Short Plays · The Showing-Up of Blanco Posnet (8/8) (2/2) (3/4)

| The Sheriff | To Blanco. Don’t you be uneasy. You will get justice here. It may be rough justice; but it is justice. | | Blanco | What is justice? | | The Sheriff | Hanging horse-thieves is justice; so now you know. Now then: we’ve wasted enough time. Hustle with your witness there, will you? | | Blanco | Indignantly bringing down his fist on the bar. Swear the jury. A rotten Sheriff you are not to know that the jury’s got to be sworn. | | The Foreman | Galled. Be swore for you! Not likely. What do you say, old son? | | Nestor | Deliberately and solemnly. I say: Guilty!!! | | The Boys | Tumultuously rushing at Blanco. That’s it. Guilty, guilty. Take him out and hang him. He’s found guilty. Fetch a rope. Up with him. They are about to drag him from the bar. | | The Sheriff | Rising, pistol in hand. Hands off that man. Hands off him, I say, Squinty, or I drop you, and would if you were my own son. Dead silence. I’m Sheriff here; and it’s for me to say when he may lawfully be hanged. They release him. | | Blanco | As the actor says in the play, “a Daniel come to judgment.” Rotten actor he was, too. | | The Sheriff | Elder Daniel is come to judgment all right, my lad. Elder: the floor is yours. The Elder rises. Give your evidence. The truth and the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God. | | Elder Daniels | Sheriff: let me off this. I didn’t ought to swear away this man’s life. He and I are, in a manner of speaking, brothers. | | The Sheriff | It does you credit, Elder: every man here will acknowledge it. But religion is one thing: law is another. In religion we’re all brothers. In law we cut our brother off when he steals horses. | | The Foreman | Besides, you needn’t hang him, you know. There’s plenty of willing hands to take that job off your conscience. So rip ahead, old son. | | Strapper | You’re accountable to me for the horse until you clear yourself, Elder: remember that. | | Blanco | Out with it, you fool. | | Elder Daniels | You might own up, Blanco, as far as my evidence goes. Everybody knows I borrowed one of the Sheriff’s horses from Strapper because my own’s gone lame. Everybody knows you arrived in the town yesterday and put up in my house. Everybody knows that in the morning the horse was gone and you were gone. | | Blanco | In a forensic manner. Sheriff: the Elder, though known to you and to all here as no brother of mine and the rottenest liar in this town, is speaking the truth for the first time in his life as far as what he says about me is concerned. As to the horse, I say nothing; except that it was the rottenest horse you ever tried to sell. | | The Sheriff | How do you know it was a rotten horse if you didn’t steal it? | | Blanco | I don’t know of my own knowledge. I only argue that if the horse had been worth its keep, you wouldn’t have lent it to Strapper, and Strapper wouldn’t have lent it to this eloquent and venerable ram. Suppressed laughter. And now I ask him this. To the Elder. Did we or did we not have a quarrel last evening about a certain article that was left by my mother, and that I considered I had a right to more than you? And did you say one word to me about the horse not belonging to you? | | Elder Daniels | Why should I? We never said a word about the horse at all. How was I to know what it was in your mind to do? | | Blanco | Bear witness all that I had a right to take a horse from him without stealing to make up for what he denied me. I am no thief. But you haven’t proved yet that I took the horse. Strapper Kemp: had I the horse when you took me, or had I not? | | Strapper | No, nor you hadn’t a railway train neither. But Feemy Evans saw you pass on the horse at four o’clock twenty-five miles from the spot where I took you at seven on the road to Pony Harbor. Did you walk twenty-five miles in three hours? That so, Feemy? eh? | | Feemy | That’s so. At four I saw him. To Blanco. That’s done for you. | | The Sheriff | You say you saw him on my horse? | | Feemy | I did. | | Blanco | And I ate it, I suppose, before Strapper fetched up with me. Suddenly and dramatically. Sheriff: I accuse Feemy of immoral relations with Strapper. | | Feemy | Oh you liar! | | Blanco | I accuse the fair Euphemia of immoral relations with every man in this town, including yourself, Sheriff. I say this is a conspiracy to kill me between Feemy and Strapper because I wouldn’t touch Feemy with a pair of tongs. I say you daren’t hang any white man on the word of a woman of bad character. I stand on the honor and virtue of my American manhood. I say that she’s not had the oath, and that you daren’t for the honor of the town give her the oath because her lips would blaspheme the holy Bible if they touched it. I say that’s the law; and if you are a proper United States Sheriff and not a low-down lyncher, you’ll hold up the law and not let it be dragged in the mud by your brother’s kept woman. | | | Great excitement among the women. The men much puzzled. | | Jessie | That’s right. She didn’t ought to be let kiss the Book. | | Emma | How could the like of her tell the truth? | | Babsy | It would be an insult to every respectable woman here to believe her. | | Feemy | It’s easy to be