A rough road terminates in the quarry whose hewn crags rise high at the right. Below them, behind the road is an old shed of planks, open to the front. To the left, the quarrying has caused a steep dip. The road ends, the rock descends to it and beyond, so that the opposite side of the valley below is visible, seen dimly in the night. Gorse and heather grow over the deserted workings. There is no moon, but the lighting is sufficiently strong for faces to be seen.
Ruth, warmly clad, sits on a stone by the shed, a lighted lantern at her feet. After a moment, Martin, without greatcoat, enters.
RUTH (as he comes). Are you there, Martin?
MARTIN. I am here.
RUTH (rising, nervously). I had begun to fear you would not come.
MARTIN. I know I'm late. To-night I'd work to do, for once in my useless life.
RUTH. Don't be bitter, Martin.
MARTIN. The bitterness is past. My work is done, well done. I came when I was free to come, Mrs. Barlow. Ruth. Is it to be names like that between us two? Martin. I don't know what there is between us two, save that I got a message from your mother to meet you here.
RUTH. I chose this place because we used to meet here often.
MARTIN. In happier days.
RUTH. I chose it to remind you of them.
MARTIN (bitterly). I don't need to be reminded. I'm striving to forget. I want to kill their memory and I can't.
RUTH. I thought you had.
MARTIN. And why?
RUTH. Last night.
MARTIN. What has last night to do with it?
RUTH. It seemed to me last night that you'd forgotten.
MARTIN. It always seems to me that you forget.
RUTH. I? It's you forget. Forget our hope of happiness together and why we gave it up, forget the terms on which I gave myself to him.
MARTIN. Your plan, your terms. Not mine.
RUTH. We both agreed that it was best.
MARTIN. Well, if we did? Now you've had your way, now you are Guy Barlow's wife? Have you done anything? Does the plan work, or——?
RUTH (interrupting). It all takes time.
(Martin moves impatiently.)
And you agreed to that. That it would take time. That I was to be given my chance. And now, last night, you spoilt it all. You——
MARTIN (harshly). Your plan's been tried and failed. You've done nothing. Less than nothing. Things have gone worse——
RUTH. And if they have——
MARTIN. They have.
RUTH. Will what you're doing help? Are threats of violence better?
MARTIN. No. But we don't threaten.
RUTH (surprised) Not threaten!
MARTIN (coolly). We burn the factory to-night. And if your—husband tries to interfere, so much the worse for him. (Producing pistol from pocket.) There's food and drink for many a day gone to the buying of this.
RUTH. Martin! A pistol! You!
MARTIN. He talks of putting up another factory. (Grimly.) It's going to stop at talk.
RUTH. A pistol! (Coaxing.) I've never had a pistol in my hand. Let me feel it, Martin.
MARTIN (replacing it). They're dangerous toys.
RUTH. But I'll hold it by the handle.
MARTIN. It's safer where it is. It's no good, Ruth You haven't wheedled Guy Barlow into being soft with us, and you won't wheedle me into being soft with him. You're no great hand at wheedling for all your pretty face.
RUTH (feigning indignation). Oh, do you think it's Guy I care about?
MARTIN (drily). I think somehow it is.
RUTH. You have no right——
MARTIN. What else am I to think? For all these months I get no word from you. Your mother talks of nothing but your happiness with him. I know you're living there in luxury with him, and I see you dressed the way you are. What can I think but that he's won you round?
RUTH. I'm not a cat to be won over with caresses.
MARTIN. You always fancied finery.
RUTH. Finery! It's good for finery to bring it on the moors to-night.
MARTIN. It keeps you warm.
RUTH. So does my fire. And yet I've left my fire I'm here.
MARTIN. Why are you here?
RUTH. To see you.
MARTIN. Only that?
RUTH. What else?
MARTIN. Why do you choose this night of all the nights that have gone by since—since we made our plan and you took him for husband?
RUTH. To-night's the first since yesterday.
MARTIN. Why yesterday?
RUTH. You sent a message by my mother. She gave it to me yesterday.
MARTIN. I'd forgotten that. So much has happened since.
RUTH. Then you should trust me all the more. I'm here in spite of all. I'm risking everything to come to tell you what you do is wrong, utterly, hopelessly wrong.
MARTIN. What do you risk?
RUTH. I risk my plan. Let Guy find out I meet you, and where's my chance of influencing him? Where's my reward for sending you away? I risk my life, my hope, my all.
MARTIN (sceptically). It sounds a lot.
RUTH. It is a lot.
MARTIN. Well, I too take risks to-night.
RUTH. Yes, greater than you know.
MARTIN. Ah!
RUTH. But you shall not take them. That's why I'm here. To stop you. You'll ruin all if this goes on to-night.
MARTIN. We'll ruin his factory.
RUTH. You'll bring black ruin on yourselves. Oh, listen to me, Martin. I know. I know. Guy's got the soldiers coming.
MARTIN (eagerly). They're cominghere?
RUTH. Yes. Didn't you say you all met here below to-night?
MARTIN. Yes.
RUTH. Soldiers, Martin. Can you fight soldiers?
MARTIN. After to-night there'll be no factory to fight about.
RUTH. There always will be factories.
MARTIN. Yes? So he said last night. But we know better.
RUTH. There will, there will. They'll build others, and while they're building you'll be starving, and when they're built, do you think there'll be work for you or my father or any man who lifts a hand to-night? You'll all be hanged or rotting in some gaol, and wages for the rest lower than ever to pay them out for the doings of this night. Don't do it, Martin. Leave Guy to me. I'll manage him, but I must bide my time.
MARTIN. And meantime we must live a living death. A bullet's better, Ruth.
