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Dimension X - "The Martian Death March" (1951) · Old Time Sci-Fi Radio | Old Time Radio

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: In 1997, on a Mars conquered by humans, Martians confined
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: to Earth-imposed reservations begin a punishing return to their northern
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: mountain homeland. That journey is seen through the recollection of
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: a young human colonist drawn into the refugees' passage across
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: the Martian landscape. From NBC's Dimension X comes episode 34,
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: The Martian Death March, first heard January 14th, 1951, an
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: original radio drama by Ernest Kenoy. Bill Zuckert, Butch Cavell,
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: and Cameron Prudhomme are heard in the cast, with Norman
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: Rose as announcer and narrator, Edward King directed, and William
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Welch produced. Settle in now for Dimension X, and now
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: we return to the original broadcast.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: Adventures in time and space, transcribed in future tense.
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: On stage tonight, Dimension X.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: Maybe you've been over the route of the march. The
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: Cross Mars Highway runs that way now. From the Kalmak
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: Canal on the equator, north.
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: To the highlands. With a water station every 20.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: Miles and a radar pickup and towing service running 24
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: hours a day. But there wasn't any highway 30 years
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: ago in 97.
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: There was desert. Hot, burning desert.
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: Sand shifting and blowing, piling up around the empty shells
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: of the ruined cities, ancient when man on.
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: Earth was living in caves. I lived at the edge of.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: The Kalmak Canal then with my father.
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: He was a prospector, searching the surrounding desert.
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: With sonar probe and Geiger counter, scratching just enough ore
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: from under the Martian sands to pay for our grub
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: stake the next year. I remember he was in the
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: Adamson Digger in the North Quadrant when I came running
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: out that day.
• 2:25
  Speaker 4: Dad! Dad! There's somebody coming, Dad. Across the desert.
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: You sure?
• 2:33
  Speaker 4: I saw them. They're a couple of miles out.
• 2:35
  Speaker 5: How many cars?
• 2:37
  Speaker 4: They're on foot.
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: On foot across the desert?
• 2:40
  Speaker 4: Honest, Dad. I saw them.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: You sure it wasn't a light reflection off the canal? No.
• 2:45
  Speaker 4: It was dark against the sand.
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: I don't like that.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: You run back and get the rifles out. I've got
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: to pull a digger into the shed.
• 2:54
  Speaker 4: Is there going to be fighting, Dad?
• 2:56
  Speaker 5: I don't know.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: Got a whole year's ore piled out the back of
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: the bins.
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: Ain't gonna lose it to no plane jumpers.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: You get back to the shack and break out those rifles.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: See that they're.
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: Loaded, you hear?
• 3:05
  Speaker 5: Then jump.
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: Dad had three surplus army rifles and a couple of
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: homemade grenades made out of ore cans stuffed with Adamson
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: A explosives. We crouched inside the shack waiting. The shadow of.
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: The water tower in the doorway grew.
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: Longer as the quick Martian dusk settled down over the desert.
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: There they come, Al. There's two of them.
• 3:39
  Speaker 4: There's something funny about that second one. Look, he's all spindly,
• 3:45
  Speaker 4: and his head's funny.
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, his head's funny, all right.
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: Now, that's a Martian.
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: I never saw one off the reservation before.
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: There hasn't been one, not in ten years. I don't
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: like this.
• 3:58
  Speaker 4: Here they come.
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: Into the door, you'll... You remember what I told you.
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: Line up the sights and just squeeze the trigger. Hello?
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: Hello? Hello there.
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: Now, Dad?
• 4:08
  Speaker 5: Hello.
• 4:08
  Speaker 4: Wait a minute.
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: What do you want? Water.
• 4:15
  Speaker 4: What are you going to do, Dad?
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: Where do you come from?
• 4:18
  Speaker 5: Wallswell.
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: You're lying. That's a hundred miles across the desert. I know.
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: That's where I came from.
• 4:27
  Speaker 4: My tank is empty.
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: I need water.
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: Drop your gear and come up here slow.
• 4:35
  Speaker 4: Tell that Martian to.
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: Stay where he is.
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: All right, now.
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: Who are.
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: You?
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: My name is John. John, huh?
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: What are you doing with that spider? His name is Kantalka.
• 4:55
  Speaker 6: I don't care what his name is.
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: What's a human doing with a Martian? I found him
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: in the dry bed of Kalma Canal, nearly dead of thirst.
