MUMMY. Do you know this man, Bengtsson?
BENGTSSON. Oh yes, I know him, and he knows me. Life has its ups and downs, as you know. I have been in his service, and he has been in mine. For two years he came regularly to our kitchen to be fed by our cook. Because he had to be at work at a certain hour, she made the dinner far ahead of time, and we had to be satisfied with the warmed-up leavings of that beast. He drank the soup-stock, so that we got nothing but water. Like a vampire, the sucked the house of all nourishment, until we became reduced to mere skeletons—and he nearly got us into jail when we dared to call the cook a thief. Later I met that man in Hamburg, where he had another name. Then he was a money-lender, a regular leech. While there, he was accused of having lured a young girl out on the ice in order to drown her, because she had seen him commit a crime, and he was afraid of being exposed....
MUMMY. [Making a pass with her hand over the face of HUMMEL as if removing a mask] That's you! And now, give up the notes and the will!
JOHANSSON appears in the hallway and watches the scene with great interest, knowing that his slavery will now come to an end.
HUMMEL produces a bundle of papers and throws them on the table.
MUMMY. [Stroking the back of HUMMEL] Polly! Are you there, Jacob?
HUMMEL. [Talking like a parrot] Here is Jacob!—Pretty Polly! Currrr!
MUMMY. May the clock strike?
HUMMEL. [With a clucking noise like that of a clock preparing to strike] The dock may strike! [Imitating a cuckoo-clock] Cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo....
MUMMY. [Opening the closet door] Now the clock has struck! Rise and enter the closet where I have spent twenty years bewailing our evil deed. There you will find a rope that may represent the one with which you strangled the Consul as well as the one with which you meant to strangle your benefactor.... Go!
HUMMEL enters the closet.