Dramatizations of Robert Louis Stevenson

Dramatizations of Robert Louis Stevenson

by Christian Lanciai

Introduction Robert Louis Stevenson was always one of my favourite authors, and in my teens I avidly read all of his works which have remained favourites of mine ever since.

The five dramatizations presented here are in no chronological order except historically. “The Black Arrow” was the last of these dramatizations, one of his very few attempts at a historical novel like those of Sir Walter Scott, and he was never happy with it himself. It contains though one of the most psychologically shockingly convincing portraits of Richard III ever written.

“The Treasure Island” was one of his very first novels and actually written for youths. “The Heir of Ballantrae” I always regarded as his greatest novel, psychologically penetrating and in great sequence to Sir Walter Scott.

“Doctor Jekyll’s Journal” was the first of these dramatizations, in which the greatest liberties have been taken with the original, which issue is being discussed after “The Black Arrow”.

“The Wrecker” is one his least known novels but one of his best and most intelligent. Its labyrinthine mystery is difficult to follow, few could do that in the 19th century, but the explanation of the mystery is satisfactory indeed in its wondrous exploration of the ways of destiny.

The Black Arrow 3 The Treasure Island 37 The Heir of Ballantrae 65 Doctor Jekyll’s Journal 119 The Wreck 155

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The Black Arrow Dramatization of Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel

by Christian Lanciai (2014)

The Characters: two women a farmer Richard ’Dick’ Shelton Nick Appleyard, an old bowman and war veteran Bennet Hatch Sir Oliver Oates, vicar Sir Daniel Brackley, knight a host for an inn John Matcham, alias Joanna Sedley Brother Lawless Ellis Duckworth Alicia Risingham Lord Risingham Duke Richard of Gloucester, later Richard III King Henrik VI other outlaws and soldiers The action takes place during the final stage of the War of the Roses in England up till summer 1471.

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Act I scene 1. The Tunstall village.

A woman Here they come recruiting war people again.

A farmer Will they never get enough?

Another woman No, they will never get enough. Men are only good for fighting and to torture us in bed. Just let them all put an end to each other.

First woman It’s just that, when the war takes our men we are forced to live on turnips.

Dick Not at all. Every soldier gets his salary of sixpence a day and the bowmen get twelve.

The woman Yes, if they survive. The problem about war wages is that the only job of the soldiers is to kill each other.

Dick To honour the righteous and make sure they survive.

Second woman Another problem is that they don’t.

The farmer Who are then the righteous?

Dick Those who fight for the King and his legal government.

The farmer The problem is that the King is too weak and can’t govern. That’s why the house of York has presented an alternative.

Dick Which is not legal.

The woman For me it’s the same, since all governments whoever they are just make life difficult for ordinary people.

Dick That’s what we are fighting so intrepidly for, to sometime break the vicious circle.

2 woman It’s a treadmill. You will have to fight forever and in vain, while the men just get murdered and murder each other.

Dick I am looking for the old bowman Appleyard. Is he here?

First woman (to the farmer) And you have no right to judge the king for not being able to handle his misfortunes.

Farmer If a man is a man he will manage his misfortunes. But he is no man who allows women to rule over him all his life.

2 woman There is nothing wrong about the queen.

Farmer I haven’t said there was.

2 woman You said she made the king incompetent.

Farmer No, he already was before she married him. It’s dangerous to be born a king. Then you will only lose your crown.

First woman So it’s his own fault that he was born a king?

Farmer No, I didn’t say so. But if you are born a king you never get to learn what it is to be a human being, which perhaps is the most important lesson in life, if you will be able to manage.

Dick What about Appleyard?

Appleyard (showing up) Who called on me?

Dick They want you at Moat House. There will be new fights.

Appleyard I heard you discuss the king. But his father, he was a real king!

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Farmer Here he goes again.

Appleyard Just because the times have grown so difficult it’s the more important to remember those times that made a difference!

Farmer Which only you remember and can bear witness of.

Appleyard The more important to observe them!

Farmer But my good old sir, they are long since passed!

Appleyard Not as long as I remember them. Agincourt will resound until doomsday!

First woman Don’t urge him by challenging him. Then we’ll just have to listen to the whole battle again from the start.

Appleyard The most glorious battle of England must never be forgotten!

Farmer Quite. But no one is thinking about it when we today fight all those small petty fights between ourselves and our brothers! In the face of the dishonourable divisions between brothers no one will remember any honour any more.

Dick Here is Bennet Hatch.

Bennet Sir Daniel needs us at once at Moat House. Will you come?

Appleyard Of course. All at once. My bow is always longing for new songs to sing.

Bennet That’s the spirit.

Farmer Wasn’t Sir Daniel quite recently for the house of York?

First woman That was then. Since then the king has returned, and he has as usual turned his cloak after the wind.

Farmer And every time he turns it he acquires another chest of riches.

2 woman Don’t speak ill of him. We are all in his hands.

Farmer Master Dick, he is your guardian. You if anyone should know him. On which side is he really?

Dick Honestly speaking, I don’t know.

Farmer There you are. He goes to bed a Lancaster and gets up next morning a York.

Dick What’s the matter, Nick Appleyard?

Appleyard I don’t like the manner of the birds swarming over the woods.

Dick What’s the matter with them?

Appleyard Something bothers them. There is something going on.

Bennet Nick Appleyard’s instinct for war and trouble is notorious for its consistent infallibility. What do you think it means?

Appleyard I don’t know. But it smells bad.

Farmer The outlaws are hiding there. They are always up to something.

Appleyard Well, Bennet, how many men can we have to hold Moat House?

Bennet At least a dozen. We will ride there with an escort.

Appleyard At least twenty would be needed.

Bennet That’s why I try to muster some more.

Appleyard (suddenly gets an arrow in his back) Aaaaah! (falls) Bennet Where did that arrow come from?

Farmer The woods over there. A master shot.

Appleyard (dying) I am done for. Pull it out!

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Dick It’s black.

Appleyard Don’t let a black arrow in my back send me to hell! Pull it out! (dies) Bennet He is finished. What do you think of this, Dick?

Dick Mischief in the wind. But as the farmer said, it was a master shot and well aimed. Old Nick Appleyard must have been chosen.

Farmer Look!

Bennet The church portal! Who is he?

Dick I have never seen him before.

Bennet Shoot him down, Dick!

Dick (takes his crossbow and takes aim) He moves too quickly. At best we could only wound him.

Farmer He has shot a message to the gate with an arrow!

Bennet Go and get the arrow and the message, old man! Maybe it will explain the situation. (the farmer leaves) Dick (shoots) Missed!

Bennet No, you hit him! He falls!

Dick No, he is rising again. The arrow only touched him.

First woman Now he is gone. He must be one of the outlaws.

Farmer (returns panting) A message! And a black arrow!

Bennet Let’s see. The arrow that killed Nick Appleyard also says something.

Can you read it, Dick?

Dick ”Appleyard, from John Amend-All.” That confirms the intention. Who is John Amend-All? Bennet Surely some outcast hiding behind the name.

Farmer Here is Sir Oliver. He appears somewhat shocked.

Bennet He should be. It’s his church.

Sir Oliver This is too much! A strike against my church! And a man shot down in our midst!

Bennet Show him the arrow, Dick. (Dick shows it to him.)

Sir Oliver John Amend-All! Woe betide us!

Bennet Do you know who it is, Sir Oliver?

Sir Oliver I have no idea. At least twenty outlaws live out there in the woods. It could be any one of them.

Bennet We have many enemies. Sir Daniel has been rough and forced many away from their homes and farms but was always careful about having the law on his side, which only turned his victims the more hateful and dangerous. What do you think of Ellis Duckworth?

Sir Oliver Out of the question! Only the lords of York could be behind this. Put the question who would benefit from it. Nick Appleyard had collected some wealth, hadn’t he?

Bennet At least 60 pounds. Well, Dick, can you read what it says?

Dick The verses are not too good, but their message doesn’t sound too good.

Bennet For whom?

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Dick For any of us.

Bennet Read!

Dick (reads) ”I had four black arrows under my belt, Four for the griefs that I have felt, Four for the number of ill men That have oppressed me now and then.

One is gone, one is well sped; Old Appleyard is dead.

One is for master Bennet Hatch, That burned Grimstone, walls and hatch, One for Sir Oliver Oates, That cut Sir Harry Shelton’s throat.

Sir Daniel, you shall have the fourth; We shall think it fair sport.

Ye shall each have your own part, A black arrow in each black heart.

Get ye to your knees for to pray: ye are dead thieves, by yea and nay.

John Amend-All of the Green Wood and his jolly fellowship.

Item, we have more arrows and good hempen cord for others of your following.”

Sir Oliver Woe betide us! It must be some misunderstanding!

Bennet Is it, Sir Oliver? You are mentioned yourself.

Sir Oliver I had nothing to do with it! He didn’t even have his throat cut! This is an outrage! I am just an innocent priest!

Bennet It makes no difference, Sir Oliver. The curse is here anyway.

Sir Oliver There are witnesses! There are living witnesses of what happened! I was not even there at Moat House when it happened! I was sent on an errand from there before it was nine o’clock…

Bennet It’s time for us to get moving. Dick, make ready. Don’t bother about that babbling priest and this curse. It doesn’t concern you.

Dick But it does concern you, and obviously Sir Oliver was present in the circumstances of my father’s death. I would like to hear more about it eventually.

Bennet We have to split. Ten men will escort Sir Oliver to Moat House, and I will command of the other ten. You must take the long way across the bridge. If you

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are attacked, just spurn the spurs and ride on. Whatever you do, don’t come back here. Who knows if we’ll ever see each other again. Some good advice on the way: trust neither Sir Daniel nor Sir Oliver. Keep careful observation of Sir Daniel. He only thinks of his gold and would sacrifice anyone for it and doesn’t care who governs the country as long as he can profit by it whoever it is. Sir Oliver is his instrument and accomplice. Make other friends wherever you come and preferrably as powerful as possible. So far your reputation is good with everyone, keep it that way, and don’t press the case of your father too far until you have to. Good luck, my boy!

Dick We’ll surely meet again.

Bennet But if they would send an arrow in my back, those hopelessly wronged outcasts, then think of me and feel welcome to contribute a pound for a death mass for my poor soul, since I will have a hard time in purgatory.

Dick Good luck yourself, Bennet. (They embrace.)

Bennet Go now. And hurry. (Dick leaves.)

First woman If only the king could get back his full mental capacities, so that we could have order in the country again!

Farmer No king was ever sensible but only allowed himself to be governed by interests he couldn’t control. Our king understood that from the beginning and has therefore never been in power.

First woman Shut up, you poor wise guy! Let’s go home before the war strikes the village again!

Bennet And you, Sir Oliver, will have to take care of the body.

Sir Oliver A mass is the least we can offer him, the scarred veteran. (employs a few men to help him, and Appleyard is carried out.)

Bennet That arrow knew where to strike, and three black arrows are already sharpened, and we don’t even know where they come from. They are many who have been harmed beyond repair without right in this civil war, and we who have profited by their misfortunes have more enemies than we can tell. One of them, the most anonymous of them all, has simply had enough. (walks out after the others.

Chimes start tolling as a signal for a mass for the dead.)

Scene 2. The inn.

(It’s night, and people are sleeping around Sir Daniel on benches or on the floor, his warriors or servants, wrapped up in their cloaks, with a sleeping boy at his feet in a red cloak, while he himself is keeping court with a large mug of beer in his hand by the table in front of the open fire.)

Sir Daniel Listen to me, host. Don’t obey any other man than me, and you will have a good life, for I am a good master to those who serve me.

Host Naturally there is never any question of obeying any other man.

Sir Daniel I must have reliable people for my group of ten. Make Adam-a-More sheriff here. Those Walsinghams must be eliminated, and you have served them.

Host That was long ago. They pay nothing, as they are poor as church rats.

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Sir Daniel And still they make trouble and want so called exoneration, as if you could get any legal right without money. (The boy is moving.) So, it’s time to wake up now, master John.

John (suddenly sits up and looking around in dismay) Sir Daniel Here, my boy! Here I am! (John reluctantly comes up to him. Sir Daniel bursts out laughing.) That’s what I call a good boy!

John Is it my unfortunate circumstances that make you laugh at me?

Sir Daniel Not at all. I am just cheerful by nature. You would also laugh if you could see yourself.

John Sir Daniel, you shall answer for this and for everything else. Laugh while you can.

Sir Daniel No, dear cousin, don’t take it so seriously. I am not laughing at you. I will make you happily and richly married, so you shall not remain in awkwardness.

Just take it easy. That I took you by force was just regular procedure – that’s how they do in these troubleseome times. I promise to cherish you tenderly and insure a life in safety for you – you shall be Mrs Shelton, wife of my ward, the finest young man I know. He will treat you better than I. And a good laugh is good for prolonging life. Only wicked men don’t laugh, and I am not wicked, only a man of my time.

Host, give the boy some food.

John Thank you, I am not hungry. (enter Dick Shelton with some men) Sir Daniel Hello there, my favourite Dick! You come like by order! You were the only one missing here! Join the party and celebrate! All the others are put out.

Dick I bring you some news from the priest. Something has occurred in Tunstall, which is threatened.

Sir Daniel Sit down and take it easy! Here is some food for you. What has happened then?

Dick (delivers Sir Oliver’s letter) Risingham is also under threat. They sorely miss your presence.

Sir Daniel (reads, grows sullen) Dick, have you read these verses?

Dick Yes. Sir Daniel Your father is mentioned, and our poor vicar is accused of having murdered him.

Dick He denied it more than emphatically.

Sir Daniel Of course. He couldn’t do otherwise. Don’t mind him. He prattles like a magpie. One day when I get time I will myself put you into the entire situation. A man called Ellis Duckworth was accused of the deed, but the times were difficult, and it was impossible to implement justice. That’s the advantage and disadvantage of war and civil war: all law and order and right are abrogated.

Dick It happened in Moat House, didn’t it?

Sir Daniel It happened between Moat House and Holywood. Hurry on with the supper. You will ride back to Tunstall with a message from me.

Dick I beg you to send someone else. I will be needed now in the fight, as they now are geting started for real.

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Sir Daniel I have no doubt about it, but there is no glory for you to gain there.

Myself I will stay here in Kettley and wait. Call it cowardice if you want, but it is only common sense. After the battle you can better judge what is right or wrong, when you see who has won. People change sides every day, since the force of government changes hands equally often, and no one can be sure of what counts tomorrow. The game is for irresponsible adventurers, while the wise man stays outside looking on. Now I will write the letter of answer.

(When Sir Daniel’s attention is elsewhere, John carefully dares to steal up to Dick.)

John (with a finger on his lips) Hush! Could you tell me the closest way to Holywood?

Dick Just follow the path past the windmill and down to the ferry. There you can ask again.

John Thank you.

Dick Are you in trouble?

John Hush! I must get away. (steals away) Sir Daniel There! The letter is finished! You’ll ride ro Moat House with it. Hurry on.

(Dick leaves.) Where the devil is the girl?

Host What girl?

Sir Daniel The boy then, who was with me? He in the red cloak, who only wanted to drink water! Has she run away, clout?

Host Master John? Yes, he left. I saw him ride a horse and disappear.

Sir Daniel She was worth five hundred pounds for me! Well, we shall overtake her later. Back to the war and the party! The rule is to come too late to the war and in good time for the party, so the war will have to wait. We’ll send six men for the girl instead. Wake up, you sluggards! Follow the girl, she cannot have reached very far, and catch her whatever the cost! When I reach Moat House she must be there!

Understood?

Soldiers Ay ay, Sir! Sir Daniel Let’s march then! (Exeunt all except the host.)

Scene 3.

(A neighing horse.)

Dick A horse caught in the mud and dying. The young man must have met with some trouble. But where is he?

John (peeping out through some rushes) Tsst! Master Shelton!

Dick Are you there? Come out, and let me see you! You abandoned your horse when he was stuck in the marsh, so I had to put an arrow through his head to cut his dying pain short. You should have done that.

John I am not drilled in using weapons. I didn’t know what to do, since they are chasing me.

Dick Come out properly, so that we can speak! What’s the matter with you?

Why are they chasing you?

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John Alas, I am completely lost! I lost my way and lost my horse and have even lost my cloak, and now I am completely at a loss and all wet also!

Dick To be wet is only natural. Who does not get rained through every day here in England? Come! Let’s light a fire, and then you’ll have to explain yourself. (takes ”him” under his cloak and starts preparing a camp) John (when he has settled and relaxed) I am on my way to Holywood to find protection there with the abbot to get away from a man who wants to oppress me.

Dick Sir Daniel?

John He has abducted me from home and forced me to dress up in these clothes and then cruelly made fun of me all the time. When my men chased him to liberate me he made me sit at the back to dress the shots, and I was hit in my foot.

Since then I am limping. But I will get him! One day justice will catch up with him!

Dick Undoubtedly. But you might have to wait for long. Sir Daniel is an undefeatable warrior with iron hands and more clever than anyone in the government. If he knew that I was taking care of you, I would probably end up in very much trouble.

John I know that you are his ward, just as he claims that I am, but he collects people to make dependent on him only to make money of it, and he uses his position of power only for oppression. Haven’t you noticed?

Dick Not yet, but I know that I cannot trust him.

John By the way, call me John Matcham. All I ask of you is to help me reach Holywood.

Dick Of course. I pledge my life to bring you there in security.

John But how? We have only got one horse.

Dick You may ride it with your damaged foot. I will run along.

John It’s a long way.

Dick If I get tired we’ll simply stop and rest. But we’ll get there.

John Then I trust you.

Dick Right. Come, let’s go. We have no time to lose, if Sir Daniel sends his hoodlums after you. (They make ready for departure.)

Scene 4. Grimstone.

Lawless (stirring the pot) Exiled and outlawed you are still free, and freedom is more worth than all the riches and vanity there is in town for the destruction of all humanity. In nature you are poor, exposed and stripped of all illusions about the false security of resources but instead free and clear in your mind and in perfect control of your integrity, independence and sovereignty.

John (stealing up with Dick and hiding without being noticed) What bad luck we had by the ferry place!

Dick It was no one’s fault. It was Swamp-John that made trouble. We were lucky to get away alive.

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John But the horse perished.

Dick Swamp-John fired at us and hit the horse so the ferry turned over. They have only themselves to blame. If we are lucky we’ll now do without your persecutors, if they can’t use the ferry.

John They will probably use the bridge instead. But the ferryman’s words that Sir Daniel’s days are counted made an impression. Do you think something is going on? Here we can learn something. Watch out! (They crouch as a group of men enters.)

Ellis Things are looking better, boys! Six bowmen have arrived at the ferry dressed in Sir Daniel’s colours. They will be our next target. Not one of them will get through the woods alive! We are here more than fifty strong free men, all with more than one injustice to avenge! We have all lost either our property and goods or friends and relatives by Sir Daniel’s violent greed, and we have only began our retaliation! Appleyard was only the introduction!

Lawless Master Ellis, you only think or revenge and have reasons enough, but the most important thing is still our exoneration. We are all outlawed but have no higher wish than to once be able to live in peace again with our human rights restored. Can you see any end at all to the constantly increasing and worsening vicious circle of violence?

Ellis That’s why we must concentrate on the snake’s head, which is Sir Daniel.

His position is unassailable by its massive systematic corruption of the whole county, but the more important it is that the source of the poison to the snake’s head is cut off. If we are lucky he will also try to find his way through the woods, but now we must take our positions. Remember, none of the six knights must escape alive!

Dick (to John) If I know Sir Daniel correctly he will take another way than his men. He is too sly for the outlaws.

Ellis I promise you, brother Lawless, that if I only get the necessary revenge for Harry Shelton, Simon Malmsbury and one more carried through, all my effort after that will be to restore our rights.

Lawless The third one must be yourself?

Ellis Who else? To horse! Take your positions! We have an important day’s work ahead!

John (to Dick) Do you think they will succeed?

Dick Of course they will succeed. But they will not get Sir Daniel. Come, let’s see how it works out! (They steal away while the outlaws break up.)

Lawless Poor Sir Daniel and his men! They have no chance. What are they doing in the woods anyway? They must be aware they are walking into a death trap! Well, that’s their own business. They are Sir Daniel’s men, and that’s how it goes and ends when you just blindly obey orders. (finishes his cooking)

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Scene 5. In the woods. Dick and John wake up at dawn in a hollow.

Dick Have we quarrelled enough now?

John I hope so.

Dick Can you forgive me?

John Never. I have seen you kill a man. I could never do that myself, and I can’t understand how anyone could do it.

Dick Then you are more of a woman than of a man.

John Don’t say so.

Dick You must understand me. Sir Daniel has been like a father to me instead of the one I lost.

John But Sir Daniel was the one who killed him!

Dick How do you know?

John I heard it from many sources.

Dick You exaggerate. The day when it is proved that Sir Daniel killed him I will myself kill Sir Daniel, although he has been like a father to me and raised me a warrior.

John He raised you to be his hoodlum.

Dick No, I am first of all in the service of the crown.

John A crown which Sir Daniel constantly betrays.

Dick How do you know?

John Everybody knows. When York is victorious he becomes a York man.

When Lancaster is victorious he fawns to the king again. He is an unscrupulous weathercock who profits by the cost of the innocent victims of the war.

Dick It may be so, but I had to kill that man.

John You didn’t have to at all.

Dick He aimed at me.

John But he never fired. He wanted to spare you, but you refused to spare him, although he was unknown to you and you had no reason or cause to kill him.

Dick There is a civil war going on. Indirectly you will be six times more guilty as an accomplice, since you stopped me from saving those that were sent out.

John For that you should be happy and grateful. They were Sir Daniel’s men sent out to hunt me, and Sir Daniel is your own father’s murderer.

Dick Here we go again. (a small chiming bell is heard) Quiet! What is it?

John Someone goes around sounding a small bell. It’s no cow.

Dick No, he moves too quickly, as if he was on his guard and on the run.

John He is coming closer.

Dick Anyway, he is a loner and nothing to fear, perhaps even a monk or hermit.

John I see him! Goodness! He has no face!

(The ’leper’ enters covered in a cloak from head to foot and even with his face covered by a white cloth.)

Dick A leper!

John Do you think he has seen us?

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Dick He walks with a stick. He is blind. Look how he gropes his way with the stick.

John It feels anyway as if he saw us, as if he saw right through us.

Dick I admit it’s a bit uncanny.

John He has seen us! I know it!

Dick Now he passes on. The danger is over.

John The mere touch by such a person could mean a prolonged and unendurably painful death.

Dick I don’t think it’s as contagious as people try to make it by their prejudice and superstition, but the illness is the worst imaginable. This poor man can never again have any human relationship.

John He is coming back! I hear the bell again!

Dick Now it’s quiet.

John It’s him! He walks straight at us and holds the clapper!

Dick So he sees us. Something here is not right. – Halt, leprous man! Don’t come any closer!

The leper (stops and removes his mask) Don’t be alarmed. It’s only me.

Dick and John Sir Daniel!

Sir Daniel Pardon the disguise, but it is unfortunately necessary. I am in disgrace.

The battle of Risingham is lost, and we must run for our lives. Now everyone is chasing me, and my only possible refuge is Moat House, where I am heading. It’s not far. Come after me there. You are under my protection.

Dick What does it mean, Sir Daniel? Have you lost all your men? Will you be a York man again?

Sir Daniel That duke of York does not deserve his progress, but I have no other choice. I was hoping to meet my six chosen men here in the woods.

Dick They are all dead.

Sir Daniel What?

Dick They fell one after the other ambushed by the outlaws. I came too late to be able to warn them and could regrettably not save them.

Sir Daniel Then I have only ten men left. Hard times and tidings! That damned Ellis Duckworth! I made him a beggar, drove him from his home, burnt his farm and chased him out of the country, and then he comes back and has the insolence to openly declare that he is going to kill me! It’s an outrageous unmatched impertinece!

But I shall get him! This time he will not get away!

Dick We were close to get caught by the outlaws ourselves.

Sir Daniel At Moat House you are safe. You are welcome there. It’s not pleasant to live as an outcast in the woods. Have you been sleeping here tonight?

Dick Yes. Sir Daniel In this hollow? It could have been made your grave.

Dick That’s how it felt when you approached us, Sir Daniel.

Sir Daniel As a leper or when I unmasked myself? (grinning) John Both.

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Sir Daniel There is no reason for fear now for me. The danger is over. They will never get to Moat House.

Dick Who are ’they’?

Sir Daniel Those who keep the civil war going. Come on now. It’s a straight path. (goes ahead and leaves) Dick I don’t think there is any danger, John.

John Something tells me it will be difficult to get out alive from Moat House.

Dick We’ll make it, I am sure. We did make it all the way so far. (They leave after Sir Daniel.)

Act II scene 1. Moat House.

Sir Daniel, Bennet Hatch and Sir Oliver Oates.

Sir Daniel I am worried about the boy. He risks everything by asking too many questions.

Bennet Still I warned him. He can’t go on like that.

Sir Daniel Did the dying Carter say anything?

Bennet He appears to have threatened him by refusing to let in the priest to receive the last confession and unction, and still he refused to say anything.

Sir Daniel He goes too far.

Bennet Yes, he goes too far.

Sir Daniel I must make an ultimatum. He must realize and understand that he can never have any clear answers to the question.

Bennet The risk is as long as he doesn’t get any, that he will continue asking questions and never know more than one or other detail, which only will urge him to go on.

Sir Daniel That’s what we must have an end of. Or else it will be the worse for him.

An ultimatum is the only possible remedy. There is nothing else to do. Will he never come?

Bennet Patience, Sir Daniel. He is summoned, so he will come.

Dick (enters) You called me, Sir Daniel. Here I am.

Sir Daniel That was about time. You worry us, Dick. You cause concern and irritation. You have even tortured the dying Carter with your questions.

Dick I wanted answers, especially since no one seems willing to give them.

Sir Daniel There is nothing to answer. Your father is dead since fifteen years, and there’s an end on it. You will gain nothing on trying to dig him up except some towering garbage of only worms.

Dick But his spirit seems to be uneasy since the mere mentioning of his name appears to make people panic.

Sir Daniel Not with us who knew him. He was a man of honour who always kept his word and never failed his loyalty, but you seem to be willing to set everything

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rocking and thereby risk all we have done for you by opening and spreading salt in old wounds. It will not do. It is ungrateful and irresponsible.

Dick You have always been like a father to me, Sir Daniel, and I never failed in my loyalty to you. I actually tried to save your six men who were lost in the Tunstall forest, but I was powerless against the sly tactics of the cunning men of the forest, since they kept consistently invisible, and your men were surrounded from the start.

Sir Daniel Exactly, my dear Dick. We are hard pressed. The king has probably lost his last battle, and all my men are beaten with him. The duke of York has banned and outlawed me, and the bother to try to regain his grace will take a very long time. At the same time we have this forest plot against the lives of all of us with outlawed murderers swarming in the bushes who only live to have us massacred. We are in safety here, but then we don’t need anyone going around destabilizing the security and morale by spreading anxieties and false rumours.

Dick That’s the last thing I wish to do. I only want to know the truth.

Bennet Do you believe more in loose accusations by a cowardly fired black anonymous killer arrow than in what your benefactor assures you of?

Dick If only you could do that, but you just keep evading the issue.

Sir Daniel How can we make you trust our word?

Dick Swear yourselves innocent. It’s easy.

Sir Daniel Well, Dick, I swear myself innocent. I swear that I had nothing to do with the murder of your father. Is that enough?

Dick You were never directly pointed out by the black arrow, but Sir Oliver was.

Sir Daniel Well, Sir Oliver? Obviously you must also swear.

(Howls outside.)

What’s happening? Run out, Dick, and find out what is going on. (Dick disappears.)

You must swear, Oliver. You have no choice.

Sir Oliver It’s a terrible oath. You can swear your souls to hell if you want, and no one can stop you, that’s your own affair, but I am a priest!

Sir Daniel No matter. I don’t think there is any hell to be afraid of. If you must lie for the common good, you must. It’s politics. I still need Dick for my purposes. Until he is of age I have the right to give him away in marriage, and it could be sold dearly, but if he fails me I must dump him. Either he is convinced of our innocence in his father’s unfortunate demise, or I must lodge him in the room above the chapel.

Sir Oliver No, anything, but not that!

Sir Daniel The choice is yours, Oliver. I will leave you alone with him but will guard you through the tapistry. His life depends on you. Stay calm and convince him. (Dick returns.) Well, what was it?

Dick There was a black arrow landing in the court with a message.

Sir Daniel What message?

Dick I think it was for me.

Sir Daniel What did it say?

Dick ”Forced into the lair.”

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Sir Daniel Listen, Dick. Either you trust us and our innocence, or else you leave here and join the outlaws. We can’t have suspicious demoralising defaitists in here under the present circumstances. It’s your own choice. I leave you here alone with Sir Oliver. (leaves) Dick (alone with the priest) Well, Sir Oliver, can you swear yourself innocent?

Sir Oliver I should be angry with you for at all questioning our honesty and honour, but I feel for you and agree to swear the oath for your own sake.

Dick I was already convinced of your innocence when the first black arrow brought the first accusation, but still I must ask you: Did you have no share in his murder?

Sir Oliver I have already sworn that I had absolutely nothing to do with the violence and treason against your father! For your own sake, don’t press the matter any further! I must go now. I am not quite well. Be satisfied that I already swore the oath once. Take care. Farewell. (hurries out) Dick Whatever does he mean? His manner of swearing the oath was all too convincing about its falsity. Now I know that both have perjured themselves and that Sir Daniel was involved. But what’s that? Someone is watching me by a hole in the tapistry! Overheard! Sir Daniel! Now he knows that I am convinced of their culpability. What will he do about that?

Bennet (enters) Master Dick, you are requested to change room.

Dick Why? I am satisfied with my room as it is.

Bennet The room above the chapel is much finer.

Dick Is that the only reason?

Bennet Don’t ask me. Your things have already been moved.

Dick Is there anything special about the room above the chapel?

Bennet Not that I know of, but some claim it is haunted.

Dick Who is haunting it?

Bennet Someone appears to have vanished from there without a trace. I have warned you, master Dick. Take care.

Dick I guess that accounts for all of us.

Bennet Very true. (takes hold of him when they go out together) We are all in the same boat, but when there is a civil war going on everyone is stupid enough to try to turn it over.

Scene 2. The room above the chapel.

Dick (enters the room) Why was I given this room? It’s much finer than mine, but it is suspect. (inspects it) Outside the window there is the moat, above there is the parapet and underneath there is only the chapel. There is certain to be some secret passage around here somewhere. This house is like built for surveillance and espionage. Now there is something happening.

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(The sound of many feet. The call: ”Password!” The answer ”Gloucester”. Change of the guards and more trampling of boots.)

You are not stupid enough to go to bed and sleep here, and even if you tried to sleep you would not be able to. But what is it now? (a cautious knock on the door) John (outside) Dick! It’s me!

Dick John Matcham! At last! (unlocks the door and lets him in at once and locks the door again) Where have you been? I have missed you! We haven’t seen each other since we arrived here!

John Don’t remind me. We are both in constant peril of life here. There are spies everywhere. I hear their steps behind me in the corridors, and I hear them breathe through the tapistries.

Dick Take it easy. Here you are safe for the moment, if anyone can be safe in this house. What have you learned? Where have you been hiding? What is going on?

John Don’t you know that they are going to kill you tonight or tomorrow?

That’s the only reason why you were offered this room.

Dick I thought so. But why? There is no good reason. The constancy in my loyalty to my guardian never broke, so why would he wish to kill me in his own house when he took care of me and brought me up during fifteen years?

John They are afraid of you that you might suspect too much. Do you still believe that Sir Daniel was not the man behind the death of your father?

Dick No, I know now that they killed him. Sir Oliver swore solemnly on the matter and so emphatically that he made it obvious that he knew how it all happened.

John He is as afraid as all the others. Everyone lives in terror of Sir Daniel in here and of the world outside.

Dick Hush! I hear something. (Sounds are heard under the floor.)

John Someone walks in the room below.

Dick No. It’s in the secret passage. They are coming to murder me. Let them come. I am ready. (loads his crossbow) John Put out all lights. (Dick does so.)

(Slowly, slowly a hatch is opened in the floor spreading light, and you see the hand opening it.

Dick raises his crossbow to shoot the head that must appear, but then new voices are heard.)

Sir Daniel (at a distance) That damned slut has tried to escape again! Find her! She must be in the castle!

(The hatch closes immediately, and new running steps and noises are heard about.)

Dick They will have much to do tonight.

(Calls are heard everywhere: ”Joanna! Joanna!”)

Who are they calling for? There is no Joanna here and practically no other woman either. There have hardly been any. Have you heard of anyone?

John Oh yes.

Dick Who is she? What has she done? Was she a prisoner, since she tried to escape?

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John Yes, she was a prisoner, but she didn’t do anything. On the contrary. She has only been violated.

Dick You seem to know something about it. Have you met her?

John No, but we must both get away from here. If anyone of us is found here it could only mean death. We are finished here.

Dick I understood that already earlier today, but I didn’t want to leave the fort until I had seen you and talked some more with Sir Oliver.

Sir Daniel (at a distance) Search everywhere! She could have taken refuge in the room above the chapel!

Dick (suddenly realizing) It’s you!

John Yes, I am afraid so. Are you disappointed?

Dick And how you have succeeded in fooling me! I have regarded you as almost a younger brother, unmanly with imperfect limbs, weak and defenceless, whom I must protect and take care of, and then you are a woman!

Joanna Imagine that you didn’t realize that earlier.

Dick I must have been blind! But what then is your story?

Joanna We haven’t got much time. Sir Daniel abducted me from my real guardian Lord Foxham. Like you I am an orphan but cursed by being rich. Therefore Sir Daniel and Lord Foxham have always had a tug-of-war about the right to give me away in marriage and always overran each other by buying either the right of guardianship over me or the right to get me married. Today I should have been betrothed.

Dick With whom?

Joanna A certain Hamley.

Dick Do you love him?

Joanna I have never seen him, but when I tried to get away from Sir Daniel I wanted to marry him just to spite Sir Daniel. Each time Sir Daniel has put me in harder watch and custody, and then in Tunstall I saw the man he wanted me to marry.

Dick Who was it?

Joanna You. Dick Fate really brought us together then. Imagine that we suffered such ordeals together in the woods while I always regarded you as a little brother! As such I almost came to love you as much, but now I love you even more.

Joanna It’s mutual, Dick.

(Just as they are about to kiss they are interrupted by bangings on the door.)

Sir Daniel (outside) I know she is in there! Open up the door, Dick! Don’t pretend to be sleeping! (pause) Break the door. They are in there together.

(Suddenly more noise above. New stamping and running feet and eager voixes. Something has happened. Silence outside the door. The housebreaking has come off.)

Dick Now something has happened again. It could hardly be any attack.

Perhaps reinforcements. Perhaps new fragments of the defeated army that succeeded in reaching the castle in the night.

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Joanna Now is our chance of an escape.

Dick Yes. To the hatch! Help me with this bed! We must block the door.

(Together they push the bed to block the door. Then they swiftly depart by the hatch.) But we need more luck to get out of here alive.

Joanna We have had luck so far. (They disappear.)

(Soon the hard work on the door is resumed.)

Sir Daniel Damn! They have barred the door! Use all your might, boys! (Finally Sir Daniel with a gang of knights succeed in breaking in.) They are gone! They have escaped!

Damn it! But we shall catch them! We only have to carefully check all the secret passages! (Exeunt all again in anger and disarray.)

Scene 3. Grimstone.

Ellis Let them be. Let them feel secure in the illusion of safety. We have him now and only need to wait him out. Soon he will get cocky again and dare to ride out with his slaves of bullying knights, and all roads will then be open to him, but then the whole nation will rise. It’s only a question of time now. But what is this? (Enter two of the outlaws carrying Dick who is unconscious.) Is it the prodigal son who at last has returned home?

Lawless We found him out in the woods. He is badly hurt. The head is torn, and he has had an arrow through his shoulder.

Ellis That would indicate that he risked his life to escape alone out of the castle by running some gauntlet. Wake up, young Shelton! You are at home now!

Dick (wakes up, weak and confused) Where am I? Ellis You have come home at last. You are with Ellis Duckworth, your father’s best friend, who has sworn to at last avenge his death. Do you have enough strength to speak? Can you tell us what happened?

Dick We had to leave her in the castle. She couldn’t bear the strain. We managed to get out, but she couldn’t climb down by the rope. I had to do it alone and fell the last bit. The arrows whirled all around me. I managed to get to the opposite shore, but when I ran I had an arrow in my shoulder. Am I really with friends? Do I have any?

Ellis The best ones you ever had, and who always were your friends since you were born, the outcasts, the outlaws, the humiliated and oppressed and those who always have the right to demand exoneration.

Dick Ellis Duckworth?

Ellis Yes, that’s me.

Dick She was left with the established robbers.

Ellis Joanna Sedley, who Sir Daniel abducted from her rightful guardian. We know.

Dick But Sir Daniel acquires more men all the time.

Ellis Don’t worry. He is declared a traitor by the duke of York. It wouldn’t surprise me if he also has betrayed the poor king. When the Lancaster party is

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victorious again he will probably betray his temporary lords again. He is like that. He can only betray. That’s what he thrives on.

Dick I think I have some proof here. (presents a letter) Ellis (reads it and is astounded) Where did you find it?

Dick Throgmorton. Sir Daniel sent him as a messenger to the duke of York.

Your men took him and hanged him. He was dangling in my way when Ì passed on my escape. Your men did not find the letter. I did.

Ellis We thank you, Dick, for coming like a godsent gift with binding evidence of Sir Daniel’s outrageous treason. You are at last at home now with decent people – all of us outlaws were driven from home and farm and land without any right and have even become even more honest as outlaws, for there is nothing else left for us to live for than our honour. Be most welcome.

Dick Thank you, Ellis Duckworth.

Ellis Now take care of his wounds, so that he may become a whole man again.

Dick And the girl?

Ellis We shall not forget her.

Dick I will write a letter to Sir Daniel myself making my position clear.

Ellis That will please him, on my honour!

(Dick cordially takes his hand, Ellis answers and embraces him. The other outlaws raise their mugs and cheer.)

The outlaws Dick Shelton has come right! Hurray, hurray!

Act III scene 1. Shoreby. Sir Daniel’s house.

Sir Daniel It doesn’t matter what you say. It’s my legal right to marry you to whomever I please, and under the present circumstances I can assure you, that you shall never be married to Dick, that bastard worm, who has betrayed me and become my mortal enemy after all I have done for him. I will do anything in my power to obstruct his intentions about you and to have him liquidated. He has challenged me and promised to see me dead at any cost before you are led to the altar by anyone else…

Joanna Has he written to you?

Sir Daniel At least he is honest enough to declare his intentions and to make his position clear. That settles it. He is our mortal enemy and already dead to us.

Joanna He will be your mortal enemy, not mine.

Sir Daniel That doesn’t help you. You will anyway be married to the earl of Shoreby. That’s settled. The deal is made. You will not get away. You will be his sex slave for life.

Joanna You are inhuman!

Sir Daniel No, I only use my legal right, and no one can take it away from me.

Joanna A legal right you acquired by illegal means by robbery, violence and swindle!

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Sir Daniel That is of no consequence. The legal right is mine. You shall be married, Joanna Sedley, to the earl of Shoreby…

Joanna That villain!

Sir Daniel And your dear Dick will not be able to stop it but rather have an arrow in his back before me.

Joanna Don’t be too sure!

Sir Daniel Yes, I am sure. Your Dick is outcast and outlawed. He has no human right left in the world. (She bursts out crying and throws herself on the bed.) Yes, cry your heart out. As lady Shoreby you are likely to dry up in languishment. The main thing is that I get my money for you. Nothing else matters, for the whole world is hopelessly rotten to the core anyway, and few people nowadays deserve to live at all.

That’s why we have the civil war, like a well needed natural curse for cleansing of all rotten eggs. The wise ones will get richer by it. The others will perish and liberate the world from their worthless presence. Cry on, Joanna. Cry as long as you can until you are as dry as an old spinster. (leaves and closes the door behind him.)

(Enter after a while her friend with caution.)

Alicia Tsst, Joanna!

Joanna (collects herself, looks up) What is it?

Alicia A friend has come for a visit. (shows in Dick disguised as a Franciscan monk.

He immediately removes his hood.)

Joanna Dick!

Dick (hurries in her lap) My beloved! All our efforts to liberate you have failed, but we will never give up.

Joanna I will be married tomorrow in the chapel here below.

Dick All powers of heaven will rise against it.

Joanna Do you think that helps?

Dick It just must not happen.

Joanna But it will happen.

Dick Let’s see about that.

Joanna If we live.

Dick We must live. For each other. We have nothing else to live for.

Joanna You are right. Everything else is just causes to kill for, for the king and York, and Sir Daniel kills for money.

Dick I must go. We must stop a blasphemous and unnatural wedding.

Joanna Do you think you can do it?

Dick I have all lawless friends on my side.

Alicia You will not get out of here. No one is let out in the curfew. Your only possible way is through the chapel, where the wedding shall be tomorrow.

Someone’s corpse is lying there, so there is a vigil. You can join the brothers.

Joanna Sir Oliver is there.

Dick Then at last I may see and speak with him again. This could be a golden opportunity.

Alicia Or the contrary, a death trap. Take care and no risks.

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Dick (embraces Joanna one last time and kisses her) I just wanted to remind you that I exist.

Joanna Do you think I have ever forgotten it?

Dick You never can be too sure. Now I am sure.

Joanna Whatever happens tomorrow I am yours.

Dick Your groom has had a warning by the black arrow. He knows the risk he is taking if he tries to carry through the wedding.

Joanna Then I hope for his own sake that he backs off.

Dick Yes. One last kiss… (They kiss) Wish me good luck.

Joanna With all my heart and all my soul. (Dick disappears.)

Alicia He will succeed with everything. He will ultimately have you.

Joanna But it looks bad.

Alicia It always does for the moment.

Scene 2. The chapel. The vigil.

(Some brothers gathered around the coffin. Sir Oliver is one of them. Dick, covered by his hood like all the others, kneels beside him, buffs him gently) Sir Oliver What is it?

Dick It’s Dick.

Sir Oliver (terrified) Dick! You come like a damnation!

Dick I must get out of here.

Sir Oliver Impossible. I know why you are here. You can’t stop the wedding. Since I know who you are I can’t impossibly let you go before the wedding is over, but you must sit here quietly all night. Then when the wedding is over I can let you go in peace. That’s all I can do for you. You must believe me. I had nothing to do with your father’s death.

Dick How were you involved then?

Sir Oliver You are sent for a mission which you don’t know what it is about. I plead guilty to having lured your father to his death, but I did not know that I did. It showed afterwards to my eternal horror. Do you believe me?

Dick I believe you.

Sir Oliver Thanks for that. In return I will do what I can to save your life. But you must keep still. If you try to mess up the wedding you are lost.

Dick Thank you, Sir Oliver. I will not try to influence the wedding in any way.

Sir Oliver Just sit here quite still. I promise not to tell Sir Daniel that you are here. It would raise the devil in the church if I did.

Dick Thank you, Sir Oliver. (Oliver leaves.)

So I am locked up here and forced to witness the wedding between my own and one of the worst crooks in the country. You could have it better. Sir Oliver means well but is rather stupid and can’t see what is good for him.

Lawless (enters, also disguised as a monk, takes a seat beside Dick) Ellis is here.

Dick Back?

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Lawless Yes. He has sworn to stop the abominable marriage.

Dick You light a hope in my heart and save my life. Then all gods are not entirely dead.

Lawless But Sir Oliver is with Sir Daniel.

Dick I know. He has promised not to betray me.

Lawless Do you believe in him?

Dick Do I have any choice? I simply have to. You will also not get out of here.

There is a curfew, and no one is let out.

Lawless I know. It’s that dwarf in that coffin. He was spying for Sir Daniel.

Someone struck a knife in him.

Dick I know. It was I. Lawless Did he discover you?

Dick No, I discovered him. He was peeping and watching Joanna.

Lawless Serves him right.

Dick I found on him an interesting letter which he never had time to deliver to the duke of York, in which our celebrated knight declares his change of sides.

Lawless Yet another treason.

Dick I left a note on the dwarf’s body with a black arrow and a warning to the lord not to marry Joanna.

Lawless Do you think he will heed the warning?

Dick No. Lawless All the worse for him.

Dick We’ll see. We are stuck here. Whatever happens we will not be accomplices, but we will be the more closer as witnesses.

Lawless It will be exciting to see Ellis Duckworth’s wedding presents.

(They lean back, relax and sleep. Blackout. Gradually the day breaks, and people start coming to church. Pleasant wedding music. Guests of high standing. Sir Daniel dressed up in his most magnificent attire, receives his guests with great courtesy and is at his most agreeable like a true nobleman and appears fully satisfied and proud in enjoying his day.

Then enter the wedding people, a brilliant festive procession with lord Shoreby shining like a peacock, Joanna pale and nervous at his side, rather frightened. Sir Daniel greets them with his most genial generosity and honours the lord with royal courtesy. He resumes his pew, and the couple approaches the altar, where also Sir Oliver, who is to wed them, has dressed up and appears as worthy as possible, almost like a bishop, but has some difficulty in concealing that he is nervous.

The couple is about to reach the altar, the music comes to an end, and the priest is about to start the ceremony, when suddenly four masked men dressed in green appear on the gallery above and send four arrows. Two pierce the lord, who dies instantly, one touches Sir Daniel’s face, and the fourth hits him in his left underarm. Total chaos breaks out at once, but the four bowmen are instantly gone.)

Sir Daniel (bawls) Arrest the murderers!

Sir Oliver Too late. But young Richard Shelton here could know something about it.

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Sir Daniel Dick! The unhung outlawed arch traitor and blasphemously disguised in a monk’s robe! Of course he must be the one who stands behind the entire conspiracy! He had the motive! He has claimed Joanna’s hand himself!

Dick (calmly) If anyone here is a traitor and especially against me, it’s Sir Daniel Brackley. I came here in peace without any evil intentions at all, which Sir Oliver Oates can bear witness of who received me on the condition that I sought asylum, which the church owes me if I insist on it. It’s true that I loved and proposed to Joanna Sedley, but that is no crime. Also her rightful guardian, who lies wounded in another place, has confirmed that I am her rightful husband to be, since the one who was before has given up his pretensions. This tragically murdered bridegroom was forced upon the bride with violation by Sir Daniel Brackley, who also has abducted Joanna Sedley and acquired the right by force to give her away in marriage.

