The Octoroon

Act IV starts on the Wharf, where Ratts and his men are loading his steamship and Scudder and Pete join them. As they’re preparing the ship, the slave Solon enters and reveals they’ve found Wahnotee, whom they still believe killed Paul. They ask him about Paul and he says that Paul was killed by a blow to the head; even though the group automatically assumes Wahnotee “got drunk, quarreled with [Paul], and killed him” (63), they still move to give him a trial before they lynch him. M’Closky tries to assert Wahnotee’s guilt, saying it’s “plain” to see that Wahnotee killed him, but M’Closky gets exposed when Pete looks at the camera and realizes there’s a photographic plate in there showing M’Closky standing over Paul’s body. The group realizes that it was M’Closky who killed Paul and move to give him a trial, when M’Closky pulls out a knife to “defend” (66) himself.

The group grabs M’Closky and finds the Liverpool letter, figuring out his nefarious plan, which Scudder explains: “You stole this letter that the money should not arrive in time to save the Octoroon; had it done so, the lien on the estate would have ceased, and Zoe be free” (67). The group calls for M’Closky to be lynched, and Pete explains to Wahnotee that it’s M’Closky who killed Paul. As the group moves to punish M’Closky with death, he escapes from the men’s clutches, steals Pete’s light, and sets the shed they’re at on fire. The group cuts the ship, which is now on fire, loose from the shed. As the steamer moves off, M’Closky reappears swimming in the water. He says he “thought [he] heard something in the water, as if pursuing [him]” (68). Although he believes it to just be an alligator, it is Wahnotee, who is seen swimming after M’Closky as the steamer burns.