Sollers:
Why, but the fire that"s eating the whole earth; The breath of it is scarlet in the sky!
You must have seen that?
Warp:
But what"s taken you?
You are like boys that go to hunt for ghosts, And turn the scuttle of rats to a roused demon Crawling to shut the door of the barn they search.
Fire? Yes, fire is playing a pretty game Yonder, and has its golden fun to itself, Seemingly.
Sollers:
You don"t know what "tis that burns?
Warp:
Call me a mole and not a molecatcher If I do not. It is a rick that burns; And a strange thing I"ll count it if the rick Be not old Huff"s.
Sollers:
That flare a fired stack?
Huff:
Only one of my ricks alight? O Glory!
There may be chance for me yet.
Merrick:
Best take the train To Droitwich, Huff.
Vine (at the door):
It would be like a stack, But for the star.
Sollers (to WARP):
Yes, as you"re so clever, You can talk down maybe yon brandishing star!
Warp:
O, "tis the star has flickt your brains? Indeed, The tail swings long enough to-night for that.
Well, look your best at it; "tis off again To go its rounds, they tell me, from now on; And the next time it swaggers in our sky, The moles a long while will have tired themselves Of having their easy joke with me.
[A pause.]
Merrick:
You mean The flight of the star is from us?
Sollers:
But the world, The whole world reckons on it battering us!
Warp:
Who told you that?
Sollers:
A dowser.
Merrick:
Where"s he gone?
Warp:
A dowser! say a tramping conjurer.
You"ll believe aught, if you believe a dowser.
Sollers:
I had it in me to be doubting him.
Merrick:
The noise you made was like that! But I knew You"ld laugh at me, so sure you were the world Would shiver like a bursting grindlestone: Else I"ld have said out loud, "twas a fool"s whimsy.
Vine: