Dandy Dick Part 35

No, no. Spare him!

SHEBA.

You shall not harm a hair of their heads.

[_SIR TRISTRAM twists TARVER'S wig round so that it covers his face.

The gate bell is heard ringing violently._

GEORGIANA, SALOME _and_ SHEBA.

What's that?

SALOME.

It will wake Papa!

SHEBA.

Stop the bell!

[_GEORGIANA runs to the door and opens it._

SALOME.

[_To TARVER and DARBEY._] Fly!

[_TARVER and DARBEY disappear through the curtains at the window._

SHEBA.

[_Falling into SALOME'S arms._] We have saved them!

GEORGIANA.

Oh, Tris, your man from the stable!

SIR TRISTRAM.

Hatcham!

GEORGIANA.

[_Calling._] Hatcham!

[_HATCHAM, carrying the basin with the bolus, runs in breathlessly--followed by BLORE._

HATCHAM.

Oh, Sir Tristram!

GEORGIANA _and_ SIR TRISTRAM.

What is it?

HATCHAM.

The villain that set fire to the "Swan," sir--in the hact of administering a dose to the 'orse!

GEORGIANA.

n.o.bbling our Dandy?

SIR TRISTRAM.

Where is the scoundrel?

HATCHAM.

Topping the constable's collared him, Sir--he's taken him in a cart to the lock-up!

GEORGIANA _and_ SIR TRISTRAM.

Oh!

BLORE.

[_In agony._] They've got the Dean!

END OF THE SECOND ACT.

THE THIRD ACT.

The first scene is the interior of a country Police Station, a quaint old room with plaster walls, oaken beams, and a gothic mullioned window looking on to the street. A ma.s.sive door, with a small sliding wicket and an iron grating, opens to a prisoner's cell. The room is partly furnished as a kitchen, partly as a police station, a copy of the Police Regulations and other official doc.u.ments and implements hanging on the wall. It is the morning after the events of the previous act.

_HANNAH, a buxom, fresh-looking young woman, in a print gown, has been engaged in cooking while singing gayly._

HANNAH.

[_Opening a door and calling with a slight dialect._] Noah darling!

NOAH.

[_From another room--in a rough, country voice._] Yaas!

HANNAH.