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Sherlock Holmes: The Mad Miners of Cardiff (EP0814) · Great Detectives of Old Time Radio Volume 2|Mystery Audio Dramas

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Welcome to the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio from Boise, Idaho. This
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is your host, Adam Graham. If you have a comment, email it
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to me Box thirteen at Great Detectives, not Net, follow us on Twitter
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at Radio Detectives, and call us two to eight nine nine one four seven
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eight three. Well, I do want to let you know if you have
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a kindle, my new e book is out, What Made the Golden Age
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Shine In it, I take a look at what made the Golden Age of
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radio, television and motion pictures so special and made the film and the overall
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products of that area is so watchable even today. It's a great tribute and
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commentary on the strength of the Golden Age of Hollywood. It's available for two
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dollars and ninety nine cents for the kindle, and you can also get it
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borrow it for free through the Kindle Lending Library. And we still have available
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all I needed to know I learned from Columbo. That also available for the
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iPad and the Nook, and in the Superhero comedy series. We also have
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Rise of the Robo Lawyers out, with a brief reference to a famous nineteen
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fifties and sixties TV Lawyer show. Now it's just for the kindle, all
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right. Well, now it's time to get into today's episode of Sherlock Holmes
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from April eleventh, nineteen forty nine. Here's the Mad Miners of Cardiff from
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New York City, the makers of clipper Craft clothes for men and more than
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twelve hundred leading retail stores from coast to coast. Present Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's
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in modern character, the world's most famous detective, Sherlock Holmes, starring John
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Stanley. This sweet's story the mad Miners of Cardiff. Here that hose,
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that crumbling noise, Yes, Watson, this cool mine we're in maybe collapsing,
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and we better hurry back to the lift without discovering what awful thing has
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been driving the miners insane. Not a bit of it. This would listen
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if we stay, If we don't try to find the lift and return to
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the Earth's surface, there'll be just one consequence, Hoves, We'll be bettered
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alive. When you step out proudly in the Easter parade dressed in your smart
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new Clippercraft suit, no one will believe that you paid only forty five dollars
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for it. But that's right, because now forty five dollars is all you
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have to pay for a nationally famous clipper Craft suit of carefully selected, tested
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worsted, of exceptionally fine tailoring with a distinctive styling that sets clippercraft suits apart
3:28
from any suits or ordinarily sold at anywhere near this price. Now here's how
3:32
this is accomplished. More than twelve hundred independent merchants get together and pool their
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tremendous buying power that makes these low prices possible for clippercraft. So compare clippercraft
3:45
clothes with clothes selling for many dollars more, and you'll agree that never before
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has there been such value in fabrics, such value in styling, such value
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in workmanship. In short, you get America's greatest clothing value when you buy
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by Clipper crack Poles. Doctor Watson, your memoir for this evening is entitled
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The Mad Miners of Cardiff. Cardiff is a sitting in Wales, isn't it.
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Yes, it is, mister Harris, the very heart of one of
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the world's greatest coal mining centers. Our story begins one awful night at the
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mine owned by missus Ann Powis There were two lifts at the mine, huge
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iron cages operated by a chain winch that lured the men down the shaft and
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into the winding, treacherous black tunnels below. One lift was rarely in use,
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since it dropped into a portion of the mine that was abandoned. It
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was there that the horror began to unfold. There stood Daniel Lowara, a
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veteran miner covered with grime, whose lamp stood flickering in his hand, leaning
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on his pick and shovel. He had paused for a moment's rest on his
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way home this night, but he had a son strange. He thought no
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one had used this slift in some time. This section of the mine had
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been picked clean and deserted as too dangerous to see. Daniel walked slowly toward
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the mouth of the shop, like, it's you. What are you doing
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in this section of the mine? It's God's justice, that's what we're paying
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for it. We are we no rights, we're no rights. Tip off
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the cage man never singer looked like that. How you can't just turned up?
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He had helped him. Your eyes, I've never seen a man's eyes
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like that. It's what I've seen the sat preserve me. Is what I've
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seen, only yourself blood, the strong man like you quivering? What did
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you see? The thing? That's all you could call it? Down in
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the mine? I wish my eyes had been stuck from my head before I
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saw its time to make sense, loved, what's down the mind? What
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have you seen? I've seen men's bodies crushed by the weight of cold.
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I've seen men dying of the lone sickness, with the death rattle in their
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throats. But never this. We never did tell me what happened. If
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I told you what I saw, yet be going out of your mind.
