Лорд Дансейни - Plays for Earth and Air

BILL: Yes, but you’ll see all right standing up on the chair. Hullo. Hull o . Why, it’s dark. Dark, and the stars are shining. You can’t see the city.

LILY: What? You can’t see it?

BILL: No. Except for a few lights.

LILY: Let’s have a look.

BILL: Just those few lights, you see. They don’t light it up very much.

LILY: No, just a few lanterns, as Mrs. Lumley said.

BILL: What constellation is that? You know about stars, Lily. That big one hanging low.

LILY: That? I don’t know.

BILL: Well, that one above it.

LILY: Bill! They’re not our constellations.

BILL: Not our constellations?

LILY: Nothing we know. I’m sure of it.

BILL: Good Lord! Well, that’s odd.

LILY: But, isn’t it?

BILL: Definitely odd.

LILY: Bill, we were wondering just now if they could hear our muffin–man.

BILL: Yes.

LILY: Well, astronomers say that there’s more than one universe. Stars altogether out of sight of our system.

BILL: Yes. Why?

LILY: It’s not in our universe, Bill.

BILL: Good Lord.

LILY: It can’t be, with those constellations.

BILL: I say . Well, we can’t see any more to–day, now that it’s night down there. Come and see it to–morrow, Lily, when I get back from Mergin and Chayters. I can get away half an hour before they close.

LILY: But it will be night again down there.

BILL: So it will. Then slip round in the luncheon hour. I can be here for twenty minutes, and we’ll stand on the chairs and eat sandwiches.

LILY: Right. I must be going now. Look after the little town when you can. And tell Mrs. Lumley to be sure to keep an eye on it while you’re out.

BILL: Well, we can’t do much, you know.

LILY: No. But you can keep an eye on it.

BILL: All right, we will. Good–bye, Lily.

LILY: Good–bye.

Day passes and the night. It is next morning at 8.30.

Enter MRS. LUMLEY.

BILL: Oh, Mrs. Lumley, I’m so glad you came.

MRS. LUMLEY: I came to bring you my tea–pot.

BILL: Yes, thank you so much. But I’m glad you came, because I rather think your city wants keeping an eye on.

MRS. LUMLEY: Keeping an eye on, sir?

BILL: Well, look at it, Mrs. Lumley, if you wouldn’t mind getting up on that chair.

She does.

MRS. LUMLEY: Don’t see anything wrong with it, sir.

BILL: Oh, not wrong with it, Mrs. Lumley, not wrong with it. I didn’t mean that. But it seems a little unusual this morning. Don’t you think so? Don’t those archers seem rather busy? And the streets are almost empty. Look at that woman running out now, and dragging in the child that was playing.

MRS. LUMLEY: Yes, I see. Playing in the street. There’s another woman now. She’s dragging in another of them.

BILL: Well, why shouldn’t they play in the street? And then there are no hay–waggons out on the plain. Nothing on any of the roads. What do you think is the meaning of it, Mrs. Lumley?

MRS. LUMLEY: Couldn’t say, sir. I’m sure.

BILL: Well, I think it wants keeping an eye on.

MRS. LUMLEY: Well, I’ve a lot to see to this morning, sir, but I’ll do what I can.

BILL: And look at those archers again, Mrs. Lumley. Do you see what they’re doing?

MRS. LUMLEY: Handing round bundles, they seem to be.

BILL: Yes, but do you see what the bundles must be, they must be arrows.

MRS. LUMLEY: Well, they would, sir, wouldn’t they, being bow–and–arrow men?

BILL: But they’ve all got arrows already, Mrs. Lumley, those little things hanging down from their belts on the left, things they call quivers, are full of them. What do they want more for?

MRS. LUMLEY: Couldn’t say, I’m sure, sir.

BILL: I think it wants keeping an eye on, Mrs. Lumley.

MRS. LUMLEY: Well, I will, sir, when the cat’s–meat–man has come. He comes this morning, and I mustn’t miss him, you know.

