Speaker 1: Escape.
Speaker 2: Escape tonight to a fabulous world where there is a
Speaker 2: Diamond as Big as.
Speaker 3: The Ritz, a Columbia broadcasting system and it's affiliated stations
Speaker 3: for resentts. Escape a new series of programs, of which
Speaker 3: this the third is The Diamond As.
Speaker 4: Big as the Rints by F.
Speaker 3: Scott Fitzgerald, produced and directed by William N.
Speaker 4: Robeson.
Speaker 5: In a country as large as ours, there are many
Speaker 5: odd and wonderful corners hidden away, but none more fabulous
Speaker 5: and wonderful than the one conceived in the imagination of F.
Speaker 5: Scott Fitzgerald and located in the pages of his famous
Speaker 5: short story The Diamond As Big as the Ritz. It
Speaker 5: is described in the words of John Unger, twenty years old,
Speaker 5: impressionable and quite willing to swear to the truth of
Speaker 5: this whole strange affair.
Speaker 1: I'd been going to the Saint Midas Prep school for
Speaker 1: a couple of years, and this was my second summer vacation.
Speaker 1: I'd met this fellow, Percy Washington during the winter and
Speaker 1: got to be pretty good friends with him. Only I
Speaker 1: didn't know about his family, or where he came from,
Speaker 1: or anything like that. Of course, I knew he must
Speaker 1: be rich, because Hall of fellas a saint. Midas come
Speaker 1: from wealthy families. So when he invited me to spend
Speaker 1: the summer at his home out west someplace, that was
Speaker 1: okay by me. Well, we've been on the train overnight
Speaker 1: when he first mentioned it. I don't even remember now
Speaker 1: what led up to it. We've been talking about first
Speaker 1: one thing and then another. Exactly where is your home, Percy?
Speaker 1: I mean you bought the train tickets and office.
Speaker 6: It's still Montana's sort of Montana.
Speaker 1: Oh yes, it's pretty wild country, isn't it.
Speaker 6: Some of it is.
Speaker 1: When I you take Haities, Missouri, where I come from,
Speaker 1: it's been settled one hundred fifty years, one of the
Speaker 1: first times on the Mississippi River.
Speaker 6: Indeed. Oh sure, that's very interesting.
Speaker 1: Huh. I sure do appreciate you not making jokes about it,
Speaker 1: you know the way some of the fellas do when
Speaker 1: I say I come from Hades. Why my father's plantations?
Speaker 7: Godges, do you know that my father is the richest
Speaker 7: man in the world. Uh, by far the richest.
Speaker 1: Well, I read about a man that paid taxes on
Speaker 1: a five million dollar income.
Speaker 6: Small fry.
Speaker 7: If my father paid tax on his real income, he
Speaker 7: disrupt the whole economy of the United States.
Speaker 1: No kidding. I like rich people, and the richer fella
Speaker 1: is the better. I like him.
Speaker 7: My father could buy out all the millionaires in the
Speaker 7: country and not even know he had done it.
Speaker 1: Is that a fact? Wife? Is that the Slitzer Murphy's
Speaker 1: once they're plenty of rich? Why their daughter Vivian's got
Speaker 1: rubies as big as hen's eggs and sapphires that glue
Speaker 1: like headlamps.
Speaker 7: I like jewels, always have. I used to collect them
Speaker 7: instead of stamms and diamonds. Whether Schlitzer Murphy had diamonds
Speaker 7: as big as walnuts? Oh that's nothing, huh, nothing at all.
Speaker 7: My father has a diamond as big as the Ritz. Please,
Speaker 7: I'm not joking, but you mean as big as the
Speaker 7: Ritz Carlton Hotel exactly. My father has a diamond as
Speaker 7: big as the Ritz. Well, from there on it was
Speaker 7: something like a dream.
Speaker 1: We got off the train about Desk at a little
Speaker 1: whistle stop called Fish, Montana. There wasn't anything there, not
Speaker 1: even a station, just a broken down old buggy and
Speaker 1: four or five sheep herders lounging beside the track, and
Speaker 1: I suppose wondering who we were anyway, Percy and I
Speaker 1: climbed into the buggy, and without saying a word, the
Speaker 1: driver cracked his whip and off we went. I don't
Speaker 1: know how far we travel We didn't seem to be
Speaker 1: following any road. After an hour or so, it got dark,
Speaker 1: but the driver kept right on, never saying a word.
