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X Minus One - "Dwellers in Silence" (Old Time Radio, 1955) · X Minus One | Old Time Radio

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Twenty years after the Earth Wars, a spacecraft leaves the
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: human colonies on Mars for a return journey to the
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: devastated planet. Its passengers, Captain John Parsons, Dr. Evans, and Williams,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: find a deserted city with one conspicuously lighted district, and
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: there they meet the elderly Dr. Cornelius Hathaway and his household.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: From Ray Bradbury's story, adapted for radio by George Lefferts,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: this is NBC's X-1, Episode 24, Dwellers in Silence, originally
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: broadcast November 10th, 1955. Ladies and gentlemen, here is the
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: original broadcast.
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: Countdown for blastoff. X-5, 4, 3, 2, X-1, fire.
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: From the far horizons of the unknown come transcribed tales
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: of new dimensions in time and space. These are stories
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: of the future, adventures in which you'll live in a
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: million could-be years on a thousand maybe worlds. The National
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: Broadcasting Company, in cooperation with Street & Smith, publishers of
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: astounding science fiction, presents X-Minus-One.
• 1:38
  Speaker 4: X-Minus-One. Tonight's story, Ray Bradbury's Dwellers in Silence. Twenty years
• 2:01
  Speaker 4: had passed. Twenty years since the last of the giant
• 2:04
  Speaker 4: migration ships had crashed to the surface of Mars, bearing
• 2:08
  Speaker 4: its pitiful handful of survivors of the Earth Wars. Twenty
• 2:12
  Speaker 4: years of longing, of turning eyes toward the green Earth
• 2:15
  Speaker 4: as it hung on the horizon like a beckoning light.
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: And now it was done.
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: And the first new ship, built of shining Martian chromaton,
• 2:23
  Speaker 4: had lifted bravely toward home with three men locked in
• 2:26
  Speaker 4: its metal belly.
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: There it is. You can barely see the top of
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: the atomic trades building in the twilight. A never-finished building. Captain.
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: What is it? Am I going out of my mind? Look,
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: out that way, to the west. Could that be... My heaven,
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: it is. Those are lights. Turn the ship. Full cruising speed.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: They are lights.
• 2:50
  Speaker 4: Captain, it's a city, a whole blasted city lit up
• 2:53
  Speaker 4: like a Christmas tree.
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: What do you think of your dead planet.
• 2:56
  Speaker 5: Now, Williams?
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: Decelerate to negative five. We're going to take her down. Unbelievable.
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: We've been walking for hours now and not a soul
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: to be seen. There must be someone. How do you
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: explain the light?
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: Unless they've been burning like this for 20 years.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: Impossible.
• 3:23
  Speaker 4: I don't know.
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: Municipal building. Should we have a look here, sir? Possibly
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: the records might contain something.
• 3:28
  Speaker 4: That's a good idea. Keep your weapons ready. We'll start
• 3:36
  Speaker 4: right here with the city clerk's office. Better check radiation again, doctor. Well,
• 3:40
  Speaker 4: not enough to do any damage.
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: Gives you the creeps, doesn't it? Look at this desk.
• 3:49
  Speaker 4: Papers crumpled, ink stand, just as if somebody came in
• 3:52
  Speaker 4: and worked here every day.
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: Drug licenses, hunting permits. That's strange. There's ink in that
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: ink stand. What of it? Well, you'd think standing open
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: for 20 years, it would have dried up. Good heavens.
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: If I hadn't heard it with my own ears. Evans,
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: did that phone ring?
• 4:10
  Speaker 6: Yes.
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: Well? Pick it up, doctor. Hello? Good day, Doctor.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: How are you?
• 4:19
  Speaker 4: I called to ask some advice about a tripanning problem.
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: Can you tell me if the lateral cut should be
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: made first?
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: Hello?
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: Hello? This is absolutely insane. Hello? Thank you, Doctor. I'll
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: do that. By the way, how is your wife, Alice?
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: And the girls? And your son, John? Fine boy, John.
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: I'll call again tomorrow. Goodbye, Doctor.
• 4:42
  Speaker 4: Hello?
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: Hello? Hello? Gone dead. Who was it? I don't know.
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: Strange voice.
