Speaker 1: The Adventures of Christopher Wells program, formerly scheduled at this time,
Speaker 1: is now broadcast at a new time on Tuesday evening.
Speaker 1: Tune in for the Adventures of Christopher Wells next Tuesday
Speaker 1: and every Tuesday at six thirty pm Pacific Standard time.
Speaker 2: You are alone in Paris, unable to speak the language,
Speaker 2: unable to cope with a gigantic conspiracy which seeks to
Speaker 2: convince you that you are mad. You are the victim
Speaker 2: of a plot from which there is no escape.
Speaker 1: Escape produced, directed and tonight, written by William N. Robeson,
Speaker 1: and carefully contrived to free you from the four walls
Speaker 1: of today for a half hour of high adventure.
Speaker 2: Tonight we escaped to Paris at the time of the
Speaker 2: Great Exposition and one of the recurring legends of our time,
Speaker 2: and Alexander Wilkett's version of the Story of the Vanishing Lady.
Speaker 3: Another cup of tea brewce.
Speaker 4: No, thank you, my dear. I just light up my
Speaker 4: pipe now and have a look at the evening standard
Speaker 4: I like another?
Speaker 3: Please, mother, all right, Alice, only one sugar deer. We
Speaker 3: must watch our figures.
Speaker 5: You are what nonsense?
Speaker 4: A growing girl like Alice needs plenty of sugar.
Speaker 3: See mother, Daddy approves perhaps, but mother is still boss. Yes, Mother,
Speaker 3: there's a dear.
Speaker 2: Mother.
Speaker 3: Yes, dear, I've been thinking, Yes, dear.
Speaker 6: I've been thinking about my grandparents.
Speaker 4: Oh.
Speaker 6: I know all about Daddy's parents. How grandfather Stanley commanded
Speaker 6: a dreadnought at the Battle of Jutlin.
Speaker 4: It was not a dreadnought, Alice, it was a heavy cruiser.
Speaker 6: Oh, yes, heavy cruiser and he got the VC. And
Speaker 6: how grandmother Stanley was a volunteer nurse Western Larch when
Speaker 6: the Zeppelins came over. And I know about your father Toun,
Speaker 6: how he died Nindy from his wounds, and how gallant
Speaker 6: he was, the kuype of pass But mother, yes, dear,
Speaker 6: you've never never told me anything about grandmother.
Speaker 3: Winship, haven't I?
Speaker 7: No?
Speaker 6: And i'd i'd like to know.
Speaker 4: Some Bruce the child sixteen. I think it's time she knew.
Speaker 4: But Bruce, and you'd probably feel better to get it
Speaker 4: off your chest.
Speaker 6: What mother, what is it?
Speaker 3: Well, my dear, I've never talked about your grandmother because
Speaker 3: I I've always half believed that some day, somehow she
Speaker 3: would come down our garden walk. And I know it
Speaker 3: sounds silly and explain where she's been for the last
Speaker 3: twenty years. Why what happened to her? I don't know,
Speaker 3: and I don't suppose I ever.
Speaker 4: Will, Cynthia Darling.
Speaker 3: Sir Bruce, You're quite right, it would be best to
Speaker 3: get it off my chest, as you put it. As
Speaker 3: you know, Alice, I was born and brought up in India,
Speaker 3: and I was about your age when my father was
Speaker 3: killed in the Cabal campaign. Mother decided to leave India
Speaker 3: for good and returned to her old home in Warwickshire. However,
Speaker 3: since it was necessary for her to go to Paris
Speaker 3: to attend to some details of my father's estate, she
Speaker 3: decided that we should leave the Piano bode in Marseilles
Speaker 3: and proceed by train. You men, imagine the timidity with
Speaker 3: which we two unescorted ladies traveled across France, without the
Speaker 3: slightest knowledge of the language, and without indeed assurance that
Speaker 3: we could find a hotel room in Paris, though we
Speaker 3: had telegraphed for reservations from Marseilles. You see, the Great
Speaker 3: Paris Exposition had just opened and the city was jammed
Speaker 3: with visitors from all over the world. You may imagine
Speaker 3: our relief when we arrived at the Grand Hotel Universal
Speaker 3: and heard the clerk speak in quite understandable.
Speaker 8: Sheep, welcome, welcome, you will please to sign your register?
