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Title: Captain Brassbound's Conversion
Author: George Bernard Shaw
Release Date: September, 2002
[Yes, we are about one year ahead of schedule]
[The actual date this file first posted = 04/11/01]
Edition: 10
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CAPTAIN BRASSBOUND'S CONVERSION
BERNARD SHAW
ACT I
On the heights overlooking the harbor of Mogador, a seaport on
the west coast of Morocco, the missionary, in the coolness of the
late afternoon, is following the precept of Voltaire by
cultivating his garden. He is an elderly Scotchman, spiritually a
little weatherbeaten, as having to navigate his creed in strange
waters crowded with other craft but still a convinced son of the
Free Church and the North African Mission, with a faithful brown
eye, and a peaceful soul. Physically a wiry small-knit man, well
tanned, clean shaven, with delicate resolute features and a
twinkle of mild humor. He wears the sun helmet and pagri, the
neutral-tinted spectacles, and the white canvas Spanish sand
shoes of the modern Scotch missionary: but instead of a cheap
tourist's suit from Glasgow, a grey flannel shirt with white
collar, a green sailor knot tie with a cheap pin in it, he wears
a suit of clean white linen, acceptable in color, if not in cut,
to the Moorish mind.
The view from the garden includes much Atlantic Ocean and a long
stretch of sandy coast to the south, swept by the north east
trade wind, and scantily nourishing a few stunted pepper trees,
mangy palms, and tamarisks. The prospect ends, as far as the
land is concerned, in little hills that come nearly to the sea:
rudiments, these, of the Atlas Mountains. The missionary, having
had daily opportunities of looking at this seascape for thirty
years or so, pays no heed to it, being absorbed in trimming a
huge red geranium bush, to English eyes unnaturally big, which,
with a dusty smilax or two, is the sole product of his pet
flower-bed. He is sitting to his work on a Moorish stool. In the
middle of the garden there is a pleasant seat in the shade of a
tamarisk tree. The house is in the south west corner of the
garden, and the geranium bush in the north east corner.
At the garden-door of the house there appears presently a man who
is clearly no barbarian, being in fact a less agreeable product
peculiar to modern commercial civilization. His frame and flesh
are those of an ill-nourished lad of seventeen; but his age is
inscrutable: only the absence of any sign of grey in his mud
colored hair suggests that he is at all events probably under
forty, without prejudice to the possibility of his being under
twenty. A Londoner would recognize him at once as an extreme but
hardy specimen of the abortion produced by nature in a city slum.
His utterance, affectedly pumped and hearty, and naturally vulgar
and nasal, is ready and fluent: nature, a Board School education,
and some kerbstone practice having made him a bit of an orator.
His dialect, apart from its base nasal delivery, is not unlike
that of smart London society in its tendency to replace
diphthongs by vowels (sometimes rather prettily) and to shuffle
all the traditional vowel pronunciations. He pronounces ow as ah,
and i as aw, using the ordinary ow for o, i for a, a for u, and e
for a, with this reservation, that when any vowel is followed by
an r he signifies its presence, not by pronouncing the r, which
he never does under these circumstances, but by prolonging and
modifyinq the vowel, sometimes even to the extreme degree of
pronouncing it properly. As to his yol for l (a compendious
delivery of the provincial eh-al), and other metropolitan
refinements, amazing to all but cockneys, they cannot be
indicated, save in the above imperfect manner, without the aid
of a phonetic alphabet. He is dressed in somebody else's very
second best as a coast-guardsman, and gives himself the airs of
a stage tar with sufficient success to pass as a possible fish
porter of bad character in casual employment during busy times
at Billingsgate. His manner shows an earnest disposition to
ingratiate himself with the missionary, probably for some
dishonest purpose.
THE MAN. Awtenoon, Mr. Renkin. (The missionary sits up quickly,
and turns, resigning himself dutifully to the interruption.) Yr
honor's eolth.
RANKIN (reservedly). Good afternoon, Mr. Drinkwotter.
DRINKWATER. You're not best pleased to be hinterrupted in yr bit
o gawdnin bow the lawk o me, gavner.
RANKIN. A missionary knows nothing of leks of that soart, or of
disleks either, Mr. Drinkwotter. What can I do for ye?
DRINKWATER (heartily). Nathink, gavner. Awve brort noos fer yer.
RANKIN. Well, sit ye doon.
DRINKWATER. Aw thenk yr honor. (He sits down on the seat under
the tree and composes himself for conversation.) Hever ear o
Jadge Ellam?
RANKIN. Sir Howrrd Hallam?
DRINKWATER. Thet's im-enginest jadge in Hingland! --awlus gives
the ket wen it's robbry with voylence, bless is awt. Aw sy
nathink agin im: awm all fer lor mawseolf, AW em.
RANKIN. Well?
DRINKWATER. Hever ear of is sist-in-lor: Lidy Sisly Winefleet?
RANKIN. Do ye mean the celebrated Leddy--the traveller?
DRINKWATER. Yuss: should think aw doo. Walked acrost Harfricar
with nathink but a little dawg, and wrowt abaht it in the Dily
Mile (the Daily Mail, a popular London newspaper), she did.
RANKIN. Is she Sir Howrrd Hallam's sister-in-law?
DRINKWATER. Deeceased wawfe's sister: yuss: thet's wot SHE is.
RANKIN. Well, what about them?
DRINKWATER. Wot abaht them! Waw, they're EAH. Lannid aht of a
steam yacht in Mogador awber not twenty minnits agow. Gorn to the
British cornsl's. E'll send em orn to you: e ynt got naowheres to
put em. Sor em awr (hire) a Harab an two Krooboys to kerry their
laggige. Thort awd cam an teoll yer.
RANKIN. Thank you. It's verra kind of you, Mr. Drinkwotter.
DRINKWATER. Down't mention it, gavner. Lor bless yer, wawn't it
you as converted me? Wot was aw wen aw cam eah but a pore lorst
sinner? Down't aw ow y'a turn fer thet? Besawds, gavner, this
Lidy Sisly Winefleet mawt wor't to tike a walk crost Morocker--a
rawd inter the mahntns or sech lawk. Weoll, as you knaow, gavner,
thet cawn't be done eah withaht a hescort.
RANKIN. It's impoassible: th' would oall b' murrdered. Morocco is
not lek the rest of Africa.
DRINKWATER. No, gavner: these eah Moors ez their religion; an it
mikes em dinegerous. Hever convert a Moor, gavner?
RANKIN (with a rueful smile). No.
DRINKWATER (solemnly). Nor never will, gavner.
RANKIN. I have been at work here for twenty-five years, Mr.
Drinkwotter; and you are my first and only convert.
DRINKWATER. Down't seem naow good, do it, gavner?
RANKIN. I don't say that. I hope I have done some good. They come
to me for medicine when they are ill; and they call me the
Christian who is not a thief. THAT is something.
DRINKWATER. Their mawnds kennot rawse to Christiennity lawk hahrs
ken, gavner: thet's ah it is. Weoll, ez haw was syin, if a
hescort is wornted, there's maw friend and commawnder Kepn
Brarsbahnd of the schooner Thenksgivin, an is crew, incloodin
mawseolf, will see the lidy an Jadge Ellam through henny little
excursion in reason. Yr honor mawt mention it.
RANKIN. I will certainly not propose anything so dangerous as an
excursion.
DRINKWATER (virtuously). Naow, gavner, nor would I awst you to.
(Shaking his head.) Naow, naow: it IS dinegerous. But hall the
more call for a hescort if they should ev it hin their mawnds to
gow.
RANKIN. I hope they won't.
DRINKWATER. An sow aw do too, gavner.
RANKIN (pondering). 'Tis strange that they should come to
Mogador, of all places; and to my house! I once met Sir Howrrd
Hallam, years ago.
DRINKWATER (amazed). Naow! didger? Think o thet, gavner! Waw, sow
aw did too. But it were a misunnerstedin, thet wors. Lef the
court withaht a stine on maw kerrickter, aw did.
RANKIN (with some indignation). I hope you don't think I met Sir
Howrrd in that way.
DRINKWATER. Mawt yeppn to the honestest, best meanin pusson, aw
do assure yer, gavner.
RANKIN. I would have you to know that I met him privately, Mr.
Drinkwotter. His brother was a dear friend of mine. Years ago. He
went out to the West Indies.
DRINKWATER. The Wust Hindies! Jist acrost there, tather sawd thet
howcean (pointing seaward)! Dear me! We cams hin with vennity, an
we deepawts in dawkness. Down't we, gavner?
RANKIN (pricking up his ears). Eh? Have you been reading that
little book I gave you?
DRINKWATER. Aw hev, et odd tawms. Very camfitn, gavner. (He
rises, apprehensive lest further catechism should find him
unprepared.) Awll sy good awtenoon, gavner: you're busy hexpectin
o Sr Ahrd an Lidy Sisly, ynt yer? (About to go.)
RANKIN (stopping him). No, stop: we're oalways ready for
travellers here. I have something else to say--a question to ask
you.
DRINKWATR (with a misgiving, which he masks by exaggerating his
hearty sailor manner). An weollcome, yr honor.
RANKIN. Who is this Captain Brassbound?
DRINKWATER (guiltily). Kepn Brarsbahnd! E's-weoll, e's maw Kepn,
gavner.
RANKIN. Yes. Well?
DRINKWATER (feebly). Kepn of the schooner Thenksgivin, gavner.
RANKIN (searchingly). Have ye ever haird of a bad character in
these seas called Black Paquito?
DRINKWATER (with a sudden radiance of complete enlightenment).
Aoh, nar aw tikes yer wiv me, yr honor. Nah sammun es bin a
teolln you thet Kepn Brarsbahnd an Bleck Pakeetow is
hawdentically the sime pussn. Ynt thet sow?
RANKIN. That is so. (Drinkwater slaps his knee triumphantly. The
missionary proceeds determinedly) And the someone was a verra
honest, straightforward man, as far as I could judge.
DRINKWATER (embracing the implication). Course a wors, gavner: Ev
aw said a word agin him? Ev aw nah?
RANKIN. But is Captain Brassbound Black Paquito then?
DRINKWATER. Waw, it's the nime is blessed mather give im at er
knee, bless is little awt! Ther ynt naow awm in it. She ware a
Wust Hinjin--howver there agin, yer see (pointing seaward)--
leastwaws, naow she worn't: she were a Brazilian, aw think; an
Pakeetow's Brazilian for a bloomin little perrit--awskin yr pawdn
for the word. (Sentimentally) Lawk as a Hinglish lidy mawt call
er little boy Birdie.
RANKIN (not quite convinced). But why BLACK Paquito?
DRINKWATER (artlessly). Waw, the bird in its netral stite bein
green, an e evin bleck air, y' knaow--
RANKIN (cutting him short). I see. And now I will put ye another
question. WHAT is Captain Brassbound, or Paquito, or whatever he
calls himself?
DRINKWATER (officiously). Brarsbahnd, gavner. Awlus calls isseolf
Brarsbahnd.
RANKIN. Well. Brassbound, then. What is he?
DRINKWATER (fervently). You awsks me wot e is, gavner?
RANKIN (firmly). I do.
DRINKWATFR (with rising enthusiasm). An shll aw teoll yer wot e
is, yr honor?
RANKIN (not at all impressed). If ye will be so good, Mr.
Drinkwotter.
DRINKWATER (with overwhelming conviction). Then awll teoll you,
gavner, wot he is. Ee's a Paffick Genlmn: thet's wot e is.
RANKIN (gravely). Mr. Drinkwotter: pairfection is an attribute,
not of West Coast captains, but of thr Maaker. And there are
gentlemen and gentlemen in the world, espaecially in these
latitudes. Which sort of gentleman is he?
DRINKWATER. Hinglish genlmn, gavner. Hinglish speakin; Hinglish
fawther; West Hinjin plawnter; Hinglish true blue breed.
(Reflectively) Tech o brahn from the mather, preps, she bein
Brazilian.
RANKIN. Now on your faith as a Christian, Felix Drinkwotter, is
Captain Brassbound a slaver or not?
DRINKWATER (surprised into his natural cockney pertness). Naow e
ynt.
RANKIN. Are ye SURE?
DRINKWATER. Waw, a sliver is abaht the wanne thing in the wy of a
genlmn o fortn thet e YNT.
RANKIN. I've haird that expression "gentleman of fortune" before,
Mr. Drinkwotter. It means pirate. Do ye know that?
DRINKWATER. Bless y'r awt, y' cawnt be a pawrit naradys. Waw, the
aw seas is wuss pleest nor Piccadilly Suckus. If aw was to do orn
thet there Hetlentic Howcean the things aw did as a bwoy in the
Worterleoo Rowd, awd ev maw air cat afore aw could turn maw ed.
Pawrit be blaowed!--awskink yr pawdn, gavner. Nah, jest to shaow
you ah little thet there striteforard man y' mide mention on
knaowed wot e was atorkin abaht: oo would you spowse was the
marster to wich Kepn Brarsbahnd served apprentice, as yr mawt sy?
RANKIN. I don't know.
DRINKWATER. Gawdn, gavner, Gawdn. Gawdn o Kawtoom--stetcher
stends in Trifawlgr Square to this dy. Trined Bleck Pakeetow in
smawshin hap the slive riders, e did. Promist Gawdn e wouldn't
never smaggle slives nor gin, an (with suppressed aggravation)
WOWN'T, gavner, not if we gows dahn on ahr bloomin bended knees
to im to do it.
RANKIN (drily). And DO ye go down on your bended knees to him to
do it?
DRINKWATER (somewhat abashed). Some of huz is hanconverted men,
gavner; an they sy: You smaggles wanne thing, Kepn; waw not
hanather?
RANKIN. We've come to it at last. I thought so. Captain
Brassbound is a smuggler.
