Speaker 1: You are alone in the dark forest, and behind you
Speaker 1: somewhere is the werewolf waiting to drink your blood, and
Speaker 1: you desperately desire the impossible.
Speaker 2: To escape.
Speaker 3: Escape produced and directed by William N. Robson, and carefully
Speaker 3: plotted to free you from the four walls of today
Speaker 3: for a half hour of high adventure.
Speaker 1: A tonight we escaped to the backward world of Eastern Europe,
Speaker 1: where ancient superstitions still live in the minds of men.
Speaker 1: Tonight we escape with Jeoffrey Household's grim story.
Speaker 2: Taboo.
Speaker 4: Among semi civilized peoples, there has always been widespread belief
Speaker 4: in werewolves, those fantastic creatures supposedly able to turn from
Speaker 4: man or woman into wolf and back again at will.
Speaker 4: This belief is still widespread among the simple folk of
Speaker 4: eastern Hungary, in the district around Swibergen high in the
Speaker 4: gloomy Carpathian Mountains, And I must admit not without some reason.
Speaker 4: Before the Late War I often spent my vacations in
Speaker 4: that area, drawn to the dark loneliness by the pool
Speaker 4: of my Slavic blood. It was the same with her, perhaps,
Speaker 4: and our kindred ancestry not that drew us together. Her
Speaker 4: name was Kirra Vaughan, and she was there with her husband,
Speaker 4: a pleasant young Englishman. They were obviously much in love,
Speaker 4: and I felt almost like an intruder when I found
Speaker 4: myself the only other vacationer in the village. However, they
Speaker 4: made me welcome and invited me to dinner. Twas an
Speaker 4: excellent dinner.
Speaker 5: Won't you have some more straw? Is mister Shirabia?
Speaker 4: Humph, thank you, No, missus Vaughan. I've eaten far too
Speaker 4: much already. I cannot say when I've had so excellent
Speaker 4: a dinner.
Speaker 5: Thank you.
Speaker 4: I'm sure I shall get nothing like it at the inn.
Speaker 5: I should hate to have to stay at the inn.
Speaker 6: You see, shuld have you? If my wife is one
Speaker 6: of those delightful creatures who cannot stand to be shut in.
Speaker 6: She must run free, preferably in the woods with her
Speaker 6: hair streaming in the wind. She's quite unusual.
Speaker 4: Indeed, she is my dear Vaughn, and you may count
Speaker 4: yourself most fortunate.
Speaker 6: Oh I do I do? Where else should I find
Speaker 6: so good a cook?
Speaker 4: Or very true? I've never tasted venison quite like that tonight? Delightful?
Speaker 5: Thank you?
Speaker 6: Another victories. She delights in outdoing the ordinary housewife. She
Speaker 6: distains the village sharp and gets her meat right off
Speaker 6: the hoof.
Speaker 4: Oh you do your own hunting, Oh dear, No, not that.
Speaker 6: She's much too kind hearted and loving a person for that.
Speaker 6: She's found a new source. The district game warden brings
Speaker 6: fresh venison to our door.
Speaker 5: Oh it's not he, but his son, true.
Speaker 6: The game Warden's slightly moronic son. Who is I'm sure
Speaker 6: in love with her.
Speaker 5: Oh that's ridiculous.
Speaker 4: Oh not so, It's quite understandable. I'm beginning to fall
Speaker 4: in love with her myself, Thank you, sir. Seriously, though,
Speaker 4: I can understand this wild desire to be free, this
Speaker 4: wish to, as you put it, run in the woods
Speaker 4: with the wind in your hair. It is some legacy
Speaker 4: of our slavic blood, no doubt, yours and mine and
Speaker 4: the game warden's moronic son. Somehow we feel at home
Speaker 4: in these dark forests.
Speaker 6: Oh you too, Yes, And I don't I confess it.
Speaker 6: I don't. There's something here that frightens me, something strange
Speaker 6: and in human and taboo, darling, I'll confess something, cure I.
