THE BEST LAID PLANS - Farrel Mitchell

THE BEST LAID PLANS

Farrel Mitchell

Farrel Mitchell is the author the one-act play “The Best Laid Plans”. It is about the plan of thieves who decide to burgle a diamond shop. But the thieves were outwitted. The play ends with a surprising turn at the end.

Jack and Bill are burglars. They are assisted by a man called Cuthbert who disguised as a policeman. Wood and Spender are the two masters of a jewellery shop. Primrose is a butler.

     Wood and Spender get ready to leave the shop after making necessary arrangements for the safety of their valuables. For safety they hid the key safe under the carpet by the fire place. They are sure that even a burglar would not think of looking for the key under the carpet. As soon as the two masters are gone, the two burglars Jack and Bill step in without making noise. They have already befriended the butler Primrose and got all the necessary information from him. As Primrose is likely to concentrate all his attention on the radio play, the burglars are not noticed by him. So they take the key easily from under the carpet. They want to take the precious diamond jewels kept in the safe. Jack is wiser than Bill, so that he gives instructions to Bill often. Jack has minutely calculated the working hours of the police on the beat. He also knows when he and his friend Bill can make good their escape. Sergeant Will comes down the street on his usual beat at ten minutes past nine. The next police constable Travers comes down the street only at ten o’clock. This interval time is the safest time for Jack and Bill to escape. Jack proposes to write his autobiography to mention all his experiences and valuable ideas to thieves.

     Unexpected arrival of Wood and Spender to the shop interrupts the plan of Jack. The master catch them red handed. The masters decide to the call the police. Before that Jack requests Wood twice to look out of the window to find out if it is raining, because Jack’s fortune-teller said to that he would be caught only on a rainy day. Wood reports that it is not raining. The opening of the window and the drawing out of the window curtains twice is a signal to Cuthbert, a companion of the burglars. Cuthbert come to their rescue in the guise of a policeman. But Wood notices the boots of the policeman and understands the clever move of the burglars. So he ring up detectives from Scotland Yard. The detectives arrest all the three burglars. The burglars are arrested only because of the butler Primrose, who informed about the plans of the three to Wood and Spender. Thus the best laid plan of the burglars shattered into pieces by the butler.