DRINKWATER. Weoll, waw not? Waw not, gavner? Ahrs is a Free Tride
nition. It gows agin us as Hinglishmen to see these bloomin
furriners settin ap their Castoms Ahses and spheres o hinfluence
and sich lawk hall owver Arfricar. Daown't Harfricar belong as
much to huz as to them? thet's wot we sy. Ennywys, there ynt naow
awm in ahr business. All we daz is hescort, tourist HOR
commercial. Cook's hexcursions to the Hatlas Mahntns: thet's hall
it is. Waw, it's spreadin civlawzytion, it is. Ynt it nah?
RANKIN. You think Captain Brassbound's crew sufficiently equipped
for that, do you?
DRINKWATER. Hee-quipped! Haw should think sow. Lawtnin rawfles,
twelve shots in the meggezine! Oo's to storp us?
RANKIN. The most dangerous chieftain in these parts, the Sheikh
Sidi el Assif, has a new American machine pistol which fires ten
bullets without loadin; and his rifle has sixteen shots in the
magazine.
DRINKWATER (indignantly). Yuss; an the people that sells sich
things into the ends o' them eathen bleck niggers calls
theirseolves Christians! It's a crool shime, sow it is.
RANKIN. If a man has the heart to pull the trigger, it matters
little what color his hand is, Mr. Drinkwotter. Have ye anything
else to say to me this afternoon?
DRINKWATER (rising). Nathink, gavner, cept to wishyer the bust o
yolth, and a many cornverts. Awtenoon, gavner.
RANKIN. Good afternoon to ye, Mr. Drinkwotter.
As Drinkwater turns to go, a Moorish porter comes from the house
with two Krooboys.
THE PORTER (at the door, addressing Rankin). Bikouros (Moroccan
for Epicurus, a general Moorish name for the missionaries, who
are supposed by the Moors to have chosen their calling through a
love of luxurious idleness): I have brought to your house a
Christian dog and his woman.
DRINKWATER. There's eathen menners fer yer! Calls Sr Ahrd Ellam
an Lidy Winefleet a Christian dorg and is woman! If ee ed you in
the dorck et the Centl Crimnal, you'd fawnd aht oo was the dorg
and oo was is marster, pretty quick, you would.
RANKIN. Have you broat their boxes?
THE PORTER. By Allah, two camel loads!
RANKIN. Have you been paid?
THE PORTER. Only one miserable dollar, Bikouros. I have brought
them to your house. They will pay you. Give me something for
bringing gold to your door.
DRINKWATER. Yah! You oughter bin bawn a Christian, you ought. You
knaow too mach.
RANKIN. You have broat onnly trouble and expense to my door,
Hassan; and you know it. Have I ever charged your wife and
children for my medicines?
HASSAN (philosophically). It is always permitted by the Prophet
to ask, Bikouros. (He goes cheerfully into the house with the
Krooboys.)
DRINKWATER. Jist thort eed trah it orn, a did. Hooman nitre is
the sime everywheres. Them eathens is jast lawk you an' me,
gavner.
A lady and gentleman, both English, come into the garden.
The gentleman, more than elderly, is facing old age on
compulsion, not resignedly. He is clean shaven, and has a brainy
rectangular forehead, a resolute nose with strongly governed
nostrils, and a tightly fastened down mouth which has evidently
shut in much temper and anger in its time. He has a habit of
deliberately assumed authority and dignity, but is trying to
take life more genially and easily in his character of tourist,
which is further borne out by his white hat and summery
racecourse attire.
The lady is between thirty and forty, tall, very goodlooking,
sympathetic, intelligent, tender and humorous, dressed with
cunning simplicity not as a businesslike, tailor made, gaitered
tourist, but as if she lived at the next cottage and had dropped
in for tea in blouse and flowered straw hat. A woman of great
vitality and humanity, who begins a casual acquaintance at the
point usually attained by English people after thirty years
acquaintance when they are capable of reaching it at all. She
pounces genially on Drinkwater, who is smirking at her, hat in
hand, with an air of hearty welcome. The gentleman, on the other
hand, comes down the side of the garden next the house,
instinctively maintaining a distance between himself and the
others.
THE LADY (to Drinkwater). How dye do? Are you the missionary?
DRINKWATER (modestly). Naow, lidy, aw will not deceive you, thow
the mistike his but netral. Awm wanne of the missionary's good
works, lidy--is first cornvert, a umble British seaman--
countrymen o yours, lidy, and of is lawdship's. This eah is Mr.
Renkin, the bust worker in the wust cowst vawnyawd. (Introducing
the judge) Mr. Renkin: is lawdship Sr Ahrd Ellam. (He withdraws
discreetly into the house.)
SIR HOWARD (to Rankin). I am sorry to intrude on you, Mr. Rankin;
but in the absence of a hotel there seems to be no alternative.
LADY CICELY (beaming on him). Besides, we would so much RATHER
stay with you, if you will have us, Mr. Rankin.
SIR HOWARD (introducing her). My sister-in-law, Lady Cicely
Waynflete, Mr. Rankin.
RANKIN. I am glad to be of service to your leddyship. You will be
wishing to have some tea after your journey, I'm thinking.
LADY CICELY. Thoughtful man that you are, Mr. Rankin! But we've
had some already on board the yacht. And I've arranged everything
with your servants; so you must go on gardening just as if we
were not here.
SIR HOWARD. I am sorry to have to warn you, Mr. Rankin, that Lady
Cicely, from travelling in Africa, has acquired a habit of
walking into people's houses and behaving as if she were in her
own.
LADY CICELY. But, my dear Howard, I assure you the natives like
it.
RANKIN (gallantly). So do I.
LADY CICELY (delighted). Oh, that is so nice of you, Mr. Rankin.
This is a delicious country! And the people seem so good! They
have such nice faces! We had such a handsome Moor to carry our
luggage up! And two perfect pets of Krooboys! Did you notice
their faces, Howard?
SIR HOWARD. I did; and I can confidently say, after a long
experience of faces of the worst type looking at me from the
dock, that I have never seen so entirely villainous a trio as
that Moor and the two Krooboys, to whom you gave five dollars
when they would have been perfectly satisfied with one.
RANKIN (throwing up his hands). Five dollars! 'Tis easy to see
you are not Scotch, my leddy.
LADY CICELY. Oh, poor things, they must want it more than we do;
and you know, Howard, that Mahometans never spend money in drink.
RANKIN. Excuse me a moment, my leddy. I have a word in season to
say to that same Moor. (He goes into the house.)
LADY CICELY (walking about the garden, looking at the view and at
the flowers). I think this is a perfectly heavenly place.
Drinkwater returns from the house with a chair.
DRINKWATER (placing the chair for Sir Howard). Awskink yr pawdn
for the libbety, Sr Ahrd.
SIR HOWARD (looking a him). I have seen you before somewhere.
DRINKWATER. You ev, Sr Ahrd. But aw do assure yer it were hall a
mistike.
SIR HOWARD. As usual. (He sits down.) Wrongfully convicted, of
course.
DRINKWATER (with sly delight). Naow, gavner. (Half whispering,
with an ineffable grin) Wrorngfully hacquittid!
SIR HOWARD. Indeed! That's the first case of the kind I have ever
met.
DRINKWATER. Lawd, Sr Ahrd, wot jagginses them jurymen was! You an
me knaowed it too, didn't we?
SIR HOWARD. I daresay we did. I am sorry to say I forget the
exact nature of the difficulty you were in. Can you refresh my
memory?
DRINKWATER. Owny the aw sperrits o youth, y' lawdship. Worterleoo
Rowd kice. Wot they calls Ooliganism.
SIR HOWARD. Oh! You were a Hooligan, were you?
LADY CICELY (puzzled). A Hooligan!
DRINKWATER (deprecatingly). Nime giv huz pore thortless leds baw
a gent on the Dily Chrornicle, lidy. (Rankin returns. Drinkwater
immediately withdraws, stopping the missionary for a moment near
the threshold to say, touching his forelock) Awll eng abaht
within ile, gavner, hin kice aw should be wornted. (He goes into
the house with soft steps.)
Lady Cicely sits down on the bench under the tamarisk. Rankin
takes his stool from the flowerbed and sits down on her left, Sir
Howard being on her right.
LADY CICELY. What a pleasant face your sailor friend has, Mr.
Rankin! He has been so frank and truthful with us. You know I
don't think anybody can pay me a greater compliment than to be
quite sincere with me at first sight. It's the perfection of
natural good manners.
SIR HOWARD. You must not suppose, Mr. Rankin, that my
sister-in-law talks nonsense on purpose. She will continue to
believe in your friend until he steals her watch; and even then
she will find excuses for him.
RANKIN (drily changing the subject). And how have ye been, Sir
Howrrd, since our last meeting that morning nigh forty year ago
down at the docks in London?
SIR HOWARD (greatly surprised, pulling himself together) Our last
meeting! Mr. Rankin: have I been unfortunate enough to forget an
old acquaintance?
RANKIN. Well, perhaps hardly an acquaintance, Sir Howrrd. But I
was a close friend of your brother Miles: and when he sailed for
Brazil I was one of the little party that saw him off. You were
one of the party also, if I'm not mistaken. I took particular
notice of you because you were Miles's brother and I had never
seen ye before. But ye had no call to take notice of me.
SIR HOWARD (reflecting). Yes: there was a young friend of my
brother's who might well be you. But the name, as I recollect it,
was Leslie.
RANKIN. That was me, sir. My name is Leslie Rankin; and your
brother and I were always Miles and Leslie to one another.
SIR HOWARD (pluming himself a little). Ah! that explains it. I
can trust my memory still, Mr. Rankin; though some people do
complain that I am growing old.
RANKIN. And where may Miles be now, Sir Howard?
SIR HOWARD (abruptly). Don't you know that he is dead?
RANKIN (much shocked). Never haird of it. Dear, dear: I shall
never see him again; and I can scarcely bring his face to mind
after all these years. (With moistening eyes, which at once touch
Lady Cicely's sympathy) I'm right sorry--right sorry.
SIR HOWARD (decorously subduing his voice). Yes: he did not live
long: indeed, he never came back to England. It must be nearly
thirty years ago now that he died in the West Indies on his
property there.
RANKIN (surprised). His proaperty! Miles with a proaperty!
SIR HOWARD. Yes: he became a planter, and did well out there, Mr.
Rankin. The history of that property is a very curious and
interesting one--at least it is so to a lawyer like myself.
RANKIN. I should be glad to hear it for Miles's sake, though I am
no lawyer, Sir Howrrd.
LADY CICELY. I never knew you had a brother, Howard.
SIR HOWARD (not pleased by this remark). Perhaps because you
never asked me. (Turning more blandly to Rankin) I will tell you
the story, Mr. Rankin. When Miles died, he left an estate in one
of the West Indian islands. It was in charge of an agent who was
a sharpish fellow, with all his wits about him. Now, sir, that
man did a thing which probably could hardly be done with impunity
even here in Morocco, under the most barbarous of surviving
civilizations. He quite simply took the estate for himself and
kept it.
RANKIN. But how about the law?
SIR HOWARD. The law, sir, in that island, consisted practically
of the Attorney General and the Solicitor General; and these
gentlemen were both retained by the agent. Consequently there was
no solicitor in the island to take up the case against him.
RANKIN. Is such a thing possible to-day in the British Empire?
SIR HOWARD (calmly). Oh, quite. Quite.
LADY CICELY. But could not a firstrate solicitor have been sent
out from London?
SIR HOWARD. No doubt, by paying him enough to compensate him for
giving up his London practice: that is, rather more than there
was any reasonable likelihood of the estate proving worth.
RANKIN. Then the estate was lost?
SIR HOWARD. Not permanently. It is in my hands at present.
RANKIN. Then how did ye get it back?
SIR HOWARD (with crafty enjoyment of his own cunning). By
hoisting the rogue with his own petard. I had to leave matters as
they were for many years; for I had my own position in the world
to make. But at last I made it. In the course of a holiday trip
to the West Indies, I found that this dishonest agent had left
the island, and placed the estate in the hands of an agent of his
own, whom he was foolish enough to pay very badly. I put the case
before that agent; and he decided to treat the estate as my
property. The robber now found himself in exactly the same
position he had formerly forced me into. Nobody in the island
would act against me, least of all the Attorney and Solicitor
General, who appreciated my influence at the Colonial Office. And
so I got the estate back. "The mills of the gods grind slowly,"
Mr. Rankin; "but they grind exceeding small."
LADY CICELY. Now I suppose if I'd done such a clever thing in
England, you'd have sent me to prison.
SIR HOWARD. Probably, unless you had taken care to keep outside
the law against conspiracy. Whenever you wish to do anything
against the law, Cicely, always consult a good solicitor first.
LADY CICELY. So I do. But suppose your agent takes it into his
head to give the estate back to his wicked old employer!
SIR HOWARD. I heartily wish he would.
RANKIN (openeyed). You wish he WOULD!!
SIR HOWARD. Yes. A few years ago the collapse of the West Indian
sugar industry converted the income of the estate into an annual
loss of about 150 pounds a year. If I can't sell it soon, I shall
simply abandon it--unless you, Mr. Rankin, would like to take it
as a present.
RANKIN (laughing). I thank your lordship: we have estates enough
of that sort in Scotland. You're setting with your back to the
sun, Leddy Ceecily, and losing something worth looking at. See
there. (He rises and points seaward, where the rapid twilight of
the latitude has begun.)
LADY CICELY (getting up to look and uttering a cry of
admiration). Oh, how lovely!
SIR HOWARD (also rising). What are those hills over there to the
southeast?
RANKIN. They are the outposts, so to speak, of the Atlas
Mountains.
LADY CICELY. The Atlas Mountains! Where Shelley's witch lived!
We'll make an excursion to them to-morrow, Howard.
