When pain and anguish wring the brow,
A ministering angel thou.
Go out to them, Strapper Kemp; and tell them about your big brother's
little horse that some wicked man stole. Go and cry in your mammy's lap.
STRAPPER [furious] You jounce me any more about that horse, Blanco
Posnet; and I'll--I'll--
BLANCO. Youll scratch my face, wont you? Yah! Your brother's the
Sheriff, aint he?
STRAPPER. Yes, he is. He hangs horse-thieves.
BLANCO [with calm conviction] He's a rotten Sheriff. Oh, a rotten
Sheriff. If he did his first duty he'd hang himself. This is a rotten
town. Your fathers came here on a false alarm of gold-digging; and when
the gold didn't pan out, they lived by licking their young into habits
of honest industry.
STRAPPER. If I hadnt promised Elder Daniels here to give him a chance
to keep you out of Hell, I'd take the job of twisting your neck off the
hands of the Vigilance Committee.
BLANCO [with infinite scorn] You and your rotten Elder, and your rotten
Vigilance Committee!
STRAPPER. Theyre sound enough to hang a horse-thief, anyhow.
BLANCO. Any fool can hang the wisest man in the country. Nothing he
likes better. But you cant hang me.
STRAPPER. Cant we?
BLANCO. No, you cant. I left the town this morning before sunrise,
because it's a rotten town, and I couldn't bear to see it in the light.
Your brother's horse did the same, as any sensible horse would. Instead
of going to look for the horse, you went looking for me. That was a
rotten thing to do, because the horse belonged to your brother--or to
the man he stole it from--and I don't belong to him. Well, you found me;
but you didn't find the horse. If I had took the horse, I'd have been on
the horse. Would I have taken all that time to get to where I did if I'd
a horse to carry me?
STRAPPER. I dont believe you started not for two hours after you say you
did.
BLANCO. Who cares what you believe or dont believe? Is a man worth six
of you to be hanged because youve lost your big brother's horse, and
youll want to kill somebody to relieve your rotten feelings when he
licks you for it? Not likely. Till you can find a witness that saw me
with that horse you cant touch me; and you know it.
STRAPPER. Is that the law, Elder?
ELDER DANIELS. The Sheriff knows the law. I wouldnt say for sure; but
I think it would be more seemly to have a witness. Go and round one up,
Strapper; and leave me here alone to wrestle with his poor blinded soul.
STRAPPER. I'll get a witness all right enough. I know the road he took;
and I'll ask at every house within sight of it for a mile out. Come
boys.
[Strapper goes out with the others, leaving Blanco and Elder Daniels
together. Blanco rises and strolls over to the Elder, surveying him with
extreme disparagement.]
BLANCO. Well, brother? Well, Boozy Posnet, alias Elder Daniels? Well,
thief? Well, drunkard?
ELDER DANIELS. It's no good, Blanco. Theyll never believe we're
brothers.
BLANCO. Never fear. Do you suppose I want to claim you? Do you suppose
I'm proud of you? Youre a rotten brother, Boozy Posnet. All you ever did
when I owned you was to borrow money from me to get drunk with. Now you
lend money and sell drink to other people. I was ashamed of you before;
and I'm worse ashamed of you now, I wont have you for a brother. Heaven
gave you to me; but I return the blessing without thanks. So be easy: I
shant blab. [He turns his back on him and sits down].
ELDER DANIELS. I tell you they wouldn't believe you; so what does it
matter to me whether you blab or not? Talk sense, Blanco: theres no time
for your foolery now; for youll be a dead man an hour after the Sheriff
comes back. What possessed you to steal that horse?
BLANCO. I didnt steal it. I distrained on it for what you owed me. I
thought it was yours. I was a fool to think that you owned anything but
other people's property. You laid your hands on everything father and
mother had when they died. I never asked you for a fair share. I never
asked you for all the money I'd lent you from time to time. I asked you
for mother's old necklace with the hair locket in it. You wouldn't give
me that: you wouldn't give me anything. So as you refused me my due I
took it, just to give you a lesson.