• 4:49
  Speaker 4: Carried on a conversation about some surgical operation without paying
• 4:52
  Speaker 4: the slightest attention to anything I said.
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: Captain. What is it? Listen. Someone is coming. Walking slowly
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: toward the corridor. Coming closer. Jumping, Jupiter. It's a man.
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: An old man. Are you... Is it really someone? You
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: seem to be... Real.
• 5:17
  Speaker 4: I saw the ship come down and I thought perhaps
• 5:19
  Speaker 4: I was losing my mind. It's been so many years.
• 5:23
  Speaker 4: I'm Captain John Parsons. These are my assistants, Dr. Evans
• 5:26
  Speaker 4: and Mr.
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: Williams. We returned to Earth from Mars. Then it's happened.
• 5:31
  Speaker 4: We're not alone anymore. Forgive me, gentlemen, if I see mood.
• 5:39
  Speaker 4: I've waited and hoped for so long. You survived the radiation.
• 5:43
  Speaker 4: We did.
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: There are others. My family... We are the only ones.
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: I answered the phone a moment ago. Who was it?
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: You heard my voice, Doctor. Yours?
• 5:53
  Speaker 4: Yes. To break the loneliness. I've recorded my voice and
• 5:57
  Speaker 4: rigged up an automatic telephone. It's pleasant to hear the
• 6:00
  Speaker 4: phone ring. I come here to work. I take it
• 6:04
  Speaker 4: you are a medical man. My name is Cornelius Hathaway.
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: Hathaway? Hathaway the brain surgeon? You know my name? Who doesn't?
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: I watched you on television at college.
• 6:14
  Speaker 4: Why, I saw you 20... Twenty-three years ago, you performed
• 6:17
  Speaker 4: a difficult surgery for a cerebral tumor. Thank you. I'd
• 6:21
  Speaker 4: almost forgotten. My mind, you see, I... Well, I'm almost
• 6:26
  Speaker 4: 80 now. Well, you look fine, sir. We've had the
• 6:29
  Speaker 4: best of everything. An entire city to choose from. Cold storage,
• 6:33
  Speaker 4: the best equipment. But come, come, come. There's a fine
• 6:37
  Speaker 4: dinner waiting for you, and you'll want to meet my family.
• 6:40
  Speaker 4: When I saw the ship come down, I told Alice,
• 6:42
  Speaker 4: my wife, you know, to prepare a feast for this
• 6:46
  Speaker 4: It's a great day for me, gentlemen.
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: A great, great day.
• 7:00
  Speaker 4: Alice!
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: Alice!
• 7:02
  Speaker 4: Come out to the porch and see who we have here.
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: Alice, you here? Come out! My wife, gentlemen. Alice, Captain Parsons, Dr. Evans, Mr. Williams.
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: How do you do?
• 7:14
  Speaker 6: How do you do?
• 7:15
  Speaker 4: And now, if you will follow me in, gentlemen, we'll
• 7:18
  Speaker 4: meet my children.
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: Lord, what a beautiful woman. She looks no more than 35.
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: Do you suppose the radiation could have done that to her?
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 7:29
  Speaker 4: And these are my daughters, Susan and Marguerite, and my son, John.
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: How do you do? How do you do, sir? Sit down, gentlemen.
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: Sit down. We'll have a feast in honor of this occasion. Susan, Marguerite.
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: Get the best silverware and the damask napkins. And John,
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: fetch the champagne. Yes, sir. Excuse me a moment, John. Sir?
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: How old are you? Twenty-three, sir. Thank you. What is it, Captain?
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: Something wrong? Uh, nothing. Except that it's impossible. You see, Dr.
• 8:01
  Speaker 4: Hathaway's son was already in college when I started. That
• 8:05
  Speaker 4: would make him at least forty-five.
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: That was a wonderful meal, Mrs. Hathaway. Doctor, your wife
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: is an exceptional woman. Thank you, sir.
• 8:25
  Speaker 6: How would you gentlemen like some fresh gingerbread with your coffee?
• 8:30
  Speaker 6: I've baked it this morning.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: Oh, wonderful, wonderful. Smell that, Doctor? It's like coming home, Mrs.
• 8:36
  Speaker 4: Hathaway.
