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Sherlock Holmes: The Adventure of the Curious Crypt (EP0876) · Great Detectives of Old Time Radio Volume 2|Mystery Audio Dramas

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Welcome to the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio from Boise, Idaho. This
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is your host, Adam Graham. If you have a comment, email it
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to me Box thirteen at Great Detectives dot net, Follow us on Twitter at
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Slash Radio Detectives. Today's episode is brought to you by the financial support of
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our listeners. Thanks so much for your support. And now here is today's
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episode of Sherlock Holmes, The Adventure of the Curious Crypt from New York City.
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The makers of clipper Craft Clothes for Men, and more than twelve hundred
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leading retail stores from coast to coast present that immortal character created by Sir Arthur
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Conan Doyle, the world's most famous detective, Sherlock Holmes, starring John Stanley.
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This week's story The Adventure of the Curious Crypt. You know it's cold
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down here on his tool, blackest Pitch can't see a thing, Rick Watson,
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the lantern. Let's look up out and see if I'm posless. Someone's
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walking on the roof of the tool. Yes, Watson, we have a
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visit time. He's opening the quick door. We're at the door of doctor
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John Watson's study, and we're about to hear another of his adventures with the
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fabulous Sherlock Holmes. Well, good evening, mister Harris. Come in,
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come in, Thank you, good evening, doctor Watson. What memoir are
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you compiling tonight, sir, Well tonight, mister Harris. I am hard
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at work on an adventure that is outstanding among my memoirs. For sheer terror
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to recall it even now makes my flesh creep. My old friend Holmes always
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refers to it as the adventure of the Curious crypt. And after you acquaint
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our audience with the facts on Clippercraft, close, mister Harris, I shall
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proceed with this remarkable study. Thank you doctor. Some hot, sticky morning,
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much better, and save real money. And now, doctor Watson, what
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about the adventure of the curious crypt will mister Harris. It began in the
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summer of eighteen ninety nine. This was a decade when fortunes were being made
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in the New World by enterprising Englishmen, and among the new rich was a
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man named John Gibbon. Strange and eccentric man is given not without a rather
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shaddy reputation. He returned to England to retire with his son Cedric and his
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daughter Ellen, who was said but the children hated their father bitter him.
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The London newspapers are dubbed Gibbon Silver John, since he had a distrust of
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paper money in a vex, and the rumor was that his fortune was a
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vast hoard of silver downs concealed somewhere in his house. Then one night in
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the cellar of the given manner, it's around here, somewhere. Man is
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buried somewhere, and I came cedric, cedric hards of me. Ah,
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oh, you're digging in the cellar again, eh, you stupid young oh
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father. I I've trying to find my money. I trying to rob you,
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young well, I do for an allowance, father, even alone as
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well. You'll rot before you get a penny. Do you're here? I
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spend hard years in Canada, risk my life to make my fortune. I
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know, I know all about it. If you think I'm going to let
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a dissolute son and an extravagant daughter leave me into bankruptcy, you're wrong.
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I see you spend a fortune just for that mausoleum of yours at Kensington Cemetery
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with your statue on top of it, and yet not one penny for your
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for your own daughter and son, My daughter and son. You want nothing
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from me but my silver dollars, nothing, but you'll not get them knocked
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even after I've gone. Why, you contemptible old blackguard, you rotten miser
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sedrick, I ought to choke the life from your Cedric. Curl my hands
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around your scrawny look like this, now, don't it's murdered. You're here
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murder. Help hell Cedric, what they're doing? See Rick stoping, stop,
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let go. He's cut us off without a penny, Elert. He
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deserves to die. Vitold your ja let him go. I'll let him go,
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but the next time I'll kill her. As Heaven's my witness, I'll
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kill him. Get out, Get out to young Well, get out of
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my house before I call the police. Mister Holmes, Doctor Watson, that's
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the story, the whole story. My father and brother have this awful quarrel
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in the cellar. And now now your father's disappeared, a miss Gibbon,
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Yes, he's vanished. Completely interesting that you have no idea of your brother
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Cedric's whereabouts, No, mister Holmes, not since my father ordained him out
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of the house. Why did you come here to Baker Street, Miss Gibbon?
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Why didn't you go to the police because this is a family Now the
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newspapers that they'd be unmerciful, mister Holmes. Besides my brother Cedric, well,
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he might be involved in murder. Miss Gibbons. Yes, yes,
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murder certainly was a young man might have been desperate enough to have done Might
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Watson quite now? Then, misgiven? Let us review the facts. Your
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father, John Gibbon, made a fortune in ranching properties in Western Canada.
