Speaker 1: Wonder if prices will ever come down. Set up with
Speaker 1: the post war worlds, wanna get.
Speaker 2: Away from it all. We offer you Escape.
Speaker 1: You are standing at the edge of an enchanted grove,
Speaker 1: lured by a soft, caressing voice inviting you to destruction.
Speaker 1: You have nearly sold your soul to an ancient goddess
Speaker 1: from whom you must escape.
Speaker 3: Escape produced by William N. Ropesen and designed to free
Speaker 3: you from the four walls of today for a half
Speaker 3: hour of high adventure.
Speaker 1: To day, we escaped to the African vault and an
Speaker 1: enchanted shrine of great antiquity, as John Buckham told it
Speaker 1: in his Weird Story, a Grove of Ashtarots. We stumbled
Speaker 1: on to the place Lawson and I during the second
Speaker 1: day after we left Taquis. We travel on horseback some
Speaker 1: forty miles or so through typical African velt, lush and green,
Speaker 1: with plenty of game and good hunting. It was late
Speaker 1: afternoon when we topped a rise and saw before us
Speaker 1: a small plateau of such beauty that we both reined
Speaker 1: in and sat staring at it, not speaking for some moments.
Speaker 1: A tiny sparkling stream won the through the burdened meadow grasses,
Speaker 1: and at the edge of the plateau tumbled in a crystal.
Speaker 4: Waterfall down to the plain below.
Speaker 1: Graceful clumps of strange trees grew here and there, and
Speaker 1: bushes blazed in a riot of bloom. I'd seen nothing
Speaker 1: remotely like it in all the miles we'd come. It
Speaker 1: stood alone, droud and lovely, an alien island in a.
Speaker 5: Sea of tropic junks.
Speaker 1: Great heavens, John, and your whole life, have you ever
Speaker 1: seen anything like it? If some artists had design that plateau,
Speaker 1: placed every tree and bush by hand, it couldn't be
Speaker 1: any more perfect. It's it's almost weird, isn't it here?
Speaker 1: It shouldn't be here, It doesn't belong. But there isn't
Speaker 1: a plant growing over there that's like any we've seen
Speaker 1: in the rest of the jungle, or probably a difference
Speaker 1: in minerals in the soil, something of that kind mms.
Speaker 1: More than that, they're not even the same varieties.
Speaker 4: It's true that one grove standing alone there near the edge.
Speaker 1: I I've never seen trees that slender and fragile in
Speaker 1: the bark.
Speaker 4: It looks like silver velvet, silver velvet. H that's quite
Speaker 4: an idea, John, Hmm. Yes, I guess it isn't that anyway.
Speaker 4: Those doves seem to like it.
Speaker 1: They never stopped circling over that one particular grove, probably
Speaker 1: nesting there. A flock of white doves circling over the
Speaker 1: silver grove. But you know there's something vaguely familiar about that, Yes,
Speaker 1: there is, John, Can you make out some kind of
Speaker 1: a dark shape there through the trees, over to the
Speaker 1: center of the grove.
Speaker 6: Eh?
Speaker 4: Yes, come on, let's ride over and take a look him.
Speaker 1: No, h not not now?
Speaker 7: Huh?
Speaker 6: Why?
Speaker 1: I mean you'll have plenty of chance to see it later.
Speaker 4: What are you trying to say, John, I'm going to build.
Speaker 1: A home here, ah home out here in the middle
Speaker 1: of the jungle, miles from the road in from Tacky.
Speaker 1: I've got money enough and no one but me to
Speaker 1: spend it. I've always wanted to live in Africa, always, Lawson,
Speaker 1: or for the last five minutes.
Speaker 6: It doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: Somehow, even though I'd never seen it, I've dreamed of
Speaker 1: this spot all my life. I've got to live here.
Speaker 1: I want to live here, I mean, but so quickly,
Speaker 1: at least think it over. Third, No, I don't have
Speaker 1: to take it over. I know what has to be done, John.