Speaker 6: I don't like Kido to go out into the forest alone.
Speaker 6: Maybe I'm afraid that someday this emotional impulse of hers
Speaker 6: will get the better of her and she would just
Speaker 6: disappear like those two men last week.
Speaker 4: Oh what was that? If I missed some exciting happening?
Speaker 6: No, not really, though you'd think so. To hear the
Speaker 6: villager's talk. A fellow coming home through the woods after
Speaker 6: dark just disappeared, probably got fed up with life here
Speaker 6: in the village and lit out for budda pest.
Speaker 4: And what about the other one?
Speaker 7: Oh?
Speaker 6: Yes, well, a such party went out the next day
Speaker 6: to look for the fellow. When they got back, they
Speaker 6: found one of their party was missing. Evidently he'd taken
Speaker 6: the opportunity to skip out too.
Speaker 5: Is that what you really think?
Speaker 6: Oh? Why not, my dear. If those men had been
Speaker 6: done away with, it might have been by something supernatural,
Speaker 6: and there's no such thing.
Speaker 4: But might it not have been some wild animals?
Speaker 6: Oh, the bears around here are harmless, and the wolves
Speaker 6: are not in pact at any rate. There would have
Speaker 6: been some sign, some blood tracked something. There was nothing.
Speaker 6: They simply disappear, vanished, skipped out.
Speaker 5: Rich How can you be so careless?
Speaker 6: You see the paradox? My wife, who loves the woods,
Speaker 6: believes the fantastic tales of the villagers. I, who confess
Speaker 6: to finding the woods strange and frightening, do not believe them.
Speaker 4: Perhaps it is because you are frightened that you are
Speaker 4: afraid to believe them. Er, what do the villagers say.
Speaker 6: Well, you know this district were nerves are talking of
Speaker 6: were wolves and such, tommyrot who it's utterly fantastic.
Speaker 4: Yes to you an Englishman, it would be, and it
Speaker 4: isn't to you fantastic, Yes, I suppose. But perhaps missus
Speaker 4: Vaughan and I, who feel at home in this forest,
Speaker 4: can understand and believe such fantasy a little more easily
Speaker 4: than you.
Speaker 5: Yes, I remember many times as a child I dreamt
Speaker 5: of being an animal. I thought then that I would
Speaker 5: love it, the freedom of the forest exactly.
Speaker 4: That primitive instinct is so deep within us all a
Speaker 4: heritage of some dim distant past. In us Slavs, it
Speaker 4: lies closer to the surface. Takes very little to bring
Speaker 4: it to light.
Speaker 5: Yes, that is true.
Speaker 6: Well, you've placed my wife in a new life, sharabav.
Speaker 6: You'll have me suspecting her of changing it to a
Speaker 6: wolf and running out of the forest to murder people.
Speaker 4: Oh please, Born, you take me too literally? And besides
Speaker 4: it is a shame to sports so delightful at dinner
Speaker 4: with so Gloo me a conversation.
Speaker 6: Right, shall we go into the living room with the
Speaker 6: chef of fire man. Oh yes, sir, what is it
Speaker 6: forred sir?
Speaker 8: But a message just came from the village.
Speaker 6: Oh what is it?
Speaker 8: They want you and mister Scheraviv to come down there now.
Speaker 8: They're organizing another search party. What yes, there's another man missing.
Speaker 6: She's fainted.
Speaker 4: It was only then I realized that these people were
Speaker 4: under a terrible tension. I was to learn very quickly
Speaker 4: that the whole village shared it. Reable bodied men in
Speaker 4: the district was at the inn when we arrived. The
Speaker 4: magistrate explained the situation gross.
Speaker 9: He went into the forest late this afternoon, hoping to
Speaker 9: bag a black cock for his supper. A little after
Speaker 9: Dusky solitary shot was hurt. That was three hours ago,
Speaker 9: and he is not returned.
