The Mousetrap

(WARN Curtain.)

BLORE. That’s right. (LOMBARD enters Left 2.) What about the house, Lombard?

LOMBARD. No one. I’ll stake my life there’s no one in the house but ourselves. I’ve been over it from attic to cellar.

(ROGERS enters from balcony. WARGRAVE comes Right along balcony, slowly, and in to Right of window.)

ROGERS. Breakfast is getting cold.

(EMILY is still reading.)

LOMBARD. (Boisterously) Breakfast! Come on, Blore, you’ve been yelping for breakfast ever since you got up. Let’s eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die. Or who knows, perhaps even today!

(VERA and ARMSTRONG cross to Left 2 door.)

EMILY. (Rises; drops knitting.BLOREpicks it up.) You ought to be ashamed of such levity, Captain Lombard. (Crosses Right.)

LOMBARD. (Still in the same vein, with determination) Come on, General, can’t have this. (Calls) Breakfast, I say, sir—(Goes out on balcony to MACKENZIE. Stops—stoops—comes slowly back and stands in window. His face is stern and dangerous.) Good God! One got left behind—There’s a knife in MacKenzie’s back.

ARMSTRONG. (Goes to him) He’s dead—he’s dead.

BLORE. But he can’t be—Who could have done it? There’s only us on the island.

WARGRAVE. Exactly, my dear sir. Don’t you realize that this clever and cunning criminal is always comfortably one stage ahead of us? That he knows exactly what we are going to do next, and makes his plans accordingly? There’s only one place, you know, where a successful murderer could hide and have a reasonable chance of getting away with it.

BLORE. One place—where?

WARGRAVE. Here in this room—Mr. Owen is one of us!

CURTAIN

Scene II

There is a storm; the room is much darker—the windows closed and beating rain and wind.

WARGRAVEcomes in from Left 2, followed byBLORE.

BLORE. Sir Lawrence?

WARGRAVE. (Centre) Well, Mr. Blore?

BLORE. I wanted to get you alone. (Looks over shoulder at dining room) You were right in what you said this morning. This damned murderer is one of us. And I think I know which one.

WARGRAVE. Really?

BLORE. Ever hear of the Lizzie Borden case? In America. Old couple killed with an axe in the middle of the morning. Only person who could have done it was the daughter, a respectable, middle-aged spinster. Incredible. So incredible that they acquitted her. But they never found any other explanation.

WARGRAVE. Then your answer to the problem is Miss Emily Brent?

BLORE. I tell you that woman is as mad as a hatter. Religious mad, I tell you—she’s the one. And we must watch her.

WARGRAVE. Really? I had formed the impression that your suspicions were in a different quarter.

BLORE. Yes—But I’ve changed my mind, and I’ll tell you for why—she’s not scared and she’s the only one who isn’t. Why? Because she knows quite well she’s in no danger—hush—

(WARGRAVE goes up Right. VERA and EMILY enter from Left 2. VERA is carrying coffee tray. EMILY up Centre.)

VERA. We’ve made some coffee. (She puts tray on tabouret Right Centre. BLORE moves up to tabouret) Brr—it’s cold in here.

BLORE. You’d hardly believe it when you think what a beautiful day it was this morning.

VERA. Are Captain Lombard and Rogers still out?

BLORE. Yes. No boat will put out in this—and it couldn’t land, anyway.

VERA. Miss Brent’s. (Hands coffee cup to BLORE.)

(EMILY comes down; sits Left sofa.)

WARGRAVE. Allow me. (Takes cup and hands it toEMILY.)

VERA. (ToWARGRAVE) You were right to insist on our going to lunch—and drinking some brandy with it. I feel better.

WARGRAVE. (Returns to coffee tray—takes his own coffee; stands by mantelpiece) The Court always adjourns for lunch.

VERA. All the same, it’s a nightmare. It seems as though it can’t be true. What—what are we going to do about it?

(BLORE sits chair Right Centre.)

WARGRAVE. We must hold an informal Court of Enquiry. We may at least be able to eliminate some innocent people.

BLORE. You haven’t got a hunch of any kind, have you, Miss Claythorne?