sand on which, in places, grows the stiff beach grass—­struggle; dogged growing against odds.  At right of the big sliding door is a drift of sand and the top of buried beach grass is seen on this.  There is a door left, and at right of big sliding door is a slanting wall.  Door in this is ajar at rise of curtain, and through this door BRADFORD and TONY, life-savers, are seen bending over a man’s body, attempting to restore respiration.  The captain of the life-savers comes into view outside the big open door, at left; he appears to have been hurrying, peers in, sees the men, goes quickly to them.

CAPTAIN:  I’ll take this now, boys.

BRADFORD:  No need for anybody to take it, Capt’n.  He was dead when we picked him up.

CAPTAIN:  Dannie Sears was dead when we picked him up.  But we brought him back.  I’ll go on awhile.

(The two men who have been bending over the body rise, stretch to relax, and come into the room.)

BRADFORD:  (pushing back his arms and putting his hands on his chest) Work,—­tryin to put life in the dead.

CAPTAIN:  Where’d you find him, Joe?

BRADFORD:  In front of this house.  Not forty feet out.

CAPTAIN:  What’d you bring him up here for?

(He speaks in an abstracted way, as if the working part of his mind is on something else, and in the muffled voice of one bending over.)

BRADFORD:  (with a sheepish little laugh) Force of habit, I guess.  We brought so many of ’em back up here, (looks around the room) And then it was kind of unfriendly down where he was—­the wind spittin’ the sea onto you till he’d have no way of knowin’ he was ashore.

TONY:  Lucky I was not sooner or later as I walk by from my watch.

BRADFORD:  You have accommodating ways, Tony.  No sooner or later.  I wouldn’t say it of many Portagees.  But the sea (calling it in to the CAPTAIN) is friendly as a kitten alongside the women that live here.  Allie Mayo—­they’re both crazy—­had that door open (moving his head toward the big sliding door) sweepin’ out, and when we come along she backs off and stands lookin’ at us, lookin’—­Lord, I just wanted to get him somewhere else.  So I kicked this door open with my foot (jerking his hand toward the room where the CAPTAIN is seen bending over the man) and got him away. (under his voice) If he did have any notion of comin’ back to life, he wouldn’t a come if he’d seen her. (more genially) I wouldn’t.

CAPTAIN:  You know who he is, Joe?

BRADFORD:  I never saw him before.

CAPTAIN:  Mitchell telephoned from High Head that a dory came ashore there.

BRADFORD:  Last night wasn’t the best night for a dory. (to TONY, boastfully) Not that I couldn’t ‘a’ stayed in one.  Some men can stay in a dory and some can’t. (going to the inner door) That boy’s dead, Capt’n.