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: Probably ran off from the reservation. When our brothers are caged,
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: they seek freedom.
• 5:11
  Speaker 5: Brothers?
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: Those spiders?
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: All living creatures are our brothers.
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: On Mars as on Earth. Oh, wait a minute.
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: Bert Alstrom at False Wells told me there was a screwball.
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: Hedge preacher over there.
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: hollering about letting the spiders loose off the reservations. No
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: man called his life his own. No man, no tribe,
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: no nation. I guess that's you, all right.
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Bert told me they called you Crazy John.
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: Oh, well, I don't suppose there's any harm in you...
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: Go on, fill up your tank with the air still.
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: You can even have supper with us. We would be
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: happy to.
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: We?
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: What do you mean, we? Conto Carr and myself. That spider? Oh, no.
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: I ain't having a Martian sitting down to eat with me.
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: Why, you come on, no. Thank you, sir, no. But
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: my brother is not welcome.
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: And the Martian went through the ash pile for half-burned
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: fuel brick. When we went in the house for supper,
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: I could see them silhouetted against the fire. The old
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: man with his wild hair and beard, and the thin,
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: spidery arms and legs of the Martian.
• 6:41
  Speaker 7: Dad?
• 6:43
  Speaker 5: What now?
• 6:44
  Speaker 4: Were the Martians always on the reservation?
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: Since the Outpost Three massacre, they have been.
• 6:51
  Speaker 4: What was that?
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: Back before you were born, they lived wild in the
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: mountains up north.
• 6:55
  Speaker 4: Were they fierce?
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: Fierce enough.
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: There's only one place in those spiders.
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: Behind wire. Yeah, it sure is.
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: Out in the dooryard, the campfire flickered at the base
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: of the water tower. The first of the Martian moons
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: had set. The other wouldn't rise for several hours. I
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: could hear the sand peepers out in the desert as
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: I stood there. The old man and the Martian were
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: sitting on the ground.
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: Huddled close to the fire.
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: It gets cold fast on the desert when the sun
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: goes down.
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: There's you, boy. You can come up to the fire
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: if you'd like.
• 7:37
  Speaker 4: My dad wouldn't like it.
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 7:40
  Speaker 4: But I'm not afraid of no spider.
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: No, there's nothing to be afraid of.
• 7:46
  Speaker 4: How come his arms are all skinny?
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: Ask him. Does he talk?
• 7:51
  Speaker 5: Yes.
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: His name is Cantalcar. It is, huh? Hello.
• 7:55
  Speaker 4: Hello, boy. He talks funny.
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: It is not my language.
• 8:02
  Speaker 4: Why isn't he on the reservation? You can get in
• 8:05
  Speaker 4: trouble helping spiders to escape.
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: He's my brother. He was caged.
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: When my brothers were in bondage, I came to them
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: and said, Lo, the time has come for deliverance.
• 8:17
  Speaker 4: You talk funny, too. Is it true that you want
• 8:20
  Speaker 4: to let all the spiders off the reservation?
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: No man has the right to imprison the innocent.
• 8:29
  Speaker 4: Do they really call you crazy, John?
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: Have been called many things.
• 8:35
  Speaker 4: You really think we ought to let all those old
• 8:38
  Speaker 4: spiders off the reservation?
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: Boy, we die here in the desert.
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: We die.
• 8:43
  Speaker 6: In the sun of the sicknesses you have brought from Earth.
• 8:48
  Speaker 4: That's because Martians are just weak. I bet I could
• 8:51
  Speaker 4: knock you down myself. You could?
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: Stay here to die.
• 9:02
  Speaker 4: You won't get off the reservation. The patrol takes care
• 9:06
  Speaker 4: of that all right. They won't let any stinking old
• 9:08
  Speaker 4: spiders out.
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: Even in the minds of children is planted the poison
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: of evil.
• 9:15
  Speaker 7: How long?
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: That night through the window, I could see the flicker
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: of the old man's campfire. He was walking up and
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: down now, shouting, singing hymns verse after verse, his white
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: beard catching the light as he.
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: Passed behind the fire.
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: The Martian sat slumped over, his thin spindly arms folded
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: across the huge barrel chest that had developed over the
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: centuries as the air of Mars thinned and escaped into space.
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: In the morning, I looked out.
• 9:58
  Speaker 5: and they were gone.
