Act Three

The garden room in Consul Bernick’s house.

CONSUL BERNICK, a cane³⁷ in his hand, comes out in a fierce temper from the room nearest to the back on the left, leaving the door half-open behind him.

KARSTEN BERNICK: There; at long last I’ve finally shown him what’s what; I doubt he’ll forget that beating in a hurry. [To somebody in the room] What are you saying? – And I’m saying you’re an irresponsible mother! You make excuses for him, give him approval in all his wicked pranks. – Not wicked? What do you call it then? Sneaking out of the house at night, going out to sea with the fishing boat, staying away until long into the day, and putting the fear of death into me when I’ve so much else to do. And then the scoundrel dares to threaten he’ll run away! Well, just let him try! – You? Oh, yes, I can believe that all right, you don’t worry yourself much over his welfare. Even if it cost him his life, I think you’d –! – Really? Yes, but I have a vocation to pass on after me here in this world; it won’t serve my interests to be made childless. – No objections, Betty; it’ll be as I’ve said; he’s grounded – [listens] Hush; don’t let anybody notice anything.

KRAP enters from the right.

KRAP: Have you got a moment, Mr Consul, sir?

KARSTEN BERNICK [throws the cane aside]: Yes, yes, of course. You’ve come up from the shipyard?

KRAP: Just now. Hrm –

KARSTEN BERNICK: Well? Nothing wrong with the Palm Tree is there?

KRAP: The Palm Tree can sail tomorrow, but –

KARSTEN BERNICK: So it’s the Indian Girl is it? I had a feeling that stiff-neck would –

KRAP: The Indian Girl can also sail tomorrow; but – she probably won’t get far.

KARSTEN BERNICK: What do you mean?

KRAP: Pardon me, Mr Consul, sir; that door is slightly ajar, and I think somebody’s in there –

KARSTEN BERNICK [closes the door]: Right. But what is it that nobody should hear?

KRAP: It’s this: it seems Aune’s of a mind to let the Indian Girl go to the bottom – crew and all.

KARSTEN BERNICK: But Lord preserve us, how can you think –?

KRAP: Can’t see any other explanation, Mr Consul, sir.

KARSTEN BERNICK: Well, tell me briefly, then –

KRAP: Right you are. You know yourself how slowly things have been going at the shipyard since we got the new machinery and the new, inexperienced workers.

KARSTEN BERNICK: Yes, yes.

KRAP: But this morning, when I got down there, I noticed that the repairs on the American had taken a conspicuous leap forward; around the large valve in the bottom – you know, the area that’s rotten –

KARSTEN BERNICK: Yes, yes, what about it?

KRAP: Completely repaired – seemingly at least; sheathed; looked like new; heard that Aune had worked down there by lamplight all night.

KARSTEN BERNICK: Yes, and so –?

KRAP: Mulled it over a bit; the men had just broken off for breakfast,³⁸ so I took the opportunity to look around unobserved, both outside and on board; had trouble getting below in the loaded vessel; but had my suspicions confirmed. There are dodgy goings-on, Mr Consul, sir.

KARSTEN BERNICK: I can’t believe it, Mr Krap. I can’t, I won’t believe such a thing of Aune.

KRAP: Pains me – but it’s the plain truth. Dodgy goings-on I tell you. No new timber put in, as far as I could make out; just shifted and plugged and riveted with boards and tarpaulin and the like. Total sham! The Indian Girl will never reach New York; she’ll go to the bottom like a cracked pan.

KARSTEN BERNICK: Well, this is dreadful! But what do you think he can hope to achieve?

KRAP: Wants to bring the machines into disrepute no doubt; wants his revenge; wants the old workforce restored to favour.

KARSTEN BERNICK: And for that he’d sacrifice all those human lives.

KRAP: He said recently: there are no human beings on board the Indian Girl – just beasts.

KARSTEN BERNICK: Well, leave that now; but has he no regard for the big capital investment that’ll be lost?

KRAP: Aune doesn’t look kindly on big capital, Mr Consul, sir.

KARSTEN BERNICK: True; he’s an agitator and troublemaker; but such an unscrupulous act –. Listen, Mr Krap; this matter must be double-checked. Not a word to anyone about it. It reflects badly on our shipyard if people get to know of something like this.

KRAP: Of course, but –

KARSTEN BERNICK: During lunch-break you must go down there again; I need absolute certainty.³⁹

KRAP: You shall have it, Mr Consul, sir; but with permission, what will you do then?

KARSTEN BERNICK: Report the matter, of course. After all, we can’t make ourselves accessories to an outright crime. I can’t have my conscience burdened.⁴⁰ Besides, it will make a good impression in the press and the community at large when it’s seen that I’m sweeping all personal interest aside and allowing justice to run its course.

