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Escape - "The Silent Horror" (Old Time Radio, 1951) · The 50 Greatest Old Time Radio Shows | Old Time Radio

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Harry Bartell stars as painter Tom Dawson in Escape's radio
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: adaptation of Hugh B. Cave's The Silent Horror. First heard
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: on CBS on August 22, 1951, this sustaining broadcast is
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: episode 150 of the series, adapted for radio by Les Crutchfield.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Following a broken love affair, Dawson has withdrawn to a
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: remote jungle valley in New Guinea, where he lives among
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: a local tribe. There, the steady ticking of his pocket
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: watch becomes a matter of urgent consequence in surroundings far
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: removed from the life he left behind. From CBS, Escape,
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: The Silent Horror. Here is the original broadcast.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: No. Dream you were somewhere else. Escape.
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: We have a man who is to die at the
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: hands of... As Hugh Cave tells it in his silent horror.
• 1:15
  Speaker 4: That watch, huh?
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: Well, why, I'll keep it hanging up there behind the bar.
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: They're strangers, I mean. Of course, they know about it.
• 1:24
  Speaker 5: Here.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: Take a look.
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: 21 jewels.
• 1:26
  Speaker 6: Water-sealed case. Belonged to Tom Dawson, the painter. He was
• 1:30
  Speaker 6: the little washed-out guy who always looked kind of lost.
• 1:33
  Speaker 6: Nobody knew much about him, except he painted good pictures.
• 1:35
  Speaker 6: They didn't know much about Elizabeth, either. That girl he
• 1:38
  Speaker 6: brought up from Sydney. It was pretty easy to guess
• 1:41
  Speaker 6: about her. She gave him the watch.
• 1:46
  Speaker 7: Here.
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: Still runs if you wind it.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: See? Got quite a tick if you hold it close
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: up to your ear.
• 1:51
  Speaker 6: Sounds a little like jungle drums way off in the distance.
• 1:57
  Speaker 6: I suppose that's how it sounded to Tom Dawson there
• 2:00
  Speaker 6: at the last. When that watch meant life or death
• 2:02
  Speaker 6: and they were waiting for him out there in the darkness. Oh,
• 2:05
  Speaker 6: that's quite a story. Only it's kind of hard to
• 2:08
  Speaker 6: know where it starts, see? With Elizabeth, perhaps.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: Anyhow, Tom was telling it himself in his own words.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: I think he'd start with Elizabeth's.
• 2:24
  Speaker 5: They didn't understand Elizabeth. How it was between us, what
• 2:28
  Speaker 5: she meant to me.
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: None of them did. They gossiped a lot the way
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: they always do in tropic ports.
• 2:37
  Speaker 5: But they didn't really know anything about Elizabeth. They didn't
• 2:40
  Speaker 5: know how sweet and how convincing she could be. Thought
• 2:45
  Speaker 5: she could wrap a man around her finger. Like the
• 2:49
  Speaker 5: time she gave me the watch.
• 2:51
  Speaker 4: Go on, Tom, open it. I want to see if
• 2:54
  Speaker 4: you like it.
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: Like what, Elizabeth?
• 2:57
  Speaker 4: Open it and see.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: You come home with a package and... It's a watch. Mm-hmm.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: It's a good one, too.
• 3:04
  Speaker 4: It's made for the tropics. All sealed and everything. It'll
• 3:08
  Speaker 4: run forever.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, honey, but where'd you find a watch like this
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: in Port Moresby?
• 3:12
  Speaker 4: Well, I didn't, exactly. I got it from Captain Ducar.
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: Ducar?
• 3:18
  Speaker 4: He has a trading schooner. I used to know him
• 3:22
  Speaker 4: in Sydney.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: Yes, I.
• 3:24
  Speaker 5: I think I've heard him mentioned recently around the bar
• 3:27
  Speaker 5: at the hotel.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: Probably.
• 3:28
  Speaker 4: He's been in port for a couple of weeks. Do
• 3:32
  Speaker 4: you really like it, Tom?
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: The watch, I mean. Sure, baby. Who wouldn't?
• 3:37
  Speaker 4: Now, you can always tell just how long you've been
• 3:39
  Speaker 4: away from me.
• 3:41
  Speaker 5: In that case, I won't need it often. It sounds
• 3:45
  Speaker 5: like a heartbeat when you hold it close. I guess
• 3:48
  Speaker 5: that's what it is in a way.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: A heartbeat of time. Measure not your life. My life.
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: Second by second.
• 3:57
  Speaker 4: Oh, Tom, that's a morbid idea. Do you love me?
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: Crazy about you. You don't have to bring me presents
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: to keep you that way.
• 4:07
  Speaker 4: I wanted to, Tom.
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I know, but this thing's too expensive, Elizabeth. I
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: can't keep it.
• 4:11
  Speaker 4: But you must. I gave it to you.
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: It's worth a couple of hundred dollars. Have you thought
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: of how you're going to pay for it?
• 4:16
  Speaker 4: Well, I had some savings I didn't tell you about. I.
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: Thought you were flat broke when I ran into you
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: in Sydney.
• 4:25
  Speaker 4: Well, I wasn't, though. I.
• 4:29
  Speaker 4: Look, Tom, why don't you forget it? Let me worry
• 4:32
  Speaker 4: about it. And anyway, I've already paid for the watch.
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: Why prolong this story? Everybody else knew and I didn't,
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: that's all. Pure self-delusion.
• 4:47
  Speaker 5: Because I had plenty of opportunity to know. Insinuations around
• 4:52
  Speaker 5: the hotel bar, talk along the harbor front, remarks about
• 4:55
  Speaker 5: Pierre Ducar.
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: But like I say, I was crazy about Elizabeth. And
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: I ignored it all, went on painting and didn't know.
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: Maybe I didn't want to know.
• 5:10
  Speaker 5: I'd been out on a two-day painting trip with the
• 5:12
  Speaker 5: native fishing boats.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: We got back to port a day earlier than I'd expected.
• 5:17
  Speaker 5: It was about midnight when I climbed onto the wharf
• 5:19
  Speaker 5: with my canvases and headed around the harbor front. I
• 5:22
  Speaker 5: walked about 50 yards when I heard it. It came
• 5:26
  Speaker 5: from a schooner moored at the wharf just ahead of me.
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: I walked closer. There was no mistaking that laugh. Elizabeth.
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: You're like all the others.
• 5:37
  Speaker 4: All the words you don't mean.
• 5:38
  Speaker 5: And the schooner was Pierre Ducas.
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: But they are pretty words, my dear. And you like
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: to hear them, no?
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: Of course, I like to hear them. Then maybe that
• 5:47
  Speaker 4: only shows I'm a fool, too.
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: No, I think it is not you and I who
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: are fools, but that husband of yours.
• 5:54
  Speaker 5: Fine.
• 5:55
  Speaker 4: Oh, he's all right. But he's so boring at times.
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: How did he like the watch I sent him? Fine.
• 6:02
  Speaker 4: Only he wondered how I was going to pay for it.
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: Ha, ha, ha.
• 6:07
  Speaker 8: Ha, ha, ha.
• 6:13
  Speaker 5: Some men would have killed one or both of them.
• 6:15
  Speaker 5: Other men would have killed themselves.
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: I didn't either.
• 6:20
  Speaker 5: Standing there in the darkness, I realized suddenly that my
• 6:23
  Speaker 5: whole life up to that moment had.
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: Been completely useless. Nothing.
• 6:28
  Speaker 5: And even Elizabeth, my Elizabeth, had been an illusion of
• 6:32
  Speaker 5: my own, like a painting.
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: And the real woman, too, was useless, hollow, nothing. Nothing.
• 6:39
  Speaker 5: I threw my paintings into the waters of the harbor,
• 6:42
  Speaker 5: turned away into the night, and ran. Nearly three weeks later,
• 6:56
  Speaker 5: my crazy flight from the past had carried me deep
• 6:59
  Speaker 5: into the black heart of New Guinea. Beyond the dank
• 7:03
  Speaker 5: rainforests of the coast, up through the foothills and the
• 7:05
  Speaker 5: mid-sloped jungles of Bamboo and Liana.
• 7:09
  Speaker 5: Until I stood one morning in a narrow pass that
• 7:11
  Speaker 5: led through steep-walled rocks to a hidden valley. And I
• 7:15
  Speaker 5: knew that civilization lay far behind. That the Papuan natives
• 7:20
  Speaker 5: who moved towards me were headhunters.
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: Cannibals.
• 7:24
  Speaker 5: The chief of the tribe, a giant of a man
• 7:26
  Speaker 5: towering a foot or more above me, raised his arms.
• 7:29
  Speaker 7: Why you come here, white devil? I.
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: I'm Tom Dorset.
• 7:40
  Speaker 9: Why you come here?
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: I've come to live with you, if I may.
• 7:48
  Speaker 9: Where you come from?
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: A place called Port Moresby, many days from here.
• 7:54
  Speaker 9: You a headman that place?
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: No, no, and I don't have any wish to be
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: headman here.
• 7:58
  Speaker 9: You could not be headman you want. I, Ramabu, headman here.
• 8:08
  Speaker 9: With hands alone, Ramabu can kill any man in tribe.
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: I don't doubt it.
• 8:13
  Speaker 9: Can kill you too.
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: I don't doubt that either.
• 8:16
  Speaker 7: I show you.
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: Ramabu.
• 8:19
  Speaker 7: I hold you over my head like this.
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: Feel good?
• 8:24
  Speaker 9: How you like? I think you're not behead man here.
• 8:32
  Speaker 9: I think you're not good for much anything.
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: No, I... I guess I'm not. I guess that's why
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: I ran away. Why I came here.
• 8:44
  Speaker 9: You still want to live here?
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: Yes. All right, you stay.
• 8:55
  Speaker 9: But you cause trouble, I kill you.
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: Understand? Yes, I understand.
• 9:00
  Speaker 5: Good, that's good. The weeks went by and gave me
• 9:12
  Speaker 5: little time for thinking or remembering. I built a house
• 9:17
  Speaker 5: at the far end of the valley, planted a garden,
• 9:20
  Speaker 5: roamed the woods to search for berries and nuts and
• 9:23
  Speaker 5: live the life the natives lived. Timing each day by
• 9:26
  Speaker 5: the watch, which I still wore on my wrist. I
• 9:29
  Speaker 5: was fairly content. The past seemed far away. Then Jerry
• 9:35
  Speaker 5: came into my life. I'd gone exploring in the north
• 9:43
  Speaker 5: end of the valley, and when I came back at dusk,
• 9:45
  Speaker 5: she was waiting in the door of my house.
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: Young, brown skin, beautiful.
• 9:51
  Speaker 5: Hello. Hello.
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: Hello?
• 9:56
  Speaker 8: My name is Jerry. I've been watching you.
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: Why?
• 10:01
  Speaker 8: Just because. You did not notice me, though.
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: Why should I notice you?
• 10:06
  Speaker 8: Well, are you not like other men?
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: What are you doing here?
• 10:13
  Speaker 8: I come to live with you.
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: I don't want anybody living with me.
• 10:16
  Speaker 8: It is not good to be alone. Who will sweep
• 10:19
  Speaker 8: your floors and cook for you?
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: I do those things myself.
• 10:22
  Speaker 8: But it is better to have a woman.
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: Not for me.
• 10:26
  Speaker 8: You will not let me stay?
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: No.
• 10:28
  Speaker 5: All right.
• 10:31
  Speaker 8: I come again tomorrow. Maybe you'll change your mind.
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: Not a chance.
• 10:35
  Speaker 8: We see. Good night.
• 10:40
  Speaker 5: That was the beginning, and in a way, the beginning
• 10:43
  Speaker 5: of the end. Jerry came back the next day, and
• 10:48
  Speaker 5: the next, and the next. I argued, pled, cursed, but
• 10:54
  Speaker 5: nothing I could do would change that round-eyed persistence of
• 10:58
  Speaker 5: hers in the least. And then I made the first
• 11:01
  Speaker 5: big mistake that started the whole mess.
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: It involved the watch.
