Suddenly springing to his feet in a rage, convinced that he has found the truth.] Hell s fire! That s it, bullies ! That s his sneakin plan ! To watch us die and steal it from us! GATES [Rising to his knees and shaking his hand threateningly above his head.] Tell Jimmy to knife him, sir! Tell Jimmy I ain t got a knife, or I d do it myself. [He totters weakly to his feet.] JIMMY [Eagerly.] You speak, I stick him, Captain. I stick boy, too. GATES [Weakening.] I m weak, but I kin do for him yet. I m weak [His knees sag under him. He pleads piteously.] If I d only a drink to put some strength in me! If I d only a sup o water, I d do for him! [Turning, as if to stagger down toward the beach.] There must be water. Let s look again. I ll go look [But the effort he 20 GOLD makes is too much for his strength and he falls to the sand, panting with open mouth.] BARTLETT [Summoning his strength sternly. } Put a clapper on that jaw of yours, Gates, or I ll do it for ye ! GATES [Blubbering.] If we don t find water he ll watch us die. JIMMY [Insinuatingly.] Better me knife cook fella kill boy, too ! BARTLETT Will killin em give us drink, ye fools? [After a pause, he shakes his head as if to drive off some thought, and mutters.] No more o that! [Suddenly, in a tone of sharp command.] No more o that, I say! We re keepin no right watch for ships. Go aloft on that tree, Jimmy and damn quick! Take a look and see if ye can sight a sail. [KANAKA shins quickly up the bole of the coco palm to the top and looks out on all sides of him. The others rise painfully to their feet and gaze up at him with awakened hope.] JIMMY [Suddenly, m a glad voice] I see um see sail, Captain. GATES [Waving his arms frenziedly] Sail ho! JIMMY Look plenty like trade schooner, Cap tain. She no change course she fetch plenty close by here. She make full sail, she got plenty fella wind out there, she come quick. GOLD 21 HORNE [Clapping GATES on the back. ] Headin straight for us, Gates, d you hear? B ARTLETT How far d ye reckon she be? JIMMY She s five, six fella mile, Captain. BARTLETT Comje down. [The Islander slides down. BARTLETT exclaims exultantly.] Didn t I tell ye? In the nick b time. When she makes in close we ll go down to the reef and yell and wave at her. They ll see ! The luck s with us today ! [His eyes fall on the treasure and he starts.] But now what s to do with this chest the gold? HORNE [Quickly.] You ain t going to tell them on the schooner about it ? GATES They d claim to share with us. HORNE More like they d steal it and knife us in the bargain. I know the kind on them schooners. BARTLETT [Scornfully.] D ye think I m cracked? No, we ll bury it here. GATES [Regretfully.] Leave it behind for any one to find? BARTLETT We ll bury it deep, where hell itself won t find it and we ll make a map o this island. [He takes a sheet of paper and a stub of pencil from his pocket pointing to the foot of the tree.] Dig a hole here you, Home and Jimmy and dig it deep. [The two bend down and commence to hollow out the sand with their hands. BARTLETT draws on the paper.] There s the lagoon and the reef and here s this tree the only one on the island 22 GOLD t would be hard to miss. [To GATES, who is peering over his shoulder. } And here where the tree is, d ye see, Gates, I ll make a cross where the gold is hid. HORNE [Over his shoulder, without ceasing his work.] How d ye know the lay o this island to find it again? BARTLETT By the last reckonin o the Triton s. It s writ on a page I tore from the log-book. And from there we headed due north in the boat, unless the compass lied four days a hundred and fifty miles, I reckon. [Exultantly.] Oh, all hell d not stop me from findin this place again when I know the gold s here. Let us once get home and I ll fit out a small schooner the four of us can sail, and we ll come back here to dig it up. It won t be long, I swear to ye! HORNE [Straightening up.~\ This deep enough, sir? BARTLETT It looks to be. JIMMY [Who has straightened up and is looking off left suddenly points excitedly. ,] He look, Cap tain ! Cook fella, he look here ! Boy he look, too ! They look plenty too much, Captain! [All jour stand staring off at BUTLER and the boy, whose presence on the island they have forgotten m their mad excitement. ] GATES [In stupid dismay."] They ll know where it s hid, sir! HORNE They ll tell *em on the schooner! GOLD 23 GATES [Wildly.] We ve got to do for em, Cap tain! Gimme your knife, Jimmy your knife [He stumbles toward the Islander, who pushes him aside brusquely, looking questionmgly toward the Captain.] BARTLETT [Who has been standing motionless, as if stunned by this forgotten complication slowly] There they be watchin us, the sneakin dogs! Sit down, an they won t see. [They all squat in the sand] I was forgettin they was here. [Striking his knee with clenched fist.] We ve got to do somethin damn quick! That schooner ll be up soon where they kin sight her and they ll wave and yell then and she ll see em! HORNE And good-bye to the gold for us ! JIMMY [Eagerly.] You say fella word, Cap tain, me kill um quick. They no make plenty cry for schooner! They keep damn still plenty too much! BARTLETT [Looking at the Islander with mad cunning but replying only to HORNE.] Aye, it s good-bye to the gold, Home. That scum of a cook he s made a mock o us sayin it wasn t gold when he knew it was he ll tell em he ll get joy o tellin em ! HORNE And that scrub of a boy he s no better. He ll be in with him neck and crop. GATES [Hoarsely.] Knife em and be done with it I say ! 24 GOLD BARTLETT Or, if they don t tell the schooner s skipper it ll only be because they re plannin to come back themselves before wie kin and dig it up. That cook there s somethin queer in his mind somethin he was hidin pretendin not to believe. What d ye think, Home? HORNE I think time s gettin short and talk- in won t do no good. [Insinuatingly.] They d do for us soon enough if they was able. BARTLETT Aye, murder was plain in his eyes when he looked at me. HORNE [Lowering his voice to a whisper.] Tell Jimmy Captain Bartlett is what I say! BARTLETT It s agin the law, Silas Home! HORNE The law don t reach to this island. BARTLETT [Monotonously.] It s against the law a captain s sworn to keep wherever he sails. They ain t refused duty nor mutinied. HORNE Who ll know they ain t? They re try ing to steal what s yours that s worse n mutiny. [As a final persuasion.] And Jimmy s a nigger and under no laws. And he s stronger n you are. You couldn t stop im. BARTLETT Aye I couldn t prevent JIMMY [Eagerly.] I fix urn, Captain, they no tell! [BARTLETT doesn t answer, but stares at the treasure. HORNE makes violent motions to JIMMY to go. The Islander stares at his master s face. Then, seeming to read the direct command there, he GOLD 25 grunts with satisfaction, and pulling his knife from it s sheath, he goes stealthily off left. GATES raises himself on his haunches to watch the Islander s move ments. HORNE and BARTLETT sit still in a strained immobility, their eyes on the chest. ] GATES [In an excited whisper. "\ I see em! They re sittin with their backs this way ! [A slight pause.] There s Jimmy. He s crawlin on his hands behind em. They don t notice he s right behind almost atop o them. [A pause. GATES gives a fiendish grunt.] Ugh! [BUTLER S muffled cry comes from the left.~\ Right in the middle of the back ! The cook s done ! The boy s runnin ! [There is a succession of quick screams from the boy, the padding of feet running toward them, the fall of a body, and the boy s dymg groan.] HORNE [With satisfaction.] It s done, sir! BARTLETT [Slowly.] I spoke no word, remem ber that, Silas Home ! HORNE [Cunningly.] Nor me neither, sir. Jimmy took it on himself. If blame there is and who d blame him for it? it s on him. BARTLETT [Gloomily.] I spoke no word! [JIMMY returns noiselessly from the left.] JIMMY [Grinning with savage pride.] I fix um fella plenty, Captain. They no tell. They no open mouth plenty too much! GATES [MaudlMy.] You re a man, Jimmy 26 GOLD a man with guts to him even if you re a [He babbles incoherently.] JIMMY [As the Captain does not look at Mm.] I go climb fella tree, Captain? I make look for schooner? BARTLETT [Rousing himself with an effort.] Yes go up. [The Islander climbs the tree.] HORNE [Getting to his feet eagerly] Where away, Jimmy? JIMMY She come, Captain, she come plenty quick. HORNE [Looking in the direction JIMMY indi cates] I kin see her tops ls from here, sir. Look! BARTLETT [Getting to his feet stares out to sea] Aye! There she be and makin towards us fast. [In a -flash his sombre preoccupation is gone, and he is commander once more. He puts the anklet m his hand into his coat pocket harshly] Come down out o* that? They s work to do. [JIMMY clambers down] Did ye leave them lyin* in plain sight on the open sand? JIMMY Yes. I no touch um, Captain. B ART-LETT Then ye ll touch em now. Go, bury *em, cover em up with sand. And mind ye make a good job o it that none ll see. Jump now! JIMMY [Obediently.] I go, Captain. [He hur ries off left.] BARTLETT Down to the reef with ye, Horne! [Giving the prostrate GATES a kick] Up out o GOLD 27 that, Gates ! Go with Home, and when ye see the schooner hull up, wave to em, and yell like mad, d ye hear ? HORNE Aye, aye, sir! BARTLETT I ll stay here and bury the gold. It s best to be quick about it! They may turn a spy glass on us when they raise the island from deck! Off with ye! [He gives GATES another kick.] GATES [Groaning. ] I m sick! [Incoherently.] Can t report for duty this watch. [With a shout.] Water! BARTLETT [Contemptuously. ~\ Ye dog! Give him a hand, Home. HORNE [Putting a hand under his shoulder.] Up, man! We re to signal the schooner. There ll be water on board o her barrels of it! GATES [Aroused, scrambles to his feet, vio lently shaking off Home s hand.] Water aboard o her! [His staring eyes catch the schooner s sails on the horizon. He breaks into a staggering run and disappears down toward the beach, right rear, wav ing his arms wildly and shouting.] Ahoy! Ahoy! Water! [HORNE walks out quickly after him.] [Left alone, BARTLETT, after a quick glance around, sinks on his knees beside the chest and shoves both hands into it. From the chest comes a metallic clink as he -fingers the pieces in his liands gloatingly.] Ye re safe now! There s none to tell left livin ! He s dead damn him! that lied about ye. And 28 GOLD ye ll rest safe here till I come back for ye! [In a dreaming tone, his eyes -fixed before Mm in an ec static vision.] No more whalin on the dirty seas ! Rest to home! Gold! I ve been dreamin o it all my life ! Aye we ll rest now, Sarah ! Your father be a rich man, Nat and Sue! [Shaking himself savagely.] Ye fool! What drivel be ye talkin ? Loosin your senses, be ye? Time ye was picked up! Lucky! [He shoves down the lid and places the chest in the hole. He pushes the sand m on top of it, whispering hoarsely.] Lay safe, d ye hear. For I ll be back for ye ! Aye in spite of hell I ll dig ye up again ! [The voices of HORNE and JIMMY can be heard from the distance shouting as [The Curtain Falls] ACT TWO SCENE Interior of an old boat-shed on the wharf of the Bartlett place on the California coast. In the rear, a double doorway looking out over the end of the wharf to the bay with the open sea beyond. On the left, two windows, and another door, opening on the dock. Near this door, a cot with blankets and a pillow without a slip. In the center, front, a table with a bottle and glasses on it, and three cane-bot tomed chairs. On the right, a fishing dory. Here and, there about the shed all sorts of odds and ends pertaining to a ship old anchors, ropes, tackle, paint-pots, old spars, etc. It is late afternoon of a day six months later. Sunlight -filters -feebly through the stained, cob webby window panes. As the curtain rises, BARTLETT and SILAS HORNE are discovered. HORNE is in working clothes of paint-stained dungaree. If his suf ferings on the island have left any marks on his dry wizened face, they are undis cover able. In BARTLETT, however, the evidence j,s marked. His hair has turned white. There are deep 29 30 GOLD hollows under his cheek-bones. His jaw and tight-lipped mouth express defiant determina tion, as if he were fighting back some weakness inside himself, a weakness found in his eyes, which have something in them of fear, of a wishing to avoid other eyes. He is dressed much the same as when on the island. He sits by the table, center, his abstracted gaze bent on the floor before him. HORNE [Who is evidently waiting for the Cap tain to say something after a pause, glancing at him uneasily.] I d best be gettin back aboard the schooner, sir. [Receiving no answer he starts for the door on the left.~\ BARTLETT [Rousing himself with an effort.] Wait. [After a pause.] The full tide s at dawn tomorrow, ye said? HORNE Yes, sir. BARTLETT They know we ll be sailin then, don t they Gates and Jimmy? HORNE Yes, sir. They re all ready. Oh, Cates and Jimmy ll be glad o the word and me, too, sir. [With a greedy grin.] It s all we ve been talkin of since ye brought us down here diggin up the gold ! BARTLETT [Passionately.] Aye, the gold! We ll have it before long, now, I reckon. That schooner the way we ve fitted her up she d take a man safe to the Pole and back! We ll drop an- GOLD 31 chor here with the chest on board in six months, unless [Hesitates.] HORNE [Uneasily.] What, sir? BABTLETT [Brusquely. ] The weather, ye fool! Can ye take count before o storms an* calms? HORNE We ll trust to luck for that. [Glancmg at the Captain curiously. ] And speakin o* luck, sir the schooner ain t been christened yet. BARTLETT [Betraying a sudden, fierce determi nation.] She will be! HORNE There d be no luck for a ship sailin out without a name. BARTLETT She ll have a name, I tell ye ! A name that ll take all curse away and leave her clean. She ll be named the Sarah Allen, and Sarah ll christen her herself. HORNE It oughter been done, by rights, when we launched her a month back. BARTLETT [Sternly.] I know that as well as ye. (After a pause.] She wasn t willin to do it then. Women has queer notions when they re sick, like. [Defiantly as if he were addressing someone out side of the room.] But Sarah ll be willin now! She ll be willin in spite o [Catching himself and abruptly lowering his voice.] The schooner ll be christened tomorrow at dawn afore she sails. HORNE Yes, sir. [He again turm to go, as if he were anxious to get away.] BARTLETT Wait ! There s somethin else I want 82 GOLD to ask ye. Nat, he s been hangin* round the schooner all his spare time o late. I seen him talkin to you and Gates and Jimmy. [With rising anger. ~\ I hope ye ve remembered what I ordered ye, all three. Not a word o it to him! I said I d keep him out o this, for his own good, mind! And if I thought any of ye [His fist is raised threateningly, and he glares savagely at Horne.