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: Looking back now, we wonder how they did it. The
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: high voltage wire around.
• 10:14
  Speaker 6: The reservation carried a fatal charge.
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: The patrolmen in the tower had.
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: 50 caliber machine guns. The desert around the camp was
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: mined heavily.
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: And yet, at dawn.
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: August 7th, 1997, they broke out. I was down at
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: the dried-up canal bed hunting sand peepers when my father
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: came running after me.
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: Al!
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: Al!
• 10:40
  Speaker 4: Here I am.
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: Come on, back to the house.
• 10:42
  Speaker 4: What's the matter, Dad? Now shut up and run! What
• 10:46
  Speaker 4: is it?
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: Spiders busted loose. Bert Alstrom radioed in.
• 10:49
  Speaker 4: Did they come in here?
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: They're headed this way. Murdering devils.
• 10:53
  Speaker 4: Did they kill anybody? Six patrolmen when they busted through
• 10:56
  Speaker 4: the wire.
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: Now get inside.
• 10:58
  Speaker 4: What are you going to.
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: Do, Dad?
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: Wire a keg of Adamson A across the gate.
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: You get in there and get the guns out.
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: I got the rifles and shoved a full clip in
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: each one.
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: Then I slipped a primer fuse in the homemade grenades
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: and lugged them out on the porch.
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: Dad was running lead.
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: Wires back to the detonator from a half keg of
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: Adamson A.
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: He'd set across the gate. That's it. Give me one
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: of those rifles.
• 11:25
  Speaker 4: Will they be here soon?
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: You can see the dust over the rise.
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: There they are, Dad. There they come.
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: Now, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Hold up.
• 11:33
  Speaker 5: I want to get a good shot.
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: Let them get closer.
• 11:41
  Speaker 4: Dad, that's Crazy John up in front. There. He's taller
• 11:45
  Speaker 4: than the spiders. You can see his beard.
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you're right. The renegade rats. Probably helped him break
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: out of the reservation. Now, listen, Al.
• 11:56
  Speaker 4: If anything happens to me, you light out back to
• 11:58
  Speaker 4: the shed.
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: You can hide out in.
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: The empty ore bins till they go away.
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: You got that?
• 12:01
  Speaker 4: All right, Dad. The spider's shouting something, Dad.
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: That's probably a trick. Get down a little louder and
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: get out of the way. Quiet!
• 12:17
  Speaker 4: I got him.
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: I got him.
• 12:18
  Speaker 4: Dad, look out. They've got guns.
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: Down.
• 12:21
  Speaker 7: Get down.
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: Dad.
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: Get out, Al.
• 12:29
  Speaker 4: Get out of the shed. But, Dad, you're hit.
• 12:31
  Speaker 5: Go on.
• 12:32
  Speaker 4: Those spiders are going to rush. Get going. I can't
• 12:34
  Speaker 4: leave you.
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: Shut up.
• 12:36
  Speaker 5: Get out of here.
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: You hear?
• 12:39
  Speaker 5: Get out there.
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: Ran back through the house to the shed. And behind me,
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: I could hear the Martians sweeping up to the dooryard.
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: Then suddenly, the ground shook.
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: And I could feel the dull concussion.
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: Waves hit my ears as the Adamson A exploded. I
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: could hear the high-whispered screams of the Martians and the
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: rattle of fragments on the metal roof of the shed.
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: the empty ore bin and slammed the hatch almost shut.
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: I crouched there watching the thin edge of light that
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: fillered through, listening to the brittle tramping of Martian feet on.
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: The board floor of our house.
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: The shooting had stopped and the shots had died away.
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: I sat there waiting and then suddenly a shadow fell
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: across the edge of.
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: Light and the hatch slid open on.
• 13:42
  Speaker 5: Top of me.
• 13:45
  Speaker 4: You leave me alone. I'll kill you.
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: Boy, I've been looking for you.
• 13:49
  Speaker 4: Where's my dad? What did you do to my dad?
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: He's dead.
• 13:54
  Speaker 4: You killed him. You and those spiders. You killed my father.
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: Come out of there, boy.
• 14:00
  Speaker 4: You let go of me. I'll kill you. I'll kill
• 14:06
  Speaker 4: all those stinking murdering spiders.
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: They are our brothers, boy.
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: Your father shot without warning and the fire was returned
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: against my orders. You did not have to shoot. Our
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: brothers came in peace. They're going home to their mountains.
