The street lamp flickering opposite shone on a quiet and deserted road. “I told you it was a coincidence” said the old man quickly making up a plot. “But I heard the knocks!” cried she. She went all around the house in search of a clue, but there was none. “It must have been something or the other. Maybe a wild creature banging against something?” said the man. The cold rusty wind and the failure of her plan drove her back. Yet, she did not rest that night and kept on murmuring her child’s name.
“What was it for which you called me back?” asked the sergeant major hoarsely. “I am sorry for my interruption. But my wife is very dismayed due to Herbert’s death. She weeps day and night and I am afraid she will fail her health” said the old man. He was overwhelmed to see that his wife was getting weaker and weaker and so he thought it would be clever to call the man who had begun it all. “I had warned you of the consequences of using the paw but you had not listened to me” said his friend offhandedly. “I know it and have repayed for it. I don’t want to lose my wife. Look, please help me” said the man. “What should I do? If you want to look after her, you must call a doctor” he said. “You can also be of great help to me. Please convince her that whatever you had said about the monkey’s paw wasn’t true” “Okay, if you say, I will try. But I still say that it is not my fault” said the sergeant. “But it was you who mentioned it to me for the first time” cried the old man. He was very upset and dejected. A worn out, decayed and a mummy of a paw belonging to a dead monkey destroyed the lives of four people!
Inside the house, the fire was brightly lit and the atmosphere was warm. The sergeant went to the old woman. “It was a lie” said he. “No, no” said she. The sergeant beat his head. It would be too difficult to convince her. “There was no first man. It doesn’t fulfil any wish” said the sergeant. “It is of no use now. I know that it works” said the woman who was in bed with high fever. “Stop it! Stop it! Can’t you see what you have made of yourself? You have to believe him, goddamn it! C’mon now you have to look into his words and let them take hold over you. No doctor in the world can cure you. Only you can cure yourself! And I don’t want you to die! No, no, I mustn’t think of it. It is dreadful! You can’t die! You can’t die!” the old man broke down. He began crying at the foot of the bed. “Okay, okay, I’ll try. I will try to recover. It is not true. The monkey’s paw doesn’t grant wishes” after a pause- “No, it is of no use. I will not be able to believe it. Oh! My boy! Herbert! My poor boy!” she broke down with sudden and broken sobs. Both of them cried together, thinking of the happy days of the past. The old man murmurred “You can’t die” and the old woman cried “My boy!” incessantly. The sergeant was looking like a big black blotch in this sea of emotion. He stood there, immobile, without any emotion inside him.
The old man rose and went to the sergeant and caught his collar. “How dare you bring disaster to my family? It is you who broke my family, killed my son and- oh! Look at my wife, my poor wife!” said he. The sergeant transformed his character, his eyes grew red and his strong hands grasped the old man’s palpitating ones, removed them and gave them a wrench. He spoke in a wicked manner. “I am the man who found this paw!” he blurted out. Both husband and wife looked up in horror. The man had a cruel gleam in his eyes and the grimy paw was dangling in his hand. “I devised the method that, besides me, no other man can ask more than three wishes from it. I never used it for myself, when once a selfish man stole it from me. He used it for his own mean purposes and when I tried to retrieve it, he destroyed my family with the help of this! Then, I understood that I had to do something that would bring misfortune to those who used the monkey’s paw for selfish purposes. When I got back the paw, I wished the man to die. I put a spell on it that if it was thrown into the fire before beiong used, then a simian ghost would enter the fire that would bring misfortune to those selfish people. From then, I have used it against people who use fate for mean purposes. And this I have also done with you” he laughed and he laughed hoarsely. It resounded through the house and both the husband and wife began trembling. The old man turned to his wife and saw that she was white pale. “Don’t die! Please don’t die! I have had my three wishes. So now I am helpless. Only you can wish him dead!” said the old man. “What are you saying? You wished Herbert dead again! No!” she cried. There was horror in her eyes and with a fit, she died.
The old’s mans words did her more harm than he had anticipated. “The monkey’s paw is with me, you fool!” said the sergeant and he wished “I wish that this old man should die here and now!” there was a flash of lightning. The old man staggered and fell backwards, eyes wide open. He was dead.
Two days later, in a distant land, the same sergeant major’s eyes got brighter at the third glass, and he began to talk, the little family circle regarding with eager interest this visitor from distant parts, as he squared his broad shoulders in the chair and spoke of strange scenes and doughty deeds, of wars and plagues and strange peoples. After a little time, the monkey’s paw was thrown into the fire by the sergeant and was retrieved by a young lady who said “If you don’t want it, give it to me.”
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