EDE

[Softly to DR. BOXER.] The fire did have air enough, eh?

LANGHEINRICH

Your honour....

WEHRHAHN

Never mind. I know all about it.

[He pulls out his handkerchief, wipes the perspiration from his forehead and taps his eye.

LANGHEINRICH

Your honour, I'd like to lay claim, humbly, to some credit ... We did our part honestly. We was on the spot with the engine.

WEHRHAHN

Then get a better engine!

LANGHEINRICH

But if you can't get no water!

WEHRHAHN

You managed to get plenty of beer.

LANGHEINRICH

—————-?

EDE

Puttin' out a fire makes you thirsty!

WEHRHAHN

That seems undoubtedly to have been the case.—Glasenapp, will you come and look? Something flew into my eye. [GLASENAPP jumps up and investigates.] I had just examined Mrs. Schulze when the north gable caved in. It must have been a spark or something like that.—By the way, hasn't Mrs. Schulze been here?

MRS. SCHULZE

Here I is.

GLASENAPP

Yes, Baron.

WEHRHAHN motions him away. GLASENAPP steps back and goes over to his table.

WEHRHAHN

To proceed, then. It has come to my ears ... Mrs. Schulze has informed me, that a certain incident took place in front of your smithy.—It seems that you saw that worthless boy immediately before the flame rose and that he had a box of matches. How is it now with this story of the matches? Tell us what you know!

LANGHEINRICH

He had a box o' matches. That's so.

WEHRHAHN

And he let it fall.

EDE

An' I picked it up. Yessir.

WEHRHAHN

You?

EDE

Me. Same person you see. Here's the box. All the matches ain't there no more 'cause I smoked several times ...

[He places the box of matches on the official table.]

WEHRHAHN

[Unpleasantly impressed by EDE'S manner, takes up the box and fixes his eyes upon him.] You helped along vigorously, I suppose?

EDE

You bet! 'Tain't no fun otherwise.

WEHRHAHN

I meant especially in the consumption of beer.

EDE

That's what I thought you meant. Yessir!

WEHRHAHN

You seem to be in a very playful mood.

EDE

Merry an' larky—that's my motto, your honour!

WEHRHAHN

Delighted to hear that, I must say.—Look here, are you Dr. Boxer?

DR. BOXER

Quite right. Dr. Boxer.

WEHRHAHN

So you are he! Aha! I would hardly have recognised you. Your mother still has the little notion shop here.... Your father was a—er—tradesman—?

DR. BOXER

[Voluntarily misunderstanding him.] Yes, my father was in the reserve forces and was decorated with the Iron Cross in 1870.

WEHRHAHN

Ah, yes. Of course. I recall.—Your mother came running to my office recently and brought along several stones. Her kitchen windows had been broken, I believe. Mischievous boys, no doubt. I investigated, of course. I'm told you want to settle down here?—There's a very good physician here now—formerly of the army staff—very capable.

DR. BOXER

I don't doubt that for a moment.

WEHRHAHN

To be quite frank—as things are now—I wonder whether this is an appropriate territory for you?

DR. BOXER

I can take some time to discover that.

WEHRHAHN

Naturally. So can we. So continue, please.—What was it that you observed, Dr. Boxer?

DR. BOXER

The incident of the matches certainly.

WEHRHAHN

The incident of the horn blowing and of the matches.

DR. BOXER

Certainly.

WEHRHAHN

Where were you when all this took place?

DR. BOXER

I stood in front of Langheinrich's smithy.

WEHRHAHN

Did you have any particular business there?—You needn't get impatient at all. I understand that it doesn't concern me at present. Your sympathetic affinity for the working classes is known to us from of old.—The boy will be arrested now. I imagine that Constable Tschache has captured him. At all events—is on his trail. He was seen, in Rahnsdorf too. Please call in Sadowa!

[GLASENAPP withdraws by the rear door.

DR. BOXER

Am I dismissed now, your honour?

WEHRHAHN

Extremely sorry; no. Kindly wait.—Mrs. Schulze, where is your nephew keeping himself today? I haven't seen him all day long. Does any one know where Constable Schulze is?

EDE

[Softly.] He might send out a warrant after him.

WEHRHAHN

Doesn't any one know where Constable Schulze is?—Has any one interviewed Mrs. Fielitz? Or hasn't she returned from Berlin yet?—I want somebody to go to Councillor Reinberg.—[To GLASENAPP, who is just returning.] Mr. Schmarowski, Mrs. Fielitz's son-in-law, is there submitting his building-plans. The news should be broken to him gently.

EDE

[Softly to BOXER and LANGHEINRICH.] Yes, gently, so he don't stumble over the church steeple.

[DR. BOXER and LANGHEINRICH restrain their laughter with difficulty.]

WEHRHAHN

[Observing this.] Does that strike you as very amusing?—I don't know what other reason you should have to laugh, Langheinrich. When people are hardworking and ambitious and a fright like this comes to them—a visitation from God—we might properly say: God protect us from such things! I see nothing to laugh at.—Did you have the impression ... did the boy seem to you ... I mean, in reference to this affair—as if things were not quite right with him?

EDE

[Softly to BOXER and LANGHEINRICH.] We knows where he ain't quite right!

WEHRHAHN

Did he arouse your suspicion? Yes or no? Or did the thought actually occur to you that he might have started the fire?

DR. BOXER

No. I have become too much of a stranger here. The conditions seem to overwhelm me.

WEHRHAHN

In what respect?

DR. BOXER

[With assumed seriousness.] I have returned from a very narrow life. Out on the ocean one becomes accustomed to a certain narrowness of outlook. And so, as I said, I hardly feel capable of any comment for the present and must ask for the necessary consideration.

WEHRHAHN

We're not discussing conditions. The thing that lies before us is a concrete case. For instance: whether the boy tootled or not—what has that to do with narrowness or breadth of outlook?

DR. BOXER

Quite right. I haven't been able to get a general view yet. I can't so suddenly find my way again. I feel, naturally, the importance, the seriousness of the conditions here at home and that makes me feel hesitant.

WEHRHAHN

He did tootle this way, through his hand, didn't he? You heard that too, didn't you, Langheinrich?

LANGHEINRICH

Sure, he did it right out loud.

EDE

When a feller tootles so tootin'ly that you c'n rightly say he's tootlin', then you c'n hear that there tootlin' tootin'ly.

WEHRHAHN

[To LANGHEINRICH.] Did you observe anything else that aroused your suspicions? I mean, while you were extinguishing the fire? Were there any indications that pointed in another direction, or that might, at least, point in another direction? [LANGHEINRICH thinks for a moment, then shakes his head.] You didn't get inside of the house, did you?

LANGHEINRICH

I just barely glanced into the room. Then the ceiling came crashin' down. A hair's breadth sooner an' I'd ha' been smothered.

WEHRHAHN

The fire was started from without. Constable Tschache is quite right in that supposition. Probably from behind where the goatshed is. That would also be in agreement with your evidence, Mrs. Schulze! You saw him creep around the house. Right above the goatshed there is a window from which, as a rule, straw was sticking out. I myself made that observation. And this window gives on Rauchhaupt's garden. This window tempted the boy. It tempted him because he had it daily before his eyes. So he simply climbed on the roof of the shed and from there reached the sky-light. Very pleasant neighbour to have—I must say!—Who's that crossing the street and howling so?

GLASENAPP

[Looks through the window.] Shoemaker Fielitz and his wife.

WEHRHAHN

What? Is that Mrs. Fielitz who comes howling so? It's enough to melt the heart of a stone.

MRS. FIELITZ, whose loud, convulsive weeping has been audible before she appeared, enters, leaning upon the SEXTON and followed by HER HUSBAND, who carries a large, new clock carefully in his arms. FIELITZ and HIS WIFE are both in their Sunday clothes.