KRAP: Very true, Mr Consul, sir.

KARSTEN BERNICK: But first and foremost, absolute certainty. And silence for now –

KRAP: Not a word, Mr Consul, sir; and you will have certainty.

He leaves through the garden and walks down the street.

KARSTEN BERNICK [half aloud]: Most disturbing! But no, it’s impossible – unthinkable!

Just as he is going to his room, HILMAR TØNNESEN comes from the right.

HILMAR TØNNESEN: Good afternoon, Bernick! Well, congratulations on your victory at the Business Association yesterday.

KARSTEN BERNICK: Oh, thank you.

HILMAR TØNNESEN: It was a splendid victory, so I hear; the victory of intelligent public spirit over self-interest and prejudice – much like a French raid on the Kabyles.⁴¹ Extraordinary, how after those unpleasant scenes here, you –

KARSTEN BERNICK: Yes, well, leave that now.

HILMAR TØNNESEN: But the major battle’s yet to be fought.

KARSTEN BERNICK: About the railway, you mean?

HILMAR TØNNESEN: Yes, I take it you know what Hammer’s brewing up?

KARSTEN BERNICK [anxiously]: No! What’s that?

HILMAR TØNNESEN: He’s latched on to that rumour that’s going about and wants to write a newspaper article about it.

KARSTEN BERNICK: What rumour?

HILMAR TØNNESEN: That thing about those big property acquisitions along the branch line, of course.

KARSTEN BERNICK: What do you mean? Is such a rumour going round?

HILMAR TØNNESEN: Yes, it’s all over town. I heard it at the club when I drifted in. It seems one of our lawyers has been commissioned to quietly buy up all the forests, all the mineral deposits, all the waterfalls –

KARSTEN BERNICK: And they don’t say who for?

HILMAR TØNNESEN: Up at the club they reckoned it must be for some out-of-town company that had got wind of your plans and rushed in before property prices rose –. Despicable, isn’t it? Oof!

KARSTEN BERNICK: Despicable?

HILMAR TØNNESEN: Yes, for outsiders to encroach on our territory like that. And that one of the town’s own lawyers could lend himself to such a thing! Now it’ll be out-of-town people who go off with the profits.

KARSTEN BERNICK: Yes, but it’s only a rumour.

HILMAR TØNNESEN: But people believe it, and tomorrow or the day after, our editor Hammer will nail it down as a fact. There was already general resentment up there. I heard several of them say that if the rumour’s confirmed they’ll cross themselves off the lists.

KARSTEN BERNICK: Impossible!

HILMAR TØNNESEN: Really? Why do you think these mercenary souls were so eager to go along with your enterprise? You don’t think perhaps they’d sniffed out the possibility of –?

KARSTEN BERNICK: Impossible, I say; there’s surely that much public spirit here in our little community –

HILMAR TØNNESEN: Here? Well, you are, of course, an optimist, and you judge others by yourself. But I, as a well-seasoned observer –. No, there’s not one man here – with the exception of ourselves naturally – not one, I say, who holds the flag of ideas aloft. [Up towards the background] Oof, I can see them!

KARSTEN BERNICK: Who?

HILMAR TØNNESEN: The two Americans. [Looks out to the right] And who are they with? Yes, by God, if it isn’t the captain of the Indian Girl. Oof!

KARSTEN BERNICK: What can they want with him?

HILMAR TØNNESEN: Oh, it’s very fitting company, I’d say. He was a slave trader or a pirate apparently; and who knows what those two have been up to all these years.

KARSTEN BERNICK: Hilmar, now, it would be a terrible wrong to think such things of them.

HILMAR TØNNESEN: Well, you’re an optimist, as I said. And we’re about to get them round our necks again, of course; so I’ll make a timely – [Walks up towards the door on the left.]

MISS HESSEL enters from the right.

MISS HESSEL: Ah, Hilmar! Not chasing you from the sitting room, am I?

HILMAR TØNNESEN: No, absolutely not; I was just standing here in a most urgent hurry; got to have a word with Betty. [Walks into the room on the left towards the back.]

KARSTEN BERNICK [after a short silence]: Well, Lona?

MISS HESSEL: Yes.

KARSTEN BERNICK: Where do I stand in your opinion today?

MISS HESSEL: As yesterday. One lie more or less –

KARSTEN BERNICK: I need to put this in its proper light. Where’s Johan gone?

MISS HESSEL: He’s coming; he had to talk to a man about something.

KARSTEN BERNICK: After what you heard yesterday, you’ll understand that my entire existence is destroyed if the truth comes to light.