RANKIN. That's impoassible, my leddy. The natives are verra
dangerous.
LADY CICELY. Why? Has any explorer been shooting them?
RANKIN. No. But every man of them believes he will go to heaven
if he kills an unbeliever.
LADY CICELY. Bless you, dear Mr. Rankin, the people in England
believe that they will go to heaven if they give all their
property to the poor. But they don't do it. I'm not a bit afraid
of that.
RANKIN. But they are not accustomed to see women going about
unveiled.
LADY CICELY. I always get on best with people when they can see
my face.
SIR HOWARD. Cicely: you are talking great nonsense and you know
it. These people have no laws to restrain them, which means, in
plain English, that they are habitual thieves and murderers.
RANKIN. Nay, nay: not exactly that,
LADY CICELY (indignantly). Of course not. You always think,
Howard, that nothing prevents people killing each other but the
fear of your hanging them for it. But what nonsense that is! And
how wicked! If these people weren't here for some good purpose,
they wouldn't have been made, would they, Mr. Rankin?
RANKIN. That is a point, certainly, Leddy Ceecily.
SIR HOWARD. Oh, if you are going to talk theology--
LADY CICELY. Well, why not? theology is as respectable as law, I
should think. Besides, I'm only talking commonsense. Why do
people get killed by savages? Because instead of being polite to
them, and saying Howdyedo? like me, people aim pistols at them.
I've been among savages--cannibals and all sorts. Everybody said
they'd kill me. But when I met them, I said Howdyedo? and they
were quite nice. The kings always wanted to marry me.
SIR HOWARD. That does not seem to me to make you any safer here,
Cicely. You shall certainly not stir a step beyond the protection
of the consul, if I can help it, without a strong escort.
LADY CICELY. I don't want an escort.
SIR HOWARD. I do. And I suppose you will expect me to accompany
you.
RANKIN. 'Tis not safe, Leddy Ceecily. Really and truly, 'tis not
safe. The tribes are verra fierce; and there are cities here that
no Christian has ever set foot in. If you go without being well
protected, the first chief you meet well seize you and send you
back again to prevent his followers murdering you.
LADY CICELY. Oh, how nice of him, Mr. Rankin!
RANKIN. He would not do it for your sake, Leddy Ceecily, but for
his own. The Sultan would get into trouble with England if you
were killed; and the Sultan would kill the chief to pacify the
English government.
LADY CICELY. But I always go everywhere. I KNOW the people here
won't touch me. They have such nice faces and such pretty
scenery.
SIR HOWARD (to Rankin, sitting down again resignedly). You can
imagine how much use there is in talking to a woman who admires
the faces of the ruffians who infest these ports, Mr. Rankin. Can
anything be done in the way of an escort?
RANKIN. There is a certain Captain Brassbound here who trades
along the coast, and occasionally escorts parties of merchants on
journeys into the interior. I understand that he served under
Gordon in the Soudan.
SIR HOWARD. That sounds promising. But I should like to know a
little more about him before I trust myself in his hands.
RANKIN. I quite agree with you, Sir Howrrd. I'll send Felix
Drinkwotter for him. (He claps his hands. An Arab boy appears at
the house door.) Muley: is sailor man here? (Muley nods.) Tell
sailor man bring captain. (Muley nods and goes.)
SIR HOWARD. Who is Drinkwater?
RANKIN. His agent, or mate: I don't rightly know which.
LADY CICELY. Oh, if he has a mate named Felix Drinkwater, it must
be quite a respectable crew. It is such a nice name.
RANKIN. You saw him here just now. He is a convert of mine.
LADY CICELY (delighted). That nice truthful sailor!
SIR HOWARD (horrified). What! The Hooligan!
RANKIN (puzzled). Hooligan? No, my lord: he is an Englishman.
SIR HOWARD. My dear Mr. Rankin, this man was tried before me on a
charge of street ruffianism.
RANKIN. So he told me. He was badly broat up, I am afraid. But he
is now a converted man.
LADY CICELY. Of course he is. His telling you so frankly proves
it. You know, really, Howard, all those poor people whom you try
are more sinned against than sinning. If you would only talk to
them in a friendly way instead of passing cruel sentences on
them, you would find them quite nice to you. (Indignantly) I
won't have this poor man trampled on merely because his mother
brought him up as a Hooligan. I am sure nobody could be nicer
than he was when he spoke to us.
SIR HOWARD. In short, we are to have an escort of Hooligans
commanded by a filibuster. Very well, very well. You will most
likely admire all their faces; and I have no doubt at all that
they will admire yours.
Drinkwater comes from the house with an Italian dressed in a much
worn suit of blue serge, a dilapidated Alpine hat, and boots
laced with scraps of twine. He remains near the door, whilst
Drinkwater comes forward between Sir Howard and Lady Cicely.
DRINKWATER. Yr honor's servant. (To the Italian) Mawtzow: is
lawdship Sr Ahrd Ellam. (Marzo touches his hat.) Er Lidyship Lidy
Winefleet. (Marzo touches his hat.) Hawtellian shipmite, lidy.
Hahr chef.
LADY CICELY (nodding affably to Marzo). Howdyedo? I love Italy.
What part of it were you born in?
DRINKWATER. Worn't bawn in Hitly at all, lidy. Bawn in Ettn Gawdn
(Hatton Garden). Hawce barrer an street pianner Hawtellian, lidy:
thet's wot e is. Kepn Brarsbahnd's respects to yr honors; an e
awites yr commawnds.
RANKIN. Shall we go indoors to see him?
SIR HOWARD. I think we had better have a look at him by daylight.
RANKIN. Then we must lose no time: the dark is soon down in this
latitude. (To Drinkwater) Will ye ask him to step out here to us,
Mr. Drinkwotter?
DRINKWATER. Rawt you aw, gavner. (He goes officiously into the
house.)
Lady Cicely and Rankin sit down as before to receive the Captain.
The light is by this time waning rapidly, the darkness creeping
west into the orange crimson.
LADY CICELY (whispering). Don't you feel rather creepy, Mr.
Rankin? I wonder what he'll be like.
RANKIN. I misdoubt me he will not answer, your leddyship.
There is a scuffling noise in the house; and Drinkwater shoots
out through the doorway across the garden with every appearance
of having been violently kicked. Marzo immediately hurries down
the garden on Sir Howard's right out of the neighborhood of the
doorway.
DRINKWATER (trying to put a cheerful air on much mortification and
bodily anguish). Narsty step to thet ere door tripped me hap, it
did. (Raising his voice and narrowly escaping a squeak of pain)
Kepn Brarsbahnd. (He gets as far from the house as possible, on
Rankin's left. Rankin rises to receive his guest.)
An olive complexioned man with dark southern eyes and hair comes
from the house. Age about 36. Handsome features, but joyless;
dark eyebrows drawn towards one another; mouth set grimly;
nostrils large and strained: a face set to one tragic purpose. A
man of few words, fewer gestures, and much significance. On the
whole, interesting, and even attractive, but not friendly. He
stands for a moment, saturnine in the ruddy light, to see who is
present, looking in a singular and rather deadly way at Sir
Howard; then with some surprise and uneasiness at Lady Cicely.
Finally he comes down into the middle of the garden, and
confronts Rankin, who has been glaring at him in consternation
from the moment of his entrance, and continues to do so in so
marked a way that the glow in Brassbound's eyes deepens as he
begins to take offence.
BRASSBOUND. Well, sir, have you stared your fill at me?
RANKIN (recovering himself with a start). I ask your pardon for
my bad manners, Captain Brassbound. Ye are extraordinair lek an
auld college friend of mine, whose face I said not ten minutes
gone that I could no longer bring to mind. It was as if he had
come from the grave to remind me of it.
BRASSBOUND. Why have you sent for me?
RANKIN. We have a matter of business with ye, Captain.
BRASSBOUND. Who are "we"?
RANKIN. This is Sir Howrrd Hallam, who will be well known to ye
as one of Her Majesty's judges.
BRASSBOUND (turning the singular look again on Sir Howard). The
friend of the widow! the protector of the fatherless!
SIR HOWARD (startled). I did not know I was so favorably spoken
of in these parts, Captain Brassbound. We want an escort for a
trip into the mountains.
BRASSBOUND (ignoring this announcement). Who is the lady?
RANKIN. Lady Ceecily Waynflete, his lordship's sister-in-law.
LADY CICELY. Howdyedo, Captain Brassbound? (He bows gravely.)
SIR HOWARD (a little impatient of these questions, which strike
him as somewhat impertinent). Let us come to business, if you
please. We are thinking of making a short excursion to see the
country about here. Can you provide us with an escort of
respectable, trustworthy men?
BRASSBOUND. No.
DRINKWATER (in strong remonstrance). Nah, nah, nah! Nah look eah,
Kepn, y'knaow--
BRASSBOUND (between his teeth). Hold your tongue.
DRINKWATER (abjectly). Yuss, Kepn.
RANKIN. I understood it was your business to provide escorts,
Captain Brassbound.
BRASSBOUND. You were rightly informed. That IS my business.
LADY CICELY. Then why won't you do it for us?
BRASSBOUND. You are not content with an escort. You want
respectable, trustworthy men. You should have brought a
division of London policemen with you. My men are neither
respectable nor trustworthy.
DRINKWATER (unable to contain himself). Nah, nah, look eah, Kepn.
If you want to be moddist, be moddist on your aown accahnt, nort
on mawn.
BRASSBOUND. You see what my men are like. That rascal (indicating
Marzo) would cut a throat for a dollar if he had courage enough.
MARZO. I not understand. I no spik Englis.
BRASSBOUND. This thing (pointing to Drinkwater) is the greatest
liar, thief, drunkard, and rapscallion on the west coast.
DRINKWATER (affecting an ironic indifference). Gow orn, Gow orn.
Sr Ahrd ez erd witnesses to maw kerrickter afoah. E knaows ah
mech to believe of em.
LADY CICELY. Captain Brassbound: I have heard all that before
about the blacks; and I found them very nice people when they
were properly treated.
DRINKWATER (chuckling: the Italian is also grinning). Nah, Kepn,
nah! Owp yr prahd o y'seolf nah.
BRASSBOUND. I quite understand the proper treatment for him,
madam. If he opens his mouth again without my leave, I will break
every bone in his skin.
LADY CICELY (in her most sunnily matter-of-fact way). Does
Captain Brassbound always treat you like this, Mr. Drinkwater?
Drinkwater hesitates, and looks apprehensively at the Captain.
BRASSBOUND. Answer, you dog, when the lady orders you. (To Lady
Cicely) Do not address him as Mr. Drinkwater, madam: he is
accustomed to be called Brandyfaced Jack.
DRINKWATER (indignantly). Eah, aw sy! nah look eah, Kepn: maw
nime is Drinkworter. You awsk em et Sin Jorn's in the Worterleoo
Rowd. Orn maw grenfawther's tombstown, it is.
BRASSBOUND. It will be on your own tombstone, presently, if you
cannot hold your tongue. (Turning to the others) Let us
understand one another, if you please. An escort here, or
anywhere where there are no regular disciplined forces, is what
its captain makes it. If I undertake this business, I shall be
your escort. I may require a dozen men, just as I may require a
dozen horses. Some of the horses will be vicious; so will all the
men. If either horse or man tries any of his viciousness on me,
so much the worse for him; but it will make no difference to you.
I will order my men to behave themselves before the lady; and
they shall obey their orders. But the lady will please understand
that I take my own way with them and suffer no interference.
LADY CICELY. Captain Brassbound: I don't want an escort at all.
It will simply get us all into danger; and I shall have the
trouble of getting it out again. That's what escorts always do.
But since Sir Howard prefers an escort, I think you had better
stay at home and let me take charge of it. I know your men will
get on perfectly well if they're properly treated.
DRINKWATER (with enthusiasm). Feed aht o yr and, lidy, we would.
BRASSBOUND (with sardonic assent). Good. I agree. (To Drinkwater)
You shall go without me.
DRINKWATER. (terrified). Eah! Wot are you a syin orn? We cawn't
gow withaht yer. (To Lady Cicely) Naow, lidy: it wouldn't be for
yr hown good. Yer cawn't hexpect a lot o poor honeddikited men
lawk huz to ran ahrseolvs into dineger withaht naow Kepn to teoll
us wot to do. Naow, lidy: hoonawted we stend: deevawdid we fall.
LADY CICELY. Oh, if you prefer your captain, have him by all
means. Do you LIKE to be treated as he treats you?
DAINKWATER (with a smile of vanity). Weoll, lidy: y cawn't deenaw
that e's a Paffick Genlmn. Bit hawbitrairy, preps; but hin a
genlmn you looks for sich. It tikes a hawbitrairy wanne to knock
aht them eathen Shikes, aw teoll yer.
BRASSBOUND. That's enough. Go.
DRINKWATER. Weoll, aw was hownly a teolln the lidy thet-- (A
threatening movement from Brassbound cuts him short. He flies for
his life into the house, followed by the Italian.)
BRASSBOUND. Your ladyship sees. These men serve me by their own
free choice. If they are dissatisfied, they go. If I am
dissatisfied, they go. They take care that I am not dissatisfied.
SIR HOWARD (who has listened with approval and growing
confidence). Captain Brassbound: you are the man I want. If your
terms are at all reasonable, I will accept your services if we
decide to make an excursion. You do not object, Cicely, I hope.
LADY CICELY. Oh no. After all, those men must really like you,
Captain Brassbound. I feel sure you have a kind heart. You have
such nice eyes.
SIR HOWARD (scandalized). My DEAR Cicely: you really must
restrain your expressions of confidence in people's eyes and
faces. (To Brassbound) Now, about terms, Captain?
BRASSBOUND. Where do you propose to go?
SIR HOWARD. I hardly know. Where CAN we go, Mr. Rankin?
