What Every Woman Knows | Page 5

JAMES. What have I done?
MAGGIE [folding her arms]. There's something up. You've got to tell
me, David.
DAVID [who knows when he is beaten]. Go out and watch, James.
MAGGIE. Watch?
[JAMES takes himself off, armed, as MAGGIE notices, with a stick.]
DAVID [in his alert business way]. Maggie, there are burglars about.
MAGGIE. Burglars? [She sits rigid, but she is not the kind to scream.]

DAVID. We hadn't meant for to tell you till we nabbed them; but
they've been in this room twice of late. We sat up last night waiting for
them, and we're to sit up again to-night.
MAGGIE. The silver plate.
DAVID. It's all safe as yet. That makes us think that they were either
frightened away these other times, or that they are coming back for to
make a clean sweep.
MAGGIE. How did you get to know about this?
DAVID. It was on Tuesday that the polissman called at the quarry with
a very queer story. He had seen a man climbing out at this window at
ten past two.
MAGGIE. Did he chase him?
DAVID. It was so dark he lost sight of him at once.
ALICK. Tell her about the window.
DAVID. We've found out that the catch of the window has been pushed
back by slipping the blade of a knife between the woodwork.
MAGGIE. David.
ALICK. The polissman said he was carrying a little carpet bag.
MAGGIE. The silver plate IS gone.
DAVID. No, no. We were thinking that very likely he has bunches of
keys in the bag.
MAGGIE. Or weapons.
DAVID. As for that, we have some pretty stout weapons ourselves in
the umbrella stand. So, if you'll go to your bed, Maggie--

MAGGIE. Me? and my brothers in danger.
ALICK. There's just one of them.
MAGGIE. The polissman just saw one.
DAVID [licking his palms]. I would be very pleased if there were three
of them.
MAGGIE. I watch with you. I would be very pleased if there were four
of them.
DAVID. And they say she has no charm!
[JAMES returns on tiptoe as if the burglars were beneath the table. He
signs to every one to breathe no more, and then whispers his news.]
JAMES. He's there. I had no sooner gone out than I saw him sliding
down the garden wall, close to the rhubarbs.
ALICK. What's he like?
JAMES. He's an ugly customer. That's all I could see. There was a little
carpet bag in his hand.
DAVID. That's him.
JAMES. He slunk into the rhodydendrons, and he's there now,
watching the window.
DAVID. We have him. Out with the light.
[The room is beautified by a chandelier fitted for three gas jets, but
with the advance of progress one of these has been removed and the
incandescent light put in its place. This alone is lit. ALICK climbs a
chair, pulls a little chain, and the room is now but vaguely lit by the fire.
It plays fitfully on four sparkling faces.]
MAGGIE. Do you think he saw you, James?

JAMES. I couldn't say, but in any case I was too clever for him. I
looked up at the stars, and yawned loud at them as if I was tremendous
sleepy.
[There is a long pause during which they are lurking in the shadows. At
last they hear some movement, and they steal like ghosts from the room.
We see DAVID turning out the lobby light; then the door closes and an
empty room awaits the intruder with a shudder of expectancy. The
window opens and shuts as softly as if this were a mother peering in to
see whether her baby is asleep. Then the head of a man shows between
the curtains. The remainder of him follows. He is carrying a little carpet
bag. He stands irresolute; what puzzles him evidently is that the Wylies
should have retired to rest without lifting that piece of coal off the fire.
He opens the door and peeps into the lobby, listening to the
wag-at-the-wall clock. All seems serene, and he turns on the light. We
see him clearly now. He is JOHN SHAND, age twenty-one, boots
muddy, as an indignant carpet can testify. He wears a shabby topcoat
and a cockerty bonnet; otherwise he is in the well- worn corduroys of a
railway porter. His movements, at first stealthy, become almost homely
as he feels that he is secure. He opens the bag and takes out a bunch of
keys, a small paper parcel, and a black implement that may be a
burglar's jemmy. This cool customer examines the fire and piles on
more coals. With the keys he opens the door of the bookcase, selects
two large volumes, and brings them to the table. He takes off his
topcoat and opens his