Read this excerpt from "One Minute Longer" by Albert Payson Terhune. A second pistol-shot flew wide. A third grazed the dog's hip. From all directions people were running towards the station. A man darted into a house next door, and emerged carrying a shotgun. This he steadied on the veranda-rail not forty feet away from the leaping dog, and made ready to fire.

Which plot element is represented by the excerpt?

rising action

conflict

falling action

climax