BUSMAN. In your strongbox, of course.

DOMIN. Someone-- has-- stolen it!

DR. GALL. Impossible.

DOMIN. Who has stolen it?

HELENA (standing up). I did.

DOMIN. Where did you put it?

HELENA. Harry, I'll tell you everything. Only forgive me.

DOMIN. Where did you put it?

HELENA. This morning-- I burned-- the two copies.

DOMIN. Burned them? Where? In the fireplace?

HELENA (throwing herself on her knees). For heaven's sake, Harry.

DOMIN (going to fireplace). Nothing, nothing but ashes. Wait, what's this? (Picks out a charred piece of paper and reads.) "By adding--"

DR. GALL. Let's see. "By adding biogen to--" That's all.

DOMIN. Is that part of it?

DR. GALL. Yes.

BUSMAN. God in heaven!

DOMIN. Then we're done for. Get up, Helena.

HELENA. When you've forgiven me.

DOMIN. Get up, child, I can't bear--

FABRY (lifting her up). Please don't torture us.

HELENA. Harry, what have I done?

FABRY. Don't tremble so, Madame Helena.

DOMIN. Gall, couldn't you draw up Rossum's formula from memory?

DR. GALL. It's out of the question. It's extremely complicated.

DOMIN. Try. All our lives depend upon it.

DR. GALL. Without experiments it's impossible.

DOMIN. And with experiments?

DR. GALL. It might take years. Besides, I'm not old Rossum.

BUSMAN. God in heaven! God in heaven!

DOMIN. So, then, this was the greatest triumph of the human intellect. These ashes.

HELENA. Harry, what have I done?

DOMIN. Why did you burn it?

HELENA. I have destroyed you.

BUSMAN. God in heaven!

DOMIN. Helena, why did you do it, dear?

HELENA. I wanted all of us to go away. I wanted to put an end to the factory and everything. It was so awful.

DOMIN. What was awful?

HELENA. That no more children were being born. Because human beings were not needed to do the work of the world, that's why--

DOMIN. Is that what you were thinking of? Well, perhaps in your own way you were right.

BUSMAN. Wait a bit. Good God, what a fool I am, not to have thought of it before!

HALLEMEIER. What?

BUSMAN. Five hundred and twenty millions in bank notes and checks. Half a billion in our safe, they'll sell for half a billion-- for half a billion they'll--

DR. GALL. Are you mad, Busman?

BUSMAN. I may not be a gentleman, but for half a billion--

DOMIN. Where are you going?

BUSMAN. Leave me alone, leave me alone! Good God, for half a billion anything can be bought. (He rushes from the room through the outer door.)

FABRY. They stand there as if turned to stone, waiting. As if something dreadful could be wrought by their silence--

HALLEMEIER. The spirit of the mob.

FABRY. Yes, it hovers above them like a quivering of the air.

HELENA. (going to window). Oh, God! Dr. Gall, this is ghastly.

FABRY. There is nothing more terrible than the mob. The one in front is their leader.

HELENA. Which one?

HALLEMEIER. Point him out.

FABRY. The one at the edge of the dock. This morning I saw him talking to the sailors in the harbor.

HELENA. Dr. Gall, that's Radius!

DR. GALL. Yes.

DOMIN. Radius? Radius?

HALLEMEIER. Could you get him from here, Fabry?

FABRY. I hope so.

HALLEMEIER. Try it, then.

FABRY. Good. (Draws his revolver and takes aim.)

HELENA. Fabry, don't shoot him.

FABRY. He's their leader.

DR. GALL. Fire!

HELENA. Fabry, I beg of you.

FABRY (lowering the revolver). Very well.

DOMIN. Radius, whose life I spared!

DR. GALL. Do you think that a Robot can be grateful? (Pause.)

FABRY. Busman's going out to them.

HALLEMEIER. He's carrying something. Papers. That's money. Bundles of money. What's that for?

DOMIN. Surely he doesn't want to sell his life. Busman, have you gone mad?

FABRY. He's running up to the railing. Busman! Busman!

HALLEMEIER (yelling). Busman! Come back!

FABRY. He's talking to the Robots. He's showing them the money.

HALLEMEIER. He's pointing to us.

HELENA. He wants to buy us off.

FABRY. He'd better not touch that railing.

HALLEMEIER. Now he's waving his arms about.

DOMIN. Busman, come back.

FABRY. Busman, keep away from that railing! Don't touch it. Damn you! Quick, switch off the current! (HELENA screams and all drop back from the window.) The current has killed him!

ALQUIST. The first one.

FABRY. Dead, with half a billion by his side.

HALLEMEIER. All honor to him. He wanted to buy us life. (Pause).

DR. GALL. Do you hear?

DOMIN. A roaring. Like a wind.

DR. GALL. Like a distant storm.

FABRY (lighting the lamp on the table). The dynamo is still going, our people are still there.

HALLEMEIER. It was a great thing to be a man. There was something immense about it.

FABRY. From man's thought and man's power came this light, our last hope.

HALLEMEIER. Man's power! May it keep watch over us.

ALQUIST. Man's power.

DOMIN. Yes! A torch to be given from hand to hand, from age to age, forever! (The lamp goes out.)

HALLEMEIER. The end.

FABRY. The electric works have fallen!

[Terrific explosion outside. NANA enters from the library.]

NANA. The judgment hour has come! Repent, unbelievers! This is the end of the world. (More explosions. The sky grows red.)

DOMIN. In here, Helena. (He takes HELENA off through door at right and reenters.) Now quickly! Who'll be on the lower doorway?

DR. GALL. I will. (Exits left.)

DOMIN. Who on the stairs?

FABRY. I will. You go with her. (Goes out upper left door.)

DOMIN. The anteroom.

ALQUIST. I will.

DOMIN. Have you got a revolver?

ALQUIST. Yes, but I won't shoot.

DOMIN. What will you do then?

ALQUIST (going out at left). Die.

HALLEMEIER. I'll stay here. (Rapid firing from below.) Oho, Gall's at it. Go, Harry.

DOMIN. Yes, in a second. (Examines two Brownings.)

HALLEMEIER. Confound it, go to her.

DOMIN. Good-bye. (Exits on the right.)

HALLEMEIER (alone). Now for a barricade quickly. (Drags an armchair and table to the right-hand door. Explosions are heard.) The damned rascals! They've got bombs. I must put up a defense. Even if-- even if-- (Shots are heard off left.) Don't give in, Gall. (As he builds his barricade.) I mustn't give in... without... a struggle...

[A Robot enters over the balcony through the windows center. He comes into the room and stabs HALLEMEIER in the back. RADIUS enters from balcony followed by an army of Robots who pour into the room from all sides.]

RADIUS. Finished him?

A ROBOT. Yes. (Two revolver shots from HELENA'S room. Two Robots enter.)

RADIUS. Finished them?

A ROBOT. Yes.

TWO ROBOTS (dragging in ALQUIST). He didn't shoot. Shall we kill him?

RADIUS. Kill him? Wait! Leave him!

ROBOT. He is a man!

RADIUS. He works with his hands like the Robots.

ALQUIST. Kill me.

RADIUS. You will work! You will build for us! You will serve us! (Climbs onto balcony railing, and speaks in measured tones.) Robots of the world! The power of man has fallen! A new world has arisen: the Rule of the Robots! March!

[A thunderous tramping of thousands of feet is heard as the unseen Robots march, while the curtain falls.]