Speaker 1: It's here that I've built my tabernacle. I couldn't understand
Speaker 1: Lawson giving into this sudden, foolish impulse. It wasn't like him,
Speaker 1: but there was nothing I could do. I left him
Speaker 1: at Tarquy the next day and returned to the matter
Speaker 1: of fact world of business in London. And it was
Speaker 1: three years before I saw him again, three years before
Speaker 1: I returned to Africa to find that he built a
Speaker 1: manor house in the jungle and equipped it with all
Speaker 1: the conveniences of the English country side, of which not
Speaker 1: the least was travels his butler's. May I be so
Speaker 1: bold to save mister Buckham.
Speaker 5: It's very good to see you again, sir.
Speaker 8: You bring a breath of old London out of this
Speaker 8: heathen foreign country.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you, Travis, it's good to see you again.
Speaker 1: This is something different from the old granite front on
Speaker 1: Grosvenor Square.
Speaker 4: Is indeed it is, sir, A great many things are different. Yes,
Speaker 4: mister Lawson's turned this jungle clearing into a paradise on earth.
Speaker 8: If your pardon me, sir, I think paradise is not
Speaker 8: quite the word.
Speaker 6: Hm hm, oh, Well, perhaps i'd better tell.
Speaker 1: The Master you've arrived, mister button, he's been lying down.
Speaker 5: Oh not ill hold, I'll tell him you're here.
Speaker 1: Sir Travers left the room and I waited alone, wondering
Speaker 1: at the strangeness of his manner. I finally decided it
Speaker 1: must be induced by homesickness.
Speaker 5: I looked about me, as impressed.
Speaker 1: By the austere magnificence of the library as I've been
Speaker 1: by the grounds outside. There was an imposing mental piece
Speaker 1: of that. It went in and on it was placed,
Speaker 1: an object elegantly fashioned of bellabester in the form of
Speaker 1: a half moon, was curiously carved with signs of the zodiac.
Speaker 1: There was something compelling, almost unearthly about it.
Speaker 5: Fascinated. I reached out my head.
Speaker 1: I should not touch that about you huh, oh, lawson,
Speaker 1: I didn't hear you come in. Oh yes, jah, oh
Speaker 1: fine loss and couldn't be better you.
Speaker 4: I wit it down.
Speaker 1: Wh yes, thank you, this wonderful thing again, oh man.
Speaker 1: Been wanting to get down here for the last three years.
Speaker 6: But you know how it is in London.
Speaker 4: Time gets away from you and the first thing you know,
Speaker 4: uh God, no, no, thank you.
Speaker 6: Not now.
Speaker 1: When I finally did get the chance, I couldn't even
Speaker 1: wait for an answer from you. I sent a while
Speaker 1: and then followed it right on down. Yes, surprise me
Speaker 1: of it. I haven't had a visitor here for the
Speaker 1: last two years.
Speaker 4: Oh, well, didn't that explains why Travis talked the way
Speaker 4: he did.
Speaker 5: I thought it must be.
Speaker 1: Well made travers talk the way he did. What did
Speaker 1: he say, Wilson, what's wrong with you?
Speaker 6: He didn't say anything.
Speaker 4: I'm afraid.
Speaker 1: Hi, I'm sorry, Chap. I haven't felt very well in
Speaker 1: last few days. Well that explains it, I say, at
Speaker 1: least you seem to be eating all right. You're actually
Speaker 1: getting a bit plump. Actually, I'm fat, gross, flabby and
Speaker 1: obscenely fat. Isn't that what you really mean?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 4: No, I was only joking.
Speaker 1: Never mind. Uh what do you think of the place?
Speaker 4: Chair place? Why?
Speaker 5: It's amazing.
Speaker 4: It's beautiful.
Speaker 1: No one could ever believe it without seeing it. I
Speaker 1: doubt if there's another place like it anywhere in the world.
Speaker 1: You're right about that. There isn't another list like it
Speaker 1: anywhere in the world.
Speaker 4: Oh that reminds me. I notice he left the grove
Speaker 4: as it was without bothering it.
Speaker 1: Tell me, did you ever find out what it was
Speaker 1: we saw that afternoon. Yes, John, I've found what it was. Well, John,
Speaker 1: I haven't overseer your name of mc jobson. Quite a
Speaker 1: competent man. I want you to leave with him in
Speaker 1: the morning, take a three or four day hunting trip.