RUTH. Oh, maybe better for the few they hit. Death's not important. Think of the others who'll live on. Don't be selfish, Martin.
MARTIN. Selfish! I'm doing all for others. I don't care for myself.
RUTH. You do. You care to be the leader. You care for your pride, the pride that won't let you draw back because you dare not seem to have an afterthought, the pride that's going to strew that valley with the ruined lives of men and corpses of the dead.
MARTIN. I can't draw back now. It's too late, Ruth.
RUTH. It's never too late. (Suddenly terrified.) Youaretheir leader, Martin? They won't do anything without your word?
MARTIN. I am their leader, Ruth. To-night's plan is mine.
RUTH. Then so long as you stay here nothing can happen.
MARTIN. I shan't stay long.
RUTH. You will. I've got you and I mean to keep you here. Thank God, I came.
MARTIN. You've come, but I've told you it's too late now.
RUTH. Oh, no, it's not. You can't deceive me, Martin. I know this is the meeting-place. I heard you all say so last night. The moors below the quarry. Are the men there, Martin?
MARTIN. There are men there. Listen.
(Faintly, the strains of the Marseillaise are heard from below l., and with them the barking of dogs.)
The song that Henri Callard brought from France and made into an English song to put the spirit of a revolution into us. The song of life and hope.
RUTH. No, Martin, the song of death.
MARTIN. Perhaps it is, for Barlow's bullies at the factory.
RUTH. Martin, don't go. Don't give the word. For my sake, Martin.
MARTIN. The song is calling.
RUTH. Are we English to be French and lose our senses for a song? Is all that you and I have said and done to go for naught?
MARTIN. Ruth, tell the truth
RUTH. The truth?
MARTIN. Is it you and I or you and that other?
RUTH. Other?
MARTIN. You know whom I mean. Guy Barlow.
RUTH. I love him, Martin.
MARTIN. At last! The truth.
RUTH. I love him, and you're going to kill my husband. If when you said you couldn't lose the memory of me you spoke the truth, you'll spare him, Martin. You won't go down amongst those men and lead them to the factory. I tried my best to carry out our plan. You told me that he wouldn't marry me, but I made him do it. And afterwards I tried. I did try, Martin. Only Guy's my husband and I love him now. I've learnt to love him till my love's the greatest thing in all the world. Don't kill him, Martin.
MARTIN. It will not be killing, Ruth. It won't be murder if a bullet finds its way in Guy Barlow's heart. Not murder, but an accident.
RUTH. You mean to kill him.
MARTIN. Not man's vengeance, Ruth, but God's.
RUTH. You mean to murder him. What shall I do? (Changing her tone.) Martin, you loved me once. Is that love dead?
MARTIN. Dead? Love needs nourishment and you have starved my love.
RUTH. What if I said I'm here to nourish it? Would you go down there then?
MARTIN. Nourish? How?
RUTH (holding up lantern). Am I still beautiful, Martin?
MARTIN. Yes. So Guy Barlow thinks.
RUTH. Don't you?
MARTIN. Delilah!
RUTH. Was Delilah married?
MARTIN. No.
(The Marseillaise is heard again, more loudly. Below l., torches appear. Martin's attention is attracted.)
RUTH. Don't look down there. They're singing. Let them sing.
MARTIN. And if I stay?
(Ruth makes a gesture of surrender.)
You mean it, Ruth?
RUTH. I mean—everything.
MARTIN. My God, you're beautiful! (Harshly.) Put out the lantern.
RUTH. Give me your pistol first.
MARTIN. My pistol?
RUTH. Yes.
(A pause. Martin takes it out, half offers it, then, with a suspicious look, gives it her.)
MARTIN. The lantern.
(Ruth blows it out. As Martin draws her towards the shed, voices are heard.)
EPHRAIM. I'm convinced your men won't be needed, Captain.
GUY. We shall soon see.
(Enter Ephraim, Guy and Captain Lascelles, a youngish officer. Guy has a lantern which he places on the ground.)
Personally I fancy we shall show you a little sport.
CAPTAIN. Sorry sport, Mr. Barlow. I fought the French with a relish. They're our natural foes. But this setting English at English goes against the grain with me.
EPHRAIM. Excellent sentiments, Captain Lascelles.
GUY (sneering). I used to think the whole duty of a soldier was to fight.
CAPTAIN. The duty of a soldier is to obey orders. That, sir, is why I am at the disposal of your father, who represents the civil authority. But I've no stomach for firing on unarmed men.
(The Marseillaise and the dogs are heard.)
GUY. Listen! That's very near.
CAPTAIN. So are the singers. Look there.
(Epiiraim and Guy look over with him.)
EPHRAIM. Torches! There's a big crowd there. Why didn't we hear them?
CAPTAIN. We came uphill. The hill cut off the sound.
EPHRAIM. Dogs? What are the dogs for?
GUY (well satisfied). Well, Captain, like it or not, you'll have warm work to-night.
CAPTAIN. To be candid with you, I don't like it at all.
GUY. You make me alter my opinion of the British officer.
CAPTAIN. Sir! I saw service in the Peninsular and I was under fire at Waterloo——
GUY. But a handful of scarecrow weavers is too much for you because they're English.
CAPTAIN. A few are not, Mr. Barlow. But those torches don't indicate a few, but a very much larger number than I have force to cope with.
EPHRAIM (timidly). There certainly is a great number.
GUY (to Captain). In other words, you shirk your duty.
CAPTAIN (controlling himself). I don't want to quarrel with a civilian. (Turning to Ephraim.) Am I to get my men into position, sir?
EPHRAIM (hesitating). Well—their number is certainly alarming. (Turning to Guy for a lead.)
GUY (curtly). Yes.
EPHRAIM (to Captain). If you please, Captain.