Speaker 6: But only three hours. Isn't there a chance that he
Speaker 6: might still return?
Speaker 9: A chance perhaps, but the other two did not. It
Speaker 9: will do no harm to search for him. We may
Speaker 9: still be in time to save his life.
Speaker 4: We searched most of the night, and then next morning
Speaker 4: Vaughan and I went out again. We climbed to my
Speaker 4: favorite spot for hunting black cock, and then followed the
Speaker 4: trail down to the village, the trail the missing grocer
Speaker 4: would have taken. I was beginning to be a little
Speaker 4: exasperated at Vaughan. He seemed to be so casual and uninterested,
Speaker 4: as if he were convinced that this one, too had
Speaker 4: merely skipped out. But I underestimated him. He was a
Speaker 4: skilled tracker, and suddenly he did show some interest.
Speaker 6: Wait a minute, some one has turned aside from the
Speaker 6: path here.
Speaker 4: Mmm.
Speaker 6: He was in a hurry. I wonder why.
Speaker 4: Hmm, I think you are right. There are some broken branches.
Speaker 6: Why why here?
Speaker 4: It's hardly likely any one would go plunging into that
Speaker 4: thicket unless he had a reason.
Speaker 3: Wait.
Speaker 6: Wait, see that big white rock behind the thicket. When
Speaker 6: you're being followed, it's company to have a clear space
Speaker 6: around you. You'd feel safe up on top of that
Speaker 6: rock with a gun in your hands. If you got
Speaker 6: there in time.
Speaker 4: You may be right. Let's go up, tato. We forced
Speaker 4: our way through the underbrush to the rock. It was
Speaker 4: thirty feet high on the down slope side, and a
Speaker 4: hot spring at the foot of it bubbled out of
Speaker 4: the cavity scarcely two feet wide. We made our way
Speaker 4: up to the slope around it and came out on top.
Speaker 4: There was nothing there except for some ivy in the
Speaker 4: cracks and one small stunted tree.
Speaker 6: Ha ha. Look look at that where the tree the
Speaker 6: entire base has been shattered by a charge at close quarters.
Speaker 6: Perhaps that was the shot that was heard.
Speaker 4: You're right, it must be. They say, they say there
Speaker 4: is always a tree between you and it, but you
Speaker 4: mean it they were wolf.
Speaker 6: Huh. Well, this must have been a baby one. Then
Speaker 6: that mark is only six inches off the ground. No.
Speaker 6: I think the man's gun went off as he fell.
Speaker 6: Perhaps he was followed too close as he scrambled up
Speaker 6: about Uh that here would be where his body would
Speaker 6: have fallen.
Speaker 4: Do you see anything? I don't. No, blood stained?
Speaker 6: Well wait wait, look look here.
Speaker 2: Hm.
Speaker 4: Oh, but it's just a tiny spot.
Speaker 6: It's enough. It's blood, all right, and something more, a
Speaker 6: tiny bit of tissue.
Speaker 4: Let me see, hm. Brain tissue must have come from
Speaker 4: a deep wound in the skull, made by something like
Speaker 4: an arrow or a bird's beak or maybe even a
Speaker 4: sharp tooth.
Speaker 6: But where's the body. There is absolutely no other sign,
Speaker 6: no evidence of it's being dragged off anywhere.
Speaker 4: No, I can't see any other very strange, but at
Speaker 4: least we know one thing. One This man did not
Speaker 4: just skip out. This man was dead or die. When
Speaker 4: we brought our information back, the excitement of the village mounted.
Speaker 4: The peasants crossed themselves, and at the inn the old
Speaker 4: tales were being told.
Speaker 6: That's the advice. The game weren't talking now, and Joseph
Speaker 6: vices son beside him.
Speaker 4: The moronic sun.
Speaker 6: Yes, the old man is a character too. Listen.