RANKIN. Take my advice, Sir Howrrd. Don't go far.
BRASSBOUND. I can take you to Meskala, from which you can see the
Atlas Mountains. From Meskala I can take you to an ancient castle
in the hills, where you can put up as long as you please. The
customary charge is half a dollar a man per day and his food. I
charge double.
SIR HOWARD. I suppose you answer for your men being sturdy
fellows, who will stand to their guns if necessary.
BRASSBOUND. I can answer for their being more afraid of me than
of the Moors.
LADY CICELY. That doesn't matter in the least, Howard. The
important thing, Captain Brassbound, is: first, that we should
have as few men as possible, because men give such a lot of
trouble travelling. And then, they must have good lungs and not
be always catching cold. Above all, their clothes must be of good
wearing material. Otherwise I shall be nursing and stitching and
mending all the way; and it will be trouble enough, I assure you,
to keep them washed and fed without that.
BRASSBOUND (haughtily). My men, madam, are not children in the
nursery.
LADY CICELY (with unanswerable conviction). Captain Brassbound:
all men are children in the nursery. I see that you don't notice
things. That poor Italian had only one proper bootlace: the other
was a bit of string. And I am sure from Mr. Drinkwater's
complexion that he ought to have some medicine.
BRASSBOUND (outwardly determined not to be trifled with: inwardly
puzzled and rather daunted). Madam: if you want an escort, I can
provide you with an escort. If you want a Sunday School treat, I
can NOT provide it.
LADY CICELY (with sweet melancholy). Ah, don't you wish you
could, Captain? Oh, if I could only show you my children from
Waynflete Sunday School! The darlings would love this place, with
all the camels and black men. I'm sure you would enjoy having
them here, Captain Brassbound; and it would be such an education
for your men! (Brassbound stares at her with drying lips.)
SIR HOWARD. Cicely: when you have quite done talking nonsense to
Captain Brassbound, we can proceed to make some definite
arrangement with him.
LADY CICELY. But it's arranged already. We'll start at eight
o'clock to-morrow morning, if you please, Captain. Never mind
about the Italian: I have a big box of clothes with me for my
brother in Rome; and there are some bootlaces in it. Now go home
to bed and don't fuss yourself. All you have to do is to bring
your men round; and I'll see to the rest. Men are always so
nervous about moving. Goodnight. (She offers him her hand.
Surprised, he pulls off his cap for the first time. Some scruple
prevents him from taking her hand at once. He hesitates; then
turns to Sir Howard and addresses him with warning earnestness.)
BRASSBOUND. Sir Howard Hallam: I advise you not to attempt this
expedition.
SIR HOWARD. Indeed! Why?
BRASSBOUND. You are safe here. I warn you, in those hills there
is a justice that is not the justice of your courts in England.
If you have wronged a man, you may meet that man there. If you
have wronged a woman, you may meet her son there. The justice of
those hills is the justice of vengeance.
SIR HOWARD (faintly amused). You are superstitious, Captain. Most
sailors are, I notice. However, I have complete confidence in
your escort.
BRASSBOUND (almost threateningly). Take care. The avenger may be
one of the escort.
SIR HOWARD. I have already met the only member of your escort who
might have borne a grudge against me, Captain; and he was
acquitted.
BRASSBOUND. You are fated to come, then?
SIR HOWARD (smiling). It seems so.
BRASSBOUND. On your head be it! (To Lady Cicely, accepting her
hand at last) Goodnight.
He goes. It is by this time starry night.
ACT II
Midday. A roam in a Moorish castle. A divan seat runs round the
dilapidated adobe walls, which are partly painted, partly faced
with white tiles patterned in green and yellow. The ceiling is
made up of little squares, painted in bright colors, with gilded
edges, and ornamented with gilt knobs. On the cement floor
are mattings, sheepskins, and leathern cushions with geometrical
patterns on them. There is a tiny Moorish table in the middle;
and at it a huge saddle, with saddle cloths of various colors,
showing that the room is used by foreigners accustomed to chairs.
Anyone sitting at the table in this seat would have the chief
entrance, a large horseshoe arch, on his left, and another saddle
seat between him and the arch; whilst, if susceptible to
draughts, he would probably catch cold from a little Moorish door
in the wall behind him to his right.
Two or three of Brassbound's men, overcome by the midday heat,
sprawl supine on the floor, with their reefer coats under their
heads, their knees uplifted, and their calves laid comfortably on
the divan. Those who wear shirts have them open at the throat for
greater coolness. Some have jerseys. All wear boots and belts,
and have guns ready to their hands. One of them, lying with his
head against the second saddle seat, wears what was once a
fashionable white English yachting suit. He is evidently a
pleasantly worthless young English gentleman gone to the
bad, but retaining sufficient self-respect to shave carefully and
brush his hair, which is wearing thin, and does not seem to have
been luxuriant even in its best days.
The silence is broken only by the snores of the young gentleman,
whose mouth has fallen open, until a few distant shots half waken
him. He shuts his mouth convulsively, and opens his eyes
sleepily. A door is violently kicked outside; and the voice of
Drinkwater is heard raising urgent alarm.
DRINKWATER. Wot ow! Wike ap there, will yr. Wike ap. (He rushes
in through the horseshoe arch, hot and excited, and runs round,
kicking the sleepers) Nah then. Git ap. Git ap, will yr, Kiddy
Redbrook. (He gives the young qentleman a rude shove.)
REDBOOK (sitting up). Stow that, will you. What's amiss?
DRINKWATER (disgusted). Wot's amiss! Didn't eah naow fawrin, I
spowse.
REDBROOK. No.
DRINKWATER (sneering). Naow. Thort it sifer nort, didn't yr?
REDBROOK (with crisp intelligence). What! You're running away,
are you? (He springs up, crying) Look alive, Johnnies: there's
danger. Brandyfaced Jack's on the run. (They spring up hastily,
grasping their guns.)
DRINKWATER. Dineger! Yuss: should think there wors dineger. It's
howver, thow, as it mowstly his baw the tawm YOU'RE awike. (They
relapse into lassitude.) Waw wasn't you on the look-aht to give
us a end? Bin hattecked baw the Benny Seeras (Beni Siras), we ev,
an ed to rawd for it pretty strite, too, aw teoll yr. Mawtzow is
it: the bullet glawnst all rahnd is bloomin brisket. Brarsbahnd e
dropt the Shike's oss at six unnern fifty yawds. (Bustling them
about) Nah then: git the plice ready for the British
herristoracy, Lawd Ellam and Lidy Wineflete.
REDBOOK. Lady faint, eh?
DRINKWATER. Fynt! Not lawkly. Wornted to gow an talk, to the
Benny Seeras: blaow me if she didn't! huz wot we was frahtnd of.
Tyin up Mawtzow's wound, she is, like a bloomin orspittle nass.
(Sir Howard, with a copious pagri on his white hat, enters
through the horseshoe arch, followed by a couple of men
supporting the wounded Marzo, who, weeping and terrorstricken by
the prospect of death and of subsequent torments for which he is
conscious of having eminently qualified himself, has his coat off
and a bandage round his chest. One of his supporters is a
blackbearded, thickset, slow, middle-aged man with an air of
damaged respectability, named--as it afterwards appears--Johnson.
Lady Cicely walks beside Marzo. Redbrook, a little shamefaced,
crosses the room to the opposite wall as far away as possible
from the visitors. Drinkwater turns and receives them with
jocular ceremony.) Weolcome to Brarsbahnd Cawstl, Sr Ahrd an
lidy. This eah is the corfee and commercial room.
Sir Howard goes to the table and sits on the saddle, rather
exhausted. Lady Cicely comes to Drinkwater.
LADY CICELY. Where is Marzo's bed?
DRINKWATER. Is bed, lidy? Weoll: e ynt petickler, lidy. E ez is
chawce of henny flegstown agin thet wall.
They deposit Marzo on the flags against the wall close to the
little door. He groans. Johnson phlegmatically leaves him and
joins Redbrook.
LADY CICELY. But you can't leave him there in that state.
DRINKWATER. Ow: e's hall rawt. (Strolling up callously to Marzo)
You're hall rawt, ynt yer, Mawtzow? (Marzo whimpers.) Corse y'aw.
LADY CICELY (to Sir Howard). Did you ever see such a helpless lot
of poor creatures? (She makes for the little door.)
DRINKWATER. Eah! (He runs to the door and places himself before
it.) Where mawt yr lidyship be gowin?
LADY CICELY. I'm going through every room in this castle to find
a proper place to put that man. And now I'll tell you where
YOU'RE going. You're going to get some water for Marzo, who is
very thirsty. And then, when I've chosen a room for him, you're
going to make a bed for him there.
DRINKWATER (sarcastically). Ow! Henny ather little suvvice? Mike
yrseolf at owm, y' knaow, lidy.
LADY CICELY (considerately). Don't go if you'd rather not, Mr.
Drinkwater. Perhaps you're too tired. (Turning to the archway)
I'll ask Captain Brassbound: he won't mind.
DRINKWATER (terrified, running after her and getting between her
and the arch). Naow, naow! Naow, lidy: doesn't you goes disturbin
the Kepn. Awll see to it.
LADY CICELY (gravely). I was sure you would, Mr. Drinkwater. You
have such a kind face. (She turns back and goes out through the
small door.)
DRINKWATER (looking after her). Garn!
SIR HOWARD (to Drinkwater). Will you ask one of your friends to
show me to my room whilst you are getting the water?
DRINKWATER (insolently). Yr room! Ow: this ynt good enaf fr yr,
ynt it? (Ferociously) Oo a you orderin abaht, ih?
SIR HOWARD (rising quietly, and taking refuge between Redbrook
and Johnson, whom he addresses). Can you find me a more private
room than this?
JOHNSON (shaking his head). I've no orders. You must wait til the
capn comes, sir.
DRINKWATER (following Sir Howard). Yuss; an whawl you're witin,
yll tike your horders from me: see?
JOHNSON (with slow severity, to Drinkwater). Look here: do you
see three genlmen talkin to one another here, civil and private,
eh?
DRINKWATER (chapfallen). No offence, Miste Jornsn--
JOHNSON (ominously). Ay; but there is offence. Where's your
manners, you guttersnipe? (Turning to Sir Howard) That's the
curse o this kind o life, sir: you got to associate with all
sorts. My father, sir, was Capn Johnson o Hull--owned his own
schooner, sir. We're mostly gentlemen here, sir, as you'll find,
except the poor ignorant foreigner and that there scum of the
submerged tenth. (Contemptuously looking at Drinkwater) HE ain't
nobody's son: he's only a offspring o coster folk or such.
DRINKWATER (bursting into tears). Clawss feelin! thet's wot it
is: clawss feelin! Wot are yer, arter all, bat a bloomin gang o
west cowst cazhls (casual ward paupers)? (Johnson is scandalized;
and there is a general thrill of indignation.) Better ev naow
fembly, an rawse aht of it, lawk me, than ev a specble one and
disgrice it, lawk you.
JOHNSON. Brandyfaced Jack: I name you for conduct and language
unbecoming to a gentleman. Those who agree will signify the same
in the usual manner.
ALL (vehemently). Aye.
DRINKWATER (wildly). Naow.
JOHNSON. Felix Drinkwater: are you goin out, or are you goin to
wait til you're chucked out? You can cry in the passage. If you
give any trouble, you'll have something to cry for.
They make a threatenng movement towards Drinkwater.
DRINKWATER (whimpering). You lee me alown: awm gowin. There's
n'maw true demmecrettick feelin eah than there is in the owl
bloomin M division of Noontn Corzwy coppers (Newington Causeway
policemen).
As he slinks away in tears towards the arch, Brassbound enters.
Drinkwater promptly shelters himself on the captain's left hand,
the others retreating to the opposite side as Brassbound advances
to the middle of the room. Sir Howard retires behind them and
seats himself on the divan, much fatigued.
BRASSBOUND (to Drinkwater). What are you snivelling at?
DRINKWATER. You awsk the wust cowst herristorcracy. They fawnds
maw cornduck hanbecammin to a genlmn.
Brassbound is about to ask Johnson for an explanation, when Lady
Cicely returns through the little door, and comes between
Brassbound and Drinkwater.
LADY CICELY (to Drinkwater). Have you fetched the water?
DRINKWATER. Yuss: nah YOU begin orn me. (He weeps afresh.)
LADY CICELY (surprised). Oh! This won't do, Mr. Drinkwater. If
you cry, I can't let you nurse your friend.
DRINKWATER (frantic). Thet'll brike maw awt, wown't it nah? (With
a lamentable sob, he throws himself down on the divan, raging
like an angry child.)
LADY CICELY (after contemplating him in astonishment for a
moment). Captain Brassbound: are there any charwomen in the Atlas
Mountains?
BRASSB0UND. There are people here who will work if you pay them,
as there are elsewhere.
LADY CICELY. This castle is very romantic, Captain; but it hasn't
had a spring cleaning since the Prophet lived in it. There's only
one room I can put that wounded man into. It's the only one that
has a bed in it: the second room on the right out of that
passage.
BRASSBOUND (haughtily). That is my room, madam.
LADY CICELY (relieved). Oh, that's all right. It would have been
so awkward if I had had to ask one of your men to turn out. You
won't mind, I know. (All the men stare at her. Even Drinkwater
forgets his sorrows in his stupefaction.)
BRASSBOUND. Pray, madam, have you made any arrangements for my
accommodation?
LADY CICELY (reassuringly). Yes: you can have my room instead
wherever it may be: I'm sure you chose me a nice one. I must be
near my patient; and I don't mind roughing it. Now I must have
Marzo moved very carefully. Where is that truly gentlemanly Mr.