CAPTAIN. Very well. You've a copy of the Riot Act with you?
EPHRAIM (nervously). Yes. I hope I shall not have to read it.
CAPTAIN. That is for you to decide.
EPHRAIM. Yes. (Calling.) Guy!
GUY (by the shed). One minute, sir. There's a smell of tallow here.
CAPTAIN (without suspicion). Your lantern.
GUY. That didn't smell before.
CAPTAIN (impatiently). The torches below there, then. The wind would carry their reek.
GUY. Yes. Only there doesn't happen to be a wind. Captain (suspicious now). The shed?
GUY (picking up lantern). I'll see.
(He holds up lantern, disclosing Ruth and Martin at opposite ends of the shed.)
There's no one there. Must have been our lantern. What did you want, father?
EPHRAIM. Guy, hadn't we better leave it? I don't want bloodshed. They're decent fellows at heart, and we don't know they mean to attack. I can't believe it of them. Wait till they do and use the soldiers to guard the factory. Guy. What's the use of waiting till they attack? Take them here unprepared and you make a thorough job of it.
CAPTAIN. Yes: only I can't promise to take them unprepared.
GUY. Why not? Have I to teach you your business? Get your men round them in the dark and——
CAPTAIN. It won't be dark. The clouds will be off the moon soon.
GUY (sarcastically). Then as Nature won't assist you, Captain, you'll have to draw upon the great store of military tactics you no doubt acquired in your numerous campaigns. How long will it take to get your men placed between that crowd and the factory?
CAPTAIN. Oh, say ten minutes. The moon will be clear before then.
GUY. I hope it won't. They'll run like hares at the sight of a uniform, and I want them taught a lesson they'll not forget in a hurry.
EPHRAIM (picking up lantern). Shall we go?
GUY. Yes. I'll join you below.
EPHRAIM. Join? Aren't you coming?
GUY. In a minute. For the moment I have business here.
CAPTAIN. What business are we to imagine that can keep you here alone?
GUY. You can imagine any business you like. You can imagine me praying for the British Army when it is officered by men like you, but, at any rate, you can leave me here.
CAPTAIN (sneering). Yes. You'll be quite out of danger here, Mr. Barlow.
EPHRAIM (appealingly). Gentlemen!
GUY (to Captain). Hadn't you better look after your men? Your ten minutes are flying.
CAPTAIN (turning to go). I shall deal with you afterwards.
GUY (smoothly). With pleasure. My business is to deal in cotton cloth with all comers. I don't discriminate.
CAPTAIN. Pah! Shopman!
(Exeunt Captain and Ephraim.)
GUY (by shed). Come out.
(Martin and Ruth emerge, Martin crosses l. and looks down.)
Yes. It's steep, isn't it? You'll not escape that way unless you've wings.
MARTIN. Escape? I don't want to escape.
GUY. You're looking for a way.
MARTIN. I'm looking at the great crowd your father saw.
GUY. Yes. You've brought your ragamuffins out, but you'll find it a tougher job to make them fight.
MARTIN. I don't intend to let those lads down there fight soldiers.
GUY (barring the way, though Martin doesn't move). And I don't intend to let you warn them. You're going to stay here.
MARTIN (limply). I can shout.
GUY. Why don't you? Shout till you brast your lungs, my lad. It won't carry downhill.
MARTIN (acquiescing very easily). Then you must do your butcher's handiwork. (With energy.) Butchers! Yes. That's just the word.
GUY. Ah! So you do know when you're beaten. Well, Kelsall, as you heard while you were eavesdropping, I've ten minutes to fill in. Ten minutes isn't long. There's no margin for lies.
MARTIN. The truth about your factory is the last thing you'll listen to.
GUY. The truth about my wife is what I'm waiting for.
MARTIN. Hadn't you better ask her?
GUY. I don't question my wife before a workman.
MARTIN. Shall I leave you? (But he doesn't move.)
GUY. You don't seem in any hurry.
MARTIN (easily). No. The time for that is past. I've stayed here too long for going now.
RUTH. Thank God, then I've succeeded.
GUY (coldly). Succeeded? How?
RUTH. I've kept him here until the danger passed. He meant to burn the factory and murder you. He told me so and I—I kept him here. I've played with him. I've——
MARTIN. You played with fire, and it's not your fault you haven't burnt yourself.
RUTH (to Guy). What did it matter what I said? I've saved your life. I've kept him here.
GUY. How did you get him here?
RUTH. I sent for him.
GUY. Why should he come for your sending?
MARTIN. You don't question your wife before a workman, do you?
GUY. No. You're right. This can wait.
RUTH. Guy, I sent because last night I heard him threaten you. I wanted to persuade him——
GUY. Your methods of persuasion are peculiar.
RUTH. They kept him here. That was what I had to do. At any cost to keep him here.
GUY. Ruth, I begin to think that reading Byron isn't good for you.
MARTIN. Why put it on to Byron? Hasn't his noble Lordship sins enough of his own?
RUTH. Guy, don't you see? He's the men's leader.
They won't do anything without him. He told me that. That they would wait for him to give the word.
MARTIN. I told you that it was too late. I came up here to-night without imperilling my plans. It didn't matter that (snapping his fingers) how long you kept me here. Succeeded! The only thing you've succeeded in is in arousing your husband's suspicions.
GUY. Be careful, Kelsall.
MARTIN. I've nothing to be careful about. I could be at Jericho for all the difference it'll make.
RUTH. You told me you were their leader.
MARTIN. The leader of a movement is the brain of it.
Brain is scarcer than brawn, and therefore——
GUY. Therefore it skulks up here in safety.
MARTIN. Yes, that's what that soldier said to you.
(Guy makes a threatening gesture.)
