Latest / Old Time Sci-Fi Radio | Old Time Radio / X Minus One - "And the Moon Be Still as Bright" (1955)

Transcript

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

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