Johnson?--oh, there you are, Mr. Johnson. (She runs to Johnson,
past Brassbound, who has to step back hastily out of her way with
every expression frozen out of his face except one of extreme and
indignant dumbfoundedness). Will you ask your strong friend to
help you with Marzo: strong people are always so gentle.
JOHNSON. Let me introdooce Mr. Redbrook. Your ladyship may know
his father, the very Rev. Dean Redbrook. (He goes to Marzo.)
REDBROOK. Happy to oblige you, Lady Cicely.
LADY CICELY (shaking hands). Howdyedo? Of course I knew your
father--Dunham, wasn't it? Were you ever called--
REDBROOK. The kid? Yes.
LADY CICELY. But why--
REDBROOK (anticipating the rest of the question). Cards and
drink, Lady Sis. (He follows Johnson to the patient. Lady Cicely
goes too.) Now, Count Marzo. (Marzo groans as Johnson and
Redbrook raise him.)
LADY CICELY. Now they're NOT hurting you, Marzo. They couldn't be
more gentle.
MARZO. Drink.
LADY CICELY. I'll get you some water myself. Your friend Mr.
Drinkwater was too overcome--take care of the corner--that's it--
the second door on the right. (She goes out with Marzo and his
bearers through the little door.)
BRASSBOUND (still staring). Well, I AM damned!--
DRINKWATER (getting up). Weoll, blimey!
BRASSBOUND (turning irritably on him). What did you say?
DRINKWATER. Weoll, wot did yer sy yrseolf, kepn? Fust tawm aw
yever see y' afride of ennybody. (The others laugh.)
BRASSBOUND. Afraid!
DRINKWATER (maliciously). She's took y' bed from hander yr for a
bloomin penny hawcemen. If y' ynt afride, let's eah yer speak ap
to er wen she cams bawck agin.
BRASSBOUND (to Sir Howard). I wish you to understand, Sir Howard,
that in this castle, it is I who give orders, and no one else.
Will you be good enough to let Lady Cicely Waynflete know that.
SIR HOWARD (sitting up on the divan and pulling himself
together). You will have ample opportunity for speaking to Lady
Cicely yourself when she returns. (Drinkwater chuckles: and the
rest grin.)
BRASSBOUND. My manners are rough, Sir Howard. I have no wish to
frighten the lady.
SIR HOWARD. Captain Brassbound: if you can frighten Lady Cicely,
you will confer a great obligation on her family. If she had any
sense of danger, perhaps she would keep out of it.
BRASSBOUND. Well, sir, if she were ten Lady Cicelys, she must
consult me while she is here.
DRINKWATER. Thet's rawt, kepn. Let's eah you steblish yr
hawthority. (Brassbound turns impatiently on him: He retreats
remonstrating) Nah, nah, nah!
SIR HOWARD. If you feel at all nervous, Captain Brassbound, I
will mention the matter with pleasure.
BRASSBOUND. Nervous, sir! no. Nervousness is not in my line. You
will find me perfectly capable of saying what I want to say--with
considerable emphasis, if necessary. (Sir Howard assents with a
polite but incredulous nod.)
DRINKWATER. Eah, eah!
Lady Cicely returns with Johnson and Redbrook. She carries a jar.
LADY CICELY (stopping between the door and the arch). Now for the
water. Where is it?
REDBROOK. There's a well in the courtyard. I'll come and work the
bucket.
LADY CICELY. So good of you, Mr. Redbrook. (She makes for the
horseshoe arch, followed by Redbrook.)
DRINKWATER. Nah, Kepn Brassbound: you got sathink to sy to the
lidy, ynt yr?
LADY CICELY (stopping). I'll come back to hear it presently,
Captain. And oh, while I remember it (coming forward between
Brassbound and Drinkwater), do please tell me Captain, if I
interfere with your arrangements in any way. It I disturb you the
least bit in the world, stop me at once. You have all the
responsibility; and your comfort and your authority must be the
first thing. You'll tell me, won't you?
BRASSBOUND (awkwardly, quite beaten). Pray do as you please,
madam.
LADY CICELY. Thank you. That's so like you, Captain. Thank you.
Now, Mr. Redbrook! Show me the way to the well. (She follows
Redbrook out through the arch.)
DRINKWATER. Yah! Yah! Shime! Beat baw a woman!
JOHNSON (coming forward on Brassbound's right). What's wrong now?
DRINKWATER (with an air of disappointment and disillusion).
Down't awsk me, Miste Jornsn. The kepn's naow clawss arter all.
BRASSBOUND (a little shamefacedly). What has she been fixing up
in there, Johnson?
JOHNSON. Well: Marzo's in your bed. Lady wants to make a kitchen
of the Sheikh's audience chamber, and to put me and the Kid handy
in his bedroom in case Marzo gets erysipelas and breaks out
violent. From what I can make out, she means to make herself
matron of this institution. I spose it's all right, isn't it?
DRINKWATER. Yuss, an horder huz abaht as if we was keb tahts! An
the kepn afride to talk bawck at er!
Lady Cicely returns with Redbrook. She carries the jar full of
water.
LADY CICELY (putting down the jar, and coming between Brassbound
and Drinkwater as before). And now, Captain, before I go to poor
Marzo, what have you to say to me?
BRASSBOUND. I! Nothing.
DRINKWATER. Down't fank it, gavner. Be a men!
LADY CICELY (looking at Drinkwater, puzzled). Mr. Drinkwater said
you had.
BRASSBOUND (recovering himself). It was only this. That fellow
there (pointing to Drinkwater) is subject to fits of insolence.
If he is impertinent to your ladyship, or disobedient, you have
my authority to order him as many kicks as you think good for
him; and I will see that he gets them.
DRINKWATER (lifting up his voice in protest). Nah, nah--
LADY CICELY. Oh, I couldn't think of such a thing, Captain
Brassbound. I am sure it would hurt Mr. Drinkwater.
DRINKWATER (lachrymosely). Lidy's hinkyp'ble o sich bawbrous
usage.
LADY CICELY. But there's one thing I SHOULD like, if Mr.
Drinkwater won't mind my mentioning it. It's so important if he's
to attend on Marzo.
BRASSBOUND. What is that?
LADY CICELY. Well--you WON'T mind, Mr. Drinkwater, will you?
DRINKWATER (suspiciously). Wot is it?
LADY CICELY. There would be so much less danger of erysipelas if
you would be so good as to take a bath.
DRINKWATER (aghast). A bawth!
BRASSBOUND (in tones of command). Stand by, all hands. (They
stand by.) Take that man and wash him. (With a roar of laughter
they seize him.)
DRINKWATER (in an agony of protest). Naow, naow. Look eah--
BRASSBOUND (ruthlessly). In COLD water.
DRINKWATER (shrieking). Na-a-a-a-ow. Aw eawn't, aw toel yer.
Naow. Aw sy, look eah. Naow, naow, naow, naow, naow, NAOW!!!
He is dragged away through the arch in a whirlwind of laughter,
protests and tears.
LADY CICELY. I'm afraid he isn't used to it, poor fellow; but
REALLY it will do him good, Captain Brassbound. Now I must be off
to my patient. (She takes up her jar and goes out by the little
door, leaving Brassbound and Sir Howard alone together.)
SIR HOWARD (rising). And now, Captain Brass--
BRASSBOUND (cutting him short with a fierce contempt that
astonishes him). I will attend to you presently. (Calling)
Johnson. Send me Johnson there. And Osman. (He pulls off his coat
and throws it on the table, standing at his ease in his blue
jersey.)
SIR HOWARD (after a momentary flush of anger, with a controlled
force that compels Brassbound's attention in spite of himself).
You seem to be in a strong position with reference to these men
of yours.
BRASSBOUND. I am in a strong position with reference to everyone
in this castle.
SIR HOWARD (politely but threateningly). I have just been
noticing that you think so. I do not agree with you. Her
Majesty's Government, Captain Brassbound, has a strong arm and a
long arm. If anything disagreeable happens to me or to my
sister-in-law, that arm will be stretched out. If that happens
you will not be in a strong position. Excuse my reminding you of
it.
BRASSBOUND (grimly). Much good may it do you! (Johnson comes in
through the arch.) Where is Osman, the Sheikh's messenger? I want
him too.
JOHNSON. Coming, Captain. He had a prayer to finish.
Osman, a tall, skinny, whiteclad, elderly Moor, appears in the
archway.
BRASSBOUND. Osman Ali (Osman comes forward between Brassbound and
Johnson): you have seen this unbeliever (indicating Sir Howard)
come in with us?
OSMAN. Yea, and the shameless one with the naked face, who
flattered my countenance and offered me her hand.
JOHNSON. Yes; and you took it too, Johnny, didn't you?
BRASSBOUND. Take horse, then; and ride fast to your master the
Sheikh Sidi el Assif
OSMAN (proudly). Kinsman to the Prophet.
BRASSBOUND. Tell him what you have seen here. That is all.
Johnson: give him a dollar; and note the hour of his going, that
his master may know how fast he rides.
OSMAN. The believer's word shall prevail with Allah and his
servant Sidi el Assif.
BRASSBOUND. Off with you.
OSMAN. Make good thy master's word ere I go out from his
presence, O Johnson el Hull.
JOHNSON. He wants the dollar.
Brassbound gives Osman a coin.
OSMAN (bowing). Allah will make hell easy for the friend of Sidi
el Assif and his servant. (He goes out through the arch.)
BRASSBOUND (to Johnson). Keep the men out of this until the
Sheikh comes. I have business to talk over. When he does come, we
must keep together all: Sidi el Assif's natural instinct will be
to cut every Christian throat here.
JOHNSON. We look to you, Captain, to square him, since you
invited him over.
BRASSBOUND. You can depend on me; and you know it, I think.
JOHNSON (phlegmatically). Yes: we know it. (He is going out when
Sir Howard speaks.)
SIR HOWARD. You know also, Mr. Johnson, I hope, that you can
depend on ME.
JOHNSON (turning). On YOU, sir?
SIR HOWARD. Yes: on me. If my throat is cut, the Sultan of
Morocco may send Sidi's head with a hundred thousand dollars
blood-money to the Colonial Office; but it will not be enough to
save his kingdom--any more than it would saw your life, if your
Captain here did the same thing.
JOHNSON (struck). Is that so, Captain?
BRASSBOUND. I know the gentleman's value--better perhaps than he
knows it himself. I shall not lose sight of it.
Johnson nods gravely, and is going out when Lady Cicely returns
softly by the little door and calls to him in a whisper. She has
taken off her travelling things and put on an apron. At her
chatelaine is a case of sewing materials.
LADY CICELY. Mr. Johnson. (He turns.) I've got Marzo to sleep.
Would you mind asking the gentlemen not to make a noise under his
window in the courtyard.
JOHNSON. Right, maam. (He goes out.)
Lady Cicely sits down at the tiny table, and begins stitching at
a sling bandage for Marzo's arm. Brassbound walks up and down on
her right, muttering to himself so ominously that Sir Howard
quietly gets out of his way by crossing to the other side and
sitting down on the second saddle seat.
SIR HOWARD. Are you yet able to attend to me for a moment,
Captain Brassbound?
BRASSBOUND (still walking about). What do you want?
SIR HOWARD. Well, I am afraid I want a little privacy, and, if
you will allow me to say so, a little civility. I am greatly
obliged to you for bringing us safely off to-day when we were
attacked. So far, you have carried out your contract. But since
we have been your guests here, your tone and that of the worst of
your men has changed--intentionally changed, I think.
BRASSBOUND (stopping abruptly and flinging the announcement at
him). You are not my guest: you are my prisoner.
SIR HOWARD. Prisoner!
Lady Cicely, after a single glance up, continues stitching,
apparently quite unconcerned.
BRASSBOUND. I warned you. You should have taken my warning.
SIR HOWARD (immediately taking the tone of cold disgust for moral
delinquency). Am I to understand, then, that you are a brigand?
Is this a matter of ransom?
BRASSBOUND (with unaccountable intensity). All the wealth of
England shall not ransom you.
SIR HOWARD. Then what do you expect to gain by this?
BRASSBOUND. Justice on a thief and a murderer.
Lady Cicely lays down her work and looks up anxiously.
SIR HOWARD (deeply outraged, rising with venerable dignity). Sir:
do you apply those terms to me?
BRASSBOUND. I do. (He turns to Lady Cicely, and adds, pointing
contemptuously to Sir Howard) Look at him. You would not take
this virtuously indignant gentleman for the uncle of a brigand,
would you?
Sir Howard starts. The shock is too much for him: he sits down
again, looking very old; and his hands tremble; but his eyes and
mouth are intrepid, resolute, and angry.
LADY CICELY. Uncle! What do you mean?
BRASSBOUND. Has he never told you about my mother? this fellow
who puts on ermine and scarlet and calls himself Justice.
SIR HOWARD (almost voiceless). You are the son of that woman!
BRASSBOUND (fiercely). "That woman!" (He makes a movement as if
to rush at Sir Howard.)
LADY CICELY (rising quickly and putting her hand on his arm).
Take care. You mustn't strike an old man.
BRASSBOUND (raging). He did not spare my mother--"that woman," he
calls her--because of her sex. I will not spare him because of
his age. (Lowering his tone to one of sullen vindictiveness) But
I am not going to strike him. (Lady Cicely releases him, and sits
down, much perplexed. Brassbound continues, with an evil glance
at Sir Howard) I shall do no more than justice.
SIR HOWARD (recovering his voice and vigor). Justice! I think you
mean vengeance, disguised as justice by your passions.
BRASSBOUND. To many and many a poor wretch in the dock YOU have
brought vengeance in that disguise--the vengeance of society,
disguised as justice by ITS passions. Now the justice you have
outraged meets you disguised as vengeance. How do you like it?
SIR HOWARD. I shall meet it, I trust, as becomes an innocent man
and an upright judge. What do you charge against me?