MISS HESSEL: I understand that.

KARSTEN BERNICK: It goes without saying of course that I am not guilty of the crime that was rumoured round here.

MISS HESSEL: Self-evidently. But who was the thief?

KARSTEN BERNICK: There was no thief. There was no money stolen; not a shilling went missing.

MISS HESSEL: What?

KARSTEN BERNICK: Not a shilling I say.

MISS HESSEL: But the rumour? How did this shameful rumour get out that Johan –?

KARSTEN BERNICK: Lona, with you I think I can speak as with nobody else; I’ll conceal nothing from you. I played my part in the spreading of this rumour.

MISS HESSEL: You? And you could do that to the man who for your sake –!

KARSTEN BERNICK: You shouldn’t pass judgement without remembering how things were at the time. I did explain it to you yesterday. I came home to find my mother tangled up in a whole series of unwise enterprises; disasters of all sorts kept piling up; it was as if everything evil was storming in on us; our house was on the edge of ruin. I was half reckless and half desperate, Lona, I think it was mainly to drown out my thoughts that I got involved in the affair that led to Johan leaving.

MISS HESSEL: Hm –

KARSTEN BERNICK: I’m sure you can imagine how all kinds of rumours were set in motion after he, and you, had gone. This wasn’t his first reckless act, it was said. Some claimed Dorf was given a large sum of money from him to keep quiet and go; others reckoned she’d been given it. At the same time it was no secret that our house had difficulties meeting its obligations. What could be more natural than for the scandalmongers to put these two rumours together? When she went on living here in abject poverty, then people said he’d gone of with the money to America, and as the rumour went on the amount grew continually larger and larger.

MISS HESSEL: And you, Karsten –?

KARSTEN BERNICK: I grabbed this rumour like a raft.

MISS HESSEL: You spread it wider?

KARSTEN BERNICK: I didn’t contradict it. The creditors had started hounding us; it was essential I calm them, and that was reliant on people not doubting the solidity of the house; we’d taken an unfortunate little knock, they oughtn’t to put pressure on; just give it time; everybody would get their dues.

MISS HESSEL: And did everybody get their dues?

KARSTEN BERNICK: Yes, Lona, that rumour saved our house and made me the man I am now.

MISS HESSEL: So a lie has made you the man you are now.

KARSTEN BERNICK: Who was harmed back then? It was Johan’s intention never to come back.

MISS HESSEL: You ask who it harmed. Look within yourself and tell me whether you’ve not been harmed by it.

KARSTEN BERNICK: Look within any man you choose, and in every single one you’ll find one dark point at least that he has to conceal.

MISS HESSEL: And you call yourselves the pillars of the community.

KARSTEN BERNICK: No community has better.

MISS HESSEL: And what does it matter whether such a community is upheld or not? What is it that counts round here? A sham and lies – and nothing else. You live here, the first man in the town, in luxury and happiness, with power and glory – you – who branded an innocent man a criminal.

KARSTEN BERNICK: Don’t you think I feel the wrong I’ve done him deeply enough? And don’t you think I’m prepared to make amends?

MISS HESSEL: How? By speaking out?

KARSTEN BERNICK: You could demand that?

MISS HESSEL: What else could right such a wrong?

KARSTEN BERNICK: I’m wealthy, Lona; Johan can demand whatever he wants –

MISS HESSEL: Yes, offer him money, and you’ll hear what he says.

KARSTEN BERNICK: Do you know what his intentions are?

MISS HESSEL: No. Since yesterday he’s been silent. It’s as though all this had suddenly made him into a full-grown man.

KARSTEN BERNICK: I must talk to him.

MISS HESSEL: Well, there you have him.

JOHAN TØNNESEN enters from the right.

KARSTEN BERNICK [towards him]: Johan –!

JOHAN TØNNESEN [warding him off]: Me first. Yesterday morning I gave you my word to keep quiet.

KARSTEN BERNICK: Yes you did.

JOHAN TØNNESEN: But I didn’t yet know –

KARSTEN BERNICK: Johan, just let me explain the situation in two words –

JOHAN TØNNESEN: No need; I understand the situation very well. The house was in a difficult position at the time; and then, when I was gone and you had my defenceless name and reputation to use at will –. Well, I don’t blame you too harshly for that; we were young and reckless in those days. But now I need the truth, now you must speak out.

KARSTEN BERNICK: And right now I need all my moral prestige, which is why I can’t speak now.

JOHAN TØNNESEN: I’m not too bothered by these fabrications that you set in motion about me; it’s the other thing you’ll take the blame for yourself. Dina is going to be my wife, and I want to stay here, here in this town, and build a life with her.