Speaker 7: Eh, and a you have our reservation poin indeed.
Speaker 8: Yes, most fortunate madames, that you telegraph for I have
Speaker 8: I reserved for you the last room in the house.
Speaker 3: Oh I'm so relieved.
Speaker 6: Yes, Canthia, you may as well learn how to sign
Speaker 6: a register for yourself.
Speaker 3: Oh yes, mamma. Where do I ride there? In that line? Oh?
Speaker 7: Yes, I see, weller you were that you gave from
Speaker 7: your journey.
Speaker 5: Uh no, I should let the boys show you to
Speaker 5: your rooms at once.
Speaker 8: Shassa, shassamoiselle, madame gunship.
Speaker 5: This is your baggage, madame.
Speaker 6: Yes, the six. You'd best carry the little one with
Speaker 6: a medicine in it.
Speaker 3: Yes, mama, thank you. I'll take that one, the little
Speaker 3: red one.
Speaker 6: This way, ladies, keep her eye at poor to Cynthia.
Speaker 3: I don't trust this frenchman, Mama. I don't think he'll
Speaker 3: make off with our things. Here's the lift.
Speaker 6: I do wish we could have gone straight on to Southampton.
Speaker 3: But you'd only have had to come back across the
Speaker 3: channel to see the solicitor. Mamma, we really saved time this.
Speaker 6: Way, I suppose. I mean I wish we hadn't come
Speaker 6: to Paris at all, such a sinister place.
Speaker 7: Well look this way, ladies, do the right.
Speaker 4: Yeah, twas.
Speaker 7: Trois aunt it is, thank you.
Speaker 3: Oh what a lovely big room. And look, mama, French
Speaker 3: windows hand the park out there, and those beautiful, beautiful bridges.
Speaker 3: Oh mother, it's something out of a book.
Speaker 6: Yes, my dear, that's the trouble with Paris. So attractive,
Speaker 6: but underneath it's evil.
Speaker 3: And look at the village, the guilt clock and this
Speaker 3: lovely marble table. Oh, mamma, everything is so so French.
Speaker 6: I would be very glad to be on my way away.
Speaker 6: Everything's English by this time.
Speaker 4: To matter.
Speaker 6: Now, come away from that window and help me get
Speaker 6: into something comfortable. Nurse, Yes, Mars, I don't know when
Speaker 6: I've been so tired. Hm, I just.
Speaker 3: Can't seem to catch mam Mama, Mama, what's the matter, mamma, mamma,
Speaker 3: speak to me here. I'll get you up into the
Speaker 3: bed there. Now, let me loosen your closet. Here here, mamma,
Speaker 3: I here are the smelling salts pretty deeply darling, Mamma
Speaker 3: the telephone. I've got to get a doctor. Hello, operator,
Speaker 3: Will you please send a doctor up to room number
Speaker 3: Let me see number three four two. Will you please
Speaker 3: send a doctor to room number three four two, A doctor,
Speaker 3: A doctor. Women. While I waited for the doctor, I
Speaker 3: did everything I could think of to bring my mother
Speaker 3: back to consciousness, and massaged her fingers and toes. I
Speaker 3: put wet claws on a forehead, I waved the smelling
Speaker 3: salts under her nose. But she lay silent and white
Speaker 3: and unmoving, like one dead. Only the quick, shallow movement
Speaker 3: of her breast assured me she was not. And all
Speaker 3: the time another anxiety possessed me, What if this doctor
Speaker 3: could not speak English? How should I tell in the
Speaker 3: circumstances of mother's unexpected fainting, how should I understand his
Speaker 3: instructions for treatment? I'm sure it was not long, although
Speaker 3: it seemed like an eternity before he arrived, accompanied by
Speaker 3: the manager of the hotel, and to my great relief,
Speaker 3: they both spoke English. The doctor felt mother's pulse, took
Speaker 3: her temperature, and did the usual things that doctors do.
Speaker 3: Then he turned to the tail coaded hotel.
Speaker 4: Man del fancy mop was on it.
Speaker 9: A laugh from Papalia morns as as he said to
Speaker 9: yours Nipalia allowed melscs us of Gan said, fam do
Speaker 9: la peste sula peste in like un avivo Nipapa's wanted.