respectable with nobody ever offering you a chance to be anything else. | | The Women | Clamoring all together. Shut up, you hussy. You’re a disgrace. How dare you open your lips to answer your betters? Hold your tongue and learn your place, miss. You painted slut! Whip her out of the town! | | The Sheriff | Silence. Do you hear? Silence. The clamor ceases. Did anyone else see the prisoner with the horse? | | Feemy | Passionately. Ain’t I good enough? | | Babsy | No. You’re dirt: that’s what you are. | | Feemy | And you⁠— | | The Sheriff | Silence. This trial is a man’s job; and if the women forget their sex they can go out or be put out. Strapper and Miss Evans: you can’t have it two ways. You can run straight, or you can run gay, so to speak; but you can’t run both ways together. There is also a strong feeling among the men of this town that a line should be drawn between those that are straight wives and mothers and those that are, in the words of the Book of Books, taking the primrose path. We don’t wish to be hard on any woman; and most of us have a personal regard for Miss Evans for the sake of old times; but there’s no getting out of the fact that she has private reasons for wishing to oblige Strapper, and that⁠—if she will excuse my saying so⁠—she is not what I might call morally particular as to what she does to oblige him. Therefore I ask the prisoner not to drive us to give Miss Evans the oath. I ask him to tell us fair and square, as a man who has but a few minutes between him and eternity, what he done with my horse. | | The Boys | Hear, hear! That’s right. That’s fair. That does it. Now, Blanco. Own up. | | Blanco | Sheriff: you touch me home. This is a rotten world; but there is still one thing in it that remains sacred even to the rottenest of us, and that is a horse. | | The Boys | Good. Well said, Blanco. That’s straight. | | Blanco | You have a right to your horse, Sheriff; and if I could put you in the way of getting it back, I would. But if I had that horse I shouldn’t be here. As I hope to be saved, Sheriff⁠—or rather as I hope to be damned; for I have no taste for pious company and no talent for playing the harp⁠—I know no more of that horse’s whereabouts than you do yourself. | | Strapper | Who did you trade him to? | | Blanco | I did not trade him. I got nothing for him or by him. I stand here with a rope round my neck for the want of him. When you took me, did I fight like a thief or run like a thief; and was there any sign of a horse on me or near me? | | Strapper | You were looking at a rainbow, like a damned silly fool instead of keeping your wits about you; and we stole up on you and had you tight before you could draw a bead on us. | | The Sheriff | That don’t sound like good sense. What would he look at a rainbow for? | | Blanco | I’ll tell you, Sheriff. I was looking at it because there was something written on it. | | The Sheriff | How do you mean written on it? | | Blanco | The words were, “I’ve got the cinch on you this time, Blanco Posnet.” Yes, Sheriff, I saw those words in green on the red streak of the rainbow; and as I saw them I felt Strapper’s grab on my arm and Squinty’s on my pistol. | | The Foreman | He’s shammin mad: that’s what he is. Ain’t it about time to give a verdict and have a bit of fun, Sheriff? | | The Boys | Yes, let’s have a verdict. We’re wasting the whole afternoon. Cut it short. | | The Sheriff | Making up his mind. Swear Feemy Evans, Elder. She don’t need to touch the Book. Let her say the words. | | Feemy | Worse people than me has kissed that Book. What wrong I’ve done, most of you went shares in. I’ve to live, haven’t I? same as the rest of you. However, it makes no odds to me. I guess the truth is the truth and a lie is a lie, on the Book or off it. | | Babsy | Do as you’re told. Who are you, to be let talk about it? | | The Sheriff | Silence there, I tell you. Sail ahead, Elder. | | Elder Daniels | Feemy Evans: do you swear to tell the truth and the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God. | | Feemy | I do, so help me⁠— | | The Sheriff | That’s enough. Now, on your oath, did you see the prisoner on my horse this morning on the road to Pony Harbor? | | Feemy | On my oath⁠—Disturbance and crowding at the door. | | At the Door | Now then, now then! Where are you shovin to? What’s up? Order in court. Chuck him out. Silence. You can’t come in here. Keep back. | | | Strapper rushes to the door and forces his way out. | | The Sheriff | Savagely. What’s this noise? Can’t you keep quiet there? Is this a Sheriff’s court or is it a saloon? | | Blanco | Don’t interrupt a lady in the act of hanging a gentleman. Where’s your manners? | | Feemy | I’ll hang you, Blanco Posnet. I will. I wouldn’t for fifty dollars hadn’t seen you this morning. I’ll teach you to be civil to me next time, for all I’m not good enough to kiss the Book. | | Blanco | Lord keep me wicked till I die! I’m game for anything while you’re spitting dirt at me, Feemy. | | Renewed Tumult at the Door | Here, what’s this? Fire them out. Not me. Who are you that I should get out of your way? Oh, stow it. Well, she can’t come in. What woman? What horse? What’s the good of shoving like that? Who says? No! you don’t say! | | The Sheriff | Gentlemen of