Speaker 1: He knows the country. You'll find your plenty of game.
Speaker 4: Oh, but I I came here to see you.
Speaker 1: I'm fighting about a fever. Happens every so often. I'll
Speaker 1: be all right by the time you get back.
Speaker 4: Oh, now, wait a minute.
Speaker 1: If you're sick, I'm certainly not going to run what
Speaker 1: I tell you. Laws I'm sorry to talk this way,
Speaker 1: but I know what has to be done, all right, Lawson,
Speaker 1: whatever you say, good, settle it. Believe me, John, I
Speaker 1: know what's best for me. Yeah, I'm sure you do thing.
Speaker 2: John.
Speaker 1: That carving that sits on the matter, I must ask
Speaker 1: you not to touch.
Speaker 5: It, quite old.
Speaker 1: Rare, I should not like anything to happen to it.
Speaker 6: M that night, when I retired, I found.
Speaker 2: It impossible to sleep.
Speaker 1: I tossed fitfully, trying to think of some reason for
Speaker 1: the great change that came over my friend.
Speaker 5: In these pert three years. Drunk string actual sickness, ever.
Speaker 1: Physical or mental, no, none of them gave any complete answer.
Speaker 1: My windows looked out across to the turf, and I
Speaker 1: saw the grove of strange trees was based now in
Speaker 1: the moonlight by a soft, silvery haze.
Speaker 4: Even now in the middle of the night.
Speaker 1: The flock of doves circled in the air above it,
Speaker 1: gleaming white from wing and breast as they wheeled in
Speaker 1: the shads of moonlight.
Speaker 6: I dozed off, finally to wake up.
Speaker 1: Suddenly, in that brief hour before the first light of dawn,
Speaker 1: I happened to glance from the window, and in the
Speaker 1: fading moon glow saw a figure approaching the house. It
Speaker 1: drew nearer, and I thought it was Lawson, barefooted wearing
Speaker 1: a white dressing gar Shortly I heard his weary steps past.
Speaker 6: My door, and afterward the.
Speaker 1: House was silent. I lay there wide awake. Lawson had
Speaker 1: been coming from the direction of the grove.
Speaker 6: In at the button.
Speaker 4: Oh morning, m Jabson. Sit down now.
Speaker 8: In regard to that hunting trip we talked about her,
Speaker 8: I cannot see your choice of two or three.
Speaker 4: No, no, never mind, I'm not going on any hunting trips.
Speaker 8: That last might be decided.
Speaker 1: That was last night mcjobson. Tell me how long has
Speaker 1: mister Lawson been sick?
Speaker 6: Oh?
Speaker 8: It comes and goes, happens about once a month like this.
Speaker 8: He's not a man that he was when I first
Speaker 8: came here.
Speaker 4: Do you have any ideas about what might be the matter? Hi?
Speaker 6: Well, what are they?
Speaker 8: If I told you what was in my head, you'd
Speaker 8: think me that, why don't you wait until tomorrow?
Speaker 2: You won't need to ask. It's a full moon?
Speaker 5: Full moon?
Speaker 4: What does that have to do with it?
Speaker 8: You'll find it in the Bible. Read the eleventh chapter
Speaker 8: of the Second Book of Kings.
Speaker 6: I found the Bible in the library and summed.
Speaker 1: It open to the passage he's mentioned. I read through
Speaker 1: it once without understanding, and then one sentence seemed to
Speaker 1: leap up from the page. For Solomon went after Ashtaroth,
Speaker 1: the goddess of the Sidonian estra Chteroth, of course Asteroths,
Speaker 1: goddess of the ancient East, whose strange rituals held a
Speaker 1: dark fascination for the children of Israel over and over,
Speaker 1: during them away from their fierce prophets to worship at
Speaker 1: her shrines. The white doves of Ashtaroth circling the shrine
Speaker 1: of her silver grove right then the grove at the
Speaker 1: end of the turf must hide a lost shrine dedicated
Speaker 1: to her worship. What of Lassom did his blood carry
Speaker 1: one fraction from all Israel with the same ancient weakness
Speaker 1: to hear and answer the call of the goddess? Did
Speaker 1: he become an acolyte of Asteroth? What weird writes did
Speaker 1: he perform in the grove at night? And then I
Speaker 1: remember tonight the worship of Ashtaroth had always reached its
Speaker 1: climax on the night of the full moon. Lawson did
Speaker 1: not appear all day, And that evening after dinner mc
Speaker 1: jobson and I took up our watch on the dark peranda,
Speaker 1: looking into the windows of the library.
