Speaker 1: You are trapped in the dark cellar of your home.
Speaker 1: Beside you is the murdered body of your wife, and
Speaker 1: above at the front door your friends looking for you,
Speaker 1: tracking you down, cutting off your escape.
Speaker 2: Escape produced and directed by William M. Robson, and carefully
Speaker 2: contrived to free you from the four walls of today
Speaker 2: for a half hour of high adventure.
Speaker 1: Tonight, we escape to a university town in England and
Speaker 1: a household where hate holds sway as we listened to
Speaker 1: John Collier's famous story back for Christmas.
Speaker 3: Jingle all the way. Oh what finnity, Yes, my dear.
Speaker 4: What on earth are you doing down here on a cellar?
Speaker 3: Why? Just a little digging?
Speaker 4: And why, may I ask? Have you chosen this day
Speaker 4: of all days to dig up the cellar flaw?
Speaker 3: Why? I thought, as the weather has been so damp,
Speaker 3: this would be an excellent time to plant my devil's garden.
Speaker 4: Devil's garden, whatever nonsense is that?
Speaker 3: Oh, that's my little joke about it. You see, I've
Speaker 3: managed to secure some of the spores of several unclassified
Speaker 3: wild orchids. In their natural state, they bloom under damp
Speaker 3: masses of leaf mold. The Ourcanian Indians call them devil
Speaker 3: flowers because they opered a bloom under the ground.
Speaker 4: Well, I'm sure the Arikennyan Indians will be very interested
Speaker 4: if you succeed in growing these ridiculous flowers under the
Speaker 4: cellar floor. Who males little interest? I can't imagine. What's
Speaker 4: that terrible smell?
Speaker 3: Well, that's the leaf mold, my dear, chemically identical with
Speaker 3: the earth blanket they grow under in the wild state.
Speaker 3: I really should line the pit with concrete so as
Speaker 3: to prevent seepage from this foreign soil. But I don't
Speaker 3: suppose there'll be time for it. Now.
Speaker 4: There certainly will not be time for it. Do you
Speaker 4: realize that we're sailing for America a week from today
Speaker 4: and you've made no arrangements whatever, Unless you call digging
Speaker 4: a hole in the cellar making arrangements, I certainly don't
Speaker 4: devil's garden. Indeed, sometimes I think you're going soft in
Speaker 4: their head.
Speaker 3: Herbert, I suppose it's inconsiderate of me. But you see,
Speaker 3: I've been wanting to try this experiment for a long time.
Speaker 3: But what with my lectures and seminars at the university,
Speaker 3: there never seem to be time.
Speaker 4: Well, there certainly isn't any time for it? Now? I
Speaker 4: suppose you've forgotten I made an appointment for you at
Speaker 4: the barbers this afternoon.
Speaker 3: Or must I shave off my beard, hermione.
Speaker 4: Now we've been all through that, of course you must.
Speaker 4: They don't wear beards in America. Go and get your
Speaker 4: jacket on and do as I tell you, yes, Hermione,
Speaker 4: And don't forget to take your umbrella.
Speaker 3: It looks like rain, yes, Hermione.
Speaker 4: Oh, don't look so put upon, Herbert. Someone has to
Speaker 4: plan things in this house or you'd never even get
Speaker 4: to the university and time for your lectures, much less
Speaker 4: make arrangements for a trip to America.
Speaker 3: I know, but what of my specimens.
Speaker 4: There'll be plenty of time to plant your precious Devil's
Speaker 4: garden when you get home from America. We're not going
Speaker 4: to be gone forever, you know. We'll be back here
Speaker 4: for Christmas.
Speaker 3: Yes, of course, beg for Christmas. I'd forgotten.
Speaker 4: We'll try to remember it. And if you can't do that,
Speaker 4: just do as I tell you. I've been making the
Speaker 4: plans in this house for twenty years, and if there's
Speaker 4: any digging to be done, I'll manage that as well,
Speaker 4: you understand.
Speaker 3: Herbert, Yes, hermione.
Speaker 5: Good.
Speaker 4: You have just twenty minutes to clean this mess up
Speaker 4: down here and your appointment at the barbers. And when
Speaker 4: you finish there, I want you to come straight home.
Speaker 3: Why I wanted to stop at miss Markham's and pick
Speaker 3: up some books I ordered.