Speaker 7: The biggest one my grandfather had seen, and it followed
Speaker 7: him in the forest time after time. He met the
Speaker 7: twilight outside his cabin. Time after time. He fired that
Speaker 7: it point blank, but he couldn't hurt it. Then he
Speaker 7: founded a silver peg and loaded. He's gone with it.
Speaker 7: One shot and the wolf disappeared. But next day they
Speaker 7: found Heinrich the cobbler, dying in his house with a
Speaker 7: beaten silver coin.
Speaker 1: With his belly horse. You believe such stupid talk, Yosef.
Speaker 1: My grandfather used to tell the same story, only when
Speaker 1: he told it happened to his grandfather. Anyone can see
Speaker 1: it didn't happen at all. Such things can't happen.
Speaker 7: Joseph, you call your father a liar, I.
Speaker 4: Thought, well, far from being a Moran. Joseph seems to
Speaker 4: have more sense than the others.
Speaker 6: Perhaps, Oh, Yosef, you're not afraid of the spoil world,
Speaker 6: then eh ah, no, why not? The whole village is frightened.
Speaker 1: I'm used to walking alone in the woods at night.
Speaker 1: You've got to be a part of the forest, then
Speaker 1: you'll not be afraid of it.
Speaker 6: You do believe in werewolves, then eh.
Speaker 1: I don't say a man can turn into a world. No,
Speaker 1: but I can't understand why he want to.
Speaker 6: Hmm your theory again.
Speaker 4: Yes, I I think I understand that to Joseph, But
Speaker 4: what does it feel like it?
Speaker 1: It feels as if the words had God under your
Speaker 1: skin and you want to walk wild and crouch at
Speaker 1: the knees.
Speaker 6: Yes, I think he's perfectly right, and you were you
Speaker 6: explain it by some primitive urge.
Speaker 4: Possibly there may be many reasons. Physical hunger could be one.
Speaker 4: We sometimes forget that man was once a fleet footed
Speaker 4: hunting animal with all the necessary instincts.
Speaker 7: Ah, yes, we all know about it, about what it
Speaker 7: can do to a man.
Speaker 9: Ah, I've been trapped in a cliff for five days.
Speaker 1: I know none of you have suffered hunger. It's with
Speaker 1: it in the prison camp during the war.
Speaker 6: None of you knows what it.
Speaker 7: Is to be Joseph, let's not talk about it. He
Speaker 7: gets so upset, remembering.
Speaker 9: Well, we'll have to go on searching for the body
Speaker 9: and for the warwolf.
Speaker 7: You will not find it, not until you arm yourselves
Speaker 7: with silver bullets.
Speaker 9: Perhaps it has gone now, whatever it is, the search
Speaker 9: parties may have frightened it away.
Speaker 1: It wasn't frightened by the first search party. It's simply
Speaker 1: talk one of them. No, it is still here and
Speaker 1: it will strike again. You may be sure of that.
Speaker 4: The whole village believed that Joseph Weiss was right. They
Speaker 4: traveled in the woods by twos. Now no one went
Speaker 4: alone for a week. Village life was disrupted. The men
Speaker 4: beat the forest, The women tried to comfort each other.
Speaker 4: Kiera wore herself out trying to be useful. The village
Speaker 4: women could not help loving her. But there was something else,
Speaker 4: something strange. One day I spoke to freeda that made
Speaker 4: about it.
Speaker 7: Ah.
Speaker 6: Yes, she is a strange one, mister Shariba.
Speaker 8: Even I have seen her going out to walk alone
Speaker 8: in the woods at twilight. The women in the village
Speaker 8: think she is possessed.
Speaker 4: What do you mean possessed? I hesitate to say, sir,
Speaker 4: come tell me.
Speaker 8: They are beginning to say, sometimes there were wealth can
Speaker 8: be a woman.
Speaker 4: At first, the suggestion seems so ridiculous to me that
Speaker 4: I hesitated to speak of it. But then I decided
Speaker 4: to tell Vaughn before this rumor could reach Kiera herself.