~\ HORNE [Retreating a step hastily.] No fear o that, sir! We ve been keerful. But it s hard. He s a sharp one, Nat is. And when we tells him the schooner s fitted out for tradin in the islands, he just laughs. He s gettin the wind on somethin without any o us sayin a word. BARTLETT [In relieved tones. } Let him s spect all he s a mind to as long as he don t know. It ain t that I m afeerd to tell him o the gold, Silas Home. He ll share that, anyway. [Slowly. ] It s them other things I d keep him clear of. HORNE [Immediately guessing what he means reassuringly.] We was all out o our heads with thirst and sun when them things happened, sir. BARTLETT Mad? Aye! But I ain t forgot them two. [Harshly. ~\ I d rather be you nor me, Silas Home. You be too rotten bad to care. And I d rather be Gates or Jimmy. Gates be too dull to remember, and Jimmy be proud as a boy o what he done. [He represses a shudder then goes on GOLD 33 slowly.] Do they ever come back to you when you re asleep, I mean? HORNE [Pretending mystification.] Who s that, sir? BARTLETT [With sombre emphasis.] That cook and that boy. They come to me. I m gettin to be afeered o goin to sleep not feered o them, I don t mean. [With sudden defiant bravado.] Not all the ghosts out o hell kin keep me from a thing I ve set my mind on. [Collecting himself.] But I ve waked up talkin out loud to them and I m afeerd there might be someone hear me. That s why I ve been sleepin down here to the boat-house all alone. HORNE [Uneasily with an attempt to be reas suring.] You ain t all cured o that sun and thirst on the island yet, sir. BARTLETT [Evidently reassured roughly.] O 9 course! D ye think I d really believe in things in nightmares? [With an attempt at conviviality.] Sit down a bit, Home, and take a grog. [HORNE does so. BARTLETT pours out a half-tumbler full of rum for himself and shoves the bottle over to HORNE.] HORNE Luck to our vige, sir. BARTLETT Aye, luck! [They drink. BARTLETT leans over and taps HORNE on the arm.] Aye, it takes time to get cured o thirst and sun! Lucky that tradin schooner picked us up the time she did. 34 GOLD HORNE If she hadn t we d been as dead men as them two. BARTLETT [Somberly after a pause. ] I spoke no word, Silas Home, d ye remember? HORNE Nor me. Jimmy did it alone. [Craftily.] We d all three swear Bible oaths to that in any court. And even if ye d given the word, there ain t no good thinkin more o it, sir. Didn t they deserve all they got that thief o* a cook and that boy? Wasn t they plottin on the sly to steal the gold? BARTLETT [His eyes gleaming. ~\ Aye! HORNE And when you said he d get no share of it, didn t he lie to your face that it wasn t gold thinkin we d leave it be and he d git it all for him self? BARTLETT [With sudden rage."] Aye, brass and junk, he said, the lyin scum I That s what he keeps sayin when I see him in sleep ! He didn t be lieve makin a mock o me an then he owned up himself twas gold! He knew! He lied a-purpose! He was a cunnin rat a thief ashore afore they shipped him with us, I reckon. HORNE [Eagerly.] Most like, sir. BARTLETT [Rising to his feet with confident de fiance.] They deserved no better nor they got. Let em rot ! [Pouring out another drink for liimr self and HORNE.] We ll drink, an then ye get back to the ship. Tell Gates and Jimmy we sail at dawn sure! [He drinks. ] GOLD 35 HORNE Luck, sir I [He drinks. There is a knock at the door on the left -followed by MRS. BARTLETT S voice calling feebly, "!SAIAH ! ISAIAH !" BARTLETT starts but makes no answer. He seems suddenly sunk in gloom again. HORNE turns to him ques- tioningly.] It s Mrs. Bartlett, sir. Shall I open the door? BARTLETT No. I ain t aimin to see her yet awhile. [Then with sudden reasonless rage.] Let her in, damn ye! [HORNE goes and unhooks the door. MRS. BARTLETT enters. She is a slight, slen der little woman of fifty. Sickness, or the inroads of a premature old age, have bowed her shoulders, whitened her hair, and forced her to walk feebly with the aid of a cane. A resolute spirit still -flashes from her eyes, however, and there is a look of fixed de termination on her face. She stands gazing at her husband. There is something accusing in her stare. } BARTLETT [Avoiding her eyes brusquely. ] Well? What is it ye want o me, Sarah? MRS. B. I want to speak with you alone, Isaiah. HORNE I ll be gettin back aboard, sir. [Starts to go.~] BARTLETT [In a tone almost of fear.] Wait. I m goin with ye. [Turning to his wife with a cer tain rough tenderness. } Ye oughtn t to walk down the hill here, Sarah. The doctor told ye to rest in the house and save your strength. 36 GOLD MRS. B. I want to speak to you alone, Isaiah. You never come to home no more, hardly, so I had to come to ye. [Accusingly] You know it ain t walkin is sappin* my strength, Isaiah. BARTLETT [Very uneasily.] I ve got to work on the schooner, Sarah. That s why I ve no time to home. MRS. B. She ll be sailin soon? BARTLETT [Suddenly turning on her de fiantly.] Tomorrow at dawn! MRS. B. [With her eyes fixed accusingly on his.] And you be goin with her? BARTLETT [In the same defiant tone] Yes, I be! Who else d captain her? MRS. B. On a craft without a name. BARTLETT She ll have that name. MRS. B. No. BARTLETT She ll have that name, I tell ye. MRS. B. No. BARTLETT [Thoroughly aroused, his will tries to break hers, but finds her unbending. He mutters menacingly.] Ye ll see! We ll talk o that later, you and me. [With sudden apprehension] But not now. They s plenty o time yet for that. Come on, Home, we ll get aboard. [Without a further glance at his wife he strides past her and disappears through the doorway, -followed by HORNE. MRS. BARTLETT sinks down in the chair by the table. She appears suddenly weak and crushed. Then from GOLD 37 outside comes a girTs laughing voice. MRS. BARTLETT does not seem to hear, nor to notice SUE and DREW when they enter. SUE is a slender, pretty girl of about twenty, with large blue eyes, reddish-brown hair, and a healthy, sun-tanned, out-of-door com plexion. In spite of the slightness of her figure there is a suggestion of great vitality and nervous strength about her. DREW is a well-set-up, tall young fellow of thirty. Not in any way handsome, his boyish face, tanned to a deep brown, possesses an engaging character of healthy, cheerful force- fullness that has its compelling charm. There would be no chance of mistaking him for anything but the ship s officer he is. It is written on his face, his walk, his voice, his whole bearing.~\ SUE [As they enter.~\ He ll either be here or on the schooner, Danny. [Then she sees her mother, with startled amazement. ~\ Ma ! Good heavens, what are you doing here? [Throwing her arms around her neck and kissing her.~\ Don t you know you shouldn t MRS. B. [With a start turning to her daugh ter with a forced smile. ~\ There, Sue, now! Don t go scoldin me. [Then seeing DREW in a tone of forced gaiety. ] And if there ain t Danny Drew back home to port at last! You can kiss an old woman, Danny without makin her jealous, I reckon. DREW [Kissing her with a smile. ~\ I don t 38 GOLD know about that, Ma Bartlett. [Heartily.] It certainly seems good to see you again and be back again myself. MRS, B. We ve been expectin you right along this past month. Then we read in the paper t other day where your ship d reached San Francisco, and we knew you d be down any day. Sue s been on pins and needles ever since. SUE [Protestingly.] Ma! DREW We were delayed in Valparaiso, waiting for cargo. [With a grin. ] It s a long time to be away from Sue four months. SUE [Laughing.] It seems more like four years ! DREW You remember, Ma, I left just after the big excitement here when Captain Bartlett turned up after we d all heard the Triton was wrecked and given him up for lost. That was sure a wonderful surprise when he walked into the house that day. MRS. B. [Her face clouding in a tone of deep sorrow.] Yes. [DREW is surprised and glances at SUE questioningly. She sighs. MRS. BARTLETT gets to her feet with difficulty, assisted by DREW. She forces a smile.] I ve taken on a third leg since you was here, Danny ! SUE We ll help you back to the house. You can t climb that steep hill alone. MRS. B. Shucks ! I m sick o* the house. I need sun and fresh air, and today s so nice I couldn t stay GOLD 30 indoors. I ll take your arm to hold on to, Danny. No, I ain t goin up to the house yet awhile, so don t you try to bully me into it, Sue. I m goin to set in the shade o this shed out on the wharf and watch vour Pa workin on the schooner. Ain t much time left to see her, Sue. They re sailin tomorrow at dawn, your Pa says. SUE Tomorrow? Then you re going to christen her? MRS. B. [With grim determination.] No, I ain t, Sue! [Catching DREW S glance fxed on her with puzzled curiosity, she immediately attempts to resume her joking tone.] Shucks! Here s Danny wonderin what silliness we re talkin of. It s just this, Danny. Captain Bartlett, he s got a crazy no tion in his head that just because his ship was wrecked last vige he ll give up whalin for life. He s fitted out this little schooner for tradin in the Islands. More money in that, he says. But I don t agree with no such lunatic notions, and I m just that stubborn I m not goin to set my approval on his craziness by christenin his ship w r ith my name, like he wants me to. He d ought to stick to whalin, like he s done all his life. Don t you think so, Danny? DREW [Embarrassed. ] Why, sure he s rated one of the smartest whaling skippers here on the coast and I should think MRS. B. Just what I tell him only he s that stubborn. I d best get out quick while it s still 40 GOLD sunny and warm. It s damp in here for an old body. [DREW helps her to the door on the left, opens it, and the two go out, followed by SUE, who carries a chair. After a pause, SUE and DREW return. SUE carefully shuts the door after them. Her face is troubled. ] DREW [Looks at her for a minute, then comes and puts his arm around her and kisses her.] What s the trouble, Sue? SUE [Trying to force a smile.] Nothing, Danny. DREW Oh, yes there is ! No use putting me off that way. Why, I ve felt it hanging about in the air ever since I first looked at your mother. SUE Yes, she s failed terribly since you saw her last. DREW Oh, I don t mean just sickness only did you notice how she had to force herself to joke about things? She used to be so cheerful natural. [Scratching his head in honest puzzle ment.] But that ain t what I mean, either. What is it, Sue? Maybe I can help somehow. You look worried, too. Pshaw! You can tell me, can t you? SUE Why, yes, Danny of course if I could tell only I m just as puzzled as you over what it comes from. DREW [Persuasively.] Well, you sit down and tell me what s happened since I ve been away. Then maybe we can put our heads together and figure out what s wrong, and turn to to get things ship-shape GOLD 41 again. [SuE sits down but does not speak. DREW remarks as if to get her started.] That schooner s a smart little craft for sailing, I should say. I didn t notice no one about working, though. SUE No. They re probably below in the cabin, drinking. That s all they ve been doing lately. The schooner s been ready to sail for two weeks but Pa has kept waiting I don t know what for. Yes, I do know, too I think I guess. He s been waiting for Ma to give in and christen the ship with her name. But she won t give in. You heard her. DREW Well, I suppose she does take it to heart that he d give up the business he s been in all his life to go in for something new at his age. SUE He mortgaged the house to get money to buy and fit out this schooner. You know he lost most everything when the Triton was wrecked. He d only had her two years, and she cost him a pile of money. Then, too, he s lost a lot all his life since he and Ma moved out here from the East investing in all sorts of silly mining ventures gold mines that always turned out to be only holes in the ground. As far back as I can remember he s never seemed to care about the whaling business the oil. Ambergris was what he was after. Finding one chunk of that meant more to him than a full cargo of oil. DREW [With a grin.] "Old Ambergris." That s what they call him along the coast behind his back, 42 GOLD of course. I reckon he was sort of prospecting the Pacific Ocean looking for an ambergris mine. [Apologetically.] Sounds as if I was making fun of him, but you remember how you n me n Nat used to laugh about it together. SUE It s past a laughing matter now, Danny. DREW And what do you reckon the real trouble is? SUE Something between him and Ma some- thing that only the two of them know. It all seemed to start one morning after you d left about a week after he d come home with those three awful men. During that first week he acted all right just like he used to only he d get talking kind of wild now and then about being glad the Triton was lost, and promising we d all be millionaires once he started making trips on the schooner. Ma didn t seem to mind his going in for trading then. Then, the night of the day he bought the schooner, something must have happened between them. Neither of them came down to breakfast. I went up to Ma, and found her so sick we sent for the doctor. He said she d suffered a great shock of some kind, although she wouldn t tell him a word. I found Pa down in this shed. He d moved that cot down here, and said he d have to sleep here after that because he wanted to be near the schooner. It s been that way ever since. He s slept down here and never come up to the house except at mealtimes. He s never been GOLD 43 alone with Ma one second since then, I don t believe. And she she s been trying to corner him, to get him alone. I ve noticed it, although she does her best to hide it from Nat and me. And she s been failing, growing weaker and sicker looking every day. [Breaking down.] Oh, Danny, these last months have been terrible! I m so glad you re back again. DREW [Soothing her.] There! It ll all come out right. SUE I m sure that s why she s crept down here today. She s bound she ll see him alone before he sails. DREW Well, maybe it s for the best. Maybe when they ve had it out, things ll clear up. SUE Yes, perhaps. But I can t help feeling it ll only make it worse. DREW [Frowning.] Seems to me it must be all your Pa s fault, Sue whatever it is. Have you tried to talk to him? SUE Yes a good many times ; but all he s ever said was : "There s things you wouldn t take inter est in, Sue. You ll know when it s time to know." and then he d break off by asking me what I d like most to have in the world if he had piles of money. And then, one time, he seemed to be terribly afraid of something, and he said to me; "You hustle up and marry Danny, Sue. You marry him and get out of this." DREW [With an affectionate grin.] That does 44 GOLD sound crazy any man wanting to get rid of you that way. [A note of entreaty in his voice.] But I surely wish, you d take his advice, Suel [He kisses her. ] SUE {With intense longing. } Oh, I wish I could, Danny. DREW I ve quite considerable saved now, Sue, and it won t be so long before I get my own ship, I m hoping, now that I ve got my master s certifi cate. I was hoping at the end of this voyage SUE So was I, Danny but it can t be this time. With Ma so weak, and no one to take care of her but me [Shaking Tier head in a tone of de cision. ] I couldn t leave home now, Danny. It wouldn t be right. I couldn t feel really happy until this thing whatever it is is settled between Pa and Ma and they re just as they used to be again. [Pleadingly.] You understand, don t you, Danny? DREW [Soberly.] Why surely I do, Sue. [He pats her hand.] Only, it s hard waiting. [He sighs.] SUE I know. It s just as hard for me. DREW I thought maybe I could help; but this isn t anything anyone outside your family could mix in. [SUE shakes her head. He goes on gloomily after a pause.] What s the matter with Nat? Seems as if he ought to be able to step in and talk turkey to your Pa. GOLD 45 SUE [Slowly.] You ll find Nat changed, too, Danny changed terribly. He s caught the disease whatever it is. You know how interested in his work he s been ever since they put him in the de signing department down in the shipyard? DREW Yes. SUE [With emphasis. ] Well, all that s changed. He hates it now, or at least he says he does. And when he comes home, he spends all his time prowling around the dock here, talking with those three awful men. And what do you think he told me only the other day? That he was bound he d throw up his job and make this voyage on the schooner. He even asked me to ask Pa to let him go. DREW Your Pa doesn t want him to, eh? SUE Why, of course not ! Leave a fine position he worked so hard to get just for this crazy notion ! Pa d never let him. He s even ordered him to keep off the schooner and not to talk to those men. DREW Funny Nat d like to go to sea. He s al ways seemed to want to fight shy of it. SUE The terrible part is, he s got Ma worried to death as if she wasn t upset enough already. She s so afraid he ll go that Pa ll let him at the last moment. She s always pleading with Nat not to think of it so that he keeps out of her way, too. Poor Ma ! She s only got me to talk to. DREW Maybe I can help after all. I can talk to Nat. 46 GOLD SUE [Shaking her head.