MICHAEL
What have you got in there?
[He points to the door on the left again and advances toward it.]

RADA [Hurriedly and as if misunderstanding him, opens a cupboard between him and the door.] Food!  Food!  Food for hungry men!  Food enough for a wolf-pack.  Come on, help yourselves!

MICHAEL Holy St. Peter, what a larder!  Look at this, Arram.  Here’s a dinner for forty men.

RADA [Laughing wildly.] Better take your pick before the others come.  It’s our Christmas dinner.

[She thrusts dishes into MICHAEL’S_ hands and begins loading the table with food._]

NANKO If you happen to have any crystallized plums there, Rada, you might give me one.

ARRAM Lord, what a sight for hungry soldiers!  We’re in luck’s way.  Here, fetch me a bowl of water!  I’m hungry; but there are times when you can’t enjoy food without washing your hands.

[RADA hesitates, then goes out of the room. ARRAM holds out a ring to MICHAEL.]

Her husband’s ring.  I got it off his finger
When he went down.  He lay there on his back
Howling like a wolf, with his belly blown out. 
I put him out of his misery.  Look at my hands. 
Ugh!  I want to wash.

[NANKO rises and peers at them.]

NANKO
Ah, but they’re red. 
Red, aren’t they?  And there’s red on your coat, too.

[He fingers it curiously.]

I suppose that’s blood, eh?  People are such cowards. 
Many of them never seem to understand
That man’s a fighting animal.  They’re afraid,
Dreadfully afraid of the sight of blood. 
I think it’s a beautiful colour, beautiful! 
You know, in the Old Testament, they used
To splash it on the door-posts.

ARRAM
[Pushing him off.]
Go and sit down,
You crazy old devil!

[RADA enters with a bowl of water, sets it on a bench and returns to her place.  ARRAM washes his hands.]

MICHAEL
My hands want washing, too. 
O Lord, you’ve turned the water into wine! 
Fetch me some fresh.

[RADA approaches, stares at the bowl and moves back, swaying a little, as if faint.]

ARRAM
[Roughly]
I’ll empty it.  Give it to me.
[He goes out]

NANKO
The Old Testament, you know, is full of it.
Who is this, it says, that cometh from Edom
In dyed garments from Bozrah?  It was blood
That dyed their garments.  And in Revelations
Blood came out of the wine-press, till it splashed
The bridles of the horses; and the seas
Were all turned into blood.  Doesn’t that show
That man’s a fighting animal?

MICHAEL
[Goes to the door on the right and tries to open it.]
What’s in here?

RADA
[Thrusting herself between him and the door.]
No!  No!  Don’t go in there!  Don’t go in there!