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X Minus One - "And the Moon Be Still as Bright" (Old Time Radio, 1955) · X Minus One | Old Time Radio

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Three Earth expeditions have vanished on Mars, a fourth rocket
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: lands beside a silent Martian city, and Captain Wilder orders
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: a cautious investigation. From NBC's X-1 comes And the Moon
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Be Still as Bright, Episode 19, broadcast September 22, 1955.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Adapted by Ernest Kenoy from Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles,
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: the drama follows Wilder, archaeologist Spender, and their fellow crew
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: members through the deserted city, its canals, and surrounding ruins.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: This September broadcast returns to the production first heard as
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: the series April Audition. And now, our story begins.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: Countdown for blastoff.
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: X minus 5, 4, 3, 2, X minus 1, fire.
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: From the far horizons of the unknown come transcribed tales
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: of new dimensions in time and space. These are stories
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: of the future, adventures in which you'll live in a
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: million could-be years on a thousand maybe worlds. The National
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: Broadcasting Company, in cooperation with Street & Smith, publishers of
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: astounding science fiction, presents.
• 1:40
  Speaker 4: X minus 1.
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: Tonight, the Ray Bradbury story entitled, And the Moon Be
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: Still as Bright.
• 2:07
  Speaker 5: The first three expeditions for Mars left Earth in a
• 2:10
  Speaker 5: mushroom of flame, arced through the atmosphere, and finally dwindled
• 2:14
  Speaker 5: at tiny specks in the big eye of the Mount
• 2:16
  Speaker 5: Palomar telescope, and then were lost to sight forever. The
• 2:21
  Speaker 5: prearranged landing signals flashed back to Earth, and then the
• 2:24
  Speaker 5: radios went dead. One after the other, ships had disappeared
• 2:27
  Speaker 5: and were never heard from again. But still the rockets came.
• 2:33
  Speaker 5: The fourth expedition emerged from the silent gulfs of space,
• 2:38
  Speaker 5: angled down toward the floating red disk of Mars, down
• 2:41
  Speaker 5: into an orbit as the order came to land. The
• 2:47
  Speaker 5: last blast of the bow jets broke red against the
• 2:49
  Speaker 5: blue desert sands. and the ship slid to a halt
• 2:52
  Speaker 5: at the edge of a vast city that reflected the
• 2:55
  Speaker 5: icy glare of the moonlight. For a while, all was still.
• 3:02
  Speaker 4: All right, Park Hill, open the airlock.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: Aye, sir.
• 3:10
  Speaker 4: Fresh air. Hey, it's cold out here. Who cares? We
• 3:13
  Speaker 4: got here.
• 3:14
  Speaker 6: I thought I'd never hit solid ground again.
• 3:16
  Speaker 4: Hey, help out a fire, Captain Wildey. It's freezing.
• 3:19
  Speaker 7: Later.
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: We have work to do. Oh, smell that air. Why,
• 3:22
  Speaker 4: you could get drunk on it. Say, there's an idea.
• 3:26
  Speaker 7: Why don't we break out a bottle and celebrate?
• 3:28
  Speaker 4: Biggs, there will be no drinking done till we're secured.
• 3:31
  Speaker 4: But we're landed, Captain.
• 3:32
  Speaker 7: Three other expeditions landed and disappeared within 24 hours. Now,
• 3:37
  Speaker 7: we're not relaxing security till we find out what happened
• 3:39
  Speaker 7: to them.
• 3:40
  Speaker 4: What do you mean? Maybe Martians? Sender, you're an archaeologist.
• 3:44
  Speaker 4: How old would you say they are?
• 3:46
  Speaker 7: I can't tell till I study them more closely. It's
• 3:49
  Speaker 7: the kind of engineering we couldn't duplicate on Earth. Well,
• 3:51
  Speaker 7: I'm not interested in the architecture now. I want to
• 3:53
  Speaker 7: make sure there's nothing there that might be dangerous.
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: Mr. Hathaway.
• 3:56
  Speaker 4: Yes, sir?
• 3:56
  Speaker 7: I want you and Sender to take a reconnaissance party
• 3:59
  Speaker 7: into the city and find out what's there. We set
• 4:01
  Speaker 7: up camp here. No man is to go more than
• 4:05
  Speaker 7: 50 feet from this rocket. And there'll be no celebration
• 4:08
  Speaker 7: till Hathaway and his party report back.
