SCENE II

(See ACT I, last Scene)

Again, the street outside the house--the Street of the Fountain, with the balcony of RAFI and the balcony of YASMIN opposite.

Cold light before dawn.

(On the steps of the Fountain, two tired MENDICANTS asleep.

One slowly rubs his eyes and looks round him.

A paper comes floating down. One tired MAN lazily catches it.)

FIRST LOITERER Here comes a new chapter of the Koran falling down from heaven.

SECOND LOITERER Is it written, Abdu?

ABDU It is written, Ali.

ALI Read what is written, Abdu.

ABDU I cannot read. Am I schoolmaster?

(Folds paper, puts it in his belt, and prepares to sleep again.

Several interesting ORIENTALS pa.s.s by.)

ALI Abdu!

ABDU I sleep.

ALI I can read: give me the paper.

ABDU I am asleep: get up and take it from my belt if you want it, Ya Ali, I am heavy with a great sleep, like a tortoise in November.

ALI Ya Abdu, I am too languishing to move. It is a paper and it is written.

It does not matter. To-morrow or the next day it will be read.

ABDU To-morrow or the next day I shall wake and pa.s.s it to you.

(Interval: more interesting ORIENTALS go by.)

ALI (With sudden inspiration) Blow me the paper, Abdu.

ABDU Alas, Allah sent thee to trouble the world!

(ABDU blows the paper over. ALI with infinite difficulty spells it out, murmuring:)

ALI Ha, alif, alif, re wow wow 'ain jeem--ah, ye blessed ones in Paradise, is it thus ye write a jeem? Nun--but art thou a nun, O letter, or a drunkard's qaf? Verily an ape has written this with his tail: I have the second line. (With a start) Ho, Abdu, whence came this? Do not pretend to sleep. Answer me.

ABDU From the sky: how do I know?

ALI Let me look at the sky. (Rolls on his back and stares upward) I tell you, Abdu, a mighty joker has flung this from the balcony.

ABDU Allah plague him and his pen and thee! Is there no peace in the world?

ALI Here it is written, and do thou listen, O Abdu, for this is the strangest of the strange writings that are strange: "Whoever findeth this paper, know that the Caliph is in the house above, a prisoner, and his friends prisoners, and in the extremity of danger, he and they, with all Bagdad. Let the rescue be swift and sudden, but above all secret. The iron walls must be lifted from beneath.

And send a man at once to the Guard, O fortunate discoverer, to warn them to protect the palace against the Beggars of Bagdad, and thou shalt be made Governor of Three Provinces.

Signed, Jafar, the Vizier."

(Bursting into laughter) Three Provinces, well I know their Three Provinces! Some rich young reveller hopes to play a game with poor old Ali, even as a game was played on the son of Abdullah, whom they dressed as a woman and placed in the Grand Vizier's Harem, and his reward came hailing down on his toes. (In a lower voice.) And I tell you, Abdu, what if the Caliph were in the house and his friends? What if this were true? Who would believe me?

Who am I to rescue the Caliph? I never meddle in politics.

ABDU May the great gripes settle on thee and on the Caliph and the mother of the Caliph. Shall I not sleep? And now there comes a disturbance down the road. Ya, Jehannum, the Police!

(CHIEF OF POLICE with ISHAK)

ISHAK I tell you, I do not know precisely where I left them.

It was somewhere in this quarter. It may have been this balcony they went to or that, but there are a thousand balconies.

It was above a fountain, but there are a million fountains.

I tell you they always come back. Have you not already twenty such scares as these for the safety of the Caliph?

CHIEF OF POLICE Never and on no preceding occasion has his exalted name been so long delayed in his return to the palace.

The day is dawning.

ISHAK I tell you, if you do find him you will get no thanks, O man of arms. Will you dare to unstick the Ruler of the Moslem World from the embrace of his latest slave girl or dash the cup of pleasure from his reluctant hand?

CHIEF OF POLICE I tell you, if you do not find him, man of letters, I will have you impaled upon a monstrous pen.

(Seizes him.)

ISHAK Thou beastly, blood-drinking brute and bloated bully, take off thy stable-reeking hands.

CHIEF OF POLICE Yallah, these poets. They talk in rhyme.

ALI (Who has risen and salaamed, advancing) I pray you, Sirs,...

CHIEF OF POLICE O thou maggot! Darest thou address us?

ALI I pray you only regard...

CHIEF OF POLICE I pray you only remove, or I will split you from the top.

ISHAK Do you not see that he has a paper, and that his manners are superior to yours, O Captain of Police? Let me look at thy paper....

Ah--ah. Whence came this, O virtuous wanderer?

ALI From that balcony, may thy slaves be forgiven!

CHIEF OF POLICE This is a very important clue. Let us break in the door.

ISHAK There is no door. But first of all send word to the Palace Guard.

CHIEF OF POLICE (To a soldier) Ali (To the other ALI, who runs and says: Excellence, I hear and obey) Not thou, fool. Did Allah make the name Ali for thee alone?