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It isn't right for human beings to know there is such a thing in sight
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the earth. They'd kill themselves. They heard a noise at this end of
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the mind. On one I knew it was desertedcause it is every we mischop
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marked unseen. How could I heard a noise? It was got a noise
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of this world. My canary was all right, alive and well, singing
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in its cage, and I knew there was no danger. I guess and
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my sight. You can't imagine what it is. It's mother me. Just
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strike it back, That's what it's the Earth's revenge. She's spwing up the
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secrets we never knew she held. And I've seen it. Hey see,
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man, help us so and not having a strange bit, Hey car the
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doctor, the doctor blood the manner in a half crazed state, was removed
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to the hospital. Then Daniel volunteered to descend the lift of the far end
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of the mind to learn what the unspeakable horror was below. When Daniel came
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up the lift, that was right. Better lad have been blind. A
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man's mind can stand such a sight. In the name of mercy, make
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me unconscious. I mustn't think of it. But I couldn't think of anything
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else again, not of life, of what we're doing life, just this
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what is on ive, never normal, No, just what I've seen done
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in the man making your pardon missus Powis. Yes, Jeffrey, I'm just
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one of your miners, Missus Powis. I have no right here in yet
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eye. Oh you're welcome, Jeffrey. I've told the men I keep the
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same rules my husband did before he died. My employees are always welcome.
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What can I do for you? It's about this terrible thing in the mind.
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I know none of the mental work. I know you've tried everything.
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I know even the police won't go down to see what this devil of a
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thing is. I won't accept any more volunteers. Jeffrey doesn't that mom.
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It's well, I know your troubles. The mine isn't worth a shilling now.
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I have some savings, ma'am, thank you, but I won't hear
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of it. I refuse to borrow, least of all from my own men.
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You've suffered too with the mind closed. I knew a fine lady wouldn't
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borrow. I thought i'd buy the mind, ma'am, but it isn't worth
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anything now. I haven't much to offer, precious little, but I might
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salvage the equipment, sell the land. I know you're desperate, ma'am.
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I wouldn't embarrass you, but you need a rest. You could at least
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go away. Yeah. I was fond of your late husband. I want
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to help his widow. We men are fond of her too. I appreciate
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it, Jeoffrey, but I shall try to keep the mind a bit longer.
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I must face it. This indescribable thing in the mind must be unmasked.
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But how you want, no one will descend the shaft and look at
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the sight. I've one last hope, Jeffrey. He's an expert on the
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curious, the outlandish, on mysteries of this sort. He's in London.
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And mister Sherlock Holmes, is it pies? You say? Two men became
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half crazed looking at the spectacle in the mind. Yes, mister Holmes.
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Can such things exist? Lad and Daniel have been mine as all their lives,
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mister Holmes. They're normally vigorous, healthy and cool headed. But I
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wasn't satisfied with their reactions. What did you do? I asked the mind
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doctor to go down the shaft and look and did he? Yes? He
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did, and he came back up in the cage in a waxy, immobile
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state, without human response, as though alive you're dead? See has he
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revived since? Yes, the moment he was alone, he attempted suicide.
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We stopped him. Fortunately, in what condition a London Daniel? The Lad
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has left. He storned Edinburgh, where he's resting at the Hotel Cosmopolitan.
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He refuses to tell us so what he's seen. Daniel is at home,
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feverish, fitful. Have you completed? Jos Torry missus Pies, Yes,
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I have. Then we must lose no time in reaching Cardiff and the enigma
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that lies in the mind. This is the lift that descends to the abandoned
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portion of the mind, Missus Pies. Yes, mister Holmes. The bottom
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of this shaft lies the thing that has driven three men mad. Missus Pollis,
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Missus Pollis. Yes. Jeffrey Daniel, he rose from his bed.
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They couldn't stop him, is vanished. I suppose you tell me the details.
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I've assumed command on this problem. I'm Sherlock Holmes. This is my
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colleague, doctor Watson. Daniel's gun, mister Holmes. The towns on the
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towns in the state of alarm. Some folks say the evil at the bottom
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of the mine spirited him away. Some of the women are off, taking
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the children and fleeing to the hills. What should we do, mister Holmes.
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The answer is simple, Missus Piers Joel Holmes. Have you the solution?
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The path to the solution? Watson? Well, what is it by
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the path before us? That lift? You're going to to see the thing
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exactly? There must be some other way, mister Holmes. You know what's
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happened to everyone who's seen it. You'll come up out of that sharp like
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the others, and you're my last hope. You'll be carried off that lift
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as though you've seen judgment day that remains to be seen by your cancer.
