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ORIGINAL NOTS FOR:
THS In TERCO M
Da>DX
Bow WoW
deserk -
PN un Adeutified Rlay
7 - A a netos 1
Capt HABLETE:
AusA e A
BANER


a KINGDON FOR THE VULTURES.
A Play in Four Aots
Haurlce Rowd on.


GBARAGFERS
PHILIP HAZLITT, a Captain.
HUSSEIN AL SHABAR, a landowner.
BAKER, the Captain's servant.
SHINGLETON, manager of the o1l-camp.
LEONORA FRIEDMANN, employee of the oil-camp.
BADIA AL SHABAR, Hussein's wife.
MOHAMMED, a doctor.


FIRST ACT.


SCENE: a flat sun-roof.
On the right the top
branches of a palm tree can be. seen, and under them a
garden bench, shaded.
Beyond the house is open desert.
It 1e a bright morning.
CAPTA IN HAZLITT and HUSSEIN AL SHABAR are discov- x
ered.
HAZLITT 1s gust raising a shot-gun to the level of
his eyes.
He takes a im alowly at something béy ond the
house.
Suddenly there 1s a flutter of winge. He raisee
his gun briefly with the flight of the bird, then fires.
The fluttering ceases, and he draws himeelf up again.
HUSSEIN:
You're a fine shot, Captain!
HAZLITT takes out the discharged, magazine and
ha nd's the gun to HUSSEIN.
HUSSEIN:
Tell your servant to go and bring it in, or
the vultures are going to get there bef ore
you.
HAZLITT:
I'll call. him now.
(Goes to the door leading
down' into the house) Baker!
HUSSEIN:
He's European, then?
HA ZLITT:
Yes.
HUSSEIN:
A soldier?
HA ZLITT:
One of my own men, the best servant I've had.
BAKER enters.
He brings them lemon tea in glasses.
HA ZLITT:
Thank you, Ba ker.
Look a (pointing out) I've


shot a partridge. Just bring it in before
the vultures get it.
BA KER:
Very well, sir.
He leaves.
HAZLITT:
You've been very kind to me since I came here.
That wine you sent me yesterday was excellent,
and this morning more food came from your wife.
will you thank her?
HUSSEIN:
I'll do more, Captain.
I'll introduce you to
her. She's a beautiful woman, and I know she
wante to meet you.
None of my own country-
men are allowed to see her.
But you are
European, therefore you are honourable.
HAZLITT:
I shall be honoured to meet her.
HUSSEIN:
And we shall go hunting together, eh?
Would
you like that: pig-hunting?
HA ZLITT:
I could try it.
HUSSEIN:
In the hills, where there are flowers.
I used
to be the finest horseman in the country,
Captain, until I started drinking. I could
pick up a handkerchief off the ground going at
full gallop. I couldn't do it now. It
takes all my strength to aim a gun.
HA ZLITT:
I'll make you try it again.
We'll go riding
together.
HUSSEIN:
One day I shall take you into the hills and show
you my tribesmen. I shall show you how they
bow their heads in front of me and kies my
hand.
We're going to be friende, you at nd I.
For you I'm Hussein, Aust Hussein.
Not
Prince Hussein or Al Shabar.
HAZLITT:
You are a prince?
HUSSEIN:
You've heard nothing about me, then?
HA ZLITT:
No, nothing.


hurei:
se ymng
parkd so
oel
Heylet: Sre left Eurpe 6f Come
ler abnt Aycas ago
frot aglo
Iasai dragled inla Aes amy
Aneis But
ft seally a
coricidence Hat 1n shd. have
lieen sedt bere?
Haylit No...


HUSSEIN:
Yes, Captain, I'm a prince.
Miss Friedmann
may be able to tell you something about me.
Is she coming hére tonight?
HA ZLITT:
Yes, for dinnerr
HUSSEIN:
That'angbing to be very exciting for you.
each at
How long is it since you saw her?
Neasy tiro year
HA ZLITT:
sereistrre tearm
Iwo
HUSSEIN:
Set
Fire years:
then
- blu
HAZLITT:
Close friends yes.
HUSSEI N:
You-knew-each other in Europe?
HAZLITT: :
Yege It was five y ears ago that she left
Europe tocome here.
HUSSEIN:
What a coincidence, then, that you should have
been sent here too!
HA ZLITT:
No, I applied to oome here.
I put in my first
application a year ago.
HUSSEIN:
Ah, you applied...
HA ZLITT:
Do you know her?
HUSSEIN:
I've often seen her, and believe there's no
woman to cc ompare with her in the country. She
has such a composure, Captain, Buch an air of
nobilitys I've Been her from afar, and loved
hef!
HA ZLITT:
I remember her as a beautiful young woman.
HUSSEIN:
She is still. But I've never apoken to her.
The only women I speak to apart from my wife
are those I sleep with, - the' buly whores. a few Zeui I
want my children to grow up worthy of people
like Miss Friedmann. I don't want them to
1ke hue
be greedy for things as I am, greedy for drink
and women. One day you'll come to my house
and Bee the clothes my children sleep in:
you'll see their beds, their toys, the kind of


food they eat. You'll see for yourself that
they're growing up 11ke Europeans. Look, -
my shirt, my jacket, my wrist-watoh, even my
handkerchief, - they're all from Europe. And
I don't do it 11ke a slave.
I do it because
I believe my people oan only survive with the
help of Europe.
I'm lucky, Captain, I was
brought up hy European nursea, so I can set
LN prdl
the others an example here.
Do you wonder
wit
I drink in this plaoe? Wouldn't any man drink
condemned to a stifling tomb like this, a tomb
full of whores and spies?
HAZLITT:
Yet I think I ghall /
be happy here.
HUSSEIN:
Happy to be out of Europe? fhr Can a European say
such a thing?
HAZ ZLITT:
But I'm free here.
I command the station. I
Kese f2 uo aud t gie lue orden. Flin A A
xlone, When tm not onduty I can wear caeaty ru
3 cu rd ko
la aud all uy wR
Just
alwagp
what U like:
feet happier he in the lase .
alothes
Cindialig li clothes)
you Bee me Ine
HUSSEIN (with
Yo nmld, libe t le a
a Bmile) Hoe
sus
cilicnagi,
then?
Yer, In six unttr Igall lxe nee /
HA ZLITT:
Alfbal sulater, A e B ROoM
at my last
post everything was regimental this or regiment-
al that. All our ainners were together, in
full aress, eyery evening.
Kused to Ronder
whe ther was . I itteu
life a mich-left-me Iladl
no privacy at eli, hardly asingle monent alone
Red
of out of my untfora. But now, with people
1ike yourself and Mise
here I
t a lew
tast Friedmann, know I shall
gloinu
6 ulbs -
happy; There'll be plenty/ of leisure, I
shall go for rides early in/the
morning across
the adesert, in these clothes and without
the
eyes of a régiment on ne. I shall go
hunting.


leam to geak
Ishall have my friends to ainner, notother
te leuguage fuentty.
offiders and theirwivess And sometlmes I
shall go withyou into the hills and meet the
tribal ohtefe.
HUSSEIN:
The tribal chiefs?
HA ZLITT:
Why not?
areit uded (c
HUSSE IN:
But a European officer! Yesle
iat lare, uytiend
HA ZLITT:
(yo bu're surprisddt (He looks out at the
uith a bre de
desertf It'sbrangeg I've come. here as a
soldier, and I even regret killing that bird.
A - a
Cebena-leadda
Yet you are a. warrior: you've killed
thousands of these birds, perhaps even men.
I've never killed a man. Yot I'm here as a
soldier, feared by many of your people.
Perhaps I can ohange all that.
HUSSEIN:
You want to change 1t, Captain? Night not
that be dangerous?
HA ZLITT:
Why?
lestrohan)
HUSSEINA
Do you know anything about Miss Friedmann's
activities here?
All I Russ id kat
sd a
she
ZLITT:
No, nothing.
Lonly
jobat
drelor at the lotal
the-otl-campr
Lapitae
HUSSEIN:
Well, then, it might not be so dangerous.
You mean just to exchange cordialities with
the chiefs? Yes, a good idea, apecielly nice 7o
HA ZLITT:
What are those 'aotivities'? sponk nr laupage
HUSSEIN:
Let
fereatey.
her tell you about them herself, if she
wants tc.
I'm no spy.
HAZLITT:
But are they dangerous?
HUSSEIN:
Let her tell you herself, Captain.
HA2 ZLITT:
W111 she do that?
HUSSEIN:
In time you'll learn everything about us.


My aulitiy has alwayp
been
Lettle
cmuky
fot
Icke
ehel


In time all the Europeans want to leave us
as if they were escaping a death-sentence.
We need someone to put our faith in, Captain,
someone who won't go away!
HA ZLITT:
Did the officers before me want to leave?
HUSSEIN:
Sooner than anyone else.
HAZLITT:
But I epgoiallyagked to come Here. Hew
maiy
narot
I want
to be- here.
use
HRE UTE
you
HUSSE a
Look at the desert, Captain. A European
must always be a stranger to that. Even the
men who were horn here are half-dead with
bored om. When I drink I'm trying to drink
that bored om away. You Bay you're alone
here.
But I don't want to be alone, Captain, and
very
Notx soon, when the heat begins, you are going
to saythe Bame. This place may be good for
cock kroaches, and soorpions, and rats, and
ligards,
tilaclivasdenynons but it's no good for a man who
has seen Europe.
HAZ ZLITT:
Miss Friedmann didn't leave you.
She has
neaslya
been here Eve years.
HUSSEIN:
True, she belongs to us more than any other
European I know. But there's a reason for
that.
She has Mohammed the doctor, you 8ee.
HA ZLITT:
Mohammed?
HUSSEIN:
He'sa surgeon at the local hospital, a man
I detest.
Gholg-tike
- - ohim, ethey
4ag We can talk freely, you and I?
HAZLITT:
Of course.
HUSSEIN:
He takes her into the hills.
They
go by
aeroplane. What I mean 18, Captain, she 1en't


Lay
Rone,
Lay
itoy
Rov
alone as you or any other officer would be.
He takee her among the people. They talk to
her as one of their own.
HAZ ZLITT:
Would they not do BO to me?
HUSSEIN:
That isn't 11kely, Captain.
And it's. going
to be the loneliness which will drive you away
from us.
HA2 ZLITT:
You detest this man, you say?
HUSSEIN:
I do, Captain, and I wish you could use your
influence on Mise Friedmann
HA ZLATT:
They are lovers? Did youay they-were L lovers ?.
6 HUSSEIN (arter a pause gturingshich he 1ooks Anto HA ZLITT's
eyes) - Yes, theyare loverh, Capta in.
The bell ringe at the : door below.
HUSSEIN:
You've another visitor. I'll Sand my own way
out,
HAZLITT:
You've been very kind to me.
HUSSEIN:
If you need anything more, send your servant
across. Don't hesitate. meare only fifty
yards from each other.
There is a knock on. the door and BAKER enters.
BA KER:
Mr. Shingleton is waiting, sir.
HA ZLITT:
Who's that?
ergincerng
BAKER:
From. the By-camp, sir.
wCC
HA ZLITT:
Ah, yes.
Show him up.
BAKER leaves,
HUSSEIN:
will you come and aine with me one day?
HA ZLITT:
I should.be Adelighted.
HUSSEIN:
In your unfitorm? S
HA ZLITT (with surprise) Ityou wish.
HUSSEIN:
Excellent!
Good bye, Captain.
They shal ke hands, and HUSSEIN leaves. HAZLITT


Sringlda : Aeym fergut?
Waytit : A uuch c d.c Cau be,
withmt having lived cmne
inpfni,
thaw,
le able k
Fripheli : Woll, (mhal
littte. ( elss Cou
lly a
Spesk Ae lngage, 4 I Rum
those luhabaut Hairly well,


goes to the parapet and stares outacross the desert.
SHINGLETON enters silently.
He watches HAZLITT,
whose back is turned towarde him. A pause.
SHINGLETON: Good morning, Captain Hazlitt. - egicainauys?
HAZLITT (turning): Ah,_Mr.-Shi-nlaton, of the oil-camp?
SHINGLETON: Yes.C Headquarters told me you'd arrived.
HA2 ZLITT:
Please sit down.
It's shady here.
SHII NGLETON: Miss Friedmann already knows you, I belleve?
HA ZLITT:
Yes, we're old friends.
SHINGLETON: You're lucky to find an old friend in a post
like thie, Captain.
HA ZLITT:
No, I applied to come here.
SHINGLETON (with a glance at him): Oh, you aid.7 Well,
rocuue hore
I trust your deoision /was wises Most people
here
regret somiing i
But I can help you a
little
knon- thase- inhabitante fairly-well,
Haylitt: : lovee cc
peak the langunge.rekdevt.lyw
So I
too
hope we shall always work together. Did
your
Aare
Headquart ers give you some idea of your tasks
here? -
ueaded ledse
beliveTHAZLITT:
They told me you wanted/guards on the atd
WYu:l tok
camp. Leuw nsad.
Hym ago,
SAL
SHINGLETON: There are two thinge to remember: first that
kati why In hese.
haue to te seulaas at leangfata tine,
there
almng
has to be a sentry 'at the
gate of the
te sgelel
sad ln veudes eustuclion :
a camp both day and night, with
wotznly
bayonet fixed;
this biiut will hoshe uuve fushs wovth a, rino gve, -
abs secondly, that you have to deploy your troops
yU - llunalely afles 6 uttr, uhea w aso due K
("round the camp if there is any trouble. I
sinish the Wlure Pact,
will lave lsgladnt
find this house a littie Yar away, Captain.
paltin tra weekn so al alai.
had suul
Is that safe? I mean, you'ye a/military mary raiuiy,
so you are in a position to know, but I hust
wonder if it's safe.
I can keep in touoh
by telephone. And I've
ded
ink arranged for a green Verey light to be shot
Aficer Hiese plades leith wlu who kum te
trapne


if I'm needed thebarradks urgently. .
SHINGLETON: Well, think the ma tter over.
There's always
a danger no, I should say possibility - of
wad
your being cut off from the eamp
the-
vent tie-Aecttack uldscahug e A by, we
rebele, to
and that would be the end of us all.
HA2 ZLITT:
Still, I prefer to risk it.
Shigelk ooks
wter
Stnet rhue nt
SHINGLETON: Are you keeping your-barracks on the other
side of the>town?
usr
HA ZLITT:
Yes, and-the-last taing i-want-to-40-1e to
take a billet close to my troops.
of Prera paue)
SHINGLETON A Very well.
All I can do is to Bive you advice,
and Bo long as you know the dangers of being
here, well and good.
HAZLITT:
Is there 11kely to be trouble?
SHINGLETON: Notat all. Butfo a great extent 1t depende
on you.
HA ZLITT:
How?
woud
SHINGLETON: Tha t atlcamp is a European concern, and your
only. Job here is to probect it.
That'e
unde erstood. But clearly a rebel government
1s not in our interests.
So you have to be
very vigilant, you have to nip a rebellion in
the bud if possible.
It will save you a lot
of trouble la ter on.
That's where I oan help
you. I know every political figure of any
note: in this country, Captain, and I can usually
give you some warning of trouble ahead.
HAZLITT:
Now does one nip such a thing in the bud?
SHINGLETON: Not by shooting the leaders or putting them in
prison.
But by making a show of strength.
Just show your strength. You'll be quite within
your rights. (A pause.) Are you very frienly
with Al Shabar?


HAZLITT:
Who 1s Al Shabar?
SHINGLETON: Hussein Al Shabar. He walked out as I came
in; a very European looking fellow.
HA ZLITT:
He's my neighbour.
He's been over twice
withlittle gifte.
IANAM
SHINGLETON: You didn't know him. before you came here, I
mean?
HA ZLITT:
Of course not.
How could I?
SHINGLETON: Oh, he lived in Europe for several years.
SH INGLETON takes out a snuff-box, and offers it
to HAZLITT.
SHINGLETON: Snuff?
HA ZLITT:
No, thank you.
SHINGLETON (taking snuff): I feel I ought to give you a
little warning, Captain. It has something to
Pr. bobilh
do with Hise Friedmann. Please remember. that?
I'm not speaking at all about your friendship
with her.
I'm only aware of two thinge:
first, that you're fairly young, and, secondly,
that' you're new to thie country. And I don't
want you to run into any bad luck here.
would be an easy thing to do. I don't know
how much influence Mies Friedmann has over you,
but at the risk of offending you I'm going to
tell you this. You may have heard that she
hàs a friend called Mohammed, a surgeon.
HA2 ZLITT:
Yes.
SHINGLETON: Now. both-aherand Mohammed Thuppore/oher-rebole.
He takes her by 'plane into the hille, Bometimes
ance a month, sometimes twioe, and there. they
ThezTake -th thes Ledical
meet the rebel-leaders. L NowI I'm
applas confident
GAppra,
of our power,' 'Jand' of the fact that a bad rebel-


-movement - and it 1s a bad rebel-movement,
I assure you a is even better than no rebel-
-movement at all, thatI've-never-taken-eteps
- DT a 1T dmanne Shes the
mest-asefutmember-of- staff Mohammed is
a very decent and charming young man, but
inclined to be hysterical.
So long as the
rebel-movement is under the sway of people
11ke himself, we are safe.
Now listen,
Captain: when Miss Friedmann comes here to
dinner bonight and sees you for the first time ,
two
in taprp years, she will perhaps try to influence
HAZLITT:
How?
SHINGLETON: She will suggest to you tha t by protecting the
hew waa
eil-camp you are condoning the terrible starvat-
ion and disease in this country.
HAZLITT:
Have I an argument againet that t?
WCN, te asomument - lu.
SHINGLETON: Yes- rourarguenti-is-that Tt doesn't matter
to you how. many rebellions there are provided
tue
tha
wad.
only
t they don't interfere with the
elh
lhat voad
hastty, Cplaw,
MERE F
1 the
ampn Anay't must warn you that Miss Friedma m's
teufit
f conversat tion with you tonight will not be
es 1 af
spontal neous.
HAZLITT:
Why not?
SHINGLETON: Because her friend Mohammed will be behind it.
I only want you to ha ve your eyes open.
A pause.
HAZLITT:
Hes-she lald
nd + trap Cop-merttent I
can't imagine such a thinge!
Drsrighot Jag bil- fim
sheikhs vich ar
kesps
Sld. L itmidred
seefa.


atigtor
Spet?
SHINLETON:
She's under his thumb, Captain.
HAZLITT:
How can you know?
SHINGLETON: Let me be frank with you. I have spies
everywhere in the town. Gossip travels
fast, and this isn't even gossip, Captain.
HAZLITT:
She will be his instrument?
SHINGLETON: Now I don't want you to take these things too
seriously. dabtain
These local melodramatics
never come to ansthing. Afterwards one laughs
about them.
But one has to be warned of their
coming.
HA ZLITT:
You are sure, then...
SHINGLETON: I know, Captain, I know. (He rises)
Now as
time goes on you may find this place affecting
your mind and nerves. After nearly ten years
here I've attained a kind of balance, so let's
keep in touch with each other.
The hea t is
going to etart beating up very soon. So let's
keep in touch with each other.
A pau use.
SHINGLETON: Eh? What do you say to that?
HAZLITT (collecting himself): Of course. You'were kind to
warn me.
SHI NGLETON (leaving): You know my - phone number.
HAZLITT:
Yes.
SHINGLETON: And for God's sake don't play into their hands!
Good bye.
They shake hands. Just as SHINGLETON ie about to
turn away, the harsh call-to-prayer sounds out from the
minaret nearby. The loudspeaker blares and deafens..
HAZLITT's mouth opens in utter astonishment.
SHINGLETON lau ughs to see his face, and during the
first pause in the prayer, he shouts across to him:


SHINGLETON: It's from the mosque! They call the faith-
ful
ppadayp!
to prayer by loudpeaker nawedeys:
He leaves.
HAZLITT continues to stare acrose
the desert as the deafening yell begine again and the
CURTAIN slowly falls.


SCENE: a drawing roon downstaira during the
evening of the same day. It ie dusk.
On' the right there
is a door leading out into the garden, and on the left
another door leading further into the house.
HAZLITT and BAI KER are discovered.
BAKER is
lay ing the table for dinner: there are two places.
HA ZLITT:
You can light the candles now, Baker.
BAKER:
Yes, sir.
He does thie while HAZLITT goes about tidying
the room.
BAI KER:
It's airless tonight, sir.
HA ZLITT:
Yes.
I'11 open the door.
HAZLITT opens the door leading into the garden
and stands for a moment looking out.
HAZLITT:
Did you find some doe after all?
lon,
BAF KER:
Yes, Sira I went tothe next house.
HA ZLITT:
To Hussein Al Shabar's?
BA KER:
Yes, eir.
He gave me these flowers.
said they were for the lady.
HA ZLITT:
Ah, yes.
BAKER:
Do you need anything more for the table?
HA ZLITT:
No, Baker. Just be ready with the drink.
BAI KER leaves and HAZLITT goes to the table.
begins carefully re-arranging the flowers.
V bmyol
LEONORA FRIEDMANN appears in the garden, then in
the docrway. She watches HAZLITT at the table. A pause.
SHE enters the room.
LEONORA: :
Philip..
He turne round swiftly.


rdl
HAZLITT:
Norat (Bunningto her and Aaing her ha inde)
How-wor
1 y took: Dut I thought you
were ooning by car. I heard nothing.'
LEONORA :
No. I sent the driver back at the edge of
the town. I wanted to walk.
(Thoy-gazen
wice
at aach other) It's-ea-iomely seeing you
again, faxzepe
HAZLITT:
Was I right to come ?
LEONORA :
Yes!
HAZLITT:
You told me not to in your letters.
LEONORA :
I was afraid. But you're here now.
Let me
look at you. (Ne-drawa-her aloserto him)
You haven't chan nged ! thankosarr
HA ZLITT:
Did you ex) peot me to?
LEONORA :
I was g6 afraid on my way up here.
I thought
you might have become -
A pause.
HA ZLITT:
Lard
LEONORA (with a amile) Oh, you know: merciless..
sounds' silly now tha t you're here before me.
hadd
HAZLITT:
But suppose I am merciless?
How could you
tell 80 soon?
LEONORA :
I can tell because your eyes are the same,
because your smile is the same. There's
hardly a wrinkle more on your face. I remem-
ber standing with you Just 11ke this five years
ago. St's a terrible thing, to be separated
from someone for five years.
HA ZLITT:
And-you were happy the moment you saw me Just
now?
LEONORA :
Yes.
HAZLITT:
Anal you forgive me?
LEONORA :
Why 'forgive'?


HAZLITT:
Well, I always felt I'a committed a gost
dreadful crime in your eyes... Bat am I
allowed to kias you?
(7ith a laugh) I
feel shy, you Bee: Suppose youéfarried
without letting me know? Buppose uou bave y
a chila? After all, five yeare a
They kiss.
HAZLITT:
Come, eit down.
(He pulle out a chair for
her. Lying across it is his riding-whip.
They see it and glance at each other for a
moment) Do you know what that le for,
darlingt (He takes it up)
It'B for beating
my eoldtere with!
(He laughs and playfully
pushes a look of her bair aoross her face)
You haven't got over it yet.
You never will
perhaps.
LEONORA: (eitting down): : I shall try.
HAZLITT:
But it seeme to me BO childish!
I can
hardly belleve you stayed away for five years
Just because of that. What a terrible will
you have, Leonora!
It advances alowly, like
a huge iron moneter, and nothing can etop 1t.
I arrive here and find you don't hate me, - you
don't oven want to hate me!
Yet your will
made you stey away from me, and if I hadn't
come here perhape we should never have Beon
each other again.
(le stares at her for a
moment) Leonora, it's true that you don't
hate me, I mean..
(Touching her face)
You aren't lying to me ebout your feelings?
LEONORA :
Tny should I want to lie to you?


HA ZLITT:
You se0, we hardly know each other yet.
How dark those five yeare have been! thoee
hours of yearning just to have you in front
of me like this!
Suppose I had never written
to you again? Would, you ha ve been able to
forget me?
LEONORA :
I tried to, often.
HA ZLITT:
And you always failed?
LEONORA :
Yes.
A pa use.
HAZLITT:
Who is Mohammed?
She glances at him.
LEONORA :
Has Shingleton been here?
HA ZLITT:
Yes, a this morning.
LEONORA :
Mohammed is my best friend here.
HA ZLITTF
Is it taue what Shingleton told me: that
Hohammed planned your visit here this evening,
and told you what to say? Did he help you
rehearse the kies you gave me Just now? No,
I can't believe 1t!
LEONORA: :
You shouldn't lieten to these other people,
Philip.
HAZLITT:
But is 1t true?
If it 18, then you're the
merciless one, not me.
LEONORA :
I agreed to tell you what people think of
Captains here.
But there was nothing einieter
in that.
Re didn't make a plan.
Shingleton
hates ue both, and he always tried to show us
up in a sinister light.
GA ZLITT:
You are suro, Leonora
LEONORA :
Lobk into my eyes, Philip. Am I lying? No,


don't turn away. Am I?
HAZLITT:
LEONORA :
I feel so different now that I'm face to
face with you. I expeoted to find you in
unifomm.
I even thought I should just
look in the doorway and then want to run
back to Mohammed at once.
HA ZLITT:
Then your thinking brain told you wrong? a
Did you find there was something in you
hidden from the mighty brain, Nora?
You
found the brain was not God? - I wish I
could have proved that to you five years
ago! For five years you've beén carrying.
this love far me round with you and trying
to deny it! I knew I was right. I knew
it. But now we're together, and we needn't
worry about the past.
I've managed to get
champagne, darling.
It's on the ice now.
HA ZLITT goes to the door and calls for Baker.
LEONORA:
What lovely flowers, Philip! They're
from the hills, surely?
HA ZLITT:
Yes. Hussein Al Shabar sent them across
by my servant. He said they were for the
lady. That means for you.
LEONORA: :
Ie he the man who arinke, - the rich landowner?
HA ZLITT:
Yes. You must have heard of him.
adores you.
LEONORA:
But he adores anything European, Philip.
There is a. knock on the door. BAKER enters.
H paaces the champagne' on the table, then leaves.
LEONORA:
Is he one of your Boldiers?
HA ZLITT:
Yes.
LEONORA :
Reliable?


HAZLITT:
What do you mean?
LEONORA :
Oh, there are scnany spies here.
HAZLITT pours ohampagne into two glasses.
They
drink.
HAZLITT:
Five years ago you would have drunk my health.
>sevontbonngonvesosvecardnsaronsvevnensvwweewnotebrvtlennwy
Smile.
You haven't really smiled yet.
(Lifting the corners of her mouth into a
amile)
There.
Now you look exactly as I
remember you.
LEONORA :
This is a sad place, darling.
I've been here
too long.
HA ZLITT:
But I intend to be happier here than I've ever
been before.
(Watching her)
You don't
believe 1n that, do you?
LEONORA :
It's.this country, Philip.
HA ZLITT:
But why can't we keep the country outside,
bey ond that door?
LEONORA :
It oan't be done.
HA ZLITT:
Is your will on my side?
LEONORA: :
I love you; that has nothing to do with the
will.
HA ZLITT:
I'm still an officer of the colonial army -
You can't forget that, can you?
LEONORA :
No. But I can still love you. You say you
are going to be happy. Five years ago I should
have loved to hear you say that. But I know
you can only be happy here at the expense of
other people. Therefore a want to cringe
when I hear you say that. I want to drink
your health, Philip's health, but not Captain
Hazlitt's.
HA ZLITT:
Why can I only be happy at the
expense


other people?
LEONORA: :
Oh, let's not talk about the villages, and
the dea th-rate in them. You must have heard
about that.
HA ZLITT:
Ie your conscience going to drive us away
from each other again, Nora? You couldn't
stay with the person you loved five years
ago because he joined the colonial army.
You made yourself bleed, Just to serve this
damnable conscience of yours. Is that going
to happen again?
LEONORA :
We won't talk about it now, Philip. We
HA ZLITT:
No. I want you to be frank with me. What t
about these villages?
LEONORA: :
You yourself were born among poor people.
And here everyone identifies you with the
riohest and most corrupt landowners. I
only want to be proud of you. They detest
you, detest you!
How can I be proud of
that?
HAZLITT:
I shall prove myself different.
LEONORA: :
You think you're a newcomer, my dear, but
these people have seen you a thousand times
before!. You're inf inite, you Captains.
Only your names are aifferent.
HA ZLITT:
But look at me, Nora, look at mo!, Don't
turn me into a moneter just because I some-
times wear a uniform
LEO NORA :
I remember these officers well
enough as a
child!
HA ZLITT:
But you Ba 1d the army would change me. You
were wrong; you confessed it yourself. I


I haven't changed at all, and I won't change
in this country either.
LEONORA:
You're only a cipher here.
Your only job is
obey orders.
HA ZLITT:
I can go out and meet the villagers.
LEONORA :
But your job is to shoot them down if they
start any trouble:
HAZLITT:
My job is to defend the oil-camp, nothing else.
LEONORA :
Do you think there can be a real revolt while
tou are here, then?
Why, the landowners
play a hundred children away to the grave every
night over a pack of carde!
Have you come
here to defend that, you whose childhood was
made ignominious by the same people?
HA ZLITT:
All I know is that I-was sent here by Head-
quarters at my own request, that I have a
comfortable house here where I can entertain
my friends, and that at last I can see you and
speak to you again.
These are the facts.
What's the use of letting the brain go off
on these exoursions into my childhood and the
suffering of other people?
It makes me feel
quite giddy.
LEONORA:
It's because a know this country better than
you do,/dear. You and I are really enemies
in the eyes of the world.
HA ZLITT:
Beaanse of your work with the rebels?
LEONORA :
My work and Mohammed's. He and I have made
children outside, Philip. They are 11ke
children, waiting for us, people who are
diseased and starving.
HAZLITT (turning on her angrily) But you didn't make
a real
ohild, you and Mohammed, did you? Tou wouldn's


riak that, would you? A real child would
suck at your breasts and be cla ining you all
the time; 1t wouldn't let you be a thinking
ghoet!
I suppose it saves a lot of trouble
being a thinking ghost. It meane you never
have to feel anything, never make a mistake,
never have a quarrel, never suffer:
Have you
managed to keep your. conscience even here,
in this vulturee' kingdom where the aun is so
cruel?
LEONORA :
If I wanted to be a thanking ghost I should
bave etayed with Lohamned. But I choose to
be here, in love with you.
HAZLITT:
I shall make you proud of me. I shall turn
thie into an edventure. That's what I joined
the colonial army for. There's still nystery
in thie plaoe, - do you see what I mean?
There's atill aufforing.
It's not aafe here.
I Baw a man hit his servant in the face today,
and the Bervant kiseed hie hand for it. Thinga
11ke that come to my mind: and I've seen
women walking behind their husbande 11ke
elaves. I was tired of being a European
citizon, Leonora. And even 1f your rebele
curae me to the grave, I shall at least feel
I've done more in life than obey a few safe
lawe.
LEONORA :
Ho. You must do your Job here, nothing more.
You mustn't lock for enemiee in a place like
this.
HA ZLITT:
And you? Are you going to etay with the
rebels?
LEONORA :


HA ZLITT:
Mohammed will oall you a traitor.
LEONORA :
I shall have to accept that.
HA ZLITT:
Won't it be a long struggle?
LEONOFA :
Yes, and in a place like this one oan never
say what the result will be.
HAZ ZLITT (with a laugh) A struggle between me and Mohammed;-
that's what it 1s!
mowMertenandewangwots
yobpapANpNYOustantt But I shall win.
I'm going to bring back tha t old Leonora who
was so light and strong!
HA2 ZLITT pours two more glasses of champagne.
HA ZLITT:
There, let's invoke that magnificent, light,
happy girl with champagne!
Drink, go on!
(They touch glasses and drink)
And now we'll
forget rid: ing-whips and uniforms, - we'll
There is a knook on the door leading into the
garden.
HAZLITT calls out, 'Come in!' and the door is
flung open by HUSSEIN AL SHABAR.
He has clearly been
drinking.
He sways in the doorway, staring at them,
then comes towarde the table.
HAZLITT:
This is Hussein Al Shabar, Leonora.
LEONORA :
How do you do?
HUSSEIN kisses hiy own hand and raises 1t to his.
brow, in prof ound homage.
HUSSEIN:
We are poor people here, Miss Friedmann.
are humble.
We have nothing to give you but
the darkness of our shame, and too muoh heat,
and the silence.
(He points to the bottle
on the table)
Is that champagne, Capta: in?
HA ZLITT:
Yes. May I give you some?
HUSSE IN:
I've just escaped from my wife.
Let me have
a glass, please.
HA ZLITT pours a third glass of champagne, but when


he offers it to HUSSEIN the latter holds up his hand.
HUSSEIN (seating himeelf) Could I ask you to do something
before I drink? Just draw the ourtains.
This is a city of eyes, and a prince is supposéd
never to drink in our country.
I'm afraid
even my servants
Cspyie


spy on me. /ONMWMAMO
HAZLITT goes to the wind OW and draws the curtains.
It is alseady night.
HUSSEIN:
He told me this morning you were only Iriende,
HissPriedmennr (fie-ehuektlen) But-even-a
drunlmed-nee-eyest- Well, (raising his glass)
a blessing on both of you!
(Drinks, then
speaks to LEONORA) .I've heard about your
visits to Masudi.
I deeply admire you for
that.
HA ZLITT:
Who is Masudi?
HUSSEIN:
The rebel leader in the hille, Captain. An
exile, a man with a price on his head.
Haglitt :
leurp th JNYR with
relsala!
HA A
ite
Then-evegend here KTOWE about your
kheam)
visitet
HUSSEIN:
Your thoughts, your lovers, your most closely
guarded secrets are common knowledge hére,
Captain!
The police see into every car that
passes them on the street
they stare inside
to see what new friends you ha ve. By dawn
tomorrow ev erybody will know at what time Kiss
wmld
Friedmann left this house.
You% be well
advised to draw your curtains after A dusk every
evening, Captain.
LEONORA
L ue Oue aic Coe alae lese
ce Phil
toulttobe alone
here
HUSSEIN:
Masudi has made one fatal mistake, Iiss Fried-
mann. He does not believe in Europe.
But
in Europe lies our only hope. He hatea
Europe; I aspire to Europe. But you agree
with hin? KOWAAtuoNewer
LEONORA :
Yes.
HUSSEIN:
Yet you are a European.


