Short Plays

you want to be hanged, is that any reason why Strapper shouldn’t have his horse? I tell you I’m responsible to him for it. Bending over the table and coaxing him. Act like a brother, Blanco: tell me what you done with it. Blanco Shortly, getting up and leaving the table. Never you mind what I done with it. I was done out of it. Let that be enough for you. Elder Daniels Following him. Then why don’t you put us on to the man that done you out of it? Blanco Because he’d be too clever for you, just as he was too clever for me. Elder Daniels Make your mind easy about that, Blanco. He won’t be too clever for the boys and Sheriff Kemp if you put them on his trail. Blanco Yes, he will. It wasn’t a man. Elder Daniels Then what was it? Blanco Pointing upward. Him. Elder Daniels Oh what a way to utter His holy name! Blanco He done me out of it. He meant to pay off old scores by bringing me here. He means to win the deal and you can’t stop Him. Well, He’s made a fool of me; but He can’t frighten me. I’m not going to beg off. I’ll fight off if I get a chance. I’ll lie off if they can’t get a witness against me. But back down I never will, not if all the hosts of heaven come to snivel at me in white surplices and offer me my life in exchange for an umble and a contrite heart. Elder Daniels You’re not in your right mind, Blanco. I’ll tell em you’re mad. I believe they’ll let you off on that. He makes for the door. Blanco Seizing him, with horror in his eyes. Don’t go: don’t leave me alone: do you hear? Elder Daniels Has your conscience brought you to this that you’re afraid to be left alone in broad daylight, like a child in the dark. Blanco I’m afraid of Him and His tricks. When I have you to raise the devil in me⁠—when I have people to show off before and keep me game, I’m all right; but I’ve lost my nerve for being alone since this morning. It’s when you’re alone that He takes His advantage. He might turn my head again. He might send people to me⁠—not real people perhaps. Shivering. By God, I don’t believe that woman and the child were real. I don’t. I never noticed them till they were at my elbow. Elder Daniels What woman and what child? What are you talking about? Have you been drinking too hard? Blanco Never you mind. You’ve got to stay with me: thats all; or else send someone else⁠—someone rottener than yourself to keep the devil in me. Strapper Kemp will do. Or a few of those scratching devils of women. Strapper Kemp comes back. Elder Daniels To Strapper. He’s gone off his head. Strapper Foxing, more likely. Going past Daniels and talking to Blanco nose to nose. It’s no good: we hang madmen here; and a good job too! Blanco I feel safe with you, Strapper. You’re one of the rottenest. Strapper You know you’re done, and that you may as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb. So talk away. I’ve got my witness; and I’ll trouble you not to make a move towards her when she comes in to identify you. Blanco Retreating in terror. A woman? She ain’t real: neither is the child. Elder Daniels He’s raving about a woman and a child. I tell you he’s gone off his chump. Strapper Calling to those without. Show the lady in there. Feemy Evans comes in. She is a young woman of twenty-three or twenty-four, with impudent manners, battered good looks, and dirty-fine dress. Elder Daniels Morning, Feemy. Feemy Morning, Elder. She passes on and slips her arm familiarly through Strapper’s. Strapper Ever see him before, Feemy? Feemy That’s the little lot that was on your horse this morning, Strapper. Not a doubt of it. Blanco Implacably contemptuous. Go home and wash yourself, you slut. Feemy Reddening, and disengaging her arm from Strapper’s. I’m clean enough to hang you, anyway. Going over to him threateningly. You’re no true American man, to insult a woman like that. Blanco A woman! Oh Lord! You saw me on a horse, did you? Feemy Yes, I did. Blanco Got up early on purpose to do it, didn’t you? Feemy No I didn’t: I stayed up late on a spree. Blanco I was on a horse, was I? Feemy Yes you were; and if you deny it you’re a liar. Blanco To Strapper. She saw a man on a horse when she was too drunk to tell which was the man and which was the horse⁠— Feemy Breaking in. You lie. I wasn’t drunk⁠—at least not as drunk as that. Blanco Ignoring the interruption.⁠—and you found a man without a horse. Is a man on a horse the same as a man on foot? Yah! Take your witness away. Who’s going to believe her? Shove her into the dustbin. You’ve got to find that horse before you get a rope round my neck. He turns away from her contemptuously, and sits at the table with his back to the jury box. Feemy Following him. I’ll hang you, you dirty horse-thief; or not a man in this camp will ever get a word or a look from me again. You’re just trash: that’s what you are. White trash. Blanco And what are you, darling? What are you? You’re a worse danger to a town like this than ten horse-thieves. Feemy Mr. Kemp: will you stand by and hear me insulted in that low way? To Blanco, spitefully. I’ll see you swung up and I’ll see you cut down: I’ll see you high and I’ll see you low, as dangerous as I am. He laughs. Oh you needn’t try to brazen it out. You’ll look white enough before the boys are done with you.