Sir Daniel I brought you up! I gave you everything, and you have only thanked me by the basest and most malevolent treason in the world! I have nourished a snake by my heart, who now is poisoning England to death!

Dick Do you have a heart, Sir Daniel? Perhaps you had a heart before you murdered my father, which you did only for money, in the same way as you only accepted the guardianship over me for the sake of worldly gains, just to get at my inherited fortune. It is true that you gave me a life and a thorough education with the assistance of the good Sir Oliver Oates, and I was always grateful for that, and I was always loyal until they tried to kill me, when I first started to investigate my father’s death. I hereby accuse you of the murder of my father and to have taken possession of my homestead and tax income, openly in the face of the holy church and its community, which I hereby apply as an asylum for my protection according to my right.

Sir Daniel (bawling) He is outlawed! He has no right of speech!

Lord Risingham My good Sir, if you pardon my observation, but your own heated passion speaks somewhat against you.

Joanna (throws herself on her knees to him embracing his knees) Your grace, I am here as that man’s prisoner. (points at Sir Daniel) He abducted me from my own, and since then the only one who tried to help me with kindness and comfort has been Richard Shelton, whom now Sir Daniel wants to destroy at any cost. If he visited my house yesterday it was at my special request, and he had no evil intentions. While he thought Sir Daniel to be a good guardian for him he fought loyally for him against the men of the Black Arrow, but when Sir Daniel later tried to murder him he had to escape to save his life, and he had nowhere to go but to seek protection among the outcasts. If he has happened to bad company, who is then guilty, the boy who was brutally treated by his guardian, or the guardian who betrayed his guardianship by law?

Dick I give myself up as your prisoner, Sir, and appeal to your grace and justice as a nobleman.

Alicia (also falls on her knees to the lord) I can warrant that my friend speaks the truth. It was I who let him in our house at her request.

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Risingham Sir Daniel, this appears to be a complicated case that calls for an investigation. Richard Shelton has the right to appeal for asylum in the holy church but gives up that right by giving himself up to me. He is therefore my prisoner and no one else’s. Take care of him, my men! (Some of his men take care of Dick and brings him out.) Concerning your ward, who by your will today should have been married against her will, there appear to be some questions about how you have managed your legal guardianship. We will come back to that later. Now you had better go home and dress your wounds. We are finished here. Let the church take care of the bodies. Two in twenty-four hours is a remarkable number. Sir Oliver Oates, you will have much to do.

Sir Oliver I am afraid so. The evil times mess things up for us.

Risingham Blame the bad times. Is then not man himself responsible?

Scene 3.

Lawless We will probably hang together, Dick.

Dick I think so too. We have hardly anything else to take for granted.

Lawless It was great fun while it lasted.

Dick On the other hand, there is an end to all miseries.

Lawless The only good end is that which continues in spite of all.

Dick Do you call that a good end?

Risingham (enters) Lawless, as you call yourself, you might have forgotten yourself that you once might have had an honourable name, you have been caught redhanded as one of the outlaws dressed up as a monk, and you knew about the plans of the outlaws but did nothing to stop the bloodbath disaster in church. There is no hope for you. Take him out!

Lawless I am innocent!

Risingham My friend, you might be innocent even of your own lawlessness, which doesn’t make you any less outlawed. Your crimes by robberies and attacks are well documented since twenty years. Take him out! (He is brought out.)

Richard Shelton, I knew your father as an unimpeachable man, why I must give you a chance. But you have a load of accusations against you. You associate with robbers and murderers. There is proof you have made war against the king. You are suspect for having stolen a ship in piracy. You have been discovered disguised in your enemy’s house. A man was murdered on the same evening.

Dick Allow me to account for that murder. Here is the evidence for my having committed it. (brings a letter from his pocket) Risingham (opens it, reads it and is astounded) Have you read it?

Dick Yes. Risingham Are you for York or Lancaster?

Dick Honestly speaking, I never took sides for either party. I presume I am for York.

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Risingham So you don’t know. The only sensible ones in the civil war are those who stay out of it. Obviously you have been involved in it without understanding it, which is understandable in view of your youth. But do you realize what this letter means?

Dick It means that lord Shoreby, who officially is of the king’s party, has betrayed him and crossed over to York.

Risingham And why do you show it to me?

Dick Shouldn’t all traitors be revealed, whoever they betray?

Risingham You are right. What most speaks against you though is that your guardian Sir Daniel expressly demands your instantaneous hanging as a traitor against both benefactor as well as church and crown, and he is a mighty ally and indispensable force on the side of the king and our party. His word weighs heavy.

Dick Does it? (presents a new letter. Risingham accepts it not without hesitation.) Is his steadfastness really so unimpeachable? Hasn’t he changed sides exactly as many times as fortune and the initiative have changed in this war?

Risingham There is something to what you say, but lately he has been admirably faithful to the house of Lancaster. Even during our latest adversities when Risingham was lost he stood firm. But what is this? (has opened the letter and is astounded) Have you read this one as well?

Dick Yes. Risingham Do you understand what it means?

Dick It is all too clear. It’s your lordship’s own estates he is offering lord Wensleydale of the York party.

Eisingham It’s an outrage! It’s an abyss of insidiousness! It’s a knife in the back of Lancaster, struck by one of the Queen’s most trusted knights! My son, what can I do for you? I have no other choice than to give you your freedom under these new sensational circumstances that turn the very reality as we know it or thought we knew it upside down and topsy-turvy. But what more can I do for you?

Dick Liberate the poor brother Lawless.

Risingham My dear Dick, now you make trouble. He is an incurable knave who has forfeited his life since twenty years. He is a professional criminal and know no other art than to murder and rob and cheat people of their money.

Dick He is actually a former Franciscan friar who was forced to abandon his monastery when the abbot found him out in discovering that abbot’s own embezzlements. He fought with the brave king Henry in France and even fought against the famous virgin of Orleans.

Risingham Was she a witch or not?

Dick I can’t judge that. I wasn’t there. All I know is that she was only eithteen years old and was burned because she dressed in men’s clothes. Is that a crime?

Should Sir Daniel burn his ward Joanna Sedley for the same outrageous crime?

Risingham No, he should not. He shall be relieved of all hus guardianships and be brought to trial for high treason. All his power and glory, boasting and bullying is just a false bubble of soap that now has burst. He is more worthless than your

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outlawed friend Lawless, who in comparison is an honest man. Take your friend and leave. Vanish far away from here until we have brought the chapter of Sir Daniel Brackley to an end, the worst crook of all. But be careful. Live underground with the outlaws for some more time.

Dick As you wish, my lord.

Risingham It has been a pleasure meeting you and making your acquaintance. You are like your father. I hope we’ll meet again in the future.

Dick We will probably do so, my lord.

Risingham Go now. Lawless is expecting you. He knows the ways. (Dick leaves.)

What an infamous arch villain we all the time have favoured in the highest circles of government! He has all the time planned to betray the entire army to the insidious York family just for power and greed! He has set himself over the law and social order and manipulated them arbitrarily just to get more money and power for himself! What a monster of a sanctimonious traitor! And it needed an innocent boy who understands nothing of politics to unmask him by innocently becoming himself a victim to him! This bodes no good for the house of Lancaster.

Act IV scene 1.

Joanna What is happening? What are those cries and noises from town?

Alicia Apparently it is under attack. It is burning.

Joanna What shall we do?

Alicia There is not much we can do.

Sir Daniel (brutally breaking in) Make ready for evacuation. The duke of Gloucester is here with an army that has taken the town with surprise. We have no chance. It’s just for us to leave.

Alicia Is the town without defence?

Sir Daniel’s Your uncle’s counter attacks are feeble.

Alicia Are you letting him down, Sir Daniel?

Sir Daniel No, I am saving my own skin.

Alicia And leaving him and the town to their destiny?

Sir Daniel You are welcome to stay here and perish with the town if that’s your preference. After its subjugation it will be plundered. I offer you a safe escort if you follow me. If you stay here you can expect no security.

Alicia And my uncle?

Sir Daniel He will defend the city until he falls. Nothing can save him.

Joanna We have no choice, Alicia. We follow you, Sir Daniel, if you take us to Holywood.

Sir Daniel That’s exactly where I had intended to go. I have supported the house of Lancaster all too long. I should have changed sides long ago, but I never had any answer from the duke of York. He has either forgotten me or ignored me. Now I go

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down with the sinking house of Lancaster. At best I could save something with me to France. Holywood is now the only safe place for me until further.

Joanna Are you coming, Alicia?

Alicia If the choice is between staying in town while it is being sacked and risk violation and rape and perhaps murder, we really have no other choice. Sir Daniel, we must reluctantly trust you.

Sir Daniel For one time’s sake you are being sensible, my ladies. I have promised you security, and I will warrant it all the way to Holywood. What follows there no one could know anything about.

Joanna Very well, Sir Daniel. We are ready.

Scene 2. A tavern in the middle of the destruction.

Lawless You have made your career, Dick. You have been knighted. You have with excellence taken part in the ravagement of the town with all its women. You decided the battle of Shoreby by holding up the barricades. Sir Daniel’s house is looted and ruined. Doesn’t it feel wonderful?

Dick Sir Daniel and the ladies were gone.

Lawless He has lost everything, and you have lost everything. Now you are equal, but he has brought with him your lady. Lord Risingham, who should have been your new benefactor, is dead, executed by the successful humpback Richard of Gloucester, the next king of England, if he gets what he wants, and you helped him to victory. Doesn’t it feel wonderful?

Dick Stop it.

Lawless You are so young, Dick, so young and green and innocent. You know nothing and suspect nothing but start gradually to grow up and realize the false meaning of life, which is only the seduction by the sweet poetry of lies, which constantly leads all the world to hell in constantly new meaningless self-destructive and terrible wars. But you are a knight now, Dick, dubbed by the humpback himself.

How does the glorious honour feel?

Dick That’s why I am sitting here with you, Lawless, drinking, for you know something about its total emptiness.

Lawless I was with the glorious Henry in France, when he made his son king of Paris. That son I have followed at a distance through all his long tragedy, for he is old now and has like no one else experienced the adversities and successes of life, its ups and downs. He was born the mightiest prince in the world as king of England and France, and that’s where his long journey downhill started. His life was just being spoilt to begin with, and that is never rewarding. Then came that farmer girl who liberated France and drove us English out of there with a vengeance, while instead we started fighting each other here at home. It was the haughty duke of York who started questioning the legitimacy of the house of Lancaster, as if his own house could be more legitimate. That’s how it started, and since then the War of the Roses

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has constantly grown worse, and now it has during thirty years been going on turning the country more savage, while such as Sir Daniel have grown rich and fat as mighty vultures on the constantly growing masses of carrion and opportunities of robbery, while more and more honest people have been forced into exile and lawlessness or death, either by starvation, hanging or falling in battles between brothers, while from this apocalyptic chaos a new power is growing up, the ruthless Richard of Gloucester, who transformed Shoreby into a reeking hell of destruction, plunder, fire and rapes without number, and it made you a knight.

Dick Stop it now.

Lawless I am sorry, brother, but I only pity you. You lost all but have a new glory by the duke of Gloucester, who made you a knight and who undoubtedly will be king after he has cut the necks of both the old feeble-minded king Henry and his promising son Edward. That’s all the civil war has taught the invincible duke: to kill and ruthlessly, and that’s the only art he knows, and the only activity he will be good for even when we will have peace. Tell me now, my good Dick, wasn’t life better as an outlaw?

Dick Yes. Lawless But the age of lawlessness is over. Now when York is victorious over Lancaster the free brotherhood with its black arrows won’t be needed any more, which already killed more than was intended. Ellis Duckworth will have his rights and privileges back, and you will get back your father’s properties, and on top of that you are now also a knight and established in the order of the new age. Doesn’t it feel wonderful?

Dick It feels, my good brother Lawless, as if we had missed everything on the way.

Lawless Exactly. You are getting grown up. You start to learn and realize something. When we burned that farmer girl in Rouen and lost France I put to myself the question: is this what we have been fighting for in a hundred years? But you still have your girl. Why don’t you get away and save her?

Dick That’s what I shall do. The duke has given me fifty men to chase Sir Daniel with.

Lawless That sounds good. You still have much to do. Your lady will never fail you, as long as you don’t let her down. You can still win her and with her love get out of this social slavery of dependence under political supremacy. Myself I will bewail the loss of my free life as an outlaw for the rest of my life.

Dick We will be back, brother Lawless. I must carry on with the war.

Lawless Yes, join the chase on Sir Daniel and gun him down like a running game.

That’s all he has left to do in his life: to escape until he falls.

Dick I will be back, Lawless.

Lawless I believe you will. Prodigal sons always come back. (lays his head on the table and goes to sleep as Dick leaves the place.)

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Act V scene 1. The Tower.

Richard I don’t understand what you wish to accomplish.

Dick I just want to see him before it is too late.

Richard You come then in the very last minute.

Dick How? Richard What do you mean?

Dick Is he dying?

Richard No, but he will die.

Dick Why? Richard Don’t question me.

Dick I question nothing. I just wonder.

Richard You wonder too much. Don’t you see that his days are numbered? He was unaccountable from the beginning, and nothing can change his destiny for the better, only for the worse, which it has been doing all his life.

Dick I would still wish to give him a chance, if you don’t mind.

Richard Get in then, before I change my mind. (lets him in to the cell to an old melancholy prisoner who once was king) Dick How are you, your majesty?

Henry I am no majesty any more and have actually never been. Have you come to pity me or to rebuke me?

Dick Neither, but since I had an opportunity I didn’t want to miss the chance of seeing you.

Henry And why do you think the duke granted your wish?

Dick I actually wondered that as well.

Henry Because he knows that you in that case will probably be the last person to see me alive.

Dick Why so?

Henry They are going to murder me.

Dick Why do you think so?

Henry I know it.

Dick How do you know?

Henry I have always known it. I always knew that I would end like this.

Dick Do you mean that you have been a fatalist all your life?

Henry I was born a king of England and France without knowing anything about myself. Only gradually as a child it appeared to me that I had been born to the highest position in the world without having done anything to deserve it, and then I felt at once, that I would have to pay for it, just because I didn’t deserve it.

It all went well as long as I was a child and grew up, the whole world spoilt me, I was the golden boy of the times, and nothing could shake my position. And then I was solemnly crowned and married to the best queen anyone could get, but in contrast to me she was ambitious for power and could not tolerate any competition. All the power I was born to and reserved for me alone, and which I never really had any interest in, she took

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over to administer in my place, and she was at least competent, but she should never have disposed of my uncle Humphrey. Look now what duke of Gloucester they got instead of him.

Why do you think the duke of Gloucester let you in to me? Can you guess?

Dick Why if not by grace?

Henry Are you so naïve? It was of course to satisfy his sadistic cruelty and to give you the pleasure of seeing me alive during the last moments of my life before he kills me.

We are all in the whole country victims to his cruelty, and he enjoys it. That’s why we are.

Dick Still you don’t complain of the injustice done to you but seem on the contrary rather indifferent to your fate.

Henry Only he who creates his destiny himself can master it. I did nothing to become a king, while I allowed all the others who wanted to rule in my place, since I never was really interested at all. So when things went bad for everyone in the country, it was at least not my fault, but only the others had to take the responsibility, and it was exclusively with the house of York. Ì think they will have to pay for it as much as I, although I was without guilt.

Dick Why then didn’t you wish to govern?

Henry Because all politics and power is something mortally unsound. Behold the misery it has caused to both our lands! Hundred years of war! The virgin of Orleans and her persecution! All the thousands of families that were bereft of fathers, brothers and sons! Only destruction and death for a hundred years for England and France! Do you think I was mad enough to be willing to take responsibility for that, when I saw that it was all only about war and violence and egoism and hubris in the absurd name of vanity? No, I dare praise myself for being too wise for that, which perhaps will be my life’s only permanent renown, no matter how little it is worth.

Dick That confirms my suspicions. Although you were a weak and vacillating king who never really wanted to undertake anything, you were wiser than anyone else in all France and England.

Henry Thanks for that. It almost sounds like an acknowledgement.

Dick In the name of truth I must acknowledge your humanity in an inhuman world of, as you say, only war and destruction.

Henry That’s what I mean. So you will bear witness of me to the future, that I at least never took part in anything evil?

Dick You can count on that.

Richard (enters and interferes) That’s enough, gentlemen! The audience is finished! Dick, go home and stay away in the future!

Dick (to Henry) My king, I will not be the only one to preserve your memory.

Henry Thanks, my friend.

Dick (to Richard, as they go out) What have you got to fear out of him? He is perfectly harmless.

Richard That doesn’t matter. He still has his title. As long as it stays alive with him he is the greatest threat against the house of York.

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Dick If you fear him so much, how do you think you could get rid of him even if you kill him?

Richard Are you as mad as he?

(Dick leaves without another word) Has everything we have done to crush the house of Lancaster only turned him into a Lancastrian? Well, he will probably see what’s best for him and stay at home in the future.

But the king must die tomorrow. I had better murder him myself. Then he has no one else left in the family than his own widow, a ghost of a mother. – I had better murder him at once, before someone else comes here wishing to see him. He is all finished anyway, and his son must be longing for him. (draws his sword and enters the cell.)

Scene 2. A beautiful glade in the forest. Dick enters on a morning walk.

Dick How beautiful life suddenly is! Lord Foxham has given me Joanna for a bride, only the wedding is yet to be, and I don’t have to take any more part in the political disturbances of the country. Richard of Gloucester has given me leave, he finds me unworkable for his hard regiment, I am too soft, he says, a woman’s man and hopelessly a political virgin, so I might as well stay that way. But who moves in the bushes? Halt!

Sir Daniel (again disguised as a leper) It’s only me, Dick.

Dick I recognize you. Are you then running away again?

Sir Daniel I am on my way to Holywood, my last possibility of a temporary asylum in this country.

Dick That road is closed to you.

Sir Daniel So even you exclude me from the human community? The house of York wants to see me executed, and the house of Lancaster regards me with abhorrence for having deserted them at Shoreby and allowing lord Risingham to perish without reinforcement. I have nowhere to go. Take my life then, Dick, and put an end to me once and for all.

Dick You may go anywhere but not to Holywood.

Sir Daniel I know. You made certain about your future wife there. You match well together in spite of all. I actually intended her for you from the beginning, but then you started asking questions, and I had to find another solution. It could have ended better than like this, Dick.

Dick Yes, if you had stuck consistently to the house of Lancaster and not turned against me. How did my father really die? Why were you always reluctant to answer that question?

Sir Daniel It was an accident. What happened was never intended. He became troublesome. Just like you he asked too many questions. In war you may not question the facts. It was in the beginning of the civil war. Sir Humphrey of Gloucester was powerful then but was overthrown by king Henry’s headstrong queen, the daughter of the king of Provence, an equally determined woman as that

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teenage witch who liberated France. Your father took sides with Sir Humphrey of Gloucester. It was not acceptable. He had to go.

Dick Who did it?

Sir Daniel No one wanted to do it. All were innocent. A hired assassin disappeared at once. Today everyone has forgotten him.

Dick Sir Oliver Oates?

Sir Daniel Yes, he sent your father to his death, the ambush that finished him, but he was unaware of it. He only obeyed orders.

Dick By you?

Sir Daniel By what was the compelling circumstances.

Dick So in a civil war no one is responsible neither for the consequences nor for it at all could begin?

Sir Daniel Yes, Dick, that is about how civil wars work, like an illness that consumes itself, until everyone has killed everyone.

Dick Go in peace, Sir Daniel. I want no harm to any man any more, for I have a new life to live together with my becoming wife.

Sir Daniel I know. I leave you in peace. Live happily if you can under the new regime, but your lord Richard of Gloucester does not exactly bode any good.

Dick I have nothing to do with him.

Sir Daniel But he has made you a knight.

Dick An empty title, just like yours.

Sir Daniel Maybe you learned something about the mundane vanity from this. I, who drove so many into exile and lawlessness, must now myself as an outlaw try to get out of the country. In the end all matters get sorted out evenly. Good-bye, Dick. I am sorry that I let you down. (moves on pathetically) Dick There is something deplorable about him. Such a great and mighty man, and now a creeping rat in disguise. It’s pathetic.

(Suddenly there is the sound of a bowstring, and Sir Daniel, who is just about to disappear out of sight, is hit in the back and falls. Dick immediately rushes forth, takes care of Sir Daniel and tries to see what he can do about it.)

Sir Daniel (dying) Is – the arrow – black?

Dick Yes, Sir Daniel. It is black.

(Sir Daniel rattles and dies in cramps.)

Ellis (gets out of the bushes) That was the last black arrow, Dick. The brotherhood is dissolved, since it’s not needed any more. The war of the roses is consuming itself by its last tragedies. I don’t want to take part any more. You did right to let him go and give him absolution. I did wrong, I realize that now, who got fanatically fixed on relentless revenge, but it is over now.

Dick Sir Oliver Oates?

Ellis He lives and may live. Bennet Hatch fell in the battle of Shoreby. I have nothing left to do but to atone for the terrible crimes of fruitless retaliation. There is only emptiness left in my heart now when it is all over. But for you life will begin. I envy you.

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Dick I felt the same emptiness after the battle of Shoreby and then swore to never again have anything to do with war, violence or politics of any kind.

Ellis Then we are colleagues. Take my hand, Dick. We found each other in lawlessness. Let’s now continue together in embracing peace.

(They join hands and walk out like brothers.)

The End.

Manali 25-28.10.2014, translated 24-29.11.2019.

Comment The problem with almost all screen versions of Robert Louis Stevenson is how Robert Louis Stevenson has been done away with. There are any number of film versions of ”Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde” while none of them have done justice to Stevenson, not even the Jean Renoir film with Jean-Louis Barrault, which made quite an effort in focussing on this problem.

There are at least two film versions of ”The Black Arrow”, one in black and white with James Macready as an impressing Sir Daniel, and the other from 1985 in a Walt Disney production with Oliver Reed in a more realistic feature. The Hollywood film is as expected very stylized and elegant with only good-looking actors and lovely ladies in enchantingly beautiful costumes, while the 1985 version is completely without varnish and strikingly melodramatic. There is consistent great action in the version of the 40s, while the Walt Disney version is slower while at the same time more faithful to the 15th century. Both differ completely from Stevenson’s novel.

In the 40s version Ellis Duckworth is replaced by John Sedley, Joanna’s father, who does not appear in the novel since she is an orphan. In the film you can see how Sir Daniel himself murders Harry Shelton and blames John Sedley for it, who is brought to court and is to be executed, while brother Lawless saves him for a life in lawlessness. Instead of the war and the battle of Shoreby, Sir Daniel and Dick finally settle their differences in a private tournament organized by Richard of Gloucester, who here appears as a noble and dashing duke in perfect style with the glamour of the film – there is no humpback here. The whole action takes place after the fall of Lancaster and commences with Dick coming home after three years in the war and finds his father murdered and the house of Sedley burnt down as a vengeance for

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John Sedley’s alleged murder. Almost the entire action then takes place at the castle in Tunstall. Brother Lawless plays here an important comical part with the specialty of making soldiers on the way drink themselves under the table.

The alteration of the story goes even further in the Walt Disney version, which in parts builds on the earlier version. Here the complex intrigue of Stevenson is extremely compressed and simplified, also here the action is limited to one and the same castle, and here Sir Daniel himself intends to marry Joanna. She escapes in the face of this unwelcome prospect, and Dick is sent out to chase her. She hates him from the beginning, but the development of their relationship is handsomely and convincingly related. She is loyal to Lancaster and hates York, while Sir Daniel and Dick are entirely for York. Like in the version of the 40s, also this film is crowded with brawls and swordfights which here are more prolonged and meticulous – on two occasions a warrior falls down a precipice splashing into a river. This is though an unusually good Disney film for not being animated, and it has been positively acclaimed. Especially Dick, who is a debatable and not very sympathetic character, is well rendered here (by Benedict Taylor). Instead of Richard of Gloucester they have put the earl if Warwick as a kind of godfather to the whole spectacle (a glorious Fernando Ray), with whom Sir Oliver Oates (Donald Pleasance) is intriguing. He asks everyone to trust him which no one does, why he finally is shot by Sir Daniel himself. Even here Ellis Duckworth is replaced by John Sedley, who does not use the name of John Amend-All but The Black Arrow, well played by Stephan Chase. No matter how much the film differs from Stevenson, it has found the right Stevenson adventure spirit, which is missing in the 40s version. The wedding scene as a finale has here been set in a proper cathedral, which also has been made the scene for the end game and a brilliant conclusion.

In this dramatization we have above all tried to stay true to Stevenson and followed him as far as possible – it’s almost only the shipping episode that has been left out here, like in the films, wherefore the poor captain Arblaster is not one of the players. Stevenson was himself dissatisfied with the novel, which he called a patchwork, which he really only wanted to make himself rid of, and there certainly are some question marks and carelessness – for instance, you never learn how Dick’s father actually died. King Henry VI is not in the book except as mentioned casually in conversations, while we found it impossible to leave him out as the springing point of the entire traumatic civil war. Richard of Gloucester is as brilliantly and revoltingly depicted with shockingly convincing realism by Stevenson, why we also not have been able to leave him aside, although he is the most repulsive ingredient of the novel as responsible for the bloody battle of Shoreby, which in reality was the decisive battle of St. Albans.

Editing completed 6.12, which happens to be king Henry VI:s birthday.

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The Treasure Island after Robert Louis Stevenson dramatization by Christian Lanciai (2014) the characters: Billy Bones Jim Hawkins father Hawkins Black Dog Pew, blind Tom Morgan Merry other pirates Squire Trelawney

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First mate Dance John Silver Captain Smollett Israel Hands Ben Gunn

The action takes place on the south coast of west England and on an unidentified island in the Caribbean in the beginning of the 18th century.

Act I scene 1. The inn of ”Admiral Benbow” A kind of bum comes pushing a wheelbarrow with a large chest.

Billy Bones comes limping after it, sits down outside the inn puffing, chases the helper away and sings with a hoarse voice: Bill Fifteen men on the dead man’s chest, – Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!

Jim (opens the door) Are you looking for lodging?

Bill What kind of a place is this?

Jim Admiral Benbow.

Bill Do you have rum?

Jim Certainly.

Bill Get me a mug at once, and I might stay here. (Jim goes in.)

I hope indeed they won’t find me here, but the place seems rather desolate.

Jim (reappearing with a mug) Here you are, Sir. Bill It seems rather desolate here. There are not many people coming here, are there?

Jim We are a little off, Sir. Only regular customers come here, and doctor Livesey.

Bill Doctor Livesey?

Jim He looks after my father.

Bill Is he ill?

Jim He is ailing.

Bill Then I think I dare trust my life with you for the time being. Here you are. (Gives him some heavy coins) Tell me when you want some more.

Jim Thank you, Sir. Please come in and make yourself at home.

Bill Nice having a real drink again. (drinks deep) Do you have some more?

Jim Certainly, Sir. Bill Then fill it up, by hell! I am only alive when I drink! (Jim indicates the chest.) We can bring it in later.

Jim Please, Sir. (The inn opens up, Bill enters and sits down by a table puffing.)

Bill (toasts) Fifteen men on the dead man’s chest, – Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!

Tell me, my boy, you do have eyes, don’t you?

Jim As far as I can see.

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Bill There’s a risk someone might be coming looking for me. In that case it will be a man with a crutch and a patch on his eye. You must look out for him for me.

Jim Is he dangerous?

Bill Only to me.

Jim I will watch for him, Sir. Bill Good. I trust you. My life is in your hands – and in that chest. It must never be opened.

Jim No, Sir. Bill What do you think I keep in it?

Jim I dare not guess, Sir. Bill I keep my life in it, but I am living dead, so it’s my own body lying in it.

Do you dare open it?

Jim (frightened) No, Sir. Bill That’s good for you. But there is no risk. It can’t be opened. My life is locked up for good, and my living body can never be dug up again, not even by the gang with the black patch.

Jim The black patch, Sir? Bill The black patch. That’s the only thing I fear. Only that keeps pursuing me, and therefore I am on a constant run with my own body in the cargo. If you see the man with the black patch and crutch, you must give a call, so that I can go on running away.

Jim You must have a terrible past, Sir. Bill The most terrible you can imagine. (enter the father) Father I see that we have a guest, Jim. Bill I am not as dangerous as I look. Only they are dangerous who are looking for me, but I don’t think they will find me here.

Father You are welcome as long as you behave.

Bill Don’t be afraid. I can pay as long as I live and as long as I still can have some rum. (puts his mug hard on the table, as if to demonstrate that it is empty) Father At once, Sir. (goes to get some more) Bill (confidentially to Jim) All I really want is to die in peace for real. I have a terrible past that constantly haunts me, but the most terrible are the living who still keep looking for me. They must never get me. If they do I am lost.

Jim Yes, Sir. Bill Stop calling me sir, boy. Call me captain Bill, if you want.

Jim Yes, captain Bill.

Black Dog (suddenly looking in) How nice to see you again, Bill.

Bill (petrified by fear) Black Dog! Dog Take it easy, Bill. We just wanted to know where you were.

Bill Leave me at last in peace!

Dog You know very well that none of us will ever have peace.

Bill What do you want of me?

Dog Nothing.

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Bill What are you doing here then?

Dog Just locating your position. We didn’t have your bearings. Now we have it.

Bill I am finished with you! You have nothing to get from me!

Dog Tell that to the devil. But it is cool. Try to drink yourself to death if you can before we come back. You will not get rid of us in any other way. (pulls back out) Bill (still terrified) I need support! Quick! More rum! Or else I will get hysterical!

Father (brings more rum and fills it up) This man hasn’t far left to go. We will serve him as long as it lasts. It will be a contest with his timeglass.

Bill (empties his mug in a panic) I am lost! They have found me!

Father You are safe here, Sir. Bill I am not safe for them anywhere. My only chance is that I haven’t received the black patch yet, but it’s only a question of time before it’s finished.

Father Take it easy, Sir, and drink cautiously.

Bill How do you drink cautiously? (empties another mug) Livesey (enters) I see that you have a new pensioner in your guest house.

Father Good to have you here, doctor. Honestly speaking, I think he might become troublesome.

Livesey You can see from afar that he has climbed out on his last branch. He drinks in panic. That’s not a good sign.

Father Of what, doctor?

Livesey Of his condition. In brief, he is running wild towards death.

Bill How thirsty do you really allow a seaman to be? (tries to empty his empty mug and collapses) Livesey (rises) That’s it. (examines him quickly) He cannot take one drink more.

Father How is he?

Livesey Carry him out. He is finished with everything except as a corpse.

Jim He had a shock when he suddenly had a visit, doctor.

Livesey By whom?

Jim By someone called the Black Dog, who terrified him.

Livesey Of what?

Jim Of more unexpected visits.

Livesey Then they will come, you can be sure of that. He might survive this attack if he only gets some rest and doesn’t get upset – and he cannot take one drop more.

Jim No, doctor Livesey.

Livesey I must go on, but call on me at once if anything happens.

Jim Yes, doctor Livesey. (The doctor leaves.)

Father We were not supposed to get a patient on our hands, even if he pays handsomely enough.

Jim He’ll manage.

Bill (wakes up) Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum! Where is the rum?

Father You may not drink any more.

Bill Why not?

Father Doctor’s orders.

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Bill What bloody doctor? I see no doctor. No one has a right to decide for me except myself!

Father The doctor says that you will die if you drink one drop more.

Bill What bloody doctor? How does he know? Has he a second sight? My life has no space for any doctor, only crooks and pirates and skeletons…

Father In that case I regret that we can’t satisfy your needs. (resigns and leaves) Bill (to Jim, pleading) Boy, help me, please. I only need one drop.

Jim The doctor says it’s dangerous.

Bill Of course it’s dangerous. Life is dangerous. Nothing is more dangerous since no one gets away from the fact that he must die. If you live you must pay the penalty and die. That’s life, the greatest illusion and betrayal, so that you are almost better off dead, as you then are on the safe side of life. Only one drop. Surely you must have some bottle left?

Jim Father just fetched it. (shows the bottle. Bill immediately empties it in the mug.)

Bill You save my life.

Pew (outside) Billy Bones, it’s time!

Bill (even more terrified than before, grabs hold of Jim) Tell him I am not at home!

Jim (opens and finds Pew at the entrance, a blind man with a stick in a hooded cloak.) He is not at home.

Pew Don’t you think I hear you, Billy Bones? (grabs hold of Jim, who can’t tear himself out of the deadly grip) Take me to him! (forces him on inside while he knocks his way forward with his stick) Bill (pulling backwards against the wall) I am not at home! I am not here!

Pew What does it help? You are doomed anyway. Show me to him! (Jim is forced to lead Pew to Bill) Bill What do you want of me, you terrible image of death?

Pew You know very well. We will never let you go, and you will never get rid of us. Here! (forces a patch in his hand) That’s all. Mission completed. Live while you can, for then you must die! (retires out again without the help of Jim but with the stick and vanishes) Bill (struck by terror) It’s the end of me!

Jim What is it?

Bill (shows what he got) The black patch! It’s the final summoning! I am done for! – Get me some more rum at once! Or else I will die.

Jim But the doctor warned you!

Bill I know. He says that I will die if I drink, but I will die anyway, so it doesn’t matter. Save my life, boy, and soften my eternal suffering!

Jim (serves him helpfully) Bill Thanks, my son. I will never forget this. (drinks deep and passes out) Father (comes down again) Is he dead now?

Jim I don’t think so.

Father I think you should call the doctor.

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Livesey (happens to enter) I saw a scary figure on his way from here. What did he want?

Jim He was blind. He just gave captain Bill a message.

Father Whereupon Bill passed out. It was good luck that you turned up, doctor.

Livesey (severely) Have you given him more rum?

Jim He asked for it.

Livesey Then he is finished. I don’t think he will wake up any more. (takes his pulse and looks austere) The case is closed. He is dead. Did he owe you much money?

Father Not much, but some.

Livesey Then you have the right to take what he owed you. His chest is locked, isn’t it?

Father Yes. Livesey Then it’s probably its key he carries round his neck. (snatches it off and gives to the father) Please.

Father Open it, Jim. Jim He warned me to do it.

Livesey He is dead now. There is no danger.

(Jim unlocks the chest and looks into it with bewilderment) Jim There is almost nothing here. Only small things and souvenirs, old clothes, shells and baubles.

Father No purse?

Jim Yes, a small one, but there is not much in it. (takes it up and shakes it: only coins) Father (opens it and pours the coins out on the table) Almost all are foreign. It’s not worth much.

Livesey Is it enough?

Father Maybe.

Jim (finds a folded parcel of wax) Here is something else.

Livesey Keep it for a memory.

(Upset voices outside) Black Dog You gave him the black patch, didn’t you?

Pew(’s shrill voice) What do you think of me?

Dog How much time did you give him?

Pew Until ten tonight!

Dog We must get him out alive before that!

(Someone struggles with the door handle.)

Pew It’s locked!

Dog Then we’ll have to break in!

Pew We must get reinforcements!

Dog Come! (They leave.)

Livesey (has all the time kept his finger on his mouth to keep all perfectly quiet) They are getting reinforcements. They will be back. We have a short break. Come! We must leave. No one must be here alive when they come back.

Father What will they do?

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Livesey When they don’t find what they are looking for, they will probably tear the whole place down in raving fury.

Father My fine old inn!

Livesey It can’t be helped. Their fellow here is dead, and they will never forgive him that he died before they could kill him. Bring his purse and your parcel, Jim. I suspect it could explain what they are after, since he owned nothing else.

Father It will be hard to leave a home to villains.

Livesey You can come back to it later when the danger is over. Now every minute is precious. We already know too much. Come! (gets Jim and the father to follow him out. The chest is closed before they leave.)

(A moment’s silence. Then darkness comes, and you hear the gang.)

Pew Billy Bones! Your moment has come!

Dog Smash all windows! We must get in!

(Half a dozen hooligans break in with great destruction.)

Pew I feel the stench of Billy Bones. He is here somewhere.

Dog He is here! He is dead!

Several No! Pew He got away, that traitor!

Dog His chest is still here.

Pew Break it up! Empty it!

(They break it up, destroy it and turn it upside down.)

Dog It’s not here!

Pew Someone got here before us! Tear the house down! We are finished here!

Voices Damned Billy Jones! That blasted beggar! He got away, the bloody bastard! He shall pay for this!

Pew Destroy everything! Vengeance! Vengeance!

(They go berserk, and you hear in the darkness the noise of the total and extensive destruction of the entire place.)

Scene 2.

Trelawney My friends! How nice! But you seem agitated. Has anything happened?

Livesey You could say that again.

Trelawney How exciting – and unusual. Usually nothing happens around here, except when now and then we catch a poor smuggler.

Livesey I am afraid there are greater operations going on than just some occasional smuggler.

Trelawney How nice! But come on in! Relax by the fire! May I offer you something warming?

Livesey I think our good master Hawkins needs something more warming than tea.

Trelawney Then I will produce the hard artillery at once, so you can choose whatever mortar you need. Well! What is going on?

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Livesey There have been odd goings-on at the inn of Admiral Benbow lately.

Trelawney Yes, I seem to recall that you had an extraordinary guest lodging there, an original that all the time kept singing about coffins and rum. I understand he had a visitor of some kind?

Father Visitor? Indeed! First there was one, then there were two, and then there was a whole bunch who tore the whole inn apart.

Trelawney My goodness! Did it burn?

Father No, but I imagine they are still eager at demolishing the place.

Trelawney But why? What purpose would such an activity serve?

Father You might well ask.

Livesey They were looking for something.

Trelawney Did they find it?

Livesey No, and that’s why they got so infuriated.

Trelawney And your poor guest? Has he had trouble?

Livesey You can say that again. He is dead.

Trelawney My goodness! Did they lynch him?

Livesey No, he was fortunate enough to die before they came. That’s why they got so infuriated.

Trelawney I understand. So only he knew what they wanted.

Livesey But now we know it as well.

Trelawney How exciting! Go on!

Livesey Show the parcel, Jim. I think it’s time to open it now.

Jim (willingly produces the parcel and tries to open it. The doctor helps him. They get out a very torn book.)

Trelawney What is this? An account?

Livesey It must be a book of accounts. The deceased must have been their bookkeeper and accountant.

Father It appears as a rather loosely kept account. Most of it is illegible and almost only pot-hooks and pot-hangers. And what could the meaning be of all these crosses?

Livesey (reads) Maracaibo. Caracas. Estrella. Estremadura. Madreperla. Cartagena. It’s probably Spanish harbours or ships, all probably sunk or burned.

Trelawney Pirates!

Livesey Exactly my conclusion. Now open up the other parcel, Jim. Jim (opens it and unfolds a map. All make big eyes.)

Livesey (triumphant) That’s what I thought.

Trelawney (flabberghasted) What is it?

Livesey This, my friends, is captain Flint’s own map of how and where he buried his loot on a certain unidentified island.

Trelawney But the bearings of the island are specified here.

Livesey Exactly.

Trelawney So it’s just to go there and collect it?

Livesey Exactly.

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Trelawney A small matter. The ship will be easily equipped, but we must gather the world’s most reliable crew.

Father Could we really get a ship just like that?

Trelawney Who do you think I am? I would hardly be a magistrate if I couldn’t produce a ship, would I? Father Thank you, I’ll stay at home.

Livesey Your inn is ruined.

Father That’s why. It must be put back in order. I spent all my life making honest money, and I intend to go on that way.

Livesey As you wish.

Trelawney But we need a cabin-boy, and the enterprise would be worthless without this map, which we have Jim here to thank for.

Livesey Would you like to follow us, Jim? Jim May I? Livesey Of course you may.

Jim But what about father?

Father (lays his hand on Jim) I trust you will be back, Jim. An adventure such as this you must not miss.

Jim Oh, thank you, father!

Trelawney Now tell us some more about this captain Flint. Who was he really?

Father I know plenty about him. I heard stories about him all my life.

Livesey Captain Flint was the most consistent of pirates. He never spared anyone.

If someone didn’t suit him or his purposes he was irrevocably finished. Captain Kidd and captain Blackbeard were sheep in comparison with him. He never spared crews or passengers from taken ships except those who decided to follow him.

Father But didn’t he take only Spanish ships and scourge only Spanish harbours?

Livesey Mostly, yes, but if a ship happened to be in his way it was captured no matter what its nationality or kind. He only evaded the largest British warships, but they never occurred in his wake. He kept out of the regular world.

Father But why? What can you get out of such a way of life? Permanent onesided criminality could hardly make any human being happy.

Livesey Exactly. He tried to comfort himself with collecting treasures, but these he buried down like a squirrel and died away from them without having got any pleasure out of them.

Father Poor fellow.

Trelawney But they are lying there of no use to anyone, and we have now a unique opportunity to take care of them and use them for good purposes.

Lívesey Quite, squire Trelawney, but the enterprise is sensitive. A hired crew must not know what the expedition is about. We must be discreet, squire Trelawney.

Trelawney How shall we then get a crew together? What shall we tempt them with?

Livesey Anything but the treasure of captain Flint.

Trelawney That will be difficult.

Father That’s why I stay at home.

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Jim Anyone could be allured by adventure.

Livesey Exactly. That will be the bait for an enthusiastic crew of idealists. I am positive we could get together more than we need.

Trelawney No problem. A small matter. Cheers to adventure, my friends!

(They all raise their mugs except Jim, who looks on.)

Act II scene 1. The pub in Bristol.

Dance We can’t say how happy we are to have met you, Mr Silver. You are like sent to us from heaven.

Silver I know how difficult it is to get a crew together these times.

Dance Squire Trelawney went quite enthusiastic about your willingness to help.

But how will you manage your pub while you are away?

Silver I’ll simply have to entrust it with loyal companions until I get back.

Dance Here is now my employer. At last you shall meet squire Trelawney, your expedition leader. (enter Trelawney with Livesey and Jim) Trelawney Is this the famous John Silver, that we heard so much about? At last we’ll have the pleasure of meeting!

Silver The pleasure is entirely on my side, squire Trelawney. Pardon me for not getting on my feet. (indicates his crutch) Trelawney We understand. No problem. The main thing is that we have a crew, and a good one at that, thanks to you!

Silver Well, we still need some more.

Livesey May I have the indiscretion to ask what happened to your leg? I happen to be a doctor.

Silver The ship’s doctor, I understand. A mere nothing. A cannon ball took it.

It’s not a real leg but a prothesis, but it works. I got used to it, so it has become a part of me. I am just a bit stiff and have a third leg for support.

Trelawney Not bad! And with three legs you hardly need any sea legs, ha-ha-ha! (laughs heartily at his own joke) Silver No heavy seas ever turned me over, whether on one leg, two legs or three legs.

Trelawney Ha-ha-ha!

Livesey We can’t be too careful though with hiring our crew, though, Mr Silver, since our expedition is something of a state secret.

Silver I understand. I never talk unnecessarily.

Livesey Young Jim here, who is to be our cabin boy and will be directly under you as our cook, has seen you together with a certain ill-reputed fellow called Black Dog. What do you know about him?

Silver He tried to get away from paying his bill on my pub. If I see him again he shall pay.

Livesey So you don’t know him?

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Silver Not very well.

Livesey The last guest of Jim’s inn, a certain captain Billy Bones, warned Jim about a man with a crutch. Do you know anything about Billy Bones?

Silver A drunk sailor who had seen better days and only had his worst days left. I heard he drank himself to death at Admiral Benbow.

Livesey That’s unfortunately close enough to the truth. I tried in vain to stop his consumption of rum, but an inn is an inn. (with an inquisitive look at Jim) Any questions, Jim? Jim I don’t think it’s him.

Livesey Who? Jim The man with the crutch, whom Billy Bones warned me against.

Silver There are many sailors who walk on both a crutch and a wooden leg.

Livesey Indeed, amputations are common at sea. You can avoid them better on land. – Why don’t you think it’s he, Jim? Jim He is too nice. The one Billy Bones warned me against seemed more like a nasty crook.

Livesey He accepts you, John Silver. See you on board, then?

Silver As soon as I get the last of the crew together.

Trelawney The sooner we get on our way, the better.

Silver Exactly. The longer you postpone a departure, the greater the risk that it is cancelled.

Livesey (offers his hand) Well met, John Silver! I hope we can trust you.

Trelawney And I am looking forward to our cooperation! Thanks for the crew! They shall all be richly rewarded!

Silver I don’t doubt that for a moment.

(They shake hands with John Silver and leave with Jim, while Silver remains at the pub.)

I wish no harm to that boy. All the others we could easily do away with, but not the boy.

Scene 2.

Trelawney What is the problem, captain?

Smollett Honestly speaking, squire, I didn’t like this enterprise from the beginning.

Trelawney What’s wrong?

Smollett Everything!

Trelawney That tells me nothing.

Livesey If you have anything to complain of, captain, you should be more specific.

Smollett First of all I don’t like the crew.

Trelawney What’s wrong with it?

Smollett Everything!

Livesey You should be a little more specific. Is there anyone not good enough?

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Smollett They are all scums and rogues! You could believe the worst about every one of them concerning foul play and villainy.

Livesey Without a single exception?

Smollett That would be mate Arrow in that case and the cook.

Trelawney It was the cook John Silver who succeeded in gathering this splendid crew and in no time!

Smollett Then we come to the main issue. Wasn’t this supposed to be a secret expedition with sealed orders?

Trelawney Of course.

Smollett How come then that every single crew member knows every detail in the enterprise including the bearings on the island and its position, where everyone knows that you intend to dig for treasures?

Trelawney (and Livesey looking at each other) Impossible!

Smollett But that’s how it is.

Livesey I asked you specially to for once hold your tongue and not talk too much to just anyone!

Trelawney But I haven’t!

Livesey Who has then let the secrets out!

Smollett There is talk about a map.

Trelawney It is secret!

Smollett Who has it?

Livesey It is in a safe place.

Smollett Surely, since everyone knows about it.

Livesey This is extremely awkward.

Smollett Yes, it endangers the entire journey before it has even started! Do you really intend to go through with it?

Trelawney I can’t even think of moving back a single step on this enterprise. I have put all my life and soul in it.

Smollett May I then suggest certain security measures, if you want to keep me for a captain?

Livesey You seem to be better informed about the situation than we are, captain.

Please, go ahead.