• 8:37
  Speaker 6: It's like home having you here.
• 8:39
  Speaker 4: Mrs. Hathaway, may I compliment you on having preserved your
• 8:42
  Speaker 4: youth and beauty so well?
• 8:45
  Speaker 6: Thank you. We have no worries here. No competition. All
• 8:51
  Speaker 6: the things we need for material comfort.
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: Parsons and I were wondering, Dr.
• 8:55
  Speaker 4: Hathaway, if the radioactivity had any effect in preserving tissue.
• 8:59
  Speaker 4: Your children all look so young, too. It is possible, gentlemen,
• 9:03
  Speaker 4: of course. Radiation does strange things to living tissue. Alice,
• 9:08
  Speaker 4: could we have some champagne?
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: Alice. Oh.
• 9:13
  Speaker 6: I'm sorry. What, John?
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: Some champagne, please.
• 9:16
  Speaker 6: Champagne? Oh, yes, of course.
• 9:20
  Speaker 4: An amazing woman. Did you ever see such grace, such
• 9:24
  Speaker 4: complete relaxation? It doesn't seem quite natural.
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: I beg your pardon, gentlemen?
• 9:29
  Speaker 4: Captain Parsons was just about to ask how you and
• 9:32
  Speaker 4: your family managed to escape, Dr.
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: Hathaway. We were very fortunate.
• 9:36
  Speaker 4: You see, my home was in the Sierra Mountains at
• 9:38
  Speaker 4: the time. I had a lead-lined laboratory in the basement
• 9:41
  Speaker 4: where I did X-ray research. My hobby, you know. I
• 9:45
  Speaker 4: chose this house because it was on a hill where
• 9:47
  Speaker 4: I could watch the sky. The loneliness of those first years.
• 9:51
  Speaker 4: But at least you had your wife and children.
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: Yes, yes, I had my family.
• 9:56
  Speaker 4: If it were not for them, gentlemen, I assure you
• 9:58
  Speaker 4: I would long ago have put a.
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: bullet in my head.
• 10:01
  Speaker 6: Champagne, Captain?
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: Oh, thank you, Mrs. Hathaway. May I propose a toast? Oh,
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: let me. Gentlemen, to Earth. To Earth?
• 10:12
  Speaker 4: Earth.
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: May she never be stranger to man.
• 10:15
  Speaker 4: And.
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: Hathaway. What is it? Are you all right? It's nothing.
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: It's nothing, really.
• 10:22
  Speaker 5: Just a rather sharp pain in the chest. Why don't
• 10:27
  Speaker 5: you gentlemen go out on the porch and enjoy the air?
• 10:32
  Speaker 5: You've had a long and tiring journey. Alice will show
• 10:36
  Speaker 5: you the way.
• 10:37
  Speaker 6: Will you be all right, John?
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: Yes, don't trouble yourself. I'll see you all in the morning.
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: Good night, Doctor. Good night. Come, John. Yes, Father. Well,
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: what do you think of old Mother Earth now, Williams? Ah,
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: smell that summer breeze. Look at that view of the city,
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: lighted up against the sky. It has a certain quality.
• 11:06
  Speaker 4: Well, score one point for the back-to-earth proponent.
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: I didn't say that. You're beginning to feel it, though, Williams,
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: I can tell. If you don't mind, gentlemen, I'm quite tired.
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: I think I'll turn in. Excuse me. Well, Captain? Well, what?
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: What do you make of all this?
• 11:26
  Speaker 4: I don't know what you mean. Miss Hathaway and his family.
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: There's something strange and unnatural going on here. I can
• 11:32
  Speaker 4: sense it.
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: Oh, I think you're reading things into it, Doctor. Perhaps. Well,
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: I'll turn in, too. Coming?
• 11:39
  Speaker 4: In a moment.
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: I want to smoke a cigarette.
• 11:49
  Speaker 6: It's a very beautiful view. Is it not?
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: I didn't hear you come out. How is he? Resting.
• 11:57
  Speaker 6: I've never seen him this bad.
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: Yes, he's an old man. I'm sorry, but the difference
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: in your ages is so apparent. You must have been
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: married very young.
• 12:10
  Speaker 6: You don't know about us, then?
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: No.