ELDER DANIELS. Why didnt you take the necklace if you must steal
something? They wouldnt have hanged you for that.
BLANCO. Perhaps I'd rather be hanged for stealing a horse than let off
for a damned piece of sentimentality.
ELDER DANIELS. Oh, Blanco, Blanco: spiritual pride has been your ruin.
If youd only done like me, youd be a free and respectable man this day
instead of laying there with a rope round your neck.
BLANCO [turning on him] Done like you! What do you mean? Drink like you,
eh? Well, Ive done some of that lately. I see things.
ELDER DANIELS. Too late, Blanco: too late. [Convulsively] Oh, why didnt
you drink as I used to? Why didnt you drink as I was led to by the Lord
for my good, until the time came for me to give it up? It was drink that
saved my character when I was a young man; and it was the want of
it that spoiled yours. Tell me this. Did I ever get drunk when I was
working?
BLANCO. No; but then you never worked when you had money enough to get
drunk.
ELDER DANIELS. That just shews the wisdom of Providence and the Lord's
mercy. God fulfils himself in many ways: ways we little think of when we
try to set up our own shortsighted laws against his Word. When does
the Devil catch hold of a man? Not when he's working and not when he's
drunk; but when he's idle and sober. Our own natures tell us to drink
when we have nothing else to do. Look at you and me! When we'd both
earned a pocketful of money, what did we do? Went on the spree,
naturally. But I was humble minded. I did as the rest did. I gave my
money in at the drink-shop; and I said, "Fire me out when I have drunk
it all up." Did you ever see me sober while it lasted?
BLANCO. No; and you looked so disgusting that I wonder it didn't set me
against drink for the rest of my life.
ELDER DANIELS. That was your spiritual pride, Blanco. You never
reflected that when I was drunk I was in a state of innocence.
Temptations and bad company and evil thoughts passed by me like the
summer wind as you might say: I was too drunk to notice them. When the
money was gone, and they fired me out, I was fired out like gold out of
the furnace, with my character unspoiled and unspotted; and when I went
back to work, the work kept me steady. Can you say as much, Blanco?
Did your holidays leave your character unspoiled? Oh, no, no. It was
theatres: it was gambling: it was evil company, it was reading in vain
romances: it was women, Blanco, women: it was wrong thoughts and gnawing
discontent. It ended in your becoming a rambler and a gambler: it is
going to end this evening on the gallows tree. Oh, what a lesson against
spiritual pride! Oh, what a--[Blanco throws his hat at him].
BLANCO. Stow it, Boozy. Sling it. Cut it. Cheese it. Shut up. "Shake not
the dying sinner's hand."
ELDER DANIELS. Aye: there you go, with your scraps of lustful poetry.
But you cant deny what I tell you. Why, do you think I would put my soul
in peril by selling drink if I thought it did no good, as them silly
temperance reformers make out, flying in the face of the natural tastes
implanted in us all for a good purpose? Not if I was to starve for it
to-morrow. But I know better. I tell you, Blanco, what keeps America
to-day the purest of the nations is that when she's not working she's
too drunk to hear the voice of the tempter.
BLANCO. Dont deceive yourself, Boozy. You sell drink because you make
a bigger profit out of it than you can by selling tea. And you gave up
drink yourself because when you got that fit at Edwardstown the doctor
told you youd die the next time; and that frightened you off it.
ELDER DANIELS [fervently] Oh thank God selling drink pays me! And thank
God he sent me that fit as a warning that my drinking time was past and
gone, and that he needed me for another service!
BLANCO. Take care, Boozy. He hasnt finished with you yet. He always has
a trick up His sleeve--
ELDER DANIELS. Oh, is that the way to speak of the ruler of the
universe--the great and almighty God?
BLANCO. He's a sly one. He's a mean one. He lies low for you. He plays
cat and mouse with you. He lets you run loose until you think youre shut
of him; and then, when you least expect it, he's got you.