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You mustn't risk your life your sanity this way if you're a step aside,
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Jeffrey. But you'll not do this alone, Holmes. I shall see this
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through by your side. This is not a calculated risk, Watson. This
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is an inconceivable horror beyond human calculation. What I shall go with you,
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mister Holmes, Please, I'd rather lose the mind. The time itself is
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already alarm. This is Piers in his taste. This I shall wait here,
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mister Holmes, and pray for you and doctor Watson. Give them headlamps,
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Jeffrey, and a canary. Certainly, ma'am, you're here by the
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shark the laps. Just put these hats on, mister Holmes. So thank
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you, doctor Watson. Though thank you. The canary is in this cage.
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Take the cover off. As long as the canary seems well, you
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need not bear a ghast leak. If the canary seems ill. If it
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dies, it'll warn you that poison gases in the air. It's quite the
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gate. Watson goose it first. Now we shall look upon this thing below,
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whatever it is, even if it's from the realm of another world,
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some monstrosity beyond man's limited imagination. Release Leeva Watson, Release Leva. We're
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going down the mark Hoast ten feet, the mark Fife, the Mark.
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Here's the way to get the most for your money. When you buy a
14:05
new Spring outfit, look for the clipper Craft label. Be sure of the
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clipper Craft label. You'll find it on new Spring Clippercraft worsted suits for only
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forty five dollars, on all wool covert cloth top coats for forty dollars,
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and on the clipper Craft all wool gabdine top coats for only forty two fifty.
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Clipper Craft clothes take the name from the famous clipper ships that established honest
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New England quality everywhere in the world. Yet they're as modern as the clipper
14:35
planes that fly around the world today. Yes, you can trust clipper Craft
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clothes and the men who sell them. That's why men who know insist on
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clipper Craft clothes bearing the clipper Craft label. So be sure to visit the
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clipper Craft store in your city. These leading stores in the metropolitan area are
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proud to add their names to Clippercraft in your suits and top coats in Manha
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Sacks thirty fourth Broadway at thirty fourth John Wannamaker's Men's Stores Broadway at eighth and
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sixty seven Liberty Street in Brooklyn, Abramen Strauss in New York, New Jersey
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Boulevard Men's Shop Kresgy, Nork. And in Jamaica, the B and B
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Closed Shop one six four or eight Jamaica Avenue. Doctor Watson, Doctor Watson,
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we left you and mister Holmes dropping deep into the abandoned mine on the
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outskirts of Cardiff. Yes, so you did, mister Harris Holmes and I
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stood in the cage, racing ourselves as we dropped down. The black must
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be shot prepared for what promised to be an intolerably awful sight. It almost
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peaks water, Watson, Pretty, yes, pretty home. Slow it down,
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must be the bubble they store it comes now, step off the lift.
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Keep an ear open for strange sounds. This is an abandoned area.
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Seem may crack and we'd be buried alive. Where do we go? Hubs
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along this narrow tunnel precisely. Light in our head lamps isn't very good,
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but it was suffice. Hello, what is it? What does it hurt?
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Just ahead? It is strange object? What does it look like?
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It's against a beam? Turn your head, Watson, so the lamp in
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your hat lights the passage to the left. See, yes, we have
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a closer look. Just move along, while Canarian rights we'll see what this
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is? All right? No poison gas and the are yet good. Here
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we are that object while it's a human body, the dead man from the
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description missus power is gave, I should say this is Daniel, the second
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miner who have witnessed the vision. The man Jeff said, disappeared a while
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ago. See his throat rutless, strangled. But who could have done at
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home? How did this happened? You see that there's a crumbling noise.
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Yess it might be a cave and ed we better hurry back to the lift
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now wait, listen or come homes. We were striving to reach the lift
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and go to the surface, and this mine may be collapsing here now,
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Watson, it isn't the mine and what isn't it that the thing was the
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other lift. Someone's approaching, Someone's approaching exactly from the far end of this
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tunnel. I've been waiting for those footsteps. Is this thing on human feet?
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Why have you been waiting for footsteps? I've been waiting for the person
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you'll see standing before us in the passageway. It will be Jeoffrey, the
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minor fight. You've found Daniel's body. I thought you would. How did
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you get down here via the other left Watson at the working end of the
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mind, the one he's been using all along. Well, Geoffrey, I've
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imagine you'll present the same offer to us that you've made to lud and the
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doctor and Daniel offer host. Will you see, my dear Watson, there
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isn't anything in this abandoned mine. The ghastly sight so called is a device
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rather roughtly employed by Geoffrey. My offer is very inviting, mister Holmes.
