Latest / Meine Liebe zu Hörspielen / Sherlock Holmes Radio The Wooden Claw Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Conway,
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- 0:03Speaker 1: Now, doctor Watson, Will you go on with your story with.
- 0:05Speaker 2: Pleasure, mister Stark, with pleasure. It was late one Saturday
- 0:09evening in May. Holmes, who had been promising.
- 0:11Speaker 1: To get at it all day, was finally.
- 0:14Speaker 2: Sorting out certain odds and ends of notes and papers.
- 0:18He sat at his desk, the lamplies shining up into
- 0:21his eyes, looking rather than like some gigantic bird of prey.
- 0:26Speaker 1: I lay on the couch, enjoying my faithful briar Watson.
- 0:43Speaker 2: You'd better put out your pipe if you're going to
- 0:45drop off to sleep.
- 0:46Speaker 1: Oh, I wasn't sleeping. I was thinking. I always think
- 0:51better with my eyes closed. And when you're.
- 0:54Speaker 2: Storing, I suppose I wasn't snoring. Perhaps not, But you
- 0:57were getting ready to nothing of the sort some people can't.
- 1:00You're seeing anyone else relaxed and at ease while they
- 1:02have a.
- 1:03Speaker 1: Job of work to do.
- 1:05Speaker 2: May I point out, my dear Holmes, as if you
- 1:06had got at your labors at a.
- 1:08Speaker 1: Decent dour as I did, you, will.
- 1:09Speaker 2: You sake wat from stopping so confounded?
- 1:11Speaker 1: Smug? Hell? What's that the door bell?
- 1:14Speaker 2: Of course you don't look still hopeful, Holmes, I don't
- 1:17imagine it's anything that will interrupt your labors. Probably a
- 1:21caller from missus Hudson or the green grocer to leave
- 1:23his weekly bill. It's not the green roser wantson. He
- 1:26rings once and slips the bill under the door.
- 1:28Speaker 1: No, that is someone for us.
- 1:30Speaker 2: Ah, whatever brought in here is sufficiently urgent to necessitate
- 1:33my postponing sorting these papers.
- 1:35Speaker 1: Thank Heaven, Come in.
- 1:39Speaker 2: Come in, mister Holmes, mister Shallock, Holmes Homes. It's mister Melliwether.
- 1:45You remember mister Merriwell, the chairman of the City and
- 1:47Suburban bang around the corner from Saxico dext Square. It
- 1:50with the trouble, isn't there but in the suburban branch
- 1:53this time Dr Watson the Chizzick brouse to be it
- 1:55sacked Chisick. It was originally pronounced Chiswick Watson, and it's
- 1:59still so spelled.
- 2:00Speaker 1: It means cheese farm. I believe.
- 2:02Speaker 2: However, I don't imagine mister Medweather has dropped into discuss
- 2:05the most frequently mispronounced of all means of communication, the
- 2:08English language.
- 2:09Speaker 1: Good Lord, No, if mister Holmes.
- 2:12Speaker 2: Something must be done to protect my bank messengers.
- 2:15Speaker 1: I've had six in hospital.
- 2:16Speaker 2: With concussion of the brain one a week for the
- 2:18last half dozen weeks. It's always on Saturday night.
- 2:21Speaker 1: It happens year.
- 2:22Speaker 2: Yeah, I was under the impression that Chriswick was a quiet,
- 2:25respectable suburb that rarely indulged in that sort of a
- 2:27Saturday night Nobody doesn't, at least it never has it
- 2:31or up to six weeks ago. And now every Saturday night,
- 2:34regular day, one of my bank messengers has been a
- 2:36tecked and robbed, robbed of a considerable sum of money. Oh,
- 2:40now we come to the crux of the matter. What
- 2:42exactly were your bank messengers doing with large sums of
- 2:45money on Saturday night carrying it from the Elephant and Castle,
- 2:48the famous old alehouse in Boston Yard to the bank.
- 2:51Speaker 1: To be the positive. Isn't that a rather unusual procedure?