ELDER DANIELS. Speak more respectful, Blanco--more reverent.
BLANCO [springing up and coming at him] Reverent! Who taught you your
reverent cant? Not your Bible. It says He cometh like a thief in the
night--aye, like a thief--a horse-thief--
ELDER DANIELS [shocked] Oh!
BLANCO [overhearing him] And it's true. Thats how He caught me and
put my neck into the halter. To spite me because I had no use for
Him--because I lived my own life in my own way, and would have no truck
with His "Dont do this," and "You mustnt do that," and "Youll go to
Hell if you do the other." I gave Him the go-bye and did without Him all
these years. But He caught me out at last. The laugh is with Him as far
as hanging me goes. [He thrusts his hands into his pockets and lounges
moodily away from Daniels, to the table, where he sits facing the jury
box].
ELDER DANIELS. Dont dare to put your theft on Him, man. It was the Devil
tempted you to steal the horse.
BLANCO. Not a bit of it. Neither God nor Devil tempted me to take the
horse: I took it on my own. He had a cleverer trick than that ready
for me. [He takes his hands out of his pockets and clenches his fists].
Gosh! When I think that I might have been safe and fifty miles away by
now with that horse; and here I am waiting to be hung up and filled with
lead! What came to me? What made me such a fool? Thats what I want to
know. Thats the great secret.
ELDER DANIELS [at the opposite side of the table] Blanco: the great
secret now is, what did you do with the horse?
BLANCO [striking the table with his fist] May my lips be blighted like
my soul if ever I tell that to you or any mortal men! They may roast me
alive or cut me to ribbons; but Strapper Kemp shall never have the laugh
on me over that job. Let them hang me. Let them shoot. So long as they
are shooting a man and not a sniveling skunk and softy, I can stand up
to them and take all they can give me--game.
ELDER DANIELS. Dont be headstrong, Blanco. Whats the use? [Slyly]
They might let up on you if you put Strapper in the way of getting his
brother's horse back.
BLANCO. Not they. Hanging's too big a treat for them to give up a fair
chance. Ive done it myself. Ive yelled with the dirtiest of them when a
man no worse than myself was swung up. Ive emptied my revolver into him,
and persuaded myself that he deserved it and that I was doing justice
with strong stern men. Well, my turn's come now. Let the men I yelled at
and shot at look up out of Hell and see the boys yelling and shooting at
me as I swing up.
ELDER DANIELS. Well, even if 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 wont be too
clever for the boys and Sheriff Kemp if you put them on his trail.
BLANCO. Yes, he will. It wasnt 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 cant stop Him. Well,
He’s made a fool of me; but He cant frighten me. I’m not going to beg
off. I'll fight off if I get a chance. I’ll lie off if they cant 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. Youre not in your right mind, Blanco. I'll tell em youre
mad. I believe theyll let you off on that. [He makes for the door].
BLANCO [seizing him, with horror in his eyes] Dont go: dont leave me
alone: do you hear?
ELDER DANIELS. Has your conscience brought you to this that youre
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 shew off before and keep me game, I’m
all right; but Ive lost my nerve for being alone since this morning.
It’s when youre 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 dont believe that woman and the child were real.
I dont. 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. Youve 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. Youre one of the rottenest.
STRAPPER. You know youre done, and that you may as well be hanged for a
sheep as a lamb. So talk away. Ive 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 aint 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] Shew the lady in there.
Feemy Evans comes in. She is a young woman of 23 or 24, 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. Thats 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]. Youre 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 youre 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. Youve 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. Youre just
trash: thats what you are. White trash.
BLANCO. And what are you, darling? What are you? Youre 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 neednt try to brazen it out. Youll look white enough
before the boys are done with you.
BLANCO. You do me good. Feemy. Stay by me to the end, wont you? Hold my
hand to the last; and I'll die game. [He puts out his hand: she
strikes savagely at it; but he withdraws it in time and laughs at her
discomfiture].