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Dimension X - "And the Moon Be Still as Bright" (1950) · Old Time Sci-Fi Radio | Old Time Radio

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Three Earth expeditions to Mars have vanished. Now a fourth
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: party lands beside an apparently deserted Martian city, where Captain
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Wilder and his crew search the remains of a civilization
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: gone silent. From Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles Comes Dimension
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: X and the Moon Be Still as Bright, Episode twenty six,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: first broadcast by NBC on September twenty ninth, nineteen fifty.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Ernest Keenoy adapted the story for radio, with Wendell Holmes
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: as Captain Wilder and Alexander Scowerby as Spender. Norman Rose
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: is your host and narrator. And now we return to
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: the original broadcast.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: Adventures in Time and Space told in Future Tenths Tonight,
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: transcribed from Ray Bradbury's collection The Martian Chronicles, We Present
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: and the Moon The Still as Bright. The first three
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: expeditions to Mars left Earth in a mushroom of flame,
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: arked through the atmosphere, and finally dwindled to tiny specks
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: and the big eye of Mount Palomar telescope, and then
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: were lost to sight forever. The pre arranged landing signals
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: flashed back to Earth, and then the radios went dead.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: One after The other ships had disappeared and were never
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: heard from again, but still the rockets came. The fourth
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: expedition emerged from the silent gulfs of space and angled
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: down toward the floating red disc of Mars, down into
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: an orbit. As the order came to.
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: Land stand by for deceleration acceleration an icer skids down,
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: skids dancer, engine room, engine room landing procedure Fire one,
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: three and five.
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: The last blast of the bow jets broke red against
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: the blue desert sands, and the ship slid to a
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: halt at the edge of a vast city that reflected
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: the icy glare of the moonlight. For a while, all
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: was still.
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 2:40
  Speaker 4: Park Hill, open the airlock, I sir, fresh yet? How
• 2:55
  Speaker 4: about a fire, Captain Lander?
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: It's freezing later, We've got work to do.
• 3:00
  Speaker 5: Smell that, eh, you could get drunk, kind of say
• 3:05
  Speaker 5: that's an idea.
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: Why don't we break out a bottle and celebrate, Beggs.
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: There'll be no drinking done to. We're secured, but we're landed.
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: Cap and three other expeditions landed and disappeared within twenty
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: four hours, and not relaxing security till we find out
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: what happened to them. Maybe Martians exactly, pargirl. Spender, you're
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: an archaeologist, how old would you say those buildings are
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: somebody built these cities, I.
• 3:32
  Speaker 6: Can't tell that I study them more closely. It's a
• 3:35
  Speaker 6: kind of engineering we couldn't duplicate on earth. Those thin
• 3:38
  Speaker 6: reed like towers and the stone filigree wouldn't stand up
• 3:41
  Speaker 6: under earth pressure. Beautiful anty.
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: I'm not interested in the architecture now. I want to
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: make sure there's nothing there that might be dangerous. Mister Hathaway, Yes,
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: I want you to take a reconnaissance party into the
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: city and find out what's there. The cities all look
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: dead from the es. They look dead, but I want
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: to make sure, mister Spender, you better go with Hathaway. Yes, sir,
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: don't waste any time gathering relics either. You can make
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: an archaeological study later. Right now, I want a security report, Beggs, Yes, sir,
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: we will set up camp right here. No manage to
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: go more than fifty feet from the rocket, and there'll
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: be no celebrations. Will Hathaway and his party report back Lo, sir,
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: It's ages that we've been cooped up in the bes.
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: We've landed safely. We're not safe yet, not until we
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: know what we're up against here. We will maintain full security.
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: Will Hathaway against Back.
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: In the sea bottoms, the wind stirred along faint vapors,
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: and from the mountain's great stone visages looked upon the
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: silvery rocket and the small fire. The sky was black overhead,
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: as the two racing moons through knife edge double shadows
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: on the desert.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: Oh it, come and get it, chow, but you got
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: the jackie saw that.
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: Smothered than cold lamppart.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: God, I thought it was something I couldn't mate.
• 5:12
  Speaker 4: Hey, you guys, pipe down, captain mister Hathaway's back.