the Vigilance Committee: clear that doorway. Out with them in the name of the law. | | Strapper | Without. Hold hard, George. At the door. They’ve got the horse. *He comes in, followed by Wagoner Jo, an elderly carter, who crosses the court to the jury side. Strapper pushes his way to the Sheriff and speaks privately to him. | | The Boys | What! No! Got the horse! Sheriff’s horse! Who took it, then? Where? Get out. Yes it is, sure. I tell you it is. It’s the horse all right enough. Rot. Go and look. By Gum! | | The Sheriff | To Strapper. You don’t say! | | Strapper | It’s here, I tell you. | | Wagoner Jo | It’s here all right enough, Sheriff. | | Strapper | And they’ve got the thief too. | | Elder Daniels | Then it ain’t Blanco. | | Strapper | No: it’s a woman. Blanco yells and covers his eyes with his hands. | | The Whole Crowd | A woman! | | The Sheriff | Well, fetch her in. Strapper goes out. The Sheriff continues, to Feemy. And what do you mean, you lying jade, by putting up this story on us about Blanco? | | Feemy | I ain’t put up no story on you. This is a plant: you see if it isn’t. | | | Strapper returns with a Woman. Her expression of intense grief silences them as they crane over one another’s heads to see her. Strapper takes her to the corner of the table. The Elder moves up to make room for her. | | Blanco | Terrified. Sheriff: that woman ain’t real. You take care. That woman will make you do what you never intended. That’s the rainbow woman. That’s the woman that brought me to this. | | The Sheriff | Shut your mouth, will you. You’ve got the horrors. To the Woman. Now you. Who are you? and what are you doing with a horse that doesn’t belong to you? | | The Woman | I took it to save my child’s life. I thought it would get me to a doctor in time. The child was choking with croup. | | Blanco | Strangling, and trying to laugh. A little choker: that’s the word for him. His choking wasn’t real: wait and see mine. He feels his neck with a sob. | | The Sheriff | Where’s the child? | | Strapper | On Pug Jackson’s bench in his shed. He’s makin’ a coffin for it. | | Blanco | With a horrible convulsion of the throat⁠—frantically. Dead! The little Judas kid! The child I gave my life for! He breaks into hideous laughter. | | The Sheriff | Jarred beyond endurance by the sound. Hold you noise, will you. Shove his neckerchief into his mouth if he don’t stop. To the Woman. Don’t you mind him, ma’am: he’s mad with drink and devilment. I suppose there’s no fake about this, Strapper. Who found her? | | Wagoner Jo | I did, Sheriff. There’s no fake about it. I came on her on the track round by Red Mountain. She was settin on the ground with the dead body on her lap, stupid-like. The horse was grazin’ on the other side of the road. | | The Sheriff | Puzzled. Well, this is blamed queer. To the Woman. What call had you to take the horse from Elder Daniels’ stable to find a doctor? There’s a doctor in the very next house. | | Blanco | Mopping his dabbled red crest and trying to be ironically gay. Story simply won’t wash, my angel. You got it from the man that stole the horse. He gave it to you because he was a softy and went to bits when you played off the sick kid on him. Well, I guess that clears me. I’m not that sort. Catch me putting my neck in a noose for anybody’s kid! | | The Foreman | Don’t you go putting her up to what to say. She said she took it. | | The Woman | Yes: I took it from a man that met me. I thought God sent him to me. I rode here joyfully thinking so all the time to myself. Then I noticed that the child was like lead in my arms. God would never have been so cruel as to send me the horse to disappoint me like that. | | Blanco | Just what He would do. | | Strapper | We ain’t got nothin’ to do with that. This is the man, ain’t he? Pointing to Blanco. | | The Woman | Pulling herself together after looking scaredly at Blanco, and then at the Sheriff* and at the jury. No. | | The Foreman | You lie. | | The Sheriff | You’ve got to tell us the truth. That’s the law, you know. | | The Woman | The man looked a bad man. He cursed me; and he cursed the child: God forgive him! But something came over him. I was desperate. I put the child in his arms; and it got its little fingers down his neck and called him Daddy and tried to kiss him; for it was not right in its head with the fever. He said it was a little Judas kid, and that it was betraying him with a kiss, and that he’d swing for it. And then he gave me the horse, and went away crying and laughing and singing dreadful dirty wicked words to hymn tunes like as if he had seven devils in him. | | Strapper | She’s lying. Give her the oath, George. | | The Sheriff | Go easy there. You’re a smart boy, Strapper; but you’re not Sheriff yet. This is my job. You just wait. I submit that we’re in a difficulty here. If Blanco was the man, the lady can’t, as a white woman, give him away. She oughtn’t to be put in the position of having either to give him away or commit perjury. On the other hand, we don’t want a horse-thief to get off through a lady’s delicacy. | | The Foreman | No we don’t; and we don’t intend he shall. Not while I am foreman of this jury. | | Blanco | With intense expression. A rotten foreman! Oh, what a rotten foreman! |