- 2:54Speaker 2: It is, mister Holmes, it is, indeed, he But that's
- 2:57how we persuaded old mister Jeremy prior to the Elephant
- 3:01the Castle to bring us his account. You see, the
- 3:03elephant in Castle does its best business on Saturday night,
- 3:07not unusually wants in quiet, quiet peace. Oh, mister Jeremy
- 3:11is somewhat pidgity about having that much money lying around
- 3:13the place till the bank's open on Monday morning.
- 3:16Speaker 1: Well, he's been.
- 3:17Speaker 2: Robbed twice and it's made him Robin nervous.
- 3:19Speaker 1: I'll blame him if so.
- 3:20Speaker 2: Were you arranged to have a bonded bank messenger has
- 3:24sent over every Saturday night after closing hours.
- 3:27Speaker 1: To gather up the money. So old, Jeremy, go eat
- 3:29in peace. Now. I wish we never made the offer.
- 3:33Speaker 2: Once the bank messengers signed a receipt for the money,
- 3:36the bank is liable for any loss down to the
- 3:38last penny.
- 3:39Speaker 1: Were jove Dan, you have had an expensive six weeks.
- 3:42Speaker 2: Expensive so far it's cost us puts of three thousand pounds.
- 3:46Tell me, mister Medwa, when did the first of these
- 3:48robberies occur? Seven weeks ago?
- 3:50Speaker 1: Tonight?
- 3:51Speaker 2: It was shortly after closing hours when the policeman on
- 3:54the beat heard it, yelling and the shouting as he
- 3:56came down hook Off Lane. It's been missed.
- 4:00Speaker 1: Rising off the river the first you can see nothing.
- 4:17Speaker 2: For the Lord of Heaven help, I know what's a somebody.
- 4:22Speaker 1: Help, somebody call him, but I can't see a blessed.
- 4:24Speaker 2: So hallo, what's the trouble and where are you in
- 4:28here through the arch in Bosting, and how are you?
- 4:35Speaker 1: And what's the difficulty?
- 4:37Speaker 2: I'm Peddiejonavan caretaking of hook that host. There's a man
- 4:41lying lying on the storns, impared me to hip and tinging.
- 4:44Speaker 1: Hand back as the inside of my pocket in here?
- 4:48Speaker 2: What's happened to the light of the elephant in Castle
- 4:50cur has been.
- 4:51Speaker 1: Put out this half hour?
- 4:53Speaker 2: The elephant is a lower abiding house who will never
- 4:56see old Jeremy shove a man that drink half thad
- 4:59And there's he.
- 5:00Speaker 1: I double for it.
- 5:01Speaker 2: Now, don't try the white post, Jeremy, I know the
- 5:03old scanty?
- 5:07Speaker 1: Do you answered? Over here?
- 5:09Speaker 2: You best see what can be done for this court chap.
- 5:11He's in a bad way.
- 5:12Speaker 1: I'm thinking, well, let's have a look at it, Gord.
- 5:16It is a car.
- 5:17Speaker 2: It's a bank messenger from the city in suburban and Roberly.
- 5:21That's what it says, I wanrant.
- 5:22Speaker 1: When did it happen? I couldn't rightly say offically.
- 5:27Speaker 2: All I know is that I was knocking up the
- 5:30front door of Hoggard's house previous to go into bed,
- 5:33when suddenly I heard his scople here in the yard,
- 5:36and a man called out like he was in mark Lagon.
- 5:39Speaker 1: Yellow ran in the air at once, just so fast
- 5:43as evanly wooden leg would carry me here.
- 5:46Speaker 2: I'm not so spry as I once was, you know,
- 5:49but I was in time to see a great shadow
- 5:52of a man drest calling black with a mask over
- 5:55his face.
- 5:56Speaker 1: He was leaning over this poor fella here.
- 5:59Speaker 2: When I came into the yard through the archway, I
- 6:01says to himself, Ah.
- 6:03Speaker 1: I've got your trampy buckle.
- 6:05Speaker 2: Of course, the archway is the only entrance to the
- 6:08yard or exit either except you go through into the
- 6:11elephant in castle, which I've been after telling he has
- 6:14been closed halfway hid. That says maybe, well, at any rate,
- 6:19the man shoved past you and out the archway.
- 6:22Speaker 1: That he did not. I may not be so spraying
- 6:25the feet, but mephist is as good as ever.
- 6:28Speaker 2: No man in Lave can come into a Peddy Donovan
- 6:30if he ventures within arms reached out.
- 6:33Speaker 1: So he went in the elephant and castle he did not?
- 6:37Speaker 2: Then I suppose you'll be telling me he disappeared into
- 6:40thin air. He did something changing, and let me lad
- 6:44he skinned up the wall and over it like a cat.
- 6:49That's impossible, that their wall is twelve feet dared, and
- 6:52there's nothing for footholds anywhere.
- 6:54Speaker 1: Possible and not.
- 6:55Speaker 2: That's what happened up he went and over like a cat,
- 7:00a great black cat. Give me the yea look at
- 7:06listeners explaining, wait, it's the leg of his head. I'm
- 7:09thinking there's blood. Who's he light in the pavement from
- 7:12behind his ear?
- 7:13Speaker 1: Help me turn him over. We will have a look
- 7:15at the Lord love us. Who do you look at that?
- 7:23And nasty Bloyd must have been.
- 7:25Speaker 2: Cool, but he's more than just an ordinary now lively,
- 7:29look here, Look at great bloody gashes when he's right
- 7:32down into his neck.
- 7:33Speaker 1: Why he'd been it with a rake o god, by
- 7:38a giant cat.
- 7:59Speaker 2: I saw this as well, mister Helmes, I promise you
- 8:02that's what they look like, the claw marks of a
- 8:03gigantic cat, the catman eh who scales twelve foot walls
- 8:08and whose blow these deep gashes? Interesting, mister Medwethne interesting
- 8:14and just a bit incredible. There is no such creature,
- 8:17mister Helms.
- 8:18Speaker 1: There can't be. Oh I don't know. I saw one once.
- 8:21Speaker 2: It was in that phrase music Hall, Remember whom the
- 8:24chad to end of the Smooth Child wall nearly.
- 8:26Speaker 1: Sixteen feet high.
- 8:28Speaker 2: I believe you have some sort of suction device attached
- 8:30to his hands and.
- 8:31Speaker 1: Feet that credit count for it.
- 8:33Speaker 2: I suppose it might occur for the fellow's disappearance over
- 8:35the wall, but not for the gashes. Another significant phenomena
- 8:39that is what interests me. Wats in those gashes? This
- 8:42man with a wooden leg?
- 8:44Speaker 1: Donovan? I believe you said his name was Is he.
- 8:46Speaker 2: A reliable witness, mister Melliwether, right, Yes, at least I
- 8:49suppose so. He's been caretaker at Hogarth House for over
- 8:53fifteen years. Hogarth Houses where they have the famous collection
- 8:57of Hogarth's Joys and the like. It's open to the public.
- 9:00It's set Sunday's for small fee. I'm afraid Donovan.
- 9:03Speaker 1: Isn't kept over busy with visitors. He spends much of.
- 9:06Speaker 2: His time at the Elephant House.
- 9:07Speaker 1: Huh, that's it. He was drunk. Instead of seeing a
- 9:11pink elephant, he saw man sized black cat.
- 9:13Speaker 2: Who was substantial enough to claw and rob.
- 9:16Speaker 1: The bank's messenger.
- 9:17Speaker 2: Oh well, if you're going to be technical, tell me,
- 9:19mister Mediwell, well, this fellow with a wooden leg and
- 9:23my host of the elephantant Castle on good terms. Jenivan
- 9:26and Jeremy have been cronies for years, mister Holmes, so
- 9:29then anything unusual that goes on at the Elephant Castle
- 9:31would be known.
- 9:32Speaker 1: To both undoubtedly.
- 9:34Speaker 2: In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if between them they'd
- 9:37cooked up a neat little scheme to do the bank
- 9:39out of a tidy summer money.
- 9:40Speaker 1: Of course, homes, I see it all.