• 5:17
  Speaker 7: Captain was over hair, mister Halfaway. Well, most of the
• 5:22
  Speaker 7: city is dead. Sea Spender says. It's been dead a
• 5:24
  Speaker 7: good many thousand years. But we found one part about
• 5:27
  Speaker 7: a mile over.
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: What about it? People were living in it last week, sir,
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: people Martians? I see where are they now dead?
• 5:36
  Speaker 6: We found the bodies. Thousands of bodies had been dead
• 5:40
  Speaker 6: more than ten days.
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: What did they die of? You won't believe it? What
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: killed them? Chicken pox? Chicken pox?
• 5:46
  Speaker 6: Yes, I made tests. It worked differently on Martians and
• 5:49
  Speaker 6: on Earth. People burned them black and dried them out
• 5:52
  Speaker 6: of brittle flakes.
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: And where could they get chicken box from Earth? And
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: the other rockets did get through.
• 5:58
  Speaker 7: Yes, sir, I don't know what the Martians did to them,
• 6:00
  Speaker 7: but I sure know what they did to the Martians
• 6:03
  Speaker 7: gave them chicken pox and wiped them out. They just
• 6:06
  Speaker 7: didn't have any resistance to an earth disease.
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: Al right, any of them left, there won't.
• 6:10
  Speaker 7: Be any when a thing like that starts spreading, so
• 6:12
  Speaker 7: there's no stopping it anyway. It's a thousand and one
• 6:15
  Speaker 7: that's killed them all. This planet is true incredible.
• 6:21
  Speaker 6: Think of it, Captain, a dirty, silly child's disease like
• 6:24
  Speaker 6: chicken pox.
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: It isn't right, Sender, Take it easy.
• 6:28
  Speaker 6: It's like saying the Greeks died of months or the
• 6:30
  Speaker 6: proud Roman Empire collapsed because of athletes sport. We didn't
• 6:34
  Speaker 6: even give him a decent excuse for dying. We just
• 6:36
  Speaker 6: gave him chicken pox.
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: Beender, get hold of you. So we didn't see those bodies, Captain,
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: it must have been a shark. I suppose you need
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: a rest, little relaxation. Martians are dead. There's nothing you
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: can do about it.
• 6:48
  Speaker 5: Now, hey, you hear that the Martians are all dead. Well,
• 6:53
  Speaker 5: come on, let's break out a bottle and hope it up.
• 6:56
  Speaker 5: I'll buy the captain well, all right.
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: Man halfway set of a security guard.
• 7:01
  Speaker 6: Yes, good lord, do they have to do that now?
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: It's been a tough trip. It's only natural they'd want
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: to celebrate a little celebrate.
• 7:10
  Speaker 6: Because the world died because a rotten little virus from
• 7:12
  Speaker 6: Earth wiped out a whole civilization. Or they're not thinking
• 7:14
  Speaker 6: of at that time later to throw old beer cans
• 7:16
  Speaker 6: into the canals.
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: A civilization died here. It's like butchering a pig in
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: a churchyard. Friend, do you think too much? We're lucky
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: to get to Mars without catching a meteor in our bulkheape.
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: Let it go at that.
• 7:28
  Speaker 8: Save on Mys they're very safement.
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: Save on Mars. We got it.
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: Celebrating, many bottles were opened and drunk. The voices got louder,
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: the earth laughs and shouts echoing across the empty Martian sand.
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: Was that time in York when I ran into that plan?
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: Why what up?
• 7:55
  Speaker 4: Blond?
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: Listen the firsting, she said.
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: Spender listened to the wind over his ears, cool and whispering,
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: He felt the lend getting cooler. The stars drew closer,
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: very clear. The air smelled clean and new. He looked
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: at the cool ice of the white Martian buildings over
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: there on the empty sea lens.
• 8:28
  Speaker 5: Hey, why don't we do with these empty bottles?
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: Save him as a toast deposit roll away?
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: Wait, how about that building? Do to one for a buck?
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: I can hate one right through that window. You're right
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: here goes go si double not not a next shot?
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: Put that bottle? Domp?
• 8:51
  Speaker 8: Fix?
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: Oh's that, mister, Spender?
