PS 3523 .0855 S7 1922 Copy 1 THE Stick-Up BY PIERRE LOVING Stewart Kidd MODERN PLAYS EDITED BY FRANK SHAY Stewart Kidd Dramatic Anthologies CONTEMPORARY ONE-ACT PLAYS OF iqil AMERICAN Edited by Frank Shay THIS volume represents a careful and intelligent selection of the best Qie-act Plays written by Americans and produced by the Little Theatres in America during the season of 1911. They are representative of the best work of writers in this field and show the high level to which the art theatre has risen In America. The editor has brought to his task a love of the theatre and a knowledge of what is best through long association with the leading producing groups. The volume contains the repertoires of the leading Little Theatres, together with bibliographies of published plays and books on the theatre issued since January, 1920, Aside from its individual importance, the volume, together with Fifty Contemporary One-Act Plays, will make up the most important collection of short plays published. In the Book are the following Plays by the following Authors Mirage George M. P. Baird xNapoieon's Barber Arthur Caesar Goat Alley Ernest Howard Culbertson Sweet and Twenty Floyd Deli Tickless Time Susan Glaspell and George Cram Cook The Hero of Santa Maria .... Kenneth Sawyer Goodman and Ben Hecht All Gummed Up Harry Wagstaff Gribble Thompson's Luck Harry Greenwood Grover Fata Deorum Carl W. Guske Pearl of Dawn Holland Hudson Finders-Keepers George Kelly Solomon's Song Harry Kemp Matinata Lawrence Langner The Conflict Clarice Vallette McCauley Two Slatterns and a King Edna St. Vincent Millay Thursday Evening Christopher Morley The Dreamy Kid Eugene O'Neill Forbidden Fruit George J. Smith Jezebel Dorothy Stockbridge Sir David Wears a Crown Stuart Walker iimo. Silk Cloth $ 3.7s H Turkey Morocco $10.00 STEWART KIDD MODERN PLAYS Edited by Frank Shay THE STICK-UP The Stick-up A RougK'Nec/c Fantasy By PIERRE LOVING CINCINNATI STEWART KIDD COMPANY PUBLISHERS COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY I *^ STEWART KIDD COMPANY /T) S{ 5 5* ^ '^ All rights reserved The professional and amateur stage rights to THE STICK-UP are strictly reserved by the author. Application for permission to produce this play should be made to Pierre Loving, in care of Stewart Kidd Company, Cincinnati, Ohio H0U16 72 Printed in the United States of America The Caxton Press ©CI.A686839 PERSONS : I Cowcatcher Pete y Train Robbers Kid THE STICK-UP was originally produced by the Provincetown Players, New York, January 9, 1922 THE STICK-UP Time: Eternity Place: Inside the Orbit of Uranos. The atmosphere is pervaded by fold on fold of mist-blue shadow. Blinking lights flash out now and again. There is a sense of wandering distance. Cowcatcher, Pete and Kid emerge, half stagger- ing, half lurching, out of the cloudy background, rubbing their eyes and clutching at space with the desperation of drowning men. Cowcatcher is tall, hulking, loose-limbed, with the broad brow and aquiline face of one who is much given to dreaming, on occasions to com- manding. Pete is short and stocky, and marvel- lously swift in his movements; his eyes are quick and restless and his hands seem always to be straying to touch something. Kid is thin, nervous, and ascetic in appearance. He is about twenty- three and by no means as small as his sobriquet would indicate, although he is not as tall as Cowcatcher. Cowcatcher and Pete wear riding boots, breeches, and woolen shirts. Kid wears wrap leggings, tweed breeches, and a black shirt; the latter is obviously a part of a clerical make-up, 7 THE STICK-UP KID {stumbling forward) Oh. . . . Oh. . I'm choking. Mercy, mercy, Lord! It's like a