Speaker 4: Well, all right, but don't light her there the whole
Speaker 4: afternoon browsing over those old books the way you usually do. Now,
Speaker 4: hurry and clear up this rubbish, get rid of that
Speaker 4: smelly stuff, and no more digging.
Speaker 3: Mind you, yes, hermione, yes, hermione. How many years have
Speaker 3: I been saying there? Ten years, fifteen, twenty, Clear up
Speaker 3: the rubbish, yes, hermione. Don't forget your umbrella, yes, hermione,
Speaker 3: do this? Do that? Yes, hermione, yes, yes, yes. How
Speaker 3: much longer can I stand this? Good evening, sir, good evening,
Speaker 3: Miss Markham.
Speaker 5: Why it's Professor Carpenter, isn't it.
Speaker 3: You didn't recognize me?
Speaker 5: Oh? You look ever so much younger without the beard.
Speaker 5: Twenty years, at.
Speaker 3: Least twenty years.
Speaker 5: You'll be glad to know those books you ordered have
Speaker 5: finally arrived. Books Fight tartany of fallowed gamatophytes and conoferous
Speaker 5: shrubs of North America. Those are the ones you ordered,
Speaker 5: aren't they?
Speaker 3: Oh? Yes, yes, thank you. You're very kind, Miss Markham.
Speaker 5: Why kind, Professor Carpenter.
Speaker 3: Well, not many young ladies in bookshops would go out
Speaker 3: of their way to look up rare books for an
Speaker 3: old professor of botany.
Speaker 5: Oh why you're not, old, Professor Carpenter. Really you look
Speaker 5: Oh on this side, I adore botany. It's my particular hobby.
Speaker 3: Oh really, you never told me that before, Miss Markham.
Speaker 5: Oh I was afraid too. You were so oh so
Speaker 5: posing with a beard and all.
Speaker 3: Well, I you might be interested in some specimens of
Speaker 3: alpine polyanthes that were sent to me by a friend
Speaker 3: in Switzerland.
Speaker 5: Switzerland. I used to go there for my holidays before
Speaker 5: the war.
Speaker 3: You like Switzerland.
Speaker 5: I love every part of it, the lakes, the mountains,
Speaker 5: the beautiful spring flowers, especially the flowers.
Speaker 3: Oh yes, it seems we have quite a lot in common,
Speaker 3: Miss Markham. I'm I'm sorry we haven't talked before.
Speaker 5: Oh, I am too. It is all the thought of
Speaker 5: the beard.
Speaker 3: I suppose, Miss Markham. Forgive me if this sounds foolish,
Speaker 3: but I feel that shaving off my beard is the
Speaker 3: most important thing I've done for twenty years.
Speaker 5: Oh it is, I'm sure it is. I'm a shamed
Speaker 5: that I've been so distant with you all the time,
Speaker 5: or there were times when I almost spoke up, times
Speaker 5: when you came in here tired after day with your
Speaker 5: students of the university. You seem so alone, the way
Speaker 5: I'm alone in the world. I'd like to have asked
Speaker 5: you to stay awhile and talk with me, But some
Speaker 5: way or other I wound up giving you your change
Speaker 5: and letting you go on your way.
Speaker 3: You you say you're all alone in.
Speaker 5: The world since my father died.
Speaker 3: Well, did you never think of marrying?
Speaker 5: My father was a very remarkable man. I never found
Speaker 5: anyone who seemed to measure up to what he led
Speaker 5: me to expect of men. And then the war came.
Speaker 5: Miss Markham, It's been so long since anyone called me
Speaker 5: by my first name. I'd like you too, if you
Speaker 5: don't mind. It's Marian, Marian and yours Herbert. How long
Speaker 5: had you been alone?
Speaker 3: Herbert alone?
Speaker 5: Oh? I knew you were a widow, of course, the
Speaker 5: first time I saw you a widower. Oh, I can
Speaker 5: always tell there's a certain sadness in a man's eyes,
Speaker 5: a sweet sadness I think when he's been married and
Speaker 5: then a widower.
Speaker 3: I never thought of it in quite that way, Or perhaps.
Speaker 5: I shouldn't be talking like this, but I've often wondered
Speaker 5: what she must have been like your wife.
Speaker 3: I mean Hermione h not an easy woman to forget,
Speaker 3: very strong, always managing things, the house, my wardrobe, my friends.
Speaker 3: When we dined at a restaurant, she even ordered my food.
Speaker 3: She was always managing things. You might say she managed
Speaker 3: herself to death.