Oh, but he's wrong, of course. You don't suppose Lord Wellington was in the firing line at Waterloo? He left fools like your soldier friend to feed the powder. A leader's business is direction.
GUY. Am I to understand that you direct? You? Martin (quietly). I have directed. In no long time I hope to see the fruits of my direction.
GUY. Down there? (Pointing l.) There'll be a crop of broken heads if that's the fruit you're looking for. Martin. I'm looking up, not down.
GUY. Up?
MARTIN. A sign in the heavens.
GUY (bewildered). The heavens!
MARTIN (passionately). Don't you believe in heaven? Sometimes I don't. I find it difficult to believe in a just God who lets you live and lets your machinery be made and lets you starve your weavers. But I have faith to-night, Guy Barlow, a mighty faith in the all-seeing God who's brought us face to face, oppressor and oppressed, avenger and——-
RUTH (as Martin approaches Guy). Be careful, Guy, he means to do you harm.
GUY (gently putting her aside). My dear Ruth, I'm quite convinced you read too much. Romance and Mrs. Radcliffe are fitting for your withdrawing-room, but please don't bring them out of doors. You told me once romance was dangerous for women. I find it is.
RUTH. But he was armed. Thank God, I've got his pistol.
GUY (losing temper). You got his pistol! Confound you, what did you do that for? I can't shoot the fellow in cold blood.
MARTIN. Oh, you needn't scruple. Life's no use to a weaver in Barlow's factory, and my work is finished now.
GUY (to Ruth). Give it him back.
RUTH. You'll fight together if I do.
GUY. Do as I tell you, Ruth.
(Ruth holds out the pistol to Martin, who doesn't take it.)
MARTIN. I warn you this is murder.
GUY. You shouldn't carry firearms if you're not competent to use them.
MARTIN. The murder is of you. This is my night, Guy Barlow. You've had the power to starve and sweat the weavers of the valley, but the tide has turned at last. The luck's on my side now, and if we fight and one of us should fall, it won't be I that has to die to-night.
RUTH, You shall not fight. This pistol's mine, I won it from you. I do what I like with my own. (She flings it down the cliff. It is heard to strike and rebounding, strike again.)
GUY. Rebellion is in the air to-night. You've caught the prevalent disease, my Ruth.
RUTH. Guy, this man means to kill you.
GUY. I mean to kill this man. But I've a scruple that prevents my shooting down an unarmed man.
RUTH. You're both safe then.
GUY. Not while my pistol's left. He seems to think the luck is on his side. We'll put that to the test by tossing for the first shot.
RUTH. But he might win.
GUY. That will decide the point at issue. Luck will be on his side. You've got your chance now, Kelsall. (Taunting him.) What was it? Oppressor and oppressed, avenger and avenged?
MARTIN. My God, I wish I had your coolness.
GUY. Blood will tell, you know. Do you accept? Martin (in a rush). Yes, I accept.
GUY. Good. Shall I spin a coin or you?
MARTIN. I don't bring money out. It's scarce with me. Guy. Then I provide both pistol and coin.
MARTIN. And corpse.
GUY. You're getting back your spirit. Will you call?
(He spins a coin. Ruth puts her foot on it as it falls. At the same time the moon lights up the scene.)
Now that's really very thoughtful of the moon. The target will be visible, and we can see the coin as soon as you remove your foot.
RUTH. I shall not remove my foot.
GUY. And Kelsall quite forgot to call. He's too busy shivering.
MARTIN. I'm cold.
GUY (taking another coin, spinning and catching rapidly). This time, Kelsall.
MARTIN. Heads.
GUY (looking). The pistol's yours.
(Martin crosses doubtfully and takes it.)
Oh yes, it's loaded.
RUTH (facing Martin, covering Guy, melodramatically) Martin, you'll shoot him through my body.
GUY. I'm sure that's out of Mrs. Radcliffe, Ruth. It has the true romantic ring. Will you help me to tie her up, Kelsall? It's a bore to have to ask the favour, but——
MARTIN. You're smiling and you're going to die.
GUY. It's possible, but these cold nights do make a man's hand shake, don't they? Your luck may not be altogether in. The heavens do not send the sign you look for.
MARTIN. They sent the moon to shoot you by.
GUY. Yes. Get out of the way, Ruth, unless you want to be tied up. Stand clear. This fellow's hand's so shaky he might hit you by mistake. Go ahead, Kelsall. Remember your wrongs and your faith and blaze away.
MARTIN (half raising the pistol, then dropping it). I can't do it. It's the chance I've prayed for and I can't do it.
GUY. Oh come, Kelsall. Remember what's expected of a leader of the men.
MARTIN (jerking up his head). I've beaten you there. Yes, now I understand. I'm not afraid to shoot.
GUY. My mistake.
MARTIN. Oh, I've a sweeter revenge than that, Shoot, and you'd never know the way that you've been fooled this night.
GUY. You didn't shoot because you lacked the pluck.
MARTIN. The thing I didn't lack was brain to outwit you and bring you on a fool's errand to the moors while——
(Pausing.)
GUY (alarmed). While what?
MARTIN. Oh, while the moon came out and showed your military friends the truth.
GUY. The truth? What is the truth?
MARTIN. Oh, you shall know. I'm keeping you alive that you may know.
GUY. What is it, you————
(Enter Captain and Ephraim.)
CAPTAIN (entering). Are you there, Barlow? (Seeing him.) Oh—— (Saluting Ruth.)
GUY. Never mind these people. What is it?
CAPTAIN. Confound it, that's whatIwant to know.
GUY. What are you doing here? Why aren't you down there surrounding those weavers?
CAPTAIN. Well, you see, the fact is, there are no weavers.