hand made out of hemp gripped Hard about my throat. {He coughs.) PETE {to Cowcatcher) Is that you, pardner? That you, Cowcatcher? I dreamed I heered your voice. Cowcatcher. We've swum clean out of it, I guess. At last! It had long fingers, cool and long, That nightmare had, like — curled wet smoke Only more thick. COWCATCHER {dazcd) Pete, where are you? PETE Here I am . . . here, old side-kick, And here's Kid too, all slick and sound, With mighty little of religion left In him, I'll bet. COWCATCHER Is this ? PETE Hell? KID {cringing) Lord, Lord, have mercy on us! {Kneeling^ I cried by reason of mine affliction Unto the Lord, and he heard me; Out of the belly of Hell cried I, And thou heardest my voice. . . . PETE My Gawd! He's got religion yet. It ain't enough he crammed his nut Full of that oily doctrine all his life To be a preacher, but he must harangue THE STICK-UP In this here place, and after all Wot's happened down below. . . . We ain't put in at Heaven or Hell, Not yet. But look at them clean stars! KID Pete, where are we? Cowcatcher.? COWCATCHER {with a drawl) I dunno as yet. It's queer. We're near the linin' side of worlds, I reckon. Put out your hand. {Kid obeys.) Feel anything? KID No, why? COWCATCHER There ain't no weather here, that's plain: No sun nor moon, no rain nor dew No freshness of mornin' air. PETE {putting his hand out incredulously) Wot's that? No weather here! How kin that be? COWCATCHER There just ain't. Make the best of it. PETE There's got to be some weather, pardner, Warm, cold, rain, snow, shine, or something. . Well, wot about this fog? COWCATCHER It's here all right, but kin you see it? It's always fingerin' your gorge But where, in Christ's name, is it? PETE {philosophically) There's space to budge in, ain't there now? 9 THE STICK-UP Well, if there's space to budge in, why. Things has to happen . . . weather has to happen. COWCATCHER Rot! Wot I want to find out bad Is wot we're doing here and how. . . . KID How'd we get here, Cowcatcher? When are we going home? PETE {laughs) Home? Ha! Ha! Ha! {His laughter is cut short by a swift-flying object sweeping past them.) KID {terror-stricken) Lord, have pity! {Kneeling) PETE Christ, wot a wopper! KID {almost absentmindedly) And the angel sounded and there fell A great star from Heaven burning. . . . COWCATCHER A flyin' star. KID Oh, Fm afraid. . . . PETE Slick bible-monger! Wot's he bawlin' at? He used to be gol-durned chipper once When he would turn his learnin' to a stick-up Or a can-openin* in a bank. {Kicking Kid) Wot's up, anyhow? The snifflin' sky-pilot's blue-scared Of bunkin' into God by chance While steerin' straight for Hell. lO THE STICK-UP KID No! No! Not Hell! Show us thy mercy, Lord. (Soi^s) If you believe in gentle Jesus. . . . PETE Too late! KID Pete, I don't want to die. PETE {ironically) No? KID God. . . . PETE You think that you are God's Own little brother, but you're not. KID He'll save me yet. PETE From wot. ... to wot? {Pause) COWCATCHER Where's your sand, your nerve? Wot's happened, anyway? You don't have to nag your brain to remember. You was once the finest stick-up 'prentice In six or seven states. Your bible dope was mighty in your favor And when you wanted to, you could look As innercent As any new-sheared lamb. Now don't you go and lose Your nerve, see, for our nerve Is all we got in this here game Of lootin' trains Or blowin' boxes. II THE STICK-UP PETE (to Kid) You're scared, maybe. That you're dead. KID Dead? COWCATCHER It might as well come out Right now as later: you are dead. KID {sobbing) No. No. The Lord will save me yet. It's in his sacred Word, I tell you. It says: I will redeem Them from the power of the