~\ He s not the same Nat, Danny. DREW [Trying to be consoling. ] Pshaw, Sue! I think you just get to imagining things. [As he fin ishes speaking, the door in the rear opens and NAT appears. He is a tall, loose-framed boy of eighteen, who bears a striking resemblance to his father. His face, like his father s, is large and bony, with deep set black eyes, an aquiline nose, and a wide, thin- lipped mouth. There is no suggestion in NAT, how ever, of the older man s physical health and great strength. He appears an indoor product, unde veloped in muscle, with a sallow complexion and stooped shoulders. His thick hair is a deep black. His voice recalls his father s, hollow and penetrat ing. He is dressed in a grey -flannel shirt and cordu roy trousers. DREW calls out to him heartly.~] Hello, Nat! Speak of the Devil! Sue and I were just talking about you. [He goes toward NAT, his hand outstretched. } NAT [Comes toward them, meets DREW, and shakes his hand with evident pleasure. ,] Hello, Danny ! You re a sight for sore eyes ! [His man ner undergoes a sudden change. He casts a quick, suspicious glance from DREW to his sister.] You were talking about me? What about? SUE [Quickly with a warning glance at DREW.] About your work down at the shipyard. GOLD 47 NAT [Disgustedly.] Oh, that. [In a tone of rea sonless irritation.] For God s sake, Sue, let me alone about my work. Don t I have to live with the damn thing all day, without your shoving it in my face the minute I get home? I want to forget it get away! DREW Go to sea, eh? NAT [Suspiciously.] Maybe. Why? What do you mean? DREW [Warned by a glance from Sue, says carelessly.] Well, that s where you d be apt to go, isn t it? NAT [Suspiciously.] That isn t what you were thinking, Danny. [Turning to his sister angrily.] What have you been telling Danny? SUE I was talking about the schooner telling him that she sails tomorrow. NAT [Dumfounded.] Tomorrow? [Overcome by sudden, nervous excitement.] It can t be. How do you know? Who told you? SUE Ma. Pa told her. NAT Then she s been talking to him telling him not to take me, I ll bet. [Angrily.] Oh, I wish Ma d mind her own business ! SUE Nat ! NAT Well, Sue, how would you like it? I m not a little boy any more. I know what I want to do. I want to go with them. I want to go more than I ve ever wanted anything else in my life before. 48 GOLD He he doesn t want me. He s afraid I But I think I can force him to [He glances at DREW S amazed face and stops abruptly sullenly.] Where is Pa? SUE He s aboard the schooner. NAT [Disappoint edly.~] Then it s no good try ing to see him now. I ll have to wait. DREW Sound s funny to hear you talking about going to sea. Why, you always used NAT [Wearily. ] I know. This is different. DREW You want to see the Islands, I suppose? NAT [Suspiciously. } Maybe. Why not? DREW What group is your Pa heading for first ? NAT [More suspiciously.] You ll have to ask him. Why do you want to know? [Abruptly."] You better be getting up to the house, Sue if we re to have any supper. Danny must be hungry. [He turns Jus back on them. They exchange meaning glances.] SUE [With a sigh] It must be getting late. Come on, Danny. You can see Pa later on. [They go toward the door in the rear] Aren t you com ing, Nat? NAT No. I ll wait. [Impatiently.] Go ahead. I ll be up before long. DREW See you later, then, Nat. NAT Yes. [They go out, rear. NAT paces up and down in a great state of excitement. The door on the left is opened and BARTLETT enters. His eyes GOLD 49 are wild, as if he had been drinking heavily, but he shows no other effects. Father and son stand look ing at one another for a second. NAT takes a step backward as if in fear, then straightens up de fiantly. ] BARTLETT [Slowly.] Is this the way ye mind my orders, boy? I ve told ye time an again not to be sneakin and spyin around this wharf. NAT I m not sneaking and spying. I wanted to talk to you, Pa. BARTLETT [Sits down by the table.] Well, here I be. NAT Sue said the schooner sails tomorrow. BARTLETT Aye ! NAT [Resolutely.] I want to go with you, Pa. BARTLETT [Briefly as if dismissing the mat ter.] Ye can t. I ve told ye that before. Let this be the last time ye ask it. NAT But why ? Why can t I go ? BARTLETT Ye ve your own work to do good work. Attend to that and leave me to mine. NAT But you always wanted me to go on voy ages to learn whaling with you. BARTLETT This be different. NAT [With excited indignation.] Yes, this is different ! Don t I know it ? Do you think you can hide that from me? It is different, and that s why I want to go. 50 GOLD BARTLETT Ye can t, I say. NAT [Pleadingly. ] But why not, Pa? Fm not a boy. I can do a man s work on a ship, or any where else. BARTLETT [Roughly.] Let s have done with talk! Your place is here, with Sue and your Ma, and here you ll stay. NAT [Angrily. ] That isn t any reason. But I know your real one. You re afraid BARTLETT [Half rising to Ms feet.~] Ye say that to me? [Recovering himself with an effort and settling down again.] Keep a clapper on your jaw, boy. That s talk I ll not put up with. [With a touch of uneasiness forcing a scornful laugh.] Afeerd! Afeerd o* what? Did ye ever know me to be afeerd? NAT Afraid of what I know, of what I might find out if I went with you. BARTLETT [With the same forced, uneasy scorn.] And what d ye think ye d find out, Nat? NAT First of all that it s not a trading venture you re going on. Oh, I m not a fool! That story is all right to fool the neighbors and girls like Sue. But I know better. BARTLETT What d ye know? NAT You re going for something else. BARTLETT What would that be ? NAT I don t know exactly. Something on that island. GOLD 51 BARTLETT What? NAT I don t know. But I could guess a lot of things. [With sudden excitement.] Ambergris! That s it! Is that it? It must be. That s what you ve been hunting for years. BARTLETT Aye and never found! [He gets to his feet with a forced burst of laughter.] Ambergris ! Ye fool of a boy ! Ye got that notion out o some fool book ye ve been reading, didn t ye? And I thought ye d growed to be a man ! [More and more wild in his forced scorn] Ye ll be tellin me next it s buried treasure I be sailin after pirates gold bur ied on that island all in a chest and a map to guide me with a cross marked on it where the gold is hid ! And then they be ghosts guardin it, ben t they spirits o murdered men? They always be, in the books. [He laughs scornfully. ~\ NAT [Gazing at him with fascinated eyes.] No, not that last. That s silly but I did think you might have found BARTLETT [Laughing again] Treasure? Gold? [With forced sternness] Nat, I be ashamed of ye. Ye ve had schooling and ye ve been doin a man s work in the world, and doin it well, and I d hoped ye d take my place here to home when I be away, and look after your Ma and Sue. But ye ve owned up to bein little better nor a boy in short britches, dreamin o pirates gold that never was cept in books. 52 GOLD NAT But you you re to blame. When you first came home you did nothing but talk mysteriously of how rich we d all be when the schooner got back. BARTLETT [Roughly. ] But what s that to do with silly dreams? It s in the line o trade I meant. NAT But why be so mysterious about trade? There s something you re hiding. You can t say no because I feel it. BARTLETT [Insinuatingly with a crafty glance at his son.~\ Supposin in one of them Eastern trad ing ports I d run across a bit o* business with a chance for a fortune in it for a man that wasn t afeerd of the law, and could keep his mouth shut? NAT [Disappointed. } You mean illegal trading? BARTLETT I mean what I mean, Nat and I d be a fool to tell an overgrown boy, or two women or any man in the world, for the matter o that what I do mean. NAT [Turning toward the door in the rear dis gustedly. } If it s only that, I don t want to hear it. [He walks toward the door stops and turns again to his father.} No, I don t believe it. That s not like you. You re not telling the truth, Pa. BARTLETT [Rising to his feet with a savage sternness in which there is a wild note of entreaty.} I ve listened to your fool s talk enough. Get up to the house where ye belong! I ll stand no more o your meddling in business o mine. I ve been patient with ye, but there s an end to that! Take heed o GOLD 53 what I m sayin , if ye know what s good for ye ! I d rather see ye dead tonight than sail on that schooner at dawn. I d kill ye with my own hands first ! [With a sort of sombre pride.] I ll stand alone in this busi ness and finish it out alone if I go to hell for it. Ye hear me? NAT [Alarmed by this outburst submissively. } Yes, Pa. BARTLETT Then see that ye heed. [After a pause as NAT lingers.] They ll be waitin* for ye at the house. NAT All right. I ll go. [He turns to the door way on the left, but before he gets to it, the door is pushed open and MRS. BARTLETT enters. NAT stops, startled.] Ma! MRS. BARTLETT [With a forced smile] Run along, Nat. It s all right. I want to speak with your Pa. BARTLETT [Uneasily] Ye d best go up with Nat, Sarah. I ve work to do. MRS. BARTLETT [Fixing her eyes on her hus band] I want to talk with you alone, Isaiah. BARTLETT [Grimly as if he were accepting a challenge] As ye like, then. MRS. BARTLETT [Dismissing NAT with a feeble attempt at a smile] Tell Sue I ll be comin up directly, Nat. NAT [Hesitates for a moment, looking from one 54 GOLD to the other uneasily. ] All right, Ma. [He goes out.] BARTLETT [Waits for NAT to get out of hear ing.] Won t ye set, Sarah? [She comes forward and sits by the table. He sits by the other side. } MRS. BARTI/ETT [Shuddering as she sees the bottle on the table.] Will drinkin* this poison makfe you forget, Isaiah? BARTLETT [Gruffly. ] I ve naught to forget > leastways naught that s in your mind. But they s things about the stubborn will o woman I d like to forget. [They look at each other across the table. There is a pause. Finally he cannot stand her accus ing glance. He looks away, gets to his feet, walks about, then sits down again, his face set determinedly with a grim smile.] Well, here we be, Sarah alone together for the first time since MRS. BARTLETT [Quickly.] Since that nighl Isaiah. BARTLETT [As if he hadn t heard.] Since I coi back to you, almost. Did ye ever stop to think o how strange it be we d ever come to this? I nevei dreamed a day *d come when ye d force me to slee] away from ye, alone in a shed like a mangy dog! MRS. BARTLETT [Gently.] I didn t drive you away, Isaiah. You came o your own will. BARTLETT Because o your naggin* tongue, woman and the wrong ye thought o* me. MRS. BARTLETT \ Shaking her head, slowly*] GOLD 55 It wasn t me you ran from, Isaiah. You ran away from your own self the conscience God put in you that you think you can fool with lies. BARTLETT [Starting to his feet angrily. ] Lies? MRS. BARTLETT It s the truth, Isaiah, only you be too weak to face it. BARTLETT [With defiant bravado.] Ye ll find I be strong enough to face anything, true or lie! [Then protestmgly.~\ What call have ye to think evil o me, Sarah? It s mad o ye to hold me to ac count for things I said in my sleep for the damned nightmares that set me talkin wild when I d just come home and my head was still cracked with the thirst and the sun I d borne on that island. Is that right, woman, to be blamin me for mad dreams ? MRS. BARTLETT You confessed the rest of what you said was true of the gold you d found and buried there. BARTLETT [With a sudden fierce exultation.} Aye that be true as Bible, Sarah. When I ve sailed back in the schooner, ye ll see for yourself. There be a big chest o it, yellow and heavy, and fixed up with diamonds, emeralds and sech, that be worth more, even, nor the gold. We ll be rich, Sarah rich like I ve always dreamed we d be! There ll be silks and carriages for ye all the woman s truck in the world ye ve a mind to want and all that Nat and Sue ll want, too. 56 GOLD MRS. BARTLETT [With a shudder. ] Are you tryin to bribe me, Isaiah with a treasure that s been cursed by God? BARTLETT [As if he hadn t heard.] D ye re member long ago, back East, just after we was mar ried, and I was skipper o* n^ first whalin ship, how that foreigner come to me with the map o the pirates gold and asked me to charter the ship? D ye remember o how I d talk to ye o findin* ambergris, a pile o it on one vige that d make us rich? Ye used to take interest then, and all th voyage with me ye d be hopin I d find it, too. MRS. BARTLETT That was my sin o* greed that I m bein* punished for now. BARTLETT [Again as if he hadn t heard."} And now when it s come to us at last bigger nor I ever dreamed on ye drive me away from ye and say it s cursed. MRS. BARTLETT [Inexorably, ,] Cursed with the blood o the man and boy ye murdered ! BARTLETT [In a mad rage.~\ Ye lie, woman ! I spoke no word! MRS. BARTLETT That s what you kept repeatin in your sleep, night after night that first week you was home, till I knew the truth, and could bear no more. "I spoke no word!" you kept savin , as if twas your own soul had you at the bar of judg ment. And "That cook, he didn t believe twas gold," you d say, and curse him. GOLD 57 BARTLETT [Wildly.] He was lyin , the thief! Lyin so s he and the boy could steal th gold. I made him own up he was lyin . What if it s all true, what ye heard? Hadn t we the right to do away with two thieves? And we was all mad with thirst and sun. Can ye hold madmen to account for the things they do? MRS. BARTLETT You wasn t so crazed but you remember. BARTLETT I remember I spoke no word, Sarah as God s my judge! MRS. BARTLETT But you could have prevented it with a word, couldn t you, Isaiah? That heathen savage lives in the fear of you. He d not have done it if BARTLETT [Gloomily. ] That s woman s talk. There be three o us can swear in any court I spoke no word. MRS. BARTLETT What are courts? Can you swear it to yourself? You can t, and it s that s drivin you mad, Isaiah. Oh, I d never have believed it of you for all you said in sleep, if it wasn t for the way you looked and acted out of sleep. I watched you that first week, Isaiah, till the fear of it had me down sick. I had to watch you, you was so strange and fearful to me. At first I kept sayin , twas only you wasn t rid o the thirst and the sun yet. But then, all to once, God gave me sight, and I saw twas 58 GOLD guilt written on your face, on the queer stricken way you acted, and guilt in your eyes. [She stares into \ them.] I see it now, as I always see it when you look at me. [She covers her face with her hands with a sob.