August 9, 2025 • 44 mins
CBS Radio Mystery Theater was a noteworthy attempt to revive in American radio dramas like Inner Sanctum (1941-1952) and Suspense (1942-1962). Radio dramas were widely considered "dead" 12 years prior to this series. CBS Radio Mystery Theater, or simply Mystery Theater, was created by Inner Sanctum creator Himan Brown and ran on CBS from 1974-1982. The show, much like older radio dramas, was introduced by a host (E.G. Marshall in this program), who steers us through the creaking door to start the episode. Many voices from the golden age of radio were featured, including Richard Widmark, Bret Morrison and Agnes Moorehead.
Hope you enjoy this episode of Mystery Theater! Find all our OTR radio stations and podcasts at theaterofthemind-otr.com - Audio Credit: The Old Time Radio Researchers Group. - All Podcasts @ Spreaker | Apple | YouTube | Spotify | iHeart | Amazon
Hope you enjoy this episode of Mystery Theater! Find all our OTR radio stations and podcasts at theaterofthemind-otr.com - Audio Credit: The Old Time Radio Researchers Group. - All Podcasts @ Spreaker | Apple | YouTube | Spotify | iHeart | Amazon
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Come in welcome. I knew you, Marshall. If ever there
was a time when witches might ride, or confound the pure,
or work their hateful wickedness, this is it. The time
of Halloween, the last gasp for the damned and the
(00:36):
wicked to wreck their horrors before the midnight beyond which
dawns all Hallow's Day, all Saint's Day, the celebration of
all that is good. But until that lovely dawning, everything
evil moves, building their revels higher and higher, till the
(00:57):
powers of darkness are dispersed by the light of the world.
The way you look, Margot, you've been growing young, just
as fast as me, going the other way. You keep
going that other way. Night, forget about me. I can't.
Then You'll just have to wait. Our paths really haven't
crossed it. There's still the matter of age. I don't
(01:21):
care how old you are, makes no different. Ah, But
some day it would, Oh, you'd be surprised beyond belief.
How some day it would make a difference. Our mystery
drama The Unborn was written especially for the Mystery theater
(01:46):
by Ian Martin and stars Mercedes mc cambridge. It is
sponsored in part by Ahouser Busch Incorporated, brewers of Budweiser
and certaintyed fiberglass attic insulation. I'll be back shortly with
that one. There are cities in the world, for all
(02:14):
their good points, where the boiling pot of evil is
the most libertine and unprincipled in the world. Many of
those who vie for the title might be Macau, Casablanca, Sodom,
and Gomorrah in ancient times, and in this century Hamburg, Germany.
In the early thirties, before Hitler's rise to power, it
(02:37):
could well lay claim to being the most licentious city
in Europe. It is there that our story begins. You
are sad denied? Thats do you miss the Duke so much?
I missed the Duke not at all. The man was
an unprincipled can What makes you unhappy? I live all
(03:03):
of it to lie, to smile on your lips. You
live only to possess me. But you're not yet calculated
the price. And now that you find me at liberty,
you are busy calculating just what I might cost you.
I would not ag I have rich enough to give
(03:26):
you the world Too late. I've had the world at
least all of the civilized world. It is still worous
to have again. You are a woman of increatable beauty, marcle.
But beauty is fine and eventually fade. Ah you see
(03:50):
me by moonlight comes firing. You couldn't possibly Oh no,
not yet. Time is inexorable. Mana r to jaser. No
human agency get arrested except briefly. Oh, you are a devil?
(04:10):
If why generalize it. I don't want to listen to you,
your beastly and your cynic group, and I don't need
your criticism. I need help. Perhaps I can bring it
to you you how can you? No one but God
(04:33):
or the devil you say you are. I could bring
me what I wanted to get done or used. I'm
not that greedy, only not to grow old until I die.
And we tell you the most afraid of death or
(04:54):
growing old? Look, that's easy death. There's nothing I'm afraid
to grow old as I am at last beginning to do.
Suppose I could offer you away to avoid boss. What
would you offer me in re third? What else can
I offer you but my immortal soul? Isn't that the
(05:18):
classic bargain? Let me assure you that I really am
the devil and you are on the brink of seeing
a bargain. You cannot break everything you ask for, never
to grow old, never you accept Oh, yes, yes, yes yes.
(05:41):
If what you promise is to then the danger is dark.
So simply I mean, don't we cut our veins or
signing blood. That would be necessary. There are other ways
we can see our bargain more intimately, of course, but
(06:01):
you had better deliver.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Oh my dear Monco, you can trust me absolutely never
to grow old, never to die.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
That I'd promise you. The first time I ran across
Margot was at Mahaka. It was just before the big
run for the championships at Holliwa. We were taking on
some pretty good surf eight to ten footers, big enough
to weed out the weekenders, and it was tough enough
for any surf buff to hang tan and remember it.
(06:36):
I'd just written on down a real pretty and then
as I called out and took my lumps before planing
on the beach where she was man and you wrote
that one very well, Sayley, she broke just right for me.
What'd you like? Slipping and sliding through that green tunnel?
Too much? Beyond any words I can describe that's ones.
(07:00):
Really I've never had. I never figured you'd missed your mandy.
Could you take me with you on a joy ride
like that? No way, it's strictly one on one. I mean,
could you teach me to do it for myself? Pay
that asking for trouble? Maybe I'm looking for it. Yeah,
(07:21):
I gotta feel that I had lost the ball here somewhere.
If I don't know just what we're talking about, well
you're a very nice young animal. Don't try to push
anything out of context. All I'm talking about is writing
a suitboard and I could see you very well. The
rates are ten bucks an hour when I'm working. When
could I have my first lessons on the surfboard? I mean,
(07:44):
I was afraid that's what you meant. Believe you're surprised
how much safety it will be. It that's all we
do together tomorrow morning. Now the chop will be too
high for beginners, and make it afternoon. The two just
the right time and number for beginnings. Oh, I was gone.
(08:07):
I'm sure I knew she was out of my orbit.
She had to be somewhere in her forties, and well
I was just out of high school. Well give her
take a couple of years. I blew the college root
that who needs it? Go where you want, how you want,
who calls the turns? So there was one great trip
for a couple of months at last year. Hey, hey, okay,
(08:35):
I thank god you didn't say you fo. What's the different?
You just ducket. You try to hang in, you always do. Yeah,
you just do what you try to. That's all it
translates that, Margo. It's all instant reflecting. And you mean
(08:56):
I dools guy didn't say that. No, that's what you meant.
What you don't know is that I'll grow into it.
I still want to learn to serve for it. It
wants to be hanging up. There are other things in
this world. Well let's make it that this is the
main thing I have right now. So I'll try. Now,
let's face it, I uh, I got a two way
(09:18):
interest me like for instance, for you, like for I'm
right up the wall. Well that's too bad. I'm a
little too old for you. Didn't you say my but
that was for surfing. But that's all there is with us.