MISS HESSEL: You do?

KARSTEN BERNICK: With Dina? As your wife? Here in town?

JOHAN TØNNESEN: Yes, right here; I want to stay here to defy all these liars and backbiters. But if I’m to win her, it’s necessary that you set me free.

KARSTEN BERNICK: Have you considered that, by admitting to the one thing, I’ll have admitted to the other? You’ll suggest I could prove from the books that nothing dishonest took place? But I can’t; our books weren’t kept as accurately then. And even if I could – what would be gained? Wouldn’t I still be seen as the man who once saved himself by a falsehood and who, for fifteen years, allowed this falsehood and everything else to gain hold, without taking one step to prevent it? You no longer know our community, or you’d know that this would break me, utterly and completely.

JOHAN TØNNESEN: All I can tell you is that I’m going to take Madam Dorf’s daughter as my wife and live with her here in this town.

KARSTEN BERNICK [wipes the sweat from his forehead]: Hear me out, Johan – and you too, Lona. It is no ordinary situation I am faced with at this moment. My position means that if this blow is directed at me, the two of you will have destroyed me, and not me alone, but also a great and promising future for this community, which after all is your childhood home.

JOHAN TØNNESEN: And if I don’t direct this blow against you, then I will ruin my own future happiness.

MISS HESSEL: Speak on, Karsten.

KARSTEN BERNICK: All right, listen. It’s linked to this railway business, and that’s not quite as straightforward as you think. You’ve probably heard talk that there were proposals for a coastal line last year? It had the support of numerous and influential voices both here in town and the region, and notably in the press; but I prevented it because it would have harmed our steamship activity along the coast.

MISS HESSEL: And you have an interest in this steamship activity?

KARSTEN BERNICK: Yes. But nobody dared suspect me on that count; I had my well-respected name to shield and shelter me. Besides I could have borne the loss anyway; but the town couldn’t have borne it. Then the decision was passed about the inland route. When that happened, I established, on the quiet, that a local branch line could be laid down to the town here.

MISS HESSEL: Why on the quiet, Karsten?

KARSTEN BERNICK: Have you heard about the large purchases of forests, of mines and waterfalls –?

JOHAN TØNNESEN: Yes, there’s some out-of-town company –

KARSTEN BERNICK: As these properties lie now, they’re as good as worthless to their widely dispersed owners; as a result they’ve been sold relatively cheaply. If the buyer had waited until the branch line was in the offing, the owners would have demanded the most outrageous prices.

MISS HESSEL: I see; so what then?

KARSTEN BERNICK: Well, this brings us to something that can be interpreted variously – something a man in our community can only confess to if he has a well-respected and untarnished name to uphold him.

MISS HESSEL: Well?

KARSTEN BERNICK: I’m the one who’s bought everything.

MISS HESSEL: You?

JOHAN TØNNESEN: On your own?

KARSTEN BERNICK: On my own. If the branch line goes ahead, I’m a millionaire; if it doesn’t, I’m ruined.

MISS HESSEL: This is risky, Karsten.

KARSTEN BERNICK: I’ve risked all my assets on it.

MISS HESSEL: I’m not thinking of assets; but when it comes to light that you –

KARSTEN BERNICK: Yes, there’s the nub. With the untarnished name that I’ve borne thus far, I can take this on my shoulders, carry it forward and say to my fellow citizens: look, I’ve risked all this for the benefit of the community.

MISS HESSEL: Of the community?

KARSTEN BERNICK: Yes; and not one person would doubt my intentions.

MISS HESSEL: But there are men here who have acted more openly than you, without hidden agendas, or ulterior motives.

KARSTEN BERNICK: Who?

MISS HESSEL: Rummel and Sandstad and Vigeland, of course.

KARSTEN BERNICK: To win them over I was obliged to let them in on it.

MISS HESSEL: And?

KARSTEN BERNICK: They made it a condition that they share a fifth of the profits between them.

MISS HESSEL: Oh, these pillars of the community!

KARSTEN BERNICK: And isn’t it the community itself that forces us to take the crooked byway? What would have happened if I hadn’t acted on the quiet? Everybody would have thrown themselves into the enterprise, divided, dispersed, bungled and botched the whole thing. There’s not a single man in this town besides me who has the knowhow to lead as large a project as this will be; in this country the only people with any aptitude at all for bigger business operations are the immigrant families.⁴² This is why my conscience acquits me in this. Only in my hands can these properties become a lasting blessing for the many, a means for them to earn their bread.

MISS HESSEL: You’re probably right, Karsten.

JOHAN TØNNESEN: But I don’t know ‘the many’, and my life’s happiness is at stake.