-] BARTLETT [His face haggard and drawn hope- lessly, as if he were too beaten to oppose her further in a hoarse whisper. ~\ What would ye have me do, Sarah? MRS. BARTLETT [Taking her hands from her face her eyes lighting up with religious fervor."] Confess your sin, Isaiah! Confess to God and men, and make your peace and take your punishment. Forget that gold that s cursed and the voyage you be settin* out on, and make your peace. [Passion ately. ] I ask you to do this for my sake and the children s, and your own most of all! I ll get down on my knees, Isaiah, and pray you to do it, as I ve prayed to God to send you his grace! Confess and wash your soul of the stain o blood that s on it. I ask you that, Isaiah and God asks you to make your peace with Him. BARTLETT [His face tortured by the inward struggle as if the word strangled him. ] Confess and let someone steal the gold! [This thought de stroys her influence over him in a second. His obsession regains possession of him instantly, filling him with rebellious strength. He laughs harshly.] Ye d make an old woman o* me, would ye, Sarah? GOLD 59 an old, Sunday go-to-meetin woman sniwelin* and prayin to God for pardon! Pardon for what? Be cause two sneakin thieves are dead and done for? I spoke no word, I tell ye but if I had, I d not re pent it. What I ve done I ve done, and I ve never asked pardon o God or men for ought I ve done, and never will. Confess, and give up the gold I ve dreamed of all my life that I ve found at last! By thunder, ye must think I m crazed! MRS. BARTLETT [Seeming to shrivel up on her chair as she sees she has lost weakly. ] You be lost, Isaiah no one can stop you. BARTLETT [Triumphantly.] Aye, none ll stop me. I ll go my course alone. I m glad ye see that, Sarah. MRS. BARTLETT [Feebly trying to get to her feet.] I ll go to home. BARTLETT Ye ll stay, Sarah. Ye ve had your say, and I ve listened to ye ; now I ll have mine and ye listen to me. [MRS. BARTLETT sinks back in her chair exhaust edly. BARTLETT continues slowly.] The schooner sails at dawn on the full tide. I ask ye again and for the last time, will ye christen her with your name afore she sails? MRS. BARTLETT [Firmly.] No. BARTLETT [Menacingly.] Take heed, Sarah, o what ye re sayin ! I m your husband ye ve sworn to obey. By right I kin order ye, not ask. 60 GOLD MRS. BARTLETT I ve never refused in anything that s right but this be wicked wrong. BARTLETT It s only your stubborn woman s spite makes ye refuse. Ye ve christened every ship I ve ever been skipper on, and it s brought me luck o* a kind, though not the luck I wanted. And we ll christen this one with your own name to bring me the luck I ve always been seekin . MRS. BARTLETT [Resolutely.] I won t, Isaiah. BARTLETT Ye will, Sarah, for I ll make ye. Ye force me to it. MRS. BARTLETT [Agam trying to get up.] Is this the way you talk to me who ve been a good wife to you for more than thirty years ? BARTLETT [Commandingly, ] Wait! {Threat eningly.] If ye don t christen her afore she sails, I ll take Nat on the vige along with me. [MRS. BARTLETT sinks back in her chair, stunned.] He wants to go, ye know it. He s asked me a hundred times. He s spects bout the gold but he don t know for sartin. But I ll tell him the truth o it, and he ll come with me, unless MRS. BARTLETT [Looking at him with terror- stricken eyes imploringly.] You won t do that, Isaiah? You won t take Nat away from me and drag him into sin ? I know he ll go if you give him the word, in spite of what I say. [Pitifully.] You be only f rightenin me ! You can t be so wicked cruel as that. GOLD 61 BARTLETT 1*11 do it, I take my oath unless MRS. BARTLETT [With hysterical anger.] Then I ll tell him myself of the murders you did, and BARTLETT [Grimly.] And I ll say twas done in fair fight to keep them from stealin the gold! I ll tell him your s is a woman s notion, and he ll believe me, not you. He s his father s son, and he s set to go. Ye know it, Sarah. [She -falls back in the chair hopelessly staring at him with horrified eyes. He turns away and adds after a pause.] So ye ll christen the Sarah Allen in the mornin afore she sails, won t ye, Sarah? MRS. BARTLETT [In a terrified tone.] Yes if it s needful to save Nat and God ll forgive me when He sees my reason. But you Oh, Isaiah! [She shudders and then breaks down, sobbing] BARTLETT [After a pause, turns to her humbly as if asking her forgiveness.] Ye mustn t think hard o me that I want your name. It s because it s a good woman s name, and I know it ll bring luck to our vige. I d find it hard to sail without it the way things be. MRS. BARTLETT [Getting to her feet in a state of feverish fear of him.] I m go in to home. BARTLETT [Going to her.] I ll help ye to the top o the hill, Sarah. MRS. BARTLETT [Shrinking from him in terror] No. Don t you touch me! Don t you touch me! 62 GOLD [She hobbles quickly out of the door in the rear, looking back frightenedly over her shoulder to see if he is following as [The Curtain Fatts] ACT THREE SCENE \Dawn of the following morning exterior of the BARTLETT home, showing the mam en trance, facing left, toward the harbor. On either side of the door, two large windows, their heavy green shutters tightly closed. In front of the door, a small porch, the roof supported by four white columns. A flight of three steps goes up to this porch from the ground. Two paths lead to the steps through the straggly patches of grass, one around the corner of the house to the rear, the other straight to the left to the edge of the cliff where there is a small projecting iron platform, fenced in by a rail. The top of a steel ladder can be seen. This ladder leads up the side oj the cliff from the shore below to the platform. The edge of the cliff extends from the left corner front, half- diagonally back to the right, rear-center. In the grey half-light of the dawn, HORNE, GATES, and JIMMY KANAKA are discovered. HORNE is standing on the steel platform looking down at the shore below. GATES is sprawled on the ground nearby. JIMMY squats on his 63 64 GOLD haunches, his eyes staring out to sea as if he were trying to pierce the distance to the warm islands of his birth. GATES wears dungarees, JIMMY dungaree pants and a black jersey; HORNE, the same as in ACT Two. GATES [With sluggish indifference.] Ain t she finished with it yet? HORNE [Irritably.] No, damn her! I kin see em all together on the wharf at the bow o the schooner. That old crow o a woman o his! Why the hell don t she christen her and be done with it and let us make sail? GATES [After a pause.] Funny, ain t it his orderin us to come up here and wait till it s all done. HORNE [Angrily.] That s her doin , too. She thinks we ain t good enough to be where she is. [After a pause.] But there s nothin funny to me that he does no more. He s still out o his head, d ye know that, Gates? GATES [Stupidly.] I ain t noticed nothin diff rent bout him. HORNE [Scornfully.] He axed me if I ever seen them two in my sleep that cook and the boy o* the Triton. Said he did often. GATES [Immediately protesting uneasily as if he had been accused.] They was with us in the boat b fore we fetched the island, that s all bout em I remember. I was crazy, after. GOLD 65 HOENE [Looking at him with contempt. ] So was we all crazy, for the matter o that. I ll not call ye a liar, Gates, but a hell o a man ye be! You wasn t so out o your head that ye forgot the gold, was ye? GATES [His eyes glistening. ] That s diff rent. Any man d remember that, even if he was crazy. HORNE [With a greedy grin. ] Aye. That s the one thing I see in my sleep. [Gloatingly. ] We ll dig it up soon now. In three months we d ought to be there an then we ll be rich, by Christ! [There is the faint sound of cries from the beach below. HORNE starts and turns to look down again.] They must V finished it. [ GATES and JIMMY come to the edge to look down.] JIMMY [Suddenly with an eager childish curi osity.] That falla wife Captain she make strong falla spell on ship, we sail fast, plenty good wind? HORNE [Contemptuously.] Aye, that s as near as ye ll come to it. She s makin a spell. Ye stay here, Jimmy, and tell us when the Old Man is comin . [JIMMY remains looking down. HORNE motions GATES to follow him, front then in a low voice, dis gustedly] Did ye hear that damn fool nigger? GATES [Grumblingly .] Why the hell is the Old Man givin* him a full share? One piece o it d be enough for a nigger like him. HORNE [Craftily.] There s a way to get rid o 66 GOLD him if it comes to that. He knifed them two, ye remember. GATES Aye. HORNE The two o us can take oath to that in any court. GATES Aye. HORNE [After a calculating look into his com panion s greedy eyes meaningly. ] We re two sane men, Gates and the other two to share is a lunatic and a nigger. The skipper s showed me where there s a copy o his map o the island locked up in the cabin in case anything happens to him I m to bring back the gold to his woman, he says. [He laughs harshly. ] Bring it back ! Catch me ! The fool ! I ll be open with ye, Gates. If I could navigate and find the island myself I wouldn t wait for a cracked man to take me there. No, be damned if I would! Me and you d chance it alone someway or other. GATES [<7rm7%.] The two o us share and share alike! [Then shaking his head warningly.] But he s a hard man to git the best on. HORNE [Grimly.] And I be a hard man, too. And he s not right in his head. We ll keep our eyes peeled for a chance. Something may turn up and maybe JIMMY [Turning to them. ] Captain, he come. [GATES and HORNE separate hastily. BARTLETT climbs into siaht ujy the ladder to the platform. He GOLD 67 is breathing heavily but his expression is one of triumphant exultation.] BARTLETT [Motions with his arms.] Down with ye and git aboard. The schooner s got a name now a name that ll bring us luck. We ll sail on this tide. HORNE Aye aye, sir. BARTLETT I got to wait here till they climb up the path. I ll be aboard afore long. See that ye have her ready to cast off by then. HORNE Aye aye, sir. [ He and GATES disappear down the ladder. JIMMY lingers, looking sidewise at his Captain.] BARTLETT [Noticing him gruffly but almost kindly.] What are ye waitin for? JIMMY [Volubly.] That old falla wife belong you, Captain, she make strong falla spell for wind blow plenty? She catch strong devil charm for schooner, Captain? BARTLETT [Scowling.] What s that, ye brown devil? [Then suddenly laughing harshly.] Yes a strong spell to bring us luck. [Roughly.] Git aboard, ye dog ! Don t let her find ye here with me. [JIMMY disappears hurriedly down the ladder. BART LETT remains at the edge looking down after him. There is a sound of voices from the right and pres ently MRS. BARTLETT, SUE, DREW and NAT enter, coming around the house from the rear. NAT and DREW walk at either side of MRS. BARTLETT, who is 68 GOLD in a state of complete collapse, so that they are prac tically carrying her. SUE follows, her handkerchief to her eyes. NAT keeps his eyes on the ground, his ex pression -fixed and gloomy. DREW cas t$ a glance of angry indignation at the Captain, who, after one in different look at them, has turned back to watch the operations on the schooner below. ] BARTLETT [As they reach the steps of the house intent on the work below makes a megaphone of his hands and shouts in stentorian tones.~\ Look lively there, Home! SUE [Protestingly.] Paf BARTLETT [Wheels about. When he meets his daughter s eyes he controls his angry impatience and speaks gently. ] What d ye want, Sue? SUE [Pointing to her mother who is being assisted through the door her voice trembling.] You mustn t shout. She s very sick. BARTLETT [Dully, as if he didn t understand.] Sick? SUE [Turning to the door.~\ Wait. I ll be right back. [She enters the house. As soon as she is gone all of BARTLETT S excitement returns. He paces up and down with nervous impatience. NAT comes out of the house.] NAT [In a tone of anxiety.] Ma seems bad. We can t do anything. I m going for the doctor. [As his father doesn t seem to hear him tapping him on the shoulder, his voice breaking.] Why did you make GOLD 69 her do it, Pa? It was too much for her strength. Wouldn t anyone else or any other name have done just as well? BARTLETT [Impatiently. ] No. It had to be. NAT When she spoke the words and fell back in a faint I thought she was dead. BARTLETT [Vaguely. } Weakness. She ll be all right again after a rest. [He draws NAT S attention to the schooner.] Smart lines on that schooner, boy. She ll sail hell bent in a breeze. I knowed what I was about when I bought her. NAT [Staring down fascinatedly.] How long will the voyage take? BARTLETT [Preoccupied.] How long? NAT [Insinuatingly.] To get to the island. BARTLETT Three months at most with fair luck. [Exultantly] And I ll have luck now! NAT Then in six months you may be back with it? BARTLETT Aye, with [Stopping abruptly, turns and stares into his son s eyes angrily.] With what ? What boy s foolishness be ye talkin ? NAT [Pleading fiercely.] I want to go, Pa! There s no good in my staying here any more. I can t think of anything but Oh, why don t you be fair and let me sail with you ! BARTLETT [Sternly, to conceal his uneasiness.] Keep clear o> this, boy, Fve warned ye ! 70 GOLD SUE [Appearing in doorway indignantly.] Nat! Haven t you gone for the doctor yet? NAT [Shame-j ~acedly ] I forgot. SUE Forgot ! NAT [Starting off.] I m going, Sue. [Then over "his shoulder] You won t sail before I come back, Pa? [BARTLETT does not answer. NAT stands mis erably hesitating] SUE Nat! For heaven s sake! [NAT hurries off around the corner of the house, rear. Sue comes to her father who is watching her with a queer, humble, hunted expression] BARTLETT Well, Sue? SUE [Her voice trembling] Oh, Pa, how can you do such terrible things. How could you drag Ma out of bed at dawn to christen your old boat when you knew how sick she s been ! BARTLETT [Avoiding her eyes] It s only weak ness. She ll get well o it soon. SUE Pa ! How can you say things like that as if you didn t care! [Accusingly] The way you ve acted ever since you ve been home almost, anyone would think you hated her ! BARTLETT [ Wincing] No ! SUE Oh, Pa, what is it that has come between you? Can t you tell me? Can t I help to set things right again? BARTLETT [Mumblingly.] Nothin nothin* ye GOLD 71 kin help nor me. Keep clear o* it, Sue. Danny ye think o him, that s enough for ye. SUE But things can t go on like this. Don t you see how it s killing Ma? BARTLETT She ll forget her stubborn notions, now I be sailin away. SUE But you re not not going for a while now, are you? BARTLETT Ain t I been sayin I d sail at dawn today? They re makin her ready to cast off. I m waitin for Home to hail. SUE [Looking at him for a moment with shocked amazement.