(HALE _goes outside. The_ SHERIFF _follows the_ COUNTY ATTORNEY _into the other room. Then_ MRS HALE _rises, hands tight together, looking intensely at_ MRS PETERS, _whose eyes make a slow turn, finally meeting_ MRS HALE_'s. A moment_ MRS HALE _holds her, then her own eyes point the way to where the box is concealed. Suddenly_ MRS PETERS _throws back quilt pieces and tries to put the box in the bag she is wearing. It is too big. She opens box, starts to take bird out, cannot touch it, goes to pieces, stands there helpless. Sound of a knob turning in the other room_. MRS HALE _snatches the box and puts it in the pocket of her big coat. Enter_ COUNTY ATTORNEY _and_ SHERIFF.) COUNTY ATTORNEY: (_facetiously_) Well, Henry, at least we found out that she was not going to quilt it. She was going to--what is it you call it, ladies? MRS HALE: (_her hand against her pocket_) We call it--knot it, Mr Henderson. (CURTAIN) THE OUTSIDE First performed by the Provincetown Players at the Playwrights' Theatre, December 28, 1917. CAPTAIN (of 'The Bars' Life-Saving Station) BRADFORD (a Life-Saver) TONY (a Portuguese Life-Saver) MRS PATRICK (who lives in the abandoned Station) ALLIE MAYO (who works for her) SCENE: _A room in a house which was once a life-saving station. Since ceasing to be that it has taken on no other character, except that of a place which no one cares either to preserve or change. It is painted the life-saving grey, but has not the life-saving freshness. This is one end of what was the big boat room, and at the ceiling is seen a part of the frame work from which the boat once swung. About two thirds of the back wall is open, because of the big sliding door, of the type of barn door, and through this open door are seen the sand dunes, and beyond them the woods. At one point the line where woods and dunes meet stands out clearly and there are indicated the rude things, vines, bushes, which form the outer uneven rim of the woods--the only things that grow in the sand. At another point a sand-hill is menacing the woods. This old life-saving station is at a point where the sea curves, so through the open door the sea also is seen. (The station is located on the outside shore of Cape Cod, at the point, near the tip of the Cape, where it makes that final curve which forms the Provincetown Harbor.) The dunes are hills and strange forms of sand on which, in places, grows the stiff beach grass--struggle; dogged growing against odds. At right of the big sliding door is a drift of sand and the top of buried beach grass is seen on this. There is a door left, and at right of big sliding door is a slanting wall. Door in this is ajar at rise of curtain, and through this door_ BRADFORD _and_ TONY, _life-savers, are seen bending over a man's body, attempting to restore respiration. The captain of the life-savers comes into view outside the big open door, at left; he appears to have been hurrying, peers in, sees the men, goes quickly to them._