Read Online The Mousetrap and Other Plays by Agatha Christie - Free Book Online

( Turns head sharply ) Be quiet.
    ROGERS . Do you know where the gentlemen are, Miss? Breakfast is ready. ( To above Left sofa. )
    VERA . Sir Lawrence Wargrave is sitting out there in the sun. Doctor Armstrong and Mr. Blore are searching the island. I shouldn’t bother about them. ( She comes in. )
    EMILY . “Shall not the isles shake at the sound of the fall, when the wounded cry, when the slaughter is made in the midst of thee?”
    VERA . ( To Left. Coldly. After waiting a minute or two ) Shall we go in?
    EMILY . I don’t feel like eating.
    ROGERS . ( To MACKENZIE ) Breakfast is ready. ( Goes off Right on balcony. )
    EMILY . ( Opens Bible again ) “Then all the princes of the sea shall come down from their thrones, and lay away their robes, and put of their ’broidered garments.” ( Enter BLORE up Right ) “They shall clothe themselves with trembling, they shall sit upon the ground, and shall tremble at every moment, and be astonished at thee.” ( Looks up and sees BLORE , but her eyes are almost unseeing. )
    BLORE . ( Speaks readily, but watches her with a new interest ) Reading aloud, Miss Brent?
    EMILY . It is my custom to read a portion of the Bible every day.
    BLORE . Very good habit, I’m sure. ( To down Right. )
    ( ARMSTRONG comes Right along balcony and in. )
    VERA . What luck did you have?
    ARMSTRONG . There’s no cover on the island. No caves. No one could hide anywhere.
    ( 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. BLORE picks 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.
    WARGRAVE comes in from Left 2, followed by BLORE .
    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