EPHRAIM. Dogs, Guy. You remember I noticed the dogs.
GUY. Dogs? Have you both gone mad? My patience! What is it?
CAPTAIN (drawing him to look). You see those torches?
GUY (impatiently). Of course.
CAPTAIN. But you can't see who's carrying them from here.
GUY. I don't need to see. I know. It's the weavers' meeting.
CAPTAIN. Weavers! They're sheep, sir. Sheep with torches fastened to them and not a man in sight.
GUY. Sheep!
MARTIN (quietly). You'll remember I said butchers was the right word.
GUY. Sheep! But we heard singing;
MARTIN. A dozen men can make a noise. They'll have sore throats to-morrow.
GUY. Sheep!
MARTIN (ringingly). Look up! I've got my sign in the heavens.
(The sky is illuminated by the great leaping glare of a distant fire)
CAPTAIN. Fire!
MARTIN. This is my night after all, Guy Barlow. The factory's ablaze.
Later the same night. Scene as Act II. Wine and glasses on table. The curtains are drawn apart and the glare of the burning factory is seen. Ephraim and John are in the window.
JOHN. It's a sad sight, Barlow.
EPHRAIM. A sight I cannot bear to see. Shut it out. Shut it out. (He draws curtains.)
(John lays a sympathetic hand on his shoulder, and Ephraim goes slowly to chair by fireplace.)
I built it, Heppenstall, the first factory in these parts, fifteen years ago, and there it's stood through all these years a monument of enterprise, until I'd grown to love the very stone of it. They mocked me when I put it up. They called it Barlow's Folly. But I knew. I knew machinery had come to stay, and now new factories are springing up, and building one to-day is not the same great thing it was. The glamour's gone.
JOHN. But you'll rebuild.
EPHRAIM. Guy will rebuild. I doubt if I shall care for what he does. This night has broken me.
JOHN. Come, come, now, don't give way like that. Ephraim. It's easy talk for you. Your factory is sound. They've left it standing.
JOHN. Aye. You were the scapegoats.
EPHRAIM. And all my business checked. Customers to disappoint. Connections broken and——
JOHN. They will come back to you.
EPHRAIM. And when? You can burn fast, but you rebuild slowly. And the misery, Heppenstall, the misery of it.
JOHN. You're thinking of your men?
EPHRAIM. Aye and their families.
JOHN. A merciful man, Barlow.
EPHRAIM. Oh, let the leaders swing for it. It's their desert. But all the others, just the heedless fools they've led astray. I'm sorry for them in the bitter days to come. Guy's been too hard on them.
JOHN. Yes. Guy's been hard. A wilful, headstrong man. But, hearkee, Barlow, I've a plan that will smooth out the crookedness for you.
EPHRAIM. A plan?
JOHN. You've been a rival of me, and your son has made the rivalry no pleasant thing. But you and I are friends, and sooner than see you suffer for your son, I'll run my place by night as well as day, and you can put your people there by night and keep faith with your customers.
EPHRAIM (rising). Why, Heppenstall, that's generous.
JOHN. There's something in the doctrine which that fighting-cock of yours was preaching here last night. We manufacturers must cling together, Barlow, only he wanted us to cling to his policy and, by your leave, we'll cling to mine. It lets you satisfy your customers and keep your weavers living, and it gives me the chance of rapping Mr. Guy Barlow on the knuckles.
EPHRAIM (timidly). Do you think he'll let—?
JOHN. Why, man alive, I hope that you are master here.
EPHRAIM. I shall take no pleasure in it now.
(Enter Guy.)
That old factory was like another son to me.
GUY (in high spirits). And a damned rickety child it was.
EPHRAIM. Guy!
GUY (good-humouredly). You will get a new son, father A lusty son with new machinery in the guts of him.
EPHRAIM. It will not be my old factory.
GUY. No, by the Lord, it won't. It will be efficient. Come, father, bear up. We'll soon have that site covered up again with another son for you, and there's no love like the love of a man for the child of his old age.
EPHRAIM. It won't be my child, Guy.
GUY. Then call it your grandson and dote upon him as a grandad should.
JOHN. Is this a time for your jesting, Mr. Guy?
GUY. Maybe you think you've the laugh of me, Mr. Heppenstall, you with your factory unburnt. Wait till my new building is complete with all the last word in machinery, Look to your business then. I'll show you what a factory should be.
EPHRAIM. Guy, you sound—almost—as if you are glad.
GUY. Why not? We're well insured.
EPHRAIM. And our customers, meantime?
GUY. Customers? Fire breaks all contracts.
EPHRAIM. Not mine. Not while there exists a way of carrying them out.
GUY. There is no way.
JOHN. You'll pardon me, there is. I have offered your father the use of my factory by night.
GUY. By night? We should lose money. There would be you to pay, and weaving by candlelight is expensive.
EPHRAIM. Then let us lose money. I will carry out my contracts. And—think of the weavers, Guy.
GUY. Let them starve.
EPHRAIM. I won't. I will hang the leaders. But the rest shall live.
GUY. They will live somehow. When we want them again, they will be there. Meantime, they shall be punished.
EPHRAIM. I say they shall not, and by our good friend's help they need not be.
GUY. Our good friend is to run his factory by day and night and take his profit out of us. So much for friendship.
EPHRAIM. He must certainly be compensated for turning his place upside down.
GUY. Why turn it upside down?
EPHRAIM. For the sake of the weavers whom I will not desert.
GUY. Did I burn their livelihood? No. They did. Let them suffer for it.
EPHRAIM. Guy, I have to remind you again that I am the head of the firm.
GUY. Very well, then. I break my connection with the firm.
EPHRAIM. Guy! Barlow & Son.
