DRUMMOND

Do you ever think about things that you do think about? (There is some laughter. But it is dampened by the knowledge and awareness throughout the courtroom, that the trap is about to be sprung) Isn’t it possible that first day was twenty-five hours long? There was no way to measure it, no way to tell! Could it have been twenty-five hours?

(Pause. The entire courtroom seems to lean forward.)

BRADY

(Hesitates—then)

It is…possible…

(DRUMMOND’S got him. And he knows it! This is the turning point. From here on, the tempo mounts. DRUMMOND is now fully in the driver’s seat. He pounds his questions faster and faster.)

DRUMMOND

Oh. You interpret that the first day recorded in the Book of Genesis could be of indeterminate length.

BRADY

(Wriggling)

I mean to state that the day referred to is not necessarily a twenty-four-hour day.

DRUMMOND

It could have been thirty hours! Or a month! Or a year! Or a hundred years! (He brandishes the rock underneath BRADY’S nose) Or ten million years!

(DAVENPORT is able to restrain himself no longer. He realizes that DRUMMOND has BRADY in his pocket. Red-faced, he leaps up to protest.)

DAVENPORT

I protest! This is not only irrelevant, immaterial—it is illegal! (There is excited reaction in the courtroom. The JUDGE pounds for order, but the emotional tension will not subside) I demand to know the purpose of Mr. Drummond’s examination! What is he trying to do?

(Both BRADY and DRUMMOND crane forward, hurling their answers not at the court, but at each other.)

BRADY

I’ll tell you what he’s trying to do! He wants to destroy everybody’s belief in the Bible, and in God!

DRUMMOND

You know that’s not true. I’m trying to stop you bigots and ignoramuses from controlling the education of the United States! And you know it!

(Arms out, DAVENPORT pleads to the court, but is unheard. The JUDGE hammers for order.)

JUDGE

(Shouting)

I shall ask the bailiff to clear the court, unless there is order here.

BRADY

How dare you attack the Bible?

DRUMMOND

The Bible is a book. A good book. But it’s not the only book.

BRADY

It is the revealed word of the Almighty. God spake to the men who wrote the Bible.

DRUMMOND

And how do you know that God didn’t “spake” to Charles Darwin?

BRADY

I know, because God tells me to oppose the evil teachings of that man.

DRUMMOND

Oh. God speaks to you.

BRADY

Yes.

DRUMMOND

He tells you exactly what’s right and what’s wrong?

BRADY

(Doggedly)

Yes.

DRUMMOND

And you act accordingly?

BRADY

Yes.

DRUMMOND

So you, Matthew Harrison Brady, through oratory, legislation, or whatever, pass along God’s orders to the rest of the world! (Laughter begins) Gentlemen, meet the “Prophet From Nebraska!”

(BRADY’S oratory is unassailable; but his vanity—exposed by DRUMMOND’S prodding—is only funny. The laughter is painful to BRADY. He starts to answer DRUMMOND, then turns toward the spectators and tries, almost physically, to suppress the amused reaction. This only makes it worse.)