Speaker 7: I hope you'll pardon this inconvenience, John, but we have
Speaker 7: to take certain precautions, you know.
Speaker 1: Oh, that's all right.
Speaker 6: Anyway, we're almost there.
Speaker 7: You're home, you mean, oh, no, to the place where
Speaker 7: we consider it safe to transfer transfer What do you mean?
Speaker 7: There's the signal now, headlights well up, the horse absom
Speaker 7: here we.
Speaker 1: Are an automobile, but there's no road.
Speaker 6: Oh, this car is specially built, doesn't need roads.
Speaker 4: Welcome home, must.
Speaker 6: Good evening, Gigsum. Oh, come on, John, let's get in.
Speaker 7: But that door opened by it so sonically controlled, you know.
Speaker 1: Gosh, Hey, what's this car made out of silver?
Speaker 6: No platinum?
Speaker 7: And those are emeralds in the hubcaps and me upholstering
Speaker 7: it's per mink. You're already must anytime, Gigsum. You've probably
Speaker 7: noticed the exceptional brightness of the headlights, the lenses are
Speaker 7: cut from diamonds.
Speaker 6: Boy, what a car in this old junkie We use
Speaker 6: it for a station wagon.
Speaker 1: What are we stopping for? This is just a deserted canyon.
Speaker 6: Oh, we're not there yet, John, it's a little further.
Speaker 6: Wait you'll see hell.
Speaker 7: Oh what, Percy, what's that the noise they're sending the
Speaker 7: hooks down? Hooks, Yes, to attach through the wheels. You
Speaker 7: know that's what Dixon is doing now. But oh, yes,
Speaker 7: I forgot to mention. Gigson will look after you during
Speaker 7: the visit, look after me your personal valet.
Speaker 6: Of course.
Speaker 7: There'll be other slaves available too, whenever you need them.
Speaker 1: Do you have a lot of slaves?
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 6: Three or four hundred? I suppose already, Gigson.
Speaker 4: Yes, must.
Speaker 1: Hello a store. Look we're leaving the ground.
Speaker 7: Yes, there's a hoy step there on top of the
Speaker 7: cliff has cables about.
Speaker 1: A quarter of a mile long.
Speaker 7: But what four Oh, it's the only way in imagine
Speaker 7: hoisting an automobile a quarter of a mile up the
Speaker 7: side of a cliff. It's nothing really, As you may
Speaker 7: have guessed, John, this is not going to be like
Speaker 7: anything you ever saw before in your life.
Speaker 6: Well, John, there it is.
Speaker 1: That's your home. Oh it's magnificent, glacial.
Speaker 6: It's not a bad little place.
Speaker 1: How big is it?
Speaker 6: I suppose you mean the number of rooms.
Speaker 7: I think it's around a hundred and forty, but Father
Speaker 7: may remember exactly. Then, of course there are other buildings, slaves,
Speaker 7: quarters and things.
Speaker 1: Why has anybody ever found out about it? This place?
Speaker 7: I mean, well, for one thing, it's the only five
Speaker 7: square miles in the U United States that have never
Speaker 7: been surveyed.
Speaker 1: Huh why not?
Speaker 6: Oh, things were arranged.
Speaker 1: I don't see how that's possible.
Speaker 7: Believe me, it hasn't been easy. I understand. Grandfather had
Speaker 7: to bribe three government bureaus, a vice president, and half
Speaker 7: of Congress ones to keep this place off of the maps.
Speaker 1: Oh but surely somebody stumbled on to it. Prospectors people
Speaker 1: like that.
Speaker 7: Oh, yes, that happens occasionally. Then, of course we have
Speaker 7: to arrange things. You mean, not always. Usually we just
Speaker 7: take them prisoner and keep them same as the aviators. Oh,
Speaker 7: planes come here, well, once in a while they fly over.
Speaker 7: Of course they never get away. We have nine anti
Speaker 7: aircraft batteries around the hill here.
Speaker 1: You shoot them down.
Speaker 6: Oh, yes, great sport.
Speaker 7: It does upset mother a bit, though, and there's always
Speaker 7: a chance that one might get away. That's father's greatest worry.