Be sure, no, but we're not going to do anything
(09:39):
about it. Oh yeah, if I tried to answer that,
heaven knows what trouble would be. And let's just say
it all could have gone our way in another world,
in another tie. But this way the pieces of the
jigsofas'll just don't lock their others thing. So quits Wait
(10:00):
a minute, you you can't just walk out of my
life like that. There's no way to stop me, but
only because he isn't quite the time for us yet.
We need a chance to go into each other. Then
maybe I'll see you then. Crazy two long months and
(10:23):
all it was was Mike and Margot. I didn't even
know her square name or if she was hanging as
loose as she seemed. There could have been a husband around,
but who wanted to dig too deep, so I'd never
level on this around the beach, there was no makeout
(10:47):
when I was nineteen sixty eight. Then things happened in bunches,
well like there was this war and I got tapped.
I spiked for Air Force. Oh. I learned to fly alright.
I also learned to ate my own guts real good.
Those two week leaves in Japan were way out, especially
(11:07):
the one where I found Margot again. J. D. Bernstein
had something to do with our State Department I never asked.
What all I knew is that every time I hit
Tokyo he lit all the fires for me to burn. Alright, man,
Mike wants to go this trip. I don't know not
geche at tea and flower arrangements. I'm ready to bust
(11:31):
out wilder than that. Why watch it? I I watch
the way bomb myselves with Mike. Well, if you're not
interested in drink, then what all? Well that's different. Her
name is Margot. How do you know that I'm a
(11:54):
famous seer? M prowers a better word. Actually, I I
kN know her, or or knew her. H what's her name?
You already remember it? She don't know that, I mean
to her other name. She is Missus Demetrios Konstantine Stabrianos.
(12:16):
What she doing here in Tokyo sailing around the world?
Just a port of call? How the other half lives?
Tokyo isn't a port not? I imagine it's tied up
in Yokohama. I had out of where else theach club.
She looks moveless, I mean the younger. Oh, there are ways,
(12:38):
my friend, little man with scalpos and silicon, And I
mean that you know this is a a sort of
inner thing. When I knew her, she was almost old
enough to be my mother. She could adopt me. Right now,
I'll knock it off. That was all of six years ago. Now,
(13:01):
I I it's it's something I don't understand myself. Was
it it well that I did feel for her? I'm
sure she was something you you follow the big waves.
I did, and there are a thousand babes were all
the same standard equipment. So what's the big deal. The
(13:27):
big deal is that this one I hadn't forgotten in
six years. This one sent me all the way out
of orbit. M like the old fashioned way to say
it would be sell my soul for except there was
a warning voice that kept saying this one is bad news, Mike.
(13:51):
She's real bad news. Hello, make you look terrificly. Oh,
I can ride aboard now, you know I'm getting better
and better all the time. I'll uh by the last part.
Can we go somewhere? Oh no, why not? I I've
(14:12):
grown old real fast for the last few years, old
enough for me. Do you think the way you look,
you been growing as young just as fast as me
going the other way? Where you keep going the other way? Mike,
forget about me, or I can't whether you'll just have
to wait. Our paths really have him crossed. Yet there's
(14:33):
still no matter of age. I don't care how old
you are makes no difference. Oh, some day it would,
you'd be surprised beyond belief. How some day it would. Oh,
excuse me, this is Mr Stavre, I know it's I'll
stop it, and this is night. He's a nice young
boy who tried to teach me to surfboard. Mike. Uh,
(14:55):
I'm afraid I don't know your last name. Uh burns.
I am going outside. This is no place for a woman,
and no gasi a woman? Shall I say? Are you
coming to meet in a second? My love? All, I
don't meet you in the car as fabulous woman? No?
(15:16):
Why no? I have no embarrassment. Everyone is in love with
her and wants to possess her like the Queen or
a diamond or Helen of Troy. I would forget her
if I were you deep you can Is that a threat, sir? Oh,
(15:36):
dear me, No, I don't have to make threats. He's
something quite beyond it is human being, scol pretty heading r.
He should know. But see for your own health you
should avoid her, like the play, just to warning they
(15:58):
beat or leave. Well, what is going on here? Did
a woman named Margot make a pact with the devil?
And if so, just exactly what were the terms? And
if she did, what fate lies in store for a
(16:18):
determined young man who has decided to love not wisely
and certainly too well. I shall return shortly with that. Two.
Let's see, now this is a story preoccupied with time,
(16:43):
or in which time will have an important bearing on
the outcome. So we left Mike and the mysterious Margot
in what year? Oh yes, nineteen seventy two, still the past,
although the present and most of all, the future may
have a far more important bearing. But slowly we have
(17:06):
yet to leave Japan and the seventy second year of
this twentieth century. And it is going to take the
best diplomatic effort by J. D. Bernstein to get Mike
out of Japan and the local jail. I got out.
I'll have him out of here as soon as I can. Uh,
JV and my sprung. You are sprung. But it took
(17:30):
some plane in fancy oily. Yeah, can you stand up? Uh?
My head doesn't fall off? Huh Ye're lucky. You didn't
get it handed to you in a basket nearly severed
by a samurai saw it? Uh? What did I do?
I'll just try to take Tokyo apart single handed. And
what made you slip your lid? I couldn't get to
(17:51):
see margle mygo missus Stavriano, sir, whatever her name is?
Oh that? Uh well, naturally what do you mean naturally?
Because she sailed that same night we saw her together
in the Gejor house. Huh uh, how do you know? Uh? Look,
(18:12):
this is no place to talk. Come on, let's get
back to the embassy. You mean you mean I'm free
to go. Well, of course you're a couple hundred fines
for breaking up a few straw doors. Is that like
no criminal changes? Mm? Lucky it's been written off to
combat fatigue. Come on, this is the embassy. This mad
(18:36):
mike is a pike where birds do sing and bugs
don't listen. Yeah, much more happy. We suited for a
little heart to heart talk. Come on with all this
super spike credit. I'm just looking for the woman I
love who happens to be married to a guy who
enjoys the interest of almost every major government in the
(18:57):
world enjoys us bigger speech, and he engages is perhaps
a better word, although I must say he seems to
get a bang out of his notoriety or what is
he mm fends here? International broker, ship owner, puller of
strings that make the universe dance to his tom He's
(19:20):
about as close to being the biblical conception of the
devil incarnate as we have around these days. And Margot,
I don't know what I'm asking you. Is she part
of it all? Or just in innocent bystander? Oh? You
really have it bad? Well? How long has she been
(19:41):
married to him? If you mean legally? I don't know
how well they been together? Yeah, okay, Sonny boy embraced
herself for a shock. To the best of our research,
about forty years. Forty years. Who what that would make her?