- 9:43Speaker 2: Incredible, Old General falls, a messenger to me has just
- 9:47handed the day's profits out into a courtyard, bludgeons him
- 9:51and retires quickly with the money into his own premises.
- 9:54Speaker 1: Then along hobbles mister.
- 9:55Speaker 2: Donovan with a cock and bull story about seeing an
- 9:58incredible cat like creature. Gentlemen, it covers his days headings
- 10:02and is reimbursed by the bank as well, whereupon he
- 10:05has to slip the swag with mister Dunnovan and is
- 10:07consequently no better off. But if he'd saved himself the trouble.
- 10:11I see your point, mister Holmes. But there are people
- 10:14you know who enjoy making a crooked sixpence more than
- 10:16a straight shilling. Oh but good heavens is half to eleven,
- 10:20And I promised Jeremy I would be at the eleganting
- 10:22Castle my closing time. You mean you're undertaking the job
- 10:25of bank messenger yourself tonight, mister medical right? I well,
- 10:29I'm not a particularly brave man, but I don't feel
- 10:33I have the rights to ask an employee to take
- 10:35a risk. I would wish to assume myself.
- 10:37Speaker 1: Oh loom.
- 10:38Speaker 2: On the other hand, I'm not completely cool, Harvey. I
- 10:41think the danger would be considerably minimized if I'm assisted
- 10:44by mister Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson.
- 10:48Speaker 1: What do you say, Watson?
- 10:49Speaker 2: Would you consider a possible encounter with a catman who
- 10:52robs bank messengers a sufficient excuse for postponing tidying up
- 10:55my papers?
- 10:57Speaker 1: What do you think, Holmes? I've gone this.
- 11:00Speaker 2: I's nevous with all the thank heavens is a moon
- 11:20tonight and no fog.
- 11:22Speaker 1: But here we are, gentlemen.
- 11:24Speaker 2: Hogarth's name takes its name, of course, from him Hogar,
- 11:27whose country residence was here situated from seventeen forty nine.
- 11:32Speaker 1: There, who are I mean? What was calm yourself? Wat?
- 11:35Speaker 2: And it's merely a police officer on duty if I'm
- 11:36not mistaken. Yes, they stationed an officer at either end
- 11:40of the lane every Saturday night. Now they've never caught
- 11:42anyone off, prevented the numerous repetitions at the first crime.
- 11:46Not so far. Well tonight will be different because Copland's
- 11:49yard is personally taken over. Well well, if it isn't
- 11:52inspect to lustad my favorite watchdog of the public, Staf did.
- 11:55Speaker 1: And what do you think you're doing?
- 11:56Speaker 2: Heros endeavoring to stop the robbings and pluggetings which the
- 12:00minions of the law and order don't seem to be
- 12:01able to terminate.
- 12:02Speaker 1: The yell at the one step nearer the scene of
- 12:04this crime.
- 12:05Speaker 2: No one's allowed in busts and yard denied without their permit,
- 12:08which I have duly obtained for myself and body part.
- 12:12Speaker 1: Here it is are you?
- 12:14Speaker 2: Oh, allow me to introduce you as Cland this is
- 12:16mister Mellyweather, whose bank has suffered a considerable loss of
- 12:19six successive weeks due to the inefficiency of the police.
- 12:23Speaker 1: You go to play with pleasure.
- 12:25Speaker 2: I thought I'd have to rush off the strand, but
- 12:27I'm afraid you're making mister Mellyweather late for his appointment
- 12:29at the elephanted Castle. Come on, Watson, HM of a
- 12:34very well lighted not a fair homes well enough, I
- 12:38doubt that anything escaped my notice, conceit pure conceitant telling,
- 12:43mister Meadowether in the case of the succeeding Saturday night
- 12:46bank Robert is was the pattern of the crime similar
- 12:49to the first, almost identical, mister Holmes, except that policemen
- 12:53have been stationed at either end of this section of
- 12:55Hogarth's Lane to make sure that no one could leave
- 12:57or enter without being seen for the police. These so
- 13:00as skeptical as you are about a catman, mister Holmes.
