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as the man is actually coming up the stairs, I'm glad he's got something to be grateful for.
[Enter ALI, shown in by LIZA.]
ALI
Protector of the Just.
JOHN
O, er--yes. Good evening.
ALI
My soul was parched and you bathed it in rivers of gold.
JOHN
O, ah, yes.
ALI
Wherefore the name Briggs, Cater, and Beal shall be magnified and called blessed.
JOHN
Ha, yes. Very good of you.
ALI [advancing, handing trinket]
Protector of the Just, my offering.
JOHN
Your offering?
ALI
Hush. It is beyond price. I am not bidden to sell it. I was in my extremity, but I was not bidden to sell it. It is a token of gratitude, a gift, as it came to me.
JOHN
As it came to you?
ALI
Yes, it was given me.
JOHN
I see. Then you had given somebody what you call rivers of gold?
ALI
Not gold; it was in Sahara.
JOHN
O, and what do you give in the Sahara instead of gold?
ALI
Water.
JOHN
I see. You got it for a glass of water, like.
ALI
Even so.
JOHN
And--and what happened?
MARY
I wouldn't take his only crystal, dear. It's a nice little thing, but [to ALI], but you think a lot of it, don't you?
ALI
Even so.
JOHN
But look here, what does it do?
ALI Much.
JOHN
Well, what?
ALI
He that taketh this crystal, so, in his hand, at night, and wishes, saying "At a certain hour let it be"; the hour comes and he will go back eight, ten, even twelve years if he will, into the past, and do a thing again, or act otherwise than he did. The day passes; the ten years are accomplished once again; he is here once more; but he is what he might have become had he done that one thing otherwise.
MARY
John!
JOHN
I--I don't understand.
ALI
To-night you wish. All to-morrow you live the last ten years; a new way, master, a new way, how you please. To-morrow night you are here, what those years have made you.
JOHN
By Jove!
MARY
Have nothing to do with it, John.
JOHN
All right, Mary, I'm not going to. But, do you mean one could go back ten years?
ALI
Even so.
JOHN
Well, it seems odd, but I'll take your word for it. But look here, you can't live ten years in a day, you know.
ALI
My master has power over time.
MARY
John, don't have anything to do with him.
JOHN
All right, Mary. But who is your master?
ALI
He is carved of one piece of jade, a god in the greenest mountains. The years are his dreams. This crystal is his treasure. Guard it safely, for his power is in this more than in all the peaks of his native hills. See what I give you, master.
JOHN
Well, really, it's very good of you.
MARY
Good night, Mr. Ali. We are very much obliged for your kind offer, which we are so sorry we can't avail ourselves of.
JOHN One moment, Mary. Do you mean that I can go back ten years, and live till--till now again, and only be away a day?
ALI
Start early and you will be here before midnight.
JOHN
Would eight o'clock do!
ALI You could be back by eleven that evening.
JOHN
I don't quite see how ten years could go in a single day.
ALI
They will go as dreams go.
JOHN
Even so, it seems rather unusual, doesn't it?
ALI
Time is the slave of my master
MARY
John! JOHN
All right, Mary. [In a lower voice.] I'm only trying to see what he'll say.
MARY
All right, John, only . . .
ALI
Is there no step that you would wish untrodden, nor stride that you would make where once you faltered?
JOHN
I say, why don't you use it yourself?
ALI
I? I am afraid of the past. But you Engleesh, and the great firm of Briggs, Cater, and Beal; you are afraid of nothing.
JOHN
Ha, ha. Well--I wouldn't go quite as far as that, but--well, give me the crystal.
MARY
Don't take it, John! Don't take it.
JOHN
Why, Mary? It won't hurt me.
MARY
If it can do all that--if it can do all that . . .
JOHN
Well?
MARY
Why, you might never have met me.
JOHN
Never have met you? I never thought of that.
MARY
Leave the past alone, John.
JOHN
All right, Mary. I needn't use it. But I want to hear about it, it's so odd, it's so what-you-might-call queer; I don't think I ever----- [To ALI.] You mean if I work hard for ten years, which will only be all to-morrow, I may be Governor of the Bank of England to-morrow night.
ALI
Even so.
MARY
O, don't do it, John.
JOHN
But you said--I'll be back here before midnight to-morrow.
ALI
It is so.
JOHN
But the Governor of the Bank of England would live in the City, and he'd have a much bigger house anyway. He wouldn't live in Lewisham.
ALI
The crystal will bring you to this house when the hour is accomplished, even tomorrow night. If you be the great banker you will perhaps come to chastise one of your slaves who will dwell in this house. If you be head of Briggs and Cater you will come to give an edict to one of your firm. Perchance this street will be yours and you will come to