Speaker 4: Oh poor woman.
Speaker 5: She must have loved you very much, but she need
Speaker 5: have put herself out. So it's plain to see. You
Speaker 5: don't need things managed for you. You need companionship, I think,
Speaker 5: someone sympathetic with your work. But the last thing on
Speaker 5: earth you need is a manager.
Speaker 3: How well you put it, the last thing on earth.
Speaker 3: That's the first time I thought of it, of course.
Speaker 3: But suddenly a whole new world opened up before my eyes.
Speaker 3: Marian America. No more of Hermione is planning my life
Speaker 3: for me. By the time I got home, my mind
Speaker 3: was working overtime.
Speaker 4: Well at last, you certainly took long enough about it.
Speaker 4: What are you looking so pleased about.
Speaker 3: I don't really know getting rid of the beard. Perhaps
Speaker 3: I feel twenty years younger.
Speaker 4: You look even smaller. Your face looks triangular or something.
Speaker 5: I've forgotten.
Speaker 4: Your chin was so weak. Oh, but never mind that
Speaker 4: you can grow it back soon enough after Christmas.
Speaker 3: Where are you going down to the cellar? I just
Speaker 3: bought this electric lantern, and I thought i'd put it
Speaker 3: away down there now.
Speaker 4: Whatever possessed you to buy a thing.
Speaker 3: Like that, I don't know. I'd rather like this lantern
Speaker 3: might come in handy.
Speaker 4: Who knows, now, Herbert, don't start digging down there again.
Speaker 4: I have a hundred things to do, putting the house
Speaker 4: in order before we leave. I want you to carry
Speaker 4: these boxes.
Speaker 3: Upstairs for me, yes, somione.
Speaker 4: And if you're going down to the cellar, take this
Speaker 4: along and stuff it into the furnace.
Speaker 3: This is my old bathroom. I may need it.
Speaker 4: Nonsense, I've bought you a new one. Get rid of it,
Speaker 4: and don't start puttering down there with that devil's garden
Speaker 4: or whatever you call it.
Speaker 3: I'm through digging, my dear. I think the pit is
Speaker 3: quite deep enough now. For my devil's garden. It would
Speaker 3: all have to be carefully planned, of course, just as
Speaker 3: carefully planned as Hermione was planning the trip to America.
Speaker 3: We both went about our respective engagements. As the days passed,
Speaker 3: I spent all the time I could with Marian and
Speaker 3: finally she consented. And then it was the last day,
Speaker 3: the big day, the day we were to sail for America.
Speaker 4: Operator, Operator, Are you there? I'm still waiting. I might
Speaker 4: call to Salisbury. Oh, we'll put them on quickly. Hello.
Speaker 4: Is this Paul Holton's sons? Missus Herbert Carpenter here? Did
Speaker 4: you receive my letter? Oh? Good? Now, remember we'll be
Speaker 4: back for Christmas and I want the job done without fail.
Speaker 5: What's there? Oh?
Speaker 4: No, I'm sure he doesn't suspect anything. Send the bill
Speaker 4: to me in New York, as I instructed you. Oh,
Speaker 4: thank you, thank you so much. Oh there you are, Herbert.
Speaker 4: Where have you been?
Speaker 3: I dismissed the servants.
Speaker 4: Dismiss the servants. But I've asked some friends into a
Speaker 4: farewell tea. Go and tell them it's a mistake.
Speaker 3: I'm afraid it's too late now they've packed.
Speaker 4: God, Oh, you have messed up things properly. How many
Speaker 4: times have I told you to leave things to me,
Speaker 4: I make the plans around here. Yes, hermione, you'll have
Speaker 4: to do better than this when I plan the trip home,
Speaker 4: or we'll never in the world be back for.
Speaker 3: Christmas, back for Christmas, back for Christmas. Must you keep
Speaker 3: saying that, why not.
Speaker 4: We are coming back for Christmas?
Speaker 3: Aren't we supposing I were offered a professorship in one
Speaker 3: of those wealthy American universities.
Speaker 4: Nonsense? Americans care nothing for botany.
Speaker 3: Luther Burbank was an American.
Speaker 4: That's different. What have you ever done except muck around
Speaker 4: and the dirt with a lot of roots and chobers.
Speaker 3: The basket meat lecture that means something.