WEHRHAHN

Well, heavens and earth, Mrs. Fielitz! Trust in the Lord! Our trust in the Lord—that's the main thing! This isn't a killing matter.—Get a drink of brandy, Nickel! Go over and ask my wife for it. Mrs. Fielitz has got to be brought to her senses first.—Do me a favour, Mrs. Fielitz, and stop your outburst of tears. I can feel for you, when it comes to that. Quite a severe blow of fate. Have any valuables been destroyed? [MRS. FIELITZ weeps more violently.] Mrs. Fielitz! Mrs. Fielitz! Listen to me! Please listen to what I say to you! Kindly don't lose your reason! D'you understand? Don't lose your head! You're generally a sensible woman.—Well, if you won't, you won't.—[NICKEL, who has been gone for a moment, returns with a brandy bottle and a small glass.]—Give her the brandy; quick,—I'll address myself to you, Fielitz. I see that you're quite collected, at least. That's the way a man ought to be, you understand. In any situation—be that what it may. So, Fielitz, you give me some information! I'll put the same question to you first: Have any valuables been destroyed?

FIELITZ

[He is only partially successful in restraining the convulsive sobs that attack him while he speaks.] Yes. Six bills ... banknotes!

WEHRHAHN

Well, I'll be blessed! Is that true? And, of course, you don't even know the numbers! My gracious, but you're careless people! One ought to think of such things! But that does no good now. Fielitz, do you hear me! One ought to take some thought.—Now he's beginning to howl too! Do you understand me? The place for ready money is a bank! And anyhow—the whole business! One doesn't leave one's property alone like that! One shouldn't leave it quite unprotected, especially with such a crowd in the neighbourhood as we have here!

FIELITZ

I ... aw ... who'd ha' thought o' such a thing, your honour?

WEHRHAHN

Why don't you lay that clock down?

FIELITZ

I'm a peaceable man, your honour. I—I—I—I—Oh, Lordy, Lordy! I can't tell you nothin', how that there thing happened.—I'm on good terms with people; I don't quarrel with nobody ... I has made mistakes in my life. That happens when a man ain't got no good companions. But that people should go an' treat me this way! No, I ain't never deserved that.

MRS. FIELITZ

[Weeping.] Fielitz, what has I always been tellin' you? Who's right now, eh? Tell me that: who's right now? You didn't make no enemies on our account. Them's very different stories—them is. An' I guess Mr. von Wehrhahn knows somethin' about that!

FIELITZ

Aw, mother, keep still. That there, that was my dooty.

[EDE, half seriously, half in jest, makes a threatening gesture behind FIELITZ. WEHRHAHN observes this.

WEHRHAHN

Look here, you there! What's that you did? You stood behind Fielitz and shook your fist over his head.

EDE

Maybe I'm weak in the chest, but I don't rightly know.

WEHRHAHN

Listen: I'll tell you something. The place for insane people is the asylum. But if you behave with any more impudence, you'll first be taken to gaol!—I didn't understand you quite rightly, Mrs. Fielitz. You insinuated something just now. Have you any suspicions in that direction? I don't care to express myself more clearly. But do you suspect a—how shall I express it—an act of, so to speak, political reprisal? In that case you must be absolutely open. We shall then certainly get to the bottom of it.

MRS. FIELITZ

No, no, no! I ain't got no suspicion. I'd rather go an' beg on the public roads. I don't want to accuse no human being. I don't know. I can't make nothin' of it at all. That's what I says again an' again. I don't know nothin'.—Everythin' was locked up. We went away. The kitchen fire was out; the top o' the oven was cold. Well, how did it happen? I can't understand it, nohow. I don't know. But you see, that a feller like that there feller c'n sit here an' make insinerations—that does hurt a body right to the soul!

WEHRHAHN

Don't permit that to make any impression on you! Where would any of us be, if we let such things affect us? Any one who goes to church nowadays has the whole world hooting him. You just stick to me. [He rummages among the papers on his table.] By the way, I succeeded in saving something here—a picture of your late husband. At least, I believe that that's what it is. It was framed in deer's feet. [He finds the picture and hands it to MRS. FIELITZ.] Here!

MRS. FIELITZ takes the picture, grasps WEHRHAHN'S hand with a swift motion and kisses it, weeping.

EDE

[Audibly.] Has anybody maybe got a bit o' sponge in his pocket, 'cause, you see, stockin's don't absorb so much water.

WEHRHAHN

Make a note of that fellow, Glasenapp! Out with him! At once! You are to withdraw!

EDE withdraws with absurd gestures of his arms and legs. Suppressed laughter.

WEHRHAHN

I'm really very much surprised at you, Langheinrich. That fellow has a regular felon's face. One of those knife ruffians; a regular socialist. He's been in gaol several times on account of street brawls. And that's the kind of a man that you take into your shop and home.

LANGHEINRICH

All that don't concern me, your honour. I don't mix in politics.

WEHRHAHN

Oh, is that so? We can afford to wait and see.

LANGHEINRICH

If a feller goes an' does his work all right ...

WEHRHAHN

Nonsense! Mere twaddle! Let any one tell me with whom he associates and I will tell him who he is.

The murmuring and chattering of a crowd is heard. Constable SCHULZE enters in full uniform.

WEHRHAHN

Where have you been all day?

SCHULZE

[Utterly disconcerted for some moments. Then:] We nabbed the boy, your honour.

WEHRHAHN

Is that so? Who did it?

SCHULZE

Me and Tschache.

WEHRHAHN

Where?

SCHULZE

Right near here; by the church.

GLASENAPP

He always sits there and listens to the bells.

WEHRHAHN

Why didn't you tell us that before? Did he try to escape? Did he run from you?

SCHULZE

He sat in the ditch an' didn't notice us. Tschache could ride close up to him. An' then we got him by the scruff an' had him tight.

[_He steps back and grasps GUSTAV, whom_ TSCHACHE is leading in. Members of the crowd press forward._

WEHRHAHN

H-m! At all events he is here. I'm rather sorry, I must say. He's the son of a former Prussian constable ... Has any one informed old Rauchhaupt? Somebody had better go for him.

MRS. SCHULZE

I'm takin' care of a sick person, your honour. Maybe I might be able to get off now?

WEHRHAHN

Prepare the record, Glasenapp. No, Mrs. Schulze, you'll have to remain here for the present. The matter will be finished soon enough.—So let us prepare the record ...

[He leans back in his chair and stares at the ceiling as if collecting his thoughts for the purpose of dictating.

LANGHEINRICH

[Softly to DR. BOXER.] Look at Mrs. Fielitz, will you, Doctor? Eh? Ain't she grown yellow as a lemon peel?—If only that thing don't go crooked, I tell you. [He shows to DR. BOXER, who wards him off with a gesture, something secretly in his hollow hand.] D'you want to see somethin'? Eh? That's a fuse, that's what.

DR. BOXER

[Softly.] Where did you get that from?

LANGHEINRICH

It ain't me that knows! That might come from anywhere in the world. It might even come from Fielitz's cellar. Yessir. Maybe you don't believe that? An' if I wanted to be nasty, Doctor ...

WEHRHAHN

Private conversation is not permitted here.

MRS. FIELITZ

[Tugs at LANGHEINRICH'S sleeve and asks softly:] Didn't you meet Leontine to-day? Where was it?

LANGHEINRICH

[With a triumphant glance at SCHULZE.] Over in Woltersdorf.