(20:03):
At least there was a woman with her name, a
Contessa Margot Baranya, but the records of the family were
all wiped out during World War II, So this could
be her daughter, could be even a daughter is stretching
the imagination a little. If it's the same woman, what
(20:25):
are you getting it? I don't know. By there's something
rotten about the whole setup. The guy we know as
a louse who got filthy rich on wars and the
weapons heat brokers to keep them alive. The woman, I uh,
the girl? You don't know anything about her? No, we don't,
(20:46):
or where are they now? Wrong? I think I could
check it out. But what are you planning to do?
Fly there from Vietnam and a combat plane. My tour
of duties up. I'm getting out of this war. Keep
track of Margo for me. At the time I was discharged,
(21:11):
Margot had dropped out of sight and did Ostavreanos, although
I chased around after rumors which had them in Mozambique
and Middle East crete anywhere trouble was brewing or could
be stirred up. And along the way I picked up
a new kick racing cars. The same reflexes that made
(21:32):
me a surfer and a hot shot pilot worked for
me behind a wheel. Within a couple of years, I
was beginning to get tabbed for the top races. My
first big win was most part park and the only
kind of car that could make me forget Margo, a
Lola T three thirty. And it was like crazy that
(21:54):
in a way she led me back to Margo and
the car and my old buddy JV. He came by
my trailer after the race. Hey me, what are you
doing in this neck of the wood? Just watching an
old pal trying out a new way to achieve his
death waves? Do you like to live dangerously? Oh? Why not?
(22:16):
It's my neck and there's nobody. I don't want any
responsibility to good and I now I'll tell you the
rail reason I'm here. I want to offer you a job.
No facts, I don't need a job. Ah, this is
an offer you won't be able to refuse. Oh yeah,
what is it? Undercover agent? To me? You gotta be kidding.
(22:41):
How would you like to cross paths with Margot again?
You find out where she is? Yes? Where we've lost
touch with Stabriana as he disappeared and for reasons I
can't tell you, at least not yet. We've got to
find him, and you think I might get to him
(23:04):
through Margot? Yes, the last place Margot has been located,
and as far as we now, still is, although she
disappears every now and then, is back and wrong. You've
got to hand the terrible JV. He might look like
a cube and his Brooks brother's button down shirts, but
(23:28):
dig deep enough and you could come up with what
I always knew. Was there an alright guy right on?
So now I was a spy or a counter spy
or whatever I was supposed to be my wrong huh? Oh,
(23:53):
I didn't know you were there, moors there or here?
Don't you remember? You give me a little chance to forget?
Are you be satisfied with their bargain? Would you rather
be dead, which by this time you asshdingly would have been?
(24:14):
I might have been better off. I didn't quite understand
the term sir.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
No one ever really does, but everyone always accepts them
whatever they are.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
But you misled me. I told you I didn't mind dying.
How may I remind you that you were also quite
paranoid about growing? Oh? I blame myself bitterly that I
allowed myself to fall into your track. Oh, you have
loved me when you are angry. Nice to you, come
sorry or whatever you wanna call yourself. I am lovelier
(24:50):
by each minute that pass. I am grateful for you.
I figure in speech a bitter one. I wish I
could find a way to defeat you. It really was
for laughs, a guy out of be ashamed to take
the money most of the time I sat sipping Compari
(25:13):
at Doni's Doni's on the uh Ria Veneto. Just sit
there long enough and the whole world goes passing by.
Like ten days after I got the room, Marco, I
won your no Billy, Simma, and sooner and get us
(25:33):
start to stay seegooda nor to sigurd I. Hey, no,
it's you. What are you doing Rome? You look habulous? Oh?
Speaker 3 (25:48):
Thank you?
Speaker 1 (25:48):
So do you so like you used to way back
when we first meet. It's uh being unemployed. I haven't
felt some good since I was a surf bob. Uh
A big deal?
Speaker 4 (26:03):
Yuh?
Speaker 1 (26:04):
How can you? But you know you're fabulous. I mean
you're twenty years younger and I feel every year of his.
That's a funny thing to say. I wish I could
think there was anything funny about it. I'd think most
women would give anything to know your secret. Yes they did.
(26:25):
They'd be sorry for anything they gave. Hold on, it's uh,
conversations getting out of hand. What are we What are
you talking about? I I don't think it. No, you couldn't,
but it doesn't matter any Hey, baby, you're pretty down
and anything I can do maybe maybe it's about time
(26:47):
for us night. You mean it, you're still interested? I
never changed. But oh, well, what about your husband? I
never said he was my husband? Oh like that? I
s no, not like that. But you're s w I
(27:08):
mean you're still uh together? Do you see him anywhere? Well? No,
but uh you always know where he can be found.
Oh yes, I always know where he can be found.
But he doesn't own me yet I'm lost again. Not yet,
my go I mean not yet, but you soon will
(27:30):
be if you still want me. I have wanted to
you since the first moment you walked into my life
six years ago twelve, No only six. Time goes twice
as fast forward us might not come away. Let's forget
(27:53):
everything except each other. I looked at this golden woman,
no girl, This is golden girl, growing as if she
were molded out of burnished bronze. Except Margot could never
(28:15):
have come from any mold. She was too original. I
could feel the warmth of her, her breath caressing my
cheek as she leaned close to whisper. Then why that
strange cold feeling in the pit of my stomach? What
was I scared of? What was I getting into? And
(28:39):
if I did want to hit the panic button? Was
that anyway out? You should have looked more carefully, Mike?
What happened to the few wrinkles by the eyes that
used a martyr beauty ever so slightly? A slight sag
(29:00):
of flesh beneath the chin and along the jawline? And
how could this mysterious woman, once old enough to be
your mother, now growing older, have the skin and muscle
tone of a woman your own age and younger. I
shall return shortly with Act three. Backing in his hotel
(29:32):
room in Rome, Mike Burns was in that super high
state of euphoria that a man reaches only when at
last a long, soft fork conquest is within his grasp. Well,
let's be fair to Mike. He was a man in love,
and young enough to be in love with love, young
enough to forget everything else in life till a phone
(29:54):
call brought him out of the rose colored clouds and
back to reality. Uh uh yeah, Mike, Sure, who's this?
A friend? A long time out here? Uh? Now, look
(30:14):
just listen and answer short and sweet.
Speaker 4 (30:18):
You're hooked up with him again?
Speaker 1 (30:21):
You asking or telling we know you have been and
that you're going away. What business is that of yours.
Speaker 4 (30:27):
It's a silly question. It's your business too. If a
third party turns up, where is stop rihannas.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
Buddy, I I, I guess it's something I'd like to
know myself. Anyway, I'll i'll try to find out.
