The Piper Part 11

PIPER No, never, never!--No, it shall not be!

Hist!--

[Steps heard scrambling down the entrance-way.

[Enter MICHAEL in mad haste. They rush upon him with exultation and relief. He shakes them off, doggedly.

PIPER So!--You had like to have hanged us.

MICHAEL --What of that?

PIPER All for a lily maiden.

MICHAEL Ah,--thy pipe!

How will it save her?--_Save her_! Tune thy pipe To compa.s.s that!--You do not know--

PIPER I know.

Tell me no more.--I say it shall not be!

To heel, lad! No, I follow,--none but I!

Go,--go! [MICHAEL rushes out again.

[To CHEAT-THE-DEVIL, pointing to the Children]

Do you bide here and shepherd these.

CHILDREN Where are you going?--Take us too!--us too!-- Oh, take us with you?--Take us!

PIPER [distracted]

No, no, no!

You shall be kittens all. And chase your tails, Till I come back!--So here!

[Catches HANSEL and affixes to his little jacket a long strip of leather for a tail; then whirls him about.

CHILDREN Me too!--Me too!

CHEAT-THE-DEVIL Let me make tails,--let me!

[Seizing shears and leather.]

PIPER [wildly]

Faith, and you shall.

A master tailor!--Come, here's food for thought.

Think all,-- [To the Strollers]

And hold your tongues, there!-- If a Cat-- If a Cat have--as all men say--Nine Lives, And if Nine Tailors go to make a Man, How long, then, shall it take one Man turned Tailor To keep a Cat in Tails, until she die?

[CHEAT-THE-DEVIL looks subdued; the children whirl about.

But here's no game for Jan.--Stay! Something else.-- [He runs to a wooden coffer, rear, and takes out a long crystal on the end of a string, with a glance at the shaft of sunlight from the roof.

The Children watch.

Be quiet, now.--Chase not your tails too far, Till I come home again.

CHILDREN Come home--come home!

PIPER And you shall see my--

CHILDREN Something Beautiful!

Oh, oh, what is it?--Oh, and will it play?

Will it play music?

PIPER Yes.

[He hangs the crystal in the sun. A Rainbow strikes the wall.

--The best of all!

CHEAT-THE-DEVIL, JAN, CHILDREN Oh, oh, how beautiful,--how beautiful!

PIPER And hear it pipe and call, and dance, and sing.

Heja!--And hark you all. You have to mind-- The Rainbow!

[He climbs out, pipe in hand. The Children whirl about after their tails.--CHEAT-THE-DEVIL, and JAN on his tree-stump, open-mouthed with happiness, watch the Rainbow.

Curtain

SCENE II: The Cross-ways: on the Long Road to Rudersheim.

A wooded country: high hills at back. The place is wild and overgrown, like the haunted spot it is reputed to be. In the foreground, right, a ruined stone well appears, in a ma.s.s of weeds and vines. Opposite, left, tall trees and dense thickets. Where the roads cross (to left of centre), stands a large, neglected shrine, with a weather-worn figure of Christ,--again the 'Lonely Man'--facing towards Hamelin.--The stage is empty, at rise of the curtain; but the sound of chanting from burghers just gone by fades slowly, on the road to Rudersheim.

From the hillside at the rear comes the PIPER, wrapped in a long green cloak, his pipe in his hand. He looks after the procession, and back to Hamelin.--Enter, springing from the bushes to the right, MICHAEL, who seizes him.

Their speech goes breathlessly.

MICHAEL

QUICK!--tell me--

PIPER Patience.

MICHAEL Patience?--Death and h.e.l.l!

Oh, save her--save her! Give the children back.

PIPER Never. Have you betrayed us?

MICHAEL I!--betrayed?

PIPER So, so, lad.

MICHAEL But to save her--

PIPER There's a way,-- Trust me! I save her, or we swing together Merrily, in a row.--How did you see her?

MICHAEL By stealth: two days ago, at evening, Hard by the vine-hid wall of her own garden, I made a warbling like a nightingale; And she came out to hear.