GUY. In future there will be two firms. The first is a charitable institution which penalizes itself to find work for riotous weavers who burn its factory. The second firm exists to make money.
EPHRAIM. You mustn't do that, Guy. Not the factory and the firm on one black night. I can't stand both.
GUY. Then the firm goes on on my terms.
EPHRAIM. You mustn't leave me, Guy.
GUY. Very well. Barlow & Son decline your offer with thanks, Mr. Heppenstall. (He turns to table, pours wine and drinks.)
JOHN. Barlow, do you mean to tell me——?
EPHRAIM. I give him best, Heppenstall. The lad is a stronger man than I am. Henceforth I am a looker-on.
GUY (seated at table). Father, hand me those plans.
EPHRAIM. Plans, Guy?
GUY. The new factory, man. Do you think there's time to waste? (He finds pistol uncomfortable in his pocket, takes out and puts on table.) Hah! That's finished with. I use a stronger weapon. This. (Taking up pen and bending over the plans which Ephraim has put before him.)
JOHN. Come away, Barlow.
EPHRAIM. Yes. Yes. I think—(he follows John haltingly to door.)
(Exeunt Ephraim and John. Guy is busy with the plans. Enter Ruth quickly. She closes door and leans against it, panting.)
RUTH. Guy!
GUY (not looking up). I am busy, Ruth.
RUTH. Guy, they have got my father. The soldiers, Guy. They've got my father.
GUY (still bending). Yes, I can hear.
RUTH. My father!
GUY (leaning back in chair). Why not? Your father joined the rest.
RUTH. What will they do to him?
GUY. The law has a strong arm, Ruth.
RUTH. You mean——
GUY. Fools pay for their folly.
RUTH (coming to him). Guy, Guy, you will not let my father—— Oh——
GUY. Captain Lascelles has charge of all the prisoners till they are handed over to the civil authorities. If you wish to communicate with any of them, you must apply to him.
RUTH. But—Guy—they say the prisoners will be hanged.
GUY. It's more than likely.
RUTH. And my father——
GUY (rising and standing with hack to fire). Arson is a hanging matter, Ruth. If your father chose to be a riotous incendiary, he must pay the penalty.
RUTH (standing by table). Guy, don't you love me?
GUY. I have loved you, Ruth. I find you are the kind of woman men do love.
RUTH. What do you mean?
GUY. There was a man to-night, Ruth, upon the moors.
RUTH. That? But you know.
GUY. I am waiting to know.
RUTH. I went to save your life from him. I heard him speak in here, last night, when you and Mr. Heppenstall had gone in there, and he—he threatened and——
GUY. Threatened! He! And if he did, do you imagine it a woman's job to guard my life?
RUTH. He threatened and he meant to do.
GUY. And what had you to do with him?
RUTH. That is all over now.
GUY. It may be, but it has left its mark. Why did you go to him?
RUTH. I went because of what is past. Before I knew you, Guy, I knew him and——
GUY. You went to beg my life. From him, your lover, Martin Kelsall!
RUTH. Yes. He was my lover once.
GUY. A fine strong lover for you, wife of mine. A brave, grand lover, Ruth.
RUTH. Oh, you outfaced him in the quarry there. I saw the fear he had for you.
GUY. The starveling rat.
RUTH. Yes, starveling and a coward when he met you face to face, you with your strength and he an ill and starving man. Maybe it's easy for a strong man to be brave, but, in the end, he won. His starveling brain had made a plan. His——
GUY. Damn him. Do you defend him?
RUTH. No, Guy, I don't defend. I prove him dangerous. I prove that when I went, I went with reason. I prove that if he fooled me there, he fooled you here. The factory is burnt.
GUY. I am not talking of the factory just now. It's you I'm talking of. You say you prove him dangerous. You do. You say he fooled you there, me here. I am not certain that he did not fool us both at once, up there.
RUTH. Guy! But I told you.
GUY. What?
RUTH. You came in time.
GUY. In time for what? I want to know. It seems to me that you were ready——
RUTH. Yes. I was ready, ready then and there to save your life.
GUY. At the price———?
RUTH. To save your life. You see, I loved you, Guy.
GUY. You loved me!
RUTH. Could I have proved it more?
GUY. There is a price which no man pays for life. You got his pistol from him. How?
RUTH. By promising. And then you came. Guy, Guy, I loved you and I wanted you to live.
GUY. And you?
RUTH. The quarry cliff is steep. I should have died.
GUY. Come here, Ruth. Look at me. Look into my eyes and tell me that again.
(She comes to him.)
RUTH. I should have died. Death's easy, Guy.
GUY. Yes. I believe you now. (From her.) By heaven, what a fool you are.
RUTH. A loving fool, then, Guy.
GUY, A fool in love's the worst of fools. There, there it's over, Ruth. But Kelsall? Yes, I've got Kelsall. Kelsall shall pay for this.
RUTH. They'll hang him, Guy?
GUY. Oh yes, they'll hang what's left.
RUTH. What's left?
GUY. When I have done with Martin Kelsall, the gallows will be welcome to the rest.
RUTH. Guy, you——
GUY. Be careful, Ruth, or you will have me doubting you again.
RUTH. And there's my father, Guy. Is he to hang as well?
GUY. You come of a race of fools.
RUTH. I believe that you can save him, Guy. For my sake, won't you let that old man live. My father, Guy? Your father's friend when they were young together.
GUY. Come here, Ruth. I'll strike a bargain with you. (He sits.)
RUTH. A bargain?
GUY. Yes, for your father's neck. We mustn't let our father hang, must we, my pretty?