• 4:19
  Speaker 5: In the sea bottoms, the wind stirred along faint vapors.
• 4:22
  Speaker 5: And from the mountains, great stone visages looked upon the
• 4:25
  Speaker 5: silvery rocket and the small fire. The sky was black
• 4:29
  Speaker 5: overhead as the two racing moons threw knife-edge double shadows
• 4:34
  Speaker 5: on the desert.
• 4:36
  Speaker 4: All right, come and get it.
• 4:39
  Speaker 8: Ciao.
• 4:39
  Speaker 4: Hey, what do you got there, jerky? Sort of. Smothered
• 4:43
  Speaker 4: in cold chicken fat.
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: Good.
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: I thought it was something I couldn't eat. Hey, Captain.
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: Mr.
• 4:50
  Speaker 4: Hathaway's back. Oh, Captain. Captain Wilder. Oh, yes, over here, Mr. Hathaway. Well?
• 4:54
  Speaker 4: Most of the city's dead.
• 4:55
  Speaker 9: Spender says it's been dead a good many thousand years,
• 4:57
  Speaker 9: but we found one part about a mile over 20.
• 4:59
  Speaker 4: What about it? People were living in it last week, sir. People?
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: Martians.
• 5:04
  Speaker 4: Where are they now?
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: Dead. Dead?
• 5:06
  Speaker 4: They found bodies, thousands of bodies. They hadn't been dead
• 5:08
  Speaker 4: more than ten days.
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: Why did they die?
• 5:11
  Speaker 4: You won't believe it. What killed them?
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: Chickenpox. Chickenpox?
• 5:16
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: Where could they get chickenpox?
• 5:18
  Speaker 4: From Earth.
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: Oh, then the other rockets did get through.
• 5:23
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 5:24
  Speaker 9: I don't know what the Martians did to them, but
• 5:26
  Speaker 9: I sure know what they did to the Martians. They
• 5:29
  Speaker 9: gave them chickenpox and wiped them out. They just didn't
• 5:32
  Speaker 9: have any resistance to an Earth disease.
• 5:34
  Speaker 4: Think of it, Captain.
• 5:36
  Speaker 10: A race builds itself for a million years, refines itself,
• 5:39
  Speaker 10: does everything it can to give.
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: Itself respect and beauty, and then it dies.
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: Of what?
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: It's like saying the Greeks died of mumps or the
• 5:46
  Speaker 4: proud Roman Empire collapsed because of athlete's foot. We didn't
• 5:50
  Speaker 4: even give them a decent excuse for dying. We just
• 5:52
  Speaker 4: gave them chicken pox. Spender, get hold of yourself. You
• 5:55
  Speaker 4: didn't see those bodies, Captain.
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: Yes, I know.
• 5:58
  Speaker 7: It must have been a shock. You need a rest,
• 6:00
  Speaker 7: a little relaxation. The Martians are dead. There's nothing you
• 6:02
  Speaker 7: can do about that now.
• 6:04
  Speaker 4: Hey, you hear that? The Martians are all dead.
• 6:07
  Speaker 6: Come on, let's break out a bottle and hoop it out.
• 6:12
  Speaker 4: How about a case, eh? Oh, good Lord. They have
• 6:17
  Speaker 4: to do that now. Isn't there time later to throw
• 6:20
  Speaker 4: old beer cans into the canals? Bender, you're an idealist.
• 6:24
  Speaker 7: They're not. All they know now is that they're safe.
• 6:27
  Speaker 7: A little shouting won't hurt. You think too much.
• 6:31
  Speaker 4: I was safe on Mars. The first Earth men on Mars.
• 6:36
  Speaker 6: We're going to celebrate.
• 6:46
  Speaker 5: 20 bottles were opened and drunk. The voices got louder.
• 6:50
  Speaker 5: The Earth laughs and shouts echoing across the empty Martian sands.
• 6:57
  Speaker 5: Spender listened to the wind over his ears, cool and whispering.
• 7:02
  Speaker 5: He felt the land getting cooler. The stars drew closer,
• 7:06
  Speaker 5: very near. The air smelled clean and new. He looked
• 7:11
  Speaker 5: at the cool ice of the white Martian buildings over
• 7:13
  Speaker 5: there on the empty sea lands.
