The Thirteenth Chair | Page 8

chair below the table R.)
WALES (L.C. CROSBY and TRENT sit on corner of chesterfield). I don't care.
MASON (at table R.). I'd like to make the test that way. I've a queer feeling about that woman. I believe she really has power of some sort. I know it seems funny, but--well, you all saw her lift that table. I watched her carefully. There was no trick about it at all. I'm sure of it.
CROSBY. All right then. You fasten the window. Billy, you and Brad go and get some chairs out of the dining-room. We'll need a lot.
(WALES walks up and down L. of stage. WILLIAM and TRENT go out door R.C.)
You put them in a circle, don't you? (Begins to place chairs in a circle C. The chair L. of the fireplace is brought down and placed in front of the chesterfield.) What are you going to do, Wales? Ask her a lot of questions?
WALES (L.). I'm going to try to find out who killed Spencer Lee.
CROSBY. Still harping on the murder of Spencer Lee?
(STANDISH places the chairs above and below the table in the circle, then the chair on the R. side of the fireplace in the circle.)
WALES. Yes.
MASON (over R.--opening window curtains and raising window blind). Who was Spencer Lee?
WALES. The best friend I ever had.
(TRENT and WILLIAM enter door R.C., each carrying two chairs. They bring them down R.C. and exit R.C.)
STANDISH (placing chairs C. with backs to audience). We all knew Lee pretty well. And I know he was no good.
WALES (moving to L.C., outside the circle). You mustn't talk like that about him, Standish!
CROSBY (inside the circle and coming down C.). The man's dead: why not let him rest in peace?
(STANDISH outside of circle L.C. seat.)
STANDISH. I didn't bring up the matter, you know, and I don't want to hurt Ned's feelings, but I know that the police found a lot of compromising letters and rotten things of that sort.
(WILLIAM and TRENT re-enter from R.C., each carrying two chairs. WILLIAM crosses and places two chairs R. side of circle then goes back to close the door.)
WALES (L.C.). I don't care what they found, or what anyone thinks of Lee: he was my best friend, and if I can find out who killed him I'm going to do it. It was a damned brutal murder, stabbed in the back, poor chap, with never a chance to fight for his life. (Moves over L.)
MASON (by table R.). I don't seem to remember anything about the case.
WALES. It happened before you got back from France--no, by Jove, it didn't either. It was a day or two after. I remember you and I had lunch together the day you got home and I had dinner that night with Spencer. Funny you don't remember anything about it.
(WILLIAM sits R. in circle.)
MASON. Well, of course, I must have seen it in the papers, but I don't go in much for crimes, and not knowing the man I wasn't interested.
STANDISH (sitting in circle L.C.). It was a good deal of a sensation. The man knew a lot of nice people. Came here a good deal, didn't he, Mr. Crosby?
CROSBY (sitting in circle up C.). At one time. But after Helen married he rather dropped out of it. Fact is, until Trent here appeared on the scene he was always hanging around.
(TRENT comes down and sits in R. side of circle.)
STANDISH. Funny they never found out who killed him.
WALES (standing outside of circle, L. side). They may not. They haven't stopped trying.
MASON (seated on table R.). Oh, are the police still interested?
WALES. Yes, they're interested. As a matter of fact there's a reward of five thousand dollars for the discovery of the murderers.
STANDISH. Are you sure of that?
WALES. I offered it.
TRENT. You?
WALES. Yes. What sort of a man do you think I am? Do you expect me to sit still and let the murderers of Spencer Lee go free? Why, I'd known the man all his life. We were the closest friends.
WILLIAM. But if he was the kind of a man that Standish says--
WALES. I don't give a damn what he was. He was my friend, and I'm never going to rest till I find out who killed him.
TRENT. But.
WALES. I wouldn't care so much if they'd given the poor devil half a chance for his life, but they stabbed him in the back.
MASON. Wasn't there any indication--
WALES. There wasn't a thing to show who did it, or how it was done. A knife-wound between the shoulder-blades and no knife ever found. Nothing stolen, nothing disturbed. The police have found out that a young woman called to see him that afternoon, two or three hours before his body was discovered. That's all that we know.
TRENT (with a laugh--still seated in circle). And now