Speaker 3: While they talked in this language, I couldn't understand. I
Speaker 3: looked from one face to the other, trying to read
Speaker 3: from their expressions how syl Yes, there is casual is
Speaker 3: that they were ordering dinner. Finally I could stand it
Speaker 3: no longer. They must. You must tell me what is
Speaker 3: the matter.
Speaker 4: With her, mademoiselle.
Speaker 9: Your mother is ill, Yes, seriously ill. It is a
Speaker 9: collapse due perhaps to this train of traveling. However, a
Speaker 9: week or two of absolute ris we were to go
Speaker 9: on to England tomorrow, that would be out of the question.
Speaker 9: She cannot be moved for at least several days. Right
Speaker 9: now she must have a complete rest. The next twenty
Speaker 9: four hours will be critical. No, mademoiselle, you must not
Speaker 9: break down.
Speaker 4: Do I need your help? Yes, doctor, immediately, I need
Speaker 4: some medicine. Will you fetch it for me? Yes?
Speaker 9: I must not leave your mother for a moment during
Speaker 9: these critical hours. Here I will write down this address
Speaker 9: and a little message to my wife. Yes, I have
Speaker 9: the mid scene already prepared my home. It will be
Speaker 9: faster to go there for it than to a pharmacy.
Speaker 9: There are a few chemists who have the ingredients.
Speaker 3: Couldn't you telephone a last I have no telephone.
Speaker 8: Well, then a messenger, Oh, mademoiselle, you do not know
Speaker 8: Paris or are fair with the exposition opening? Nowhere can
Speaker 8: you find a reliable messenger? They are all selling a souvenir. No, Mademoiselle,
Speaker 8: you will accomplish ther and more rapidly yourself.
Speaker 4: Vassil address.
Speaker 9: Here's the address, twenty four bis Rival de Grace, and
Speaker 9: here is the message to give to my wife.
Speaker 3: But I don't know Paris at all. I'm a total
Speaker 3: stranger here.
Speaker 9: I'm sure the manager here will give the necessary instructions
Speaker 9: to the cabin.
Speaker 5: Indeed I will if Madmoiselle is ready.
Speaker 3: Before I quite knew what was happening, I was seated
Speaker 3: in a wickedy taxicab outside the hotel, but the doctor's
Speaker 3: message clutched in my hand. The hotel manager gave a valuable.
Speaker 7: Direction or to the cabins.
Speaker 5: Where's he gone?
Speaker 4: To?
Speaker 8: Autos Baniel and Little Ranida pistas.
Speaker 7: He's sure to the swaper the desert, HA told.
Speaker 5: You, told you, it is arranged.
Speaker 8: Mademoiselle Jacques here is one of our most trusted cabbies.
Speaker 8: He will get you to the doctor's outside back in safety.
Speaker 3: Oh, thank you so much, sir. And you will look
Speaker 3: after mother, won't you?
Speaker 7: Oh?
Speaker 5: Indeed I will of that, you may be sure.
Speaker 3: When we left the hotel, we crossed a huge square
Speaker 3: with statues around it, and turned into a wide avenue
Speaker 3: which led up a gentle incline, at the top of
Speaker 3: which was a huge arch. But before long we turned
Speaker 3: off to the ride into narrower streets. It must have
Speaker 3: been twenty minutes later when we turned into another wide
Speaker 3: boulevard and I saw another huge arch up ahead, or
Speaker 3: was it the same arch driver passed that arch before?
Speaker 3: Where I don't want a sight seeing tour. I want
Speaker 3: to go to this address directly, don't you understand? Please
Speaker 3: not take me there at once?
Speaker 5: Of it?
Speaker 8: So bu la passrs, mademoiselle PERI said you off here
Speaker 8: were you?
Speaker 4: At last?
Speaker 3: We turned into a narrow street and pulled up before
Speaker 3: a grim gray horse. The blue and amorsan on the
Speaker 3: wall read number twenty four piece. I jumped out of
Speaker 3: the cab almost before it stopped, rushed up the three
Speaker 3: stone steps and pulled at the brass bell knob. Oh hurry, hurry, hurry,
Speaker 3: please we the doctor sent me for some medicine. Here.
Speaker 3: Please read this what de.
Speaker 10: Nie said, John famous the parry Emmam de la France,
Speaker 10: Oh all tree MANI was in thank you.
