Hassan: The Story of Hassan of Baghdad and How He Came to Make the Golden Journey to Samarkand Part 9

RAFI (Silencing the SINGERS with a wave of his hand; to the GUESTS) Did not someone ask me why this house was called the House of the Moving Walls?

CALIPH I asked the question.

(Sheets of iron with a crash covering the apertures of the arches.

The four GUESTS are completely walled in.)

RAFI, BEGGARS AND WOMEN (From behind the iron part.i.tions with a shout) Answered!

JAFAR This is a disastrous situation!

(The BEGGARS Tramp out to martial music.)

VOICES OF THE BEGGARS (Retreating)

Today Haroun, the much-detested Caliph, Will find Caliphate inopportune!

JAFAR (Listening at the wall) They have all left the room.

At least we are alone. Let us shout, they may hear us from the street.

MASRUR (Banging on the wall) Eyyah! Help, help, men of Bagdad!

The Caliph is in danger! The Caliph is in prison!...

Come up and save the Caliph, the Master of Men, the Shaker of the World!...

(Silence.)

CALIPH There comes no answering cheer...

JAFAR I had forgotten the height of this room above the streets: and on either side stretches the empty garden of this house!

(The CALIPH, JAFAR and MASRUR rush around as though trying to find a way out of their prison, and banging on the iron walls.

Ha.s.sAN takes his seat on the carpet.)

CALIPH Allah! and this room is a box within a box like a Chinese toy.

And that man will surprise my soldiers in the chill of dawn, and sack my palace and burn Baghdad. He will discover my ident.i.ty and bury me alive!

JAFAR Alas, Master! What shall we do?

CALIPH Thou dog! Thou dirt! Thou dunghill! Thou dustheap!

Did I make thee Vizier to ask counsel or to give it?

Find out what we shall do! Thou hast let me fall into a trap, and now dost quiver and quake and s.h.i.+ver and shake like a tub of whey on the back of a restive camel: my kingdom is reduced from twelve provinces to twelve square cubits: my subjects from thirty millions unto three, but Bismillah! one of my subjects is the Executioner, and Mashallah! another one merits execution: and Inshallah! if thy head doth not immediately devise a practical scheme of escape it shall dive off my shoulders and swim across the floor.

JAFAR What shall happen, shall happen. But here is one who is occupied in meditation, and is aloof from the circ.u.mstances of the moment: let us invite him to Council.

CALIPH Ho, thou Ha.s.san! What occupies thy spirit?

Ha.s.sAN I am examining the square of carpet. It is of cheap manufacturer, inferior dye and unpleasant pattern.

CALIPH Art thou a carpet dealer?

Ha.s.sAN No, sir, I am a confectioner,

CALIPH And I am the Caliph.

Ha.s.sAN As my heart surmised. O Commander of the Faithful!

(Performs the ceremonies prescribed.)

CALIPH Canst thou give me one gleam of hope of salvation, Ha.s.san the Confectioner? If not, Masrur shall cut off all our heads, beginning with thine, I dare not fall into that man's hands alive.

Ha.s.sAN But I dare! O spare me, spare me! What of the man who put me in the basket? He will know where we are, and come to our rescue.

CALIPH No good--no good. I would rather depend on the mercy of Rafi than on the whim of Ishak. Masrur, unsheathe. There is no hope.

Ha.s.sAN Thy pardon on thy servant: there is hope! Behold the light!

(Points to crack between bottom of the iron wall and floor, towards the balcony.)

CALIPH By the seven lakes of h.e.l.l, we are not mice!

Ha.s.sAN A mouse could not pa.s.s. But what, O Master, of a message?

CALIPH A message?

Ha.s.sAN Written out black on paper, and dropped into the street.

CALIPH Ho, Jafar, thou art a fool to this man! Take out thy pen and write.

Warn the Captain of the Soldiers. Warn the Police. Describe our position.

Offer the the Government of Three Provinces to the man who picks up the paper. Write clearly, write quicker. Time's flying.

Write, and we are saved. Write for the Salvation of Bagdad; write for the safety of Islam! O Ha.s.san, the Confectioner, if we are rescued I will fill my mouth with gold!

(JAFAR having written on a long roll of paper, they thrust it in the crack.)

Ha.s.sAN No: at the corner here, where there is no balcony and the wall drops straight into the street.

(MASRUR pokes out the paper with his sword.)

CALIPH And now how shall we employ the time of waiting for our deliverance?

JAFAR I shall meditate upon the mutability of human affairs.

MASRUR And I shall sharpen my sword upon my thigh.

Ha.s.sAN And I shall study the reasons of the excessive ugliness of the pattern of this carpet.

CALIPH Ha.s.san, I will join thee: thou art a man of taste.