WEHRHAHN

Well, then, Glasenapp ... This is a horrible state of affairs—the seventh conflagration this Autumn. And these people pretend to constitute a civilised society! These firebrands pretend to be Christians. One need merely step out on one's balcony to see the reflection of a fire somewhere in the heavens. Now and then in clear nights I have counted the reflections of as many as five. Contempt of judges and laws—that's what it is! And that has taken such hold of these scoundrels that arson has become a kind of diversion.—But they had better go slow. Just a little patience, ladies and gentlemen! We know the tracks! We are on the right scent! And the people in question will have a terrible awakening when, quite suddenly, discovery and retribution come upon them. Any one who is at all versed in the procedure of criminal justice knows that it goes ahead slowly and surely and finally lays hold upon the guilty.—But as Commissioner von Stoeckel quite rightly observed: The whole moral downfall of our time, its actual return to savagery is a consequence of the lack of religion! Educated people do not hesitate to undermine the divine foundations upon which the structure of salvation rests.—But, thank God, we're always to be found at our place! We are, so to speak, always on our watch-tower!—And, I tell you, boy: There is a God! Do you understand? There is a God in Heaven from whom no evil deed remains hidden. Brotherly love! Christian spirit! What your kind needs is to have your breeches drawn tight and your behind flogged! I'd make you sick of playing with fires, you infamous little scamp!—Yes, Dr. Boxer, that is exactly my conviction. You can shrug your shoulders all you please; that doesn't disturb me in the slightest degree. You can even take up your pen and raise the cry of cruelty and unfeelingness in the public prints! Flogging! Christian discipline—that's what is needed, and no sentimental slopping around! You understand!

GUSTAV

[Has become more and more excited by the rising enthusiasm of the speaker. At the end of WEHRHAHN'S oratorical effort he can restrain himself no longer and breaks out in a loud, deceptively exact imitation of an ass's bray.] I! a! a! a! I! a! a! a!

[General embarrassment.

WEHRHAHN

[Also embarrassed.] What does that mean?

GLASENAPP

I really don't know.

LANGHEINRICH

That's Gustav's art, your honour. He's famous for imitatin' animals' voices.

WEHRHAHN

Is that so? And what animal was this supposed to be?

LANGHEINRICH

I guess a lion, all right.—

[General laughter.

WEHRHAHN shrugs his shoulders, laughs jeeringly and goes to his seat. Silence. Then renewed laughter.

WEHRHAHN

I must request silence. This is no place for laughter! We are not indulging in horse-play for your benefit. We are not trying to amuse any one. The things we are discussing here are of a deadly seriousness. This isn't a circus.

RAUCHHAUPT enters and stares helplessly about him.

MRS. FIELITZ

[Tugs at the coat of SCHULZE, who stands near her but with his back turned. He faces her and she asks with a sorrowful expression.] Did you see my girl to-day?

SCHULZE nods and turns back again.

MRS. FIELITZ

[As before.] You did see Leontine this morning?

SCHULZE nods again and turns away.

MRS. FIELITZ

[Repeating the action.] An' where did you meet her, Constable?

SCHULZE

[Almost without moving his lips.] It was over beyond Woltersdorf.

RAUCHHAUPT

[To LANGHEINRICH.] What's the matter here? What's all this here about?

WEHRHAHN

[Observes RAUCHHAUPT.] You are a retired Prussian constable?

RAUCHHAUPT

[Having failed to hear the question.] Say, Schulze, what's all this for?

SCHULZE

His honour axed you somethin'. I can't go an' give you no information. That's against orders. If you'd only ha' kept a better watch on that there boy! I preached to you about that often enough.

RAUCHHAUPT

I don't know what you been preachin'! You ol' mush head! Go on preachin'!

SCHULZE

I begs to have it recorded that Rauchhaupt insulted me officially.

RAUCHHAUPT

What? 'Cause you're such a old idjit? That's the reason why I insults you officially....

WEHRHAHN

Man alive! Do you know where you are? Or have you just dropped here out of the clouds! Confound it all! Stand still! Obey orders!

RAUCHHAUPT

Here I is, your honour, an' I humbly announces ...

WEHRHAHN

That you are recalcitrant and disorderly! You are trying to get into trouble! How long have you been retired?

RAUCHHAUPT

Eleven years.

WEHRHAHN

In addition your memory is probably injured. And anyhow—your whole appearance! The devil! To think of a former constable looking like that ... I thought I knew all types!

RAUCHHAUPT

That's 'cause I am ... You'll kindly excuse ...

WEHRHAHN

Nothing is excused here! D'you understand? You actually smell! You contaminate the air!

RAUCHHAUPT

'Tain't nothin' but the smell o' earth ...

WEHRHAHN

Horse dung!

RAUCHHAUPT

That must be from them pineapples.—

[Laughter.

WEHRHAHN

In short: make haste to get out as soon as possible; otherwise, as I said ... Out! Out! You have probably seen now what is taking place here, and now you have nothing further to do.—Here are the papers. Constable! Take them right over to the court.

[He hands the papers to SCHULZE. The officers clash their sabres, grasp GUSTAV more firmly and prepare to lead him out. RAUCHHAUPT glares about in helpless and growing terror.

DR. BOXER

I have the impression, your honour, that this boy is really a patient. You will forgive me for mingling ...

LANGHEINRICH

The boy's a imbecile—clean daft!

MRS. SCHULZE

No, no, Doctor! Oh, no, Mr. Langheinrich, that there boy knows what he's doin'. I had a hen onct an' she went an' hatched out eleven little chicks and he goes an' takes bricks an' kills seven of 'em.

SCHULZE

That's right, aunt. An' how about that other business, about the little purse what he stole?

MRS. SCHULZE

The little purse, yes, an' what was in it. An' the way he went about that there thing ... nobody as is well could ha' done it more clever.

SCHULZE

An' then, aunt, the shawl ...

MRS. SCHULZE

Naw, an' then that there pistol. That boy's got all the good sense he needs. I'm a old an' experienced woman.

RAUCHHAUPT

What's that you is? What? A ole witch with a low, lousy tongue in her head! You go an' sweep in front o' your own door before you go an' accuse other people. If somebody was to go an' watch your trade—takin' care o' babies an' such like an' seein' to it that there ain't no shortage o' angels in heaven—all kinds o' things might come out an' you wouldn't know how to see or hear no more.—What's this? What's the matter with Gustav? I gotta know that—what all this here is!

WEHRHAHN

Hold your tongue! [To the constable.] Right about—march!

RAUCHHAUPT

Hold on, I says! Hold on, now! That's no way! Things like that ain't mentioned in Scripter! I'm the father o' this here child! What's he done? What do people think he's done? Gustav! What is they accusin' you of? I went through the Schleswig-Holstein campaign; I was under fire in 'sixty-six; I was wounded in 'seventy. Here's my leg an' here is my scars. I served the King of Prussia ...

WEHRHAHN

Those are old stories that you're telling us.

RAUCHHAUPT

... With God for King and Fatherland! But this thing here, no, sir; I can't allow that. I wants to know what this thing here with Gustav is about!

WEHRHAHN

Look here, my man, you had better come to your senses! I have told you that once before. In consideration of your service to the state I have overlooked several things as it is. Well now, I'll do one thing more. Listen to me! This fine little product—this son of yours, has committed arson. At least, he is under the very strongest suspicion. Now step out of the way and don't interfere with the officers in the performance of their duty. Go on, Schulze!

RAUCHHAUPT

Committed arson? That there boy? Over there? At Fielitz's? Gustav? This here boy? This here little feller? O Lordy! But that makes me laugh! An' that they ain't all laughin'—that's the funny part. Here, Schulze, don't you go in for no foolishness! I wore them brass buttons myself onct!—Howdy-do, Mrs. Fielitz! Well, Fielitz, how are you? Where are you goin' to hang up that clock o' yours?

MRS. FIELITZ

Now he's jeerin' at us atop o' our troubles.