Smollett Powder and arms have been stored next to the crew afore. I suggest that the entire store is moved next to the galley.

Livesey And? Smollett You have brought four people with you from home. They have been given bunks afore. For their own safety I think it would be better to have them aft next to the galley.

Trelawney That can be arranged. Anything else?

Smollett I don’t like the idea of having children on board.

Livesey The cabin boy? Jim Hawkins?

Trelawney That fills the cup! You are a sourpuss, Sir!

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Smollett I am only thinking of the security of the journey and its participants, Sir, which I as the captain am chief responsible for.

Livesey Your sense of responsibility is an honour to you, captain. With you I am inclined to believe that you and John Silver are the only honest people on board, and as such you are indispensable.

Smollett Thank you, doctor.

Trelawney But you must put up with the boy! We can’t send him home now!

Livesey (cautiously) And if he gets into close touch with the crew he could be of great use for us when it comes to learning about the crew.

Smollett You might be right.

Trelawney Good! Then I am sure we shall be able to put up with each other in spite of all!

Smollett I hope so.

Scene 3. On board on deck.

Israel Hands How strange is this case of mate Arrow. Where did he go? How did he disappear?

Silver Who knows. Maybe he drank himself over board.

Pirate 1 Just as he was becoming one of us!

2 But he had too much of what was good for him.

3 When shall we take over the ship?

Silver Keep still! We don’t even have the map yet. We mustn’t anticipate. We need the captain as far as possible, since he knows the ship and we are doing fine.

3 But what about the others? That unbearable bully of a land-lubber, that unreliable doctor and that worthless boy?

Silver It’s the squire who will dig up the treasure for us. The doctor is needed for amputations. A doctor can after all save lives at sea. And the boy can’t do us any harm. Leave him be.

2 Captain Smollett hates him. He can’t stand pet boys.

Silver That’s the captain’s own problem. The boy hates him too, so they are equal.

Israel I believe in John Silver’s tactics. We must be careful not to lose control.

1 Exactly.

3 But when shall we strike?

Silver Don’t be so impatient. I think we should wait until we are half way home, when the treasure is salvaged, when we have passed the storm areas and everyone can take it easy. Then when they least suspect it is the best moment to strike, and then we can easily get rid of all the superfluous persons.

2 It’s only about five or six that don’t belong to our gang.

Silver But they are key figures. That‘s why we’ll need them for as long as possible.

Israel Everything has worked out well so far, no one suspects anything, so no one has anything to fear. The voyage has been fast, we are almost there, and our

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good chief here John Silver has kept us all in good moods, cooked good food and kept us happy with extra rations of rum. All we need is to keep it up.

Silver Exactly. Remember, no one of the others has any idea of what we are up to. Our discretion must be absolute. Drink your fill, men never lose your balance or control. This is the chance of our lives to at last row a decent profit ashore.

2 We put our trust in you, John Silver.

Silver I actually think that’s the safest thing for all of us. Would you be so kind, Dick, to give an apple from that barrel of apples.

1 Apples! Is it eating apples the only thing you can do, John Silver, when you yourself provided us with the ship’s greatest supply of rum?

Silver As you wish. Save the apple for later, Dick. (Dick turns away from the apple barrel.) Let’s all retire afore. We must ratify our plans in rum! (They all move afore under some drinking and cheering.)

(When the danger is over, Jim shows himself peeping from the barrel.)

Scene 4. In the galley.

Trelawney This is really serious news you bring, Jim. Jim I have reported it as carefully as I could.

Livesey You have been tremendously useful, Jim. Only for that you shall now have a drink with us. (pours him some wine) Trelawney I owe you an apology, captain Smollett. I thought the worst of you and the best of the crew, when I should have done the opposite.

Smollett If I had even guessed there were mutiny moods from the beginning I would have refused to sail with you, squire Trelawney. Usually mutiny tendencies appear in good time, but this crew has kept in strict self control all the way. That John Silver must be too much of a clever man. He fooled us all, gave us a crew of only bloodthirsty pirates without our noticing it and knew everything about the treasure and the purpose of our journey from the beginning.

Livesey It’s time to start outwitting him.

Trelawney But what the heck can we do? If we turn back now they will mutiny at once, and we are stuck or will hang in the yard-arms!

Livesey The question is how many we can trust.

Smollett Basically no one except ourselves. The helmsman Israel Hands, who was promoted mate when Arrow disappeared, probably gone over board by drink, I thought was a secure card, but now we can’t even trust him.

Trelawney That gives us four except the three of us.

Livesey That makes us seven against nineteen.

Jim No, six against nineteen. No one is counting on me.

Livesey But you are on good standing with all of them, Jim. Stay that way and be our agent. And above all: no one must know that we know more than they know.

Call (from outside) Land ohoy! (enthusiastic voices, hurrahs etc. from above deck)

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Trelawney (getting up) We are there. Now begins the serious business, gentlemen.

Act III scene 1. All gathered on deck.

Trelawney Gentlemen, may I congratulate you on having made a successful journey so far. Without doubt many of you wish to stretch your legs on land for a change. I hereby give anyone permission to row ashore and do whatever he likes. (enthusiastic cheers from almost everyone) Silver How long may we stay?

Trelawney As long as you like to start with. At the moment no one is needed on board, isn’t that right, captain?

Smollett Only the watchman. I will stay, but on principle anyone can take any time off until further.

Trelawney Perhaps someone of you has been here before and would like to refresh old memories.

Silver I am familiar with the island and know its nature well. Many have anchored here to renew their supplies.

Trelawney We thank John Silver for his local knowledge and help in finding and piloting us in to the best place of anchorage.

Silver Thank the Skeleton Island for its ideal name.

Trelawney Well, who wants permission ashore?

Almost everyone (raising their fists or hands) Yeeeaaahh!

Trelawney You are dismissed at once.

John Silver organizes the extensive evacuation. Captain Smollett has discreetly stepped aside with doctor Livesey, Trelawney is looking on but starts to get worried when the men disappear, then turns to the doctor and Smollett.)

Trelawney Does anyone know where Jim is?

Smollett He was here.

Livesey He isn’t any more. He must have stolen away among the pirates.

Smollett Didn’t I tell you that the boy on board would only lead us into trouble?

Livesey There, captain, he can take care of himself, and the pirates like him, especially John Silver. I am sure he knows what he is doing.

Smollett In brief, I will not be responsible for the consequences.

Trelawney How many have remained?

Smollett Silver has left six of his men.

Livesey Then we can’t take the ship.

Smollett No. Livesey Perhaps Jim was wise in going ashore?

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Scene 2.

Jim comes running, looks behind, and almost lands in the arms of Ben Gunn.

Ben Who are you?

Jim Jim Hawkins.

Ben Who else? And who am I, you wonder? That’s the question. I hardly remember it any more myself. It was so long ago I was presentable. But surely you didn’t come here alone?

Jim The pirates are here to take care of captain Flint’s treasure, when squire Trelawney has dug it up.

Ben Then they are all out for bad weather or in brief for trouble and don’t know what weather is expecting them, for they will end up in dead calm, and there is no way out of that eternal dead calm of the Sargasso sea.

Jim But how did you get here?

Ben That’s the question. That’s what I always wanted to forget but almost the only thing I still remember. I was marooned. I was with captain Flint. He dug down his treasure here and then shot down all his six helpers, so that there would be no witnesses, as pirate captains always do, but there will always be some awkward and unpleasant and extremely unwanted witness anyway. I was first mate under him and got away from belonging to those he executed, for I was harmless, for I saw nothing and heard nothing and said nothing, but when I came sailing here a few years later I persuaded some companions that we would stop here and search for captain Flint’s treasure. We dug and dug and kept on digging. Finally my companions grew mad at me and asked me to stay and go on digging for myself, and I did, for I had nothing else to do. I was like a gravedigger who couldn’t stop digging although I didn’t have a single corpse to bury, and what I wanted to dig up I never found, until it was too late. I am almost buried alive myself, since I was the only one there was who could be buried. But what kind of pirates have you brought here together with that squire you said something about? It couldn’t be remnants of captain Flint’s old gang, could it? In that case there can’t be much left of them, old pathetic skeletons and shadows of ghosts who hardly can stand on their legs any more and who only are good for digging themselves down and get buried. Don’t tell me it’s them.

Jim Yes, it’s them.

Ben Don’t tell me John Silver is with them!

Jim Yes, John Silver is with them, and he is here ashore now. I saw him just murdering one of the few honest men on board. That’s why I was so terrified on the run.

Ben But why did you and your squire travel here with such a macabre lot?

Jim He came across Billy Bones’ map.

Ben Billy Bones? Is he alive?

Jim No, he died suddenly. He had a drink too much and died. He wasn’t allowed to drink any more rum, but he did it anyway.

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Ben Then at least he didn’t have to hang. An envious death, on my honour, the best possible death for an old drunken swine who would only have retched down his old keelson if he had made one journey too much, which all your comrades seem to have done now to search out their deaths with old captain Flint, who is still haunting the island but in the shape of ghosts. He has been my only company here for all these years. Most of them are better dead than alive, but some have to go on living although they outlived themselves long ago and should have died ages ago…

Only captain Flint is definitely dead and died in the nick of time before he was hanged, but he had the death of dishonour in his bed. John Silver was with him but still didn’t get hold of his map, which you now claim is still around somewhere anyhow. If the pirates get hold of it we will all be worse off than hanged. We become worthless and executed just like captain Flint’s consumed helpers, since we would only be in the way. That’s how the pirates work. They use you only as long as you can be used, and as soon as they can’t use you any more you get scrapped or at best marooned like me, so that you survive at least as a ghost until further, like a phantom among all the dead phantoms of memories and consumed pirates… So Billy Bones got hold of the map. I’ll be damned. He must have stolen it from captain Flint before his corpse was cold and found it before John Silver. Captain Flint would never have given it away alive but rather buried it alive than seen that it survived. But what are you doing ashore alone?

Jim I keep watch on the pirate gang. They don’t know that I spy for the squire. John Silver is my friend.

Ben He is no one’s friend and not even his own. He is everyone’s mortal enemy but pretends to be everyone’s friend and acts as such until he strikes the knife in your back when you are least on your guard. He has no friends without consuming them. He is captain Flint’s heir and a full-fledged pirate. But how many are you, who have to deal with the pirates?

Jim It’s the squire, captain Smollett, doctor Livesey and three more honest men on board but also six pirates. Six pirates are ashore.

Ben But they will not give up until your squire has dug up the treasure which only he can do. Then your squire will be the next gravedigger here on this island for eternity. (Boom!) What’s that?

Jim They are firing on the ship.

Ben Then it’s war.

Jim It seems like it.

Ben I have a small dinghy. You had better go back to your own on the ship.

Jim Nice to meet you, Ben Gunn!

Ben The pleasure was all on my side. Hurry now! You might be needed out there!

(Jim runs along.)

Three years’ isolation without the slightest change, and the first human being I meet is a child!

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Scene 3. In the blockhouse Livesey I am afraid our situation is rather critical. We had no choice but to abandon the ship, we couldn’t overcome the pirates, which we could have done if the weather had been better, but now it wasn’t, for it was dead calm, and if we had done with the pirates on board the others would have reacted, and we don’t know what has happened to Jim. In brief, we had no other choice than to find safety here, locked up with all the world’s dangers threatening around us, and with most of our supplies lost on the way.

Smollett Which the pirates now are taking care of. (Boom!)

Trelawney They are still shooting wildly about. They never seem to tire of missing all the time.

Livesey They shoot too far. When the bullets reach they have no force left but just drop down to get buried in the sand.

Trelawney Wouldn’t it be better to haul the flag? They can’t see the blockhouse. The flag is their only target, and it’s a sore to their eyes.

Smollett Never that we would haul our Union Jack! We stand for civilization and honour and honesty!

Livesey But our supplies are limited. We don’t have for more than ten days, and we can’t expect any reinforcements until in a few weeks, isn’t it so, squire Trelawney?

Trelawney If nothing is heard from us in August they will then send reinforcements.

Livesey So it’s a question of months.

Trelawney Yes. Livesey So our situation is all but hopeless, as long as we live. One of us has already had it, shot by the pirates, but my greatest worry is what might have become of little Jim… (Boom!)

Trelawney Now they miss again.

Smollett But I believe there is some reinforcement coming in.

Livesey Where?

Jim (has climbed the palisade) I think I have some positive news.

Livesey Welcome, Jim, my boy! We almost thought the worst of you!

Jim That I had failed you?

Livesey No, that the pirates had got the better of you and cut you short.

Jim No risk. I have met Ben Gunn.

Smollett And who in the name all cursed ghosts is Ben Gunn?

Jim He sailed with captain Flint. He knows all the pirates.

Trelawney And it was a living man you met? No old ghost haunting the place?

Jim He was marooned here three years ago and has been living here alone all the time but knows something about Flint’s treasure.

Livesey Then he can help us. That’s for certain.

Smollett But who is he?

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Jim He was here when captain Flint built this blockhouse. He knows John Silver better than anyone else and knows what he is good for. (a pipe whistling outside) Trelawney Who is it?

Smollett White flag. Negotiation. Bly me if it’s not John Silver himself!

Trelawney What does he want?

Smollett We shall know, if we talk with him.

Trelawney Who wants to talk with him? Not I. Livesey Not I. Smollett It will have to be me then.

Silver (becomes visible, waving a white flag) Halloo!

Smollett What do you want?

Silver Parley!

Smollett Do we have anything to discuss?

Silver You have a map. We have the ship. Let’s make an exchange.

Smollett You have been shooting at us all day. Why would we believe you?

Silver You have no chance at length. We outnumber you by the double and can starve you out. Our only interest is the map.

Smollett Come and get it then.

Silver We will if we must.

Smollett You must nothing except dangle in the gallows as pirates the whole lot of you! You have mutinied and taken my ship by force!

Silver You deserted it.

Smollett Not willingly to you. Even a captain has the right to take leave ashore without losing his ship.

Silver You have no chance. We will storm you.

Smollett Do it then.

Trelawney (to Smollett) Shoot him on the spot!

Smollett No, we are no pirates. Even if the whole world only consisted of scoundrels, we must observe decency.

Silver Blame yourselves!

Smollett The same to you!

Silver This was your last chance!

Smollett You have nothing to offer!

Silver Yes, blood, fire and weapons!

Smollett We will not give in without a fight! How many have you lost already?

Four or five?

Silver But you are also reduced.

Smollett But we have the honour and right on our side to fight for! You have nothing!

Silver We were captain Flint’s men! We have the right to our salary under him!

You are after something that doesn’t belong to you!

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Smollett We don’t even know if it exists. We are an expedition equipped to examine the meaning of a map. As always when you hunt for something it belongs to the one who finds it.

Silver But we were Flint’s men!

Smollett And we are squire Trelawney’s men! Did captain Flint leave any will?

No, he took everything with him in his grave. He gave nothing willingly and least of all to you.

Silver Therefore we shall have it!

Smollett We shall see who finds it.

Silver Go to blazes!

Smollett Go to hell!

Silver We are getting nowhere like this.

Smollett Didn’t you find that out until now?

Silver You are all dead!

Smollett And you are all hopeless cases. I don’t think you’ll ever come out of this alive.

Silver We’ll see.

Smollett We have nothing to discuss!

Silver As I said, blame yourselves!

Smollett You are the ones to do so.

Silver That’s that then! (strikes his flag and leaves) Trelawney What happens now?

Antonio They will attack.

Trelawney Can we do anything about it?

Smollett No, only defend ourselves and kill them.

Trelawney At least something.

(Shots are fired.)

Livesey Attention! Here they come! Take cover!

(A tremendous interminable firing and screaming with violence and noise, mainly from the pirates.)

Act IV scene 1. After the battle.

Livesey We made it.

Trelawney With the skin of our teeth. Hunter is dead, and captain Smollett is wounded.

Livesey He will make it. He has been wounded before. But how is Jim? Jim A trifle.

Livesey That pleases me. (examines the wounds of Smollett) You will make it, my friend, but you must not get up and walk nor move your arm or speak, if you can help it, for a few weeks.

Smollett Hard cheese.

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Livesey No, hard bandages.

Trelawney What can we do next except wait for the next attack?

Livesey Nothing, but that’s the worst thing we can do, so we must do something.

Trelawney What?

Livesey Stupid question. I know what I must do.

Trelawney Go for a pee?

Livesey Not only that. I intend to search out that Ben Gunn.

Trelawney Go out alone in the thicket among the savages?

Livesey We got several of them. They have had their ration for a few days. We must avail ourselves of the time for some action.

Trelawney Don’t go into the woods unarmed.

Livesey You will need your fire weapons here. Two men can hold the fort. All I need is a cutlass – and the map.

Trelawney Please. (gives over the map) Livesey Thank you. It will be my pass-bill to Ben Gunn. But where is Jim? Has he run away again?

Trelawney (looks around like the doctor) It doesn’t look any better.

Livesey (calling) Jim! (no answer) Luckily he hasn’t got the map.

Trelawney Good luck, doctor, and come back.

Livesey You can be certain of that. (takes his hat, a cutlass and leaves.)

Trelawney Alone in the woods crowded with corpses and pirates stealing around in the bushes. It looks bad. And the captain out of order ashore. Talk about a bad fix.

Scene 2. On board.

Jim coming up, seeing Israel Hands and Redcap lying motionless and bloody over each other.

Jim That explains it! They have killed each other while drinking! And that’s why the ship is out of control…

Israel Not quite dead yet, but on our way. Good luck that you came. Now we can manage the ship.

Jim What happened?

Israel We intended to get away with the ship after all the firing we heard from land. There can’t be many left there now. Are you the last one alive?

Jim We still have the blockhouse.

Israel But how many are left?

Jim We are four against nine.

Israel Then some of you have also gone down to earth.

Jim But why did you quarrel?

Israel You tell me. I suppose we had too much to drink. Please, could you give me some water? As you see, there’s not much left of my leg.

Jim (fetches some water) Then we’ll sail the ship ashore. I am the captain now. And we haul the pirate flag.

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Israel So you are captain Hawkins now. Earlier we had captain Silver and before that the sourpuss captain Smollett. So you intend to run the barge ashore and have never sailed before, or what?

Jim No. Israel I was captain Flint’s cannon master. I never miss a shot, but this barge is damned. It just misses all the time. And now half of us are dead. Can you manage the tiller?

Jim I can try.

Israel I am sure you can. Just set the course and keep it. Do your friends know that you are here?

Jim No. Israel So you came here on your own when you saw the barge with slack sails.

Did you think we were all dead?

Jim Well, you almost were.

Israel Not quite yet. That’s right. Keep the course. You are learning. All you have to do is to feel the personal qualities of the ship and use them. You never sail with your common sense but only with your sensitivity and intuition, but most alert of all you must be about the weather. It could start anything any time and usually quite suddenly, especially on these latitudes.

Jim So much I learned.

Israel You will be a good sailor when you grow up, if you live that long.

Jim I will probably live longer than anyone of you, since I will never be a pirate.

Israel Don’t be too sure. All pirates were innocent children like you. John Silver says you could make a career under his guidance.

Jim Never in my life! He is a traitor!

Israel Is he? Aren’t all authorities and politicians traitors with real politics for an excuse, with which they always get away since they are in an established position? We are honest who stand for what we are good for without hiding our villainy. They live on hiding it and will betray anyone if it serves their purpose. How do you think squire Trelawney came to his fortune?

Jim I know nothing about such things.

Israel Just as well, and that’s best for you. Go on like that and stay outside, and you might manage. Speaking of that, could you do me a last favour before I die? You have set the course, and we will soon run aground, and then the ship will get into the hands of either my friends or yours, it doesn’t matter, there was no treasure anyway, we were all snuffed, most died in civil wars as usual, so we decided to get away from it all, and then we were divided about a small matter, and so he is lying there like a wasted rag doll. Cut a quid for me before I die. I have the tobacco here. That’s my life’s last wish.

Jim Are you really as dying as you look?

Israel As you see. There’s hardly even any panting left of me.

(Jim sets the rudder and approaches Israel to help him cut a quid. When Jim is close enough Israel brings out a secret knife and makes an effort at an attack. Jim immediately withdraws,

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Israel throws the knife, misses, but Jim has drawn two pistols, fires both at the same time, Israel is hit and dies and Jim at once drops the guns. Immediately the whole ship hits a bank with a great crash, and Jim falls down.)

Back to the blockhouse! (abandons the ship)

Scene 3.

Trelawney What do you think Jim’s real intentions are?

Livesey I don’t think he has joined the pirates, if that’s what you mean.

Trelawney I mean nothing. I just wonder.

Livesey So do I. Anyway, the ship is gone, and we stand no chance against the pirates that are left, since they have all the resources.

Trelawney What do you mean?

Livesey We must retire and give them the map on condition that they leave us in peace. We can’t risk anything more with Jim gone.

Smollett (from his bed) He has always returned back.

Livesey (sternly) Quiet, captain! – I hope he will return, but he has nothing to return to unless we put ourselves in a totally secure position. By Ben Gunn we have got a chance to achieve that security.

Trelawney Tell us!

Livesey Later. Now we must get another parley before they attack again, and we have a wounded patient to transport. (applies himself to Smollett and his bandages)

Scene 4.

Silver I don’t get it. Although they were in perfect security they abandon the blockhouse and move into the woods and give up the map for a warrant that we leave them in peace. What’s on their minds? Are they so sure we will all end up in the gallows? If there was anything I never believed in, it was the law and its so called justice. It does not exist. It’s a myth mostly abused for oppression and to unnecessarily mess with people. We are all born free, but the purpose of the law is to limit all freedom and punish it, and all you can do then is to break free and enforce your right to freedom. I was well off in Bristol with my wife and inn, but freedom was missing, why I dared to cast myself out on this my last adventure as all the same the greatest chance of my life. And then Jim comes running straight into our arms when the ship is gone and only six of us are left and almost offers himself as a hostage, and he promises to help me and testify for me if I am ever prosecuted, but it’s too late for me to join the squire and doctor. I killed too many already on this voyage, and my last men would instantly kill me if I tried to give myself up. Nothing works out, and still nothing is yet lost, and we have the map. If we succeed in saving the treasure and finding the ship the coast would be clear.

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Livesey (outside) Blockhouse ohoy! It’s the doctor!

Silver Coming to patch up our dying comrades. That he has the guts! – We have Jim here!

Livesey I know. May I speak with him?

Silver Jim, he wants to chat with you.

Jim (runs to meet the doctor, with whom he speaks through the palisade) It’s not what it looks like, doctor. I am not one of them.

Livesey I know, my son, but jump the palisade, and we’ll escape together to freedom and Ben Gunn.

Jim I have promised John Silver not to escape. I am the only hope for his life, and he has protected me against the other pirates, who wanted to kill me.

Livesey Why doesn’t he come over to us?

Jim He can’t desert his comrades, who would kill him if he tried. And he doesn’t believe in the crown’s justice.

Livesey He is right. It would never spare him. He has mutinied, and he has killed several of our crew. He has no chance. In this situation you are the only one who has a chance.

Silver Come in to the patients, doctor. They are waiting.

Livesey For me or for their liberation by death?

Silver Both, I presume. The vanity of human nature always wants to live as long as it is possible and preferably all the way up to the execution.

Livesey What are their hopes?

Silver Their last vanity is salvaging the treasure, for which we will leave tomorrow to dig up, whether anyone can take it with him or not. Without the temptation of the treasure they would have killed me and Jim yesterday, when he arrived.

Livesey It was our fault. We should have trusted him and in some way stopped him from returning to the blockhouse.

Silver How? Livesey I don’t know. We didn’t know where he was, did we?

Silver He says that he has saved the ship for you, which he hid in a secret bay.

Livesey (surprised) What?

Jim It’s true, doctor.

Livesey And you are going for the treasure tomorrow?

Silver Those are the plans.

Livesey Be very wary on your guard when you find it.

Silver A warning? Against what?

Livesey No, a doctor’s assistance.

Silver It could save lives. Let’s see if you can save any more in here. Please come in.

Livesey I feel the scent that you at least not yet suffer any lack of anaesthetizing liquor.

Silver I am afraid that’s the only thing we do not lack. (They enter the blockhouse.)

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Act V scene 1.

Entrance of the pirates on stage.

Silver is the last man with a snare around Jim as his prisoner.

Silver We haven’t far left to go. It’s over there.

Morgan I didn’t like the skeletons.

Silver Neither did they.

Pirate 2 Captain Kidd did the same: shot down his own diggers.

3 He fired at random for nothing.

4 But always aimed at the heart and always pricked it.

2 You couldn’t have your heart in the right place.

Morgan Don’t talk but move on!

3 Don’t tread on my heels, you death scull!

4 You are the death scull here.

Silver Don’t joke about death. He could take it as a calling.

Morgan What kind of a tree was it we were supposed to look for?

2 There are many trees.

Silver The tree over there.

3 And how do you know it’s the right tree?

Silver Which else would it be?

4 Any tree is like any tree.

Silver You are all seeing double. There is only one tree on the map.

Morgan But the more in reality.

Ben Gunn(‘s voice) Fifteen men on the dead man’s chest, – Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!

Several Whew! (terrified) 4 It was the voice of captain Flint!

Morgan But captain Flint is dead, isn’t he?

3 Impossible!

Morgan I don’t like this.

Silver Someone is pulling our legs.

Ben Gunn Darby McGraw! (wailingly) Darby McGraw! Darby McGraw! Go for some rum, Darby!

Morgan Captain Flint’s last dying words!

2 His ghost! He is haunting us!

3 What else would he do? We found his six skeletons, which probably have been unblessed and haunted the island since then, so why wouldn’t he also?

4 This damned island is unblessedness itself.

Morgan I don’t know if I want to go on any longer.

Silver Are you hesitating now, you addict failures, when we only are a few steps from the treasure? You hare-brained coward sloths, we have almost reached our goal!

Morgan The voice sounded more like Ben Gunn than captain Flint.

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4 Ben Gunn? What would he be doing here?

3 Who the devil cares about Ben Gunn?

Silver Come on now! Don’t reason, don’t babble, but just get on with it!

(They reach the empty excavation and are as baffled as they earlier were terrified.)

2 Someone has been here before us!

Silver (in a low voice to Jim) Keep behind me and be alert! (gives him a gun) Merry What’s the meaning of this, John Silver? Is this supposed to be some kind of a joke? In that case it isn’t funny at all.

4 Have you been here before us, you devil?

Morgan Where in the name of all devils is the treasure?

(In the same moment hell breaks loose. One of the pirates dies at once.)

That settles it! I have had enough of all this devilry! (runs for his life, and the other two follow him.

Enter the doctor, Trelawney and Ben Gunn.)

Silver You scared them out of their wits, Ben Gunn!

Ben Gunn That was my intention!

Silver Imagine that you are still alive! Who left you here?

Ben Gunn Those fools who tired of digging for the treasure. Marooned here I had nothing else to do but to go on digging until I found it. Is that so strange?

Livesey (liberates Jim) I regret the inconvenience, Jim. Jim No inconvenience at all, just fun.

Trelawney If only all inconvenience could be experienced as fun, which apparently children can! John Silver, you have nothing to fear, since you saved the life on this boy.

Silver Still I intend to do all I can to abscond justice.

Livesey Well, squire Trelawney, the voyage is paid with interest thanks to Ben Gunn.

Trelawney I thank you for it, Ben Gunn. How does it feel to at last be able to come home to England?

Ben Gunn I long for getting drunk to death for my share of the money.

Silver Once a pirate always a pirate. Ben Gunn, you would be wisest if you followed me.

Ben Gunn Not again. Never in my life.

Livesey We have a poor pirate to bury. What shall we do with the three others?

Trelawney Leave them be. They will have to find their own way back.

Silver They have liquor enough, so they can manage.

Trelawney But we have much work to do. The treasure must be brought to the ship, which must be put in order, and then we have our journey back home to think of.

Silver Come on, Jim. You are still my cabin boy.

(They all leave, Silver with his hand on Jim for support.)

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Scene 2. The galley.

Captain Smollett by the log table navigating. Enter John Silver.

Silver Captain, let me congratulate you on your recovery after the ordeals on Treasure Island.

Smollett Nothing to congratulate me for. A sailor must be able to stand a beating, as you well know, captain John Silver.

Silver You call me captain although I led the mutiny.

Smollett By every right. Your navigation after the mutiny was the most difficult, because navigating across a sea is just handiwork, but hidden rocks can be more troublesome than people, and thanks to your navigation we came through alive in spite of running the gauntlet between all the murderers.

Silver The three that were left alive cause me some pain.

Smollett It couldn’t be helped. They could at least remain alive, and hopefully the next ship that reaches the death scull island while be a pirate, where they might find some old brothers on board. Had we taken them with us and saved them they would irrevocably have been hanged in England, which brings me to the question why I asked you here.

Silver Well?

Smollett Your head hangs by a thread, captain John Silver, and none of us on board would want you to lose it.

Silver I have no intention to.

Smollett The fact is, that squire Trelawney is a magistrate and a legal authority, and not even he could save your life if you come to England.

Silver What do you suggest?

Smollett Also doctor Livesey is a person of authority, but I have nothing to do with any authority. I have considered the matter carefully. The treasure is a greater amount of wealth to each one of us than what any of us would need. I suggest the following. When we reach the next harbour, which must be Spanish, I want you to break into the store room where the treasure is kept, take as much of it as you can carry without spilling and abscond ashore and there remain underground until we are gone.

Silver You ask me to desert?

Smollett No, I order you, because it is your last chance.

Silver Thanks, captain. I guess I have no other choice than to obey.

Smollett No, you haven’t. Good luck on your further voyages, captain John Silver.

Silver I wish you the same, even if I suspect that you will from now on stay at home. With age you get less prone to abandon yourself on new journeys, but I guess my journeys will never reach an end, since I will always find it worth while to evade official justice.

Smollett You are still young. Surely you aren’t even fifty yet?

Silver And the condition of my legs force me to constantly move on. Or else also the other leg will stiffen.

Smollett But you have three.

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Silver A wooden leg is a handicap, no luxury.

Smollett Good luck, captain John Silver. I guess our journey together was the jolliest for both of us. Therefore I will from now on stay at home.

Silver My last journey has unfortunately only just begun. (limps out on his crutch. Captain Smollett liking him approvingly shakes his head and resumes his navigation.)

Smollett Doctor Livesey, it was your idea, but I presume Jim gave it to you. May we as any real pirates never betray each other.

Curtain.

(Milan 5.4.2014, translated 22-25 November 2019)

Post Script For practical reasons in regard of theatrical possibilities on stage, John Silver has here been furnished with an extra leg, so that he doesn’t have to do without any – no actor can be expected to play the role of a one-legged person on stage, if he isn’t already one-legged by nature, which no actor is. The eventual actors who have lost a leg and still continued to be active actors are as far as I know only one in history – Sarah Bernhardt, but not even she could have been expected to play the role of John Silver.

Jim Hawkins’ mother has been left off stage, while we have allowed his father to go on living. According to Robert Louis Stevenson’s unsurpassed original, both had left their lives before Jim left England. These and other liberties which we have taken with the first great pirate novel, we humbly ask the aforesaid author to forgive us, and our readers and audience to forbear, as we always can recommend the application of the original to resort to when needed for control of the actual text, which should be available in translation in every language on earth.

Gothenburg, May13th, 2014

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The Heir of Ballantrae or The Brothers Dramatization of Robert Louis Stevenson’s greatest novel

by Christian Lanciai (2001, translated 2019)

Dramatis Personae: Lord Durrisdeer James Durie, his eldest son Alison Graeme, his betrothed Henry Durie, James’ younger brother Ephraim Mackellar, secretary

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Tom MacMoreland John Paul, doubtful servant Macconochie, ready servant Local visitors at the pub The host at the pub Colonel Francis Burke Captain Edward Teach, better known as captain Blackbeard, a terrible pirate his equally terrible pirates a mate Jessie Brown, a discarded slut four smugglers a doctor Secundra Dass a sepoy the governor of New England society people of New York John Mountain his gang of scoundrels Captain Harris Sir William Johnson some of his expedition members The action is in Scotland (Solway), at sea, in India (Bengal) and in the state of New York in America about 1745-1765.

Copyright Christian Lanciai 2001

The Heir of Ballantrae Act I scene 1. Durrisdeer, inside the castle.

Lord Durrisdeer My children, we are facing a difficult problem. That’s why I gathered you here for a serious conference, as it concerns the future and glory of our family.

James Come to the point, father, before we go to sleep.

Alison Let him finish speaking, James.

Durrisdeer Our nation is facing anoher civil war. It’s our royal house of Scotland against the intruders from Germany of Hannover. It’s our own Charles Edward against king George in London. For us like to most Scots the case appears simple.

Bonnie Prince Charlie is a real Stuart, but king George is a German. But the situation is not so simple, and the hardest thing to see is who will be the victor.

James The case is simple, father. We fight for the right person and prevail.

Durrisdeer Who is then the right person? Can you answer that, my son?

James The house of Stuart of course. It’s obvious.

Durrisdeer It’s not, and at least not politically. Therefore I decided that one of you will remain here as a faithful citizen of king George’s, while the other follows prince Charlie on his quest.

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Henry As the younger son it’s for me to take the risks. I follow the prince on his warfare while James will take care of the estate.

James That is out of the question. I am the adventurer in the family. You are more stable, Henry. Stay at home.

Durrisdeer Henry is right. The younger brother should sacrifice himself and take the risks, while the heir should have a good standing with the authorities.

James I protest.

Alison James, I am your betrothed. If you will go to war, we shall never get married.

James Let me follow my nature, and follow your own.

Henry James, it is my duty to cover you and the family.

James Let’s toss a coin about it! Or else it will never be settled.

Henry I agree. Tails and I go.

James Right! (tosses a coin) It’s heads.

Alison No! (takes the coin and throws it straight through the family coat of arms on the window) If you loved me as much as I love you, you would stay at home!

James Honour, Alison, always comes before love.

Alison Then I hope you will die! (rushes out) Henry I hope you know what you are doing, James.

James I have always known what I was doing, especially when I risked my life for my honour.

Henry You have no honour. You have only sly calculation combined with foolhardy irresponsibility.

James Don’t start that again! Leave morals to the priest!

Durrisdeer James, you have taken the initiative and your fate in your hand yourself.

Whatever you do, do not disgrace the family.

James That’s the last thing I would do. You know that, father.

Durrisdeer Farewell then, my precious son, and good luck! (embraces him) Henry You force me to stay on here. Still I wish you the gest of luck. (takes his hand) James You will hear from me. Either the Stuarts will take power with my help, or I will fall for him in battle.

Henry No exaggerations, please.

Durrisdeer Alas, this is a difficult moment for all of us. I can’t bear it. I had better get some rest.

James Mackellar, pack my bags. I will go off as soon as possible.

Mackellar Yes, master James. (retires with the father) Henry What a trap! He goes to war alone while I am obliged to remain. If he gets killed I will get the blame, and if the Stuarts prevail I will be called an English traitor. It’s just as bad whatever the outcome. It’s just for me to keep a good countenance and make the best of it. (leaves)

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Scene 2. The inn.

1 The war is going to blazes. I am just telling you.

2 For whom? For the king or Stuart?

3 For my part I would let it go to blazes for both.

4 War is war, and all go to blazes. No one ever won a war without irrepairable losses.

1 You said it.

3 So let them all kill each other if only we may live.

2 That’s the talk of a coward.

3 Aren’t we cowards all?

4 Master James brought with him all our bravest boys into the war. Who can then remain?

1 And who comes back? No one!

3 Don’t be such a pessimist. The war isn’t over yet.

4 The dull Sir Henry remains as lord of Durrisdeer with only the dullest part of the local people.

3 But master James was good for nothing except gambling, an opportunist who only fawned on bonnie prince Charlie and told him what he wanted to hear and gave him bad advice. And Alison’s daily letters to him he just let slip out of his pocket. He cared for no one but himself.

2 Yes, he was always like that, clever but just a gambler.

Tom MacMoreland (breaking in) Everything is lost! We lost at Culloden!

4 And bonnie prince Charlie?

Tom He escaped! He has left everything!

1 Then the war is lost.

2 It seems like it.

3 And master James? Will ge be back?

Tom He fell in battle like so many others. He was seen fighting at the side of prince Charlie where the battle was hottest, and then he was seen no more. He is undoubtedly lost.

John Paul The family must know about this.

Tom The news is spreading like wildfire all over the country. All families are struck, no one is spared, it is a general total disaster!

4 Only the English are happy about it.

1 As always.

3 But we survived.

4 And now Henry will be lord of Durrisdeer.

2 We will never be rid of him.

John Paul He must be told at once. (hurries out)

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Scene 3. Lord Durrisdeer, Henry and Alison at dinner Lord No news from the war?

Henry We are all waiting for the final battle.

Alison My heart is already broken anyway. James should never have been allowed to go.

Henry He wanted it himself. He insisted on it.

Alison You let him toss a coin about it.

Henry He wanted it himself!

Lord Don’t argue now, children. We have been through all this before.

Alison If he falls I will never forgive you.

John Paul (enters panting and fuddled) Lord What is it, John Paul? Are you drunk now again?

John Paul I heard it at the inn! Everything is lost!

Henry What has happened?

John Paul The Prince has fallen at Culloden! And master James with him!

Henry It must not be true!

Lord Who told you this?

John Paul Tom MacMoreland, who was in it himself! He saw it happen!

Lord He probably exaggerates. The Prince probably came out of it alive, and James is not stupid enough to allow himself to fall.

John Paul But he is reported missing! With all the others! All our brave young boys!

Alison (rises) Henry I didn’t want this, Alison. I would rather have fallen myself than allowed him to die.

Alison If he is dead, Henry, you will now have everyone against you.

Henry Don’t you think I am aware of it?

Lord It’s not your fault, Henry.

Alison Convince people about that.

Henry If he is dead he will continue existing as a constant reproach to me.

Lord Don’t take it so hard. You will now be Lord Durrisdeer after me. That was decided already when he insisted on going out to war.

Henry (upset) That only makes matters worse! (leaves) Lord It’s not his fault.

Alison Yes, it is, and that’s why he is to be pitied. But James could have survived.

Lord We must live on that hope. John Paul, your news was not well received.

Get out and get sober!

John Paul (ashamed) Yes, Sir. (leaves) Alison I heard that James didn’t care about my letters. Still I wrote to him almost every day, but I never had an answer. He broke all our hearts from the beginning.

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Lord Yes, he did.

Alison Lord Durrisdeer, your son Henry will have a difficult time from now on.

If you wish, I will marry him instead.

Lord You are generous, lady Alison.

Alison No, I only see my duty.

Lord You are also wise.

Alison We all must try to be, since James isn’t.

Scene 4. The inn.

John Paul Let me tell you, that Henry is a bugger. He lives high on his brother’s destruction. He will now be lord Durrisdeer with no right, while his brother’s body will cry to us from the other side of the grave.

1 What do you want, John Paul? Do you want revenge?

John Paul No, I am just telling you the truth, which everyone should know! Our late master James, the rightful heir of Ballantrae, was highly educated and a nice companion, almost a genius, who could make himself popular and always crack a good joke, while the pretender our squire Henry is a dullard who not even his wife Alison can suffer.

Macconochie (who has gradually entered and started to listen) What are you saying, you villain and traitor to the family you serve! James was an inhuman good-for-nothing who could only think of himself and always took advantage of others, a consummate egoist, who probably betrayed prince Charlie to the English to escape alive himself!

John Paul Don’t listen to him. He doesn’t know what he is saying.

Macconochie You don’t know what you are saying when you backbite lord Henry, the only decent person in the family! He may be introverted and full of complexes in relation to his elder brother, but he is kind and polite and prudently manages his responsibilities more than well! The mean master James never bothered about that!

John Paul Yes, he is so kind that his wife has him under her slipper. She married him only for pity. She never loved him. She like her father-in-law always loved only master James.

Macconochie That idle cad! The cruel opportunist! The ruthless gambler!

John Paul He was brilliant! And now he is dead because lord Henry was too yellow to dare go to war.

Macconochie It’s not true!

John Paul Shall we fight about it?

Macconochie I am ready!

1 Ten shillings on John Paul 2 Fifty on Macconochie.

3 I keep the account.

4 John Paul stands no chance to Macconochie.

1 But John Paul is stronger.

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2 I doubt it.

5 A pound on Macconochie!

Burke Calm down! You don’t know what you are fighting about.

5 Who is he?

2 I know him. He was with bonnie prince Charlie. He is Irish.

1 One of those!

3 I know you. You were with prince Chalie but let him down! You are Francis Burke, who harmed our cause more than anyone else!

Burke It doesn’t matter who I am. But I have a message for the Duries.

John Paul What about?

Burke It only concerns them.

Macconochie I and John Paul are both grooms in their service. Who is the message from?

Burke The heir of Ballantrae.

John Paul (delighted) He lives! My golden boy is alive!

Macconochie What do you mean? James Durie is dead. He fell at Culloden.

Burke If he did, so did I. 3 I know him. Colonel Francis Burke. He was known as a loyalist when he sided with the Prince. Many were certain that he acted as an agent for the English.

2 And caused the downfall of the Prince?

3 Together with James Durie, 2 What the devil is he doing here then? Drive him out!

Macconochie Wait! Colonel Burke, what is your story?

Burke It only concerns the ears of the Durie family.

John Paul Where is he?

Burke Last time I saw him he was in America.

Macconochie Then at least he is at a safe distance.

John Paul Will he come home?

Burke I can’t tell, because that I don’t know anything about.

1 Join us for a drink! You bring after all good news.

Burke Thank you, but I will surely be invited by lord Durrisdeer. I could come back here afterwards.

Macconochie Let him bring his bad news to Sir Henry before anyone here slaughters him.

Burke Thanks for the advice. See you again, gentlemen! (leaves) John Paul It will be a happy message to the whole family!

Macconochie Do you think so?

John Paul Of course!

Macconochie Yes, to the lord and mistress Alison, but not to us who only work hard for the best of the family. Master James was a wolf in sheep’s clothing who only brought misfortune!

John Paul He was a genius, the only light of the family!

Macconochie Shall we fight about it?

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John Paul Any time!

1 Don’t start all over again. Master James is alive, which means Sir Henry is completely without guilt.

Macconochie Which thereby is a proven fact.

Host Go home now, boys. You can continue arguing tomorrow.

John Paul Yes, we will. After we have partied all night for master James being alive.

Macconochie I save my party until he is dead for real.

John Paul He never will be.

Macconochie We all will.

Host Get out and settle outside. I have to close up now.

2 I am for you, Macconochie.

5 John Paul is an empty braggart and knave.

(The continue discussing as they go out.)

Scene 5. Durrisdeer. By the fireplace.

Henry Could we never talk about anything else than James?

Alison But he is our dearest topic of conversation.

Henry But do you think it pleases me to constantly have to hear all his virtues praised only because he is dead?

Lord Don’t remind us that he is dead. In our hearts he is still alive.

Henry Yes, he is the more alive only because he is dead!

Alison You never seem to have enough of that he is dead.

Henry Don’t accuse me of his death all over again!

Alison No one accuses you. But if you had gone out to war instead of him he would still have been here with us.

Henry And I would have been dead. Yes, that would have been better.

Lord Don’t be bitter, Henry.

Henry I am not bitter!

Mackellar I can bear witness to how hard Henry is working for us all just to keep the estate out of debt. Without master Henry the family would have been ruined.

Lord Yes, he is kind and efficient.

Alison But a bad father for our daughter.

Henry Alison, I never chose you for my wife. You chose me for your husband only because James was dead. Then don’t expect more of me than just an ordinary hen-pecked husband.

Lord Please be gentle and kind now, Henry, as you always were.

(There is a knock at the gate.)

Henry Open to see who it is, Mackellar, and then join me at my office. We have some extra accounts to examine. (Mackellar leaves.)

I have had enough of your company, since your only real company is James. (leaves)

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Alison It’s just his complex.

Lord It is my fault. He grew up in the shadow of his brother, whom I always favoured and loved, although he never brought me any joy.

Alison He is dead now.

Lord Yes, alas, he is hopelessly dead forever. Why then does he pursue us as if he was still alive? (Mackellar enters with Burke.)

Mackellar A colonel Burke who says he brings some message.

Lord Colonel Burke from Ireland?

Burke At your sevice, Mylord. I bring some news.

Lord You were with the Prince, weren’t you?

Burke And I was with your son until we deserted the Prince shortly after Culloden.

Lord (deeply touched) Can you tell me about how it happened?

Burke I can tell you more than that. I can tell you that he is alive.

Lord We already know that the Prince is alive.

Burke I mean your son.

Lord Is he alive?

Burke Yes, and in perfect health.

Lord Alison! Come into my arms! My son is alive!

Alison Mackellar, go and tell Henry. Tell us everything you know, colonel Burke.

Burke That’s why I am here. But I have brought three letters for lord Durrisdeer, mistress Alison and master Henry. I must first of all deliver these. (delivers the letters to the lord and Alison. Enter Mackellar with Henry.) (to Henry) The heir of Ballantrae, I presume?

Henry I never accepted that title. But I am Henry Durie of Durrisdeer.

Burke Then I have a letter for you. (delivers the letter) Alison (gives her letter to Henry) It’s better for my husband to have his letter.

Burke You are pale, madam.

Lord We are all pale for natural reasons.

Henry Alison, you had better retire and read your letter in peace and quiet for yourself. May I help you to your room?

Alison Thank you, Henry. That’s probably exactly what I need, since this is too much. (Henry helps Alison out.)

Lord Before I read the letter, colonel Burke, I would like to hear your own story about your association with my son. Where is he now?

Burke I assume that he is in Paris at dinner with some renowned lady of the highest society. In brief, he is well off. (Henry returns.)

Lord Did you hear, Henry? He is in Paris!

Henry Will he come home?

Burke Not in a hurry, if I know him correctly. But he will surely come when it suits him.

Henry That suits him all right. May we hear what you know?

Burke I will be glad to oblige.

Lord But try to be brief. I am old and tired.

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Burke I understand. First of all I must beg to testify that your son is the most ingenious and skilful man I have ever known. The most difficult situations, that anyone else would have found himself lost or scared to death in, he handled with the most perfect and coolest balance of mind, as if mortal danger to him never even needed any special courage. In brief, of all brave men I have known he was number one.

Henry Come to the point. What happened?