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He was a partner of a brother, Hugo Gibbon. Yes, that's right.
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Do you recall him, Miss Gibbon, Uncle Hugo, No, doctor
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Watson, Both Cedric and I were too young to remember anything. And see
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to continue, your father cheated Hugo out of his share of the ranching properties,
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drove Hugo into bankruptcy, and then finally disappeared. Yes, mister Holmes,
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I will you help me find my father and brother. You can count
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on me. Miss Gibbon, I find this situation rather bizarre and hence much
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to my liking. Open up, open the door, caretaker, What is
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it? What do you want? I want to get into the cemetery.
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Unlock the gate, Sarah said, it's past midnight. We don't allow visitors
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and getting Intonemetry up to die. Look, care Caretaker, right, I
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just want to look at my father's tomb. My name's Gibbon, Cedric Gibbon
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Gibbon that's right, and there's a quid in it for you if you'll do
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what I say. Well, can't see any harm in it. If you
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just want to look, I'm along, let's see. That's it. My
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father's Tom Cassie has his statue on the roof. He gatistical, old fool
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out. No, no, come to Kensington, gave the yards again?
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Please? Oh Joe, have you read the morning Telegraph? No? I
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haven't bought someone? Is it Cedric Gibbon? He was seen last night?
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Indeed? Where does? He entered the Kensington cemetery shortly after midnight and he
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never came out again. The cabby who drove him there, the caretaker Molesby,
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who admitted him, both identified young Gibbon. That isn't the end of
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this stablished business. What else is tho? Well, both the cabby and
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caretaker swore they had given scream after that kind of wild and weird laughter coming
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from the graveyard. I see. And of course the police have already he
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blundered into this case. Yes they have. They searched the cemetery and found
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nothing except for gibbons footprints. Well, by Joe, Well, what is
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it? Well? According to this newspaper account, The footprints ended abruptly on
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the cemetery road, as though Gibbon had been picked up by some monson,
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get your hat and stick. Must be after Kensington Cemetery at once. Note
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Watson, Gibbons, his footprints are quite clear here on the cemetery road.
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Luckily the road's damp from the recent rain should holds. This whole thing has
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a touch of the supernatural, ghouls and all that sort of thing. Who
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do you think did that? Weird? Laugh? And we shall find out
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in good time, my dear, and I assure you when h what is
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it hurt? Note Watson observed the footprints, Joe, that stirring the telegraph
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is accurate. The prince do end abruptly. Not quite, Watson, not
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quite? What do you mean? Look? The earth has been scraped at
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the side of the prince and into the grass. Though Gibbons is shoes and
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drag nurse who it appears? Who it appears? Observed too, that these
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prints terminate less than twenty five feet from the mausoleum of John Gibbons is a
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significant verse. What did jus? Later? Watson later, at this moment,
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I should like to examine the roof of the tomb, the roof so
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jealously guarded by that marble image at the eccentric millionaire John Gibbon horse, I
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don't see anything up here on the roof, And to Watson, then you're
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obviously in need of spectacles. Are definite scratches on a polished stone surface at
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this script roof, and what's more, they lead to this tightly locked door.
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Come, Watson must be off, But first a talk with a caretaker
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Maulsby, and then we shall return to the script later. You see,
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I'm convinced that this tomb contains some devilish in my carved secret, Watson,
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I propose to enter it to night. Here's a message from the fine independent
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local merchant who sells you Clippercraft clothes. He points out that there's so much
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difference between an ordinary suit and one that has been scientifically designed for summer wear.
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And that's precisely what you get in a Clippercraft summer suit. Clippercraft master
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to forty two fifty give you a remarkable value. Yes, this summer,
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the fine local independent stores that promptly say that's why men who know insist on
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Jamaica the B and B Clothes Shop one six four oh eight Jamaica Avenue.
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And now Doctor Watson. Doctor Watson, you were relating to us the adventure
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of the Curious cripp So I was mister Harris, So I was. As
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you recall, both John Gibbon and his son Cedric had vanished under strange circumstances,
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and at Kensington Cemetery Holmes had conducted a thorough investor expressed his intention to
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return and to the crypt that night at any rate. As we came out,
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we stopped in at the cottage of the cemetery caretaker, Malsby. You
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had a screamed Maulsby, and then a kind of wild laughter. Is that
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correct? Yes, mister Holmes, it was terrible, terrible enough to chilly
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man's blood. Yes, I see a question, Maulsby. Yes. The
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rules on the entrance sign state specifically that no visitors are allowed in Kensington Cemetery
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after dark. How does it happen that you admitted Gibbon through the gate while
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mister Holmes, he was done. Gibbons sadmon and the old gentleman's an important
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person here, so to speak, built the biggest tone in the graveyard.