Speaker 3 (30:42):
Where do I reach you?
Speaker 1 (30:43):
Forget it? I know where to reach you?
Speaker 3 (30:45):
Not good enough?
Speaker 1 (30:47):
The stops are.
Speaker 4 (30:48):
All out for reasons you're not aware of. And the
worrope could be hitting on a powder keg.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
Where alright, Anna Capri? About the mayor's thing to have?
Let's keepe our fingers.
Speaker 4 (31:01):
Crossing you locate start rana us before there's hell to pay.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
I picked up Margaret with the Spanish steps, and together
we drove south to Naples. We dumped the ratit jar
there and went by boat to Capri. From the dock,
we sneaked back and forth around impossible turned by bus
to an eagle's nest high above Adriatic. Wherever you looked
from there, everything was blue and flooded by sunlight. I
(31:35):
guess you find a picture of heaven. It looks like Capri.
And then we were madly in love, and Margaret was
astonishingly a girl again, younger and more alive than me
and shining with youth? Uh? What are you doing up
this early? I couldn't sleep it was snoring again. Uh?
(32:00):
What do you ever, my darling? I love you whether
you're awake or a sleep. There's no problem there. Where's
the problem? Did I say there was one? What should
we do today? Ooh? You sell ourselves and go back
to bed again? Maybe we shouldn't even get up. You
(32:21):
suppose I'm dead? I know very well that you or not.
If I was, This is the only way I'd like
it to be. Oh, who the devil? Is there? Anyone?
But who? You mentioned? I hood?
Speaker 2 (32:41):
Who was it?
Speaker 1 (32:42):
It was? Uh? For me? Uh? I have to go
down to the village and make a long distance call.
Is this so important? Yeah? I I guess it. Uh
it has to do with us us holl don't mean
forget that for a moment. I I I wanna ask.
I mean, I'm I'm sorry, but I have to w
(33:03):
what's the deal with you? And you? Stop being honest?
Oh but you mean me? H are you married? No?
Where is he? Do you know? Oh? Yes? Where?
Speaker 2 (33:19):
Uh? Uh?
Speaker 1 (33:20):
Oh, okay, you you don't have to tell me. Just
w after this? Were you and he still be together.
We never have been, not the way you mean. He's
out of your life. I didn't say that. I wish
I could. I wish you could too. Why no, I
(33:40):
I I love you, but I don't answer a question.
You got to take me on faith or not at all.
I'll take you on faith. But I also have to
go make the phone call. Uh. All the way down
(34:02):
the hill, I was busy making my decision. If it
was JV on the phone, he could go climb a tree.
Right at this moment, I couldn't care about international spy games.
I was with the woman I loved, and nothing was
going to interfere with that. I thought, I quit. You can't, I.
Speaker 3 (34:28):
Might listen to me. All our information tells.
Speaker 4 (34:31):
Us that Stabrianos already has in his possession a small
mill clear device.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
Well, how do you know he has it?
Speaker 4 (34:39):
Well, let's define terms. We don't know that he actually
has it. He is, one might say, the bulker between
the country that developed it and.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
The potential buyer. Who is the buyer? We don't even
know that much. Just think of it this way.
Speaker 3 (34:53):
Can you imagine such a weapon in.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
The hands had a terrorist.
Speaker 4 (34:56):
Organization, the threat they could pose in their demands and
not satisfied for all the cost they could.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
Bring down on the whole world. Okay, okay, but what
can I do about it? Fine?
Speaker 3 (35:09):
Stabrehanos?
Speaker 1 (35:10):
We did. I don't know if Margot will tell me
where he is? What if she doesn't, haven't help us all?
And if she does, haven't helped me? What's wrong? Do he?
Speaker 2 (35:31):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (35:31):
I don't know what anything is? YE had just a hunch.
Everything could be the telephone call? Yes, babbus, Yes, is
there any way I can help? Yes? Then ask me
where is Stabriannos? Do I mean? I told you he
(35:56):
doesn't mean anything between us? I got news for you?
He does? Why? Alright? I I I I won't hack around.
The only way I could find my way back to
you was as a government snoop m m m. My
job is to find Star Mariano's through you. My is
(36:20):
that your only interest in me? Call? You know? It isn't?
How well I know? And how sorry I am that
I ever allowed you to meet me? Why? Because we
have no future my especially now, I won't accept that.
You will have to accept it. We've had this short
time together and it was right and it was wonderful,
(36:43):
but it couldn't last. Mother, No, no, don't don't do
deterrupt me. Listen to me. Remember back when you first
met me, I was old enough to end to your mother.
I was forty one to your eighteen, but already I
was coming back to your coming back to me. Listen
to me. When I first met Stabriannos, I was headed
(37:09):
for my sixties and I had an absolute terror of
growing old, and he turned the clock upside down for me.
I don't understand. How would anyone understand who hasn't made
a pact with the devil? The devil. Haven't you learned
enough about Stabrihannos to know that's what he is? But
(37:30):
what kind of path one that really ended our love
affair before it could have begne wrong? Oh? Yes, my
uh believe in these past few weeks have been my
only paste of heaven. But now I have to go,
and I hope I can take him back to hell
with me and Margo. Don't go to him. I'd give
(37:53):
my own life to save yours. You know I knows that,
and I also know how foolish that would be. Whyuse
you don't understand? You don't understand the fact I made
I have no fear of death, since I will never die.
He promised you that he tricked me, but his promise
(38:14):
was a true one, that I should never grow old
and that I should never die, because he reversed the
life process for me. And from the moment I sold
my soul to him, I have been growing younger day
by day, week by week, and year by year. And
(38:36):
so my as we grow apart here and die at
twice the pace, and you grow older and I grow younger,
don't you see there is no hope for us. No,
there is no hope. There is no hope for us,
no hope for me. So this is goodbye, my love.
(39:01):
Look id I know you must think I'm crazy JV.
But that's how it was. We we argued all through
the day and back and forth till exhaustion, and finally
I I f I fell asleep, and when I awoke,
she was gone. You got to help me find her.
(39:24):
I can't old, buddy, No, no, no, You got me
into this. Now if it hadn't been for you, you've
got to. However, is she? I can only tell you
one thing. By our standards, Stabriannas and she are dead.
What do it mean by our standards. You haven't been
(39:45):
reading the news lately, not even the headlines. So what
a small island and the GNC just up and disappeared yesterday.
I don't read you you will. Oh, it's written off
to a sudden earthquake or other natural causes, but it
(40:06):
seems to have been the private property of one Demetrios Stavrianas.