• 12:14
  Speaker 6: Perhaps it is better that way.
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: I don't follow you. Is it something about your husband?
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: He acts very strangely.
• 12:22
  Speaker 6: My husband is a very great man, Captain. It is
• 12:25
  Speaker 6: too bad there was no one to appreciate him. Once
• 12:29
  Speaker 6: he wired the whole city with sound speakers. And when
• 12:32
  Speaker 6: he pressed a button, the whole town lit up and
• 12:35
  Speaker 6: made noises as if 10,000 people were living in it.
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: He must have been very lonesome.
• 12:42
  Speaker 4: Although, with a woman such as you, I don't understand.
• 12:46
  Speaker 6: Perhaps one day you will understand.
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: I hope you will come to trust me as a friend.
• 12:54
  Speaker 6: I can trust no one but you. Good night, Captain.
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: Good night, Mrs. Hathaway. Captain. Captain Parsons. What are you doing?
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: Who's there?
• 13:12
  Speaker 4: Dr.
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: Evans. What's wrong? What time is it anyway? 2 a.m.
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: What's wrong? I couldn't sleep.
• 13:18
  Speaker 4: Two minutes ago, I heard someone slip out the front door.
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: In the moonlight, I saw it was the old man.
• 13:22
  Speaker 4: He was headed toward the ship. What are you suggesting, Doctor? Nothing,
• 13:25
  Speaker 4: except that it's fairly unnatural for an old man with
• 13:28
  Speaker 4: a bad heart to go wandering off at two in
• 13:30
  Speaker 4: the morning.
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: Very well. We'll follow him. This is far enough. What
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: do you suppose he's doing? What are those on the ground?
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: Good Lord, those The grave marker. Four of them. You're right.
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: He seems to be praying over them. Listen. Do you
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: forgive me for what I have done?
• 13:58
  Speaker 4: I had to do it. I was so lonely. So
• 14:02
  Speaker 4: terribly lonely. You don't mind too much. You do forgive me,
• 14:07
  Speaker 4: don't you?
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: Yes. Yes, I feel you do. Well, I'm glad. I
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: think perhaps I can rest now. I think... He's having
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: another attack. Come on. Hathaway. Dr. Hathaway, can you hear me?
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: Raise his head, Evans. Dr. Hathaway. His lips are moving.
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: What is it, doctor? Closer. Lean closer. I'm sorry. I
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: had to spoil all of this. I've expected it for
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: some time. We'll fix you up.
• 14:43
  Speaker 4: No.
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: No, I'm an excellent diagnostician. It really doesn't matter. Except
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: for them. What about them, Hathaway? You suspected, didn't you? Yes,
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: I suspected. But I couldn't believe it until now. Do
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: they know? No. No, they wouldn't understand. I wouldn't want
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: them to know. Ever. Doctor? He's dead, Captain. What was
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: it he meant about your suspecting? Light a match, Dr. Evans.
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: Look on those four grave markers and tell me what
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: you see. Good heavens.
• 15:29
  Speaker 4: Well, Alice Hathaway, Marguerite Hathaway, Susan Hathaway, John Hathaway died
• 15:39
  Speaker 4: July 1987.
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: But that 20 years ago. It's impossible.
• 15:46
  Speaker 4: If these markers are correct, then who are those others?
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: Can't you guess, Doctor? Can't you guess? I'm sorry, Mrs. Hathaway.
• 16:06
  Speaker 6: He didn't want us to feel bad. He told us
• 16:09
  Speaker 6: it would happen one day and that he didn't want
• 16:11
  Speaker 6: us to cry. He didn't teach us how, you know.
• 16:16
  Speaker 6: He said it was the worst thing that could happen,
• 16:18
  Speaker 6: to know how to be lonely and unhappy.
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: We weren't to know what death is. Perhaps it's just
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: as well.
• 16:26
  Speaker 6: You know about us, don't you?
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: Yes, I know. I didn't think you knew yourself.
• 16:32
  Speaker 6: The children don't. I've been aware for a long while.
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: No one would have guessed. You're so perfect.
• 16:39
  Speaker 6: He would have liked to hear you say that. He
• 16:42
  Speaker 6: was so very proud of us. After a while, he
• 16:45
  Speaker 6: came to love us. And at the end, he took
• 16:47
  Speaker 6: us as his real wife and children. He even forgot
• 16:52
  Speaker 6: sometimes that he had made us.