Burke We abandoned the Prince as soon as he had abandoned his own cause himself and run away after Culloden. We agreed on a partnership and succeeded at getting on board a ship to America, which soon was taken by a pirate. It was the notorious captain Blackbeard, whom we were compelled to sail with all the way until we managed to escape in America. By James Durie’s incredible cleverness we managed to capture the golden treasure of the pirates, which we brought with us escaping up the mountains to the wilderness, where we separated. I think he buried his gold while I brought my part down to the colonies. We met again at Fort St. Frederick, and he then told me he intended to go back to Europe to Paris. In all circumstances he appeared as the born leader who could make anyone follow him and who never hesitated to expose himself to danger if need be. I never knew a man less afraid of death than he.

Lord (rising) Thanks, my friend. Now I can go to bed and for the first time for very long be able to sleep well. I hope you will stay here for the night?

Burke I thank you and will be glad to accept.

Lord I am the one to thank you. Good night, my friend. Henry and Mackellar will show you your room. (leaves with satisfaction) Henry (after he is gone) Now tell me the whole truth.

Burke What do you want to know?

Henry Details. Intimate details. An ordinary pirate would have cut your throats. He must have made friends with the pirates. How did it happen?

Burke Then I must get into details.

Henry That is what I am asking you.

(The scene shifts to on board a ship.)

Teach (threatening with his sword) You decrepit blockheads, do you think I have taken your ship only to nurse you, you miserable dried up dicks? Do you think I have any slightest use of you except as deck sweepers and scarecrows? You are not even fit for being hanged in the yard-arm! You would only disfigure and dishonour the impeccable sanctity of our jolly roger, you stillborn crybabies! You wouldn’t even be able to rape your own mothers, your diarrhoea farting buggers and worthless stinking bedbugs! There is only one thing you are goof for: walking the plank, unless you piss in your pants on the way and make a slip on the sauce and go to the sharks anyway! Only a very few of you are useful to me, and they then have to be able to whip the life out of sailors, kill and murder at random and never hesitate to set a ship on fire with all its crew pinioned on board! Well, any volonteers? One, two, three!

James Captain Teach, one word if I may.

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Teach What do you want, you stillborn blackguard? Would you rather walk the plank all the same?

James I just wish to give you a piece of good advice.

Teach And who are you to dare give me, captain Blackbeard Teach, your last and greatest captain of pirates, the least hint of advice, you headless bastard?

James You will need a new quarter master. Your crew is getting drunk all the time on credit and doesn’t know in their constant delitium what they are doing, so they start chasing warships…

Teach Warships? Have we started hunting a warship?

James Have a look for yourself in your spy-glass.

Teach (immediately grabbing a spy-glass) For all the devils in hell, what bungler of a saboteur was that who spied the blasted ghost ship and thought we could capture the deadly privateer? He must hang at once and be whipped to slices and scalped alive while we flay and castrate him! (cannon shots at a distance) By the devil, now they shoot off our dicks as well! Get me a pint of rum, or I will go berserk here on board at once and mutilate all unmangled unhung devils!

James Take care about the rum. If the crew is drunk they cannot aim.

Teach You are right, you bloody bungler! Cut his ropes! We need him! He will make a good pirate if only he wades through some dozen bloodbaths first!

James We have no chance against the warship. (New cannon shots at some distance.) You had better change your course.

Teach Would I run away from an ordinary regular ship without a jolly roger?

James You have no choice, for your cannons are misdirected, and your crew is too drunk to be able to either aim or shoot.

Teach Take over then, you accursed quarter master, while I go philosophizing over the situation with a well needed bottle of medicinal rum! The ship is yours, you impotent land-lubber! (runs away to hiding) James Captain Teach has escaped into his galley. You had better lock the door.

Mate It’s not necessary. If he goes in there for protection with his rum he will not come out again in three days. He is already dead drunk.

James That’s what he always is.

Mate Not that dead drunk.

James So he is counted out. If we don’t turn we will be shot to splinters by the warship at once and then be hanged. Burke, take the helm!

Burke Cut my ropes first.

James Cut his ropes! Sheet the sails! Steer hard to windward! Make ready for beating up against the wind! Get going, mates! We don’t have all day! Steer hard to windward!

Mate At last we have a captain.

James No, I am only a quarter master. The captain is just indisposed and is recovering. In the meantine we have to take responsibility for the ship. How is the situation, Burke?

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Burke (turning the helm) We can make it. We are doing nicely and leaving her behind.

The warship is too heavily loaded. She is pitching, heaving and setting heavily.

Mate Be our captain, quarter master, and throw that besotted and absurd scarecrow in the galley over board.

James No, we need him. How could we get across the Atlantic without him?

Aren’t we a notorious pirate? Don’t we have to plunder all ships on the way?

Mate That’s the only thing we know.

James That’s what I mean.

Burke So we are then pirates for real?

James Do we have any choice? How else could we manage this bloodthirsty crew, who knows nothing else than cutting the throats of innocents? We must keep it up. Or else they will cut our throats. Only when we reach land on the other side of the Atlantic could we start thinking of getting out of here, but it is vital that none of the pirates become aware of it. (back to Durrisdeer) Burke And that’s how we made it. Each time we sighted a merchant ship we used Blackbeard Teach as a horror figurehead, and as such he was to put it mildly efficient with his swarthy complexion, his wild black burry hair, his red front ribbon and his extravagant pirate outfit. He was the classic pirate for all times and the last of his kind, and James and I enjoyed him thoroughly and appreciated his terrifying masquerade. But James completely manipulated him. And when we later escaped across the marshes of America he was the one who directed our departure. We incapacitated the whole crew not only with drink but also by mixing laudanum in their liquor. Teach was with us in it plus the mate, who had the keys to the treasure, whereupon we gagged Teach and tied him up by the mast and brought the mate with us plus the entire treasure, which we shared in four. But the mate perished going down in the moors while Teach and the pirates were captured and instantly executed. They became an easy target for the pirate hunters.

Henry I find in James’ letters that he needs money. What did he do with his share of the treasure?

Burke He buried it somewhere in the Catskill mountains.

Henry Were you not with him then?

Burke No, we had parted earlier.

Henry If he needs money, why doesn’t he go to America and dig up his treasure?

Burke Sir Henry, we had many conversations on board the ”Sarah”, and his thoughts constantly returned to you. He gladly tells anyone over and over again that you usurped his position, that he as the elder is the rightful heir of Ballantrae and that you even have taken his betrothed.

Henry That villain! He wanted himself to go to war and leave me here! I was against it!

Burke He says that everything you own is his. Between ourselves I believe that he asks you for money only to mess with you.

Henry And if I don’t send him money?

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Burke Then he will come back here and make matters worse for you.

Henry That’s what I suspected. Thank you, colonel Burke, for coming here.

Thanks to you I now know the game.

Burke Your brother is the gambler. You are just a pawn for him.

Henry I know, but I am capable of resistance. Mackellar will show you to your room.

Burke Thank you.

Henry How can we reward you for your pains?

Burke All I can hope for is to improve my reputation. Perhaps you could help me with that?

Henry My own isn’t better but possibly even worse. We are in the same boat and could therefore probably cooperate.

Burke Thank you. Good night. (leaves with Mackellar) Henry Come back later, Mackellar!

So that’s what we are facing: blackmail without limits. And only as long as we pay him he will keep away, the irresponsible rake and pirate! It’s hard cheese, but there is no way out except through. And Alison? What does she think as the mother of my child but the one who always loved him most? I believe she will take a stand for the family against him. That’s actually our only hope. (Mackellar returns.)

Mackellar, I assume you heard it all.

Mackellar Yes. Henry What do you think of it?

Mackellar It will cost us much to keep James at a distance but even more if he gets home.

Henry How long do you think we can keep him away?

Mackellar To keep him supported abroad?

Henry Yes. Mackellar There is a limit to all pains.

Henry One year? Two years?

Mackellar At most.

Henry I was afraid of that. But we have no choice. Perhaps nothing will happen in the meantime, while we have nothing else to do but to keep still, suffer and pay. ( sighs) Mackellar You are worn out, Sir Henry.

Henry No, I am just upset. Do you know what that scoundrel dares to write to me? He scorns me! He always did, but now he does it more insultingly than ever! (walks restlessly about) We must have some wine. Fetch some wine, Mackellar.

Mackellar It’s completely against your habits, Sir. Henry I know, but I need it. Fetch it! (Mackellar leaves. Henry continues walking restlessly about while he sighs and dries his front.)

Mackellar (bringing the wine) Still it’s almost against my conscience.

Henry Thanks, Mackellar. (empties a few glasses directly) Listen to this: ”My dear Jacob.” ”my dear Jacob,” that’s how he begins, as if I was he and in his place. ”I

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called you that once, which you might remember. And now you have managed so well that you completely have put me out of order.” What do you think about that, Mackellar? And that’s from my only brother! Still I swear to God that I loved him! I was always loyal to him, and still he writes so scornfully, as if I was his life’s arch traitor! It’s not fair! More wine! (drinks) But I can’t accept such isults! I am as good as he and probably better than he, since I in contrast to him always kept proper! He always gambled and wasted and caused father infinite sorrows in one-sided destructivity! I can’t give him the exorbitant amount he is craving, and he knows how badly mortgaged the entire property is! But I will give him what I have, and that’s more than he expects. I have endured this far too long. Here you will see what he further writes! Read for yourself! ”I know that you are a greedy miser.” A greedy miser? Me greedy? Is it true, Mackellar? Do you think I am mean? I actually thought he would beat me when he said it. Ah, I know that they all think like him. But you will see, and he shall see, and God will see! Even if I have to bring the property to ruin and be obliged to walk around barefoot, I will still feed that bloodsucker! Let him ask for anything, and he shall have it! He has the right to it all! I stole it all from him! Ah, how well I knew that this and worse things would happen when he didn’t allow me to go out in the war! (drinks) Mackellar (lays his hand on Henry’s arm with the wineglass) Calm down, Sir Henry.

Henry (collecting himself) You are right, Mackellar. (throws his glass into the fire) Come.

We have nothing else to do but to reckon the money so that colonel Burke could deliver it to that bloodsucker in Paris. He is still the real heir of Ballantrae. We might as well have it all done at once. I will not be able to sleep at all tonight anyway. (leaves with Mackellar)

Act II scene 1. The Bastille in Paris. (enter Burke with a guard who locks up the cell in which James is sitting.)

James (rises cordially, as Burke enters) Awfully decent of you to visit me, old partner of misfortune! Are you bringing me some news from Scotland?

Burke I stand in constant touch with both your brother and his faithful clerk, a certain Mackellar.

James Yes, I have got to know him by his correspondence. From his writing he appears dull and rather pedantic, and as such he fits well as an accountant in the service of my equally boring brother. But what news about him? He does continue sending me money, doesn’t he?

Burke But how on earth did you end up in this prison, Jamie? You had reached the top and were at large! Were you betrayed?

James Of course. My noble ladies betrayed me. A 'lettre de cachet'. Only one.

Anyone can end up here for nothing. That’s what the Bastille is for. But I will soon get out again. But how are the old folks at home? Does Alison still love my brother?

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Burke It looks bad for you. You were well off when you arrived here in Paris and had a handsome veteran pension, but after the Bastille you have lost everything.

And your family will not send you more money.

James What are you saying!

Burke I told them about your wish to go to India, and it would be the best thing for you to do also for them. In my latest letter I have tried to persuade them to finance your journey there. That’s the last thing I can do.

James Then you have done more than what I asked for and deserved, old chum. I just hope you will succeed. But Henry is sensible. He must realize, that the only sensible thing to do is to send me as far away from him and Alison as possible.

How is Alison’s daughter doing?

Burke A nice girl, very much like her mother.

James Henry would have preferred a son, but he will probably have one as well. And Mr Mackellar?

Burke It’s only thanks to him that the family may keep Durrisdeer and stay on and that their economy survives. They almost ruined themselves for your sake. Your brother is the essence of magnanimity.

James He owes me everything. I sold my birthright to him. That’s why I jokingly call him Jacob.

Burke It should be about 8000 pounds you received during these years?

James Yes, it’s just 8000 pounds and a little more. But I need more. This life in the Bastille demands expenses if you are to get out at all. Many never did.

Burke You still have friends. Trust us. You will be free within a month.

James Thank you, dear colleague, for safeguarding my interests. But my destiny is in Henry’s hands.

Burke He is aware of it.

James Then it will probably be resolved. (rises, giving Burke a friendly slap on his arm) Thanks for the visit, chum! (They shake hands.) And welcome back.

Burke Let’s hope with both freedom and money.

James I count on that.

(Burke leaves, the guard locks the cell, and both leave with the guard’s lantern and light.)

James (sings cheerfully in his cell the ballad of ”Molly Malone”.)

Scene 2. Durrisdeer. Ar dinner.

Henry That trafficking of smugglers is increasingly growing a problem.

Lord How so? They always kept going and made their living independent on us. We always left them in peace, and they never bothered us.

Henry But they are just thieves and bandits and support the lawlessness around us.

Alison Do you always have to be such a pedantic and boring perfectionist, Henry? What’s wrong with some smugglers? They just add to the general local charm. And where is Mackellar?

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Henry He just went down to inspect a new contraband ship that just arrived.

Alison How exciting!

Lord We will never be rid of them. Leave them be, Henry.

Mackellar (comes rushing in, panting) He is here!

Henry Who is here?

Alison You know very well! You haven’t sent him any money for half a year.

Lord My son! At last!

Henry (to Alison) You were the one to stop it.

Alison Yes, since it was my money.

James (enters) Here you sit like vultures at a feast of failure! Has anyone died? Is it because of me that you have attracted this funeral mood? Hasn’t your faithful Mackellar announced my arrival?

Lord (rising and trembling) My son! Come into my arms, my boy! (embraces him) James It gives me pleasure that you are still alive, father.

Lord There is not much left of me.

Henry (rising) I will not pretend that I am happy to see you, but you could have turned up both earlier and later.

James You knew that I would come sooner or later. The sooner, the better, eh, Henry? Or didn’t Jacob want his Esau back? But I am sure that Alison wanted it.

How are you, dear sister-in-law?

Alison You are welcome back, James, in spite of all the sorrows you have caused.

James How could I have caused you any sorrow as I am still alive? But that’s maybe the grief I am constantly causing you, and when I die you will finally get happy…

Lord He is only pulling our legs.

James Of course. But I am hungry. Where is the food, Mackellar?

Henry Mackellar is no butler.

James No, since he is the administrator. It’s he who makes sure that your elder brother is left without his inheritance abroad so that he languishes and must come home again just to torture you, eh, Henry?

Henry James, our house is on the verge of ruin because of you.

James I know I didn’t make any successful career. Perhaps it would have been better for us if you had fallen in battle for bonnie prince Charlie than that I survived his failure.

Lord How he jests!

Alison Father-in-law, let me help you up to your room, to let the brothers talk their minds in peace all night if they want to. James will anyway stay at home now.

Lord It’s true, James, isn’t it? You won’t leave us again?

James Not until Henry throws me out.

Henry You know I never will.

Lord He is only joking.

Alison Come now, father. (leaves with the lord) Henry Well, James. You have come home. What will you do?

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James Recuperate until I leave again. But is it all right that your faithful Mackellar may sit here and listen to our intimate conversation?

Henry He will do no harm as a witness.

James No, he will do no harm. Why did you stop sending me money, Henry?

Didn’t you want to keep me away any more?

Henry The money was finished. And it was Alison’s money.

James Alison should have married me, and the money would have been mine, if I hadn’t been bored here at home and gone to war instead of you, Henry.

Henry You tossed a coin about it.

James Yes, I did, because I love gambling about destiny. That keeps life exciting. It’s also a way to scorn the most boring element of life, which is common sense. But to return to your question: the case is very simple. If you give me money I will go. If I will have none, I will stay.

Henry We have no money to give you, James, no matter how much we would like to.

James You are only mean. I know how it is. The family coffers are without bottom, but you are too lazy to dig them out.

Henry Let’s not quarrel. You are tired and need to sleep.

James I am tired but never need to sleep. But you always get too little sleep.

You look worn out, Henry. Go to bed. See you tomorrow. If you want to, I will stay here jesting with you until I implode from boredom.

Henry Well, James. Let’s sleep on it. We can discuss your situation for many weeks.

James And months and years if you like.

Henry Mackellar will make a note of everything you cause around here.

James Much obliged. I regard it an honour to have a chronicler of my own.

Henry (rising. Formally ) Goodnight, James.

James Sleep well, Henry. (Henry leaves quickly.)

He is angry with me for having come home. Are you also angry with me, Mackellar?

Mackellar I have no right to be angry with anyone.

James No, of course, you are employed here. Go to bed, Mackellar.

Mackellar (rising) As you wish, Sir. (leaves) James Alone in my own house and freezed out by them all. It’s not easy to be heir to a large fortune and not able to touch a penny of it. Well, it’s just to survive anyway as well as possible. (intimately, to the audience) And it will be fun to torture my own family out of life. (leaves)

Scene 3. The Inn. John Paul Well, what do you say to that, boys? The heir of Ballantrae was never dead, and now he is back!

1 How then did he save his life from the battle at Culloden?

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2 He must simply have escaped.

John Paul But who dares report him to the authorities? Who would even think of betraying him? Nobody! He is sacred to us all as a Scottish patriot! We are all concerned about protecting him! That’s what I call solidarity!

Macconochie Listen, you miserable braggart of a clown, don’t you know that master James, the so called heir, was the King’s special agent by bonnie prince Charlie and who helped the King to wreck the Stuart cause from within? And don’t you know that master James ’secretly’ has been pardoned and given amnesty?

John Paul (bewildered) Amnesty?

Macconochie Mackellar found it all out, you imbecile dumbbell! Master James is just a parasite only good for wasting his family’s money, and when he has ruined himself and his family he comes begging home to his brother, acting like a beggar! And he was never brave except as a traitor and deceiver who never served anyone without betraying him!

John Paul You traitor! Master James shall be informed that you are spreading such rumours and lies!

Macconochie Yes, inform him, by all means! Can he deny that they are true? No! Inform the family already today, so that they at last will get rid of him! All he wants and asks for is anyway just to get to India.

1 The sooner they send him there, the better.

2 Here he just keeps seducing lady Alison and harassing Jessie Brown.

3 She is here.

Jessie Brown (a discarded slut) Listen! He gave me a pub in Solway! Both he and Sir Henry have atoned for all their meanness!

2 Sir Henry also?

Jessie Yes, when master James was dead.

1 But now he is back.

2 He was just temporarily underground.

1 He is likely to return from India also, if he ever gets there.

John Paul There you are! The heir is a man of honour! And he even cares about making amends for such a one as Jessie Brown! (laughs, and most laugh with him) Jessie What do you mean by such a one as Jessie Brown?

John Paul Such a one as you! What else? (more laughter) Jessie Are you suggesting me not being decent? Who has a pub of her own in Solway?

John Paul Yes, and you drinking all the liquor yourself! (more laughter) Jessie Now, damn it, you listen to me! Here you sit day in and day out ranting shit now about Sir Henry and now about master James, but both are damn it real gentlemen! Both have helped me out of my misfortune!

1 Yes, after master James first having caused it.

Jessie It wasn’t his fault! He is like that! He couldn’t help it! But both have done right! Which one of you would have helped me with even one single farthing?

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Macconochie Jessie Brown is right. Both are gentlemen as noblemen. But master James is self-destructive and are dragging his whole family down with him, while Sir Henry wears himself out in trying to hem the constant bleeding.

1 They say they are always quarrelling at home. Is it true?

2 They say that master James constantly makes demands on lady Alison and that the brothers are on the constant brink of fighting a duel.

John Paul Who has told you that? Mackellar?

Macconochie Master James comes here himself occasionally and brags about it. He doesn’t mind associating with locals like us. He even arrived here with the smugglers and always did business with them.

James (has suddenly arrived) Let’s hope then that he also will be gone with the smugglers.

John Paul Master James!

James Yes, it’s hardly my brother Jacob. May I offer you all a drink?

1 How is business, master James? Do you get anything out of your inheritance, so that you at last could go to India?

James I can provide you with the comfort, that even today Lord Durrisdeer, my father, signed a paper for the sale of a number of our properties, so that I can get lost in India. That would surely make you all happy? I am already on my way!

Macconochie Lord Durrisdeer would never do such a thing.

James He has already done it, persuaded by my brother.

1 Then we must wish you a happy journey, master James. When will you be off?

James Tomorrow, if I only get hold of my money first.

Macconochie Don’t believe a word he is saying. Sir Henry has already given him thousands of pounds, which he transferred to France, and still he stays on.

James Is it forbidden for a true son to stay at home? My father is old and would mind my departure.

2 Is it lady Alison who keeps you here?

James My filial duties to my father, and the obligations I have towards my niece Catherine which her father always neglected.

John Paul It is true that master James dedicates more of his time and care to miss Catherine than her father does.

James Thanks, John Paul. You are my only defendant.

Jessie And I, master James.

James Jessie Brown! What are you doing here?

Jessie What do you think? Having a drink. What else?

James Don’t you belong over there at Solway?

Jessie You can’t always stick to your business.

1 Jessie Brown is now well off thanks to you.

Jessie And that was about time.

James Yes, yes, Jessie Brown, that’s good. Good luck. (leaves) 2 What was the matter with him? What’s his sudden hurry?

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3 I suppose he has to see his smugglers.

Jessie Is he making business with them?

1 You must know about it. Now when he has got money the smugglers will probably get him unnoticed to India. There is after all a price on his head.

2 Wasn’t he pardoned?

1 (intimately) In secret. He is still officially wanted. He must not lose his face, only his head.

2 A born gambler.

1 Yes, a divine gambler. He will never lose except his life.

2 But he never wins either.

1 No, that’s the greatest charm of every gamble.

Jessie Cheers then, fellows! And welcome to Solway! (leaves) 1 What was Jessie Brown’s connection with master James and Sir Henry?

Macconochie Don’t you know? Jessie had a child with master James, and then he disappeared in the war. Sir Henry tried to make amends for it and gave her money, but she just returned all the time. Now they fixed a pub for her in Solway, but she still just can’t keep away.

1 Old sins are never easily forgotten.

Macconochie No, they are as sticky as master James himself and all leeches.

John Paul Stop abusing master James!

Macconochie If you stop abusing Sir Henry.

John Paul Shall we settle the matter?

Macconochie I’ll be glad to! (tucks up his sleeves) 3 Ten shillings on John Paul!

2 The double on Macconochie!

Host Outside, gentlemen, please, outside! (enthusiastic preparations for the fight while all withdraw outside.)

Act III scene 1. Durrisdeer.

(The family at a game of cards.)

James You play unusually badly today, Henry.

Alison Maybe he is just tired.

Lord We are all tired.

James Yes, you are tired of me. But calm down. I will leave as soon as I can, since I have nothing here to do but play silly games of cards with impossible dummies for opponents.

Lord No one forces you out of here, James. We are only happy as long as you remain with us, aren’t we, Henry?

Alison Henry consents by silence as always.

Lord Yes, he is all goodness.

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James I can’t imagine anything more impossible than Henry saying something mean.

Alison James, you are just provoking him by being so jeering.

James Yes, but that’s the very intention.

Henry A card once played stays.

James Yes, now I was careless. I admit it. You brought home your first winnings today, Henry, your first in some weeks.

Lord I am tired. I let you young people continue. (breaks up) Alison (rises) Let me follow you to your room, father-in-law.

Lord Thanks, my daughter. Goodnight, my sons.

James Goodnight, father. Aren’t you wishing your father a good night, Henry?

Henry Good night, father.

James He didn’t hear you.

Henry Yes he did.

James No, he didn’t. Shout it out and let it be heard, Henry.

Henry You have been drinking too much.

James No, it’s you, Henry, who has had too little. You are always dead sober and therefore so boring. Take Lord Durrisdeer’s place, Mackellar. We need an extra dummy. It makes things even better if he also has a club foot.

Henry Jokes at the cost of others’ deformities are never funny, James.

James But they are always efficient, especially with those who feel the deformity. They become aware that they are alive. And we get the pleasure of enjoying the pain of the touched. It’s always amusing to see others blush, so that you don’t have to do it yourself, isn’t it so, Henry? Cut now.

Henry You have been drinking too much.

James It’s only good for me. It would do you some good as well. It would even do some good to the club foot here, so that he might start stumbling a little better.

Have some more, Club Foot.

Mackellar Thank you, but I am neither in the mood for drinking nor gambling.

James Then you missed something in your upbringing. Then you are not educated at all. Henry, you have employed an illiterate as administrator of the estate.

No wonder then that your deficit constantly keeps getting worse.

Henry Mackellar does a great work. Or else we wouldn’t be here today, and you would never have received your money.

James I don’t get them anyway, since I have two professional misers against me.

Henry Three. And it’s not just meanness. It is realism and common sense.

James Who is the third one? Daddy?

Henry The third one is Alison, from whose coffer you have got eight thousand pounds without deserving a single one of them.

James Yes, I know how you managed to turn her against me, although both she and her daughter love me much more than they love you, Henry That’s enough, James.

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James No, it’s never enough. You got my betrothed. You got my inheritance.

And still you will not grant me even enough for me to be gone for good. Your greed is carrying you so far that you won’t even pay me to get permanently rid of me.

Henry (trying desperately to control himself) It’s all up to you, James, if and how long you remain here. We have given you what we could afford, and more than that we cannot afford.

James I would gladly stay here for good if you at least could give me Alison.

Henry That was below the belt, James.

James I know. It was intentional, since you are such a bloody bore. You just keep walking around in your sleep all the time. You can’t even play cards with any attention. The mere sight of you causes despair. You can’t even beget a son. You can’t propagate the family, Henry! You don’t care about your only daughter! Even I could do better with Jessie Brown!

Henry (rising) Enough!

James (rising) No, it’s never enough! You can never get a son, Henry, and least of all with Alison! You are both incompetent and impotent! Ask Alison!

Henry (knocks James vehemently down, who falls backwards over the chairs) James You hit me, Henry!

Henry Yes, I did!

James Do you know what that means?

Henry Of course I know what it means!

Mackellar (in despair) No, gentlemen, no, no!

James Shut up, Club Foot.

Henry You haven’t insulted me as much as you have insulted Alison.

James I waited for this moment far too long. Let’s have settlement once and for all!

Henry It was unavoidable the way you acted!

James I know you are good at foils, but what about swords? I real duel can only be fought with swords!

Henry I have Alison and my honour to defend. You have nothing except your own drunken malice!

James You are done for, Henry! Whatever the outcome, you will lose! If you die I take Alison and the estate and disappear with your family and the whole family fortune abroad! If I die you will have to live with it. What will you then tell father and Alison? How will you explain the murder of your brother, Henry?

Mackellar Gentlemen, don’t let it go that far! Please, come to your senses!

James Listen to that Club Foot! He will be our only second. Show us out with the light, Mackellar. The house is too small for our settlement.

Mackellar No, gentlemen! I must protest! I refuse!

James (with his sword against Mackellar’s throat) Refuse if you dare!

Mackellar (capitulating at once) No, no! Spare me!

James Carry out the candelabrum and light our path, you club-footed pultroon!

Or else there will be two corpses out there!

Henry Do as he says, Mackellar. He insists on it himself.

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(Mackellar shaking takes the candelabrum and shows them out. The walls glide apart, and the duellists stand outside with the shaking Mackellar holding the candelabrum.)

James (while they salute) Don’t stand there like a ridiculous fool, Henry! Will you then do nothing? Shall I take the initiative as usual? Have you forgotten that Alison and I loved each other long before she even became aware of your existence?

Mackellar Gentlemen, for the last time, I beg of you to desist!

James The Club-foot begs us. What do you say, Henry? Shall we say a prayer for him or at last start fighting?

Henry You are drunk, James.

James So much the better! Then you can do without your handicap! Then we are equal!

Henry You have the lights in your eyes. Let’s change sides. I am faster than you.

James So confident in the face of death? As you wish. You asked for the handicap yourself.

(They change sides so that Henry gets the lights in his eyes.)

Mackellar Gentlemen, I beseech you: Desist! This is madness. You are both out of your minds!

James No, Club-Foot, only I am drunk, Henry claims, but he brought the challenge. We have no choice. Alison and my love demand satisfaction.

Henry Let’s get it over with.

(They start fencing exactly simultaneously. It is soon obvious that Henry has the upper hand.)

Mackellar Gentlemen, for the last time, stop, before there is an accident!

Henry The accident has already happened.

James Shut up, Club-Foot, and stick to your candelabrum! You are angry, Henry.

Henry No, James, only embittered. (forces James backwards) (James becomes increasingly desperate and finally grabs Henry’s sword in a desperate effort at a foul attack, but Henry directly reacts and avoids it, James’ attack strikes thin air, he loses his foothold and gets pierced by Henry’s immediate reflex thrust. James falls at once in a large pool of blood.)

Mackellar (in despair) No! No! (rushes forth to examine the body) Henry (shocked) Is he… dead?

Mackellar Sir Henry! He can’t be anything else! The sword pierced him right through!

Henry It must not be true! Don’t wake me up! Tell me I am dreaming!

Mackellar Alas, Sir Henry, if only I could have averted this!

Henry It’s my fault! (runs away from the scene) Mackellar Sir Henry! (runs after him) (James is left alone motionless. Then enter the smugglers.)

1 Damn, he was supposed to wait for us down there!

2 Dare we approach the house?

1 Damn, if he doesn’t come we must fetch him! (They enter.)

2 Perhaps he changed his mind. It has happened before.

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1 In that case he owes us an explanation. Quiet! Someone is lying here!

2 And someone has put a candelabrum by a murdered bloody body…

3 It looks as if a duel had been fought here.

1 By all bloody saints! It’s Mister Bally himself!

2 Is he alive?

1 We have no time to examine him here. Bring the body, and we’ll examine it later! We must sail now with the tide!

3 And he paid for his transport. What does it matter if he is alive or dead, if we only do what we’ve paid for?

1 You are right, pal. Bring him on.

2 Weigh ho! (They lift James, four men, and carry him out.)

3 Why are corpses always heavier than living bodies?

1 Because the living carry their own burdens.

2 When the dead no longer can support them.

4 Keep quiet and let us get away from here before anyone catches us as body snatchers!

(They disappear.)

Mackellar (outside) Sir Henry, pull yourself together! We can’t just leave the body out in the garden!

Henry What have I done! What have I done!

Mackellar Drink this, for God’s sake! (enters with Henry, reeling with a bottle) Henry How could we tell this to my old father? (drinks directly from the bottle) Mackellar (aside) Not that I believe in it myself, but… he might perhaps still be alive, Sir Henry! That’s our only hope!

Henry (stops stunned at the blood pool and the candelabrum) He is not here.

Mackellar What do you mean?

Henry Are you sure, Mackellar, that this was not just a bad dream? My brother’s body isn’t here.

Mackellar But the blood! And the candelabrum! Someone has taken him away!

Henry We murder him, and others steal the body. What is this supposed to mean, Mackellar? This can’t be reality, unless it plays tricks with us in the most infernal ways.

Mackellar Even the swords are left. We can’t explain away reality, Sir Henry! (the sound of oars is heard from a boat outside the scene) The smugglers! It must be the smugglers!

Henry But why would the smugglers have stolen a dead body from us?

Mackellar He must have been alive! And he must have planned his departure just for tonight! That’s why he was so rude today! He knew it was the last time!

Henry In that case we are saved. We could tell Alison and father that James suddenly departed. They would accept it.

Alison (has unnoticedly come out in a big shawl) What would we have accepted, Henry?

That you have murdered James?

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Henry Alison! It was not intended! The whole duel was a mistake! But we were borth inebriated! Oh, Alison! (embraces her, crying) Mackellar What do you know and what do you think, lady Alison?

Alison (while soothing the crying Henry) I heard voices. I didn’t dare to go down. I thought it was one of those quarrels. Then everything went dead quiet. Then I heard the clashes of swords here outside. Then I dared do even less. I went down into a corner for myself and cried and wept like a child with my hands to my ears, because I couldn’t stand hearing what was going on. Then everything went dead quiet again.

Then I heard the two of you coming up. Henry was all beside himself. Then I understood everything. Now I am here. But where is James?

Mackellar That’s what we all are wondering.

Henry It’s my fault, Alison! Everything is my fault!

Alison Stop torturing yourself like a child, Henry! James went too far and perhaps was taught an important lesson, if he survived. If the smugglers have taken care of him he must have survived.

Henry You give us hope, Alison.

Lord What is going on here? (He has come out unnoticed, is magnificent in his perfect self control.)

Mackellar Lord Durrisdeer, your sons have fought a duel after master James insulted Sir Henry’s wife. Master James was badly wounded, and we thought he was dead, but now he has left. We believe that he misbehaved on purpose in creating an outrageous scene because he had planned to leave with the smugglers tonight.

Lord It fits. I believe you are right, Mr Mackellar. But we must eliminate all traces. This must not come out. We have the good standing and position of the family to think of.

Henry (turns to the Lord to cry his heart out) Can you forgive me, father?

Lord Henry, the way he went on, this was bound to happen sooner or later.

There is a limit to all pains. We just have to hope that he survived and will manage.

Alison He has gambled with death before and won.

Mackellar Exactly.

Lord Come up to the house. We must wash out all traces of blood and tell the people that he suddently went off. They will accept it.

Henry And Katherine?

Lord She never needs to know.

Alison Until James comes back.

Mackellar (stupidly) Comes back?

Alison Yes, he always comes back.

Henry Alison is right. We never got rid of him dead or alive. Even death itself has cheated us of him. He always comes back.

Lord Henry, you have done enough for today. Alison, take care of him.

Alison Think of the family, Henry, the ones you have to live for.

Henry Yes, Alison. (lets Alison bring him out) Lord Come, Mackellar. (leaves with Mackellar.)

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(Only the candelabrums are left by the blood.)

Henry The lights! Don’t leave the candelabrums by the grave!

Lord (to Alison) He is overwrought.

Alison Bring in the lights, Mackellar.

Henry We should have taken in the lights directly after we had killed him.

Lord He is not dead, Henry. He lives.

Henry Yes, that’s what I am telling you! He cannot die, although I killed him, my own brother! (breaks down again) Alison Come, Henry. You need to go to bed.

Mackellar He has a fever.

Alison No wonder.

Lord We all need to go to bed.

(They walk up with the sobbing and shaking Henry.)

Scene 2. The Inn. 1 What do you think actually happened?

2 We shall never know what really happens in that family.

3 We only have what we know to stick to. The lord has lost his grain and is maybe dying. He has had a shock. Henry lies in bed in constant delirium and fever since more than a month and is occasionally deranged. He has had a shock. The heir has vanished without a trace, but there are whispers about traces of blood here and there.

1 Everything points to some violent settlement.

2 Here is John Paul.

3 He has been dejected ever since the heir disappeared.

1 What news, John Paul?

John Paul Nothing new.

2 How is Lord Durrisdeer and his son?

John Paul No change.

3 He has been like that ever since that night when the smugglers went off with the heir of Ballantrae’s body.

John Paul (angry) He is not dead!

1 Don’t provoke him.

3 No, everyone says so. Still he is hardly alive either. And the doctor says that he will probably never come back here alive.

2 The doctor knows more than most.

1 And much more than he dares to talk about. (enter the doctor) 3 Talking about ghosts…

1 Good morning, doctor! What news about the patients?

Doctor Nothing new.

2 What really happened that night?

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Doctor Do you wish to know what I really think?

1 We are dying to hear it.

Doctor The heir went away.

2 Is that all?

Doctor Technically, yes. But there were complications. For some reason there was a row in the house, and the brothers started fighting. Perhaps the heir insulted Henry once too much. Perhaps they quarrelled about Alison. We shall never know.

But the heir got away alive. I heard that from a secure source.

Jessie Brown (entering) Anyone buy me a drink?

Doctor Here is my secure source.

1 Certainly, Jessie Brown!

2 What will you have?

3 Gin, whisky or brandy?

Jessie Thank you, I can take all three.

1 What do you know about what happened that night, Jessie Brown?

Jessie Alack, I lost my golden boy! The smugglers took him away!

2 Alive or dead?

Jessie Alive of course! He almost bled to death!

3 How do you know?

Jessie I know the smugglers, damn it, don’t I? Doctor Tell us what you know, Jessie, and you will make the customers happy.

Jessie My golden boy was going away that night, but then he got into a fight.

The smugglers found him bleeding to death in the garden. On board the ship he woke up and swore and was like mad. The smugglers wanted to know what had happened, but he refused to talk about it. He was just angry and mad, and so it was all the way to France.

1 Then we shall never know anything.

2 Until he comes back.

3 And he will come back.

Doctor He always comes back. That’s what Henry repeats every day in his bed on Durrisdeer. No one is more certain of it than he.

Jessie Yes, he always comes back, but he will never more come back to me, the golden prince.

John Paul Don’t be too sure of that. He always comes back to us all.

1 Dead or alive.

John Paul No, only alive.

1 Shall we bet on it?

John Paul I bet we shall never see him in a coffin here in Scotland.

1 That’s another matter. He doesn’t fit into a coffin.

John Paul Then there is no bet.

1 I bet that we shall both survive both the heir and his brother.

John Paul And who in that case will be the first to die?

1 Master James.

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John Paul 1 Jessie Doctor

Sir Henry.

Done.

Master James will never die as long as he lives.

That hypothesis I don’t think anyone of us will question, Jessie Brown.

Scene 3. Henry’s bedroom.

Alison How is he?

Mackellar As usual.

Alison No change for the better?

Mackellar He isn’t delirious any more and has started recognizing me.

Alsion Then I must see him.

Mackellar I am afraid, lady Alison, that he will not recognize you.

Alison I will take that risk.

Mackellar He is very tense, and something has broken inside him, the doctor says.

He should not be exposed to anything that could upset him.

Alison He was always over-sensitive. I know my husband, Mackellar. I am now his mother, and I will only touch him with silk and cotton gloves.

Mackellar Yes, lady. (lets Alison in) Henry (in bed) How is my father, Mackellar?

Mackellar Better than you.

Alison Henry, I think the crisis is finally over.

Henry What crisis? What is she speaking of, Mackellar?

Mackellar Your own, I think. You can at last make conversation again.

Henry No, I will never get normal again, not as long as my brother lives. When he dies I will die, not before.

Alison Now he is delirious again.

Henry No, I am not at all delirious. Tell her that I am not delirious, Mackellar. I am just realistic. I have never been clearer in my mind. I am sorry, Alison, that I murdered your eternal lover!

Alison He was not my lover! And he is not dead!

Henry There, now I have done exactly what I didn’t want to. I have hurt you.

But I wanted to kill him, Alison! And I really regret that I didn’t succeed in killing him, because now we shall never be rid of him!

Lord (coming in) How is the patient?

Alison At least he now recognizes us.

Lord Then he will recover.

Henry Father, forgive me for having murdered your favourite son!

Lord Henry, you are wandering in your mind. Take it easy. Don’t talk rubbish. You must get well first of all.

Henry (to Mackellar) Then you must show me where he lies buried, so that I myself can believe he is dead.

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Alison Pardon him, father. He doesn’t know what he is saying. He is better, but he is still far from well.

Lord Yes, so I notice. I had better leave. (stumbles out) Alison Help him, Mackellar.

Henry Mackellar, come back!

Alison (sits down with Henry and holds him) He is your only friend, Henry. I am now always on your side. We have learned everything about James’ treason and double cross against prince Charlie. He was actually the one who staged the ultimate fall of the house of Stuart. He pretended to serve bonnie prince Charlie only to direct his defeat at Culloden. That’s why he was pardoned by the King. But don’t worry. We have destroyed all his letters. The family honour is saved. And there are more than you who regret that your brother didn’t die when he should.

Henry Do you mean that you are on my side, Alison?

Alison I always was.

Henry Even against James?

Alison Yes, even against James.

Henry (hugs her closer to himself) Oh, Alison! At last I have won you!

Alison No, you did it long ago, but you haven’t known about it.

Henry Then I could even get well with a clear conscience!

Alison Yes, Henry, you can. Live for our family. Become our own and live happily for your children and their mother.

Henry O, Alison! You make me cry of happiness!

Alison That’s intended, my love. You need it.

(He cries out in her bosom. She is also touched and cries quietly.)

Scene 4. An odd house in India.

(James in Indian clothing and Secundra Dass sitting on the floor having tea, when some noise reaches them from outside to disturb them.)

James Someone is trying to get in.

Dass No. They are two.

James I think you are right.

Burke (outside) Where the devil are we now then?

His friend (sepoy) What does it matter? We got rid of our persecutors.

James I know that man’s voice. He must not recognize me.

Dass Sahib don’t know English.

James No, Sahib don’t know English.

Sepoy (outside) I know that house. It belongs to an Englishman.

Burke An Englishman? God damn it! What luck! Then perhaps he will receive us.

Sepoy That remains to be seen. (They enter.)

Sorry for intruding, but my lord is an Englishman and would enjoy meeting a countryman.

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Burke But by God, it’s Ballantrae! What damned luck! Jamie Boy! How is it? Do you remember your old fellow soldier Francis Burke from the journey to America?

Dass (while James remains motionless) Sorry, but Sahib does not know English.

Burke He lies! What fake show is this? Don’t you think I recognize another Scotsman in India? Colonel Francis Burke! Tell him that I am colonel Francis Burke!

Dass Sahib does not understand English. But he would like to know how you break into his garden.

Burke Ballantrae, are you impertinent enough to deny me to my face?

Dass (with a friendly smile) Sahib no speak English. But he would like to know how you came in his garden.

Burke Then tell him, that we are two of a hell honest soldiers who he never heard anything about who would be grateful for some food and a bed to sleep in, if he is honest enough to accept honest soldiers who fought under the same banner as he!

Dass (still patiently smiling) You not answer question. How you enter garden?

Burke So, he is asking for trouble, that haughty snob of a sahib! I will then make him confess his true colours! (draws his sword) Dass (shows a loaded gun)(with the same friendly smile) Sahib like better you go away.

Sepoy (pulling Burke’s arm) Come, colonel. We have no business here. If he fires a shot we will be hanged immediately.

Burke (angry) Tell your damned snob of a sahib that I thought better of him! Tell him, that he is no longer a decent fellow!

James (whispers with Dass) Dass Sahib wonders if you are Irish.

Burke What the devil does he mean?

Dass He says that he has done with you. He asks you to greet your friend Mackellar.

Burke Ballantrae, what kind of a cursed Scottish joke is this? We know who we are, we shared everything in America, and then here you behave like a pig. What’s the meaning?

James (whispers with Dass) Dass He asks you to contact Mr Mackellar. Mr Mackellar knows everything.

You know nothing. Sahib has done with you.

James (politely bowing to Burke as a farewell with his hands together for a greeting) Burke Tell your masquerading sahib that I hope to see him next time unmasked! Come, comrade! We leave this lost Scotsman to his destiny! (leaves with the sepoy) Dass (to James when they are gone) Who was he?

James An adventurer, a whiff of wind from the past, as soon gone as arrived and already forgotten.

Dass When do we go to England?

James Soon, Secundra Dass, soon.

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Act IV scene 1. Durrisdeer.

(A cautious knock. John Paul sneaks through the house, looks severel times about himself and then opens rhe door.)

James John Paul, I knew that I could trust you.

John Paul Hush, master James! If anyone knows that I opened for you I will get fired!

James I don’t think so after your thirty years of service. That’s why I wrote in good time and warned you, for I knew no one else would open to us. May I present Mr Secundra Dass, my Indian butler.

John Paul Pleased to meet you, Mr – Dass?

James He neither talks nor understands English.

John Paul But come in and make yourselves at home. I had better go back to bed, so that I will not be suspected.

James You only served your family, John Paul.

John Paul I know, but the lord is dead, and Sir Henry is lord now, and that’s a different situation.

James Just leave it to us.

John Paul Thank you. Then I entrust the entire battlefield to you. (retires and vanishes) James All our servants were always cowards, but John Paul actually risked his life for my sake this time. I hope he will survive. Well, Secundra Dass, we are at home. Make yourself at home. Lend your ears everywhere, follow everything that happens, guard all as your enemies, for there is no one here who wishes us well. I trust your absolute silence except with me, for remember, that no one must suspect that you know English. That’s our only advantage.

Dass Yes, Sahib. (Mackellar suddenly enters.)

James What about that! The first one to welcome us back is even Mr Ephraim Mackellar!

Mackellar I felt some mischief in the air when I woke up today. No one welcomes you back, Ballantrae, and you know that very well. But what kind of a thoroughly covered lady is this?

James May I present my Indian butler Secundra Dass. He neither talks nor understands English but is the more faithful and efficient as a deafmute. It’s the same deal that still counts, Mackellar. You will be rid of me as soon as I get money.

Mackellar You will have no money.

James Then we stay here.

Mackellar You have the right to do so as a son in the house. But you have no other rights.

James That’s for my brother to decide.

Mackellar Yes. Henry (opens the door) I heard voices.

James Welcome back I say in your place, Henry, for you will hardly say it.

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Henry Two more covers for breakfast, Mackellar. Then I wish to speak with John Paul.

Mackellar He is asleep.

Henry No, he is not. (Mackellar leaves.)

You are welcome home to your father’s house, James, but you have nothing here to get.

James Except money.

Henry You will have no money.

James Then I stay here.

Henry No one can stop you from that.

James But I haven’t presented my butler Secundra Dass from India.

Henry Even he is welcome as your servant.

James How is Alison?

Henry Don’t mention her name.

James I heard you had a son. He should be around nine now.

Henry Yes, almost ten, as many years as you have been away.

James I came back because I ran out of money.

Henry You should have kept them better.

Mackellar (in with John Paul) John Paul, Sir. Henry That’s good, Mackellar. Serve breakfast and let my brother and his ghost get something to eat. They have a long journey behind them.

Mackellar If you follow me, gentlemen. (leaves with James and Secundra Dass.)

Henry John Paul, you are dismissed.

John Paul After thirty years as servant in your father’s house?

Henry You had no authority to let in my brother.

John Paul But he is your brother!

Henry Don’t remind me of it! You are finished! You may continue having wages, but never come back to Durrisdeer!

John Paul (broken) Yes, Sir. (leaves) Henry We can’t stay here. We must get away. Or else I will break down. Is this what my life has turned into for the worse: a constant escape in terror of my monstrous brother? Yes, that’s what I have been reduced to by his superiority and irresponsibility: a refugee from my own destiny. But it will only be a question of time before it catches up with me. (leaves. James is heard laughing heartily from another room.)

