Speaker 1: Tired from a strenuous weekend spring fever. Give you the wanderlust,
Speaker 1: want to get away from it all? We offer you escape.
Speaker 2: You are hanging by your fingertips on the sheer face
Speaker 2: of a nice cliff, suspended one thousand feet above instant death,
Speaker 2: with your strength running out and with no chance for escape.
Speaker 1: Escape designed to free you from the four walls of
Speaker 1: today for a half hour of high adventure.
Speaker 2: Tonight, we escape to the cold, loneliness of a glacier
Speaker 2: high and Swiss Alps, and to a man who learned
Speaker 2: much about death, As told in C. E. Montague's Grim
Speaker 2: Story Action.
Speaker 3: I.
Speaker 2: In the Swiss Alps, well above twelve thousand feet, a
Speaker 2: man clings with desperation to the frozen glass wall of
Speaker 2: the Challioch Glacier, hands and feet jammed into shallow steps
Speaker 2: chopped an iron hard ice. A cold wind drives a
Speaker 2: spray of dusty sleet along the overhanging wall, and the
Speaker 2: sun has fallen away among the crags to the west.
Speaker 2: Darkness lies one hour ahead. The man has climbed with
Speaker 2: painful care, a thousand feet up the glacier's face. From
Speaker 2: the broken moraine at the foot is moved now on
Speaker 2: to the underside of a great bulge in the ice,
Speaker 2: a part of the wall which breaks out beyond the perpendicular,
Speaker 2: and the man is forced to hang from slots cut
Speaker 2: by his axe, much as a sloth hangs from a
Speaker 2: tree branch. Twelve more feet lie between.
Speaker 4: Him and the brow of the overhang.
Speaker 2: Six more steps to be chopped out with the axe,
Speaker 2: and a thousand feet of void space waits beneath him.
Speaker 2: A man is unable to lift his heavy axe for
Speaker 2: even one more stroke. He's tired, and he's fifty two
Speaker 2: years old. No experienced mountaineer would ever attempt the west
Speaker 2: face of the Chaiyotte Glacier. And yet this man is
Speaker 2: an experienced mountaineer. But why why? What strange events have
Speaker 2: conspired to bring him along the path of his life
Speaker 2: and leave him hanging now in peril on the brink
Speaker 2: of eternity? Through What shadows has that path led him?
Speaker 2: And where are those who saw him pass? Can we
Speaker 2: ourselves move back along it? Move back, step by step
Speaker 2: against the river of time, move backward along.
Speaker 3: The life path of Christopher Belle. My name is Jean Valjele,
Speaker 3: and I am a guide for all the mountain trails
Speaker 3: on the vice and the shelley arm. I talked with
Speaker 3: mister Bell this morning as he was leaving the village,
Speaker 3: though of course at the time I did not know
Speaker 3: that was his name.
Speaker 4: The season is over, you understand.
Speaker 3: Winter will come in another week or two, and most
Speaker 3: all the visitors are gone, so you see, I was
Speaker 3: very surprised to hear a stranger call out to me
Speaker 3: in English. I mean a good morning, sir, Good morning.
Speaker 3: I'm glad to see there's at least one of the
Speaker 3: early riser in the village. Besides myself, only.
Speaker 4: A few people out left in the village.
Speaker 3: Sir. It is the end of summer. The end of summer.
Speaker 3: Oh well, I know it. By the way, which are
Speaker 3: these paths? Takes me to the foot of the sholier,
Speaker 3: the one on the left. But you will find no
Speaker 3: climbing there, sir. One arrives very soon at the glacier
Speaker 3: and can go no farther, except of course, to climb
Speaker 3: up it glacier.
Speaker 4: That is impossible. It has never been.
Speaker 3: Done, of course, it's never been tried. Well, there is
Speaker 3: not anyone who would be so foolish. It isn't that
Speaker 3: there are plenty of foolish people in the world, but
Speaker 3: even they hold on to their margin of safety. Margin
Speaker 3: of safety, yes, the difference between the point where a
Speaker 3: man thinks he's reached his limit and the point where
Speaker 3: the limit rarely is.