Speaker 7: This place, this whole thing, it's it's fantastic. Oh, come now, John,
Speaker 7: I picked you for a fellow with his feet on
Speaker 7: the ground, and you haven't seen anything yet. You know
Speaker 7: this is only the beginning.
Speaker 1: And it was only the beginning. We crossed the acres
Speaker 1: of lawn and entered the great Chateau, and from that
Speaker 1: moment on, vision upon vision tumble together in a gigantic
Speaker 1: kaleidoscope of color symmetry and exquisite harmony. But there were
Speaker 1: corridors lined with gleaming crystals, lit by lamps cut from emerald,
Speaker 1: And there were great halls carpeted with chinchilla fur and ermine,
Speaker 1: and some with floors of clear transparency flaming in the
Speaker 1: shifting glow of a myriad colored fire beneath them. And
Speaker 1: there was a white haired man, pink faced and pleasant,
Speaker 1: who was Percy's father, and a lovely lady with dark
Speaker 1: hair piled high on her head like a fragile queen,
Speaker 1: who was Percy's mother. Soft music came from hidden places,
Speaker 1: Perfumes filled the air, Exotic foods and wines more rare
Speaker 1: than pearls. And finally, sitting in my chair in the
Speaker 1: Great banquet Hall, I quietly fell asleep. I thought there
Speaker 1: could be no more nor greater wonders. I was wrong.
Speaker 1: There were many more and greater ones, and one of
Speaker 1: them I discovered the next morning in the garden. Hello there,
Speaker 1: huh oh, oh, you're lovely.
Speaker 8: My name is Kismian. You're John Hunger and you're a
Speaker 8: friend of my brother.
Speaker 1: Are you from the East, No, well, at least not exactly.
Speaker 1: I'm from Hades, Oh, Missouri.
Speaker 8: Would you like to sit down here on the grass?
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, sure I would.
Speaker 8: I'm more used to school this fall. Do you suppose
Speaker 8: I like it?
Speaker 1: I think so. Of course it'll be different from all this.
Speaker 8: That's what Jasmine says. And she's in the east. Now
Speaker 8: I've never been outside.
Speaker 1: Who's Jine, my sister.
Speaker 8: She's older than I am.
Speaker 1: I hope you won't be offended. But well, you're the
Speaker 1: most beautiful girl I've ever seen.
Speaker 8: Yes, I know what. I surprised you didn't I a
Speaker 8: year ago I would have said thank you. But father
Speaker 8: says it's very necessary to learn to take things for granted.
Speaker 8: So now I just take it for granted that I'm beautiful.
Speaker 1: You see, you're pretty sophisticated, aren't you.
Speaker 8: Oh, I'm not at all. I think sophisticated young people
Speaker 8: are terribly common. I'm not a bit like that.
Speaker 1: I didn't really mean it. I only said it to
Speaker 1: tease you.
Speaker 8: Well, I'm glad. I wouldn't want you to think anything
Speaker 8: like that.
Speaker 1: Why.
Speaker 8: I don't smoke or drink even And I never read
Speaker 8: a thing he'd said poetry.
Speaker 1: I was only kidden.
Speaker 8: I believe girls should enjoy their youth in a wholesome
Speaker 8: sort of way.
Speaker 1: Oh so do I I like you, John.
Speaker 8: I wish you'd spend some of your time with me
Speaker 8: this summer, not all with Percy.
Speaker 1: Oh, I will kiss mine, I will.
Speaker 8: You may be in love with me if you'd like to.
Speaker 8: I'm absolutely fresh ground.
Speaker 1: You know I am in love with you.
Speaker 8: But of course we'll have to meet secretly. My parents wouldn't.
Speaker 1: Permit it if they knew, and that's what we'll do.
Speaker 8: Well, I have to go now. I'm supposed to be
Speaker 8: with mother at eleven. Aren't you going to ask me
Speaker 8: for a kiss? Jasmine says, boys always do nowadays.
Speaker 1: Well, some of them do, But not me. We don't
Speaker 1: expect nice girls to do that sort of thing.
Speaker 8: In hades, it was.
Speaker 1: A funny thing. Percy's family were polite, friendly, always smiling,
Speaker 1: and yet all the time I had a feeling that
Speaker 1: some terrible and golden mystery lay hidden just around the corner.