- 13:02And yet each week a messenger has been clawed on
- 13:04the back of the head and robbed without uttering a
- 13:07sound or putting up a struggle. Oh not without uttering
- 13:09a sound, mister Holmes. Each time the victim has cried out,
- 13:12but by the time that Donovan has reached the spot,
- 13:15the culprit was vanishing over the world. Then in each
- 13:18case Donovan was the first to reach the victim. Why, yes,
- 13:22that's right.
- 13:23Speaker 1: Interesting, but that's only natural.
- 13:25Speaker 2: Donovan is in the habit of smoking his last type
- 13:28on the steps of Hogarth House, where where he is
- 13:30the caretaker. You see, you're over there. Hogarth House is
- 13:34almost directly opposite the entrance to Boston Yard, and consequently,
- 13:39after the cry was heard, he was able to reach
- 13:41the scene of the crime ahead of the police, who
- 13:43had to run some distance.
- 13:45Speaker 1: Sounds reasonable in out their homes.
- 13:47Speaker 2: Oh, yes, that must to the old boilverhead there sitting
- 13:50on the steps with one.
- 13:51Speaker 1: Leg stuck out before him. Yes, he's noticed us. He's
- 13:56getting up. No, he's walking away the other direction. Ah,
- 14:02Chris God, it was.
- 14:04Speaker 2: That put of the night's crime. Confounded.
- 14:06Speaker 1: But that's impossible. Mister Merriwell is here with a lady.
- 14:08Wants me run there, go Glevan through the gate into
- 14:15into the yard. I say he's a strive for chaperd
- 14:18and the one good leg because he don't waste his
- 14:20breath that you do want. Here's the entrance, Grevin, what happened?
- 14:27I warned him not to do it?
- 14:29Speaker 2: I warned him. Mister medi said that you were late,
- 14:31and he wanted to touch the money to the bank. Couldn't.
- 14:35Thought it's Jeremy for the legs best, So Jeremy, the
- 14:40money is safe.
- 14:42Speaker 1: Not this time they didn't get it. I was waiting.
- 14:48I'm done for but the money's safe. Jeremy. You know
- 14:53who hit you. I suspect it for some time. Now
- 14:59I know.
- 15:00Speaker 2: Oh he's going fast and he can't before he kills us.
- 15:07Speaker 1: Mister Jeremy, who is the criminal? It's it's Peggy, Peggy.
- 15:17Speaker 2: I he's gone, Jeremy, JEREMYE me, poor old Jeremy. Woman
- 15:28thunder is Peggy.
- 15:30Speaker 1: It's do you know, Donovan? How should I know the cat?
- 15:35Speaker 2: It must have been a woman all the time, a
- 15:37woman testing men's clothes, A woman who could give a
- 15:40man a blow hard enough to kill him and then
- 15:42disappear over the twelve foot wall. You saw her do that, Donovan,
- 15:46before we came in the yard, a minute after you
- 15:47got here. Well, what that is in Norman? Maybe tonight
- 15:51I didn't see the killer. Maybe tonight I wouldn't know.
- 15:56I was that upset when I see it as Jimmy,
- 15:59I know what?
- 16:00Speaker 1: So what's wrong here?
- 16:01Speaker 2: Mister Jeremy has been bludgen the stud He is dead.
- 16:05Speaker 1: Oh he is right under mister Sherlock.
- 16:08Speaker 2: Elms says, no, let's start, whoever finish stop. Old Jeremy
- 16:11is still here in this courtyard. He couldn't have scaled
- 16:14the wall this time.
- 16:15Speaker 1: We'd have seen him. But it wasn't a he Holmes.
- 16:17Speaker 2: Mister Jeremy Tay's assailant's name was Peggy. I don't care
- 16:21what is her name was, if he or she is
- 16:23still here, I was here or you fellas touch the yard.
- 16:27That's what we've been doing, goodness, and I think we
- 16:30found something inter rested here behind the rain barrel.
- 16:32Speaker 1: What's that?
- 16:33Speaker 2: It's a man lie like it was drunk, somebody that
- 16:37was sprung out of the pub earlier leaving it's not.
- 16:39Speaker 1: And who resented it?