KARSTEN BERNICK: The welfare of your birthplace is also at stake. If things emerge to cast a shadow on my earlier conduct, then all my opponents will combine forces to come down on me. A youthful indiscretion is never erased in our community. People will sift through all the intervening years of my life, drag a thousand little episodes out, interpret and construe them in the light of what’s been revealed; I’ll be broken under the weight of rumours and backbiting. I’ll have to withdraw from the railway project; and once I take my hand from that, it’ll collapse, and at a stroke I’ll be both financially ruined and dead as a citizen.⁴³

MISS HESSEL: After what you’ve heard here, Johan, you must leave and keep quiet.

KARSTEN BERNICK: Yes, yes, Johan, you must!

JOHAN TØNNESEN: Yes, I will leave and keep quiet too; but I’ll be back and then I’ll speak out.

KARSTEN BERNICK: Stay over there, Johan; keep quiet and I’m willing to give you a share –

JOHAN TØNNESEN: Keep your money, but give me my name and reputation back.

KARSTEN BERNICK: And sacrifice my own!

JOHAN TØNNESEN: That’s for you and your community to deal with. I have to, want to and am going to win Dina for myself. Which is why I’m leaving with the Indian Girl tomorrow –

KARSTEN BERNICK: With the Indian Girl?

JOHAN TØNNESEN: Yes, the captain has promised to take me with him. I’m going over, as I said; I’m selling my farm and sorting out my affairs. In two months I’ll be back.⁴⁴

KARSTEN BERNICK: And then you’ll speak out?

JOHAN TØNNESEN: Then the guilty party will take the guilt on himself.

KARSTEN BERNICK: Are you forgetting I’d then also have to take upon me the thing of which I am not guilty?

JOHAN TØNNESEN: Who was it that benefited from that shameful rumour fifteen years ago?

KARSTEN BERNICK: You’re driving me to despair! But if you speak out, I’ll deny everything! I’ll say there’s a conspiracy against me; revenge; that you’ve come here to extort money from me!

MISS HESSEL: Shame on you, Karsten!

KARSTEN BERNICK: I’m desperate, I tell you; and I’m fighting for my life. I’ll deny everything, everything!

JOHAN TØNNESEN: I’ve got your two letters. I found them in my suitcase among my other papers. I read through them this morning; they’re plain enough.

KARSTEN BERNICK: And you’ll produce those?

JOHAN TØNNESEN: If necessary.

KARSTEN BERNICK: And in two months you’ll be back?

JOHAN TØNNESEN: I hope so. The wind’s fair. In three weeks I’ll be in New York – as long as the Indian Girl doesn’t go down.

KARSTEN BERNICK [looking startled]: Go down? Why should the Indian Girl go down?

JOHAN TØNNESEN: No, why indeed?

KARSTEN BERNICK [barely audible]: Go down?

JOHAN TØNNESEN: Well, Bernick, now you know what’s in store; you’d better consider your options in the meantime. Goodbye! You can say goodbye to Betty for me, she’s hardly given me a sisterly welcome. But Marta I do want to see. She must tell Dina – must promise me –

He leaves through the furthest door to the left.

KARSTEN BERNICK [to himself]: The Indian Girl –? [Urgently] Lona, you must prevent this!

MISS HESSEL: You can see for yourself, Karsten – I no longer have any power over him.

She follows JOHAN into the room to the left.

KARSTEN BERNICK [troubled]: Go down –?

AUNE enters from the right.

AUNE: With permission, is it convenient to the consul –?

KARSTEN BERNICK [turns abruptly]: What do you want?

AUNE: To ask if I may put a question to the consul.

KARSTEN BERNICK: Well then; hurry up. What d’you want to ask?

AUNE: I wanted to ask if it still stands firm – if it’s irreversible – that I’d be dismissed from the yard if the Indian Girl couldn’t sail tomorrow?

KARSTEN BERNICK: What? The ship will be ready to sail, won’t it?

AUNE: Yes – it will. But if it wasn’t – would I be dismissed?

KARSTEN BERNICK: What is the point of such idle questions?

AUNE: I’d like very much to know, Mr Consul, sir. Just answer me that; would I then be dismissed?

KARSTEN BERNICK: Does my word usually stand firm or not?

AUNE: So, tomorrow I’d have lost the position I have in my house and among those closest to me – lost my influence in the workers’ circles – lost the opportunity to do anything of benefit for those of low and modest status in the community.

KARSTEN BERNICK: Mr Aune, we’ve done with that subject.

AUNE: Right, then the Indian Girl will sail.

Short silence.

KARSTEN BERNICK: Listen here; I can’t have eyes everywhere; can’t be responsible for everything. You can, I presume, assure me that the repairs are beyond criticism?

