Part 2 (1/2)

_Warner_

Reba'll have one, all right. If Philo stays queer it'll be hard on the girl, won't it?

_Mrs. W._

He'll not stay queer. If he gets that girl in his head there won't be room for anything else--for a while anyway. He'll be worse'n you ever was. You let me manage it, Hiram.

(PHILO _is heard coming up the stairs. They listen in silence until he enters. He is talking, not quite audibly, to himself, and doesn't see them. Goes to table and stands by machine._)

_Philo_

Here--at last--I have caught the word ... the word of the stars.

_Mrs. W._

Philo!

_Philo_ (_looking up_)

Mother!... Father!... (_In alarm._) You haven't touched anything here?

_Mrs. W._

No, my son. I've just put the place to rights a bit. Dr. Seymour is coming, you know.

_Philo_

Yes. (_Walks the floor, meditating._)

_Warner_

You must come out of this dream, Philo.

_Philo_

It is not a dream! I am the only being in the world who is awake!

_Mrs. W._

My son!

_Philo_

Man sleeps--like the rocks, trees, hills--while all around him, out of the unseen, beating on blind eyes, deaf ears, numbed brain, sweep the winds of eternity, the ether waves, the signals from the deeps of s.p.a.ce!

_Warner_

Hey, diddle, diddle!

_Philo_