How do you know that? Because a woman named Margo
left Capri suddenly and flew directly there. You mean Marco
is he's dead. I'll tell you something, buddy, boy, from
(40:28):
my heart, I hope Stabrianas, whoever he was, and your
girlfriend Margo, whoever she might have been, are dead forever
and buried six feet deep. Uh. The rest of the
world is better off if they are, as even you,
old buddy, who'll find out in time. It took a
(40:58):
little time, but I guess the human spirit is elastic.
I came back and I still get the shakes, and
I wonder about things. She haunts me. Margot and her
husband or whatever he was. Stavrianos were burned to a
(41:21):
crisp and a terrible explosion that wiped out a whole
island as well, and yet more and more as I
grow older, I'm afraid to look at children. I I
watched them playing in a park, on a beach, at
amusement parks, and so often I see a girl who
(41:42):
might be Margot. It used to be teenagers, but now
as the years pass, it's the little tots younger and younger.
He'sn't faintly possible that Faust is Morgan, though, to that
one can't make a pact with the devil, and that
(42:06):
he could switch the whole deal instead of holding off age.
It could reverse the whole process of growing old, so
that in the end a person would be nothing, unborn,
a thing that never was interesting. Question, what are you're thinking,
(42:37):
and whether you agree with it as a possibility or not.
Aren't you terrorized by the very concept to live life
in reverse, to travel backwards to an innocent infant, even
to the conception itself. Certainly, if the devil wanted to
steal the purest soul, where else could he find one
(42:59):
more pure? She'll return shortly by some miracle of fortune.
Upward air currents after the explosion carried the deadly byproducts
over the Sahara Desert, where they were dispersed and absorbed
(43:24):
Marco and Stabrianos have never been seen again. Is it
too much to speculate that she had her revenge and
that the devil is locked up in hell for good
where he belongs. So why not hope? Someday we must
all believe that the world will wake up and banish
him as we come to our senses, we must believe,
(43:48):
or as man our cast, including Mercedes McCambridge, Robert Dryden
and Bob Caliban. The entire production was under the direction
of Hyman Brown Radio. Mystery Theater was sponsored in part
by Buick Mortal Division Visus e g. Marshall Inviting you
to return to our Mystery Theater for another adventure in
(44:09):
the macabre. Until next time, Pleasant dream
Come in welcome. I knew you, Marshall. If ever there
was a time when witches might ride, or confound the pure,
or work their hateful wickedness, this is it. The time
of Halloween, the last gasp for the damned and the
(00:36):
wicked to wreck their horrors before the midnight beyond which
dawns all Hallow's Day, all Saint's Day, the celebration of
all that is good. But until that lovely dawning, everything
evil moves, building their revels higher and higher, till the
(00:57):
powers of darkness are dispersed by the light of the world.
The way you look, Margot, you've been growing young, just
as fast as me, going the other way. You keep
going that other way. Night, forget about me. I can't.
Then You'll just have to wait. Our paths really haven't
crossed it. There's still the matter of age. I don't
(01:21):
care how old you are, makes no different. Ah, But
some day it would, Oh, you'd be surprised beyond belief.
How some day it would make a difference. Our mystery
drama The Unborn was written especially for the Mystery theater
(01:46):
by Ian Martin and stars Mercedes mc cambridge. It is
sponsored in part by Ahouser Busch Incorporated, brewers of Budweiser
and certaintyed fiberglass attic insulation. I'll be back shortly with
that one. There are cities in the world, for all
(02:14):
their good points, where the boiling pot of evil is
the most libertine and unprincipled in the world. Many of
those who vie for the title might be Macau, Casablanca, Sodom,
and Gomorrah in ancient times, and in this century Hamburg, Germany.
In the early thirties, before Hitler's rise to power, it
(02:37):
could well lay claim to being the most licentious city
in Europe. It is there that our story begins. You
are sad denied? Thats do you miss the Duke so much?
I missed the Duke not at all. The man was
an unprincipled can What makes you unhappy? I live all
(03:03):
of it to lie, to smile on your lips. You
live only to possess me. But you're not yet calculated
the price. And now that you find me at liberty,
you are busy calculating just what I might cost you.
I would not ag I have rich enough to give
(03:26):
you the world Too late. I've had the world at
least all of the civilized world. It is still worous
to have again. You are a woman of increatable beauty, marcle.
But beauty is fine and eventually fade. Ah you see
(03:50):
me by moonlight comes firing. You couldn't possibly Oh no,
not yet. Time is inexorable. Mana r to jaser. No
human agency get arrested except briefly. Oh, you are a devil?
(04:10):
If why generalize it. I don't want to listen to you,
your beastly and your cynic group, and I don't need
your criticism. I need help. Perhaps I can bring it
to you you how can you? No one but God
(04:33):
or the devil you say you are. I could bring
me what I wanted to get done or used. I'm
not that greedy, only not to grow old until I die.
And we tell you the most afraid of death or
(04:54):
growing old? Look, that's easy death. There's nothing I'm afraid
to grow old as I am at last beginning to do.
Suppose I could offer you away to avoid boss. What
would you offer me in re third? What else can
I offer you but my immortal soul? Isn't that the
(05:18):
classic bargain? Let me assure you that I really am
the devil and you are on the brink of seeing
a bargain. You cannot break everything you ask for, never
to grow old, never you accept Oh, yes, yes, yes yes.
(05:41):
If what you promise is to then the danger is dark.
So simply I mean, don't we cut our veins or
signing blood. That would be necessary. There are other ways
we can see our bargain more intimately, of course, but
(06:01):
you had better deliver.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Oh my dear Monco, you can trust me absolutely never
to grow old, never to die.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
That I'd promise you. The first time I ran across
Margot was at Mahaka. It was just before the big
run for the championships at Holliwa. We were taking on
some pretty good surf eight to ten footers, big enough
to weed out the weekenders, and it was tough enough
for any surf buff to hang tan and remember it.
(06:36):
I'd just written on down a real pretty and then
as I called out and took my lumps before planing
on the beach where she was man and you wrote
that one very well, Sayley, she broke just right for me.
What'd you like? Slipping and sliding through that green tunnel?
Too much? Beyond any words I can describe that's ones.
(07:00):
Really I've never had. I never figured you'd missed your mandy.
Could you take me with you on a joy ride
like that? No way, it's strictly one on one. I mean,
could you teach me to do it for myself? Pay
that asking for trouble? Maybe I'm looking for it. Yeah,
(07:21):
I gotta feel that I had lost the ball here somewhere.
If I don't know just what we're talking about, well
you're a very nice young animal. Don't try to push
anything out of context. All I'm talking about is writing
a suitboard and I could see you very well. The
rates are ten bucks an hour when I'm working. When
could I have my first lessons on the surfboard? I mean,
(07:44):
I was afraid that's what you meant. Believe you're surprised
how much safety it will be. It that's all we
do together tomorrow morning. Now the chop will be too
high for beginners, and make it afternoon. The two just
the right time and number for beginnings. Oh, I was gone.