• 11:05
  Speaker 8: You're late tonight. In a little while longer, all the
• 11:08
  Speaker 8: things I cooked for you would be spoiled.
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: What of it? I didn't ask you to come here.
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: I can cook for myself.
• 11:12
  Speaker 7: Bah!
• 11:13
  Speaker 8: Look what I have cooked. I saw the cake.
• 11:16
  Speaker 9: Yum.
• 11:17
  Speaker 8: Chestnut.
• 11:17
  Speaker 5: Jerry, I've told you over and over again, you've got
• 11:20
  Speaker 5: to stop coming here.
• 11:21
  Speaker 9: Why?
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: Because I said so.
• 11:24
  Speaker 8: Perhaps it's because you think I am ugly?
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: You know better than that. You're lovely. That's the trouble.
• 11:34
  Speaker 8: I do not understand you. Huh?
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: I mean, you have no business hanging around here. Look, Jerry,
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: I already have a woman, a wife, back in Port Moresby.
• 11:44
  Speaker 8: You love her?
• 11:46
  Speaker 9: Yes.
• 11:48
  Speaker 8: She is coming here again?
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: No, no, she won't be coming.
• 11:54
  Speaker 8: Then it does not matter. What good is she?
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: That's not the point. Look, she gave me this. See,
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: it says, from Elizabeth, that's her name, to Tom, that's me.
• 12:04
  Speaker 8: What is this thing?
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: It's a watch.
• 12:07
  Speaker 8: What does it do?
• 12:08
  Speaker 5: Well, it counts the hours. Tells what time the sun
• 12:11
  Speaker 5: will come up and tells when it will go down.
• 12:14
  Speaker 8: How does it do these things?
• 12:17
  Speaker 9: Is it magic?
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: Well, yes, in a way you could call it magic.
• 12:22
  Speaker 8: And that is why you will not let me stay?
• 12:25
  Speaker 8: Because the woman has given you this thing?
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 12:29
  Speaker 8: But she has not.
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: Come in here? No, she hasn't. Tom.
• 12:34
  Speaker 8: You know what I think?
• 12:36
  Speaker 6: No.
• 12:37
  Speaker 8: I think you're a big fool.
• 12:46
  Speaker 5: Jerry talked, of course. Told the villagers about the magic watch.
• 12:50
  Speaker 5: By twos and threes, they came to look at it.
• 12:52
  Speaker 5: Stare at it solemnly. Exchange a word or so of
• 12:55
  Speaker 5: gossip and depart.
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: I welcomed him at first.
• 12:59
  Speaker 5: Realized how lonely I'd been. Except for Jerry's daily visits...
• 13:04
  Speaker 5: Now I'd suddenly become a popular celebrity.
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: But there was one thing I hadn't counted on. And
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: that one thing was Ramaboo.
• 13:12
  Speaker 9: Much talk in village of magic thing you keep here.
• 13:16
  Speaker 9: Ramaboo come see this thing.
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: I'm glad you did. Welcome to my house.
• 13:22
  Speaker 7: House.
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: Fine house.
• 13:26
  Speaker 9: You build with magic?
• 13:27
  Speaker 5: No, I just happen to know a few things about construction.
• 13:31
  Speaker 9: Better house than Ramaboo.
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: Thanks.
• 13:36
  Speaker 9: Not good for one have better house than head man.
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: Here, do you want to see the watch?
• 13:45
  Speaker 9: So this magic thing Ramabu hear about?
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: Oh, it isn't really magic. It's just a watch. You
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: and I know that.
• 13:53
  Speaker 9: Giri say magic tell sun and moon.
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: Well, you know how women talk.
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah, magic thing.
• 14:02
  Speaker 9: Find house. You know what I say when you come here?
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: Yes. What I say. You said if I caused any trouble,
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: you'd kill me. He's right.
• 14:14
  Speaker 9: With these hands, I'd kill you.
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: But I didn't think I'd caused any trouble.
• 14:18
  Speaker 9: Just one way, go out of valley. And guard watch
• 14:22
  Speaker 9: all time.
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: I'm not planning to escape, if that's what you mean.
• 14:25
  Speaker 9: You remember now. Ramabu had man here. And Ramabu can
• 14:32
  Speaker 9: kill you.
