The most frightening moment in the story "The Monkey's Paw" may well be the moment when, after the representative of Maw and Meggins speaks to Mr. and Mrs. White and disclaims liability for the accident that has killed their son Herbert, he informs the Whites that they are to receive "a certain sum as compensation," a sum that the Whites fear is one for which they have asked.
... His dry lips shaped the words, "How much?"
"Two hundred pounds," was the answer.
Unconscious of his wife's shriek, the old man smiled faintly, put out his hands like a sightless man, and dropped, a senseless heap, to the floor.
Having learned that their son has been killed at work, Mrs. White's face has blanched, her eyes stare blindly, and her breath is "inaudible" while her husband's face has the look a soldier "might have carried into his first action." They fear that something terrible is going to be said next, something connecting Herbert's death with their actions of the previous night as they recall the sergeant's warning. So, when the representative of the company offers "[T]wo hundred pounds," they know with horror that the first wish made upon the monkey's paw has come true. Because they have not stipulated conditions and sources from which the money may not come, the Whites have inadvertently brought about the death of their son. This fateful knowledge is so horrific that Mrs. White shrieks, and Mr. White, who has made the wish for two hundred pounds, drops, "a senseless heap, to the floor."
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