SECOND JAILER Mr McEvoy, you better just go on home. You’re not in no condition to help your son.
Mr McEvoy looks from one to the other of them in disbelief.
MR MCEVOY You got to let me see him.
FIRST JAILER You’re drunk.
MR MCEVOY I’m not.
FIRST JAILER You caint see him.
MR MCEVOY Whynot?
FIRST JAILER You’re drunk.
SECOND JAILER You’d better go along now. Dont let your son see you like this.
MCEVOY I swear to God. I’ve not had a drink . . .
SECOND JAILER Tommy, if he wont go peaceably you’ll have to take him out. We caint have this here. This is a sacred time.
FIRST JAILER Let’s go.
He takes Mr McEvoy by the arm and escorts him to the door.
MR MCEVOY Please....
Jailer opens door and eases Mr McEvoy outside and shuts the door. Mr McEvoy raises his hand as if he'd bang on the door but then he merely touches the door and lets his forehead fall against it.
Exterior. Jail. Two men arrive on a wagon in front of the doors and one climbs down and taps at the door with the butt of his whip. The door opens and the jailer looks out. The teamster nods toward the wagon and they talk and the jailer nods and the teamster goes back to the wagon and the two teamsters slide a black wooden coffin off the tailboard and carry it in.
Interior. McEvoy's cell. The cell door opens and the sheriff and a deputy enter.
SHERIFF Bob.
McEvoy raises his head and stares at the sheriff without expression.
SHERIFF Are you ready, son?
McEvoy stands, rather quickly, taking up his crutch. He is still holding the flowers.
MCEVOY Yes. I’m ready.
The jailer comes forward and removes the irons from his wrists.
Exterior. Jail. A crowd of some thirty people at the door. The church hell clock strikes twelve. The door opens and the people enter.
Interior. The jail corridor. McEvoy supported by the priest and by his crutch. They enter the execution chamber, a small room with one window. The rope hangs from an overhead beam which has been bored to receive it. There is a trapdoor cut in the floor. McEvoy looks about at the faces of the spectators. They watch him with interest. He steps onto the platform and turns. The deputy is standing by respectfully with a long white robe over one arm. Now he comes forward and he and the priest help McEvoy into the robe, McEvoy cooperating and serious, like a priest being dressed for a sacrament. The hangman, Mr Clements, stands by. He is dressed neatly in a suit. The robe is fitted and smoothed and McEvoy hands by his crutch to the priest who steps from the platform.
SHERIFF Boh, did you want to say anything?
McEvoy quickly shakes his head no. The deputy steps forward and binds his hands behind him and Mr Clements comes forward and adjusts the noose about his neck and steps back again and stands with his hands folded in front of him. The sheriff steps forward and pulls a black hood over his head and steps back. McEvoy is standing on one leg. The sheriff looks at the spectators, then he looks to Mr Clements and nods. McEvoy, under the hood, clears his throat. Mr Clements pulls the rope and the trap opens and McEvoy starts down through the floor.
Interior. The room below. The trap doors slam open with a crash, the blocks crash to the floor and the body of McEvoy hurtles down into the room. Dr Perceval and his black attendant watch by lamplight the figure dangling above them. The doctor consults his watch. They wait for a few moments and the doctor steps forward and reaches up to take the dangling figure’s pulse. Behind them is the black wooden coffin. He checks his watch. There is a sound of feet on wooden stairs outside and a sharp rap at the door. The doctor nods to the black, who opens the door. The sheriff and Mr Clements enter. Outside in the hallway is an old man leaning back in a chair. The camera holds on this man in the hallway throughout the scene. He watches in through the door, which remains open. Beyond him in the hallway is a window with light coming in. In the foreground are stairs coming down from the floor above. The old man watches in the door and when all is clear he takes from the bib of his overalls a piece of wood he is carving together with his jack-knife and falls to carving very methodically, letting the chips fall into the upturned cuff of his overalls.
DOCTOR (os) You dont have to fill that in. It’s down here. Violent or accidental death.
SHERIFF (os) Does Mr Clements have to sign this?
DOCTOR (os) Mr Clements has to sign the release. No. It just says that the state relinquishes all claims.
VOICE (os) Give us some more slack.
VOICE 2 (os) Get his foot there.
DOCTOR (os) Yes. Time of death is 1:13 p.m.
SHERIFF (os) What about this ‘how did injury occur’? Sounds of the body being lowered, grunts.
VOICE (os) Easy.
VOICE (os) You’ll have to cut it.
The old man in the hallway raises the carving and blows on it and looks at it and continues whittling.