AUNE: You gave me a tight deadline, Mr Consul, sir.

KARSTEN BERNICK: But the repairs are satisfactory, you say?

AUNE: We do have good weather, and it’s the middle of summer.

Renewed silence.

KARSTEN BERNICK: Do you have anything else to say to me?

AUNE: I don’t know of anything else, Mr Consul, sir.

KARSTEN BERNICK: So – the Indian Girl will sail –

AUNE: Tomorrow?

KARSTEN BERNICK: Yes.

AUNE: Right.

He nods and leaves.

CONSUL BERNICK stands in doubt for a moment; then he walks quickly to the exit door, as if to call AUNE back, but stands uneasily with his hand on the door handle. At that moment the door is opened from the outside and MR KRAP steps in.

KRAP [hushed]: Aha, he was here. Has he confessed?

KARSTEN BERNICK: Hm – have you discovered anything?

KRAP: What’s the need? Couldn’t the consul see that evil conscience flashing out of his eyes?

KARSTEN BERNICK: Come, come, now – such things aren’t visible. I asked if you’d discovered anything?

KRAP: Couldn’t get access; was too late; they were already towing the ship out of dock. But this very haste indicates clearly –

KARSTEN BERNICK: It indicates nothing. So the inspection’s taken place?

KRAP: Of course; but –

KARSTEN BERNICK: There you see. And naturally they found nothing to criticize.

KRAP: Mr Consul, sir, you know very well how these inspections are conducted, particularly at a yard with as good a name as ours.

KARSTEN BERNICK: Nonetheless; we’re beyond reproach then.

KRAP: Sir, did you really notice nothing in Aune that –?

KARSTEN BERNICK: Aune has reassured me absolutely, I tell you.

KRAP: And I’m telling you that I am morally convinced that –

KARSTEN BERNICK: What are you getting at, Mr Krap? I realize you bear a grudge against the man; but if you want rid of him, you’ll have to choose some other occasion. You know how crucial it is for me – or to put it more accurately the shipping company – that the Indian Girl sets sail tomorrow.

KRAP: Well, well, so be it; but when we’ll hear from that ship again, I – hm!

MR VIGELAND enters from the right.

VIGELAND: A very good day to you, Mr Consul. Do you have a moment?

KARSTEN BERNICK: At your service, Mr Vigeland.

VIGELAND: I just wanted to hear if you’re also in favour of the Palm Tree setting sail tomorrow?

KARSTEN BERNICK: Well, of course; that’s agreed.

VIGELAND: But now the captain’s come to me, reporting signs of a storm.

KRAP: The barometer’s fallen sharply since this morning.

KARSTEN BERNICK: Oh? Can we expect a storm?

VIGELAND: Strong winds at least; but no headwind; quite the contrary –

KARSTEN BERNICK: Hm; so what do you say?

VIGELAND: Well, I say, as I said to the captain, that the Palm Tree rests in the hands of Providence. And besides, she’s only crossing the North Sea to begin with; and with freights⁴⁵ being so high in England right now –

KARSTEN BERNICK: Yes, it would probably mean a loss for us if we waited.

VIGELAND: And the ship is solid all right, and besides she’s fully insured. No, when it comes to it, the Indian Girl is at much greater risk.

KARSTEN BERNICK: How do you mean?

VIGELAND: Well, she’s sailing tomorrow too.

KARSTEN BERNICK: Yes, her owners have put the pressure on, and besides –

VIGELAND: Well, if that old crate can brave it – and with a crew like that into the bargain – it’d be a shame if we didn’t –

KARSTEN BERNICK: Well, well. I take it you have the ship’s papers with you?

VIGELAND: Yes, here.

KARSTEN BERNICK: Good; then do go in with Mr Krap.

KRAP: After you; it’ll be sorted out in no time.

VIGELAND: Thank you. – And we shall place the outcome in the hands of the Almighty, Mr Consul.

He walks together with MR KRAP into the nearest room to the left. SCHOOLMASTER RØRLUND comes through the garden.

MR RØRLUND: Ah, at home at this time of day, Mr Consul, sir?

KARSTEN BERNICK [in thought]: As you see.

MR RØRLUND: Well, it was for your wife’s sake I dropped by actually. I thought she might need a few words of comfort.

KARSTEN BERNICK: Indeed she might. But I’d like to speak with you too.

MR RØRLUND: With pleasure, Mr Consul, sir. But what’s troubling you? You look rather pale and upset.

KARSTEN BERNICK: Oh? Do I? Yes, how could it be otherwise – with things towering up around me as they are just now? My whole business – and then the railway –. Listen, tell me something, schoolmaster; let me put a question to you.