• 8:55
  Speaker 5: Stop smashing those windows. What's the difference planet's eyes now?
• 9:00
  Speaker 5: I guess I can do anything with it that. I
• 9:02
  Speaker 5: want to prop that bottle and knock your teeth out. Eh,
• 9:05
  Speaker 5: just watch me.
• 9:08
  Speaker 6: I want your big head.
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: I hit him. He's crazy cat. He just walked up
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: and slugged me.
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: Beggs wasn't doing all right.
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: Let go of him. You men go back to your party. Spender,
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: come with me. I like that. What's up? Spender? Supposed
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: you explained? What was the idea with the noise, the
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: drunk and frawl. I guess I was ashamed of the
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: spectacle the whole crew was making. Who's there, respectful? What's
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: happened in the sense of what's right. Men are tired.
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: There's been a long trip. You've got a different way
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: of seeing things. I'm seeing things all right. I'm seeing
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: how we'll ruin Mars.
• 9:50
  Speaker 6: We'll rip it up, rip the skin off the way
• 9:51
  Speaker 6: we've already ruined Earth. We earth men have a talent
• 9:55
  Speaker 6: for ruining big beautiful things.
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: Is that why you hit begs?
• 9:59
  Speaker 8: Yes?
• 9:59
  Speaker 6: I couldn't stand the idea of them watching us make
• 10:01
  Speaker 6: fools of ourselves.
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: And the Martians, the Martians, they're dead, all dead. beIN
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: no way here.
• 10:09
  Speaker 6: Doesn't an old thing always know when a new thing comes.
• 10:12
  Speaker 6: We've come a long way to smash their windows and
• 10:15
  Speaker 6: spit in their wine.
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: Maybe you are right. I'm finding you fifty dollars for
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: that fight. Now, suck in your chain. We'll go back
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: there and play happy.
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: Now. The whole party moved out into the moonlight. Across
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: the desert. They made their way into the dreaming dead city.
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: The light of the racing twin moons glinted on the
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: barrel of a pistol, the long blade of a machete,
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: the round, gurgling shape of a raised bottle. Their shadows
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: under them were double shadows on the ice blue sand.
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: They were waiting, waiting for something to stir in the
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: dead city, something to rise, some ancient ancestral shape to
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: come galloping across the vacant sea bottom on an ancient
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: armored steed of impossible lineage, of unbelievable derivation.
• 11:06
  Speaker 6: Look at it, captain down those avenues in the mist.
• 11:10
  Speaker 6: You can almost see them.
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: The mind's eye populated the Dead City. Each window was
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: given a person who leaned from it and waved slowly,
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: as if under some timeless water, at some moving form
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: in the fathoms of space. Below the moon silvered towers,
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: there were faint murmurs of sound and odd animals scurrying
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: across the gray red sands. The wind blew in from
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: the dead sea bottom and brushed through the silvery wire
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: filigree of the towers.
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: The strange music.
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: Drifted down to the double shadowed streets of thin, haunted
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: music that played as it had played through the uncounted
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: years of time. Nobody moved. The moons held and froze them.
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: The wind beat slowly around them.
• 11:57
  Speaker 5: Hey out there, you people in the city picks well,
• 12:01
  Speaker 5: I just wanted to make a little noise.
• 12:03
  Speaker 6: One they built the city thousands of years ago, And
• 12:10
  Speaker 6: now where are they?
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: How did they die? Who cares they're dead? It's good
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: enough for me.
• 12:19
  Speaker 6: Lord Byron. But Lord Byron an old nineteenth century port
• 12:24
  Speaker 6: he wrote au Pon that fits this city might have
• 12:27
  Speaker 6: been written by the last Martian. So we'll go no
• 12:31
  Speaker 6: more a roving. So late into the night, O the
• 12:35
  Speaker 6: heart be still as loving, and the moon be still
• 12:38
  Speaker 6: as bright. For the sword outwears the sheath, and the
• 12:42
  Speaker 6: soul outwears its breast, and the heart must pause to breathe,
• 12:48
  Speaker 6: and love itself must rest. So the night was made
• 12:53
  Speaker 6: for loving, and the day returns too soon. Yet we'll
• 12:58
  Speaker 6: go no more a rover. By the light of the moon.