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: You gave him a great deal of comfort.
• 16:57
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: Over the years, we.
• 16:59
  Speaker 6: Sat and talked. He loved so much to talk. I
• 17:03
  Speaker 6: was first, you know. Then he became lonesome for the children,
• 17:07
  Speaker 6: and so.
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: He made them.
• 17:09
  Speaker 6: There was only one thing.
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: One flaw. And that?
• 17:14
  Speaker 6: He couldn't make us grow old. And so he had
• 17:17
  Speaker 6: to watch himself become an old, old man. While we
• 17:21
  Speaker 6: stayed young. It was a great blow to him.
• 17:26
  Speaker 4: We'll bury him on a hillside where the other four
• 17:29
  Speaker 4: crosses are.
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: I think he would like that.
• 17:32
  Speaker 6: Yes, he would.
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: Mrs. Hathaway, Alice, I think that you are a very
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: great and wonderful woman.
• 17:49
  Speaker 4: And so we commend the body of this man, John Hathaway,
• 17:51
  Speaker 4: to his maker.
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, return it.
• 17:57
  Speaker 4: Amen.
• 18:00
  Speaker 6: Come, John.
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: Yes, Mother.
• 18:01
  Speaker 6: Susan, Marjorie.
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: Evans, Williams, stay here a moment, please. What is it?
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: Let them go back to the house. I want to
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: speak to you. I know what you're going to tell us, Captain.
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: I saw the names on the grave markers. Well?
• 18:17
  Speaker 4: It's a mockery, a blasphemy of everything we believe in.
• 18:21
  Speaker 4: For a man to do something so evil. Can't you
• 18:22
  Speaker 4: imagine what he faced? Can't you imagine what it must
• 18:25
  Speaker 4: have been like to have watched his wife and children
• 18:27
  Speaker 4: die slowly of radiation burns? To know that he was
• 18:30
  Speaker 4: the last man on the face of the earth, alone,
• 18:33
  Speaker 4: eternally and unalterably alone. Good Lord, man, what would you
• 18:38
  Speaker 4: have done if you'd had his medical and technical genius?
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: I'll tell you.
• 18:42
  Speaker 4: You'd have come back to your laboratory just as he
• 18:44
  Speaker 4: did and tried to recapture all the wonderful things that
• 18:46
  Speaker 4: they had been to you. You'd use all the power
• 18:49
  Speaker 4: of your memory, all the accuracy of your fingers, and
• 18:51
  Speaker 4: you'd try to put together bit by bit All those
• 18:55
  Speaker 4: things that were wife, son, and daughter.
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: It's incredible. So you suggest that we take them back, Captain?
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 19:01
  Speaker 4: We haven't enough space in the ship for that. Every
• 19:04
  Speaker 4: ounce counts. Still, to leave them here like that, alone...
• 19:09
  Speaker 4: I think I have an answer, cold-blooded as it may seem.
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: Go on. I suggest that we turn them off. Do
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: you think I could do that? No, but I think
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: I could. After all, they aren't human. They're worse than robots.
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: They're ghoulish. I suggest you go back to the ship, Captain,
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: and leave me to deal with it. I will not
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: permit it. You've no choice in the matter.
• 19:30
  Speaker 4: I assure you it'll be quick and entirely painless.
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: I hate to admit it, but he's right, Captain.
• 19:34
  Speaker 4: We can't take them with us, and it would be
• 19:36
  Speaker 4: less than human to leave them here without Hathaway. They
• 19:39
  Speaker 4: were created by him for himself. They have no other feelings,
• 19:43
  Speaker 4: no other purpose. If you leave them, they'll go on
• 19:46
  Speaker 4: year after year, night after night, talking, laughing, faking, strawberry biscuits.
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: For no reason, not knowing who they are, why they exist.
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: Could you do it, Doctor?
• 19:58
  Speaker 4: I don't know.
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: I've already offered to do it. No. No, I wouldn't
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: want it to be you, Williams. You're sick. You have
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: no feelings. If Dr.
