Curtain47
Climax may come through surprise, as the discussion of suspense shows (pp. 212-214). Such surprise may be theatrical, as in Home48 where it is obviously an arranged effect, or genuinely dramatic because justified by the preceding characterization, as in The Clod.
(Mary goes to the cupboard; returns to the table with the salt. Almost ready to drop, she drags herself to the window nearer back, and leans against it, watching the Southerners like a hunted animal. Thaddeus sits nodding in the corner. The Sergeant and Dick go on devouring food. The Sergeant pours the coffee. Puts his cup to his lips, takes one swallow; then, jumping to his feet and upsetting his chair as he does so, he hurls his cup to the floor. The crash of china stirs Thaddeus. Mary shakes in terror.)
Sergeant. (Bellowing and pointing to the fluid trickling on the floor.) Have you tried to poison us, you God damn hag?
(Mary screams, and the faces of the men turn white. It is like the cry of the animal goaded beyond endurance.)
Mary. (Screeching.) Call my coffee poison, will ye? Call me a hag? I’ll learn ye! I’m a woman, and ye’re drivin’ me crazy.
(Snatches the gun from the wall, points it at the Sergeant, and fires. Keeps on screeching. The Sergeant falls to the floor. Dick rushes for his gun.)
Thaddeus. Mary! Mary!
Mary. (Aiming at Dick, and firing.) I ain’t a hag. I’m a woman, but ye’re killin’ me.
(Dick falls just as he reaches his gun. Thaddeus is in the corner with his hands over his ears. Mary continues to pull the trigger of the empty gun. The Northerner is motionless for a moment; then he goes to Thaddeus, and shakes him.)
Northerner. Go get my horse, quick!
(Thaddeus obeys. The Northerner turns to Mary. She gazes at him, but does not understand a word he says.)
Northerner. (With great fervor.) I’m ashamed of what I said. The whole country will hear of this, and you.
(Takes her hand, and presses it to his lips; then turns and hurries out of the house. Mary still holds the gun in her hand. She pushes a strand of gray hair back from her face, and begins to pick up the fragments of the broken coffee cup.)
Mary. (In dead, flat tone.) I’ll have to drink out the tin cup now.
(The hoof-beats of the Northerner’s horse are heard.)