RAUCHHAUPT

Not a bit. Why should I be jeerin' at you anyhow? It's a misfortune, you think! Lord, Lord, so it is! Cats die around in sheds an' the birds they falls down dead to the earth. No, I ain't jeerin' at you! Anyhow: I ain't scared o' many things. I've gone for some tough customers in my time—fellers that none o' the other constables wanted to tackle! This here finger is bitten through. Yessir! But before I tackles any one like you—I'll go an' hang myself.

MRS. FIELITZ

[Almost grey in the face, with trembling lips, yet with considerable vehemence and energy.] What's that man goin' for me like that for? What did I ever do to him, I'd like to know! Can I help it that things has turned out this way? I ain't seen nothin'! I wasn't there! I ain't cast no suspicions on no one! An' if they went an' arrested that boy o' yours—I didn't know no more about that than you!

RAUCHHAUPT

Woman! Woman! Look at me!

MRS. FIELITZ

Rot! Stop botherin' me. Leave me in peace an' don't go showin' off that way! I got enough trouble to go through. The doctor tells a person not to get excited, 'cause you might go just like that! An' a man like you ... We don't know where to lie down! We don't know where we're goin' to sleep to-night! We're lyin' in the street, you might say, half dead an' all broken up ...

RAUCHHAUPT

Woman! Woman! Can you look at me?

MRS. FIELITZ

Leave me alone an' go where you belongs. I don't let nobody treat me like that! I c'n look at you all right! Why not? I c'n look at you three days an' three nights an' see nothin' but a donkey before me! If this here thing is put off on your boy now, whose fault is it mostly? How did you go an' talk about the boy? You says, says you: he steals, he sets fire to your straw shed—an' now you're surprised that things turns out this way! You beat this here poor boy ... he used to come runnin' over to me with so many blue spots on his body that there wasn't a place on him that wasn't sore. An' now you acts all of a sudden like a crazy man!

WEHRHAHN has motioned the officers who grasp GUSTAV more firmly and lead him toward the door. RAUCHHAUPT observes this and jumps with lightning-like rapidity in front of GUSTAV, placing his hands on the latter's shoulders and holding him fast.

RAUCHHAUPT

Can't be done! I can't allow that, your honour. My Gustav ain't no criminal! I lived along reel quiet all to myself an' now I got into this here conspiracy. There's got to be proofs first of all! [To LANGHEINRICH.] Could it ha' been he, d'you think? [LANGHEINRICH shrugs his shoulders.] Them's all a crowd o' thieves around here—that's what ... Gustav, don't you cry! They can't, in God's name—they can't do nothin' to you ...

WEHRHAHN

Hands off! Or ... Hands off!

RAUCHHAUPT

Your honour, I'll take my oath o' office, that's what I'll take, that my boy here is innercent!

WEHRHAHN

Tempi passati. You're getting yourself into trouble. For the last time: Hands off!

RAUCHHAUPT

Then I'd rather kill him right here on the spot, your honour!

WEHRHAHN

[Steps between and separates RAUCHHAUPT from his son.] Move' on! You're not to touch the boy! If you dare the constable will draw his sabre!

RAUCHHAUPT

[White as chalk, half maddened with excitement, has loosened his hold on GUSTAV and plants himself in front of the main door.] Don't do that to me, your honour, for God's sake, for Christ's sake—don't! That's a point o' honour with me—a point o' honour! Anythin' exceptin' that! I'll go instead. I c'n furnish bail. I'll run an' get bail. I c'n get back here right away! Eh? C'n I? Or can't that be done now?

WEHRHAHN

Stuff and nonsense. Move out of the way!

RAUCHHAUPT

I knows who it was that did it!

WEHRHAHN thrusts RAUCHHAUPT aside and the two officers conduct GUSTAV out. DR. BOXER and LANGHEINRICH support and restrain RAUCHHAUPT at the same time. He falls into a state of dull collapse. Silence ensues. Without saying a word WEHRHAHN returns to his table, blows his nose, glances swiftly at RAUCHHAUPT and MRS. FIELITZ and sits down.

WEHRHAHN

Let us have some light, Glasenapp.

GLASENAPP lights a lamp on the table.

MRS. FIELITZ

No, no, I tell you; it's bad, bad! A man like that! He goes an' accuses everybody in the whole place.

WEHRHAHN

You! Mrs. Schulze! You can go your ways!

MRS. SCHULZE withdraws rapidly.

MRS. FIELITZ

I'd like to ax your honour ... we don't even know where we're goin' to sleep to-night.

WEHRHAHN

Are you asleep now, Fielitz?

FIELITZ

[Frightened from the contemplation of his clock.] Not me, your honour!

WEHRHAHN

I thought you were because your head drooped so.

FIELITZ

[With childish bashfulness.] I was just lookin' at the hands.

WEHRHAHN

[To MRS. FIELITZ.] You want to go?

MRS. FIELITZ

If it's maybe possible ... I can't hardly stand on them two legs o' mine no more.

WEHRHAHN

I believe that. When did you get up this morning?

MRS. FIELITZ

— — —?

FIELITZ

We both got up around eight o'clock.

WEHRHAHN

Do you always get up so late?

MRS. FIELITZ

Sure not! That there man is confused to-day in his mind. We got up at five. We always get up at five!

WEHRHAHN

Well, Mrs. Fielitz, you go on home now.—I should be mighty sorry in some respects ... However, justice goes its way. Murder will out. Criminals come to a fearful end! The eternal Judge doesn't forget. And—you [To RAUCHHAUPT.] might as well go home. Go home and wait to see how things turn out. I'll let things go this time. Your paternal feeling robbed you of your senses.

RAUCHHAUPT

[Steps forward.] I should like 'umbly to report, your honour ...

WEHRHAHN

Go on! Go on! What else do you want? Let us have no more nonsense, my good man.

RAUCHHAUPT

[Goes close up to MRS. FIELITZ.] God is my witness! I'll show you up!

THE CURTAIN FALLS



THE FOURTH ACT

The attic room over LANGHEINRICH'S smithy. To the left, two small, curtained windows. At one of the windows an arm-chair on which MRS. FIELITZ is sitting. She has aged perceptibly and grown thinner.—At the second window stands a sewing-machine with a chair beside it. A skirt at which some one has been working is thrown across the chair. A bodice lies on the machine itself. A door in the rear wall leads to a little sleeping-chamber immediately under the roof. To the left of this door a brown tile-oven; to its right, a yellow wardrobe. In the right wall there is likewise a door which opens upon the hall. Behind this door a neatly made bed and a yellow chest of drawers. Above this chest hangs a seven-day clock. The SHOEMAKER FIELITZ stands in his stocking feet upon the chest of drawers and winds the clock.

_In the middle of the room an extension table. A hanging lamp above it. Four yellow chairs surround the table, a fifth—of the same set stands near the bed. LANGHEINRICH and EDE, _dressed in their working-clothes, are busy at the table. LANGHEINRICH holds an iron weather-vane which EDE is painting red._

EDE and LANGHEINRICH break out in loud laugh.

FIELITZ

[Who has been minding the clock while the others have been laughing.] Somebody's been pokin' around here again.

LANGHEINRICH

You c'n bet on that. I s'ppose that's what's happened. You'd better watch out more.

[Renewed laughter.

FIELITZ

All I say is: let me catch some one at it! An' I won't care what happens neither!

LANGHEINRICH

That's right! That's the way! Don't you care who it is, neither. I think it was Leontine.

MRS. FIELITZ

The girl ain't been near that there clock!

LANGHEINRICH

Oh, oh!

FIELITZ

Somethin's goin' to happen some day. I don't take no jokes o' that kind.

EDE

You gotta save that to put it in the shop.

LANGHEINRICH

That's the truth! That's what I always been sayin'! That corner shop'll soon be built now, an' then maybe he won't have no clock to hang up in it. How could he go an' start a business then!