} But you can t mean right now! BARTLETT [Keeping his face averted.] Aye or we ll miss this tide. SUE [Putting her hands on his shoulders and try ing to look into his face.] Pa ! You can t mean that! [His face is set with his obsessed determination. She lets her hands fall with a shudder.] You can t be as cruel as that ! Why, I thought, of course, you d put off [Wildly.] You have, haven t you, Pa? You did tell those men you couldn t sail when you saw how sick Ma was, didn t you when she fainted down on the wharf? BARTLETT [Implacably.] I said I was sailin by this tide and sail I will, by thunder! SUE Pa! [Then pleadingly.] When the doctor comes and you hear what he says BARTLETT [Roughly.] I ain t stoppin on his 72 GOLD word nor any man s. I know what s best to do. [In tensely.] That schooner s been fit to sail these two weeks past. I been waitin on her stubborn will [he gestures toward the house] , eatin my heart out day and night. Then I swore I d sail today. I tell ye, Sue, I got a feelin in my bones if I don t put out now I never will. Aye, I feel it deep down inside me. [In a tone of superstitious awe.~\ And when she christened the schooner jest to the minute, mind ye ! a fair breeze sprung up and come down out o the land to blow her out to sea like a sign o good luck. SUE [Aroused to angry indignation.] What kind of a man have you become to think of such things now ! Oh, I can t believe you re the same man who used to be my father! BARTL.ETT Sue ! SUE To talk cold-bloodedly of sailing away on a long voyage when Ma s inside dying for all you seem to know or care! Oh, I hate you when you re like this! You re not the father I love! You ve changed into someone else hateful and cruel and I hate him, I hate him! [She breaks down, sobbing hysterically.] BARTLETT [Who has listened to her with a face suddenly stricJcen by fear and torturing remorse.] Sue! Ye don t know what ye be sayin , do ye? SUE I do ! You re not the same to me any more to any of us. I m afraid of you. And when GOLD 73 you coldly propose to go away now I hate you, yes I do ! And I hate those three awful men who make you act this way. I hate the schooner ! I wish she and they were at the bottom of the sea ! BAETLETT [Frenziedly putting his hand over her mouth to stop her words. ] Stop, girl! Don t ye dare SUE [Shrinking away from him f right enedly.] Pa! BARTLETT [Bewilder edly, pleading for forgive* ness.} Don t heed that, Sue I didn t mean ye git me so riled I d not hurt ye for all the gold in the world. But don t ye talk wrong o things ye can t know on. SUE Oh, Pa, what kind of things must they be when you re ashamed to tell them ! BARTLETT I ain t ashamed. It ain t that. On y they be things a girl s no call to meddle in. They be men s business and I be man enough to carry em out alone. Ye ll know all they be to know and your Ma and Nat, too when I come back from this vige. And the sooner I sail, the quicker I ll be back to ye. Oh, ye ll be glad enough then when ye see with your own eyes ! Ye ll bless me then stead o turning agin me! [Hesitating for a second then, somberly.} On y now till it s all over and done ye d best keep clear o* it. SUE [Passionately. ] I don t care I don t want to know anything about it. What I do know is that 74 GOLD you can t sail now. Oh, Pa, don t you see you can t? Haven t you any heart at all? Can t you see how bad Ma is? BARTLETT It s the sight o me sickens her. She ll git better with me away from her. SUE No. She needs you. She doesn t want you to go. She called your name just a while ago the only word she s spoken since she christened the ship. Come in to her, Pa ! Tell her you won t go ! BARTLETT [Desperately.] I got to git away from her, I tell ye, Sue! She s been houndin me ever since I got back houndin me with her stub born tongue till she s druv me mad, a most ! Ye ve been on y givin thought to her, not me. They s my side to it, too! SUE I ll talk to her, Pa. She can t realize she s hurting you or she wouldn t And then everything will be just the same as it used to be again. BARTLETT [Shaking his head.] They be too much between. The only chance for that be my plan to sail away and come back with what I be seekin . Then she ll give over her stubborn naggin if she s human woman. It s for her sake as much as my own I m goin for her and you and Nat. [With a sudden return of his old resolution.] I ve made up my mind, I tell ye, and in the end ye ll know I be right. [A hail in HORNE S voice comes thinly up from the shore below. BARTLETT starts, his eyes gleaming.] Ye hear? It s Home hailin me to come. GOLD 75 They be ready to cast off. I ll git aboard. [He starts for the ladder.] SUE Pa ! After all I ve said without one word of good-bye to Ma! [Hysterically.] Oh, what can I do, what can I say to stop you ! She hasn t spoken but that one call for you. She hardly seems to breathe. If it weren t for her eyes I d believe she was dead but her eyes look for you. She ll die if you go, Pa ! BARTLETT No ! SUE You might just as well kill her now in cold blood as murder her that way ! BARTLETT [Shaken raising his hands as if to put them over his ears to shut out her words hoarsely.] No ! Ye lie ! She ll live till I git back and all ll be as it was again ! DREW [Appearing in the doorway, his face work- ing with grief and anger harshly.] Captain Bart- lett ! [Then lowering his voice as he sees Sue.] Mrs. Bartlett is asking to see you, Captain, before you go. SUE There ! Didn t I tell you, Pa ! BARTLETT [Struggling with himself dully.] She s wantin to hound me again, that be all. SUE [Seeing him weakening grasps his hand persuasively.] Pa! Come with me. She won t hound you. How silly you are ! Come ! [Hesitatingly, head bowed, he follows her toward the door.] BARTLETT [As he comes to DREW he stops and looks into the young man s angry, accusing face. He 76 GOLD mutters half mockingly.] So ye, too, be agin me, Danny ? DREW [Unable to restrain his indignation.] What man that s a real man wouldn t be against you, sir? SUE [F right enedly] Danny! Pa! BARTLETT [In a sudden rage draws back his fist threateningly. DREW stares into his eyes unflinch ingly BARTLETT controls himself with an effort and lets his arm fall to his side scornfully] Big words from a boy, Danny. I ll forget them this time on account o Sue. [He turns to her] I m goin in to her to please ye, Sue but if ye think any words that she kin say ll change my mind, ye make a mis take for I be sailin out as I planned I would in spite o all hell ! [He walks resolutely into the house. SUE follows him after exchanging a hopeless glance with DANNY.] DREW [To himself with a shudder] He s mad, damn him ! [He paces up and down. HORNE appears on the ladder from below, followed by GATES.] HORNE [Coming forward and addressing DREW.] Is the skipper about? DREW [Curtly] He s in the house. You can t speak to him now. HORNE She s ready to cast off. I hailed him from below but I spect he didn t hear. [As DREW makes no comment impatiently] If he don t shake a leg, we ll miss the tide. There s a bit o fair breeze, too. GOLD 77 DREW [Glancing at him resentfully. } Don t count on his sailing today. It s just as likely he ll change his mind. HORNE [Angrily.] Change his mind again? After us waitin and wastin time for weeks! [To GATES in a loud tone so DREW can hear.} What did I tell ye, Gates? He s crazy as hell. DREW [Sharply.] What s that? HORNE I was tellin Gates the skipper s not right in his head [Angrily.] What man in his senses d do the way he does ? DREW [Letting his resentment escape him.] That s no lie, damn it! HORNE [Surprised.] Aye, ye ve seen it, too, have ye? [After a pause.] Now I axe ye, as a sailor, how d ye like to be puttin out on a vige with a cracked man for skipper? [SUE comes out of the door, stops with a shudder of disgust as she sees the two sailors, and stands listening. They do not notice her presence.] DREW It seems to me a crazy voyage all round. What kind of trading is it you re to do? HORNE [Suspiciously.] Ye ll have to ask the skipper that. DREW [With a scornful shrug.] I was forgetting it s such a dead secret. That the craziest part, eh? [With sudden interest as if a new idea had come to him.] But you know all about it, don t you 78 GOLD what the Captain plans to do on this voyage and aU that? HORNE [Dryly.] Aye, as well as himself but I m tellin no man. DREW And I m not asking. What do you sup pose I care about any sneaking trade deal in the Islands he may have up his sleeve ? What I want to find out is : Do you know enough about this busi ness to make this one voyage alone and attend to everything in case the Captain can t go? HORNE [Exchanging a quick glance with Cates trying to hide his eagerness] Aye, I could do as well as any man alive. I ve been sailin this sea for twenty year or more and I know the Island trade inside and out. He could trust me for it and I d make more money for him than he s likely to make with his head out o gear. [Then scowling. } On y trouble is, who d captain her if he ain t goin ? DREW [Disappointedly] Then you don t know navigation enough for that? HORNE I ve never riz above bo sun. [Then after a pause in which he appears to be calculating some thing curiously.] Why d ye ask me them questions? [Insinuatingly almost in a whisper.] It can t be done less we got an officer like you aboard. DREW [Angrily.] Eh? What re you driving at? D you think I SUE [Who has been listening with aroused in terest] Danny! [She comes down to him. HORNE GOLD 79 and GATES bob their heads respectfully and move back near the platform. HORNE watches SUE and DREW out of the corner of his eye] Danny, Pve been listening to what you were saying, but I don t under stand. What are you thinking of? DREW [Excitedly.] I was thinking Listen, Sue! Seems to me from what I saw your Pa s out of his right mind, and, being that way, he s sure bound to go unless someone or something steps in to stop him. D you think your Ma ? SUE [Shaking her head sadly. ,] No, I m afraid anything she says will only make things worse. DREW Then you ve no hope ? No more have I. Something s got to be done to keep him home in spite of himself. Even leaving your Ma out of it, he s not in any fit state to take a ship to sea; and I was thinking if we could fix it some way so that fellow Home could take her out on this voyage SUE But, Danny, Pa d never give in to that. DREW I wasn t thinking he would. It d have to be done on the sly. We you d have to give the word and keep him in the house somehow and then when he did come out it d be too late. The schooner d be gone. SUE [Disturbed, but showing that this plan has caught her mind.~\ But would it be fair? he d never forgive DREW When he s back in his right mind again, he would. [Earnestly.] I m not fond of lying and 80 GOLD tricks myself, Sue, but this is a case where you can t pick and choose. You can t let him sail, and wreck his ship and himself in the bargain, likely. Then, there s your Ma SUE No, no, we can t let him. [With a glance at HORNE and GATES.] But I don t trust those men. DREW No more do I; but it would be better to chance them than [Suddenly interrupting himself with a shrug of his shoulders. ] But there s no good talking of that. I was forgetting. None of them can navigate. They couldn t take her out. SUE But didn t I hear him say if they had an officer on board like you DREW Yes, but where ll you find one at a sec ond s notice? SUB [Meaningly.] And you told me, didn t you, that you d just got your master s papers. Then you re a captain by rights. DREW [Looking at her with stunned astonish ment. ] Sue! D you mean SUE [A light coming over her face.] Oh, Danny, we could trust you! He d trust you! And after he d calmed down I know he wouldn t mind so much. Oh, Danny, it ll break my heart to have you go, to send you away just after you ve come back. But I don t see any other way. I wouldn t ask if it wasn t for Ma being this way and him Oh, Danny, can t you see your way to do it for my sake? GOLD 81 DREW [Bewilderedly.] Why, Sue, I I never thought [Then as lie sees the look of disappoint ment which comes over her face at his hesitancy resolutely.] Why sure, Sue, I ll do it if you want me to. I ll do it if it can be done. But we ve got to hustle. You stand in the door, Sue. You ve got to keep him in the house some way if he aims to come out. And I ll talk to them. [SUE goes to the door way. DREW goes over to HORNE and GATES.] SUE [After listening.] He s still in with Ma. It s all right. DREW [To HORNE, with forced joviality.] How would you like me for skipper on this one voyage ? HORNE [Craftily.] Ye got your skipper s papers all reg lar? DREW Yes, that part of it s all right and square. Listen here. Miss Sue s decided her father isn t in a fit state to captain this trip. It d mean danger for him and the schooner and for you. HORNE That s no lie. GATES [To HORNE protestingly.] But if we git ketched the Old Man ll take it out o our hides, not his n. HORNE [Savagely.] Shut up, ye fool! [To DREW, craftily.] Gates is right, jest the same. Ye are as good as his married son and she s his daugh ter. He d not blame you if things went wrong. He d take it out on us. 82 GOLD DREW [Impatiently.] I ll shoulder all that risk, man! SUE [Earnestly.] No harm will come to any of you, I promise you. This is all my plan, and I ll tell my father I m alone to blame. HORNE [In the tone of one clinching a bargain.] Then we ll chance it. [Warningly.] But it s got to be done smart, sir. Ye d best look lively. DREW I ve got to get my dunnage. I ll be right back and we ll tumble aboard. [He goes to the door.] Hold him, Sue, on some excuse if he s coming. Only a second now and it ll all be safe. [He goes into the house. She follows him in.] GATES [With stupid anger.] This is a hell o a mess we re gettin in, if ye axe me. HORNE And I tell ye it s a great stroke o luck. It couldn t o* come out better. GATES He ll be aboard to spy on us. HORNE Let him ! What does he know? He thinks we re goin tradin , and there s no one to tell him difPrent but me. GATES He ll know better afore long. He ll s pect HORNE Bout the gold? He ain t that kind. He s a soft } T oung swab o a lady steamer s mate. Leave me to fool him. And when the time comes to git rid o him, I ll find a means some way or other. But can t ye see, ye fool, it s luck to have him with us till we git clear o civilized ports? He kin navigate GOLD 83 and he s got skipper s papers that ll come in handy if there s any trouble. And if anythin goes wrong at the start and we re brung back, him and the girl ll take the blame. GATES [Stupidly.] S long as he don t git no share o the gold HORNE [Contemptuously.] Share, ye dumbhead. 