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: We came to get water for the journey.
• 14:27
  Speaker 4: You mean you just wanted water?
• 14:29
  Speaker 6: You.
• 14:30
  Speaker 4: You... Dad.
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: We must go.
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: And the boy? We'll have to leave him here with
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: water and supplies. No, the Earth Patrol would question him.
• 14:44
  Speaker 4: We need the time.
• 14:45
  Speaker 5: He goes with us.
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: He can't.
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: It's straight across the.
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: Desert to the mountains. He'll die. John, since the Earthmen
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: came to Mars, the Highlanders have died like.
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: Poles.
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: They piled our supplies in the yard and loaded them
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: on their backs, and then they started. I marched with
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: the old man at the head, and the columns stretched
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: out behind us.
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: On the desert.
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: Women, children, the sick and the dying. Some showing the
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: signs of the diseases that were trivial to the Earthmen,
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: but deadly to the Martians. Chickenpox, German measles, and the
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: bronchial infections that raced through the vast areas of Martian lungs,
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: eating away the tissue till death came in a last
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: spasm of coughing. I turned to look back at our house. marched,
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: his eyes fixed on the horizon where far to the
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: north rose the cool mountains that were the ancient.
• 16:22
  Speaker 7: Home of the Highlanders.
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: Fourteen of the Martians died the first day. They dropped
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: to the side of the column when they could go
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: no further and died.
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: The march went on. The sun burned.
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: Under the cold racing light of the twin moons, the
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: winds cut at tattered clothing and scattered the feeble fires
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: that darted the campsites. On the fifth day, we swung
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: wide to avoid a mining settlement, but not wide enough.
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: They were in ambush behind a pile of rocks.
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: Down!
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: Down, boy!
• 17:09
  Speaker 4: Why aren't the spiders fighting back?
• 17:11
  Speaker 7: Come on back!
• 17:16
  Speaker 4: I would shoot the whole.
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: Lot of you. Let us go in peace.
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: Who's that? You.
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: What are you doing with those fires? That's crazy, John.
• 17:25
  Speaker 3: A voice cries out to the universe.
• 17:27
  Speaker 4: Your brothers must have justice.
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: We'll give them justice.
• 17:31
  Speaker 4: I shall lead them home. Home to the promised rest.
• 17:35
  Speaker 4: Home to the mountains.
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: March forward.
• 17:41
  Speaker 5: March forward.
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: Rocks they marched, and the Earthmen fired as fast as
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: they could reload.
• 17:56
  Speaker 3: A Martian would spin and drop as the heavy caliber bullets.
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: Shook his bones to brittle fragments. But the march went on.
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: round across the desert in wild zigzags, following the path
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: the old men had traveled through the years.
• 18:19
  Speaker 3: Only once a.
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: Patrol plane hovered on the horizon and then shot away.
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: The days went on. The weeks.
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: And the Martians died.
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: They died of exhaustion. They died of the disease we
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: had given them. And they died of thirst. Thirst. Seven
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: units of water an hour. No more. And on that,
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: they died of thirst.
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: Here, boy.
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: Here's your water.
• 18:50
  Speaker 4: That's more than the others got. You're giving me your water.
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: It will be provided to me. He that brings justice
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: to his brothers will.
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: Drink deep of the water of righteousness.
• 19:05
  Speaker 6: He that leads his brothers to their promised rest will
• 19:08
  Speaker 6: savor the cool dryness. the desert, from the Kalmak Canal
• 19:28
  Speaker 6: to Fever Dip, past the.
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: Towering mesas of the Higgins Badlands, across the dry sea bottoms,
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: they marched. On the 54th day of the march, we
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: hauled it at evening. And around the campfires, they cooked
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: the hard, bitter kernels of the dog bush nut that
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: grew on spiny stalks like earth cactus. I lay down
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: to sleep wrapped in the old man's coat. before, was
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: lifting slowly, and I saw the old man standing by
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: the burned-out fire, the vapor swirling around his legs, and
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: the cold light of the false dawn edging his wild beard.
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: Go back to sleep, boy.
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: I can't.
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: The end is near. the mountains.
• 20:43
  Speaker 4: It's over. We're there.
• 20:46
  Speaker 3: I have led them to their home. And I must
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: go back to the desert.
• 20:56
  Speaker 4: You mean alone?
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: No.
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: Even now, I hear a voice in the wind.