Speaker 4: I mean, I'm afraid I do not understand.
Speaker 5: This all right.
Speaker 3: I'll take a mountain air such as yourself. Now, you
Speaker 3: look at a slope, you estimate the effort needed to
Speaker 3: climb it. Then you estimate your own endurance. And if
Speaker 3: there isn't a good sized safety factor, you just don't
Speaker 3: make the climb.
Speaker 4: But it would be foolish not to do so.
Speaker 5: I say, it's all tied up in the fear of death. HM.
Speaker 3: Take that out of a man for one instant. There's
Speaker 3: no telling what he might be able to do, what
Speaker 3: blimity might reach. And how should a man lose that feel?
Speaker 4: He can't.
Speaker 5: He can't lose.
Speaker 3: It has to be done for him by by things outside.
Speaker 4: He turned and left me.
Speaker 3: Then this, this mister Bell walked up the path toward
Speaker 3: the glacier, And that was early this morning, and I
Speaker 3: did not see him again. His talk with me made
Speaker 3: no sense, and I could not understand what he meant
Speaker 3: to do or why he was going to do it.
Speaker 3: I remember thinking, Ah, what a strange man. But I
Speaker 3: know really nothing more about him. I believe he arrived
Speaker 3: in the village only last night and took a room
Speaker 3: in the xenial.
Speaker 4: Even Ah, my.
Speaker 6: Name is greater than Gospar. And I'm staying out the
Speaker 6: week here in Zennaw to close up the inn for
Speaker 6: the winter. I have known mister Bell for the last
Speaker 6: thirty years, always before he came in a summer season
Speaker 6: for the climbing, and I was most surprised when you
Speaker 6: arrived last night. I opened one of the rooms and
Speaker 6: found something for him to eat, and then later we
Speaker 6: sat and talked in front of the fire in a
Speaker 6: big empty lounge.
Speaker 5: This is very good coffee, Madame Gaspar.
Speaker 7: Oh, thank you, mister Bell.
Speaker 6: Had you let me know, I would have had everything
Speaker 6: ready for you, just like all the other times, Like.
Speaker 3: All other times. Eh, this one's a little different, Madame Gaspar.
Speaker 3: You might call it a special visit. Ah.
Speaker 6: It is all so different now from the old days.
Speaker 6: Then it was you and your madam would come here,
Speaker 6: and it was Gousper and I and the summer seemed
Speaker 6: to last forever.
Speaker 5: I thought everything would be forever. When she was alive.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 5: I am rarely alone in.
Speaker 7: The world as I am, and it is not good
Speaker 7: to be alone.
Speaker 8: It gives one little reason for living.
Speaker 7: And it makes one no longer afraid of dying.
Speaker 3: Yes, but there are stronger reasons for that than just
Speaker 3: being alone.
Speaker 7: Mister Bell, you look so strange. Is there something troubling you?
Speaker 5: I know, not now. Oh there may have been, but
Speaker 5: not now.
Speaker 3: Well. I shall be leaving quite early in the morning
Speaker 3: for a climb, so I think.
Speaker 5: I'll go on to bed. Good night, Madame Caspar.
Speaker 7: Mister Gosper left the inn this morning before I wakened
Speaker 7: and have not seen him again.
Speaker 6: I have never known him to act so strange before.
Speaker 6: I have no idea what the reason is or what
Speaker 6: he may be planning to do, but I'm sure something
Speaker 6: is troubling him. Perhaps it may be something connected with
Speaker 6: his business back in London.
Speaker 9: My name is Matthew Bruff. I have been chief clerk
Speaker 9: and mister Belt's run in office over the past twenty
Speaker 9: five years. I've always found him to be a considerate,
Speaker 9: independable employer. I've never noticed anything you might call unusual
Speaker 9: about him until one day, about three weeks ago, mister
Speaker 9: Bell entered the establishment a bit late, as I recall,
Speaker 9: and passed immediately into his own office without acknowledging my
Speaker 9: customary greeting.