Speaker 4: Of course, they asked you to lecture. Americans are paid
Speaker 4: to hear any foreigner deliver a lecture once. Now, there's
Speaker 4: no use getting yourself in a state about this, Herbert,
Speaker 4: No doubt this extra money will come in very handy
Speaker 4: when we arrive back for Christmas precisely, And it's no
Speaker 4: good you're making a joke of it. Heaven knows where
Speaker 4: you'd be today if I hadn't got a sense of time.
Speaker 3: Yes, my dear hermione, And since.
Speaker 4: You've been so foolish as to dismiss the servants. You
Speaker 4: may empty the ash trays and straighten up this room.
Speaker 4: While we're waiting for the guests to arrive. I am
Speaker 4: going upstairs to change Call me when they get here.
Speaker 3: Yes, Hermione, Yes, Hermione, Yes, Hermione. For twenty years, Hermione,
Speaker 3: always so right, thought of everything, well, not quite everything.
Speaker 3: She's dressing now, safe to call Marian. Oh, if Marian
Speaker 3: were to change her mind, now, if she had any idea,
Speaker 3: I was not a widower. Hello, oh, Marian Herbert. No, no,
Speaker 3: my darling, nothing's wrong. My plans are the same unless
Speaker 3: you've changed. Good. We'll meet in New York as we planned. Yes, Yes,
Speaker 3: I do love you, my darling. I'm sorry I can't
Speaker 3: talk any longer. Yes, I I'm meet you in New
Speaker 3: York a week from tomorrow without failed goodbye till then?
Speaker 4: Were you talking on the phone just now?
Speaker 3: Yes, Hermione. Whoever was it Freddy Freddy's in clare? Of course?
Speaker 4: Oh didn't I hear you say something about meeting somebody
Speaker 4: in New York?
Speaker 3: Why? Yes? Old Freddy said he might possibly get out
Speaker 3: to America before we leave, and I said, of course
Speaker 3: we'd meet him there if he decides to go.
Speaker 4: That seems very peculiar. But then all of your friends.
Speaker 3: Are peculiar, is hermione.
Speaker 4: And just look at your jacket. Have you been digging
Speaker 4: in that cellar again? Yes, hermione, Well there's no need
Speaker 4: for it. You can't possibly get that Devil's garden thing finished.
Speaker 4: Go and change your clothes before the guests arrive. Yes, Oh,
Speaker 4: never mind, I see somebody coming up the walk. Now
Speaker 4: go and let them.
Speaker 3: In, yes, hermione, Harbert, Yes, my dear, look out the window.
Speaker 4: There's Professor and missus Hewett. But who's that with them?
Speaker 3: Why?
Speaker 4: Hey, precisely Freddy's Claire peculiar. You should have been talking
Speaker 4: to him on the phone not three minutes ago, and
Speaker 4: now here he is.
Speaker 3: He yes, isn't it? But then, as you say, Hermiami,
Speaker 3: all of my friends are peculiar.
Speaker 4: Not half so peculiar as you digging in the cellar
Speaker 4: an hour before we leave for America. Just look at yourself,
Speaker 4: and now that I think of it, yes, hermione. Oh,
Speaker 4: never mind going let the me in.
Speaker 3: You were going to ask me something, hermione. But the
Speaker 3: whole I'm digging in the cellar.
Speaker 4: Oh good heaven, stop rolling your eyes about that way.
Speaker 4: One would think you were digging a grave down there
Speaker 4: instead of a storage bin.
Speaker 3: Yes, Hermione, was it, I said, yes, Hermione.
Speaker 4: Oh, bather opened the door and stop saying yes, Hermione.
Speaker 3: I think, my dear, I've said it for the last time.
Speaker 3: Bag for Christmas. Hermione was so positive we would be
Speaker 3: back for Christmas last afternoon, pouring tea for a few
Speaker 3: friends who'd come in to say last minute farewell.
Speaker 4: She kept reiterating, Oh, I promise you, missus, Hewart, remember,
Speaker 4: we absolutely must have you with us for Christmas.
Speaker 6: Oh, we'll be back.
Speaker 3: It's not absolutely certain, of course, Herbert.
Speaker 4: What do you mean it's not certain?
Speaker 1: Of course, it's certain after all, Herbert, old boy, you've
Speaker 1: contracted your lecture for only three months, quite right.
Speaker 3: But then, of course anything may happen.