LEONORA :
This country must one day be quite free of
Europe.
HUSSEIN:
Then where will Masudi get his arms?
Who
will work his factories? He believes in
equality and independence.
These are
European 1deas.
LEONORA: :
I can't think. I'm 80 orry.
(Rising) It's
80 hot tonight.
HUSSEIN:
The poor shall inherit the earth.
The day
of the overlords - our day, Capta: in is
finished.
HEHEN
ORF (to HALLITT as she goes towarde the door)
a I
an overlord: you see?
She opene the door and looks outside.
HUSSEIN:
The heat will come earlier this year.
Your
health, Captain.
They touch glasses.
LEONORA: :
Philip, I think there'e someone outside.
HA ZLITT:
It must be the sentry.
LEONORA :
No, I think it's a woman.
HUSSEIN:
Then it's my wife.
HAZLITT goes to the door.
HUSSEIN:
Is it my wife?
HA ZLITT (calling into the garden)
Who's there?
HUSSEIN joins them at the door.
HUSSEIN (peering into the darkness) Bad ia? Bad ia?
(with a laugh) Are you a spy or something?
Go back to the house, woman.
(As she appeara)
Now why don't you stay in the house?
BAD IA:
Because you shan't disgrace me! Why do you
worry these people?
HA ZLITT:
No, no, come in.


BAD IA :
But, Capta: in
HA ZLITT:
No, you've both been Bo kind. Drink a glass
of champagne with us.
He ushers BADIA AL SHABAR into the room, and the
others follow.
BADIA:
I came to stop him drinking, Captain. I have
to wa toh him wherever he goes.
HUSSEIN:
Why do you worrys woman?
BADIA:
Because you weren't invited here, and if you
were sober you would never dare to comé. Thes e
people have a private party.
HUSSEIN:
Am I wanted or not, Captain?
HA ZLITT:
Please stay, both of you. will you sit down?
Champagne, Mrs a ?
HUSSEIN:
Call her Badia, Captain. Let's keep the veil
for outside.
How free it feels, just to sit
here!
BADIA:
Very little, Captain. Ar nd you shouldn't give
my husband any more.
HAZLITT:
Only one more glass, to celebrate.
BADIA:
But that can make the difference between a
peaceful night and hell itself!
HUSSEIN:
Be quie t, woman!
(Holding up his glass)
The Captain and I understand eaoh other.
BADIA:
Every night I have to look after hin as if he
were a child. Last week he thought he Baw
a man outside and started firing his revolver
Windon
through the Bldasn He's jealous of every
man who comes near the house.
HUSSEIN:
Am I jealous of the Captain? No, because
the Captain is an honourable man. But the
men you are talking about - my countrymen


they're a pack of wolves.
BADIA:
Every time I go out in the car he must have
a detalled account of the journey from my
driver.
HUSSEIN:
But your worries are over, Badia. The Captain
and Miss Friedmann will keep you entertained.
BADIA: :
BAfN Borhaps they don't want to come to my house
and see you drunk every evening.
(To Leonora)
But perhaps we could have tea together some-
times, Hiss Friedmann.
HUSSEIN:
All the gossip in this city begins in the hare.
Beware of those tea-parties, Miss Friedmann.
BADIA:
Am I to be robbed of my tea-parties, then?
You keep me locked up in the house all day
and you even begrudge me the company of women!
HUSSEIN:
Do you wonder I drink, Captain? I drink to
forget the indignity of my marriage. Be
careful of her, Miss Friedmann.
She will put
her coile round your little life.
He drinks.
BADIA:
The doctors have told you often enough: you're
drinking yourself to death.
HUSSE IN:
Look at her, Captain: a beautiful woman. To
slegp with her ie like a feast.
But she has
no right even to sit in the same room as Miss
Friedmann, because she lacks honour. If I
let. her go free she'd become a whore in a
fortnight.
She thinks like a whore and she
has the tongue of a whore. You can hear for
yourself.
LEONORA (to BADIA): Do you never go out, then?
BADIA:
I'm allowed an evening drive in the car. I
go up the main street and back again. I


wonder if you've ever realised how envious
we women are when we see you walking freely
in the streets? You are a wonderful symbol
for us.
HUSSEIN:
Yes and at their tea-parties they strip. you
down to a carcase with their vile talk.
They
pay their servants to spy on you. Shall I
tell you one of their stories?
They say a
guard came aoross you lying in a ditoh with
Mohammed the dootor.
That's the kind of
symbol you represent for them! A symbol of
their own lechery!
BADIA :
You shame me!
HUSSE IN:
Everything muet be underhand here. Any
crime, any perversion, may be practised in
seoret.
But anything truly innocent they'1l
befoul.
(To HAZLITT) But you and I are
going to alter all that.
BADIA: :
Free your womAn first, then the gossip will
stop.
HUSSEIN:
Is he going to treat us like slaves, your.
old friend here, Miss Friedmann?
LEONORA:
I've never known him do that.
HUSSEIN:
How could it be Bo? He's an old
friend of yours.
This morning you said sou
wanted to see the tribal chiefs, Captain.
Well, tha t can be arranged.
wild
BADIA:
He has matiwpap scnemes, Captain. They never
come to anything.
HUSSE, IN:
We have to learn from Europe. And the Captain
is in a position to teach us.
LEONORA :
He can only obey his orders.


HUSSEIN:
There's a way to everything, Miss Friedmann.
Are you our friend, Captain?
HA ZLITT:
of course.
HUSSE IN:
Sympathy is what we require: an aotive aym-
pathy, Captain. And in return for your sym-
pathy I can hold out for you a most wonderful
life. You will be able to turn this Bad 1ife
of the outpost into a crusade, you will have
the marvellous countryside in the north at
your disposal, you will have mountains and
streams, and flowers 11ke endless carpets at
your feet. You will hald daily court with
your leaders, you will be praised wherever you
go and loved; all your days will be full and
free, with hunting and riding. and banquetting.
It will be a life worthy of a man, not the
cramped, careful 11fe of an officer commanding
an out-post, where there's no prowess, no anger,
no dignity, only a slow and gradual degradation
of your powers. I may be a drunkard and my
wife may be a whore, but there's something in
what I say, isn't there?
BADIA:
Your head is swollen with dreams becaaee you
drink too much.
Come and see him at five
o'alock tomorrow morning, Captain, when he 1s
holding his etomach and groaning in my arme:
then you will Bee what a warrior we have!
HUSSEIN:
Am I not a warrior, then? You, a woman,
Bay that?
(Looks round) Am I to prove
myself then?
(J umps up, laughing)
Let's
eee how you l1ke this!
He walks unsteadily acrose to the wall and pulle


Rensed
down HAZLITT's revolver-holster.
BADIA:
Hussein!
She ju umps up as he takes out the revolver.
With a laugh he pushes her away, and breake the revolver
open. HAZ ZLITT rises.
HAZLITT:
Don't be an idiot.
Put it away.
HUSSEIN looke at the bullet-obamber.
HUSSEIN:
Four bullets, Captain.
BADIA (trying to grasp hold of him)
Stop him, Captain!
He'll do away with his life!
HA ZLITT:
Do you want me to throw you out?
HUSSEIN holds BADIA away and, slowly lowering the
revolver, looks at HAZLITT with a smile.
HUSSEIN:
Now, Captain, we are honourable men.
If I
wish to kill myself, let me.
We are all alone.
You are my brother.
Sit down.
HA ZLITT:
All right. Do what y ou like.
HUSSEIN cldses the revolver, sets the chamber
rolling and points the barrel at his right temple.
BADIA:
Hussein:
I love you, Hyssein!
She draws back in horror as it becomes clear that
he is determined to pull the trigger. Staring into her eyed,
swaying drunkenly, he does. so. There is a light click,
and BADIA burets into tears.
HUSSEIN:
So I'n not a warrior at five o'clock 1n the
morning.
I'm a dreamer.
Isn't that what
you said?
(Calmly replacing the revolver)
Go back to your seat, woman, and keep a hold
on your tongue. The Captain and I are going
to work together. 1 Keep.your nose out of our
business, you understanda
BADIA returns to her seat. She slumps in her


chair, reaches slowly for the bottle and purs herself a
full glass.
AB she begins to drink the CURTAIN Blowly
falls.


SECOND ACT.


SCENE: the same a few weeks later.
It is
afternoon.
The room is much brighter than formerly, and
furnished more in the Eastern style. The re are brightly
coloured ruge, sushions and table-covers.
HUSSEIN AL SHABAR is discovered.
He 1s standing
in the middle of the room. He looks about him, then sees
Hazlitt's military cap hanging near the door. He takes
it down and goes to the mirror.
There he tries it on,
staring at himself with a stern ext pression. He glances
quickly at the window and takes up Hazlitt's riding stick.
He strides about the room in a military fashion, with the
stick under his left arm, his chin thrust forward puganoious-
ly. He suddenly stands to attention and seems to confront
someone smaller than himself.
HUSSEIN (between his teeth): Come on! Come on!
He shak kes the whip in a threatening way at the
imaginary figure.
HUSSEIN:
Well, what do you want, man? Do you usually
stand like that in front of an offioer?
Footsteps are heard at the door, and he quiokly
throws the stick to one side and replaces the cap on its
hook.
HAZLITT enters. He sits down wearily on the divan
and begins unclipping his belt with the revolver holster.
HUSSEIN goe S to the sideboard and pours him a drink.
his way past the window he stops suddenly and draws the
curtains, though it is bright outside. At first HAZLITT
refuses the drink, but HUSSEIN insiste.
HUSSEIN:
Drink 1t, my friend.
HA ZLITT drinks.
HUSSEIN:
What did you find?
HA ZLITT:
We found Masudi.
They opened fire on us along


one of the gorges. They're mad, like all
mountain people.
They'a shoot at a cloud if
it came near enough. Not that they'a hit 1t.
He takes hie revolver out of ite case and begine
cleaning it angrily.
HUSSEIN:
But you saw Masudi?
HA ZLITT:
Yes. I Bent a scout forward with a white
handgerchief. They love that kind of silly
melodrama.
HUSSEIN:
Did he agree to your terme?
HAZLITT:
Hé asked for time.
HUSSEIN:
How much?
HAZLITT:
Two. monthe.
HUSSEIN:
But that'e far too long! There were two
incidente here while you wore away. A crowd
threw stones at one of the embassies, and the
Publio Preseoutor got a bullet through the wim-
screen of hie car.
There are extra police in
the streets. Does Hasud1 think ho can wait
even a fortnight, let aloni U two months?
must act now, or people are going to lose in-
terest, especially now that the heat is coming.
HAZLITT:
All Masudi wanto is time to get round the tribes
and test their loyalty.
HUSSEIN:
Did he trust you?
HA ZLITT:
HUSSEIN:
But he had heard of you?
HA ZLITT:
Yes. sutitea lt is you he doeen't trust.
saye
you are a landowner, and far too friendly with
Europeans.
HUSSEIN chuckles.
HUSSEIN:
How does he look?
HAZLITT:
Tall, with a huge golden beard. I don't like
his harsh voice, and the way he pushés his belky


into you when he addresses you. I was on
tenterhooks the whole time, especially at night
when they got drunk and. practised shooting at
the stare.
You want these gar ngeters to form
a new government?
You must be off your head!
Well, I suppose you are, be ing one of them.
HUSSEIN:
I'm going to make use of Masudi.
He's a fine
warrior, but he's an idiot.
I'll make good
use of him when the time comes, Captain.
HAZLITT:
If he doesn't put a knife in your back before
that.
HUSSEIN:
So he opened fire on you. That was his fun,
for he knew you were coming.
HAZLITT:
But he put a bullet through my sergeanT's hand.
How do I explain that? It's bad enough to be
absent from my post for a week, let alone have
my sergeant wounde ed quite inexplicably.
HUSSEIN:
You must keep an eye on Shingleton.
HAZLITT:
I no longer believe in this rebellion.
You
are all children playing MOMMAMIOMGOR with
pistols, all you mountain people. You think
of nothing but killing. Night after night tha t
Masudi man would sit in front of me and tell me
the Bame story about how five years ago he was
gored by' a wild pig.
He used to stretch him-
self out on the carpet fonr every evening while
one of his followers bent down and snorted like
a pig and thel gored him while he
groaned and
writhed about.
Imagine that great buffalo
with his golden beard writhing all over the floor!
HUSSEIN:
This country ie on the brink of revolution,
Captain. Even children playing with pistole
can frighten adults like yourself. You can't
desert us now.


HAZLITT:
Did I eay I intended to?
HUSSEIN:
Tell me, what terms did you and Masudi agree
HA ZLITT:
I said I'd give him arms and ammunition;
secondly, that I'd order my men not to open
fire in the case of rioting.
I. promised
thesa thinge on one condition: namely, that
camp
he left the eogioiry alone and did not s0
much as put a picket near its gates.
agreed immediately, and promised that any man
caup
who entered the ca-od or did violence to any
European there would be executed on the spot.
HUSSEIN:
What an idiot he is!
We'll surround the polioe
headquarters, incite the army to lay down arms,
march on the House of Assembly, and by dawn
next .day there'll be a new government under oné
of my friends, and Masudi will be back in his
mountains shooting at clouds. Meanwhile,
outhe hew wad will conluine
work. wilf goor au the = -eemp- Juet-as-before,
under European management.
You've done excell-
ently, Captain.
May I have the honour of
inviting you to my house tomorrow?
With Miss
Friedmann of course?
(Looks about him)
She
has certainly made many changes here.
lifts up one of the corners of the table-cover)
You are learning how to live like one of the
people.
(He lets the cover go thoughtfully)
But you are a European, Captain. Therefore you
are the equivalent of a prince for my people.
HA ZLITT:
What do you mean?
HUSSEIN:
Well, these garish thinge...
They are for the
poor, the low-born.


HA ZLITT:
They belong to Mies Friedmann.
HUSSEIN:
Europeans are cleaner than we are. They
are gentlemen.
But these are cheap, hand-
-made things.
HAZLITT:
I'm tired, Hussein.
I want to rest.
HUSSEIN:
I'm. sorry, Captain: only I want everyone to
look up to you in our country.
Hefore I
go tell me where your wounded sergeant is.
I can get him to a private doctor.
HA ZLITT: :k
I sent him along to Mohammed at the local
hospital.
HUSSEI N:
To Hohammed?
You can trust him?
HA ZLITT:
Of course.
HUSSEIN:
I think you are wrong, Captain.
I think you
are wrong not to keep an eye on Miss Friedmann.
HA ZLITT:
What has Miss Friedmann got to do with it?
HUSSEIN:
Have you any 1dea where she is now?
HAZ ZLITT:
No. At the o1l-camp, perhaps.
HUSSEIN:
Suppose she's sleeping with someone else?
HA ZLITT:
I say it's unlikely.
(Staring at HUSSEIN)
Are you trying to tell me something?
HUSSEIN:
No. I just believe that a man should know
where his woman goes, and with whom, and for
what purpose. Mlss Friedmann sees Just as
much of Lohammed the doctor as she did in the
old days.
And I tell you sonething bad will
come of that.
There's no love in Kohammed
for you, my friend. Beware of that lackey, a
Are you sure he knows nothing about these
pa trole of youre?
HA ZLITT:
Nothing.
HUSSEIN:
A nd sou tell Mise Friedmann nothing?
HA ZLITT :
I tell her that they are part of my duties


here.
HUSSEIN:
Is she working for Mohoaned?
HAZLITT:
For God's sake! I trust him.
I'm in love with
her! What else can I do?
HUSSEIN:
Forbid her to see him.
HAZLITT:
Just because you hate him? Are you jealous
of his hours alone with her?
I tell Miss
Friedmann nothing, and she seldom asks a
question.
Now will you let me rest?
HUSSEIN:
Come to me tomorrow night.
Forgive me.
I'm a little suspicious. But we have to be
careful at the early stages. He is 107-
born, this Mobammed, the son of servants.
Such people have to be watched. Good bye,
Captain.
HA ZLITT:
Good bye.
The moment HUSSEIN is gone HAZLITT goes to the
other door, opens it and calls out, "Baker!" Then he returns
to the divan and begins taking off his muddy boots.
BAKER enters.
BAI KER:
I expected you yesterday, sir.
HA: ZLITT:
Yes, we were held up, Baker.
Did anything
happen?
BAI KER:
No, sir.
HA ZLITT:
The Sergea nt Major didn't telephone?
BA KER:
No, sir.
But I think Headquarters spoke to
him on the offioe-telephone 8 everal times.
HAZ ZLITT:
What about?
BAKER:
I couldn't find out, sir.
HA2 ZLITT hands him the muddy boots.
BAI KER:
These are wet through. You must have been a
long way, sir.
HA ZLITT:
Yes, it was raining in the hills. And much
cooler.
I enjoy these patrols.


BA KER:
Will you be in for dinner tonight, sir?
HA ZLITT:
Yes.
BAKER:
One or two places?
HA ZLITT:
Two.
BAI KER:
And can I make you coffee now?
You look
worn-out, sir.
HA ZLITT:
Yes, get me coffee.
You're sure nothing
happened?
BAKER:
Quite sure, sir.
BAKER leaves.
HAZLITT waits for the door to
close, then goes to the telephone.
HAZLITT:
Captain Hazlitt here... Give me the Sergeant
(He puts the reclever down for a
momer nt and goes hurriedly to the window. He
looks outside, the' 'n returne.) Hullo, Serg-
Has everything been all right?
Tell me, did Headquarters ring up for anything?
a : They didn't?
I mean, Headquarters didnt
ring you with any queries?...
None at all...
I see. Well, tha nk you, Sergeant-Major.
Good bye.
He replaces the recéiver and stands by it thought-
fully. There 1s a knock on the door.
He admits LEONORA and MOHAMMED.
LEONORA: :
I came over yestetday; but you weren't back,
darling. You look so tired.
She
antdon.
kisses him.
d! Cne
Nayitt: Hallo, Mant
MOHAMMED:
I've just been treaing one of your Boldiers,
Philip.
HAZLITT:
At the hospital?
MOHAMMED:
Yes.
HA ZLITT:
One of my sergeants? Yes, I sent him over.
MOHAMZED:
Why? Usually they go to the military First
Aid post.


Maannads Wlo asp, agles ei
Hagest prects
léll him tat ke can Rardly
tunay: Haylit
eduiies... Ens
dentand
liill- dialect
aud ttal le
as a guest.
ite b Ubr
uf> ttei last rce - mnthu
a Law EE Mhamued alfacks hius for uuau aim.
HA ZLITT:
Oh, this was only a sortaon, a pebble or
something, so I sent him straight to you.
MOHAMMED:
Butthere was a bullet in his hand.
HA ZLITT:
No. I looked at that hand pretty closely;
and there was nothing in the flesh.
MOHAMMED:
But there was a bullet in the palm, Philip.
I've got it in my pocket.
HA2 ZLITT:
Well, he' must' bave been fooling about with a
MAUMAN revolver. He never told me.
MOHAMMED:
Not that I minded.
But I just wondered..
That's why I came here with Leonora.
LEONORA: :
Shingleton was making enquiries while you were
away. Mohammed was in the office and heard
him telephone, your Sergaant Major.
HAZLITT:
What' about?
LEONORA: :
About wha t you were doing in the hills, About
your reasons for leaving the post.
Pense
HA2 ZLITT:
But these are my orders, to patrol the, hills.
LEONORA: :
Well, there wére two incidents while you were
away.
And fD Shingleton found, t that t your men
had no orders whatsoever.
HA ZLITT:
I command this post. I get too much inter-
eference, too much advice, from you and every-
body else.
I'm alone. How -nany times have
I got to repeat that? I'm aldne.
LEONORA: :
All I say is that Shingleton's a dangerous
enemy e
MOHAMMED:
And, in any case, Philip, you can't make an
island for yourself. The worla doesn't allow
LEORNORA :
Exactly.' You were a foold ever to have come
to a place like this.
HAZLITT:
Well,.then,'I defy the world.
I'm sick of
Europe, I tell you.
I'm finished with* Europe!


seuiticig
bhcson
printy
Toptit -
Fell keu lww umel
Eppifacif
le secoiud iu. the villages: lms kay
were anayel lo bear. 4 lin., yeak
Has oun lungunge, caue and kined
lis slises
cud castanlty tunved b hi.
Tue 3lan bre pent eatug. with
thou ard diinkiig Yea lehind ne
tis huts, wlile they
told
lak
2 linw eittle frod theis lendaires leyt
. Hen what diseases thei - clilden
u Mesed fa, Lim Bereft 2 all ege
tei
lines were :
lit ttrese. - reople
were ut dokated, thuis eyer
wese
hees, they Jere eithe aad agile,
tay ladl eert
une T thg caved
Eclipse
lock
2 à.Resfen
ceud
Kie docas suu wils
rentoE
Mhectceet kar been Ldeateg Cu
Hiu
Ahamdelver
woman
und mayped Laik thar ika God
Cfoaks
luis
4 hiding
war Sliaving
aTo goye Their
tte cart tron
und
loks vere eha Sened l led
ao Buzlly
Thyp
Estrowotinaing


Molouead
dna e
Hais cowenatin ttar
((a dunig
-A Y3
tat the
unll aly be
deTse
eatht
Beisf
4 a
a danger.
aerf Eurpens
cny
anpe,
evenlually a sle konelf konp:
hemva aust
1 the
techug
S self: -
sentet
apply
hustz mhe
- ad apain
ea sey betrayed - again
But Eungé
ninelues.
ase all It's full of people with minds, pale people
- -faid
withdrawn. from.each other: éven it-they
supicin
Eurs
rax
fightiin a war they don't seem to nate,
they just/ puly triggers and ma ke mathematical
A o oy say
The cities of
full
FELE
galculations!
Europa are
J ghe n/
of men who long ago lost their virility and
uden
Jlat
gre
lenon
their honour, fuli of women who are half-men,
clever and childless! my men tere
slavee
Bopr
SnEAT
Janxt
VOLOn Brloueve
toone becausei -am-a-man on an 1eland. All
N uukt
Aour
couley
iasr-
right, you surround my islan nd, and I perieh.
have
erel
It's a fate I accept. /You're not going to
buy me out.
Even if I die a mere gentleman,
or an imperialist, or a freak and senile
Christian, an apostle of dead creeds, then
I will gladly die as such, on my lonely island,
wha tever names you like to give me. Death
is one way of evading all your wretched names.
LEONORA:
I don't understand you when you talk like that.
HA ZLITT:
I just want to be left alone.
MOHAI MMED:
But why sneer at people with minds?
I went
to an Américan university.
I helped to build
the city hospital here.
How do you think I
could deal with cancer and malaria and tuber-
culosis and rickets and eyphilie unless people
with minds hada been at work?
HAZ ZLITT:
Yes, of course, you are right for yourself.
MOHAMMED:
I suppose you would like me to go back to the
religion of my childhood, to be nodding over
a prayer-book.instoad of stand ing at the oper-
ating table?
HAZ ZLITT:
I like religious people. That's true o
MOHAMMED:
And what 13: your feligion?


auc daid Allah i angry.
Mauned la, lesen lslenig la:
roleuce ls llilit
He ehi Nautt ate
decratie
cerly
ttere pegle mesely
Ha,at ut
wmantic lagead?
which make, tem
64m tkar te religiin
lide ttes
Roadi
lay. Allal i arpr V. lide Hhas
lead.
make,t tom
what
Relyjuin in 7
du theis landlordi. lansl wilt comftes
tand si
K Kaean
cnfyy foer BAAtA
anol disease.
Sut fo qu t A
arerft Agastepa
Euspeas
usmantin chofh tin lielieve ever
u smettip.
lay
Hayeitt :
than the caoolatin
wald
waut to deug se rtiam u well
t God watlliip
wnarté
9 ham
clotiup - ?
Leriil luk Hay are
as toaat ansl
seal h
it - Araipe, ttas ten
tr ure
brain
seal peple
se -
tez are ust cowed
Maarueds
tr say
their
tgy asc cased.
Repilsey
tres
Geune
Htem )
tais drai, all
lanollord stifp
cud
itray
Hheis dales, Hio
Lachiok
nice
storde teir luuls
Guokig
s to sit in
ro Allah aud walip
und
co-plainnip


HA ZLITT:
I told you, my friend, we Europeans are
lost.
MOHAMMED:
You look on religion as a pleasant drug,
Philip.
But for us it is lethali the
Musllm religion goes hand in hai nd with
disease, poverty and corrpption. Come
and live as half my patients de live, and
then you'll see which you prefer: devout
Muslims or city-hospitals.
HA ZLITT:
Do I look to you like a landowner? Do I
talk 11kerone?
MOHAMMED:
Oh, I max shake hands with you, Philip, we
may be friende personally, but you can't
gainsaày your uniform.' And look at that
(pointing at Hazlitt's revolvet-holster),
is that for purposes of decoration? Those fillets
are meant to kill, human beinge, my friend.
HA ZLITT:
I shall prove to you that I am different.
MOHAI MMED:
How? Just how?
HA ZLITT:
That must be left to me e
MOHA MMED:
You ask me to Judge you freely, apart from
your uniform. But if I violated the curfew
in a time of riot you'd be able to put me into
prison and you would have the right to shoot
me dead.
If tomorrow morning I walked into
the 011-camp without s'howing my card your
eentry could also shoot me dead. Yet I was
born and bred in this province. These are
my people.
The ground your oil-camp stands
on is my country.
HA ZLITT:
I only have the right to shoot you if you


twue k Cuue auol une ttieri umuds
kiszed yus teet 2
67 çane Hey
teet I
qm a8e
thes eschi-
-lawdarer, Vas rte buice, tte furspean
ttcy ase feattead
trat jm ca Curpan
Aud waut t rat trais tillicy
umld
uuch Cetler
luluaut :
Mhay
tael
uite-
alut K -
o thay wdl.
safect tio Cackride
kam
a kick iu
D 1 You C e gase
mudi-Ruts dim pirt k
% Tetao
deir
cd. le eolu barker
Slow tkan fat Rfe Ad wher thay Loesd
tar tey toght.
nnst
Ttcct adorgp brs. dey were
kei lurynage
leferr opeak
tat
A puince
astained
/ delighted
nion 7o to
Soil
aald
aud a bangea. thas:
ular
with
prer,
yuer -
ragui
tiak
tan
bert
No, tey
Heis
auy
lrina
afeut?
the
linn - leans until
it 5 caflaiu T
the
laudlord
dnin,
lut when
Whach Cre
doud,
vist 1
verly
lauyp
So drn
hey
Ris
lis tout, tlay
and
kuaes t
hiin
Hair
haid


break the law.
MOHAMMED:
But whose law? Not our lawg made by us in
our country, but your law, made in your
country by you. We are free provided we
don't disobey y our laws. What sort of freedom
is that? I want to build more hospitals, to
put a medical officer in every one of the malarial
villages, to stop the doctors treatingthe rich
and not the poor, to make the dry land fertile
with a national irrigation scheme. I am sick
of my country just as you are aick of Europe.
I am siok of the endless wastes of sand, of the
fly-blown wounds I have to stare at every day,
of the people who are so loyal and resigned.
We may be very romantic to you, as we are to
ma ny other visiting Europeans, but I'll give
you the Kuran, I'll give you Arab honour and
hospitality, I'll give you all the sentimental
camouglage for hospitals, drains, DDT spray in
the. streets, equality of women with men, and,
decent schools in every village.
HAZLITT:
Your own people are corrppt, your own landlorde,
your own House of Assembly, even your own
doctors.
MOHAMMED:
But while you are here, with that revolver-
holster of yours on the wall, the landlords
in theit cottuption.
are going to feel safed 'Don't you realise
trat?
HAZLITT:
I'm 80 tired.
Leonora, can't he talk about
this tomorrow?
MOHAMMED:
But people like you, with bullets in their
pouches, ha ve got to be told the truth.
And
since we are friends, this is a good chance to
let you know the truth.


wa he tib suelony iu the um t dor
geakip al 2 Fam tte uan
kiser
Ihe
land ttat stuck hi.
Brwet
sery
God
we binoed
lyy
tthiy
don 1 .
u I vey wel. tr
lie
Heredl
thei AraEer
while
ure unth tke landlords.
thoe
- qut meu depead the cil-carp
landlords will cataue to feal safe. No,
vae A Cusean S are apeats
bever udes tand. lacl sthw.
clr
Tany
b Lelp setf
Guispean
like heava Raxe C Y Ikes leave.
Lay. I
He aber - Heaylit 1
he ha, geen
Mandi.
Hay latt lok,, at him tw a. unelt.
Haytit:
No. Idid no- soe Macnoli
his
Yet somehn I dat
Maauved (xaeling
eye)
tast
Yoer face a hmest. I tke gm,
le ISE Yar Jarlt you wese sent hare E do
Iuoalise
anfed k
tu kid 2 worR.
Bit still
See henora
a accepted suythip -
tal
have
celu copalte 1 pelevip


LEONORA :
He's tired, Mohammed.
HOHAMMED:
Can he tell me why he is tired?
Can he tell
me why he has been away from his post for a
week? To practise shooting down rebels in
the hills.
To practise ambushing and spying
ànd all the other crimes a man in his position
has got to perpetrate.
HA ZLITT:
That's not true.
MOHAMMED:
Then what t were you doing in the hills?
HAZLITT:
My task is to protect the oil-camp. I have
nothing to do with your bad sanitation.
MOHALLED:
Ae an officer
HA ZLITT:
I, alone, Phillp Hazlitt, have nothing to do
with 1t.
All right, I'm on an island.
MOHAILED:
But behind you arelaws. And I'm a prisoner
to those laws.
So yours is a very safe island.
HA ZLITT:
Safe? Shall - I tell you what I have been doing
in the hills?
Shall I tell you?
They stare at each other. A pa use.
HOHALED:
Well?
HA ZLITT turns away, glancing at LBONORA.
MOHAI LED:
Go on, prove to me that you're not 11ke all the
others.
They wait for him to speak.
HAZLITT
No. I am like all the others. I shall resiat
the rebels.
He sits dom hea vily on the awvan and covers his
face in his hands.
HA ZLITT:
Now go away.
They wa tch him.
MMMAVAW
ahtawwg0nswaecewendhaUN
MOHAMMIED:
Very Blowly are breaking him, Leonora. We
shall break him.
LEONORA :
You'd 11ke to see him broken?


kgg rebel pnitas fu the ailly,
tyy
ten sud euren
asd bitcig afaisst
np K nistuit
I laue beer limpht
ase ontwardly
Emopenenr Lueu wher they
ghen.
lan uot mopicins
hot Ralphl
jet ns lajp ul
Cacct hxopnte
Haylit:
hase lemu?
Skti Icant: celéve Hat
Pauned: Brut
Kunsiedyy,
liip u just
abusean can
like herora -
hedical sufplar pera gELM I vt sente
than tae
suse 1 nlat
utt
y-haly au
Cecaude
wrantir
Plief,
alat there pegple
taue tinfp:
sar
the veyy
laus flt
day -fta
ogeirc
soypled
ogeaut Ly repecE lau
viaggled
Bufce.
Lo tat
(may
Amot ituh
pied.
caader
Zreme
hodoa' hiad, yai eitto ttint P
Hen lud
uss
d ytitt k
Even
lul
9 your jrisats urber lue Hoel
werty
cuplza - nre
tte nrn 1


MOHAMMED (with a ehrug): I take the side of my people.
They arè starving and diseased.
He goes to the door.
MOHAMMED:
Look after him.
I go on duty in ten minutes
time.
He leaves the room.
LEONORA sits at HAZLITT's
side and puts her hand on his shoulder.
There 1s a knock
on the inner door. BAKER enters with coffee.
He places
the trsy on the dining table.
HAZLITT still has his head
bowed.
BAI KER:
Your coffee is ready, sir.
LEONORA: :
Could you bring 1t to him here?
I don't
think he's well.
BAKER:
Your coffee is read'y, sir.
Shall I bring
it to you?
HA ZLITT:
Please, Bal ker.
BAKERE(taking the coffee to-HAZLITT's side): : Can I get's you
some aspirins, sir?
HA ZLITT:
No, thank you.
BAKER leaves the room.
HAZLITT raises his head
and kisses LEONORA on the cheek.
HAZLITT:
I was thinking of you all the way back, Nora.
Did you miss me?
LEONORA :
Yes. I kept coming here, just to look at the
room.
HA ZLITT:
It. was 80 wonderfully cool in the hills.
kept thinking to myself, even if I plunge
myself into disgrace, even 1f Im killed,
well, that's a fair price to pay. (Touching
her) It's worth death, it's worth any risk,
tal. ha ving you here.
LEONORA:
Why do you have to risk anything?
HA ZLITT:
I don't know. One gets afraid if one is too


Iwant lo low
lead.
80 uLe
wust hee
analverto CT wt lreiause we
lale
ler
ue do feal halsed it - Iae
lut beraute we love hes 3o uuce.
Au uy
ideas, wy seuse 9 Lygiene, uyyie
lave leaned frre Cope
Nww we umst
Aeine free Lo tar ule
may ceade eills
k hate.s Ine, lut trest as epul.
vart Yrb be - 1 efuali, y ttal cau ul
le so.f sus cnity i tres. Forgive bus tr tlkp
S0 huich. Hane Ipadedyn wit - talk! DE Lcawra A aend a
Nayfttares Lensa uheta le has
Icant léli hii
heer G smantic.
nuvr.
huot simply mpes
hemra : D.d - hdes -
Mandl: ?
Haylitt: : Yes,
els t do that tko, kiosedl uy hanol a
furgean alrlord -? N lecante I wa,
pint k Slas ularest iu then, ?
thnei
abven Gurpe -
it nly a Rind )
tal uaka, lin cano to e 7
srlbey
po, I I
Shall ly wt h betevt Pr
ue. lespin, t. knlt uaytip lere.
Arytoig wphl Rappen.


happy.
LEONORA :
You look tired and sad, darling: anything
but happy.
HA ZLITT:
I mean happy with you, only with you.
ie hust mabean
(Staring into her eyes) Heware we going-to
iland te unselues lsse
keepthis ahelter-ve'ya made-for-ourselvest
Oh, those endless words,, endless, endless words,
dinning into my brain! Can'te stop t hem?
Phey"Te-breaking m A11 the
Erima


Napeit lells ler thot - tut ly Vibliug the
Villayer han slian him lins luyeh puer
le las: Maalnd umg
Ican tornd
uut akut t : Içan Deual iu sepols
4l else i kese h de l &ere?
Qse pasehen. Shingles M W A
shas >ide.
yer,
Haytht seyp,/ wumnce, - - . tat -
te way
a cainty geli heldss auk.
(E aut
fist tat auew uuls
l6 grice tteu Tord
$ clohig: Awaut to sTay lwe) 2?
de feh dey yle t8 Gefme Is late...
Tln i wlere uny worR les: Ian lay
a Frod lasi trmy urk: Ican urile
infro,
in te eud 16ut Lave nblalial
ajot. aill wake use 1 Hape lert 6 ully
ulleal gudyby uu. 1er.
I ( canat
llark.. pt dtere b uttn b


are
behepen!
thoy
time/ We must stay close together, Leonora,
we must never - : We must keep out other
people.
But yet, my God, it must eome to an
end. It can't be eternal.
Yet it feels
eternal.
LEONORA :
We need only keep out Hussein and Hohammed.
Onlythey can interfere with us.'
HAZLITT:
Shall we go ong alone, without these Lendiess
words?
LEONORA:
Yes!
HA2 ZLITT:
You say that, when :
uutd
lopital
LEONORA :
Kasdly
I can give, up my job at the oilhssapa I never
think of my work now. Lpeeltoel've Deen
sickell hasoyearer sich with-boing away from
your
HA ZLITT:
it'e-2tke-being in-acave-end-seeing-the-worid
through-a-gapr I wish we could live in this
love-cave for ever, Leonora, I want to die in
it. We must blind our eyee. He must see
only each other.
LEONORA :
Bat There ie oney. one way of saving ourselves,
Philip. po you know what that is?
HAZLITT:
Cald
LEONORA :
We mast ger away from here. We must go back
to Europe.
HA ZLITT:
They would never allow me.
LENNORA:
But you could try!
4VW/AAwOAYM
HAZLITT:
They'd refuse. I'm certain they'd refuse.
LEONORA :
But won't you even try?
HAZ ZLITT:
It's hopeless.
LEONORA :
But-you-know-how you-always auhdevewiatyou
peelly-went-to-sontover Try, Philip, for my
sake.
A pause.