Speaker 1: A few days after I'd met kiss Mind, Percy remarked
Speaker 1: casually that an unusual event had occurred. A man had
Speaker 1: escaped from the cage. I didn't know what he meant then,
Speaker 1: but the next morning I was walking with Percy's father
Speaker 1: on the grounds of the estate.
Speaker 4: The slaves quarters are there, Miss Dangun.
Speaker 1: Oh, yes, they're very nice.
Speaker 4: Very adequate.
Speaker 2: During one period of my youth, I became absurdly idealistic
Speaker 2: and allowed them to live in luxury.
Speaker 4: I even equipped their rooms with tile bars.
Speaker 1: I suppose they used the bath tubs to keep coal in.
Speaker 2: Mister Schlitzer murphytized, imagine the opinions of mister Schlitzer Murphy
Speaker 2: are of little importance.
Speaker 4: They did not use the tubs for coal. They bathed
Speaker 4: in them.
Speaker 2: Unfortunately, several caught cold and died, so of course I
Speaker 2: had the bars removed.
Speaker 1: Shall we move on, mister Washington Percy said something about
Speaker 1: a man escaping from the cage. I didn't quite get it.
Speaker 4: The cage.
Speaker 2: Eh, well, perhaps you'd like to see it might prove interesting,
Speaker 2: just as novelday.
Speaker 4: It's over here.
Speaker 1: These trees. They're sixty feet tall and they have roses
Speaker 1: blooming all over them.
Speaker 2: Rather interesting development by a Swiss botanist. They're the only
Speaker 2: ones in the world.
Speaker 1: I'll be done. I suppose you'll see them all over
Speaker 1: the country in a few years.
Speaker 2: No, no, these are the only ones that was arranged.
Speaker 4: Here. We are a cage.
Speaker 1: It's a pit dug in the ground, the grating on top.
Speaker 2: Oh, yes, it's not really a cage except in a
Speaker 2: certain scenes.
Speaker 4: Well boys, how are you getting along, sirry?
Speaker 1: Yeah? How many men are down there?
Speaker 4: About fifty years? I recall? Oh are they oh aviators?
Speaker 2: We've shut down, wandering prospectors, none of that sort.
Speaker 1: Yes, But why are they kept there?
Speaker 2: They've all had the common misfortune of having discovered El Dorado. Gentlemen,
Speaker 2: I'm sure you'd like to know that your companion, who
Speaker 2: departed without my permission, has been taken care of.
Speaker 4: He was shot.
Speaker 2: He was shot by some of my agents in fourteen
Speaker 2: different places gulfed mister hunger.
Speaker 1: They found them, then a man who got away.
Speaker 2: Those places were towns. My agents were over eager. None
Speaker 2: of them could offer a positive identification. I am afraid
Speaker 2: the man may still be at large. So you see,
Speaker 2: it's not all utopia, hair. We do have our difficulties.
Speaker 1: Isn't it a little unnecessary holding them like that?
Speaker 4: We're not at all. It's the only way to keep
Speaker 4: this place hidden.
Speaker 1: Yes, I guess that must be important. Percy was telling
Speaker 1: me something on the train. I thought he was just kidding,
Speaker 1: but he said, you had a diamond as big as
Speaker 1: the Ritz Carlton Hotel. Oh.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, indeed, as a matter of fact, it's much
Speaker 2: bigger than the Rits, much bigger.
Speaker 1: Well, summer went on, and I was more and more
Speaker 1: in love with kiss mine. Oh she was priceless, exquisite,
Speaker 1: like no other girl in the world. After a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks I'd kissed her, of course, and I was
Speaker 1: really in love for the first time. I should have known.
Speaker 1: I should have put two and two together when Percy's
Speaker 1: father showed me the cage, but I didn't until one
Speaker 1: morning late in the summer. I'd slipped off with kids
Speaker 1: mind and the rose garden kiss mine. I think we
Speaker 1: ought to ellope.
Speaker 8: Oh, I don't know. It would be much nicer to
Speaker 8: be married here, But then it would be more romantic
Speaker 8: to her loawe.
Speaker 1: Yeah, all the Sunday supplements would write stories about fabulous
Speaker 1: errorspes with you are fabulous. You know.
Speaker 8: I knew an heiress from Omaha once. I don't think
Speaker 8: you like her. She visited my sister here.
Speaker 1: Oh you've had other guests then.
Speaker 8: Nah, Well, yes, we've had a few.