Speaker 4: He was naturally much upset.
Speaker 5: That's subtle a rabbit.
Speaker 6: We've got do.
Speaker 4: Something something, yes, but what There's.
Speaker 6: Only one thing we can do. Track down this supposed
Speaker 6: we are wolf.
Speaker 4: But that's what we've been trying to do for a week.
Speaker 4: How can we It's.
Speaker 6: Really very simple. We'll offer him bait.
Speaker 4: Bait? Who will be this bait?
Speaker 6: You and I shall have you if you're game right, Yes,
Speaker 6: of course I'm game good.
Speaker 4: But how are you going to tie me to a
Speaker 4: tree and watch out with a gun?
Speaker 6: That's about right? And if we didn't tie you up,
Speaker 6: and since it was my idea, you can have first turn.
Speaker 6: With the gun. Are you a good shot?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 6: This is no time for false modesty.
Speaker 4: Yes, I'm a good shot, very well.
Speaker 6: It'll be night and we'll have to shoot the down
Speaker 6: of the moonlight.
Speaker 4: Where do we go to the rug?
Speaker 6: Exactly, and the sooner the better. Tonight tonight, and say nothing,
Speaker 6: absolutely nothing to anybody, especially to Kira.
Speaker 4: I understand this is between us. Either we win or
Speaker 4: we simply disappear. It was difficult getting away without telling
Speaker 4: Kira what we were going to do. She seemed to
Speaker 4: sense that something was wrong, and she sat staring after
Speaker 4: us with strange, angry eyes in the village. Vaughan and
Speaker 4: I parted and made our ways to the rock separately.
Speaker 4: I reached there first and settled myself on top of
Speaker 4: the rock, almost covered by the ivy, the gun across
Speaker 4: my knees. Presently, Vaughan appeared on the path, and I
Speaker 4: gave the signal that I was there and ready. The
Speaker 4: trap was set. In the eerie stillness of the dark forest,
Speaker 4: we waited. Bon paced slowly on the path. I kept
Speaker 4: the gun sight trained a yard and back of him
Speaker 4: as he walked. Minutes passed in silence, hours went by.
Speaker 4: Nothing happened. It was almost midnight, the end of our vigil.
Speaker 4: Vaughan waved his hand and started off down the trail.
Speaker 4: He would go fast in case he was followed, taking
Speaker 4: a short cut down an old timber slide, he'd be
Speaker 4: in the village in ten minutes. I was to follow presently.
Speaker 4: Then suddenly I got an intense feeling of dread. I
Speaker 4: was alone on the rock. My spine tinkled, and then
Speaker 4: I heard it, a quick rustle in the ivy behind me.
Speaker 4: Something brush my base. Ye, it was only a bird.
Speaker 4: A night bird had lit in the ivy, and us
Speaker 4: swoshed past me and flew away. My nerves were still
Speaker 4: tingling when I got back to the village next day.
Speaker 4: When I went to see Vaughan, he gave me a
Speaker 4: warning glance. Kira was suspicious. I could see the question
Speaker 4: in her eyes when she greeted me.
Speaker 5: So, here is the other culprit, Which of your is
Speaker 5: most to blame for keeping such late hours?
Speaker 4: Why I suppose to keep peace in the family, I
Speaker 4: should say it is I.
Speaker 5: No, you can't get him off that easily.
Speaker 6: I'm the only culpet my dear, you see, I've never
Speaker 6: hunted deer at night. I asked for rabia have to
Speaker 6: help me.
Speaker 5: I suppose you should the poor things while they sleep.
Speaker 6: Oh no, while they're having at dinner. Possible?
Speaker 5: No cruel and heartless, both of you.
Speaker 6: It's no use letting us start an argument. I'll go
Speaker 6: get us a drink.
Speaker 4: Oh, yes, thank you, I'd like that. Why why do
Speaker 4: you look at me like that?
Speaker 5: Was the hunting good last night?
