HALCOM. Throw down your arms! (_Rebels drop arms and Zina rushes into her brother’s arms saying:_) ZINA. My brother! HALCOM. I have long suspected this. My mother’s face lives in this girl and in my memory seventeen years since as she begged for mercy from a man who never felt it. BRIGHTLY. I am a prisoner of war. HALCOM. We have met, sir, for the last time. You shall fight women and helpless prisoners no longer. BRIGHTLY. Then have done with your preaching and come on! (_Drops sword and draws knife._) HALCOM. I will not keep you waiting long! You shall fight for your life this time like an honorable man! BRIGHTLY. (_To reb. soldiers_) The psalm of a traitor who has stabbed his country in the back! HALCOM. (_To prisoners and Union soldiers._) If this man passes my hands safely he shall go free! (_Taking advantage while Halcom is speaking to the Union prisoners, Brightly rushes forward to stab him in the back, treacherously. Zina catches his purpose, drops on one knee, knocks his hand up and drives her knife to the hilt in the ruffian’s heart. Brightly staggers back and falls. Zina springs up, aghast at the result, then drops knife, covering her face, says:—_) ZINA. My poor mother! (_Drops on her knees, then face, sobbing until curtain falls._) THE END. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES 1. The stage directions were inconsistently formatted. Some were italicized and some not. Also some were in parentheses and some in square brackets. (As if the typesetter ran out of parentheses or italics occassionally.) They were all altered to parentheses and italics. 2. Silently corrected typographical errors and variations in spelling. 3. Retained anachronistic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings as printed. 4. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_. End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Zina: the Slave Girl or Which the Traitor?, by A. Thompson