Speaker 1: Wasn't your father ever afraid they might talk outside to
Speaker 1: some extent?
Speaker 8: Well, let's talk about something.
Speaker 1: Pleasanter but so unpleasant about it?
Speaker 8: Well, I grew quite fond of some of them.
Speaker 1: You mean they told and your father, Oh.
Speaker 8: They didn't get a chance to Father had to be sure.
Speaker 1: That's murder.
Speaker 8: What else could we do in the cage. But they'd
Speaker 8: have been a constant reproach to us. And Father does
Speaker 8: it so nicely. They're always drugged in their sleep, and
Speaker 8: then we tell their families they died of scarlet fever.
Speaker 8: And butte, I'm not sure how that affects the statistics there.
Speaker 1: Of all the horrible it is.
Speaker 8: Not, after all, be terribly boring you without ever having anybody?
Speaker 8: Why father and mother have sacrificed some of their best friends.
Speaker 1: Well you're no better than the Well, then that's what
Speaker 1: they planned to do with me.
Speaker 8: Oh couldn't you forget it and be nice to me
Speaker 8: until you have put away? It's only for two or
Speaker 8: three weeks.
Speaker 1: You go on this way, kissing, talking about love when
Speaker 1: you know I'm not much better than a corpse.
Speaker 8: You're not a corpse.
Speaker 1: You're not.
Speaker 8: I won't have you saying I kissed a corpse.
Speaker 1: Oh that wasn't what I said. I did not. You
Speaker 1: said it.
Speaker 4: Father, who kissed a corpse?
Speaker 8: Nobody?
Speaker 4: We were joking, you two having any business here anyway?
Speaker 2: Kis mine? Go read, go play golf. Don't let me
Speaker 2: find you here when I come back.
Speaker 8: Yes, father, good day children. You see now he knows
Speaker 8: you spoil everything. You don't really love me?
Speaker 1: Kiss mine? You tell me what's the reason for all
Speaker 1: this secrecy? What if you are rich and have this place?
Speaker 1: Why would it be so terrible if anybody found out
Speaker 1: about it?
Speaker 8: Why it's on account of the diamond?
Speaker 1: Of course, diamond. What is this diamond all of you
Speaker 1: talk about?
Speaker 8: Well, it's the Oh you'd better ask Percy. I'm always
Speaker 8: getting things mixed up.
Speaker 1: Well, I will ask him. And another thing. I'm getting
Speaker 1: out of here tonight. If I have to dig through
Speaker 1: the mountains, I'm going back east.
Speaker 8: Take me with you.
Speaker 1: No, why notis my dear? Your father wouldn't permit it.
Speaker 8: If you won't take me, I'll go tell him I
Speaker 8: want to marry you.
Speaker 1: Oh you can't do that. He'd bumped me off this afternoon.
Speaker 8: Oh please take me, darling. We'll be terribly poor and
Speaker 8: very happy, and I'll cook things for you. Oh, herbs
Speaker 8: and berries and things. Won't that be fun? You will,
Speaker 8: won't you?
Speaker 4: John?
Speaker 1: Well, my head was really in a whirl. This whole
Speaker 1: thing was fantastic. So was the family, even kids mine.
Speaker 1: I couldn't think of anything to do, But well, I
Speaker 1: rushed to see Percy.
Speaker 6: But John, why didn't you ask me before?
Speaker 1: Because I thought you were kidding all the time.
Speaker 6: I know you wouldn't have believed me if I told you.
Speaker 1: Well, I'm ready to believe anything.
Speaker 4: No.
Speaker 7: Well, it was grandfather who started the whole thing purely
Speaker 7: by accident. He came out here from Virginia after the
Speaker 7: War between the States and stumbled onto it under what
Speaker 7: the diamond, that's what made this all possible. Of grandfather
Speaker 7: spent two years going around to different cities of the
Speaker 7: world selling bits of it. Then he started building this place.
Speaker 7: He put his money in jewels, but father found that
Speaker 7: radium took much less space.
Speaker 1: But why the secrecy.
Speaker 7: Oh, we just wouldn't do if anyone found out, ruined
Speaker 7: the economy of the world.
Speaker 6: The thing's too big.
Speaker 1: And this has been going on for three generations. Then
Speaker 1: the cage and this thing of inviting friends.
Speaker 7: Oh, yes, you see, there wasn't really any danger before
Speaker 7: airplanes They are what worrious.