Speaker 3: The doctor's wife stood there, reading and rereading the note
Speaker 3: as though she didn't understand it, and until I thought
Speaker 3: I would scream, oh, please, please hurry, get the medicine.
Speaker 3: It's my mother. She may be dying. I must get
Speaker 3: back to her. Please hurry, I see you. She pointed
Speaker 3: to a chair that's adds it and slowly walked down
Speaker 3: the hall and closed the door behind her. I waited
Speaker 3: and waited, and I wondered, wondered about the time, the
Speaker 3: text he had taken to get here, about that arch
Speaker 3: that looked so familiar, And I was torn by the
Speaker 3: hundred nameless anxieties that taught to you when you're nearest
Speaker 3: and dearest desire. And then I heard something that froze
Speaker 3: my blood. Her telephone, a telephone clearly ringing somewhere in
Speaker 3: the house, but the doctor had said he had no telephone.
Speaker 3: That was the reason I must come all the way
Speaker 3: for the medicine. Now it could be in this hospital,
Speaker 3: it must be next door across the street. Of course,
Speaker 3: that's where the sound was coming from. But no, it
Speaker 3: was a voice of the doctor's wife answering the phone.
Speaker 3: Oh no, no, what monstrous plot was this? I felt
Speaker 3: my scap crawled with terror. Rain pounded, my head felt
Speaker 3: as though would burst. I wanted to scream, to run
Speaker 3: out of this awful house, to run all the way
Speaker 3: across Paris to the bedside of my mother, while am mademoiselle, Oh,
Speaker 3: thank you, thank you, Oh wow, mademoiselle. Now, driver, please please,
Speaker 3: in the name of your own mother, hurried back to
Speaker 3: the hotel as fast as possible.
Speaker 5: Please, Oh A afraid the song mademoiselle.
Speaker 3: We are. But my pleading was of no use. Either
Speaker 3: it was misunderstood or ignored. We crawled across Paris just
Speaker 3: as slowly as we had, and I was certain I
Speaker 3: saw that same white arch three times. But at last
Speaker 3: we crossed the great Square with the statues in it,
Speaker 3: and I knew we were close to the hotel. Please
Speaker 3: please hurry.
Speaker 2: I filled the solve.
Speaker 3: Just beyond the Great Square, we turned up a narrow
Speaker 3: street which shortly ended a wide circle, in the middle
Speaker 3: of which was a tall, slender monument. The driver swung
Speaker 3: around the monument and pulled up before the entrance of
Speaker 3: the hotel, reached back and opened the door. I jumped
Speaker 3: out of the cab, and then I saw the sign
Speaker 3: over the entrance. It said Hotel Ritz. Driver, you've taken
Speaker 3: me to the wrong hotel. I'm staying at the Grand
Speaker 3: Hotel Universal.
Speaker 7: Cycle.
Speaker 3: I don't understand what you're saying, but will you please
Speaker 3: take me to the Grand Hotel.
Speaker 7: Universe Seekers of Jose they set the seekers of you.
Speaker 3: Stupid, stupid man. Can't you understand my mother is ill?
Speaker 3: You've taken more than two hours to get me with
Speaker 3: that doctor's house in back. Can't you understand my mother
Speaker 3: is sick, perhaps dying.
Speaker 5: You mademoiselle, I felt a lad Ba dorg.
Speaker 3: A small group of passers by stopped and were listening
Speaker 3: curiously to the argument. Then they joined in and started
Speaker 3: taking sides. Everywhere I looked for foreign faces, strangers, enemies,
Speaker 3: and then shouldering his way through the crowd, I saw
Speaker 3: a bareheaded young man in treves with a pipe climbed
Speaker 3: in his teeth, and before I had a chance to speak,
Speaker 3: I knew help had come.
Speaker 4: I'm having some trouble.
Speaker 3: Oh, thank heavens, you're English, all right, and it seems
Speaker 3: to be the matter. I told him rapidly as I could,
Speaker 3: and he paid the Newlish Cabby popped me into another cab,
Speaker 3: and five minutes later we walked into the lobby of
Speaker 3: the Grand Hotel Universal. The marriager was behind the desk.
Speaker 3: My mother, is she all right?
Speaker 5: Hey, your big girl, pardon my mother?
Speaker 3: Missus Winship in three four two? Is she all right?
Speaker 5: Must be mistaken? There is no windship in four two.