He aoks alut Snglem :
whll he
wth ue ?
atger
henora: Yag, le will y.
Hayest : lEwonld
terialig,
fom Village to villupe I Soying the
fans to my usTk -wards :
xefant, Euery canvepaton repasted,
sepplen. 2
village,
trnd
every
Hie lsiag puertin, a hamne
deuent Rem Cauldy lre ho
hamm sin.tat,
Tellme, fas Sluylets
much
lere?
What aie thade
Spes
tor
hesora: Teve i a legeed teld
almt
dim that all kis Spies ave rdeliberalely
plul Gahs tegle, and that
serslt srild kapper under Cis bse
He reheli amld lum dun He l-
-auf uuder fii usl. aud he umuld
le sintig: l Ido ist fake this senind,"
Heis aill lombast.
He las wo
hurhe
Opier than
ebe.
He vee
mupas
tveryas i inpinacy
tim, tabe
Heu
- to
hem
uit
bueeadi
say:
teu serinly.
They day le J.


LEONORA :
Well?
HAZLITT dbes not reply.
LEONORA :
You don't want to go back, do you? Really
you don't want to save yourself, do you?
HA2 ZLITT: :
I should alwaye bleme myself afterwards.
LEONORA :
HA ZLITT: :
I should blame myself for cowardice.
LEONORA :
Then you want to be a hero?
It can't be
done in this country.
HAZLITT:
But already I'm beginning to feel I belong
to these people.
LEONORA:
They'1l ta ke us away from each other.
Only
in Europe will we be allowed our dreams.
HAZLITT:
I want to teach them that I'm not afraid.
I want to teach them that I can transcend my
unfform without disobeying orders. Above all
I want to teach them mercy.
LEONORA :
And will you have any mercy for me? Very
well. I shall stay at the oil-camp.
shall go through with this ghastly summer.
Hussein and Mohammed will go on coming to
this house.
HA ZLITT:
And suppose I succeed? Then we shall ha ve
the best of all those worlds. Look, you
Bee the sentry out there?
He's a sign of
my fear.
I shall send him away. I shall
prove to everybody that I'm not afraid. I
shall prove it to Mohammed, to my own men,
to Baker.
He gets up from the divan.
LEONORA : -
What are you going to do? Perhapa they'll
just think. you mad, 11ke all the other Europeans


Becelleat manager, lut lee likes
Iuikk d Riiselp a au antanly i
the cauly:
thinks leis uoving
alng te feople lecaure l lar a
fews rchoct-feachen to Tea
and
then.
4e tell eveyme ttal
geoks Ke langnege, lut
Thehuel
will fell
Ke gube i
bardly
corprbenndle
Sringlelon Ci - dobe,
feiif: lut st'll lewase 2 lian
Apcialy he har tie paser to aduice
Le cau send - reforts alut


lere lelli ler. thar Hadpradko
lave
lergennt. Mo ajer : tiis
Qu axe Sd
b talk
Lucr
beginniy
teinfreid tat
will
Ce den rencret 2??
He relu tios ut i Tell Morat
suty
angquip. leus tar tac ha en, lce l
here who succumb to the heat. tte lill. Dre, u-
HAZLITT:
I shall have all that Hussein promised
me a do you remember how he spoke, on our
first evening together? I shall have it all
Amtln if I prove to them that I'm not afraid.
They love prowess in a man. So I shall send
that sentry away. That will be my first atep.
He'goes to the innfer door and calls out for BAKER.
LEOI NORA :
Even Hussein has a guard on his house, Philip.
There are thieves in this country, apart from
rebels.
BAKER enters.
HAZLITT:
Go/the sentry, Baker, and tell him to report
back to barracks immed ia tely. Tell him that
sentries are no longer required here.
BAKER:
HA ZLITT:
Hurry!
NA KER:
Yes, sir.
BAKER goes out into the garden.
HAZLITT wa tohes
him from the door.
LEONORA: :
They311 call it bravado. And that's what 1t
HAZLITT:
Bravado?
Listen, - do you know what they do
in the hills when there's a battle? They tie a
one leg with a piece of cloth 80 that they won' t
be able to run away when the time comes even if
they want to.
With precisely the eame motive
I am dismiseing my guard. What use would
bravado be in a derelict waste like thie?
requires an audiènce, Leonora.
BAI KER returns.
want to Telf
bote.
Masd:
- uiLRr
Ym fawhin
D' Wili Ounw tat
alt
terl
faid;
2) fells Baker 1 lar
Ishall liire a
pueu
P te any did ut >xior (


leoe ke Reep, the uld they hawe wade.
He feas
lis huln anlt direwes She unst
ail lis
koqy
tabe
e emeno secset. tu fature he Laurt leel
au 1
wes
uilh him. She uat
ue feit Mohau
aything tautke ad
lo ttrinss she: L Tradar
Anol Le hiiuself
seoung tr
what le ii doing :
alas aly tyipt
uiy
A ypelf, the pegle
HAZLITT leads him to the centre of the roome the valages.
where LEONORA 1s standing.
heawa: Well, wo Cianu Cau
a Tat.
HA ZLITT:
Do you know who this is, Baker? Cunue
eirential
BA KER:
No, sir.
He lay secsecy
lere siuce sumf - so lamble.
HA ZLITT:
But you have seen her before? Nettug ust serap %
BAKER:
Yes, sir.
Aen,
ust det eaynd tai voom.
HA ZLITT:
Her name is Mies Friedmann, Baker.
She has
often slept here, as I expect you know.
Soon
she will live here all the time.
BAKER stares at him in astoniehment.
BAKER:
Yes, sir.
HAZLITT:
This houee will be a happy house, Baker.
aro in a wonderful country. That wilderness
outelde, I want you to turn 1t into a garden.
I want you to lay lewns, to gron spring-flowere,
to bring in trees, to aig irrigation canale,
to make a shaded summer-house. Go into the
toun tomorrow morning and find the labour.
We chall have the best food and the beet wine.
Everybody else 1s miserable here.
That'a why
our neighbour is drunk every evening,
But we
are going to be a happy house in their midet.
BAI KER:
Yes, sir.
HA ZLITT:
Miee Friedmann ia going to be your mistress.
In future you won't dieregard her ordere, ae
I remember you aid this afternoon.
BAKER:
I'm sorry, sir.
HA ZLITT:
You can go, then.
Thank you.
BAKER leavee.
LEONORA:
He thinke you're mad.
HAZ ZLITT:
Perhaps.
LEONORA: :
You want to teach these people mercy, 11ké a
priest.
Yet you come here in uniform. That'e


what I don't understand.
HAZ ZLITT:
But perhaps I don't understand myself.
Shall we sit down to coffee, as used to in
Europe?
(As he goes to the door)
From
now on you're going to be a silent spectator,
my dear.
Hohammed also. No more words,
thank God!
(Opening the door and calling
out) Baker, bring another cup!
CURTAIN.
Aelast
Aat alesoall be moest Aoto
sagp
rhere peepte t
f afait. He
I ex
He seudi
the seulky c tze hrsd,
avay
aud
tat
couig aud
4 watched
wery
goiug
Laed and geesped alut ot tee
lreracks.
Hedeent kuas :
veup wett. then
alle
comue and liue leese.
viil lro
do I uill let Lim ulo
Coen lusr
Irall do
Hat
situation Vis- àrvis
Lns.
de Shall lie
ihall
legin
iuto aus
hese
lo lote
word,
diisanig
priely
aucter cup!
tram
Baber ling


hcilwva aor, are we uwk tyrip R live a
auisland 4 daing Has,
so that
lag tauk mth the ntede ( it uise, up
l minsilei is: t: cs
foitine
hrighlein tsl -
Thi connty
bioprinip
h dpllen
Ln thaf Tainlen 1
lns that e lia ue hodlen
Aohabbed,
- ttr lnte,
bid. gfufean atenflar
tre vest 2 The inly.
away "sm
Enstuess 1 feel teuibly Aeltnd
Peiey.
le sap; Lo, Wc uitta reich. thewi tats
we Ca
lre selied ou:
We lunst nake run
bm wurcol liere, ud- ilse drasn inla tte,stt
Iout,
ill lean
hle must hetfint
perl
ioland Uecawr al- dre,teu Ls
h love nut
Lenne ! /
lan.
(H AU 1e all uflt
lams -E will
No runp p all, - enp


THIRD ACT.


SCENE: the same, one afternoon several weeks
later.
As the curtain rises there is the sound of a
emall reconnalssance aircraft passing low overhead.
LEONORA and MOHAMMED are standing in the garden looking
up. When the sound of the 'plane dies away they oome
into the room and close the door.
LEONORA :
How far away ls the air-port?
MOHAMMED:
About ten miles south of here.
LEONORA :
Then he'll be arriving soon.
She goes to the mirror and paints her lips.
LEONORA: :
Do I look haggard?
It's Bo hot!
MOHAI MMED:
No, Just. excited.
Whose aeroplane is he
using?
LEONORA :
I think it belongs to one of the land owners.
MOHAMMED:
Hae Hussein had a hand in it?
LEONORA :
Idon't know. Philip hardly epeaks to me
about hie work nowadays.
These are just
rountine patrols, part. of his duty here.
MOHA MMED:
You're quite a changed person, Leonora!
Are you happy to let him lead you, to your
doom?
LEONORA: :
I feel sure of him at last.
I belong to him.
MOHAI MMED:
Did he take any of his soldiers with him?
LEONORA :
Not this time.
MOHAI MMED:
How long has he been away?
hwer
LEONORA :
Three or four days.
Y Mprcr
(Abauea)
MOHAM MMED:
He's doomed, Leonora.
The world-hasno time
for lonely-men-on-islan-on-telands. We-live-inan
epoch-ofscience,and-itwwill-sweep-such.
orofeen l tha v.Hages siace Brcales Rose. Idalt
Jee tat e Eopital wuore tiau Uuca a weak kau,


creatusss away, intelligent and brave_though
they may be.
I'm onlyasking you to leave
a sinking ship. He belongs to the past, but
your work bekongs to the future.
LEONORA :
I belong to him, Mohammed.
I've no will.
MOHAMMED:
You confess that to me, you who were once 80
proud? He came l1ke an evil spirit.
You
were happy enough with hd before he cane,
weren't you?
LEONORA: :
Yes, happy enough.
MOHAMMED:
With me you were at leafe safe. But with
Philip -: He might get himself killed to-
morrow, and you with him.
LEONORA :
Then I'11 have to go down with him.
She goes to the inner door and calls out 'Baker!'
He comes almost at once.
LEONORA:
The Captain will be here in about ten minutes,
Baker.
We saw his 'plane go over just now.
BAI KER:
Very good, Madam.
LEONORA :
Are the chickens plucked and clea ned?
BA KER :
I've Just done it, Madam.
LEONORA :
That's all, then.
BAKER leaves.
LEONORA: :
There, Mohammed, you Bee how much a wife I
In three months my character has changed
completely.
MOHAMLED:
I tell you I'm certain that one of his men has
killed Masudi.
Had it not been for you,
Leonora, I would have shown my piece of evidene e
to Shingleton long before now.
LEONORA :
What is this pbece of avidence?
MOHAI MMED:
You saw it yourself two months agos the bullet
I extracted from the Bergeant's hand.
Philip


told me the man had been playing with a
revolver or something. But he was telling
a lie.
The bullet belongs to an automat tio
gun which is obsolete now and which only
Masudi's men have in great-number. Now
this surely is absolute proof, Leonora,
that he must have had a skirmish with_the
rebels. And I believe that Masud1 was killed
during that skirmish.
I belleve that Philip
Bet out quite deliberately from this place to
murder Masudi. I belleve that he has been
lying to you and evéryone else. I belleve
that he is using you and even Hussein Al
Shabar quite coldly. I believe, Leonora, that
he 1s a first-olass actor with an infinite
power to cha rm other people, as he has charmed
you and me.
LEONORA :
There might have been a ekirmish. You know
how light-headed Masudi 1s.
MOHAMMED:
But Masudi has not been seen or heard of again
since the day Philip first went to the hills.
LEONORA :
Why have y ou waited all this time, then, if you
were so eure?
MOHAMMED:
Because only yesterady did I hear that Masudi
is miseing. of course, there had been rumours
before.
LEONORA :
Philip couldn't.
He couldn't.
MOHAMMED:
ln snn other worde he has charmed you, as I
confess he AAP charmed me.
He went to Hussein
for help, you Bee, and Hussein thought he'dat
last got a powerful European on Masudi's side.
But all the time he was being tricked.


Nasuil linsiyts
Itat
Hayfit
ast beiig 6 arldier Afcarer
daes uft kun shat he - doing
he S playrig with geat irugs
upil le dues uit undentaud
heara uspi Taeuned:
He cauld
ut muddeuly changes
llaugkumn
tecey fr tree Team,ho Van lader
heen to ttlue
cauly lufyt. Le -
tere to ee be, uskug élse: le
t C >otdy eycafhs, -
do 7
tank
aury Soensent a
seudelen
aungy to grie a yperifi
urs
lave-
ymup
AK 2
ycon u 1 Jeni
Prayued:
Thave Yp ueriver afliun 9
denie
whoe
the
Isenltene -
a wu T cluldren Lls ut kan?
gn lrpler
Bub 71 a 2f L Lwo idiculni


ati) heana
hynva :
endlaye
lills
Jall, s (aik (c
tale à frt
de beffree
LEONORA :
Are you Jealous of Philip?
tfive
m t
MOHAMMED:
This is how I stand: I want to get you away
from him because I love you.
I don't ask
vasol lve he
you to
ereke-0-- I only ask you to
save yourself. soyou-thinkt his-own-gorer
Hent-is-goingte paove- 5 whet-he-has-done?
BO ou a LT A Ohingleton-do-going-to-support
lalen? Philip is damned, Leonora, and I'm not
going to let you be damned with him.
going to tell Shingleton everything I know
Rim.
about
I shall show him the bullet,
for one thing.
LEONORA: :
Philip is obeying orders.
Your evidence will
mean nothing. y If he's a traitor, then BO am
hese did Ymjet ttu ,
idsa
My brain doesn't work any more.
M: Mes.
remember the work I did with you, and I'm
benes me. Lul
Actowo-. Cullet
still loyal to it, but my brain Bays nothing
h: 1d he's
to me any more. And
we I'm
Irailsr then
having
a child by him, Mohalned.
MOHAMMED:
A child?
LEONORA :
You mustn't try to hurt Philip.
I've got to
stay with him santreronnatoed
MOHAMMED go 8 towards her in quiet ashonishment.
MOHA MMED:
Are you sure?
LEONORA :
Yes.
MOHAMMED:
Why didn't you tell me before?
LEONORA :
I don't know.
MOHAMMED:
What about the gossip? And where are you
going to have the child?
LEONORA :
I was rolying on. you for that.
MOHAMMED:
On me? Yet you stay with Philip...
LEONORA :
If you want to get him killed by someone, then
I'll have to suffer it. I'm helpless.
But


a Ial
KLe Hiob
1ah
Lhra : oh, tese ae a
I can't leave him.
MOHAMMED:
And suppose there are : riots?
Suppose they
surround this house?
Is it going to be very
safe for your child?
LEONORA (putting her hand to her brow): I want you to do
your best for. me.
MOHAMMED:
Has it occurred to you that there is another
solution?
A pause.
LEONORA :
What?
HOHAMMED:
You'd no longer feel belpless then. Your
brain would work again.
You'd be free.
You
realise that it's almost impossible to keep
Kfet
such a thing secret from the women here? They
have the intuitions of sewer-rats.
LEONORA: :
I'll never leave the house.
MOHAMMED:
Why not be wise and have the child brought
off? It could be done quietly and effioient-
ly2. I can do it myself. No one need know.
LEONORA :
How horrible...
NOHAMMED:
Not s0 horrible as your own dea th by rebel
bullets.
LEONORA: :
Yes, far more horrible, far, far more horrible!
All you're avare of ie a speechless little
embryon.
But it belonge to Philip and me
together.
It's alive.
Your hande are for
cancers and tunours, not for living things.
Do you want a world of old people?
MOHAMMED:
I want you to be safe.
LEONORA:
How you couldask me to do such a thing...
MOHAMMEDX (with a shrug):
AAAAA
Very well
then: you shall ha ve your child. You
shall have all the help I oan give you.


en that Gilif
hesfga: Wliope hafp qm 8
Ner 2
bes
wer
idga
Lan
ial C l
Anahc, besple aay
lele ,
LEONORA (1ooking about her) I'd quite forgottèn he was
on his way home!
You've made this place feel
quite dark. I was 8o happy before.
I feel
happy the instant Philip enters my head!
MOHAMMED:
Yes, and you daren't look into the future.
LEONORA :
But I do dare. I Bee you going to Bee
Shingleton, for instance.
I see him laughing
in your face.
I see Philip c oming back in
a few minutes and y our shaking hands with him
like an old friend.
I seé one day leading
into another, full of the usual routines.
I see a riot - ofcourse there will be a. riot a
and I see the stones being thrown at an Embassy
window and the students dispersing after
twaave hours with nothing Bettled.
Our talk
is daring, Mohammed.
But, only our talk.
MOHAMMED:
You don't see Phillp as a murderer? or your-
self as a traitor?
lo get him
sgfnse
LEONORA :
No; or perhaps I do. But I dontt ae inla limsle.
supboe
MOHAMMED:
And ste
42 when I betray
LEONORA :
You wouldn't do it.
LIOHAMMED:
When he comes into this room I shall shake hande
with him.
I may even smile at him.
But after
that t I shall betray him.
LEORNORA:
And Shingleton will laugh in your face.
MOHAMMED:
Then I will go to someone who doesn't. Xou
shall have your child, Le onora, but you shan't
keep Philip. You are going to see for yourseif
1f I'm juet a talker, just a surgeon at the lccal
hospital who pats frightened children on the
head. Now you've given me the chance to prove
myself.
And I am going to seize that chance.
LEONORA goes towarde him with a smile and puts her


eilk scarf playfully round his head, making a turban of
He stands there looking into her eyes, quite unable
to smile.
LEONORA :
There, betray whom you 1ike.
You look such
a baby.
All men, even the broad ones, cana
be made to look like babies in a moment.
Your eyes are s0 mournful, Mohammed. Very
well, go and betray Philip.
Go and have your
little game. But I tell you everything is
going to come out all right.
I know this
because I'm a woman, because there is not the
vestige of an ominous warning inside me about
the future, because I'm calm and perfectly
reassured, even by your stupid eyes.
She leaves him and goes towards the gramophone.
He is Just about to take down the scarf when she turns
round and runs back to him with a laugh.
LEONORA :
No, no, you must leave it!
She re-arranges 1t, then returns to the gramophone
and puts on a quick waltzo
She takes hold of' him gaily.
She begins to turn him round and round in the dance. At
first he moves heavily and sadly, watching her with an
ezpression of pity. But soon he is foroed to amile: he
takes her more firmly, and at last they begin to dance
swiftly
roun d the room.
The front door opens suddenly and HUSSEIN
appears.
He looks at the couple with astonishment and steps back.
They stop, and MOHAMMED quiokly pulla the silk scarf from
his head.
The three of then stand quite still, until
LEONORA goes to the gramophone and tal kes the record off.
HUSSEIN:
I am looking for the Captain.
I saw his
'plane go over.
LEONORA :
He should be here in a few minutes.
Why not
stay, Hussein?


HUSSEIN simply stands at the open door staring
at Mohammed.
HUSSEIN:
Have you any right to visit the Captain's
house wile he is away?
MOHAMMED:
Any right?
HUSSEIN:
I ask by what right you are here.
MOHAMMED:
I ann here because Captain Hazlitt invited me U
to come.
HUSSEIN(to LEORNORA): Is this true?
LEONORA :
Why shouldn't it be true?
HUSSEIN:
Then all the more shameful for me. I happen
to be the Captain's closest friend here, - and,
I had hoped, yours too.
LEONORA :
I don't understand you.
HUSSEIN:
I shall visit the Captain when he's alone.
He leaves, slanming the door. MOHAMMED goes to
the window and watches him return to his own house.
MOHAMLIED:
What & buffoon he 1e: Look, he's trembling
with rage! He oalls himself prince, and he
really believes he's a prinoe, though no one
else here does, including the shoe-shine boys.
He hates mo because he thoughtne saw me smiling
at his wife one day! No wonder he played so
well into your Captain's hands.
(He turne
fron the window) You look a little sadder
now.
LEONORA :
He quite frightened me.
MOHAI MMED:
You look chastened.
Things happen very
suddenly in this country, you 80e. In a
moment we pass from gaiety to fear.
Some-
times we have no warning at all of the most
terrifying events, even the women among us
with theirmarvellous intuitions of the future.


There ie a knock on the front door.
LEONORA :
Is that Philip?
MOHAMMED looks out of the window.
MOHAMMED:
No, it's a woman.
I think it's Hussein'e
wife. Do you want me to go?
LEONORA :
Why should you?
She goes to the door and admits BADIA AL SHABAR.
HADIA:
Hussein cam) back just now in sucha rage!
LEONORA: :
But nothing was wrong. He saw Mohammed- and
I dancing together, that's all. We're waiting
for Philip to come back.
BADI IA :
Mohammed? Ah, the doctor.
Then I understand.
MOHAM MMED:
Will you excuse me?
He starts to leave the roome
LEONORA :
Why?
HOHA MMED:
Oh, it's the convention here.
I don't want
to give cause for jealousy.
I'll wait in the
garden.
He leaves, and BADIA draws LEONORA away from the
door.
BADIA:
Do you know what t these men have been planning
together?
LEONORA :
Which men ?
BADIA :
Hussein and the Captain.
LEONORA closes the door swiftly.
BADIA :
But you must surely know.
BEDNORA :
I know nothing.
BADIA: :
Does the Captain never confide in y ou?
LEONORA :
Not now.
BADIA :
I hear everything from Hussein when he is drunk.
But we'll keep his secret. Men are helpless
without us.
LEONORA :
What did he tell you?


BADIA:
First of all the Captain has been taking
patrols into the hills.
LEONORA :
I know tha t.
BADIA: :
Secondly, he made contact W ith Masudi on his
first patrol six weeks ago.
LEONORA :
To kill him?
BAD. IA:
Why, - to kill him? To negotiate with him.
To lay down plans for the rebellion of our
people.
LEONORA:
But Masudi has disappeared!
BADIA:
Only as part of the plan. Actually he 1s
massing his men in the hills, ready for an
assault on thie town. And your Captain has
just flown back from making the final arrange-
ments with him.
LEONORA: :
With whom?
BADIA :
With Masudi.
LEONORA:
But he did not kill Masudi...
BADIA:
He sees Masud1 again and agin, my dear. Why
should he want to kill him?
(She looks closely
at Leonora)
What is the matter with you, my
dear? You look ill today. How long have you
been like this?
She tak kes LEONORA by the arm and leade her to the
divan.
LEONORA :
The Captain will support Masudi?
BADIA :
That,s the secret you and I have to keep.
But you ought to be exclted: And look at you,-
like a child!
LEONORA: :
Why excited?
BAD IA :
Because this is a triumph for you, and for
every-
body eloe who has worked for the rebels.
It As
a triumph tha t at last we have a European offiee er
on our side.


LEONORA:
And what about the European officer himself?
BAD IA :
You are lucky to have him, my dear. My own
husband is a wild bear in comparison.
Yet
I think more highly of my husband now. Masudi
always used to call him a clown.
But I wonder
what he calls him now?
LEONORA :
Huseein should have kept out of this house!
BADIA:
Why?
LEONORA :
It was he who influenced Philip: Don's you
understa nd that Philip has plunged himself into
disgrace, that he has committed an act of treason?
Do you expeot me to sit here and lieten to what
you are saying a nd be excited?
Drunk fools
like Hussein have robbed my Philip of his life!
She burste into tears, but BADIA mak kes little effort
to comfort her.
BADIA:
But it was you who influenced the Captain, not
Hussein.
Hussein told me himself ahas how
helpful 1t was to ha ve you in this house.
LEONORA :
I have 8a 1d nothing to influence him, not since
our first evening together.
BADIA :
Are you sure?
LEONORA :
It was Hussein, all the time!
BADIA :
Shall we ask him when he comes, then?
LEONORA :
Ask who?
BADIA :
The Captain.
Shall we ask him whether it was
Hussein or you who really caused him to helpx
the rebels?
LEONORA :
I knew this country would suck him. into its
horrible swamp! And you, - with your tôngue!
BADIA :
You're sick, my dear.
LEONORA:
Sick: Aren't you sick with the filthy washing
you take in from other people all the ti me?


BADIA: :
Is that why you don't come to see me?
LEONORA :
Yes, beoause I detest your quick tongue!
BADIA :
And my quick eyes?
Because they see every-
Sel
thing y ou do, because they how you got the
Captain in your porer, because they see how
you turned my husband's head? Because they
Bee you all too well, my friend, - in your
true colours!
A faint welcoming cry 9 'Mohammed!' is heai rd and
Badia leaps to her feet.
BADIA:
It's the Captain.
Get up and powder your
face.
LEONORA rises listhessly and goes to the mirror,
where she wipes the tears away from her eyes. After a
par use HAZLITT opens the door and leads MOHAMLED in by the
hand. .
HAZLITT:
He was outside because of the harem; Badia,
how are you?
He kieses her hand gally, then goes across'to
LEONORA and embraces her.
BADIA and HOHAMMED stand look-
ing on shyly.
HAZLITT turna and notices them.
the woman
HAZLITT (with a laugh): Haven't you seen a man kiss Mite
Re laves
A 1
Jravar before?, Look!
I'11 show you againi
1 A
He takes LEONORA in his arms, holds back her head
and kisses her on the lips.
HAZLITT:
You see?
So much for your dark shames!
So much for your precious harem, eh, Badia?
Oh, we're going to blow a fine new wind across
those dark shames of yours! Ah, Leonora, I
Rebhy!
feel 8o CE
Hereoteve-mgaint
aut
n uay -
How
the
anful
No hours ofherribleselfe
utinioing no conscionee-etuft
otid
roomt 20-40-sonething-and - a feel the consoienoe


freet 0 -ehe-believes in-me at lest,Hohamm-
ed. Didshetellyouthatt
Mshaumadl
MOHAED-nod6
goes and 11fts Hafchin,
up playfully with his fist.
But
believe in mayet,
HAZLITT:
Brut Koy don't eh?
HOHALMED:
Will you excuee me if I go now, Philip?
reckoned on your coming back earlier.
should have been at the hospital long ago.
HAZLITT (to LEONORA): Have you given him tea ?
LEONORA :
We had some at the 011-camp.
HA ZLITT:
Go, then.
But have dinner with me tonight.
MOHAMMED:
Tomorrow night, Philip.
I'm on duty tonight.
HAZ ZLITT:
Tonorrow night?
(He laughs)
I think you
may be required at the hospital tomorrow night
also.
MOHAMMED:
Way?
HAZLITT looks from to the other of them as they
star nd facing him in sllence.
HA ZLITT:
What are you all looking so solemn about?
LEONORA: :
Why 1s Hohammed going to be required at the
hospital-tomorrom night?
HA ZLITT:
Oh - : Some celebration...
Some brawl
at the House of Assembly, - I was joking. A
few friendly dagger-blows perhaps.
BADIA :
Have you seen Hussein?
HA ZLITT (looking at her closely): Why should I have seen
Hussein?
BADIA: :
I wondered...
MOHAMMED:
I'll leave you, then. Good bye, Philip.
HA ZLITT:
Good bye.
I Just wanted to Bee your face.
MOHAMMED bows slightly to the two women and goes
out.
LEONORA:
I want to know where you've been, Philip.
I told m
iat
HA2
lng 480
ZLITT(turning on her sharply): k eSE ipe-dropert-ef


tye rups were fov
herev
aey
neehing what-
poeses-to-dowith youe
LEONORA :
Shall I put on one of those black veils, then?
But you are dealing with a European woman, my
friend.
You may bristle with revolvers and
machine-guns, but I have eyes in my head, and
they tell me I have a dirty liar before me.
A pause.
HA ZLITT:
Bad la. Do you know what she is talking about?
BADIA :
Be honest with her. She's not a fool.
HAZLITT:
Both of you think you know something. What is
it you think you know?
LEONORA :
That you have just come back from negotiating
with Masudi; that you are hand-in-glove with
the rebele; that you will one day be put to
death for treason; that you have plunged your
name into disgrace; that you have ruined me,
and anything that is born of me. That you are
the dupe of a drunkard.
HAZLITT walke to the wind OW and looks out.
goes to the inner door and opene it.
He looks into the
corridor, and cloges it again.
HAZLITT:
Who told you? Badia?
LEONORA 9almost in tears): Xes.
Had angelohoaf
HAZLITT:
Vaproy (ou valking
to ne about trearson-and dig-
etane zohs no donethan-eny taer Eapopean
hae el
Ake-Hesudi porer
theghosts have qutte departed nenty te
you dort realise y dear, HON-MUTEDIT
the edge of victory ve and
(To BADIÀ)
How
did you get to know all thie?
BADIA:
I've a right to know.
HA ZLITT:
I asked you how you got to know it.
BADIA: :
I'm a rellable person. People
can


rely on my tact when they tell me things.
HAZLITT:
Ah, forgive me.
Your tact.
BADIA: :
I can keep a secret.
I saw Masudl once.
HAZLITT:
And you had a serious politioal discussion?
BADIA :
He knows and trusts me.
HAZLITT:
Did his big hairy hands wander?
BADIA :
Did ?
HAZLITT seizes her by the thpat and pulls her roushly
to and fro.
BADIA :
Leonora:
Leonora!
HA ZLITT:
Come on:
Cone on!
Who told you?
She days something ina ud ible.
HAZ ZLITT bends to
listen to her.
HA ZLITT:
What? Whati (She repeats it) Ah, Hussein,
Hussein.
I might have guessed.
He pushes her baok 8o that she falls onto the divan.
HA ZLITT:
Did he tell you himself, or did you overhear it?
BADIA: :
He told me himself.
HAZLITT:
When he was drunk?
BAD IA:
Yes.
HA ZLITT:
The idiot.
If you utter a word of what Hussein
told you to anyone outaade this room, you'll get
a knife in your back. Now. We are friends.
The three of us: fellom-conspirators.
glad you both know, because things are beginning
to move very fast. We need our women at suoh
a time. Where's Hussein?
BADIA :
In the house. He came to look for you after
your plane went over, but you hadn't come..
HAZLITT:
Ah, a the aeroplane!
(To LEONORA) Did you
Bee me wave?
LEONORA :
Yes.
HA ZLITT:
Was that Mohammed I could sée you with?


LEONORA :
Yes.
HAZLITT:
You've both made me feel quite nervous.
begins striding about)
I hate this waiting
about!
It's so hot!
But nothing's wrong:
I want you both to get that into your heads.
LEONORA :
We ought to have gone back to Europe. I
yToypet hay uotR in the hill.
ploaded with you. I FROA
hidle
stoppen Working at cue oii-oanpt
I've been living for no one but you.
wosk-sa-gones And now - :
How this country
has changed you!
The telephone bell rings.
HAZLITT takes up the
receiver.
HA ZLITT:
Yes, Sergeant Major.
He listens carefully for Bome time then turns to
LEONCRA with his hand over the mouth-piece.
HA ZLITT:
Shingleton went to the Sergeant Major and
ordered him to double gp the sentries while I
was away: because of the "local eituation".
He listens at the phone again.
HA ZLITT:
And what? Yes, yes, I see... Exactly.
He puts the roceiver down and goes slowly to a
cha ir.
HA ZLITT:
What does he mean, - the "local situation"?
Do you think he knows anything?
LEONORA :
He has apies planted everywhere.
HA ZLITT:
Hys eggent fajor-ne ten soi -
whe-ohtgmbost
beopaat-somsn
= from-b -tone.
and-ine-plays-A. -Aouble-game.
I-esinedhie
weeiso-age-vrirether-ttoatquerters Tsd-over-"phoned
Aim inmy_absencerand-ne-tenked
Bet-Bakor
tottme Tapy mad,
Aad Baker say 8 tiert themen
are beginning to gossip apout your presence in
k Told de Aar Lhor sbekY
thie nousee They mpa-elipptng throughay


Heylit: But te typtr
lenic
cveyhing
dentaud
YAe hav *
vecmal
STAE
Badi
tadu! Le. They alore Rex uly becande
Aralic. But
Iay
Singorepieners
Bhegreteeserting-mo.
LEONTRA:
You've given in to the daydreams of a drunk, Padp.
was
BADIA:
Tell her, Captain.
Tell her if it my poor
Huseein who led you to the rebels, or she her-
self.
LEONORA:
Hussein made you feel popud to be with Masudl.
HAZLITT (after a pause) Hor tttink
vinddontivng-my-
sede-foryou. No ae led bne tote rebels.
weal- to tom alae.
LEONORAT
Gradualy
Fow-ecouse-mo nows.
Itecase nuidoed Anly -
BJuot for the moment the meaning's
gone. It's 80 hot here! . I'm confused.
Tomorrow I shall be clear again. Everything
will be clear and cheerful tomorrow, hesora .
LEONORA :
Well, I'm not going to daydream any longer.
Sre puts the silk scarf round her head as if she
were going out.
HAZLITT:
Where are you going?
LEONORA :
I'm going to see Shingleton.
HEZLITT:
Why?
LEONORA :
To calm him down, and to find out what he knows -
You can't afford to have him as y our enemy .
HA ZLITT:
And I can't afford to let him know the truth.
LEONORA:
But surely he knows every thing.
HAZLITT:
Not even Hussein knows.
LEONORA :
What 1s the truth, then?
HAZ ZLITT:
But Shingleton must never know.
LEONORA :
Very well.
Tell me what the truth 1s.
HA ZLITT:
Masud1 and I have agreed on a time.
LEONORA :
A time?
kaches
HAZLITT:
Masudi wwwnwwObaedie this town at dawn tomorros
morning.
HEONORA:
For the rebellion?