Speaker 5: A little while afterward, he sent for me, Well, Matthew,
Speaker 5: where do we go from here? I can't say that
Speaker 5: I follow you, mister Bell, And.
Speaker 3: I mean the company is on a steady footing, so
Speaker 3: if we use our heads at all, we don't stand
Speaker 3: much chance of losing anything. Our position is quite secure.
Speaker 3: On the other hand, we can't expect to do any
Speaker 3: more growing. We're through expanding from now on.
Speaker 5: It's just a matter of operation. Oh, most enviable conditions up,
Speaker 5: Who is it?
Speaker 3: There's nothing more to look forward to, nothing more to
Speaker 3: work for. So, as I said, where.
Speaker 5: Do we go from here?
Speaker 3: Matthew, I'm putting you in charge of the business, turning
Speaker 3: it over to you effective this week.
Speaker 4: Mister Bell, you can't possibly.
Speaker 5: Mean though, Yes, I've just decided.
Speaker 3: But what are you going to do? I'm taking a trip.
Speaker 3: I'm I'm going to Switzerland climb a mountain.
Speaker 5: Oh oh, well, then at least it's only temporary, just
Speaker 5: for whatever.
Speaker 4: Time you're gone.
Speaker 5: That's right, it's for whatever time I'm gone. Just for
Speaker 5: whatever time I'm gone.
Speaker 9: Before the end of the week, he had arranged all
Speaker 9: the necessary papers and had left London. I haven't heard
Speaker 9: a word from him since, though I'd presume he's somewhere
Speaker 9: in Switzerland. Actually, however, I haven't the faintest idea where
Speaker 9: mister Bell may be.
Speaker 2: Right at this moment, minutes pass on the glacier, and
Speaker 2: the shadows grow longer from the jagged peaks to the
Speaker 2: west of the Shaiof Glacier and reach out with dark
Speaker 2: fingers toward the man who clings to the icy wall
Speaker 2: while his pounding heart beats out the number of his
Speaker 2: time on Earth. Already those shadows have flowed into the
Speaker 2: awful depths below his swaying figure, blurring the sharp points
Speaker 2: of the tumbled rocks a thousand feet down and making
Speaker 2: the harsh void seem soft and inviting.
Speaker 5: The man's thoughts had grown.
Speaker 2: As unwieldy as the heavy ice axe gripped in his hand.
Speaker 2: He keeps trying to remember that he is Christopher Bell,
Speaker 2: the human being, and not a part of this free
Speaker 2: and empty space. Bo He knows if he stops remembering
Speaker 2: that he may forget all else too, and then let go.
Speaker 9: There's been no reason for trying to locate mister Belson's.
Speaker 9: Nothing of very importance has occurred during these three weeks.
Speaker 4: I'm sure he's quite all right.
Speaker 9: Only one thing still puzzles me a bit, the remarkable
Speaker 9: change in him on that morning three weeks ago. I
Speaker 9: never heard him talk like that before, and whatever the
Speaker 9: reason for it, I am quite sure it was something
Speaker 9: that had happened that morning before he came to the office.
Speaker 10: My name is John Hutsford, and I've been a conductor
Speaker 10: on the Westminster route for some fourteen years now, and
Speaker 10: during all that time, mister Bell has been a daily
Speaker 10: persenger of mine. On the early morning in band Run,
Speaker 10: as I recall it, the first time anything you might
Speaker 10: say added the way you ever happened between us was
Speaker 10: one morning about three weeks ago, I saw mister Bell
Speaker 10: waiting at the usual place, so I signaled to the
Speaker 10: driver to stop.
Speaker 8: Good morning, mister Bell, Good morning.
Speaker 5: I'll be right there.
Speaker 10: Yeah, Now, let me come down and help you, sir.
Speaker 8: I'll make it if you just take my arms to.
Speaker 10: Hugsford, my arm please, But I have taken your arms, doll.
Speaker 5: Oh, yes, of course, I'm sorry.
Speaker 11: We go now.
Speaker 4: Here you are, sir, I had.
Speaker 5: A bit of a shock this morning. I'm right now.