Speaker 8: Three four to two is occupied by mister august To Noah,
Speaker 8: you're a permanent guests.
Speaker 3: But don't you remember me. I'm Cynthia Winship. Two hours
Speaker 3: ago you put me into a taxi to go to
Speaker 3: the doctor's house for some medicine for my mother.
Speaker 5: I am afraid that Mademoiselle is mistaken. I have never
Speaker 5: seen her befoer in my life.
Speaker 4: Well, okay, what is this, listen, I swear it to you.
Speaker 3: It's just as I say. We signed a register less
Speaker 3: than three hours ago. We got in on the train
Speaker 3: from Marseilles.
Speaker 4: Well, let's have a look at the register.
Speaker 3: Yes, I'll show you. I'm in three four two. Where
Speaker 3: is the register?
Speaker 8: Deserve mademoiselle. You may see it for yourself. See today's date.
Speaker 8: Fourteen guests registered. But I don't see any mademoiselle or
Speaker 8: mad damouen sheep?
Speaker 4: Do you no?
Speaker 3: What have you done with my mother? What have you
Speaker 3: done with my mother?
Speaker 4: We'll get to the part of.
Speaker 5: This perhaps is mistaken. She is registered that some other
Speaker 5: don't know.
Speaker 3: This is the hotel, the Grand Universal. You you were
Speaker 3: standing there when we arrived. You handed my mother for
Speaker 3: pen with which she registered. You came to the room
Speaker 3: with the doctor. You put me in the.
Speaker 5: Taxi bert I assure you.
Speaker 7: Mademoiselle, he carried our baggage.
Speaker 4: She'll remembered bagage, Madame.
Speaker 7: Enorm monsieur.
Speaker 3: There were six pieces, don't you remember? You wanted to
Speaker 3: take them all, and I insisted on carrying the jewel case.
Speaker 3: It was a little red one.
Speaker 7: No, Mademoiselle.
Speaker 9: Veuille, this is I never saw you in his life before,
Speaker 9: but this is monster.
Speaker 3: It's impossible. My mother is somewhere in this hotel. What
Speaker 3: have you done with her. What have you done with her?
Speaker 4: Now? Then? How do you feel, Miss Winship?
Speaker 2: Better?
Speaker 5: Thank you?
Speaker 3: This soup was very nourishing.
Speaker 4: Won't you have something else? Sad bit of road?
Speaker 7: Thank you?
Speaker 3: A cup of tea?
Speaker 4: Perhaps, certainly it would touch the poor Madmoiselle.
Speaker 3: I don't know how to thank you, mister. Do you
Speaker 3: realize I don't even know your name.
Speaker 4: It's Bruce, Bruce Stanley.
Speaker 3: I'm glad to meet you, mister Stanley.
Speaker 4: It's a pleasure, Miss Winship.
Speaker 3: Mister Stanley, you believe me, don't you?
Speaker 4: Of course I don't.
Speaker 3: We did register that hotel. We were in room three
Speaker 3: forty two. I can even describe the furnishings. There was
Speaker 3: a big window that went from the ceiling to the floor.
Speaker 4: Well, every hotel room in Paris says windows like that,
Speaker 4: Miss Winship, Oh they do, yes. Well.
Speaker 3: In this room, the draperies were plum colored. There was
Speaker 3: a marble table, a black marble it was, and a
Speaker 3: gilt clock. It had run down, the hands had stopped.
Speaker 3: I remember it twenty minutes past three. The walls were
Speaker 3: covered in rose brocade, and the bedspread was a washed
Speaker 3: out yellow. Oh, if I could only get into that room.
Speaker 3: You'd see. I'm not making this up. I'm not.
Speaker 4: I'm sure you won't. Perhaps I can find a way
Speaker 4: to make them let you in the room.
Speaker 7: Oh can you?
Speaker 4: Yes, I I'm with the Embassy or now under secretary
Speaker 4: sort of thing.
Speaker 3: I er.
Speaker 4: I believe the British Empire has enough influence to change
Speaker 4: the mind of an obstinate Paris in keeper.
Speaker 3: Then let's do it right away.
Speaker 5: Well, I I'm.
Speaker 4: Afraid the might of Britain can't move that fast. It's
Speaker 4: past dinner time. But tomorrow we'll see tomorrow.