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: I watched him stride off, sneering a little, swaggering.
• 14:39
  Speaker 5: I knew, of course, that he had the mind and
• 14:41
  Speaker 5: attitudes of a ten-year-old child and that he was dangerous.
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: But I didn't realize how deadly. Not then. So I
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: went right ahead and made my one big final mistake.
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: We will return to Escape and tonight's story, The Silent Horror,
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: in just a moment. Lots of folks will be driving
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: on our highways during the Labor Day weekend. It's a
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: weekend for pleasure, so let's keep it pleasant for everyone.
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: Obey the traffic laws, don't speed, stay on the right
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: side of the road, and don't drink when you drive.
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: Be careful. The life you save may be your own.
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: And now, back to Escape.
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: Escape.
• 15:47
  Speaker 6: This is radio station 2FC, Fort Moss.
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: Yes, that's the watch, all right.
• 15:53
  Speaker 6: It's the same watch I figured in all of Tom
• 15:55
  Speaker 6: Dawson's troubles, right up to the end. Oh, especially at
• 15:58
  Speaker 6: the end, you might say. Of course, I didn't get
• 16:01
  Speaker 6: it from Tom himself.
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: No?
• 16:02
  Speaker 6: A backcountry trader named Will Jones brought it in one night.
• 16:05
  Speaker 6: It's been hanging there behind the bar ever since. And
• 16:08
  Speaker 6: once in a while, I wind it up. When some
• 16:11
  Speaker 6: stranger asks me what it's there for, like you did,
• 16:13
  Speaker 6: it ticks away as good as new. It was the
• 16:19
  Speaker 6: fellow I got the story from, too, but sometimes, listening
• 16:22
  Speaker 6: to that watch ticking away, I can almost imagine that
• 16:25
  Speaker 6: Tom's telling the story himself in his own words.
• 16:33
  Speaker 5: The week after Ramabu came to see the watch, I
• 16:36
  Speaker 5: started on a new project. Weeks before, I'd found a
• 16:40
  Speaker 5: spring in a waterfall halfway up the cliffs behind my house.
• 16:44
  Speaker 5: And I thought of a way to use hollow bamboo
• 16:46
  Speaker 5: tubes to pipe the water to my kitchen. I spent
• 16:50
  Speaker 5: nearly a month cutting the bamboo, carrying it up to
• 16:52
  Speaker 5: the cliff, and fitting the lengths together. And then one day,
• 16:56
  Speaker 5: everything was ready, and I turned the water into my
• 16:58
  Speaker 5: new aqueduct. The villagers heard, of course, and came to marvel,
• 17:03
  Speaker 5: taste the water, and look at me askance. Jerry was
• 17:07
  Speaker 5: around during all those weeks. There seemed to be nothing
• 17:09
  Speaker 5: I could do to get rid of her. Or perhaps
• 17:13
  Speaker 5: I was growing less inclined to.
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: Get rid of her. I suppose I should have expected trouble,
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: but I didn't. When trouble finally did come, it came
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: right to my door. What is this? What's it all about? Ramabou,
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: what's this all about?
• 17:39
  Speaker 9: I come find out if man who live in better
• 17:42
  Speaker 9: house than Ramabou, man who make river come to house,
• 17:47
  Speaker 9: can also fight.
• 17:49
  Speaker 4: Fight?
• 17:50
  Speaker 9: You want spear, club, or hand?
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: I don't want any of them. What reason have I
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: got to fight with you?
• 17:56
  Speaker 9: Maybe you want behead man.
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: Of course not. I told you that before.
• 18:00
  Speaker 7: People say you big man.
• 18:07
  Speaker 9: Say we fight, see who is head man.
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: I see. I don't have a choice, is that it?
• 18:13
  Speaker 9: You want spear?
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: Bear hand. What's the difference? I'm no good at any
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: of them. It was pleasant here. I thought maybe... Well, Ramabu,
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: let's get on with it.
• 18:24
  Speaker 9: I kill you barehand.
• 18:27
  Speaker 7: Now, lift you high like this.
• 18:33
  Speaker 9: Throw you on the ground.
