QUAQUARO
That's why I come to you! There is more. The girl said in front o'
witnesses more'n onct that that little crittur o' Knobbe's was her own an' that she had expressly given it in board to your wife.
JOHN
[_First taken aback, then relieved. Laughing._] She ain't quite right in her upper story. That's all.
_ERICH SPITTA enters._
SPITTA
Good morning, Mr. John.
JOHN
Good mornin', Mr. Spitta. [_To QUAQUARO, who is still loitering in the door._] It's all right, Emil. I'll take notice o' what you says an' act accordin'.
_QUAQUARO exit._
JOHN
Now jus' look at a feller like that, Mr. Spitta. He's more'n half a gaol bird an' yet he knows how to make hisself a favourite with the district commissioner at headquarters! An' then he goes aroun' pokin' his nose into honest folks' affairs.
SPITTA
Has Miss Walburga Hassenreuter been asking after me, Mr. John?
JOHN
Not up to this time; not that I knows of! [_He opens the door to the hall._] Selma! Excuse me a minute, will you? Selma! I gotta know what that there girl c'n tell me.
_SELMA KNOBBE enters._
SELMA
[_Still at the door._] What d'you want?
JOHN
You shut the door a minute an' come in! An' now tell me, girl, what's all this that happened in this room about your little dead brother and the strange girl?
SELMA
[_Who has, obviously, a bad conscience, gradually comes forward watchfully. She now answers glibly and volubly._] I pushed the perambulator over into the room here. Your wife wasn't in an' so I thinks that maybe here there'd be more quiet, 'cause my little brother, you know, he was sick anyhow an' cryin' all the time. An' then, all of a sudden, a gentleman an' a lady an' another woman all comes in here, an'
they picked the little feller right outa the carridge an' put clean clothes on him an' carried him off.
JOHN
An' then the lady said as how it was her child an' how she'd given it in board with mother, with my old woman?
SELMA
[_Lies._] Naw, not a bit. I'd know about that if it was so.
JOHN
[_Bangs his fist on the table._] Well, damn it all, it'd be a idjit's trick to have said that.
SPITTA
Permit me, but she did say that. I take it you're talking of the incident with the two women that took place upstairs at manager Hassenreuter's?
JOHN
Did you see that? Was you there when the Knobbe woman an' the other one was disputin' about the little crittur?
SPITTA
Yes, certainly. I was present throughout.
SELMA
I tell you all I knows. An' I couldn't say no more if officer Schierke or the tall police lieutenant hisself was to examine me for hours an' hours.
I don' know nothin'. An' what I don' know I can't tell.
JOHN
The lieutenant examined you?
SELMA
They wanted to take mama to the lock-up because people went an' lied.
They said that our little baby was starved to death.
JOHN
Aha! 's that so? Well, Selma, s'pose you go over there an' cook a little coffee.
_SELMA goes over to the stove where she prepares coffee for JOHN.
JOHN himself goes up to his working table, takes up the compass. Then he draws lines, using a piece of rail as a ruler._
SPITTA
[_Conquering his diffidence and shame._] I really hoped to meet your wife here, Mr. John. Someone told me that your wife has been in the habit of lending out small sums to students against security. And I am somewhat embarrassed.
JOHN
Maybe that's so. But that's mother's business, Mr. Spitta.