(HATCH brings silver knives and forks from the bag.)
HATCH:
I'll risk all the tricks you know. Nobody's got much the better of
me in the last twenty years.
ALICE:
Have you been a burglar twenty years? You must have begun very
young. I can't see your face very well, but I shouldn't say you
were--over forty. Do take that mask off. It looks so--unsociable.
Don't be afraid of me. I've a perfectly shocking memory for faces.
Now, I'm sure that under that unbecoming and terrifying exterior
you are hiding a kind and fatherly countenance. Am I right?
(Laughs.)
Why do you wear it?
HATCH:
(roughly)
To keep my face warm.
ALICE:
Oh, pardon me, my mistake.
(A locomotive whistle is heard at a distance. ALICE listens
eagerly. As the whistle dies away and is not repeated, her face
shows her disappointment.)
HATCH:
What was that? There's no trains this time of night.
ALICE:
(speaking partly to herself)
It was a freight train, going the other way.
HATCH:
(suspiciously)
The other way? The other way from where?
ALICE:
From where it started. Do you know, I've always wanted to meet a
burglar.
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