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: Carry the message to.
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: The Martians found him 500 yards from the.
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: Camp, dead. He had given me his water.
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: He had divided his ration among the sick. And yet
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: his gaunt, tall body had lasted till the march was done,
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: till the mountains were in sight. For now the mist rose.
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: And before us towered the highlands, the tall green mountains,
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: and the cool sky.
• 22:13
  Speaker 3: The march was over.
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: Of the 7,000 Martians who started, 900 were alive. They
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: gathered now on the rise of ground and faced the hills.
• 22:26
  Speaker 3: Their thin bodies wavered as they stood. And some dropped
• 22:30
  Speaker 3: to the ground as they stood there.
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: But there was a light of hope in their large,
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: staring eyes. Most of them had died. But they had died.
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: On the way home. And now the march was over.
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: spotted on the horizon.
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: And within ten minutes, they had landed. The Martians stood
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: silently as the squads piled out and set up the.
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: 50 caliber machine guns and petroleum gel flamethrower. All right,
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: you spiders, hands up and stay together.
• 23:14
  Speaker 6: Gather a bunch and don't try anything.
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: Sergeant. Yes, sir.
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: Shoot the first spider that moves and shoot to kill.
• 23:19
  Speaker 5: All right, come on.
• 23:20
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 23:22
  Speaker 5: There's the boy. There was a boy reported.
• 23:25
  Speaker 3: Here I am. You all right, kid?
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: They didn't hurt you?
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: No.
• 23:29
  Speaker 4: No, I'm all right. John gave me his water ration.
• 23:32
  Speaker 3: Oh, the leader, eh? I've got a warrant for him.
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: Where is he? There.
• 23:36
  Speaker 4: He's dead.
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: Oh.
• 23:38
  Speaker 3: Well, just as well. I'd hate to be him in
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: front of a settler's jury.
• 23:42
  Speaker 4: What are you going to do to them?
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: The spiders? You see those transport planes coming in?
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: We're going to ship them all back to the reservation.
• 23:49
  Speaker 5: Where they belong.
• 23:50
  Speaker 4: You mean take them all back?
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: Lock, stock, and barrel.
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: They'll be back behind wire before tonight.
• 23:56
  Speaker 4: All right, Sergeant.
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: Get them broken up in groups of 50.
• 23:59
  Speaker 4: The first transports are coming in. You can't. You can't
• 24:02
  Speaker 4: do that.
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: What are you talking about, kid?
• 24:04
  Speaker 4: Oh, you can't take them back. They're home. John said
• 24:07
  Speaker 4: they were home.
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: You take it easy, kid. You're all right. Now we
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: rescued you. You don't have to worry about these spiders anymore.
• 24:15
  Speaker 4: You can't take them back It isn't fair I won't
• 24:18
  Speaker 4: let you I won't let you I won't let you Hey, hey.
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: Hey, let go of me Sergeant Yes, sir I can
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: feel this crazy kid off me They're.
• 24:27
  Speaker 4: Home Can't you understand? You can't take them back All right.
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: Now get easy, easy Must be the charge, Kenny All right,
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: you spiders Step it up, move along These transport planes
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: Go over now You're headed right back to the reservations
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: They separated them in groups of 50 and loaded them
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: in planes. 900 out of 7,000. And soon the first
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: big-bellied ships waddled.
• 25:01
  Speaker 3: Out on the hard sands.
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: And lifted slowly into the air, headed.
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: Back to the south. on the march to the highlands.
• 25:13
  Speaker 3: The march to home. Come on now, kid.
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: You'll feel better as soon as you get back to civilization.
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: And don't worry about those spiders. They're taken care of now.
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: Before the plane took off, I looked once more at
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: the green mountains, towering through the mist. And then, just
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: before the motor raced, I saw John.
• 25:52
  Speaker 3: Crazy John.
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: Propped up against a dog-nut bush where the Martians had
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: placed him.
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: The wind from the south gave the wild heron.
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: The rest he had promised his brothers.
• 26:14
  Speaker 3: As he led them through the wilderness of Mars.
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: Be with us at this same time next week for
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: another adventure into the unknown.
• 26:29
  Speaker 3: World of Dimension.
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: Our visit with Dimension X and the Martian Death March
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: now comes to a close. Good evening until next time.
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: Follow Old Time Sci-Fi Radio for more classic science fiction broadcasts.