(08:07):
I'm sure I knew she was out of my orbit.
She had to be somewhere in her forties, and well
I was just out of high school. Well give her
take a couple of years. I blew the college root
that who needs it? Go where you want, how you want,
who calls the turns? So there was one great trip
for a couple of months at last year. Hey, hey, okay,
(08:35):
I thank god you didn't say you fo. What's the different?
You just ducket. You try to hang in, you always do. Yeah,
you just do what you try to. That's all it
translates that, Margo. It's all instant reflecting. And you mean
(08:56):
I dools guy didn't say that. No, that's what you meant.
What you don't know is that I'll grow into it.
I still want to learn to serve for it. It
wants to be hanging up. There are other things in
this world. Well let's make it that this is the
main thing I have right now. So I'll try. Now,
let's face it, I uh, I got a two way
(09:18):
interest me like for instance, for you, like for I'm
right up the wall. Well that's too bad. I'm a
little too old for you. Didn't you say my but
that was for surfing. But that's all there is with us.
Be sure, no, but we're not going to do anything
(09:39):
about it. Oh yeah, if I tried to answer that,
heaven knows what trouble would be. And let's just say
it all could have gone our way in another world,
in another tie. But this way the pieces of the
jigsofas'll just don't lock their others thing. So quits Wait
(10:00):
a minute, you you can't just walk out of my
life like that. There's no way to stop me, but
only because he isn't quite the time for us yet.
We need a chance to go into each other. Then
maybe I'll see you then. Crazy two long months and
(10:23):
all it was was Mike and Margot. I didn't even
know her square name or if she was hanging as
loose as she seemed. There could have been a husband around,
but who wanted to dig too deep, so I'd never
level on this around the beach, there was no makeout
(10:47):
when I was nineteen sixty eight. Then things happened in bunches,
well like there was this war and I got tapped.
I spiked for Air Force. Oh. I learned to fly alright.
I also learned to ate my own guts real good.
Those two week leaves in Japan were way out, especially
(11:07):
the one where I found Margot again. J. D. Bernstein
had something to do with our State Department I never asked.
What all I knew is that every time I hit
Tokyo he lit all the fires for me to burn. Alright, man,
Mike wants to go this trip. I don't know not
geche at tea and flower arrangements. I'm ready to bust
(11:31):
out wilder than that. Why watch it? I I watch
the way bomb myselves with Mike. Well, if you're not
interested in drink, then what all? Well that's different. Her
name is Margot. How do you know that I'm a
(11:54):
famous seer? M prowers a better word. Actually, I I
kN know her, or or knew her. H what's her name?
You already remember it? She don't know that, I mean
to her other name. She is Missus Demetrios Konstantine Stabrianos.
(12:16):
What she doing here in Tokyo sailing around the world?
Just a port of call? How the other half lives?
Tokyo isn't a port not? I imagine it's tied up
in Yokohama. I had out of where else theach club.
She looks moveless, I mean the younger. Oh, there are ways,
(12:38):
my friend, little man with scalpos and silicon, And I
mean that you know this is a a sort of
inner thing. When I knew her, she was almost old
enough to be my mother. She could adopt me. Right now,
I'll knock it off. That was all of six years ago. Now,
(13:01):
I I it's it's something I don't understand myself. Was
it it well that I did feel for her? I'm
sure she was something you you follow the big waves.
I did, and there are a thousand babes were all
the same standard equipment. So what's the big deal. The
(13:27):
big deal is that this one I hadn't forgotten in
six years. This one sent me all the way out
of orbit. M like the old fashioned way to say
it would be sell my soul for except there was
a warning voice that kept saying this one is bad news, Mike.
(13:51):
She's real bad news. Hello, make you look terrificly. Oh,
I can ride aboard now, you know I'm getting better
and better all the time. I'll uh by the last part.
Can we go somewhere? Oh no, why not? I I've
(14:12):
grown old real fast for the last few years, old
enough for me. Do you think the way you look,
you been growing as young just as fast as me
going the other way? Where you keep going the other way? Mike,
forget about me, or I can't whether you'll just have
to wait. Our paths really have him crossed. Yet there's
(14:33):
still no matter of age. I don't care how old
you are makes no difference. Oh, some day it would,
you'd be surprised beyond belief. How some day it would. Oh,
excuse me, this is Mr Stavre, I know it's I'll
stop it, and this is night. He's a nice young
boy who tried to teach me to surfboard. Mike. Uh,
(14:55):
I'm afraid I don't know your last name. Uh burns.
I am going outside. This is no place for a woman,
and no gasi a woman? Shall I say? Are you
coming to meet in a second? My love? All, I
don't meet you in the car as fabulous woman? No?
(15:16):
Why no? I have no embarrassment. Everyone is in love with
her and wants to possess her like the Queen or
a diamond or Helen of Troy. I would forget her
if I were you deep you can Is that a threat, sir? Oh,
(15:36):
dear me, No, I don't have to make threats. He's
something quite beyond it is human being, scol pretty heading r.
He should know. But see for your own health you
should avoid her, like the play, just to warning they
(15:58):
beat or leave. Well, what is going on here? Did
a woman named Margot make a pact with the devil?
And if so, just exactly what were the terms? And
if she did, what fate lies in store for a
(16:18):
determined young man who has decided to love not wisely
and certainly too well. I shall return shortly with that. Two.
Let's see, now this is a story preoccupied with time,
(16:43):
or in which time will have an important bearing on
the outcome. So we left Mike and the mysterious Margot
in what year? Oh yes, nineteen seventy two, still the past,
although the present and most of all, the future may
have a far more important bearing. But slowly we have
(17:06):
yet to leave Japan and the seventy second year of
this twentieth century. And it is going to take the
best diplomatic effort by J. D. Bernstein to get Mike
out of Japan and the local jail. I got out.
I'll have him out of here as soon as I can. Uh,
JV and my sprung. You are sprung. But it took
(17:30):
some plane in fancy oily. Yeah, can you stand up? Uh?
My head doesn't fall off? Huh Ye're lucky. You didn't
get it handed to you in a basket nearly severed
by a samurai saw it? Uh? What did I do?
I'll just try to take Tokyo apart single handed. And
what made you slip your lid? I couldn't get to
(17:51):
see margle mygo missus Stavriano, sir, whatever her name is?
Oh that? Uh well, naturally what do you mean naturally?