Speaker 5: We've been there at least an hour.
Speaker 8: And look, Lawson, you came into the library.
Speaker 2: I see him.
Speaker 4: Hey, what's he after?
Speaker 8: I suppose you want a little figure on the mantels.
Speaker 1: He watched him take the curved half moon of alabaster
Speaker 1: and slip it into the pocket of the road he
Speaker 1: was wearing.
Speaker 5: Then he turned and left the room.
Speaker 6: In a moment, he came out.
Speaker 1: The front door and walked off across the turf in
Speaker 1: the moonlight.
Speaker 5: He bestedda a bit of a stat and then follow it. No,
Speaker 5: he'd see us for sure in that moonlight. I do
Speaker 5: not think so.
Speaker 2: He did not look back.
Speaker 8: Now, sirs, there were ten of us.
Speaker 4: Following mc jobson.
Speaker 2: What is it all about?
Speaker 4: You've read the book?
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, it's the ancient goddessess to us.
Speaker 6: But what is the ceremony?
Speaker 1: What does he do and what is it that made
Speaker 1: him the way he is?
Speaker 8: The ceremony he'll be seeing mister Buckan as to what
Speaker 8: has made him like he is.
Speaker 6: It does an.
Speaker 8: Evil thing, and all the while he knows it to
Speaker 8: be evil. It canna help himself, and he knows that too.
Speaker 5: Yes, I think I see what you mean. When that's
Speaker 5: been going. Now he's gone into the grove.
Speaker 1: We crossed the turf quickly and passed into the black
Speaker 1: and silver shadows of the moonlit grove, working our way
Speaker 1: carefully toward the center. The only sound at first was
Speaker 1: the piping of the doves circling high.
Speaker 5: Over the lacy branches above our heads.
Speaker 1: I saw as we approached that the center of the
Speaker 1: grove had been cleared to form a small circular arena,
Speaker 1: was covered with smooth turf, and standing in the middle
Speaker 1: of it was a cone of rock thirty feet high,
Speaker 1: a smooth, sharp tower of stone that pointed up toward
Speaker 1: the tops of the trees. And then I saw Lawson.
Speaker 1: He stood by the base of the conical tower, his
Speaker 1: arms uplifted, the symbol of the heat moon bound to
Speaker 1: his forehead, enchanting words with meanings I could not even guess.
Speaker 5: No.
Speaker 1: Lawson threw off his white robe and began a curious
Speaker 1: kind of dance, moving around the foot of the cone
Speaker 1: and a worn path beaten in the turf, the same
Speaker 1: path he must have followed many other nights before. He
Speaker 1: moved faster and faster, uttering now and again a wild cry.
Speaker 5: We stared, entranced at the circle of moonlight.
Speaker 1: And as he danced, a strange new sound slipped into
Speaker 1: my consciousness, an earthly melody that seemed to come from
Speaker 1: the tower, from the trees, or may perhaps have been
Speaker 1: born within my own mind, tricked by the magic fantasy
Speaker 1: of moonlight, shadows, and perhaps madness. It brought to me
Speaker 1: one vivid thought of the worm soft lips of an
Speaker 1: unseen goddess of lips incarnadine, whispering gently and sensuously across
Speaker 1: the reeds of a pen pipe. I stirred uneasily, felt
Speaker 1: the quickening of my pulse if I.
Speaker 8: Tried to resist that, mister Buckan, there's only a thing
Speaker 8: of evil coat and a pulse.
Speaker 1: Beauty my jobson murder felt it tour Then it was
Speaker 1: more than a trick of my own senses. Something in
Speaker 1: me thrilled to the core of the weird melody. I
Speaker 1: wanted to rush out and throw myself at the base
Speaker 1: of the stone tower, to dance as Lawson was doing,
Speaker 1: to spend all eternity in adoration and worship of the
Speaker 1: beauty of astral Oh, mister Buccan, do.
