SEFTON BRIGGS
Here we are, then, Harry.

(He hands Harry a cheque for the butchered pig.)

HARRY JENKINS
Thank you very much, Mr. Sefton.

MRS. FOSTER
(to Sefton)
Will that be all, then?

HARRY
It's only a question of delivery now, isn't it?

SEFTON
I'm obliged, Harry.

HARRY
Don’t mention it, Mr. Sefton.

MRS. FOSTER
Harry...

(She gestures emphatically for her brother to follow her to the kitchen.)

HARRY
Early tomorrow morning, then, uh...afore it's light, of course.

SEFTON
Thank you, Harry. I'm obliged.

(Harry and his sister begin to leave, but then he stops and turns to Sefton.)

HARRY
Oh!

(He pulls a package of bacon from his coat and offers it to Sefton.)

HARRY
Small sample...

SEFTON
Oh...well...

(Sefton accepts the package, then gazes suspiciously at it as Harry and Mrs. Foster leave the room.)

TONY BRIGGS
(sarcastically)
Saved your bacon?

SEFTON
Those two men haven't been, have they? You see?

TONY
I doubt if we shall ever find out, but... I'd like to know where that came from.

SEFTON
What do you mean, "where it came from"?

(Tony looks knowingly at his father, who has yet to grasp that he has just, in essence, re-purchased his own bacon.)

(Meanwhile, Mrs. Foster and Harry enter the kitchen.)

MRS. FOSTER
You've done very well out of that, haven't you?

HARRY
(smiling)
Aye, I've done all right. Still, he can afford it, the old crook.

MRS. FOSTER
Yes. Well, they say it takes one to know one, don't they?

HARRY
Now, Mary...

MRS. FOSTER
You keep away from him in future, do you understand? And heaven help you, if he recognises it!

HARRY
I don't know what you mean.

MRS. FOSTER
Ah, if I could be sure...

HARRY
(chuckling)
You can never be sure of a pig, Mary. I mean, I'm in the business, aren't I? And even to me, one dead pig looks very much like another.

(Mrs. Foster frowns at her brother.)

 

(from "A Time to Be Born" by John Finch)