Speaker 1: You knew when you invited me here? What would happen? Please?
Speaker 7: John, I thought you'd be more sensible about it. After all,
Speaker 7: you can see my position.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, well where is it? Where do you keep
Speaker 1: this diamond? This cause so cock eyed much trouble.
Speaker 6: Oh, I thought you'd guessed. You've noticed the hill the
Speaker 6: chateau stands on.
Speaker 7: Yeah, it contains a cubic mile, and except for a
Speaker 7: thin covering of dirt, it's one big solid a diamond.
Speaker 1: It was nearly midnight. I don't know what woke me,
Speaker 1: but all of a sudden I was staring across the
Speaker 1: patches of moonlight, spotting the ermine carpet of my bedroom,
Speaker 1: staring at three slaves I'd never seen before. They just
Speaker 1: slipped inside the door and stood there, each with a
Speaker 1: vicious length of shiny copper wire, the official executioners. I
Speaker 1: lay there on the bed, watching them, counting heartbeats, not
Speaker 1: daring to move, not daring not to move. They didn't
Speaker 1: know I'd wakened, and they began edging across the room.
Speaker 4: Come on, all three of you. There's no time now
Speaker 4: for this. All hell's broken. Loose. Hurry.
Speaker 1: I took one long, deep breath, the first one in
Speaker 1: several moments, and then I was out of the bed
Speaker 1: in an instant, throwing on my clothes and dashing through
Speaker 1: the long crystal corador to kiss mine's room, Kiss mine,
Speaker 1: for you're awake. John by the window, so they woke
Speaker 1: you up too, if you mean three of your father's slaves.
Speaker 8: No airplane, airplane, So that's what it is, at least
Speaker 8: a doesen't I saw them crossing against the moon. Oh
Speaker 8: look they're circling way over there.
Speaker 1: You think they're here on purpose?
Speaker 5: Oh?
Speaker 8: Yes, they dropped warnings to father. It's that man who
Speaker 8: got away from the cagere now, Oh, good for him, Yes,
Speaker 8: wasn't he clever? Well, I think we'll open up on
Speaker 8: the many second now, yes, already aircraft. Oh, this is
Speaker 8: going to be thrilling, thrilling. Look they're arranged now, bravo, bravo.
Speaker 1: Get away from that window.
Speaker 8: Oh, good heavens did you see that?
Speaker 1: Yes, and we've got to get out of here. Can't
Speaker 1: you understand up on the chateau next, I.
Speaker 8: Know there's a little grove across on the side of
Speaker 8: the mountains. We always keep one of the cars there. Oh,
Speaker 8: we have a nice view of everything, A.
Speaker 1: Nice view, kiss mine. You don't seem to understand they
Speaker 1: mean business. They're out to finish off you and your
Speaker 1: whole family.
Speaker 8: But it all seems so silly, or when you come
Speaker 8: right down to it, I've never even met us. What
Speaker 8: time is it, John? Is it morning yet?
Speaker 1: I don't know. I've lost my watch. Seems to be
Speaker 1: getting lighter.
Speaker 8: All right, it's quieter too.
Speaker 1: Now they've knocked out your father's guns. Every last one
Speaker 1: of them will belong now.
Speaker 8: Oh, it seems such a shame. The family put so
Speaker 8: much work on the place. Everything's always been so pleasant.
Speaker 1: Well, you better get some sleep, kids. Mine, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: walk down the path a little ways.
Speaker 8: Oh you'll come back, yes, kis mine, I'll come back.
Speaker 5: At the edge of the wood.
Speaker 1: I stopped and looked out across the valley toward the
Speaker 1: wrect chateau standing on its diamond hill in the center.
Speaker 1: The bombing had stopped. The planes droned over the far
Speaker 1: rim of the plateau, seeking some sort of formation. A
Speaker 1: little knoll just below me, three men appeared suddenly from
Speaker 1: the underbrush. The first one strode imperiously ahead, and the
Speaker 1: other two bore a heavy burden between them. It was
Speaker 1: mister Washington and two of the slaves. I stepped behind
Speaker 1: a rock and stood motionless, watching them.
Speaker 4: All right, this is far enough. We'll stop here now.
Speaker 4: Hoist it up, Hold it there, hold together easy.