• 13:07
  Speaker 6: Without a word, the earth men stood in the center
• 13:09
  Speaker 6: of the city. It was a clear night. There was
• 13:12
  Speaker 6: not a sound except the music of the wind.
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: At their feet lay a tile court worked into the
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: shapes of ancient animals and images. They stood there, silvered
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: by the double moons, beneath the crystal towers of Mars.
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: Then biggs were sick, and the sour stench of liquor
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: filled the cool air. The men of Earth had come
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: to Mars, and Spender turned and walked away into the
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: city alone in the moonlight, never once stopping to look back.
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: That you Hathaway, Yes, sir, my trick on buch watch sir.
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: What time is it? Oh? Four hundred in the order, sir. No,
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: I'll stay on watch you turn in. Aren't you sleeping?
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: Sir?
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: I'll wait for Spender.
• 14:20
  Speaker 7: He didn't come in. No, he's crazy, walking away into
• 14:25
  Speaker 7: the shadows. He didn't even look back.
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: Spender is a strange man. He's crazy, sir. How's the
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: rest of the crew sleeping? It off? Biggs had DT's
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: but he's calmed down.
• 14:35
  Speaker 9: Now.
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: You can go back below, Hathaway. I'll take your watch,
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: Captain Wilder. Do you think Spender will be coming in
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: before morning? I don't know, you know, sir, I don't
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: think he's ever coming back. That's the way I feel
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: about him, sir, He'll never come back.
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: It was a morning that might have been a Monday,
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: for a Tuesday, or any day on Mars. Biggs was
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: on the canal rim, his feet hung down in a
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: cool water, soaking while he took the sun in his face.
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: What are you doing back here, Biggs? Didn't you go
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: out with the search party? Eh? I come back. I
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: got a blister. Sure, sure, what do you mean? Look?
• 15:29
  Speaker 5: Look, Cheroke, you see that anyway? I had enough search
• 15:33
  Speaker 5: for four days hunting for that screwball. Spender didn't find
• 15:37
  Speaker 5: him yet. Huh eah, good riddance.
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: Oh my feet, I'm gonna soak him good. If I
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: was wild, I wouldn't worry about that. Not Spender. Let
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: him go. He's a crackpot anyway, A little foggy upstairs.
• 15:52
  Speaker 8: I guess why didn't you take your feet out of
• 15:55
  Speaker 8: that canal?
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: Bigs?
• 15:56
  Speaker 8: I gotta make coffee out of that water?
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: Coffee you call that stuff coffee.
• 16:03
  Speaker 5: I had a motorcycle once that dripped grease that tasted
• 16:06
  Speaker 5: better than that.
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: Wait a minute, pigs, look over there where by the bush.
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: There's someone there.
• 16:15
  Speaker 8: Hey, it's him, Hey, Spender, Spider, Hey, he's coming over.
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: Why didn't he stay lost? The crazy jerke? Hi Spender
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: A long time? No, see, Cherokee, I've been exploring some ruins.
• 16:32
  Speaker 5: You and them ruins. You're like a dog in a
• 16:35
  Speaker 5: in a boneyard. What's the matter where you been up
• 16:43
  Speaker 5: in the hills. How would you say if I told
• 16:46
  Speaker 5: you I found a Martian where? Never mind? Let me
• 16:50
  Speaker 5: ask you a question.
• 16:53
  Speaker 6: How would you feel if you were a Martian and
• 16:54
  Speaker 6: people came to your land and started to tear it up?
• 16:57
  Speaker 3: I know how I feel.
• 16:58
  Speaker 8: I've got Cherokee blood in My grandfather told me lots
• 17:02
  Speaker 8: of things about the way they kicked the Indians around
• 17:04
  Speaker 8: in the Oklahoma territory. There's any Martians around, I'm all
• 17:09
  Speaker 8: for him.
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: How about you bigs dead? They're all dead. A good
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: thing too well.
• 17:16
  Speaker 6: I found a Martian up in a dead town in
• 17:19
  Speaker 6: the hills. I've been reading their books there easy to understand.
• 17:22
  Speaker 6: I've learned their language. Then I found this Martian. He
• 17:25
  Speaker 6: said give me your boots, and I did. He said
• 17:28
  Speaker 6: give me your uniform, and I gave him my uniform.
