第7章 III.(1)

ROBERTS appears at the outer door of his apartment on the fifth floor. It opens upon a spacious landing, to which a wide staircase ascends at one side. At the other is seen the grated door to the shaft of the elevator. He peers about on all sides, and listens for a moment before he speaks.

ROBERTS: "Hello yourself."

MILLER, invisibly from the shaft: "Is that you, Roberts?"

ROBERTS: "Yes; where in the world are you?"

MILLER: "In the elevator."

MRS. CRASHAW: "We're ALL here, Edward."

ROBERTS: "What! You, Aunt Mary!"

MRS. CRASHAW: "Yes. Didn't I say so?"

ROBERTS: "Why don't you come up?"

MILLER: "We can't. The elevator has got stuck somehow."

ROBERTS: "Got stuck? Bless my soul! How did it happen? How long have you been there?"

MRS. CURWEN: "Since the world began!"

MILLER: "What's the use asking how it happened? We don't know, and we don't care. What we want to do is to get out."

ROBERTS: "Yes, yes! Be careful!" He rises from his frog-like posture at the grating, and walks the landing in agitation. "Just hold on a minute!"

MILLER: "Oh, WE sha'n't stir."

ROBERTS: "I'll see what can be done."

MILLER: "Well, see quick, please. We have plenty of time, but we don't want to lose any. Don't alarm Mrs. Miller, if you can help it."

ROBERTS: "No, no."

MRS. CURWEN: "You MAY alarm Mr. Curwen."

ROBERTS: "What! Are YOU there?"

MRS. CURWEN: "Here? I've been here all my life!"

ROBERTS: "Ha! ha! ha! That's right. We'll soon have you out. Keep up your spirits."

MRS. CURWEN: "But I'm NOT keeping them up."

MISS LAWTON: "Tell papa I'm here too."

ROBERTS: "What! You too, Miss Lawton?"

MRS. CRASHAW: "Yes, and young Mr. Bemis. Didn't I TELL you we were all here?"

ROBERTS: "I couldn't realize it. Well, wait a moment."

MRS. CURWEN: "Oh, you can trust us to wait."

ROBERTS, returning with DR. LAWTON, and MR. BEMIS, who join him in stooping around the grated door of the shaft: "They're just under here in the well of the elevator, midway between the two stories."

LAWTON: "Ha! ha! ha! You don't say so."

BEMIS: "Bless my heart! What are they doing there?"

MILLER: "We're not doing anything."

MRS. CURWEN: "We're waiting for you to do something."

MISS LAWTON: "Oh, papa!"

LAWTON: "Don't be troubled, Lou, we'll soon have you out."

YOUNG MR. BEMIS: "Don't be alarmed, sir, Miss Lawton is all right."

MISS LAWTON: "Yes, I'm not frightened, papa."

LAWTON: "Well, that's a great thing in cases of this kind. How did you happen to get there?"

MILLER, indignantly: "How do you suppose? We came up in the elevator."

LAWTON: "Well, why didn't you come the rest of the way?"

MILLER: "The elevator wouldn't."

LAWTON: "What seems to be the matter?"

MILLER: "We don't know."

LAWTON: "Have you tried to start it?"

MILLER: "Well, I'll leave that to your imagination."

LAWTON: "Well, be careful what you do. You might" - MILLER, interrupting: "Roberts, who's that talking?"

ROBERTS, coming forward politely: "Oh, excuse me! I forgot that you didn't know each other. Dr. Lawton, Mr. Miller." Introducing them.

LAWTON: "Glad to know you."

MILLER: "Very happy to make your acquaintance, and hope some day to see you. And now, if you have completed your diagnosis"

MRS. CURWEN: "None of us have ever had it before, doctor; nor any of our families, so far as we know."

LAWTON: "Ha! ha! ha! Very good! Well, just keep quiet. We'll have you all out of there presently."

BEMIS: "Yes, remain perfectly still."

ROBERTS: "Yes, we'll have you out. Just wait."

MILLER: "You seem to think we're going to run away. Why shouldn't we keep quiet? Do you suppose we're going to be very boisterous, shut up here like rats in a trap?"

MRS. CURWEN: "Or birds in a cage, if you want a more pleasing image."

MRS. CRASHAW: "How are you going to get us out, Edward?"

ROBERTS: "We don't know yet. But keep quiet" - MILLER: "Keep quiet! Great heavens! we're afraid to stir a finger.

Now don't say 'keep quiet' any more, for we can't stand it."

LAWTON: "He's in open rebellion. What are you going to do, Roberts?"

ROBERTS, rising and scratching his head: "Well, I don't know yet.

We might break a hole in the roof."

LAWTON: "Ah, I don't think that would do. Besides you'd have to get a carpenter."

ROBERTS: "That's true. And it would make a racket, and alarm the house"--staring desperately at the grated doorway of the shaft. "If I could only find an elevator man--an elevator builder! But of course they all live in the suburbs, and they're keeping Christmas, and it would take too long, anyway."

BEMIS: "Hadn't you better send for the police? It seems to me it's a case for the authorities."

LAWTON: "Ah, there speaks the Europeanized mind! They always leave the initiative to the authorities. Go out and sound the fire-alarm, Roberts. It's a case for the Fire Department."

ROBERTS: "Oh, it's all very well to joke, Dr. Lawton. Why don't you prescribe something?"

LAWTON: "Surgical treatment seems to be indicated, and I'm merely a general practitioner."

ROBERTS: "If Willis were only here, he'd find some way out of it.

Well, I'll have to go for help somewhere" - MRS. ROBERTS and MRS. MILLER, bursting upon the scene: "Oh, what is it?"

LAWTON: "Ah, you needn't go for help, my dear fellow. It's come!"

MRS. ROBERTS: "What are you all doing here, Edward?"

MRS. MILLER: "Oh, have you had any bad news of Mr. Miller?"

MRS. ROBERTS: "Or Aunt Mary?"

MILLER, calling up: "Well, are you going to keep us here all night?

Why don't you do something?"

MRS. MILLER: "Oh, what's that? Oh, it's Mr. Miller! Oh, where are you, Ellery?"

MILLER: "In the elevator."

MRS. MILLER: "Oh! and where is the elevator? Why don't you get out?

Oh" - MILLER: "It's caught, and we can't."

MRS. MILLER: "Caught? Oh, then you will be killed--killed--killed!