Speaker 10: Well, it's all right, now, that's fine, I say, I
Speaker 10: take out of the strap there now.
Speaker 3: Oh yes, of course, let me see I have the
Speaker 3: fair share somewhere.
Speaker 5: Oh yes you are, Thank you, sir, and thank you. Hi.
Speaker 5: I'm afraid you've brought something home to mind.
Speaker 10: I don't understand what you mean.
Speaker 3: Well, mister Huxford, have you ever had anyone take your
Speaker 3: arm and help you up a flight of steps?
Speaker 10: No, and I might say that I hope the day
Speaker 10: never comes when I well, I'm sorry, sir.
Speaker 4: Not at all.
Speaker 5: Thank you, mister Huts, thank you very much.
Speaker 10: I don't rightly know what was wrong with him, though
Speaker 10: it's certain that something was. I haven't seen him for
Speaker 10: nearly three weeks now. I can't imagine what it might
Speaker 10: have been, what happened to him that morning before he
Speaker 10: got on the bus.
Speaker 11: My name is Jenkins.
Speaker 12: I've been mister Bell's personal valid for the past twelve
Speaker 12: years and seven months. The Master's traveling somewhere on the
Speaker 12: continent just at present. I've been gone something over two
Speaker 12: weeks now. Decided rather suddenly, I believe, in fact, i'd
Speaker 12: rather think something happened one morning about three weeks ago
Speaker 12: that caused.
Speaker 11: Him to make up his mind. I really haven't any
Speaker 11: idea what it might have been. I can remember noticing
Speaker 11: a very strange look.
Speaker 12: On his face when he came down to breakfast that morning,
Speaker 12: but thought nothing of it at the time.
Speaker 5: Good morning, Jenkin, Good morning.
Speaker 11: So I trust you had a pleasant night's rest.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, yes I did, thanks having the usual eyes
Speaker 3: just turned some teeth.
Speaker 5: No, no, I want nothing, he said, some coffee.
Speaker 11: Very well, so I'll bring it right away.
Speaker 5: I can't let him find out.
Speaker 3: I can't let anyone find out about it. Maybe it's
Speaker 3: a little better now, maybe it's going away.
Speaker 5: Maybe I'm giving.
Speaker 3: It too much importance. But no, no, no, it's still there.
Speaker 3: That seemed like a feeling clear down the whole right
Speaker 3: side of my money. I can move my arm and
Speaker 3: leg all right. There's no feeling in them than numb.
Speaker 3: It's simply that, at fifty two years of age, I've
Speaker 3: had a light stroke.
Speaker 11: Your coffee, sir, oh, thank you drinks. Would you care
Speaker 11: for something more, sir?
Speaker 5: No, no, no, no, all if your pardon, sir.
Speaker 11: You don't quite yourself this morning. I do hope you're
Speaker 11: not here.
Speaker 5: No, no, no, no, I'm all right, Jackins.
Speaker 12: And I hope you what am I saying this, mister Bell?
Speaker 12: But you don't take very good care of yourself anymore. Oh,
Speaker 12: please speak years now since you had to check out,
Speaker 12: not since the mistress passed away.
Speaker 5: In fact, I'm quite all right, Jenkins, I'm quite all right.
Speaker 11: Yes, sir, I'm re leieved to hear it, sir. I'll
Speaker 11: bring your paper now.
Speaker 3: Good God, is this what a man slaves his life
Speaker 3: away for, to end up helpless depending on others to
Speaker 3: be wheeled about, put out in the sun, taken in
Speaker 3: like some great fat Lava's disgusting.
Speaker 11: Pardon me, sir, I didn't quite hear you.
Speaker 5: Nothing nothing drinkings.
Speaker 11: Here's your paper, sir, Oh, thank you. Please call if
Speaker 11: you need anything else. Sir, I'd be in the pantry.
Speaker 5: I couldn't go on that way.
Speaker 3: I'd rather not go on.
Speaker 5: I've got to face it.
Speaker 3: This stroke is the first warning. There'll be others, worse ones,
Speaker 3: and in a short.
Speaker 5: Time I'll be helpless.