• 7:15
  Speaker 4: Oh, what a woman!
• 7:20
  Speaker 6: Hey, what do we do with these empty bottles?
• 7:23
  Speaker 4: Save them, stupid. There's a two cents deposit.
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: Ah!
• 7:27
  Speaker 4: Throw him away.
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: Hey, wait.
• 7:29
  Speaker 4: Wait. How about that building? Two to one on a
• 7:32
  Speaker 4: bucket and he went right through that window. You're wrong.
• 7:35
  Speaker 4: All right.
• 7:37
  Speaker 6: Here goes.
• 7:39
  Speaker 5: Hey.
• 7:40
  Speaker 4: Double or nothing on the next shot. Put that bottle down, Biggs.
• 7:43
  Speaker 4: Who's there, Mr. Spender? Stop smashing those windows. What's the difference?
• 7:48
  Speaker 4: The planet's ours now. I guess I can do anything
• 7:51
  Speaker 4: with it I want. Drop that bottle or I'll knock
• 7:53
  Speaker 4: your teeth out.
• 7:54
  Speaker 10: Yeah.
• 7:56
  Speaker 4: And just watch me. I warned you.
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: Big.
• 8:01
  Speaker 4: Hey, come on.
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: Come on.
• 8:02
  Speaker 4: What's going on here? Spender! Spender! I hit him. He's crazy, Captain.
• 8:11
  Speaker 4: He just walked on a slug man. All right, Biggs. Spender,
• 8:15
  Speaker 4: you come with me.
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: Now, suppose you explain.
• 8:21
  Speaker 4: What was the idea? The noise, the drunken brawl. Spender,
• 8:24
  Speaker 4: the men are tired. This has been a long trip.
• 8:26
  Speaker 4: And you have a different way of seeing things. I'm
• 8:29
  Speaker 4: seeing things, all right. I'm seeing how we'll ruin Mars.
• 8:33
  Speaker 4: We'll rip it up and rip the skin off the
• 8:35
  Speaker 4: way we've already ruined Earth. Is that why you hit Biggs? Yes.
• 8:40
  Speaker 4: I couldn't stand the idea of them watching us make
• 8:43
  Speaker 4: fools of ourselves. Damn. The Martians. They're dead. They're all dead.
• 8:48
  Speaker 4: But they know we're here. Doesn't an old thing always
• 8:52
  Speaker 4: know when a new thing comes? We've come a long
• 8:55
  Speaker 4: way to smash their windows and spit in their wine. Well,
• 8:58
  Speaker 4: maybe you're right.
• 9:00
  Speaker 7: But I'm still going to fine you $ 50 for that fight.
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: Now, come on, Spender. Suck in your chin. We'll go
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: back there and play happy.
• 9:18
  Speaker 5: Now they moved out into the moonlight across the desert...
• 9:22
  Speaker 5: They made their way into the dreaming, dead city. The
• 9:26
  Speaker 5: light of the racing twin moons glinted on the barrel
• 9:28
  Speaker 5: of a pistol, the long blade of a machete, the round,
• 9:32
  Speaker 5: gurgling shape of a raised bottle. The wind blew in
• 9:36
  Speaker 5: from the dead sea bottom and brushed through the silvery
• 9:39
  Speaker 5: wire filigree of the towers. Strange music drifted down to
• 9:45
  Speaker 5: the double-shadowed streets. A thin, haunted music that played as
• 9:49
  Speaker 5: it had played through the uncounted.
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: Years of time. Nobody moved. The moons held and froze them.
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: The wind beat slowly around them. Hey!
• 10:03
  Speaker 5: Hey, you people in the city!
• 10:06
  Speaker 4: Pigs.
• 10:07
  Speaker 7: I just want to make a little noise.
• 10:10
  Speaker 4: What kind of a celebration is.
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: This, anyway?
• 10:12
  Speaker 4: Come on. They built this city thousands of years ago.
• 10:16
  Speaker 4: And now where are they? How did they die? Who cares?
• 10:23
  Speaker 9: They're dead.
• 10:24
  Speaker 4: That's good enough for me. Lord Byron. What?