BILL: No, but you’ll keep an eye on the city, won’t you? I think it wants it somehow. I must be off now. The shop opens in twenty minutes.

MRS. LUMLEY: Yes, it’s arrows they’re handing round, sir. You were quite right. Bundles of arrows. But what do they want all those arrows for when they’ve got some already.

BILL: I think I should keep an eye on it, Mrs. Lumley. It’s legally yours, you know. Or some of it. But I must run.

MRS. LUMLEY: Well, I will, sir, if I have time. I wouldn’t like any harm to come to it, with all those nice towers and all.

Exit BILL.

Well, I must tidy the room. It wants it too.

She gets down from the chair. You hear her moving the tea–pot and cups and saucers. There is heard the cry of the cat’s–meat–man.

Oh.

And she runs out of the room.

About five hours elapse. It is 1.30 p.m.

BILL bustles in and drags a chair to the wall by the cupboard, and stands on it. A step is on the stair. He jumps down.

BILL: Hullo. Is that you, Lily?

LILY: Yes. How’s the city?

BILL: I only just glanced at it. Pretty quiet, I think.

LILY: That’s good. Let’s look. I wasn’t easy about it.

BILL ( at chair ): Here you are.

She gets up.

LILY: Yes, the archers are quiet. But what’s that crowd in the street?

BILL: Crowd? They weren’t there just now. ( He jumps up on his chair. ) Why, yes. They’re running down to the gate. They’re pikemen: that’s what they are.

LILY: Yes, they’ve got pikes.

BILL: They’re running.

LILY: I hope it’s all right.

BILL: The archers are doing nothing.

LILY: Bill! They’re dead.

BILL: What?

LILY: The archers are dead. Look, Bill.

BILL: But no–one’s got into the town.

LILY: No, but they’re coming. That’s what the pikemen are running down to the gate for.

BILL: I can’t see anyone outside the walls, because of that mist that is all over the fields.

LILY: It isn’t mist. It’s smoke, Bill. There’s a tower burning.

BILL: Oh, why didn’t she watch? Mrs. Lumley, Mrs. Lumley.

MRS. LUMLEY ( off ): Yes, sir?

BILL: Oh, Mrs. Lumley, please come here.

MRS. LUMLEY: Anything wrong, sir?

BILL: Quick, Mrs. Lumley.

Enter MRS. LUMLEY.

MRS. LUMLEY: Why, nothing wrong. I thought there must have been a leak.

BILL: It’s your city, Mrs. Lumley.

MRS. LUMLEY: Oh, the little city.

LILY: There’s a new flag at the gate. It has a large red bear on it. Look, Bill, they’re coming this way. Lots of them.

BILL: Oh, Mrs. Lumley, you should have watched.

MRS. LUMLEY: I’d lots to do this morning, sir. The cat’s–meat–man as soon as you left, and then washing up and tidying, and lots of things that, if I don’t do myself, no one will ever do.

BILL: But, Mrs. Lumley. Your city.

LILY: Oh!

MRS. LUMLEY: What is it, miss?

LILY: They’re through the gate, Mrs. Lumley.

MRS. LUMLEY: Let me look. ( Chair. ) No, they’re not. No, they’re not. Those fellows with the straight scythes are keeping them back.

BILL: Pikes, Mrs. Lumley.

MRS. LUMLEY: Well, pikes. They’re piking them. They’re teaching them not to come into my city, if that’s what it is, though I can’t hardly believe it, sir.

LILY: There’s a flag gone down over there.

BILL: Which?

LILY: One of ours.

BILL: Oh, Mrs. Lumley, you should have watched.

MRS. LUMLEY: But what could I have done?

BILL: Well, the question is, what we can do now. We must do something.

LILY: Yes, Bill, we must. They’re still holding out. There are plenty of flags left. But they’re coming on, those men with the red bear. We must do something quick.