Speaker 3: But I must get into that room to night. I
Speaker 3: have no money, no where to sleep.
Speaker 4: We can do nothing with the people at the hotel.
Speaker 4: You saw that. We'll just have to be patient until tomorrow.
Speaker 4: I'm I'm sure I can find a room for it
Speaker 4: to night in a passy on near the embassy. You
Speaker 4: are so very kind.
Speaker 3: How can I ever thank you, mister Stanley.
Speaker 4: Well you you might begin by calling me Bruce. Thank you, Bruce,
Speaker 4: Thank you. Cynthia. Oh, oh, what is it?
Speaker 3: I just thought of something. The doctor. The doctor, yes,
Speaker 3: the one the hotel manager brought in to look after mother.
Speaker 3: I still have his address somewhere here in my purse. Yes,
Speaker 3: here it is. Oh, we must go there immediately. He
Speaker 3: can tell us about mother.
Speaker 4: You see twenty four piece Rubardi grass. Well that's not fine.
Speaker 4: It's just off the Boulevardraspine and the Luxembourg.
Speaker 3: How long would it take to get there by taxi?
Speaker 4: About ten minutes, but it.
Speaker 3: It took over an hour this afternoon.
Speaker 5: What I'm as sure that piece rouvaldo grass?
Speaker 3: Here we are, Yes, this is the place I turned
Speaker 3: them on via. The house is dark.
Speaker 4: It's quite late.
Speaker 3: Well, I don't care. We've got to find out tonight, Jela,
Speaker 3: he said, where is here?
Speaker 4: The upstairs window? And monsieur le doctor said, Mademoiselle Stanley
Speaker 4: el vevoure, and.
Speaker 5: Listen, goodie. Papa was instantly.
Speaker 4: He says, he doesn't know you, but he must he must.
Speaker 3: Doctor. Don't you remember this afternoon you sent me to
Speaker 3: your house for medicine for my mother?
Speaker 4: He says he doesn't understand English.
Speaker 3: Oh, the liar, the dreadful liar. He does. He speaks perfectly,
Speaker 3: coming for it was on any police.
Speaker 4: I'm sorry, Cynthia.
Speaker 3: Oh Bruce, what am I going to do? What am
Speaker 3: I going to do? If it hadn't been for Bruce.
Speaker 3: I'm certain I should have gone out of my mind.
Speaker 3: He found a room for me at the Embassy, where
Speaker 3: I spent a sleepless night of anxiety, almost beyond endurance.
Speaker 3: Bruce called for me at half past ten the next
Speaker 3: morning and took me back to the hotel. To my surprise,
Speaker 3: the attitude of the manager had changed completely.
Speaker 8: Course, mademoiselle may inspect Room three hundred and forty two.
Speaker 8: We are only too glad to convince mademoiselle that my
Speaker 8: mother is not and never was in the Grand Hotel Universelle.
Speaker 7: Why I personally will escort you to the room.
Speaker 5: Is this way? Pleased to the assance?
Speaker 3: Oh Bruce, that terrible man, that horrible, horrible upset.
Speaker 5: You, monsieur was Yrmitage, asked Jim Monsieur.
Speaker 3: I remember what I told you last night, Bruce. You
Speaker 3: see plum colored draperies, black marble top table, rose was
Speaker 3: and a gilt clock with a hamstopped at twenty minutes
Speaker 3: past three.
Speaker 4: You see, yes, simply.
Speaker 5: Wella that was him.
Speaker 8: This way, gentlemen, it was room three hundred and forty two.
Speaker 8: You wish to see, mademoiselle, Yes.
Speaker 3: That's right. Third door to the right. So you see, Bruce,
Speaker 3: I know where it is.
Speaker 5: Yes, here we are.
Speaker 3: Weller, enterpy now, Bruce, you shall see the yellow bedspread.
Speaker 5: Oh, not quite the.
Speaker 8: Room you just described in the elevator, mademoiselle. The drapes
Speaker 8: are ld blue, little dusty. I feel I must have
Speaker 8: this room renovated. You see there is no marble top ting.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 7: The clock, as you noticed, is running now and right
Speaker 7: on time. It seems.
Speaker 5: The walls are not rose.
Speaker 7: Bocade, but yellow flowered walls.
Speaker 8: No, no, my dear mademoiselle, you see how thoroughly mistaken
Speaker 8: you are.