Because she sailed that same night we saw her together
in the Gejor house. Huh uh, how do you know? Uh? Look,
(18:12):
this is no place to talk. Come on, let's get
back to the embassy. You mean you mean I'm free
to go. Well, of course you're a couple hundred fines
for breaking up a few straw doors. Is that like
no criminal changes? Mm? Lucky it's been written off to
combat fatigue. Come on, this is the embassy. This mad
(18:36):
mike is a pike where birds do sing and bugs
don't listen. Yeah, much more happy. We suited for a
little heart to heart talk. Come on with all this
super spike credit. I'm just looking for the woman I
love who happens to be married to a guy who
enjoys the interest of almost every major government in the
(18:57):
world enjoys us bigger speech, and he engages is perhaps
a better word, although I must say he seems to
get a bang out of his notoriety or what is
he mm fends here? International broker, ship owner, puller of
strings that make the universe dance to his tom He's
(19:20):
about as close to being the biblical conception of the
devil incarnate as we have around these days. And Margot,
I don't know what I'm asking you. Is she part
of it all? Or just in innocent bystander? Oh? You
really have it bad? Well? How long has she been
(19:41):
married to him? If you mean legally? I don't know
how well they been together? Yeah, okay, Sonny boy embraced
herself for a shock. To the best of our research,
about forty years. Forty years. Who what that would make her?
(20:03):
At least there was a woman with her name, a
Contessa Margot Baranya, but the records of the family were
all wiped out during World War II, So this could
be her daughter, could be even a daughter is stretching
the imagination a little. If it's the same woman, what
(20:25):
are you getting it? I don't know. By there's something
rotten about the whole setup. The guy we know as
a louse who got filthy rich on wars and the
weapons heat brokers to keep them alive. The woman, I uh,
the girl? You don't know anything about her? No, we don't,
(20:46):
or where are they now? Wrong? I think I could
check it out. But what are you planning to do?
Fly there from Vietnam and a combat plane. My tour
of duties up. I'm getting out of this war. Keep
track of Margo for me. At the time I was discharged,
(21:11):
Margot had dropped out of sight and did Ostavreanos, although
I chased around after rumors which had them in Mozambique
and Middle East crete anywhere trouble was brewing or could
be stirred up. And along the way I picked up
a new kick racing cars. The same reflexes that made
(21:32):
me a surfer and a hot shot pilot worked for
me behind a wheel. Within a couple of years, I
was beginning to get tabbed for the top races. My
first big win was most part park and the only
kind of car that could make me forget Margo, a
Lola T three thirty. And it was like crazy that
(21:54):
in a way she led me back to Margo and
the car and my old buddy JV. He came by
my trailer after the race. Hey me, what are you
doing in this neck of the wood? Just watching an
old pal trying out a new way to achieve his
death waves? Do you like to live dangerously? Oh? Why not?
(22:16):
It's my neck and there's nobody. I don't want any
responsibility to good and I now I'll tell you the
rail reason I'm here. I want to offer you a job.
No facts, I don't need a job. Ah, this is
an offer you won't be able to refuse. Oh yeah,
what is it? Undercover agent? To me? You gotta be kidding.
(22:41):
How would you like to cross paths with Margot again?
You find out where she is? Yes? Where we've lost
touch with Stabriana as he disappeared and for reasons I
can't tell you, at least not yet. We've got to
find him, and you think I might get to him
(23:04):
through Margot? Yes, the last place Margot has been located,
and as far as we now, still is, although she
disappears every now and then, is back and wrong. You've
got to hand the terrible JV. He might look like
a cube and his Brooks brother's button down shirts, but
(23:28):
dig deep enough and you could come up with what
I always knew. Was there an alright guy right on?
So now I was a spy or a counter spy
or whatever I was supposed to be my wrong huh? Oh,
(23:53):
I didn't know you were there, moors there or here?
Don't you remember? You give me a little chance to forget?
Are you be satisfied with their bargain? Would you rather
be dead, which by this time you asshdingly would have been?
(24:14):
I might have been better off. I didn't quite understand
the term sir.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
No one ever really does, but everyone always accepts them
whatever they are.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
But you misled me. I told you I didn't mind dying.
How may I remind you that you were also quite
paranoid about growing? Oh? I blame myself bitterly that I
allowed myself to fall into your track. Oh, you have
loved me when you are angry. Nice to you, come
sorry or whatever you wanna call yourself. I am lovelier
(24:50):
by each minute that pass. I am grateful for you.
I figure in speech a bitter one. I wish I
could find a way to defeat you. It really was
for laughs, a guy out of be ashamed to take
the money most of the time I sat sipping Compari
(25:13):
at Doni's Doni's on the uh Ria Veneto. Just sit
there long enough and the whole world goes passing by.
Like ten days after I got the room, Marco, I
won your no Billy, Simma, and sooner and get us
(25:33):
start to stay seegooda nor to sigurd I. Hey, no,
it's you. What are you doing Rome? You look habulous? Oh?
Speaker 3 (25:48):
Thank you?
Speaker 1 (25:48):
So do you so like you used to way back
when we first meet. It's uh being unemployed. I haven't
felt some good since I was a surf bob. Uh
A big deal?
Speaker 4 (26:03):
Yuh?
Speaker 1 (26:04):
How can you? But you know you're fabulous. I mean
you're twenty years younger and I feel every year of his.
That's a funny thing to say. I wish I could
think there was anything funny about it. I'd think most
women would give anything to know your secret. Yes they did.
(26:25):
They'd be sorry for anything they gave. Hold on, it's uh,
conversations getting out of hand. What are we What are
you talking about? I I don't think it. No, you couldn't,
but it doesn't matter any Hey, baby, you're pretty down
and anything I can do maybe maybe it's about time
(26:47):
for us night. You mean it, you're still interested? I
never changed. But oh, well, what about your husband? I
never said he was my husband? Oh like that? I
s no, not like that. But you're s w I
(27:08):
mean you're still uh together? Do you see him anywhere? Well? No,
but uh you always know where he can be found.
Oh yes, I always know where he can be found.
But he doesn't own me yet I'm lost again. Not yet,
my go I mean not yet, but you soon will
(27:30):
be if you still want me. I have wanted to
you since the first moment you walked into my life
six years ago twelve, No only six. Time goes twice
as fast forward us might not come away. Let's forget
(27:53):
everything except each other. I looked at this golden woman,
no girl, This is golden girl, growing as if she
were molded out of burnished bronze. Except Margot could never
(28:15):
have come from any mold. She was too original. I
could feel the warmth of her, her breath caressing my
cheek as she leaned close to whisper. Then why that
strange cold feeling in the pit of my stomach? What
was I scared of? What was I getting into? And
(28:39):
if I did want to hit the panic button? Was
that anyway out? You should have looked more carefully, Mike?