HAZLITT:
Yes.
LEONORA :
Tomorrow!
Then he's already on the move?
Oh, you fool! How do you think we can save
you now?
CURTA IN.


SCENE:
the same, a little later.
It is now
evening.
HA ZLITT and BADIA AL SHABAR are discovered.
BADIA:
If you went back to your country now, Captain,
would they shoot you?
HA2 ZLITT.
Yes. I suppose they would.
BADIA:
Will you ever be able to go back to your count-
HAXLITT:
How strange: that had never occurred to
BADIA:
You've courage.
That's why. But just think:
if Huésein had been a Captain and had betrayed
his country, would I still love him?
HA ZLITT:
Have I betrayed my country?
BADIA :
Your own people would say s0.
HA ZLITT:
Masudi has agreed not to touoh the oil-camp.
That was my first condition.
BADIAS
BUT Masudi is a liar.
HA ZLITT:
I feel 8o utterly alone.
From now on no one
can help me. Yet I've hardly been conscious
of what I've done.
BADIA:
You've been led astray by a very heautiful
woman, Captain.
HA ZLITT:
Why do you Bay that?
BADIA :
Because I don't want you to blame Hussein if
anything goes wrong.
Leonora played her part
as well, remember; and a bigger part, too.
Her intelligence frightens me, Captain.
has changed all of us. Without it we could
all have been living peacefully togéther.
Look at her effect on Hussein.
HA ZLITT:
Khat was her effect on Hussein?
BADIA:
Don't you see that the man adores her? Ha vent
you noticed him when they're together?
All


day ne talks about her, and when he's lying
in bed drunk he pulls his pillow about and
calls it Leonora.
For Hussein she is the
highest type of European woman.
Whereas sa
I'm the whore.
HAZLITT:
Are you jealous of her?
BADIA (with a shrug)
Huseein goes to the brothel three
or four times a week.
How dould I be jealous?
He disgusts me.
Whereas you are different.
HAZLITT:
What did you mean when you said that we might
be libing peacefully together?
BADIA :
She led you astray.
HAZLITT:
I make my own decisions.
BADIA:
But you*ve been working with Hussein.
And
do you think he would have moved a muscle without
a woman like Leonora to guide him?
HAZLITT:
Were they friends, then? before I came?
BADIA :
No. But since youarrived he has always been
trying to show off in front of her. These
patrols he asked you to go on, they're all
showing off for Leonora's benefit!
Hussein
needs only one incentive: a woman.
He's
like a wild beast where women are concerned.
is olo grles all tho
What kind of rebel doyou ttrin ta-to-me-tolle
secrh away 6 his
wite?
Repel!
ch-roehe-vonpeombde tho
tna-bhnonsend-wen?
HA ZLITT:
Did Leonora ever go to see him in private?
BAD IA:
Perhaps.
She isn't unwilling to use her
charms, Captain. Only this afternoon she and
the doctor were dancing round this room, laughing
and kissing each other.
HAZLITT:
Kissing?
BADIA:
Hussein sa id 80. But he talke wildly.
His


brain is soft with drink.
HAZLITT (putting his handkerchief to his brow): : They are
only friends, Hohammed and Leonora, mly fierdi,
BADIA:
of course. But if I show that I admire you,
1f I say that of all the men who have come
from Europe I think you are the finest, they
call me a whore. But the precious Miss
Friedmann can have her friendships.
that.
HAZLITT:
Only Hussein calls you twanowag
BADIA:
No. You say the same, in your heart.
Look
at the way you pushed me about when Leonora
was here. Would you do that to a European
woman?
HAZLITT:
It was beca use you lied to me.
BADIA:
But it'athe same judgement all the time,
that I'm just an appendage of Hussein's life,
that I'm of no importance in myself and have
got to be kept under lock and key. Oh, yes,
I'm beautiful enough, but 80 are the girls in
the brothels, 80 are the cabaret-girle:
When
I met Mise Friedmann for the first time I
asked her to come and eee me in my house.
She came once. Once.
HA ZLITT:
Why was that?
BADIA:
Beeause there is nothing romantic in my house,
no men for one thing. Only magazines and tea.
But there's no difference of intelligence
between Miss Friedmann and me, Captain, nor any
difference of beauty. There is only one
difference: she is free and 1 not. If I
were free like her men would fall in love with
me as well.
HAZLITT:
But men Burely do fall in love with you.


BADIA:
And if I were free they wouldn't call me
these thinge! And you would take my love
as a gift, not pull me about as you did.
HAZLITT:
Your love?
BADIA :
I think about you every hour of the day.
And the more I'm alone, the more do I think
of you.
I've envied Leonora more than any
other woman I've know. Why are you looking
at me like that?
HA2 ZLITT:
I'm astonished. Yes, this country has
changed me..
BADIA :
Are you thinking of me as a shameless crea ture?
Does Hussein tell you all the time how I
scream and stamp and curse like cne? Be
married to a drurkard who is eick over your
Bilk dresses and carpets every night, then
866 if you'a scream or noti
HA ZLITT:
It wasn't in my head. I was Just astonished.
BADIA :
It's a pure feeling. Even you who receive it
can't take away its purity.
HA ZLITT:
Does Hussein know?
BADIA: :
What do any of these people know about love?
You can't eat love, you can't chop it up for
fire-wood, you can't use it to kill mosquitoes
withi Hussein feels an appetite, he gratifies
it, then it's all finished: That's the limit
of his love.
HAZLITT:
You tell me all this, Badia, just a few hours
before the rebellion...
BADIA:
This is my first chanoe to see you alone.
Tomorrow you are going to be a powerful man.
Then you'11 remember that I loved you at a
time when you had no power. Are you so much


in love with her?
HA ZLITT:
eyel - - an
Thet firet-flushof
Eeel
Lan't auan LeT
BAD IA
But can y ou imagine sleeping with me if
ohly out of mercy?
HA ZLITT:
Yea.
BADIA :
But nolove? no Jove in the sense of this
'loyalty' yorhave for her?
HAZ ZLITT (after a peuse) No.
BADIA a
s0 I'm beeutiful, but only to touch, like an
ornament. then to put away. Thet's my destiny
(Puts her hand up to her neck)
You hurt me
when you caught hold of my neck.
HAZLITT:
I shall never treat you like that aga in.
BADIA: :
Feel.
Is there a swelling?
She draws his hand along her neck and moves closer
to him.
BADIA:
Won't you kiss the bruise you've made?
He remains quite still, and at last she lowers her
hand.
BADIA :
Is she having a child?
HAZLITT:
How do you know that?
BADIA :
I only guessed. She looke 1ll. Iwould' 11ke
to be with you every hour of the day, and for
the rest of_my life.
(Looking about the room)
was
But she a here before me. You can see her
mark all over the room, wherea s when I came
here first it was simple and
There is a light knock on the front door.
HAZLITT
opene it and HUSSEIN AL SHABAR steps into the room.
HUSSEIN:
Ah, Capta in, 8o you are back.
I saw your
plane go over this afternoon.
They shake har nde, and HUSSEIN stares from HAZLITT
to BADIA.


HUSSEIN (to BADIA): Go back to your house and stay there.
She does not move, but CO ntinues looking at
HAZLITT.
Suddenly HUSSEIN makes as if to strike her
HUSSEIN:
Get out!
She flinches away, 1 then lea ves the room.
HUSSEIN:
I. want you to answer a question, Captain.
Am I your best friend in this country?
HA ZLITT:
Yes. What is the matter with you?
HUSSEIN:
This: that I don't like some of your friends.
They could easily interfere with our work.
HA ZLITT:
Are you talking about Mohammed? .
HUSSE IN:
When I came here thie afternoon I saw Mies
Friedmann and the doctor dancing round this
room 11ke lovers. Now that is very shame-
ful to me: first, because you allow an enemy
of mine to come to your house while you are
away; and secondly because Miss Friedmann
clearly prefers the company of the doctor to
mine. That t is to say, she prefers someone
vulgari
HA ZLITT:
He's the best surgeon in the country. And
do yau question his honour?
HUSSEIN:
I do. To his face 1f necessary.
HA ZLITT:
And you ne ver doubt your oun? Is 1t an
honourable man who tells his wife political
secrets when he's drunk?
a-dengor
Look at you trembling there.
All this stuaf you talk about honour and
pride,-
it's xan
the after-effeot of
l1quor!
HUSSEIN:
Whatever my isife tells you is untaue.
BADIA:
Then how does she know I've been
negotiating


with Masud1?
HUSSEIN:
Just a woman's talk.
HAZLITT:
I had to force it out of her.
I know when
Badia 1s telling the truth.
Yet I can trust
Mohammed, you see. -
A pause.
HUSSEIN:
Did I tell her these things?
HAZLITT:
How else could she know?
HUSSEIN:
With a bottle in my hand I have no honour, no
pride, no dignity.
Sometimes she waits in the
porch for me at night and bea ts mg like a child
when I'm drunk.
nuust
HA ZLITT:
You'oto keep her mouth shut. Masudi and
I have agreed on a time. That time is dawn
tomorrow morning.
HUSSEIN:
Tomorrow?
HA ZLITT:
You don't look excited or even interested.
Whatkz the matter with you?
A A
HUSSEIN looks at him in silence.
HUSSEIN:
How long was Badla here alone?
HA ZLITT:
Perhaps. a couple of hours.
You idiot! Pyou
think I'm after her?
HUSSEIN (sorewing up his face): It's all these strange people
who come and go...
As if from dark places.
Everything suspicious. There should only be
you and Miss Freedmann here in this house. No-
body else.
This Baker of yours: his eyes are
strange. And Shingleton comeé here Bometimes.
As well as Hohammed. And Badia is always
longing to come over here, - I can feel her
longing like a bitch on hea t.
HA ZLITT:
Listen to ul weert -:
tunatis lisen.
toH you.
Tomorror
you must get through to the Iouse of Assembly
in time to meet Masudi at three o'clock in


will
in the afternoon.
By tha t time hs ttan
presagy
have the police headquarters and the barracks
under control.
Now go and get some eleep.
You'll need all your strength tomorrow. And
keep that woman's mouth shut.
HUSSEIN (moving closer to him): : I Baw a mark on her throat
when I came in. You - :
He takes a step forward but HAZLITT instantly pulls
out his revolver and points it at him.
HAZLITT:
I order you to go and get some sleep.
There are footsteps outside and HA2 ZLITT quickly
replaces his revolver.
LEONORA enters the room with
SHINGLETON.
The latter looks from HAZLITT to HUSSEIN
closely.
HUSSEIN makes a bon, but SHINGLETON disregards
him.
HA ZLITT:
Please ome in.
HUSSEINMatohe 8 them for a moment, then goes away.
SHINGLETON: I see you've no guard on the house, Captain.
HAZLITT:
I sent him away some weeks ago.
SHINGLETON: That len't wise in this country. You look
less well than when I saw you first.
HA ZLITT:
Do I? will you sit down?
SHINGLETON (seating himself) You're still thick with this
Hussein, then? (witha smile)
I hope he
1sn't leading you sastray?
HA ZLITT:
LEONORA:
Don't you mean 'yes'?.
HA ZLITT:
You shouldn't say that!
SHINGLETON:
she has a right to say that, Captain.
agt.oho.n
Beacgie itta true.
HA ZLITT:
It true that you
E a ou
a e
By what right
do you telephone my own Sergeant Hajor and


tell hin what sentries to post?
SHINGLETON: Let me tell you, Captain: first because
ergincenig canp,
I am the manager of the 82-0ampo and
secondly because you aré here to protect me.
HAZLITT:
I do protect you.
SHIKGLETON: But not when you are away, Captain. You're
away quite often, aren't you?
Look at Iiss
Hat
Friedmann here: she' terrified/you are going
to make a fool of yourself, isn't she? That's
why she came running to me this afternoon.
HA ZLITT:
I leave strict orders when I go away.
You.
SHINGLETON: But I'm supposed to advisek Can I do that
when you're away?. No, I have to advise your
Sergeant Hajor. That means giving him orders.
HA ZLITT:
Are you sure you know 80 much about this
country?
SHINGLETON: Far more than you.
(with a chuckle)
don't think'you realise how helpful I've been,
Captain.
One word from me to Headquartere
and you would have been dismissed the servioe
long ago.
HA2 ZLITT:
Why? Because I tal ke rec onnaisance pa trole
into the hills?
SHINGLETON: Yes. Because tha tla is not one of your duties
here. And in any case A these are hardly
reconnaissanoe patrola, are they?
HAZLITT does not answer.
SHINGLETON: Are these reconnaissance patrols, Capta: in?
I liked the look of your little aeroplane
boday.
HAZLITT:
Oh, yes, your spies...
SHINGLETON: I know at what hour you landed in the hille
five days ago, and at what hour you took off


today .
HA ZLITT: :
Then why didn't you pass word to Headquarters?
SHINGLETON: Beacque I think Miss Friedmann and this
worthless drunkard of yours have an undue
influence over you, Captain.
Bedcaue I
don't,take Miss Friedmann seriously, or Husseing
seriously, or lastly yourself seriously.
I shall Just wait patiently until you have
played out your little comic opera. You
people are powarless. This Masudi has a
golden beard, hasn't he?
HA ZLITT:
Should I know that?
SHINGLETON: You do know that, Captain, because you saw
bim to day. And thatlig why Miss Friedmann
came running to me, to find out what stepa
I was taking. For God's sake come off your
pedestal, man: Itva within my power to get
you shipped off hbme on a treason charge.
LEONORA: :
Have you taken any stepe?
SHINGLETON: No, but I ehall only continue to take no steps
on certaisn conditions. You realise how I
compromise my self in this way?
HA ZLITT:
Why do it, then?
SHINGLETON: Ah, Captain, perhaps I've a little mercy after
all. The amy i lardly Ims casees. Ya AuG Aaeye
wavt Antro unaag uust ake allwwa scas
HA ZLITT:
What are the conditions?
for that.
SHINGLETON: That you keep Huseein out of the house, that
you cease your s0-called patrols, that you
wear your uniform l1ke any ofher European
officer, that you keep a perma nent guard on
this house and tha t you keep the kind of
respectable conpany that officers here
usually do keep.


A pause.
SHINGLETON: Do you agree?
HA ZLITT:
Yes. I agree.
SHINGLETON (giving him. a Budden glance): An I to believe
that?
HA ZLITT:
You have your noments of comic opera too...
Yes, you are to believe it. And I'll thank
you never to interfere with my sentries aga in.
SHINGLETON: Why not simply thank me?
Since you owe me
your life? Because you're a damned ungrateful
pappy! Because you're a helpless child:
Beaaue this bloody pest-hole is a real test
of a aman! And what have you done here?
You've let a drunkard and a sentimental elip
of a girl tell you how to conduct your life,
how to betray your country, how to lie in
your back teethi Oh, yes, look at it all!
(Poking at the cushions, picking up the covers)
Very pretty! But it's what a woman would
do. It's fickle, showy, spineless!
Not
11ke a man, least of all like a Captain.
LEONORA :
Leave him alone.
SHINGLETON (looking from one to the other): Hanotquite
human for either of you, am-I? Has 1t never
occurred to you, that I bave a mind too,
and that Lhave ax problems, even fears, quite
as terrible as yours? Am I Just 'Shingleton
at the oil-gamp'?
'The spy'? Don't you
hate me Captain?
HA ZLITT:
I only want you to keep away from my
sentries.
SHINGLETON You imagine you know a little about the
people of this country, don't you? But you


haven't met them, Captain. You just haven't
met them.
You've met Hussein Al Shabar, and
Mohammed the doctor, namely the two people in
this country who speak English as if it was
their mother tongue and who haj ppen to have been
sent as children to the same European school
in Alexandria. They even look 11ke Europeans.
Mohammed ie a little dark perhaps. But the
others, the vast majority, they shun you.
They. hate your uniform, and one day they'll
dispose of these friends of yours.
I fcue beeu auag te Vellagen,
ate
They
ZLITT:
res ight
60 GuC ebelst
upieuds,
They imld lee (rite
t put a lullet
SHINGLETON:
Rabhy
Buty you-didi ta to
rebels, and you
letwsen Heis eyer Whan tLey haue finishad
never wiirt AII you cando, Captain, is to
uitk you : ut tle illagen jpelhal
lut
sire them arus and ammunition
e Mouuly theis leader
he benefitof our militar) knowledge.
Afterwarde they-woutd put bulilet-between
neres quite
HAZLITT:
They trust me e
SHINGLETON: Yesy You are AUa a legena yn this country.
Everybody/ has heard youk namé.
You areveven
stu
a kind pf leader for them. But edfyd1-you are
not one of them. The fact is you're just a
Jof
man who C hose his cl and then funked its
consequences,
HAZLITT:
NEs I funked nothing, I -
SHINGLETON: But your eyes are full of doubt! You're only
just waking up to the truth, you see. You're
Just this moment realising what a dangerous
game you ha ve played. It's hot in this place.
We Europeans lose touch here quickly. Who are
we? After a week we don't know. We have
bodies, yes, and names. But that silent
core


of identity that was us in Europe dies: it
dies, Captain. Even Miss Friedmann ha 8
changed. I can see that.
Until now she has
been my enemy. e Are you my enemy now?
LEONORA:
I'a-halplessr ho doe L C sepi
he hun ca
han selitily
SHINGLETON: You see, Captain?
This wee
monen
shockad
This -
the
ssupincenig
was
woman who called Shingleton of the otian
camp the 'anti-rebel spy'.
LEONORA: :
SHINGLETON: You deny it? I have a dozen gitnesses! And
here I amy the 'anti-rebel spy', with the lives
of both of you in my' hands.
I'm not sentiment-
al, but I Just want you to reallse tha t I have
mercy. You alwaya sa. id I had' no mercy.
LEONORA :
To whom?
SHINGLETON: To Mohamned, to the Captain hére, to the rebel
leaders.
Have I shown the Captain mercy?.
LEOHORAS
Heer Naw Gilen to hul, Caftain
lwautym
BHINGLETON: What about the 'mercisless class' to which E
belong?
Where is it now?
LEONORA :
Those were my beliefs, nothing to do with you
as a person.
SHINGLETON: But I've suffered from this Tord 'class'.
A belief can hurt.
Ithurts when everything
you say and do andfeel is put down to class.
When you are sad, - ah, but thet is only because
you have to6 much leisure. When you are
guilty,/ ah, that'e the guilt of your clase.
When/you are furious, - ah, that's the male-
yolence of the bose.
When you are tender,
ah, that's the softness of your upbringing.
Until finally you are afraid of sincerity,
afraid to be sad, guilty, furious or tender,


to be unse
Ce AAT
l me
to my temul,
1 Shal liave
5H4 agree
anting nuse la aay:
I told T. al the
lin eary, C. Wa
Beginaig to fecl ialo esr,
counliy
who
ueed
Ibe qm lare: pepple
regle
cnol wittii
Speak te louguoge feiesty
the pegple. Batay
Tiels
ut aaiug
all-- ulani 4o thet :
Cul
Nay
Madudi
ho. Jlo
agai.
lid
Keeb
uutil yu 28e. nl 2
Hur
syahinties
Lat Do qm
aul
the aiy:
mar ?
au qu ur Lienrd,
Ireorm darge
Din
matter with hin,
what - tii
Hay ltt
cnol
Fuednau 3 (lnest
Ite Munlder) Auy
takes hie ly
lit
snick -
Do ynwa ant ca
-Reave?
ttu beat 5e L - - - -
(To kerural
ufetain yur nemes.


asd
Cut
lead
afraid to say anything direot or with feel-
ing. That's what makes you think us too
cold, too rational and too clever, Capta in.
That's why so many of my clase go over to the
rebels: out of unholy terror!
Why dg you
think I am here?
Because among my own people
I am a atranger, because there exigt ycung men
like you.
HA ZLITT:
You talk about your class. But I'm alone.
I choose for myself alone. Why can't you be
alone?
SHINGLETON: Because people like me hang together. And we
see you pulling dowh the pillars of our temple.
Alone, yes, that yoy/ere. But we built that
temple.
Did you think it was built from.
eternity? .No, we bullt 1t. So you are
pulling down qur work. You nust forgive us a
lot, Hazlitt, we are mortally afraid, a both
Miss Friegmann and I in our vèry different ways e
HAZLITT:
And pou/will crucify me, out of your fear?
SHINGLETON: Perhaps we shall. Miss Friedmann tried very
hapa to. Then she relented, and provided you
are seneible we shall be able to save you.
But there are other chances in this detestable
place.
HAZLITT (to LEONORA): You dragged me low with your consoiano e..
LEONORA :
No. You used to sneer at my conscience. You
told me to live in the present. I obeyed you,
and now look what you've brought on uB.
HA ZLITT:
I'll go to my doom alone, don't worry.
SHINGLETON: Why your doom? If there's the slightest danger
of rebellion parade your tanks in front of the
House of Assembly, man, and close your doors
to Hussein, then you'll see what this rebel-


Guld
uduit hin I
sulo the espitel t
fes duy
T - winl
lapent :
No, lo, lh well euige.
The
oul.
(t made le
(v G village
tint
tayit tkere sa Lo lam
augy
doeig Masndi.
- Sut
boars
Shinglelin :
Nandyuaton
it, what then - ?
Ne cill
Masndi 1 a duod mau.
Aogeit
doclon.
ranlbut see auy
gie thetn grod,
him.
hamm iu. vislang
clild
Dasndi
Rt listen, uyy
Gringleisn
will gue then
Leittu tort
S 3
usthny celse,
He w auki paes,
uor
And unw defire yo
INSERT
Naytut. Art - Luake 6
A Teelp.
te uod
feel
C ashalad
Kaylitt : Nel called I
uuy cliild.
Shaupe, folt
libe a clild.
Idut kus ahat / baue due.


-movement's worth.
But fail to do this
and there's a two-fold doom inatore for
you. The first doom 18 that of treason.
The second is that of being/ shot by your
friends. Masudi would dispose of you the
glet
day after he set foot in the House of Assembly,
pephaps even the first day.
HA ZLITT:
But I agreed to your terms, didn't I?
SHINGLETON: Yee. You've saved yourself.
Yet - (They
glat
gazeat each other for a moment) - you look
like a man who has given up- hope.
HAZLITT:
A Hy illdeione'are/kong, that's (all.
SHINGLETON: Without 1llusiond/Hazlltt, y.ou should iake
a soo@/offico-)And now, before I go, I'm
going to aak you to do something for me.
HA ZLITT:
Yes.
SHINGLETON: Please order a sentry to be mounted outside
this house. Now.
HA2 ZLITT goes slowly to the phone and picks 1t up.
HAZLITT:
Give me the Sergeant Major...
This is
Captain Haz zlitt...
You will send a sentry
to this house immediately.
There will be a.
constant guard on this house from now on..
Thank you.
He lays the receiver down.
SHINGLETON: That's sensible.
Well, good bye. And don't
forget, Captain, parade your tanks!
He leaves.
HAZLITT goes to the door and stares
into the darkness outside.) A pause. He turns and looks
at LCONORA s
HA ZLITT:
What did you tell him?
LEONORA :
That you'a been negotiating with Masudi.
HAZLITT:
Did you mention our plans for dawn tomorrow?


Iwent ls Muondi,
Tnese seched ko tasn
the sewet tonmns cl
Si :t. Then
t lme to ue',
dusp,
Mingletn lurpet
hemvas
Cine ina anol sest - Plilit
Nopatt I
what ded 1 in fell hin !
Are 1
I cait.
tami!
bot Brt
agued t Ris
coud asdice.
pasn acaire uysey
Heyet: Eueay T
belng to tris oninky
said
war all
lsmlart.
#: Bejn
Sniglefe
bhistaoker
L. Brr lie cau seud, impotes
Rut
He doesic kun what le 11 dig.
tned a
lue did
afpas the WL auddeely
lis
send Cu
u sfirt : Yaln flayel inls
lards, fegy, soyr wust lee carofel.


LEONORA :
HA ZLITT:
Are you telling the truth?
LEONORA :
I said nothing about tomorr Ow.
HA ZLITT:
He seems quite in the dark.
His spies let
him down. Dum Becurity was excellent, that's
why.
LEONORA :
Are you going to do what he asked?
A pause. HAZLITT aga 1n stares into the darkness
outside.
LEONORA: :
Are you?
HA ZLITT:
I can't, Leonora.
LEONORA :
But you agreed to his terms!
HAZLITT:
EvgTTIribesman
nov E
npnr Ken fought each pther this morning for
the honour of kissing my hand.
LEONORA :
And that flatters you?
HA ZLITT:
Nor But - Love- this count - ny-now
neven
ant e reave
Id don't belong to this house,
or to the colonial army. I shall take you
into the hills, where everything is cool and
fresh.
LEONORA :
You agreed to his terms, Philip.
HA ZLITT:
eeted
usui
00 I can't
turn my back on them. They lust ma Lou
LEONORA :
Is-tit oneo fenesat N
eeredat
atau
HA ZLITT :
rhtroomutomcer
LEONORA :
suid 1t OW stert
agged
HAZLITT:
Oh, I suddenly-felt angry. It wasn't true.


sesemee-ekonerend
We'll be feted, you and I, darling.
I can't think beyond that.
I showed these
people that I wasn't afraid, and they are going
to reward me. How silant everything 16...
(Looke about him suddenly)
I must go to
Hussein.
We'd better sleep on the roof
tonight.
It will be safer.
Tell Baker to
take the mattresses up.
He turns to leave the room.
LEONORA :
Then you are going to let Masudi through?
HA ZLITT:
Yes.
He leaves.
LEONORA stands for a moment alone,
then rushes to the door.
LEONORA:
Philip, come back!
Please come back!
He runs back to the door and she falle weeping
into his arms.
LEONORA:
Are you blind? (Sheking hin by the shoulders)
Look at me! Look at me! How can I ma ke
you see?
HA ZLITT:
Leonora!
LEONORA :
What about my child, Philip!
You can't let
them kill my child:
CURTA IN.


FOURTH ACT.


SCENE: the roof, during the evening of the
following day.
Above the door leading down into the house there
1s a powerful electric light.
The sky and the desert
bey ond the house are quite dark.
The leaves of the palm
tree can be seen, but the garden bench is now in obsourity.
Leaning aga: inst the parapet are two mattresses, and blankets.
In the distance there 1s the sound of rifle and
machine-gun fire.
This 1e intermittent throughout the
scene. -
HUSSEIN AL SHABAR is discovered alone.. He is
standing under the d ectric bulb.
He goes to the parapet
and looks out into the darkness.
He then takes from his
pocket a hip-flask, unscrews its top, and drinks.
stands still for a moment, amacking his 11ps.
Therer 1e the long rumble of an explosion in the
distance, and yellow flames begin to 1ight up the sky. a
HUSSEIN starts. He wat tohes the distant flames for a
moment, then takes another drink.
There is a noise on
the stairs behind - the door, and he quickly pute the flask
away. A pause.
The door opens and a woman dressed in a black
abba comes onto the roof. She has drawn the garment up
over the lower part of her face.
She is BADIA AL SHABAR.
engrieenin
HUSSEIN:
Is that the jautincamp?
BADIA :
Yes. What are you doing here alone?
HUSSE IN:
Waiting for Hazlitt.
Why do you worry about
BADIA:
I don't like it when you prowl around.
you want to be shot, standing up here with
the light on?


HUSSEIN:
Shot at our leader's house?
We're winning.
We've surrounded the police headquarters.
BADIA:
Then why aren't you with Masud1?
HUSSEIN:
I saw him this afternoon at the House of
Assembly.
BADIA:
But you should have stayed with him. He'11
be picking his ministers in an hour's time.
HUSSEIN:
He told me to come back home. He treated me
like a servant, Badia.
BADIA:
And you. accepted that? You came meekly home
with the tail between your legs?
HUSSEIN:
I'm waiting for Hazlitt.
I can rely on him
for help.
He ka the real leader, not Masudi
at all.
I couldn't bear the disgrace, Bad ia,
of atanding in that great Council chamber with
everybody laughing at me. I'n a prince.
These lackeys would stone a prince.
BADIA:
And you believe that Hazlitt is the real
leader?
HUSSEIN:
He controls the a rms and ammunition.
He 1s
our spokesman with Europe. He is also my
friend, and in my friendehip with him lies. my
strangth.
so I'm staying here.
BADIA:
And the Captain is going to give you help...
HUSSEIN:
of course!
Did you expeot me to stay with
aad
those vagabonds, then? If It so much as
opened my mouth they'd have cut me up 11ke a
dog. Do you expeot me to stand in the Council
chamber and wait for Masudi's guards to clap
a pair of hand-ouffs on me?
BADIA: :
You didn't think of all this before, Hussein.
HUSSEIN:
I thought I was sure to be the leader, with
the Captain behind me.


BADIA :
Oh, yes, you thought, you thought...
And
now you are still thinking.
Like a fool
you don't realise tha t Hazlitt can be of no
help whatever so you! He will be arrested
for treason.
Sooner or lat ter his dovernment
will get him. And do youthink his own
soldiers are going to stay with him? They're
lurach,
all running loose in the oar-camps Masudi
took over the ammunition-dump an hour ago
because the European sentry ran away. Without
men, without ammunition and without a Govern-
ment behind him, what power do you think
the Captain can have?
HUSSEIN:
Masudi took over the ammunition-dump?
BADIA:
Yes! The haren 1sn't quite useless, you see.
The news we get is quick and reliable.
But
all you can do is to stand up here with your
idiotio dréame. Are you going to play away
these last few hours?
HUSSEIN:
I believe in the Captain.
I will take him
away to the hills, where he'll be safe from
Hasudi.
BADIA:
But Masudi will not let you do that.
He has
all the ammunition he needs. He regards you
as' a dreaming fool, and he 4 is right!
Look
at you, with those silly d 1stant eyes.
HUSSEIN:
Leave me alone, Badia.
BADIA:
Shall I tell you why you're not in the Council
Chamber at this moment? Because your mind %a la
been too full with this Leonora woman.
You're A
1ike a dog, the way you sniff round other
women. I Baw it three monthe ago, but you
'were too busy calling me a whore and
telling


me how beautiful the European lady was. As
for your building up your power slowly 11ke
Masudi, not You preferred to hang round the
Europeans with your dreaming eyes!
HUSSEIN:
She did you.no harm.
BADIA :
Bhe'a the root of the whole trouble.
And let
will
tell you wholagdingto come out of this
better than anybody else. Mohammed.
Mohamm-
ed the doctor. Aren't you ashamed to aesoclate
with Mohammed's whore?
What are you but his
servant now? Have you any pride at all,
Hussein?
HUSSEIN:
Pride?
BADIA:
She bears you no love for what you did.
She
has enough with two men already, and neither
of them a drunkard.
No, she worked on you
as she worked on the Captain.
Both of you
are the dupes of a whore!
HUSSEIN:
You must not call her that!
BAD IA :
Did you see Mohammed kissing her downsta irs
yesterday?
srexdag? You told me they were dancing
together.
HUSSEIN (staring at her): Yes.
BADIA:
She told you tney were only friends.
Bat I
wonder if she told you she was two monthe
gone with child?
HUSSEIN:
Mise Friedmann!
BADIA:
Khose child? The Captain's? Mohammed's?
I don't know. Does she know? And you oall
me a whore, who have borne you two children
and not 8o much as touched another man's hand!
HUSSEIN:
She betrayed the Captain...
BADIA: :
Oh, the precious Capta in!
You believe in the


Captain, don'tyou?
(Bulling her cloak
down) Well, look at the bruise on my neck!
That's what t your frieud does to your wife.
HUSSEIN (gripping hold of heram): I said yesterday
I said, 'The mark on her neck' and
deserves to die.
BADIA:
And these are the Europeans you love.
only you could atand on your own feet like
Masudi.
Does he run after the.E Europeans?
No, he stays in the hills, slowly bullding
up his power, until they come to him.
HUSSEIN:
I was following a dream all the time.
BADIA:
And will you listen to me now?
HUSSEIN:
Yes.
next
BADIA:
We must leave here tonight.
During the enxt
week you will collect all your tribeemen in
the hills and arm them.
Then you will send
a message to Masudi and demand a place in the
government.
A pause.
HUSSEIN:
Can we leave here sa fely?
BADIA:
The road to the north is clear now.
HUSSEIN:
Then I'll do it.
BADIA:
Give me the bottle you took from the house.
HUSSEIN (turning away): I
BADIA :
Give me tha t bottle.
He quietly takes the hip-flask of brandy from his
pocket and gives it to her. She goes to the parapet and is
Just about to throw it down when she stops.
BADIA:
There's someone coming.
HUSBEIN quickly joins her at the parapet and they
look down into the darkness. A door closes below.
BADIA:
I think it was Hazlitt.


