Six One-Act Plays Part 23

KING--This suicide. I never connected it with you. The body of an unknown woman was found at the Riverton dam this afternoon. She was about thirty-eight years old, five feet five, had light brown hair--does that fit your Selina?

BART--I don't think Selina was more than five feet three or four, and she can't be thirty. She told me herself she was only twenty-six. (_Puts out a shaking hand for the paper._) Let me see.

KING--(_Holding paper._) The newspaper description may not be accurate Bart, but all her underclothing was marked with initials. That is the clue the police are working on.

(_Hands paper to Bart, pointing out the place._)

MISS BROWN--(_Reading her newspaper._) Poor soft soul, it's certainly awful.

BART--(_Clutching his head._) Great heavens! She left a note. "I did it for love, _he_ will understand. S. W." She's dead, she's dead, there's blood on my hands.

KING--Pull yourself together. Don't make a scene here.

BART--I've killed her just as surely as if I'd thrown her into the water myself. I'm a murderer, that's what I am. I've murdered Selina!

KING--Sit down, and listen to me.

BART--Murderer, Selina's murderer!

KING--Sit down! We must work this out together quietly.

BART--(_Bitterly._) Be quiet with a murder on my conscience.

MISS BROWN--(_To Boy, folding up her newspaper._) Well I ain't seen the man, I'd kill myself for.

KING--(_To Bart._) I'm going to tell you something no one in all the world knows except me, and a poor heart broken old woman in New Hampshire.

BART--Don't talk to me. I'm a murderer.

KING--(_Whispering._) So am I!

BART--(_Jumping._) What!

KING--That's what I want to tell you about.

BART--You too!

KING--Eight years ago, I trifled with a woman, just as you have done. I was more to blame than you, for I made her think I loved her. She loved _me_, there was no doubt about that, but I thought she was after my money, and that of course, ended everything. I quarrelled with her, and went about my business. She left the city. A month later I received a letter from her mother. She told me her daughter had died in her arms of a broken heart. Her last words were, "I have given my heart unreservedly to him." My name was the last she ever breathed. And the poor old lady was left alone and penniless. I would have gone to her at once, but she could not bear the shock of seeing her daughter's murderer.

BART--What a coincidence!

KING--It does not end there, for she was called Selina!

BART--(_Amazed._) Selina!

KING--A tragic coincidence.

BART--Both of us murderers!

KING--Murderers, yes, we have murdered our Selinas.

MISS BROWN--(_To Boy._) Merciful heavens, they've killed someone!

(_Takes down telephone, and calls._) Main 674 ... 674 I said. Say operator, you get me Main 674 will ye? Oh, stop polishing yer nails, you ain't no society dame.... Is this 674? Send a cop quick to Miss Brown's restaurant. Someone's been murdered, and the men who done it ... here in my restaurant. I ain't stringin' ye ... right away. I don't like bein'

alone with them. (_Hangs receiver up, and watches Bart and King closely._)

BART--(_To King._) What did you do?

KING--What could I do? From the day of her death until now, I've kept her mother. It's the only reparation I can make, and I have done it for eight years.

BART--(_Tragically._) My Selina was alone in the world. With her death I have blotted out an entire family.

KING--(_Humbly._) We possibly can't help being handsome and fascinating, Bart.

BART--But we must learn to be careful with women, and not lead them on.

MISS BROWN--(_To Boy._) Now you sit tight, and if they come over here, brain them with a soda water bottle.... (_Looks out of doorway._)

BOY--(_Dancing with excitement and pleasure._) Ain't this some picnic!

KING--(_To Bart._) I have never dared look at a woman since then.

BART--I can't imagine Lucy killing herself for me. She will never love me as Selina did.

KING--(_Sighing._) Selina.

BART--Mine?

KING--Mine.

(_Enter a plain clothes Officer, and a Policeman, breathlessly._)

OFFICER--(_To Miss Brown._) Now, which one of them done it?

MISS BROWN--It's that young one, I think. You could spot his ugly mug for a crook anywhere.

(_Officer goes up to King, and turns him around suddenly, while the Policeman does the same to Bart._)

KING--What do you want?

OFFICER--(_Slipping handcuffs on._) Come along peaceful.

(_Policeman handcuffs Bart._)

BART--Stop that! What are you doing?

OFFICER--Keepin' you safe. The lady just phoned to headquarters what you've been doin'.

BART--(_Angrily, to Miss Brown._) I gave you a dollar, what more do you want?