FIELITZ

Firebrands! Pack o' thieves! Laugh if you wants to! You can't never get the better o' me!

LANGHEINRICH

Not a bit, can they! An' that wouldn't do. How many contracts has you been makin'? I mean about furnishin' people with shoes. You got to have somethin' to start with!

MRS. FIELITZ

Can't you leave the man in peace!

FIELITZ

You just go in my room; there you c'n see letters an' contracts lyin' around—packages an' heaps o' them!

EDE

[Looks into the adjoining room.] I don't see nothin'.

LANGHEINRICH

Tear up the floorin': you'll find the docyments hidden there. People has got to have their business secrets!

FIELITZ

O' course they has! An' whippersnappers don't know much about that. Go an' learn how to read an' write before you go an' mix in my business.

MRS. FIELITZ

Come, Fielitz, let them be! Don't lose your temper. You know as Langheinrich has got to have his joke! That's the way the man is made.

LANGHEINRICH

I do feel pretty jolly to-day, an' that's a fac'! I got a piece o' work done. An' if I don't go an' fall down from the steeple when I puts it up—I'll go an' christen this here occasion. An' I won't use water.

MRS. FIELITZ

Are you goin' to put it up yourself?

LANGHEINRICH

You c'n take your oath on that! An' why not? Schmarowski, he designed it. But I forged it an' I'll put it up.

LEONTINE enters.

LEONTINE

You better let Schmarowski do that himself.

EDE

Schmarowski ain't afraid o' anything shaky.

LANGHEINRICH

No, that's as true as can be, I know. He ain't afraid o' God nor the devil. That little man ... I tell you, Bismarck is just a coward alongside o' him!

FIELITZ

I'd like to make a inquiry: who is it that built that there new house?

LANGHEINRICH

Well, who did?

FIELITZ

Me! An' not Schmarowski.

EDE

Well, that's certain! We all knows that, Mr. Fielitz.

FIELITZ

Right up from the foundation! Me an' nobody but me! That there is my land, my bricks, my money! All the insurance money's been sunk into that. Ax mother here if that ain't the fac'!

[Laughter.

MRS. FIELITZ

Oh, Lord, Fielitz! Can't you let that be? Has you got to tell them old stories all over again?

FIELITZ

That I has! I got to prove that, mother! I got to let them people know who I is! Watch out, I tell you, when I makes my speech to-day!

MRS. FIELITZ

Schmarowski says there ain't goin' to be no speech makin'.

FIELITZ

You can't go an' tie up my tongue, an' Schmarowski can't do it neither!

[He withdraws into the adjoining little room.

LANGHEINRICH

You better look out, ole lady, an' see that there ain't no bloody row raised. There's talk now o' some people wantin' to get ugly. Better be a bit careful!

MRS. FIELITZ

All you gotta do is to keep your eye on him a bit. Treat him to drinks from the beginnin'. I can't keep that man in order to-day. He's bound to go to the festival.

LANGHEINRICH

Schmarowski got a drubbin' yesterday.

EDE

Last night, yes, after the people's meetin'.

MRS. FIELITZ

Maybe he went an' gave it to 'em a bit too hot.

LANGHEINRICH

That's what he did. That little scamp talked, Mrs. Fielitz! The whole meetin' just shouted! An' he didn't mind callin' a spade a spade neither.

MRS. FIELITZ

He oughtn't to be so hot, I think.

LANGHEINRICH

That he ought, just that! An' why not? Do what you can an' go ahead! That's the way! That whole crowd don't deserve no better. Not Wehrhahn an' not Friderici. An' anyhow, it was a good thing, Mrs. Fielitz. It was done just in the nick o' time! Now he's gone an' broken with them fellers, an' everybody knows it. There ain't no goin' back now. Now he belongs to us, Mrs. Fielitz, an' I never would ha' thought it of him!

MRS. FIELITZ

You got reason to be satisfied with him, I'm thinkin'. Look at the noise in your workshop with four journeymen ...

LANGHEINRICH

That's true, too, an' I'm not denyin' it. He put money in circulation. I couldn't make friends with Pastor Friderici's collection plate. Couldn't do it. Now everything's arranged.—Now I want you to keep your eyes open at the window when I gets up to the top o' the steeple. I'll wave an' sing out an'—jump down!

LANGHEINRICH and EDE exeunt with the weather vane. A brief silence.

MRS. FIELITZ

I wonder if Rauchhaupt will be comin' in to-day?

LEONTINE

I don't see, mother, why you're so frightened all the time. Rauchhaupt ain't nothin' but an old fool. Let him come all he pleases an' jabber away! Let him, mother. Nobody don't pay no attention to his nonsense!

MRS. FIELITZ

They says as he's been talkin' around a lot.

LEONTINE

Well, let him! I got letters too. Here's one of 'em again, mother. [She throws down a letter in its envelope.] But I don't worry about that. An' anyhow it's only that assistant at the railroad.

MRS. FIELITZ

It might ha' been Constable Schulze, too.

LEONTINE

Or that assistant teacher Lehnert—if you want to go on guessin'!

MRS. FIELITZ

Well, let 'em! Them fellers is jealous—an' envious o' Schmarowski an' his new house! They'd like to go an' lay somethin' at our door. But no! 'Tain't so simple as that!

LEONTINE

[Who has been sewing at her machine for a moment.] Look, mama, I found this here!

MRS. FIELITZ

Hurry now, hurry! Don't go an' lose time now. That dress has got to be ready by two. Adelaide has been sendin' over again!—The one thing you ought to do is to go down to the cellar an' get that couple o' bottles o' wine, so's we can drink their health when they come up! You c'n see, they'll soon be through.

LEONTINE

That thing was the Missis' spine supporter.

MRS. FIELITZ

She was a poor, wretched crittur: strappin' herself an' tyin' herself an' squeezin' herself, an' yet she couldn't get rid o' her hump.

LEONTINE

Well, why did she have to be so vain!

MRS. FIELITZ

Don't grudge her her rest. She's deserved it.

LEONTINE

They says that her ghost keeps rappin' up in the top attic where Langheinrich sleeps.

MRS. FIELITZ

Let her be! Let her be! Don't talk no more. Maybe he was a bit rough with her for all she brought money to him. She had to sew an' sew an' earn money.... No wonder she can't find no rest.

LEONTINE

Why did she have to go an' marry Langheinrich?

MRS. FIELITZ

Let them old stories be! I don't like to hear about 'em. My head's full enough o' trouble without 'em. I don't know what's wrong with me anyhow. A body sees ghosts enough now an' then without thinkin' o' the past.

LEONTINE

I must say, though, that if he's unfaithful to me that way....

MRS. FIELITZ

Langheinrich? Let him go an' be. When it comes to that, there ain't no man that's any good. If there was to be a single one whom you could go an' depend on when it comes to that—it'd be somethin' new to me.—Main thing is to be at your post. The man ain't bad. He means reel well. Be savin'. You know how careful he is! An' take care o' his bit o' clothes an' be good to his little girl. He don't object to your boy. [FIELITZ re-enters clad in his long, black Sunday coat.] You can't go to that dinner lookin' like that. Come here an' I'll sew on that there button.

FIELITZ

'Tain't possible you'll do that much! Don't go an' hurt yourself now.

MRS. FIELITZ

[Holds his garment with her left hand and sews, still seated.] It ain't nobody's fault if a body can't get around so quick no more. You gets well enough taken care of.

FIELITZ

Aw, them times is past! You needn't lie atop of it all! I'm like a old bootjack—kicked in a corner.—Has anybody been shovin' my clock?

LEONTINE

It's likely. He's got a screw loose.

[Exit.

FIELITZ

You just wait!

MRS. FIELITZ

Langheinrich was just jokin'?

FIELITZ

I'll show the whole crowd o' you somethin' now that I got on top. I c'n go an' stand up to any man yet!