MR RØRLUND: With pleasure, sir.

KARSTEN BERNICK: It’s a thought that’s occurred to me. When one stands on the threshold of a far-reaching enterprise which aims at the improved well-being of thousands –. If this thing were to require one single sacrifice –?

MR RØRLUND: In what way, sir?

KARSTEN BERNICK: Suppose, for example, that a man is considering building a large factory. He knows for certain – since experience has taught him this – that sooner or later during the running of this factory human life will be lost.

MR RØRLUND: Yes, that’s only too probable.

KARSTEN BERNICK: Or a man embarks on a mining business. He takes family men and youngsters in the prime of life into his service. It can be said with absolute certainty, can it not, that they won’t all come out of it alive?

MR RØRLUND: Yes, unfortunately, that’s probably so.

KARSTEN BERNICK: Well. Such a man knows beforehand, then, that the enterprise he wants to set in motion will undoubtedly cost human lives at some point. But this enterprise is for the common good; for every human life it costs, it will just as undoubtedly further the welfare of hundreds.

MR RØRLUND: Aha, you’re thinking of the railway – all that dangerous excavation work and mountain blasting and such –

KARSTEN BERNICK: Yes, yes; I am indeed thinking of the railway. And, well yes – the railway will, of course, give rise to both factories and mines. But nonetheless don’t you think –?

MR RØRLUND: My dear consul, you have almost too great a conscience. I feel that when you place the matter in the hands of Providence –

KARSTEN BERNICK: Yes; yes, of course; Providence –

MR RØRLUND: – you are then beyond reproach. You just build your railway with confidence.

KARSTEN BERNICK: Yes, but now I’ll suggest a specific instance. Suppose there is a borehole that has to be blasted in a dangerous place; but without the blasting of this borehole, the railway will never be realized. And now let’s suppose that the engineer knows it will cost the life of the worker who’ll light the explosive; yet lit it must be, and it’s the engineer’s duty to send a worker out to do it.

MR RØRLUND: Hm –

KARSTEN BERNICK: I know what you’ll say. It would be heroic if the engineer took the fuse himself and went over to light the borehole. But nobody does that. So, he must sacrifice a worker.

MR RØRLUND: No engineer here would ever do that.

KARSTEN BERNICK: No engineer in one of the larger countries would hesitate to do it.

MR RØRLUND: The larger countries? Yes, that I can believe. In those corrupt and unscrupulous communities –

KARSTEN BERNICK: Oh, there are many good things about those communities.

MR RØRLUND: And you can say that, when you yourself –?

KARSTEN BERNICK: In these larger communities people do at least have room to further a beneficial enterprise; they have the courage over there to sacrifice something for a great cause; but here people are restricted by all sorts of petty considerations and misgivings.

MR RØRLUND: Is a human life a petty consideration?

KARSTEN BERNICK: When this human life represents a threat to the welfare of thousands.

MR RØRLUND: But you’re presenting utterly inconceivable examples, Mr Consul, sir! I don’t understand you at all today. And then you point to these larger communities. Well, yes, out there – what’s a human life worth? There they calculate human lives as they do capital. But we take quite a different moral standpoint, I should think. Look at our honest shipowners! Name one single shipowner here at home who would sacrifice a human life for paltry gain! And then think of those crooks out there in these larger communities, who for profit’s sake send one unseaworthy ship out after another –

KARSTEN BERNICK: I’m not talking about unseaworthy ships!

MR RØRLUND: But I am talking about them, Mr Consul, sir.

KARSTEN BERNICK: Yes, but what’s your point? That’s irrelevant, isn’t it. – Ah, these craven little considerations! If a general here at home led his men into the line of fire and got them shot down, he’d have sleepless nights afterwards. Things aren’t like that elsewhere. You should hear what the man in there says –

MR RØRLUND: Who? The American –?

KARSTEN BERNICK: Yes. You should hear how in America they –

MR RØRLUND: He’s in there? And you didn’t tell me. I’m going right –

KARSTEN BERNICK: It’ll do you no good; you won’t get anywhere with him.

MR RØRLUND: We’ll see about that. Well now, here he is.

JOHAN TØNNESEN comes from the room on the left.

JOHAN TØNNESEN [speaks back through the open door]: All right, Dina, that’s fine; but I shan’t give up on you even so. I’ll come back, and then everything will come good between us.

MR RØRLUND: With permission, what are you suggesting with those words? What is it you want?

JOHAN TØNNESEN: What I want is for the young girl for whom you blackened my character yesterday to be my wife.

MR RØRLUND: Your –? And you think you can –?

JOHAN TØNNESEN: I want her as my wife.

