with arms akimbo, watching them; but JIM has his back to the door, and
JUDITH, gazing into the fire, doesn't see her either._)

JIM:
I'll wait for you beneath the Gallows Rigg,
Where the burn skirts the planting, in the slack
We trysted in, in the old days--do you mind?

JUDITH:
I mind.

JIM:
Trust you for that! And I'll lie low:
It's a dry bottom: and when the family's snoring
You'll come to me. Just whicker like a peesweep
Three times, and I'll be with you in a jiffy.
We'll take the road together, bonnie lass;
For we were always marrows, you and I.
If only that flirtigig, Phoebe, hadn't come
Between me and my senses, we'd have wed,
And settled down at Krindlesyke for life:
But now we've got to hoof it to the end.
My sang! 'twill be a honeymoon for me,
After the rig I've run. But, hearken, Judith:
If you don't turn up by ten o'clock, I'll come
And batter on that door to wake the dead:
I'll make such a rumpus, such a Bob-'s-adying,
Would rouse you, if you were straked. I'll have you with me,
If I've got to carry you, chested: sink my soul!
And for all I care, that luggish slubberdegullion
May lounder my hurdies; and go to Hecklebarney!
I'm desperate, Judith ... and I don't mind much ...
But, you'll come, lass?

JUDITH:
I'll come.

JIM:
Well, if you fail,
They'll take me here, as sure as death.

BELL (_stepping forward_):
That's so.

JIM (_wheeling round_):
The devil!

BELL:
Nay: not yet: all in good time.
But I question they'll wait till ten o'clock: they seemed
Impatient for your company, deuce kens why:
But then, what's one man's meat ...

JIM:
What's that you say?

BELL:
They seemed dead-set ... You needn't jump like that:
I haven't got the bracelets in my pocket.

JIM:
And who the hell are you? and what do you mean?

BELL:
You've seen my face before.

JIM:
Ay--ay ... I've seen it:
But I don't ken your name. You dog my heels:
I've seen your face ... I saw it on that night--
That night ... and sink me, but I saw it last
In the bar at Bellingham: your eyes were on me.
Ay, and I've seen that phisgog many times:
And it always brought ill-luck.

BELL:
It hasn't served
Its owner so much better: yet it's my fortune,
Though I'm no peachy milkmaid. Ay: I fancied
'Twas you they