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: I kill you, magic man.
• 18:37
  Speaker 8: Stop, stop.
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: Go back.
• 18:39
  Speaker 8: If you kill him, Ramabu, the magic thing that makes
• 18:41
  Speaker 8: the sun come up will stop. He told me so.
• 18:43
  Speaker 5: It's a lie.
• 18:45
  Speaker 7: Not true.
• 18:45
  Speaker 8: There will never be a sun again. Only night and darkness.
• 18:51
  Speaker 8: They will not let you kill him.
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: Put him down. Put him down.
• 19:04
  Speaker 9: You tell them lie. You'll live for a while. But
• 19:13
  Speaker 9: I think this magic thing like bamboo sway in wind.
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: I think one day it'll stop them.
• 19:21
  Speaker 7: Maybe.
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: When it stops, I think sun still come up. If
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: that happen, I kill you. Jerry, I guess I owe
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: you my life. Such as it is. Whatever you want
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: of me, it's yours.
• 19:47
  Speaker 4: Do you still.
• 19:50
  Speaker 8: love the woman in Port Morrisby?
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: No.
• 19:55
  Speaker 8: And do you love me?
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: Jerry, if I dared love any woman, it would be you.
• 20:02
  Speaker 8: I'm bigger fool than you.
• 20:05
  Speaker 7: I wish I.
• 20:06
  Speaker 8: Let him kill you.
• 20:15
  Speaker 5: Ramabou came the next morning to look at the watch.
• 20:18
  Speaker 5: He saw that it was running and left without a word.
• 20:21
  Speaker 5: And he came the next day and the next and
• 20:22
  Speaker 5: the next. First it was amusing, but gradually the terror
• 20:26
  Speaker 5: began to creep in. As long as it ran, I'd live,
• 20:29
  Speaker 5: and whenever it stopped, for whatever reason, I'd die.
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: I took to.
• 20:32
  Speaker 5: Winding it a half a dozen times a day and
• 20:34
  Speaker 5: holding it to my ear and listening to it. The
• 20:37
  Speaker 5: drums in the village seemed to beat constantly. The drums,
• 20:40
  Speaker 5: the watch, and my own heartbeat became mixed into.
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: One crazy quilt of sound. Craziest still when I came
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: down with malaria.
• 20:48
  Speaker 5: When Ramabou came and saw the fever in my face,
• 20:50
  Speaker 5: he smiled and laughed, and I cursed him as I
• 20:52
  Speaker 5: wound the watch for the third time since dawn.
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: Two nights later, Jerry slipped into my room. You are sick.
• 21:00
  Speaker 8: I have heard you are sick.
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: It's a fever. Where have you been all week?
• 21:05
  Speaker 8: They would not let me come. Tonight, I ran away
• 21:08
  Speaker 8: for a while. What do you mean? I mean, if
• 21:11
  Speaker 8: my father accepts the marriage gift, I am to be
• 21:15
  Speaker 8: the wife of Ramabu. He is head man. I had
• 21:19
  Speaker 8: no choice.
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: Do you care? What if I did?
• 21:24
  Speaker 8: I ask you, do you?
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: If you were married to me, you could only look
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: forward to being a widow.
• 21:31
  Speaker 8: There is a way out.
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: If you care enough... Wait. It stopped.
• 21:35
  Speaker 8: What is wrong?
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: Here, let me have it. I gotta get it started.
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: I must have forgotten to wind it.
• 21:39
  Speaker 8: What are you doing? What are you saying?
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: It won't run. It won't run. Ramble will find out.
• 21:43
  Speaker 8: But it is running. Hold it to your ear.
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: Huh?
• 21:48
  Speaker 8: It was the drums.
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: It stopped.
• 21:52
  Speaker 9: Oh.
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: Oh, I thought it was a watch. Come. I thought
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: it was a watch. Listen.
• 21:58
  Speaker 8: There is a way out of the valley. I know
• 22:00
  Speaker 8: about it.
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: So do I, Jerry. There are 20 guards watching.
• 22:03
  Speaker 8: No, I mean another one. It is behind the waterfall
• 22:07
  Speaker 8: where you made the magic thing of bamboo.
