The Mousetrap

LADYWESTHOLME. There are wider diplomatic considerations to be observed. The whole thing must be dropped.

CARBERY. I don’t take my orders from you, Lady Westholme.

LADYWESTHOLME. I assure you that I shall pull strings—and that I can pull strings. Once I get to a telegraph office.

CARBERY. You will get to a telegraph office tomorrow, and you can send wires to the Prime Minister, the Foreign Secretary and the President of the United States and play cat’s cradle with the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries if it pleases you. In the meantime, I run my own show.

LADYWESTHOLME. You will find, Colonel Carbery, that I am more influential than you think.

(LADY WESTHOLME exits angrily Right.)

CARBERY. Phew! What a tartar! (He moves above the table.) The worst of it is—(He smiles ruefully at SARAH) the damn woman’s quite right.

SARAH. What do you mean?

CARBERY. The whole thing will have to be dropped.

SARAH. Why?

CARBERY. Because there’s no evidence. One of ’em did it, all right, but as the evidence lies there’s no earthly chance of proving which one. Oh, that’s a very common state of affairs in police work. Knowledge without proof. And in this case the Westholme woman is quite right—there is an international aspect. Can’t bring an accusation against an American subject unless you’ve got sufficient evidence. We haven’t.

SARAH. (Slowly) So the whole thing will be dropped.

CARBERY. Yes. There’ll be an inquest and all that. But the result’s a foregone conclusion. They’ll go scot free. (He gives her a quick glance.) That please you?

SARAH. I don’t know.

CARBERY. (Moving to Left of the table) Well—(He jerks his thumb towards the BOYNTONS) it ought to please them.

SARAH. Ought it?

CARBERY. Don’t you think so?

SARAH. (Rising and moving Right Centre, explosively) No, no, no!

CARBERY. You’re very emphatic, Miss King.

SARAH. Don’t you see—it’s the most awful thing that could happen to them? They don’t know themselves which one of them it was—and now they’ll never know.

CARBERY. May have been all in it together. (He sits Left of the table.)

SARAH. No, they weren’t. That’s just the awful part of it. Three of them are innocent—but they’re all four of them in the shadow together—and now they’ll never get out of the shadow.

CARBERY. Yes, that’s the worst of the verdict not proven. The innocent suffer. (He coughs.) You’ve got—a special interest, I gather.

SARAH. Yes.

CARBERY. I’m sorry. I wish I could help you.

SARAH. You see—he won’t fight for himself.

CARBERY. So you’ve got to fight for him?

SARAH. (Moving to Right of the table) Yes—it began when she was alive. I fought her. I thought I’d win, too. This morning I thought I had won. But now—they’re back again—back in her shadow. That’s where she sat, you know. In the mouth of the cave there—like an obscene old idol. Gloating in her own power and her cruelty. I feel as though she’s sitting there now, holding them still, laughing because she’s got them where she wants them, knowing that they’ll never escape her now. (She speaks up to the cave.) Yes, you’ve won, you old devil. You’ve proved that death is stronger than life. It oughtn’t to be—it oughtn’t to be. (She breaks down and sinks on to the chair Right of the table.)

(There is a pause. CARBERY realizes there is nothing he can do, rises and exits to the marquee. HIGGS enters from the marquee.)

HIGGS. Aye, but it’s warm. (He crosses to Centre.)

(The DRAGOMAN enters down the slope Left.)

DRAGOMAN. Horses coming over pass. Be here in a few moments.

HIGGS. Then hurry oop and get some beer—ah’m in a muck sweat again.

(The DRAGOMAN exits to the marquee. MISS PRYCE enters down the slope.)

MISSPRYCE. What a wonderful place this is.

SARAH. I think it’s a damnable place.

MISSPRYCE. (Crossing to Right Centre) Oh, really—Miss King . . .

SARAH. Sorry.

MISSPRYCE. Oh, I quite understand. Such tragic associations. And then, of course, you are so young.

(MISS PRYCE exits Right.)

SARAH. (Bitterly) Yes, I’m young. What’s the good of being young? It ought to be some good. Youth means strength. It means life. Life ought to be stronger than death.