Speaker 4: Herbert adawes being unpredictable. Now what Arthur Man would dig
Speaker 4: a great hole in the cellar on the very day
Speaker 4: he was leaving for America, A hole in this cellar. Yes,
Speaker 4: he's going to put some unclassified wild orchids down there,
Speaker 4: a devil's garden, if you'll please. Sounds mysterious, that's Herbert, though,
Speaker 4: He's rarely quite simple once you find out what he's
Speaker 4: up to. Now take that telephone call he put through
Speaker 4: to you a few moments before you arrive, Freddy to me, Yes,
Speaker 4: Herbert wanted to surprise me about your plan to meet
Speaker 4: us in New York next month. That's why he called,
Speaker 4: of course, to our you, not to mention it.
Speaker 1: But my dear Hermione, Herbert couldn't possibly have telephoned me
Speaker 1: within the past hour.
Speaker 3: I have been walking in the parks.
Speaker 4: History he didn't telephone you, well.
Speaker 3: How could he? And as for my going to America,
Speaker 3: come come, Freddy, you may as well own up. Hermione
Speaker 3: has found me out again. But Herbert, old Chaper, I
Speaker 3: really don't.
Speaker 4: Want to Sare you see what a poor liar Herbert makes.
Speaker 4: He's read as a beet root? Aren't you ashamed of yourself?
Speaker 4: Professor stringing for Hermione along like that? And as for you, Freddy,
Speaker 4: I'm furious you said nothing to us about going to America.
Speaker 3: But look here, olcan I've been trying to tell everyone that.
Speaker 4: I have know enough for nonsense. The game's gone on
Speaker 4: long enough. Perhaps Herbert's merely planning a surprise for me.
Speaker 3: Yes, let's leave it at that, my dear.
Speaker 4: Well, we must start getting ready. It was marvelous have
Speaker 4: you to come in to say goodbye, And don't worry
Speaker 4: about Herbert's little jokes. I will bring him back for Christmas.
Speaker 4: You may rely on it.
Speaker 3: They all believed her. For years she'd been promising me
Speaker 3: for dinner parties, garden parties, committees, and the promises had
Speaker 3: always been kept. This time they wouldn't be. I'd seen
Speaker 3: to that the servants were gone for good, that the
Speaker 3: farewells all said. I had time to the minute, how
Speaker 3: long it would take to fill in the hole in
Speaker 3: the cellar in my devil's garden upstairs in the bedroom,
Speaker 3: I undressed, folded my clothes over a chair, and put
Speaker 3: on my old bathrobe. Then I opened the door into
Speaker 3: Hermione's room. Are you ready, Herbert, Hermione? Have you a
Speaker 3: moment to spare goose?
Speaker 4: My dear, I've just finished.
Speaker 3: Then do come in here for a moment. There's something
Speaker 3: rather extraordinary.
Speaker 4: Here, good heavens, Herbert, what are you lounging about in
Speaker 4: that filthy old bathrobe? For I told you to put
Speaker 4: it into the furnace.
Speaker 3: I shall do it today, Yes, I really will, I promise.
Speaker 5: So high time.
Speaker 4: Now, what is it you want to show me?
Speaker 3: In the bathroom here? Just look? Who in the world
Speaker 3: do you suppose dropped a gold chain down the bathtub drain?
Speaker 4: Nobody has, of course, nobody wears such a thing in
Speaker 4: this house.
Speaker 3: And what doing there?
Speaker 4: I don't see anything, I hear.
Speaker 3: Oh this flashlight for you. If you lean right over,
Speaker 3: you can see it shining deep down.
Speaker 4: Such a lot of nonsense, just wisdom. I don't see it.
Speaker 3: Her go on looking, hermione in just a moment, how but.
Speaker 4: I absolutely refuse to wait about what are you doing?
Speaker 4: Take your hands off my neck?
Speaker 3: I will, hermione, just as soon as I've finished the
Speaker 3: arrangements for my trip to America.
Speaker 4: What are you talking about?
Speaker 3: You thought you were the only one who could plan things,
Speaker 3: didn't you, hermione. Well, I've been making some plans of
Speaker 3: my own this past week. In exactly two minutes, you'll
Speaker 3: be dead, Hermione, you see, two minutes. I've planned it
Speaker 3: very accurately.
Speaker 4: You'll never get away with it. Let me come.