RUTH. If what you want is in my power to grant——
GUY. It's in your power. We'll have a straightening out of things, my girl. They've got askew, and this night's work of yours is just the last knot that you'll tie. You meddle, girl. You are come of weavers' stock and weavers tend to meddling. You used to ask me questions, you worried me about the factory. I stopped your asking, but I didn't change your ways. You kept them, saved them up for this fine piece of meddling of to-night. Now Ruth, it's this. You're my wife. You're Mrs Barlow, not Ruth Butterworth. Your thoughts should be of my making, not your father's. You will give up attending other people's business and attend your own. Maybe if you had done that earlier we should have seen by now some sign of what I'm looking for from you. You know what that is, lass. I want an heir. Give me obedience, my Ruth, bear me a son, and this night's work shall be forgotten.
RUTH. And, my father?
GUY. Your father shall escape the hangman, Ruth. What do you say to me?
RUTH. I—I will be your slave. (She sinks at his feet in utter surrender.)
GUY. You will be my wife. You won't ask questions. You will know that what I do is good because I do it, and the sooner you bring me an heir the better I shall be pleased with you.
RUTH. That is in God's hand, Guy.
GUY. Aye, but meddling women make bad mothers, Ruth.
RUTH. I will not meddle more. I'll be your—your wife.
(Enter Captain Lascelles. Ruth struggles up.)
CAPTAIN. Oh, I—I beg your pardon—I——
GUY (rising and pouring wine). Come in, Captain, come in.
(Captain closes door and advances.)
CAPTAIN, a loving cup. I apologize to the British Army and congratulate you on the round-up. (Holding glass out.)
CAPTAIN (taking glass). Why, thank you, Mr. Barlow. Here's your health, sir. To your eyes, madam.
GUY (drinking). A very gallant piece of work, Captain.
(They sit at table. Ruth is by fire, looking into it.)
CAPTAIN. Gallant? Nay, to my mind, sir, the policing of your valley is no work for a man of Wellington's. It is a sorry soldier who takes pleasure in the harrying of half-starved weavers.
GUY. All work well done is good work, Captain.
CAPTAIN. I do not share your pleasure in this night. And let me tell you, sir, your father's with me in the view I take.
GUY. My father? Aye, old men resent a change, especially a change that is forced on them. But for myself, why, good out of evil, captain. A new factory, up to date in every detail with new machines to cut my wage list down, and——
CAPTAIN. Do you think it's safe to build again?
GUY. Safe?
CAPTAIN. Yes. Will they let you?
GUY. The weavers? Man, they'll help.
CAPTAIN. Will they now?
GUY. They will come and ask to be allowed to help They'll sit round watching stone go on to stone and thank their God for every story raised.
CAPTAIN. That's not their mood to-night.
GUY. To-night they have a supper in them, They'll be starving then.
RUTH (without turning). Starving!
CAPTAIN. You are somewhat drastic, sir.
GUY. Well, sir, and are not you? In the army you've the noble institution of flogging to keep your men to heel. We can't flog weavers. It's against the law and so we have to keep them disciplined by other means. And now, captain, about your prisoners.
CAPTAIN. Yes?
GUY. You would count them carefully? Suppose, I mean, that one were missing. Would you take it very much to heart?
CAPTAIN. On the contrary, sir, I should be glad to see the whole lot go.
GUY. What, all of them? And go away with nothing to show for your night's work?
CAPTAIN. I don't regard this as a creditable night, Mr. Barlow. Your father was saying just now that the simplest way is to let them all escape. They will have had the scare of their lives and are not likely to forget the lesson.
RUTH (turning to Guy). Oh, if you would!
GUY (ignoring her). And what did you say?
The Northerners
CAPTAIN. I agreed with him.
GUY. You're a man of heart, Captain. Only you would be cashiered.
CAPTAIN. I would risk cashiering. And I may remind you, sir, that it is not you, but your father, who's the magistrate.
GUY. I speak here for my father. We settled that between us half an hour ago.
CAPTAIN. That's true. He sent me to you.
GUY. On your errand of—mercy?
CAPTAIN. Yes.
GUY (rising). Captain, oblige me by sending two of your prisoners here. Butterworth and Kelsall. One of them may escape. He is my wife's father.
CAPTAIN (rising). Your wife's father! I'm sorry, Mrs. Barlow. I had so few men that I had to bind the prisoners, and your father must be pinioned like the rest.
GUY. He acted like the rest. I will see to his bindings, Captain.
CAPTAIN. And as to the other question?
GUY. What other?
CAPTAIN. Letting them all escape.
GUY. There is no other question.
CAPTAIN. Your father, sir——-
GUY. Your duty, Captain Lascelles, is to hand your prisoners to the authorities to be dealt with as the law provides. Meanwhile, send me the men I want.
CAPTAIN. Very well.
(Exit Captain Lascelles. Guy sits to his plans. After a moment Ruth comes to him and touches his arm.)
RUTH. Guy!
GUY (not looking up). Don't go, Ruth. I want you here.
RUTH. I was not going, but——
GUY. Then oblige me by silence. These plans of mine must reach an architect to-morrow. (Takes knife from pocket and erases something on plan.) And the new machinery must be ordered to-night.
RUTH. Guy, how soon will the new factory be built?
GUY (still at work). With luck, six months, if frost does not hold up the masons.
RUTH. Six months. Six wintry months and in the mean time all the weavers——
GUY. Those who are not hanged will be starving for their sins. I've told you to keep quiet, Ruth.
RUTH. I have kept quiet, Guy, kept quiet while you made me love you like your dog because you warmed my body well and fed me till my eyes were closed with fat and all my will was lulled to sleep. I asked you questions of the factory, and when you gave me poetry books to read, I read them and forgot. You told me not to meddle and I have obeyed. I gave up asking questions till in all the valley there was none more ignorant than me. Than me, who——
GUY (rising). Than you who made a bargain with me here. Is this your way of keeping it?
