NELLIE But they searched the house?

  EMMA Oh, yes, they searched the house.

  NELLIE (Breaking down Right and scuffing at a place in the carpet) Did they take up the carpet?

  EMMA Yes, they did.

  NELLIE (Moving to the fireplace up Center) Did they search the chimney?

  EMMA Of course they did.

  NELLIE (Exploring the fireplace from Right to Left) did they open the flue?

  EMMA Of course not; we couldn’t have them tearing up the house.

  NELLIE (Poking and prodding) I’d tear it up. Might be a sliding panel or something.

  EMMA Oh, Lizzie wouldn’t have it. Everything’s Lizzie’s now. That is, of course, it’s half mine, but Lizzie takes care of everything for me.

  NELLIE (Wiping sooty fingers) Now, Miss Emma, you’ll have to excuse me; there’s a question I have to ask. (She seats herself Left of the table and prepares to take notes with papers and shoebox which she has left on the table) Is there any insanity in your family?

  EMMA (Indignant) Certainly not. That’s the first thing they started asking. They asked ever so many questions about Uncle Morse… .

  NELLIE He arrived for a visit, didn’t he, just the day before the murders?

  EMMA Yes, he did. They were horrid about Uncle Morse. They kept asking people if he was quite right in his head. Just because he doesn’t work steady anyplace, and just sort of drifts around and visits people. Anybody pleasures himself in New England, folks say he’s a mite tetched. It made me terribly angry. Uncle Morse is as sane as I am.

  NELLIE Where was Uncle Morse the morning of the murders?

  EMMA Visiting around. They had to admit it. He had a perfect alibi. It was just humiliating, the way they snooped around after everybody. “Did Uncle Morse visit you on Thursday morning? Did you see Miss Emma Borden in Fairhaven?” Imagine asking about me all over Fairhaven! They got sent about their business, I guess. Of course, I wars right there in my room the whole time, but Uncle Morse was moving around; that made it harder. They certainly asked a lot of questions about Uncle Morse before they decided to arrest Lizzie.

  NELLIE (Leaning across the table, confidentially) And say, Miss Emma, tell me about the kitten.

  EMMA (Hand to mouth) Oh, dear.

  NELLIE They say the kitten was found down cellar dead. It had been killed with an axe.

  EMMA The kitten was the hardest. I cried for a week. It brought on my neuralgia. I like kittens. (With a frightened look toward the stairs, then across the table to NELLIE, confidentially) Lizzie never cried at all. It was Lizzie’s kitten. Lizzie’s a hard woman.

  NELLIE (Rising) Well, now, Miss Emma, let’s get back to the fatal day. Mrs. Borden is lying in her blood upstairs. (Referring upward) The servant is downstairs.

  She hears Mr. Borden at the front door trying to get in. She goes to let him in. (Going toward the door up Right) She finds the door is triple-locked. She lets him in, and upstairs on the landing (looking up the stairs) she hears a horrible gloating laugh. The murderer is standing up there, Miss Emma, within sight of her first victim, and as she sees her second victim walk into her trap, she laughs. What a moment!

  EMMA It wasn’t Lizzie. Lizzie was downstairs.

  NELLIE (Coming to her Right of chair) She changed her story, Miss Emma. First she said she was downstairs— then she said she was upstairs—she was certainly lying. Well now (satisfied with the effect on EMMA) in comes Mr. Borden and lies down for a nap, right here on the sofa. (Approaching it and looking at him) The murderer covers herself with something (she begins to act it out) and creeps up on the old man with the axe (taking the poker from the fireplace) from behind, like this—and brings down the axe again and again— (EMMA jumps to her feet, crying out and covering her face with her hands, backing off Right. NELLIE approaches her upstage Center) Was it Miss Lizzie? Was it?

  EMMA (Confronting her up Center) No! No, no, no! It wasn’t Lizzie! It wasn’t! (MISS LIZZIE BORDEN sweeps aside the portieres. She is a stout, not unpleasant-looking woman, clothed in a drab cotton housedress. She is very composed and quiet.)

  LIZZIE Emma. (Thunderstruck pause) You talk too much, Emma.

  EMMA Oh, Lizzie, this is different, this lady is a friend of Uncle Morse.

  (The reporter makes as if to acknowledge the introduction, but LIZZIE crosses to EMMA without looking at her.)

  LIZZIE Go upstairs, Emma. (EMMA pauses as if to defy her) I said go upstairs, Emma.

  EMMA (Giving ground) All right, Lizzie. (LIZZIE turns to NELLIE.)

  LIZZIE Now, then, Miss, I’ll take that poker. (NELLIE hesitates stubbornly. As their glances lock, emma, pausing at the foot of the stairs, gets up her courage, snatches up her purse and bolts out the door, lizzie, as the reporter yields the poker, hears the door close. She takes an angry step after her sister, then shrugs and replaces the poker) She won’t get far.

  NELLIE Hey, what’s that?

  LIZZIE Nothing. Now look here …

  NELLIE (Cutting in) I represent the Sacramento Record, Miss Lizzie… .