There is the sound of someone mounting the
stairs slowly and heavily.
HUSSEIN and BADIA listen in
silence, standing together. At san last the door ie thrown
open and HAZLITT appears. His olothes are disarranged.
He looke from one to the other.
HAZLITT:
Ie Leonora here?
BADIA: :
We haven't seen hern.
HAZLITT:
Then - ?
He goes back to the door and opens 1t. He calls
He strides up and down the roof, waiting
for the serva nt, who comes almost at once.
HAZ ZLITT:
Is Miss Friedmann here?
BAI KER:
No, sir.
She went out this afternoon.
HA ZLITT:
Where to?
BA KER:
She said she was going to the oil-camp.
HA ZLITT:
Alone?
BA KER:
Yes, sir. After a 'phone-call from Mr.
Shingleton, I think.
A pause.
HA ZLITT:
You know what's happening, do you?
BAI KER:
Yes.
HA ZLITT:
I'll give you a map, and you can tal ke my car.
Make for Headquarters. There's no future
with me.
BAKER:
Your car isn'a here, sir.
HA ZLITT:
Why not?
BAKER:
Miss Friedmann took it.
HA ZLITT:
What?
With the roads as they are? Have
you tried 'phoning the oil-camp?
BA KER:
The lines are down, sir.
HA ZLITT:
Where did she make for?
BAKER:
The road into town.
HA ZLITT:
But they're shooting up every car they Beel


We'1l give her twenty minutes, then we'll I
go out and search.
BAKER:
Very well, sir.
He goes.
HAZLITT:
What made her take the car?
(He looks from
HUSSEIN to BADIA, but neither replies)
Well,
did you Bee Masudi?
HUSSEIN:
Yes.
HA ZLITT:
At what time?
HUSSEIN:
Three o'clock, as you told me.
HAZLITT:
And'at four o'clock he attacked my nilitary
pofeitons. Do you know anything about that?
HUSSEIN:
HA ZLITT:
He opened fire on my men. Most of my men have
fled." Did you know that?
HUSSEIN:
He sent me away. He would have nothing to. do
with me.
HA ZLITT:
You didn't by Bome chance come to a private
arrangement with him?
I'm surprised to find
you here, unarmed as well.
HUSSEIN:
He hardly looked at me.
HA ZLITT:
This is the man you. sent me to negotlate with,
a treacherous swine. This is the man y ou
asked me. to give up my life for. You do
realise I've given up my 1ife, don't you?
You're safe, in your own country. But I've
no men, no weapons, and not a reliable friend
in the town.
HUSSEIN:
Not even Miss Friedmann?
HA ZLITT goes closer to. him.
HA ZLITT:
Are you sneeing 1. at me?
HUSSE IN:
Masudi threw me out. of the Council Chamber
because I used to come to your house, be ca use


E98
Sjat
I - consorted with Europeans.
Don't you think
I have a right to sneer?
HA ZLITT:
But I led your revolt, man!
Come to your
senses!
HUSSEIN:
We want our own leaders! You shame us, you
Itis
and your your women! Is it your child. Bhe "A
bearing or Hohammed's? Do you know, or care?
We haven't lost all religion and all self-respect,
to admire a man l1ke youf,-a man who lets his
wife make love to a lackey! If she wanted
another man, let her come to mo: I am clean,
I am a prince. But she crawls 1ike something
out of the sand, all dark and poisonous, into
Mohammed's bed! Hohammed!
I hate Europeans,
Captain.
You deceived me. I let you see my
wife, because I thought you were an honourable
man. But you touched her.
You are kower than
the dirt under my feet, you and your tired
whore! Your child will be born in your dirt,
it will caryy your shame and corruption all
through its life, it will grow up under a curse
and make its evil all over the world, (maving
his arms wildly, his eyes staring) wherever it
goes in the world!
HAZLITT(galetly, to BADIA): Is he armed?
BADIA: :
Why, are you afraid?
HAZLITT gazes at her for a moment.
HAZLITT:
Because
Sogou've turned as well Beacsue I didn't
STET
blay your little game, et?
BADIA:
No. But you'1a ruin hin unlesp I get him
away. We've got our livesto probeot.
HUSSEIN:
You tried to shame her!
(Almost in tears)
Oh, my God, they would stone a princel


You should have been my friends...
Xas
BADIA :
He Va been drinking.
HA ZLITT:
I was always your friend.
HUSSEIN:
A prince should only move among princes.
Masud1 was right.
He stayed in the hills.
We should not let them shame us.:.
There is a loud knock on the door, and BAKER enters.
BAKER:
A oar 1s, coming towarde the house, sir!
HAZLITT goes to the parapet and looks across the
desert.
HA ZLITT:
All right.
Go downstairs. Boltthe door,
and open it only for Miss Friedmann.
BAKER
BKARE goes.
HAZLITT:
You'a better not be seen here. Go out the
back way. .
A car-engine 1s heard in the distance.
BADIA makes for the door, but HUSSEIN remains
wgere he is, staring before him.
BADIA :
Come ona! Do you want Masud1 to find you
here?
Suppose it's Masudi:
She runs back to him and drags him by the arn to
this
the door. As she does/he breaks into a deep sob. He
goes l1ke a child, and we hear his sobs gradually. die
away as he 1s led down the staire.
HAZLITT watohes from the parapet 8o that he 8l hall
not ben seen from below.
The car draws nearer, and the
palm-tree is for a moment lighted up by the head-lights
as the car swings round to the entrance below. The engine
is switched off. There is a knock on the door below.
HAZLITT strains forward, trying to make out who it is.
At last the door below opens, and he leans back with a
relkeved sigh.
A pause. SHINGLETON pushes open the door and


is quickly followed by LEONORA.
She runs forward.
HAZLITT:
Leonora!
They embrace.
HAZLITT:
I thought a : How did you get through?
LEONORA :
We went round by the desert.
And you? You
were at the barracks?
HAZLITT:
Yes. I got away through the ba: zaar.
SHINGLETON: And where are your men?
HAZLITT:
Host of them deserted.
SHINGLETON: Deserted? You stand there and tell me that!
They deserted, a from a madman like you?
They
were doing their duty by running away. -
HA ZLITT:
He agréed not to attack either the barracks
or the oil-camp.
camp.
SHINGLETON: His men have Just set fire to the otcep
Thank you, Hazlitt.
You stood by my terms.
Where were your sentries?
What about the
women and children on my hands?
HAZLITT:
I tell you they opened up on us in the
barracks.
We couldn't reach the oil-camp
in time.
SHINGLETON: And where were your tanks?
In the car-park
waiting to be captured, I suppose. You're
a traitor, Hazlitt.
Your honour 1e a filthy
thing.
You let Masudi lead you by the nose
like a donkey. You were too damned olever
to come to me for help, but I could have told
you months ago wha t kind of travesty tha t man
is. I've hynted with him, I've watched his
furtive eyes. Well, what are you going to
do about us now? You with the legend behind
you, wha t is going to become of us now?
have you no mite of hunanity left in you?


LEONORA: :
We shall be safe.
I saw Mohammed, as I told
you.
SHINGLETON: You belleve in Mohammed, then? I'm surprised
you belleve in any of these people. You're
Europeans, therefore detessable in their eyes;
don't you reallse that? When Hohammed came to
me yesterday with a bullet wrapped up in tissue
paper, he had only one idea in his head, to
betray the Captain.
HAZLITT:
To betray me?
LEONORA :
No, no, Philip.
He thought you had murdered
Masudi.
But he can't believe that today.
You know how impufisive he always is.
SHINGLETON: But what did he say when you asked 1 him for
help in the 01l-camp this evening?
LEONORA :
What could he do? Masudi has the upper hand
now. We've got to be realistic.
HA ZLITT:
What's Mohammed up to, then?
LEONORA: :
He went to the Council Chamber this afternoon
and petitioned through his father for a place
in the new government. Therefore he's our
last friend with any power.
SHINGLETON: Have you two been consoling each other like
this for the last three monthe? I tell you
none of these people 1s going to be of any
help to you, because you're European.
This
is an anti-European riot. They used you both,
and now they' will abandon you.
Masudi went
back on his promise. What do you expect him
to do now, carry you on his shoulders through
the streets? Can't I wake either of you up?
We've got to get away from here! Do you hear
that? This is rebel territory now.
Therefcr e


we must get away in the next hour.
HAZLITT:
Take the car. Get Leonora out. of here.
SHINGLETON: No, I shall take you both. You've got us into
a mess we'll never be able to live down, but
you're not staying here.
HAZLITT:
I believe in Hohammed. Or; very well, I don't
believe in Hohammed. But I've got to take
the risk. Why shouldn't I? I deserve to
die in any case. Why Bhow me any meroy?
SHINGLETON: Because I won't leave a European here to be
murdered by these people, a whoever that
European is and whatever he ha 8 done.. By a
miracle I managed to get the women and childrens
away, and I'm going to get you away too.
HA ZLITT:
You prefer to give me up to the European police
way
on the other side of the border? Either/it's
the same to me. I'll stay here.
LEONORA :
I also believe in Hohammed. He's coming to
save us both. Philip and I belong to this
country now. Take the car yourself, ahd drive
Philip's servant to the frontier.
Lea ve us
here.
SHINGLETON: Look. I can guarantee you sonething.
can get you both to the frontier inside three
hours, and - there I can put you in the hands. of
someone who'll smuggle you into the Internation-
al Zone before dawn tomorrow morning.
Could
I be more lenient than this after what you've
done? Hy god, what a fool I wasi - I thought
you were just playing with ideas, and look
has
whatiz happened: your ideas
have turned one
of the wealthieet polontes in the world upeide
down. Will yoittake my offer?
hrle shuhhbms


HA2 ZLITT:
Some of them will st and by me now, I
know 1t!
SHINGLETON (to LEONORA): Will you persuade him?
LEONORA :
I think we should both stay here.
I told
Mohammed where to find us.
HAZLITT:
These are my people now. I shall climb back
into power through Hohammed.
LEONORA :
I8ve known Mohammed for the last five years,
Shingleton, and'I trust him to come here tonight.
He has never onec falled ne in anything
A pause. Shingleton looks from one to the other.
SHINGLETON: I've tried my best.
He gogs to the door.
SHINGLETON (calling down the stairs): Hey!
(He turns
back to HAZLITT) What B the fellow's name?
HAZLITT:
Baker.
SHINGLETON: Baker!
Come up!
They wait.
The servant appears.
SHINGLETON: You and I arè getting away to the frontier.
The Captain'and Miss Friedmann are staying.
The sooner we go the better.
rolly
KER:
How can we
tayy
leave the daptalh, sir?
HA ZLITT:
xtoh we shall be safe enough! A bodyguard is
ooming soon. But they mustn't find you here.
BAI KER:
A bodyguard?
HA ZLITT:
Under Mohammed the doctor. You remember him?
BA KER:
Can you trust him to come, sir?
LEONORA :
He's our best friend among them.
BA KER:
Can you trust him, sir?
HA ZLITT:
What else can I do? Come to the frontier and
give myself up to the police?
Get yourself
away from here.
I'm no good to you any longer


BAKER:
Suppose they leave you, sir?
HA ZLITT:
They von't, Baker.
Let me assure you, they
A dog auddenly begins barking close by. o
SHINGLETON: What's that? Listen.
A pause, during which there 1s utter silence.
Then we hear the slight metallic click 'of a safety-catch on
a rifle being pulled back.
LEONORA :
Who is it?
She clutches on to HAZLITT, who pulls her away
from the parapet.
They iisten ' again, and now we hear
something moving, perhaps people, outside.
HA ZLITT:
They're surrounding the house.
LEONORA: :
Perhaps it's Mohammed.
HAXLITT:
Would he come 11ke this?
He'd bang on-the
door and call up to us. Cuickly! Get
Shingleton out of sight! Behind tha t bench!
(He pushes LEONORA and SHINGLETON towards the
other side cf the atage)
If they get up
here, go down by the tree and make for the
car. (To' BAKER)
Hide yourself amby!
At first BAKER ma kes towards the other couple.
But HAZLITT stops him.
HAZ ZLITT:
No, no, don't crowd together!
Hè pushes BAKER through the door leading into the
house, while SHINGLETON and LEONORA hide in the darkness
behind the bench. Everything is in silence again.
HAZLITT takes out his revolver, inepects the bullet-chamber,
and walks slowly towards the parapet.
SHINGLETON: Switch the light out, you fool! They oan
see you:
HAZLITT takes no notice of the voice behind him.
He walks on towards the parapet with his revolver
prepared.


SCENE: a flat sun-roof. On the right the top
branches of a palm tree can be seen, and under them a
garden bench, shaded. Beyond the house is open desert.
It is a bright morning.
CAPTAI IN HAZLITT al nd HUSSEIN AL SHABAR are discov-
ered. HAZLITT is gust raising a shot-gun to the level of
his eyes. He takes a im alowly at something bey ond the
house.
Suddenly there is a flutter of wings. He raises
his gun briefly with the flight of the bird, then fires.
The fluttering ceases, and he draws himself up again.
HUSSEIN:
You're a fine shot, Captain!
HAZLITT takes out the discharged magazine and
ha nd s the gun to HUSSEIN.
HUSSEIN:
Tell your servant to go and bring it in, or
the vultures are going to get there before
you.
HA ZLITT:
I'll call him now.
(Goes to the door leading
down into the house) Baker!
HUSSEIN:
He's European, then?
HA ZLITT:
Yes.
HUSSEIN:
A soldier?
HA2 ZLITT:
One of my own men, the best servant I've had.
BAKER enters.
He brings them lemon tea in glasses.
HA ZLITT:
Thank you, Ba ker.
Look - (pointing out) I've


shot a partridge. Just bring it in before
the vultures get it.
BAI KER:
Very well, sir.
He leaves.
HA ZLITT:
You've been very kind to me since I came here.
That wine you sent me yesterday was excellent,
and this morning more food came from your wife.
Will you thank her?
HUSSEIN:
I'll do more, Captain.
I'll introduce y ou to
her. She's a beautiful woman, and I know she
wants to meet you.
None of my own country-
men are allowed to see her. But you are
European, therefore you are honourable.
HAZLITT:
I shall be honoured to meet her.
HUSSEIN:
And we shall go hunting together, eh? Would
you like that: pig-hunting?
HA ZLITT:
I could try it.
HUSSEIN:
In the hills, where there are flowers.
I used
to be the finest horseman in the country,
Captain, until I started drinking. I could
pick up a handkerchief off the ground going at
full gallop. I couldn't do it now. It
takes all my strength to aim a gun.
HA ZLITT:
I'll make you try it again.
We'll go riding
together.
HUSSEIN:
One day I shall take you into the hills al nd show
you my tribesmen. I shall show you how they
bow their heads in front of me and kiss my
hand. We're going to be friends, you and I.
For you I'm Hussein, Aust Hussein.
Not
Prince Hussein or Al Shabar.
HA2 ZLITT:
You are a prince?
HUSSEIN:
You've heard nothing about me, then?
HAZ ZLITT:
No, nothing.


HUSSEIN:
Yes, Captain, I must confess to being a prince.
Miss Friedmann will tell you SC omething about
me,perhaps. Is she coming here tonight?
HA ZAITT:
Yes, for dinner.
HUSSE IN:
That will be very exciting for you. How long
is it since you saw each other?
HA ZLITT:
Nearly two years.
I was drafted into the
army then, and she came here a few weeks after.
HUSSEIN:
Two Years, i so young, and parted so long!
But you are younger than Miss Friedmann?
HAZLITT:
Yes, a little.
HUSSEIN:
But isn't it a most marvellous coincidence
that you should have been sent here of all
places?
HA ZLITT:
Oh, but I applied to come here.
I worried
them for more than a year: then they agreed
because of my knowledge of Arabic.
HUSSEIN:
You speak our language?
HAZ ZLITT:
Yes. I began study ing it over four years
ago. So I should probably have come to this
country in any case, apart from the army.
HUSSEIN:
I had no idea of that!
How interesting.
Then you are more one of us, - you know wha t
I mean?
You will understand us better than
the other European officers before you. So
you speak our language...
Then we shall
certainly be brothers, Captain.
But .we'll
speak English, you and I, eh?
HA ZLITT:
Always? Why?
HUSSEIN (with a laugh) It is more dignified!
(He lays
his hand on HAZLITT's shoulder warmly)
you are together aga in. I remember the day
Miss Friedmann came -
I cau ught sight of


her at the hospital. A most beautiful young
woman, Captain.
You are lucky. My wife is
beautiful, too.
But I would give you a
thousand acres of my land and a dozen villages
to be rid of her for two years. You and Miss
Friedmann are more than close friends, I take
I mean, - I haven't been presuming too
mucl h?
M'. HA2 ZLITT:
Not at all; M*-
HUSSEIN:
Hussein: say 'Hussein'.
HAZLITT:
Hussein.
HUSSEINE
Excellent.
We shall understand each other
very well.
Now Miss Friedmann is the best
doctor in the country, Captain.
Imagine a
woman coming to us as a doctor! We treat
our own women like cattle!
But in a month
she had visited all the villages within a
radius of twenty miles and set up clincs in
five of them.
There, that was something we
could respect in a woman. We need more
Europeans like her, Captain. (Digging him)
Tell me, are you going to introduce me to her?
HAZLITT:
Haven't you spoken to her, then?
HUSSEIN:
Never. The only women I talk to apart from
my wife are those I sleep with, 1 the whores.
But I want my children to grow up worthy of
people like Miss Friedmann, if you see wha t
I mean.
I don't want them to be greedy for
things as I am, greedy for drink and women.
One day you'll come to my house and see the
clothes my children sleep in: you'll see their
beds, their toys, the kind of food they eat.


You shall see for yourself tha t they're
growing up like Europeans.
Look, - my shirt,
my jacket, my wrist-watch, even my hand-
kerchief, - they're all from Europe. And I
don't do it like a slave. I do it because
my people can only survive with the help of
Europe.
I'm lucky, Captain, I was brought
up by European nurses, so I can set all the
others a good example here.
Do you wond er
I drink in this place?
Wouldn't any man
drink condemned to a stifling tomb like this,
a tomb full of whares and spies?
HA ZLITT:
Yet I think I shall be happy here.
HUSSE IN:
Happy to be out of Europe?
Can a European
say such a thing?
HA ZLITT:
But I'm free here. I command the station.
I'm alone, there is no one to give me orders.
This is a country I have always wanted to come
to, and all.my work lies here.
When I'm not
on duty I can wear just what I like.
(Indic-
ating his clothes)
HUSSEIN (with a Emile) You would like to be a civilian
aga: in, eh?
HA ZLITT:
Yes!
In six months I shall be free!
But
these last six months are going to be glorious.
There'll be plenty of leisure, I shall go for
rides early in the morning across the desert,
in these clothes and without the eyes of a
regiment on mg. I shall go hunting.
And
sometimes S I shall go with you into the hills
and, meet the tribal chiefs.
HUSSEIN:
The tribal chiefs?
HA ZLITT:
Why not?


HUSSEIN:
But a European officer! People aren't
used to that here, my friend.
HA ZLITT:
How strange: I8ve come here as a soldier,
and I even regret killing that bird.
Yet
you are a warrior: you've killed thousa nd s
of these birds, perhaps even men.
I've never
killed a man. Yet I'm here as a soldier,
feared by many of your people.
Perhaps I
can change all that.
HUSSEIN:
You want to change it, Captain? Might not
that be dangerous?
HA ZLITT:
Why?
HUSSEIN (after a pause) Do you know anything about Miss
Friedmann's activities here?
HA ZLITT:
No, nothing.
HUSSEIN:
Well, then, it might not be so dangerous.
You mean just to exchange cordialities with
the chiefs?
Yes, a good idea, especially
since you speak our language.
HA ZLITT:
What are those 'activities'?
HUSSEIN:
Let her tell you about them herself, if she
wants to.
I'm no spy, Captain.
HA ZLITTA
But are they dangerous?
HUSSE IN:
Let her tell you herself.
HA ZLITT:
Will she do that?
HUSSEIN:
In time you will learn everything about us,
Captain.
In time all the Europeans want to
leave us as if they were escaping a death-
sentence.
We need someone to put our faith
in, Captain, someone who won't go' away!
HAZLITT:
Did the officers before me want to leave?
HUSSEIN:
Sooner than anybody else.
Look at the desert,


Captain. A European must always be a
stranger to that.
Even the men-who were born
here are half-dead with boredom. When I
drink I'm trying to kill that boredom. You
say you're alone here.
But I don't want to
be alone, Captain, and very soon, when the hea t
begins, y ou are going, to say the same.
This
place may be good for cockraloches, and scorpions, 4
and rats, and lizards, but it's no good for a
man who has seen Europe.
HA ZLITT:
Miss Friedmann didn't leave you. She has been
here nearly two years, after all.
HUSSEIN:
True, she belongs to us more than any other
European I know. But there is a reason for
that.
She has Mohammed the doctor, you see.
HA ZLITT:
Mohammed?
HUSSEIN:
He's a surgeon at the local hospital, a man
I detest. We can talk freely, you and I?
HAZLITT:
Og course.
HUSSEIN:
He takes her into the hills.
They go by
aeroplane. What I mean is, Captain, she
isn't alone as you or any other officer would
be. He takes her among the people. They
talk to her as one of their own.
HA ZLITT:
Would they not do so to me?
HUSSEIN:
That isn't likely, Captain. And it is going
to be the loneliness which will drive you away
from us.
HA ZLITT:
You desest this man, you say?
HUSSEIN:
I do, Captain, and I wish you could use your
influence on Miss Friedmann 1
The bell rings at the door below.


HUSSEIN:
You've another visitor.
I shall find my
own way out.
HA ZLITT:
You've been very kind to me.
your
HUSSE IN:
If you need anything more, send Jout servant
across.
Don't hesitate.
We are only rity
yards from each other.
There is a knock on the door and BAKER enters.
BA KER: :
Mr. Shingleton is waiting, sir.
HA ZLITT:
Who is that?
BAKER:
From the engineering camp, sir.
HA ZLITT:
Ah, yes.
Show him up.
BAKER leaves.
HUSSE IN:
Will you come and dine with me one day?
HA ZLITT:
I should be delighted.
HUSSEI IN:
In your uniform?
HA ZLITT (with surprise) If youwish.
HUSSEIN:
Excellent!
Good bye, Captain.
They shake hands, and HUSSEIN leaves. HAZLITT
goes to the parapet and stares out across the desert.
SHINGLETON enters silently.
He watches HA ZLITT,
whose back is turned towards him. A pause.
SHINGLETON: Good morning, Captain Hazlitt.
HA ZLITT (turning) Ah,Mr. Shingleton, of the
engineering
camp?
SHINGLETON: Yes.
Headquarters told me you had arrived.
HA ZLITT:
Please sit down.
It's shady here.
SHINGLETON: Miss Friedmann already knows you, I believe?
HA ZLITT:
Yes, we are old friends.
SHINGLETON: You are lucky to find an old friend in a post
like this, Captain.
HA ZLITT:
No, I applied to comex here.
SHINGLETON (with a glance at him) Oh, pou did. You are


here on special draft, I believe?
HA ZLITT:
Yes.
I took up Arabic four years ago.
That's why they allowed me to come with only
half the usual infantry training.
SHINGLETON: Well, I trust your decision to come here was
wise.
Most people regret it.
But I can
help you a little.
I spea k the language, too,
and I know the inhabitants fairly well.
I hope we shall always work together.
Did
y our Headquarters give you some ddea of your
tasks here?
HA ZLITT:
They told me you nedded guards on the new road.
SHINGLETON: There are two things to remember.
There have
to be sentries, at least four at a time, along
the stretch of road which is being built now.
Naturally, this point is going to move further
north as time goes on, and ultimately, after six
months, when we are due to finisha the whole
project, you will have to send out whole platoons
for a week.or so at a time. Secondly, you have
to deploy your troops round my camp if there is
any trouble...
I find this house a little far
away, Captain: is that safe? * I mean, you have
had some military training, so you are in a
position to know, but I just wonder if it's
safe.
HA ZLITT:
I'can keep in touch by telephone. And I have
arranged for a green Verey light to be Si hot if
I'm needed at the barracks urgently.
SHINGLETON: Well, think the matter over. There is always
a danger 1 no, I should say possibility
your being cut off from the road by the rebels,
and that would be the end of us all.'


HAZLITT:
Still, I prefer to risk it.
SHINGLETON looks. at him in astonishment.
MMAOMNPONMANwmshavertowsevagnedwyuowleruaeeto@ta/asionpatevdiolosn
AMANANVIOAENOAAT
HA ZLITT:
I'm not anxious to take a billet close
to my troops.
SHINGLETON (after a patse) Very well.. All I can do is to
give you advice, and so long as you know the
dangers of being here, well and good.
HA ZLITT:
Is there likely to be trouble?
SHINGLETON: Not at all.
But to a great extent. it depends.
on you.
HA ZLITT:
How?
SHINGLETON: That road is a European concern, and your only
job here is to'protect it. That's understood.
But clearly a rebel government is not in our
interests.
So you have to be very vigilant,
you have to nip a rebellion in the bud if
possible.
It will save you a lot of trouble
later on.
That's where I can help you. I
know every political figure of any note in
this country, Capta in, and I can usually give
you some warning of trouble ahead.
HA ZLITT:
How does one nip such a thing in the bad?
SHINGLETON: Just by making a show of strength, by putting
a tank or two on the road, and a few more
sentries. You'll be quite within your rights.
(A pause) Are you very friendly with Al
Shabar?
HA ZLITT:
WWWVHA Al Shabar?
SHINGLETON: Hussein al Shabar.
He walked out as I came in;
a very European looking fellow.


HA ZLITT:
Oh, he's my neighbour. He has been over
twice with little gifts.
SHINGLETON: You didin't know him before you came here, I
mean?
HA ZLITT:
Of course not. How could I?
SHINGLETON: Oh, he lived in Europe for several years.
SHINGLETON takes out a snuff-box, and offers it
to HAZLITT.
SHINGLETON: Snuff?
HA ZLITT:
No, thank you.
SHINGLETON (taking snuff) I feel I ought to give you a
little warning, Captain.
It has something to
do with Miss Friedmann. Please remember that
I'm not speaking at all about your friendship
with her.
I'm onby aware of two things:
first, that you are fairly young, and, secondly,
that you are new to this country. And I don't
want you to run into any bad luck here.
would be an easy thing to do.
I don't know
how much influence Miss Friedmann has over you,
but at the risk of offending you I'm going to
tell youthis. You may have heard that she has
a friend called Mohammed, a surgeon.
HA ZL ITT:
Yes.
SHINGLETON: Now both she and Mohammed support the rebels.
He takes her by. 'plane into the hills, sometimes
once a month, sometimes twice, and there they
toke
meet the rebel-leaders. They, medical supplies
with them. Mohammed is a very decent young
man, but inclined to be hysterical.
So long
as the rebel-moveme nt is und er the sway of
people like himself, we are safe. A bad rebel-


-movement and it is a bad rebel-movement,
I assure you i- is perhaps even better than no
rebel-movement at all. Now listen, Captain:
when Miss Friedmann cone s here to dinner tonight
and sees you for the first time in two years,
she will perhaps try to influence you.
HA ZLITT:
How?
SHINGLETON: She will suggest to you that by protecting the
new road you are condoning the terrible starvat-
ion and disease in this country.
HA ZLITT:
Have I an argument against that?
SHINGLETON: Well, y our argument is obvious.) Mvanouat
puretowyarsugtoaslenswontovagthstoworoXx000
porovadoavantg.mmsrnoynsonewenoevaeenwevbewevmeon
wamnotan ( That road is for the benefit of the
country.
It is going to increase trade here
by at laast a half. And lastly, Captain, I
must warn you that Miss Friedmann's conversation
with you tonight will not be spontaneous.
HA ZLITT:
Why not?
SHINGLETON: Because her friend Mohammed will be behind it.
I only want you to have your eyes open.
A pal use.
HAZLITT:
I can't imagine SU uch a thing!
SHINGLETON: She is under his thumb, Captain.
HA ZLITT:
How can you know?
SHINGLETON: Let me be frank with you. I have spies every-
where in the town.
Gossip travels fast, and
this 1sn'teven gossip, Captain.
HA ZLITT:
She will...
SHINGLETON: Now I don't want you to take these things too
seriously. These local melodramatics net ver
come to anything. Afterwards one laughs about


them.
But one ha s to be warned of their
coming.
HA ZLITT:
You are sure, then 1
SHINGLETON: I know, Captain, I know.
(He rises) Now as
time goes on you may find this place affecting
your mind and nerves. After nearly ten years
here I've attained a kind of balance, so let's
keep in touch with each other.
The heat is
going to start beating up very soon.
So let's
keep in touch with each other.
(A pause)
Eh? What do you say to that?
HA ZLITT (collecting himself)
Of course.
You were kind
to warn me. *
SHINGLETON (leaving)
You know my 'phone number.
HA ZL ITT:
Yes.
SHINGLETON: And be careful not to play into their hands!
Good bye.
They shake hands. Just as SHINGLETON is about to
turn away, the harsh call-to-prayer sounds out from the
minaret nearby.
The loudspeaker blares and deafens.
HAZLITT's mouth opens in utter astonishment.
SHINGLETON laughs to see his face, and during the
first pause in the prayer, he shouts across to him:
SHINGLETON: It's from the mosque!
They call the fadthful
to prayer by loudspeaker nowadays!
He leaves.
HA ZLITT continues to stare across the
desert as the deafening yell begins again and the CURTA IN
slowly falls.


SCENE: a drawing room downstairs during the
evening of the same day. It is dusk. On the right there
is a door leading out into the garden, and on the left
another door leading further into the house.
HAZLITT and BAKER are discovered.
BAKER is
laying the table for dinner: there are two places.
HA ZLITT:
You can light the candles now, Baker.
BA KER:
Yes, sir.
He does this while HAZLITT goes about tidying
theroom.
BAKER:
It's airless tonight, sir.
HA ZLITT:
Yes.
I'll open the door.
HA2 ZLITT opens the door leading into the garden
and stands for a moment looking out.
HA ZLITT:
Did you find some ice after all?
BA KER:
Yes, sir.
I went to the next house.
HA ZLITT:
To Hussein Al Shabar's?
BA KER :
Yes, sir.
He gave me these flowers.
said they were for the lady.
HA ZLITT:
Ah, yes.
BAI KER:
Do you need anything more for the table?
HA2 ZLITT:
No, Baker. Just be ready with the drink.
BAI KER leaves and HAZLITT goes to the table.
begins carefully re-arranging the flowers.
LEONORA FRIEDMANN appears in the garden, then in
the doorway. She watches HA ZLITT at the table. A pause.
She enters the room.
LEONORA :
Philip.
He turns round swiftly.


hausa! !
HA ZLITT:
Leonora! :
They stand gazing at each other.
HAZLITT:
How wonderful you look!
LEONORA :
I've hardly been able to sleep since your
letter came.
HA2 ZLITT:
You haven't changed at all.
He goes towards her and takes her by the should-
ers.
HA ZLITT:
Let me look at you.
LEONORA: :
I'm so. happy, Philip!
They kiss.
HA ZLITT:
After two years -
LEONORA :
I couldn't believe it...
HA ZLITT:
But wasn't it lucky? I went into the office
quite by chance one afternoon.
He was surly,
and I thought there wasn't a hope. Then a
week later he called me in and told me I was
transferred.
LEONORA: :
I would have come to Europe obherwise. Just
for a week.
That was my plan.
HA ZLITT:
But now we have six months together.
Then I
shall be out of the army.
LEONORA :
In six months?
HA ZLITT:
Perhaps sooner.
(He takes her by the arm
and leads her to the table)
Come, sit down.
But I thought you were coming by car.
heard nothing.
LEONORA :
I sent the driver back at the edge of
the town.
I wanted to walk.
HAZLITT pulls out a chair for her. Lying across
it is his riding-whip. They see it and glance at each


other. He takes it up with a laugh.
HAZLITT:
Do you know what that is for, darling?
It's for beating the natives with!
playfully pushes a lock of her hair across
her face)
I managed to get uhampagne.
It's on the ice now.
HAZLITT goes to the door leading further into
the house and calls out for BAKER.
LEONORA:
What lovely flowers!
They're from the hills,
surely?
HA ZLITT:
Yes. My neighbour sent them across this
afternoon. He said theywere for the lady.
That means for you.
LEONORA :
Me? Can you remember his name?
HA ZLITT:
Hussein Al Shabar.
LEONORA: :
Ah, the landowner. He's the man who drinks.
HA ZLITT:
He adores you.
LEONORA :
He adores anything European, Philip.
BAKER enters the room.
He places the champagne
on the table, then leaves.
LEONORA :
Is he one of your soldiers?
HA ZLITT:
Yes.
LEONORA: :
Reliable?
HA ZLITT:
What do you mean?
LEONORA :
Oh, there are so many spies here.
HAZLITT purs o
champagne into two
glasses. They
touch glasses.
HA ZLITT:
To our love, and our life here.
They drink.
LEONORA (looking about her)
Is this house all your own,
darling?
It looks grand from outside.
HA ZLITT:
It's mine for six months.
I spent the whole of


yesterday looking for it.
That's why
I asked you to wait for two days, so that I
could have everything ready when you came.
We moved the furniture in last night.
belongs to the last officer.
LEONORA :
I've some lovely rugs and covers at the
hospital.
I'l1 bring them here.
HAZLITT:
Will y ou, - to make me feel free at last?
I hated tha t regimental life in Europe!
Every time I went for a ride I had the eyes
of a whole regiment on me. But here I can
do more or less what I like.
I command the
station.
We are miles from the barracks
here.
I shall see you every day and...
You're dreaming. What have I just sa id?
LEONORA :
It seems impossible that you're here at last.
I was listening to your voice.
HA ZLITT:
Smile, darling.
(He puts his hand under her
chin and lifts her face gently)
You ha ven't
really smiled yet.
(He lifts up the corners
of her mouth into a smile)
There: now tha t
is the girl I remember.
LEONORA :
This is a sad place.
I've been here toa long,
Philip.
HA ZLITT:
But we shall be happy here.
I intend to make
you happy.
(Watching her) You don't believe
in that, do you?
LEONORA :
It's this country, Philip.
HA ZLITT:
But can't we keep Vhtivs the country
outside, beyond
that door?
LEONORA;
It can't be done, not here.
HA ZLITT:.
Why do you say that?


LEONORA (after a pause) We are together now. That's all
we need think about.
HA2 ZLITT:
I felt so happy when I arrived here.
People
talk to me about the heat and the mosquitoes
and the boredom, but I know I shall love this
country.
Why do you think I learned the
language, if not to settle in such a country?
I was tired of Europe.
LEONORA :
You are right to feel excited.
But I can't
bear to think of you being detested here,
darling.
HA ZLITT:
Detested?
By whom?
LEONORA :
You think you're a newcomer.
So you are, but
only to me. For all the others you are merely
a Captain. And Captains here are all the same,
because they are given the same orders. They
are caphers,
men with
Philip,hot
names.
HA ZLITT:
But people can be told. They
LEONORA: :
What do your scruples matter, or your knowledge
of their language, or your excitement at being
here?
You are a Captain, and your men guard
the new road.
HA2 ZLITT:
A pure formality!
LEONORA: :
But the landowners look on you as their saviour.
Ar nd they are right.
The landowners are hard,
greedy men. Thousands die for them every year
in the villages.
HA ZLITT:
My name 1s linked with them?
LEONORA :
With the most corrupt of them.
Your
guards
on the new road will always prevent the rebels
from coming down.
It is the new road which
cuts the rebels off from this city.
HA ZLITT:
I knew that.


