Seven Short Plays Part 4

_Magistrate:_ (_Writing._) At the day of judgment--

_Bartley:_ It was soon for his ghost to appear to me-is it coming after me always by day it will be, and stripping the clothes off in the night time?-I wouldn't wonder at all at that, being as I am an unfortunate man!

_Magistrate:_ (_Sternly._) Tell me this truly. What was the motive of this crime?

_Bartley:_ The motive, is it?

_Magistrate:_ Yes; the motive; the cause.

_Bartley:_ I'd sooner not say that.

_Magistrate:_ You had better tell me truly. Was it money?

_Bartley:_ Not at all! What did poor Jack Smith ever have in his pockets unless it might be his hands that would be in them?

_Magistrate:_ Any dispute about land?

_Bartley:_ (_Indignantly._) Not at all! He never was a grabber or grabbed from any one!

_Magistrate:_ You will find it better for you if you tell me at once.

_Bartley:_ I tell you I wouldn't for the whole world wish to say what it was-it is a thing I would not like to be talking about.

_Magistrate:_ There is no use in hiding it. It will be discovered in the end.

_Bartley:_ Well, I suppose it will, seeing that mostly everybody knows it before. Whisper here now. I will tell no lie; where would be the use? (_Puts his hand to his mouth, and Magistrate stoops._) Don't be putting the blame on the parish, for such a thing was never done in the parish before-it was done for the sake of Kitty Keary, Jack Smith's wife.

_Magistrate:_ (_To policeman._) Put on the handcuffs. We have been saved some trouble. I knew he would confess if taken in the right way.

(_Policeman puts on handcuffs_.)

_Bartley:_ Handcuffs now! Glory be! I always said, if there was ever any misfortune coming to this place it was on myself it would fall. I to be in handcuffs! There's no wonder at all in that.

(_Enter Mrs. Fallon, followed by the rest. She is looking back at them as she speaks._)

_Mrs. Fallon:_ Telling lies the whole of the people of this town are; telling lies, telling lies as fast as a dog will trot! Speaking against my poor respectable man! Saying he made an end of Jack Smith!

My decent comrade! There is no better man and no kinder man in the whole of the five parishes! It's little annoyance he ever gave to any one! (_Turns and sees him._) What in the earthly world do I see before me? Bartley Fallon in charge of the police! Handcuffs on him! O Bartley, what did you do at all at all?

_Bartley:_ O Mary, there has a great misfortune come upon me! It is what I always said, that if there is ever any misfortune--

_Mrs. Fallon:_ What did he do at all, or is it bewitched I am?

_Magistrate:_ This man has been arrested on a charge of murder.

_Mrs. Fallon:_ Whose charge is that? Don't believe them! They are all liars in this place! Give me back my man!

_Magistrate_. It is natural you should take his part, but you have no cause of complaint against your neighbours. He has been arrested for the murder of John Smith, on his own confession.

_Mrs. Fallon:_ The saints of heaven protect us! And what did he want killing Jack Smith?

_Magistrate:_ It is best you should know all. He did it on account of a love affair with the murdered man's wife.

_Mrs. Fallon:_ (_Sitting down._) With Jack Smith's wife! With Kitty Keary!-Ochone, the traitor!

_The Crowd:_ A great shame, indeed. He is a traitor, indeed.

_Mrs. Tully:_ To America he was bringing her, Mrs. Fallon.

_Bartley:_ What are you saying, Mary? I tell you--

_Mrs. Fallon:_ Don't say a word! I won't listen to any word you'll say! (_Stops her ears._) O, isn't he the treacherous villain? Ohone go deo!

_Bartley:_ Be quiet till I speak! Listen to what I say!

_Mrs. Fallon:_ Sitting beside me on the a.s.s car coming to the town, so quiet and so respectable, and treachery like that in his heart!

_Bartley:_ Is it your wits you have lost or is it I myself that have lost my wits?

_Mrs. Fallon:_ And it's hard I earned you, slaving, slaving-and you grumbling, and sighing, and coughing, and discontented, and the priest wore out anointing you, with all the times you threatened to die!

_Bartley:_ Let you be quiet till I tell you!

_Mrs. Fallon:_ You to bring such a disgrace into the parish. A thing that was never heard of before!

_Bartley:_ Will you shut your mouth and hear me speaking?

_Mrs. Fallon:_ And if it was for any sort of a fine handsome woman, but for a little fistful of a woman like Kitty Keary, that's not four feet high hardly, and not three teeth in her head unless she got new ones! May G.o.d reward you, Bartley Fallon, for the black treachery in your heart and the wickedness in your mind, and the red blood of poor Jack Smith that is wet upon your hand! (_Voice of Jack Smith heard singing._)

The sea shall be dry, The earth under mourning and ban!

Then loud shall he cry For the wife of the red-haired man!

_Bartley:_ It's Jack Smith's voice-I never knew a ghost to sing before--. It is after myself and the fork he is coming! (_Goes back.

Enter Jack Smith._) Let one of you give him the fork and I will be clear of him now and for eternity!

_Mrs. Tarpey:_ The Lord have mercy on us! Red Jack Smith! The man that was going to be waked!

_James Ryan:_ Is it back from the grave you are come?

_Shawn Early:_ Is it alive you are, or is it dead you are?

_Tim Casey:_ Is it yourself at all that's in it?

_Mrs. Tully:_ Is it letting on you were to be dead?

_Mrs. Fallon:_ Dead or alive, let you stop Kitty Keary, your wife, from bringing my man away with her to America!

_Jack Smith:_ It is what I think, the wits are gone astray on the whole of you. What would my wife want bringing Bartley Fallon to America?

_Mrs. Fallon:_ To leave yourself, and to get quit of you she wants, Jack Smith, and to bring him away from myself. That's what the two of them had settled together.