Speaker 3: There must be some way out, not suicide, but someway.
Speaker 5: There's got to be some way.
Speaker 2: The icy wall hardens into cold vitreous steel. As the
Speaker 2: dust born shadows chill its surface, the merciless ice is
Speaker 2: beginning to freeze the cramped joints of the man's fingers. Now,
Speaker 2: and the heavy axe swings idly at his belt, tracing
Speaker 2: a fumbling.
Speaker 4: Pattern on the thin air of the void.
Speaker 2: How much longer can he cling to those slots in
Speaker 2: the glacier's face? How much longer does he have to live?
Speaker 2: Thirty seconds a minute? What's the margin of safety?
Speaker 5: Now?
Speaker 2: And what does a man think of while his pulse
Speaker 2: beats slower and he waits to die?
Speaker 3: Strange I'm able to go on, hanging to the slope,
Speaker 3: clinging on to life, and I can't feel another ance
Speaker 3: of strength left in me. Strange too, seems I could
Speaker 3: stay here forever, becoming part of the glacier itself, looking
Speaker 3: down at the rocks below, out across the peaks and
Speaker 3: the ice. Now, it's right, dying isn't so bad, Rarely
Speaker 3: not when it's like this rather pleasant. In fact, looks
Speaker 3: so soft down there, the shadows and the snow, the wind.
Speaker 3: Perhaps I could let go float out on the wind
Speaker 3: like an eagle, or be blown along by it like
Speaker 3: drifting snow. Er. The sun's gone now. It will be
Speaker 3: full dark in a few minutes. Maybe I can hold
Speaker 3: on that long, But everything is dark, even the snow
Speaker 3: and the ice.
Speaker 5: And who knows.
Speaker 3: Perhaps I'll watch the sunrise tomorrow and set again.
Speaker 5: And even be on. Oh no, no, no, no, I
Speaker 5: can't last even one full minute longer. I'm true, I'm finished.
Speaker 5: I can't even last to her.
Speaker 3: Eh, chips of ice sliding over the edge. It's funny
Speaker 3: how a glacier sheds off that way. I suppose the
Speaker 3: difference in temperature between days. Oh wait, an ice axe,
Speaker 3: I was an ax. Nor the sound in the world
Speaker 3: like it fell from up above the overhang there. There
Speaker 3: must be somebody up there on the slope coming down
Speaker 3: from the top. There is wait, that's why six seven, eight, nine, ten.
Speaker 3: That's a mountaineer's call for help. Someone's dropped his axe
Speaker 3: and he's in trouble up there. It's right above this bulge.
Speaker 5: If I can only.
Speaker 3: No, no, no, no, my throat, my throats to dry well.
Speaker 3: Six more steps to cut to reach the edge there,
Speaker 3: all right, six more steps.
Speaker 5: I was done in I was finished.
Speaker 3: And now now five more steps?
Speaker 5: Just about does it?
Speaker 13: The last step you cut the rope and let me go.
Speaker 8: There's no good lord, it's a woman and there's a
Speaker 8: man upon the slope.
Speaker 5: Hold on up there. I'll be with you in a minute.
Speaker 14: Somebody's coming here over the.
Speaker 5: Take it easy there, everything's going to be all right.
Speaker 14: I don't know where you came from. The Thank Heaven,
Speaker 14: you're here.
Speaker 3: Yeah, easy enough, it's gotta step out for your feet.
Speaker 3: I was just below the old hang there, I helped
Speaker 3: the follow up above. Call out.
Speaker 8: It's got quite a voice on him.
Speaker 14: It's my husband.
Speaker 3: He's in a step out yet in a second, you
Speaker 3: put your feet on him, You get your breath, then
Speaker 3: we'll tackle the slope.
Speaker 8: Hennah, I'll strap his ice away.
Speaker 5: Easy a hair. Yes, Oh, you're all right now. Just
Speaker 5: lean there when you feel like it, we'll we'll go
Speaker 5: on up.
Speaker 13: My name is Christopher Bell, by the way, I'm and
Speaker 13: a girl, and thank you. I thought we were done.
