(a heavy rumbling sound is heard, coming nearer; a burly convict enters at right, on the far side of the counter, wheeling a loaded barrow; it bumps at the door-sills and across the floor; he crosses the stage and goes off left. The contents of this barrow are, of course, hidden from the audience by the counter. Porter follows the progress of the convict with his eyes)
Joe (enters right, from hospital, and stands looking at Porter): Da goes dat po feller Smithers, what hanged hisself; gettin’ his las ride. (a pause) Dey was another con croaked tonight—T. B. feller, Jake What’s-his-name. (a pause) Dey sho is one mountain of misery in dis place. (a pause; a sound of faint screams from beneath the stage; Porter starts and puts his hands to his ears) Dey’s paddlin some po feller down in de basement.
Porter: I can’t stand it! I can’t stand it!
Joe (shaking his head mournfully): Dis aint no place fo a genleman, Misteh Porteh. Dey sho hadn’t ought to put a high-up genleman like you in dis pen.
Porter (distracted): Get out, Joe, I want to be alone! Don’t talk to me now! Go along! Turn off that light.
(Joe backs away, but does not leave the stage; another rumble is heard, another wheelbarrow crosses from right to left. Joe snaps off the light. There is total darkness, and the increasing rumble of the barrow, with the screams from below, gives opportunity for a quick change of the set, as follows: Brass gratings rise up, above the counter on the far side, the gratings having openings, making the cashier’s windows of a bank. There is a gap in these gratings, where the counter may be swung inward upon hinges, giving an entrance to the interior. The shelves below the counter turn on pivots, so that they now appear as bank furnishings. The shelves at the right side of the room turn in the same way. On the left side the wall now appears as the steel door of a bank-vault; this wall runs obliquely, cutting off the back corner of the stage, so that the entire audience can see the steel door, and when it swings open, can see partly into the vault. Joe makes a quick change into the blue uniform of a bank porter. The Judge enters and seats himself at the desk, made up as an elderly, dignified bank president with white moustache and goatee. Delacour, stout and pompous, places himself as cashier at the window. Dr. Walters takes a place outside the gratings, as a bank customer. Porter stands by the half-open door of the vault, watching the scene, as it gradually comes into view by red light.
The rumble of the wheelbarrow turns into the galloping of horses’ hoofs; the screams from the basement become yells, off-stage left; also revolver shots are heard. Full red light. Al Jennings, mounted on a cow-pony, and clad in cowboy costume, with an arsenal of guns, rides through the entrance to the bank, on the far side of the counter, at left; he is bare-headed, with touseled red hair; carries a revolver in each hand, aims one at the cashier, and waves the other at the whole room. He is followed by Raidler, also in cowboy costume, with guns)
Jennings (yells): I’m Al Jennings, train-bandit, and I’m out for the stuff! Hold up your hands! Your money or your life!
Raidler: Meet Raidler, the Oklahoma terror! We want fifteen thousand dollars, and we want it quick!
Jennings: Death hides in our shooting irons! Keep your eye on the muzzle, and jump!