HORNBECK

(With a genuine incredulity)

All?! You feed the youth of Hillsboro

From the little truck-garden of your mind?

RACHEL

(Offended, angry)

I think there must be something wrong in what Bert believes, if a great man like Mr. Brady comes here to speak out against him.

HORNBECK

Matthew Harrison Brady came here

To find himself a stump to shout from.

That’s all.

RACHEL

You couldn’t understand. Mr. Brady is the champion of ordinary people, like us.

HORNBECK

Wake up, Sleeping Beauty. The ordinary people

Played a dirty trick on Colonel Brady.

They ceased to exist.

(RACHEL looks puzzled)

Time was

When Brady was the hero of the hinterland,

Water-boy for the great unwashed.

But they’ve got inside plumbing in their heads these days!

There’s a highway through the backwoods now,

And the trees of the forest have reluctantly made room

For their leafless cousins, the telephone poles.

Henry’s Lizzie rattles into town

And leaves behind

The Yesterday-Messiah,

Standing in the road alone

In a cloud of flivver dust.

(Emphatically, he brandishes the apple)

The boob has been de-boobed.

Colonel Brady’s virginal small-towner

Has been had—

By Marconi and Montgomery Ward.

(HORNBECK strolls out of the courtroom and onto the town square; the lights dissolve as before from one area to the other. RACHEL goes off in the darkness. The store fronts glow with sunset light. The SHOPKEEPER pulls the shade in his store window and locks the door. MRS. MCCLAIN crosses, fanning herself wearily.)

STOREKEEPER

Gonna be a hot night, Mrs. McClain.

MRS. MCCLAIN

I thought we’d get some relief when the sun went down.

(HORNBECK tosses away his apple core, then leans back and watches as the SHOPKEEPER and MRS. MCCLAIN go off. The ORGAN-GRINDER comes on, idly with his monkey. MELINDA enters attracted by the melody which tinkles in the twilight. She gives the monkey a penny. The ORGAN-GRINDER thanks her, and moves off. MELINDA is alone, back to the audience, in center stage. HORNBECK, silent and motionless, watches from the side. The faces of the buildings are now red with the dying moment of sunset.

A long, ominous shadow appears across the buildings, cast from a figure approaching off stage. MELINDA, awed, watches the shadow grow. HENRY DRUMMOND enters, carrying a valise. He is hunched over, head jutting forward, exactly as BROWN described him. The red of the sun behind him hits his slouching back, and his face is in shadow. MELINDA turns and looks at DRUMMOND, full in the face.)

MELINDA

(Terrified)

It’s the Devil!

(Screaming with fear MELINDA runs off. HORNBECK crosses slowly toward DRUMMOND, and offers his hand.)

HORNBECK

Hello, Devil. Welcome to Hell.

The lights fade

SCENE II

The courtroom. A few days later.

The townspeople are packed into the sweltering courtroom. The shapes of the buildings are dimly visible in the background, as if Hillsboro itself were on trial. Court is in session, fans are pumping. The humorless JUDGE sits at his bench; he has a nervous habit of flashing an automatic smile after every ruling. CATES sits beside DRUMMOND at a counsel table. BRADY sits grandly at another table, fanning himself with benign self-assurance. HORNBECK is seated on his window ledge. RACHEL, tense, is among the spectators. In the jury box, ten of the twelve jurors are already seated. BANNISTER is on the witness stand. DAVENPORT is examining him.