1 I d see him in hell first and send him there myself. [DREW comes out of the house carrying his bag which he hands to GATES. SUE follows him.] DREW Look lively now ! Let s hustle aboard and get her under way. HORNE Aye aye, sir. [He and GATES clamber hurriedly down the ladder.] SUE [Throwing her arms around his neck and kissing him.] Good-bye, Danny. It s so fine of you to do this for us ! I ll never forget DREW [Tenderly.] Ssssh! It s nothing, Sue. SUE [Tearfully.] Oh, Danny, I hope I m doing right ! I l miss you so dreadfully ! But you ll come back just as soon as you can DREW Of course ! SUE Danny! Danny! I love you so! DREW And I guess you know I love you, don t you? [Kisses her.] And we ll be married when I come back this time sure? SUE Yes yes Danny sure ! DREW I ve got to run. Good-bye, Sue. SUE Good-bye, dear. [They kiss for the last time 84 GOLD and lie disappears down the ladder. She stands at the top, sobbing, following him with her eyes. NAT comes around the house from the rear and goes to the front door.] NAT [Seeing his sister. ] Sue! He hasn t gone yet, has he? [She doesn t hear him. He hesitates in the doorway for a moment, listening for the sound of his father s voice from inside. Then, very careful to make no noise, he tiptoes carefully into the house. SUE waves her hand to DREW who has evidently now got aboard the ship. Then she covers her face with her hands, sobbing. NAT comes out of the house again and goes to his sister. As she sees him ap proaching, she dries her eyes hastily, trying to smile. } SUE Did you get the doctor, Nat? NAT Yes, he s coming right away, he promised. [Looking at her face.~\ What have you been crying? SUE No. [She walks away from the edge of the cliff, drawing him with her.] NAT Yes, you have. Look at your eyes. SUE Oh, Nat, everything s so awful ! [She breaks down again.] NAT [Trying to comfort her in an absent- Blinded way] There, don t get worked up. Ma ll be all right as soon as the doctor comes. [Then curiously] Pa s inside with her. They were arguing have they made it up, d you think? GOLD 85 SUE Oh, Nat, I don t know. I don t think so. NAT The strain s been too much for him wait ing and hiding his secret from all of us. What do you suppose it is, Sue ambergris? SUE [Wildly.] I don t know and I don t care! [Noticing the strange preoccupied look in his eyes trying to bring him back to earth scornfully. ] Ambergris! Are you going crazy? Don t you re member you ve always been the first one to laugh at that silly idea? NAT Well, there s something \_Starts for the platform. SUE does her best to interpose to hold him back.] Are they all ready on the schooner. He ll have to hurry if she s going to sail on this tide. [ With sudden passion. ] Oh, I ve got to go ! I can t stay here! [Pleadingly] Don t you think, Sue, if you were to ask him for me he d You re the only one he seems to act sane with or care about any more. SUE No! I won t! I can t! NAT [Angrily] Haven t you any sense? Wouldn t it be better for everyone if I went in his place? SUE No. You know that s a lie. Ma would lose her mind if you went. NAT And I ll lose mine if I stay! [Half aware of SUE S intention to keep him from looking down at the schooner irritably] What are you holding my arm for, Sue? I want to see what they re doing. 86 GOLD [He pushes her aside and goes to the platform ex citedly.] Hello, they ve got the fores l and mains l set. They re setting the stays l. [In amazement] Why they re casting off! She s moving away from the wharf! [More and more excitedly] I see four of them on board! Who who is that, Sue? SUE It s Danny. NAT [Furiously] Danny! What right has he when I can t ! Sue, call Pa ! They re sailing, I tell you, you little fool! SUE [Trying to calm him her voice trem bling.] Nat! Don t be such a donkey! Danny s only going a little way just trying the boat to see how she sails while they re waiting for Pa. NAT [Uncertainly] Oh. [Then bitterly] I was never allowed to do even that his own son! Look, Sue, that must be Danny at the stern waving. SUE [Brokenly] Yes. [She waves her hand kerchief over her head then breaks down, sobbing again. There is the noise of BARTLETT S voice from inside and a moment later he appears in the door way. He seems terribly shattered, at the end of his tether. He hesitates uncertainly, looking about him wildly as if he didn t know what to do or where to go] SUE [After one look at his face, runs to him and flings her arms about his neck] Pa ! [She weeps on his shoulder] BARTLETT Sue, ye did wrong beggin me to see GOLD 87 her. I knowed it d do no good. Ye promised she d not hound me "Confess," she says when they be naught to tell that couldn t be swore to in any court. "Don t go on this vige," she says, "there be the curse o God on it." [With a note of baffled an guish.] She kin say that after givin the ship her own name! [With wild, haggard defiance.] But curse or no curse, I be goin ! [He moves toward the platform, SUE clinging to his arm.~\ SUE [F right enedly.] Pa! Go back in the house, won t you ? BARTLETT I be sorry to go agin your will, Sue, but it s got to be. Ye ll know the reason some day and be glad o it. And now good-bye to ye. [With a sudden strange tenderness he bends and kisses his daughter. Then as she seems about to protest further, his expression becomes stern and in flexible.] No more o talk, Sue ! I be bound out. [He takes her hand off his arm and strides to the platform. One look down at the harbor and he stands transfixed in a hoarse whisper.] What damned trick be this? [He points to the schooner and turns to NAT bewilderedly .] Ain t that my schooner, boy the Sarah Allen reachin toward the p int? NAT [Surprised.] Yes, certainly. Didn t you know? Danny s trying her to see how she sails while they re waiting for you. BARTLETT [With a tremendous sigh of relief.] 88 GOLD Aye. [Then angrily.] He takes a lot o rope to himself without askin leave o me. Don t he know they s no time to waste on boy s foolin ? [Then with admiration.] She sails smart, don t she, boy? I knowed she d show a pair o heels. NAT [With enthusiasm.] Yes, she s a daisy! Say, Danny s taking her pretty far out, isn t he? BARTLETT [Anxiously.] He d ought to come about now if he s to tack back inside the p int. [Furiously.] Come about, damn ye! The swab! That s what comes o steamer trainin . I d sooner trust Sue to sail her nor him. [Waves his arm and shouts.] Come about ! NAT [Bitterly.] He seems to be heading straight for the open sea. He s taking quite a sail, it seems to me. BARTLETT [As if he couldn t believe his eyes.] He s passed the p int and now headin her out to sea so east by east. By God, that be the course I charted for her! [SUE bursts out sobbing. He wheels on her, his mouth fallen open, his face full of a stupid despair.] They be somethin wrong here. What be it, Sue? What be it, Nat? [His voice has begun to quiver with passion.] That schooner she s sailin without me [He suddenly springs at NAT and grabs him by the throat with hoarse fury, shaking him.] What be it, ye whelp? It s your doin because I wouldn t let ye go. Answer me! GOLD 89 SUE [Rushing to them with a scream.] Pa! [She tugs frantically at his hands. BARTLETT lets them fall to his side, stepping back from NAT who sinks weakly to the ground, gasping for breath. BARTLETT stands looking at him wildly.] SUE Nat didn t know, Pa. It s all my fault. I had to do it. There was no other way BARTLETT [Raging. ] What d ye mean, girl? What is it ye ve done ? Tell me, I say ! Tell me or I ll SUE [Unflinchingly.] You had to be stopped from going someway. You wouldn t listen to reason. So I asked Danny if he wouldn t make the trip in your place. He s just got his captain s papers and oh, Pa, you can trust him, you know that ! That man Home said he knows about everything you wanted done, and he promised to tell Danny, and Danny ll come back BARTLETT [Chokingly.] So that be it [Shaking his clenched fist at the sky as if visualiz ing the fate he feels in all of this] Curse ye ! Curse ye! [He subsides weakly, his strength spent, his hand falls limply at his side.] MRS. BARTLETT [Appears in the doorway. Her face is pale with anguish. She gives a cry of joy when she sees her son.] Nat ! [Then with a start of horror as her eyes fall on her husband.] Isaiah! [He doesn t seem to hear.] Then you ain t sailed jet? 90 GOLD SUE [Going to her gently. ] No, Ma, he isn t going to sail. He s going to stay home with you. But the schooner s gone. See. [She points and her mother s eyes turn seaward.] BARTLETT [Aloud to himself in a tone of grop ing superstitious awe and bewildered fear.] They be somethin queer somethin wrong they be a curse in this somewhere MRS. BARTLETT [Turning accusing eyes on him with a sort of fanatical triumph.] I m glad to hear you confess that, Isaiah. Yes, there be a curse God s curse on the wicked sinfulness o men and I thank God He s saved you from the evil of that voyage, and I ll pray Him to visit His punishment and His curse on them three men on that craft you forced me to give my name [She has raised her hand as if calling down retribution on the schooner she can dimly see] SUE [Terrified] Ma ! BARTLETT [Starting toward his wife with an in sane yell of fury] Stop it, I tell ye! [He towers over her with upraised fist as if to crush her] SUE Pa ! NAT [Starting to his feet from where he has been sitting on the ground hoarsely] Pa ! For God s sake ! MRS. BARTLETT [Gives a weak, frightened gasp] Would you murder me too, Isaiah? [She closes her eyes and collapses in SUE S arms] GOLD 91 SUE [Tremblingly.] Nat! Help me! Quick! We must carry her to bed. [They take their mother in their arms, carrying her inside the house. ] BARTLETT [While they are doing this, rushes In his mad frenzy to the platform over the edge of the cliff. He puts his hands to his mouth, megaphone- fashion, and yells with despairing rage.~\ Ahoy! Ahoy! Sarah Allen! Put back! Put back! [as [The Curtain Falls] ACT FOUR SCENE About nine o clock of a moonlight night one year later CAPTAIN BARTLETT S "cabin," a room erected on the top of his house as a lookout post. The interior is fitted up like the cabin of a sailing vessel. On the left, forward, a porthole. Farther back, the stairs of the com- panionway. Still farther, two more portholes. In the rear, left, a marble-topped sideboard. In the rear, center, a door opening on stairs which lead to the lower house. A cot with a blanket is placed against the wall to the right of door. In the right wall, five portholes. Directly under them, a wooden bench. In front of the bench, a long table with two chairs placed, one in front, one to the left of it. A cheap, dark-colored rug is on the floor. In the ceiling, midway from front to rear, a skylight extending from oppo site the door to above the left edge of the table. In the right extremity of the skylight is placed a floating ship s compass. The light from the binnacle sheds down over this and seeps into the room, casting a vague globular shadow of the 92 GOLD 93 compass on the floor. Moonlight creeps m through the portholes on the right. A lighted lantern is on the table. As the curtain rises, SUE and DOCTOR BERRY are discovered sitting by the table. The doctor is a man of sixty or so, hale and hearty-looking, his white hair and mustache setting off his ruddy complexion. His blue eyes have a gentle expression, his smile is kindly and sympathetic. His whole manner toward SUE is that of the old family doctor and friend, not the least of whose duties is to play father-confessor to his patients. She is dressed in deep mourning. She looks much older. Her face is pale and plainly marked by the ravages of suffering and grief. But there is an excited elation in her face at present, her eyes are alight with some unexpected joy. SUE [Excitedly. ] And here is Danny s letter, Doctor to prove it s all true. [She takes a letter from the bosom of her dress and holds it out to him.~\ DOCTOR [Takes it with a smile, patting her hand.] I can t say how glad I am, Susan. Coming after we d all given him up for lost it s like a mira cle. Eh, well, I can hardly believe SUE [Smiling happily.] Read what he says. Then you won t doubt. DOCTOR [Hesitating playfully. ] I don t know that it s right for me love letters at my age t 94 GOLD SUE Go ahead. I want you to read it. [He reaches in Ms pocket for his spectacles. SUE con tinues gratefully. ] As if I could have any secrets from you after all you ve done for us since Ma died. You ve been the only friend [She stops, her lips trembling. ] DOCTOR Tut-tut. [He adjusts his spectacles and peers at her over them.] Who wouldn t be of all the service he could to a brave girl like you and I who ve known you since you were so high! Eh, well, my dear girl, this past year with your mother s death the state your father s in and then the news of the schooner being reported lost one damn thing on top of another! You ve borne the whole brunt of it on your shoulders and stood up like a major. I ll tell Danny when he comes he ought to get down on his knees and thank God for getting such a wife! SUE [Flushing. ] You re too good. I don t de serve it. It was just a case where someone had to carry things on. DOCTOR Not many could have stood it living in this house with him the way he is even if he was their father. SUE [Glancing up at the skylight apprehen sively.] Ssshh! He might hear you. DOCTOR [Listening intently.] Not him. There he goes pacing up and down up there in the night, looking out to sea for that ship that will never come GOLD 95 back ! And your brother Nat is getting just as bad. [Shaking himself. ] Brrr! This house of mad dreams ! It s the crowning wonder to me you haven t lost your balance too spending nearly all of your time in this crazy cabin afraid to go out afraid of what he might do SUE Don t you think Pa ll come to realize the schooner is lost as time goes by and she doesn t come back ? DOCTOR If he was going to realize that, the re port of the facts five months ago would have con vinced him. There it was, plain as the nose on your face. British freighter reports finding derelict schooner. Steams near enough to read the name on the stern Sarah Allen, Harborport. Well, who could get around that evidence except a man with an obsession? No, your father won t let himself look the facts in the face. If he did, probably the shock of it would kill him. That darn dream of his has become his life. No, Susan, as time goes on he ll believe in it harder and harder. After observing him for the past year and I speak for his own sake, too, as his good friend for twenty years or more my final advice is the same : Send him to an asylum. SUE [With a shudder. ] No, Doctor. DOCTOR [Shaking his head.] You ll have to come to it in time. He s getting worse. No one can tell he might get violent SUE How can you say that? You know how 96 GOLD gentle and sane he is with me just like he used to be in the old days. DOCTOR You re his last connecting link with things as they are but that can t last. On the other hand, I think that if we got him away from the sea, from this house, especially from this crazy cabin and the ship s deck he had built up there [He nods upward. ] that perhaps SUE [With conviction. ] No. It would kill him to leave it. DOCTOR Eh, well, my dear, one thing you ve got to realize : Your father and Nat must be separated somehow. Nat s going to pieces. He s lost his job, he moons about this house, he takes no interest in anything but this craziness. I ll bet he doesn t believe that schooner is lost any more than your father does. SUE You mean he still hopes it may not be true. That s only natural. He s in San Francisco now tracing down the report again. He saw in the pa pers where the British freighter that found the