Speaker 1: Now here. The burden they held up to the heavens
Speaker 1: was an immense diamond, cut and polished, catching the first
Speaker 1: faint rays of the dawn and gleaming like a fragment
Speaker 1: of the morning star.
Speaker 9: Ah, you out there, you there.
Speaker 1: I could see no one else anywhere in view.
Speaker 9: You above there. I want you to understand this is
Speaker 9: only a sample. I'll give you a thousand cut us
Speaker 9: fine set in pedestal of platinum, and I'll build you
Speaker 9: a temple a thousand feet high cast of solid gold,
Speaker 9: and on the top of it, I'll put one diamond
Speaker 9: a hundred feet across, set there forever to catch the
Speaker 9: rays of your son.
Speaker 1: A thought began to dawn on me. I couldn't believe it.
Speaker 9: I'll let your name on the temple in emeralds, and
Speaker 9: I'll see that the whole world worships at its base.
Speaker 9: All you have to do is make everything the way
Speaker 9: it was before.
Speaker 1: Mister Washington was offering a bribe to God. He stopped talking,
Speaker 1: and the three of them stood there, looking up at
Speaker 1: the heavens, waiting for an answer. And then, at the
Speaker 1: far end of the valley, out of those same silent
Speaker 1: heavens blossomed the white puffs of parachutes. A man who
Speaker 1: tried to bribe God looked up and saw them. They
Speaker 1: came old in an instant, and, turning with Lord head,
Speaker 1: walked down the path towards the chateau. With sudden premonition,
Speaker 1: I whirled and headed for the spot where I'd left
Speaker 1: kiss Mine, Kiss Mine, and the car that needed no roads.
Speaker 8: Haven't we gone far enough, John.
Speaker 1: I suppose we're ten miles from the chateau.
Speaker 8: It's also hectic, is rushing about and losing sleep and everything.
Speaker 1: Had made those field glasses.
Speaker 8: Here they are, Can you see anything?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 4: Wait?
Speaker 8: What is it?
Speaker 1: Your father and mother and Percy? Yes, and the two
Speaker 1: slaves still carrying a big diamond. Oh wait, they're going
Speaker 1: in a tunnel down below the chateau. So that's it.
Speaker 1: He's got an underground escape.
Speaker 8: No, I remember now, the mountain's wired some kind of.
Speaker 1: Adam bomb, adam atomic bomb.
Speaker 8: Oh, that's it. Father's had it for years. He always
Speaker 8: said it would disintegrate the whole works, diamond and all.
Speaker 8: Of course, he only regarded it as the last resort.
Speaker 1: So I'd rather have it like that. They're all inside
Speaker 1: the tunnel now, the troopers are moving in.
Speaker 8: I don't suppose there's really anything to be done about
Speaker 8: it now, And there wasn't. I keep thinking about things
Speaker 8: the way they were. It was all so pleasant. I
Speaker 8: don't suppose it will be ever exactly like that.
Speaker 1: Again, not ever, kids mine, and maybe it never was.
Speaker 1: Youth's are time for dreaming, and dreams died too.
Speaker 8: I'll probably have to take in washing but of course
Speaker 8: will be very happy. What will we do, John do?
Speaker 1: Oh? We can love a while underneath the stars. That's
Speaker 1: a form of divine drunkenness. We can all try. And
Speaker 1: then there may be other diamonds in the world. Who knows.
Speaker 1: And even though it's a shabby gifts always disillusion. Turn
Speaker 1: up your call a kid, mind before you catch pneumonia.
Speaker 1: Let's go to sleep.
Speaker 3: The Diamond as Big as the Rets by F. Scott
Speaker 3: Fitzgerald was adapted for radio by Les Crutchfield and produced
Speaker 3: and directed by William N. Robeson, with Jack Edwards Junior
Speaker 3: as John, Danny Merrill, Les Percy, and Linda Mason as
Speaker 3: his mind. The special musical score was conceived and conducted
Speaker 3: by Cy Fuer. Escape is presented by the Columbia Broadcasting
Speaker 3: System and it's affiliated stations each week at this time
Speaker 3: next week, we invite you to escape to the China
Speaker 3: Seas with Joseph Conrad in his gripping story of a typhoon.
Speaker 3: And so good night until next week at this time,
Speaker 3: when it will again be.
Speaker 4: Time to escape.
Speaker 3: This is CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting System