Speaker 1: And now mystery fitter, come in.
Speaker 2: Welcome. I'm E. G. Marshall, and as you may suspect,
I have a tale to tell, a tale full of
sound and terror and signifying. Well, I'll have to leave
that to you. And I also ask your indulgence when
I personalize this strange riddle, because this story was brought
directly to me. Ever since I've been your host on
this series. I have the feeling that you expect me
to be an expert on the macabre. But I must
confess to a sense of surprise when I was buttonhole
by a young man the other day who said, excuse me,
mister Marshall, but I have a coffin that I'm sure
will interest you.
Speaker 3: You cannot frighten me.
Speaker 4: I am not leaving this graveyard until I get to
the bottom of this.
Speaker 2: I warn you, your persistence will be your destruction.
Speaker 3: I still trust in the Lord. Where's that music coming
from from beyond the grave? Is it Judgment Day? No,
then you talk nonsense.
Speaker 4: The dead will rise, the Lord will summon his elect
to meet him in the clouds. But until that day,
the dead remained buried.
Speaker 2: Our mystery drama A coffin for the Devil was especially
adapted for the mystery theater by Murray Burnett and stars
Cure Delay. What do you do when a perfect stranger
tells you he has a coffin which might interest you?
My first instinct was to tell a young man that
I wasn't in the market for coffins, But he quickly
explained that he wasn't a salesman, but an avid listener
to our series, and that he had a macabre story
of a strange coffin that had been in his family
for generations. I was in trade, So the next night
I found myself in his old suburban house, drinking coffee
with his wife Cora, and his friend, Professor Gerald Barker,
and looking at a large wooden box which appeared to
me to be a case for a bass fiddle. This box,
although you may not believe it, mister Marshall, is a coffin.
And this letter, which my wife Cora found in the attic,
explains how it came in our family, and also how
it happens.
Speaker 3: That I am not today a mortician.
Speaker 5: It was written by my great grandfather, whose name was
also William Spindles, and the letter begins, I William Spindles
swear this to be a true and honest account of
the strange happenings that befell me when I was employed
by Edward Rodgers, the undertaker, in the year eighteen fifty one.
The month was December, and mister Rogers and his good
wife Pain pre Christmas visits, had left me.
Speaker 3: In charge of the shop.
Speaker 5: It was a cold night and blowing hard, but my
good friend Richard Clay and I were snug enough with
a big fire going in the stove.
Speaker 2: Only for you, William Spindles. Would I spend a stormy
night like this sitting in an undertaker's parlor?
Speaker 3: Come on, now, Dick.
Speaker 5: You kept me company often enough to know that there's
no harm in corpses.
Speaker 2: Well, it's not the corpses that worry me, it's their
spirits that may be around.
Speaker 3: There's no such thing as spirits.
Speaker 5: Mister Rogers says that there's no harm in the dead,
harmors in people's minds.
Speaker 2: Oh maybe maybe?
Speaker 3: What's that Someone to the door? Come in?
Speaker 2: Oh, I don't like this.
Speaker 3: I'll see who it is.
Speaker 5: Uh, Come in, sir, Come in, you'll catch your death
of cold standing out there.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry to disturb you. On a night like this.
But my need is urgent. I require a coffin.
Speaker 3: Yes, sir, did you have a particular type in my area?
Speaker 2: Particular? I know exactly what I need.
Speaker 5: Well, we have a complete stock in the next room. Now,
if you'll follow me I need, you won't have it
in stock. We carry the most complete line in the state.
Speaker 2: That's why I have come here.
Speaker 3: Well, thank you.
Speaker 5: Now, if you'll tell me who the coffin is for,
I'll be able to help you better for me. For
you mean it's for your own, your own personal use exactly.
Speaker 2: Well, I can see you're going to be busy, Bill,
so I'll run along.
Speaker 3: No, no, no, no need to leave, Dick. This gentleman
will have to come back to Ma and see mister Rogers.
Speaker 5: So I cannot return mister Rogers the proprietor, and I
honestly believe you'll be better, sir if you.
Speaker 3: Wait for him.
Speaker 2: I can draw you the way. The coffin must be here.
Here's fifty dollars. Will that cover it? But uh, goodbye, Bill,
I really must leave.
Speaker 6: Amy's expecting me.
Speaker 3: Here's the fifty dollars enough. It's not the money I
was thinking of. It's the special requirements you mentioned. I'm
not sure I can handle them. I said i'd draw it.
Do you have paper, I guess, so, here's a pencil.
Speaker 2: I have my own. Now the shape must be exactly
like this or so.
Speaker 5: But that doesn't look like a coffin at all. It's
it's more like the case for a musical.
Speaker 2: Instr I know my needs.
Speaker 5: Never in my life have I seen or heard of
a coffin such as you ask for it.
Speaker 2: It must be exactly the way I've drawn it very well.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 2: It must also have lids and hinges hinges hinges you
see them here on the drawing. Yes, But and a
lock on the inside, the inside and a good quality
lock secure, nothing shoddy, you understand. I believe I do good. Now,
if you have a tape measure, I want you to
measure me around.
Speaker 3: But why I mean the drawing is it's unusual. It's
very clear.
Speaker 2: I want to make sure that you leave enough room
for my arms.
Speaker 3: I really don't know how I'm going to explain this
to mister Rogers.
Speaker 2: Show him the drawing. Now take my measurements.
Speaker 3: Yes, sir, h I believe.
Speaker 5: Enough room for your arms.
Speaker 3: I'll make sure that this is ready by Friday, but
that's the day after tomorrow.
Speaker 2: I must have it. I'm sorry to be so particular,
but I've been buried before, and this time I want
to have it my own way.
Speaker 5: Bill, Bill, are you in there just a minute, I'm
opening the door, Lucy, what are you doing here?
Speaker 6: Are you all right? Is he still here?
Speaker 3: What are you talking about?
Speaker 6: Dick talking about that strange man.
Speaker 7: Who came here. Dick was really scared, he said. The
man wanted to order his own coffin.
Speaker 3: That's right, but I'm sure with some kind of practical joke.
Speaker 7: Well, I don't care what it was. I want you
to find another job. I hate the idea of your
being an undertaker, Lucy.
Speaker 5: We've been through this before, and this job is no
different than any other, excepting people's mind.
Speaker 3: I'm sorry, Bill, I'm sorry.
Speaker 6: I'm just so frightened all the way over here. I
was just worried about you and scared, but I came anyway. Now,
Oh Bill, I don't think it's going to work.
Speaker 5: I'd like to punch Dick Clay right in the nose
for frightening you like that.
Speaker 3: I don't blame Dick.
Speaker 6: It's not his fault.
Speaker 3: If he hadn't scared you, you wouldn't have.
Speaker 7: Yes, I would. Maybe I wouldn't have come here tonight.
But I hate what you're doing.
Speaker 3: I hate I know, Honey, what do you want me
to do?
Speaker 2: Quit?
Speaker 3: And do what? Oh?
Speaker 6: I don't care?
Speaker 3: What will we live on?
Speaker 6: Well, you'll find another job.
Speaker 3: No, we're near as much money.
Speaker 6: I don't care about the money bill.
Speaker 7: Can't you understand I don't want hands touching me, but
have been touching death all day?
Speaker 4: All right, Lucy, I'll speak to mister Rogers believing. Good morning, Bell,
Good morning, and now what's all this about? Some excitement
you had here last night? Good morning, mister Rogers.
Speaker 5: I guess Dick Clay has been busy gossiping again.
Speaker 4: I don't know whether it came from Dick or not,
but I heard it from the barber, some ridiculous clap
trap about a.
Speaker 3: Walking cadaver ordering its own coffin.
Speaker 5: Well, sir, what happened was unusual. How so take a
look at this. This is a drawing made by the
gentleman who ordered this coffin.
Speaker 3: HM. Remarkable.
Speaker 4: Looks something like a carrying case for the base fiddle.
Speaker 5: Yes, sir, it looks that way to me. Also, it
must be ready tomorrow evening.
Speaker 4: You're worried about something, aren't you, Bill, Yes, sir, something
to do with this special order.
Speaker 3: I suppose so.
Speaker 5: In a way, mister Rogers, I'm sorry to tell you
that I'm going to have to leave here.
Speaker 3: What you mean because of last night? Only partially? It's
really because of Lucy. Oh.
Speaker 4: I suppose she's upset about the idea of marrying a mortician.
Speaker 5: More than upset, she's she practically gave me a choice
either this job or her.
Speaker 3: I wouldn't worry about that if I were you. Bill,
You're not me, and you're not engaged to lose.
Speaker 4: I'm sorry, Bill, It's just that I've been there before.
I had the same problem with missus Rogers before we
got married.
Speaker 3: What did you do before? I answer that?
Speaker 4: How do you feel about the business? I mean, would
you stay on and if Lucy would marry you?
Speaker 3: I think so. Bill.
Speaker 4: You know I have no son, no one to carry on.
I've never said it, but I think you know how
I feel about you and what hopes I have that
you might be the one to carry on. Until today,
I thought you felt the same way.
Speaker 3: I don't think I can change Lucy's mind. Of course
you can't. You just said that you can't.
Speaker 4: But missus Rogers can now ask Lucy to talk with a.
Speaker 3: Woman to woman. That's your best bet.
Speaker 4: My wife knows all the problems and she has all
the answers.
Speaker 3: I never thought of it all the same. I wish
you'd been here last night. It was well.
Speaker 5: The only word I can use to describe what happened
is weird, because.
Speaker 3: He ordered a coffin for himself. That plus the way
he came in, and then the strange shape he insisted on,
but most of all because he appeared to be driven,
almost as if he were compelled to do what he
was doing.
Speaker 4: What he felt or didn't feel isn't important, Bill. What
matters is whether you've changed the way you think about death.
Speaker 3: I don't follow you.
Speaker 4: You have to see dying for what it is, Bill,
Life's ultimate destination. It's nothing to be afraid of. It's
just an inescapable fact. In the course of my life,
I've met a lot of people, and I'm good at
judging them, and up until now I've thought of you
as a no nonsense, feet on the ground, level headed
young man.
Speaker 3: Sir, you didn't see this man. You didn't hear the
terrible desperation he had.
Speaker 4: I've seen and heard almost everything since I started some
eighteen years ago.
Speaker 3: This poor fellow who ordered.
Speaker 4: His coffin from you last night was obviously deranged, no
question about it, deranged.
Speaker 3: I hope you're right, sir. Of course I'm right. What
other conclusion can there be? The one I can't get
out of my head?
Speaker 5: He told me he'd been buried once before, and this
time he means to have it his own way.
Speaker 3: Oh, very good, very good.
Speaker 4: Indeed you find that now I understand everything. That coffin
he ordered is nothing but a big fiddle case a
double bass box.
Speaker 3: And he must be a musician.
Speaker 4: They're the very devil for playing practical jokes, don't you see?
This is nothing but a practical joke, A joke on whom, sir,
How should I know, some fellow musician.
Speaker 3: I'm sorry, sir, I just can't believe that. Why not?
Why wouldn't you have told me so? Why would he
try to scare the.
Speaker 5: Daylights out of me and then pay fifty dollars fifty
whole dollars?
Speaker 2: Bizarre?
Speaker 4: Well, I expect we'll have the answer to that tomorrow
evening when he comes to get his coffin, that.
Speaker 3: Is, if he comes at all. Oh, he'll be here,
I'm sure that.
Speaker 5: I just pray that we won't be sorry when he comes.
Speaker 2: When the reading stopped, I looked at the faces in
that sane and sensible twentieth century living. Spindle's wife, Cora
was white eye, and Professor Barker's lips were pursed and
his eyes were skeptical. My eyes were drawn automatically to
the subject of the letter, the large, strangely shaped coffin
that stood in the corner of the living room, and
I could understand the fear that had gripped that nineteenth
century William Spindles. I'll be back shortly with that two
I suppose to the three inalienable rights of life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness, one could add the right
of a man to order his own handmade coffin. Most
of us, I believe, would find the thought distasteful, But
the feeling that prevailed among us in the living room
of William Spindles was one of curiosity. We were all
anxious for him to continue reading the letter from his
great great grandfather.
Speaker 3: I must confess that my.
Speaker 5: Work suffered during that day. My thoughts were not on
what I was doing, but on what the evening would
bring and what mister Rogers would make of the stranger
when he came to call for his coffin.
Speaker 3: The day passed somehow, Bill.
Speaker 4: When did this customer of yours say he'd be back
early in the evening, that we'll give him.
Speaker 3: Another half hour and then we'll lock up. That won't
help if he wants to pick it up.
Speaker 4: What does that mean, young man? Someone tampered with the coffin,
and we don't know who. We only have Sam's word
that the coffin was tampered with.
Speaker 3: He's our best work.
Speaker 4: Well like everyone else around here, I'm sure he's been
infected with the idea that there's something strange about this
order for a coffin in the shape of a base fiddle.
Speaker 3: At last, he's arrived. Those raps didn't come from the door.
Speaker 4: Nonsense, of course they did. It's cold out there. He
wants to come in.
Speaker 3: I'll prove it to you.
Speaker 4: All open the door, don't need he's letting himself in, Sir.
Speaker 3: Sir, there there's no one at the door. Hold of yourself. Bill,
must have been a draft that blew the door open.
I'll close it myself.
Speaker 4: Good evening, mister Rogers, it's my order. Ready, well, good evening, sir,
Come in, Come in.
Speaker 3: The box you ordered is ready, Thank you, My dear sir.
Speaker 4: You really should wear a greatcoat and a muffler in
this bitter weather you catch cold.
Speaker 2: Where is my coffin? Ah, that's it in the corner. Satisfactory,
very satisfactory. Is there a good secure lock on the inside.
Speaker 4: You may open the lid and see for yourself. That
way you can also test the hinges.
Speaker 2: The make of the lock is unknown to me. Is
it a good one?
Speaker 4: We never have had a single complaint about any of
our coffins, so i'd heard. Now, then where would you
like it sent? I'll take it with me, my dear sir.
It's much too heavy for one man to carry.
Speaker 2: I'll manage.
Speaker 4: Should you have a horse and cart outside, we can
help you get it off.
Speaker 2: That won't be necessary.
Speaker 3: May I have your name?
Speaker 2: My name is of no importance, sir.
Speaker 4: I'm a reputable undertaker. I must keep my records in order.
Speaker 2: Any name you choose will do.
Speaker 4: Come now, sir, I see through your little joke, and
I don't disapprove, but you joke, mister Rogers.
Speaker 2: If there's any joke being played here, it's on me.
So I'll take my coffin and be on my way.
Speaker 3: But sir, you can't just walk out of here with it.
Speaker 2: Thanks to you for your efforts, and I wish you, gentlemen,
good nicely, sir, come back.
Speaker 3: Let him go, for the love of heaven, let him go.
Speaker 5: Mister Rogers, he lifted that box as if it were
as light as a feather.
Speaker 3: Get your coat? What for to follow him? Bill? Couldn't
you see? The man is ill. We're the ones that are
going to be ill if we follow. Stop babbling and
get into your coat.
Speaker 5: All right, all right, I'll go with you. I don't
want you following that. That's alone. But I tell you
he's not mortal.
Speaker 3: He is. He is, and he's sick mentally ill. Hurry.
How far do we follow him? As far as he goes? No, Sir,
I won't because I believe his destination is hell.
Speaker 4: There he goes around the corner down green Tree Lane.
Speaker 3: I see him. Where can he be heading?
Speaker 4: There are no houses after a block of green Tree Lane.
But there's the cemetery. Didn't I tell you he was deranged?
The cemetery gates locked and walks never bothered spirits?
Speaker 2: Then he's no spirit.
Speaker 3: Didn't he ask for a lock on the coffin? Let
him go, mister Rogers, Please hurry up before we lose him.
Miss Rogers, if we do catch up to him, what
in Heavens name do you want of him? Find out
who he is, where he lives, and get him safely home.
Then I shall call a doctor to attend him. There
he goes, heading directly for the cemetery gate. Found what's
happened to the moon? A cloud just passed in front
of it?
Speaker 4: No matter, Even if we can't see him, we shall
catch up when he finds the gate locked.
Speaker 3: Oh, here comes the moonlighting. Here's the gate. Where did
he go? He must have gone in gates? Well, I
have my key. You don't intend to go into you,
of course?
Speaker 4: Come on, Come on, no, sir, there there isn't that
our man moving among the trees over there near the
Addison mausoleum.
Speaker 3: Mister Rogers, I've had enough of this. I'm going home and.
Speaker 4: Allow that poor soul to do himself some kind.
Speaker 5: Of mischief, Sir, that poor soul, as you call him
as a person, I want nothing to do with. I
don't know whether he's man, ghost or devil, but whatever
he is, and whatever his business is in the cemetery,
I want.
Speaker 3: No part of Bill.
Speaker 4: When a man's dead, he's dead. I've never seen a
man or woman come to life again. I'm a god
fearing man, and I go by the Bible. Doesn't the
Good Book say dust to dust?
Speaker 5: The Bible says a lot of things, but I remember
no mention of men who could lift a heavy coffin
as if it were a pillow, and pass through lock
gates without leaving a sound, to say nothing.
Speaker 3: Of a man ordering his own coffin.
Speaker 4: Very well, Bill, you can stay or leave. I'm going
after him. I beg it's the gate. I beg you,
mister Rogers, leave this bee and come home with me.
Speaker 3: Close the gate and make sure it's light.
Speaker 2: At this point, Bill Spindles stopped reading and put down
the letter. My reaction was shared by his wife, Cora,
who almost screamed at him.
Speaker 6: Don't tell me.
Speaker 7: The letter stops there, and we're not going to find
out what happened.
Speaker 5: The reason I stopped is because the story my great
grandfather was telling up to now was his, but it
now changes. At this point. He is writing not what
he saw, but what he heard, as he puts it
in a letter. Perhaps I was a coward, but I
allowed mister Rogers to go on into the graveyard alone
while I hurried home. So I warned the reader this letter,
this portion of my tale is written here as it
was told to me by mister Rogers.
Speaker 4: The moon again had gone behind the clouds when young
Spindles went hurrying off, But I thought I saw some
light in.
Speaker 3: Or around the big Addison tomb.
Speaker 4: I started that way, and then I heard what seemed
to be the voice of the man I was following,
But it seemed to come from.
Speaker 2: Far off, too far. You have come too far on
a useless journey, Edward Rogers. Turn back before it's too late.
Speaker 3: Where are you, sir? Listen to me?
Speaker 2: Rice they tried, and thrice they died.
Speaker 3: Where are you? What are you doing with your coffin?
Speaker 2: Leave here, Edward Rogers. Your business with the dead is finished.
You don't belong here, and what do you do here?
I keep an age old bargain with whom you must
leave here. This place is Dame Jerious for you, but
not for you. Leave before it's too late. The Lord
will protect me. Now, let me help you. Don't you
understand you're ill?
Speaker 3: You need help?
Speaker 2: Oh? Be it, Edward Rogers. You want to join in
a dance of death. The consequences will be on your head.
Here I show myself to him. Here I am see
if you can catch me.
Speaker 4: It was then that I started after him. I could
see him almost clearly. He seemed to be heading for
the Addison tomb. He was carrying the coffin, and I
was certain I could overtake him, but he kept dodging
behind headstones. I turned and twisted after him, and then
my foot caught. I lost my balance and fell, hitting
my head against the tombstone.
Speaker 2: Dick, wake up, wilm Bill, Bill, what do you want?
Speaker 3: Get dressed? You've got to come to the cemetery with me.
Speaker 2: What the cemetery? Are you out of your mind?
Speaker 5: Sir Rogers went in there after the man who ordered
the coffin. He isn't home yet, Missus Rogers is worried.
Then take come on, Dick. I'll be with you.
Speaker 3: I wouldn't care if the whole town was with us.
What time. Is it four o'clock? It will soon be like, please, Dick,
you must all right?
Speaker 2: All right, I'll get dressed and i'll go with you,
but we'll wait for the dawn.
Speaker 3: But mister Rogers may be in trouble.
Speaker 2: Bill. Whatever has happened has happened. I'll go with you,
but not until it's light.
Speaker 3: Ahead. It hurts. Where am I?
Speaker 2: Where you do not belong?
Speaker 3: Oh, it's you. Where's your coffin where it belongs? Good? Good, Come, Come,
I'll take you home.
Speaker 2: You need more help than I do.
Speaker 4: I'll be all right. I was fortunate. It was just
her glancing blow.
Speaker 3: I'll take you.
Speaker 2: To the gate, see that you get there safely.
Speaker 3: You've changed. Why are you now worried about me?
Speaker 2: I admire your courage. You were concerned about me now
I returned the favorite.
Speaker 4: No, no, no, you tried to frighten me for your
own good. You're still in danger from whom, From the
damned sir. I don't know who you are or where
you're from, but I'll swear you're of this world. There
are no such things as ghosts.
Speaker 2: I know that's what you believe. I wish with all
my heart that you will write what's that music?
Speaker 3: Do you hear it?
Speaker 2: I do?
Speaker 3: What is it? It doesn't belong here in a graveyard.
Speaker 2: You're wrong. It's the only place it can be heard,
and not by everyone. Come, come, the gate is this way? No?
Speaker 3: No, I am not leaving until I get to the bottom.
Speaker 2: I warn you, your persistence will be your destruction.
Speaker 4: I still put my trust in the Lord. Where's that
music coming from from beyond the grave? Is it Judgment day?
Speaker 6: No?
Speaker 3: Then you talk nonsense. The dead will rise, the Lord.
Speaker 4: Will summon his elect to meet him in the clouds.
But until that day, the dead remain buried.
Speaker 2: And quiet and quiet. Oh, foolish man, I will not
be able to protect you much longer. Go home now,
while you can't.
Speaker 4: I will if you will first allow me to take
you to your home.
Speaker 2: Can't you understand my home is here, Tommy rot I
must go. I have work to do. If you've been warned,
my conscience is clear.
Speaker 4: As I turned my head to see where he went,
I felt dizzy. The blow had evidently been more serious
than I thought. When my head cleared, I could still
hear the music, and I thought I saw a light.
I walked toward the light. It seemed to come from
the Addison Tomb. As I approached, I could see that
the door to the mausoleum was open. I was convinced
that inside was the source of the music. It grew
louder with every step I took, and then I found
myself at the door to the tomb, and there, just
inside I saw the large coffin the stranger head ordered.
The lid was wide open, but the moment I took
one step inside, the lid slammed shut and the music stopped.
I thought the coffin had been empty, but I couldn't
be sure. I walked over to it and bent down
and listened. I heard the key turn in the lock,
and I called out, you mustn't lock yourself in, You
mustn't please open the coffin. He wouldn't listen, so I
determined to get the coffin open, when suddenly there was
a flash of light and.
Speaker 3: A loud explosion.
Speaker 2: Bill, I can't see anyone in there, Mister Rogers must
have gone home.
Speaker 5: You can't see the whole cemetery from outside. Will have
to go in the gates locked.
Speaker 3: I have a key.
Speaker 2: Oh look, do we really have to go on? It's
practically daylight.
Speaker 3: There's nothing to be afraid of. And I hear you,
but I'm still shivering. It's the cold.
Speaker 5: Come on, you seem to know where you're going. I
shouldn't have left him. Anyheim has been falling in. I'll
never forgive myself.
Speaker 2: Well, he shouldn't have been here at all.
Speaker 5: Last I saw of mister Rogers, he was heading for
the Addison tomb. I have a feeling that if we
find him at all, that's where he'll be.
Speaker 3: There's the tobe. Now the door's open, should it be
we'll find out? Wait?
Speaker 2: Wait, suppose suppose there's something in that tombe that waited
for mister Rogers, and now it's waiting for us.
Speaker 5: If you don't want to come in, you can wait here.
But I'm going into that tombe. All right, all right,
I'll come with you.
Speaker 6: Good Lord. There he is lying across that caffinin and so.
Speaker 3: Still is he?
Speaker 2: Is he dead?
Speaker 3: I don't know, but there's only one way to find out.
Speaker 2: I can offer no explanation, but I can tell you
that the words of a letter written more than one
hundred years ago had cast a spell over all of us,
spell that had transported us back to a small nineteenth
century graveyard. I'll be back in a moment with this
strange end to this strange tale. Like many time worn sayings,
the old adage curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought
it back, still contains more than a few grains of truth. Certainly,
all of us sitting in the William Spindles living room
that night were anxiously waiting for him to resume reading
the letter from his great great grandfather, but he further
whetted our curiosity by prefacing his reading with this explanation.
Speaker 3: I think it's.
Speaker 5: Important to tell you that this next portion of the
letter is an eyewitness account, not what was told to
my ancestor, but what he experienced himself. So if you're already,
I'll continue. After mister Rogers told me what had happened
to him that night in the cemetery, I was still
undecided about leaving the undertaking business, although my dear Lucy
was at me every day to give my notice.
Speaker 3: And then one.
Speaker 4: Morning mister Rogers called me to his office. Sit down, Bill,
I think we should have a talk.
Speaker 3: Yes, mister Rogers.
Speaker 4: My wife tells me that Lucy hasn't been to see her.
Have you spoken again to Lucy about discussing your future
here with Emily.
Speaker 3: No, sir, you still.
Speaker 4: Believe that our strange customer was a ghost.
Speaker 5: Let's say I'm still undecideds.
Speaker 3: That probably someone who wants to see me come in?
Should I get the door? Oh, father, I'll go.
Speaker 2: Good morning, gentlemen, it's you, It is indeed, I, and
I'm not sure how long I'll be permitted to stay long.
Speaker 4: Enough I hope to give me an explanation of your
actions the other night.
Speaker 2: That is why I'm here.
Speaker 3: Good Perhaps you'll start by telling you come.
Speaker 2: Here, sir, at great personal risk. I ask you to
believe me. I beg you to listen and keep an
open mind.
Speaker 3: I believe I'm a fair man.
Speaker 2: Since you're a native of this town, you must know
of the Addison family.
Speaker 4: Of course, Old Thaddeus Addison owned the leather and dye plan.
Speaker 2: He did, And do you remember a young man named
Tom Addison, one of Thaddeus's three sons.
Speaker 4: I never knew the young rascal. Everyone heard about him.
Of course, he was a ne'er do well who finally
ran away.
Speaker 2: That's what my father wanted everyone to believe.
Speaker 4: Hold on, are you trying to tell me you're Tom Addison.
Speaker 2: My father wanted me to go into the factory. I
couldn't abide the thought. In all modesty, I had a
great talent for music, particularly the base, a talent which
my father felt was foolishness. All of our quarrels came
because I wanted to practice my music, and my father
thought it was a waste of time and money.
Speaker 3: Then you are young Addison.
Speaker 2: I am, and I not not in the sense that
you mean.
Speaker 3: I suppose you can explain that the.
Speaker 2: Situation between my father and me became unbearable. He finally
gave me an ultimatum. Either I'd go into the business
abandon my music, or he'd turn me out of the house.
I really had no choice. I left, and what brought
you back the very same thing that took me away music.
When my father disowned me, I wandered around the country
trying to earn my living as a musician. Wasn't easy.
One day I found someone who valued my musicianship. I
made a bargain with him.
Speaker 3: Who was he?
Speaker 2: He goes by many names. Take your choice. Satan, the
devil beells a Bob, or the Prince of darkness, Rubbish
you believe in the Lord, why do you find it
so difficult to believe in the devil.
Speaker 4: I'm a god fearing man. The devil has no power
over me.
Speaker 2: Not unless you invade his realm as you did the
other night.
Speaker 4: All I did the other night was my duty as
an undertaker and as a man.
Speaker 2: How can I make you see the horrors that lie
ahead of you? If you will not listen? What will
change your foolish obstinacy so that you can save yourself?
Are you so insensible that if I tell you what
I have suffered and am suffering, you'll still close your
mind to what I say.
Speaker 3: I promised to listen, and I will.