• 10:29
  Speaker 10: Lord Byron, a 19th century poet. He wrote a poem
• 10:31
  Speaker 10: that fits this city. Might have been written by the
• 10:34
  Speaker 10: last Martian poet. So we'll go no more a-roving so
• 10:39
  Speaker 10: late into the night. Though the heart be still as loving,
• 10:43
  Speaker 10: though the moon be still as bright. For the sword
• 10:47
  Speaker 10: outwears its sheath and the soul outwears its breast.
• 10:51
  Speaker 4: And the heart must pause to breathe, and love itself
• 10:54
  Speaker 4: must rest. Though the night was made for loving, and
• 10:58
  Speaker 4: the day returns too soon, yet we'll go no more
• 11:02
  Speaker 4: a-roving by the light of the moon.
• 11:12
  Speaker 5: Without a word, the earthmen stood in the center of
• 11:15
  Speaker 5: the city. It was a clear night. There was not
• 11:18
  Speaker 5: a sound except the music of the wind. At their
• 11:21
  Speaker 5: feet lay a tile court worked into the shapes of
• 11:24
  Speaker 5: ancient animals and images. They stood there, silvered by the
• 11:28
  Speaker 5: double moons beneath the crystal towers of Mars. And then
• 11:32
  Speaker 5: Biggs was sick, and the sour stench of liquor filled
• 11:36
  Speaker 5: the cool air. The men of Earth had come to Mars.
• 11:41
  Speaker 5: And Spender turned and walked away into the city, alone
• 11:44
  Speaker 5: in the moonlight, never once stopping.
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: To look back.
• 11:51
  Speaker 5: It was a morning that might have been a Monday,
• 11:53
  Speaker 5: or a Tuesday, or any day on Mars. Biggs was
• 11:57
  Speaker 5: on the canal rim, his feet hung down in the
• 11:59
  Speaker 5: cool water, soaking, while he took the sun in his face.
• 12:03
  Speaker 4: Hey, what are you doing back here, Biggs? Didn't you
• 12:04
  Speaker 4: go out with the search party? Yeah. I come back.
• 12:09
  Speaker 4: I got a blister. Oh, yeah.
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: Here.
• 12:11
  Speaker 4: What do you mean? Look. Look, Chuck. You see that? Anyway,
• 12:16
  Speaker 4: I had enough searching. Four days hunting for that screwball spender.
• 12:20
  Speaker 4: Didn't find him yet, huh? Good riddance.
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: Oh, my feet.
• 12:24
  Speaker 4: I'm going to soak them in the canal. If I
• 12:28
  Speaker 4: was wilder, I wouldn't worry about that nut spender. Let
• 12:31
  Speaker 4: him go. He's a crackpot anyway. He's a little foggy upstairs,
• 12:34
  Speaker 4: I guess. Hey, why don't you take your feet out
• 12:38
  Speaker 4: of that canal, Biggs? I got to make coffee out
• 12:40
  Speaker 4: of that water.
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: Coffee?
• 12:42
  Speaker 4: You call that stuff coffee?
• 12:44
  Speaker 7: I had a motorcycle once that dripped grease that tasted
• 12:47
  Speaker 7: better than.
• 12:47
  Speaker 4: Hey, wait a minute, Biggs.
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: Hey, look over there.
• 12:50
  Speaker 4: Where? By that bush. There's someone there. Hey. It's him.
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: Hey.
• 12:55
  Speaker 4: Hey, Spender. Spender? He's coming over.
• 12:58
  Speaker 7: Why didn't he stay lost, that crazy jerk?
• 13:01
  Speaker 4: Hi, Spender. Long time no see. Hello, Cherokee. I have
• 13:06
  Speaker 4: been exploring some ruins. Oh, you and them ruins. You're
• 13:09
  Speaker 4: like a dog in a boneyard. What's the matter, Erwin?
• 13:13
  Speaker 4: Just say something. Where you been? Up in the hills.
• 13:19
  Speaker 4: What would you say if I told you I found
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: a Martian? Oh, yeah?
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: Where?
• 13:23
  Speaker 4: Never mind. Let me ask you a question.
• 13:28
  Speaker 10: How would you feel if you were a Martian and
• 13:30
  Speaker 10: people came to your land and started to tear it up?