• 20:06
  Speaker 4: Evans here can do it, Well, so be it. It's
• 20:12
  Speaker 4: a difficult thing, Captain. Still, as you say, they aren't...
• 20:17
  Speaker 4: They aren't human. Logic is on your side. It isn't
• 20:21
  Speaker 4: as if you were murdering someone.
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: Well? Give me the blast gun, will you? We'll wait
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: in the ship. Take off in half an hour. Half
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: an hour.
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: 6.25.
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: He should be back soon. Yes. He's doing the only
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: humane thing, Captain. They're less than human. Are they? Well,
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: it's done now. No one ever... That's the airlock.
• 20:55
  Speaker 6: He's back.
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: Well, here's your gun. Did you do it?
• 21:06
  Speaker 4: When I entered the house, one of the daughters looked
• 21:08
  Speaker 4: up at me and she smiled. The other smiled. He
• 21:12
  Speaker 4: taught them that, taught them to make him feel welcome
• 21:15
  Speaker 4: when he came home at night.
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: I knew that, and yet... Well, I should have done
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: it then. I might have, but she came in. The wife.
• 21:26
  Speaker 4: She said something about sitting down for a cup of tea.
• 21:29
  Speaker 4: She looked at me with those fine, intelligent eyes.
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: I couldn't do it.
• 21:35
  Speaker 4: It would be murder. Cold-blooded murder. I prayed you wouldn't
• 21:39
  Speaker 4: be able to do it. There will never be anything
• 21:43
  Speaker 4: as fine as they are, you know. Built to last
• 21:46
  Speaker 4: a hundred, two hundred, perhaps a thousand years. Well, get
• 21:52
  Speaker 4: the course and the integrator, Williams. We'll take off in
• 21:54
  Speaker 4: 20 minutes. I should be back by then. You're going out, sir?
• 21:58
  Speaker 4: I'm going to say goodbye.
• 22:09
  Speaker 6: You've come back.
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: Only to say goodbye.
• 22:13
  Speaker 6: It was nice of you.
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: I wanted you to know that I'm coming back. Here?
• 22:20
  Speaker 6: To us?
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: Here. To you. I....
• 22:25
  Speaker 6: I believe you.
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: I never meant anything more.
• 22:28
  Speaker 6: When will you come?
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 22:30
  Speaker 4: It'll take many years to prepare fuel for another trip. Six, seven,
• 22:34
  Speaker 4: perhaps ten years.
• 22:36
  Speaker 6: I will watch the sky at night, just as he
• 22:39
  Speaker 6: watched it.
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: I'm not a young man.
• 22:43
  Speaker 6: Time is nothing to me. I was born out of time.
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: I'm afraid I must go now.
• 22:51
  Speaker 6: I understand.
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: Strange.
• 22:56
  Speaker 6: I have a new feeling. One which he didn't teach us.
• 23:02
  Speaker 6: A feeling of longing and.
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: Sadness. That one is not taught. It comes of being alive. Yes.
• 23:14
  Speaker 6: I am alive. Even though he created me. I'm a
• 23:20
  Speaker 6: person now.
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: Goodbye, Alice Hathaway.
• 23:24
  Speaker 6: Goodbye, John Parson.
• 23:33
  Speaker 4: You have just heard X-1 presented by the National Broadcasting
• 23:37
  Speaker 4: Company in cooperation with Street & Smith, publishers of astounding
• 23:41
  Speaker 4: science fiction. Tonight by transcription... X-1 has brought you Dwellers
• 23:46
  Speaker 4: in Silence, written by Ray Bradbury and adapted for radio
• 23:49
  Speaker 4: by George Lefferts. Featured in the cast were Ann Seymour,
• 23:53
  Speaker 4: Carl Weber, Theodore Osborne, Richard Hamilton, Edwin Jerome, and Stan Early.
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: Your announcer, Fred Collins.
• 24:01
  Speaker 4: X-1 was directed by Daniel Sutter and is an NBC
• 24:05
  Speaker 4: Radio Network production. Don't forget, next week, X-1 will be
• 24:18
  Speaker 4: heard on Wednesday at 8 p.m.
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: Eastern Standard Time.
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: Our curtain falls on X-1's dwellers in silence. Follow X-1
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: for more classic broadcasts.