Speaker 13: I was cutting steps down ahead on the slope and
Speaker 13: I slipped and dropped my axe. The rope held me,
Speaker 13: but neither of was dead to move.
Speaker 3: Well, you're all right now. Soon as you rest up
Speaker 3: a minute, we'll cut some more steps back up the slope.
Speaker 3: You should have started down this way, you've never been
Speaker 3: able to pass that bul Yes, I.
Speaker 13: Can see that now. Of course, it's harder to tell
Speaker 13: when you're moving down the slope.
Speaker 5: Yes, I suppose it is.
Speaker 14: You were coming up the slope, won't you?
Speaker 5: Yes? I I I came up from the foot.
Speaker 14: Alone and without a rope.
Speaker 13: Can you deliberately climb under the under side of an
Speaker 13: overhanging wall?
Speaker 5: Let's just say we're both fool hard?
Speaker 14: Is that what you call it?
Speaker 3: Ah, If you've got your breath back, Now, suppose we
Speaker 3: start up the slope.
Speaker 5: Oh here, like to take my axe and cut the
Speaker 5: first step?
Speaker 14: You'd trust me with it? After I dropped my own.
Speaker 3: Anybody could make a mistake like that, dropping an axe
Speaker 3: or climbing up under an overhang. My name is Theodore Girden,
Speaker 3: and I am the husband of the woman who slipped
Speaker 3: and fell on the wall of the glease. I'm a physician,
Speaker 3: formerly of Harley Street, London, who I have practiced in
Speaker 3: Paris for several years now. I met mister Bell when
Speaker 3: he and my wife reached the ice ledge where I
Speaker 3: stood waiting above them. He was not immediately aware of
Speaker 3: his trouble, but found out about it a short time later,
Speaker 3: when we reached the rest her at the.
Speaker 4: Top of the ridge.
Speaker 3: While my wife heated water for tea at the far
Speaker 3: side of the room, Bell and I fell into a
Speaker 3: much more personal conversation than strangers normally do. But it
Speaker 3: sometimes happens when people have been very close to death.
Speaker 3: At any rate, doctor Gurlin, Ow, you can see how
Speaker 3: it is the life of an invalid doesn't seem very appealing.
Speaker 3: Tell me something, mister Bell, h gather you were pretty
Speaker 3: well done in when I called out on the glacier.
Speaker 3: You couldn't lift a hand. Then how do you account
Speaker 3: for being able to chop six steps into their ice
Speaker 3: in a matter of some five minutes. I don't know
Speaker 3: exactly I was through. I couldn't have lasted thirty seconds more.
Speaker 3: But when I realized someone was in danger, I don't know.
Speaker 5: I've forgot about it.
Speaker 3: And this numbness, this lack of feeling in your right side,
Speaker 3: it didn't bother you, No, I didn't notice.
Speaker 5: This is quite so bad now as matter of fact.
Speaker 3: And there's your answer, mister bell I, I don't believe
Speaker 3: I follow action when you were in action, working because
Speaker 3: you had a reason living, because you had to because
Speaker 3: somebody was depending on you. Then you were all right.
Speaker 3: Everything was back in its place again. Perhaps, but a
Speaker 3: man can't spend all his time climbing up a mountain
Speaker 3: to save someone's life. Oh, I don't mean physical action movement.
Speaker 3: Call it incentive if you like. Maybe that's a better
Speaker 3: way to put it.
Speaker 5: Incentive.
Speaker 3: That's right. It's the one top pressure that keeps life
Speaker 3: moving and growing, and it's what you need.
Speaker 5: Well, it's an interesting theory.
Speaker 4: Doctor hm.
Speaker 3: But it's only a theory.
Speaker 14: I'll have the tea ready in a moment. Is anybody interesting?
Speaker 3: I am my dear lucky we brought it. If if
Speaker 3: no one minds I I believe I'll have a turn
Speaker 3: outside while we're waiting. Of course, not only be careful
Speaker 3: out there in the dark ridge breaks off pretty sharply here,
Speaker 3: Oh sir, I'll be.