Speaker 2: Ten years ago, I was in Chicago, living in a
cold and miserable garret, hungry, alone, and with no hope
of employment. In order to get something to eat, I
knew I'd have to pawn my fiddle. Just before venturing out,
I wanted to play it one last time. When suddenly
I thought I'd lost my mind, because not only was
I hearing my own instrument, but it was joined joined
by a full symphony. And he was there, Satan, and
he offered me the fulfillment of a dream I would
never have to worry about money again, and I could
concentrate on my music. It dazzled me the prospect of
a life I had always hoped for.
Speaker 4: And what did he ask in return your soul?
Speaker 2: Nothing so dramatic, what seemed a simple, harmless request. All
he asked is that I play for him whenever and
wherever he should ask. I hesitated, but only for a moment.
How I wish I had thought longer on it, but
I didn't. I agreed. Now I'm his forever, a member
of his Orchestra of the Damned.
Speaker 5: And the letter closes as follows. That was the day
I left the undertaking establishment of Edward Rogers. I have
no way of knowing whether mister Rogers believed the story
told by the man who claimed to be Tom Madison.
I never saw nor heard from the stranger again, nor
do I know whether mister Rogers did. Signed William Spindles.
Speaker 3: Now, what do you make of that? I'll take the
ladies first, Cora as my wife? What do you think?
Speaker 6: That's one thing I know, Darling.
Speaker 7: I'm glad you're not an undertaker, because if you were,
I wouldn't be your wife.
Speaker 3: Ah, you feel the same way as my ancestors. Girl,
Lucy emphatically, Jerry, you're the scientist here.
Speaker 2: Our history isn't a science, thank heaven. But I do
have some questions. First, how did the coffin come into
your possession?
Speaker 3: Well, that's simple.
Speaker 5: When mister Rogers died at the ripe old age of
eighty nine, he left a sizable bequest in his will
to my great grandfather, with the proviso that we keep
the coffin as a momento.
Speaker 6: Why would he do.
Speaker 2: That now that Cora is an excellent question. If he
insisted that the coffin remain in your family as part
of his bequest, I think he must have had a reason.
Speaker 3: In other words, you don't believe that the stranger was
a ghost.
Speaker 2: Let's say, I'm dead set against the idea of ghosts
playing symphonic music in a graveyard at night.
Speaker 7: I believe he was the ghost of Tom Addison.
Speaker 2: Well, how do you explain Rogers leaving the coffin to
the Spindle's family.
Speaker 7: Simple, Rogers was probably hurt by Bill's refusal to stay
in the business, and he wanted the coffin to remind him.
Speaker 3: Sorry, Darling, that won't work.
Speaker 5: If he was hurt why also leave my ancestor a bundle,
and believe me, it was considerable some.
Speaker 6: But then why did he bill?
Speaker 3: I'm stomped. It's too much for me.
Speaker 2: I still don't believe in ghosts, and I think I
can prove to you that this man who ordered the
coffin was flesh and blood. How well, I'm going to
have to do a little research. When did you say
all these things happened the date?
Speaker 3: I mean, December eighteen fifty one.
Speaker 2: Why, well, give me two days and I'll let you know.
All right, I have solved the mystery of our peculiarly
shaped coffin. Good how I kept asking myself, why did
this man go to all the trouble of ordering a coffin, which,
to say the least was strange, and also behave as
if he wanted everyone to believe he was a ghost.
Speaker 7: But if you forgotten, mister Rogers, believed that he was crazy,
I mean, wouldn't that account for all his behaviors?
Speaker 2: That would But I preferred to think of this fellow
as a con man, you see, a really great con
man who successfully conned your grandfather but had more difficulty
with the undertaker. Why precisely, why Now that's where this
newspaper article comes in. Yeah, I made a copy of
the library. Let me read it to you. The headline
Wells Fargo payroll stolen.
Speaker 3: Ah.
Speaker 2: Then it goes on yesterday, the largest robbery in the
history of the Wells Fargo Company was successfully perpetrated by
three masked men who boarded the westbound Lackawater Limited, entered
the baggage car, and made off with more than forty
thousand dollars in ten, twenty and fifty dollars bills. So
it goes into more detail. But there you have it.
Speaker 6: There you have it.
Speaker 2: You've lost me, don't you See? The robbers needed a
safe place to hide the money, and you.
Speaker 3: Think that they decided to use a coffin as a
hiding place.
Speaker 2: Remember our man insisted on a strong lock on the inside.
That's true, but that would be one way of making
sure that no one opened this peculiar coffin by mistake
and found a wad of tens, twenties and fifties that
had been stolen from Wells Fargo.
Speaker 7: But according to the letter, mister Rogers found the coffin
in the cemetery and it was open and there was
nothing in there.
