_Fardy:_ I’m obliged to you, Mr. Halvey. You behaved very decent to me, very decent indeed. I’ll never let a word be said against you if I live to be a hundred years. _Sergeant:_ (_Wiping eyes with a blue handkerchief._) I will tell it at the meeting. It will be a great encouragement to them to build up their character. I’ll tell it to the priest and he taking the chair—— _Hyacinth:_ O stop, will you—— _Mr. Quirke:_ The chair. It’s in the chair he himself should be. It’s in a chair we will put him now. It’s to chair him through the streets we will. Sure he’ll be an example and a blessing to the whole of the town. (_Seizes Halvey and seats him in chair._) Now, Sergeant, give a hand. Here, Fardy. (_They all lift the chair with Halvey in it, wildly protesting._) _Mr. Quirke:_ Come along now to the Courthouse. Three cheers for Hyacinth Halvey! Hip! hip! hoora! (_Cheers heard in the distance as the curtain drops._) THE RISING OF THE MOON PERSONS _Sergeant._ _Policeman X._ _Policeman B._ _A Ragged Man._ THE RISING OF THE MOON _Scene: Side of a quay in a seaport town. Some posts and chains. A large barrel. Enter three policemen. Moonlight._ (_Sergeant, who is older than the others, crosses the stage to right and looks down steps. The others put down a pastepot and unroll a bundle of placards._) _Policeman B:_ I think this would be a good place to put up a notice. (_He points to barrel._) _Policeman X:_ Better ask him. (_Calls to Sergt._) Will this be a good place for a placard? (_No answer._) _Policeman B:_ Will we put up a notice here on the barrel? (_No answer._) _Sergeant:_ There’s a flight of steps here that leads to the water. This is a place that should be minded well. If he got down here, his friends might have a boat to meet him; they might send it in here from outside. _Policeman B:_ Would the barrel be a good place to put a notice up? _Sergeant:_ It might; you can put it there. (_They paste the notice up._) _Sergeant:_ (_Reading it._) Dark hair—dark eyes, smooth face, height five feet five—there’s not much to take hold of in that—It’s a pity I had no chance of seeing him before he broke out of gaol. They say he’s a wonder, that it’s he makes all the plans for the whole organization. There isn’t another man in Ireland would have broken gaol the way he did. He must have some friends among the gaolers. _Policeman B:_ A hundred pounds is little enough for the Government to offer for him. You may be sure any man in the force that takes him will get promotion. _Sergeant:_ I’ll mind this place myself. I wouldn’t wonder at all if he came this way. He might come slipping along there (_points to side of quay_), and his friends might be waiting for him there (_points down steps_), and once he got away it’s little chance we’d have of finding him; it’s maybe under a load of kelp he’d be in a fishing boat, and not one to help a married man that wants it to the reward.