Part 9 (2/2)

BELL: You're merry, sir! Will you not share the jest?

Aren't you the sparky blade, the daffing callant, Naffing and nickering like a three-year-old?

Come, none-so-pretty, cough the old wheeze up, Before it chokes you. Let me clap your back.

You're, surely, never laughing at a lady?

(_Seizing him by the collar, and shaking him._)

You deafy nut--you gibbet--you rusty corncrake!

Tell me what's kittling you, old skeleton, Or I'll joggle your bones till they rattle like castanets.

(_Suddenly releasing him._)

Come, Peter: let's away from this mouldy gaol, Before old heeltaps takes a fit. Your son Will be a full-grown shepherd before we leave-- And his old mother, trapped between four walls-- If you don't put a jerk in it.

(_PETER comes slowly from the inner room, empty-handed; and stands, dazed, in the doorway._)

BELL: Well, fumble-fingers?

What's kept you this half-year? I could have burgled The Bank of England in the time. What's up?

Have you gone gite, now?

EZRA (_still chuckling_): Thieves cheated by a thief!

BELL: But, where's the box?

PETER: I didn't see the box.

BELL: You didn't see it?

PETER: No; I didn't see it: The valance hangs too low.

BELL: And you're too proud-- Too proud a prig to stoop? Did you expect The box to bounce itself into your arms, The moment it heard your step?

PETER: I dared not stoop: For there was someone lying on the bed, Asleep, I think.

BELL: You think?

PETER: I only saw A hunched-up shoulder, poking through the curtain.

BELL: A woman?

PETER: Ay, my mother, or her fetch.

I couldn't take my eyes from that hunched shoulder-- It looked so queer--till you called my name.

BELL: You said Your mother was out. But, we've no time to potter.

To think I've borne a son to a calf that's fleyed Of a sleeping woman's back--his minney's, and all!

Collops and chitterlings, if she's asleep, The job's the easier done. There's not a woman, Or a woman's fetch, would scare me from good gold.

I'll get the box.

(_She steals softly into the other room, and is gone for some time.

The others await her expectantly in silence. Presently she comes out bareheaded and empty-handed. Without a word, she goes to the window, and pulls down the blind; then closes the outer door: PETER and MICHAEL watching her in amazement._)

EZRA: So Jim, the fox, has cheated Peter, the fox-- And vixen and cub, to boot! But, he made off Only this morning: and the scent's still fresh.

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