ere he is standing on the topmost planks! Right at the top!

DR. HERDAL.

Nobody must move! Do you dear?

HILDA.

[Exulting, with quiet intensity.] At last! At last! Now I see him great
and free again!

RAGNAR.

[Almost voiceless.] But this is im--

HILDA.

So I have seen him all through these ten years. How secure he stands!
Frightfully thrilling all the same. Look at him! Now he is hanging the
wreath round the vane!

RAGNAR.

I feel as if I were looking at something utterly impossible.

HILDA.

Yes, it is the impossible that he is doing now! [With the indefinable
expression in her eyes.] Can you see any one else up there with him?

RAGNAR.

There is no one else.

HILDA.

Yes, there is one he is striving with.

RAGNAR.

You are mistaken.

HILDA.

Then do you hear no song in the air, either?

RAGNAR.

It must be the wind in the tree-tops.

HILDA.

_I_ hear a song--a mighty song! [Shouts in wild jubilation and glee.]
Look, look! Now he is waving his hat! He is waving it to us down here!
Oh, wave, wave back to him! For now it is finished! [Snatches the white
shawl from the Doctor, waves it, and shouts up to SOLNESS.] Hurrah for
Master Builder Solness!

DR. HERDAL.

Stop! Stop! For God's sake--!

[The ladies on the verandah wave their pocket-handkerchiefs, and
the shouts of "Hurrah" are taken up in the street. Then they
are suddenly silenced, and the crowd bursts out into a shriek
of horror. A human body, with planks and fragments of wood,
is vaguely perceived crashing down behind the trees.

MRS. SOLNESS AND THE LADIES.

[At the same time.] He is falling! He is falling!

[MRS. SOLNESS totters, falls backwards, swooning, and is caught,
amid cries and confusion, by the ladies. The crowd in the
street breaks down the fence and storms into the garden. At
the same time DR. HERDAL, too, rushes down thither. A short
pause.

HILDA.

[Stares fixedly upwards and says, as if petrified.] My Master Builder.

RAGNAR.

[Supports himself, trembling, against the railing.] He must be dashed to
pieces--killed on the spot.

ONE OF THE LADIES.

[Whilst MRS. SOLNESS is carried into the house.] Run down for the
doctor--

RAGNAR.

I can't stir a root--

ANOTHER LADY.

Then call to some one!

RAGNAR.

[Tries to call out.] How is it? Is he alive?

A VOICE.

[Below, in