Speaker 8: What it's done to him, fight it.
Speaker 4: I'd fight it.
Speaker 1: I lost all knowledge of time. The dance had grown
Speaker 1: swifter and fiercer. The moonless figure and the clearing moved
Speaker 1: faster and faster, pasture, eating and gyrating in temper to
Speaker 1: the crazy rhythm.
Speaker 4: My blood was pounding in my throat.
Speaker 1: My ears ringing, the music searched for my brain, and
Speaker 1: ever mounting waves of.
Speaker 5: Incandent and sound.
Speaker 1: Now I was beyond reason, possessed by an overpowering crazy one.
Speaker 5: The cock crew.
Speaker 1: Then the grove was deathly still, and at the foot
Speaker 1: of the tower loss and ly unconscious.
Speaker 8: How is it, mister Bucken.
Speaker 5: He's lost a lot of blood.
Speaker 4: But I think of you, I'm good.
Speaker 8: It was a near thing.
Speaker 1: Travor's got a couple of sleeping tables in to him.
Speaker 1: Do not be waking up before tonight, at least mc jobson.
Speaker 1: I suppose you.
Speaker 6: Know what we have to do.
Speaker 8: I'm well aware of what should be done, sir, but
Speaker 8: I've no idea how.
Speaker 5: To do it.
Speaker 4: I think I do.
Speaker 1: I shall take full responsibility, but I'll need men or
Speaker 1: we can get.
Speaker 8: The natives will not go near the place. But there's
Speaker 8: some thirty white men under the back of arm a
Speaker 8: few miles back on the bush. But I what a highway,
Speaker 8: I'll pay it, just get them. Would you mind telling
Speaker 8: me what you're proposing to do?
Speaker 1: Yes, some things that may sound as mad as laws
Speaker 1: in himself. I'm going to deal with that grove the
Speaker 1: same way King Josiah.
Speaker 8: Did Ah compacted me vaguely.
Speaker 1: Yeah, here it is, and the high place places that
Speaker 1: were before Jerusalem, which Solomon, the King of Israel, had
Speaker 1: builded for Estra, the abomination of the Sidonian. Did the
Speaker 1: king defile and he brake in pieces the images and
Speaker 1: cut down the groves, both the altar and the high place.
Speaker 1: He braked down and burned the high place, and stamped
Speaker 1: it small to powder, and burned the grove.
Speaker 8: I test the worth of God. I need dynamite, but
Speaker 8: I have plenty of it down at the workshop. I'll
Speaker 8: go after the men first. We shall be ready to
Speaker 8: start by nine o'clock this morning.
Speaker 1: It was just past nine when we entered the grove,
Speaker 1: carrying axes and a couple of shotguns, and driving several
Speaker 1: teams of oxen.
Speaker 4: Light.
Speaker 1: Breeze had sprung up, and it whispered and rustled in
Speaker 1: the branches of the silver trees.
Speaker 5: We took care of the doves.
Speaker 1: First shot them one by one until we killed them
Speaker 1: all twenty seven, then piled their white bodies at the
Speaker 1: foot of the pointed rock. Then the men set to work,
Speaker 1: with the axes, chopping through the slender trunks of the trees.
Speaker 1: I stood by the stone tower, the high place of
Speaker 1: King Solomon, and watched while the work went aroung gradually, gradually,
Speaker 1: borne perhaps in the sighing wind.
Speaker 5: A strange bence. He crept into my mind.
Speaker 7: Oh no, please do please no.
Speaker 1: I then sid I could hear a voice coming from
Speaker 1: the tower, from the truth.
Speaker 5: This voice was soft, warm and pleading.
Speaker 7: Listen with your heart. Can the spirit within you not
Speaker 7: hear and feel?
Speaker 1: The heart of all sorrow was in that voice, and
Speaker 1: the soul of all loveliness, distantaneous with all the bodiless
Speaker 1: grace of a goddess older than time and desire.
Speaker 7: Please listen. I can not know that I am beautiful
Speaker 7: and once gone, am gone forever.
