Barney. It’s the devil will pick your bones for you in the mornin’. Shoot him at daylight, sez the gineral, and he’ll be doin’ it too. Do you mind that! (Brightly hangs his head in silence.) Now don’t be blubberin’ about it. It won’t do ye any good. They’ are goin’ ter make y’er bones inter rattles for them nagurs, and that’s the most good that could come of ye.
Brightly. Fool!
Barney. (Laying down hat and gun.) Don’t you talk back to me, or I’ll bat you! You thafe er the wurruld! (Enter Gen. Halcom, R. U. E.)
Halcom. Keele Brightly, your last hour is close at hand. I have not intruded myself to torture you with recriminations. I yield my right to the law of military necessity. I come because I have been moved to pity by that heart-broken child lying at the outer guard, begging so piteously to see the last man she ought to love or respect. I have at last obtained permission for her to see you, immediately preceding your execution. I have come to ask you to forget the brute, and give her one kind word before you die. All night long and yesterday, through the rain and cold, shelterless, and refusing food, she sat by the door, waiting for your coming. Her piteous pleadings for your worthless life, when the General returned from the front, would have melted a heart of stone. How have you repaid her life of devotion? She has never known father or mother. A generous heart must love something! Within an hour she will be out in the world, worse than an orphan. Who is she? She was not born a slave. You sought a groundless revenge. Are you not satisfied? My mother’s face lives in hers! (Breaks down.) If any one of my family live—looking God in the face—speak! Have you nothing to say?
Brightly. Nothing!
Halcom. May God have mercy on you who never had any, when it was so easy to give. (Exit Halcom, R, looking back twice, as if expecting B. to relent.)
Barney. (To Brightly.) Did you mind that talkin’? (B. silent.) Hey? Jist one hour, says the Gineral, and you will be an orfin. If you make yourself a dam fool like that, you may be two orfins! (Zina dashes in at R. U. E.)
Zina. Master D’Arneaux! (Drops on her knee.)
Brightly. (Turned away.) Sh—do not recognize me. (Giving his hand behind, as Barney paces to R.) Are there any means of escape?
Zina. (Shying key into Brightly’s hands.) This will unfasten your irons. I have removed the outer fastening on the window. It will open at your touch. When the back of the guard is turned, unlock your irons. The river runs close by. You are safe if you reach the other side. When I seize the guard, spring through the window and make for the river. (B. drops on his knees as if in meditation. Zina kneels and leans her head on his shoulder. As Barney turns to R, she springs on his back like a tiger, locking her arm across his throat, strangles him. Meantime she and Barney speak simultaneously. Brightly unlocks fetters.)