If | Page 9

are our old times. Though they be bad times they are our times, master; and now they go. I am sad, master, when the old gods go.
JOHN BEAL
But they are bad gods, Daoud.
DAOUD
I am sad when the bad gods go.
JOHN BEAL
They must go, Daoud. See, there is no one watching. Take them now.
DAOUD
Even so, great master.
[He takes up the largest of the gods with rust.]
Come, Aho-oomlah, thou shalt not drink Nideesh.
JOHN BEAL
Was Nideesh to have been sacrificed?
DAOUD
He was to have been drunk by Aho-oomlah.
JOHN BEAL
Nideesh. Who is he?
DAOUD
He is my son.
[Exit with Aho-oomlah. JOHN BEAL almost gasps.]
ARCHIE BEAL [who has been looking round the tent]
What has he been saying?
JOHN BEAL
They're--they're a strange people. I can't make them out.
ARCHIE BEAL
Is that the heap that oughtn't to be worshipped?
JOHN BEAL
Yes.
ARCHIE BEAL
Well, do you know, I'm going to chuck this hat there. It doesn't seem to me somehow to be any more right here than those idols would be at home. Odd isn't it? Here goes.
[He throws hat on right heap of idols. JOHN BEAL does not smile.]
Why, what's the matter?
JOHN BEAL
I don't like to see a decent Christian hat among these filthy idols. They've all got rust on their mouths. I don't like to see it, Archie; it's sort of like what they call an omen. I don't like it.
ARCHIE BEAL
Do they keep malaria here?
JOHN BEAL
I don't think so. Why?
ARCHIE BEAL
Then what's the matter, Johnny? Your nerves are bad.
JOHN BEAL
You don't know these people, and I've brought you out here. I feel kind of responsible. If Hussein's lot turn nasty you don't know what he'd do, with all those idols and all.
ARCHIE BEAL
He'll give 'em a drink, you mean.
JOHN BEAL
Don't, ARCHIE. There's no saying. And I feel responsible for you.
ARCHIE BEAL
Well, they can have my hat. It looks silly, somehow. I don't know why. What are we going to do?
JOHN BEAL
Well, now that you've come we can go ahead.
ARCHIE BEAL
Righto. What at?
JOHN BEAL
We've got to see Hussein's accounts, and get everything clear in black and white, and see just what he owes to Miss Miralda Clement.
ARCHIE BEAL
But they don't keep accounts here.
JOHN BEAL
How do you know?
ARCHIE BEAL
Why, of course they don't. One can see that.
JOHN BEAL
But they must.
ARCHIE BEAL
Well, you haven't changed a bit for your six months here.
JOHN BEAL
Haven't changed?
ARCHIE BEAL
No. Just quietly thinking of business. You'll be a great business man, Johnny.
JOHN BEAL
But we must do business; that's what I came here for.
ARCHIE BEAL
You'll never make these people do it.
JOHN BEAL
Well, what do you suggest?
ARCHIE BEAL
Let's have a look at old Hussein.
JOHN BEAL
Yes, that's what I have been waiting for. Daoud!
DAOUD [off]
Master. [Enters.]
JOHN BEAL
Go to the palace of the Lord of the pass and beat on the outer door. Say that I desire to see him. Pray him to come to my tent.
[DAOUD bows and Exit.]
[To ARCHIE.] I've sent him to the palace to ask Hussein to come.
ARCHIE BEAL
Lives in a palace, does he?
JOHN BEAL
Yes, it's a palace, it's a wonderful place. It's bigger than the Mansion House, much.
ARCHIE BEAL
And you're going to teach him to keep accounts.
JOHN BEAL
Well, I must. I hate doing it. It seems almost like being rude to the Lord Mayor. But there's two things I can't stand--cheating in business is one and murder's another. I've got to interfere. You see, if one happens to know the right from wrong as we do, we've simply got to tell people who don't. But it isn't pleasant. I almost wish I'd never come.
ARCHIE BEAL
Why, it's the greatest sport in the world. It's splendid.
JOHN BEAL
I don't see it that way. To me those idols are just horrid murder. And this man owes money to this girl with no one to look after her, and he's got to pay. But I hate being rude to a man in a place like the Mansion House, even if he is black. Why, good Lord, who am I? It seems such cheek.
ARCHIE BEAL
I say, Johnny, tell me about the lady. Is she pretty?
JOHN BEAL
What, Miss Miralda? Yes.
ARCHIE BEAL
But what I mean is--what's she like?
JOHN BEAL
Oh, I don't know. It's very hard to say. She's, she's tall and she's fair and she's got blue eyes.
ARCHIE BEAL
Yes, but I mean what kind of a person is she? How does she strike you?
JOHN BEAL
Well, she's pretty hard up until she gets this money, and she hasn't got any job that's any good, and no real prospects bar this, and nobody particular by birth, and doesn't know anybody who is, and lives in the least fashionable suburb and can only just afford a second-class fare and . . .
ARCHIE BEAL
Yes, yes, go on.
JOHN BEAL
And yet somehow she sort of seems like a--like a queen.
ARCHIE BEAL
Lord above us! And what kind of a queen?
JOHN BEAL
O, I don't know. Well, look here, ARCHIE, it's only my impression. I don't