• 13:33
  Speaker 4: I know how I'd feel. I've got Cherokee blood in me.
• 13:36
  Speaker 5: My grandfather told me a lot of things about the
• 13:38
  Speaker 5: way they kicked the Indians around on the Oklahoma Territory.
• 13:41
  Speaker 4: If there's any Martian around, I'm all for him. How
• 13:45
  Speaker 4: about you, Biggs? They're dead. They're all dead. It's a
• 13:48
  Speaker 4: good thing, too.
• 13:50
  Speaker 10: Well, I found a Martian. Up in a dead town
• 13:55
  Speaker 10: in the hills. I've been reading their books, and they're
• 13:58
  Speaker 10: easy to understand. And I've learned their language. And then
• 14:01
  Speaker 10: I found this Martian. And I brought him here, now.
• 14:05
  Speaker 4: I don't see no Martian. I'm the last Martian alive.
• 14:09
  Speaker 4: What did you say? Biggs, I'm going to kill you. Oh,
• 14:13
  Speaker 4: cut it out. What kind of a lousy joke is that? Now,
• 14:18
  Speaker 4: don't put that gun away. You're kidding, huh? Spender, you're...
• 14:28
  Speaker 4: He's dead. You killed him. You can come with me, Cherokee.
• 14:32
  Speaker 4: You're an Indian. You know how the Martians would feel.
• 14:35
  Speaker 4: You can be with me in this. You killed him.
• 14:36
  Speaker 4: You just killed him. He deserved it. You're crazy. Maybe
• 14:40
  Speaker 4: I am, but you can come with me. Come with
• 14:42
  Speaker 4: you for what? Go on, get out of here, you
• 14:44
  Speaker 4: crazy murderer. Of all of them, I thought you'd understand.
• 14:47
  Speaker 4: I thought you'd remember what happened to your own people.
• 14:50
  Speaker 4: Get out of here, you crazy murderer. Don't reach for
• 14:52
  Speaker 4: that gun.
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: Spender.
• 14:55
  Speaker 4: Spender. Spender.
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: Hathaway, break out the arms locker. Issue pistols, rifles, and grenades.
• 15:15
  Speaker 4: Yes, sir.
• 15:15
  Speaker 7: And you'd better get the Bible out of the navigation chest.
• 15:17
  Speaker 7: We have to bury these two. Now, Parkhill, you start
• 15:20
  Speaker 7: digging the grave, hmm?
• 15:21
  Speaker 4: How about Spender? We'll have to go up in the
• 15:23
  Speaker 4: hills and find him.
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: Just let me at him with my bare hands, a
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: crazy murdering louse. That's enough, Parkhill. The man is sick.
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: He must be.
• 15:29
  Speaker 4: Sick, my eye! He's... That's enough!
• 15:30
  Speaker 7: Now grab a shovel and start digging.
• 15:41
  Speaker 5: Spender saw the thin dust rising in the valley, and
• 15:44
  Speaker 5: he knew the pursuit was beginning. The sun burned farther
• 15:48
  Speaker 5: up the sky, and the blue sand drifted lazily across
• 15:51
  Speaker 5: the sea bottom below. He sat beside a quiet pool, 10,000
• 15:56
  Speaker 5: years old, and held a silver book.
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: Through the house played.
• 16:01
  Speaker 5: The strange wind music of ancient Mars, and he heard
• 16:05
  Speaker 5: voices whisper in his mind.
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: Spender... I hear you. I've always heard you.
• 16:15
  Speaker 4: Even down there on Earth. No, I won't run.
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: What's the use?
• 16:24
  Speaker 4: Live, what for? To see them tear down your temples and.
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: Put up hot dog stands?
• 16:30
  Speaker 4: They see me now.
• 16:33
  Speaker 7: They know I'm up here. It's wilder now. I've got
• 16:39
  Speaker 7: them right in my sights. Funny, he hasn't ordered them
• 16:45
  Speaker 7: to use grenades. They could lob one right up here
• 16:47
  Speaker 7: and blow me to bits. Maybe the captain thinks I'm too.
• 16:50
  Speaker 4: Nice to be blown to bits. He wants my death
• 16:52
  Speaker 4: to be clean. Just one bullet hole in me, nothing messy.