Speaker 4: No? Not very and we didn't get anything. As you see,
Speaker 4: I'm afraid you'll still have to depend upon yours for
Speaker 4: your venison.
Speaker 5: Where did you hunt?
Speaker 2: Why?
Speaker 4: Simply in the forest? Nowhere in particular.
Speaker 5: You're not telling me the truth, are you.
Speaker 4: My dear? I don't know what you're thinking, But are
Speaker 4: you sure?
Speaker 5: Never mind? I suppose it is best. I don't know,
Speaker 5: but take care of him, please.
Speaker 4: Of course I will.
Speaker 5: Then anything should happen to him.
Speaker 4: But what could happen?
Speaker 5: You know you understand these things.
Speaker 4: That night I was the bait, and I confess, walking
Speaker 4: there on the moonlit path, the dense undergrowth pressing close
Speaker 4: on both sides, the forest all around me, that I
Speaker 4: felt a strange terror. But nothing happened. One say bear
Speaker 4: rambled across the path, paused, sniffed, then disappeared into the brush.
Speaker 4: Then a little later I thought I saw a flicker
Speaker 4: of white in the clearing below, but it never reappeared,
Speaker 4: and had decided it must have been a ripple of
Speaker 4: grass in the moonlight. At midnight, we returned to the village,
Speaker 4: and I was beginning to wonder if our trap would
Speaker 4: ever be sprung.
Speaker 6: We must keep anchure, have you I have a feeling
Speaker 6: that to morrow night perhaps, or the next night.
Speaker 4: I am game as long as you you are. But
Speaker 4: so far we've only lost sleep.
Speaker 6: I've got to keep on. Have you forgotten about Cira
Speaker 6: the things are saying about her?
Speaker 4: No, of course not. But surely these people would not
Speaker 4: do anything to her.
Speaker 6: It's not that, it's what it might do to her
Speaker 6: spirit if she would hear those insane rumors. She's so sensitive.
Speaker 6: I I don't like to think about it.
Speaker 4: Then shall we go out again tomorrow night?
Speaker 6: Yes, you must come to dinner, though first vice is
Speaker 6: making down more venison. Kira will want you to.
Speaker 4: Come, all right till tomorrow night. Then after dinner we
Speaker 4: went out for our third night on the rock. Vaughan
Speaker 4: was the bait to night, and I the watcher. The
Speaker 4: forest was alive with sound. A deer coughed. The bear
Speaker 4: came ambling back, as wooly and harmless as a dog.
Speaker 4: I was watching him when suddenly he paused and sniffed
Speaker 4: the air, then disappeared into the trees. The animal sounds
Speaker 4: quieted one by one, and a tense stillness fell over
Speaker 4: the forest. My hand tightened on the gun, and suddenly
Speaker 4: I saw it, that flicker of white, moving fast through
Speaker 4: the trees, that was coming up the path toward Vaughn,
Speaker 4: A soft, bulky white blur, coming surprisingly fast. Bond's back
Speaker 4: was turned, he did not see it. My finger tightened
Speaker 4: on the trigger. It was only a few yards away.
Speaker 4: When he turned, I started to press the trigger.
Speaker 6: No, no, what are you doing here, darling?
Speaker 5: I was looking for you and the plast night too.
Speaker 6: Sure you shouldn't have it was foolish, terribly poolish.
Speaker 5: There was nothing after me. I know it. That's why
Speaker 5: I was running here.
Speaker 6: You shouldn't be out here alone.
Speaker 5: But what about you? Where's Jerabe?
Speaker 6: She's up there on the rock covering me with his rifle.
Speaker 6: I'm perfectly safe. I'll show you. I'll hold up my
Speaker 6: handkerchief like this. Now, Cherab yet put.
Speaker 4: A hole in that I stared for a moment at
Speaker 4: the white square of handkerchief, then at the white of
Speaker 4: her coat. My lips were dry, my finger felt now
Speaker 4: man the trigger.