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: A crazy spender. Hey, Cherokee, he's crazy.
• 17:32
  Speaker 6: The martian said give me your gun, and I gave
• 17:34
  Speaker 6: him my gun. And then he said, come along and
• 17:35
  Speaker 6: watch what happens. And the martian walked down, and the
• 17:37
  Speaker 6: company's here. Now I don't see no Martians. I'm the
• 17:40
  Speaker 6: last Martian. Why, Bigs, I'm going to kill you. They
• 17:45
  Speaker 6: cut it out, kind of a lousy choke. Stand up
• 17:48
  Speaker 6: and take it. They put that gun away. Spender cat it.
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: Spender oh, put that gun away. You're joking, you kidding? Huh? Spencer,
• 18:05
  Speaker 3: he's dead.
• 18:08
  Speaker 8: Killed him.
• 18:08
  Speaker 6: You can come with me, Cherokee. You know how the
• 18:11
  Speaker 6: Martians would feel. You can be in this with me.
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: You killed him, you you just killed him.
• 18:17
  Speaker 6: He deserved it. You're crazy, maybe I am. But you
• 18:22
  Speaker 6: can come with me.
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: Come with you for what? Go on, God, get out
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: of here. You you're crazy, murdering all of them.
• 18:27
  Speaker 6: I thought you'd understand. I thought you'd remember what happened
• 18:29
  Speaker 6: to your own people.
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: You get out of here.
• 18:31
  Speaker 7: You you you're crazy.
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: M hm.
• 18:36
  Speaker 9: And they're both dead.
• 18:49
  Speaker 7: Captain Wilder who's missing? Only Spender? It must have been him, Sir.
• 18:55
  Speaker 7: Why didn't they come and talk to me? Why didn't
• 18:58
  Speaker 7: you talk to me? And the brains out? That's what
• 19:01
  Speaker 7: I had done.
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: He took him by the surprise. There's no sign of
• 19:03
  Speaker 3: a struggle. Halthaway, break out the arms locker issue pistols,
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: rifles and grenades. Yes, you better get the Bible out
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: of the navigation chest. We'll have to bury these two
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: parkialm Hi, sir, you start digging a grave. How about Spender?
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: We'll have to go up in the hills and find him.
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: Just let me at him with my bare hands, crazy
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: murdering lot. That's enough, Parkhill. A man is sick. He
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: must be sick my eye and grab a shovel, start digging.
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: Spender saw the thin dust rising in the valley, and
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: he knew the pursuit was beginning. The sun burned farther
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: up the sky, and the blue sand drifted lazily across
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: the sea bottom below. He sat beside a quiet pool
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: ten thousand years old and old. The super Bowl through
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: the house played the strange wind music of ancient Mars,
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: and he heard voices whisper in his mind.
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: I hear you. I've always heard you, even down there
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: on Earth. Right, I won't And what's the use?
• 20:20
  Speaker 6: What for to see them padland of temples and put
• 20:22
  Speaker 6: up hot dog stands. They've seen me, they know I'm
• 20:28
  Speaker 6: up here. That's wild right, my sight.
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: Funny?
• 20:33
  Speaker 6: He has no order new use grenades. You could love
• 20:36
  Speaker 6: one right up here and blow me to bits. And
• 20:38
  Speaker 6: maybe the captain thinks I'm too nice to be blonde
• 20:40
  Speaker 6: to bits. He wants my death to be clean. Yeah,
• 20:43
  Speaker 6: just one bullet hole on me, nothing messy, and why
• 20:48
  Speaker 6: because he understands me the only one on the crew
• 20:51
  Speaker 6: whoever did well, At least I can do the same
• 20:54
  Speaker 6: for him, just one bullet in his heart, a nice
• 20:58
  Speaker 6: clean yet have to do, just pull the triasure and then.
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: It's no use. I can't do it to him. Fender?
• 21:11
  Speaker 9: Can you hear me, Spreender?
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: Can I hear you? Captain? What do you want? Pop? Truce?
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: All right?
• 21:19
  Speaker 6: Come on up, leave your gun down there and keep
• 21:22
  Speaker 6: your hands up.