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: What?
• 22:09
  Speaker 8: A little path goes up the cliff. Very steep. But
• 22:12
  Speaker 8: I have climbed it. We can go together if you care.
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: But I'm sick. Maybe in a day or two.
• 22:18
  Speaker 8: If the magic thing stops a day or two, maybe
• 22:20
  Speaker 8: too late.
• 22:20
  Speaker 5: If I'd known about it a week ago, before I.
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: Caught the fever.
• 22:23
  Speaker 8: In a few days, I may be married to Ramaboo.
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: All right, marry him.
• 22:26
  Speaker 8: Don't say that!
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: I'm sick, Jerry. I can't do it. Go ahead and
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: marry him if you want. Leave me alone!
• 22:30
  Speaker 7: Oh!
• 22:44
  Speaker 5: I tossed away the hours of night and day, lying
• 22:48
  Speaker 5: on my cot, bathed in sweat. And time itself seemed
• 22:52
  Speaker 5: to gel into one great mass of fever with no
• 22:56
  Speaker 5: form or dimensions. And the fever sang in my ears
• 23:00
  Speaker 5: when I strained to hear the watch. Sometime I mistook
• 23:04
  Speaker 5: the drums of my own heart. I fought to stay awake,
• 23:09
  Speaker 5: to keep my senses to live, fought against odds that
• 23:11
  Speaker 5: grew greater by the hour. Sometimes in my delirium, I
• 23:17
  Speaker 5: thought that Jerry had slipped into the room like a ghost,
• 23:21
  Speaker 5: had wound the watch and talked to me and laughed.
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: But I could never remember anything that she'd said. And
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: then finally one night, just before dawn, I woke.
• 23:34
  Speaker 5: And then suddenly, terror was in the room.
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: The name of the terror Jerry? Jerry, are you here?
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: There's no sound. It's like it stopped. The watch is
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: broken and stopped.
• 24:02
  Speaker 5: Sometimes in a fever there comes a moment of clarity
• 24:05
  Speaker 5: and strength and I knew suddenly what I must do.
• 24:08
  Speaker 5: Without trying to find the watch, I leaped from.
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: My cot and headed for the waterfall.
• 24:22
  Speaker 5: By daylight, I was halfway up the rock wall, drenched
• 24:25
  Speaker 5: by the falling spray and dog tire. But the slope
• 24:29
  Speaker 5: from here on was gentler, and I kept moving on
• 24:31
  Speaker 5: up the cliff. Now and then I stopped to look back.
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: And that's when I saw her. Jerry! Wait!
• 24:38
  Speaker 8: Help me!
• 24:39
  Speaker 5: Help me!
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: But I saw something else, too.
• 24:41
  Speaker 5: Jerry was a hundred feet below me, and beyond her
• 24:44
  Speaker 5: at the base of the cliff was Ramaboo and half
• 24:46
  Speaker 5: the tribe.
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: There was nothing I could do now but pray.
• 24:50
  Speaker 7: I love you.
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: Come on.
• 24:52
  Speaker 5: Wait for me. I saw Ramabou raise his bow, draw
• 24:55
  Speaker 5: back the arrow, and let it go.
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: I saw her.
• 24:59
  Speaker 5: Fall and lie there on the rocks. I saw Ramabou
• 25:04
  Speaker 5: pick her up, carry her back toward the village. I
• 25:12
  Speaker 5: knew the greatest thing I'd ever owned was gone. My
• 25:16
  Speaker 5: life was once again, and this time truly, useless.
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: I turned and plunged into the jungle.
• 25:40
  Speaker 6: Well, I suppose it was a couple of three months
• 25:42
  Speaker 6: later when Tom Dawson showed up in Port Moresby again.
• 25:45
  Speaker 6: Elizabeth had sold all his paintings and left on Ducard's
• 25:48
  Speaker 6: schooner long before, so... Tom moved into his old house
• 25:51
  Speaker 6: and he stayed pretty clear of everybody.
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: Oh, except for a.
• 25:53
  Speaker 6: Night here in the bar now and then. He didn't
• 25:56
  Speaker 6: tell any of us what he'd done or where he'd been.
