Part 15 (1/2)

How?

PHEDRO

Listen. Instead of attending to this myself, as I have done in hundreds of similar cases, I am going to take you into my confidence.

GWYMPLANE

What is it? What is it?

PHEDRO

Your lovely fellow artiste is gone.

GWYMPLANE [_crying out_]

Gone? My Dea! That is impossible. She does not wish to go anywhere that I am not.

PHEDRO

Perhaps her wishes remained unconsulted. She may have been abducted.

GWYMPLANE [_drawing back_]

What are you saying? It is so monstrous I must laugh or scream if I go on listening to you. [_shakes PHEDRO by the arm_] Come out with it.

Where has she gone? But she is in bed! Where else?

[_He runs back to the cart, and is heard calling frantically. The voice of URSUS answers him. PHEDRO stands listening, an evil smile contorting his mouth._]

GWYMPLANE [_off stage_]

Dea!

[_There is no answer._]

GWYMPLANE

[_Re-entering hurriedly. Goes up to PHEDRO in a threatening manner._]

I do not understand. There is something moving around me that is foul and stealthy. Tell me what it is or I'll make you feel as if you were falling down an abyss of knives.

PHEDRO

Calm, my gentle talker. To consider alternatives, one must keep one's presence of mind.

GWYMPLANE

I know. I can imagine what these courts are like and I'll usher you into h.e.l.l at once if you are trying to spatter any foul scheme upon what I love.

PHEDRO