Scene 2. The Inn. 1 2 3 4

Well, John Paul, how does it feel to be thrown out? (general merriment) What is your reward now for your long loyalty to the heir of Ballantrae?

Don’t jest with him. He has happened to a calamity. (general merriment) So the deceased came back once again, John Paul, for which time in order?

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John Paul You may say whatever about them, but it’s an honest family. I still get my wages although I am fired.

1 Let me then immediately apply for service, and I will quit tomorrow!

2 No, it isn’t as funny as that. Remember that John Paul got the sack after thirty years!

3 Then at least he deserved the pension he now gets!

4 Well, John Paul, is master James still your idol although he is now prisoner in his own house without a penny left of his fortune?

John Paul The new lord Henry had a crackdown when the heir came home and moved abroad only a few weeks later just to get rid of his bad conscience for the heir’s sake, but he will never escape it.

Macconochie You are lying as usual as the vain lier you are, John Paul! Lord Henry has left all Durrisdeer to master James and moved abroad only to be left in peace from him with his wife Alison and their two children! I should know, because I am still employed in the family’s service!

John Paul You damned braggart and obsequíous coward, who all your life only wagged your tail to Sir Henry and abused the only rightful heir!

Doctor You are wrong, both of you. The Durrisdeer family only moved abroad on account of lord Henry’s health.

1 Where did you get that, doctor?

Doctor Stupid question. Am I not their family doctor? Didn’t I deliver their children? Have I not kept an eye on lord Henry’s fevers ever since he was a child? It was lady Alison who insisted on their moving abroad. Lord Henry was himself against it.

John Paul Where have they gone then?

Macconochie That you would really like to know, John Paul, so that you then could tell it to your heir, so that he then could go on persecuting his brother and his family until death!

Doctor No one knows where they have gone, not even I myself. It’s a Scottish state secret.

1 Then no one will ever know about it.

2 Not even master James.

John Paul I am sure Mackellar knows.

Doctor Yes, and their lawyer Carlyle, but no one else. And they can keep secrets.

3 The spy then? That Hindu?

Macconochie I know everything about him. He is master James’ butler, and he could never have got anyone more fitting. He neither knows nor understands English.

3 What is he doing here then?

1 Serving master James.

John Paul The story isn’t over yet, gentlemen. The heir always comes back.

1 But you are gone.

2 For good.

3 Accept it, John Paul.

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Macconochie While I am still here to help Mr Mackellar safeguard lord Henry’s interests. And your heir soon has no teeth left, John Paul. He will soon be like a mummy himself.

John Paul Don’t be so sure, Macconochie. No one ever underestimated the heir unpunished. A cat’s claws are never consumed. (leaves) 1 John Paul is finished.

2 Yes, since he is on a pension.

3 But no happy pensioner.

1 He has to accept it.

Macconochie Now when he is gone, a drink to lord Henry!

Doctor Yes, wherever he is. (shares) All (sharing) Cheers! Cheers! (They drink.)

Scene 3. Durrisdeer.

James Come now, Mackellar, and have a seat here by the fire with me and be a little social. Don’t just stand there like a fool. I am not dangerous. Am I not just an ordinary mortal human being?

Mackellar There have been times when it was doubted, especially after your last disappearance.

James Yes, yes, a small incident. It didn’t quite work out according to plans. I didn’t get all my baggage with me, so that you could lay your hands on all my correspondence and show Alison and Henry what a villain I had been. It was most inconsiderate of me. You should never have known, because you would never have understood it anyway. I am just a survivor, Mackellar. I am a born gambler, and I love taking risks, but I always survive. We have a good bottle of wine here tonight, Mackellar. Come now and sit down like a good host and take care of your unwelcome guest. There should be some more question marks for you to straighten out?

Mackellar (takes a seat) We tried afterwards to reconstruct how it all really happened that evening when you should have died. Correct me if I am wrong. You had planned your departure for that evening, but the unfortunate duel came between and didn’t quite work out as you had planned.

James Quite correct. At most I had desired to hurt Henry. I never wanted to kill him.

Mackellar Still you tried to kill him. You grabbed hold of his sword and tried in a desperate attack to kill him. Your hand was bleeding on the inside afterwards. You can’t deny it.

James I was hard pressed. Henry tried to kill me.

Mackellar By your dirty trick he almost succeeded. We thought he had succeeded.

James And he was quite beside himself afterwards and was ill for months, poor man, for my sake. Lucky for me that I went away.

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Mackellar You take everything so easy.

James Nothing is serious in life, Mackellar. Everything is worthless rubbish.

Everything is just a passing whiff of wind. You and Henry are pedants, and therefore you take everything so seriously and become such bores and don’t see beyond the tips of your noses, while I have fought together with bonnie prince Charlie, lived with pirates, explored the unknown wilderness of America and enjoyed myself in India. What have you done? You have been sitting at home being afraid of me.

Concerning America I believe you would like to follow me there. I reserved an extra ticket.

Mackellar America?

James Yes, New York. I thought of paying my brother a visit. Don’t be shocked now, Mackellar. I was bound to find it out sooner or later. It took me longer time than expected, but I did have time to wait out your vain secrecy…

Mackellar Leave them alone, master James. They don’t want to have you.

James I should think so, after all the worries I caused them and how they always treated me wrong. But I have business in America. What would be more proper than to pass them by on the way?

Mackellar Business in America? Will you start intriguing there like you acted intriguingly against bonnie prince Charlie behind his back?

James You only think the worst of me, Mackellar. Bonnie prince Charlie was an immature child who was lead by others to his own destruction.

Mackellar And you among them.

James No, I was just an observer taking part in the adventure. I helped him have some fun as long as he could. And since I knew Henry would be mean against me I assured myself of extra income from him. And since the crusade of the prince was predestined to fail, I had as a survivor to achieve some good standing with the crown. It was all very simple.

Mackellar You always have an explanantion to everything and therefore get away with everything.

James It’s my skill and profession. And in America I have a treasure buried in the mountains. If I only find it, Henry will never again have to worry about my support.

Mackellar Then I hope you find it.

James I hope so too. That would be the best thing for all. Will you join us?

Mackellar Of course, to protect Sir Henry’s interests.

James I thought so. Then you just have to start packing. We go tomorrow to Glasgow.

Mackellar Give me just a few days to straighten out the affairs of the estate.

James Of course, Mackellar, of course! (Mackellar breaks up.) And he had only one glass. What a bore! He really needs to get out in the world. (drinks and contemplates the fire, just like the lord used to do.)

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Scene 4. On board the Nonesuch (Heavy seas in full storm. Enter Mackellar staggering and leaning over the rail in an unmistakable urge of nature.)

James (entering camly, as if he had been a sailor all his life) Take it easy, Mackellar. It will pass.

Mackellar It hasn’t passed yet through all the voyage.

James You must have patience. Patience is everything, Mackellar. I thought you knew that. (settles down peacefully on the most exposed part of the deck where the rail is missing.)

Mackellar You shouldn’t sit there on such a perilous spot, master James. You could get dipped.

James Thanks for your kind concern, Mackellar, but it is actually my own concern where I sit. If I get dipped it will be on my own responsibility and not on yours. Unlike ordinary mortals, I never had the slightest fear of death, strange enough. On the contrary, I laughed at it and challenged it. I know what you think, Mackellar. It’s a great misfortune that I cannot die easily.

Mackellar I never had such godless thoughts, master James.

James Don’t try to fool me and don’t dissemble. Didn’t you stand the other day praying loudly in your imagined loneliness to God that you and I would die here in the storm together just to allow Henry and his family a life in peace?

Mackellar You have been spying! You have been eavesdropping!

James Not at all. Don’t you know the expression ’God sees and hears everything’? And aren’t you godfearing and read the Bible? You shouldn’t devote yourself to such impious prayers, Mackellar, if you fear God. Mackellar Don’t you ever fear God? James I fear nothing, Mackellar. Fear, no matter of what kind, is always superstition – nothing else. I don’t deny God’s existence, but neither do I have any superstitious prayers to him. I leave him alone in peace, and in return he leaves me in peace. I call that rationalism. No one ever suffered from rationalism. On the contrary.

But the ridiculous superstition called fear, Mackellar – there’s the origin of all evil that there ever was in the world.

Mackellar If you leave God in peace, why can’t you leave your brother in peace?

James Because my brother and I are involved in a game which none of us intends to give up until one of us or both are dead. We grew up together, and I was to inherit the estate and have Alison for a wife. It was actually decided beforehand, Mackellar, and the matter was obvious as a final settlement from the beginning. Then there was the problem with bonnie prince Charlie. All Scotland joined him although he had no chance, for the house of Stuart was the only legitimate royal house of England and Scotland. That was self-evident. But prince Charlie’s cause was doomed. I didn’t want to sacrifice my brother on that altar. If he had joined the war as he wished he would have fallen as a hero, no one would have thanked him for it, and his life would have been wasted. I figured I had better chances to manage and survive, since I had resources of slyness and cleverness which Henry never had.

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Mackellar You wished to sacrifice yourself for Henry?

James I wanted to save his life and manage my own rather than see Henry get lost. Was it wrong?

Mackellar Thereby you forfeited your position and Alison.

James Yes, but I won, for I managed, while Henry never would have managed.

For having saved us both I desired some thanks for a compensation – some money to amuse myself and access to Alison and her family, that I had sacrificed. Was it wrong?

Mackellar You could talk the devil himself over to your side.

James That’s not necessary. He is already on my side.

Mackellar Then you are the devil.

James No, Mackellar. I am only human. Hate me as much as you want, but let me at least be human.

Mackellar I could here and now kick you over board, and Henry’s family would be saved.

James Why don’t you do it?

Mackellar Fortunately it’s a long way from thought to action. I can be slow in thoughts, but I never did anything improper in my service of the house of Durrisdeer.

James The incredible pedantry of your dried up faithfulness transcends all limits of your own boring dullness, Mackellar. Did you never enjoy yourself in your life?

Mackellar Lady Alison always used to call me an old maid.

James That’s exactly what you are, Mackellar! Only the sex is missing. You never had any change in your mortally boring routines. I shall tell you something.

(Suddenly the storm disappears, and everything grows still and quiet.

Suddenly the most terrifying pirates imaginable come entering over the rails with captain ”Blackbeard” Teach as their terrifying leader.)

Teach Let’s take them, boys, and scalp them all alive! Let those few who survive walk the plank! On to them and cut off the heads, all of them! Those who are stupid enough to survive may dance in the yard-arms!

James Quiet, captain Teach! The ship is already in our hands with all the money and cargo! Wouldn’t it be wise to spare those who wish to join us? Our crew is not complete, and we would sail better and faster with a few extra qualified mates on board!

Teach By my lost soul if the cursed poisonous snake can’t beat some sense into our heads! Stop the executions! Don’t hang them high in the yard-arms yet!

Pirate 1 But how the devil could we trust slave sailors enlisted by force who only will plan revenge?

Pirate 2 Hang them in the yard-arms!

3 Let them all walk the plank!

4 The sea needs more meat for the sharks!

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Teach (to James) What do you say to that, you sly fox of a devil? If they revenge themselves you will be the first to be hanged – by us!

James I will be responsible that they behave and remain loyal. They are all motivated to cooperate, for besides rescuing their lives they will be better paid than as sailors.

1 Would we share?

2 Never in my life!

3 He is trying to be smart! Throw him over board!

James (to the captured and bound sailors) Only you can save yourselves if you promise to cooperate.

Mate Only until we reach land.

1 Only until they reach land, he says! (merriment) 2 That means never! (laughter) 3 They have promised to cooperate – until they reach land! (laughter) James Will you stand by your word – to loyally cooperate as long as we are at sea?

Mate (with the consent of the other sailors) Yes. James Captain Teach, you have got an extra crew for nothing who can help you chase and plunder even warships. Do you accept this extra benefit or will you throw it overboard! The choice is yours.

Teach By all the devils in hell, this is the sliest of them all! And we have him on our side! We can loot all the Atlantic from the Caribbean to New York! No one will be safe from us! We will sink all ships sailing on the Atlantic except our own! The devil dressed here in Scottish nobility makes us invulnerable! He brings luck! To the next job! Now we will chase and plunder every armed ship that dares to show itself in our way! Let those who wish join us! Let all the others walk the plank! Execute at once! We have work to do!

(The pirates get active and swarm around in great commotion and loudness and then disappear.)

(We are back at the storm and heavy seas.)

James That was my career as quarter master under a pirate captain. Cerainly we captured and plundered ships and were the worst killers of the Atlantic, but I tried to save all the lives I could and succeeded with a number. Every time I risked my own life. Well, Mackellar. What is right in this business according to you as a biblical moral expert? According to the law I should be hanged as a pirate. But I was never voluntarily a pirate, and as such I saved lives that otherwise would have been lost. But no law will take that in consideration. Is it fair? Could you really judge me?

Mackellar Not fair.

James No, that’s the problem. Everything is both good and evil. The consistent justice is never fair in its onesidedness. (touches his arm) So wait to condemn me after I am dead.

Mackellar Still I once more beg you to leave lord Henry’s family in peace.

James We are brothers. His family is my family. To exclude me from it is therefore cruel. I am only a human being and have no other family. Don’t refuse me

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my human rights, Mackellar. Those are the only rights I have, because my brother took all the others.

Mackellar I should have pushed you overboard anyway for your own sake.

James Do it, Mackellar, do it! My brother would only be glad!

Mackellar You are impossible, master James. (leaves) James (alone) I know. That’s my destiny.

Scene 5. In Henry’s garden in New England.

(Henry stands talking with the mayor and other high officials for New England, when Mackellar arrives.)

Henry Welcome, Mackellar! This is my most trusted friend and administrator in Scotland since many years, Ephraim Mackellar. Meet our mayor, Mackellar, and a few other leading men of New England.

Mackellar It’s a pleasure to see lord Durrisdeer in so good company, gentlemen!

But lord Henry, aren’t you surprised to see me?

Henry Your reputation reached here before you, Mackellar. Many ships have passed Nonesuch on the way. I expected you long ago. We had actually ceased to believe that you would come, for Nonesuch was no good ship, and the Atlantic has been very stormy the last weeks.

Mackellar It would have been better if we had been lying on the bottom of the sea.

Henry Why so? I would rather still have you, Mackellar, even if it also imported my brother, than to have lost both of you. – But here he is now.

James (enters with dignity, well dressed with a promenade sword) Henry What ill winds have brought you here, James? Your bad reputation has reached New England before you.

James (is taken aback by the unexpected attack) Mylord could at least show some politeness.

Henry I shall be absolutely frank with you, James. At home we could keep up appearances, but it’s not possible here. I don’t want to have anything to do with you.

You have already ruined me and taken almost everything I had got, like you also ruined our father and broke his heart. Your crimes cannot be reached by the law, but my friend the governor here has promised to protect my family. If you are caught with one single word to anyone of my family the law will make you suffer for it.

James Your furious welcome greeting surprises me, Henry. I assume that the gentlemen here are completely ignorant of our history, that I am the right lord Durrisdeer, that you are just my younger brother and that you usurped my position without right. They don’t know what a thief, perjurer and faithless brother you are.

Mackellar He lies, gentlemen, he lies! He is just bluffing! He is just a sly deceiver!

Governor I know who he is. He is just a wolf in sheep’s clothing and a damned well dressed scoundrel! You have been here in America before, Mr Ballantrae, and on that path left behind a bloody track of vanished bodies. You left here a rich man but not with your own money. It’s just by consideration of your relatives and my high

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esteem of my friend lord Durrisdeer here that I don’t immediately proceed against you with law measures, Ballantrae.

James My brother, you seem to have poisoned the whole country in advance just to make way for me here.

Henry Don’t pretend, James. I only want to protect myself against slander and my home against your intrusion. If you want to, I will immediately pay for your journey back to Scotland. If you prefer staying here, I will give you an allowance so that you can manage but not more. But my condition must then be that you will have no contact with any of us.

James You greet me with only improper insults, but I accept your alimony and will stay on here until your shameless spreading of rumours about me has been replaced by the truth.

Henry You can always become an honourable man if you start working with your hands.

James And you can never become an honourable man, Henry, since you can never work with your hands, since you usurped your title of lord. I apologize, gentlemen, that we accidentally happened to get you mixed up in our family differences. It wouldn’t necessarily have happened if my brother had received me in a different way.

Governor You are a villain, Ballantrae, and all the world knows it.

James Only prejudice condemns someone to villainy without having taking all the evidence into consideration. No one is a villain all through without any redeeming features. Even the highest or worst devil once had angel’s wings which he in spite of all was allowed to keep. Don’t condemn me, gentlemen, but forbear with my younger brother’s pitiable lack of self control. (walks out) Governor A perfect villain, on my honour.

Henry He will have his maintenance. I stand by my word.

Mackellar All are on your side, lord Henry.

Henry I know. And I am the only one standing on his, and I will do so until I die. (leaves) Governor A strange brotherly relationship. You seem to know a great deal about the matter, Mr Mackellar.

Mackellar I have it all carefully documented.

Governor You are welcome to tell us about it, so that we can be prepared, if it would evolve into an American civil war.

Mackellar No risk, gentlemen, but I will be glad to keep you informed about the main structure of this continuous drama of destiny.

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Act V scene 1.

(John Mountain with the band of rogues.)

Mountain The set-up is clear, boys! We have the rich snob’s assets like knit up in a sack! All we need to do is to hang along, keep smiling, fix him when he has fixed the treasure, bury him and grab the treasure!

Villain 1 John Mountain, you braggart, you are always so cocksure of your cause that you burst of self-complacency! What about the risks then? We have a winter ahead, and it’s cold up there, and the Indians are loose and will take anyone’s scalp as long as he is white.

Mountain That’s why we are such a qualified gang, you bungler! If we only stick together nothing can harm us, not even scalp-crazy Indians, who only dare to steal upon one or other old lonely trapper! The enterprise is foolproof, if we only stick together!

Villain 2 What are your warrants?

Mountain We don’t apply warrants, Gin-Sandy, and you know it very well! But we have odds, and they are overwhelming at our advantage! We have a vain fop for an expedition leader, a naïve and haughty Scotsman who has no idea of what we have in mind. He is entirely at our mercy.

Villain 3 What about his ghost companion, who follows him like a shadow?

Mountain A poor worthless Hindu, who doesn’t even know English. The fact that he has such a servant tells everything about him: he couldn’t have had anyone worse, and he never managed to get any better. But the best of all (intimately) is captain Harris.

The villains Captain Harris?

Mountain Yes, I got him here. He will explain himself the perfect set-up. Here he is.

Welcome, captain Harris!

Harris (a wretched alcoholic of a failed captain) A pleasure to do business with you, gentlemen! We have practically secured the beast deal in America. All we need to do is not to lose our grip.

1 Captain Harris, I know you. You are a a criminal whiskey captain who would gladly commit any crimes if you can be sure of getting away with it. Just to have anything to do with you is to get mixed up in dirty business. What exactly is on your mind?

Harris We have a foolproof deal and two warrants of it, both rich as goblins and even brothers. They want to destroy each other. We let them do it and collect the loot.

2 Details, captain Harris, details!

Harris It’s my honour to on John Mountain’s invitation present the party. We have been unusually lucky. This is how it happened. Don’t interrupt me now, Robber-Jack and Liquor-Paddy, but try to listen, so that you get the story! So, this fool from Scotland, who calls himself the heir of Ballantrae, starts looking for people for an expedition up the mountains. What bungler is organizing such foolery before winter? I ask myself. The answer was evident: he had no clean linen. He has been up

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the mountains before and done away with a lot of companions and buried a treasure after a weird career as a pirate. I added two and two. He wants to collect his treasure and be alone when he digs it up.

Then his brother enters the picture, the so called lord of Durrisdeer, mean like a miser, a Scotsman of the very worst kind, petty with a short fuse, who even yells at his own most trusted servant, a conceited idiot called Mackellar. You have to look out for him, for he is a regular vulture. Well, that whiskey lord comes to me with a bottle and asks me to fix that Ballantrae expedition, so that he never returns from it alive. He tells me everything about that treasure, which his brother will dig up. And he pays me to fix the expedition. So we get double pay, gentlemen, both from our employer Ballantrae and his brother to obstruct the enterprise and his life. For a reward we get the treasure. What about that? (has a drink) Mountain Could it get better, boys? Robber-Jack? Gin-Sandy? Liquor-Paddy?

Shotgun Willy? Strangling Stanley? Hale Morgan? Could anyone refuse?

Harris I only hear a silence of protests.

Villain 1 John Mountain and captain Harris, we are on. We take the risk with the weather, but no corpses need hiding up there. Whatever happens, the Indians will be blamed.

Mountain Then everyone is with us? (general acclaim) Harris Then it is my honour to have you all for a drink. One round for all of you, gentlemen! To the death of our employer, and for his money!

(All cheer and raise their glasses in unanimous agreement.)

Scene 2.

Mackellar (wakes. Noise outside.) Now he is back home drunk again. However will this end?

Henry (outside, singing out of tune) And over his dead and naked bones of yore The cold eternal wind will blow for evermore. (stumbles and falls) Mackellar It’s worse than usual today.

Henry (has evidently got on his feet and is singing again) And over his dead and naked bones of yore The cold eternal wind will blow for evermore. (stumbles again. Reaches the door and enters with some difficulty.) (talks thick) Mackellar, are you still up?

Mackellar For God’s sake, mylord, control yourself and don’t wake up the entire house! Lady Alison is asleep and the children too! Have you been with that captain Harris now again?

Henry Mackellar, I have killed him.

Mackellar Have you killed captain Harris?

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Henry No, no, no, no, no! The other one!

Mackellar What other one?

Henry Ballantrae, my brother!

Mackellar You are lost in your mind, mylord.

Henry No, I have actually killed him. Nothing can save him any more, not even I. Mackellar You haven’t been yourself for weeks, mylord.

Henry I know. Nothing can turn to normal again.

Mackellar But what has happened? What has so brought you down the last month?

You sat locked up in your room crying for a whole week in despair!

Henry Poor Mackellar. You are my nurse. Well, comfort me then if you can. (takes out a crumpled article from his inner pocket) Mackellar What is this?

Henry News from Scotland.

Mackellar No, this is just worthless gossip press!

Henry Read!

Mackellar (reads out) ”It has come to our knowledge, that even the heir of Ballantrae will be restored to his title in spite of his notorious double play with shameful intrigues in both Scotland and France. But his brother lord Durrisdeer appears not to have been any better concerning political opportunism, and his son is now likely to lose his rights as heir of Ballantrae. In spite of the stinking affair a restoration like this is too remarkable to be allowed to pass unnoticed…” Do you really take this seriously. Lord Henry?

Henry It has completely shattered me! Everything I lived for is lost! My children and wife will be dishonoured for life! We can never show ourselves in public any more!

Mackellar This is pure gossip trash, and it wouldn’t surprise me if your brother himself was guilty of the article, just to mess you up and upset you. Forget it, lord Henry. It is just an ordinary hoax or howler.

Henry I haven’t been able to forget it.

Mackellar I sincerely hope you haven’t made an affair of it?

Henry Yes, I have taken measures.

Mackellar Legal?

Henry No, illegal. I have arranged my brother’s death.

Mackellar Lord Henry, what have you done!

Henry Still all might not be lost. We must save him, Mackellar. We must go after him and save him!

Mackellar Where?

Henry Up the Hudson river to Albany and the mountains north of there.

Mackellar The Adirondack mountains?

Henry Yes. Mackellar But that is lawless country! It isn’t even charted yet! There are only wild Indians!

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Henry That’s where my brother is heading to dig up his treasure in the company of a gang of rogues who will murder him as soon as he has dug up the treasure. And they are paid by me. I myself have betrayed my own brother.

Mackellar Not a word about this to anyone, lord Henry. We shall go after him and save his life. But not a word to Alison or your son.

Henry Always so rational in your common sense, Mackellar. You are my only true nanny.

Mackellar (sighs) We shall certainly untangle all this, lord Henry, like everything else.

You had better go to bed now. (helps him up and staggers out with him) Henry I have only one wish, Mackellar.

Mackellar What, lord Henry?

Henry If my brother dies up there as a result of my manoeuvres, I want to die there with him.

Mackellar Lord Henry, none of you must die.

Henry We must all die, the sooner, the better.

Mackellar That, lord Henry, I must contest and try to resist with all my powers.

Henry You are relentless, Mackellar. (staggers out with him)

Scene 3.

James Gentlemen, we have a long and difficult way ahead of us, and we will probably have to count on hard weather, but surely we can manage that, weathered veterans as we are, or aren’t we, comrades?

1 But what is really our business here? (2 thrusts him in the back) James Explore new frontiers and lay them under the plough of civilization, but the main thing is still that you get well paid and that we all survive in order to get our salary.

2 But the Indians are constantly on the warpath in these areas. They could come sneaking while we are sleeping and scalp us!

James That’s why I engaged you, for us to stick together and not let us be surprised and disturbed by unwelcome guests. We must always be on our guard.

3 You mean ”we”, lord Ballantrae.

James Yes. That is what you are paid for.

4 And that picturesque turban gentleman in sheets – of what use could he be to us on an arduous journey to nowhere?

James He is my trusted servant. I need such a one.

1 Aren’t we good enough?

James Gentlemen, I have known Secundra Dass for many years and trust him 1ike a son. I could never leave him behind anywhere.

2 Just as long as we get paid…

Mountain Lord Ballantrae, we buy the pig in the sack but ask no questions. Is that allright?

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James There is no pig in any sack. Our agreement is written and clear, and there is nothing to add.

3 All right, Sir, we are on.

Harris You can trust us as the reliable and experienced pioneers we are.

James I don’t demand anything else. Come, Secundra Dass. We retire to our own tent. (retires with Secundra Dass) 1 Is it certain that he doesn’t know English?

2 He is probably hired as a spy to crawl around in the bushes and listen in stealth to what we are saying.

Harris They only talk Hindustani together, but I understand Hindustani and can eavesdrop and spy on them.

3 Do that, captain Harris. We must watch them carefully.

4 That silently sneaking Hindu is surely somewhere in the bushes and eavesdropping on us now.

1 They must never suspect that we are after Ballantrae’s treasure.

2 If he knew he was a dead man he would never go any further.

Mountain Shut up, you scum! Don’t you see, that the looser your talk, the smaller our chances grow? We must keep quiet! Or else it will all go down the drain.

3 He is right.

4 So we may never even whisper anything about that we are only out for Bally’s money and life.

3 No, exactly! So shut up then!

4 I didn’t say anything.

Harris No, and keep doing so. Silence is our only warrant to get Bally’s treasure and his bones spread for the winds in the wilderness.

Mountain Yes, that’s how it is. Not a word more about it, I warn you! Go to your tents now and devote yourselves to your bottles and other important things instead!

1 Yes, and we could also do with a drink.

Harris Could some rum be to anyone’s edification and refreshment?

2 It’s captain Harris who saves the entire expedition.

3 Yes, he is our real leader. His rum never runs out.

Harris It’s a sacred elixir of life, because the rum must never run out.

4 Come now, let’s go now for another drink!

Mountain Yes, but don’t forget to sober up afterwards! (the boys disperse) Strange that Bally agreed to collect such a random bunch of crazy fools.

But it’s his business. He hasn’t got all his linen clean himself. How could he then be expected to see through covert villainy? (leaves) (Secundra Dass emerges from under a bush and is quite upset and hurries into his master’s tent.)

Dass Sahib! Sahib!

James Yes, what is it, my friend?

Dass I just heard terrible things.

James What have you heard, my friend?

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Dass They are all bandits. They all know about your treasure. They will just let you find it to then murder us and take it.

James So they know all about it? Then they must have been informed by my brother. That’s bad news. That makes it more difficult. Hem! Do you have any suggestion, Secundra dass?

Mountain (emerges from the shadows behind the tent) Damn it! They know that we know!

Well, then we are more equal. So that Secundra Dass knew English after all! God damn it! (leaves) (James and Dass continue discussing discreetly but intensively)

Scene 4.

Henry (singing melancholically) And over his dead and naked bones of yore The cold eternal wind will blow for evermore.

I can’t get rid of that verse. It just goes on and on in my head. But there is nothing wrong with me. I am well and can take anything, but I am so terribly tired.

Something tells me that this is my last journey.

Johnson How is he?

Mackellar He is very melancholy, but else there is nothing wrong with him.

Johnson Could he have been drinking too much?

Mackellar Before we left New York he drank recklessly. It has become better since we joined this expedition, but instead he is completely passive and melancholy, almost like paralysed.

Johnson Had I known about his condition I would never have allowed you to come along. This is an important expedition, my diplomatic mission to the Indians and French is of the utmost importance before the war starts burning again, and I cannot have anyone inpeding my expedition just because he is not mentally fit for it.

Mackellar I assure you that he will probably manage.

Johnson It sounds convincing but is not enough.

Henry Sir William Johnson, I assure you there is nothing wrong with me, and my mission up the mountains is as important as yours although of a more private nature.

Johnson May I then ask what your mission is?

Henry I have a brother up there in the wilderness, and he is in danger. I am anxious to find him before anything happens.

Johnson What then could happen to him?

Henry He is in the hands of a ruthless gang of murderers!

Johnson That sounds rather careless of him. Or didn’t he know about it himself?

Henry No, he didn’t know about it himself.

Johnson And you want me to find him, dead or alive?

Henry It would be most desirable if we could do something for him before it is too late.

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Johnson We will keep watch. If we meet with other white men in this area it has to be your brother’s gang, for else there are only Indians. But what is your brother doing up here with a gang of murderers?

Henry Alas, it is all my fault! (breaks down) Mackellar His nerves are on the verge of breaking. So far he is still wise, bu the has no margins.

Johnson I hope indeed nothing will happen and that I don’t have to regret bringing you along.

Mackellar I hope so too, Sir William.

Mountain (outside) Help! Help!

Johnson A lone voice calling from the wilderness. It sounds like a cry from the grave.

Mountain (like before) Help! Help! (enters staggering in a state of exhaustion) Johnson It’s John Mountain. I know him. A notorious rogue. Was he one of your brother’s gang?

Henry (shocked) John Mountain! Where is captain Harris and the others?

Johnson Captain Harris! That blasted crook!

Mountain They are all dead! They are all dead!

Henry (upset) Dead! They must not be dead! (shakes John Mountain) Johnson Control yourself, man! Let him speak! (forces Henry away from Mountain) Mountain They are all dead! All except one!

Henry My brother!

Mountain No, Secundra Dass.

Johnson What kind of a strange name is that? Is he an Indian?

Mackellar No, Indian.

Johnson Isn’t that the same thing?

Mackellar No, Secundra Dass is a real Hindu.

Johnson And what the devil is such a man doing in America? And in these parts?

Is he lost?

Henry Do you mean that Secundra Dass is alive but my brother is dead?

Mountain Who the devil are you, and who is your brother?

Henry James Durie, the heir of Ballantrae.

Mountain Yes, he is dead. He was the first among us who died.

Henry Impossible! He can’t be dead!

Mountain He is dead all right.

Henry No! Mountain Yes! Johnson Control yourself, man, and don’t behave like a lunatic. This gentleman, who claims that your brother is dead, must have seen him later than you.

Henry He cannot be dead! He must not be dead! He cannot die!

Mountain He is mad.

Johnson Precisely my view.

Mountain But his madness is nothing to what we have been through.

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Johnson Let’s get some sense out of all this madness. What really happened, John Mountain? You must tell your story.

Mountain We followed Ballantrae up through the forests, but he fooled us all the time.

Henry Tell us everything, John Mountain! Conceal nothing! Your intention was to kill him!

Mountain Yes, captain Harris was commissioned to kill him, but captain Harris is dead. He was the first one to get scalped.

Johnson Scalped?

Mountain Yes, they were all scalped in the night, one by one.

Johnson Did you see any Indians?

Mountain No, we never saw them, which only made the situation more terrifying.

We noticed nothing until we woke each other in the morning just to find one of us scalped, his head just a bloody gory sticky mess, every night another one, no matter how we tried to stay on guard… Usually it was the next one to keep watch who was scalped.

Johnson Yes, Indians are like that. They sneak out like worms without making a sound, they communicate with each other using the sounds of the animals so that you can’t identify their voices, and they only strike when they are sure not to be detected. But you must have done something to provoke the Indians.

Mountain No, we did nothing. We had only problems with Bally and the Indian.

Henry Was my brother also scalped?

Mountain No, he was the only one who was not. He had a natural death.

Henry How? Mountain Fever.

Henry I don’t believe you! You are lying! (will almost attack him) Johnson Calm yourself, lord Henry!

Mountain I am not lying at all. We buried him ourselves, and the Indian held endless dirges for him.

Henry I don’t believe you until I see his grave.

Mountain Then follow the footsteps of the mad Indian. He turned to go back to the grave, probably to cry himself to death for his master there.

Henry I don’t believe you! It doesn’t fit!

Johnson So you came here alone without the Indian, while the Indian turned back to return to the grave the same way as you escaped?

Mountain Yes. Johnson Then he was not afraid of the Indians.

Mountain And the track is easy to find. There is a corpse for every day’s march.

Johnson Didn’t you bury them?

Mountain No. We fled in panic. We were completely terrified. We lost each other in the wilderness and wandered astray and could not even find our bearings any longer, as we were driven mad by the terror. Finally there was only me left with the Hindu ghost. Then he turned back while I went on running away.

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Johnson You are right, lord Henry. Something is not right about his story.

Henry That’s what I am telling you! My brother can’t be dead!

Johnson Take him to bed, Mackellar. Give him something to calm him down but no liquor. John Mountain, I wish to speak in private with you. I am sure there is plenty you haven’t told us.

Mountain I only sketched the outline.

Johnson Now I want to hear the details. I don’t think it could have been Indians who so methodically liquidated you, they content themselves with scaring the white man away, and lord Henry’s brother’s death must be confirmed, if not in any other way, then by inspection of the grave, to which only you can lead us.

Mountain Never in my life! I shall never return to that zone of terror!

Johnson Unlike you, we are a well equipped expedition with only honest intentions.

Remember that you were spared. There must have been some intention by it.

Mountain That I would get back and tell the story?

Johnson Maybe that you should find us and get some help from us. In any case, we must get to the bottom of this mess.

Mountain Then you must get to the bottom of Ballantrae’s grave.

Johnson If there is any bottom to it.

Henry (comes back) John Mountain, I am not satisfied.

Johnson Oh no, now he is coming back! Didn’t you get him to bed, Mackellar?

Henry (obstinate) What did he pretend to die of?

Mountain I don’t understand what you mean.

Henry I want to know the cause of his death. I should have a right to know as his brother, shouldn’t I? Mountain I already told you. Fever.

Henry I don’t accept it!

Johnson Lord Henry, we are getting enough of your eccentric whims. It would be best for you to return to Albany with your servant Mackellar. I will gladly provide a boat at your disposal.

Henry Don’t you understand! The man is not dead until he is proven dead! As long as he isn’t proven dead my son’s rights to his titles can be questioned!

Johnson Then I understand your situation. At last you are beginning to reason logically. I still suggest that you return to Albany.

Henry Not as long as I don’t know whether my brother is dead or alive!

Johnson But he is buried, for sure.

Henry I don’t believe it until I see it! How did he look like as dead? Did he look like as if he really was dead?

Mountain He was as pale as a corpse. He didn’t stir. He didn’t breathe. The Hindu stopped his nostrils. And I myself covered the grave.

Henry You don’t get it! He has fooled you! He doesn’t belong to this world, neither he nor that black devil who was his servant! I have myself pierced his body with my sword and felt his blood splurt in my face! I felt myself my sword strike his

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rib, but still he didn’t die! Why should I then believe that he is dead now? I refuse to believe it until I have seen him for myself rotting away!

Johnson (indicates to Mackellar and Mountain with a finger to his front and shakes his head.

Mountain nods.)

Henry You think I am raving mad, but Mackellar can testify to every word of mine being true! He has seen him buried before! Didn’t we leave the corpse by the candelabrum, Mackellar? Didn’t we see him bleed to death with our own eyes?

Mackellar It’s true what lord Henry says as far, that we ascertained his death, but we were mistaken.

Henry We must not make the same mistake again! Do you understand? That other man is a serving spirit. My brother brought him from Coromandel. Why did he turn back if not to dig up my brother buried alive?

Mountain That’s enough.

Johnson Lord Henry, we understand that you are upset, and we shall investigate the mystery, if not for other reasons so at least to save the Hindu from the Indians.

But I must insist that you go home!

Mackellar That would make him mad for real.

Johnson In that case, Mackellar, you will have to take the consequences of his coming along.

Mackellar That’s fair.

Johnson You go now and try to get some sleep, lord Henry, even if it is impossible.

Mountain I know how impossible it is.

Mackellar Come, lord Henry, for the sake of the others. (leads out Henry) Mountain At last!

Johnson What do you really think, John Mountain?

Mountain I don’t know what to believe, but would rather have nothing more to do with this mess of horrors.

Johnson I can only hope that we will meet with someone alive up there, whoever he is.

Mountain That I think is hoping for too much. You are over-optimistic.

Johnson You have reason to be so, if you eliminate all risks. I warrant you, that no one more will die under my leadership.

Mountain Don’t be too sure. Don’t you feel yourself how death steals around here in every bush? We are on the threshold to winter, and the silence is so pressing in the stifling quiet of its frost that you can hear leaves falling down at a distance of miles.

Johnson I love the silence of the wilderness. You miss it among humans.

Mountain But here it is the silence of death. It’s death holding its breath in the depression of silence. It whispers in unheard of quiet, that all what we white men can expect here is death.

Johnson Do you really think your comrades were scalped by Indians?

Mountain Only Indians can do it so skilfully and unnoticeably, quietly and smoothly. And they are on the warpath. That’s why you are here.

Johnson But why in that case did they spare you and that ghostly Indian?

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Mountain I have dealt with Indians. Someone among them must have recognized me and therefore had me spared. And the Indian was mad. He went around speaking loudly for himself in Bengali and refused to do without the mattock he had buried his master with. Indians never touch a madman.

Johnson Your explanation makes sense.

Mountain But quiet! Do you hear?

Johnson (both sharpen their attention in acute tension of their minds) I only hear the silence.

Mountain I hear something else. A strange sound in this area. No, it’s too ghostly.

Johnson What is it you hear?

Mountain Maybe I just imagined something. (listens again) No, it is unmistakable.

Don’t you hear anything? (Both listen intensively.)

(Only here the sound begins of a rhythmic digging in the earth. It starts at the lowest possible level but increases very slowly in clarity.)

Johnson (after some while) Yes, now I hear something.

Mountain What would you say it was?

Johnson It’s someone digging.

Mountain Exactly. There could only be one person digging in these parts.

Johnson The Indian?

Mountain Yes. Johnson But what would he dig for? Ballantrae’s gold?

Mountain What else! That’s why he never let go of his mattock! He knew all the time where the gold was buried! That’s why he returned to the dead!

Johnson Your train of thought appears logic enough.

Mackellar (enters) Do you hear the sound?

Johnson We have already listened to it for some while. What do you think it is?

Mackellar It definitely sounds spooky.

Johnson We came to the same conclusion long ago.

Mountain It’s the Hindu digging for Ballantrae’s hold!

Mackellar Do you think so?

Mountain I know it! It’s the only explanation!

Henry (enters, very excited) Do you hear that digging? It’s my brother digging himself up from his grave!

Johnson Lord Henry, go to bed! Or do we have to tie you down?

Henry Will you not do something? Will you not find out what it is?

Johnson Of course we must do that.

Mountain We must do it at once before it stops!

Johnson A moonshine expedition at midnight?

Mountain That’s all right with me.

Johnson You weren’t so enthusiastic earlier before the gold was mentioned.

Mackellar You must allow us to come with you.

Johnson Can your lord manage it?

Nackellar He is his brother and closest of kin.

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Johnson We break up immediately. But remember, Mackellar: the welfare of lord Henry is on your responsibility and conscience.

Mackellar I accept the responsibility.

Johnson Let’s be off then as soon as we are ready.

(The digging has constantly increased in clarity so that it is almost obtrusive at the end of the scene. The digging continues in the next scene, which shows Secundra Dass alone in the moonlight digging at his master’s grave by the rogues’ camp, where there are still corpses lying about frozen among the ruins of a camp deserted in panic.)

Scene 5. (enter Johnson with company) Mountain It’s Secundra Dass!

Johnson Is this the remains of your camp, John Mountain?

Mountain Yes, the first of them. The bodies are still there untouched and frozen.

Johnson But what is he digging for at the camp?

Mountain He is digging up his master’s grave!

Henry (shrilly) What did I say!

Johnson Shut up, lord Henry! We must surround the place.

Mountain Too late.

(Dass has heard Henry’s outcry and looks anxiously about.)

Johnson (steps forward) We wish you no harm, Secundra Dass. Can we help you digging?

Dass Yes, yes, help! Still not too late! All murderers! All murdered! (sees Mountain, Henry and Mackellar coming forth) There, all murderers! We alone against all murderers! All want to murder master! We try thousand ways of escape! Hopeless!

We try one last way. Swallow tongue and bury alive. Good way in India. But here cold land and frost in earth. Not good. Hurry! Help!

Johnson Do you understand anything of this, John Mountain?

Mountain Yes, I am beginning to understand. An ingenious Indian trick which none of us could guess at.

Dass (pointing out Mountain) You murderer! You hired murderer! All hired murderers! (points at Henry and Mackellar) There principals! You two hire all murderers! All murderers dead but you! But my master lives! (digs phrenetically) Johnson (calls forth some men) Help him, for God’s sake!

(Two other men starts helping.)

1 Here is some fur.

Dass He is clothed in fur of bear! Careful! (digs with his hands) 2 We are getting him out. But he sure seems dead.

Dass Lift! Careful! Warm by the fire!

(They carry the body to the fire, which has been made. Dass starts immediately working hard on the body, removing the stops in the ears and nostrils, artificial respiration, massage of heart and lungs, rubbing the skin, and so forth.)

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Mackellar Lord Henry, this isn’t good for you.

Henry Let me see the supreme horror and then die.

Mackellar I advise you…

Henry (yells) Shut up, Mackellar! (remains standing staring in super tension) Dass He must have more warmth. Earth is too cold. We must have much patience.

Johnson (to Mountain) Does he stand any chance?

Mountain I dare not say anything more about it. All I can feel is an unfathomable remorse…

Johnson The beard has grown considerably. How long has he been buried?

Mountain A week.

Johnson Yes, he has a week’s growth of beard. So he was alive when you buried him.

Mountain This is too much! (walks away and starts sobbing) Dass (delighted) He opens his eyes!

Johnson (stunned) He is actually alive.

Henry (hysterically) What did I say! What did I say!

Johnson (sternly) Shut up!

Dass (coddles James like a mother, makes him sit up) It’s all over now, Sahib! We made it!

(All hold their breaths while Ballantrae watches them one by one. Then his eyese finally find Mackellar.)

James (very faintly but very distinctly) Hello, Mackellar! (dies) Henry (gives up a scream and consciousness, falling down to earth) Johnson Take care of lord Henry! (hurries to help Secundra) Mackellar (has immediately attended to Henry) He is dead.

Johnson Ballantrae is also dead. For real this time. Secundra Dass, I am sorry.

Dass Earth too cold! Or else we had made it!

Johnson What kind of a man was this really, Mackellar?

Mackellar A great gambler who always challenged death. He could not win forever, and he knew it. We loved and admired him at the same time as we feared and hated him.

Johnson And lord Henry had the bad luck of being his younger brother?

Mackellar You could put it that way.

Johnson We’ll stay here, for there is much for us to do here. There are many dead to be buried, and they must be buried here, for we can’t bring them with us. Is that all right, Mackellar?

Maxkellar We have no choice.

Johnson I will help you arrange a proper tombstone later. (to Dass, who is still trying to enliven James) Secundra Dass, I am sorry, but it is all over.

Dass No, it’s never all over. He will come back. (leaves off his efforts and starts crying his heart out with his head to James’ body) I am so sorry, master! It was all my fault!

Mountain (has managed to collect himself) No, my friend, everybody’s fault except yours. But we have all paid for it. Come, my friend, I will take care of you. (takes care of Secundra Dass) Johnson Mackellar, I assume you have a long story to tell.

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Mackellar Yes, Sir William, now it can be told, because now it has been completed.

Johnson Come.

(All leave the scene. Only Dass remains, who is still trying to rub some life into James, while John Mountain squats by his side.)

Curtain.

(Athens 24.9.2001, translated in November 2019)

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Doctor Jekyll’s journal A doctor’s tragedy in seven scenes

by Christian Lanciai (1998)

The characters: Doctor William Lanyon Ruggles, his butler Jeffrey Utterson, barrister Chairman of the medical faculty Doctor Henry Jekyll Students Sarah Crawford Mrs Elizabeth Jekyll Robert Poole, doctor Jekyll’s butler Edward Hyde

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A newspaper boy club fellow members Doctor Jekyll’s housekeeper and cook The action is in London in the 1880s.

Copyright Christian Lanciai 1998

Doctor Jekyll’s journal.

Scene 1.

At home at doctor Lanyon’s. A worthy Victorian interior in London.

Dr Lanyon A doctor’s foremost duty and vocation is to protect and defend life. But if life itself turns into the greatest enemy and threat of life, is it then justified to put an end to life in order to defend life? That’s the critical and moral dilemma of a soldier – and you become a doctor if you wish to escape this problem complex to take sides with life one-sidedly. And a doctor’s worst nightmare is if this dilemma nevertheless presents itself. (enter the butler) Yes, what is it, Ruggles?

Ruggles A certain barrister Utterson is here. Sir. Lanyon Utterson? Utterson? What does he want with me?

Ruggles I don’t know, Sir. Lanyon It’s that damned renegade doctor Jekyll’s lawyer. Show him in. (exit butler) I just hope Jekyll is not in trouble again. The only thing that man has enriched my life with was problems, worries and nightmares.

Ruggles (returns) Barrister Utterson, Sir. (presents Utterson) Lanyon And what can I do for my good friend and colleague doctor Jekyll’s lawyer? (greets him with benevolence) Utterson I apologise for coming without warning like this to presume on your precious time, but your guess is right. It’s not for my own sake. It’s for my client and your son-in-law doctor Jekyll’s.

Lanyon My former son-in-law. But have a seat, Sir. Utterson Thank you. I hope I may speak frankly with you. I know of no one else I could turn to.

Lanyon I know doctor Jekyll and am not surprised that he causes troubles and worries also to other people.

