BRADFORD: Well, _I_ was here before. (_a laugh_) And the old man--(_nodding toward the_ CAPTAIN) he lived here for twenty-seven years. Lord, the things that happened _here_. There've been dead ones carried through _that_ door. (_pointing to the outside door_) Lord--the ones _I've_ carried. I carried in Bill Collins, and Lou Harvey and--huh! 'sall over now. You ain't seen no _wrecks_. Don't ever think you have. I was here the night the Jennie Snow was out there. (_pointing to the sea_) There was a _wreck_. We got the boat that stood here (_again shaking the frame_) down that bank. (_goes to the door and looks out_) Lord, how'd we ever do it? The sand has put his place on the blink all right. And then when it gets too God-for-saken for a life-savin' station, a lady takes it for a summer residence--and then spends the winter. She's a cheerful one. TONY: A woman--she makes things pretty. This not like a place where a woman live. On the floor there is nothing--on the wall there is nothing. Things--(_trying to express it with his hands_) do not hang on other things. BRADFORD: (_imitating_ TONY_'s gesture_) No--things do not hang on other things. In my opinion the woman's crazy--sittin' over there on the sand--(_a gesture towards the dunes_) what's she _lookin'_ at? There ain't nothin' to _see_. And I know the woman that works for her's crazy--Allie Mayo. She's a Provincetown girl. She was all right once, but-- (MRS PATRICK _comes in from the hall at the right. She is a 'city woman', a sophisticated person who has been caught into something as unlike the old life as the dunes are unlike a meadow. At the moment she is excited and angry_.) MRS PATRICK: You have no right here. This isn't the life-saving station any more. Just because it used to be--I don't see why you should think--This is my house! And--I want my house to myself! CAPTAIN: (_putting his head through the door. One arm of the man he is working with is raised, and the hand reaches through the doorway_) Well I must say, lady, I would think that any house could be a life-saving station when the sea had sent a man to it. MRS PATRICK: (_who has turned away so she cannot see the hand_) I don't want him here! I--(_defiant, yet choking_) I must have my house to myself! CAPTAIN: You'll get your house to yourself when I've made up my mind there's no more life in this man. A good many lives have been saved in this house, Mrs Patrick--I believe that's your name--and if there's any chance of bringing one more back from the dead, the fact that you own the house ain't goin' to make a damn bit of difference to me! MRS PATRICK: (_in a thin wild way_) I must have my house to myself. CAPTAIN: Hell with such a woman!