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I couldn't very well refuse his son, and as he said, he only
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wanted to take a look at his father's too. It didn't strike you strange,
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and he wanted to view the crypt and the dead of night. Well
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Nose, we get some pretty queer customers visiting the cemetery. Yes, I
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se one more question, Wolsby, have you ever met John Gibbon, the
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old gentleman, Yes, Nose, Tones, I've only been here a month
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or two. The only part of mister Gibbon I've met is that stone statue
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of him on the groom. I see, well, Moresby. At the
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moment, there's no more information we require. Thank you, come, what's
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moves be afer? For? We didn't find out much, sir, Oh
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in the country, Watson, we did. Surely you've noticed that Marlsby was
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slightly bow legged? Oh was what the juice? Moreover, his eyes were
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watery blue and squinted. Or I should suppose he do. What's a man's
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eyes and legs got to do with Milly details, Watson? Perhaps significant,
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perhaps irrelevant? I what is it? We'll care on the path? Watson?
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Silver donna? What is it? Rather unusual, don't you think,
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Watson to find a silver donna lying on the ground outside an English cemetery.
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I suppose I'm beginning to see the pattern here of a devilish, an ingenious
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plot. When we returned to the grave yard here tonight, I hope to
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unearth the last few missing friends. What's we're in luck tonight? Do you
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it's enough moonlight for clear conservation. Observed that massive marble building just on the
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other side of that deep hollow ahead urs the Gibbon tomb, the infernal statue
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of old John Gibbons standing on the roof. I must say, the juicy
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thing looks almost alive. The Watson person, I believe I just saw the
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statue move move. Yes, it raised its arm and turned its head toward
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us. Homes. You must be mistaken. A statue of John Gibbons made
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of stone. It can't move. Good lord, what was the statue?
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It's laughing? What's in Joe Homes? You're right? Look at it.
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It's running across the mossleyum roof homesless is in Crenel. Incredible, My eyes
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must be playing tricks on me. I jumped off the tomb roof. It's
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running across the graveyard. Quick, what'son after it? Hose? We last
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sight of it. We ran down into that hollow that came up the hill
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here. Yes, and the roof is empty now, husband, How could
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a stone statue run and laugh? Like a mania here. Obviously, if
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the statue was human, come, let's get up on the crypt roof.
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Yeah, I'll give your hand its right Hold now, Watson. Nope,
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this supporting pin on which the statue stood. Observe how shiny it is.
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What does that mean? Hope? It means that the real statue, the
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stone figure, has been removed from this supporting pin and carried away. So
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I don't miss my guess. It's in the interior of the crypt and our
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next step is to force open this metal crypt door. I. Yes,
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someone's been here before us. Perhaps perhaps the thing was inside the tomb now
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perhaps, obviously, the only way to find out is to enter the Tuman
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Sea for ourselves. Live your pistol, handy, and let's proceed down these
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stone steps. Hold, why haven't you started down the stairs? Be with
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you on a second, Watson. But first I knows what the Jews are
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you doing up there? Merely closing the crypt door behind us? Oh,
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then let's go down. We could use your dark lantern now, and quick
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on the lantern hold it up. Uh huh. Observed the stone statue was
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lying on these stairs, and you kicked it down, and by its sound
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it's a hollow affair, probably a marble surface over a plaster base, and
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easy enough for a strong man to lift. Now suppose we go down to
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the crypt itself. Place seems to be who on the contrary, Watson,
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look in the corner, good lord, precisely two bodies, one John Gibbon,
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the other his son Cedric. The marks on the neck I means strength,
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as they have indeed in a fiendish and unique way. I might add,
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high visitors, there's a silver casket here on this raised platform. Another
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women of the eccentric old gentleman John Gibbon. Who's you're not going to open
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it? I am indeed a hose good heavens, yes, Watson, as
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you see it's full of silver dollars. And what's listens footsteps on the crypt
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roo fight. We have a visitor, the fiendish killer quick. I'll put
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that land good evening, mister p doctor Wattson. I left the crypt door
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open for you. You are right in your fool to walk. I be
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in pose. Who is it? Who's quite obvious, Watson? This man
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is Hugo Gibbon alias Smallsby in the caretaker. Hugo Gibbon precisely the brother of
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Old John Gibbon and his former partner. Yes, mister Holmes, you are