grave. O Death, I will be thy plague; Grave, I will be thy destruction! PETE {troubled) Are we dead, pardner, honest ? KID How do you know we're dead? No one can die And afterward tell of it. COWCATCHER 1 ain't quite sure about you two. You sort o' puzzle me. You bicker like corn stocks in the wind; Your minds are sort o' crazed and gropin'. But I'm dead, Pete. I know. I know because I ain't afraid Of death no more. PETE {spitting) Your brain is scrambled or. . . . I dunno .... somethin' worse. Suppose we ain't afeered o' Death Would that make us any more alive? 12 THE STICK-UP COWCATCHER Are you afeered, Pete? PETE {visibly shivering) Who? Me? Bah! You knows me, Cowcatcher. KID How did we die, Cowcatcher? PETE Maybe you . . . you're ahve, Kiddo, Because you ain't got guts enough To own up that we're dead. COWCATCHER I remember how we died. PETE You do! Well, how? {Pause) KID If you know, for God's sake, tell us. COWCATCHER Yes, I remember how it was. We was a-stickin' up A well-heeled train that raced Across great yellow miles of corn And wheatfields. I engineered most everything As I always done. Long before you two come in with me I wanted one big job — The job that comes but once in a man's life. The chance that I had figgered on Came with this here train. One hundred thousand sweet simoleons in gold Was aboard her. It was man-sized game. The biggest game till then. PETE I think I remember now. 13 THE STICK-UP COWCATCHER If we'd have got away with all that swag . . . . But wot's the use? We didn't. PETE Suppose we hadda got away with it? COWCATCHER It's this way, Pete. If we had blown with all that swag, (Sighs) . . . Oh, I was homesick for a farm I wanted to retire. PETE Retire? COWCATCHER Yes, Pete, on a farm or ranch, maybe. A ranch . . . that's it, and so go back To herdin' like I used to When I was knee-high to a grasshopper. You didn't know me then. I was — well — sorter strange and shy-like with people. Or that's the way They used to make me out. But the sheep would graze short grass about me; The little wooly lambs, familiar-like. Often they'd nose right in my pockets. Pete, this thing's in my blood And there's a million head o' maverick A-grazin' in my heart. To settle on a ranch — That's wot I wanted for to win Out of this game ... a ranch Wot I could call my own. With title and deed, both stamped Right through the paper by the Justice o' Peace. 14 THE STICK-UP No hidin' from the law this time, No posse, trackin' you down with dogs As knows your human smell. . . . No ... no. I wanted peace to fall Like evenin' around me and mine. I wanted to be the boss Of just a gang o' men That likes to work together And swap good yarns at evenin*, About a fire. ... I wanted this, But it wasn't to be. {Pause) PETE I beaded the engineer, didn't I? COWCATCHER It wasn't nobody's fault. I think the State Police was aboard and nailed us cold. . . . {Pause) Or somethin' hit us. PETE So this is dead? COWCATCHER Yes. KID Oh, something awful's going to happen! PETE Don't you go bawlin' all around the desert, You chicken-livered, buflf coyote! You must be still alive. KID {joyfully) You really think. . . . ? PETE Yes. KID Ah, God be thanked. Let's pray. 15 THE STICK-UP PETE To wot? KID To God in Heaven. PETE Wot's Heaven ? KID Why Heaven COWCATCHER (moodUy) Heaven's for the livin*, not the dead. KID It's a lie. Don't scripture tell . . . PETE Say, wot you got agin bein' dead? {Kid doesnt answer; his eyes are following some moving object in the distance^ KID Look! What's that? PETE {peering) Somethin' lit up strong. It's plungin' straight our way. Let's put our ears down to the rails And get her distance. {He does so.) COWCATCHER {laughing) We ain't on earth, old blowfire. This layout here Is twenty-six points South of the human mind, I guess. PETE You ain't gone nutty, pardner? Wot with the fog and firework stars And comets trailin' red-hot whiskers after 'em? i6 THE STICK-UP KID Its headin' straight this way. What is it? •COWCATCHER I dunno. PETE Maybe it's a star with a souse. KID A star? COWCATCHER A star? No, I'll be blowed, It's the real thing: a sizzlin' comet. PETE With whiskers? COWCATCHER {wrapped in thought) Just wait. Suppose .... suppose. Why not? Why not? PETE {studying Cowcatcher s face) What's up. Cowcatcher? KID Oh, I'm afraid. PETE Shut up, you holy toad. COWCATCHER We got to try it anyway. It's only a scheme, But it wouldn't be half bad To think about when you is old. With sleep instead of blood Swimmin' through your veins. PETE A scheme! {Kicking Kid) A scheme! 17 THE STICK-UP COWCATCHER A man ain't no ways dead, Pete, If he can just keep on A-spawnin' schemes When he has died. PETE A big one, eh? COWCATCHER The biggest yet. You know, I always wanted one big scoop With a sure get-away. Not for the swag so much But just to finish a tough job With no fag ends left over. As clean as writin' with no blobs on it. It's come at last! PETE Here? Now? COWCATCHER I thought that it'd come In my life time. Somethin' was there that waited Smarter than you or me. . . . Somethin' that said ''Not yet." PETE You ain't gone bughouse, pardner? The fog ain't climbed inside your nut? COWCATCHER {in earnest low tones) The comet's tearin' straight this way. She ain't gonnta stop. Pete, you know that. PETE Well, wot of it? i8 THE STICK-UP COWCATCHER {dipping his words) We got to make her stop. . . . . Kid, Pete, pals, we've hitched In this here game till all time Or the red flacker o' Hell's flames. You and me's gone through a lot, But here's our biggest haul to pull yet: We're going to hold up that there comet. Get ready, both, stand back ... no time to lose. KID {aghast) My God! PETE He's outer his head. COWCATCHER {quiverifig with emotion) Old pals, the victories we tortures From life is mean and picayune. Ah, this is better! In life we may put through A deal in pigs or lambs. Or play the red one day and win. But then we always loses in the end, 'Cause there is somethin' we don't see That gathers in the pot. And if we sticks up trains As we has done these many years. The sharp-nosed bulls trails us across the hills And runs us down, maybe, outside The border bank where we has traded swag For greenbacks. Life . . . hfe . . bah! There ain't no swollen pots in life. A man's got to lose, come or go; The dice is always loaded. There's something ofl^-stage, strange and still, 19 THE STICK-UP I dunno wot ... it lurks around the turn. The kitty wins. I don't want money . . . never wanted it. Just let me clean my job up, Some job that robs the sleep from out your eyes, That shoots up easy church-goin' in your heart Unless you tackle it at once. PETE Plumb daffy! COWCATCHER Get ready now. Crouch low. FU give the signal. My six-shooter . . . when I fire You fall afoul of her. You fellows got to yoke it now . . . This time you can't afford to fail. Or your gray ghosts will be clean riddled through With lead. {He waves his gun drunkenly, Pete and Kid crouch^ afraid. The comet is heard approaching?) PETE {in a hoarse whisper) She's comin' nearer. KID She's giving off white fire; We won't be able to stand it. COWCATCHER Get ready now. {The roar increases?) KID {with a frightened yell) We'll be destroyed! We shan't do it! I tell you we shan't do it. Satan! no THE STICK-UP . {He hurls himself at Cowcatcher. Cowcatcher extends his hand and stops him. He seizes him by the