Shows S

Gillweather mourns Lady Manley-Prowe. Flint gets the power back on by means of the generator, and as the rest of the survivors go off to examine it, Nigel searches for the will. When he finds it corked in a bottle, he is dismayed to find that he is not his uncle's heir, before having his head bashed in by a mechanical sconce. Gillweather discovers Nigel's corpse and the will, which he reads before being shot with a dart. He recognizes the poison and diagnoses that he has five minutes to live, but most of his time is taken up by Miss Tweed confiding in him about Flint's "gripper" tendencies and the discovery of Nigel. He is finally able to reveal Rancour's heir to Miss Tweed: Hope Langdon, whom he realizes is his daughter by Lady Manley-Prowe, before succumbing, dignified, to the poison. Lettie panics at the mounting pile of bodies in the Library and the survivors decide to pack up and leave as soon as climatically possible. While the others are doing so, Hope expresses her joy at finding someone like Geoffrey and nearly misses being hit by the falling chandelier. Lettie takes this to mean that Hope was supposed to be next, and Hope, Geoffrey, and Miss Tweed go off to pack. Lettie turns the gas on to make tea, but is distracted by Flint, who offers a means of escape by proposing they take his boat off the island. She eagerly accepts his advances this time. After he runs to pack, Lettie finds a letter in her pocket, recommending that Lord Rancour stores large sums of money in a large Ming vase. Upon discovering the vase, she cannot resist, and peeks inside, only to be sucked in and ground to bits, the vase spitting out only her shoe. When the rest of the survivors, Miss Tweed, Geoffrey, Hope, and Flint discover Lettie's remains, Flint goes to finish the tea. However, as he was smoking and the gas had never been turned off, there is an explosion, killing Flint. Miss Tweed concludes that since Flint's death had been accidental, he had been the murderer, with a motive of insanity. She shows Lord Rancour's will to Hope, revealing her parentage and fortune. Delighted, Geoffrey and Hope ask Miss Tweed how she solves her cases. Miss Tweed replies that all her knowledge comes from reading mystery novels. However, as she thinks over the facts while painting Geoffrey's portrait, she declares that Flint was not the killer. Before she can tell who the true murderer was, she is strangled with her own scarf by a mechanical ornamental spear. Geoffery and Hope turn on each other, each suspecting the other of being the killer. However, the portrait of Lord Rancour opens to reveal a victrola, which contains the confession of Lord Rancour. He himself had planned the murders, all in order to let Hope inherit her fortune. He had killed her parents and himself so that she would never have the burden of a guardian, Clive because he had known of the existence of a child, Doctor Grayburn because he had delivered her, and Miss Tweed because she had been Hope's nanny. Rancour assumed that if the truth was revealed, the three of them would stand in her way. Nigel had been killed because he would have contested the will, Lettie because she was blackmailing Rancour, and Flint simply because he was "a gripper." Rancour explains that each murder was planned according to the victim's habits: Clive punctally announced dinner on the stairs at 7:15 for example, when the bomb was to be set off. Grieved, Hope stops listening. She and Geoffery drink a toast to the new world that awaits them. However, they begin to feel ill as Rancour explains that Flint's death was meant to come from poisoned wine (which they had just drunk), rather than the gas explosion. Hope and Geoffery fall dead. CHARACTERS The Cast : - Casting for the play is six men and four women • Lettie - "The saucy maid" (Cockney) (lured into giant vase and gets eaten by a serpent)- Alto • Flint - "The caretaker" (Cockney) (killed in accidental gas explosion)- Tenor • Clive - "The butler" (death by exploding balustrade)- Bass • Hope Langdon - "The Ingenue" (drinks poisoned wine intended for Flint)- Soprano • Dr. Grayburn - "The family doctor" (asphyxiated by gas concealed in telephone)- Tenor • Nigel Rancour - "The black sheep nephew" (coshed in the bonce by a sconce)- Tenor • Lady Grace Manley-Prowde - "The Grande Dame" (electrocuted by light switch)- Alto • Colonel Gillweather - "The old army man" (poisoned by blowgun dart; lives long enough to analyze the

RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy ODU3MzQ=