MRS. FIELITZ

Well, o' course. There ain't nobody doubts that.

FIELITZ

I just want you to wait two years an' see who it'll be that has made the most money: Schmarowski, Langheinrich or me!

MRS. FIELITZ

I don't see what grudge you got against Langheinrich? He went an' took us into his house....

FIELITZ

He did that 'cause he's got his reason an' 'cause he wants a high rent.

MRS. FIELITZ

You better be glad he is the way he is.

FIELITZ

On account o' that bit o' business with the fuse? You go right ahead an' let him trample on you.

MRS. FIELITZ

What was that there about a fuse?

FIELITZ

That business? What d'you s'ppose? Dr. Boxer talked about it too.

MRS. FIELITZ

I don't know nothin' about them affairs o' yours.

FIELITZ

Mother, I got a good conscience.

MRS. FIELITZ

You c'n go an' put it in a glass case.

FIELITZ

Mother, I ain't sayin' nothin' else right now ...

MRS. FIELITZ

That's all foolishness!

FIELITZ

All right.

MRS. FIELITZ

Schmarowski was here. How's that now with, the mortgage?

FIELITZ

You mean that my mortgage is now the fourth?

MRS. FIELITZ

Anybody knows that a buildin' like that costs money.

FIELITZ

Schmarowski is sinkin' all his money in bricks an' mortar.

MRS. FIELITZ

Nonsense!

FIELITZ

It's a fac'! That thing has taken hold o' him like a sickness.

MRS. FIELITZ

Main thing is that you agrees. Don't you?

FIELITZ

Not a bit! I don't agree to nothin'. I been a agent in my time an' took care o' the most complexcated affairs. Yes, an' Wehrhahn patted me on the back an' was mighty jolly 'cause I'd been so sly ... No, mother, I ain't so green.—I c'n keep accounts! I knows how to use my pen! I'm more'n half a lawyer! That feller ain't goin' to get the better o' me.

SCHMAROWSKI enters very bustling. He has changed the style of his garments considerably—light Spring overcoat, elegant little hat and cane. He carries a roll of building plans.

SCHMAROWSKI

Mornin', Mrs. Fielitz. How are you now? Did you get over that slight cold?

MRS. FIELITZ

Thank you kindly; I gets along. Take a seat.

SCHMAROWSKI

Yes, I will. I've reely deserved it. I've been on my feet since four o'clock this morning! Lord only knows how I succeed in staggerin' along.

FIELITZ

Mornin'. I'm here too, you know.

SCHMAROWSKI

Good mornin'. Didn't notice you at all. I have my head so full these days ...

FIELITZ

Me too.

SCHMAROWSKI

Certainly. Don't doubt it! Have you anything to say to me? If so, go ahead, please!

FIELITZ

Not this here moment! I got other things to attend to just now. I gotta go an' meet a gentleman at the station on account o' them Russian rubber shoes. Later. Sure. But not just now.

[He stalks out excitedly.

SCHMAROWSKI

That cobbler makes us all look ridiculous. He plays off in all the public houses. The other day this thing happened out there in the waiting-room where all the best people were sittin': he just made his way to 'em an' talked all kinds of rot about the factories he was goin' to build and such like.

MRS. FIELITZ

The man acts as if he didn't have his right mind no more.

SCHMAROWSKI

But you're gettin' along all right.

MRS. FIELITZ

Tolerable. Oh, yes. Only I can't hardly stand the hammerin' no more. I wish we was out o' this here house!

SCHMAROWSKI

Patience! For Heaven's sake, have patience now! Things have gone pretty smoothly so far. Don't let's begin to hurry now. Just a little patience. I'm as anxious as any one for us to get settled. But I can't do no wonders. I'm glad the roof is on. I know what that cost me—an' then all these annoyances atop o' that. [He shows her a number of opened letters.] Anonymous, all of 'em, of course. The meanest accusations of Fielitz, of you, an', of course, of myself.

MRS. FIELITZ

I don't know what them people wants. When you got trouble you needn't go huntin' for insult. That's the way things is, an' different they won't be. They questioned us up an' down. Three times I had to go an' run to court. If there'd been anythin' to find out, they'd ha' found it out long ago.

SCHMAROWSKI

I don't want to offer no opinion about that. That's your affair; that don't concern me. 'S far as I'm concerned, I gave the people to understand what I am. When people want to get rid o' me, they got to take the consequences. That's what Pastor Friderici had better remember. I saw through his game.—But to come to the point, as I'm in a hurry, as you see. Everything's goin' very 'well—but cash is needed—cash!

MRS. FIELITZ

But Fielitz ain't willin'.

SCHMAROWSKI

Mr. Fielitz will have to be!

MRS. FIELITZ

He's still thinkin' about that corner shop o' his. Can't you keep a bit o' space for it?

SCHMAROWSKI

Can't be done! How'd I end if I begin that way? You got sense enough to see that yourself. No. There wasn't no such agreement. We can't be thinkin' o' things like that.—A banker is comin' to this dinner, Mrs. Fielitz, an' I ought to know what to expect exactly. Everything is bein' straightened out now. If I'm left to stick in the mud now...!

MRS. FIELITZ

I'll see to it. Don't bother.

SCHMAROWSKI

Very well. An' now there's something else. Have you heard anything from Rauchhaupt again?

MRS. FIELITZ

Yes, I hears that he don't want to hold his tongue an' that he goes about holdin' us up to contempt. That's the same thing like with Wehrhahn. I never did nothin' but kindnesses to Rauchhaupt. An' now he comes here day in an' day out an' makes a body sick an' sore with his old stories that never was nowhere but in his head. Maybe ... my goodness ... a man like that ... he c'n go an' keep on an' on, till, in the end ... well, well ...

SCHMAROWSKI

Don't be afraid, Mrs. Fielitz. Things don't go no further now that the noise is quieted down.—By the way, I see that the carpenters are assemblin'. I got to go over there an' rattle off my bit o' speech. It's just this: if Rauchhaupt should come in again, you just question him carefully a little. There's a new affair bein' started. Got a political side to it. Immense piece o' business. 'Course I got my finger in that pie, as I has in all the others now. We'd like to get Rauchhaupt's land ... He bought it for a song in the old days. If we c'n get it—the whole of it an' not parcelled—there'd be a cool million in it.

MRS. FIELITZ

An' here I got two savin's bank books.

SCHMAROWSKI

Thank you. Just what I need. There are times when a man can't be sparin' o' money ...

MRS. FIELITZ

The girl is comin'. Hurry an' slip 'em into your pocket.

SCHMAROWSKI hastily puts the bankbooks into his pocket, nods to MRS. FIELITZ and withdraws rapidly.

MRS. FIELITZ

[Half rising from her chair and looking anxiously out through the window.] If only they don't go' an' make trouble this day. There's a great crowd o' people standin' around.

LEONTINE returns with the three bottles of wine and the glasses.

LEONTINE

Mama! Mama! He's downstairs again. That fool of a Rauchhaupt is down there.

MRS. FIELITZ

[Frightened.] Who?

LEONTINE

Rauchhaupt. He's comin' in right behind me.

[She places the bottles and glasses on the table.

MRS. FIELITZ

[With sudden determination.] Let him! He c'n come up for all I cares. I'll tell him the reel truth for onct.

[RAUCHHAUPT puts his head in at the door.

RAUCHHAUPT

Is I disturbing you, Mrs. Fielitz?

MRS. FIELITZ

No, you ain't disturbin' me.

RAUCHHAUPT

Is I disturbin' anybody else then?

MRS. FIELITZ

I don't know about that. It depends.

RAUCHHAUPT

[Enters. His appearance is not quite so neglected as formerly.] My congratulations. I'm comin' in to see if things is goin' right again.