Speaker 5: Careful, Oh doctor girl.
Speaker 3: If things were turned around, I wonder if it would
Speaker 3: be any more than just a theory to you.
Speaker 8: Mister Bellwell are you I'm over here, missus Gulan.
Speaker 13: Beautiful, isn't it with the stars so clear and bright?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 5: Well, there won't be any more clear nights before the
Speaker 5: winter storms.
Speaker 14: It would be a shame to give it up?
Speaker 3: You and I?
Speaker 5: What do you mean?
Speaker 13: I've got to say this quickly because I don't want
Speaker 13: my husband to know. We're not the kind to commit suicide,
Speaker 13: You and I. But I think we understand each other.
Speaker 5: Well. You you'll have to say more than that.
Speaker 13: You deliberately climbed into a dead end out on that glacier,
Speaker 13: deliberately extended your safety margin beyond all possible limits, didn't you?
Speaker 5: What do you mean we understand each.
Speaker 13: Other because I did the same thing. I went ahead,
Speaker 13: I picked that route down the slope. But no, please wait,
Speaker 13: in thirty seconds, I would have cut myself loose from
Speaker 13: that roofe Oh, we went to an awful lot of
Speaker 13: trouble so we wouldn't have to call it suicide, didn't we?
Speaker 5: You what why?
Speaker 13: I have a brain condition. There's no point in going
Speaker 13: into it, but it's incurable, and sooner or later, at
Speaker 13: any moment, I shall go blind. My husband doesn't know
Speaker 13: about it, and I don't want him to. Mister Bell, Yes,
Speaker 13: I'll make a bargain with you.
Speaker 5: What sort of bargain?
Speaker 13: I'm not brave really to go on living. I need
Speaker 13: something to cling to. I need to know all the
Speaker 13: time that there's some one else with courage too, mister Bell,
Speaker 13: I'll go on living if you will.
Speaker 5: I'd say, you're amazingly brave.
Speaker 13: If I were, I could do it alone without having
Speaker 13: to make myself dependent on you and your courage.
Speaker 5: But that sort of thing could work both ways. I
Speaker 5: wouldn't dare let.
Speaker 13: You down, nor could I You do you want to
Speaker 13: make the bargain? Shall we go on living, mister Bell?
Speaker 3: As I said before, I am doctor Theodore Galen and
Speaker 3: name at mister Bell. Some three hours ago in the
Speaker 3: schal Yoch Glacier at the moment he's outside, they had
Speaker 3: a few yards away talking to my wife. I can
Speaker 3: hear the sound of their voices, but I can't make
Speaker 3: out the words. However, I know what they're talking about.
Speaker 3: What his answer would be. My wife and I discussed
Speaker 3: it before she went out to join him. You may
Speaker 3: have heard of my wife incidently, though it would likely
Speaker 3: have been under the stage name she uses in the
Speaker 3: Paris theater. You see, she's she's quite a talented actress.
Speaker 1: Escape is produced and directed by Norman MacDonald and Tonight
Speaker 1: brought you action by C. E. Montague, Adapted for radio
Speaker 1: by Les Crutchfield and featuring Joseph Kerns as Christopher Bell
Speaker 1: and Eric Rolfe as the voice, with Louis van Ruten
Speaker 1: as Doctor Goland, Marta Metrovitch as Greta. Jeff Cory has
Speaker 1: brought Ray Lawrence as Huxford, Barry Kroger as Ankins, and
Speaker 1: Joan Banks as Missus Goland. The musical score was conceived
Speaker 1: and conducted by Wilbur Hatch. Next week.
Speaker 2: You are in midd Ocean, a boarded Jinks ship. Already
Speaker 2: three men have died, and you know that some malignant
Speaker 2: forces aimed at you, and you cannot escape. Next week,
Speaker 2: escape with Joseph Conrad's great story The Brute.
Speaker 4: Good Night.
Speaker 1: Then until the same time next week when we again
Speaker 1: offer you escape. This is CBS, where ninety nine million
Speaker 1: people gather every week. The Columbia Broadcasting System