LEONORA :
You knew it?
HA ZLITT (with a shrug)
I thought the rebels were a few
hotheads.
I decided to risk it.
LEONORA :
They are the only people who will help us
send doctors to the villages and enlarge the
city hospital.
HA ZLITT:
Then I must meet them. I must go to the
villages.
LEONORA :
Among the rebels?
That would be treason,
my dear.
You are so young.
I'm terrified
you might do something rash.
You must obey
your orders, no matter what people think.
HA ZLITT:
And if my orders are to shoot down your friends?
LEONORA (with a sudden glance at him) Why do you say
'friends'?
HA ZLITT:
Because the rebels are your friends.
LEONORA :
I go from village to village with medical
supplies, and those villages haj ppen to be in
rebel-territory.
I refuse to spend every
day trea ting the sons and daughters of land-
owhers!
Of course people will say I belong
to the rebels.
They hardly know wha t a
conscientious doctor is. Their own doctors
are so lazy and corrupt.
HA ZLITT:
Who is Mohammed?
She sighs.
LEONORA :
Has Shingleton been here aleeady?
HA ZLITT:
Yes, 11 this morning.
LEONORA :
Mohammed is the senior surgeon at the hospital.
He is my best friend here, Philip.
HA ZLITT:
You said nothing about all this in your letters.
LEONORA :
Necause letters are opened.
HA ZLITT: :
But everyone talks about your visits to the


hills.
LEONORA :
Suppose they had opened my letters in
Europe?
You wouldn't be here now. The
army would have seen to that.
HA ZLITT:
Isn't it dangerous to support the rebels,
for a European, I mean?
LEONORA :
Why? Mohammed is my employ er. The
Europeans have no say.
HA ZLITT:
Is Shingleton an important mai n here?
LEONORA (With a shrug)
Hardly.
He gives himself an
air of importance.
HA ZLITT:
What about these spies of his?
LEONORA :
Oh, they are his word for common gossip!
He invites a few schoolmasters to tea and
thinks he is going among the people. There
is a legend about him that if the rebels
burned down his camp he would be stand ing
among the flames shouting, 'I refuse to take
this seriously!'
That is what he always
says: 'I refuse to take this seriously!'
He knows nothing, he is all bombast.
But to
you, Philip, he could be dangerous. He ha S
no power over me, you see.
HA ZLITT:
He came to me with a very strange story this
morning.
LEONORA :
About me?
HA ZLITT: :
Yes.
He said you were unde er Mohammed's thumb.
LEONORA :
Oh, that's a favourite idea of his! He smells
a plot in everything.
HA ZLITT:
He said Mohammed was behind your visit here
tonight.


LEONORA :
Behind my visit?
How ridiculous!
HA ZLITT:
He thought L
Oh, there was some nonsense!
(He stares at LEONORA)
I mean, I can't
believe it, but :
LEONORA :
Hai 8 he made you suspicious?
(She rises
and goes to the window) There, you wonder
I'm sad! The day after you arrive they get
to work on you.
How do we keep this country
out?
(Looking out of the window) Look at
your sentry standing there. He can't
No one Can
protect you. wawwowowm probéct you.
HAZLITT:
Against whom?
LEONORA :
Against men like Shingleton.
(Turning)
And against me, Philip!
I'm a da nger to
you here.
I had no idea you were coming.
I got to work in the villages, and with all
the rest I sneered at the European officerz
and his tanks.
HAZLITT:
How else could I ha ve come here, except as
a European officer?
How else could we be
together now?
LEONORA :
There was no other way.
HA ZLITT:
I had to see yout I would have accepted
anything to see you! Was I right?
(She
does not reply)
Should I ha ve stayed in
Europe, then, yearning for you every minute
of the day?
LEONORA :
In six months it would have been over. You
could have come to me than. Mohammed would
have found you a job here.
HA ZLITT:
Why didn't you say that in a letter?
LEONORA :
How could I have said it?
HA ZLITT:
In two words: 'Don't
Simple.


I should have gone on festering in the
barracks.
You should have said, 'Don't come,
Philip, because they hate you here.'
LEONORA: :
But I said to myself, 1 Inust see Philip.
I must touch him again and speak to him.
Otherwise I shall go mad.'
HA ZLITT:
Then wasn't I right to com.e?
no matter what
happens?
(Pacing about) I wanted to travel.
I wanted to use my Arabic.
That's all I
thought about when they put me into the army.
Would you have preferred me to go to prison?
LEONORA :
You talk as if I were accusing you of some-
thing.
HA ZLITT:
Well, am I not guilty?
LEONORA :
Guilty of what?
HA ZLITT:
My job here is to guard the new road. That
road cuts the rebels off from the city.
is therefore within my power to nip any
rebellion in the bud.
Indeed, I'm expected
to do that. Am I not guilty, then?
LEONORA :
Not you!
HA ZLITT:
Am I not guilty. of a iding and abetting the
very things you and Mohammed are trying to
stop? I thought I wascoming here as a
saviour, you see, - not a saviour of the land-
lords, but a friend of the people who has
studied their language and religion: listen
to me, people, I bring you food and medical
supplies, if you just accept a bullet in your
head as a preliminary! No wonder Shingleton
talked to me as if I were an idiot this morn-
ing! He came to see a European officer and


what did he find? He found a young man in
dirty riding breeches who announced his intent-
tion of living three miles away from the troops
under his command, and whose mistress was
famous for her rebel sympathies! No wond er
he kept eyeing me as if he thought I was going
to dive off the roof into the garden at any
minute:
He picks up his riding-whip, stares at it, then
throws it aside in disgust.
LEONORA:
This is our first evening, Philip.
Forget
other
about these/tnings.
He takes her by the shoulders and looks into her
eyes.
HA ZLITT:
Are you in love with me?
LEONORA :
Yes!
He kisses her.
HA ZLITT:
Whatever I do? You love me whatever I do
in this country? Answer.
Look at me.
Answer, Leonora.
Whatever I do?
(A pause)
There, (walkipg away) you can't love my power. e
You can't love me in everything I do and say :
Because what I might have to do is to sight a
machine-gun on an angry crowd, and : what I might
have to say is (wildly) 'Fire!
Fire!
Fire!
There is a loud knock on the door leading into the
garden. HA ZLITT calls out, 'Come in!' and the door is flung
open by HUSSEIN AL SHABAR. He hai s clearly been drinking. He
sways in the doorway, staring at them, then comes towards the lable.
HA ZLITT:
This is Hussein Al a
Shbar, Leonora.
LEONORA :
How do you do?
HUSSEIN kisses his own hand and raises it to his


brow, in profound homage.
HUSSEIN:
We are poor people, Miss Friedmann. We
are humble.
We have nothing to give y ou but
the darkness of our shame, and too much heat,
and the silence. (He points to the bottle on
the table)
Is that champagne, Captain?
HA ZLITT:
Yes. May I give you some?
HUSSEIN:
I've just escaped from my wife.
Let me have
a glass, please.
HAZLITT pours a third glass of champagne, but when
he offers it to HUSSEIN the latter holds up his hand.
HUSSEIN(seating himself) Could I ask you to do something
before I drink? Just draw the curtains. This
is a city of eyes, and a prince is supposed
never at drink in our country.
I'm afraid even
my servants spy on me.
HAZLITT goes to the window and draws the curtains.
It is already night.
HUSSEIN (with a chuckle) So you are together at last.
Well, (raising his glass)a blessing on both of you!
(Drinks, then speaks to LEONORA)
I've heard
about your visits to Masudi.
I deeply admire
you for that.
HA ZLITT:
Who is Masudi?
HUSSEIN:
The rebel leader in the hills, Captain.
exile, a man with a price on his head.
HA ZLITT (to LEONORA)
It seems that one can't keep anything
secret here.
HUSSEIN:
Your thoughts, your lovers, your most closely
guarded secrets are common knowledge here,
Captain!
The polige see into every car that
passes them on the street, - they sbare inside
to see what new friends you ha ve. By dawn
tomorrow everybody will know at what time Miss
Friedmann left this house. You would be well


advised to draw your curtains after dusk
every evening, Captain.
LEONORA :
It's true.
One can't be alone here.
HUSSE IN:
Masudi has made one fatal mistake, Miss
Friedmann.
He does not believe in Europe.
But inEurope lies our only hope.
He ha tes
Europe; I aspire to Europe. But you agree
with him?
LEONORA :
Yes.
HUSSEIN:
Yet you are a European.
LEONORA :
This country should be free of Europe.
HUSSEIN:
Then where will Masudi get his arms?
Who will
work his factories?
Who will plan the new
road? He believes in equality and independence.
These are European ideas.
LEONORA :
I can't think. I'm sorry.
(Rising)
It's
so hot tonight.
HUSSEIN:
The poor shall inherit the earth.
The day of
the overlords, our day, Captain - is finished.
HA ZLITT (to LEONORA as she goes towards the door) I, an
overlord: you see?
She opens the door and looks outside.
HUSSEIN:
The heat t will come earlier this year.
Your
health, Captain.
They touah glasses.
LEONORA :
Philip, I think therels someone outlgde.
HA ZLITT:
It must be the sentry.
LEONORA :
No, I think it's a woman.
HUSSEIN:
Then it's my wife.
HAZLITT goes to the door.
HUSSEIN:
Is it my wife?
HA ZLITT (calling into the garden)
Who's there?
HUSSEIN joins them at the door.


HUSSE IN (peering into the darkness) Badia? Badia?
(With a lay ugh) Are you a spy or something?
Go back to the house, woman.
(As she appears)
Now why don't you stay in the house?
BADIA :
Because you shan't disgraceme! Why do you
worry these people?
HA ZLITT:
No, no, come in.


BAD IA :
But, Captain 1
HA ZLITT:
No, you've both been so kind. Drink a glass
of champagne with us.
He ushers BADIA AL SHABAR into the room, and the
others follow.
BADIA:
I came to stop him drinking, Captain.
I have
to watch him wherever he goes.
HUSSEIN:
Why do you worry, woman?
BADIA:
Because you weren't invited here, and if you
were sober you would never dare to come. Thes e
people have a private party.
HUSSEIN:
Am I wanted or not, Captain?
HA2 ZLITT:
Please stay, both of you. Will you sit down?
Champagne, Mrs a ?
HUSSEIN:
Call her Badia, Captain. Let's keep the veil
for outside.
How free it feels, just to sit
here!
BADIA:
Very little, Captain. Ar nd you shouldn't give
my husband any more.
HAZLITT:
Only one more glass, to celebrate.
BADIA:
But that can make the difference between a
peaceful night and hell itself!
HUSSEIN:.
Be quie t, woman!
(Holding up his glass)
The Captain and I understand each other.
BADIA: :
Every night I have to look after him. as if he
were a child. Last week he thought he saw
a man outside and started firing his revolver
window.
through the giam He's jealous of every
man who'comes near the house.
HUSSEIN:
Am I jealous of the Captain? No-because
the Captain is an honourable man. But the
men you are talking about - my countrymen -


they're a pack of wolves.
BADIA:
Every time I go out in the car he must have
a detailed account of the journey from my
driver.
HUSSEIN:
But your worries are over, Badia. The Captain
(He winks at Hogeit)
and Miss Friedmann will keep you entertained.)
BADIA:
Bua Berhaps they don't want to come to my house
and see you drunk every evening.
(To Leonora)
But perhaps we could have tea together some-
times, Miss Friedmann.
HUSSE IN:
All the gossip in this city begins in the harem.
Beware of those tea-parties, Miss Friedmann.
BADIA:
Am I to be robbed of my tea-parties, then?
You keep me locked up in the house all day
and you even begrudge me the company of women!
HUSSEIN:
Do you wonder I drink, Captain? I drink to
forget the indignity of my marriage. Be
careful of her, Miss Friedmann. She will put
her coils round your little life.
He drinks.
BADIA:
The doctors have told you often enough: y ou're
drinking yourself to death.
HUSSEIN:
Look at her, Captain: a beautiful woman. To
sleep with her is like a feast. But she has
no right even to sit in the same room as Miss
Friedmann, because she lacks honour. If I
let her go free she'a become a whore in a
fortnight.
She thinks like a whore and she
has the tongue of K whore. You can hear for
yourself.
LEONORA (to BADIA): Do you never go out, then?
BADIA :
I'm allowed an evening drive in the
car.
go up the main street and back
again.


wonder if you've ever realised how envious
we women are when we see you walking freely
in the streets? Youare a wonderful symbol
for us.
HUSSEIN:
Yes and at their tea-parties they strip you
down to a carcase with their vile talk. They
pay their servants to spy on you. Shall I
tell you one of their stories?
They say a
guard came across you lying in a ditch with
Mohammed the doctor.
That's the kind of
symbol you represent for them! A symbol of
their own lechery!
BADIA:
You shame me!
HUSSEIN:
Everything must be underhand here. Any
crime, any perversion, may be practised in
secret.
But anything truly innocent they'11
befoul.
(To HAZLITT) But you and I are
going to alter all . that.
BADIA:
Free your woman e first, then the gossip will
stop.
HUSSEIN:
Is he going to treat us like slaves, your
old friend here, Miss Friedmann?
LEONORA :
I've never known him do that.
HUSSEIN:
No. How could it be so? He's an old
friend of yours. This moening you said sou
wanted to see the tribal chiefs, Captain.
Well, that can be arranged.
wild
BADIA:
He has madwne schemes, Captain. They never
C come to anything.
HUSSE IN:
We have to learn from
Europe. And the Captain
is in a position to teach us.
LEONORA: :
He can only obey his orders.


HUSSEIN:
There's a way to everything, Miss Friedmann.
Are you our friend, Captain?
HA ZLITT:
Of course.
HUSSEIN:
Sympathy is what we require: an active sym-
pathy, Captain. And in return for your sym-
pathy I can hold out for you a most wonderful
life.
You will be able to turn this sad life
of the outpost into a crusade, you will have
the marvellous countryside in the north at your
disposal, you will have mounta: ins and streams,
and flowers like endless cappets at your feet.
You will hold daily court with your leaders,
you will be praised wherever you go and loved;
all your days will be full and free, with hunting
and riding and bar inquetting.
It will be a life
worthy of a man, not the cramped, careful life
of an officer commanding an outpost, where there's
no prowess, no anger, no dignity, only a slow
and gradual degradation of your powers.
I may
be a drunkard. and my wife may be a whore, but
there's something in what I say, isn't there?
A pause, during which LEONORA watches HAZLITT.
LEONORA :
That appeals to you, does it?
HA ZLITT:
Perhaps...
Why shouldn't it?
BADIA:
His head is swollen with dreams because he drinks
too much, Captain.
Come and see him at five
o'clock tomorrow morning, Capta in, when he is
holding his stomach and groaning in my arms: then
you will see what a warrior we have!
HUSSEIN:
Am I not a warrior, then? You, a woman, say
that? (Looks round) Am I to prove myself, then?
(Jumps up, laughing)
Let's see how you like this!
He wa lks unsteadily across to the wall and pulls


down Hazlitt's revolver-holster.
BADIA:
Hussein!
She jumps up as he takes out the revolver.
With a laugh he pushes her away, al nd breaks the revolver
open n. HAZLITT rises.
HA ZLITT:
Don't be an idiot.
Put it away.
HUSSEIN looks at the bullet-chamber and removes
some bullets.
HUSSEIN:
I allow myself one bullet, Captain: a one-
-in-six chance.
BADIA (trying to grasp hold of him): : Stop him, Captain!
He'll do away with his life!
HAZLITT:
Do you want me to throw you out?
HUSSEIN holds BADIA away and, sl owly lowering the
révolver, looks at HAZLITT with a smile.
HUSSEIN:
Now, Captain, we are honourable men.
If I
wish to kill myself, let me. We are all alone.
You are my brother.
Sit down.
HA ZLITT:
All right.
Do wha t you. like.
HUSSEIN closes the revolver, sets the chamber
rolling and points the barrel at his right temple.
BADIA :
Hussein!
I love you, Hussein!
She draws back in horror as it becomes clear that
he is determined to pull the trigger. He sta'es into
her eyes, swaying drunkenly. He fires. There A is
elight click, and BADIA bursts into tears.
HUSSEIN:
So I'm not a warrior at five o'clock in the
morning.
I'm a dreamer.
Isn't that wha t
you said?
(Calmly replacing the revolver)
Go back to your seat, woman, and keep a hold
on your tongue. The Captain and I are going
to work together. Keep your nose e out of our
business, you understand?
BADIA returns to her seat. She slumps in her


chair, reaches slowly for the bottle and purs herself a
full glass. As she begins to drink the CURTAIN slowly
falls.


SECOND: ACT.


SCENE: the same a few weeks later.
It is
afternoon. The room is much brighter than formerly, and
furnished more in the Eastern style. There are brightly
coloured rugs, eushions and table-covers.
HUSSEIN AL SHABAR is discovered.
He is standing
in the middle of the room. He looks about him, then sees
Hazlitt's military cap han nging near the door. He takes
it down and goes to the mirror.
There he tries it on,
staring at himself with a stern expression. He glances
quickly at the window and takes up Hazlitt's riding stick.
He strides about the room in a military fashion, with the
stick under his left arm, his chin thrust forward pugnacious-
ly. He suddenly stands to attention and seems to confront
someone smaller tha an himself.
HUSSEIN (between his teeth): Come on! Come on!
He shakes the whip in a threatening way at the
imaginary figure.
HUSSEIN:
Well, what do you Want, man? Do you usually
stand like. that in front of an officer?
Footsteps are heard at the door, and he quickly
throws the stick to one side and replaces the cap on its
hook.
HAZLITT enters. He sits down wearily on the divan
ar nd begins unclipping his belt with the revolver-holster.
HUSSEIN goe S to the sideboard and pours him a drink. On
his way past the window he stops suddenly and draws the
curtains, though it is bright outside. At first HAZLITT
refuses the drink, but HUSSEIN insists.
HUSSEIN:
Drink 1t, my friend.
HAZLITT drinks.
HUSSEIN:
What did you find?
HA ZLITT:
We found Masudi. They opened
fire on us along


one of the gorges.
They're mad, like all
mountain people.
They'd shoot at a cloud if
it'came near enough. Not. that they'a hit it.
He takes his revolver out of its case and begins
cleaning it angrily.
HUSSEIN:
But you saw Masudi?
HA ZLITT:
Yes. I sent a scout forward with a white
handgerchief. They love tha t kind of silly
melodrama.
HUSSEIN:
Did he agree to your terms?
HAZLITT:
He asked for time.
HUSSEIN:
How much?
HA ZLITT:
Two months.
HUSSEIN:
But that's far too long!
There were. two
incidents here while you were away. A crowd
threw stones at one of the Ambassies, ar nd the
Public Presecutor got a bullet through the wind-
screen of his car. Thereare extra police in
the streets. Does Masudi think he can wait
even a fortnight, let along two months? He
must act now, or pec ople are going to lose in-
terest, especially now that t the heat is coming.
HAZLITT:
All Masudi wants is time to get round the triber S
and test their loyalty.
HUSSEIN:
Did he trust you?
HAZ ZLITT:
HUSSEIN:
But he had heard of you?
HA ZLITT:
Yes. But it's you he doesn't trust.
says
you are a landowner, and far too friendly with
Europeans.
HUSSEIN chuckles.
HUSSEIN:
How does he look?
HAZLITT:
Tall, with a huge golden beard. I don't like
his harsh voice, and the way he pushes his belty


into you when he addresses you. I was on
tenterhooks the whole time, especially at night
when they got drunk and practised shooting at
the stars.
You want these ga ngsters to form
a new government?
You must be off your head!
Well, I suppose you are, bei ing one of them.
HUSSEIN:
I'm going to make use of Masudi. He's a fine
warrior, but he's an idiot.
I'll make good
use of him when the time comes, Captain.
HA ZLITT:
If he doesn't put a knife in your back before
that.
HUSSEIN:
So he opened fire on you. That was his fun,
for he knev W you were coming.
HA ZLITT:
But he put a bullat through my sergeanT's hand.
How do I explain that t? It's bad enough to be
absent from my post for a week, let alone have
my sergeant wounded quite inexplicably.
HUSSEIN:
You must keep an eye on Shingleton.
HAZLITT:
I no longer believe in this rebellion.
You
are all children playing WwWwWWNWR with
pistols, all you mounaain people. You think
of nothing but killing. Night after night tha t
Masudi man would sit in front of me and tell me
the same story about how five years ago he was
gored by a wild pig. He used to stretch him-
self out on the carpet ipar every evening while
one of his followers bent down and snorted like
a pig and the gored him while he groaned and
writhed about. Imagine tha t great buffalo
with his golden beard writhing all over the floor!
HUSSEIN:
This country is on the brink of revolution,
Captain. Even children playing with pistols
can frighten adults like yourself. You can't
desert us now.


HAZLITT:
Did I say I intended to?
HUSSEIN:
Tell me, what terms did you a nd Masudi agree
HA ZLITT:
I said I'd give him arms and ammunition;
secondly, tha t I'd order my men not to open
fire in the case of rioting.
I promised
these things on one condition: namely, tha t
he left the engineering camp alone and did not
so much as put a picket near its gates.
agreed immediately, and promised that any man
who entered the er ngineering camp or did viobence
to any European there would be executed on the
spot.
HUSSEIN:
What an idiot he is! We'll surround the police
headquarters, incite the army to lay down arms,
march on the House of Assembly, and by dawn
next day there'll be a new government under one
of my friends, and Masudi will be back in his
mountains shooting at clouds. Meanwhile,
work on the new toad will continue under
European management. You've done excellently,
Captain.
May I have the honour of inviting
you to my house tomorrow? With Miss Friedmann
of course?
(Looks about him)
She has certainly
made many cha nges here.
(He lifts up one of
the corners of the table-cover) You are learning
how to live like one of the people.
(He lets
the cover go thoughtfully) But you are a
European, Captain.
Therefore y ou are the
equivalent of a prince for my people.
HA ZLITT:
What do you mean?
HUSSEIN:
Well, these garish things..
They are for the
poor, the low-born.


HA ZLITT:
They belong to Miss Friedmann.
HUSSE IN:
Europeans are cleaner than we are. They
are gentlamen.
But these are cheap, hand-
made things, unworthy of people like yourself.
HA ZLITT:
I'm tired, Hussein.
I want to rest.
HUSSEIN:
I'm sorry, Captain: only I want everyone to
look up to you in our country.
Before I go
tell me where your wounded sergeant is.
I can
get him to a private doctor.
HA ZLITT: :
I sent him along to Mohammed at the local
hospital.
HUSSEIN:
To Mohammed?
You can trust him?
HA ZLITT:
Of course.
HUSSE IN:
I think you are wrong, Captain.
I think you
are wrong not to keep an eye on Miss Friedmann.
HA ZLITT:
What has Miss Friedmann got to do with it?
HUSSE IN:
Have you any idea where she is now?
HA ZLITT:
Ho. At the hospital, perhaps.
HUSSE IN:
Suppose she is sleeping with someone else?
HA ZLITT:
With - (He rises slowly and goes towards HUSSEIN,
staring at him in astonishment) Are yoy trying
to tell me S omething?
HUSSEIN:
No, Captain.
HA ZLITT:
You are sure?
HUSSEIN:
Quite sure. But I believe that a man should
know where his woman goes, and with whom, and for
wha t purpose. Miss Friedmann sees just as much
as Mohammed the doctor as she did in the old
days.
And I tell you something bad will come of that.
There's no love in Mohammed for you, my friend.
Beware of that lackey. Are you sure he knows
nothing about these patrols of yours?
HA ZLITT:
Nothing.
HUSSEIN:
And you tell Miss Friedmann nothing?
HA ZLITT:
I tell her that they are part of my duties


here.
HUSSEIN:
Is she working for Mohaamed?
HA ZLITT:
For God's sake! I trust him.
I'm in love with
her! What else can I do?
HUSSEIN:
Forbid her to see him.
HAZLITT:
Just because you hate him? Are you jealous
of his hours alone with her? I tell Miss.
Friedmann nothing, and she seldom asks a
question.
Now will you let me rest?
HUSSEIN:
Come to me tomorrow night.
Forgive me.
I'm a little suspicious. But we have to be
careful at the early stages. He is 10Aw-
born, this Mohammed, the son of servants.
Such people have to be watched. Good bye,
Captain.
HA2 ZLITT:
Good bye.
The moment HUSSEIN is gone HAZLITT goes to the
other door, opens it and calls out, "Baker!" Then he returns
to the divan and begins taking off his muddy boots.
BAKER enters.
BA KER:
I expected you yesterday, sir.
HA ZLITT:
Yes, we were held up, Baker.
Did anything
happen?
BA KER :
No, sir.
HA ZLITT:
The Sergeant Major didn't telephone?
BA KER:
No, sir. But I think Headquarters spoke to
him on the offioe-telephone 8 everal times.
HAZLITT:
What about?
BAKER:
I couldn't find out, sir.
HAZLITT hands him the muddy boots.
BAI KER:
These are wet through. You must have been
long way, sir.
HA ZLITT:
Yes, it was raining in the hills. And much
cooler. I enjoy these patrols.


BAKER:
Will you by in for dinner tonight, sir?
HA ZLITT:
Yes.
BAKER:
One or two places?
HA ZLITT:
Two.
BA KER:
And can I make you coffee now? You look
worn-out, sir.
HA ZLITT:
Yes, get me coffee.
You are sure nothing
happened?
BA KER:
Quite sure, sir.
BAKER leaves.
HAZLITT waits for the door to
close, then goes to the telephone.
HA2 ZLITT:
Captain Hazlitt here..
Give me the Sergeant
(He puts the receiver down for a
moment and goes hurriedly to the window. He
looks outside, the n returns)
Hullo, Sergant
Has everything been all right?
Tell me, did Headquarters telephone for anything?
They didhot? I mean, Headgaarters did
not ring you up with any questions?...
Well, thank you, Sergeant Major. Good bye.
He replaces the receiver and stands by it thought-
fully. There is a knock on the door.
He admits LEONORA and MOHAMMED.
LEONORA :
I came over yesterday, but you weren't back,
darling.
(They kiss)
You look so tired.
HA ZLITT:
Do I? Hullo, Mohammed! Come and sit down.
MOHAMMED:
Thank you.
I've just been treating one of
your soldiers, Philip.
HA ZLITT:
At the hospital?
MOHAMMED:
Yes.
HA ZLITT:
One of my sergeal nts?
Yes, I sent him over.


MOHAMMED:
But why ?
Usually they go to the military
post.
HA ZLITT:
Oh, this was only a scratch, a pebble or
something, so I sent him straight across
to you.
MOHAMMED:
But there was S a bullet in his hand.
HA ZLITT:
No. I looked at that hand pretty closely,
and there was nothing in the flesh.
MOHAMMED:
But there was a bullet in the palm, Philip.
I've got it in my pocket.
HA ZLITT:
Well, he must have been fooling about with a
revolver.
He never told me.
LEONORA :
Was the Journey hard?
HA ZLITT: :
We had to walk single file the whole way, it
was so narrow and stony. It took two days of
walking to get there.
LEONORA :
Were the donkey S slow?
HA ZLITT:
I decided to send them back and rely on the
villages for food. We went with one day's
supply of food and we were away - how long? -
six days S or so.
LEONORA: :
You were lucky if you got more - than rice out
of them.
HA ZLITT:
But we had a kind of banquet twice a day where-
ever we went: sometimes chicken, sometimes
a lamb.
They would sit round in a circle
and watch me eat.
LEONORA: :
Did you like them?
HA ZLITT:
The poorest of them,
not the chieftains.
The chieftains were boorish, always playing
with their guns.
But it's so cool and fresh
up there.
Everything looks so much brighter.
LEONORA :
A nd how were you liked?


HA ZLITT:
They were astonished to hear me speak their
language.
They came and kissed my shoes,
bowed as I went by. Word of my coming passed
from village to village...
I feel at home
with these people: I find I laugh at the same
things and grow solemn at the same things.. In
Europe I feel fare less at home.
Their last
rice they would share with me, their last drop
of tea.
MOHAMMED (with a laugh) It sounds quite romantic, Philip.
LEONORA :
No, I felt just the same after my first visit
to the hills.
HA ZLITT:
You remember there was an eclipse of the sun
two days ago? Well, an old woman came out of
a hut in front of me with her cloak drawn tight
up to her eyes, looking terribly awed and guilty.
She pointed to the sun and told me, 'God is
angry with us. That is why he is hiding him-
self now.' She daren't look up, she was so
awe-struck. And I felt I understood her. I
didn't feel it was a bit strange.
MOHAMMED:
But I am afraid, Philip, that the religion which
makes her hide her face from. a wrathful God is
also the religion which makes her hide her face
from a wrathful landlord.
Come and live as
half my patients live, and then nou'll see which
you prefert devout Muslims or city hospitals.
HAZLITT smiles and shrugs his shoulders.
HA ZLITT:
The truth is I'm-sick of Europe, Mohammed.
you must allowme to be a little romantic about
your people.
By the way, they seem to


worship you. Leonora, also.
They talked
about you both.
MOHAMMED:
But they are not running the clinics.
That's
more to the point.
HA ZLITT:
I saw no clinics.
MOHAMMED:
Exactly.
They'll sit round in circles and
tell each other that Leonora and I are the
chosen of God, - (imitating their solemn
avowals) yes, by God, by the God that is,
by my God! But they'll let their children
go blind with trachoma and die of malaria
rather than use the drugs we give them every
month.
HAZLITT:
You must ex pect that at first.
They are
resigned.
They know how to suffer.
But
they aren't cowed, Mohammed.
Their eyes
ha ve a keen look.
They hane half-broken with
disease, but they are still quick, proud,
graceful creatures.
MOHAMMED:
But I say they are cowed.
They are beaten.
Their landlord strips them of their grain,
their rice, their dates, and all they do is
to ait outside their huts smoking hashish
and calling on the mercy of God and waiting
for me to come and nurse their wounds! You
tell me they kissed your feet?
They bowed
as you passed by?
Of course they kissed
your feet!
You are the arch-landowner,
Philip, the prince, the European: they are
flattered tha t you a European should want to
visit their filthy huts. They don't
expect
it. They would be far less
surprised if you
gave them each a kick in the
back9side and


ran your tanks through the ir mud-huts, just
to show them that life can be harder than
even they think...
And when they heard you
speak their language they. were astonished
and delighted that you a prince and a European
should wish to soil your tongue in tha t way.
Do you think they treat their landlords any
differently? No.
They sit and complain'
about him until the sun goes down, but when
he pays them a visit, which he rarely does,
they kiss his feet, they go down on their
hands and knees to him. And when he hits a
man in the mouth for apeaking out of turn that
man kisses the hai nd thatgstruck him. They
would kiss your tanks, my friend, then lie
down to be run over by them!
HA ZLITT:
Haven't you travelled a long way from your own
people, Mohammed?
Aren't you as much a
stranger to them as I am? You are almost as
European as I am, and you blame them for not
being the Same.
MOHAMMED:
I want to build more hospitals, to put a
medical officer in every one of the malarial
villages, to stop the doctors treating the rich
and hot the poor, to make the dry land fertile
with a national irrigation scheme. I am sick
of my country just as you are sick of Europe.
I am sick of the endless wastes of sand, of the
fly-blown wounds I have to stare at every day,
of the people who are so loyal and resigned.
We may be very romantic to
you, as we are to
many pther
but
visiths Europeans;
I'11 give you
the Kuran, I'll give you Arab honour
aw4


and hospitality, I'll give you all the
sentimental camouflage for hospitals, drains,
DDT spray in the streets, equality of women
with men, and decent schools in every village.
HA ZLITT:
I don't deny your right.
MOHA MMED: :
People like you, with bullets in their pouches,
must be told the truth.
HAZLITT:
I knew the truth long ago, from Leonora.
MOHAMMED:
Not until every European has gone from this
country shall we be strong again.
He wipes his brow in silence. A pause.
HA ZLITT:
I get too much interference, too much advice,
from you and everybody else.
I'm alone.
How many times have I got to repeat that?
I'm alone.
MGHAMMED:
You want to make an island for yourself, then?
The world doesn't allow it.
HA ZLITT:
Well, then, I defy the world. I shall be
loved just because I am a man on an island.
But you're not going to buy me out. Even if
I die a mere European gentleman, or a freak
and senile Christian, an apostle of dead
creeds, then I will gladly die as. such, on
my lonely island, whatever names you like to
give me. I shall be myself.
Death is one
way of evading all your wretched names. (To
LEONORA, drowsily)
Well, which of us is right?
LEONORA :
Mohammed - is right.
In this country you have
to choose: you have to act one way or the
other. You have to choose whether to do your
job here like any other European officer, or
to join the rebels. And I won't allow
you to
committ an act of treason. So you must
simply


be patient, Philip, and put away all these
romantic scruples.
You must stop visiting
the villages. For my sake you must forget
wha t people think of you here, forget what
Mohammed thinks, forget everything I said on
our first evening together.
HA ZLITT:
I must try to cancel myself out...
Is thai t
your advice? My romantic scruples, you say:
but they are myself.
MOHAN MMED: :
We don't heed your help.
HA ZLITT:
No? But I shall prove something to you all.
I don't believe in your new society. I don't
believe in your conscience.
It is a clinical
thing.
It burns, sterilises. I believe in
myself.
MOHAMMED:
And you will change the world?
HA ZLITT:
By my example, perhaps; by my small addition.
(Seeing MOHAMMED's shrug) You think only of
what t is possible in the vorld; but I want to
try the impossible. A moth burns its wings
against the light. Of course it is suicidal;
it is unwise to go near the light. But what
about the moths who
enming aud talal ttimph'd tu?
no longer love the lightk
I think they are rather small creatures, ra ther
pitiable.
(Raising his eyebrows, going near
to MOHAMMED) Wha t do you say?
MOHAMMED:
You have time time to think, Philip: that's
the difference between us. For me there are
wounds to be bandaged, cancers to cut out.
The sight of that t blood, you see, is so
compalling
it fills out all my memory, all my consc
ience,
all my future. Oh, yes, thinking is
admirable,


and you are most intelligent: but thinking
is a luxury. People like me are plunged
right into society, and people like me are
going to change it.
HA ZLITT:
Only men will change it; not ideas, only
men, each of them alone.
MOHAMMED:
Hospitals will change it, Philip. Surgical
instrume nts will change it.
(With a sudden
laugh) Yes, we are all cowed here! I am
Leonora's friend, and your friend, and I
think it still flatters me tha t you consider
me worthy of your friednship. We must fight
our love for you.
Only then shall we be free,
only then will you not dare to give us your syapt
sympathy.
Sympathy is what we give to invalids,
after all.
LEONORA :
You don't trust Philip, do y ou? personally, I
maan?
MOHAMMED (looking at her for a moment)
No. Oh, I may
shake hands with. him, I may even like him, but
he can't gainsay his uniform.
(To HAZ ZLITT)
Did you see Masudi?
HA ZLITT:
Why should I want to see Masudi?
MOHAMMED:
Is tha t why y ou went into the hills, to see
him?
HA ZLITT:
No, Mohammed. What t ma kes you ask?
MOHAMMED:
There are rum ours. . Why did you go into the


hills?
HA ZLITT:
It is one of my duties here to go.
MOHAMMED:
To go into rebel-territory?
HA ZLITT :
I was on the edge of Hbe rebel-territory.
MOHAMMED:
You went inside.
HA ZLITT:
I did nothing of the kind, Mohammed.
MOHAMMED (searching his eyes)
No, I don't trust you.
(Walking away) It isn't your fault you
were sent here.
I realise you wanted to
see Leonora.
But that (pointing to
Hazlitt's revolver holster) is what frightens
me. Those bullets are meant to kill human
beings, my friend.
Aren't they a temptation
to you? Go on, prove to me that you're not
like all the others.
Why should I trust you
any more than the others?
LEONORA :
What would you do if you were in his place?
MOHAMMED:
I should never be in his place, Leonora.
Good bye.
He leaves the room.
HA ZLITT sits down heavily
on the divan.
LEONORA goes to his side and puts her hand
on his shoulder.
There is a knock on the inner door. BAKER enters
with coffee.
He places the tray on the dining table.
HA ZLITT has his head bowed.
BA KER: :
Your coffee is ready, sir.
LEONORA :
Could you bring it to him here?
I don't
think he's well.
BAI KER :
Your coffee, HAVMAATIM sir.
Shall I-bring it
to you?
HA ZLITT:
Please, Baker.
BA KER (taking the coffee to HAZLITT's side) Can I get
you
some aspirins, sir?