Speaker 3: I thought you'd say that, But I will get away
Speaker 3: with it. You won't mind the smell of the leaf
Speaker 3: mold down in the cellar when I take you there
Speaker 3: to day. Yes, that's where you're going, Hermione, into my
Speaker 3: devil's garden that annoyed you so much. The soil is
Speaker 3: full of clay. It won't settle too much in a
Speaker 3: month or so. It won't even look as if it
Speaker 3: had been dug up.
Speaker 4: My friends, they all expect me back for Christmas. H
Speaker 4: they don't hear from me. They'll wonder if I don't
Speaker 4: come back. They start asking questions.
Speaker 3: Oh no they won't, because you'll write them letters, Amione,
Speaker 3: and the typewriter, as you always do. They'll be signed
Speaker 3: each in that neat cryptic way you always sign your
Speaker 3: notes to your friends.
Speaker 4: No, it won't work, her, but you never were any
Speaker 4: good at planning things.
Speaker 3: Oh but I've changed, my dear. I've learned from watching
Speaker 3: you all these years.
Speaker 4: The lecture people in America, they'll expect you to be traveling.
Speaker 5: With your wife.
Speaker 3: I will be traveling with my wife, but her name
Speaker 3: will not be Hermione. Fortunately they'd never met you. Write
Speaker 3: a few letters home for you, then fewer and fewer
Speaker 3: write letters signed with my own name, always expecting to
Speaker 3: get back, but never quite able to keep the house
Speaker 3: one year, and then another and another. They'll get used
Speaker 3: to it. Might even come back alone in a year
Speaker 3: or two and clear it up properly. Say you died
Speaker 3: in America. Nobody will ever suspect you're lying under the
Speaker 3: floor of the cellar in this very house pit dug
Speaker 3: in the c I can assure you, my de hermione
Speaker 3: will serve its purpose. Well, sorry, my dear, got to
Speaker 3: get this done on schedule. You have just five seconds
Speaker 3: to say you're prays.
Speaker 4: You don't do it.
Speaker 3: The water cut off at the main as I knew
Speaker 3: she would order it. She was so thorough, but so
Speaker 3: was I. Strangulation, nothing to wash up. The electric current
Speaker 3: shut off exactly at one o'clock, just as she altered it.
Speaker 3: She thought of everything, so did I. My nice new
Speaker 3: electric lantern, plenty of light to work by in the cellar.
Speaker 3: The old bathrobe she wanted me to throw away came
Speaker 3: in handy.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 3: If there should be any chance blood staying, then enter
Speaker 3: the fire with it afterwards, the last evidence of my
Speaker 3: devil's garden. It was going well still an hour till
Speaker 3: I had to leave the boat. The hole was almost filled.
Speaker 3: No oh no, not no, go away, please whoever you are,
Speaker 3: go away? Did I lock the front door? If it's
Speaker 3: the Wallingford's Oh no, no, go away, go away, I
Speaker 3: say her thing. Just keep calm quiet, they won't look
Speaker 3: down in the cellar. Keep calm, they'll go away, dickens.
Speaker 2: Can they be?
Speaker 4: Maybe they.
Speaker 1: Shop?
Speaker 2: Maybe the last minute?
Speaker 6: Shall I shout harm and a shout?
Speaker 4: That's coming way back? They wouldn't to s all right?
Speaker 6: Don't they want a last drink with old herbit.
Speaker 4: He'd be hurt.
Speaker 1: You know it can be back.
Speaker 3: Half past six. There's still time after that. It was easy.
Speaker 3: Put the finishing touches on the Devil's Garden dress fast,
Speaker 3: get out of the house before six thirty, take the
Speaker 3: boat trait to Southampton, and bought the ship for America,
Speaker 3: all according to plan Hermione's plan. Oh, I say Stewart,
Speaker 3: Why sir, my wife is indisposed. She'll be taking her
Speaker 3: meals in our stateroom for the old voyage. Yes, for
Speaker 3: the whole voyage. Well, I crossed.
Speaker 1: Your wife is feeling better this morning, Professor Carpenter, Yes,
Speaker 1: a little, not yet well enough to leave her ken.
Speaker 1: Oh I'm sorry. Oh, by the way, it's a copy
Speaker 1: of the radiogram you set for your wife last.
Speaker 3: Oh, oh, thank you. I'll just check it over. I say,
Speaker 3: look here, what is it?
Speaker 1: If the type is make a mistake.