- 16:40Speaker 2: And to gain even with Jeremy, there's motive, had opportunity
- 16:44as well. Arrest him and think about to jail, and
- 16:46you donovant help him carry the body back into the
- 16:49elephant and council. Yes this three points carry em easy
- 16:53and with this step my poor Jeremy, Poor poor Jeremy.
- 16:58Well say, Scotland Yard is indicted with dispatch and efficiency,
- 17:03and but it's the usual packet intelligence and concerns for
- 17:06truth and justice. If this man isn't guilty, I suppose
- 17:10you can tell us it were quite. However, you wouldn't
- 17:13believe me. You see, I have no proof of my theory.
- 17:16It will take until next Saturday night to acquire that.
- 17:36I feel dash city homes, dressed up in this bank
- 17:40messenger outfit. What's the point to it all, Watson? We're
- 17:44dealing with a sly and devious criminal. The only way
- 17:47is to catch him red handed. During your service in
- 17:50the Far East, I believe you've taken part on a
- 17:52tiger hunt.
- 17:52Speaker 1: Oh what are this?
- 17:53Speaker 2: You know the procedure The hunter tell us a kid
- 17:55or a lamb to a tree and then retires to
- 17:58a nearby blind to wait for the tiger to attack.
- 18:00Speaker 1: Kids pray, Only this time it's not a tiger. Whereafter
- 18:04it's a cat named Piggy, and I'm the goat.
- 18:07Speaker 2: Quite yes, I think you may start on your journey
- 18:10across Boston yard Watson. It's raining tonight, lowers the visibility. However,
- 18:16perhaps that's just as Will or the killer might recognize you. Well,
- 18:20all open the door and out to go. You've got
- 18:22the earnings of the elephant and castle safe in your punches.
- 18:24Speaker 1: And naturally you put them there.
- 18:26Speaker 2: Well, good luck, Watson. Don't be too nervous. Remember the
- 18:30strad is hidden behind the rain. Berel five A lot
- 18:32of comfort, that is.
- 18:34Speaker 1: Well, let's get it over with now. Two up, old boy,
- 18:40and whatever you do all sideways. When I call out.
- 18:44Speaker 2: Into a mud huddle, probably he'll arguing too, as I say,
- 18:47your life may depend on it.
- 18:55Speaker 1: Good lord, what a night team? Some dogs? Cats never
- 19:02cared much for cats. This isn't going to improve that.
- 19:08What's that shadow sleeping along the wall over there?
- 19:12Speaker 2: Who compound this rain? A? What was that?
- 19:19Speaker 1: Someone's coming this way? He's running through the gates. Hey, Jovan,
- 19:26what's up? He stopped? He snatched off his wooden.
- 19:31Speaker 2: Leg, and Donovan, I'll take that wooden leg if you
- 19:36don't mind, one would put you bludgeon Seven people got you,
- 19:40mister Sherlock Holmes chumping told me this was my unlucky knight.
- 19:44You can come out the star and take criminal charging
- 19:47in crons.
- 19:48Speaker 1: I saw the old day God your head ended this time.
- 19:53Speaker 2: Yes, you've got the criminal and his weapon. Notice the
- 19:55spikes in the upper.
- 19:56Speaker 1: End of this wooden leg.
- 19:57Speaker 2: The wonder The victims looked as if they've been clawed
- 19:59by giant cat.
- 20:00Speaker 1: Well, he's hanging about in his glass right. Come along, gentlemen.
- 20:05You slugged and robbed your last Remind me what's the
- 20:10where are you let on the ground in a puddle
- 20:13of course, look at me a nice mess.
- 20:20Speaker 2: Ah, I say Holmes, I'm I'm still perplext.
- 20:24Speaker 1: You know why, well, who was the man who screamed
- 20:28just now? Why did Deniman say the cat name is Peggy?
- 20:31And when did you first suspect Donovan was the criminal.
- 20:35The answers to those questions can wait, Watson, until I
- 20:38get you safely hold in a hot tub. That puddle
- 20:41is soaked you to the skin. And besides, this is
- 20:44Saturday night.