BRASSBOUND. I charge you with the death of my mother and the
theft of my inheritance.
SIR HOWARD. As to your inheritance, sir, it was yours whenever
you came forward to claim it. Three minutes ago I did not know of
your existence. I affirm that most solemnly. I never knew--never
dreamt--that my brother Miles left a son. As to your mother, her
case was a hard one--perhaps the hardest that has come within
even my experience. I mentioned it, as such, to Mr. Rankin, the
missionary, the evening we met you. As to her death, you know--
you MUST know--that she died in her native country, years after
our last meeting. Perhaps you were too young to know that she
could hardly have expected to live long.
BRASSBOUND. You mean that she drank.
SIR HOWARD. I did not say so. I do not think she was always
accountable for what she did.
BRASSBOUND. Yes: she was mad too; and whether drink drove her to
madness or madness drove her to drink matters little. The
question is, who drove her to both?
SIR HOWARD. I presume the dishonest agent who seized her estate
did. I repeat, it was a hard case--a frightful injustice. But it
could not be remedied.
BRASSBOUND. You told her so. When she would not take that false
answer you drove her from your doors. When she exposed you in the
street and threatened to take with her own hands the redress the
law denied her, you had her imprisoned, and forced her to write
you an apology and leave the country to regain her liberty and
save herself from a lunatic asylum. And when she was gone, and
dead, and forgotten, you found for yourself the remedy you could
not find for her. You recovered the estate easily enough then,
robber and rascal that you are. Did he tell the missionary that,
Lady Cicely, eh?
LADY CICELY (sympathetically). Poor woman! (To Sir Howard)
Couldn't you have helped her, Howard?
SIR HOWARD. No. This man may be ignorant enough to suppose that
when I was a struggling barrister I could do everything I did
when I was Attorney General. You know better. There is some
excuse for his mother. She was an uneducated Brazilian, knowing
nothing of English society, and driven mad by injustice.
BRASSBOUND. Your defence--
SIR HOWARD (interrupting him determinedly). I do not defend
myself. I call on you to obey the law.
BRASSBOUND. I intend to do so. The law of the Atlas Mountains is
administered by the Sheikh Sidi el Assif. He will be here within
an hour. He is a judge like yourself. You can talk law to him. He
will give you both the law and the prophets.
SIR HOWARD. Does he know what the power of England is?
BRASSBOUND. He knows that the Mahdi killed my master Gordon, and
that the Mahdi died in his bed and went to paradise.
SIR HOWARD. Then he knows also that England's vengeance was on
the Mahdi's track.
BRASSBOUND. Ay, on the track of the railway from the Cape to
Cairo. Who are you, that a nation should go to war for you? If
you are missing, what will your newspapers say? A foolhardy
tourist. What will your learned friends at the bar say? That it
was time for you to make room for younger and better men. YOU a
national hero! You had better find a goldfield in the Atlas
Mountains. Then all the governments of Europe will rush to your
rescue. Until then, take care of yourself; for you are going to
see at last the hypocrisy in the sanctimonious speech of the
judge who is sentencing you, instead of the despair in the white
face of the wretch you are recommending to the mercy of your God.
SIR HOWARD (deeply and personally offended by this slight to his
profession, and for the first time throwing away his assumed
dignity and rising to approach Brassbound with his fists
clenched; so that Lady Cicely lifts one eye from her work to
assure herself that the table is between them). I have no more to
say to you, sir. I am not afraid of you, nor of any bandit with
whom you may be in league. As to your property, it is ready for
you as soon as you come to your senses and claim it as your
father's heir. Commit a crime, and you will become an outlaw, and
not only lose the property, but shut the doors of civilization
against yourself for ever.
BRASSBOUND. I will not sell my mother's revenge for ten
properties.
LADY CICELY (placidly). Besides, really, Howard, as the property
now costs 150 pounds a year to keep up instead of bringing in
anything, I am afraid it would not be of much use to him.
(Brassbound stands amazed at this revelation.)
SIR HOWARD (taken aback). I must say, Cicely, I think you might
have chosen a more suitable moment to mention that fact.
BRASSBOUND (with disgust). Agh! Trickster! Lawyer! Even the price
you offer for your life is to be paid in false coin. (Calling)
Hallo there! Johnson! Redbrook! Some of you there! (To Sir
Howard) You ask for a little privacy: you shall have it. I will
not endure the company of such a fellow--
SIR HOWARD (very angry, and full of the crustiest pluck). You
insult me, sir. You are a rascal. You are a rascal.
Johnson, Redbrook, and a few others come in through the arch.
BRASSBOUND. Take this man away.
JOHNSON. Where are we to put him?
BRASSBOUND. Put him where you please so long as you can find him
when he is wanted.
SIR HOWARD. You will be laid by the heels yet, my friend.
REDBROOK (with cheerful tact). Tut tut, Sir Howard: what's the use
of talking back? Come along: we'll make you comfortable.
Sir Howard goes out through the arch between Johnson and Redbrook,
muttering wrathfully. The rest, except Brassbound and Lady Cicely,
follow.
Brassbound walks up and down the room, nursing his indignation. In
doing so he unconsciously enters upon an unequal contest with Lady
Cicely, who sits quietly stitching. It soon becomes clear that a
tranquil woman can go on sewing longer than an angry man can go on
fuming. Further, it begins to dawn on Brassbound's wrath-blurred
perception that Lady Cicely has at some unnoticed stage in the
proceedings finished Marzo's bandage, and is now stitching a coat.
He stops; glances at his shirtsleeves; finally realizes the
situation.
BRASSBOUND. What are you doing there, madam?
LADY CICELY. Mending your coat, Captain Brassbound.
BRASSBOUND. I have no recollection of asking you to take that
trouble.
LADY CICELY. No: I don't suppose you even knew it was torn. Some
men are BORN untidy. You cannot very well receive Sidi el--what's
his name?--with your sleeve half out.
BRASSBOUND (disconcerted). I--I don't know how it got torn.
LADY CICELY. You should not get virtuously indignant with people.
It bursts clothes more than anything else, Mr. Hallam.
BRASSBOUND (flushing, quickly). I beg you will not call me Mr.
Hallam. I hate the name.
LADY CICELY. Black Paquito is your pet name, isn't it?
BRASSBOUND (huffily). I am not usually called so to my face.
LADY CICELY (turning the coat a little). I'm so sorry. (She takes
another piece of thread and puts it into her needle, looking
placidly and reflectively upward meanwhile.) Do you know, You are
wonderfully like your uncle.
BRASSBOUND. Damnation!
LADY CICELY. Eh?
BRASSBOUND. If I thought my veins contained a drop of his black
blood, I would drain them empty with my knife. I have no
relations. I had a mother: that was all.
LADY CICELY (unconvinced) I daresay you have your mother's
complexion. But didn't you notice Sir Howard's temper, his
doggedness, his high spirit: above all, his belief in ruling
people by force, as you rule your men; and in revenge and
punishment, just as you want to revenge your mother? Didn't you
recognize yourself in that?
BRASSBOUND (startled). Myself!--in that!
LADY CECILY (returning to the tailoring question as if her last
remark were of no consequence whatever). Did this sleeve catch you
at all under the arm? Perhaps I had better make it a little easier
for you.
BRASSBOUND (irritably). Let my coat alone. It will do very well as
it is. Put it down.
LADY CICIELY. Oh, don't ask me to sit doing nothing. It bores me
so.
BRASSBOUND. In Heaven's name then, do what you like! Only don't
worry me with it.
LADY CICELY. I'm so sorry. All the Hallams are irritable.
BRASSBOUND (penning up his fury with difficulty). As I have
already said, that remark has no application to me.
LADY CICELY (resuming her stitching). That's so funny! They all
hate to be told that they are like one another.
BRASSBOUND (with the beginnings of despair in his voice). Why did
you come here? My trap was laid for him, not for you. Do you know
the danger you are in?
LADY CICELY. There's always a danger of something or other. Do you
think it's worth bothering about?
BRASSBOUND (scolding her). Do I THINK! Do you think my coat's
worth mending?
LADY CICELY (prosaically). Oh yes: it's not so far gone as that.
BRASSBOUND. Have you any feeling? Or are you a fool?
LADY CICELY. I'm afraid I'm a dreadful fool. But I can't help it.
I was made so, I suppose.
BRASSBOUND. Perhaps you don't realize that your friend my good
uncle will be pretty fortunate if he is allowed to live out his
life as a slave with a set of chains on him?
LADY CICELY. Oh, I don't know about that, Mr. H--I mean Captain
Brassbound. Men are always thinking that they are going to do
something grandly wicked to their enemies; but when it comes to
the point, really bad men are just as rare as really good ones.
BRASSBOUND. You forget that I am like my uncle, according to you.
Have you any doubt as to the reality of HIS badness?
LADY CICELY. Bless me! your uncle Howard is one of the most
harmless of men--much nicer than most professional people. Of
course he does dreadful things as a judge; but then if you take a
man and pay him 5,000 pounds a year to be wicked, and praise him
for it, and have policemen and courts and laws and juries to drive
him into it so that he can't help doing it, what can you expect?
Sir Howard's all right when he's left to himself. We caught a
burglar one night at Waynflete when he was staying with us; and I
insisted on his locking the poor man up until the police came, in
a room with a window opening on the lawn. The man came back next
day and said he must return to a life of crime unless I gave him a
job in the garden; and I did. It was much more sensible than
giving him ten years penal servitude: Howard admitted it. So you
see he's not a bit bad really.
BRASSBOUND. He had a fellow feeling for a thief, knowing he was a
thief himself. Do you forget that he sent my mother to prison?
LADY CICELY (softly). Were you very fond of your poor mother, and
always very good to her?
BRASSBOUND (rather taken aback). I was not worse than other sons,
I suppose.
LADY CICELY (opening her eyes very widely). Oh! Was THAT all?
BRASSBOUND (exculpating himself, full of gloomy remembrances). You
don't understand. It was not always possible to be very tender
with my mother. She had unfortunatly a very violent temper; and
she--she--
LADY CICELY. Yes: so you told Howard. (With genuine pity for him)
You must have had a very unhappy childhood.
BRASSBOUND (grimily). Hell. That was what my childhood was. Hell.
LADY CICELY. Do you think she would really have killed Howard, as
she threatened, if he hadn't sent her to prison?
BRASSBOUND (breaking out again, with a growing sense of being
morally trapped). What if she did? Why did he rob her? Why did he
not help her to get the estate, as he got it for himself
afterwards?
LADY CICELY. He says he couldn't, you know. But perhaps the real
reason was that he didn't like her. You know, don't you, that if
you don't like people you think of all the reasons for not helping
them, and if you like them you think of all the opposite reasons.
BRASSBOUND. But his duty as a brother!
LADY CICELY. Are you going to do your duty as a nephew?
BRASSBOUND. Don't quibble with me. I am going to do my duty as a
son; and you know it.
LADY CICELY. But I should have thought that the time for that was
in your mother's lifetime, when you could have been kind and
forbearing with her. Hurting your uncle won't do her any good, you
know.
BRASSBOUND. It will teach other scoundrels to respect widows and
orphans. Do you forget that there is such a thing as justice?
LADY CICELY (gaily shaking out the finished coat). Oh, if you are
going to dress yourself in ermine and call yourself Justice, I
give you up. You are just your uncle over again; only he gets
œ5,000 a year for it, and you do it for nothing.
(She holds the coat up to see whether any further repairs are
needed.)
BRASSBOUND (sulkily). You twist my words very cleverly. But no man
or woman has ever changed me.
LADY CICELY. Dear me! That must be very nice for the people you
deal with, because they can always depend on you; but isn't it
rather inconvenient for yourself when you change your mind?
BRASSBOUND. I never change my mind.
LADY CICELY (rising with the coat in her hands). Oh! Oh!! Nothing
will ever persuade me that you are as pigheaded as that.
BRASSBOUND (offended). Pigheaded!
LADY CICELY (with quick, caressing apology). No, no, no. I didn't
mean that. Firm! Unalterable! Resolute! Ironwilled! Stonewall
Jackson! That's the idea, isn't it?
BRASSBOUND (hopelessly). You are laughing at me.
LADY CICELY. No: trembling, I assure you. Now will you try this on
for me: I'm SO afraid I have made it too tight under the arm. (She
holds it behind him.)
BRASSBOUND (obeying mechanically). You take me for a fool I think.
(He misses the sleeve.)
LADY CICELY. No: all men look foolish when they are feeling for
their sleeves.
BRASSBOUND. Agh! (He turns and snatches the coat from her; then
puts it on himself and buttons the lowest button.)
LADY CICELY (horrified). Stop. No. You must NEVER pull a coat at
the skirts, Captain Brassbound: it spoils the sit of it. Allow me.
(She pulls the lappels of his coat vigorously forward) Put back
your shoulders. (He frowns, but obeys.) That's better. (She
buttons the top button.) Now button the rest from the top down.
DOES it catch you at all under the arm?
BRASSBOUND (miserably--all resistance beaten out of him). No.
LADY CICELY. That's right. Now before I go back to poor Marzo, say
thank you to me for mending your jacket, like a nice polite
sailor.
BRASSBOUND (sitting down at the table in great agitation). Damn
you! you have belittled my whole life to me. (He bows his head on
his hands, convulsed.)
LADY CICELY (quite understanding, and putting her hand kindly on
his shoulder). Oh no. I am sure you have done lots of kind things
and brave things, if you could only recollect them. With Gordon
for instance? Nobody can belittle that.
He looks up at her for a moment; then kisses her hand. She presses
his and turns away with her eyes so wet that she sees Drinkwater,
coming in through the arch just then, with a prismatic halo round
him. Even when she sees him clearly, she hardly recognizes him;
for he is ludicrously clean and smoothly brushed; and his hair,
formerly mud color, is now a lively red.
DRINKWATER. Look eah, kepn. (Brassbound springs up and recovers
himself quickly.) Eahs the bloomin Shike jest appeahd on the
orawzn wiv abaht fifty men. Thy'll be eah insawd o ten minnits,
they will.
LADY CICELY. The Sheikh!
BRASSBOUND. Sidi el Assif and fifty men! (To Lady Cicely) You were
too late: I gave you up my vengeance when it was no longer in my
hand. (To Drinkwater) Call all hands to stand by and shut the
gates. Then all here to me for orders; and bring the prisoner.
DRINKWATER. Rawt, kepn. (He runs out.)
LADY CICELY. Is there really any danger for Howard?
BRASSBOUND. Yes. Danger for all of us unless I keep to my bargain
with this fanatic.
LADY CICELY. What bargain?
BRASSBOUND. I pay him so much a head for every party I escort
through to the interior. In return he protects me and lets my
caravans alone. But I have sworn an oath to him to take only Jews
and true believers--no Christians, you understand.
LADY CICELY. Then why did you take us?
BRASSBOUND. I took my uncle on purpose--and sent word to Sidi that
he was here.
LADY CICELY. Well, that's a pretty kettle of fish, isn't it?
BRASSBOUND. I will do what I can to save him--and you. But I fear
my repentance has come too late, as repentance usually does.
LADY CICELY (cheerfully). Well, I must go and look after Marzo, at
all events. (She goes out through the little door. Johnson,
Redbrook and the rest come in through the arch, with Sir Howard,
still very crusty and determined. He keeps close to Johnson, who
comes to Brassbound's right, Redbrook taking the other side.)
BRASSBOUND. Where's Drinkwater?
JOHNSON. On the lookout. Look here, Capn: we don't half like this
job. The gentleman has been talking to us a bit; and we think that
he IS a gentleman, and talks straight sense.
REDBROOK. Righto, Brother Johnson. (To Brassbound) Won't do,
governor. Not good enough.
BRASSBOUND (fiercely). Mutiny, eh?
REDBROOK. Not at all, governor. Don't talk Tommy rot with Brother
Sidi only five minutes gallop off. Can't hand over an Englishman
to a nigger to have his throat cut
BRASSBOUND (unexpectedly acquiescing). Very good. You know, I
suppose, that if you break my bargain with Sidi, you'll have to
defend this place and fight for your lives in five minutes. That
can't be done without discipline: you know that too. I'll take my
part with the rest under whatever leader you are willing to obey.
So choose your captain and look sharp about it. (Murmurs of
surprise and discontent.)
VOICES. No, no. Brassbound must command.
BRASSBOUND. You're wasting your five minutes. Try Johnson.
JOHNSON. No. I haven't the head for it.
BRASSBOUND. Well, Redbrook.
REDBROOK. Not this Johnny, thank you. Haven't character enough.
BRASSBOUND. Well, there's Sir Howard Hallam for You! HE has
character enough.
A VOICE. He's too old.
ALL. No, no. Brassbound, Brassbound.
JOHNSON. There's nobody but you, Captain.
REDRROOK. The mutiny's over, governor. You win, hands down.
BRASSBOUND (turning on them). Now listen, you, all of you. If I am
to command here, I am going to do what I like, not what you like.
I'll give this gentleman here to Sidi or to the devil if I choose.
I'll not be intimidated or talked back to. Is that understood?
REDBROOK (diplomatically). He's offered a present of five hundred
quid if he gets safe back to Mogador, governor. Excuse my
mentioning it.
SIR HOWARD. Myself AND Lady Cicely.
BRASSBOUND. What! A judge compound a felony! You greenhorns, he is
more likely to send you all to penal servitude if you are fools
enough to give him the chance.
VOICES. So he would. Whew! (Murmurs of conviction.)
REDBROOK. Righto, governor. That's the ace of trumps.
BRASSBOUND (to Sir Howard). Now, have you any other card to play?
Any other bribe? Any other threat? Quick. Time presses.
SIR HOWARD. My life is in the hands of Providence. Do your worst.
BRASSBOUND. Or my best. I still have that choice.
DRINKWATER (running in). Look eah, kepn. Eah's anather lot cammin
from the sahth heast. Hunnerds of em, this tawm. The owl dezzit is
lawk a bloomin Awd Pawk demonstrition. Aw blieve it's the Kidy
from Kintorfy. (General alarm. All look to Brassbound.)
BRASSBOUND (eagerly). The Cadi! How far off?
DRINKWATER. Matter o two mawl.
BRASSBOUND. We're saved. Open the gates to the Sheikh.
DRINKWATER (appalled, almost in tears). Naow, naow. Lissn, kepn
(Pointing to Sir Howard): e'll give huz fawv unnerd red uns. (To
the others) Ynt yer spowk to im, Miste Jornsn--Miste Redbrook--
BRASSBOUND (cutting him short). Now then, do you understand plain
English? Johnson and Redbrook: take what men you want and open the
gates to the Sheikh. Let him come straight to me. Look alive, will
you.
JOHNSON. Ay ay, sir.
REDBROOK. Righto, governor.
They hurry out, with a few others. Drinkwater stares after them,
dumbfounded by their obedience.
BRASSBOUND (taking out a pistol). You wanted to sell me to my
prisoner, did you, you dog.
DRINKWATER (falling on his knees with a yell). Naow! (Brassbound
turns on him as if to kick him. He scrambles away and takes refuge
behind Sir Howard.)
BRASSBOUND. Sir Howard Hallam: you have one chance left. The Cadi
of Kintafi stands superior to the Sheikh as the responsible
governor of the whole province. It is the Cadi who will be
sacrificed by the Sultan if England demands satisfaction for any
injury to you. If we can hold the Sheikh in parley until the Cadi
arrives, you may frighten the Cadi into forcing the Sheikh to
release you. The Cadi's coming is a lucky chance for YOU.
SIR HOWARD. If it were a real chance, you would not tell me of it.
Don't try to play cat and mouse with me, man.
DRINKWATER (aside to Sir Howard, as Brassbound turns
contemptuously away to the other side of the room). It ynt mach of
a chawnst, Sr Ahrd. But if there was a ganbowt in Mogador Awbr,
awd put a bit on it, aw would.
Johnson, Redbrook, and the others return, rather mistrustfully
ushering in Sidi el Assif, attended by Osman and a troop of Arabs.
Brassbound's men keep together on the archway side, backing their
captain. Sidi's followers cross the room behind the table and
assemble near Sir Howard, who stands his ground. Drinkwater runs
across to Brassbound and stands at his elbow as he turns to face
Sidi.
Sidi el Aasif, clad in spotless white, is a nobly handsome Arab,
hardly thirty, with fine eyes, bronzed complexion, and
instinctively dignified carriage. He places himself between the
two groups, with Osman in attendance at his right hand.
OSMAN (pointing out Sir Howard). This is the infidel Cadi. (Sir
Howard bows to Sidi, but, being an infidel, receives only the
haughtiest stare in acknowledgement.) This (pointing to
Brassbound) is Brassbound the Franguestani captain, the servant of
Sidi.
DRINKWATER (not to be outdone, points out the Sheikh and Osman to
Brassbound). This eah is the Commawnder of the Fythful an is
Vizzeer Rosman.
SIDI. Where is the woman?
OSMAN. The shameless one is not here.
BRASSBOUND. Sidi el Assif, kinsman of the Prophet: you are
welcome.
REDBROOK (with much aplomb). There is no majesty and no might save
in Allah, the Glorious, the Great!
DRINKWATER. Eah, eah!
OSMAN (to Sidi). The servant of the captain makes his profession
of faith as a true believer.
SIDI. It is well.
BRASSBOUND (aside to Redbrook). Where did you pick that up?
REDRROOK (aside to Brassbound). Captain Burton's Arabian Nights--
copy in the library of the National Liberal Club.
LADY CICELY (calling without). Mr. Drinkwater. Come and help me
with Marzo. (The Sheikh pricks up his ears. His nostrils and eyes
expand.)
OSMAN. The shameless one!
BRASSBOUND (to Drinkwater, seizing him by the collar and slinging
him towards the door). Off with you.
Drinkwater goes out through the little door.
OSMAN. Shall we hide her face before she enters?
SIDI. NO.
Lady Cicely, who has resumed her travelling equipment, and has her
hat slung across her arm, comes through the little door supporting
Marzo, who is very white, but able to get about. Drinkwater has
his other arm. Redbrook hastens to relieve Lady Cicely of Marzo,
taking him into the group behind Brassbound. Lady Cicely comes
forward between Brassbound and the Sheikh, to whom she turns
affably.
LADY CICELY (proffering her hand). Sidi el Assif, isn't it? How
dye do? (He recoils, blushing somewhat.)
OSMAN (scandalized). Woman; touch not the kinsman of the Prophet.
LADY CICELY. Oh, I see. I'm being presented at court. Very good.
(She makes a presentation curtsey.)
REDBROOK. Sidi el Assif: this is one of the mighty women Sheikhs
of Franguestan. She goes unveiled among Kings; and only princes
may touch her hand.
LADY CICELY. Allah upon thee, Sidi el Assif! Be a good little
Sheikh, and shake hands.
SIDI (timidly touching her hand). Now this is a wonderful thing,
and worthy to be chronicled with the story of Solomon and the
Queen of Sheba. Is it not so, Osman Ali?
OSMAN. Allah upon thee, master! it is so.
SIDI. Brassbound Ali: the oath of a just man fulfils itself
without many words. The infidel Cadi, thy captive, falls to my
share.
BRASSBOUND (firmly). It cannot be, Sidi el Assif. (Sidi's brows
contract gravely.) The price of his blood will be required of our
lord the Sultan. I will take him to Morocco and deliver him up
there.
SIDI (impressively). Brassbound: I am in mine own house and amid
mine own people. I am the Sultan here. Consider what you say; for
when my word goes forth for life or death, it may not be recalled.
BRASSBOUND. Sidi el Assif: I will buy the man from you at what
price you choose to name; and if I do not pay faithfully, you
shall take my head for his.
SIDI. It is well. You shall keep the man, and give me the woman in
payment.
SIR HOWARD AND BRASSBOUND (with the same impulse). No, no.
LADY CICELY (eagerly). Yes, yes. Certainly, Mr. Sidi. Certainly.
Sidi smiles gravely.
SIR HOWARD. Impossible.
BRASSBOUND. You don't know what you're doing.
LADY CICELY. Oh, don't I? I've not crossed Africa and stayed with
six cannibal chiefs for nothing. (To the Sheikh) It's all right,
Mr. Sidi: I shall be delighted.
SIR HOWARD. You are mad. Do you suppose this man will treat you as
a European gentleman would?
LADY CICELY. No: he'll treat me like one of Nature's gentlemen:
look at his perfectly splendid face! (Addressing Osman as if he
were her oldest and most attached retainer.) Osman: be sure you
choose me a good horse; and get a nice strong camel for my
luggage.
Osman, after a moment of stupefaction, hurries out. Lady Cicely
puts on her hat and pins it to her hair, the Sheikh gazing at her
during the process with timid admiration.
DRINKWATER (chuckling). She'll mawch em all to church next Sunder
lawk a bloomin lot o' cherrity kids: you see if she doesn't.
LADY CICELY (busily). Goodbye, Howard: don't be anxious about me;
and above all, don't bring a parcel of men with guns to rescue me.
I shall be all right now that I am getting away from the escort.
Captain Brassbound: I rely on you to see that Sir Howard gets safe
to Mogador. (Whispering) Take your hand off that pistol. (He takes
his hand out of his pocket, reluctantly.) Goodbye.
A tumult without. They all turn apprehensively to the arch. Osman
rushes in.
OSMAN. The Cadi, the Cadi. He is in anger. His men are upon us.
Defend--
The Cadi, a vigorous, fatfeatured, choleric, whitehaired and
bearded elder, rushes in, cudgel in hand, with an overwhelming
retinue, and silences Osman with a sounding thwack. In a moment
the back of the room is crowded with his followers. The Sheikh
retreats a little towards his men; and the Cadi comes impetuously
forward between him and Lady Cicely.
THE CADI. Now woe upon thee, Sidi el Assif, thou child of
mischief!
SIDI (sternly). Am I a dog, Muley Othman, that thou speakest thus
to me?
THE CADI. Wilt thou destroy thy country, and give us all into the
hands of them that set the sea on fire but yesterday with their
ships of war? Where are the Franguestani captives?
LADY CICELY. Here we are, Cadi. How dye do?
THE CADI. Allah upon thee, thou moon at the full! Where is thy
kinsman, the Cadi of Franguestan? I am his friend, his servant. I
come on behalf of my master the Sultan to do him honor, and to
cast down his enemies.
SIR HOWARD. You are very good, I am sure.
SIDI (graver than ever). Muley Othman--
TAE CADI (fumbling in his breast). Peace, peace, thou
inconsiderate one. (He takes out a letter.)
BRASSBOUND. Cadi--
THE CADI. Oh thou dog, thou, thou accursed Brassbound, son of a
wanton: it is thou hast led Sidi el Assif into this wrongdoing.
Read this writing that thou hast brought upon me from the
commander of the warship.
BRASSBOUND. Warship! (He takes the letter and opens it, his men
whispering to one another very low-spiritedly meanwhile.)
REDBROOK. Warship! Whew!
JOHNSON. Gunboat, praps.
DRINKWATER. Lawk bloomin Worterleoo buses, they are, on this
cowst.
Brassbound folds up the letter, looking glum.
SIR HOWARD (sharply). Well, sir, are we not to have the benefit of
that letter? Your men are waiting to hear it, I think.
BRASSBOUND. It is not a British ship. (Sir Howard's face falls.)
LADY CICELY. What is it, then?
RASSBOUND. An American cruiser. The Santiago.