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: Sprender you there over here. It's quite a climb, mind
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: if I sit down? Cigarette? Thanks?
• 21:48
  Speaker 9: Light?
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: Yeah, got my own? Yeah, it's warm there, it is?
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: You comfortable up here in the hills? Quiet? How long
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: do you think you can hold.
• 22:01
  Speaker 6: Out about twelve men'sworth?
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: Why didn't you kill all of us this morning when
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: you had the chance you could have?
• 22:10
  Speaker 8: I know I.
• 22:13
  Speaker 6: Got sick after I started killing people. I realized they
• 22:17
  Speaker 6: were just fools and I shouldn't be killing them.
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: It was too late, so I came up here where
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: I could get angry again. Why did you do it?
• 22:25
  Speaker 6: Because I've seen what I've seen that what these martians
• 22:28
  Speaker 6: had was just as good as anything we'll ever hope
• 22:29
  Speaker 6: to have. They stopped where we should have stopped a
• 22:32
  Speaker 6: hundred years ago. They knew how to combine science and
• 22:35
  Speaker 6: art and religion. They knew how to live with dignity
• 22:39
  Speaker 6: and peace.
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: And for that reason you started shooting people.
• 22:42
  Speaker 6: When I was a kid, my folks took me to
• 22:43
  Speaker 6: visit Mexico City. I'll always remember the way my father
• 22:46
  Speaker 6: acted loud and big. My mother didn't like the people
• 22:50
  Speaker 6: because they were dark and didn't wash enough. I didn't
• 22:54
  Speaker 6: see my mother and my father coming to Mars and
• 22:56
  Speaker 6: acting the same way anything.
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: It's strange. It's no good to us. We aren't fit
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: to take over this planet. But kill two men. What
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: could I do? It's me against the whole Earth. Isn't
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: it enough?
• 23:09
  Speaker 6: They ruined one planet, now they want to ruin this one.
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: I'll kill you all off, Wilder.
• 23:15
  Speaker 6: That'll delay the next rock at five years, and I'll
• 23:19
  Speaker 6: kill them too. I'm lucky. I'll live to be sixty.
• 23:23
  Speaker 6: I'll meet every expedition that lands on Mars. I'll be
• 23:27
  Speaker 6: very friendly. I'll explain that our rocket blew up one day,
• 23:32
  Speaker 6: and I'll kill them off. I'll save Mars for half
• 23:35
  Speaker 6: a century, and by then maybe the Earth people will
• 23:39
  Speaker 6: give up.
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: You got it all planned, yes, as you're outnumbered. We
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: already have you surrounded. In an hour, you'll be dead.
• 23:50
  Speaker 6: I found an underground passage that'll take me back into
• 23:52
  Speaker 6: the hills Wilder. I'll go back there, and then i'll
• 23:55
  Speaker 6: pick you off. One by one.
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: We'll see. It's a nice town. You got to hear
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: spend her beautiful. I'd like to live here.
• 24:10
  Speaker 6: You can, but join me. You're not like them. I'll
• 24:14
  Speaker 6: show you what a good life these people had. I'll
• 24:16
  Speaker 6: play an old reel of Martian music that must be
• 24:18
  Speaker 6: at least fifty thousand years old, the kind of music
• 24:20
  Speaker 6: you've never heard in your life.
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: Eh. That sounds wonderful. But I can't stay with you. Sorry, Spender,
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: I'm sorry this is happening.
• 24:33
  Speaker 6: I guess you'd better go back now so you can
• 24:35
  Speaker 6: start your attack. I guess so, Captain. I won't kill you.
• 24:44
  Speaker 6: It's all over. You'll still be alive. Then maybe you'll
• 24:46
  Speaker 6: change your mind.
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: There's too much earth blood in me. I may even
• 24:52
  Speaker 3: agree with you about all this. That doesn't change what
• 24:56
  Speaker 3: I've got to do. You won't stay. No, this is
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: your last chance, Spender. You're sick. Come along with me quietly.