Speaker 1: I could not believe that I was imagining this soft
Speaker 1: and lovely voice. I felt a sudden and overpowering adoration
Speaker 1: for this exquisite creature who whispered in the breath of
Speaker 1: the wind. I wanted to call out to the men,
Speaker 1: order them to stop desecration of a home and sanctuary.
Speaker 5: Then I thought of Lsson, of what he'd become, and
Speaker 5: I fought back them plots.
Speaker 7: How can you judge who will soon listen? One who
Speaker 7: is part of the whole divinity of nature?
Speaker 6: No, no, I won't.
Speaker 1: I can't listen to happening, but one with the eyes
Speaker 1: of your heart, and.
Speaker 5: You'll belong to me wherever. No, please, No, you have killed.
Speaker 7: My doves, covered though white breast with blood.
Speaker 4: Are you not yet, sir?
Speaker 5: It's got to be done.
Speaker 6: It's got to be done.
Speaker 7: No, please, you could stop now and leave the high place.
Speaker 7: New trees would grow, other doves would come and nest
Speaker 7: in them.
Speaker 8: And I can't What do you say, mister Buckan, I
Speaker 8: couldn't quite hear you.
Speaker 5: M Oh, nothing, nothing at all.
Speaker 8: Well, I'm ready to put the dynamite around the tower here,
Speaker 8: if you'll move back a little way with Jobson.
Speaker 1: With Jobson, perhaps perhaps we could leave the tower. Maybe
Speaker 1: it's enough to clear the grove.
Speaker 8: There's not enough, the book says, as their children remember
Speaker 8: the altars.
Speaker 4: And the groves.
Speaker 6: But the green trees.
Speaker 8: Upon behind him.
Speaker 1: No good, mister, but he knew he did.
Speaker 8: The whites the wind, every last don't not be destroyed.
Speaker 7: He is a stone man and the crown man, and
Speaker 7: his words are vile with him. No, whoas this one last?
Speaker 4: No h like me, gentle, go ahead with it.
Speaker 2: He's the bus is a dynamite.
Speaker 4: Sauce together lays.
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 7: Even now, it's not too late.
Speaker 5: I I walked away slowly.
Speaker 4: The piles of tree trunks were burning now, the smoke
Speaker 4: swirled in the wind.
Speaker 1: I would leave this place tonight, Yes, I would leave
Speaker 1: this place forever. Then write a note for Loosso, telling.
Speaker 4: Him of what I'd done.
Speaker 5: And I was very tired.
Speaker 7: Oh listen, while there's yet time the thing one time
Speaker 7: will never be undone, and one god I could never return.
Speaker 1: I I knew, I knew that my act, my reason
Speaker 1: told me all these things. I knew that this act
Speaker 1: that I'd committed had saved loss, had saved his life
Speaker 1: and perhaps his reason. And yet I wondered if I
Speaker 1: had been so doing, I was not driving from its
Speaker 1: very last refuge on earth, something that was so rare
Speaker 1: and lovely, If perhaps I was not destroying a very
Speaker 1: beautiful thing, very beautiful thing forever.
Speaker 4: Not no, please, don't please all her.
Speaker 7: No oh no, no, no.
Speaker 6: Silence, nothing but silence.
Speaker 5: And I heard the sweet voice no more, and my
Speaker 5: face was wet with tears.
Speaker 2: Escape.
Speaker 3: Produced by William N. Robeson, directed by Norman McDonald. Today
Speaker 3: Brought You the Grove of Ashtaroth by John Buccan, Adapted
Speaker 3: for radio by Les Crutchfield, with Paul Freeze as Buccan,
Speaker 3: Bill Conrad as Lawson, Ky Brinker is asht Roth, Raymond
Speaker 3: Lawrence is mcjobson, and Eric Snowden as Travers. Music was
Speaker 3: conceived by Side Fewer with Eddie Dunsteader at the Consoles.
Speaker 2: Next week, when you are.
Speaker 1: Tired from working all week, when the week end offers
Speaker 1: little diversion. Next week, at this time, when you have
Speaker 1: problems seem just too much for you, we offer you.
Speaker 2: Escape.
Speaker 3: Next week we bring you another exciting story of high adventure.
Speaker 3: This is CBS, where ninety nine million people gather every
Speaker 3: week the Columbia Broadcasting System