  LIZZIE (Coming down to her Left) Friend of Uncle Morse, eh? What color hair has the old man got?

  NELLIE (Choosing instantly) Gray … (At Lizzie’s look of triumph she amends hastily) What there is of it …

  LIZZIE There’s lots of it, and it’s bright white. You never saw Uncle Morse in your life. Good day, Miss.

  (Defeated, the reporter slowly crosses downstage, and approaches the door, up Right. When she is almost there she pauses, gets up her courage, and comes back, upstage, to Right Center.)

  NELLIE But, Miss Borden—my paper wants an interview.

  LIZZIE (Advancing on her up Center) I don’t give interviews.

  NELLIE Just one question, Miss Lizzie—the bloodstained apron—where did it get to?

  LIZZIE (Edging her toward the door) I have nothing to say.

  NELLIE (Giving ground) And the bloody axe? Why wasn’t the fireplace searched? (On the landing, one last try) If you’d just say a word for my paper …

  LIZZIE (Final) Good day, Miss! (The door closes on her. Immediately the bell peals. Grimly) Oh, no, you don’t!

  (Nellie’s head comes in at the window.)

  NELLIE Your evening paper came, Miss Lizzie, (LIZZIE whirls to face her. NELLIE grins at her surprise. She scales the paper into the room at lizzie’s feet, lizzie glares at her, and begins to stoop for the paper) Goodbye, Miss Lizzie.

  (LIZZIE straightens. The reporter waves, and disappears. LIZZIE picks up the paper and sets it on the table, absently. She stands thinking for a moment, looks toward the fireplace, frowns, shakes her head, looks toward the window, then again toward the fireplace. Suddenly she seems to make a decision. She pulls the portieres over the window, then goes to the fireplace. With the poker she forces open the secret panel, then thrusts in her arm to the elbow and begins groping for something. While she is absorbed in the task the door opens and MISS EMMA comes in. She gets far enough into the room to see what lizzie is doing. At the same moment LIZZIE drags out a bundle of cloth by one end. It unrolls, and a small hand axe or hatchet spills out on the hearth, LIZZIE turns to pick it up, and confronts her sister.)

  EMMA (Dry throat) I missed my train.

  LIZZIE (Grimly) Too bad.

  EMMA I stopped at the corner to get out my handkerchief, and I heard the train tooting for the crossing. I missed it. . . . (Her voice dies away as she stares at the axe, taking it in slowly. Her hand goes to her face in the neuralgia gesture.)

  LIZZIE Lock the door, Emma.

  (EMMA locks the door and pockets the key. LIZZIE carries the axe and the apron to the table. EMMA conies down and stands by lizzie, Right, above the table. Both sisters stare at the mute evidence of guilt.)

  EMMA Lizzie—your apron—and the axe—they were in the chimney all the time… .

  LIZZIE (Backing off up Left, staring at the things with loathing) Yes, Emma.

  EMMA You, Lizzie—you hid them there—after …

  LIZZIE(Coming down Left) Yes, Emma. I was afraid Maggie would come down any minute. I hid them in the chimney.

  EMMA (Inspecting the panel) I always wondered where they got to. I wondered how they could search and search and never find them.

  LIZZIE Father kept money behind that panel. He never knew I knew, and once he—was dead—nobody knew about it but me.

  EMMA Why did you do it?

  LIZZIE There’s a way, isn’t there, to tell who has been handling—a weapon?

  EMMA (Coming down to the table, Right) I don’t know; you’ve always been the clever one. (She unrolls the blood-splashed apron and looks at it vaguely) I don’t see any marks.

  LIZZIE (Approaching her above the table and staring at the apron in her turn. EMMA drops it and backs away from it up Right) I don’t either, but they say the police can. A Frenchman wrote a book about it. Besides (confronting EMMA deliberately up Right) you had brought the axe from Fairhaven; it had the store mark etched on the head.

  (EMMA has been staring at the blood on the apron, her hand to her mouth. Now she slowly raises her head and looks full at LIZZIE.)

  EMMA Why, Lizzie—you knew—all the time… .

  LIZZIE I saw you. (She crosses to the window, Right, and stares off) I saw you from the upper barn window. You came out the side door and stood looking around. I saw your face. (She shudders) That was all I needed. You ran to the street, and I came in and found Father. (Turning toward the room) It was my apron, and the blood on it … You needn’t have used my apron, Emma.

  EMMA (Reasonably) It was the handiest, Lizzie.

  LIZZIE And you had brought the axe from Fairhaven. I only had a minute. I hid them in Father’s hidey-hole. They were safe there until that (angry) newspaper snooper began to get ideas.

  EMMA (Curiously) Why did you hide them, Lizzie?

  LIZZIE (Approaching her Right Center) What else could I do? I hated her too, Emma.

  EMMA (Breaking down Left) You don’t remember Mother as I do. You couldn’t have hated Mrs. Borden as I did.

  LIZZIE (Remembers) I didn’t. But Father—Emma, why Father?

  EMMA After what he did to Mother, marrying that woman so soon after? You were always soft over Father, Lizzie.

  LIZZIE (Sits Right of table, passing her hand over her face) It’s a relief, rather. Time after time I’ve wanted to ask you about things—when they were examining and cross-examining me and keeping after me—I wanted so badly to know the truth, so I would know what to say. But I never dared ask you—they had spies about me all the time. I made so many mistakes. When they asked if I had seen anybody leave the house, I was on my guard not to mention you. I said, “No, nobody.” “Then,” says they, “there couldn’t have been a stranger did it—so it must have been Miss Lizzie!” I ought to have said that I did see the murderer leaving, a big bearded man with a bloody axe. But I wasn’t used to lying.

  EMMA I told the truth, I did hate Mrs. Borden worse than you did. But they wouldn’t believe me, they thought I was lying to cover you.

  LIZZIE I had to lie about the laugh. I had to change my story and say I was up there laughing. Otherwise they would have started asking. Who was laughing? Whose laugh sounds like Lizzie’s?

  EMMA There’s only one answer—Emma’s.

  LIZZIE I haven’t laughed since.

  EMMA Neither have I.

  LIZZIE I haven’t laughed since I found my kitten dead. I should have guessed, after the kitten. I ought to have been better on my guard.

  EMMA (Coming down to her above table) Having to kill the kitten was the hardest. It brought on my neuralgia. I cried for a week over the kitten.

  LIZZIE I know you did. How could I have supposed that you did it?

  EMMA That’s why I cried, because I had to do it.

  LIZZIE (Rising abruptly and coming down Left) I was afraid at first they would find out you had been away from Fairhaven.

  EMMA I prayed for guidance, Lizzie. All the time I was at Fairhaven, I stayed in my room and prayed for guidance.

  LIZZIE (Turning on her testily) What has that got to do with it?

  EMMA Don’t you see? When the answer came to me, I just got the axe out of the shed and started for Fall River. They thought I was still in my room, I guess, praying for guidance. They didn’t know I had had my answer.

  LIZZIE What a risk you ran!

  EMMA Oh, no, Lizzie, no risk at all. The Lord told me what to do, and He protected me. Nobody recognized me. The Lord protected me.

  LIZZIE (Grimly, coming to her above table) I protected you.

  EMMA Why? Why did you hide the axe? Why did you let them arrest you? (Cunningly) You could have had all Father’s money for yourself if they had found out about me. (Retrospective) I used to think about that, sometimes, when the lawyers were telling the jury to find you guilty. I would think, maybe they’ll take Lizzie, and I’ll have all the money for myself. Why did you protect me, Lizzie?

  LIZZIE I don’t know. Because I’ve always protected you, I suppose. Because I enjoyed having the laugh on everybody, maybe.

  EMMA I never guessed. You had the laugh on me, didn’t you, Lizzie?

  LIZZIE Didn’t you know I knew?

  EMMA I had no idea. I thought the Lord had arranged it. Why didn’t you tell me?

  LIZZIE With police spies all around?

  EMMA What would you have done, Lizzie, if they had found you guilty?

  LIZZIE (Crossing to the window, reflectively) I don’t know. Gone through with it, I guess. I’d have gone through with it before I’d have given in to them.

  EMMA I guess you would. You were always a wicked stubborn little piece.

  LIZZIE (Facing out the window, as if facing the world) I’d get sick of it, the jail, the reporters, the examining and re-examining, I’d get sick of it, and tired to the bone, and I’d think, I’ve had enough, I’ll tell them now. And then that prosecutor would come along with his pious face like a public statue, and the very thought of giving in and admitting I’d lied would make my gorge rise, and I’d say to myself, I’ll face it down, they shan’t break me. And (over her shoulder, with grim triumph) they didn’t.

  EMMA No, they didn’t.

  LIZZIE And besides, it would have been giving in for nothing; they wouldn’t have believed me.

  EMMA I suppose they wouldn’t.

  LIZZIE (Facing her coolly) I used to wonder, Emma—if they had found me guilty, what would you have done?

  EMMA I used to wonder, too. But I’d have had guidance, when the time came. I didn’t let it worry me.

  LIZZIE (Nettled) Oh, you didn’t let it worry you! You let me go through it—sit out there in court day after day —pilloried—the crowd hating me …

  EMMA I know, Lizzie.

  LIZZIE (Approaching her angrily) How do you know? (Moving down Left, remembering) How do you know what I went through? The crowds staring at you, thinking you did it—the women who hiss you at the courtroom door—they hate you—they want to see you dead. What do you know about it?

  EMMA (Following her up, intensely) What do you know about it, Lizzie? You had the easy part. You didn’t have to do it. I thought it would be like chopping wood. It isn’t. (She fingers the back of the Left chair) Wood splits. Flesh … (She fixes her eyes on lizzie’s arm, and reaches to touch it. lizzie shrinks) Flesh strikes back. It stops you. You feel the resistance all the way up to your elbow. And wood doesn’t bleed. Blood … (She crosses Left to stand in front of the sofa and stare at the wall where the bloodstains were) Blood doesn’t flow, Lizzie. It flies. It jumps at you. The air is red with it. (Her hand goes to her face in the neuralgia gesture.)