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You see, when I was down here, just before this part of the
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mine was deserted, I located a new vein of coal, a rich vein,
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a vein that could make me and all who helped me millionaires. Yes,
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so you decided to frighten everyone away lest they discover it. At least
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to keep them away until you owned the mine. I promised to share of
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the new vein alert. He gave a fine performance, I thought, so
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did the doctor. I made an arrangement with him too. Not so splendid
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a performance, Geoffrey, he must have injected himself with drugs to appear waxy
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and immobile. A story has worked well. It keeps the miners away.
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It makes the mine worthless, giving you the opportunity to purchase it from Missus
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Powers for a trivial sum. She refused me, but she'll accept. Everyone
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comes round to my way of thinking. Obviously Daniel didn't. Evidently he chose
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to return here for another secret rendezvous with you to demand a larger share,
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so you did away with him about my offer. Will need no agreements,
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murders. My terms are that you will return to the surface. You will
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be as convincing a pair of actors as the others. You will rant and
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rave about what you've seen. You will, of course say nothing of Daniel.
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You will collapse seemingly hysterical a few days in bed, then you recover.
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That is one of the most dest My terms are that you will swear
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like the others, never to describe what you have seen as long as you
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live. It is supposedly too hideous to repeat in exchange for all this ten
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percent of the new vein. And if we reject the offer, I'm afraid
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there isn't much choice. Mister Holmes. Listen, what is that hissing sound.
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I tapped the spot where I knew a very small amount of coal gas
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would escape, Doctor Watson, it's filtering now into this tunnel. I don't
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believe it. You're just trying to intimidate. Am I watch your canary?
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Doctor, just watch watch the canaria. Instead, can extinguish your head lamp
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Watson instantly. I shall too, and Jeffrey, or will you risk creating
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an explosion. I'll turn out my lamp, but that's for an explosion.
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I suppose you'll believe me. Now. I have a box of matches,
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gentlemen. If I strike one, just one, it'll explode the guests.
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We will be blown to bits, and we are to accept your offer,
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or you'll strike the match. Yes, if you return to the Earth's Service
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and reveal this, my life isn't worth living. I'd rather we all died
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here and now the guess will overcome us at any moment. We've got a
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little time. Here's the matchbox and the match. I'm ready to strike it.
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Do you accept my offer? Yes? Or no? No? You're
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sure you won't reconsidered. We will not reconsider. I'll stand by that.
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That's one second more than I strike the match. What's the life? Got
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him back? But I have his arms? What's the rope in his belt?
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Can you find it? Yes? Hold? Hold him still? Last
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and dark time. I think I've got a simple drags a little still climbs
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his wrist hit there and now the nut I can't move. Don't leave me
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here at the gas. Oh, we shan't leave you, Jeffrey. We
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shall take you to the surface and turn you over to the police. Come
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on, Watson, along the passageways where we came. We find it with
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your hands? Yes, yes, I haven't heard. Then go back after
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you, Jeffrey. There's a small beam of light ahead. But it must
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be the shaft. That's it. That's the cage the surface, so it
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is. See there's the lift. All right, Jump on, Watson,
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you're too Jeffrey. Get on there we are. It's as I feared.
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I guess she always wins. She the earth she's cursed. That's what her
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blessings aren't blessings at all. They carry a curse. The gold, the
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oil, the coal, the diamonds, all the riches of a soil.
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When me to fire you the soil and cut them deep, when they slash
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into our forests and slice the hat out of our mountains, she commands vengeance,
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and she exacts her toy. That is a lesson you should have learned
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earlier in the game, Jeoffrey, Liby Watson, right host, they called
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your friends the mad miners of Cardiff, Jeffrey, and in the sense they
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were really mad. The cruel dream of power and wealth and glory illicitly one,
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a dream not native to Cardiff, nor at these times by George Holmes.
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I ever thought we'd see the flat haired Baker Street again, Eh,
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lack of confidence in my ability, Watson, therefore totally unjustified. How did
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you know, Holmes, about there being no terrible sight at all in the
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mind? Will you see the minor lad departed suddenly for Edinburgh and the Cosmopolitan
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Hotel, a very expensive hotel. Curious that a miner should do that unless
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he'd suddenly received money. Missus Powees said Luod was a miner all his life.
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Would he spend his little savings on a lavish excursion? No coursn How
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did you know it would be Jeffrey in the mud? Well? If you
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recall when Jeffrey ran up to us with missus Powees at the lifts, well,
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I observed a truck mark on the back of his jacket. It was
23:19
a portion of the symbols employed upon the beams in a mine. The talk
23:23
had come off a beam and soiled the jacket, though Jeffrey didn't notice.