dere lict was in port again and he went to talk with the people on board. I m hoping he ll come back fully, convinced, with the whole thing out of his mind. DOCTOR [Shaking his head gravely. ] I ve watched him and talked with him Why, even your father seems to realize, in his twisted way, that he has a bad effect on Nat. GOLD 97 SUE Yes, as I ve told you before, he hasn t spoken to Nat alone since the schooner sailed a year ago. And Nat sneaks about trying to spy on him and I have to be always on the watch to keep them apart It s terrible. DocTOR^-You ve got to persuade Nat to go away, Susan. SUE He won t heed me but I was thinking that now Danny is coming back, I d get him DOCTOR There s another thing. You can t con tinue to play slave to these two after you re married. SUE [Miserably.] We ll have to wait a while longer DOCTOR [Roughly.] Rats! You can t sacri fice any more of your life and Danny s to mad dreams. SUE [Helplessly.] I don t know [Then brightening.] That ll all be decided when the time comes. Just now it s enough to know Danny s alive and coming back. Read his letter, Doctor. You ve been holding it in your hand all this time. DOCTOR Yes, yes, let s see. [He takes the letter from the envelope.] SUE Poor Danny! He s been through terrible things. DOCTOR Hmm ! Rangoon. SUE Yes, he s still in the hospital there. You ll see. DOCTOR [Reads the letter grwnts with aston- 98 GOLD ishment angrily.] By Gad! The damn scoundrels! SUE [Shuddering.] Yes, wasn t it hideous those awful men stabbing him and leaving him for dead in that out of the way native settlement ! The natives nursed him back to life, have you got that far yet? And then he was laid up for four months there waiting for a vessel to touch and take him back to civilization. And then, think of it, getting the fever on top of all that and nearly dying in the hospital in Rangoon! DOCTOR A terrible time of it ! He s lucky to be alive. Hmm. I see he foresaw the wreck of the schooner. Those brutes couldn t navigate. [Fold ing the letter and putting it back.] He doesn t seem to have found out what the purpose of that mad trip was. Home hid it from him to the last, he says. Well, it s queer damn queer. But I m glad to know those wretches have gone to their final accounting. SUE [With a shudder.] I was always afraid of them. They looked like murderers. [At a noise from below they both start. Steps can be heard climbing the stairs. SUE jumps to her feet fright- enedly.] Why do you hear who can that be? [There is a soft rap on the door. The Doctor jumps to his feet. SUE turns to him with a half -hysterical laugh.] Shall I open? I don t know why but I m afraid. DOCTOR Tut-tut ! I ll see who it is. [He opens the door and NAT is discovered on the stairs out- GOLD 99 side.] Why hello, boy. You gave us a scare. Susan thought it was a ghost knocking. NAT [Comes into the room. He has aged, grown thin, his face gaunt and drawn from continual men tal strain, his eyes moody and preoccupied. He glances up at the skylight apprehensively, then turns to SUE.] I didn t find you downstairs so I [Then to the Doctor. ] Yes, you do grow to look for ghosts in this house, don t you? [Again glanc ing upward.] He s up there as usual, I suppose looking for a ship that ll never, never come now! DOCTOR [With a grunt of approval.] I m glad to hear you acknowledge that. SUE [Who is just recovering from her fright.] But, Nat, I didn t expect you Did you find out ? NAT Yes, I talked with several of the men who were on board at the time. They said they steamed tn so close to the schooner it was easy to read the name with the naked eye. All agreed Sarah Allen, Harborport. They even remembered how her taf rail was painted. There s no chance for mistake. The Sarah Allen is gone. [With great emphasis.] And I m glad damn glad! I feel as if a weight of lead had been taken off my brain. I feel free again, and I can go back to work but not here. I ve got to go away start new altogether. SUE [Happily, coming and putting her arms 100 GOLD around him.] It s so good to hear you talk like your old self again. DOCTOR [Earnestly. ] Yes, Nat, by Gad, that s sound sense. Get out of this. NAT [Giving him a queer look.] I suppose you thought I was doomed, eh? like him. [He makes a motion upward then with an uncertain laugh.] A doctor s always looking for trouble where there isn t any. [In a tone of finality.] Well, it s all over, anyway. SUE [Snatching the letter from the table.] Oh, I was forgetting, Nat. Read this. I got it yes terday. NAT [Turns it over in his hands suspiciously.] Who from? SUE Open it and see. NAT [Does so and turns over the pages to read the signature he gives a start hoarsely.] Danny! It can t be ! But it s his writing sure enough ! [He exclaims with a sudden wild exultation.] Then they must have been lying to me ! SUE No, the Sarah Allen was wrecked all right, but that was afterwards. He wasn t on board then. Read it. You ll see. [NAT sinks back on a chair, evidently depressed by this information. He starts to read the letter with unconcealed indifference, then becomes engrossed, excited, the paper trembling in his hands. The Doctor shakes his head at SUE Wr GOLD 101 dicatmg his disapproval of her giving him the letter. NAT finishes and springs to his feet angrily.] NAT The stupid fool! He let Home pull the wool over his eyes in fine shape. He deserved all he got for being so dumb! SUE [Indignantly.] Nat ! NAT [Unheedingly.] Oh, if I could only have gone in his place ! I knew the kind Home was. He couldn t have played that trick on me. I d have forced the secret out of him if I had to [He raises his clenched fist in a gesture of threat like his father s then lets it fall and sits down again dis gustedly.] But what s the use? And what s the use of this? [Tosses the letter contemptuously on the table.] He might just as well not have written. We re no wiser than we were before. SUE [Snatching up the letter deeply hurt.] Aren t you even glad to hear Danny s alive? NAT [Turning to her at once with remorseful confusion.] Yes yes of course, Sue I don t have to say that, do I? What I mean is, he never found out from Home and we re no wiser. DOCTOR [Briskly with a significant glance at SUE.] Well, Susan Nat I ve got to run along [Meaningly.] I ll be over again tomorrow, Susan. SUE Yes, do come. [Goes with him to the door.] Can you see your way? DOCTOE Yes. Good night. 102 GOLD SUE Good night. [She closes the door and comes back to NAT. The Doctor s footsteps die out. ] NAT [Savagely.] That damned old fool! What is he doing, sneaking around here all the time? I ve grown to hate the sight of him. SUE Nat! You can t mean that. Think of how kind he s been. , NAT Yes kindness with a purpose. SUE Don t be silly. What purpose could he have except wanting to help us? NAT To find out things, of course, you simple ton. To pump Pa when he s not responsible for what he s saying. SUE [Indignantly. ] Nat! NAT Much good it s done him ! I know Pa. Sane or not, he won t tell that to anyone not even you or me, Sue. [With sudden fury.] I m going away but before I go I m going to make him tell me ! He won t refuse this time when he knows I m leaving for good. He ll be glad then. He s been so afraid I d find out, so scared to speak to me even locking himself up here. But I ll make him tell yes, I will! SUE Careful, Nat. He ll hear you if you shout like that. NAT But we have a right to know his own children. What if he dies without ever speaking? SUE [Uneasily.] Be sensible, Nat. There s nothing to tell except in your imagination. [Tak- GOLD 103 ing his arm persuasively.] Come on downstairs. I ll get you something to eat. You must be starved, aren t you? NAT No I don t know I suppose I ought to be. [He gets to his feet and glances around with a shudder.] What a place for him to build to wait in like the cabin of a ship sunk deep under the sea like the Sarah Allen s cabin as it is now, prob ably. [With a shiver.] There s a chill comes over you. No wonder he s mad. [He listens.] Hear him. A year ago today she sailed. I wonder if he knows that. Back and forth, always staring out to sea for the Sarah Allen. Ha-ha ! God ! It would be funny if it didn t make your flesh creep. [Brusquely.] Come on. Let s leave him and go down where there s light and warmth. [They go down the stairs, closing the door behind them. There is a pause. Then the door of the companionway above is heard being opened and shut. A gust of wind sweeps down into the room. BARTLETT stamps down the stairs. The madness which has taken al most, complete possession of him in the past year is clearly stamped on his face, particularly in his eyes which seem to stare through and beyond objects with a hunted, haunted expression. His movements sug gest an automaton obeying invisible wires. They are quick, jerky, spasmodic. He appears to be laboring under a state of extraordinary excitement. He stands for a second at the foot of the stairs, 104 GOLD peering about "him suspiciously. Then lie goes to the table and sits down on the edge of a chair, his chin supported on his hands. ] B ART-LETT [Takes a folded piece of paper from Ms pocket and spreads it out on the table in the light of the lantern pointing with his finger mum- blingly] Where the cross be ye ll not forget that, Silas Home. Ye had a copy o this no chance for a mistake, bullies the gold s there, restin safe back to me and we ll share it fair and square. A year ago today ye remember the orders I wrote ye, Home. [Threateningly. ] Ye ll not be gone more nor a year or I ll and if ye make port to home here at night, hang a red and a green light at the mainm st head so I ll see ye comin. A red and a green [He springs up suddenly and goes to a porthole to look out at the sea disappointedly.] No light be there but they ll come. The year be up today and yeVe got to come or I ll [He sinks back on the chair, his head in his hands. Sud denly he starts and stares straight in front of him as if he saw something in the air with angry de fiance.] Aye, there ye be again the two o ye! Makin a mock o me! Brass and junk, ye say, not worth a damn! Ye don t believe, do ye? I ll show ye ! [He springs to his feet and makes a motion as if grabbing someone by the throat and shaking them savagely.] Ye lie! Is it gold or no? Answer me! [With a mocking laugh] Aye, ye own up GOLD 105 to it now, right enough. Too late, ye swabs ! No share for ye ! [He sinks back on the chair again after a pause, dully.] Jimmy s gone. Let them rot. But I spoke no word, Silas Home, remember! {Then in a tone of fear] Be ye dyin , Sarah? No, ye must live live to see your ship come home with the gold and I ll buy ye all in the world ye set your heart on. No, not ambergris, Sarah gold and diamonds and sech! We re rich at last! [Then with great anguish.] What woman s stubborn talk be this? Confess, ye say? But I spoke no word, I swear to ye! Why will ye hound me and think evil o what I done? Men s business, I tell ye. They would have killed us and stolen the gold, can t ye see? [Wildly.] Enough o talk, Sarah! I ll sail out in spite o* ye! [fie gets to his feet and paces up and down the room. The door in the rear is opened and NAT re- enters. He glances at his father, then looks down the stairs behind him cautiously to see if he is fol lowed. He comes in and closes the door behind him carefully.] NAT [In a low voice.] Pa! [Then as his father does not appear to notice his presence louder.] Pa! BARTLETT [Stops short and stares at his son as if he were gradually awakening from a dream slowly] Be that ye, Nat? NAT [Coming forward.] Yes. I want to talk with you. 106 GOLD BARTLETT [Struggling to bring his thoughts under control.] Talk? Ye want to talk to me? Men s business no room for a boy in it keep clear o this. NAT [Defiantly] That s what you ve always said. But I won t be put off any longer. I won t, do you hear? BARTLETT [Angrily] I ve ordered ye not to set foot in this cabin o mine. Git below where ye belong. Where s Sue? I told her to keep ye away. NAT She can t prevent me this time. I ve made up my mind. Listen, Pa. I m going away to morrow. BARTLETT [Uncertainly] Goin away? NAT Yes, and I m never coming back. I m go ing to start a new life. That s why I want a final talk with you before I go. BARTLETT [Dully.] I ve naught to say to ye. NAT You will have. Listen. I ve absolute proof the Sarah Allen is lost. BARTLETT [Fiercely.] Ye lie! NAT [Curiously] Why do you say that? You know it s true. It s just that you won t believe. BARTLETT [ Wanderingly the word heading his mind into another channel] Believe? Aye, he wouldn t believe. Brass and junk, he said, not worth a damn but in the end I made him own up twas gold. NAT [Repeating the word fascinatedly. } Gold? GOLD 107 BARTLETT A year ago today she sailed. Ye lie! Ye don t believe either, do ye? like him. But I ll show ye ! I ll make ye own up as I made him ! [ With mad exultation.] She s comin home tonight as I ordered Home she must ! I kin feel her makin for home, I tell ye ! A red an* a green at the mainm st- head if ye make port o* night, I ordered Home. Ye ll see ! [He goes to look out of a porthole. NAT, as if under a spell, goes to another. ] NAT [Turning away disappointedly making an effort to throw off his thoughts without convic tion. ] Nonsense. There s nothing there no lights and I don t believe there ever will be. BARTLETT [His wild eyes fixed on his son s with an intense effort of will as if he were trying to break down his resistance. } Ye ll see, I tell ye a red and a green ! It ain t time yet, boy, but when it be they ll be plain in the night afore your eyes. [He goes and sits down by the table. NAT follows him and sits down in the other chair. He sees the map and stares at it fascinatedly.] NAT What is this the map of the island? [He reaches out his hand for it.