shirt collar and dangles him cynically. At last he releases him.) COWCATCHER Muck! No more of this. Pete, get your tools out. {The roar is almost upon them. The atmosphere is forked by sudden flashes of blinding light.) PETE {hoarsely) All right. I'm with you, pardner! COWCATCHER At her! {He discharges his gun.) Hold tight! Hold tight! {Kid shrieks hysterically. A swift white light floods everything. There is a tremendous swish^ followed by stillness and utter darkness^ KID {unseen in the dark) Oh! Oh! Where are we? Where are we? Something awful must have happened. pete's voice Hell at last! Are you with us, Cowcatcher. {Pause) Speak up . . . speak up, if you are with us. {Pause) {Almost sobbing) Wot would we do and you not with us? Cowcatcher? 21 THE STICK-UP COWCATCHER {in a thin jar-away voice) Hold tight! Hold tight! We're aboard her. KID Thank God, he's with us yet. {Sobs brokenly ?j {A pale, doubtful light begins. It is but a faint suggestion of day light , but it grows increasingly brighter and resolves itself into an intense sap- phire blue. Then a hint of crimson and yellow and gold. Cowcatcher is discovered lying face downward at the foot of a tree, his arms flung tightly about the trunk. As daylight comes on, he turns slowly and looks up dazed. Pete is lying supine, a little to the right. He is mechanically clutching the grass and digging up sods with outstretched hands. Kid is curled up ... a little forward , . , in what appears almost an unhuman ball. In the soft background a wheatfield is gradually becoming visible, bickering in the wind of dawn. The sun is rising.) COWCATCHER {dazcd) I dunno ... is this a tree? PETE {lifting his head with apparent difficulty) Wheat! Wheat! Flower smells . . . {extend- ing his hands) The feel o' dew on the young grass! My God, I didn't know how much I itched to lay my hands on earthy things! KID {whining, not daring to look up) Where . . . where are we? PETE Look! Look! It's sun-up, as I live. It's flame-born, gloryin' sun-up! 22 THE STICK-UP COWCATCHER {bewildered) Tree . . . wheat . . . sun-up! Wot's it all mean ? PETE Wot does it mean ? Why this ... is ... is . . COWCATCHER Wot? PETE {in an awed whisper) Earth! KID {lifting his head for the first time, puzzled) Earth.? PETE Old sufferin' earth. It's earth, I tell you. KID Pete, you . . . you don't mean it. You're not just kiddin' me As you have always done . . . {Pleading) Pete . . . Pete! PETE {with emphasis) We's landed home. COWCATCHER {dimly realizing it) Home ! Home ! PETE That somethin' off-stage, you was speakin' of A while back, in that shiverin', empty place . . . That somethin' was smarter Than you or me, all right. It looks as if we'd held up earth. We didn't mean to, I know. But here we are: you, me, and Kid, Swirlin' through space on our birthplace star. COWCATCHER It was our biggest chance This side millennium. 23 THE STICK-UP PETE It was our biggest chance, you bet; But here's the smooth green touch of summer grass. COWCATCHER The wind is sharp. PETE The uptake of a human day is in it, pardner. COWCATCHER (bitterly) I don't want human days, For what are human days to me? I'm tired of peddlin' Httle jobs I want to hold up worlds! {Sadly) That's the teasin' way of it: It holds sky-wingin' will-o-the-wisps Before your eyes, then yanks 'em straight away. So wot you sees, And wot you don't see. Is nothin' but a blind. KID {on his knees) Cowcatcher, we're saved! To live, to be alive. . . . Why, that's the same as being saved. COWCATCHER {rising slowly) Wot's your religion. Kid? Wot's your wild hunger to touch things, Pete, Alongside the dream I dreamed! CURTAIN 24 Stewart Kidd Plays The PROVINCETOWN PLAYS Edited by