23:27
Although no one was supposed to be in the mine recently, Jeffrey had clearly
23:30
returned from a visit paid just a few minutes before. See tell me how
23:37
about a sight that? Well, about some mysterious, unheard of thing.
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It would be so utterly awful it would drive the spectator instantly out of his
23:47
mind. Are such things possible? Is there any reason to believe they are
23:53
not? Watson? Couldn't there be such a thing lurking looking around the next
24:00
turn of the street. On nearer, perhaps at the corner of your hallway,
24:07
or in the room next to where you're sitting now? He held,
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Doctor Watson them the mad Miners of Cardiffho's one of the most spine tingling adventures
24:37
you've ever related to us. You must tell us what sort of criminals were
24:40
to pursue with you and mister Holls. Next week, Doctor, Next week,
24:44
mister Harris, I shall relate to you the case of the Burmese Gudess.
24:49
It concerns a strange legend, a man who lost his fingernail and a
24:56
peculiar auction sale. The makers of clipper Craft clothes and more than twelve hundred
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stores from coast to coast have brought you another in the new series of broadcasts
25:22
featuring the world's most famous detective, Sherlock Holmes. Our stories are based upon
25:34
the character Sherlock Holmes, created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The program is
25:40
produced and directed by Basil Lochran. Sherlock Holmes is played by John Stanley,
25:45
Doctor Watson by George Spelman. This week's story was written by Howard Merrill,
25:52
with special music by Albert Berman. If you don't know your Clippercraft dealer right
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clipper Craft, two hundred Fifth Avenue, New York City, here's an important
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fact you probably don't know. It's possible to save up to fifty percent of
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Send a generous contribution to Cancer Care of your local post office tonight.
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Be sure to listen next week to Sherlock Holmes in the Case of the Burmese
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Goddess by Harris speaking for Clippercraft Clothes of the Mutual Broadcasting System. Welcome back.
26:49
One guess the villain when he made the offer for the seemingly and apparently
26:57
worthless mom. That's a dead giveaway. I had not guess the whole idea
27:03
that everybody who was pretending to have gone hadn't seen anything at all. I
27:08
was kind of a unique wrinkle. Well, we turned out a listener comments
27:12
and feedback, and we have this from Clarissa. Thanks so much for your
27:15
podcasts. I enjoy it every morning at work. I also faithfully listen to
27:19
your Dragnet podcast and enjoy that as well. Yours are the best old time
27:25
radio shows I've been able to find. The podcast format which I listened to
27:29
be of the Stitcher app well. Listening to the recent Sherlock Holmes and hearing
27:33
the Clippercraft commercial for the umpty time I got curious and google the address listed
27:38
for the store in Jamaica Queens one six four dash O eight, Jamaica Avenue.
27:44
It's still a men's clothing store after all this time. I thought it
27:48
was interesting enough to share. Have a great day and keep the old time
27:52
detectives coming. Well, thanks so much, Clarissa. Indeed, I agree,
27:56
it's definitely interesting enough to share. A one minute I've wondered about is
28:03
if the John Watermaker men's stores are in existence. I've not actually googled it
28:07
because, to be honest, I can't even figure out how to spell that
28:12
one properly. Finally, we have a review on iTunes Kara rots in wonderful
28:18
podcast of the great old Sherlock Holmes presentations. I'm a huge Clumbal fan and
28:25
found your podcast from your book. When our Telly recently went out, these
28:30
podcasts were a great replacement, and now even with a new television we still
28:33
listen to the Sherlock Holmes stories rather than go back to watching television in the
28:37
evening. Keep up the great presentations, enjoy the Clivercraft commercials. Well,
28:42
thanks so much and appreciate your comments. And it's kind of interesting I always
28:49
had the idea that the podcast would promote the book, but the book also,
28:56
I guess, can promote the podcast. So we're glad we have people
29:00
listening and reading. Definitely appreciate it. All Right, Well, that we'll
29:06
do it for today. We'll we'll be back tomorrow with yours truly, Johnny
29:10
Dowler, and then join us back here on Thursday or another episode of Sherlock
29:14
Holmes in the Meanwhile, Sandra Commas to Box thirteen at Great Detectors dot net,
29:18
follow us on Twitter at Radio Detectors, and call us two eight nine
29:22
nine one four seven eighty three from Boise, Idaho. This is your host,
29:25
Adam Grahamson and off