Part 10

HATCH: (savagely) Well, then, if it comes to that--

(Three locomotive whistles are heard from just outside the house. ALICE throws up her hands hysterically.)

ALICE: Ah! At last! They've come. They've come!

HATCH: (fiercely) They've come! What is it? What does that mean?

(REDDY runs to window and opens the shutters.)

ALICE: (jubilantly) It means--it means that twenty men are crossing that lawn. It means that while you sat drinking there, Civilization was racing toward you at seventy miles an hour!

HATCH: Damnation! We're trapped. Get to the wagon--quick! No. Leave the girl alone. We've no time for that. Drop that stuff. That way. That way.

REDDY: (at window) No. Get back! Get back! It's too late. There's hundreds of them out there.

HATCH: (running to centre door) Out here! This way! Quick!

ALICE: (mockingly) Yes, come! You don't dare come this way NOW!

(She drags open the curtains, disclosing CAPTAIN LUCAS and two other policemen. For an instant they stand, covering the burglars with revolvers. REDDY runs to window. He is seized by an entering crowd of men in the oil-stained blue jeans of engineers and brakemen.)

CAPTAIN LUCAS: Hold up your hands, all of you! I guess I know you. (With his left hand he tears off HATCH'S mask.) "Joe" Hatch--at last. (Pulls off HARRY'S mask.) And Harry Hayes. I thought so. And that's--the "Kid." The whole gang. (To the police.) Good work, boys. (To ALICE) My congratulations, Miss Gardner. They're the worst lot in the country. You're a brave young lady. You ought--

ALICE: (speaking with an effort and swaying slightly) Hush, please. Don't--don't alarm my mother. Mother's not as strong as--as I am.

(Her eyes close, and she faints across the arm of the Chief of Police as the CURTAIN FALLS.)