We didn't ask for the lady of the house. They ain't always as sociable as you are.
ALICE:
Well, that's her necklace. You got that at the house on the hill with the red roof--the house has the red roof, not the hill.
(She recognizes, with an exclamation, a gold locket and chain which HATCH is about to place in his pocket.)Oh! That's Mrs. Lowell's locket! How could you!
(She snatches locket from HATCH, and clasps it in both hands. She rises indignantly.)How dared you take that!
HATCH:
Put that down!
ALICE:
(wildly and rapidly)
No, I will not. Do you know what that means to that woman? She cares more for that than for anything in this world. Her husband used to wear this.
(Points.)
That's a lock of their child's hair. The child's dead, and the husband's dead, and that's all she has left of either of them. And you TOOK it, YOU BRUTES!
REDDY:
Of course we took it. Why does she wear it where everybody can see it?
HATCH:
(savagely)
Keep quiet, you fool.
ALICE:
She WORE it? You took it--FROM HER?
HATCH:
We didn't hurt her. We only frightened her a bit.
(Angrily.)
And we'll frighten you before we're done with you, Miss Civilization!
ALICE:
(defiantly, her voice rising)
Frighten me! You--you with your faces covered! You're not men enough. You're afraid to even steal from men. You rob WOMEN when they're alone--at night.
(Holds up locket.)
Try to take that from me!
VOICE:
(calling)
Alice--Alice!
ALICE:
Mother! Oh, I forgot, I forgot.
(The burglars rise and move toward her menacingly.)Please, please keep quiet. For God's sake, don't--let--her--know!
VOICE:
Alice, what's wrong? Who are you talking to?
(ALICE runs to the curtains, with one hand held out to the burglars, entreating silence.)ALICE:
I'm--I'm talking to James, the coachman. One of the horses is ill.
Don't come down, mother. Don't come down. Go back to bed. He's going now, right away. He came for some medicine. It's all right.
Good night, mother.
VOICE:
Can't I help?
ALICE:
(Vehemently)
No, no. Good night, mother.
VOICE:
Good night.
HATCH:
(fiercely, to HARRY)
That's enough of this! We can't leave here with the whole house awake. And there's a coachman, too. She'll wake him next. He'll have the whole damned village after us.
(To ALICE)
That woman upstairs and you have got to have your tongues stopped.
ALICE:
(standing in front of curtains)
You try to go near that woman! She's ill, she's feeble, she's my--mother! You dare to touch her.
HATCH:
Get out of my way.
ALICE:
She's ill, you cowards. It will kill her. You'll have to kill me before you get through this door.
HATCH:
(savagely)
Well, then, if it comes to that--
(Three locomotive whistles are heard from just outside the house.
ALICE throws up her hands hysterically.)
ALICE:
Ah! At last! They've come. They've come!
HATCH:
(fiercely)
They've come! What is it? What does that mean?
(REDDY runs to window and opens the shutters.)ALICE:
(jubilantly)
It means--it means that twenty men are crossing that lawn. It means that while you sat drinking there, Civilization was racing toward you at seventy miles an hour!
HATCH:
Damnation! We're trapped. Get to the wagon--quick! No. Leave the girl alone. We've no time for that. Drop that stuff. That way. That way.
REDDY:
(at window)
No. Get back! Get back! It's too late. There's hundreds of them out there.
HATCH:
(running to centre door)
Out here! This way! Quick!
ALICE:
(mockingly)
Yes, come! You don't dare come this way NOW!
(She drags open the curtains, disclosing CAPTAIN LUCAS and two other policemen. For an instant they stand, covering the burglars with revolvers. REDDY runs to window. He is seized by an entering crowd of men in the oil-stained blue jeans of engineers and brakemen.)CAPTAIN LUCAS:
Hold up your hands, all of you! I guess I know you.
(With his left hand he tears off HATCH'S mask.)"Joe" Hatch--at last.
(Pulls off HARRY'S mask.)
And Harry Hayes. I thought so. And that's--the "Kid." The whole gang.
(To the police.)
Good work, boys.
(To ALICE)
My congratulations, Miss Gardner. They're the worst lot in the country. You're a brave young lady. You ought--ALICE:
(speaking with an effort and swaying slightly)Hush, please. Don't--don't alarm my mother. Mother's not as strong as--as I am.
(Her eyes close, and she faints across the arm of the Chief of Police as the CURTAIN FALLS.)End