GEORGE CRAM COOK and FRANK SHAY With a foreword by HUTCHINS HAPGOOD Containing the ten best plays produced by the Province- town Players, which are: "SUPPRESSED DESIRES", George Cram Cook and Susan Glaspell. "ARIA DA CAPO '. Edna St. Vincent Millay. "COCAINE'", Pendleton King. "NIGHT", James Oppenheim. "ENEMIES". Hutchins Hapgood and Neith Boyce. "THE ANGEL INTRUDES ". Floyd Dell. "BOUND EAST FOR CARDIFF", Eugene O'Neill. "THE WIDOWS VEIL", Alice Rostetter. "STRING OF THE SAMISEN", Rita Wellman. "NOT SMART", Wilbur D. Steele. Every author, with one exception, has a book or more to his credit. Several are at the top of their profession. Rita Wellman, a Saturday Evening Post star, has had two or three plays on Broadway, and has a new novel, "The Wings of Desire " Cook and Glaspell are well known — he for his novels, and Miss Glaswell for novels and plays. Edna Millay is one of America's best poets. Steele, according to O'Brien, is America's best short-story writer. Oppenheim has over a dozen novels, books of poems, and essays to his credit. O'Neill has a play on Broadway now: "The Emperor Jones." Hutch. Hapgood is an author of note. A record of the work of the most serious and important of all the new theatre movements in America. New York Sun: "Tense and vivid little dramas." Dallas News: "Uniform in excellence of workmanship, varied in sub- ject matter — the volume is a distinct contribution to American dra- matic art. 121710. Net, $2.^0 Send for Complete Dramatic Catalogue STEWART KIDD COMPANY PUBLISHERS CINCINNATI. V. S. A. ______^_______^_______^_____^_^^_________ LIBRARY OF CONGRESS Stewart Kidd Dramatic o 015 926 392 7 The Truth About the Theater Anonymous $1.25 British and American Drama of Today. . Barrett H. Clark 2.50 European Theories of the Drama Barrett H. Clark 5.U0 Contemporary French Dramatists Barrett H. Clark 2.50 Four Plays of the Free Theater ... Barrett H. Clark 2.50 The Provincetown Plays Geo. Cram Cook Sf Frank Shay, Editors 2.50 Plays and Players Walter Prichard Eaton 3.00 The Antigone of Sophocles. . Prof. Jos. Edward Harry 1.25 The Changing Drama Archibald Henderson 2.50 European Dramatists Archibald Henderson 3.00 George Bernard Shaw: His Life and Works Archibald Henderson 7.50 Short Plays Mary MacMillan 2.50 More Short Plays Mary MacMillan 2.50 Third Book of Short Plays Mary MacMillan 2.50 The Gift Margaret Douglas Rogers 1.00 Comedies of Words and Other Plays Arthur Schnitder, Translated by Pierre Loving 2.50 Fifty Contemporary One-Act Plays Compiled by Frank Shay & Pierre Loving 5.00 Contemporary One- Act Plays of 1921 — American Edited by Frank Shay 3.75 Five One- Act Comedies. Lawraice Langner 2,00 Goat Alley Ernest Howard Ctdbertson 1.75 Lucky Pehr August Strindberg 2.50 Translated by Velma Swanston Howard Easter August Strindberg 2.50 Translated by Vtlma Swanston Howard The Hamlet Problem and its Solution. EmersonV enable 1.50 Portmanteau Plays Stuart Walker 2.50 More Portmanteau Plays Stuart Walker 2.50 Portmanteau Adaptations Stxiart Walker 2.50 Three Plays: MADRi:rrA. at the shrink, sumo .. Stark Young 1.35 Stewart Kidd Modern Plays Edited by Frank Shay Mansions Hildegarde Planner .50 The Shepherd in the Distance Holland Hudson .50 Hearts to Mend H. A. Overstreet .50 Sham Frank G. Tompkins .50 Six Who Pass While the Lentils Boil . . Stuart Walker .50 The Emperor Jones Eugene O'Neill .50 Sweet and Twenty Floyd Dell .50 Two Slatterns and a King Edna St. Vincent Millay .50 Sir David Wears a Crown Stuart Walker .50 Thursday Evening Christopher Motley .50 Mirage George M. P. Baird .50 Lithuania Rupert Brooke .50 The Stick-Up Pierre Loving .50 Scrambled Eggs Mackall & Bellamy .50 More to follow.