Utterson Just because you know him since of old I felt that I could turn to you.

Lanyon What is the problem?

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Utterson Doctor Lanyon, doctor Jekyll has during the last weeks consulted me in writing his testament.

Lanyon Every sensible man should do that. The worst thing you could do to your next of kin is to die without a testament.

Utterson But doctor Jekyll has left all he owns to a certain Mr Edward Hyde.

Lanyon I don’t know such a man. Who is it?

Utterson That’s the very problem. He isn’t just anyone, which his name at first would lead you to believe. I didn’t know who it was either and gratified my client’s wishes without second thoughts. Only a few days later I learned who the man was and was practically perforated with ice cold fits of ague.

Lanyon Tell me about it.

Utterson I was out walking with a good friend on a regular promenade when we passed a corner in Soho. There my friend told me about a revolting incident he had experienced there. He had seen a girl playing with a hoop running at the corner into a small peculiar man. Anyone can happen to be run into by playing children here in London and not bother much about it, but this man was furious with the girl and started beating her with his cane and kick her lying in the gutter in front of a number of witnesses. Then he just walked on as if nothing had happened and left the girl crying and sorely abused in the gutter. My friend was then infuriated, ran up to the man and grabbed hold of his collar. It was an indescribably ugly and repellent man who without being deformed still had all his looks to speak against him. It became a police issue, and the man had to pay an indemnity to the girl’s parents. That was not more than reasonable, and he really got away rather cheaply, for such an experience can cut deep wounds into the soul of a small girl. But the man paid without hesitating the entire amount by writing a check. The check account was in the well renowned doctor Jekyll’s name. The man’s name was Edward Hyde. (both fall quiet for a moment) Lanyon I understand your problem, Sir. And to this villain, who openly is capable of mishandling a small girl in a public street without reason, our good friend doctor Jekyll has left his entire fortune. What do you suspect is lying behind it?

Blackmail?

Utterson I have gone further than that in my thoughts. The will gives Mr Edward Hyde a perfect motive for doing away with doctor Jekyll, and he is such a man who would not hesitate to do it.

Lanyon And such a will you made legal.

Utterson I trusted doctor Jekyll.

Lanyon (gets up and starts walking around) The problem is probably deeper than anyone of us could imagine. I have known him longer than you, which is why I can give you a fuller picture of the background.

Utterson I was hoping for something like that.

Lanyon Doctor Jekyll started as my best student and most faithful apprentice. He was over-talented and could work harder than anyone else. Both my daughters fell in love with him, but as only one could marry him it became the eldest. We

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associated frequently and heartily in those days, so that he was like one of the family long before the wedding. But at the time of his wedding and final degree the problems began. He couldn’t take it easy. He was not satisfied with being just the most popular private doctor of London society. He couldn’t refrain himself from going on with his research in the most dangerous and challenging fields.

Utterson Drugs?

Lanyon Yes. He was not afraid of any experiments. I beseeched him for the sake of God to stop and consider that he was a married man, but he paid no heed to his wife, no matter how sincerely she begged him not to work himself to death. But doctor Jekyll worked best at nights. He had problems with insomnia, like so many over-intelligent people do, and he seldom reached his bed before five in the morning.

His wife had to get used to it crying herself to sleep every night, and finally she became ill and died. Formally it was pneumonia as a consequence of a neglected cold, but I gave doctor Jekyll the entire blame for it. He neglected her to her death.

That’s where our courses parted.

Utterson And what about your second daughter?

Lanyon She got married in Singapore, but she didn’t marry for love. She loved Henry Jekyll. The marriage with captain Crawford was advised by me, as it would separate her from England. But she never separated from Henry Jekyll. She still loves him.

(He is quiet and returns to his place.)

But we have departed from our subject.

Utterson Not at all. I am grateful for all the information you can give. But surely you could give some more? You must have followed doctor Jekyll’s career also after the regrettable demise of your daughter?

Lanyon Only at a distance. He made himself famous as a researcher, as he published some fantastic research results. He was about to get all the medical profession on his side in blind optimistic belief that you soon could not only cure all human diseases with drugs but thus even improve the human brain activity and character. His famous lectures started smelling bad from Nietzschean philosophy and belief in superman, and he got all students as followers. At that point I chose to oppose him.

Utterson Doctor Jekyll’s followers claimed that you wrote a book against doctor Jekyll only as a personal revenge that you never could forgive him the death of your daughter.

Lanyon I couldn’t. But that was not the motive for the book. I just wanted to denounce doctor Jekyll’s theories and brand them as unnatural and dangerous, which they were. And many professionals have agreed with me.

Utterson And that war still goes on today.

Lanyon The future will show us who is right – doctor Jekyll in his efforts to manipulate nature, or I in my assumption that you can only learn from nature and cooperate with her in humility without challenging or spiting her or the gods.

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Utterson Your viewpoint is more cautious while doctor Jekyll’s is more brave, ambitious and challenging.

Lanyon That’s why he gets all the students as followers and ladies for his good looks, while only mostly old boring but wise veterans agree with me.

Uttersob But considering your long experience of him and your deep insight into his character – what do you think of his remarkable connection with this Edward Hyde?

Lanyon It’s entirely in line with his dramatic life – new bold experiments, baffling initiatives, incomprehensible activities, incalculable capriciousness and outbursts of his dangerous ingeniousness, which no one can understand to begin with.

Utterson But what do you think practically?

Lanyon Honestly speaking, I don’t understand it at all. This is something completely new. Is Edward Hyde a drug addict picked up from the street that he wishes to experiment on with new drugs or antidotes? But why on earth would he then take such a liking to such a revolting and wicked man that he would make him his universal heir? Neither is Jekyll someone you could force to anything and blackmail. No, Utterson, nothing makes sense. This is something completely new which totally contradicts everything that Jekyll did so far.

Utterson Do you feel the same anxiety about it as I? Lanyon I can understand that you are worried.

Utterson He is my client. It is my duty to do what I can for him. And I feel the presence of Edward Hyde as a danger to his life, to say the least.

Lanyon I have a suggestion.

Utterson Let’s hear it.

Lanyon My younger daughter Sarah is momentarily here in London. She has met doctor Jekyll. They meet secretly, because she knows I don’t like it. They must meet in secret, because no one wants a scandal, and her husband is waiting for her in Singapore. But he is a very attractive widower.

Utterson Your suggestion?

Lanyon I don’t like it, but I suggest that we put my daughter in the picture of the situation and let her associate with doctor Jekyll if she at the same time tries to find out all she can about this Edward Hyde.

Utterson A splendid suggestion!

Lanyon I think your fears that Jekyll’s life would be in danger are unmotivated.

Therefore I dare to let my daughter in on it. For if his life is in danger of Mr Hyde, so will hers be.

Utterson She should judge the risks herself.

Lanyon I am afraid she would gladly take any risks just to be close to that dangerous adventurer.

Utterson (rising) Doctor Lanyon, I will not take up any more of your time.

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Lanyon All that has been said here will remain between us. But for the sake of the cause I will commence a secret journal for the case of doctor Jekyll, in which I will carefully document everything touching the case.

Utterson My obligation of silence is as sacred as yours.

Lanyon Thanks for your visit, Mr Utterson. (They shake hands.) Something tells me that we shall hear more about this Edward Hyde. (shows Utterson out.)

Scene 2. A rostrum.

Chairman As speaker at the annual symposium I have the honour to present – doctor Henry Jekyll! (applause) Jekyll (coming up the rostrum) Please – no applause. I will be brief, for I have nothing new to say. But I feel sincerely flattered to have been asked to lecture at this solemn occasion, especially as I am well known to never be solemn. But to the point! Most of you are young, and I recognize many of you from various anatomy lessons and from the medical faculty. I will therefore take the opportunity to repeat the only sensible thing I have to say and which you probably heard many times before. But it cannot be repeated often enough.

You are young. Take care of your youth. You can take more than examined doctors let alone middle-aged specialists, to which respectable category I nowadays belong myself. Your youth makes you capable of any extreme efforts by which you even can expand and develop yourselves. Middle age starts at thirty, while nothing is impossible for you up till then. Never postpone what you wish to do in life, but do it now! Never be afraid of taking initiatives. Be bold, determined and undeterred, for at your age you have better chances to succeed than to fail. If one fails at your age it is usually more because of others than your own fault.

Our century has been described as the century of science, as science and security has annulled superstition, religion and blind faith. But the perfection and victory of science also implies a tremendous responsibility. Above all we scientists are responsible for the future. We have nature in our hand and can control it, which gives us the obligation to do so. With our constantly increasing medical knowledge and discoveries we have the means to cure all human diseases. We are able to liberate humanity from all physical suffering, and as doctor it is our duty to do so.

But the road to this goal is long and difficult. At least one generation more must work day and night in laboratories to resolve the most difficult problems. But there are daily new discoveries of new means.

Many of you are reluctant to experiment on animals. Many of you are very understanding to all those groups and unions now flourishing like mushrooms in the forest against painful animal experiments. Such scruples are as human and logic as pacifism and conscientious objectors against military service. It’s not natural to kill or torment animals, no matter how much science is to be excused for it.

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There is an alternative. I was never afraid of trying it myself, and I never regretted it when I did. I am today 46 and keep doing it still. You who are under 30 have even less to fear. By your irresistible youth your bodies can endure anything.

Don’t be afraid of using yourselves as guinea pigs, if only common sense admits it.

The increasing criticism against experiments on animals is justified, but if a scientist only makes experiments on himself and takes the entire responsibility upon himself, absolutely no one will have any right to object against it.

Doctor Lanyon (from the audience) Yes, I! Jekyll It’s an honour for me, doctor Lanyon, to find you in my audience.

Lanyon Your way is mortally dangerous, doctor Jekyll, and it is most irresponsible to advocate it to inexperienced young enthusiasts!

Jekyll You have heard me doing so before. And I cannot stress it enough, that such a way must be trodden within the frame of reason.

Lanyon But young candidates in their twenties have seldom so much reason and common sense, doctor Jekyll! Can’t you see that? That you yourself was a mature genius in that age does not have to mean that all students of that age have to be so!

Jekyll Do you wish to deny young enthusiastic scientists, who wish to sacrifice themselves for the welfare of humanity, the progress I made myself?

Lanyon But you just tempt and taunt them without warning about the dangers! (approaches the rostrum) Such a liberal attitude to such a reckless experimenting as doctor Jekyll advocates must lead to temptations of abuse! At the disposal of all doctors are not only all cures and medicines but also drugs with second effects that no one knows anything about! There is no blind alley more certain for medical science than abuse! Doctor Jekyll may be strong and confident enough to dare experimenting on himself with whatever, but none of you are like him! Every human being is different from all the others and can’t just take anything and could easily succumb to something, which is easily taken by all the others. Never underestimate your physical limitations! There is no more dangerous hubris than to believe yourself capable of manipulating nature! The responsibility of our profession demands humility and not reckless presumption!

Jekyll Was this my lecture or yours, doctor Lanyon? (laughter among the students in the audience) a student Down with the old man! Carry on, doctor Jekyll!

Jekyll You hear yourself, doctor Lanyon, whom the audience favours.

Lanyon You are wrong, doctor Jekyll! I must warn you all! Presumptuous conceit always carries revenge! If doctor Jekyll carries on his dangerous course, we will all one day experience him as a warning example!

Jekyll Would you rather experiment on animals, doctor Lanyon?

Lanyon (to all) It is better for a monkey to go mad than for a man.

Jekyll And if both could be avoided, wouldn’t that be the best thing, doctor Lanyon?

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Lanyon (to Jekyll) Your total self-confidence is close to impertinent recklessness. Your balance is mortally dangerous, doctor Jekyll! You are approaching a limit on the other side of which there is a hell worse than any fanatic could dream about.

Jekyll The very art is not to cross that limit.

Lanyon Still you stand here boasting of having done so! And you preach to others to do the same thing!

Students Enough, doctor Lanyon!

Down with him!

You have lost, doctor Lanyon! We don’t want to hear you!

Get him out!

(Students invade the scene, take care of doctor Lanyon, carries him away and throws him out under great acclaim and cheers from other students.)

A student (dusting off his hands) Now you can carry on, doctor Jekyll.

Jekyll I think we are all agreed on the outcome of this experiment and demonstration with its obvious conclusion. Cowardice must never hold us back! (cheers) Chairman (returning) We thank you, doctor Jekyll, for wishing to lecture here. As always you not only offer us considerable food for afterthought but some drama as well.

Jekyll The latter is only delivered by others. I only stand for my opinions.

(Sarah Crawford has arrived on the scene.)

Sarah! I apologise for how the students treated your father!

Sarah It was his own fault. He challenged them and disturbed your lecture.

Jekyll Had I known that you were in the audience, I would have expressed myself more cautiously.

Sarah I am glad you didn’t. Now my eyes were opened to what the quarrel between you and father really is all about.

Jekyll And what is it about?

Sarah Scruples. You are ruthless while father is just more careful.

Jekyll I thought it was the other way around. I want to spare the lives of others by only risking my own, while your father would rather let others die than take any risks himself.

Sarah It’s towards yourself you are ruthless, Henry. It is brave but dangerous.

Jekyll Rather that than cowardice like your father’s.

Sarah He wants to protect his own life in order to save the lives of others. But if you sacrifice yourself, Henry, you will not be able to save your patients.

Jekyll But I don’t sacrifice myself. I only take certain risks.

Sarah And one day you must draw a blank.

Jekyll No, Sarah, I will not, for I understand nature. I always calculate the risks very carefully.

Sarah How long have you been doing this?

Jekyll In thirty years since I started studying chemistry.

Sarah And you are still alive?

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Jekyll (embraces her) If I am, Sarah! I never calculated wrong about risks, and the risk that I will do it after thirty years is practically non-existent! But let’s go out somewhere and have something.

Sarah Are you finished here?

Jekyll As finished as your father. (He takes her out. On their way out they encounter a newspaper boy.)

Boy Brutal murder in Soho! Latest news! Brutal murder in Soho!

Sarah What is it?

Jekyll One paper, boy! (buys a paper, starts reading casually) “A most brutal and evidently quite unmotivated murder was committed last evening on Sir Danvers Carew, as he met a wanderer on his way and greeted him, whereupon the wanderer suddenly attacked and beat the said gentleman to death without even stealing his wallet. A housemaid saw everything from her window, and the hooligan’s identity has already been established by fragments of the murder weapon, a stick with a name on it, which was left at the scene of the crime. The man is a notorious night walker by the name of Edward Hyde…” (pales and stops reading) Sarah What is it, Henry?

Jekyll Nothing. I knew the gentleman in question. He was a dear friend of mine. Come, Sarah, let’s go. (throws the paper on the ground and leaves with Sarah.)

Scene 3. At home at doctor Jekyll’s.

A cosy and intimate library salon with an open fire.

Jekyll (alone) My God, what have I done! What is this terrible discovery I have made?

How is it possible for anything like this to happen? Never before have I lost control of any of my experiments, but now suddenly a wild alien being seems to threaten my entire perfectly controlled world and without even nature being involved. This alien thing is a total one-sided self-destructiveness coming from inside man himself. And if I can happen to it, who can then be exempt from the danger? (enter butler) Yes, what is it, Poole?

Poole Your lawyer Utterson is here, Sir. Jekyll Utterson? Yes, I know what it is about. Show him in. (Poole leaves.)

Naturally he is upset about the murder of Sir Danvers Carew like everyone else.

But he is even more so, since he has seen the name Edward Hyde in my will. (enter Utterson) Jekyll (rising) My good friend Utterson! (greets him cordially) Have a seat!

Utterson (sits down) I presume you understand the reason for my visit.

Jekyll I understand that you are worried.

Utterson I was already worried before, Jekyll, when I heard from a mutual friend what kind of a man this Edward Hyde was. But now it is serious, as your universal heir Edward Hyde has gone beyond the law.

Jekyll Cancel the will.

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Utterson That’s not enough, Jekyll. You must help the police to catch the killer. He is a murderer, Jekyll. You must not have anything more to do with the man, if you wish to stay within the law yourself.

Jekyll I have broken all contacts with him. Does that satisfy you? Ùtterson It may not satisfy the police. They might learn that he had a connection with you.

Jekyll How far has the police come?

Utterson (sighing and contemplating the fire) The man is like consumed by darkness.

There is no trace. They found his apartment in East End where everything was in total disorder. His hostess seemed happy about her lodger having got into some kind of trouble. A week has passed now without a trace. It is as if he never had existed. (hesitatingly to Jekyll) Do you know something, Henry?

Jekyll Not any more than that if he is vanished, it’s best for himself to remain so.

Utterson A suspicious statement from perhaps the only person in London who knows who the murderer is.

Jekyll I am more worried about our friend Sir Danvers Carew’s family.

Utterson (returning his attention to the fire) He was wealthy, and his family is well provided for. But the way in which Sir Danvers died has caused deep wounds in their hearts.

Jekyll I haven’t heard any details.

Utterson Haven’t you read the servant girl’s testimony?

Jekyll I avoided it on purpose.

Utterson It was a nightmare, Jekyll, a nightmare. It was not just assault and homicide. It was brutal torture to death. Your ward attacked Sir Danvers like a raving wild animal. Yes, not even a tiger makes so brutal an attack without reason.

The housekeeper witnessed him jumping up and down on Sir Danvers like a wild mad monkey and beat again and again with his thick stick, which finally broke.

Jekyll The cause of death?

Utterson Broken scull.

Jekyll (concluding) So the man is worse and more evil than any wild animal.

Utterson That is how it is, mildly speaking.

Poole (entering) Begging your pardon, but Mrs Crawford is here, Sir. Jekyll Sarah? Show her in.

Utterson Doctor Lanyon’s daughter?

Jekyll Yes. Utterson Has doctor Lanyon got over the tumult at the medical faculty?

Jekyll I hope so. As a good doctor he can forgive anything.

Utterson What is it between you and his married daughter?

Jekyll (rising) You’ll see, Utterson. (enter Sarah) She is my sister-in-law, you know.

– Sarah! (embraces her) Sarah Father demands that I immediately return to Singapore. He demands a public excuse from you for that uproar in that club.

Jekyll (enters like to show that Utterson is there) What more does he demand?

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Sarah Who is it?

Jekyll Utterson, my lawyer, peacemaker between me and your father.

Sarah Excellent! He demands that you abandon your course of experiments.

Jekyll I can fulfil all his demands except the last one.

Sarah Then he threatens to expose you as Edward Hyde’s protector.

Jekyll So he threatens with blackmail. What do you think about that, Utterson?

Utterson He can’t. He would thereby only damage himself. There is no evidence since the will has been destroyed.

Jekyll Restore the will, Utterson.

Utterson What?

Jekyll But in another name. Sarah Crawford. (embraces her) She is my only living relative.

Utterson (pleased) I will be glad to.

Sarah But what will father say?

Jekyll He may think and say what he pleases. You will protect me, Sarah, against Edward Hyde, if he should ever return.

Sarah Do you know him?

Jekyll Our friend Utterson knows who he is and that he might very well murder me, like he murdered Sir Danvers Carew.

Sarah (embraces him) Then I will protect you with my life!

Jekyll (aside) I wish that would be enough!

Utterson And Singapore?

Sarah Singapore will have to wait. I must save my brother-in-law first.

Jekyll And what will your father say to that?

Sarah He may banish me if he pleases. I must still give my conscience priority.

You must understand that, Mr Utterson and doctor Jekyll?

Jekyll You see, Utterson. I think we are safe now against Mr Hyde.

Utterson I hope so, Jekyll. I sincerely hope so.

Sarah But while we are sitting here speaking so confidently, how would it be, Henry, if you at last would tell me in detail about my sister?

Jekyll It is no pleasant story.

Sarah Have you anything to hide?

Jekyll It was your sister, Sarah. For her I had nothing to hide, and that might have cost her life.

Sarah How exciting!

Utterson Do you mean that you in any way was accessory in her death?

Jekyll In a way we were both guilty, like in all marriages. Well, I will go through it all once again. Then judge us both as fairly as you can.

(Henry Jekyll gets up and walks away. Sarah and Utterson remain calmly seated, while the scene turns to the bedchamber, where the late Mrs Jekyll lies in bed.)

Jekyll How are you today, Elizabeth? (sits down at her side tenderly holding her hand) Elizabeth You have been working too hard again. I almost never see you any more.

Who do you love more – me or your laboratory?

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Jekyll My work is my calling, Elizabeth.

Elizabeth And for that I am dying.

Jekyll You can get well if you only want to.

Elizabeth If you loved me I would want to.

Jekyll I love you, Elizabeth.

Elizabeth Show it then!

Jekyll For me love is tenderness and friendship.

Elizabeth But your only passion is for your work!

Jekyll A passion could be destructive. I never want to risk being destructive against someone I love and least of all my wife.

Elizabeth Instead you will then turn more and more self-destructive. And that will least of all give you any children. Is that better?

Jekyll If it can serve science.

Elizabeth You are just as possessed as a roulette player. You wage everything in blind faith that it might bring a reward, but you never can be sure it will. It’s exactly the same mentality that possesses those who can never stop betting on horses no matter how much they lose.

Jekyll Science is the opposite to chance, Elizabeth.

Elizabeth Yes, when you finally have won. But until you have won, the risk is permanently imminent that you will lose. Don’t you see, Henry, that I worry myself to death about you and your experiments?

Jekyll (no answer) Elizabeth And it doesn’t get better by your refusing to answer. Rather the contrary.

Your silence confirms your guilt more eloquently than any binding evidence.

Jekyll You are not fair, Elizabeth.

Elizabeth Am I not? No, Henry. I am only frustrated. We have been married for three years, and I am still a virgin, and you are still locked up in your laboratory full time.

Jekyll Let me explain my sexual disposition, Elizabeth.

Elizabeth Well, it’s about time!

Jekyll All men are not biologically suitable for propagation. There are for example men who can’t have an erection without inconceivable pain. King Louis XVI could never accomplish a coitus until he had been operated on for a default which is very common among men. And everyone is painfully aware that heterosexuality is not the only sexual disposition. There is homosexuality and lesbicism, which our society condemns as unnatural and punishes by law as criminal, which doesn’t do anything to solve the problem.

Elizabeth Are you like that?

Jekyll Honestly speaking I do not understand unnatural leniencies and believe that homosexuals must have some default in their brains. But there are worse faults.

There are miserable devils who only get excited and can have sex with dead persons.

Elizabeth Is the professor finished soon with the dissection of the corpse? It is beginning to stink.

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Jekyll Pardon me, Elizabeth. By all this I only wanted to arrive at my own disposition. I was very early strongly stimulated intellectually. My greatest feelings were awakened early by the fantastic and everything that imagination can result in except abstract beauty. I love beauty for its own sake in a purely intellectual aesthetic enjoyment and not because it excites me sexually, which it never does. Physically at most it could move me to tears. By my intellectualism so early aroused and so strongly stimulated, I lived for quite long entirely ignorant of sex. I didn’t understand how ladies could beget children until I for the first time had an encounter with a patient with gonorrhoea.

Elizabeth How old were you then?

Jekyll Almost eighteen.

Elizabeth And you never had an ejection before that?

Jekyll Only in my sleep and reluctantly.

Elizabeth Poor child! Had you no idea what it was all about?

Jekyll All grown-ups told me I would get the hang of it in time.

Elizabeth So you believed in the stork until you were almost eighteen?

Jekyll Let’s not get foolish about it. I never believed in the stork. But my intellectual aestheticism was so highly developed at eighteen that I only could view the sexual intercourse as something extremely ugly if not even the supreme ugliness.

Elizabeth Because you never did it yourself. It is beautiful only emotionally.

Jekyll But I only saw the aesthetic ugliness in sticking the limb with which you urinate into another’s bottom, which she normally only uses for defecation…

Elizabeth I understand your aesthetic objection.

Jekyll Consequently I never developed any sexuality. I found many of my own age in the same dilemma. Many artists find a quite sufficient emotional satisfaction only in the act of creation. They reproduce themselves spiritually by art, music, poetry or some other intellectual creativity and are quite happy with that and manage well enough without women, especially if they are poor. But you can never kill your own sexual drive. Somehow it will always be there, it is intimately connected with life itself, and it must always find an outlet and expression. And the more highly developed you are in your intellect, intelligence and culture, the more inconvenient and bizarre will the expressions be that the sexual drive must result in…

Elizabeth You are gradually coming to the point.

Jekyll There are politicians in very high positions who have denied themselves all family life for the career and instead indulged in masturbation, prostitutes or even worse vices. A spotless archbishop in Paris with a reputation of a saint had a heart attack and died in bed in the arms of a prostitute. Dostoievsky had a bizarre penchant for small girls, and other highly respected cultural personages devote themselves methodically to self-torture with sometimes a horrifying penchant for mortally dangerous masochism.

Elizabeth And what about you?

Jekyll I wanted to do something about it. As a young enthusiastic pioneer I felt that it must be possible to solve the problem.

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Elizabeth So you wanted to cure all homosexuals and put all prostitutes out of work?

Jekyll Yes, since I felt that it must be possible. I had experimented in chemistry and drugs since my youth and believed it possible to find a solution that way. Since I was twenty I have therefore spent about half my life busy in laboratories with experiments.

Elizabeth And did you find the solution?

Jekyll Not yet, but I have come far on what I believe to be the right course.

Elizabeth And meanwhile I am lying here dying of love and longing for the most handsome man in London, whom I have married but can’t have anyway, because he is so self-centred and obsessed about his experiments.

Jekyll But I think I now have almost reached the consummation of a drug which when used could liberate the person in question from all sexual anomalies and repressions.

Elizabeth So you believe you have almost accomplished the perfect drug – after having wasted twenty-five years of your life?

Jekyll Elizabeth, it could relieve me of my reluctance against sexual intercourse.

Elizabeth I think I begin to understand. You love but can’t find the carnal language.

Jekyll There are people for whom the carnal language is everything. They often lack all judgement, have no culture, lack intelligence and waste their lives on follies to be regretted. Then there are others who are wise and cultivated, intelligent and thoughtful but who never learn the carnal language since they find it low and vulgar and stupid, like Lucretius. They find no meaning in it since they find so much higher meanings in life instead.

Elizabeth But you suggest that the sexual drive still is there even with the purest saints and that it never can be suppressed.

Jekyll It must always be there. And the more endowed a person is, the more vital it becomes for that drive not to be repressed and forced to troublesome and unnatural forms of expression.

Elizabeth Good luck, doctor Miracle. And don’t come out from your laboratory again until your aphrodisiac is ready. And then come directly to my bed, if I am still alive. Good night. (turns her back to doctor Jekyll.)

Jekyll Good night, my love. (leaves) Sarah And did you find your ultimate medicine?

Jekyll When I thought I had arrived at it at last, Elizabeth contracted pneumonia and died.

Sarah My father must be told about this.

Jekyll He was meticulously initiated in the whole situation. He obtained several written treatises by me about everything I talked with Elizabeth about.

Sarah And still his version is different from yours.

Jekyll Yes, because his scientific ideas differ from mine. He was always my foremost opponent.

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Sarah In the best intentions.

Jekyll But still.

Utterson Doctor Lanyon’s accusations against you remain though, Jekyll, that his daughter died because you failed in your love of her. Even if the accusation isn’t judicial, it is still morally serious.

Sarah No, father has worse accusations than that.

Utterson What do you mean?

Sarah He saw my sister when she was sick in pneumonia after having contracted her cold. According to him it was much more than just pneumonia.

Utterson Tell us.

Sarah Among other things, my father accuses you, Henry, of forbidding him a closer examination of my dying sister.

Jekyll Tell me your father’s entire version, Sarah. Don’t spare me.

Sarah I will try to recount it as well as I can.

(The scene turns back to the bed, but Elizabeth is now very seriously ill, sweating and in a fever.)

(Doctor Jekyll receives doctor Lanyon at the door.)

Lanyon How is she?

Jekyll Bad, I am afraid. Her condition has not improved.

Lanyon (gives Poole his coat and stick and hurries to his daughter’s side) My beloved girl! How is it with you?

Elizabeth (tosses around in sweat and fever) Don’t let him take me! Don’t let him take me!

Lanyon No one will take you, poor girl! It’s me, your father, here at your side!

It’s only me here and your husband.

Elizabeth Who is my husband?

Lanyon Doctor Henry Jekyll, the finest doctor in London.

Elizabeth (like in delirium) He was the man I wanted! But I got another!

Lanyon What?

Elizabeth Don’t let him take me! Don’t let him take me!

Jekyll She is delirious.

Lanyon That’s obvious. But why is she delirious? This is no ordinary fever. This is a serious state of shock.

Elizabeth You let him take me, Henry! You let him take me!

Lanyon Who did he allow to take you, poor girl?

Elizabeth That monster! That devil which Henry keeps locked up in his laboratory for his experiments!

Jekyll She is delirious.

Lanyon That is obvious beyond all doubt. But what could have given her such a shock? Do you keep some larger animal for your tests in the lab, Henry?

Jekyll You know I never wanted to experiment on animals.

Lanyon But what is it she has seen?

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Poole Doctor Lanyon, perhaps I could give you a closer account of what happened, for it was I who ran after her that night.

Lanyon Out in the night after her?

Poole Yes, she ran yelling alone out in the street in the middle of the night.

Pardon me, Sir, but that’s how it actually was.

Lanyon Was that how she caught her cold?

Poole Yes, for she had nothing on her feet.

Lanyon And where were you then, Henry?

Poole I assumed that he was asleep and let him sleep, for I didn’t want to risk losing her out of sight.

Lanyon But why did she run out in the middle of the night? Was it some extreme nightmare of some kind?

Poole I suspect as much, for she was quite hysterical, but she immediately recognized me and let me calm her down. She couldn’t stay outdoors in the middle of the night, so she let me bring her home. There doctor Jekyll gave her a sedative.

Since then she has never been herself again. But there is one thing more. She was bloody.

Lanyon What is this, Henry?

Poole I suspect she had been walking in her sleep and cut herself on something by mistake. It can be very dangerous for sleepwalkers to be awakened drastically. I think that is precisely what happened.

Lanyon How did she cut herself?

Poole I don’t know, Sir, but she was quite bloody.

Lanyon I must examine her.

Jekyll Not now in her present condition.

Lanyon She is my daughter!

Jekyll But my patient and my wife at that. She is also seriously ill and can’t even bear that anyone touches her.

Lanyon My poor daughter! Who has done this to you?

Elizabeth That monster which Henry plays with in the laboratory.

Lanyon Henry?

Jekyll Go and look for yourself. Here is the key. (Lanyon takes the key.)

Lanyon May God have mercy on you, Jekyll, if you labour with any impropriety! (leaves) Jekyll (sighs) How do you feel, Elizabeth?

Elizabeth I don’t know you any more, Henry. You are lost to me. Someone else has come between us, and you put him there yourself.

Jekyll I am very sorry, Elizabeth.

Elizabeth You needn’t be. You are innocent. Perhaps it’s all my own fault.

Jekyll No, Elizabeth, as your husband I am completely responsible for your life.

Lanyon (returns) Nothing. Here is the key. – There is nothing in the laboratory, Elizabeth.

Elizabeth Not now, but he will be back.

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Lanyon Who will be back?

Elizabeth Ask him! (points at Jekyll) Only doctor Jekyll knows who he is.

Lanyon Who? Jekyll (showing nothing) I am afraid we can’t do much more at the moment. Are you satisfied, doctor Lanyon?

Lanyon She must be allowed to rest. But I will be back!

Jekyll You are always welcome. Show doctor Lanyon out, Poole.

(Poole helps doctor Lanyon out while Jekyll returns to Sarah and Utterson and the bedchamber scene falls into darkness.)

Utterson Didn’t you visit your sister yourself, Sarah?

Sarah No, I was in Singapore at the time. But I came home to her funeral, and then there was a letter for me from her.

Jekyll You never told me.

Sarah No, because I didn’t dare. Also the letter was so confused and confusing that I didn’t know whether to believe it or not.

Utterson What did it say?

Sarah She tried to tell me what she couldn’t tell anyone else, namely what happened that night.

Jekyll Do you dare tell about it now?

Sarah You had locked yourself up in the laboratory for more than twenty-four hours. Finally my sister became desperate and went to the laboratory. It was late in the evening.

(Blackout. Lights on the bed again, where Elizabeth gets up, quite well and healthy like before her illness, takes on a shawl and brings a light, as she walks to the laboratory and stops at its locked door.)

Elizabeth (knocks on the door) Henry, come out! (no answer) I know you are there! Are you asleep? (knocks again) What shall I do? I know he is there. (feels the door. It is locked.)

Henry! Open for God’s sake! (knocks hard. No answer.)

He must be there. He can’t be anywhere else. (knocks hard) Henry Jekyll! If you don’t answer you’ll never see me again!

(A light approaches the door from inside seen in the dim window of the door.)

Well, at last! You are then alive at least!

(A key is heard in the lock from the inside. It takes a while. Then the door opens suddenly. But it is Edward Hyde who opens it, a small utterly revolting and ugly freak.)

Elizabeth (drops the light and wants to cry out, but Hyde quickly takes her aback and shuts her mouth and stops her.)

Hyde Shut up, you damned slut! How dare you come here disturbing me? (pulls out a big red handkerchief from his pocket and stuffs it in her mouth, keeps her all the time with force. When she starts making resistance he tosses her on the floor and then throws himself on her.) Blame yourself for coming here! (rapes her brutally. You see afterwards how her white linen and white morning robe are coloured red with blood.)

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Hyde (after the accomplished rape, pants, dries his front, keeps her still forcibly under him and his hand over her gagged mouth, while her only possible expression is desperate efforts to get free and all the time with wild staring eyes of utter horror.)

Why did you have to cross my path, woman? I was free without you, but now I can never be free again, for you have degraded me into what I am. You see yourself what I am: an animal, no, worse than an animal, for I am only evil and ugliness, violence, criminality and self-destruction. I can never more be a man, for I am yours, a hopeless slave under the sexuality which you have forced me into. Behold your work, woman: the consummate and ideal lover! (laughs horribly with outrageous rawness.)

Hyde (when he finally has laughed roughly enough) Well, that’s the end of the fun. I have achieved my goal and done my duty to this woman. May she now show herself to the world and brag about how her marriage was consummated! (laughs hard again, while he removes the handkerchief and lets her free.

Elizabeth is in a combined state of total shock and hysteria. She immediately starts screaming and runs away and out. You hear her screaming for a long while out in the wings while Hyde quickly and quietly retires back into the laboratory, locks and shuts the light inside. Doors are heard in the wings being opened and closed. You hear the front door being closed and her screams vanish beyond.)

Poole (from a side) But my lady! What is the matter with her? Has she gone totally mad? (enters with a light, knocks at the laboratory door) Doctor Jekyll! Doctor Jekyll! (no answer) He is not there. Then he must be sleeping. I must hurry after her and get her home before it amounts to a scandal. (hurries out. The scene is left in darkness behind him and returns to the three in the salon.)

Sarah (reading from the letter) “But the worst and most terrible thing of all was that he seemed to know me while I did not know him. I had never seen such a horrifying human being before and don’t even know his name. Henry suggests that it was all just a bad dream, but it wasn’t, Sarah. You must believe me even if not even my father can believe me. The blood on my clothes came from nothing else than my fate worse than any death.” (looks up) That is how her letter ends.

Utterson May I have a look? (Sarah gives it to him. He examines it closely.)

You must admit, Henry, that it is a remarkable letter from a dying woman.

Jekyll Still it contains nothing new. She told me and doctor Lanyon the same nightmare. He was also of the opinion that it was an unfortunate combination of a nightmare and sleepwalking.

Utterson I assume that none of you or anyone else can explain it in any other way.

I must ask you two questions though, Henry.

Jekyll Please go ahead.

Utterson Could what this dying woman tells in her life’s last letter have been a reality?

Jekyll Naturally that possibility cannot be excluded.

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Utterson Could the man in the laboratory in that case have been a certain Edward Hyde?

Sarah (terrified, cries out) Jekyll Neither that possibility could be excluded.

Utterson In that case, how did he enter the laboratory, to which as everyone knows only you have the key?

Jekyll My good Utterson, that’s the question on which this argument falls.

Since only I have the key of the laboratory no one else than I could have been there.

So Elizabeth’s experience could only have been a most horribly realistic nightmare.

Utterson That is unfortunately the only plausible explanation. And according to what you have told about your conversations, she could in her constantly more agitated state of mind have been capable of exactly that kind of nightmares.

Sarah Who is this Edward Hyde really, Henry?

Jekyll A miserable being like all the others. He disappeared after the murder of Sir Danvers Carew, and everyone is hoping he will never more came back, including me.

Utterson It is striking though how Elizabeth’s description of the man in the letter fits exactly with the description of Edward Hyde: small and repellent with a horrifying complexion and a revolting air of hatred and evil. Still she didn’t know about the existence of Edward Hyde, did she?

Jekyll He achieved notoriety much later.

Utterson This is perhaps the most remarkable thing about the letter, as if this Edward Hyde would have sprung into existence with Elizabeth’s nightmare.

Jekyll My friends, all this is getting rather exhausting for me. Do you mind if I retire?

Utterson Of course not, my dear friend. (finding his clock, rising hastily) But it is late. Here we have been sitting far too long.

Sarah (also rising) Forgive us, Henry, but I think it was important.

Jekyll Important but exhausting and upsetting.

Sarah (approaching him) Forgive us.

Jekyll (embracing her) No, you must forgive me!

Sarah For what?

Jekyll For being such a bad husband to Elizabeth.

Utterson No man is good enough for his wife.

Jekyll Says you, the expert in the field, the most inveterate bachelor of all!

Utterson Sometimes I suspected that you have envied me.

Sarah Come now, Sir. Doctor Jekyll needs some rest.

Jekyll (calling on Poole) My best regards to your father, Sarah, Tell him everything that we have talked about.

Sarah Do you really want that?

Jekyll Have I anything to fear?

Sarah He keeps a detailed journal in your name.

Jekyll Splendid! The more exact, the better! That’s a good and true doctor!

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Utterson Good night, Jekyll.

Jekyll Good night, dear Utterson. We will continue some other time.

Utterson I hope there will not be any reason for it.

Jekyll I hope so too. And don’t forget the will.

Utterson The will?

Jekyll To the advantage of my sister-in-law.

Utterson Oh yes, of course.

Sarah (embracing him again) Good night, Henry. (kisses him) Jekyll Good night, dear sister. (enter Poole) Poole, give them an umbrella if it rains.

Poole It is not raining, Sir. Jekyll We should be grateful for that. Farewell, my friends.

(Utterson and Sarah leave with Poole.)

Jekyll (alone, waits until he hears the front door being closed, then throws himself on his knees on the floor with clasped hands and hides his face) O God, save me from this hell which is worse than life!

(Sarah suddenly returns fully dressed) Sarah (sees his condition) Henry! (rushes forth) Jekyll (recovers instantly) Sarah! I thought you had left!

Sarah Something made me turn back at the door. Now I know what it was.

Jekyll (stupidly) Did you forget something?

Sarah Henry, you need a doctor. You are sick.

Jekyll No, only tired. And the disadvantage of being the best doctor in London is that he can never himself have the proper medical care. For no expert can understand the illnesses which he cannot even cure himself.

Sarah You are sick in your heart. And it has to do with my sister’s departure.

Jekyll You can’t cure me, Sarah.

Sarah (takes a seat) Do you know what I think? You don’t have to admit that I am right. But I believe that you brought in suspect individuals from the street and paid them for allowing you to experiment on them. Such a person is Edward Hyde, who therefore has a hold on you, and it was such a man that my sister happened to.

Jekyll (shakes his head) I swear, Sarah, that I never experimented on any person except myself.

Sarah Don’t try to bluff me, Henry. Don’t try to make me believe that Elizabeth’s experience was just a nightmare. After a nightmare you go into the kitchen and have a glass of water and maybe read something to disperse your thoughts. You don’t run out in the streets screaming and bleeding in the middle of the night in your nightgown in a desperate escape. My sister had no inclination to hysteria. She experienced something, and her description of what she experienced fits into her natural reactions.

Jekyll Sarah, it is best for all that you accept that it was just a nightmare.

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Sarah (looks at him straight) Maybe so. But you know more about this than what you wish to share with anyone. If you don’t want to tell the truth, I can’t help you. (turns around and leaves) Jekyll Sarah!

(She has left. Jekyll collapses again in despair in his sofa. Enter Poole.)

Poole She has left for real now, Sir. Shall I close up for the night?

Jekyll Yes, Poole, do so.

Poole Shouldn’t you go to bed yourself, Sir? You look tired and pale.

Jekyll No, Poole, I have work to do. I wouldn’t be able to sleep anyway.

Poole You should take something against your insomnia, Sir. I always said so.

Jekyll There is only one remedy against my insomnia, and that is work.

Poole If you go on like this you will have a breakdown one day, Sir. Jekyll No, I will never succeed in that no matter how hard I try. (rises confidently) Poole Where are you going, Sir? Jekyll To the laboratory. Sleep well, Poole.

(Poole shakes his head, puts out the lights, leaves and closes the door behind.)

Interlude.

Newspaper boy (crosses the stage with papers) Extra! Extra! Double murder in East End! Jack the Ripper at large again! Read all about Jack the Ripper’s latest! Extra! Latest news of Jack the Ripper!

(Many eager men on the way to the club buy the paper and gloats on the story with glowing interest.)

Scene 4. The club.

Elegant gentlemen sitting in comfortable armchairs, reading, drinking, sleeping or smoking.

A member He is no bad murderer, that cutthroat in Whitechapel.

2 No, indeed. He knows his business.

3 To me he seems like a regular professional surgeon but the contrary.

1 Yes, he doesn’t exactly sow up his corpses again.

4 It’s a most astonishing case. I don’t think we ever experienced anything like it before. He has already cut up three ladies, and no one even knows what he looks like!

5 Such a career could go on for a long time and undisturbed the way he goes along.

3 What possibilities does the police have to get him caught?

Utterson No real one, as there is no description of him.

4 But such a maniac must sooner or later commit some mistake. They always do.

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6 This would be an ideal case for the new detective Sherlock Holmes, who is renowned in the papers.

1 Is he a real person?

6 Who can doubt it? What would the world be without such a person at hand?

3 What is your view of the case, doctor Jekyll?

Jekyll (puts aside his paper, which he up till now kept hidden behind) I admit that it excels all earlier criminal cases by its extreme artfulness.

3 Artfulness?

Jekyll Yes, between ourselves the maniac must be a doctor. He knows exactly what organs to cut out and where to find them in the body. He clearly has expert knowledge. (immerses himself again in the paper) 5 But why does he only attack prostitutes? And old sluts at that! All three are almost in our own age!

Utterson Yes, the circumstances of these crimes are really bewildering.

4 There are mean rumours that the court might be involved.

Several Tell us!

4 (in confidence) They say that the Prince of Wales on several occasions was seen as a guest at the places which the victims frequented. He is known to never have committed the impoliteness of refusing a woman’s invitation. It is rumoured that Her Majesty has expressed a wish that it would be convenient if the Prince of Wales was relieved of such risky connections. The freemasons have since dealt with the matter.

Only they know how to go through with a ritual murder in a correct and impeccable manner.

3 What then does the Prince of Wales say?

4 Naturally the same thing as his mother.

3 Which is what?

4 Nothing.

2 Yes, in our country we always got away from the accountability issue by keeping quiet without a stir of our lips.

6 That’s why we have a world empire.

1 Alert! Here is doctor Lanyon!

3 Doctor Lanyon, what do you think of the matter?

Lanyon What matter?

3 The case of Jack the Ripper and his three ladies.

Lanyon Have you nothing more sensible to occupy yourselves with?

4 We never had anything more sensible.

6 You have to admit, doctor Lanyon, that behind these murders there is an intelligence and methodology that transcends all world politics.

Lanyon No, I don’t admit that at all.

Jekyll (removing his paper again) How then do you explain the surgically meticulous precision in each of these cases?

Lanyon I don’t wish to comment on it.

Jekyll That suggests that you know something.

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Lanyon Only two of them were regular ritual murders. In the third one he fumbled.

2 He was disturbed. That’s why he compensated his loss on Catherine Endowes, who was as thoroughly anatomized as Polly Nichols.

1 And mind you! Always on the last day of the month!

3 So we might have new murders to look forward to on the 31st of October.

1 There was one on the last of August and two now. Then it might be three next time.

Lanyon Shame on you, gentlemen!

4 May we then know what you think?

Lanyon I am no criminal expert. But Jeffrey Utterson here is a lawyer.

Utterson I could never defend Jack the Ripper.

4 Not even if he was the Queen’s own house doctor?

Lanyon Gentlemen! Lease majesty!

4 You know doctor Gull. Could you give him an alibi?

Lanyon Doctor Gull had a heart attack last year. He could never roam the streets of East End in night time to practise his dissection abilities on live women.

Jekyll But you have to admit, doctor Lanyon, that it is an expert hand handling the knife who is familiar with anatomy. Doctor Gull besides is quite fit in spite of his heart attack. He also suffers from strange temporary losses of memory.

Lanyon Are you suggesting that he could commit the murders and afterwards have no memories of them?

Jekyll Who would not gladly forget such murders if he committed them?

Lanyon You suggest a dualistic personality where one part doesn’t know what the other is up to.

Jekyll Admit that it would be convenient for Jack the Ripper to in daytime be able to appear in a respectable guise like doctor Gull’s, the Queen’s own house doctor.

Lanyon Your insinuations are shameless.

Jekyll They are not mine but those of the press. I only say what all journalists say but dare not write a word a bout.

Lanyon You forget an important detail: the motive.

Jekyll The motive is clear. The son and heir of the crown prince has syphilis which he has attracted by too happy parties with too lascivious persons. All the four murdered women knew about his loose connections and have therefore been silenced. I am not saying that it was at the Queen’s command, for that I know nothing about, but I do say that Sir William Gull is not only the Queen’s but also the heir’s and his eldest son Eddie’s house doctor.

Lanyon Doctor Jekyll, you are going too far!

Jekyll This is a closed society without journalists. You have the right to speak openly in your own club. And mind you: I am only casual. I am not saying that doctor Gull did it but I only point out that there could have been motives. And the murders were committed according to a ritual which must be associated directly

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with freemasonry. Both you and doctor Gull are freemasons. Do you know something about the matter that we don’t know?

Lanyon Doctor Gull is above all suspicion.