Speaker 6: Come on to Rabia, the haggai.
Speaker 4: Please, God, don't let me miss there.
Speaker 6: You see, my dear.
Speaker 4: They went down the path together and I followed. After
Speaker 4: a moment, a hundred yards from the timber slide, I
Speaker 4: knew I was being followed even before I heard something
Speaker 4: in the brush behind me. I stopped and turned round.
Speaker 4: Moved past me, cutting off my retreat. Now I stood
Speaker 4: alone in terror, but it was still in the brush.
Speaker 4: If only I could make the timber slide, I got
Speaker 4: down safely. I went straight to Vaughan. He came out
Speaker 4: of the house to talk to me. I told him
Speaker 4: what had happened. This reaction surprised me.
Speaker 6: Si Rabia, if I'm sorry, I had to leave you
Speaker 6: up there face alone. But I had to bring her down.
Speaker 6: Of course I know that, and you must believe this.
Speaker 6: She never left me. We came down together, arm in arm.
Speaker 6: We came straight down. You must believe that.
Speaker 4: But of course, why should I think differently?
Speaker 6: Then you must realize whoever it was up there in
Speaker 6: the brush following you. It couldn't have been cure.
Speaker 4: Good heavens one? Do you think I believe that preposterous story?
Speaker 6: But didn't you even up there on the rock when
Speaker 6: you hesitated about firing the handkerchief? Didn't you believe it
Speaker 6: might be cure?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 6: Why?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 4: Of course not? But I did. One knew my thoughts
Speaker 4: almost better than I knew them myself. Yes, that was
Speaker 4: why my lips were dry and my finger numb when
Speaker 4: I pressed the trigger. I had refused to admit it,
Speaker 4: even to myself, And now was I sure? Even now?
Speaker 4: That night, Vaughan was excited.
Speaker 6: We're going to get her tonight after last night. He'll
Speaker 6: be there waiting for us.
Speaker 4: Yes, I think you are right, But if you are,
Speaker 4: we wouldn't want anyone else to come walking in on us.
Speaker 4: It might cause confusion.
Speaker 6: Don't worry. Pierre has promised to stay at home. She
Speaker 6: says we're doing our duty and she won't interfere. Do
Speaker 6: you think this is our duty? No? Do I I
Speaker 6: never feel that anything I enjoy it can be my duty.
Speaker 6: Now I really enjoy this to night, I'd like to
Speaker 6: be the date.
Speaker 4: No, it's might and I won't give it up. Besides,
Speaker 4: if it's a revenge you want, you have the gun.
Speaker 6: That's so all right? Then to night you will be
Speaker 6: the date.
Speaker 5: OOO.
Speaker 4: That night, for the first time, I regretted ever getting
Speaker 4: into this mess. As I paced up and down the path,
Speaker 4: my nervousness grew to night. It would surely come, I
Speaker 4: felt it. But would Vaughan shoot straight and quick enough?
Speaker 4: The hours went by, clouds kept scudding over the moon,
Speaker 4: leaving me in deep darkness for minutes at a time.
Speaker 4: I was really beginning to be frightened. Then a fraction
Speaker 4: of a second before it happened, I knew it was coming.
Speaker 4: There was a hot breath on my neck, a crushing
Speaker 4: weight on my shoulder, something hard against my skull, and the.
Speaker 5: Crack of a.
Speaker 6: On. Are you all right?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 8: I think so?
Speaker 7: What was it?
Speaker 6: A man?
Speaker 4: Come on, I'm going in office, all right, I'm coming.
Speaker 8: On.
Speaker 4: Where did he go?
Speaker 6: I can probably believe it? But he went right into
Speaker 6: this hot spring under the rock.
Speaker 4: But there's hardly opening enough for a people under the water.