Speaker 2: That's right, that's right. Rogers followed the stranger right from
the funeral parlor to the cemetery. He wouldn't have had
time to stash the loot in there.
Speaker 3: I think it's interesting, but rather far fetched, is it.
Speaker 2: Look how everything fits, all that uproar in the cemetery,
all the warnings to Rogers telling him to keep away.
Speaker 5: Why, I'm sorry, you're so convinced your theory is right.
Speaker 3: You're not thinking straight.
Speaker 5: Once your man knows Rogers was going to interfere, he'd
never have taken the chance of hiding anything there.
Speaker 2: Well, he may have had no choice. What do you
mean the money may have already been there. Look, have
you forgot that? Your grandfather's letter said that the workmen
believed the coffin had been tampered with.
Speaker 6: Oh, Jerry, you're riding a hobby horse.
Speaker 7: You have a theory and you're just going to see
that everything fits, and you're not going to look at
anything that does.
Speaker 2: Now wait a minute, what have I left out?
Speaker 6: Well, lots of things.
Speaker 7: Now, one, How in the world did our stranger lift
this coffin and carry it off under his arm?
Speaker 2: Perhaps he didn't.
Speaker 7: I mean you think Bill's grandfather made that part up.
Speaker 2: Well, let's leave that anything else lots.
Speaker 7: What about everything that happened to mister Rogers in the cemetery,
the music, the open coffin.
Speaker 6: What's your explanation for that?
Speaker 2: Well, we know that Rogers fell down and hit his head.
Speaker 3: Oh, come off it, Jerry.
Speaker 5: You're not going to try and tell us that he
imagined those things as a result of hitting his head.
Speaker 2: Well it's possible, maybe we.
Speaker 6: Don't believe it.
Speaker 7: The other explanation, which you refuse even to think about, Jerry, is.
Speaker 6: That he was a ghost and.
Speaker 7: That mister Rogers reported everything faithfully.
Speaker 6: That's the one I belie.
Speaker 2: Even if I prove to you that this strange looking
coffin has plenty of room for some kind of secret
compartment and there may be money in it, why.
Speaker 3: Don't we stop talking and see if you can prove
what you think?
Speaker 2: All right, good idea. Come on, how do we.
Speaker 3: Go about finding a secret compartment?
Speaker 2: Well, we'll try tapping and listen for a hollow sound.
Speaker 3: Okay, who wants to do the tapping?
Speaker 6: Me?
Speaker 2: Let me go right ahead.
Speaker 6: Ah, it all sounds the same.
Speaker 5: You're too impatient. If there's a secret compartment. He'd make
it hard to find, right.
Speaker 6: Ah, Dear, it's a great theory. Dear, I'm afraid it's
just a theory.
Speaker 2: Why don't you try down at the bottom where it's widest. Okay,
there right there?
Speaker 3: Does that sound different? I think?
Speaker 2: So go back there again, Cora, that's it.
Speaker 3: Let's turn it upside down here. You have to let
us do that. Kora, that's got it down. Huh Now
what well?
Speaker 2: I think we should have opened the lid first.
Speaker 3: Okay, let's open it.
Speaker 1: Right now.
Speaker 6: Put your hand down in their bill.
Speaker 2: Feel around carefully, I mean around the joint in the wood. Yes,
do you feel anything?
Speaker 3: Nothing? I kick you got it.
Speaker 6: Jerry was right, it's a compartment. Well is there anything
in there? This money a twenty dollar bill?
Speaker 3: There must be more, know that, just the one bill?
But wait, wait, here's a note.
Speaker 2: What does it say?
Speaker 5: Wait a second, it's hard to read. Dear, Bill or
descendants of William Spindle's You, having found this secret hiding place,
should know by now that I was right when I
insisted that there were no such things as ghosts.
Speaker 3: I was also right when.
Speaker 5: I told you Bill that there was a fortune to
be made in the undertaking business, as is proven by
my bequest, God bless you and your family, Signed Edward Rogers.
Speaker 2: What do you do when you discover that the fortune
you expected turns out to be a single twenty dollars bill. Well,
if you're William Spindles, you advanced the idea that Edward
Rogers had indeed found the Wells Fargo loot in the
coffin and taken all of it except the one bill.
Is there another explanation? I think so, and I'll be
back with it in just a moment. For what it
is worth, I present you with this thought, there never
was any Wells Fargo money in the coffin. To begin with,
Edward Rogers had obviously been a man of strong beliefs,
and he took this way of proving to Bill Spindles
or his children that there are no such things as
ghosts and that there was money to be made in
the undertaking business. Did the Spindles accept my explanation? I
really don't know, how about you. Our cast included ker Delay,
Marion Seldas, William Redfield, Peter Collins and Nat Poland. The
entire production was under the direction of Hyman Brown WCC.
Originally in Las Vegas for three days and three lens