Jekyll Like you and me? Haven’t you observed how everyone here in the club have gloated in discussing Jack the Ripper’s most macabre practices? Still none of them is Jack the Ripper. But don’t you think we could all have a Jack the Ripper inside ourselves in our subconscious, which we all even might feel tempted bring out and admire, like almost all our respected fellow club members here today?

Lanyon What is your point, doctor Jekyll?

Jekyll I really only wish to show that our society is not altogether as perfect as it may outwardly seem. Our high respectability in our almost clinically pure palaces, our superior Christian social morals dressed up in impeccable propriety and run according to the strict routines of convention, our most socially beneficial labour activity with the soundest possible economy ever since Napoleon was defeated and our sovereign position of power in the world with the greatest empire in history as our personal property – all this welfare could result in a certain boredom leading to temptations, which could bring forth abyssal spirits from our carefully buried lower self, as this Jack the Ripper could be an all too obvious manifestation of.

1 As usual, you are a brilliant lecturer, doctor Jekyll.

Jekyll No, I am just pointing out the great moral problem of our new age. We can civilize the world and subject it and create the highest developed society in history, but we can never overlook the total self-destructivity within ourselves, which could be worse than any wild animal and more raving and evil than even Jack the Ripper.

Lanyon Doctor Jekyll, as usual you associate with dangerous theories from which I detach myself entirely.

Jekyll Because you dare not consider them.

Lanyon By caution and care, because they are too dangerous.

Jekyll That’s also what the ostrich feels about the world, so he buries his head in the sand.

Lanyon Ostriches and humans are not the same kind.

Jekyll Cowardice is the same for ostriches as for humans.

Lanyon You are a bold man, doctor Jekyll, all too bold, but a doctor must not be that, for his responsibility demands first of all carefulness.

Jekyll You mean that it could otherwise cross the line and result in recklessness like Jack the Ripper’s?

Lanyon Yes, that’s what I actually mean, doctor Jekyll. No criminal could be more dangerous than a doctor who crosses the line of common decency.

Jekyll I must contradict you in that, doctor Lanyon. A doctor could never cross the line without becoming entirely self-destructive. If he could become a criminal he could never have become a doctor.

Lanyon I hope you are right, doctor Jekyll, for if Jack the Ripper is a doctor the world is in danger.

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Jekyll And that we shall probably never know, as the criminal displays such skill.

Utterson Which indicates that he could be a doctor.

Jekyll You are at least a realist, Utterson.

Lanyon I will not have anything to do with your speculations. You only go farther and farther out on thinner ice.

Jekyll Are you afraid, doctor Lanyon?

Lanyon Henry Jekyll, I must warn you. Today your self-confidence goes too far approaching hubris, which will destroy you. Don’t come to me afterwards crawling on all fours abjectly begging for help.

Jekyll Doctor Lanyon, you have nothing to fear. None of us knows or is Jack the Ripper, and Edward Hyde is dead.

Utterson Is he dead?

Jekyll According to certain information he is dead.

Lanyon But Jack the Ripper lives, and something tells me that we are still going to hear a lot of that man. (leaves) Utterson He might still only have started his activities. Could he and Edward Hyde possibly be the same person?

Jekyll Utterson, Hyde is dead.

Utterson I hope for your own sake that you are right.

Jekyll What do you mean by that?

Utterson Just an intuitive feeling. (The other club members have gradually lost interest in the discussion.)

Jekyll Nothing could be more interesting. Could you define it?

Utterson No. it’s already passed.

Jekyll Do you think I was too hard on doctor Lanyon?

Utterson I didn’t know that doctors could be as mean and ruthless with each other as barristers in court.

Jekyll It’s part of our profession, Utterson. There is no profession more dirty and thankless. All such horrors that no normal human being ever wishes to touch with we have to handle alone and not just stick our hands into it and sully them with all human physical sufferings from elephantiasis to leprosy but also wrangle with her psychic sufferings and mental diseases that are a hundred times worse. And as a doctor you are completely exposed to all the worst sides of humanity. If you commit one single mistake you are utterly indefensible. A criminal can always count on having a lawyer standing up for his defence, but a doctor can never defend himself, and no one can defend him. As a rule, criticism and ingratitude is the only reward he always can count on and have more than enough of, and he can always be sure of that. It is so certain, that he will never be free of it.

Utterson How can you then be a doctor and put up with it?

Jekyll (with a sigh) There is only one thing making it endurable: your commiseration and compassion with others. As a doctor you cannot live for yourself, but the only life you have is what you give to others. There is no greater joy for a doctor than to succeed in saving a human life, and that joy means more to him than any thinkable

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reward. For he knows, that if he only once has succeeded in saving a human life, then he has proved to himself that he can live up to making himself good and right as a doctor.

Utterson How many lives have you saved?

Jekyll I don’t know, but the other side of the coin is, that if only one patient dies under your care it’s a worse failure than saving a hundred lives is the opposite.

Utterson Has it ever happened to you?

Jekyll (with a sigh) The first time it happened I realized I should never have become a doctor. I am too sensitive, Utterson. I take adversities too hard. And too late I realized my profession lacked safety valves. A doctor can never abscond his responsibility. If he commits a fault, he can only be accused and sentenced, and nothing can save him, help him or defend him.

Utterson But surely you never committed any mistake?

Jekyll Not visibly and not formally. But the personal, inner unnoticed mistakes are the deeper and more fatal. The lack of safety valves in my profession might lead to my destruction, Utterson, if it hasn’t already.

Utterson Our friends here have speculated in the possibility that Jack the Ripper could be a doctor. Could the lack of safety valves in your profession lead a doctor to such despair and madness?

Jekyll (hesitates) It’s uncertain, Utterson. We can neither claim with certainty that it is possible or impossible.

Utterson Do you think Jack the Ripper could be – Edward Hyde?

Jekyll How so? Do you see any parallels?

Utterson Yes, I actually do. The murder of Sir Danvers Carew was exactly as brutal and unmotivated as the three murders in East End. All the murders indicate rather a raving and blindly bolting aggression than any logical criminality.

Jekyll You know more of such things than I. But Edward Hyde is dead.

Utterson Yes, you said so. But are you sure?

Jekyll Let’s look at it objectively. If the murders in East End discontinue, then Jack the Ripper could have been Edward Hyde. But if Jack the Ripper’s ritual murders continue he is definitely not Edward Hyde, for I know with certainty that he is out of the picture.

Utterson But still not proven dead?

Jekyll Death is relative, Utterson. No man is completely dead although he dies.

For me Elizabeth is still alive. Even a being like Edward Hyde could still be haunting, like Jack the Ripper, whom no one yet has seen except those who died by his hand.

Scene 5. Doctor Jekyll’s bedroom. Late one evening.

Doctor Jekyll enters in his nightgown and regards himself in the mirror.

Jekyll Still not one crack in your perfectly impeccable surface, Jekyll? Still absolutely perfect in everything? The recklessly liberal Irishman Oscar Wilde is rumoured to work on a novel about a socially perfect person with a portrait, where

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the portrait ages and reveals all the man’s vices while he himself remains outwardly perfect. He could have taken the idea from me. Dorian Grey is as outwardly perfect as Henry Jekyll, but Henry Jekyll lacks the revealing portrait. He is so perfect that not even his mirror betrays a glimpse of the cracks under the shining polished varnish.

How long will it be able to go on? I am guilty of my wife’s death, and I am guilty of all Edward Hyde’s deeds, but I am the only one who knows about it and who accuses me. But nothing can silence my own accusations, for my guilt only cries out the louder from within me the more it is silent in public.

When will I reach the limit to my pains? The man who could not be broken by torture has never existed, but no torture could be more painful than self-torture. I thought I found a solution and safety valve by Edward Hyde, but he only complicated the case. Still I longed for regaining Edward Hyde’s freedom, the temptation has at times been overwhelming, but reason has prevailed and sealed his death sentence. Edward Hyde is the man who always goes too far and breaks all limitations, while Henry Jekyll never can allow himself that liberty. Like doctor Lanyon he will be uncompromisingly limited in his faith and loyalty to human duty.

And what a bore he will become! Good night, Henry Jekyll. (shuts the light and goes to bed.)

(After a while he starts moving restlessly in cramps in the bed.)

Jekyll(‘s voice) What is this? (The cramps get worse.)

Damnation! Oh no! It must not be true! (groans heavily) Thank heavens that no one in the world can see what now happens in my bed!

(The paroxysms culminate in a heart-rending cry of agony.)

(A man is heard staggering out of bed.)

Hyde(’s voice) It must not be true.

(The man reaches the mirror and lights a candle. At the same time the lights of dawn are seen growing outside the window.)

(The light shows Hyde in Jekyll’s pyjamas in front of the mirror.)

And still it has happened, which never must have happened. I have lost control. I thought I had killed you, Edward Hyde, and then you return in a more horrifying way than ever! In this way it will be you who destroys doctor Jekyll instead of the contrary! The perfect doctor perishes to the worst infernal man, whom he invoked himself and gave life! What an irony! So the noblest man’s life is taken over by the most vulgar thinkable barbarian, to whom all the lives that doctor Jekyll saved are as indifferent and worthless as excrements of dead flies! What is the human dignity to the existence of such a monster and freak as Edward Hyde? More worthless than bugs of the plague! Doctor Jekyll saved lives, but I murder them, and I would gladly sacrifice all humanity, this damned specimen of only wicked parasites on each other and on nature! Let humanity perish so that Edward Hyde may live, the final product of humanity, the perfect evil and supreme human destructivity! Whose murder will you get away with next time, Edward Hyde? (a doorbell)

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But it is already morning. Will doctor Jekyll’s patients be here already? No, it’s too early. It must be an emergency. But Poole must not find me in the doctor’s bed. I must return quickly to the laboratory and get the doctor back again. Edward Hyde, you succeeded in returning, but this time you will not get out of the house. (quickly dons the doctor’s morning wrapper and gets away.)

(Voices are heard outside. It’s Poole and Sarah Crawford.)

Poole I thought you were in Singapore.

Sarah I cancelled the journey.

Poole But you are very early. The doctor is still in bed.

Sarah Something tells me he isn’t. (enter Sarah and Poole) Poole (astonished) You are right. He is not here.

Sarah I was right! My intuition is never wrong!

Poole Then he must be in the laboratory. I just hope he hasn’t been there working all night again!

Sarah I go there alone, Poole.

Poole Do you know the way?

Sarah Of course.

Poole Just call on me if there is anything. (leaves) (Sarah is seen walking out and stopping in front of the closed door of the laboratory, exactly the same situation as in scene 3.)

Sarah (knocks cautiously on the door) Henry, are you there? (No answer.) (knocks somewhat harder) Henry! You must be there! (No answer.) (knocks harder) Henry! Answer! (no answer) I know he is there. There is a light on. He must be there. (knocks even harder) Henry! (A light is seen approaching the door.)

At last! (the door is opened) (Henry appears in a white gown, white as a sheet, sweaty and in a terrible state of exhaustion.) Henry! What has happened?

Jekyll Sarah! What are you doing here?

Sarah I couldn‘t sleep. I had such terrible nightmares.

Jekyll Shouldn’t you be in Singapore?

Sarah I cancelled my journey.

Jekyll But why?

Sarah Because I felt that you needed me.

Jekyll (hugs her) My beloved! You shared my nightmares. Still you can’t imagine what a night I had.

Sarah But what has happened? Are you ill?

Jekyll It’s worse than that.

Sarah You look terrible.

Jekyll Still it’s worse than what it looks like.

Sarah You look as if you came directly from hell!

Jekyll So I do. But come, Sarah. I think we both need a cup of tea.

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Sarah You must tell me what is happening.

Jekyll I can’t. You can’t understand it.

Sarah Try! Jekyll I am losing control. Another soul and personality is taking over my body.

Sarah Are you getting insane?

Jekyll If only it were that simple! If only that was all of it!

Sarah Come! Let’s go to Poole! He will take care of us!

Jekyll But you really ought to have gone to your husband in Singapore. What will your father say?

Sarah I will not leave you now, Henry, not until I have learned everything.

Jekyll You never will. I sincerely hope that no one ever will.

Sarah Is it that horrifying?

Jekyll No, it’s worse than that. Come, let us go.

Scene 6. At doctor Lanyon’s.

Lanyon Sarah, listen to me! You must be reasonable! You can’t go on like this! I am your father and know better than anyone else what’s best for you including yourself! I am also a doctor and a real doctor unlike my lost son-in-law, for whose sake you seem ready to ruin your life! You have a husband in Singapore, Sarah, who is waiting for you and who loves you!

Sarah You don’t understand, father. Henry is ill. He needs me. I can’t go as long as I don’t know what is the matter with him.

Lanyon I will tell you what is the matter with him. He is no doctor. He is an adventurer whose only interest in life is sensations. He doesn’t care about people and only thinks of his experiments for his high pleasure’s sake. He is a consummate egoist who never should have been a doctor.

Sarah You blame him for Elizabeth’s death without cause or reason!

Lanyon He was married to her, and she died under his care! Something happened in that house which never was cleared up or even investigated! If Jekyll had been a real doctor, Elizabeth would never have died!

Sarah You accuse him without knowing what you are accusing him of!

Lanyon And that’s the worst thing of all – that I don’t know what happened. I only know that Henry Jekyll alone and no one else was responsible. Therefore I can never allow him to have my second daughter as well. Do you understand that? I love you too much, Sarah. I can’t let him ruin your life also. I would rather bind you and bring you on board the ship to Singapore in a straitjacket!

Sarah He has himself forbidden me to visit him.

Lanyon What are you saying?

Sarah He doesn’t want me to come to his house any more. Do you understand?

He is so ill that he doesn’t want to see me, although I love him and know that he also loves me!

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Lanyon Does he dare to show himself in public?

Sarah Something has happened to him, father, and I don’t know what it is. He is so ill that he doesn’t dare to confide his illness to anyone! ( a doorbell) Lanyon That’s most unlike Henry Jekyll, who never was ill in all his life.

Something must have happened. Maybe some important experiment went wrong with grave consequences. Yes, it must be something like that. (enter butler) Yes, what is it, Ruggles?

Butler A letter, Sir. Lanyon (receives the letter) Does the messenger expect an answer?

Butler No, Sir. Lanyon (puts on his glasses) My God! It’s from Jekyll!

Sarah What does he write?

Lanyon (eyes the letter) He must really be in trouble, for he is asking for my help.

Sarah, he is coming to me as a doctor who is looking for a doctor and demands his absolute obligation of silence. This can only be a matter between him and me. (looking at his clock) He is here in an hour. You must leave the house, Sarah. He must not find you here.

Sarah He doesn’t want to see me in his house, and now you don’t want to see me in your house. What is really going on?

Lanyon Go to Singapore, Sarah. Leave Jekyll to his ruined life and go away to your own future instead. That’s the only sensible thing. Trust me as your father and doctor.

Sarah I will never abandon a man who loves me of he isn’t well. What does he say in the letter?

Lanyon (sighs) I must go out and get some chemical material for him which he himself or some messenger will come and get in an hour. Evidently he will make some sort of confession and take me into his confidence. As a doctor I cannot refuse him. But I can keep you out of it, Sarah, and I intend to do so.

Sarah I will remain in London until this crisis is over.

Lanyon Stay wherever you want, but stay out of it! Both I and Henry Jekyll have forbidden you to see him! (to the butler) I am going out, Ruggles, and taking Sarah with me. Don’t let anyone in while we are away, and leave the house yourself in forty-five minutes. No one must be here when I receive Henry Jekyll or his patient.

Butler Very well, Sir. Lanyon Come, Sarah! You must have patience! It’s possible and even probable that this will give us the answers to all that we have been wondering about.

Sarah That’s the least thing I have the right to demand.

Lanyon And all that I can wish for. (They all go out.)

(After some time doctor Lanyon returns with his purchases. He looks at the clock.)

Lanyon He will be here any moment. Damned son-in-law, expose me to whatever ordeal you please, but leave my only daughter alone! She at least is safe now.

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(The doorbell.)

There he is. At least he is punctual.

(Doctor Lanyon opens the door but is shocked by the sight of the man outside.)

Hyde (making an effort at politeness) Doctor Lanyon, I presume?

Lanyon And whoever might you be?

Hyde I am the messenger from doctor Jekyll.

Lanyon Can you prove it?

Hyde It should be enough that I know that you have purchased some chemicals on his account, which I am here to demonstrate to you. Did you get all the drugs?

Lanyon It wasn’t easy, but you seem to know what it is all about. I don’t. But who are you?

Hyde Be patient. You will soon see. Where is the package?

Lanyon I just arrived with it.

Hyde (impatient) Then let me have it, damn it!

Lanyon Calm down, Sir. Or do you wish me to call on the police to have you explain yourself to the custodians of order?

Hyde (controlling himself with difficulty) I apologise. But you must understand that this urgency could mean life or death. One life is in danger, and you can save it, if you cooperate.

Lanyon I did not refuse to cooperate. (gets the package) Hyde At last! Do you have a mortar and perhaps a graduated glass?

Lanyon What is a doctor’s reception without that? (offers them) Hyde (going to work at once) The explanations will come later. (mixes with exact precision and well practised routine a decoction, which starts reeking in thick smoke.)

Lanyon You seem to know your business.

Hyde Remember your obligation of silence, doctor Lanyon, whatever you will witness. Can I trust you?

Lanyon You have my word as a doctor.

Hyde (adds the last ingredient. A large cloud occurs which hides Hyde out of sight. Doctor Lanyon starts coughing and retires aside. When the cloud gradually disperses there is no Hyde left. Instead there is a pale, trembling Jekyll in his place in cold sweat.)

Lanyon Jekyll! What kind of infernal magic is this?

Jekyll I am not asking you to believe what you see. But I do ask you to keep silent about what you have witnessed.

Lanyon Was the man I just saw – Edward Hyde?

Jekyll Yes, doctor Lanyon, a man who never should have been brought into existence, an artificial illness which never should have seen the day, and the illness of which I suffer.

Lanyon Do you mean to say that you by chemical means can transform yourself into another being?

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Jekyll Yes, and I enjoyed it, until that other being started to take charge of my life. Then my enjoyment turned into a trap worse than death.

Lanyon So your alter ego is – Edward Hyde?

Jekyll Yes, and I can’t get rid of him any more. He returns and takes possession of my body without my recalling him. And it is getting constantly more difficult for me to come back as myself.

Lanyon Then you really have got yourself into a mess! But how is it possible?

No, forget it, forget the technical explanation. I have seen the practical manifestation with my own eyes. Just explain in a human way what I as a doctor should know.

Jekyll It was not I who took the life of your daughter, William. It was Edward Hyde.

Lanyon Already then?

Jekyll Elizabeth happened to him by accident when he was still new and Henry Jekyll didn’t yet understand to try to control him.

Lanyon But didn’t you say that Edward Hyde was dead?

Jekyll After the murder of Sir Danvers Carew I swore never again to bring forth Edward Hyde. Instead he came back by himself.

Lanyon So he can manifest himself without the chemical procedure?

Jekyll The first time it happened it was in my sleep. Once it happened when I was sitting in the park. Now it happens constantly more frequently. Do you understand, William? Sarah must never see Edward Hyde! Send her to Singapore!

Lanyon But what will become of the brilliant Henry Jekyll, whom all our students adore?

Jekyll I came here because I couldn’t get home as Edward Hyde. Now I can get home, and there I will stay until I have solved the problem.

Lanyon Of all medical problems I ever heard about I have never seen anything worse than this. Edward Hyde could be your death, Henry Jekyll.

Jekyll If I die he will die with me. That’s my only comfort in that case. And if it happens, you must keep my secret, doctor Lanyon, so that never anyone else could get the same affliction.

Lanyon I have my medical obligation of silence. But I also have my journal, doctor Jekyll, and in that I can neither lie or keep silent.

Jekyll No one else must see that journal, doctor Lanyon. And if I die of this illness, the secret of that journal must die with me.

Lanyon Considering the nature of the illness, it’s a reasonable request.

Jekyll Thank you for understanding me, doctor Lanyon, That’s all I ask of you.

Now I will no longer take up your invaluable time. Mind you, you have a beautiful daughter to send to Singapore as soon as possible. (makes ready to leave) Lanyon There is nothing else I can do for you, my son-in-law?

Jekyll Nothing, doctor Lanyon, Farewell. (leaves) Lanyon It’s technically and biologically impossible, and still I have seen it with my own eyes. And he is right. He has realized himself that such a scientific discovery and secret never can be made known without all science having its very foundations

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shattered. He calls it an illness. No, doctor Henry Jekyll, you are just a most unhappy victim to your own unsurpassed genius.

Scene 7. At home at doctor Jekyll’s.

Housemaid I can’t bear it any longer. This will throw me into fits! Do you hear that, Bob? Poole The name is Robert Poole, Betty, and I am responsible for the entire household here in the house!

Housemaid And you sure made a mess of it! The doctor you whisked away by some magic so that he will never come back, unless you are so good a butler that you are able to whisk him back again!

Poole I tell you he is in the laboratory!

Housemaid And I tell you I think you have done him away!

Cook (enters) Are you standing here arguing again?

Housemaid No, we are just flirting as usual. To make me take over the house, Bob has got rid of the doctor. That’s what I think.

Poole He is in the laboratory!

Cook Who is in the laboratory?

Poole (cries) Doctor Henry Jekyll!

Cook He is not in the laboratory.

Poole Yes, he is for certain!

Cook Whoever is in the laboratory, it’s not the doctor!

Housemaid Then it’s his murderer. And Bob is in league with him.

Poole Calm down, for God’s sake, ladies! The doctor is in the laboratory. He has kept himself locked up there for a week and refuses to come out. You have yourself placed a tray with food for him every day outside his door, which he has taken.

Cook It’s not the doctor who is in there.

Housemaid Who is it then?

Cook The devil himself, I believe. It’s some freak or monster in any case. I have heard his voice and seen his shadow. The doctor could never disguise himself to anything such.

Poole What have you seen, Maggie?

Cook Just a shadow, the shape of a dwarf.

Housemaid What have you heard?

Poole What did he say?

Cook I placed his dinner tray yesterday outside his door and knocked on it gently and said: “Would you like some dinner, Sir?” Housemaid And what did he say?

Cook He said: “Yes, Maggie. Leave it outside the door.”

Poole That’s what I said. He is in there.

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Cook It’s just that it wasn’t his voice.

Housemaid Whose voice was it then?

Cook I can’t say, but it sounded like a gravely alcoholised cockney crook, a downright ruffian, lower than a street-sweeper with a chronic bronchitis.

Housemaid He must be ill then.

Cook I tell you, that it was not his voice!

Poole My ladies, I have heard the same voice, and I have taken measures.

Housemaid What have you done, Bob? Cook We ought to call the police and smoke out the vermin.

Poole We don’t know what has happened. Our doctor could still be in there. I have asked Mr Utterson to come.

Housemaid The fine lawyer.

Cook Well done, Bob. When Mr Utterson hears the ruffian’s voice in the laboratory, I am sure he will get the police here directly. (the doorbell) Poole (triumphant) Here is our man and our salvation. (goes to open) Housemaid I go to clean the kitchen.

Cook Good, Betty. Let’s both be out of the way when the men get busy. (both leave) Utterson (entering with Poole) What has really happened, Poole?

Poole We don’t know, Sir. Utterson But obviously there are reasons for concern.

Poole The doctor has locked himself up in the laboratory for a week and refuses to come out. We think he is ill, because he doesn’t sound like himself in his voice.

Utterson Then I am not the man you need, Poole. We need another doctor. Doctor Lanyon. (another signal at the door) Poole Who could that be?

Utterson I have my inklings. But please answer the door. (Poole leaves) (to himself) Henry, Henry, what have you done now?

Sarah(‘s voice outside) I must see doctor Jekyll immediately.

Utterson Sarah!

Poole I am awfully sorry, Miss, but it is not possible. He is indisposed.

Sarah (enters) Utterson!

Utterson (rising) Sarah, I thought you had come to your senses and gone back to Singapore.

Sarah It was not possible. I just couldn’t leave everything. How is Henry?

Utterson That’s what we don’t know.

Sarah Where is he?

Poole We don’t know, Miss, but we think he has locked himself up in the laboratory.

Sarah What is this? You think?

Utterson How is it really, Poole?

Poole (helplessly) That’s what we don’t know.

Sarah (sits down) Tell us exactly what has happened.

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Utterson Henry appears to have locked himself up in the laboratory since a week and refuses to come out. That is all.

Sarah How does he get food?

Poole We carry it out to him and place it outside the door.

Sarah Like to a prisoner or a dog.

Utterson But what does your father say about your coming here?

Sarah I expect he will be here any moment to get me by force and shanghai me to Singapore. That’s the only thing he talks about in my company. But I would like to see Henry before I go there. Could you take me to him, Poole?

Poole Only to the closed door of the laboratory.

Sarah That’s enough.

Utterson I will come with you.

Sarah But only I will speak with him.

Poole You will, if he answers.

Sarah He must answer!

Utterson He probably will, if he lives.

Sarah What do you mean, Utterson?

Utterson I have understood from Poole that he might be sick.

Poole There is something about his voice that isn’t all right, Miss. I suspect that something is amiss with him.

Sarah (rising) We must not lose another minute!

(Sarah leads the way. All three go to the now well known door of the laboratory.)

Sarah (knocking on the undiaphanous glass door) Henry! Open up! It’s Sarah! (death silence) Utterson (low) Threaten with having the door broken.

Sarah Henry! Say that you live! Or else we break down the door!

(Some noise is heard from inside the laboratory.)

Poole Thank God! He lives!

Sarah Henry! Are you sick? Do you need anything? (death silence) Utterson Threaten to break down the door.

Sarah But I already did that once.

Utterson It was efficient. Do it again.

Sarah Henry, if you don’t answer we have to break down the door!

Hyde(’s voice, tired) Don’t do it, Sarah.

Sarah (can’t hold herself on hearing the pathetic voice) Henry, I love you!

Doctor Lanyon(‘s voice, from behind) Let me through! They don’t know what they are dealing with!

Cook Let him through, Betty! A doctor is maybe exactly what doctor Jekyll needs.

Sarah Daddy! He must not come now!

Utterson Threaten to break down the door.

Sarah Henry, we have to break the door, because we think you are ill!

Hyde(‘s voice, as before) It’s too late, Sarah. (Someone is heard falling inside the laboratory.)

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Utterson Break the door!

Lanyon (comes rushing in) No, don’t do it!

(Utterson, determined, breaks the door. Sarah faints. Doctor Lanyon takes care of her.)

Lanyon Carry her out, Poole. This is no place for a woman.

(The housemaid and cook have come out after doctor Lanyon.)

Poole Help our lady to the sofa in the living-room. (The cook and housemaid carry out Sarah.)

(When Utterson breaks into the laboratory the walls glide aside. Edward Hyde is seen stretched out in his shirtsleeves on the floor.)

Utterson Hyde! It’s Edward Hyde!

Poole Doctor! Where is the doctor? What has this creature done with our doctor?

Utterson Is he dead, doctor Lanyon?

Lanyon (examines him quickly) Yes, he is quite dead.

Poole Here is a piece of paper.

Utterson It’s in Henry Jekyll’s handwriting.

Lanyon What does it say?

Utterson (reads) “No one is responsible for this unhappy patient’s death except myself. Henry Jekyll.”

Lanyon That closes the case.

Utterson What do you mean?

Lanyon Doctor Jekyll has closed the strange case of Edward Hyde himself. Now no one needs to worry any more about it.

Utterson But where is Jekyll? Why isn’t he here?

Lanyon He is far away from here. We will never reach him any more and least of all will your law, Mr Utterson. Let’s say that he has gone to Singapore and that Sarah now can go after him.

Utterson You sound as if you know exactly what has a happened.

Lanyon Mr Utterson, I have kept a careful record of Henry Jekyll and his entire story. Everything is documented. The whole truth is preserved. But now it will not be needed any more, for the journal is completed and must be buried in the doctor’s obligation of silence. That’s the whole thing. Goodbye, Mr Utterson. (to Poole) Where is Sarah?

Poole In there.

Lanyon Good. (leaves) Poole Can you understand anything of this, Mr Utterson?

Utterson Not a thing. But I understand as much, that doctor Lanyon has got away with something for which the law will never be able to reach him.

Poole But where is doctor Jekyll?

Utterson Ask Mr Hyde, Poole. Ask Mr Edward Hyde.

(january-march 1998, Gothenburg, translated 1-4 November 2019.)

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The Wreck Dramatization of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic sailor’s yarn "The Wrecker"

by Christian Lanciai (2006)

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The characters: Jim Pinkerton, american adventurer Loudon Dodd, Scottish failed artist Norton, emperor of America Bartender The shipwrecked captain His crew (see below) Guests at the harbour pub ”Black Tom” Douglas B. Longhurst, millionaire Harry D. Bellairs, lawyer An auctioneer An errand boy Judge Morgan Captain Arty Nares His crew A Chinese Fowler and Sharpe, opium dealers A British naval officer Sebright, another one Urqhart, naval surgeon Higgs, butler Mrs Higgs, his wife Lady Ann Carthew Stennis, old artist Madden, artist, alias Norris Carthew Captain Jacob Trent Tom Hadden Captain Wicks Mac, Ulster man Elias Goddedaal, boatswain A sailor The cook Wallen Brown Amalu, Kanak a prattling Chinese other misfortunate crew members The action is in San Francisco, on the Pacific, in England and France about 1890.

Copyright © Christian Lanciai 2006

The Wreck Act I scene 1. The turbulent saloon of Black Tom in San Francsico.

Pinkerton Dodd Pinkerton

Here he is again, the original of originals, to press me for money.

He doesn’t need so much. He owns the whole world.

No, only all America, which is perpetually bankrupt.

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Norton (enters, an impressing bum with feathers in his hat and a large sword in his belt) Respect, please! Make way for the emperor of America!

Bartender Welcome, emperor Norton. We just wondered when you would honour us with another visit.

Norton Don’t pretend any fawning, you cuntfitted pimptoads! Here you behave naturally no matter how much an emperor I am, so there! – A drink, please.

Pinkerton He starts early in the morning.

Dodd And keeps it up all day, I presume.

Pinkerton As long as he stays on his feet.

Norton But what do I see? Isn’t that Jim Pinkerton himself sitting over there!

What dirty business are you now engaged in to swindle yourself to another fortune?

It was ,long since you paid me any taxes!

Pinkerton No, it wasn’t at all.

Norton Yes, it was several days ago.

Pinkerton How much are you bent on squeezing out of me this time, you imperial bloodsucker?

Norton Two dollars will last long.

Pinkerton Thanks to fortune you are cheap as an emperor to keep in state. That’s the only reason why you are allowed to be the emperor of America.

Norton It’s called prudent poltics. Wasn’t it king Jesus who said, that the lowest would be the highest? That’s making life an art, Pinkerton! I have no material pretensions but the higher dignity and integrity and therefore deserve every homage I get!

Pinkerton Exactly. Go to your drink now. You already talked me over too many times.

Bartender Your drink, your majesty. (serves the drink on the bar) Norton My breakfast is waiting. Pardon me, gentlemen, but I must mind my obligations. (pulls off with his rattling sword towards the bar) Pinkerton He lives high on boasting, but no one minds as long as it is funny.

Dodd What’s really the use of his sword?

Pinkerton An ornament. The world renowned pianist Franz Liszt in Europe has a similar one which he drags about. It’s the burden of the vanity mark of nobility.

(Another gang invades the bar, hard worn sailors led by a captain.)

Great Scott! It’s captain Trent!

Dodd Who is captain Trent?

Pinkerton One of five survivors from Flying Scud, which went down by the Midway islands. They were saved in the nick of time by the Tempest and have just come ashore. The captain must have been delivering his log account.

Trent Double rounds to all of us!

Voices It’s captain Trent.

From Flying Scud.

Only four survivors besides the captain.

They really look knocked about.

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Worse than the emperor of America.

The one there who looks ill, is that the Swede?

No, the Swede is not among them.

But they saved the canary. (One of the sailors keeps a canary in a cage.)

At least something.

A guest Tell us now, captain Trent! How did it happen?

Captain (after a few deep gulps) We had no chance. We had splendid weather all the way, and then suddenly the storm broke loose pouring all the wraths and curses of hell over us all at once. Heaven and ocean disappeared and gathered together as one attacking us from all sides. The ship went down to starboard when the storm came from north northwest. It was over in a few minutes. We were wrecked in no time. All we could do was to swim for our lives, and it was a hair’s breadth from all of us going down. Fortunately the islands were in the way of the storm, but there was nothing to live on when we came ashore. If the Tempest hadn’t passed by…

Another guest You were bloody lucky to be saved already the day after. There was no water on that island.

Captain Yes, but it was brackish. There was no wood though, so we could make no fire.

A third But how on earth couldn’t you avoid the island? It is quite alone out there in the middle of the ocean, and it isn’t big.

Captain No, that’s not how it happened. We anchored at the island, because we believed there would be a coal station there. There was none at all. It’s just a sand bank and coral reefs. But in the lagoon we were caught in a dead calm for seven days and then ran out of water, which already had gone putrid – that’s partly why we anchored there. Late on the seventh day it started to blow a little, but we took the risk and went out, when suddenly the wind turned and the storm came, which drove us up on the banks. We had no chance.

Pinkerton (to Dodd, who makes sketches) Take the opportunity, Dodd. Such picturesque and weather-worn faces directly from a shipwreck you’ll not find every day.

First guest How many died? Why did they die?

Captain John Wallen from Finland drowned when he tried to put out a boat together with Charles Holdersen from Sweden, who also drowned. They couldn’t swim. John Brown broke his arm but survived. He can tell you about our struggle.

Third guest The ship with its cargo was insured for ten thousand dollars. The wreck will be auctioned tomorrow. Could the cargo have managed?

Captain All of the rice cargo is probably ruined, but we had some other valuable cargo from Hongkong as well.

3 What?

Captain Silk, tea, and other Chinese bric-a-brac. And that cargo lay further to aft.

We foundered on the coral reef but passed across it and landed on starboard side in the sand, where she lies securely. The water entered from the front, so the cargo in the aft could be intact.

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Pinkerton (catches on directly) There is our chance, Loudun! A wreck at no cost! We could have her for a hundred dollars!

Dodd It’s rather far away.

Pinkerton But the cargo could be worth it! Consider! Silk! Tea! A whole ship loaded with Chinese treasures and secrets! This is for us!

Dodd You mean the journey there and the salvage must be worth more than a hundred dollars?

Pinkerton Many times more! A stroke of luck! We must take the chance!

Dodd If the tip is that hot, please keep quiet about it.

Pinkerton Of course! We’ll immediately steal our way out of here and not bother at all about that bluffing captain’s tall tales! (Dodd and Penkerton sneak out. The emperor and captain Trent go on keeping court at the bar.)

Scene 2. The auction.

Longhurst You are in the circle, Pinkerton. You can make any bid. So you believe the vessel is worth five thousand and you could get it for a hundred?

Pinkerton I talked with the captain. Here he is. (enter the captain) May I present captain Trent to you, Longhurst, one of the most honest captains in the world.

Longhurst Interested in the fate of your old ship, Trent?

Captain I was after all her captain.

Pinkerton Tell us what you think of the cargo, captain.

Captain There is not much value in the rice cargo. But the coconut oil, the tea and the silk cargo should be rather intact aft.

Longhurst And you estimate its value to five thousand?

Captain Also the brig was coppered last year, and it has about hundred and fifty ells of anchor chain. It’s no gold mine, but she isn’t worthless.

Longhurst Bravo, Pinkerton. You have free hands. Pay her fee for a hundred dollars and make a good deal. (leaves) Auctioneer (finds all present) Well, gentlemen, what is your bid for it all?

Pinkerton A hundred dollars.

Auctioneer A hundred dollars bid.

Bellairs And fifty.

Auctioneer Sorry, was that another bid?

Bellairs Yes, it was – a hundred and fifty.

Loudun (to Jim) Obviously there are other interests as well.

Pinkerton He has no chance. – Two hundred!

Bellairs And fifty.

Loudun Who is he?

Pinkerton I have no idea. He looks shabby. – Three hundred!

Bellairs And fifty.

Captain (starts whispering excitedly with one of his crew members)

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Loudun Jim, look at Trent. I’ll bet he expected this.

Pinkerton Yes, there is something fishy going on. – Four hundred!

Bellairs And fifty.

Pinkerton I must have Longhurst connected on this. Where is he?

Loudun He went out.

Pinkerton Fetch him! – Five hundred!

Bellairs And fifty.

Pinkerton Six hundred!

Bellairs And fifty.

Pinkerton Seven hundred!

Bellairs And fifty.

Pinkerton Eight hundred!

Bellairs And fifty. (enter Lomghurst, sits down beside Pinkerton) Longhurst I’ll find out who he is. You can safely go up to five thousand. We’ll take care of the bid.

Pinkerton Nine hundred!

Bellairs And fifty.

Pinkerton He looks like being on the bum. Who would like to engage such a pettifogger?

Longhurst We’ll soon find out with whom we are dealing.

Pinkerton A thousand!

Bellair And fifty.

(A messenger arrives with a folded note to Longhurst. He unfolds it and reads.)

Longhurst ”Harry D. Bellairs, lawyer, defendant of Clara Varden, twice on the point of losing his rights.”

Pinkerton Yes, that’s what he looks like. – Eleven hundred!

Bellairs And fifty.

Longhurst No one with money could have resorted to such a weird type. He must be bluffing. Bluff as well, Pinkerton. If he passes five thousand he will have himself to blame. So this is your partner, Jim? Pleased to meet you! (shakes hands with Loudun) Dodd And you. (Longhurst leaves.)

Pinkerton Twelve hundred!

Bellairs And fifty.

Pinkerton Well what did you think of the great man?

Auctioneer Well, Pinkerton, a higher bid?

Pinkerton Two thousand!

Bellairs And fifty.

Captain (grows pale and more and more tense and paralysed of excitement) Dodd Trent looks like getting soft. Give him another push.

Pinkerton Three thousand!

Bellairs And fifty.

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Pinkerton What do you mean? Are the captain and the pettifogger in league with each other? Why will they not let us have the wreck?

Dodd It smells fishy by far.

Pinkerton You said it. – Four thousand!

Bellairs And fifty.

Dodd The captain looks guilty.

Pinkerton There is something murky about it. But we will find it out. – Four thousand five hundred!

Bellairs And fifty.

Pinkerton We have soon reached the limit. Longhurst set the limit at five thousand.

Dodd Make a bid of five thousand then and have done with it.

Pinkerton Five thousand!

Bellairs And fifty.

Pinkerton What next?

Dodd I take it on me. If you wish to go higher, I will stand for it with all I own.

Pinkerton (relieved) Five thousand one hundred dollars.

Bellairs And fifty.

Pinkerton What could it be? What do you think?

Dodd I have no idea. But look at that pettifogger. He will probably go to ten thousand.

Pinkerton Six thousand!

Bellairs And fifty.

Pinkerton Seven thousand!

Bellairs And fifty.

Pinkerton Eight thousand!

Bellairs And fifty.

Pinkerton Nine thousand! (more and more curious spectators are gathering) Bellairs And fifty.

Pinkerton Ten thousand!

Bellairs (more and more smug, smiles) And fifty.

Pinkerton Ten thousand and a hundred dollars! (suddenly grasps Dodd, has had an idea) Dodd What is it?

Pinkerton I get it! A Chinese vessel! Opium!

Dodd (realizes the probability) You must be right. How much could the cargo be worth?

Pinkerton Anything without limits.

Bellairs And fifty.

Pinkerton Eleven thousand! – But Trent and the pettifogger must know the worth of the treasure. Or else he would never bid so high.

Bellairs And fifty.

Pinkerton Twelve thousand!

Bellairs And fifty.

Pinkerton Fifteen thousand!

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(The audience is dumbfounded and hold their breaths) Bellairs And fifty.

Pinkerton Sixteen thousand!

Bellairs And fifty.

Longhurst (returns, to Jim) You have crossed the limit.

Pinkerton It is my speculation! – Seventeen thousand!

Longhurst You don’t know what you are doing. You are bolting in blindness.

Pinkerton My business mind never fails me.

Bellairs Eighteen thousand.

Pinkerton And fifty.

Bellairs Twenty thousand.

Pinkerton And fifty.

(Whispers and mumblings are heard from the audience: ”Opium!”)

Bellairs Twentyfive thousand! (scribbles a note) Could anyone get me an errand boy?

Dodd He is asking for directions.

Pinkerton He is asking for money. He has become uncertain. Shall I hit it now? It’s probably the right moment.

Dodd Hit as hard as you like.

Pinkerton Thirty thousand dollars!

Bellairs Thirty-five thousand!

Pinkerton Forty thousand!

Bellairs (pauses, hesitates) Dodd He has been bluffing all the way. Now he tries get some time.

Pinkerton He can’t give up until his messenger has returned.

Auctioneer (raises his hammer, threateningly) Bellairs Forty thousand and five dollars.

Pinkerton Forty-five thousand!

Bellairs Forty-five thousand and five dollars.

Pinkerton (thick) Fifty thousand.

Auctioneer Excuse me, Mr Pinkerton, did I hear you right? Did you raise the bid to fifty thousand dollars?

Pinkerton Yes, I did. Sorry that my voice grew thick.

Bellairs (rising, excited) I am sorry, Mr Auctioneer, but I’ll have to consult my client on the telephone. I am representative for a gentleman to whom I just sent a note.

Auctioneer That is no concern of ours. I am only here to auction the wreck. Will you raise the bid?

Bellairs Fifty thousand is the bid that my client set as a limit, but if you will allow me a few moments on the telephone…

Auctioneer Nonsense. It you will not raise the bid it goes to Mr Pinkerton.

Bellairs I warn you. Be careful with what you are doing. You are here to sell the wreck on the account of the insurance company and not for Douglas B. Longhurst.

The auction has been interrupted a few times earlier to give Mr Longhurst an

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opportunity to communicate with his representatives. These irregularities have raised some attention.

Auctioneer No one complained at the time. You should have made objections at once.

Bellairs I am not here to run the auction.

Auctioneer But I am. Fifty thousand dollars for the wreck of Flying Scud – one, two, three, (hammers) sold!

Jim So, Loudun, it’s over. We own a wreck for fifty thousand dollars.

Dodd Can we pay it?

Jim We have to, in one way or another. We simply have to get that credit.

Write a check of what you have. We’ll meet again in an hour at Black Tom’s bar.

(The auction audience disperse eagerly discussing the auction. Bellairs has an argument with the auctioneer. Jim disappears. When Loudon makes way through the crowd he collides with Bellairs’ errand boy, who continues up to Bellairs with a note, who reads it – and lets his arms sink in despair, completely shattered.)

Scene 3. The bar.

Morgan Let me congratulate you on your aquisition. You and your friend stuck it out to the last drop.

Dodd We don’t know yet if it was worth any congratulations. We were carried away.

Morgan Yes. Your counterpart drove up the price from a hundred dollars to fifty thousand. How do you know there was opium in the cargo?

Dodd We don’t. My partner drew that conclusion as the only possible explanation to the attraction of the wreck for the counterpart.

Morgan Perhaps you walked into a trap.

Dodd No, I don’t think so. But we bought a pig in a sack, and we don’t know if the pig is a bird or a fish.

Morgan I have never witnessed a similar auction duel, and I can’t understand how anyone could hire someone like Bellairs. It’s mortally dangerous to entrust him with the least amount, and here he had free hands with fifty thousand. It can’t be someone from San Francisco who hired him.

Dodd Perhaps he represented the owners?

Morgan No, the owners in London could not have anything to do with the contraband traffic of opium between Hongkong and San Francisco. At most I could suspect the captain, but I can’t imagine him having any resources at all. Possibly he could act for someone here in San Francisco, but in that case that pettifogger would never have been hired. We move in circles in our speculations.

Dodd The captain and Bellairs did not know each other.

Morgan Are you sure? But the captain was deeply engaged.

Dodd Indeed he was.

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Morgan I advise you to take the first boat to Midway. Or else someone could get there before you, and both captain Trent asnd Bellairs knew better than you what the wreck was all about. Good luck.

Dodd With whom have I had the honour of speaking?

Morgan Judge Morgan. Have a nice day.

Dodd All San Francisco has engaged in this affair because of its sensational worth. Yes, I think we really should speed it up. But where is Jim loitering? (enter Pinkerton somewhat wobbly) Well, how did it come off? Not very well, I trust.

Jim No, but I managed to select every penny, but we have only three months’ time. We have to keep at it, Loudon.

Dodd Of course, Jim. Jim That cargo just has to be worth fifty thousand. Or else… You remember that Bellairs was inclined to go higher?

Dodd Yes. Jim If he could give us a hundred thousand for her…

Dodd Do you think it’s possible?

Jim It’s worth testing. I have asked him here. (enter Bellairs) Here he is.

Bellairs Gentlemen, and Mr Jim Pinkerton, I am willing to take over the deal without any charges at all for you.

Jim What does that mean?

Bellairs That my client takes over the wreck without any losses on your part.

Jim I am sorry, but the wreck is ours, and we intend to keep it, if you haven’t got more to offer than that.

Bellairs You must then know more about the wreck than I. My impression was that you bought it for a price which wasn’t at all congruent with the value of the cargo.

Jim I would then rather prefer to negotiate with your client directly.

Bellairs That is unfortunately impossible.

Jim Why? Bellairs I could call him, but I can’t give you his address.

Dodd I already have his address, but it’s of no use.

Jim (surprised) How did you get it?

Bellairs Then you don’t need me any more. Goodbye, gentlemen. (leaves) Dodd It doesn’t matter. He isn’t here any more. It was a certain Mr Dickson with a very English accent. I happened to hear when Bellairs called him up after the auction and got the number. Then I called him myself to hear who it was. As soon as he heard it wasn’t Bellairs he hang up.

Jim What did you tell him?

Dodd I asked him why he wanted to buy Flying Scud.

Jim And he rang off and immediately departed in a panic?

Dodd That’s how it seems. He had paid his rent for a week in advance.

Jim This affair constantly grows more mysterious.

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Dodd To say the least. And he left without any baggage with only a small hand bag. But that’s not the worst of it.

Jim What is the worst?

Dodd There was a ship leaving today for China and Honolulu.

Jim You mean…

Dodd It’s a possibility if not even a probability.

Jim He got away to get there before us! What did you say his name was?

Dodd Dickson.