Speaker 3: No, no, nothing important. She can correct it later. For
Speaker 3: a moment I had the feeling that Hermione had been
Speaker 3: leaning over my shoulder again correcting what I had written,
Speaker 3: as she always did. I had written a radiogram to
Speaker 3: Professor Hewitt and his wife haven't been out of my
Speaker 3: cabin the whole beastly trip. Herbert, well, we now doubt
Speaker 3: we will be back for Christmas. The copy read, we
Speaker 3: no doubt will be back for Christmas, exactly what Hermione
Speaker 3: would have written. The rest of the voyage was uneventful,
Speaker 3: and Marian and I met in New York and were married,
Speaker 3: just as we'd planned. Just as we'd planned. Professor and
Speaker 3: Missus Carpenter, we have reservations, I believe.
Speaker 6: Oh yes, we've been expecting you, sir boy. Take Professor
Speaker 6: Missus Carpenter's luggage up to their suite. You know, Missus Carpenter,
Speaker 6: you're quite a surprise. Your letter reserving the rooms were
Speaker 6: so thorough. I was expecting an older, more forbidding sort
Speaker 6: of person.
Speaker 3: Frankly, ma'am.
Speaker 5: Oh no, as a matter of fact, we're just married.
Speaker 5: But my letter is serving the room.
Speaker 3: I wrote the letter, my dear, and signed up missus
Speaker 3: Herbert Carpenter purely a joke.
Speaker 5: What a cunning oat fox you are, Herbert.
Speaker 3: Now that I think of it, I am rather.
Speaker 6: Oh, I almost forgot. There's a letter for you, missus Carpenter,
Speaker 6: A letter for me.
Speaker 5: I wonder who not? Well?
Speaker 3: We shall find out in good time. Come along, my dear.
Speaker 3: We're keeping the boy waiting. Dum dum dumumpum. But ummum parhampa. Eh.
Speaker 3: Nothing like a cold, brisk shower to put a man
Speaker 3: to rights.
Speaker 5: Herbert, this letter, uh oh.
Speaker 3: Yes, the letter? Eh, dry my hair, will you dear.
Speaker 5: It seems to be a bill of some sort from
Speaker 5: a building contract in Salisbury. Mm oh, bother, try your
Speaker 5: own hair, thank you.
Speaker 3: My sat Eh. Let's see this bill or whatever it is.
Speaker 5: It's very puzzling, Herbert. You were a widower, won't you.
Speaker 5: I mean, Hermione isn't still alive.
Speaker 3: I can assure you she is not. Let's have that letter. Hum,
Speaker 3: dear madam, this is to acknowledge your order, together with
Speaker 3: the key, together with the keys to your house in
Speaker 3: Lonston Place. Our men had no difficulty in finding the
Speaker 3: place where your husband had begun the excavation in the cellar,
Speaker 3: but apparently changed his mind at the last moment and
Speaker 3: filled it in again.
Speaker 5: Oh no, what is it, Herbert?
Speaker 3: Amen? Who will begin digging to morrow? And you may
Speaker 3: rest assured that it will be a professional job and
Speaker 3: will be completed in ample time for your surprise Christmas
Speaker 3: present to your husband. We are happy to be conspirators
Speaker 3: with you in this thoughtful gesture, and hope that Professor
Speaker 3: Carpenter will be pleased at the results of our work
Speaker 3: on what he so quaintly calls his devil's garden. Very
Speaker 3: truly yours, Paulholton's Son's contractors.
Speaker 5: What does it mean, Herbert?
Speaker 3: It means that Hermione was right? I will be beg
Speaker 3: for Christmas.
Speaker 2: Escape is produced and directed by William M. Robeson and
Speaker 2: to Night Brought You Back for Christmas by John Collier,
Speaker 2: adapted for radio by Robert Tollman, with Paul Freese as Herbert,
Speaker 2: Eleanor Audley as Hermione and Martametrovitch as Marian. Music is
Speaker 2: conceived and conducted by Cy fure.
Speaker 1: Next week, you are lost in a London fog, exhausted
Speaker 1: and frantic, unsure of the figures looming around you are
Speaker 1: real for creatures of your fear and behind you, pursuing you,
Speaker 1: intent on killing you. Lurks a murderer from whom you
Speaker 1: must escape.
Speaker 2: Next week we escape with Elgin and Blackwood's ghostly story
Speaker 2: confession good Night. Then until the same time next week,
Speaker 2: when again we offer you escape. This is CBS, the
Speaker 2: Columbia Broadcasting System.