Enter Bartley out of breath.
Bartley. Run, run, come away, there's not a minute to lose.
Colman. What is the matter? what has happened?
Bartley. The people are coming up the road! They attacked me in the market! They followed me, they are on the road. I slipped away across the fields. Run, run!
Colman. What is it? What are they going to do to us?
Bartley. You would know that if you saw them! They have stones and sticks. Raging they are, and calling for our lives. They say we brought witchcraft and ill-luck on the place! Come to the boat, it's in the rushes; they won't see us, we'll get to the island. Hurry, hurry! [He runs out.
Aloysius. Come, Brother Paul, hurry, hurry!
Paul Ruttledge. I am going to stay.
Bartley. They will kill us if we stay! Brother Colman said they have stones and sticks; I think I hear them!
Paul Ruttledge. You are afraid because you have been shut up so long. I am not afraid because I have lived upon the roads, where one is ready for anything that may happen. One has to learn that, like any other thing. I will stay.