HA ZLITT:
No, thank you.
BAKER leaves the room.
HA ZLITT:
I saw Masudi.
LEONORA :
You saw him? You spoke to him? But,
Philip, wha t about your men?
HA ZLITT:
I went forward alone.
LEONORA: :
Why - ?
HA ZLITT:
I don't want to answer your questions,
Leonora.
No harm can come of my visit.
But a lot of harm can come from. talking too
I was thinking of you-all the way
back.
Did you miss me?
LEONORA :
Yes.
I kept. coming here, just to look at the
room.
HA ZLITT:
It was so wonderfully cool'in the hills.
kept thinking to myself, even if I plunge
myself into disgrace, even if I'm killed, well,
that'sa fair price to pay.
(Touching her)
It is worth death, just to be with you again.
LEONORA :
But no one is going to hurt you, Philip.
HA ZLITT:
Oh, one gets afraid.
LEONORA :
Why?
HA ZLITT:
If one is too happy, I mean.
LEONORA :
Mou look tired and sad, darling: anything
but happy.
HA ZLITT:
I mean happy with you, only with you.. (Staring
into her eyes) We must mal ke an island for
ourselves here. Oh, those endless words,
endless, endless words, dinning into my brain!
Can't we stop them? All the time
they are
breaking in. We must stay close
together,
Leonora, we must never = : We must
keep out
other people. But yet,
my God, it must come to


an end.
It can't be eternal.
Yet it
feels eternal.
LEONORA :
We need only keep out Hussein and Mohammed.
Only then can interfere with us.
HA ZLITT:
You say that, when 1
LEONORA: :
I can give up my work at the hospital.
hardly think of my work now.
HAZLITT:
I wish we could live in this love-cave for
ever, Leonora, I want to die in it. We
must blind our eyes.
We must see only each
other.
LEONORA: :
There is one way of saving ourselves, Philip.
Do you know what that is?
HA ZLITT:
LEONORA :
We could go away from here. We.must go back
to Europe.
HA ZLITT: :
They would never allow me
LEONORA :
But you could try!
HA ZLITT:
They'd refuse.
I'm certain they would refuse.
LEONORA: :
But won't you even try?
HA ZLITT:
It's hopeless.
LEONORA :
Try, Philip, for my sal ke.
A pause.
LEONORA :
Well?
(HAZLITT does not reply)
You don't
want to go back, do you? Really you don't
want to save yourself, do you?
HA ZLITT:
I should always blame myself afterwards.
LEONORA: :
Why?
HA ZLITT:
I should blame myself for cogwardice.
LEONORA :
Then you want to be a hero?
It can't be done
in this country.
HA ZLITT:
But here I feel 1 well, there is
something to
get my teeth into.
(Rises)
It won't be easy.


They hate me. Mohammed would like to trust
me, but he can't.
I want to prove them
wrong.
I want to prove to them what I am,
Philip Haz zlitt, apart from the Captain.
is a sacrifice I should willingly undertake,
you see, because I mean to spend my life among
these people. Do you see why I should always
blame myself for cowardice?
LEONORA:
Very well.
I shall stay at the hospital.
We shall go through with this ghastly summer.
Hussein and Mohammed will go on coming to this
house.
HA ZLITT:
But this is the beginning of my work, Leonora.
I shall ma ke reports about every village I go
to. I shall record all the conversations I
have,
I shall get to know every foot of the
country, at nd every man and woman of any import-
ance. No harm can come of that: I shan't have
to disobey orders.
It will be fascina ting
work, Leonora.
LEONORA: :
They'1l take us away from each other.
Only in
Europe will we be allowed our dreams.
HA ZLITT:
You must never tell Mohammed where
I go and what
I do. I shall never again take my own men into
the hills.
That was a piece of folly. I shall
go alone. As long as we say nothing we shall
be safe.
LEONORA :
Something. terrible will
happen.
HA ZLITT:
Mohammed has made you feel miserable.
Hasn't
it occurred to you, darling, that
perha ps he is
a.little jealous of the way
theyreceived me in
the hills?
He ha s a grudge a gainst all
Europeans.


The poor people are different.
LEONORA :
I've been here too long. I can't judge any
more.
HA ZLITT:
I must work in secret.
(Going towards the
window) Now that sentry of mine sees every-
thing that goes on here, every coming and
going.
There - you see?. That's where the
rumours start.
That's why the Sergeant Ma jor
takes a rude tone to me and refuses to say tha t
Head quarters 'phoned him, as I know they did.
LEONORA :
Headquarters - ?
EAZLITT:
Well, I shall send that sentry away. I shall
do it now.
I've decidede
He goes to the inner door and calls out for BAKER.
LEONORA :
Even Hussein has a guard on his house, Philip..
There are thieves in this country, apart from
rebels.
HA ZLITT:
I'm a good shot.
So is Baker.
BAI KER enters.
HA ZLITT:
You're a good shot, aren't you? Baker?
BAKER:
A good shot, sir?
HA ZLITT:
With a rifle.
BA KER:
Yes.
HA ZLITT:
Well, go and tell that sentry outside tha t
we no longer need him. Tell him to return
to barracks immed diately.
BAKER:
But -
HA ZLITT:
Hurry!
BA KER:
Yes, sir.
BAKER goes out into the garden.
HA ZLITT wa tches
him from the door.
HA ZLITT:
Now we shall be alone. We shall have less
talk about the Captain
receiving a European


lady at night.
LEONORA :
Is there such talk?
HA ZLITT:
There must be! Can't you imagine what my
men say among themselves?
Sentry-duty up
here is a regular peep-show!
Baker I can
trust.
A nd for him there must be no mystery
now.
LEONORA :
Was he yourservant before you came here?
HA ZLITT:
No. But I simply trust him.
BAK KER returns.
HA ZLITT leads him to the centre of the room,
where LEONORA is standing.
HA ZLITT:
Do you know who this is, Baker?
BAKER:
No, sir.
HA ZLITT:
But you have seen her before?
BAKER:
Yes, sir.
HA ZLITT:
Her name is Miss Friedmann, Ba ker. She has
often slept here, as Jexpect you know. Soon
she will live here all the time.
BAKER stares at him inkstonishment.
BAI KER:
Yes, sir.
HA ZLITT:
This house is going to be a pappy house.
Aretr all, we are in a wonderful country.
Tha t wilderness outside, try and turn it into
a garden. I want you to lay lawns, to grow
spring flowers, to bring in trees, to dig
irrigation canals, to make a shaded summer
house. Go into the town tomorrow and find the
have
labour.
We shall/the best food and the best
wine. Everydody else is miserable here.
But we are going to be a happy. house in their
midst.


BA KER:
Yes, sir.
HA ZLITT:
Miss Friedmann is going to be your mistress.
In: future you will not disregard her orders,
as I remember you did this afternoon.
BAKER:
I'm sorry, sir.
HAZ ZLITT:
You can go, then.
Thank you.
BAKER leaves.
LEONORA :
He thinks you are mad.
HA ZLITT:
Perhaps.
But I feel better.
Shall we sit
down to coffee, as we used to in Europe?
(As he goes to the inner door)
From now on
you are going to be a silent spectator, WN
Awtdeh
Mohammed also.
No more words, thank
God!
(Opening the door and calling out)
Baker, bring another cup!
CHRTA IN.


THIRD ACT.


SCENE: the same, one a fternoon several weeks
later.
As the curtain rises there is the sound of a
small reconnaissance aircraft passing low overhead.
LEONORA and MOHAMMED are standing in the garden looking
When the sound of the 'plane dies away. they come
into the room and close the door.
LEONORA:
How far away is the air-port?
MOHAMMED:
About ten miles south of here.
LEONORA: :
Then he'll be arriving soon.
She goes to the mirror and paints her lips.
LEONORA :
Do I look haggard?
It's so hot!
MOHAMMED:
No, just excited.
Whose aeroplane is he
using?
LEONORA: :
I think it bedongs to one of the lai nd owners. -
MOHAMMED:
Has Hussein had a hand in it?
LEONORA :
I don't know. Philip hardly speaks to me
about his work nowadays.
These are just
routine pa trols, part of his duty here.
MOHAMMED:
You are quite a changed person, Leonora!
Are you happy to let him lead you to your
doom?
LEONORA :
I feel sure of him at last.
I belong to him.
MONAMMED:
Did he take any of his soldiers with him?
LEONORA:
Not this time.
MOHAMMED:
How long has he been away?
LEONORA :
Three or four days.
MOHAMMED:
He is doomed, Leonora.
(A pause) You
never go to the villages now. I don't


see you at the hospital more than once a
week,mom
LEONORA :
I belong to him, Mohammed.
I've no will.
MOHAMMED:
You confess that to me, you who were once
so proud?
He came like an evil spirit...
inthehills:
LEONORA :
I can't go on with my old worky it might be
dangerous to him.
I'm too much in love with
him, Mohammed.
MOHAMMED:
He might get himself killed tomorrow, and you
as well.
witmmng
LEONORA :
Then I shall have to go down with him.
She goes to the inner door and calls out 'Baker!'
He comes almost at once.
LEONORA: :
The Captain will be here in about ten minutes,
Baker.
We saw his 'plane go over just now.
BAK KER:
Very good, Madam.
LEONORA :
Are the chickens plucked and cleaned?
BA KER:
I've just done it, Madam.
LEONORA :
That's all, then.
BAI KER leaves.
LEONORA :
There, Mohammed, y ou see how much a wife I
am. In three months my character has changed
completely.
MOHAMMED:
I tell you I'm certai in that one of his men has
killed Masudi.
Had it not been for you,
Leonora, I would have shown my piece of evidence
to Shingleton long before now.
LEONORA :
What is this piece of evidence?
MOHAI MMED: :
You saw it yourself two months ago: the bullet
I extracted from the sergeant's hand.
Philip
told me the man had been playing with a revolver
or something. But he was telling a lie.
The
bullet belongs to an automatic gun which is


obsolete now and which only Masudi's men
have in great number.
Now this surely is
absolute proof, Leonora, that he must have
had a skirmish with the rebels. And I
believe that Masudi was killed during that
and
skirmish,
Maekdewa that Philip set out
quite deliberately from this place to murder
him. I believe that he has been lying to
you and every one else.
I believe that he
is using you and even Hussein Al Shabar quite
coldly.
I believe, Leonora, that he is a
first-class actor with an infinite power to
charm other people, as he has charmed you and
LEONORA :
How ridiculous you are!
MOHAMMED:
Masudi has not been seen or heard of aga in
since the day Philip first went to the hills.
LEONORA :
Why have you waited all this time, then, if
you were so sure?
MOHAMMED:
Because only yesterday did I hear that Masudi
is missing. Of course, there had been rumours
before.
LEONORA :
Philip couldn't.
He couldn't.
MOHAMMED:
In other words he has charmed you, as I confess
he charmed me. He went to Hussein for
help,
you see, and Hussein thought he'd at last got
a powerful European on Masudi's side.
But
all the time he was being tricked.
LEONORA: :
Are you jealous of Philip?
MOHAMMED:
This is how I stand: I want. to get y8u away
from him because I love you.
I don't ask
you to try and love me; I. only ask you to


save yourself.
Philip is damned, Leonora,
and I - shall not. let you be damned with him.
I am going to tell Shingleton everything I
know about him.
I shall show him the bullet,
for one thing.
LEONORA :
Philip is obeying orders. Your evidence will
mean nothing. From the beginning you have
had the idea that he is doing harm.
MOHAMMED:
Yes. The idea obsesses me.
L EONORA :
If he is a traitor, then so am I. My
braan doesn't work any more. I remember the
work I did with you, I am still loyal to it,
but my brain says nothing to me any more.
I am having a child by him, Mohammed.
MOHAMMED:
A child?
LEONORA :
You mustn't try to hurt him.
I've got to
stay with him now.
MOHAI MMED goes towards her in quiet astonishment.
MOHA MMED:
Are you sure?
LEONORA :
Yes.
MOHA MMED:
Why didn't you tell me before?
LEONORA :
I don't. know.
MOHA MMED:
What about the gossip? And where are you
going to have the child?
LEONORA: :
I was relying on you for that.
MOHAMMED:
On me? Yet you stay with Philip...
LEONORA: :
If you want to get him killed by someone,
then I shall have to suffer it.
I'm help-
less.
But I can't leave him.
MOHAMMED:
And suppose there are riots?
Suppose they
surround this house?
Is it going to be very
safe for your child?


LEONORA (putting her har nd to her brow)
I want you to
do your best for me.
MOHAMMED:
Has it occurred to you that there is another
solution?
A pause.
LEONORA :
What?
MOHAMMED:
You would no longer feel helpless. Your
brain would work again. You realise that:
it is almost impossible to keep such a thing.
secret from the women here?
They have the
intuitions of sewer-rats.
LEONORA :
I'll never leave the house.
MOHA MMED:
Why not be wise and have the child brought
off?
It could be done quietly and efficient-
ly? I can do it myself. No one need know.
LEONORA :
How horrible...
MOHA MMED:
Not so horrible as your own death by rebel
bullets.
LEONORA :
Yes, far more horrible, far, far more horrible!
All you're aware of is anlopasenvedovarons
embryo.
But it belongs to Philip and me
together. It is alive. Your hands are for
cancers and tunours, not for living things.
Do you want a world of old people?
MOHAMMED:
I want you to be safe.
LEONORA :
How you could ask me to do such a thing..
MOHAMMED (with a shrug) Very well, then: you shall ha ve
your child.
Youshall have all the help I can
give you.
LEONORA (looking about her) Ita quite forgotten he was on
his way home! You've made this place feel


quite dark.
I was so happy before.
feel happy the instant Philip enters my head!
MOHA MMED:
Yes, and you daren't look into the future.
LEONORA :
But I do dare. I see you going to see
Shingleton, for instance.
I see him laughing
in your face.
I see Philip coming back in
a few minutes and your shaking hands with
him like an old friend.
I see one day leading
into another, full of the usual routines.
I see a riot - of course there will be a riot -
and I see stones being flung at an Embassy
window and the students dispersing after twelve
hours with nothing settled.
Our talk is
daring, Mohammed. But.only our talk.
MOHAMMED:
You don't see Philip as a murderer?
yourself as a traitor?
LEONORA :
No, or perhaps I do.
But I refuse to get him
into trouble.
MOHAMMED:
And suppose I betray him?
LEONORA :
You wouldn't do it.
MOHA MMED:
When he comes into this room I shall shake
hands with him.
I may even smile at him.
But after that I sha 11 betray him.
LEONORA :
And Shingleton will laugh in y our face.
MOHAMMED:
Then" I will go to someone who does not laugh.
You shall have your child, Leonora, but you
shan't keep Philip.
You are going to see
for yourself if I'm just a talker, just a
surgeon at the local hospital who pats frightened
children on the head d. Kow you've given me the
chance to prove myself. And I am going to seize
that chance.
LEONORA goès towards him: with a smile and puts her


silk scarf playfully round his head, making a turban of
it. He stands there looking into her eyes, quite unable
to smile.
LEONORA:
There, betray whom you like.
You look such
a baby. All men, even the broad ones, cand
be made to look like babies in a moment.
Your eyes are so mournful, Mohammed. Very
well, go and bétray Philip. Go and have your
little game. But I tell you everything is
going to come out all right.
I know this
beçause I'm a woman, because there is not the
vestige of an ominous warning inside me about
the future, because I'm calm and perfectly
reassured, even by your stupid eyes.
She leaves him and goes towards the gramophone.
He is just about to take down the scarf when she turns
round and runs back to him with a laugh.
LEONORA :
No, no, you must leave it!
She re-arranges it, then returns to the gramophone
and puts on a quick waltz. She takes hold of him gaily.
She begins to turn him round and round in the dance. At
first he moves heavily and sadly, watching her with'an
expression of pity. But soon he is forced to smile: he
takes her more firmly, and at last they
begin
dance swiftly
roun d the room.
The front door opens suddenly and HUSSEIN
appears.
He looks at the couple with astonishment and
steps back.
They stop, and MOHAMMED quickly pulls the silk scarf from
his head. The three of them stand quite still, until
LEONORA goes to the gramophone and takes the record off.
HUSSEIN:
I am looking for the Captain.
saw his
'plane go over.
LEONORA: :
He should be here in a few minutes.
Why not
stay, Hussein?


HUSSEIN simply stands at the open door. staring
at Mohammed.
HUSSEIN:
Have you any right to visit the Captain's
house wile he is away?
MOHAMMED:
Any right?
HUSSEIN:
I ask by what right you are here.
MOHAMMED:
I am here because Captain Hazlitt invited me t
to come.
HUSSEIN(to LEORNORA): Is this true?
LEONORA :
Why shouldn't it be true?
HUSSEIN:
Then all the more shameful for me. I happen
to be the Captain's closest friend here, - and,
I had hoped, yours too.
LEONORA :
I don't understand you.
HUSSEIN:
I shall visit the Captain whe n he's alone.
He leaves, slamming the door. MOHAMMED goes to
the window and watches him return to his own house.
MOHAMMED:
What a buffoon he is! Look, he's trembling
with rage:
He calls himself prince, and he
really believes he's a prince, though no one
else here does, includ ing hhe shoe-shine boys.
He hates me because he thought he saw me smiling
at his wife one day! No wonder he played so
well into your Captain's hands. (He turns
from the window) You look a little sadder
now.
LEONORA :
He quite frightened me.
MOHAMMED:
You look chastened. Things happen very
suddenly in this country, you see. In a
moment we pass from gaiety to fear. Some-
times we have no warning at all of the most
terrifying events, even the women among us
with theirmarvellous intuitions of the future.


There 1s a knock on the front door.
LEONORA :
Is that Philip?
MOHAMMED looks out of the window.
MOHAI MMED:
No, it's a woman.
I think it's Hussein's
wife. Do you want me to go?
LEONORA :
Why should you?
She goes to the d oor and admits BADIA AL SHABAR.
HADIA:
Hussein cam/back just now in such a rage!
LEONORA:
But nothing was wrong. He saw Mohammed and
dancing together, that's all. We're waiting
for Philip to come back.
BADIA:
Mohammed? Ah, the doctor. Then I understand.
MOHAMMED:
Will you excuse me?
He starts to leave the roome
LEONORA :
Why?
MOHA MMED:
Oh, it's the convention here.
I don't want
to give cause for jealousy.
I'll wait in the
gardem.
He leaves, a nd BADIA draws LEONORA away from the
door.
BADIA:
Do you know wha t these men have been planning
together?
LEONORA :
Which men ?
BADIA:
Hussein and the Captain.
LEONORA closes the door swiftly.
BADIA :
But you must surely know.
BEONORA :
I know nothing.
BADIA:
Does the Captain never confide in you?
LEONORA :
Not now.
BADIA :
I hear everything from Hussein when he is drunk.
But we'll keep his secret. Men are helpless
without us.
LEONORA :
What did he tell you?


BAD IA :
First of all the Captain has been taking
patrols into the hills.
LEONORA :
I know that.
BAD IA :
Secondly, he made contactwith Masudi on his
first patrol six weeks ago.
LEONORA :
To kill him?
BADIA :
Why, a to kill him? To negotiate with him.
To lay down plans for the rebellion of our
people.
LEONORA:
But Masudi has disappeared!
BADIA:
Only as part of the plan. Actually he is
massing his men in the hills, ready for an
assault on this town. And your Captain has
just flown back from making the final arrange-
ments with him.
LEONORA :
With whom?
BADIA :
With Masudi.
LEONORA: :
But he did not kill Masudi...
BADIA:
He sees Masudi again and agan, my dear. Why
should he want to kill him?
(She looks closely
at Leonora) What is the matter with you, my
dear? You look ill today. How long have you
been like this?
She takes LEONORA by the arm and leads her to the
divan.,
LEONORA:
The Captain will support Masudi?
BADIA :
That's the secret you and I have to keep.
But you ought to be excited! And look at
like a child!
LEONORA :
Why excited?
BADIA:
Because this is a triumph for you, and for
every-
body else who has worked for the rebels.
It As
a triumph that at last we have a European
pffie ser
on our side.


LEONORA :
And what about the European officer himself?
BADIA:
You are lucky to have him, my dear. My own
husband is a wild bear in comparison.
Yet
I think more highly of my husband now. Masudi
always used to call him a clown.
But I wonder
what he calls him now?
LEONORA :
Hussein should have kept out of this house!
BADIA: :
Why?
LEONORA: :
It was he who influenced Philip! Don't you
understa nd that Philip has plunged himself into
disgrace, that he has committed an act of treason?
Do you expect me to sit here and listen to what
you are saying and be excited?
Drunk fools
like Hussein have robbed my Philip of his life!
She bursts into tears, but BADIA makes little effort
to comfort her.
BADIA:
But it was you who influenced the Captain, not
Hussein.
Hussein told me himself apat how
helpful it was to have you in this hous e.
LEONORA: :
I have said nothing to influence
him, not since
our first evening together.
BADIA:
Are you sure?
LEONORA:
It was Hussein, all the time!
BADIA:
Shall we ask him when he comes, then?
LEONORA: :
Ask who?
BADIA :
The Captain. Shall we ask him whether it
was
Hussein or you who really caused him to helpx
the rebels?
LEONORA :
I knew this country would suck him into its
horrible swamp! And you, i with your tongue!
BADIA: :
You're sick, my dear.
LEONORA:
Sick! Aren't you sick with the filthy washing
you take in from other people all the ti me?


BADIA: :
Is that why you don't come to see me?
LEONORA :
Yes, because I detest your quick tongue!
BADIA:
And my quick eyes?
Because they see every-
thing you do, because they see how you got the
Captain in your power, because they see how
you turned my husband's head?
Because they
see you all too well, my friend, 1 in your
true colours!
A faint welcoming cry, 'Mohammed!' is heard and
BAD IA leaps to her feet.
BADA IA: :
It's the daptain.
Get up and powder your
face.
LEONORA rises listlessly and goes to the mirror,
where she wipes the tears away from her eyes. After a
pause HAZLITT opens the door and leads MOHAMMED in by the
hand.
HA ZLITT:
He was outside because of the harem!
Badia,
how are you?
He kisses her hand gaily, then goes across to
LEONORA and embraces her. BADIA and MOHAMMED stand look-
ing on shyly.
HAZLITT turns and notices them.
HA ZLITT (with a laugh) Haven't you seen a man kiss the
woman he loves before? Look!
I'll show
you again:
He takes LEONORA in his arms, holds back her head
and kisses her on the lips.
HA ZLITT:
You see?
So much for your dark shames!
So much for your precious harem, eh, Badia?
Oh, we're going to blow a fine new wind across
those dark shames of yours! Ah, Leonora I
feel so happy!


He walks towards MOHAMMED and lifts his chin up
playfully with his fist.
HA ZLITT:
But you don't believe in me yet, eh?
MOHAMMEE:
Will you escuse me if I go now, Philip?
I reckoned on your coming back earlier.
should have been at the hospital long ago.
HA ZLITT (to LEONORA) Have you given him tea?
LEONORA :
We had some at the clinic.
HA ZLITT: :
Go, then. But have dinner with me tonight.
MOHAI MMED: :
Tomorrow night, Philip.
I'm on duty tonight.
HA ZLITT:
Tomorrow night?
(He laughs) I think you may
be required at the hospital tomorrow night also.
MOHAMMED:
Why?
HA ZLITT looks from one to the other of them. as they
st ta nd facing him in silence.
all
HA ZLITT:
What are you/1ooking so solemn about?
LEONORA :
'Why is Mohammed going to be required at the hospital
tomorrow night?
HA ZLITT:
Some celebration..
Some brawl I
at the House of Assembly, 1 I was joking. A
few friendly dagger-blows perhaps.
BADIA :
Have you seen Hussein?
HA ZLITT (looking at her closely)
Why should I have seen
Hussein?
BADIA:
I wondered..
MOHAMMED:
I'll leave you, then.
Good byre, Philip.
HA ZLITT:
Good bye.
I just wanted to see your face.
MOHAMMED bows slightly to the two women and goes
out.
LEONORA :
I want to know where you have been, Philip.


HA ZLITT pturning on her sharply)
I told you long ago
what these trips were for!
LEONORA:
Shall I put on one of those black veils, then?
But you are dealing with a European woman, W
tien
You may bristle with revolvers and
machine-guns, but. I have eyes in my head, and
they tell me I have a dirty liar before me.
A pause.
HA ZLITT:
Badia. Do you know what she is talking about?
BADIA :
Be honest with her. She's not a fool.
HA ZLITT:
Both of you think you know something.
What is
it you think you know?
LEONORA :
That you have just come back from negotiating
with Masudi; that you are hand-in-glove with
the rebels; that you will one day be put to
death for treason; that you have plunged your
name into disgrace; tha t you have ruined me,
and anything born of me. That you are the
dupe of a drunkard.
HAZLITT walks to the window and looks out.
goes to the inner door and opens it.
He looks into the
corridor, and closes it again.
HA ZLITT:
Who told you? Badia?
LEONORA (almost in tears) Yes.
HA ZLITT (to BADIA): How did you get to know all this?
BAD IA :
I have a right to know.
HA ZLITT:
I asked you how you got to know it.
BADIA:
I'm a reliable person.
People can reiy on
my tact when they tell me things.
HA ZLITT:
Ah, forgive me.
Your tact.


BADIA :
I can keep a secret.
I saw Ma sudi once.
HAZLITT:
And you had a serious political discussion?
BADIA:
He knows and trusts me.
HA ZLITT:
Did his big hands wander?
BADIA :
Did - ?
HA ZLITT seizes her by the throat and pulls her
roughly to and fro.
BADIA: :
Leonora!
Leonora!
HA ZLITT:
Come on!
Come on!
Who told you?
She says something inaudible.
HA ZLITT hends down
to listen to her.
HA ZLITT:
What? What?
(She repeats it) Ah, Hussein,
Hussein.
I might have guessed.
He pushes her back so that she falls onto the davan.
LEONORA :
Philipt
HA ZLITT:
Did he tell you himself, or did you overhear it?
BADIA :
He told me himself.
HA ZLITT:
When he was drunk?
BADIA:
Yes.
HA ZLITT:
The idiot.
If you utter a word of wha t Hussein
told you to anyone outside this room, you will
get a knife in your back.
Now: we are friends.
The three of us: fellom-conspirators.
glad you both know, because things are beginning
to move very fast.
We need our women at such
a time. Where is Hussein?
BADIA:
In the house. He came to look for you after
your plane went over, but you hadn't come.
HA ZLITT:
Ah, the aeroplane!
(To LEONORA) Did
you see
me wave?
LEONORA :
Yes.
HA ZLITT:
Was that Mohammed I could see y ou with?


LEONORA :
Yes.
HA ZLITT:
You've both made me feel quite nervous.
(He begins striding about)
I hate this
waiting about!
It's so hot!
But nothing's
wrong: I want you both to get that into your
heads.
LEONORA :
We ought to have gone back to Europe.
pleaded with you.
I stopped my work in the
hills.
I have been living for no one but
you. And now - :
How.this country has
changed you!
The tekephone beel rings.
HA ZLITT takes up the
reclever.
HA ZLITT;
Yes, Sergeant Ma j or.
He listens carefully for some.time, then turns to
LEONORA with his hand over the mouth-piece.
HA ZLITT:
Shingleton went to the Sergeant Major and
ordered him to double up the sentries while
I was away: because of the "local situation".
He listens at the 'phone again.
HA ZLITT:
And what? Yes, yes, I see... Exactly.
He puts the receiver down andi goes slowly to a
ch ha ir.
HA ZLITT:
What does he mean, - the "local situation"?
Do you think he knows anything?
livens
LEONORA :
He hisnads to the gossip.
HA ZLITT:
But I've kept everything so quiet.
I can't
understand it. My men have always been
reserved towards me. They know I'm only here
because of my Arabic. But i
LEONORA:
You've given in to the daydreams of a drunk,
Philip.


BADIA :
Tell her, Captain.
Tell her if it was my
poor Hussein who led sou to the rebels, or
she herself.
LEONORA :
Hussein made you feel proud to be with Masudi.
HA ZLITT (after a pause)
No one led me to the rebels.
went to them alone.
Gradually I became
involved..
But just for the moment the
meaning ha s gone.
It's so hot here!
confused. Tomorrow I shall be clear again.
Everything will be clear and cheerful tomorrow,
Leonora.
LEONORA :
Well, I'm not going to daydream any longer.
She puts the silk scarf round her head as if she
were going out.
HAZ ZLITT:
Where are you going?
LEONORA :
I'm going to see Shingleton.
HA ZLITT:
Why?
LEONORA :
To calm him down, and to find out what he knows.
You can't afford to have him as your ehemy.
HA ZLITT:
And I can't afford to let him know the truth.
LEONORA :
But surely he knows everything.
HA ZLITT:
Not even Hussein knows.
LEONORA :
What is the truth 9 then?
HA ZLITT:
But Shingleton must never know.
LEONORA:
Very well.
Tell me what the truth is.
HA ZLITT:
Masudi and I have agreed on a time.
LEONORA :
A time?
HAZLITT:
Masudi reaches this town at dawn tomorrow
morning.
LEONORA :
For the rebellion,
HA ZLITT:
Yes.


LEONORA :
Tomorrow!
Then he is already on the move?
Oh, you fool!
How do you think we can save
you now?
She goes to the door.
CURTA IN.


SCENE:
the same, a little later.
It is now
evening.
HA ZLITT and BADIA AL SHABAR are discovered.
BADIA:
If you went back to your country now, Capta: in,
would they shoot you?
HA ZLITT.
Yes. I suppose they would.
BADIA :
Will you ever be able to go back to your count-
HAXLITT:
No. How strange: that had never occurred to
BADIA:
You've courage. That's why. But just think:
if Hussein had been a Captain and had betrayed
his country, would I still love him?
HA ZLITT:
Have I betrayed my country?
BADIA :
Your own people would say so.
HA ZLITT:
Masudi ha s agreed not to touch the ommaamm Camp.
That was my first condition.
BADIAA
Bur Masudi is a liar.
HAZLITT:
I feel 8o utterly alone.
From now on no one
can help me. Yet I've hardly been conscious
of what I've done.
BADIA:
You've been led astray by a very heautiful
woman, Captain.
HA ZLITT:
Why do you say that?
BADIA :
Because I don't want you to blame Hussein if
anything goes wrong. Leonora played her part
as well, remember; and a bigger part, too.
Her intelligence frightens me, Captain.
has changed all of us. Without it we could
all have been living peacefully togéther.
Look at her effect on Hussein.
HA ALITT:
Ehat was her effect on Hussein?
BADIA :
Don't you see that the man ad ores her? Havent
you noticed him when they're together? All


day he talks about her, and when he's lying
in bed drunk he pulls his pillow about and
calls it Leonora.
For Hussein she is the
highest type of European woman. Whereas
I'm the whore.
HA ZLITT:
Are you jealous of her?
BADIA (with a shrug)
Hussein goes to the brot.hel three
or four times a week.
How could I be jealous?
He disgusts me.
Whereas you are different.
HA ZLITT:
What did you mean when you said that we might
be living peacefully together?
BADIA :
She led you astray.
HA ZLITT:
I make my own decisions.
BADIA :
But you have been working with Hussein.
And do you think he Gaula have moved a muscle
without a woman like Leonora to guide him?
HAZLITT:
Were they friends, then?
before I came?
BADIA:
No. But since you arrived he has always been
trying to show off in front of her.
These
pat atrols he asked you to go on, they are all
showing off for Leonora's benefit!
Hussein
needs only one incentive: a woman. He's
like a wild beast where women are concerned.
What kind of rebel is it who gives his wife
all the secrets?
Rebel!
HA ZLITT:
Did Leonora ever go to see him in private?
BADIA:
Perhaps.
She isn't unwilling to use her
charms, Captain. Only this afternoon she and
the doctor were dancing round this room, laughing
and kissing each other.
HA ZLITT:
Kissing?
BADIA:
Hussein said so. But he talks wildly.
His


brain is soft with drink.
HAZ ZLITT (putting his handkerchief to his brow): They are
only friends, Mohammed and Leonora, only friends
BADIA :
Of course. But if I show that I admire you,
if I say that of all the men who have come
from Europe I think you are the finest, they
call me a whore.
But the precious Miss
Friedmann can have her friendships.
that.
HA ZLITT:
Only Hussein calls you awneeven
BADIA :
No. You say the same, in your heart.
Look
at the way you pushed me about when Leonora
was here. Would you do that to a European
woman?
HA ZLITT:
It was because you lied to me.
BADIA :
But it'sthe same judgement all the time, -
that I'm just an ap ppendage of Hussein's life,
that I'm of no importance in myself and have
got to be kept under lock and key. Oh, yes,
I'm beautiful enough, but so are the girls in
the brothels, so are the cabaret-girls:
When
I met Miss Friedmann for the first time I
asked her to come and see me in my house.
She came once. Once.
HA ZLITT:
Why was that?
BADIA:
Beaause there is nothing romantic in my house,
no men for one thing. Only magazines and tea.
But there's no difference of intelligence
between Miss Friedmann and me, Capta in, nor any
difference of beauty. There is only one
difference: she is free and I'm not. If I
were free like her men would fall in love with
me as well.
HA ZLITT:
But men surely do fall in love with
you.


