The Mousetrap

When the curtain rises, the fourBOYNTONSare sitting on the rock up Right, which is now in shadow. They are quite still and are lost in a stupor of despair.NADINEandGINEVRAare seated on stools with their backs to the audience.LENNOXis leaning on the rock Left of the cave mouth.RAYMONDis seated halfway up the steps.SARAHis pacing up and down Right Centre. Her hands are clenched and she is obviously fighting misery and doubt.COPEenters down the slope Left. He is fatigued and despondent. He looks at the group on the rock, then moves Centre.

SARAH. Have you got a cigarette?

COPE. (Moving toSARAH) Why, certainly. (He proffers his case.)

SARAH. (Taking a cigarette) Thanks.

COPE. (Lighting her cigarette) I suppose we shall be leaving before long.

SARAH. (Crossing and sitting Right of the table) I suppose so. I wish we had never come here.

COPE. (Crossing and sitting Left of the table) Amen to that. I’m the kind of guy who’s born to be a stooge. As soon as the old lady went west I knew my number was up. Why the heck did she have to die just then? Now—well, Nadine will never leave her husband now. She’ll stand by him now, whatever he’s done.

SARAH. (Sharply) Do you think he—did it?

COPE. Lennox is a queer guy. I’ve never been able to size him up properly. You’d say, to look at him, that he wouldn’t have the guts to do anything violent—but, well, you never know what a man’s like underneath. I’d still like to think that the old lady died a natural death. After all, she was a very sick woman.

SARAH. (Rising and looking up at theBOYNTONS) Look at them.

COPE. (Staring up at theBOYNTONS) You mean—they don’t think so? (He rises and moves to Left of her.) It—yes, it sort of gets you, the way they sit there, not saying anything. Almost Wagnerian, isn’t it? The twilight of the gods. Symbolical in a way, sitting in that shadow.

SARAH. Her shadow.

COPE. Yes—yes, I see what you mean.

SARAH. (Crossing down Left; desperately) She’s got them still. Her death hasn’t set them free after all.

COPE. (Shaking his head) I guess this has been a very trying day for all of us. Oh, well, I guess I might as well let Abraham show me where the Natabeans are buried.

(COPE crosses and exits Right. GERARD enters down Right.)

SARAH. (Crossing toGERARD) When we get back to civilization, what will happen?

GERARD. It will depend largely on the result of the autopsy.

SARAH. There’s a very strong chance that it won’t be conclusive.

GERARD. I know.

SARAH. (Desperately) Why can’t we do something?

GERARD. What do you want to do?

SARAH. That’s easy. I want Raymond. It was a battle between me and that old she-devil. This morning I thought I’d won. Now—look at them.

(GERARD looks up at the BOYNTONS, then studies SARAH.)

GERARD. (After a pause) Do you think he killed her?

SARAH. (Fiercely) No. (She crosses to Left of the table.)

GERARD. You don’t think so, but you’re not sure.

SARAH. I am sure.

GERARD. One of them killed her.

SARAH. Not Raymond.

GERARD. (Shrugging his shoulders) Enfin, you are a woman. (He crosses to Right of the table.)

SARAH. It’s not that. (With courage) Oh, well, perhaps it is. But they didn’t plan to kill her. (She moves down Left.) They may have thought of killing her, but it’s not the same thing. We all—think of things.

GERARD. Very true. All the same, one of them did more than think.

SARAH. Yes.

GERARD. The question is, which of them? One can make out a case against any one of them. Raymond actually had the digitoxin in his possession.

SARAH. (Moving and sitting Left of the table) That’s a point in his favour. If he had used it he wouldn’t be so idiotic as to leave the bottle in his pocket.