RUTH. Guy, let me ask you things. If it is the last time, for just this once, be kind and tell me what you mean to do.
GUY. If it is the last time? Ruth, I keep my bargains. There is your father's life at stake.
RUTH. Still, I must know. For the sake of our future, Guy, I must know what you mean to do. I have been quiet, Guy. I will again. I might have spoken now while Captain Lascelles spoke with you. I kept my silence then, But tell me, Guy. It's you who are the master now? You, not your father?
GUY. It is I.
RUTH. Lord of the Valley. Master of their lives. Guy, Guy, what will you do with them?
GUY. Break them.
RUTH. Your father would be merciful.
GUY. Old men grow soft with age.
RUTH. Have you not broken them enough? Have they not starved for you till desperation made them turn and do the deed they did to-night?
GUY. They did the deed. They turned. Therefore they are not broken, Ruth. But, by the Lord, they're going to be. I'll have them meek. I'll crush their spirits till their children's children rue the day their fathers tried to thwart Guy Barlow.
RUTH. Yes. You can do it. You've the strength.
GUY. And the power. The dogs don't know their master yet.
RUTH. You can do it, Guy. But will you?
GUY. Will I?
RUTH. Hear me. A woman can't do much. A woman's handicapped. But what she can do, Guy, all that I'll do——
GUY. Where is your bargain now?
RUTH. Yes. I made a bargain, didn't I? I bargained for my father's life. My life for his.
GUY. Your—life?
RUTH. I said I'd be your slave. I said that I would give you sons. I said I would not ask you questions.
GUY. And you have asked. You have asked and had your answers, For the last time, Ruth.
RUTH. Yes. I shall ask no more. I shall——Guy. What?
(Enter soldier with Matthew and Martin, whose wrists are bound behind their backs.)
SOLDIER. Captain Lascelles' orders, sir.
GUY. Thank you. You may go.
(Soldier salutes and goes. Ruth snatches knife from table and cuts Matthew's bonds.)
RUTH. Father, you shall not be bound.
GUY (watching cynically and firmly taking knife from her.) No. Our father must not be in bonds, must he? But we will stop there, Ruth. It is not Kelsall's turn just yet.
MATTHEW. I am not wishful to be treated differently from the rest.
GUY. No? And yet, do you know, Father-in-law Butterworth, you are going to be. Martyrs are going cheap to-night. I have another use than martyrdom for you. Matthew. Well, seemingly, I'm in your hands.
GUY. You are precisely in my hands, Father-in-law. What would you say now if I let you go scot free for this?
RUTH (half-incredulously). Guy!
MATTHEW. I'd say the wench had talked to you.
GUY. Yes. She has talked. And then, Butterworth? After I had let you go?
MATTHEW. You want a promise from me? Well, I'll make you none until you put away from you the abomination of machinery. I'll fight till I can fight no more against your factories and ugliness. I'll fight for honest craftsmanship and joy and pride in work until there's not a factory left in the land, until we've made an end to all the makers and the users of machines that take the weaver's handiwork away, until——
RUTH (holding him back as he advances towards Guy). Father! Guy has the power of life or death. You could be hanged for what you've done to-night.
GUY. And dead men burn no factories, Butterworth.
MATTHEW. Dead men can speak, speak from their graves back to the living, Mr. Guy.
GUY. I have told you you are not to die. You're going to live, because I will it so.
MATTHEW. And ask me to submit?
GUY. I don't remember asking. I know you will submit.
MATTHEW. Never.
GUY. The door is there. Get out of it and go. You'll not be stayed. Go out and show yourself alive. Go out and prove to all the valley that Guy Barlow has the power of life or death.
MATTHEW. So that's the use you have for me. To show myself a coward, who——
GUY. To show yourself sent back to life by me.
MATTHEW. To life! The life you send me to is not worth having.
GUY. Perhaps that's why I send you back to it.
MATTHEW. No. I will——
RUTH. You will think of my mother.
MARTIN. Go, Butterworth. There is still work for you to do.
MATTHEW. To take my life from him!
RUTH. He will not taunt you with it, father.
GUY (going impatiently to door and opening it). Go, man, before I change my mind, and thank your God it's you I choose to take my message out—the message that Guy Barlow has the power to send men to the gallows or the loom. For you, the loom. For him, the gallows. Go.
(Ruth goes with Matthew to door.)
RUTH. Go, father.
GUY. Ruth, not you.
RUTH. No.
(Gently pushing Matthew out. He goes. Guy closes door, then crosses to window and throws curtains hack. Then turns bullyingly on Martin.)
GUY. Well, Martin Kelsall, do you like your handiwork? A pretty bonfire for a winter's night. Look at it, Kelsall. Drink it in, for it is like to be the last you'll see of earthly fire. They don't waste coal in jail.
MARTIN. I have two things will keep me warm.
GUY. You will need them both before the hangman fits a noose about your neck.
MARTIN. Two things, Guy Barlow. Hatred. Hatred of you and satisfaction for to-night. We've made a clean sweep of your factory.
GUY. And I could almost find it in my heart to shake your dirty hand for doing it. You've left the less to clear away before we can commence rebuilding.
MARTIN. Rebuilding!
GUY. Why, did you think we'd sit down still and mourn? You will not live to see it, Kelsall, but there will be a grand new factory in six months' time. There'll be machines which eat up work as if they liked it. Machines to do the work of many men. They're cunning things, those new machines. They are not rebellious and a little child can guide them by the hand. Kelsall, I think a factory should have a name. I shall call mine the Phoenix Factory, because it's going to rise more glorious upon the ashes you have sown.