MRS. FIELITZ

[With forced joviality.] You got a fine instinct for them things, Rauchhaupt.

RAUCHHAUPT

[Staring at her, emphatically.] That I has, certainly! That I has!—I just met Dr. Boxer, too. He's goin' to come up and see you in a minute, too. An' I axed him about a certain matter, too.

MRS. FIELITZ

What kind o' thing was that?

RAUCHHAUPT

About that time, you know! They says that he said somethin' to Langheinrich that time an' Langheinrich said somethin' to him, too.

MRS. FIELITZ

I ain't concerned with them affairs o' yours. Leontine! Go an' get a piece o' sausage so that they c'n have a bite o' food when they comes over afterwards.

RAUCHHAUPT

The world don't stop movin'.

MRS. FIELITZ

No, it don't. That's so.

LEONTINE

Wouldn't you like for me to stay here now?

RAUCHHAUPT

Yon better be goin' an' buy some silk stockin's.

MRS. FIELITZ

What's the meanin' o' that?

RAUCHHAUPT

That don't mean, nothin' much. You might think she was a countess—standin' there at Mrs. Boxer's:—Adelaide, I mean, what's now Mrs. Schmarowski. There she stood in the shop an' chaffered about a yellow petticoat. She's a great lady nowadays an' one as wears red silk stockin's.

LEONTINE

People like us don't hardly have enough to buy cotton, ones.

[Exit.

MRS. FIELITZ

I wonder what people will say about Adelaide in the end?

RAUCHHAUPT

That ain't just talkin'. Them's facts. T'other day the beer waggon unloaded some beer at Mrs. Kehrwieder's—Mrs. Kehrwieder that's a washerwoman hereabouts. Well, my lady comes rustlin' up—that's what she does—an' turns up her nose—she ain't no beastly snob, oh, no!—an' then she asks Mrs. Kehrwieder: is it reely true that the poor drinks beer?

MRS. FIELITZ

You needn't come to me with your rot an' your gossip.

RAUCHHAUPT

Anyhow, what I was goin' to tell you is this: I'm on a new scent!

MRS. FIELITZ

What kind of a scent is that you're on?

RAUCHHAUPT

Mum's the word! I gotta be careful. I can't say nothin'; I don't pretend to know nothin'. But I kept my eyes open pretty wide, I tell you. There's detectives workin', too. I been to Wehrhahn, too, an' he told me to go right on!

MRS. FIELITZ

[Knitting.] O Lordy! Wehrhahn. He's goin' to do you a lot o' good, ain't he? It'll cost some more o' your money—that's what!

RAUCHHAUPT

Mrs. Fielitz, the things we has found out, I'll show 'em up clear as day, I tell you. You c'n get hold o' the smallest secret. The public prosecutor hisself pricked up his ears. An' the way you does it is this: first you draws big circles, Mrs. Fielitz, an' then you draws littler ones an' littler ones an' then—then somebody is caught! Who? Why, them criminals what set fire to the house. O' course I don't mean you, Mrs. Fielitz.

MRS. FIELITZ

I'd give the matter a rest if I was you. Nothin' ain't goin' to come out.

RAUCHHAUPT

How much you bet, Missis? I'll take you up.

MRS. FIELITZ

If nothin' didn't come out at first ...

RAUCHHAUPT

How much you bet, Missis? Come now, an' bet. All a body's gotta be is patient. You ordered Gustav to come over at eleven o'clock with the seeds. An' just then Mrs. Schulze passed by your door. No, I don't take my nose off the scent.

MRS. FIELITZ

Now I'll tell you something Rauchhaupt. I don't care nothin' about your nose. But I tell you, if you don't stop but go on sniffin' around here all the blessed time.... I tell you, some day my patience'll be at an end!

RAUCHHAUPT

Why don't you go an' sue me, Mrs. Fielitz?

MRS. FIELITZ

For my part you c'n say right out what you has to say. Then a person'll know what to answer you. But don't go plannin' your stinkin' plans with that Schulze woman! I put that there woman outta here! She comes here an' tries to talk me into lettin' Leontine come over to her. The constable, he'd like that pretty well. My girl ain't that kind, though. An' now, o' course, the old witch'd like to give us a dig. Before that she wanted to do the same to you!—I don't know anyhow what you're makin' so much noise about! I don't see as anythin' bad has happened to that boy o' yours! He's taken care of. He's got a good home! He gets nursin' an' good food!

RAUCHHAUPT

No, no, that don't do me no good inside. I don't let that there rest on me—not on me an' not on Gustav. Can't be done! That keeps bitin' into me. I can't let that go. It cost me ten years o' my life. I knows that! I knows what I went through that time when I tried to hang myself. I ain't never goin' to get over that, 's long's I live! I'll find out who was at the bottom of it all! I made up my mind to that!

FIELITZ

Good Lord, an' why not? Go ahead an' do it! Keep peggin' away at it. What business is it o' mine? Has I got to have myself excited this way all the time when, the doctor told me how bad it is for me....

RAUCHHAUPT

Missis, there ain't a soul as knows what that was. I knows it. I just ran home, blind.... couldn't see nothin'! I didn't know nothin' no more o' God or the world. I just kept pantin' for air! An' then there I lay—like a dead person on the bed. They rubbed me with towels an' they brushed me with brushes, an' sprayed camphor all over me an' such stuff! Then I came back to life.

MRS. FIELITZ

How many hundreds o' times has you been tellin' me that? I knows, Rauchhaupt, that you went off o' your head. Well, what about that? Look at me! My hair didn't get no blacker from that there business; I didn't get no stronger from it neither. Who's worse off right now—you or me? That's what I'd like to know. You got your health; you're lookin' prosperous! An' me? What am I to-day? An' how does I look? Well, then, what more d'you want?—I dreamed o' my own funeral, already!—What do you want more'n that? I ain't goin' to bother nobody much longer. There ain't much good to be got by houndin' me!... An' that's the truth.—An' anyhow, you're a foolish kind o' a man, Rauchhaupt. You're so crazy, nobody wouldn't hardly believe it. First you was always wantin' to get rid o' the boy ...

RAUCHHAUPT

Oh, you don't know Gustav, that you don't! What that there boy could do when I had him ... an' the way he was kind to children an' such like! An' the way he c'n sing! An' the thoughts he's got in his head! That there time when he ran away from the asylum, he went an' he sat down in front o' the church where he was always listenin' to the bells, an' there he sat reel still, waitin'. You ought to ha' seen the boy then, Mrs. Fielitz, the way all that shows in his face. That's somethin'! Only thing is, he can't get it out the way the likes o' us c'n do it.

MRS. FIELITZ

Rauchhaupt, I had worse things 'n that. Yes. I lost a boy—an' he was the best thing I had in this world. Well, you see? You c'n go an' stare at me now! My life—it ain't been no joke neither.—Go right on starin' at me! Maybe you'll lose your taste for this kind o' thing the way you did onct before.

RAUCHHAUPT

Mrs. Fielitz, I'm a peaceable man, but that there ... I'm peaceable, Missis. I never liked bein' a constable, but ...

MRS. FIELITZ

Well, then! Everybody knows that! On that very account! An' now there ain't nobody as bad as you! You're actin' like a reg'lar bloodhound! Why? You've always been as good as gold, Rauchhaupt! Every child in the place knows that! An' now, what's all this about?—You c'n go an' open one o' them there bottles. Why shouldn't we go an' drink a bit o' a drop together? [RAUCHHAUPT wipes his eyes and then walks across to draw the cork of one of the bottles.]—Fightin' c'n begin again afterwards. I s'ppose life ain't no different from that.—An' we can't change it. There ain't nothin' but foolishness around. An' when you want to go an' open people's eyes—you can't do it! Foolishness—that's what rules this world.—What are we: you an' me an' all of us? We has had to go worryin' and workin' all our lives—every one of us has! Well, then! We ought to know how things reely is! If you don't join the scramble—you're lazy: if you do—you're bad.—An' everythin' we does get, we gets out o' the dirt. People like us has to turn their hands to anythin'! An' they, they tells you: be good, be good! How? What chanct has we got? But no, we don't even live in peace with each other.—I wanted to get on—that's true. An' ain't it natural? We all wants to get out o' this here mud in which we all fights an' scratches around ... Out o' it ... away from it ... higher up, if you wants to call it that ... Is it true as you're wantin' to move away from here, Rauchhaupt?