MR RØRLUND: All right, then you must be told – [Walks over to the half-open door] Mrs Bernick, be so good as to act as witness. And you too, Miss Marta. And Dina must come. [Sees MISS HESSEL] Ah, you’re here as well?

MISS HESSEL [in the doorway]: Shall I come too?

MR RØRLUND: As many as wish; the more the better.

KARSTEN BERNICK: What have you in mind?

MISS HESSEL, MRS BERNICK, MISS BERNICK, DINA and HILMAR TØNNESEN come out of the room.

MRS BERNICK: Mr Rørlund, hard as I tried, I couldn’t stop him –

MR RØRLUND: I shall stop him, Mrs Bernick. – Dina, you are a thoughtless girl. But I don’t reproach you harshly. You’ve been left much too long without the moral support that ought to have upheld you. It’s myself I reproach, for not having been that pillar of support earlier.

DINA: Do not speak now!

MRS BERNICK: But what is this?

MR RØRLUND: It is now that I must speak, Dina, even though your conduct both yesterday and today has made it ten times harder for me. But for your rescue all other considerations must give way. You remember the pledge I made you. You remember what you promised to answer, when I found that the time had come. I dare hesitate no longer [to JOHAN TØNNESEN] – the young girl whom you are pursuing, is my fiancée.

MRS BERNICK: What!

KARSTEN BERNICK: Dina!

JOHAN TØNNESEN: She! Your –?

MISS BERNICK: No, Dina, no!

MISS HESSEL: Lies!

JOHAN TØNNESEN: Dina – is this man speaking the truth?

DINA [after a short pause]: Yes.

MR RØRLUND: So now, hopefully, any tricks of seduction are rendered powerless. I am happy for this step, which I have resolved upon for Dina’s benefit, to be announced to our whole community. I cherish the sure hope that it will not be misconstrued. But now, Mrs Bernick, I think it best we escort her from here and seek to bring calm and equilibrium to her mind once more.

MRS BERNICK: Yes, come. Oh, Dina, how wonderful for you!

She leads DINA out to the left; MR RØRLUND follows them.

MISS BERNICK: Farewell, Johan!

She leaves.

HILMAR TØNNESEN [in the garden doorway]: Hm – well, I really must say –

MISS HESSEL [who has watched DINA leave]: Don’t lose heart, boy! I’ll stay here and keep watch on the pastor.

She goes out to the right.

KARSTEN BERNICK: Well, Johan, you won’t be going with the Indian Girl now!

JOHAN TØNNESEN: I certainly will.

KARSTEN BERNICK: But you won’t be coming back?

JOHAN TØNNESEN: I’ll come back.

KARSTEN BERNICK: After this? What would you want here after this?

JOHAN TØNNESEN: To avenge myself on all of you; to crush as many of you as I can.

He leaves to the right. MR VIGELAND and MR KRAP enter from the CONSUL’s room.

VIGELAND: Right, the documents are in order now, Mr Consul, sir.

KARSTEN BERNICK: Good, good –

KRAP [quietly]: And it stands firm that the Indian Girl sails tomorrow?

KARSTEN BERNICK: She sails.

He goes into his room. MR VIGELAND and MR KRAP leave to the right. HILMAR TØNNESEN wants to follow them, but just then OLAF sticks his head hesitantly round the door to the left.

OLAF: Uncle! Uncle Hilmar!

HILMAR TØNNESEN: Oof! It’s you? Why aren’t you upstairs? You’re grounded.

OLAF [a couple of steps forward]: Ssh! Uncle Hilmar, have you heard the news?

HILMAR TØNNESEN: Well, I know you got a thrashing today.

OLAF [casts a threatening glance towards his father’s room]: He’ll never ever hit me again. But did you know Uncle Johan’s sailing tomorrow with the Americans?

HILMAR TØNNESEN: What’s that got to do with you? Take yourself upstairs again.

OLAF: Maybe I can go on a buffalo hunt too one day, Uncle.

HILMAR TØNNESEN: Oh, rubbish; a wimp like you –

OLAF: Oh, just wait; you’ll know different tomorrow!

HILMAR TØNNESEN: Clothead!

He walks out through the garden. OLAF runs back into the room and closes the door when he sees MR KRAP coming in from the right.

KRAP [walks over to the CONSUL’s door and opens it halfway]: Excuse my coming back, Mr Consul, sir; but there’s a violent storm gathering. [Waits a little; no reply] Will the Indian Girl sail just the same?

After a short pause CONSUL BERNICK answers from inside the room.

KARSTEN BERNICK: The Indian Girl sails just the same.

MR KRAP closes the door and again leaves to the right.