Page:Plunder (Perlman).djvu/29

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CHUANA

Krishna! Oh it's horrible! What have they done to you?

MOKSA

Burumba is dead. His wife ran away in panic. Where is her child?

CHUANA

They went to Cape Town.

INDIO

I told you he was dead. I wanted him to die. I wish I hadn't said that to her.

MOKSA

You wanted him to die?

INDIO

Barbara said we wanted to be Europeans, so I said her father would be killed fighting them.

AMONG AUDIENCE

HAROLD

Pretoria, you're not letting this melodrama get under your skin!

MOKSA

Burumba didn't fight. He didn't raise his hand against them. He tried to save his house--he was in a frenzy, didn't know where to turn, told his wife to run as far in the world as she could, and someone yelled: There he is, there's the agitator, and they started beating him, and they beat and beat till he bled, and still they beat him.

CHUANA

Why do they hate us so, Krishna? Why?

MOKSA

Why, Chuana? I do not know. Men who convert other men into animals must themselves become animals. They have

AMONG AUDIENCE

PRETORIA

It was Edward who took me away from them, Big, brave, manly Edward!