Robert Stevenson - The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson – Swanston Edition. Volume 15

Hunt ( rising ). That’s about all, sir, unless you can put me on to anything good in the way of heckle and spur? I’d try to look in.

Brodie. O come, Mr. Hunt, if you have nothing to do, frankly and flatly I have. This is not the day for such a conversation; and so good-bye to you. ( A knocking, C. )

Hunt. Servant, Mr. Deacon. (Smith and Moore , without waiting to be answered, open and enter, C. They are well into the room before they observe Hunt.) (Talk of the devil, sir!)

Brodie. What brings you here? (Smith and Moore , confounded by the officer’s presence, slouch together to right of door. Hunt , stopping as he goes out, contemplates the pair, sarcastically. This is supported by Moore with sullen bravado; by Smith with cringing airiness. )

Hunt ( digging Smith in the ribs ). Why, you are the very parties I was looking for! ( He goes out, C. )

Moore. Wot was that cove here about?

Brodie ( with folded arms, half-sitting on bench ). He was here about you.

Smith ( still quite discountenanced ). About us? Scissors! And what did you tell him?

Brodie ( same attitude ). I spoke of you as I have found you. (I told him you were a disreputable hound, and that Moore had crossed a fight.) I told him you were a drunken ass, and Moore an incompetent and dishonest boxer.

Moore. Look here, Deacon! Wot’s up? Wot I ses is, if a cove’s got any thundering grudge agin a cove, why can’t he spit it out, I ses.

Brodie. Here are my answers. ( Producing purse and dice. ) These are both too light. This purse is empty, these dice are not loaded. Is it indiscretion to inquire how you share? Equal with the Captain, I presume?

Smith. It’s as easy as my eye, Deakin. Slink Ainslie got letting the merry glass go round, and didn’t know the right bones from the wrong. That’s h all.

Brodie. (What clumsy liars you are!

Smith. In boyhood’s hour, Deakin, he were called Old Truthful. Little did he think – )

Brodie. What is your errand?

Moore. Business.

Smith. After the melancholy games of last night, Deakin, which no one deplores so much as George Smith, we thought we’d trot round – didn’t us, Hump? – and see how you and your bankers was a-getting on.

Brodie. Will you tell me your errand?

Moore. You’re dry, ain’t you?

Brodie. Am I?

Moore. We ain’t none of us got a stiver, that’s wot’s the matter with us.

Brodie. Is it?

Moore. Ay, strike me, it is! And wot we’ve got to do is to put up the Excise.

Smith. It’s the last plant in the shrubbery, Deakin, and it’s breaking George the gardener’s heart, it is. We really must!

Brodie. Must we?

Moore. Must’s the thundering word. I mean business, I do.

Brodie. That’s lucky. I don’t.

Moore. O, you don’t, don’t you?

Brodie. I do not.

Moore. Then p’raps you’ll tell us wot you thundering well do?

Brodie. What do I mean? I mean that you and that merry-andrew shall walk out of this room and this house. Do you suppose, you blockheads, that I am blind? I’m the Deacon, am I not? I’ve been your king and your commander. I’ve led you and fed you and thought for you with this head. And you think to steal a march upon a man like me? I see you through and through (I know you like the clock); I read your thoughts like print. Brodie, you thought, has money, and won’t do the job. Therefore, you thought, we must rook him to the heart. And therefore, you put up your idiot cockney. And now you come round, and dictate, and think sure of your Excise? Sure? Are you sure I’ll let you pack with a whole skin? By my soul, but I’ve a mind to pistol you like dogs. Out of this! Out, I say, and soil my home no more.

Moore ( sitting ). Now look ’ere. Mr. bloody Deacon Brodie, you see this ’ere chair of yours, don’t you? Wot I ses to you is, Here I am, I ses, and here I mean to stick. That’s my motto. Who the devil are you to do the high and mighty? You make all you can out of us, don’t you? and when one of your plants goes cross, you order us out of the ken? Muck! That’s wot I think of you. Muck! Don’t you get coming the nob over me, Mr. Deacon Brodie, or I’ll smash you.

Brodie. You will?

Moore. Ay will I. If I thundering well swing for it. And as for clearing out? Muck! Here I am, and here I stick. Clear out? You try it on. I’m a man, I am.

Brodie. This is plain speaking.

Moore. Plain? Wot about your father as can’t walk? Wot about your fine-madam sister? Wot about the stone-jug, and the dock, and the rope in the open street? Is that plain? If it ain’t, you let me know, and I’ll spit it out so as it’ll raise the roof of this ’ere ken. Plain! I’m that cove’s master, and I’ll make it plain enough for him.

Brodie. What do you want of me?

Moore. Wot do I want of you? Now you speak sense. Leslie’s is wot I want of you. The Excise is wot I want of you. Leslie’s to-night and the Excise to-morrow. That’s wot I want of you, and wot I thundering well mean to get.

Brodie. Damn you!

Moore. Amen. But you’ve got your orders.

Brodie ( with pistol ). Orders? hey? orders?

Smith ( between them ). Deacon, Deacon! – Badger, are you mad?

Moore. Muck! That’s my motto. Wot I ses is, Has he got his orders or has he not? That’s wot’s the matter with him.

Smith. Deacon, half a tick. Humphrey, I’m only a light weight, and you fight at twelve stone ten, but I’m damned if I’m going to stand still and see you hitting a pal when he’s down.

Moore. Muck! That’s wot I think of you.

Smith. He’s a cut above us, ain’t he? He never sold his backers, did he? We couldn’t have done without him, could we? You dry up about his old man, and his sister; and don’t go on hitting a pal when he’s knocked out of time and cannot hit back, for, damme, I will not stand it.

Moore. Amen to you. But I’m cock of this here thundering walk, and that cove’s got his orders.

Brodie ( putting pistol on bench ). I give in. I will do your work for you once more. Leslie’s to-night and the Excise to-morrow. If that is enough, if you have no more … orders, you may count it as done.

Moore. Fen larks. No rotten shirking, mind.

Brodie. I have passed you my word. And now you have said what you came to say, you must go. I have business here; but two hours hence I am at your … orders. Where shall I await you?

Moore. What about that woman’s place of yours?

Brodie. Your will is my law.

Moore. That’s good enough. Now, Dook.

Smith. Bye-bye, my William. Don’t forget.

Brodie. Trust me. No man forgets his vice, you dogs, or forgives it either. It must be done: Leslie’s to-night and the Excise to-morrow. It shall be done. This settles it. They used to fetch and carry for me, and now … I’ve licked their boots, have I? I’m their man, their tool, their chattel. It’s the bottom rung of the ladder of shame. I sound with my foot, and there’s nothing underneath but the black emptiness of damnation. Ah, Deacon, Deacon, and so this is where you’ve been travelling all these years; and it’s for this that you learned French! The gallows … God help me, it begins to dog me like my shadow. There’s a step to take! And the jerk upon your spine! How’s a man to die with a night-cap on? I’ve done with this. Over yonder, across the great ocean, is a new land, with new characters, and perhaps new lives. The sun shines, and the bells ring, and it’s a place where men live gladly; and the Deacon himself can walk without terror, and begin again like a new-born child. It must be good to see day again and not to fear; it must be good to be one’s self with all men. Happy like a child, wise like a man, free like God’s angels … should I work these hands off and eat crusts, there were a life to make me young and good again. And it’s only over the sea! O man, you have been blind, and now your eyes are opened. It was half a life’s nightmare, and now you are awake. Up, Deacon, up, it’s hope that’s at the window! Mary! Mary! Mary!