THE CADI (tearing his beard). Woe! alas! it is where they set the
sea on fire.
SIDI. Peace, Muley Othman: Allah is still above us.
JOHNSON. Would you mind readin it to us, capn?
BRASSBOUND (grimly). Oh, I'll read it to you. "Mogador Harbor. 26
Sept. 1899. Captain Hamlin Kearney, of the cruiser Santiago,
presents the compliments of the United States to the Cadi Muley
Othman el Kintafi, and announces that he is coming to look for the
two British travellers Sir Howard Hallam and Lady Cicely
Waynflete, in the Cadi's jurisdiction. As the search will be
conducted with machine guns, the prompt return of the travellers
to Mogador Harbor will save much trouble to all parties."
THE CADI. As I live, O Cadi, and thou, moon of loveliness, ye
shall be led back to Mogador with honor. And thou, accursed
Brassbound, shall go thither a prisoner in chains, thou and thy
people. (Brassbound and his men make a movement to defend
themselves.) Seize them.
LADY CICELY. Oh, please don't fight. (Brassbound, seeing that his
men are hopelessly outnumbered, makes no resistance. They are made
prisoners by the Cadi's followers.)
SIDI (attempting to draw his scimitar). The woman is mine: I will
not forego her. (He is seized and overpowered after a Homeric
struggle.)
SIR HOWARD (drily). I told you you were not in a strong position,
Captain Brassbound. (Looking implacably at him.) You are laid by
the heels, my friend, as I said you would be.
LADY CICELY. But I assure you--
BRASSBOUND (interrupting her). What have you to assure him of? You
persuaded me to spare him. Look at his face. Will you be able to
persuade him to spare me?
ACT III
Torrid forenoon filtered through small Moorish windows high up in
the adobe walls of the largest room in Leslie Rankin's house. A
clean cool room, with the table (a Christian article) set in the
middle, a presidentially elbowed chair behind it, and an inkstand
and paper ready for the sitter. A couple of cheap American chairs
right and left of the table, facing the same way as the
presidential chair, give a judicial aspect to the arrangement.
Rankin is placing a little tray with a jug and some glasses near
the inkstand when Lady Cicely's voice is heard at the door, which
is behind him in the corner to his right.
LADE CICELY. Good morning. May I come in?
RANKIN. Certainly. (She comes in, to the nearest end of the table.
She has discarded all travelling equipment, and is dressed exactly
as she might be in Surrey on a very hot day.) Sit ye doon, Leddy
Ceecily.
LADY CICELY (sitting down). How nice you've made the room for the
inquiry!
RANKIN (doubtfully). I could wish there were more chairs. Yon
American captain will preside in this; and that leaves but one for
Sir Howrrd and one for your leddyship. I could almost be tempted
to call it a maircy that your friend that owns the yacht has
sprained his ankle and cannot come. I misdoubt me it will not look
judeecial to have Captain Kearney's officers squatting on the
floor.
LADY CICELY. Oh, they won't mind. What about the prisoners?
RANKIN. They are to be broat here from the town gaol presently.
LADY CICELY. And where is that silly old Cadi, and my handsome
Sheikh Sidi? I must see them before the inquiry,or they'll give
Captain Kearney quite a false impression of what happened.
RANKIN. But ye cannot see them. They decamped last night, back to
their castles in the Atlas.
LADY CICELY (delighted). No!
RANKIN. Indeed and they did. The poor Cadi is so terrified by all
he has haird of the destruction of the Spanish fleet, that he
daren't trust himself in the captain's hands. (Looking
reproachfully at her) On your journey back here, ye seem to have
frightened the poor man yourself, Leddy Ceecily, by talking to him
about the fanatical Chreestianity of the Americans. Ye have
largely yourself to thank if he's gone.
LADY CICELY. Allah be praised! WHAT a weight off our minds, Mr.
Rankin!
RANKIN (puzzled). And why? Do ye not understand how necessary
their evidence is?
LADY CICELY. THEIR evidence! It would spoil everything. They would
perjure themselves out of pure spite against poor Captain
Brassbound.
RANKIN (amazed). Do ye call him POOR Captain Brassbound! Does not
your leddyship know that this Brasshound is--Heaven forgive me for
judging him!--a precious scoundrel? Did ye not hear what Sir
Howrrd told me on the yacht last night?
LADY CICELY. All a mistake, Mr. Rankin: all a mistake, I assure
you. You said just now, Heaven forgive you for judging him! Well,
that's just what the whole quarrel is about. Captain Brassbound is
just like you: he thinks we have no right to judge one another;
and its Sir Howard gets œ5,000 a year for doing nothing else but
judging people, he thinks poor Captain Brassbound a regular
Anarchist. They quarreled dreadfully at the castle. You mustn't
mind what Sir Howard says about him: you really mustn't.
RANKIN. But his conduct--
LADY CICELY. Perfectly saintly, Mr. Rankin. Worthy of yourself in
your best moments. He forgave Sir Howard, and did all he could to
save him.
RANKIN. Ye astoanish me, Leddy Ceecily.
LADY CICELY. And think of the temptation to behave badly when he
had us all there helpless!
RANKIN. The temptation! ay: that's true. Ye're ower bonny to be
cast away among a parcel o lone, lawless men, my leddy.
LADY CICELY (naively). Bless me, that's quite true; and I never
thought of it! Oh, after that you really must do all you can to
help Captain Brassbound.
RANKIN (reservedly). No: I cannot say that, Leddy Ceecily. I doubt
he has imposed on your good nature and sweet disposeetion. I had a
crack with the Cadi as well as with Sir Howrrd;and there is little
question in my mind but that Captain Brassbound is no better than
a breegand.
LADY CICELY (apparently deeply impressed). I wonder whether he can
be, Mr. Rankin. If you think so, that's heavily against him in my
opinion, because you have more knowledge of men than anyone else
here. Perhaps I'm mistaken. I only thought you might like to help
him as the son of your old friend.
RANKIN (startled). The son of my old friend! What d'ye mean?
LADY CICELY. Oh! Didn't Sir Howard tell you that? Why, Captain
Brassbound turns out to be Sir Howard's nephew, the son of the
brother you knew.
RANKIN (overwhelmed). I saw the likeness the night he came here!
It's true: it's true. Uncle and nephew!
LADY CICELY. Yes: that's why they quarrelled so.
RANKIN (with a momentary sense of ill usage). I think Sir Howrrd
might have told me that.
LADY CICELY. Of course he OUGHT to have told you. You see he only
tells one side of the story. That comes from his training as a
barrister. You mustn't think he's naturally deceitful: if he'd
been brought up as a clergyman, he'd have told you the whole truth
as a matter of course.
RANKIN (too much perturbed to dwell on his grievance). Leddy
Ceecily: I must go to the prison and see the lad. He may have been
a bit wild; but I can't leave poor Miles's son unbefriended in a
foreign gaol.
LADY CICELY (rising, radiant). Oh, how good of you! You have a
real kind heart of gold, Mr. Rankin. Now, before you go, shall we
just put our heads together, and consider how to give Miles's son
every chance--I mean of course every chance that he ought to have.
RANKIN (rather addled). I am so confused by this astoanishing
news--
LADY CICELY. Yes, yes: of course you are. But don't you think he
would make a better impression on the American captain if he were
a little more respectably dressed?
RANKIN. Mebbe. But how can that be remedied here in Mogador?
LADY CICELY. Oh, I've thought of that. You know I'm going back to
England by way of Rome, Mr. Rankin; and I'm bringing a portmanteau
full of clothes for my brother there: he's ambassador, you know,
and has to be VERY particular as to what he wears. I had the
portmanteau brought here this morning. Now WOULD you mind taking
it to the prison, and smartening up Captain Brassbound a little.
Tell him he ought to do it to show his respect for me; and he
will. It will be quite easy: there are two Krooboys waiting to
carry the portmanteau. You will: I know you will. (She edges him
to the door.) And do you think there is time to get him shaved?
RANKIN (succumbing, half bewildered). I'll do my best.
LADY CICELY. I know you will. (As he is going out) Oh! one word,
Mr. Rankin. (He comes back.) The Cadi didn't know that Captain
Brassbound was Sir Howard's nephew, did he?
RANKIN. No.
LADY CICELY. Then he must have misunderstood everything quite
dreadfully. I'm afraid, Mr. Rankin--though you know best, of
course--that we are bound not to repeat anything at the inquiry
that the Cadi said. He didn't know, you see.
RANKIN (cannily). I take your point, Leddy Ceecily. It alters the
case. I shall certainly make no allusion to it.
LADY CICELY (magnanimously). Well, then, I won't either. There!
They shake hands on it. Sir Howard comes in.
SIR HOWARD. Good morning Mr. Rankin. I hope you got home safely
from the yacht last night.
RANKIN. Quite safe, thank ye, Sir Howrrd.
LADY CICELY. Howard, he's in a hurry. Don't make him stop to talk.
SIR HOWARD. Very good, very good. (He comes to the table and takes
Lady Cicely's chair.)
RANKIN. Oo revoir, Leddy Ceecily.
LADY CICELY. Bless you, Mr. Rankin. (Rankin goes out. She comes to
the other end of the table, looking at Sir Howard with a troubled,
sorrowfully sympathetic air, but unconsciously making her right
hand stalk about the table on the tips of its fingers in a
tentative stealthy way which would put Sir Howard on his guard if
he were in a suspicious frame of mind, which, as it happens, he is
not.) I'm so sorry for you, Howard, about this unfortunate
inquiry.
SIR HOWARD (swinging round on his chair, astonished). Sorry for
ME! Why?
LADY CICELY. It will look so dreadful. Your own nephew, you know.
SIR HOWARD. Cicely: an English judge has no nephews, no sons even,
when he has to carry out the law.
LADY CICELY. But then he oughtn't to have any property either.
People will never understand about the West Indian Estate. They'll
think you're the wicked uncle out of the Babes in the Wood. (With
a fresh gush of compassion) I'm so SO sorry for you.
SIR HOWARD (rather stiffly). I really do not see how I need your
commiseration, Cicely. The woman was an impossible person, half
mad, half drunk. Do you understand what such a creature is when
she has a grievance, and imagines some innocent person to be the
author of it?
LADY CICELY (with a touch of impatience). Oh, quite. THAT'll be
made clear enough. I can see it all in the papers already: our
half mad, half drunk sister-in-law, making scenes with you in the
street, with the police called in, and prison and all the rest of
it. The family will be furious. (Sir Howard quails. She instantly
follows up her advantage with) Think of papa!
SIR HOWARD. I shall expect Lord Waynflete to look at the matter as
a reasonable man.
LADY CICELY. Do you think he's so greatly changed as that, Howard?
SIR HOWARD (falling back on the fatalism of the depersonalized
public man). My dear Cicely: there is no use discussing the
matter. It cannot be helped, however disagreeable it may be.
LADY CICELY. Of course not. That's what's so dreadful. Do you
think people will understand?
SIR HOWARD. I really cannot say. Whether they do or not, I cannot
help it.
LADY CICELY. If you were anybody but a judge, it wouldn't matter
so much. But a judge mustn't even be misunderstood. (Despairingly)
Oh, it's dreadful, Howard: it's terrible! What would poor Mary say
if she were alive now?
SIR HOWARD (with emotion). I don't think, Cicely, that my dear
wife would misunderstand me.
LADY CICELY. No: SHE'D know you mean well. And when you came home
and said, "Mary: I've just told all the world that your
sister-in-law was a police court criminal, and that I sent her to
prison; and your nephew is a brigand, and I'm sending HIM to
prison" she'd have thought it must be all right because you did
it. But you don't think she would have LIKED it, any more than
papa and the rest of us, do you?
SIR HOWARD (appalled). But what am I to do? Do you ask me to
compound a felony?
LADY CICELY (sternly). Certainly not. I would not allow such a
thing, even if you were wicked enough to attempt it. No. What I
say is, that you ought not to tell the story yourself
SIR HOWARD. Why?
LADY CICELY. Because everybody would say you are such a clever
lawyer you could make a poor simple sailor like Captain Kearney
believe anything. The proper thing for you to do, Howard, is to
let ME tell the exact truth. Then you can simply say that you are
bound to confirm me. Nobody can blame you for that.
SIR HOWARD (looking suspiciously at her). Cicely: you are up to
some devilment.
LADY CICELY (promptly washing her hands of his interests). Oh,
very well. Tell the story yourself, in your own clever way. I only
proposed to tell the exact truth. You call that devilment. So it
is, I daresay, from a lawyer's point of view.
SIR HOWARD. I hope you're not offended.
LADY CICELY (with the utmost goodhumor). My dear Howard, not a
bit. Of course you're right: you know how these things ought to be
done. I'll do exactly what you tell me, and confirm everything you
say.
SIR HOWARD (alarmed by the completeness of his victory). Oh, my
dear, you mustn't act in MY interest. You must give your evidence
with absolute impartiality. (She nods, as if thoroughly impressed
and reproved, and gazes at him with the steadfast candor peculiar
to liars who read novels. His eyes turn to the ground; and his
brow clouds perplexedly. He rises; rubs his chin nervously with
his forefinger; and adds) I think, perhaps, on reflection, that
there is something to be said for your proposal to relieve me of
the very painful duty of telling what has occurred.
LADI CICELY (holding off). But you'd do it so very much better.
SIR HOWARD. For that very reason, perhaps, it had better come from
you.
LADY CICELY (reluctantly). Well, if you'd rather.
SIR HOWARD. But mind, Cicely, the exact truth.
LADY CICELY (with conviction). The exact truth. (They shake hands
on it.)
SIR HOWARD (holding her hand). Fiat justitia: ruat coelum!
LADY CICELY. Let Justice be done, though the ceiling fall.
An American bluejacket appears at the door.
BLUEJA