BADIA:
And if I were free they wouldn't call me
these things! And you would take my love
as a gift, not pull me about as you did.
HA ZLITT:
Your love?
BADIA:
I think about you every hour of the day.
Ar nd the more I'm alone, the more do I think
of you. I've envied Leonora more than any
other woman te know. Why are you looking
at me like that?
HA ZLITT:
I'm astonished. Yes, this country has
changed me...
BADIA:
Are you thinking of me as a shameless creature?
Does Hussein tell you all the time how I
scream and stamp and curse like one? Be
married to a drunkard who is sick over your
silk dresses and carpets very night, then
see if you'd scream or not!
HA ZLITT:
It wasn't in my head. I was just astonished.
BADIA:
It'sa pure feeling. Even you who receive it
can't take away its purity.
HA ZLITT:
Does Hussein know?
BADIA:
What do any of these people know about love?
You can't eat love, you can't chop it up for
fire-wood, you can't use it to kill mosquitoes
with!
Hussein feels an appetite, he gratifies
it, then it's all finished! That's the limit
of his love.
HA ZLITT:
You tell me all this, Badia, just a few hours
before the rebellion...
BADIA: :
This is my first chance to see you alone.
Tomorrow you are going to be a powerful ma no
Then you'll remember that I loved you at a
time when you had no power. Are you so much


in love with her?
HA ZLITT:
Yes.
BADIA (Putting her hand up to her neck) You hurt me when
you cau ught hold of my neck.
HA ZLITT:
I shall never treat you like that again.
BADIA:
Febl.
Is there a swelling?
She draws his hand along her neck and moves
closer to him.
BADIA:
Won't you kiss the bruise you have made?
He remains quite still, and at last she lowers her
ha nd.
BADIA :
Is she having a child?
HA ZLITT:
How do you know that?
BADIAA
I only guessed.
She looks 1ll.
I would like
to be with you every hour of the day, and for
the rest of my life.
(Looking about the room)
But she was here before me. You can see her
mark all over the room, whereas when I came
here first it was simple al nd i
There is a light knock on the front door.
HAZLITT
ope ns it and HUSSEIN AL SHABAR steps into the room.
HUSSEIN:
Ah, Captain, so you are back.
I saw y our
'plane go over this afternoon.
They shake hands, and HUSSEIN stares from HA ZLITT
to BADIA.
HUSSEIN:
Go back to your house and stay there. (She
does not move, but continues looking at
HAZLITT. Suddenly HÔSSEIN makes as if to
strike her.) Get out!
She flinches away, then leaves the room.
HUSSEIN:
I want you to answer a question, Captain.
Am I your best friend in this country?
HAZLITT:
Yes. What is the matter with you?.


HUSSEIN:
This: that I don't like some of your friends.
They could easily interfere with our work.
HA ZLITT:
Are you talking about Mohammed?
HUSSEIN:
When I came here this afternoon I saw Miss
Friedmann and the doctor dancing round this
room like lovers.
Now that is very shameful
to me: first, because you allow an enemy of
mine to come to your house while you are away ;
and secondly because Miss Friedmann clearly
prefers the company of the doctor to mine.
That is to say, she prefers someone vulgar!
HAZLITT:
He is the best surgeon in the country. And
do you question his honour?
HUSSEIN:
I do. To his face if necessary.
HA ZLITT:
Ar nd you never doubt your own?
Is it an
honourable man who tells his wife political
secrets when he is drunk?
Look at you
trembling there.
All this stuff you talk
about honour and pride, - it's the after-effect
of liquor!
HUSSEIN:
Whatever my wife tells you is untrue.
HAZLITT:
she
WMAN)
Then how do oes know I have been
negotiating
with Masudi?
HUSSEIN:
Just a woman's talk.
HA ZLITT:
I had to force it out of her.
I know when
Badia is telling the truth.
Yet I can trust
Mohammed, you see.
A par use.
HUSSEIN:
Did I tell her these things?
HA ZLITT:
How else could she know?
HUSSE IN:
With a bottle in my hand I have no honour, no
pride, no dignity. Sometimes she waits in the


porch for me at night al nd beats me like a
child when I'm drunk.
HA ZLITT:
You must keep her mouth shut.
Masudi and
I have agreed on a time. That time is dawn
tomorrow morning.
HUSSEIN:
Tomorrow?
HA ZLITT:
You don't look excited or even interested.
What is the matter with you?
HUSSEIN looks at him in silence.
HUSSEIN:
How long was Badia here alone?
HA ZLITT:
Perhaps a couple of hours.
You idiot!
you think I'm after her?
HUSSEIN (screwing up his face) It's all these strange people
who come and go... As if from dark places.
Everything suspicious.
There should only be
you: and Miss Friedmann here in this house. No-
body else. This Baker of yours: his eyes are
strange. And Shingleton comes here sometimes.
As well as Mohammed.
And Badia is always
longing to come here, - I can feel her longing
like a bitch on heat.
HA ZLITT:
Listen to me. Hussein, listen. Tomorrow
you must get through to the House of Assembly
in time to meet Masudi at three o'clock in
the afternoon. By that time he will probably
have the police headquarters and the barracks
under control. Now go and get some sleep.
You will neèd all your strength tomorrow. And
keep that woman's mouth shut.
HUSSEIN (moving closer to him) I saw a mark on her throat
when I came in.
You - :


He takes a step forward but HAZLITT instantly
pulls out his revolver and points it at him.
HAZLITT:
I order you to go and get some sleep.
There are footsteps outside and HA ZLITT quickly
replaces his revolver.
LEONORA enters the room with
SHINELETON.
The latter looks from HAZLITT to HUSSEIN
closely.
HUSSEIN makes a bow, but. SHINGLETON disregards
him.
HA ZLITT:
Please come in.
HUSSEIN watches them for a moment, then goes away.
SHINGLETON: I see you've no guard on the house, Captain.
HA ZLITT:
I sent him away some weeks ago.
SHINGLETON: That isn't wise in this country.
You look
less well than when I saw you first.
HA ZLITT :
Do I? Will you sit down?
SHINGLETON (seating himself) You are still thick with this
Hussein, then? (With a smile)
I hope he
isn't leading you astray?
HA ZLITT:
LEONORA :
Don't you mean 'yes'?
HA ZLITT:
You shouldn't say that!
SHINGLETON: But she has a right to say it, Captain:
because it is true.
HA ZLITT :
By what right do you telephone my own Sergeant
Major and tell him. what sentries to post?
SHINGLETON: Let me tell you, Captain: first because I
am the manager of the engineering camp, and
secondly because you are here to protect me.
HA ZLITT:
Ido protect you.
SHINGLETON: But not when you are away, Captain.
You're
away quite often, aren't you?
Look at Miss
Friedmann here: she is terrified that you are
going to make a fool of yourself, isn't she?


That's why she came running to me this
afternoon.
HA ZLITT :
I leave strict orders whe n I go away.
SHINGLETON: But I'm supposed to advise you.
Can I do
that when you're away? No, I ha ve to advise
your Sergeant Major.
That means giving him
orders.
HA ZLITT:
Are you sure you know so much about this
country?
SHINGLETON: Far more than you.
(With a chuckle)
don't think y ou realise how helpful I have
been, Captain.
One word from me to Head-
quarters and you would have been dismissed
the service long ago.
HA ZLITT:
Why? Because I tal ke reconnaissance pa trols
into the hills?
SHINGLETON: Yes: because that is not one of your duties
here. And in any case these are hardly
reconnaissance patrols, are they?
HAZLITT does not answer.
SHINGLETON: Are these reconnaissance patrols, Captain?
I liked the look of yoûr little aeroplahe
today.
HA ZLITT:
Oh, yes, your spies...
SHINGLETON: I know at what hour you landèd in the hills
five days ago, and at what hour you took off
today.
HA ZLITT:
Then why didn't you pass word to Headquarters?
SHINGLETON: Because I think Miss Friedmann and this
worthless drunkard of yours have an undue
inffuence over you, Captain.
Because I
don't take Miss Friedmann seriously, or


Hussein seriously, or lastly yourself
seriously.
So I shall just have to wait.
pa tiently until you have played out your little
comic opera. You people are powerless.
This
Masudi has a golden beard, hasn't he?
HA ZLITT:
Should I know that?
SHINGLETON: You do know that, Captain, because you saw him
today. And that is why Miss Fréedmann came
running to me, - to find out what steps I was
taking.
For God's sake come off your pedestal,
man!
It is within my power to get: you shipped
off home on a treason charge!
LEONORA :
Have you taken any steps?
SHINGLETON: No, but I shall only continue to take no steps
on certain conditions. You realise how I
compromise my self in this way?
HA ZLITT:
Why do it, then?
SHINGLETON: Ah, Captain, perhaps I have a little mercy after
all.
The army is hardly your career; haninf
You are more a scholar than a soldier, 1 is tha t
it? I have to make allowances. (Going close
to HAZLITT, speaking to him intimately)
Perha ps
I even admire you, Ca pta in - secretly.
Has
that ever occurred to you?
HA ZLITT:
What are the conditions?
SHINGLETON (still watching for a moment) That you keep Hussein
out of this house, that you cease your so-called
patrols, that you wear your uniform. like any other
European officer, and that you keep a permanent
guard on this house. Lastly, that at the first
post
sign of trouble you pwmoud extra sentries and
bring out your mortar-guns. (A pause) Do you agree?
HA ZLITT:
Yes, I agree.
SHINGLETON (giving him a sudden glance) Am I to believe that?


HA ZLITT:
You ha ve your moments of comic opera too...
Yes, you are to believe it.
And I'll thank
you never to interfere with my sentries again.
SHINGLETON: Why not simply tha nk me?
since you owe me
yd our life? Because. you are a damned ungrateful
puppy! Because you are a helpless child!
Because this bloody pest-hole is a real test
of a man! And what have you done here?
You have let a drunkard and a sentimental slip
of a girl tell you how to conduct your life,
how to betray your country, how to lie like
a servant!
Oh, yes, look at it all!
(Poking
at the cushions, picking up the covers)
Very
pretty! But it's wha t a woman would do!
It's fickle, showy, spineless!
Not like a
man, least of all like a Capta in.
LEONORA :
Leave him alone.
SHINGLETON (looking from one to the other)
You imagine
you know a little about the people of this
country, don't you?
But you haven't met
them, Captain. You just haven't met them.
You have met Hussein Al Shabar, and Mohammed
the doctor, namely the two people in this
country who speak English as with perfect
fluency at nd who happen to have been sent as
children to the Same European school in
Alexandria.
They even look like Europeans.
Mohammed is a little dark perhaps.
But the
others, the vast majority, they shun you.
They hate your uniform, and one day they'll
dispose of these friends of yours.


HAZLITT:
I have been among the villagers.
They are
my friends.
SHINGLETON: But they will quite happily put a bullet
bet tween your eyes when you are no longer
of any use to them, - not the villagers
perhaps, but certainly their leaders.
HA ZLITT:
I am trusted here.
SHINGLETON: But still you are not one of them. The
fact is you're just a man who chose his job
and then funked its consequences.
HA ZLITT:
I funked nothing, I -
SHINGLETON: But your .eyes are full of doubt! Only now
are you waking up to the truth; onlyhow are
you realising what a dangerous game you have
played.
It is hot in this place: we
Europeans lost touch here quickly.
Who are
we? Arêtr a week we, no longer know.
have bodies, yes, and names. But that silent
core of identity that was us in Europe dies:
it dies, Captain.
Even Miss Friedmann has
changed...
Now listen to me, Captain.
want sou to behave wisely.
If you agree to
my terms, we shall have nothing more to say.
I told you when we met how easy it was in
this country to fall into error. We need
men like you here, men who spetk the language
and - within limits 1 go out among the people.
By all means do that: but I forbid you to
see Masudi again.
Keep your sympathies in
reserve until you are out of the army. Do
youwant a treason charge on your head, man?
What is the matter with him, Miss Friedmann?
(Goes to HAZLITT and takes him by the shoulder)


Are you ill? Is the heat upsetting your nerves?
(To LEONORA) Could you admit him to hospital for
a few days?
HA ZLITT:
No, no.
I went to a village...
I thought.
there was no harm in seeing Masudi.
SHINGLETON: If Headquarters got to hear of it, what then?
HA ZLITT:
He is a good man.
SHINGLETON: But listen, my child, he is also a fool.
wants power, nothing else: don't you make any
mistake about that t. And now, before I go, I
am going to ask you to do something for me.
HA ZLITT:
Yes.
SHINGLETON: Please ord er a sentry to be mounted outside
this house. Now.
HAZLITT goes slowly to the telephone and picks it up.
HA2 ZLITT:
Give me the Sergeant Major...
This is Captain
Haz zlitt..
You will send a sentry to this house
immediately. There will be a constant guard on
this house from now on...
(Suddenly shrieking at the top of his voice, the
telephone trembling in his hand) No, you fool:
a guard now! Now! Now!
He slams the receiver down and walks away.
BHINGLETON I think he will need a rest, Miss Friedmann.
There, that's sensible.
Well, good bye. And
don't forget, Captain, bring out your mortar-
guns!
He leaves.
HAZ ZLITT goes to the door and stares into
the darkness outside.
HA ZLITT:
He called me 'my child'.
His child!
Yet


I felt like a child. I don't know wha t I
have done.
A par use. He turns and looks at LEONORA.
HA ZLITT:
What did you tell him?
LEONORA :
Tha t you had beenin negotia ting with Masudi.
HA ZLITT:
Did you mention our plan for dawn tomorrow?
LEONORA :
HA ZLITT:
Are you telling the truth?
LEONORA :
I said nothing about tomorrow.
HA ZLITT:
He seems quite in the dark.
His 'spies' let
him down. My sectrity was excellent, that's
why.
LEONORA :
Are you going to do what he asked?
A pa use. . HA ZLITT again stares into the darkness
outs ide.
LEONORA :
Are you?
HA ZLITT:
I can't, Leonora.
LEONORA :
But you agreed to his terms!
HA ZLITT:
Men fought each other today for the honour of
kissing my hand.
LEONORA :
And that flatters you?
HA ZLITT:
I don't belong to this house, or to the colonial
army. I shall take you into the hills, where
everything is cool and fresh.
LEONORA :
You agreed to his terms, Philip.
HA ZLITT:
I càn't turn my guns on these people.
They
trust me now. We'll be feted, you and I, darling.
I can't think beyond that. I have proved myself
to be more than tae uniform. I did the
imposs-
ible: I createa legend here. I promised you I
would do that. I showed you all I did not
fear
your ha tred. And now I shall be rewarded.
How
silent everything is... (Looks about
Husseimn,
him suddenly)
I must go to HUASEINL
We'd better
sleep on


the roof.
It will be safer. Tell
Baker to take the matresses up.
He turns to leave the room.
LEONORA :
Then you are going to let Masudi through?
HA ZLITT:
Yes.
He leaves.
LEONORA stands for a moment alone,
then rushes to the door.
LEONORA :
Philip, come back!
Please c.ome back!
He runs back to the door and she falls weeping
into his arms.
LEONORA:
Are you blind?
(Shaking him by the shoulders)
Look at me! Look at me!
How can I make
yous see?
HA ZLITT:
Leonora!
LEONORA :
What about my child, Philip?
You can't let
them kill my child!
CURTAIN.


FOURTH ACT.


SCENE: the roof, during the evening of the
following day.
Above the door leading down into the house there
is a powerful electric light.
The sky and the desert
bey ond the house are quite dark.
The leaves of the palmi
tree can be seen, but the garden bench is now in obscurity.
Leaning against the parapet are two mattresses, and blankets.
In the distance there is the sound of rifle and
machine-gun fire.
This is intermittent throughout the
scene.
HUSSEIN AL SHABAR is discovered alone. He 1s
star nd ing under the dectric bubb. He goes to the parapet
and looks out into the darkness. He then takes from his
pocket a hip-flask, unscrews its top, and drinks. He
stands still for a moment, smacking his lips.
Therer is the long rumble of an explosion in the
distance, and yellow flames begin to light up. the sky.
HUSSEIN starts. He watches the distant flames for a
moment, then takes another drink. There is a noise on
the stairs behind the door, and he quickly puts the flask
away. A pause.
The door opens and a woman dressed in a black
abba comes onto the roof. She has drawn the garment up
over the lower part of her face. She is BADIA AL SHABAR.
engineering
HUSSEIN:
Is that the Atlwcamp?
BADIA:
Yes. What t are you doing here alone?
HUSSEIN:
Waiting for Hazlitt. Why do you worry about
BADIA:
I don't l1ke it when you prowl around. Do
you want to be shot, stand ing up here with
the light on?


HUSSEIN:
Shot at our leader's house?
We're winning.
We've surrounded the police headquarters.
BADIA :
Then why aren't you with Masudi?
HUSSE IN:
I saw him this afternoon at the House of
Assembly.
BADIA :
But you should have stayed with him. He'l1
be picking his ministers in an hour's time.
HUSSE IN:
He told me to come back home. He treated me
like a servant, Badia.
BADIA :
And you accepted that? You came meekly home
with the tail between your legs?
HUSSEIN:
I'm waiting for Hazlitt. I can rely on him
for help.
He's the real leader, not Masudi
at all. I couldn't bear the disgrace, Badia,
of atand ing in that great Council chamber with
everybody laughing at me. I'm a prince.
These lackeys would stone a prince.
BADIA:
And you believe that Hazlitt is the real
leader?
HUSSEIN:
He controls the arms and ammunition. He is
our spokesman with Europe. He is also my
friend, and in my friendship with him lies my
strangth.
Sp I'm staying here.
BADIA :
A nd the Captain is going to give
you help...
HUSSEIN:
Of course!
Did you expect me to stay with
those vagabonds, then? If I'd so much as
opened my mouth they'd have cut me up like a
dog. Do you expect me to stand in the Council
chamber and wait for Masudi's guards to clap
a pair of hand-cuffs on me?
BADIA:
You didn't think of all this before,
Hussein.
HUSSEIN:
I thought I was sure to be the leader,
with
the Captain behind me.


BADIA: :
Oh, yes, you thought, you thought...
And
now you are still thinking.
Like a fool
you don't realise tha t Ha: zlitt can be of no
help whatsoever to you!
He will be arrested
for treason.
Sooner or later his Government
will get him. And do you think his own men
are going to stay with him?
They're all
running loose in the barracks.
Masudi
took over the ammunition-dump an hour ago
because the European sentry ran away. With-
out men, without ammunition and without a
Government behind him, what power do you
think the Captain will have?
HUSSEIN:
Masudi took over the ammunition-dump?
BADIA :
Yes! The harem isn't quiteuseless, you see.
The news we get is quick and reliable.
But.
all you can do is to stand up here with your
idiotic dreams.
Are you going to play away
these last few hours?
HUSSE IN:
I believe in the Capta in. I'will take him
away to the hills, where he'll be safe from
Masudi.
BADIA:
But Masddi will not let you do that.
He has
all the ammunition he needs.
He thinks you
are a dreaming fool, and he is right!
Look
at you, with those silly distant eyes.
HUSSEIN:
Leave me alone, Badia.
BADIA:
Shall I tell you why you aren't in the Council
Chamber at this moment? Because your mind
has been too full with this Leonora woman.
Youfre like a dog, the way you sniff round other
women.
I saw it three months ago, but you
were too busy calling me a whore and telling


me how beautiful the European lady was. As
for your building up your power slowly like
Masudi, no! You preferred to hang round the
Europeans with your dreaming eyes!
HUSSEIN:
She did you no harm.
BADIA :
Bhe's the root of the whole trouble. And
let me
will
ma tell you who"wrowmama come out of this
better than anybody else.
Mohammed. Mohamm-
ed the doctor. Aren't you ashamed to associate
with Mohammed's whore? What are you but his
servant now? Have you any pride at all,
Hussein?
HUSSEIN:
Pride?
BADIA:
She bears you no love for wha t you did.
She
has enough with two men already, and neither
of them a drunkard.
No, she worked on you
as she worked on the Captain. Both of you
are the dupes of a whore!
HUSSEIN:
You must not call her that!
BADIA:
Did you see Mohammed kissing her downstairs
yesterday?
Bnexdagt You told me they were dancing
together.
HUSSEIN (staring at her): Yes.
BADIA:
She told you they were only friends.
But I
wonder if she told you she was two months
gone with child?
HUSSEIN:
Miss Friedmann!
BADIA:
Ehose child? The Captain's? Mohammed's?
I don't know. Does she know? And you call
me a whore, who have borne you two children
and not so much as touched another man's hand!
HUSSEIN:
She betrayed the Captain...
BADIA:
Oh, the precious Captain! You believe in the


Captain, don't you?
(Bulling her cloak
down) Well, look at the bruise on my neck!
That's what your friend does to your wife.
HUSSEIN (gripping hold of her arm): I said yesterday i :
I said, 'The mark on her neck' and a
deserves to die.
BADIA:
And these are the Europeans you love.
only you could atand on your own feet like
Masudi. Does he run after the Europeans?
No, he stays in the hills, slowly building
up his power, until they come to him.
HUSSEIN:
I was following a dream all the t: ime.
BADIA:
And will you listen to me now?
HUSSEIN:
Yes.
BADIA:
We must leave here tonight.
During the naxt enx
week you will collect all your tribesmen in
the hills and arm them. Then you will send
a message to Masudi and demand a place in the
government.
A pause.
HUSSEIN:
Can we leave here safely?
BADIA:
The road to the north is clear now. .
HUSSEIN:
Then I'll do it.
BADIA :
Give me the bottle you took from the house.
HUSSEIN (turning away): I -
BADIA:
Give me that bottle.
He quietly takes the hip-flask of brandy from his
pocket and gives it to her. She goes to the parapet and is
just about to throw it down when she stops.
BADIA:
There's someone coming.
HUSSEIN quickly joins her at the parapet and they
look down into the darkness. A door closes below.
BADIA:
I think it was Hazlitt.


There is the sound of someone mounting the stairs
slowly a nd heavily.
HUSSEIN and BADIA listen in silence,
standing toge ther. At last the door is thrown open and
HA ZLITT appears. His clothes are disarranged.
He looks
from one to the other.
HA ZLITT:
Is Leonora here?
BADIA :
We haven't seen her?
HAZLITT:
He goes back to the door and opens it.
He calls
out 'Baker!'
He strides up and down the roof, waiting for
the servant, who comes almost at once.
HAZLITT:
Is Miss Friedmann here?
BAKER:
She went out this afternoon.
HA ZLITT:
Where to?
BA KER:
She said she was going to the hospital.
HA ZLITT:
Alone?
BA KER:
Yes. There was a ' phone-call from Mr.
Shingleton, I think.
A pause.
HA ZLITT:
You know what's happening, do you?
BAKER:
Yes.
HA ZLITT:
I'll give you a map, and you can tal ke my car.
Make for Headquarters. There's no future
with me. a
BA KER:
Your car isn't here.
HA ZLITT:
Why not?
BAKER :
Miss Friedmann took it.
HA ZLITT:
What? With the roads as they are?
Ha ve you
tried 8phoning the hospital?
BA KER:
The lines are down.
HA ZLITT:
Where did she ma ke for?
BA KER:
The road into town.
HA ZLITT:
But they're. shooting up every car they sée!


We'll give her twenty minutes, then we'll
go out and search.
BAKER:
Very well, AANA
He goes.
HAZLITT:
What made her tal ke the car?
(He looks from
HUSSEIN to BADIA, but neither replies)
Well,
did you see Masudi?
HUSSEIN:
Yes.
HA ZLITT:
At what time?
HUSSEIN:
Three o'clock, as you told me.
HAZLITT:
And at four o'clock he attacked my military
pofsitons. Do you know anything about that?
HUSSE IN:
HA ZLITT:
He opened fire on my men. Most of my men have
fled. Did you know that?
HUSSEIN:
He sent me away. He would have nothing to do
with me.
HA ZLITT:
You didn't by some chance come to a private
arrangement with him? I'm surprised to find
you here, unarmed as well.
HUSSEIN:
He hardly looked at me.
HA ZLITT:
This is the man you sent me to negotiate with, i
a treacherous swine. This is the mal n y ou
asked me to give up my life for. You do
realise I've given up my life, don't you?
You're safe, in your own country. But I've
no men, no weapons, and not a reliable friend
in the town.
HUSSEIN:
Not even Miss Friedmann?
HAZLITT goes closer to him.
HA ZLITT:
Are you sneeing at me?
HUSSE] IN:
Masudi threw me out of the Council Chamber
because I used to come to your house, be ca use


I consorted with Europeans. Don't you think
I have a right to. sneer?
HA ZLITT:
But I led your revolt, man!
Come to your
senses!
HUSSEIN:
We want our own leaders! You shame us, you
and your - your women! Is it your child she's
bearing or Mohammed's? Do you know, or care?
We haven't lost all religion and all self-respect,
to admire a man like youf- A man who lets his
wife make love to a lackey! If she wanted
another man, let her come to me: I am clean,
I am a prince. But she crawls like some thing
out of the sand, all dark and poisonous, into
Mohammed's bed! Hohammed! I hate Europeans,
Captain. You deceived me. - I let you see my
wife, because I thought you were an honourable
man. But you touched her. You are kower than
the dirt under my feet, you and your tired
whore! Your child will be born in your dirt,
it will caryy your shame and corruption all
through its life, it will grow up under a curse
and make its evil all over the world, (waving
his arms wildly, his eyes staring) wherever it
goes in the world!
HAZLITT(gaietly, to BADIA): Is he armed?
BADIA:
Why, a are you afraid?
HAZ ZLITT gazes at her for a moment.
Oecause
HAZLITT:
So you've turned as well. Beacsue I didn't
play your little game, eh?
BADIA:
No. But you'll ruin him. unless I get him.
away. We've got our lives to probect.
HUSSEIN:
You tried to shame her!
(Almost in tears)
Oh, my God, they would stone a prince!


You should have been my friends...
BADIA:
He's been drinking.
HA ZLITT:
I was always your friend.
HUSSEIN:
A prince should only move among princes.
Masudi was right.
He stayed in the hills.
We should not let them shame us..
There is a loud knock on the door, and BAKER enters.
BAKER:
A car 1s coming towards the house! waH
HAZLITT goes to the parapet and looks across the
desert.
HA ZLITT:
All right.
Go downstairs. Boltthe door,
and open it only for Miss Friedmann.
BAKER
BKARE goes.
HAZLITT:
You'd better not be seen here.
Go out the
back way.
A car-engine is heard in the distance.
BADIA makes for the door, but HUSSEIN remains
wgere he 1s, staring be: fore him.
BADIA:
Come ona! Do you want Masudi to find you
here? Suppose it's Masudi!
She runs back to him and drags him by the arm to
thie
the door. As she does/he breaks into a deep sob. He
goes like a child, and we hear his sobs gradually die
away as he is led down the stairs.
HAZLITT watches from the parapet so that he shall
not bef seen from below.
The car draws nearer, and the
palm-tree is for a moment lighted up by the head-lights
as the car swings round to the entrance below. The engine
1s ewitched off. There is a knock on the door below.
HA ZLITT strains forward, trying to make out who it is.
At last the door below opens, and he leans back with a
relkeved sigh.
A pause. SHINGLETON pushes open the d oor and


loo.
is quickly followed by LEONORA.
She runs forward.
HAZLITT:
Leonora:
They embrac e.
HA ZLITT:
I thought 1 : How did you get through?
LEONORA :
We went round by the desert. And you? You
were at the barracks?
HA ZLITT:
Yes. I got away through the ba zaar.
SHINGLETON: And where are your men?
HAZLITT:
Most of them deserted.
SHINGLETON: Deserted? You stand there and tell me that!
They deserted, - from a madman like you? They
were doing. their duty by running away.
HA ZLITT:
He agreed not to attack either the barracks
or the wwwoamp.
SHINGLETON: His men have just set fire to the wycamp.
Thank you, Ha zlitt.
You stood by my terms.
Where were your sentries? What about the
women and children on my hands?
HA ZLITT:
I tell you they opened up on us in the
barracks.
We couldn't reach the oil-camp
in time.
guns
SHINGLETON: And where were your tissotia? In-the car-park
waiting to be captured, I suppose. You're
a traitor, Haz zlitt.
Your honour is a filthy
thing. You'led Masudi lead you by the nose
like a donkey. You were too damned clever
to come to me for help, but I could have told
you months ago wha t kind of travesty that man
is. I've hynted with him, I've watched his
furtive eyes. Well, what are you going to
do about us now? You with the legend behind
you, what is going to become of us now? ar
have you no mite of humanity left in you?


lol
LEONORA :
We shall be safe.
I saw Mohammed, as I told
you.
SHINGLETON: You believe in Mohammed, then?
I'm surprised
you believe in any of these people.
You're
Europeans, therefore detesaable in their eyes,
don't you realise that? When Mohammed came to
me yesterday with a bullet wrapped up in tissue
paper, he had only one idea in his head, to
betray the Captain.
HA ZLITT:
To betray me?
LEONORA :
No, no, Philip.
He thought you had murdered
Masudi.
But he can't believe that today.
ninfulnie
You know how Mpugtoive he always is.
SHINGLETON: But what did he say when you asked him for
help in the wlucamp this evening?
LEONORA :
What could he do? Masudi has the upper hand
now. We've got to be realistic.
HA ZLITT:
What's Mohammed up to, then?
LEONORA :
He went to the Council Chamber this afternoon
and petitioned through his father for a place
in the new government. Therefore he's our
last friend with any power.
SHINGLETON: Have you two been consoling each other like
this for the last three months? I tell you
none of these people is going to be of any
help to you, because you're European.
This
is an anti-European riot. They used you both,
and now they will abandon you. Masudi went
back on his promise. What do you expect him
to do now, carry you on his shoulders through
the streets? Can't I wake either of you up?
We've got to get away from here! Do you hear
that? This is rebel territory now. Therefare


we must get away in the next hour.
HA ZLITT:
Take the car. Get Leonora out of here.
SHINGLETON:
No, I shall take you both.
You've got us
into a mess we'll never be able to live down,
but you're not staying here.
HA ZLITT:
I believe in Mohammed. Or, very well, I don't
believe in Mohammed.
But I've got to tal ke the
risk.
Why shouldn't I? I deserve to die in
any case.
Why show me any mercy?
SHINGLETON:
I want you to live. I don't want to see you
murdered by these people.
HA ZLITT:
You prefer to give me up to the European police
on the other side of the border? Either way
it's the same to me. I'll stay here.
LEONORA :
I a2o believe in Mohammed.
He is coming to
sa ve us both. Philip and I belong to this
country now. Take the car yourself, and drive
Philip's servant to the frontier. Leave us
here.
SHINGLETON:
Look.
I can guarantee you something.
I can
get you both to the frontier inside three hours,
and there I can put you in the hands of someone
who'll smuggle you into the International Zone
before dawn tomorrow morning. My God, what t a
fool I was! I put my faith in a child!
thought you were just playing with ideas, and
look wha t happened!
(A pause) Will you take
my offer?


HA ZLITT:
No. Some of them will stand by me now, I
know it!
SHINGLETON (to LEONORA) Will you persuade him?
LEONORA :
I think we should both stay here. I told
Mohammed where to find us.
HA ZLITT:
These are my people now. Mohammed will bring
me back to them.
LEONORA :
I've known Mohammed for the last five years,
Shingleton, and I trust him to come here tonight.
He has never once failed me in anything.
A pause. SHINGLETON looks from one to the other.
SHINGLETON: I've tried my best.
He goes to the door.
SHINGLETON (calling down the stairs) Hey!
(He turns back
to HAZLITT) What's the fellow's name?
HA ZLITT:
Baker.
SHINGLETON: Baker! Come up!
They wait. The servant appears.
SHINGLETON: You and I are getting away to the frontier.
The Captain and Miss Friedmann are staying.
The sooner we go the better.
BAKER:
How can we leave the Captain?
HA ZLITT:
Oh, we shall be safe enought A bodyguard is
coming soon. But they mustn'tfind you here.
BA KER:
A bodyguard?
HA ZLITT:
Under Mohammed the doctor. You remember him?
BA KER:
Can you trust him? to come?
LEONORA :
He's our best friend among theme
BAKER (to HAZLITT) Can you trust him?
HA ZLITT:
What 2gse can I do? Come to the frontier and
give myself up to the police? Get yourself
away from here. I'm no good to you any longer.


BAKER: S
Suppose they leave you? dMMA
HA ZLITT:
They won't, Baker.
Let me assure you, they
A dog suddenly begins barking close by.
SHINGLETON: What's that? Listen:
A paùse, during which there is utter silence.
Then we hear the sound of a rifle-bolt being pulled back
and pushed home again.
LEONORA :
Who is it?
She clutches on to HA ZLITT, who pills her a way
from the parapet.
They list en again, and now we hear
something moving, perhaps people, outside.
HAZLITT:
They're surrounding the house.
LEONORA :
Perhaps it's Mohammed.
HA ZLITT:
Would he come like this?
He'd bang on the
door and call up to us. Quickly! Get
Shingleton out of sight!
Behind that *EAREA
bench!
(He pushed LEONORA and SHINGLETON
towards the other side of the stage)
If they
get up here, go down by the tree and ma. ke for
the car.
(To BAKER)
Hide yourself away!
At first BAKER makes towards the other couple.
But HAZLITT stops him.
HA ZLITT:
No, no, don't crowd together!
He pushes BAKER through the door lead ing into the
house, while SHINGLETON and LEONORA hide in the darkness
behind the bench.
Everything is in silence again.
HAZLITT takes out his revolver, inspects the bullet-chamber,
and walks alowly towards the parapet.
SHINGLETON: Switch the light out, you fool!
They cans
see you!
HAZLITT takes no notice of the voice behind him.
He walks on towards the parapet with his revolver prepared.


He stands still and peers down into the darkness, shielding
lignr.
his eyes from the ellectric 1gght.
Suddenly he lowers his
revolver.
HA2 ZLITT (with extraordinary relief): It is Mohammed!
Leonora, it's Mohammed! We a :
Just as Leonora runs out of hid ing there are three
rifle shots from below.
SHINGLETON: Switch the light out!
Each of the bullets hits HAZLITT.
LEONORA screams
and is dragged back by SHINGLETON. HAZLITT does not quite
fall. Below, they begin to batter down the door, forcing
anlohtry. The dog continues to bark.
By holding on to the iron bar of the parapet,
HAZLITT manages to crawl very slowly towards the door
leading down into the house.
There, with a last effort,
he manages to reach up and switch off the elctric light.
In utter darkness we hear him fall, and the door
below at last collapses. There is a brief silence, then
the zound of boots on the stairway.
The door opens, and the electric light is switched
on aga in, by MOHAMMED. He looks down at HAZLITT's body
and peers across to the other side of the roof.
MOHAMMED: Leonora!
There is silence.
MOHAN MMED: Leonora!
Slowly LEONORA, her head bowed, comes out from:
the shadows under the palm tree and walks towards him.
She stares'down at the body, then at MOHAMMED.
LEONORA: :
Mohammed...
HOHAMMED: :
Go downstairs. Now do you tal ke me seriously?
She stops, searching the darkness beyond the
open
door.
LEONORA:
Are they going to
hurft me?


MOHAMMED:
We 're taking you into the hills. No one
will hurt youo
He takes her arm, and they go out. Their footsteps
sound on the stairs, then die awayo
SHINGLETON comes out of the shadows and walks across
to HAZLITT's body. He leans against the parapet, star*
down at it for some time in the silence, then-t
face in his hands.
BAKER enters.
BA KER:
The car's ready, sir. They've +
road.
SHINGLETON nods.
SHINGLETON: We might have saved him if you'
BAKER:
I did my best. I told you all
BAKER goes across to one of the ma1 t
against the parapet and fetches a blanket.
carefully over the body from head to foot.
SHINGLETON goes out, followed by BAKER, who switches
off the light. There is a pause, then we hear a car-engine
start up below. There is a brief roar, then the gear'is
hastily engagéd. The car moves swiftly away, and the sound
of its engine grows less and less.
When all is silent aga in there is a long rumble in
the distance and the yellow flames of the engineering camp
flare up for a moment and*light the roof as the CURTAIN slowly
falls.
THE END.