The Gardener's Son by Cormac McCarthy Read Free Book Online

Gregg. Good god, captain.
    Gregg pauses, his eyes swimming.
    G REGG Mr Giles, he’s murdered me.
    Gregg stumbles on a few steps until he can see out the door and there he raises the pistol in both hands and fires at McEvoy in the street. McEvoy turns. He is standing in the street holding the pistol in one hand. Gregg is standing in the doorway, swaying, holding his pistol at his waist in both hands and looking down at McEvoy. There is a frozen moment and then McEvoy's face turns anguished and he raises the pistol and cocks it and levels it at Gregg. It hesitates for just a moment. Then it fires. Gregg collapses in the doorway. McEvoy's father has stopped a few yards down the street from where his son is holding the pistol. The clatter of machinery in the background suddenly comes to a halt. There is an immense silence. Figures appear at the door of the mill. They are all watching Mr McEvoy as he approaches his son. He is walking very straight and dignified and he is crying. He holds out his hand for the pistol. McEvoy is breathing hard. His face changes from hatred to anguish. The father holds out his hand for the pistol. McEvoy turns the pistol on his father for a moment. The older man takes yet another step toward his son. He is almost close enough now to put his arm around his son. He is crying quietly. McEvoy lowers his head. He hands the pistol to his father. They stand there, the boy looking down at the ground and the father looking at the boy, holding the revolver clumsily by the barrel.
    Exterior. The Gregg home. Mrs Gregg is in her garden, bonneted, cutting back the dry winter shrubs. She raises up. She listens to the silence. She looks toward the mill. She takes off her bonnet and starts for the house, calling for the boy and telling him to get the carriage.
    Exterior. Mill. Silence. There are faces at the windows and figures standing in the doorways. Six or eight members of the board of directors come down the steps from the mill office with James Gregg on a litter improvised from the balustrade dividing the inner and outer office and ease him into the bed of a springwagon. They are furtive and they regard the mill and the watching workers fearfully. Two of the members climb into the bed of the wagon to attend him and the horse starts off at almost a walk with the other members following like mourners at a wake. Gregg is alive. He looks at the faces at the mill and they look back with a variety of expressions, from apathy to mild interest to genuine sorrow. The mill blurs away. The train whistle blows.
    Exterior. Mrs Gregg's carriage coming along the road. She is sitting very erect, worried but stoic. The black driver is worried and urges the horses along.
    Exterior. Mill. Silence. Mrs Gregg's carriage comes into view with the horses still at a smart trot and stops in the road before the mill office. She climbs down from the carriage and crosses the open space and enters the office. The workers watch her go. The train whistle calls in the farther distance. The horses whinny and stamp. In a few moments she comes to the door. Her face is stunned. She looks down the front of the mill to all the faces that are watching her. They stare back. She comes down the stairs. She stumbles toward the carriage. A man appears at the mill office door but he doesnt know what to do. Mrs Gregg crosses to her carriage. All watch her. Her face is crumpled with grief.
    M RS G REGG Dear God please dont take him. Please God dont take him.
    Interior. Aiken County courthouse. There are nine black and three white jurors. The blacks wear light-colored clothes, the whites dark-colored. There are two black lawyers and one white lawyer for both the prosecution and the defense. Sheriff and judge are white. The prosecuting attorney, Mr P L Wiggins (black), reads the indictment to the jury. Robert McEvoy sits with his lawyers.
    P ROSECUTING A TTORNEY That Robert McEvoy, not having the fear of God before his eyes, but being moved and seduced by the