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very clever. I am you go given that Percy brother my rob Ma cheatedly
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ruined me, sent me to an asylum, but I escaped high escates,
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I came back. Yes, you came back and discovered that John Given hid
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his fortune in his own mausoleum, who gained employment here. Saw him come
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to the tomb and posed as the statue in the dark. He was unaware
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that you were alive. Then when he walked underneath you last sued him and
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strangled him. Lamester Holmes, go on, you are right. You did
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the same to his son Cedric, who finally suspected that his father's wealth was
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buried here. You took the crypt door key from Old John's pocket, hid
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both bodies here, and started to carry the silver dollars out. Yes,
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mister Holmes, you are very clever. But it won't do you any good
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because I'm going to lock you both in this pit very you are alive,
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and when you are both dead, I'll come back for the rest of the
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money in the casket. Who's got a struck in your night, mister Holmes,
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Doctor Watson, good night and pheasant drains a quick Watson, have your
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pistol ready and after him up the stairs. Hurry the two doors. It's
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not I smashed the lock before we entered, Watson. There's Hugo Gibbon running
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through the cemetery in the moonlight. Quick fire, pistol, good shooting,
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Watson. You got him well, Watson, are man? Hugo Gibbon is
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safely in the custody of Scotland Yard. Your shot was not fatal and he
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will pay his debt to the crown. It seems im credibile hurt, So
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Gibbon alias Maulsby hid the real statue in the crypt, posed on the roof
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himself, and less sued his unsuspecting victims exactly. You will recall how the
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footsteps ended, but the marks on the grass indicated that something had been dragged
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across it. Hugo simply hauled in his rope with his strangling victim on the
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end of it. But how did you know Mosby was actually given Oh,
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it's obvious, Watson. Only a man who lived in the West could cultivate
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such skill with a lassou and the caretaker. I knew immediately was a Westerner,
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but his legs were bowed, a characteristic symptom of long hours in the
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saddle. Then to his eyes squinted, another trait of ranchers used to staring
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at far off horizons. Naturally, I thought immediately of John Gibbons brother an
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old ranching partner, Hugo and the silver dollar who found near the cottage convinced
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you that he had robbed the tomb quite in her homes. I must congratulate.
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I've never seen you conduct a more brilliant investigation. Thank you, Watson.
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I am, as you know, fundamentally a man of modesty. Shall
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we merely call it extraordinary? Let it go in there, well, doctor
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Watson, that was quite an adventure, sir, It was, indeed,
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mister Harris. And I might add that the police, at Holmes's suggestion,
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excavated the caretaker's job and discovered some two hundred thousand silver dollars buried there,
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most of which had come from deep recesses in the walls of the given crypt.
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Fortune in those days, doctor Watsons. And now what about next week's
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adventure? Next week, mister Harris, I shall relate to you the adventure
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of the Red Deck It concerns a bottle of laundry ink, a vengeful sea
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captain, and what was probably the greatest threat to the population of London in
23:44
that decade. The makers of clipper Craft Clothes and more than twelve hundred stores
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from coast to coast have brought to you another in the new series of broadcasts
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featuring the world's most famous detective, Sherlock Holmes. Our stories are based upon
24:34
the character Sherlock Holmes, created by Sir Arthur Colan Doyle. Sherlock Holmes is
24:40
played by John Stanley, Doctor Watson by George Speldan. This week's story was
24:45
written by Max Erlick, with special music by Albert Berman. If you don't
25:03
know your clipper Craft dealer right clipper Craft two hundred and fifth Avenue, New
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York City, be sure to listen next week to Sherlock Holmes in the Adventure
25:15
of the Red Dead. This is Si Harris speaking for clipper Craft Clothes.
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This is the Mutual Broadcasting System. Welcome back. While a somewhat typical injury
25:38
in the series, can't can't say I'm too surprised, I should note this
25:47
is the second to last of the John Stanley run. Next Thursday will be
25:52
our very last John Stanley episode, so we will uh and then the after
26:00
that we'll have been right, so something to look forward to. All right,
26:06
Well, we do have just one quick listener comment. This one comes
26:11
from Sherman, who says love the show. Well, thanks so much,
26:17
Sherman. I'm glad you're enjoining it. That will actually do it for today.
26:22
We will be back tomorrow with yours truly, Johnny Dowler, and join
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us next Thursday for the very last John Stanley episode of Sherlock Holmes. In
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the meanwhile, I send your comments to Box thirteen at Great Detectives dot net,
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follow us on Twitter at Radio Detectives and I'll be sure and fill out
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the listeners survey Survey dot Great Detectives dot net and next week our listener support
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Kim Payne begins. We'll have more details on that on Monday. But from
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Boise, Idaho, this is your host, Adam Grahamson and off