Speaker 3: No. No, they had tried to make me think I
Speaker 3: was mad. They succeeded. I remembered nothing until I awoke
Speaker 3: in my aunt's house in England two weeks later, thanks
Speaker 3: to Bruce, who never left my side during those terrible
Speaker 3: days when my sanity hung in the balance. Well that's
Speaker 3: the story, Alice. That's why I've never been able to
Speaker 3: talk about your grandmother Winship, Oh mother horror, because all
Speaker 3: these years I've clung to the foolish hope that somehow
Speaker 3: she'd come back and tell us herself what happened.
Speaker 4: You, poor dear, You may as well dispel that hope forever, Cynthia.
Speaker 4: What since you have at last brought yourself to discuss
Speaker 4: your mother's disappearance, I think it's time you knew the
Speaker 4: true fact. Bruce. Your mother died twenty minutes after you
Speaker 4: left the hotel on that fool's errand for the doctor.
Speaker 4: Oh no, she died of the bubonic plague. She'd caught
Speaker 4: it in India before she sailed. The doctor recognized the symptoms, Luman,
Speaker 4: He examined her. He told the hotel manager and French
Speaker 4: in your presence. They agreed that the matter must be
Speaker 4: kept completely secret. If the news leaked out that there
Speaker 4: was a case of plague in Paris, said, he would
Speaker 4: have been empty to visitors, and the exposition would have
Speaker 4: been a failure. Oh, Bruce, The conspiracy of silence began
Speaker 4: in the hotel. The bell boy was paid to claim
Speaker 4: he never saw you. The taxi driver was paid well
Speaker 4: to take you to the doctor's house by the most
Speaker 4: roundabout route. The note to the doctor's wife advised her
Speaker 4: to detain you as long as she could, and the
Speaker 4: taxi driver added his own imaginative touch by returning you
Speaker 4: to the Writz instead of the universal I shuddered to
Speaker 4: think what might have happened if I hadn't come through
Speaker 4: the place one dume just then.
Speaker 7: But you didn't know not then?
Speaker 3: When did you find out?
Speaker 4: Next morning? By then the conspiracy had grown to international proportions.
Speaker 4: The embassy had been advised if the exposition was a failure,
Speaker 4: the frank would fall, the pond sterling would be effected.
Speaker 4: That sort of thing. I knew when we went back
Speaker 4: to the hotel you would not find your plumb drapes
Speaker 4: and rose colored walls and black marble topped table, and.
Speaker 7: You let me go through with it.
Speaker 4: What could I do? I was acting under orders. I
Speaker 4: knew that the hotel had completely fumigated and redecorated the
Speaker 4: room over night, and everything was in readiness to repudiate
Speaker 4: your story. I had to let the last act of
Speaker 4: the dreadful farce played to its dreadful end. Mother?
Speaker 3: What did they do with Mother?
Speaker 4: Her body was removed from Rome less than thirty minutes
Speaker 4: after you left it and immediately burned.
Speaker 3: Why Why didn't you tell me this years ago? Why
Speaker 3: did you let me go on all this time?
Speaker 4: This is the first time you have ever mentioned him
Speaker 4: ever since then? My dear.
Speaker 3: Alice. Yes, mother, there's a new issue of The Tettler
Speaker 3: in the library. Dear, wouldn't you like to look at it?
Speaker 3: But mother, I want now, dear, want to have a
Speaker 3: talk with your father.
Speaker 1: Escape, produced and directed by William N. Robson, has brought
Speaker 1: you The Vanishing Lady by Alexander Wilcott, adapted for radio
Speaker 1: by mister Robson. Cynthia was played by Joan Banks. Ruce
Speaker 1: was played I Have her Back. The hotel manager and
Speaker 1: cab driver were played by Ramsey Hill. The musical score
Speaker 1: was conceived and conducted by Cyviewer.
Speaker 2: Next week, you are deathly afraid of snakes, and between
Speaker 2: you and the fortune, between you and escape beyond the
Speaker 2: white jaws of a deadly cotton mouth.
Speaker 1: Next week we escape with Irvin S. Cobb's famous story
Speaker 1: Snake Doctor good Night. Then until the same time next week,
Speaker 1: but again we offer you escape.
Speaker 8: Mm hmm.
Speaker 1: This is CBS, the Columbia podcasting system.