RAUCHHAUPT

Yes, Mrs. Fielitz, I been havin' that in my mind. An' why? Dr. Boxer an' me, we knows why. [He groans sorrowfully.] It ain't only on account o' my wantin' to be nearer to Gustav. No, no! I don't feel well in this here neighbourhood no more. Everybody looks at me kind o' queer nowadays.

[The bottle has now been uncorked and RAUCHHAUPT fills two glasses.

MRS. FIELITZ

That's another thing. Why does we care what people think?

RAUCHHAUPT

No, no! When a man has done what I has—that's different. When a man's gone that length—an' a former officer at that—that he's gone an' taken a rope an' tried.... I don't understand, Missis, I don't understand how I could ha' done that.—But they cut me down ... that they did.

[He drinks.

MRS. FIELITZ

Is it reely true what people says about it?

RAUCHHAUPT

You see, it got out, an' people knows! An' that—me bein' a former officer—when I think o' that! No, no rain an' no wind can't wash that blot off o' me.

[He drinks.

MRS. FIELITZ

I say: let's drink to our health. I don't care about people nor what they thinks.—But if, maybe, you do want to sell some day—who knows?... I c'n talk to Schmarowski. You two might agree.

DR. BOXER, EDE and LEONTINE enter.

DR. BOXER

You're having a very jolly time here, Mrs. Fielitz.

MRS. FIELITZ

Just to-day. It's an exception; that it is!

EDE

Young lady! Hey, there! You want to see somethin'? Langheinrich is dancin' around on the church-steeple!

MRS. FIELITZ rises with difficulty and looks out.

LEONTINE

I can't bear to look at things like that even.

EDE

Let him fall! He won't fall nowhere but on his feet; he's just like a cat.

DR. BOXER

[Softly and half-humorously threatening RAUCHHAUPT.] Stop exciting my patient all the time. A deuce of a lot of good all my doctoring will do then!

MRS. FIELITZ

You c'n leave the man be, Doctor. People has put him up to things. Otherwise he's the best feller in the world.

DR. BOXER

Very well, then! And beyond that, Mrs. Fielitz, how do you feel?

MRS. FIELITZ

Well enough. 'Tis true,—[she points to her breast]—somethin's cracked inside o' here. But then! Everybody's gotta get out o' the world sometime. I've lived quite a while!

DR. BOXER

You musn't talk so much! You must keep still longer. [To RAUCHHAUPT.] I've got an invitation for you. Mr. Schmarowski saw you going in here, and so he stopped me and asked me to say that he'd like to have you come over to the dinner!

MRS. FIELITZ

Rauchhaupt—well, o' course. Why not?

RAUCHHAUPT

An' I won't go givin' nothin' away yet.

MRS. FIELITZ

And you, Doctor?

DR. BOXER

[Quickly.] Heaven forbid! Not I?

MRS. FIELITZ

An' why not? Do you bear him a grudge about anythin'?

DR. BOXER

I? Bear a grudge? I never do that. But, do you see, I'm a lost man as far as all this is concerned. I don't deny that it amuses me to watch all these doings here, but I can't join in them. I'll never learn to do that.—I will probably go away again, too.

MRS. FIELITZ

An' give up such a good practice?

DR. BOXER

Sea-faring—that gives a man true health. That is the best practice for one, Mrs. Fielitz, who is in some respects so little practical.

MRS. FIELITZ

You ain't very practical, that's true.

DR. BOXER

No, I am not.—Listen, listen, how they're letting themselves go! [Many voices are heard in enthusiastic shouting.] Great enthusiasm again! In a moment they will raise Schmarowski and carry him on their shoulders. They were about to do it a moment ago. [A great, confused noise of huzzaing voices floats into the room.] Well, do you see? Isn't that truly uplifting?

LEONTINE

Mother, look, look who the workin'men is raisin' up! The workin'men is raisin' him up!

MRS. FIELITZ

Who?

[She rises convulsively and stares out.

LEONTINE

Don't you see who it is?

RAUCHHAUPT

Schmarowski.

EDE

That's how it is. I couldn't bear to see that there feller. But now ... well ... he's got some sense an' he's fightin' for sensible ideas—against arbitrary an' police power—now, well, I'll drink to his health, too.

DR. BOXER

Well, of course, Ede, naturally you will!

FIELITZ enters highly excited.

FIELITZ

Me ... me ... me ... me ... it was me that did it! Go on an' shout, an' shout! It's that there feller that they lifts up! Let 'em. But I don't make no speeches like that! Character, conscience—them's the main things. Yes, it was me as paid an' me as built. But even if Wehrhahn went an' dropped me—I don't let go my sound opinions! There's gotta be order! There's gotta be morality! I'm for the monarchy right down to my marrow! I don't envy him that there triumph!

DR. BOXER

Look here, Fielitz! Come over here to the light, will you? I'd like to examine your eyes.—Don't your pupils move at all?

MRS. FIELITZ

[Pants swiftly and convulsively, throws her hands high up as if in joy, and cries out half in rapture, half in terror:] Julius!

LEONTINE

Mama! Mama!

EDE

She's gone to sleep.

LEONTINE

[Appealing to the DOCTOR.] Mother is swingin' her arms around so!

DR. BOXER

Who? Where? Mrs. Fielitz?

LEONTINE

Look! Look!

EDE

[Laughing.] Is she tryin' to catch sparrows in the air?

DR. BOXER has turned from FIELITZ to MRS. FIELITZ.

DR. BOXER

Mrs. Fielitz!

FIELITZ unconcerned by the events in the room, walks excitedly up and down in the background. RAUCHHAUPT is tensely watching from the window what takes place without.

LEONTINE

What is it? Mother won't answer at all!

RAUCHHAUPT

I believe they're goin' to end by comin' over here!

DR. BOXER

What is it, Mrs. Fielitz? What are you trying to do? Why do you move your hands about in that way?

MRS. FIELITZ

[Reaching out strangely with both hands.] You reaches ... you reaches ... always this way ...

DR. BOXER

After what?

MRS. FIELITZ

[As before.] You always reaches out after ... somethin' ...

[Her arms drop and she falls silent.

LEONTINE

[To DR. BOXER.] Is she sleepin'?

DR. BOXER

[Seriously.] Yes, she has fallen asleep. But keep all those people back now.

RAUCHHAUPT

The whole crowd is comin' over here.

DR. BOXER

[Emphatically.] Keep them back! Ede! Turn them back at once!

EDE runs out.

LEONTINE

Doctor, what's happened to mother?

DR. BOXER

Your mother has ...

LEONTINE

What, what?

DR. BOXER

[Significantly.] Has fallen asleep.

LEONTINE'S

[Face assumes an expression of horror; she is about to shriek. DR. BOXER takes hold of her vigorously and puts his hand over her mouth. She regains a measure of self-control.] But, Doctor, she was talkin' just now...?

DR. BOXER

[Gently draws LEONTINE forward with his left hand and places his right upon the forehead of the dead woman.] So she was. And from now on she takes her fill of silence.

In the background FIELITZ, careless of what has happened, regards his eyes sharply and intently in a hand mirror.

THE CURTAIN FALLS

THE END