~\ BARTLETT [Snatching it up with a momentary return to reason f right enedly.] Not for ye, boy. Keep clear o this for your own good. [Then with a crazed triumph."] Aye! Ye d believe this soon enough, wouldn t ye? NAT [Intensely.] I ve always believed there 108 GOLD was something and a moment ago you mentioned gold. [Triumphant in his turn.] So you needn t try to hide the secret any longer. I know now. It s gold gold you found on that island gold you fitted out the Sarah Allen to sail back for gold you buried where I saw that cross marked on the map ! [Passionately.] Why have you been afraid to con fide in me, your own son? Why didn t you let me sail back in your place? Were you afraid I d give the secret away? Did you think I wouldn t be lieve ? BARTLETT [With a mad chuckle.] Aye, ye be lieve now, right enough. NAT I always believed, I tell you. [Pleadingly.] And now that I know so much why can t you tell me the rest? I must know! I have a right to be heir to the secret. Why don t you confess BARTLETT [Interrupting his brain catching at the word.] Confess? Confess, did ye say, Sarah? To Nat, did ye mean? Aye, Sarah, I ll tell him all and leave it to him to say if I did wrong. [His gleaming eyes -fixed on his son s.] I ll tell ye, boy, from start to finish o it. I been eatin my heart to tell someone someone who d believe someone that d say I did no wrong. Listen, boy, ye know o* our four days in an open boat after the Triton went down. I told ye o that when I come home. But what I didn t tell ye was they was six o* us in that boat, not four. GOLD 109 NAT Six? There were you and Home and Gates and Jimmy BARTLETT^ The cook o the Triton and the ship s boy. We d been on the island two days an island barren as hell, mind without food or drink. We was roasted by the sun and nigh mad with thirst. Then, on the second day, I seed a Malay canoe a proper war canoe such as the pirates use sunk down inside the reef. I sent Jimmy down to go over her thinkin they might be some cask o water in her the sea d not got to. [With impressive emphasis. ] He found no water, boy, but he did find d ye know what, boy? NAT [Exultantly.] The gold, of course! BARTLETT [Laughing harshly.] Ha-ha! Ye do believe right enough, don t ye ! Aye, the gold in a chest. We hauled her up ashore and forced the lid open. [Gloatingly.] And there it was afore our eyes in the sun gold bracelets and rings and orna ments o all sorts fixed up fancy with diamonds and emeralds and rubies and sech red and green shinin in the sun ! [He stops impressively] NAT [Fascinatedly] Diamonds and But how did they get there? BARTL.ETT Looted treasure o some Chinese junk, likely. What matter how it come about? There it was afore our eyes. And then, mind ye, that thief o a cook came runnin up from where he d been shirkin to look at what we d found. "No 110 GOLD share for ye, ye swab," I yelled at him ; and then he says: "It ain t gold brass and junk," he says and run off for fear o me. Aye, he run off to the boy and told him to jine with his sneakin plan to steal the gold from us ! NAT [Savagely. ] But why didn t you stop him? Why didn t you ? BARTLETT I be comin to that, boy, and ye ll see if I did wrong. We carried the chest to the shade o a palm and there was that thief o a cook an the boy waitin . I collared em both and made em look at the gold. "Look and tell me if it s gold or no," I says. [Triumphantly. ] They was afeerd to lie. Even that thief o a cook owned up twas gold. Then when I turned em loose, because he knowed he d git no share, he shouted again: "Brass and junk. Not worth a damn." NAT [Furiously.] But why did you allow Why didn t you BARTLETT [With mad satisfaction. ] Aye, ye be seein the way o it, boy. It was just then we sighted the schooner that picked us up after. We made a map and was burryin the gold when we no ticed them two thieves sneakin about to see where we d hide it. I saw em plain, the scum ! That thief o a cook was thinkin he d tell the folks on the schooner and go shares with them and leave us on the island to rot; or he was thinkin he and the boy d be able to come back and dig it up afore I GOLD 111 could. We had to do somethin quick to spile their plan afore the schooner come. [In a tone of savage satisfaction.] And so though I spoke no word to him Jimmy knifed em both and covered em up with sand. But I spoke no word, d ye hear? Their deaths be on Jimmy s head alone. NAT [Passionately.] And what if you had? They deserved what they got. BARTLETT Then ye think I did no wrong? NAT No! Any man I d have done the same myself. BARTLETT [Gripping his son s hand tensely.] Ye be true son o mine, Nat. I ought to told ye be fore. [Exultantly.] Ye hear, Sarah? Nat says I done no wrong. NAT The map! Can I see it? BARTLETT Aye. [He hands it to NAT who spreads it out on the table and pores over it.] NAT [Excitedly.] Why, with this I we can go back even if the Sarah Allen is lost. BARTLETT She ain t lost, boy not her. Don t heed them lies ye been hearin . She s due now. I ll go up and look. [He goes up the companionway stairs. NAT does not seem to notice his going, ab sorbed in the map. Then there is a loud muffled hail in BARTLETT S voice.] "Sarah Allen, ahoyi" [NAT starts, transfixed then rushes to one of the port holes to look. He turns back, passing his hand over his eyes, frowning bewilderedly. The door above is 112 GOLD flung open and slammed shut and BARTLETT stamps down the stairs.] BARTLETT [Fixing NAT hypnotically with his eyes triumphantly.] What did I tell ye? D ye believe now she ll come back? D ye credit your own eyes ? NAT [Vaguely.] Eyes? I looked. I didn t BARTLETT Ye lie! The Sarah Allen, ye blind fool, come back from the Southern Seas as I swore she must ! Loaded with gold as I swore she would be! makin* port! droppin her anchor just when I hailed her. NAT [Feebly, his will crumbling. ] But how do you know? some other schooner BARTLETT Not know my own ship and the sig nal I d ordered Home to make! NAT [Mechanically.] I know a red and a green at the mainm sthead. BARTLETT Then look out if ye dare! [He goes to a porthole.] Ye kin see it plain from here. [Commandingly.] Will ye believe your eyes? Look! [NAT comes to him slowly looks through the port- hole an d starts back, a possessed expression com ing over his face.] NAT [Slowly.] A red and a green clear as day! BARTLETT [His face is now transfigured by the ecstasy of a dream come true.] They ve lowered a GOLD 113 boat the three Home an* Gates and Jimmy Ka naka. They re rowin ashore. Listen. I hear the oars in the locks. Listen! NAT [Staring into his father s eyes after a pause during which he appears to be straining his hearing to the breaking point excitedly. ~\ I hear! BARTLETT Listen! They ve landed. They ll be comin up the path now. [In a crooning, monoto nous tone.~\ They move slowly slowly. It be heavy, I know that chest. [After a pause.] Hark! They re below at the door in front. NAT I hear! BARTLETT Ye ll see it now in a moment, boy the gold. Up with it, bullies! Up ye come! Up, bullies! It s heavy, heavy! NAT [Madly.] I hear them! They re on the floor below! They re coming! I ll open the door. [He springs to the door and flings it open, shout ing.] Welcome home, boys! [SUE is discovered out side just climbing up the stairs from below. She steps inside, then stops, looking with amazement and horror from father to brother. NAT pushes her roughly aside to look behind her down the stairs.] SUE Nat ! NAT [Turning to his father.] Til go down to the wharf. They must be there or [The rest of his words are lost as he hurries down the stairs. BARTLETT steps back, shrinking away from his 114 GOLD daughter, and sinks on a chair by the table with a groan, his hands over his eyes.~\ SUE [Comes to him and shakes him by the shoul der alarmed. ] Pa! What has happened? What is the matter with Nat? What have you told him? [With bitter despair. ~\ Oh, can t you see you re driving him mad, too? BARTLETT [Letting his hands fall and staring at her haggardly falteringly, as if reason were slowly filtering back into his brain.] Sue ye said drivin him mad, too ! Then ye think I be ? [He stag- gers to his feet. SUE breaks down, sobbing. BART- LETT falters on.] But I seen her the Sarah Allen the signal lights SUE Oh, Pa, there s nothing there! You know it ! She was lost months ago. BARTLETT Lost? [He stumbles over to a port hole and looks out. His body sags as if he were gomg to fall. He turns away and cries hopelessly in a tone of heart-rending grief. ] Lost! Aye, they be no Sarah Allen there no lights nothin ! SUE [Pleading fiercely.] Pa, you ve got to save Nat! He won t heed anyone else. Can t you tell him the truth the whole truth whatever it is now when I m here and you re yourseli again and set him free from this crazy dream ! BARTLETT [With wild grief.] Confess, ye mean? Sue, ye be houndin me like your Ma did to her dyin hour! Confess that I spoke the word to GOLD 115 Jimmy in my mind! Confess brass and junk not worth a damn ! [In frenzied protest. ] No ! Ye Jie! SUE Oh, Pa, I don t know what you mean. Tell Nat the truth ! Save him ! BARTLETT -^eJ^uiMJt^, 1^ [As SUE tries to bar his way to the companionway sternly. } Out o my way, girl! [He pulls himself feebly up the stairs. The door is heard slamming above. SUE sits down in a chair in a hopeless, exhausted attitude. After a pause NAT re-enters. He is panting heavily from his exertions. His pale face is set in an ex pression of despair.] NAT [Looking about the room wildly. ~] Where is he? Sue! [He comes forward and falls on his knees beside her chair, hiding his face in her lap like a frightened child. He sobs hoarsely. ] Sue! What does it all mean? I looked. There was nothing there no schooner nothing. SUE [Soothing him as if he were a little boy] Of course there wasn t. Did you expect there would be, you foolish boy? Come, you know better than that. Why, Nat, you told the doctor and I that you were absolutely convinced the Sarah Allen was lost. NAT [Dully.] Yes, I know but I don t be lieve like him SUE Sshhhh! You know the state Pa is in. He doesn t realize what he s saying half the time. 116 GOLD You ought to have better sense than to pay any attention NAT [Excitedly.] But he told me all he s been hiding from us all about the gold! SUE [Looking at him with alarm mystified.] Gold? [Then forcing a smile.] Don t be silly, Nat. It doesn t exist except in his poor, deranged mind. NAT [Fiercely.] That s a lie, Sue! I saw the map, I tell you the map of the island with a cross marked on it where they buried the gold. SUE He showed a map to you a real map? [Gently.] Are you sure you re not just imagining that, too? NAT I had it in my hands, you fool, you ! There on the table. [He springs to his feet, sees the map on the table, and snatches it up with an exclamation O f j y showing it to SUE.] See! Now will you believe me! [She examines the map perplexedly. NAT paces up and down excitedly.] I tell you it s all true. You can t deny it now. It s lucky for us I forced him to confess. He might have died keeping the secret and then we d have lost I ll tell you what I m going to do now, Sue. I m going to raise the money somewhere, somehow, and fit out another schooner and this time I ll sail on her myself. No trusting to Danny or anyone else! Yes, Sue, we ll come into our own yet, even if the Sarah Allen is lost [He stops then in accents of bewildered fear.] But she can t be lost I saw the lights, GOLD 117 Sue red and green as plain as I see you now [He goes to one of the portholes again. ] SUE [Who has been watching him worriedly, puts the map back on the table, gets up and, as suming a brisk, matter-of-fact tone, she goes over and takes him by the arm.~\ Come downstairs, Nat. Don t think any more about it tonight. It s late and you re worn out. You need rest and a good sleep. NAT [Following her toward the door con fusedly. ] But Sue I saw them [From above in the night comes the muffled hail in BARTLETT S voice.] Sarah Allen, ahoy! [NAT stops, tortured, his hands instinctively raised up to cover his ears. SUE gives a startled cry. The door above is slammed and BARTLETT comes down the stairs, his face re vealing that the delusion has again full possession of his mind. ] BARTLETT [Pointing his finger at his son and fixing him with his eyes in ringing, triumphant tones. ~] The Sarah Allen, boy in the harbor be low a red and a green plain afore my eyes ! What did I tell ye, boy? Come back from the Southern Seas as I swore she must! Loaded with gold as I swore she would be! [NAT again seems to crumble to give way to the stronger will. He takes a step toward his father, his eyes lighting up. SUE looks at his face then rushes to her father.] 118 GOLD SUE [Putting her hands to her father s head and forcing him to look down into her face in tensely.] Pa ! Stop, do you hear me ! It s all mad ! You re driving Nat mad, too! [As she sees her father hesitate, the. wild light dying out of his eyes, she summons all her power to a -fierce pleading. ] For my sake, Pa! For Ma s sake! Think of how she would feel if she were alive and saw you acting this way with Nat ! Tell him ! Tell him now be fore me tell him it s all a lie! BARTLETT [Trying in an agony of conflict to get hold of his reason incoherently. } Yes, Sue I hear ye confess aye, Sarah, your dyin words keep Nat clear o* this but red and green I seen em plain [Then suddenly after a tre mendous struggle, lifting his tortured face to NAT S in tones of despair. ,] Nothin there, boy! Don t ye believe! No red and green! She ll never come! Derelict and lost, boy, the Sarah Allen. [After an other struggle with himself.] And I lied to ye, boy. I gave the word in my mind to kill them two. I murdered em in cold blood. SUE [Shrinking from him in horror.] Pa! You don t know what you re saying. BARTLETT The truth, girl. Ye said con fess NAT [Bewilderedly.] But it was right. They were trying to steal BARTLETT [Overcome by the old obsession for GOLD 119 a moment savagely.] Aye, that s it! The thievin scum! They was tryin [He stops short, throwing his head back, his whole body tense and quivering with the effort he makes to force this sus taining lie out of his brain then, broken but self- conquering, he looks again at NAT gently.] No, Nat. That be the lie I been tellin myself ever since. That cook he said twas brass But I d been lookin for ambergris gold the whole o my life and when we found that chest I had to believe, I tell ye ! I d been dreamin o it all my days ! But he said brass and junk, and told the boy and I give the word to murder em both and cover em up with sand. NAT [Very pale despairingly."] But he lied, didn t he? It is gold real gold isn t it? BARTLETT [Slowly takes the studded anklet from his pocket and holds it out to NAT. The latter brings it to the light of the lantern. BARTLETT sits on a chair, covering his face with his hands in a tone of terrible suffering.] Ye ll tell me, boy if it s gold or no. I ve had it by me all this time but I ve been afeerd to show NAT [In a tone of wild scorn] Why, it s brass, of course! The cheapest kind of junk not worth a damn ! [He flings it savagely into a corner of the room. BARTLETT groans and seems to shrink up and turn into a figure of pitiable feebleness.] SUE [Pityingly. ] Don t, Nat. [She puts her 120 GOLD arms arownd Tier -father s shoulders protectingly.] NAT [In a stifled voice. ~\ What a damned fool I ve been! [He flings himself down on the cot, his shoulders heaving.] BARTLETT [Uncovers his grey face on which there is now settling an expression of strange peace stroking his daughter s hand.~\ Sue don t think hard o me. [He takes the map.] An end to this! [He slowly tears it into small pieces, seeming to grow weaker and weaker as he does so. Finally as he lets the fragments filter through his fingers, his whole frame suddenly relaxes. He sighs, his eyes shut, and sags back in his chair, his head bent forward limply on his chest. ~\ SUE [Alarmed.] Pa! [She sinks to her knees beside him and looks up into his face.] Pa ! Speak to me! It s Sue! [Then turning toward her brother terrifledly.] Nat ! Run get the doctor [NAT starts to a sitting position. SUE tries with trembling hands to feel of her father s pulse, his heart then begins to sob hysterically. ] Oh, Nat he s dead, I think he s dead ! [The Curtain Falls] RETURN CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT TO ^ 202 Main Library LOAN PERIOD 1 HOME USE 2 3 4 5 6 ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS 1 -month loans may be renewed by celling 6^-3405 1-year loans may be recharged by bringing tne books to the Circulation Oe" Renewals and recharges may be made 4 days prior to due date DUE AS STAMPED BELOW TO else UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELI FORM NO. DD6, 60m, 1/83 BERKELEY, CA 94720 GENERAL LIBRARY - U.C. BERKELEY