Speaker 4: Come on, wait one, I'm coming with you. We plunged
Speaker 4: into the spring, wriggling our way forward, not knowing what
Speaker 4: to expect. One held a rifle high above the water,
Speaker 4: but there wasn't room enough for our heads. We had
Speaker 4: to hold our breast and plunge forward. What the letter
Speaker 4: was only a few feet. I emerged and took a breath.
Speaker 4: Then I heard one fire got him?
Speaker 6: Where shine the fresh light there at the other side
Speaker 6: of the cave.
Speaker 4: Who would have thought there would be a cave here?
Speaker 6: That anyone who could have gotten through that spring?
Speaker 4: It was a perfect hiding place.
Speaker 6: But it does him no good. Now turn him over.
Speaker 6: Let's see who our werewolf is.
Speaker 4: It's Vie Joseph Weiss, the im Wharton's son.
Speaker 6: Oh why didn't we think of that? We all knew
Speaker 6: he was not quite sane.
Speaker 4: More than that, he almost told us. Remember he said,
Speaker 4: I do not believe a man can turn himself into
Speaker 4: a wolf, but I know why he'd want to.
Speaker 6: Yes, And he described the feeling to walk wild and
Speaker 6: crutch the knees.
Speaker 4: He knew that feeling. He knew it too well. Beside
Speaker 4: yourse advice, we found a murder weapon. It was a
Speaker 4: patented animal killer, a heavy heavy iron muzzle that gripped
Speaker 4: the scalp, a heavy spike that was released by a spring.
Speaker 4: His hiding place was even more perfect than we had supposed.
Speaker 4: When the magistrate investigated, he found a passage from that
Speaker 4: cave which led underground for more than a mile, and
Speaker 4: finally to the game warden's house, where a ladder led
Speaker 4: into his cellar.
Speaker 6: Undoubtedly, Vice found that dry underground river one day and
Speaker 6: realized they could use it. Perhaps that is what caused
Speaker 6: his mind to snap.
Speaker 4: Yes, it released a long pent up spring in him.
Speaker 4: Like that weapon he used, He saw that he could
Speaker 4: run in the woods like an animal, disappearing and reappearing
Speaker 4: with perfect safety. Stephen offered a place to bury his
Speaker 4: victims without a trace, And.
Speaker 6: So your theory proved correct. But there's a murderous primitive
Speaker 6: instinct lurking in some people. Yes, well to all explained,
Speaker 6: excepting what he did with the bodies.
Speaker 4: It would serve no useful purpose to speculate on that now.
Speaker 6: Yes, I suppose you are right, Kier. You haven't said anything.
Speaker 5: Why did you have to shoot him?
Speaker 6: Kier?
Speaker 4: He was a murderer.
Speaker 6: He tried to murder Cheraviev.
Speaker 5: Is it murder when a wolf kills a dumb animal
Speaker 5: flattened of intruders?
Speaker 6: Kira?
Speaker 5: You understand what I mean, don't you? Shiravia. You understand
Speaker 5: that night when you shut the handkerchief, just as I have,
Speaker 5: it might have happened to any of us. You see, Kier,
Speaker 5: What do you mean? Take me away from here, Richard,
Speaker 5: Just take me away quickly.
Speaker 3: Escape is produced and directed by William N. Robson and
Speaker 3: Tonight Brought You Taboo by Jeffrey Household, adapted for radio
Speaker 3: by John Duncle with Paul Freezer, Scheraviev, Martamitrovic's Kira, and
Speaker 3: Morgan Fowley is Born. The special musical score was conceived
Speaker 3: and conducted by Ci Fure.
Speaker 1: Next week, he was standing on a bridge over our
Speaker 1: creek with a noose around your neck. You have only
Speaker 1: a few seconds left to live. A few seconds left
Speaker 1: to plan your escape.
Speaker 3: Next week we escape with Ambrose Bierce's famous story and
Speaker 3: occurrence at all Creek Bridge. Good night, then until the
Speaker 3: same time next week when we again offer you escape.
Speaker 3: This is CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting System