Dialog between Schuster and Guss Chernak:

Episode 172, scene 2.

     Schuster is dictating a letter.

DS:  Of the computers which you offer, the S-105 seems ...
     [Noise from maintenance room.]
     [Schuster looks through a window down at the maintenance room.]
     [Schuster picks up the phone.]
DS:  This is David Schuster.  Will you ring the night watchman?
     [Schuster turns off the light].
GC:  Hey.  What's going on?
     [Schuster turns the light back on].
     [Schuster goes down the stairs to the maintenance room.]
DS:  That's a good question.  You tell me.
GC:  Why should I tell you anything?  Go get your shoes shined.  Leave 
     me alone. 
DS:  Wait a minute.  Wait a minute.  Wait a minute.  
DS:  Wait a minute.  Come on.  Come on, let's go up to my office and 
     we'll talk. 
GC:  Your office?  You mean Harrington's office.  Oh, I've been there. 
     Gus, you're no good on the loom anymore.  We're going to let 
     you service the machines.  Gus,  You can't handle the machines 
     anymore, we're going to make you a night watchman.  Big shots. 
DS:  Now, wait a minute.  Wait a minute.  I'm not Leslie Harrington.
GC:  Sure.  Sure.  What difference does it make?  Just the name on the 
     door. 
DS:  I tried to help you.
GC:  Help?  How?  By making me beg on my knees for a little advance on the 
     salary that was coming to me anyhow.  Huh?  By letting my wife wash 
     your dirty dishes.  You could have helped me.  But you didn't. 
DS:  If you mean about giving your son a job?
GC:  So.  You've got a guilty conscience.  That's right.  My son Joe.  
     Joe Chernak.  He wasn't good enough to work in your mill.  But 
     Rodney Harrington was. 
DS:  I'm sorry.  I couldn't put him to work, Gus.  But when I looked 
     into his record I found that he hadn't held a job more than a week. 
GC:  But he never murdered anybody either like your precious Rodney 
     Harrington. 
DS:  Give me the hammer, Gus.
GC:  You come and get it.
     [Schuster assumes a fighting stance.]
DS:  Gus.
GC:  What are you going to do?  Fire Me.
DS:  You don't give me any choice.
GC:  You ain't a big enough man.
     [Gus swings the hammer again.]
     [Schuster wrestles the sledge hammer from Chernak].
     [Gus collapses and gasps.]
     [Schuster leans down to check Gus.]
DS:  Gus?  Gus?
     [Schuster picks up the phone.]
DS:  This is Mr. Schuster again.  And this is an emergency.  Call 
     Doctors Hospital. 
     [Sound of ambulance arriving at the mill.] 
     [Rossi comes down to the maintenance room.]
MR:  How did it happen?
DS:  I found him smashing up the place with this sledge hammer.  I tried to 
     reason with him. 
     [Rossi examines Chernak, taking his pulse.] 
DS:  Is it his heart?
MR:  No.  No.  I don't think so.
     [Gus is placed on stretcher by two EMT's and Rossi.  Gus is covered 
     with a blanket.] 
DS:  It happened when I tried to take that hammer away from him.
MR:  Looks like he was determined to destroy everything.  Including himself.
     [Gus is carried down the stairs and placed in the ambulance.]

Episode 172, scene 2              HOME