Jim An ordinary name. It was probably not his real name.

Dodd I don’t think so either.

Jim We must immediately get started and fix that schooner, so that we get on our way! But we must have a captain and crew. Why not hire that captain Trent, who knows something about what it is all about?

Dodd It’s not possible.

Jim Why not?

Dodd He has left.

Jim He as well??!!

Dodd He and Brown and Hardy and the cook – all the surviving crew except one person.

Jim Who is missing?

Dodd Elias Goddedaal, the boatswain, the Swede. He appears to have been lying sick all the way home from Midway.

Jim Then you investigated everything.

Dodd As soon as it started to smell of a mysery I became interested. The mystery has constantly grown deeper since then.

Jim And with a vengeance. We can’t let it go now, Loudon. We have to get to the bottom of this now.

Dodd Exactly my conclusion.

Jim Even if you have to do it alone.

Dodd What do you mean?

Jim You shall go alone to Honolulu, Dodd, and manage the wreck. I have to stay here and hold the fort. Do you think you can make it within ninety days?

Dodd If I have to I must.

Jim Exactly. Necessity has no laws. You just have to make it.

Dodd I will make it.

Jim And I trust you, partner. (They cordially shake hands and drink to the bottom to each other.) Do you know what our toast is?

Dodd Our success?

Jim And a third part. Why do you think I can’t follow you?

Dodd Business?

Jim One business. My wife.

Dodd (astounded) Are you married?

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Jim Not yet. Tomorrow. We will be just in time before you leave. Welcome to my wedding.

Dodd Jim! I almost thought you had let me down Jim Never. You never let me down. A marriage only actualizes your ability to stay true and expands it. Only a man who is faithful to his wife can also be faithful to his friends.

Dodd So we are to salvage the fortune in her name?

Jim Cheers to that! (They heartily toast each other again.)

Act II scene 1.

Captain Nares I just wish to know what this is all about.

Jim You got the whole story, Arty! There is no problem!

Nares That’s what makes me suspect a problem. I have never sailed with anyone over me before.

Jim He is not over you! He is just a super cargo! He will only mind the business! You run the ship and the voyage and see to it that we reach our destination and accomplish the salvage. He is actually with us just to check what can be salvaged. He is a land-lubber, Arty! A failed artist! I found him in Paris where he was botching about ridiculous statues, why I made him interested in better business instead and tempted him to San Francisco.

Nares What kind of a man is he really?

Jim A Scotsman.

Nares That is at least better than an Englisman. But it is an English ship we are supposed to plunder, isn’t it?

Jim Yes. Nares That makes it more attractive, and I like the challenge of it. Captain Trent and his gang have sailed in advance to get there before us, but we will catch him up.

You have my word on that.

Jim That’s why you are hired.

Nares Is it really about opium?

Jim It can’t very well be anything else.

Nares How did you plan to unload it? I am not used to smuggling opium.

Jim It would be best if some smaller ship could unload you before you reach the harbour.

Nares That can be arranged. And if captain Trent gets there before us anyway?

Jim Shoot him down.

Nares There are alternative methods.

Jim Use any method. We must salvage this deal. Or else I will make the worst bankruptcy ever on the American west coast.

Nares We shall make it. I never said no to a challenge. That’s what makes you want to go on living.

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Jim Nares

That’s the spirit. I knew I could trust you.

We sail tomorrow.

Scene 2. The empty galley.

(Enter Nares with Dodd. They take a seat.)

Arty Nares Well, my super cargo, we have concluded our preliminary investigation, and nothing makes sense. We found the wreck, which wasn’t any wreck. Captain Trent ought to have reached here before us, but he has not been here. Do you have any inkling of what could have happened here on board this ghost ship?

Dodd You are the expert. I understand nothing, but you have drawn your conclusions. You know what a wreck ought to look like and can compare this with others. I can’t.

Nares This is no wreck. There is no hole in the hull. It never foundered. And this galley was not abandoned in any haste or panic by sailors escaping for their lives. They have been sitting here in peace and quiet having their coffee and smoking their pipes. The cups are emptied with coffee-grounds left in the bottom. The cigarette fag-ends are carefully put out and butted. No lifeboat has been launched in panic that could have led to the death of two sailors and a broken arm of a third. The fresh water on board is not at all putrid but perfectly potable. There was not much water to pump out of the ship. She could have been made afloat again and calmly sailed back to San Francisco.

Dodd The mystery thickens.

Nares Indeed. The only certain thing is that captain Trent appears as a downright liar. Everything he has told is perfect nonsense. Nothing fits, nothing at all.

Dodd And then we have the coffers.

Nares Yes, everyone has brought with him what he wanted, they are all open, except that of the Chinese, who has left all the most precious items of a Chinaman including an opium pipe and his supply of opium. If all the others brought all they wanted with them in peace and perfect order, why did the Chinaman leave all his possessions locked up in a coffer if he wasn’t dead? Well, what do you get out of the exotic collection of humanities in the ship` Dodd Someone on board has been very literate. Here are Shakespeare’s collected works and several classical novels, here are encyclopedias and unusual maritime instruction books, but most remarkable of all is the lead-pencil and the sketch book.

Nares Why? Dodd They belong to an artist. I was an artist myself and know with what instruments an artist works. No one can write with this pencil, because it is the shetch pencil of an artist. To all this is added the photography.

Nares The photography?

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Dodd Yes, I don’t know how to explain it. I found a photography of the ship’s collected crew.

Nares Well?

Dodd The captain of the photography is not captain Trent, and the four surviving crew members are not on the photography.

Nares How can you know that for sure?

Dodd When Trent and his companions entered Black Tom’s bar, I made sketches of them. Here are the sketches. Could you find any one of them looking at all like anyone of the men on the picture?

Nares I’ll be damned. The wrong crew on the wrong ship? And the paper from Sydney dated thirteen days before the shipwreck? How could they have got that paper in time from Hongkong?

Dodd Here on the photography are all the names written of the crew members.

Captain Trent, John Brown, the Chinese, the Kanak, John Hardy, they are all here, but those were not the types that appeared in San Francisco. They all appeared under false names taken from this ship, except possibly Elias Goddedaal, whom I never saw.

Nares But wasn’t he also in San Francisco?

Dodd Yes, but he did not appear with the others. I heard he was ill.

Nares In brief, it’s a total mystery. The only thing that fits is the name of the ship. Everything else is just an unfathomable incomprehensible overwhelming charade.

Dodd Yes. Nares I am sorry, Dodd, but the more I find out of this ship, and the more the mystery outgrows our minds, the more convinced I am that you and Jim Pinkerton have drawn the worst blank in you life.

Dodd But why did that pettifogger raise the bid? What was his interest in this mystery abyss of a ghost ship?

Nares We still haven’t found out everything.

Dodd No. It feels as if we are further off from even the beginning than ever.

Scene 3. The crew on deck.

Nares Listen! We have toiled for weeks and not found anything to meet our expectations, but we know there must be opium somewhere on board. We haven’t given up yet. You have complained and quarrelled and wished to give up, and I have continued pushing you with lashes and beatings and kicks. Now your super cargo here wishes to test another method, namely carrots. Maybe that will suit you better, you donkeys.

Dodd (steps forth) As captain Arty said, there must be opium somewhere on board the wreck, and we must find it. To encourage and stimulate your efforts I hereby offer 150 dollars to the one who first finds the smuggled opium in the cargo. If anyone can

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find out where it could be, he will have 125, and the rest will go to the one who finds it. So I wish you the best of luck on your good hunting, my friends.

Nares You have laboured hard and with efficiency, but you could do even better. To make you do it I increase the bid to 250 dollars in gold.

All Hurray!

Various voices We shall find it!

Go on demolishing the ship, boys!

We still have much to do!

Get going!

A Chinese I have suggestion.

Nares Let’s hear it, Chong.

Chinese I have great experience.

Nares We are waiting.

Chinese Man smuggle opium in rice.

Nares How can you smuggle opium in rice?

Chinese They pack in mats. In mats could be opium.

Nares All right, boys! We have six thousand sacks to investigare. Each one shall be cut up and carefully examined.

The crew Get going! To work!

The rice mats!

That’s the last chance!

(The crew starts immediately and dissolves.)

Nares I am afraid it’s really the last chance, Dodd. If we don’t find the opium in the mats, there is no opium.

Dodd Until the next man, who comes here and finds the wreck, accidentally sumbles on it.

Nares We’ll see. The Chinaman is probably right. There are no more clever smugglers than the Chinese.

Act III scene 1. The galley.

Nares I am afraid it’s over, Dodd.

Dodd Yes, it’s just to admit that we have lost the game.

Nares Some hundred pounds of opium is not enough.

Dodd It’s utterly incredible! Out of six thousand bales of rice we found opium in only twenty!

Nares The Chinese was right. Without him we wouldn’t have found anything.

But I expect it will hardly cover your and Jim Pinkerton’s expenses?

Dodd At best it will cover about 15 percent.

Nares I am sorry.

Dodd What do we do now?

Nares Go home. But first I beg to take care of the wreck in my way.

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Dodd Granted. It’s worthless anyway.

Nares Exactly.

Dodd When did you first begin to suspect that the wreck was worthless?

Nares Almost at once. When we found the ship money with all the receipts. A captain is responsible with his honour, honesty and life for the expenses and salaries of his crew. At a shipwreck the ship accounts with all receipts is the first thing he saves. Here everything was intact and untouched. That captain was no real captain.

Dodd Where do you think he is now?

Nares We shall never know. We shall never know who the false captain was who appeared in San Francisco. We shall never know what happened to the real crew of this ship. We shall probably never know anything.

Dodd I have another final riddle for you to add to all the others.

Nares Well?

Dodd I found a wreck fire on the shore.

Nares A wreck fire? But they were rescued almost the next day after the shipwreck?

Dodd That fire had been burning for weeks.

Nares But there is no wood on the island.

Dodd No. And they hadn’t taken any wood from the wreck.

Nares Another shipwreck from an earlier year? No whitened human bones in the sand?

Dodd No. The wreck fire was rather recent, not older than a month.

Nares May the devil take this hell island and all its phantoms from that damned ghost ship, which is a downright liane jungle of mysteries! Let’s leave at once.

Dodd

By Honolulu to at least sell the opium.

Nares Of course.

Scene 2. The harbour of Honolulu.

(Sharpe and Fowler come climbing on board.)

Nares Welcome on board, gentlemen.

Sharpe We are looking for Mr Loudon Dodd.

Dodd That’s me.

Fowler We are here by the instructions of Jim Pinkerton.

Dodd How is he?

Sharpe Not very well. Bankruptcy and nervous breakdown.

Dodd Already! But we have only been gone for three weeks!

Fowler That doesn’t help. He had one liability too much. The bankruptcy involved debts of 250,000 dollars.

Dodd Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars!

Fowler He could only raise seven percent.

Sharpe Then his health broke down.

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Dodd And his young wife? How did she take it?

Fowler She takes care of him.

Sharpe But we are here on business, and we know what cargo you saved from the wreck.

Dodd Gentlemen, one moment, please. This is shocking news, which I have to discuss with captain Nares before I can make any decisions.

Sharpe We must deal with this at once. The customs have already seen us. The anchoring of your ship here by Honolulu was not exactly invisible.

Dodd If the customs had observed us they would have been here already. I am not used to making business under the threat of a gun.

Fowler Give him a break, Sharpe.

Sharpe Okey, Mr Dodd, you have ten minutes. (leaves Dodd in peace with the captain) Nares I am sorry, Dodd.

Dodd This is the worst cold shower. I never suspected that he was insolvent.

Nares You must help him. He is your partner and has done everything for you.

Dodd You mean sell the opium to those rascals, act as a criminal opium smuggler and provider for the good cause of helping out my partner from the hospital?

Nares I see no alternative for you. You can’t be moral against the directions of destiny. You just have to follow.

Dodd You will then be my accomplice.

Nares Yes, I will. I take that risk. We have after all made friends on this failed enterprise. I can’t let you down now.

Dodd Thanks, captain Nares. Then you give me no choice.

Nares We are in the same boat.

Dodd Call back the dealers. (Nares whistles, Sharpe and Fowler return.)

The opium cargo is yours for 70 dollars a pound.

Fowler How many pounds is it?

Dodd A hundred.

Sharpe Only a hundred? There must have been more in the ship?

Dodd I am only selling a hundred.

Fowler The market price is 40 dollars a pound.

Dodd Not in Honolul. There it is 80.

Sharpe We can blow and send the customs on you.

Dodd If you leave the ship without a deal we shall weigh anchor at once. For me it’s the same.

Fowler 60 dollars, Mr Dodd.

Dodd Well then, 60 dollars. The cargo is yours. Take care of it at once and disappear.

Fowler (gives his hand) A pleasure to do business with you, Mr Dodd.

Dodd (accepts it) I hope it will be for once only.

Fowler (calls) Send some people to unload the cargo! At once!

Sharpe We shall manage this before midnight, Mr Dodd.

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Dodd Nares Dodd

I sincerely hope so.

Our men will help.

The better cooperation, the higher efficiency. It will benefit us all.

(They get down to action.)

Scene 3. A joint in Honolulu.

Dodd You don’t mean to say that you are from Tempest, the ship that saved the crew from Flying Scud from Hull?

Officer Yes, and that was a sad shipwrecked lot indeed. The captain had both his arms in slings, and the mate had broken one arm. A third one was badly wounded…

Dodd And Elias Goddedaal? Was he one of them?

Officer Of course he was there, but that was not his real name. He was an Englishman and recognized by Sebright. ’Hi, Norrie!’ he said when he saw Goddedaal, who then turned pale as a corpse for being recognized and was hospitalized at once for the rest of the journey.

Dodd Would it be possible to meet this Sebright? Is he here?

Officer (calls Hey, Sebright! Here is someone who wants to ask you some questions about your pal Norrie Carthew!

Sebright (appearing reluctantly) Why are you interested in him?

Dodd I was the one who bought the wreck of Flying Scud and was ruined in the bargain. Would I then not be interested in the story of the wreck?

Sebright Norris Carthew is a member of one of the finest families in England. We went together at Eton. I immediately recognized him and wondered what he was doing here as shipwrecked, but he was so shocked by being recognized that I couldn’t see him any more. The doctor took care of him.

Dodd So he is of a rich family?

Sebright To the highest degree, and sole heir after the death of his elder brother.

Dodd I begin to discern the connection. Would it be possible to see the doctor?

Officer Join us tomorrow at the gunroom, and you will meet the doctor and all who were on the Tempest. Come for dinner, by all means. You are invited.

Dodd Thanks for your kind invitation, and I will be glad to attend.

Scene 4. After the dinner.

(Dodd alone with doctor Urqhart.)

Dodd I now understand the whole story but can still not quite understand it.

That’s why I have turned to you.

Doctor I am afraid that I don’t understand what I could help you with.

Dodd The secret of Elias Goddedaal/Norris Carthew. It was he who by a representative tried to buy the wreck, why the price was raised to exorbitant levels,

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why all got the impression that it must be extremely valuable, why we got it for such a price that I and my partner were ruined and he ended up in hospital after bankruptcy and a nervous breakdown. I just want to know the meaning of it all.

Doctor All I can tell you is that there was an excuse for everything.

Dodd How is it possible?

Doctor I can’t tell you anything more.

Dodd You isolated the shipwrecked after he had been recognized by an old student fellow. Why did he have to be isolated?

Doctor On his own request. I can’t tell you more.

Dodd I have had the mystery explained to me in a flashlight, which only gave me a glimpse of the entire mystery. I ask you to help me on, if you can. Or else I must promise you that I will continue my research.

Doctor Unfortunately I can’t help you. I have no contact with the patient any more, and as a doctor I have to observe the obligation of silence. But I can’t hinder you from carrying on your research.

Dodd Thank you, doctor. At least you will not then obstruct me.

Doctor I wish I could help you more in your difficult bankruptcy, but unfortunately my duties as a doctor will not give me allowance.

Dodd Thanks anyway. (They continue drinking and enjoying.)

Act IV scene 1. Black Tom’s bar in San Francisco.

(Jim sits alone at a table with a glass of whiskey. He fits well into the rough lot of bums and human wrecks of the harbour. Enter Dodd.)

Dodd Jim! To find you here!

Jim Welcome back, Dodd. As you see, things have changed.

Dodd I got your letter in Honolulu.

Jim At least I am out of the hospital, but there is not much left of me. So the wreck was a total flop?

Dodd It didn’t cover more than 15% of the costs.

Jim That’s better than what I could muster. I could only scrape up seven percent of my debts.

Dodd But how could the debts grow so astronomical? The wreck cost us no more than a fifth of the bankruptcy!

Jim I fooled you all the way, Dodd. You must forgive me. I withheld most from you, since you were young and inexperienced and really just a poor artist from Paris. I couldn’t initiate you in all my business.

Dodd So besides the wreck you had a lot of other precarious enterprises going on?

Jim Mildly speaking. Forgive me, Dodd. Finally the bubble burst, and at least it was not your fault. It was all caused by myself and completely my own responsibility.

Dodd How much do I owe in the bankruptcy? What is my share of the debt?

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Jim I am sorry, Dodd. Have a drink and pull yourself together. You need it.

Dodd (quickly gets a double and sweeps half of it) Tell me the worst, Jim. Jim I did as well as I could, Dodd. I really tried hard and worked day and night to try to satisfy the creditors, but the business was too much muddled up. I couldn’t sort it out.

Dodd A figure, Jim. How much?

Jim Try to take it as a man, Dodd. I had to sacrifice you.

Dodd Sacrifice me? How? Jim Your part of the partnership. I never put you into it.

Dodd What do you mean?

Jim I had to keep you out of it, Dodd. You wouldn’t have understood anything anyway. That would only have made it worse.

Dodd To the point, Jim. I followed you in everything. When you asked me to write a check of what I had for the wreck I took all I had. I never kept anything from you. How much do I owe?

Jim Don’t you understand? I never made you my partner formally. I kept you out of my business. It was simpler that way.

Dodd Which means?

Jim You have no part in the bankruptcy.

Dodd What the devil do you mean?

Jim You don’t owe anyone one cent.

Dodd (tries to recover, completely disconcerted) And you apologise for that? You have a bad conscience for that? Jim, you are much better than I thought. So the entire bankruptcy is only yours and no one else’s?

Jim You have no right to give me a single cent, Dodd. Can you forgive me?

Dodd Jim, this calls for a celebration!

Jim The bankruptcy?

Dodd That you delivered me from it! And when I came home to San Francisco there was a letter from Scotland informing me that my grandfather had died and left me seventeen thousand pounds. Seventeen thousand pounds, Jim! Jim What’s that in dollars?

Dodd It can’t be measured in dollars! It’s a fortune! An inexhaustible fortune!

Jim Dodd, don’t joke cruelly with an old broken man.

Dodd It’s no joke, Jim. You have played a joke on me all the time by insisting that it was a crime against me to keep me out of the bankruptcy. But I can’t keep you out of my happiness! Fetch your wife, and let’s go out and celebrate in champagne!

Jim Dodd, it isn’t true!

Dodd It is true!

Jim Tell me that I am dreaming.

Dodd You are awake! This is reality!

Jim (lower) Does that mean that you pardon me?

Dodd Don’t be silly now! Come and let’s do all San Francisco and celebrate! (drags him out)

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Scene 2. A noisy pub in London.

Bellairs Honestly speaking, I don’t understand why you have followed me all the way to England if it was not to share my purposes.

Dodd On the contrary, I started following you only to anticipate you in your purposes.

Bellairs I have never been so surprised as when I found you on the same boat across the Atlantic as I. Dodd I will make the situation entirely clear to you. After you first tried to fool me into your trap…

Bellairs It was no trap. It was a generous offer.

Dodd Shut up. After I commanded you never to try to make any contact with me again, you nosed up the address to your former employer by those marine officers of the Tempest when they visited San Francisco, whereupon you immediately left for the only purpose of looking up your confidence man in England to press him for money.

Bellairs It’s not that simple. I have a divorced wife to support, and I am barred from practising as a lawyer in San Francisco. Do you know what that means? I have no livelihood.

Dodd You should have done better as a lawyer.

Bellairs I did perfectly well as a lawyer! I just had a stroke of bad luck! I was swindled! My wife deserted me! I have fought hard all my life and never got anything out of it! And then this Dickson turns up like from heaven and gives me authority to dispose of 50,000 dollars just to buy a worthless wreck. It was my life’s biggest deal! And you slipped in on the same banana peel by that bankrupt swindler Pinkerton stumbling into the same deal – and gets away with it! You bought the wreck, you could take care of the cargo undisturbed, which no one else ever learned anything about, not even your partner the bankrupt swindler Pinkerton, and for some reason you burned the wreck before you abandoned it. When you come back to San Francisco you party on all the bars in town with that bankrupt swindler Pinkerton bathing in champagne, as if your bankruptcy was something to celebrate, and afterwards I learn that you have received a fortune from England. Who could have given you that if not the mysterious Mr Dickson? I am not so stupid as you think. I can add two and two. I must take for granted that Dickon, who commissioned me to buy the wreck for at most fifty thousand, must have paid you to destroy it. And why do you pay to have something destroyed? To get rid of evidence! So Flying Scud had a secret which Dickson was willing to pay anything to have it buried alive!

Dodd You are mad.

Bellairs No, only desperate. That deal was a gold mine, and I want my part of the gold. I have a divorced wife to think of!

Dodd Poor man. I will make sure that you will not have a penny of that Dickson, alias Norris Carthew, whom it is my duty to protect against you, since he

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has a right of privacy and since Flying Scud probably is a sensitive trauma to him. So for your own sake I ask you to leave him in peace. Instead I will pay your return journey to San Francisco. Without doubt your divorced wife is waiting for you there.

I will gladly give you a support of 25 dollars a month as long as you need it, so that you will manage.

Bellairs (rising, furious) I didn’t ask for any alimony! Who do you think you are? Do you think you can treat a hard working lawyer in any disgraceful way? I am educated! I know the entire English poetry! I know my Shakespeare and my Edgar Allan Poe! But you are a swine if you think you can use me, trample on me and humiliate me! I could never think that of you!

Dodd Take it easy, Sir. I never wanted to insult you. I only wished to help you.

Bellairs Help! By turning me into a beggar and receiver of alimonies! By sending me home to the mob in San Francisco, who will just flay me like they flayed your colleague that bankrupt swindler Pinkerton! Tar and feathers! That’s what you offer me!

Dodd Try to pull yourself together, poor man!

Bellairs Never! I am an honest man and have never done anything dishonest! I am a victim to this false world of only swindlers and opportunists! All America is corrupt, and only I am honest and honourable! (lower) You should have known better, Mr Dodd, than to make an enemy out of me! (leaves with false pride) Dodd Talk about American double standards. That’s the language of a true American blackmailer! (finally has his beer)

Scene 3. The castle of Stallbridge-le-Carthew.

Higgs Our lady at least came out today.

Mrs Higgs That was about time. She can’t just go on sitting in her room grieving all the time.

Another servant Was there any special reason for her coming out? Was there any news?

Higgs No, but two people have been here today asking questions. Americans.

The first was very inquisitive and apparently a lawyer but smelled of drink. He was the classical type of a pettifogger.

Mrs Higgs What did he want?

Higgs The whereabouts of the young master.

Mrs Higgs Did he learn it?

Higgs Yes. Mrs Higgs What did you tell him?

Higgs That he was gone for a journey. That’s all we know.

Mrs Higgs Alas, yes. What about the other one?

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Higgs He also came from America but was originally a Scotsman. Like the young master he was also a drawer and interested in art. He regretted that the pettifogger had anticipated him and had hoped to halt him from disturbing here.

Mrs Higgs And what did the Scotsman want?

Higgs We shall know when he comes here. I invited him.

Mrs Higgs But our old lady will also be here.

Higgs Yes. That’s why I invited him. Then we shall know even more. (A knock.)

There he is. (gets up and opens) Welcome, Mr Dodd.

Dodd Thanks for your kindness to invite me. I regret that I didn’t get here before that pettifogger.

Higgs He didn’t bother us much, and he has already left.

Dodd So? Did he find out anything?

Higgs He learned that the man he was looking for was gone away. May I ask you in my turn, why you both are so interested in the young master? What has he done to get a pettifogger from San Francisco to hunt for him?

Dodd He employed this lawyer in lack of better knowledge in San Francisco for a misfortunate affair, which I unfortunately became part of. Since then I have acquired some sympathy for your ’young master’ and would like to protect him in the capacity of his colleague.

Higgs As an adventurer?

Dodd No, as an artist.

Mts Higgs Here is our old mistress.

Old Mrs (gliding in) I see that you have company.

Higgs Mr Loudon Dodd from San Francisco, madam, but really a Scotsman.

Old Mrs San Francisco? Has he met my son?

Dodd Unfortunately not, madam, but indirectly I have been in touch with him and would like to meet him in the capacity of a fellow artist.

Old Mrs Alas, he should have been allowed to become an artist! All problems with him started when we wouldn’t ket him become an artist! Our family, Mr Dodd, belongs to the most ancient, noble and respected families of England. We always held the highest positions in society.

Dodd I presumed as much when I came here and was overwhelmed by your castle and the magnificent park.

Old Mrs Yes, it carries responsibility, Mr Dodd, which my younger son refused to accept. My older son assumed the responsibility but was killed last year in an accident. Shortly after that my husband died. Your colleague, my younger son, is the only one who can carry on the family. Everything depends on him, but we don’t know where he is.

Dodd He has left America, and we assumed that he had come home.

Old Mrs He came home but disappeared again after only a few days and promised never to come back. That’s enough for me for today, Higgs. I thank you and am tired and have my tears to dwell on with my memories until I die since both

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my sons are lost. I can’t bear it much longer. (rises. Higgs immediately does the same to help her out.)

Dodd An impressing woman, straight, proud and unbroken in spite of many sorrows. Is there no other heir to this impressing estate?

Higgs Only the deceased son’s daughter. Norris writes letters to her and is very fond of her.

Dodd From where?

Higgs From France.

Dodd What place?

Higgs No return address.

Dodd No postage mark?

Higgs Illegible.

Dodd May I see. (Higgs presents a few letters.) Here is a C, and here is a Y. CH something. Here seems to be an L. Chailly! Of course! The artists’ colony! I was often there myself, the paradise for foreign artists! Whistler and Sisley were there and many others! Thanks a lot, Higgs. I will go there at once. Just tell me, why did he leave again so soon after having returned home?

Higgs He quarrelled with his mother. He was always uncompromising and self-willed. He always preferred simpler people, especially to his friends at Eton and Harrow and society people. He hated all establishment and did anything to escape any kind of social responsibility. No one could ever get him right.

Dodd And apparently not even himself. I have found two foundered ships in his tracks. Obviously I have a mission to fulfill as his colleague in art and fate, since I understand him.

Higgs Good luck, Mr Dodd.

Dodd Thank you, I will need it.

Higgs Thanks for the visit, and welcome back.

Dodd In his company in that case I hope. (bids politely farewell) Mrs Higgs Do you think he stands any chance of getting our master right?

Higgs If he doesn’t, it’s hopeless.

Scene 4. Barbizon, Chailly-en-Bière.

Dodd Stennis! Old friend! So you are still here haunting the place!

Stennis Dodd! What has brought you back to France? Did you not abandon all art ambitions?

Dodd Yes, I jumped the frying pan and ended up in the fire, which now brought me back here, the last place on earth I thought I should have any reason to visit again. But haven’t you yourself outgrown it long ago? Isn’t it a bit melancholy and almost pathetic never to get out of old patterns and tracks?

Stennis Still I am not the oldest one here. There is another Englishman who is over thirty, and he is outrageously rich. He has designed the greatest studio here and

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wallows in good wines and fine furniture and made himself popular among the boys for his permanently open house.

Dodd Who is he?

Stennis He is called Madden and paints real good. There are some of his pictures here.

Dodd Yes, they are not bad at all. Is it impressionism or realism?

Stennis It’s mostly imaginative.

Dodd But they are quite convincing. This one, for example.

Stennis The shipwrecked. An extreme fantasy.

Dodd I am not so sure. You see, I recognize that island and have been standing on exactly the same spot from which this painting was drawn.

Stennis With the shipwrecked? These emaciated, ghostly and mutilated men?

Surely it must be surrealistic. A rich gentleman from the aristocracy of England could hardly have experienced something like that.

Dodd I am afraid he could have experienced anything.

Stennis Here he is. Ask him yourself.

Dodd Although we almost know each other we have never been introduced.

Stennis Do you mean to say that you know him?

Dodd If I know him!

Madden Hi, Stennis! Who is this?

Stennis A newcomer but an old friend of mine. He says he knows you.

Madden I don’t know him.

Dodd Loudon Dodd, at your service. We spoke once on the telephone.

Madden I have no memory of that.

Dodd I only had time to ask one question, and then you rang off and escaped.

Madden My God! The telephone guy! Was it you?

Dodd Yes, your wreck buyer.

Madden Good God! If you knew how many sleepless nights I suffered for your sake! How I have wondered about you! Who was he? What did he want? What did he know?

Dodd I can assure you that the worries were mutual. Why did you press the price of the wreck? It drove my colleague to the worst bankruptcy of the west coast!

Madden I am sorry.

Stennis I can see that the two of you have much to discuss. I might as well leave you together, since I won’t understand anything anyway.

Dodd Yes, please do, Stennis. You will get the whole story later. First I must hear it myself.

Madden And I must hear your story. I have many questions for you.

Dodd You can start with explaining the two crews that were exchanged.

Madden I might as well give you the whole story from the beginning. Prepare yourself for the worst. My mother could not endure it.

Dodd Was that why you left your family place?

Madden Yes.

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Dodd Well, you may begin. I am used to the worst.

Madden I must then begin with my background.

Dodd I actually visited your home in England and learned a great deal.

Madden But certainly only a part. Did they tell you that I was the black sheep of the family and a hopeless case from the beginning? That I was absolutely indifferent to the family, its great past carrying large responsibilities, our immeasurable riches, the career and future, which angered my father and school authorities to madness?

That I started early associating with the lowest kind of people, street urchins, scoundrels, bums, outsiders and ruined artists, failed playboys and alcoholics? That the only ones of my own class that I liked associating with were detached drop-outs like myself, expelled and outcasts on the way down like myself? That I was sent to Australia with a monthly support, for which I was only allowed to show myself once a month to our lawyer to get? That I took a job as a navvy and got a taste for simple hard labour together with the coarsest workmen, the last thing I was educated for?

That I rejected my support to earn my own living working hard? That I became part owner of a ship and took charge of an expedition as a member and leader and therefore lost my support?

Dodd I learned nothing of all this. They only said that you were gone away.

But why did you lose your support?

Madden One of the conditions for the support was that I would stay in Australia with the bums and homeless in Sydney, so that the family knew where I was and could be kept as far away from home as possible. If I left Australia my father felt that my kin could not feel safe from me any more. That was the cause of this inhuman condition, which I did not hesitate to break. Precisely when I was leaving I had a letter from my lawyer who asked me to contact him immediately. It was too late, and he had to wait for six months until I got back.

Dodd What happened?

Madden Everything happened that shouldn’t have happened. Imagine the worst that could have happened, and make it double. Then raise it ten times.

Dodd Shipwreck?

Madden If only that had been enough. To begin with we were incredibly lucky.

Our captain Wicks was an experienced business man, and when we went ashore on the Gilbert islands with our cargo of copra we soon found a buyer with whom Wicks negotiated a fortune. We were blessed. On top of that he had a freight contract on San Francisco, so we headed straight for San Francisco.

Our wind was fair to begin with, but then suddenly it changed to west and grew squally and troublesome. The ship was deficient but fastest on the Pacific Ocean, no one could overtake her, but the masts and the sails were half rotten. My companion Tom Hadden was at the helm when the disaster occurred. Suddenly the foresail was torn and split in two, Tom lost his head, the mainmast boom went over, in a moment the mainmast had cracked a yard above the deck, all the mainmast rig disappeared over board, and the foresail mast followed. There we were splashing in the middle of the storm in the open sea without masts a thousand miles from Hawaii. Our situation

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was desperate, but only forty miles ahead were the Midway islands, and someone knew there was a coal station there. Mac, our hot-tempered north Irishman, said it was a bluff, but no one believed him. He proved right.

Dodd So you went in a lifeboat to Midway island and found yourselves marooned there without anything?

Madden Exactly. We only had our money, and all we could do was to make a fire to call the attention of the first ship that would pass by. Midway lay in the fairway from Honolulu. It became Flying Scud from Hull, under captain Jacob Trent, an experienced skipper since forty years but also a ruthless business man. We trusted him, but he took no chances. It was Mac’s terrible temper that triggered the tragedy.

Act V scene 1.

In the galley of Flying Scud Trent You wonder why I invited you for this magnificent supper with the best food and gin and sherry galore.

Tom Hadden Captain, ever since you found us on Midway you have treated us with silk gloves and kept us at a distance without letting us know your intentions.

Trent You have been treated as well as possible, as any shipwrecked would have been. That’s the law of the sea. Sailors must help each other and cooperate to survive. But you proved rather well off with rather plenty of cash.

Captain Wicks We have explained the situation, Sir. We have given you the log, we have openly declared our business on the Gilbert islands, so there should be no further question marks.

Trent There aren’t any either. But you happen to have made an unusually splendid deal by Butaritari, a deal far too brilliant to be bypassed, as I happen to be an old business man. My best years were as a pawnbroker in the harbour quarters of Hull. I have a nose for money, and the case is, my friends, that I can not take you on and bring you to San Francisco for nothing.

Tom Of course, captain. We are willing to pay for the passage, although we have lost our ship and the freight.

Trent You made such a glorious deal that it smells of a swindle by far.

Tom Your price, captain.

Trent Two thousand pounds.

Wicks Two thousand pounds! But that’s the entire profit!

Trent You are welcome to remain here on the island if that’s your preference.

Tom Captain, it’s unacceptable.

Trent Not to me. It’s my last price.

Mac (getting up) Captain, it’s pure blackmail.

Trent No, it’s a reasonable price. Your log could be faked, you are a suspect lot to say the least, most of you are pure land-lubbers, and you have a considerable

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treasure in your luggage which stinks of deceit. In brief, you are a risky crew, and I can’t take any risks.

Madden Captain, I thought you were an English gentleman.

Trent I am only a business man. You made a good deal, and I am not the worse for intending to profit by it.

Mac (losing control) You damned extortion parasite! (pulls his knife, can’t control himself, captain Trent tries to back out, turns to escape and gets the knife in his throat, falls among the chairs under the table spurting blood.)

Boatswain Elias Goddedaal You accursed pirates! (grabs a chair, clubs Mac who goes down with a broken arm, and goes on hitting blindly everyone around him, smashes the head of Hemstead who goes down dead with a broken scull, continues beating the dead Hemstead like a maniac, mad of fury beating the chair to cinders, then Carthew (alias Dickson) draws his revolver, aims and fires. Goddedaal cries out in a scream of pain and falls over his victim.

Running feet are heard above, and the deck becomes visible. Mate Henderson shows up on the stairs, and Carthew shoots him down.)

Carthew (calls) You have weapons, almost all of you! Use them! We have no choice!

We must get up and clean the decks. This is an extreme emergency!

(They rush up on deck, which now gets fully visible with the rig, where the crew of ’Flying Scud’ climbs up in a panic. Carthew is the first one to come up with Wicks close behind, then Tom and Amalu, they trample on Henderson’s body while Hemstead, captain Trent and Mac remain lying below. Brown from ’Flying Scud’ runs down below to hide under deck. Also this is visible.)

Wicks Tommy! Mind the foresail mast! Kanak! Stand by the main mast! No one must come down alive!

A sailor (from above, pleading) Mercy, captain, mercy! We have done nothing and understand nothing!

(Tom shoots him down, and he falls down dead on deck.)

Rom Cook! Hardy up behind the foresail!

Cook (shoots, misfires.) These damned pistols are only good for misfiring!

Wallen (up in the rig) Don’t shoot Hardy! He is only a boy!

(Tom shoots him, he is hit in the jaw and screams of pain, exposes himself, Wicks gives gim a second shot, and he goes down dead.)

Wicks Hardy is still up there. Someone must climb there and get him down.

Tom He must be dead, the way he hangs there dangling. Then we have Brown who went down below.

Wicks Someone must go down there and finish him.

Tom (starts arguing) Not one more! They were all innocent. And Brown was a decent boy. Spare him!

Wicks You are finished, Tom. If we leave a single one of them alive, we shall all be hanged.

Tom Not me! (hurries to the rail and vomits) Brown (from below) I promise not to make trouble! You shall have what you want! Just don’t kill me!

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Carthew It will only get worse if we wait, and then we can never do it. (goes down) Tom No, Norris, no, no! (tries to stop him, hangs on to his clothes.)

Carthew Tom, you are all washed up. (heaves him aside and goes on.)

Brown No, mister, I wished no harm! I don’t know what the captain did to make you so furious, but we had nothing to do with it! Spare me! I promise to keep my mouth shut about it all! No one shall know anything! (pleads on his bare knees with clasped hands when Carthew lifts his gun on him, pulls the trigger, - and it misfires.)

Carthew No, I cannot do this. (refrains and goes back up) Wicks What is it? Couldn’t you finish him?

Carthew He is completely shattered and as soft as a girl.

Wicks We can’t make any exceptions. (goes down in determination) Brown No, mister Norris, you mustn’t do it! (can’t see who it is. Wicks shoots him down in cold blood and goes on shooting until the magazine is finished, then runs away from there.)

Wicks Damn it! A regular extensive massacre! (the cook hulks and cries with him) Carthew Mac lost his control but he is still alive, and we must try to save him.

Wicks And we must get rid of all the bodies. They can’t be left hanging up there in the rig or bleeding down the whole galley and forecastle. But if I go up there (points at Hardy’s hanging body) I will only fall down.

Cook (rising) Then I will have to do it. (goes up the rig and heaves the body into the ocean.)

Mac (from below) Well? How are you up there? Is there anyone left?

Carthew Everything is ready, Mac. They are all dead.

Mac (groans) My God! (faints) Wicks We can’t manage the rest without gin. We will have to use the captain’s supply.

Carthew Cook, wash the decks.

Tom (recovering somewhat, rising with difficulty) We must get the bodies over board.

They can’t just lie here staring us in our faces.

Wicks The worst will be to cleanse the rig. Give me a hand here. (has brought up captain Trent and some bottles of gin) The operation will be easier with some anaesthetics. (drinks and sends the bottle around) Carthew (heaves captain Trent over board) Are the supplies unlimited? We shall need it all.

Wicks Yes, they are practically unlimited.

Cook That Chinaman is still alive. (produces a prattling Chinese scared out of his wits) Wicks Heave him over board, and he will be quiet.

Tom (to the prattling hysterical Chinese) Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! (heaves him over board. The prattling goes on until the splosh is heard.) That was the last one.

Carthew What about Brown?

Wicks He can stay where he lies. He has at least seven bullets thorugh his head.

I can’t manage any more now.

Carthew Neither can I. Tom Neither can I. Cook More gin! (drinks covetously)

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Tom What have we actually done?

Wicks Don’t talk about it. Let’s just forget it and forgive ourselves.

Carthew That’s what we never will be able to do.

Tom Right.

Cook Drink your sense away, and then we’ll manage.

Tom Yes, empty the brains and let’s forget everything.

Wicks Get that poor Mac up here for the devil’s sake! He is lying down there unconscious with a broken arm!

Carthew I will get him. (goes down and salvages Mac) Mac, it’s all over now. Wake up. Get up. We have gin up there.

Mac (wakes) My God, Norris, what have we done, and it’s all my fault!

Carthew That greedy captain couldn’t have an idea of that he was dealing with the most uncontrollable north Irishmen of the seven seas.

Mac I can’t say how sorry I am!

Carthew Come up now and have some gin with us. We must secure your arm.

Mac My God, Norris! (Norris helps him up on deck.)

Wicks (when he sees him) Are you still alive? We thought you were dead.

Mac I wish I were!

Tom Hemstead is dead, and that’s enough.

Carthew Busted scull and blood all over the galley. We will never get that blood washed out.

Wicks Don’t talk about it now but drink.

Amalu Yes, drown the crimes in the intoxication. Let the drink take over control when there is no more sense left.

Mac I can’t say how sorry I am, boys! It’s all my fault!

Wicks Bullshit, Mac. That captain dug his own grave. He should have known better than to try to squeeze money out of shipwrecked.

Amalu It was pure blackmail!

Tom Yes, it certainly was, but we massacred an entire crew.

Wicks As if we didn’t know. Don’t remind us, Tom. Have a drink instead.

Tom That’s what I am doing, but do you think that’s enough to get around it?

Amalu We could always try. We have liquor enough. You could drink yourself mad on salt water. Perhaps, if we try really hard, we also could do it on drink?

Wicks We don’t drink to get mad, you chicken brain. We drink to clear our minds and get some detachment from the problem.

Carthew What is the problem?

Wicks What do we do now? We have corpses in the cargo and a ship on our hands that we cannot handle.

Tom You are the captain. Can’t you navigate?

Wicks A brig is not the same as a schooner. This rig is as much more complicated as a cathedral to a village church.

Amalu So we are in the same boat as before and are still shipwrecked. Nothing has changed except that we have become murderers and pirates.

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Wicks Yes, we have a ship with infinite supplies in our hands which we cannot handle.

Mac And we took it and murdered the entire crew, and it’s my fault! Hang me, fellows!

Carthew Shut up, Mac, and hold your arm still while I secure it. We’ll manage out of this jam somehow.

Mac Yes, to be sure.

Tom We still have our money. We don’t have to pay for the voyage to San Francisco.

Amalu Instead we are stuck here.

Wicks I know. There is only one thing for us to do. We drive the ship ashore and get away in the whale boat to Honolulu. We have never seen Flying Scud or heard anything asbout her and have never known her crew. What happened here has never happened.

Carthew Would we then just suppress it all without minding it? No, it won’t work. It’s even too late now. Have a look over there.

Tom By heaven! Smoke on the horizon!

Carthew And it is approaching.

Wicks It could be a warship.

Amalu We are lost! We will be hanged!

Wicks Not at all. We have to think hard now. We must clean up this mess and set the brig on the reef, and there is only way for us to get away with it.

Tom What does the genius suggest?

Wicks We take on ourselves to be the crew of Flying Scud. I am captain Trent, you, Norris, is the boatswain Goddedaal, and so on. We have to make up a credible story about our shipwreck and our lost companions. We ourselves have never existed.

Tom Captain, you are a genius!

Amalu It’s our only way out.

Carthew It’s taking a chance, but it might succeed.

Mac Everything was an accident caused by my lack of self control and the greed of a rotten British captain – a bad combination.

Wicks On my honour, indeed. But we must get to work at once. Norris, or Elias Goddedaal, we must update the log book at once, so that everything fits.

Carthew You are still captain here, Jacob Trent. We just have to follow your orders.

Wicks No more drinking. We must sober up totally at once. Boatswain Goddedaal, throw the liquor overboard. Cook, wash away the blood that’s still on deck and in the galley. Throw the last body over board. This must be a clean and proper wreck until the rescue comes. Tom, help me navigate the ship safely on ground. From now on we must never make any mistake again. Mac, keep calm.

Mac Ay, ay, captain. That will be easy with this broken arm.

Wicks Don’t forget the fire on the shore! They must not miss us! We can still make everything turn out right!

(All become busy and efficient. Carthew lets the liquor go overboard.)

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Scene 2.

Carthew Judge me now, colleague. Am I worth to be let alive, who shot Elias Goddedaal to death and took part in a massacre on an entire crew?

Dodd It was self defense.

Carthew Was it? The boys in the rig under age? Brown who begged and pleaded for his life? Hardy and the Chinese who was thrown alive to the sharks? No, Dodd, it was not self defense, it was premeditated murder. Only captain Trent’s death could be considered a homicide, since Mac did not know what he was doing, but all the others were premeditated murders in an unequalled raving wild and mad mutiny caused by exceptional madness of greed. The captain wanted our money, and we wanted to keep it. For that, half a dozen persons were murdered for nothing. It was raving madness and nothing else.

Dodd Did no one find you out?

Carthew Only the doctor on the Tempest, but he was a true doctor with a true doctor’s full understanding and obligation of silence and helped us through with a unique and remarkable tolerance and humanity. He understood that if anything at all of the truth would come out, it would only get worse and chose instead to bandage it.

Dodd What became of the others?

Carthew Mac ended up badly. He was knifed in Chile. All the others managed and went on with their wild adventures with a vengeance. I believe captain Wicks even ended up a marine captain in the Chilean fleet. Only I buried myself alive, until you found me. You now have the whole story. Judge me hard.

Dodd On the contrary. You already did that yourself, so no one else needs to do it any more. But we have both considerable experience of seafare and business in the South Seas. Why don’t we team up?

Carthew And form a company? Like me with Tom Hadden and you with Jim Pinkerton and carry on as swindlers and adventurers?

Dodd You’ll have to admit that we have a certain talent for it.

Carthew So that I would remain without a family, lonesome, marooned and outcast without belonging anywhere?

Dodd It’s at least a free life without obligations.

Carthew I could end up a painter like Gaughin.

Dodd Pinkerton is back in business. He could help us with a starting capital and a ship to start some freight traffic with.

Carthew Why not? I always wanted a decent ordinary job.

Dodd I give you the chance.

Carthew I accept it. (gives his hand. Dodd accepts it.)

Can you forgive me the deplorable auction?

Dodd It cost neither you nor me anything, and Pinkerton’s debts would have sunk him anyway.

Carthew So we can start from scratch?

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Dodd Or else I would never have come with the suggestion.

Carthew We need a bottle of wine for this. What about a specially wily and dangerous Rousillon wine?

Dodd That sounds challenging enough.

Carthew Cheers then, my friend, for a never ending future in the South Seas!

Dodd May we never get tired of it, no matter how many wrecks and shipwrecks we leave in our wake!

Carthew We managed the worst and are still afloat.

Dodd And we’ll probably keep that way, Norris Carthew, or Mr Dickson, or Madden, or perhaps even Elias Goddedaal from Sweden?

Carthew Call me whatever, Dodd, as long as I don’t have to be myself.

Dodd May the sea take care of our secrets and bury them alive.

Carthew To have them preserved forever to never be forgotten.

Dodd Amen.

(They drink each other’s health.)

Curtain.

(Darjeeling 15.11.2006, translated November 2019)

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