• 25:59
  Speaker 6: And I suppose we never would have known if that
• 26:01
  Speaker 6: hadn't been for a coincidence that happened one night. Yes,
• 26:05
  Speaker 6: I was tending bar just as I am now, and
• 26:07
  Speaker 6: suddenly some fellow walks up and slaps a car.
• 26:10
  Speaker 7: On your feet, Joe. We'll join us as back and down.
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: Well, by the way, you love it.
• 26:16
  Speaker 7: I'm six months dry and raring to go. Oh, so
• 26:21
  Speaker 7: far back country, never even heard of beads.
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: How can you cheat them? Oh, say, I stumbled onto something, though.
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: You remember that painter Tom Dawson? Yes. Well, you remember
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: that watch, what's her name, give him... Well, there it is. Well,
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: where'd you get that?
• 26:38
  Speaker 7: In the forsakenest piece of country I've ever found in
• 26:41
  Speaker 7: 20 years of trading. Believe me, Joe.
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: Where'd you get that watch?
• 26:44
  Speaker 8: Hey, Joe.
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: Hey, Joe, you're not Will Jonas. Where'd you get that watch? Well,
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: I guess from the person you left it with. I
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: didn't leave it with anybody. That's not what she said.
• 26:54
  Speaker 8: She.
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: What do you mean? Tell me, who?
• 26:56
  Speaker 4: Was it Jerry?
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's her name. She's alive? Twice as natural.
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: She's living in that house you built. Alone, if you're interested.
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: What about him? Oh, the head man. Yes. Yeah, well,
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: it seems he lost face when he let you get away.
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: They figured you for their good luck or something. Anyway,
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: they booted him out a long time ago. Jerry, she's
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: all right? She's living in my house? Yeah, yeah, alone.
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: She made that plenty clear in case you... Thanks for everything. Yeah,
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: I'm glad.
• 27:22
  Speaker 7: Hey, where are you going? What about this watch?
• 27:24
  Speaker 8: It's yours.
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: Well, I'll be up. Hey, Joe.
• 27:30
  Speaker 8: Yes?
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: I'll trade you this watch for a bottle.
• 27:33
  Speaker 6: How about it?
• 27:48
  Speaker 5: Well?
• 27:49
  Speaker 6: That was five or six years ago. Nobody around here
• 27:52
  Speaker 6: has ever seen Tom Dawson since. Because all of us
• 27:55
  Speaker 6: have got a pretty good idea where he went, though.
• 27:58
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 27:59
  Speaker 6: And I'll lay odds on one thing, stranger.
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: I'll bet you he's happy.
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: THE END.
• 28:17
  Speaker 3: Under the direction of Norman MacDonald, Escape has brought you
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: The Silent Horror by Hugh Cave, specially adapted for radio
• 28:24
  Speaker 3: by Les Crutchfield, starring Harry Bartell with Georgia Ellis. Featured
• 28:29
  Speaker 3: in the cast were Jack Crucian, Ben Wright, Ann Diamond,
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: Stan Waxman, and Lou Krugman. The special music for Escape
• 28:36
  Speaker 3: is composed and conducted by Leith Stevens. The light heavyweight
• 28:56
  Speaker 3: boxing title goes up on the chopping block later tonight
• 28:59
  Speaker 3: when champ Joey Maxim squares off against challenger Bob Murphy.
• 29:03
  Speaker 3: With this exciting championship go, your Wednesday night fight exclusives
• 29:06
  Speaker 3: on CBS Radio begin another action-packed season. Don't miss it.
• 29:11
  Speaker 3: Blow by blow over most of these same stations later tonight.
• 29:16
  Speaker 3: Next week, Hearthstone of the Death Squad returns to the air.
• 29:19
  Speaker 3: Be sure to listen next week at the same time
• 29:21
  Speaker 3: for the first of this new series. Clarence Cassell speaking.
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: This is the CBS Radio Network.
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: We conclude Escapes the Silent Horror. This is Victor Sterling.
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: Until next time, good night. Follow the 50 greatest old-time
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: radio shows for more classic broadcasts.