_Bartley:_ Red Jack Smith dead! Who was telling you?
_Shawn Early:_ The whole town knows of it by this.
_Bartley:_ Do they say what way did he die?
_James Ryan:_ You don't know that yourself, I suppose, Bartley Fallon? You don't know he was followed and that he was laid dead with the stab of a hayfork?
_Shawn Early:_ You don't know, I suppose, that the body was found in the Five Acre Meadow?
_Tim Casey:_ It is likely you don't know that the police are after the man that did it?
_Mrs. Tully:_ You don't know, maybe, that he was made away with for the sake of Kitty Keary, his wife?
_Mrs. Tully:_ And what have you to say now, Bartley Fallon?
_Bartley:_ (_Crossing himself._) I to bring that fork here, and to find that news before me! It is much if I can ever stir from this place at all, or reach as far as the road!
_Tim Casey:_ Look, boys, at the new magistrate, and Jo Muldoon along with him! It's best for us to quit this.
_Shawn Early:_ That is so. It is best not to be mixed in this business at all.
_James Ryan:_ Bad as he is, I wouldn't like to be an informer against any man.
(_All hurry away except Mrs. Tarpey, who remains behind her stall. Enter magistrate and policeman._)
_Magistrate:_ I knew the district was in a bad state, but I did not expect to be confronted with a murder at the first fair I came to.
_Policeman:_ I am sure you did not, indeed.
_Magistrate:_ It was well I had not gone home. I caught a few words here and there that roused my suspicions.
_Magistrate:_ You heard the same story from everyone you asked?
_Policeman:_ The same story--or if it was not altogether the same, anyway it was no less than the first story.
_Magistrate:_ What is that man doing? He is sitting alone with a hayfork. He has a guilty look. The murder was done with a hayfork!
_Policeman:_ (_In a whisper._) That's the very man they say did the act; Bartley Fallon himself!
_Magistrate:_ He must have found escape difficult--he is trying to brazen it out. A convict in the Andaman Islands tried the same game, but he could not escape my system! Stand aside--Don't go far--have the handcuffs ready. (_He walks up to Bartley, folds his arms, and stands before him._) Here, my man, do you know anything of John Smith?