• 16:57
  Speaker 4: And why? Because he understands me. The only one.
• 17:02
  Speaker 5: In the crew who ever did. Well, at least I
• 17:05
  Speaker 5: can do the same for him. Just one bullet in
• 17:09
  Speaker 5: his head, a nice clean death. All I have to
• 17:13
  Speaker 5: do is.
• 17:13
  Speaker 4: Pull the trigger and then... No use. I can't do
• 17:18
  Speaker 4: it to him. Spender! Spender! Can you hear me, Spender?
• 17:27
  Speaker 4: I hear you, Captain. What do you want?
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: Talk.
• 17:32
  Speaker 4: Truth. All right. Come on up. Leave your gun down there.
• 17:38
  Speaker 4: Keep your hands up.
• 17:46
  Speaker 7: That's quite a climb. Do you mind if I sit down?
• 17:54
  Speaker 7: How long do you think you can hold out? Until
• 17:57
  Speaker 7: you're all dead. Why didn't you kill all of us
• 18:00
  Speaker 7: this morning when you had the chance?
• 18:01
  Speaker 3: You could have, I know.
• 18:04
  Speaker 4: I got sick.
• 18:05
  Speaker 10: When I started killing people, I realized they were just
• 18:07
  Speaker 10: fools and I shouldn't be killing them.
• 18:09
  Speaker 4: But it was too late. So I came up here
• 18:12
  Speaker 4: where I could get angry again. Why did you do it?
• 18:17
  Speaker 4: When I was a kid, my folks took me to
• 18:19
  Speaker 4: visit Mexico City.
• 18:21
  Speaker 8: I'll always remember the way my father acted loud and big.
• 18:26
  Speaker 8: And my mother didn't like the people because she thought
• 18:28
  Speaker 8: they didn't wash enough. I can see my mother and
• 18:31
  Speaker 8: my father coming to Mars and acting the same way.
• 18:34
  Speaker 4: Anything that's strange is no good to us. We aren't
• 18:37
  Speaker 4: fit to take over this planet. But to kill two men.
• 18:40
  Speaker 4: How would you feel if a Martian spit on the
• 18:42
  Speaker 4: White House floor?
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: You know, you haven't acted very civilized yourself.
• 18:47
  Speaker 4: I'll kill you all off, Wilder. That'll delay the next
• 18:51
  Speaker 4: rocket five years, and then I'll kill them too. And
• 18:54
  Speaker 4: if I'm lucky, I'll live to be 60. And I'll
• 18:56
  Speaker 4: meet every expedition that lands on Mars.
• 18:58
  Speaker 10: Oh, I'll be very friendly. I'll explain our rocket blew
• 19:02
  Speaker 10: up one day. And then I'll kill them all. I'll
• 19:06
  Speaker 10: save Mars for half a century. And by then, maybe
• 19:10
  Speaker 10: the Earth people.
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: Will give up. And yet you're outnumbered. We already have
• 19:14
  Speaker 3: you surrounded.
• 19:15
  Speaker 4: In an hour, you will be dead.
• 19:16
  Speaker 10: If I found an underground passage, it'll take me back
• 19:19
  Speaker 10: in the hills, Wilder.
• 19:20
  Speaker 4: I'll go back there. And then I'll pick you off
• 19:23
  Speaker 4: one by one.
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: We'll see. Well, it's a nice town you've got here, Spender.
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: It's beautiful. I'd like to live here.
• 19:34
  Speaker 4: You can. Join me.
• 19:37
  Speaker 11: You're not like them. Why go back to them, Captain?
• 19:40
  Speaker 11: I'll show you what a good life these people had. I'll... No,
• 19:43
  Speaker 11: there's too much earthblood in me. I may even agree
• 19:47
  Speaker 11: with you about all this, but that doesn't... not change
• 19:50
  Speaker 11: what I must do.
• 19:51
  Speaker 4: You won't stay?
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: No. This is your last chance, Bender.
• 19:58
  Speaker 4: Look, you're sick.
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: Now come along with me quietly.
• 20:00
  Speaker 4: No. One last thing. If you win, do me a favor.
• 20:08
  Speaker 4: Try to see that they don't tear this planet apart.
• 20:11
  Speaker 6: Right.