• 25:05
  Speaker 6: Now, Look one last thing. If you win, do me
• 25:13
  Speaker 6: a favor. Try to say that they don't tear this
• 25:16
  Speaker 6: planet apart. Right, If it helps, just think of me
• 25:24
  Speaker 6: as a very crazy fellow who went the circle on
• 25:27
  Speaker 6: summer day.
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: It'll be easier.
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: On you that way.
• 25:30
  Speaker 3: I'll think it over so long A Spender by Captain
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: good luck. All right, we'll go after it now, half away.
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: You take the right hour lead on the left. You
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: have to kill him. He won't come down. They get
• 25:58
  Speaker 3: a clean shot if you can it over. Whew, blow
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: his bloody brains A no park hills, b the heart brains.
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: You heard what I said to the heart. Now let's
• 26:09
  Speaker 3: go get him who.
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: They spread out again, walking and then running on the
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: hot hillside, places where there would be sudden cool grottos
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: that smelled of moss and sudden open blasting places that
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: smelled of sun on stone. The men ran and ducked,
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: and ran and squatted in the shadows. That just one slut,
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: that's all they ate. Captain Wilder hugged the rock worn
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: by the sun. He gasped, but the air was thin
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: and not meant for running. Spender lay at the top
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: of the hill, and a gap in the rocks showed
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: the white of his shirt against the shadows. While they
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: looked at the towers of the little clean Martian village
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: like sharply carved chest pieces lying in the afternoon. He
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: saw the rocks and the interval between where Spender's chest
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: was revealed.
• 26:57
  Speaker 3: Go on, Spender, get out. I've got a few seconds
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: to escape. Get out to the caves and come back later.
• 27:03
  Speaker 3: Go now, Spender, all right, I've got to end it.
• 27:06
  Speaker 3: I've got I think I'm right, and pull the trigger.
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: Go now, get out.
• 27:10
  Speaker 3: I'll get him slugging a head. I'll blow his bloody No,
• 27:13
  Speaker 3: park Hill, put down that gun. I gotta do this myself, Spreader.
• 27:22
  Speaker 3: Why I didn't check it out?
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: Why why they buried him in that ancient valley town
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: where the music of the wind played on through the
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: days and the nights. They laid him in an ancient
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: silver sarcophagus with waxes and wines which were ten thousand
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: years old, his hands folded on his chest. The last
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: they saw of him was his peaceful face in the
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: cold silver light of the racing twin moons. The captain
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: found the poem in Spender's pocket, and he read it
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: before he shut the marble door.
• 28:03
  Speaker 3: So we'll go no more A roving so late into
• 28:07
  Speaker 3: the night. Though the heart be still as loving, and
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: the moon be still as bright, Though the night was
• 28:16
  Speaker 3: made for loving, and the day returns to soon, Yet
• 28:22
  Speaker 3: we'll go no more a roving by the light of
• 28:26
  Speaker 3: the moon.
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: The next afternoon, park Hill did some target practice in
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: one of the Dead cities, shooting out the crystal windows
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: and blowing the tops off the fragile towers. Captain Wilder
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: caught park Hill and nearly knocked his teeth out. All
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: of you regular listeners to Dimension X will be interested
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: to know that our show is changing its day and
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: time of broadcast over this station, starting early in November.
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: We'll be back at the new time. We suggest you
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: watch your local newspaper and be sure to join us
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: in about four weeks for a new series of adventures
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: into the unknown world of Tomorrow. The world of.
• 29:27
  Speaker 10: A Tonight, The ax is Transcribed, and the Moon Be
• 29:36
  Speaker 10: Still as Bright, adapted for radio by Ernest Canoy from
• 29:40
  Speaker 10: the original story by Ray Bradbury. Featured in the cast
• 29:43
  Speaker 10: for Alexander Scorba's Spender, Wendell Holmes as Captain Wilder and
• 29:48
  Speaker 10: your hoston narrator for the story, Norman Rose. Music by
• 29:51
  Speaker 10: Albert Berman, engineer Bill Chambers. Demon Ax is directed by
• 29:56
  Speaker 10: Edward King. This is Robert Warren speaking Enjoy the Life
• 30:07
  Speaker 10: of Riley with William Bendix next Friday on NBC.
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: This has been Dimension X with and the Moon be
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: Still as bright. Good Night, and thank you for joining us.