SCENE--_About nine o’clock of a moonlight night one year
later_--CAPTAIN BARTLETT’S _“cabin,” a room erected on the top of
his house as a lookout post. The interior is fitted up like the
cabin of a sailing vessel. On the left, forward, a porthole.
Farther back, the stairs of the companionway. Still farther, two
more portholes. In the rear, left, a marble-topped sideboard. In
the rear, center, a door opening on stairs which lead to the lower
house. A cot with a blanket is placed against the wall to the right
of door. In the right wall, five portholes. Directly under them, a
wooden bench. In front of the bench, a long table with two chairs
placed, one in front, one to the left of it. A cheap, dark-colored
rug is on the floor. In the ceiling, midway from front to rear, a
skylight extending from opposite the door to above the left edge of
the table. In the right extremity of the skylight is placed a
floating ship’s compass. The light from the binnacle sheds down
over this and seeps into the room, casting a vague globular shadow
of the compass on the floor. Moonlight creeps in through the
portholes on the right. A lighted lantern is on the table._
_As the curtain rises_, SUE _and_ DOCTOR BERRY _are discovered
sitting by the table. The doctor is a man of sixty or so, hale and
hearty-looking, his white hair and mustache setting off his ruddy
completion. His blue eyes have a gentle expression, his smile is
kindly and sympathetic. His whole manner toward_ SUE _is that of
the old family doctor and friend, not the least of whose duties is
to play father-confessor to his patients. She is dressed in deep
mourning. She looks much older. Her face is pale and plainly marked
by the ravages of suffering and grief. But there is an excited
elation in her face at present, her eyes are alight with some
unexpected joy._
SUE--[_Excitedly._] And here is Danny’s letter, Doctor--to prove it’s
all true. [_She takes a letter from the bosom of her dress and holds it
out to him._]
DOCTOR--[_Takes it with a smile, patting her hand._] I can’t say how
glad I am, Susan. Coming after we’d all given him up for lost--it’s like
a miracle. Eh, well, I can hardly believe----
SUE--[_Smiling happily._] Read what he says. Then you won’t doubt.
DOCTOR--[_Hesitating--playfully._] I don’t know that it’s right for
me--love letters at my age!
SUE--Go ahead. I want you to read it. [_He reaches in his pocket for his
spectacles._ SUE _continues gratefully_.] As if I could have any secrets
from you after all you’ve done for us since Ma died. You’ve been the
only friend---- [_She stops, her lips trembling._]
DOCTOR--Tut-tut. [_He adjusts his spectacles and peers at her over
them._] Who wouldn’t be of all the service he could to a brave girl like
you--and I who’ve known you since you were so high! Eh, well, my dear
girl, this past year--with your mother’s death--the state your father’s
in--and then the news of the schooner being reported lost--one damn
thing on top of another! You’ve borne the whole brunt of it on your
shoulders and stood up like a major. I’ll tell Danny when he comes he
ought to get down on his knees and thank God for getting such a wife!
SUE--[_Flushing._] You’re too good. I don’t deserve it. It was just a
case where someone had to carry things on.
DOCTOR--Not many could have stood it--living in this house with him the
way he is--even if he was their father.
SUE--[_Glancing up at the skylight--apprehensively._] Ssshh! He might
hear you.
DOCTOR--[_Listening intently._] Not him. There he goes pacing up and
down up there in the night, looking out to sea for that ship that will
never come back! And your brother Nat is getting just as bad. [_Shaking
himself._] Brrr! This house of mad dreams! It’s the crowning wonder to
me you haven’t lost your balance too--spending nearly all of your time
in this crazy cabin--afraid to go out--afraid of what he might do----
SUE--Don’t you think Pa’ll come to realize the schooner is lost as time
goes by and she doesn’t come back?
DOCTOR--If he was going to realize that, the report of the facts five
months ago would have convinced him. There it was, plain as the nose on
your face. British freighter reports finding derelict schooner. Steams
near enough to read the name on the stern--Sarah Allen, Harborport.
Well, who could get around that evidence except a man with an obsession?
No, your father won’t let himself look the facts in the face. If he did,
probably the shock of it would kill him. That darn dream of his has
become his life. No, Susan, as time goes on he’ll believe in it harder
and harder. After observing him for the past year--and I speak for his
own sake, too, as his good friend for twenty years or more--my final
advice is the same: Send him to an asylum.
SUE--[_With a shudder._] No, Doctor.
DOCTOR--[_Shaking his head._] You’ll have to come to it in time. He’s
getting worse. No one can tell--he might get violent----
SUE--How can you say that? You know how gentle and sane he is with
me--just like he used to be in the old days.
DOCTOR--You’re his last connecting link with things as they are--but
that can’t last. On the other hand, I think that if we got him away from
the sea, from this house, especially from this crazy cabin and the
ship’s deck he had built up there--[_He nods upward._]--that perhaps----
SUE--[_With conviction._] No. It would kill him to leave it.
DOCTOR--Eh, well, my dear, one thing you’ve got to realize: Your father
and Nat must be separated somehow. Nat’s going to pieces. He’s lost his
job, he moons about this house, he takes no interest in anything but
this craziness. I’ll bet he doesn’t believe that schooner is lost any
more than your father does.
SUE--You mean he still hopes it may not be true. That’s only natural.
He’s in San Francisco now tracing down the report again. He saw in the
papers where the British freighter that found the derelict was in port
again and he went to talk with the people on board. I’m hoping he’ll
come back fully convinced, with the whole thing out of his mind.
DOCTOR--[_Shaking his head--gravely._] I’ve watched him and talked with
him---- Why, even your father seems to realize, in his twisted way, that
he has a bad effect on Nat.
SUE--Yes, as I’ve told you before, he hasn’t spoken to Nat alone since
the schooner sailed a year ago. And Nat sneaks about trying to spy on
him--and I have to be always on the watch to keep them apart---- It’s
terrible.
DOCTOR--You’ve got to persuade Nat to go away, Susan.
SUE--He won’t heed me--but I was thinking that now Danny is coming back,
I’d get him----
DOCTOR--There’s another thing. You can’t continue to play slave to these
two after you’re married.