• 20:14
  Speaker 10: And if it helps, just think of me as a
• 20:18
  Speaker 10: very crazy fellow who went berserk one summer day.
• 20:20
  Speaker 4: It'd be easier on you that way.
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: Now think that over. So long, Spender.
• 20:30
  Speaker 4: Bye, Captain.
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: Bye.
• 20:38
  Speaker 5: The men spread out again, walking and then running on
• 20:41
  Speaker 5: the hot hillside places where there would be sudden cool
• 20:43
  Speaker 5: grottos that smelled of moss and sudden open blasting places
• 20:47
  Speaker 5: that smelled of sun or stone. The men ran and
• 20:52
  Speaker 5: ducked and ran and squatted.
• 20:54
  Speaker 3: In the shadows.
• 20:54
  Speaker 4: I'll blow his brain!
• 20:57
  Speaker 5: Captain Wilder hugged the rock worn by the sun. He
• 21:00
  Speaker 5: gasped for the air was thin and not meant for running.
• 21:03
  Speaker 5: Spender lay at the top of the hill and a
• 21:05
  Speaker 5: gap in the rocks showed the white of his shirt
• 21:07
  Speaker 5: against the shadows. Wilder looked at the towers of the
• 21:10
  Speaker 5: little clean Martian village like sharply carved chess pieces lying
• 21:14
  Speaker 5: in the afternoon. He saw the rocks and the interval
• 21:18
  Speaker 5: between where Spender's chest was revealed.
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: Go on, Spender, get out. You've only got a few
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: seconds to escape. Go on, get out of the caves.
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: Come back later. Go now. I've got to win this.
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: I've got to think that I'm right. Pull this trigger.
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: Go now. Get out.
• 21:48
  Speaker 4: I'll get him. A slug in the head. I'll blow
• 21:50
  Speaker 4: his bloody brain. No, Park Hill. Put down that gun.
• 21:54
  Speaker 4: I'll do this myself.
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: Spender. Why didn't you get out? Why? Why?
• 22:05
  Speaker 5: Why? They buried him in that ancient valley town where
• 22:22
  Speaker 5: the music of the wind played on through the days
• 22:24
  Speaker 5: and the nights.
• 22:26
  Speaker 4: They laid him in an ancient silver.
• 22:28
  Speaker 5: Sarcophagus with waxes and wines which were 10,000 years old.
• 22:32
  Speaker 4: His hands folded on his chest.
• 22:35
  Speaker 5: The last they saw of him was his peaceful face
• 22:38
  Speaker 5: in the cold silver light of the racing twin moons.
• 22:42
  Speaker 5: The captain found the poem in Spender's pocket and he
• 22:45
  Speaker 5: read it before he shut the marble door.
• 22:50
  Speaker 7: So we'll go no more a-roving so late into the night.
• 22:55
  Speaker 7: Though the heart be still as loving and the moon
• 22:59
  Speaker 7: be still as bright. Though the night was made for
• 23:03
  Speaker 7: loving and the.
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: Day returns too soon. Yet we'll go no more a-roving
• 23:12
  Speaker 3: by the light of the moon.
• 23:20
  Speaker 5: The next afternoon, Parkhill did some target practice in one
• 23:23
  Speaker 5: of the dead cities, shooting out the crystal windows and
• 23:26
  Speaker 5: blowing the tops off the fragile towers. Captain Wilder caught
• 23:31
  Speaker 5: Parkhill and nearly knocked his teeth out.
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: You have just heard X-1, presented by the National Broadcasting
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: Company in cooperation with Street and Smith, publishers of astounding
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: science fiction. Tonight, by transcription, X-1 has brought you the
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: Ray Bradbury story, and the moon be still as bright,
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: adapted for radio by Ernest Canoy. Featured in the cast
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: were John Larkin, Clark Gordon, Dick Hamilton, Nelson Almstead, Lawrence Kerr,
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: and Stan Early. Your narrator was Norman Rose.
• 24:18
  Speaker 4: Your announcer, Fred Collins.
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: X minus one was directed by Daniel Sutter and is
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: an NBC Radio Network production.
• 24:27
  Speaker 4: X minus one.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: Our visit with X-1s and the moon be still as
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: bright now comes to a close. Follow X-1 for more
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: classic broadcasts.