What happened to the few wrinkles by the eyes that
used a martyr beauty ever so slightly? A slight sag
(29:00):
of flesh beneath the chin and along the jawline? And
how could this mysterious woman, once old enough to be
your mother, now growing older, have the skin and muscle
tone of a woman your own age and younger. I
shall return shortly with Act three. Backing in his hotel
(29:32):
room in Rome, Mike Burns was in that super high
state of euphoria that a man reaches only when at
last a long, soft fork conquest is within his grasp. Well,
let's be fair to Mike. He was a man in love,
and young enough to be in love with love, young
enough to forget everything else in life till a phone
(29:54):
call brought him out of the rose colored clouds and
back to reality. Uh uh yeah, Mike, Sure, who's this?
A friend? A long time out here? Uh? Now, look
(30:14):
just listen and answer short and sweet.
Speaker 4 (30:18):
You're hooked up with him again?
Speaker 1 (30:21):
You asking or telling we know you have been and
that you're going away. What business is that of yours.
Speaker 4 (30:27):
It's a silly question. It's your business too. If a
third party turns up, where is stop rihannas.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
Buddy, I I, I guess it's something I'd like to
know myself. Anyway, I'll i'll try to find out.
Speaker 3 (30:42):
Where do I reach you?
Speaker 1 (30:43):
Forget it? I know where to reach you?
Speaker 3 (30:45):
Not good enough?
Speaker 1 (30:47):
The stops are.
Speaker 4 (30:48):
All out for reasons you're not aware of. And the
worrope could be hitting on a powder keg.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
Where alright, Anna Capri? About the mayor's thing to have?
Let's keepe our fingers.
Speaker 4 (31:01):
Crossing you locate start rana us before there's hell to pay.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
I picked up Margaret with the Spanish steps, and together
we drove south to Naples. We dumped the ratit jar
there and went by boat to Capri. From the dock,
we sneaked back and forth around impossible turned by bus
to an eagle's nest high above Adriatic. Wherever you looked
from there, everything was blue and flooded by sunlight. I
(31:35):
guess you find a picture of heaven. It looks like Capri.
And then we were madly in love, and Margaret was
astonishingly a girl again, younger and more alive than me
and shining with youth? Uh? What are you doing up
this early? I couldn't sleep it was snoring again. Uh?
(32:00):
What do you ever, my darling? I love you whether
you're awake or a sleep. There's no problem there. Where's
the problem? Did I say there was one? What should
we do today? Ooh? You sell ourselves and go back
to bed again? Maybe we shouldn't even get up. You
(32:21):
suppose I'm dead? I know very well that you or not.
If I was, This is the only way I'd like
it to be. Oh, who the devil? Is there? Anyone?
But who? You mentioned? I hood?
Speaker 2 (32:41):
Who was it?
Speaker 1 (32:42):
It was? Uh? For me? Uh? I have to go
down to the village and make a long distance call.
Is this so important? Yeah? I I guess it. Uh
it has to do with us us holl don't mean
forget that for a moment. I I I wanna ask.
I mean, I'm I'm sorry, but I have to w
(33:03):
what's the deal with you? And you? Stop being honest?
Oh but you mean me? H are you married? No?
Where is he? Do you know? Oh? Yes? Where?
Speaker 2 (33:19):
Uh? Uh?
Speaker 1 (33:20):
Oh, okay, you you don't have to tell me. Just
w after this? Were you and he still be together.
We never have been, not the way you mean. He's
out of your life. I didn't say that. I wish
I could. I wish you could too. Why no, I
(33:40):
I I love you, but I don't answer a question.
You got to take me on faith or not at all.
I'll take you on faith. But I also have to
go make the phone call. Uh. All the way down
(34:02):
the hill, I was busy making my decision. If it
was JV on the phone, he could go climb a tree.
Right at this moment, I couldn't care about international spy games.
I was with the woman I loved, and nothing was
going to interfere with that. I thought, I quit. You can't, I.
Speaker 3 (34:28):
Might listen to me. All our information tells.
Speaker 4 (34:31):
Us that Stabrianos already has in his possession a small
mill clear device.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
Well, how do you know he has it?
Speaker 4 (34:39):
Well, let's define terms. We don't know that he actually
has it. He is, one might say, the bulker between
the country that developed it and.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
The potential buyer. Who is the buyer? We don't even
know that much. Just think of it this way.
Speaker 3 (34:53):
Can you imagine such a weapon in.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
The hands had a terrorist.
Speaker 4 (34:56):
Organization, the threat they could pose in their demands and
not satisfied for all the cost they could.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
Bring down on the whole world. Okay, okay, but what
can I do about it? Fine?
Speaker 3 (35:09):
Stabrehanos?
Speaker 1 (35:10):
We did. I don't know if Margot will tell me
where he is? What if she doesn't, haven't help us all?
And if she does, haven't helped me? What's wrong? Do he?
Speaker 2 (35:31):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (35:31):
I don't know what anything is? YE had just a hunch.
Everything could be the telephone call? Yes, babbus, Yes, is
there any way I can help? Yes? Then ask me
where is Stabriannos? Do I mean? I told you he
(35:56):
doesn't mean anything between us? I got news for you?
He does? Why? Alright? I I I I won't hack around.
The only way I could find my way back to
you was as a government snoop m m m. My
job is to find Star Mariano's through you. My is
(36:20):
that your only interest in me? Call? You know? It isn't?
How well I know? And how sorry I am that
I ever allowed you to meet me? Why? Because we
have no future my especially now, I won't accept that.
You will have to accept it. We've had this short
time together and it was right and it was wonderful,
(36:43):
but it couldn't last. Mother, No, no, don't don't do
deterrupt me. Listen to me. Remember back when you first
met me, I was old enough to end to your mother.
I was forty one to your eighteen, but already I
was coming back to your coming back to me. Listen
to me. When I first met Stabriannos, I was headed
(37:09):
for my sixties and I had an absolute terror of
growing old, and he turned the clock upside down for me.
I don't understand. How would anyone understand who hasn't made
a pact with the devil? The devil. Haven't you learned
enough about Stabrihannos to know that's what he is? But
(37:30):
what kind of path one that really ended our love
affair before it could have begne wrong? Oh? Yes, my
uh believe in these past few weeks have been my
only paste of heaven. But now I have to go,
and I hope I can take him back to hell
with me and Margo. Don't go to him. I'd give
(37:53):
my own life to save yours. You know I knows that,
and I also know how foolish that would be. Whyuse
you don't understand? You don't understand the fact I made
I have no fear of death, since I will never die.
He promised you that he tricked me, but his promise
(38:14):
was a true one, that I should never grow old
and that I should never die, because he reversed the
life process for me. And from the moment I sold
my soul to him, I have been growing younger day
by day, week by week, and year by year. And
(38:36):
so my as we grow apart here and die at
twice the pace, and you grow older and I grow younger,
don't you see there is no hope for us. No,
there is no hope. There is no hope for us,
no hope for me. So this is goodbye, my love.
(39:01):
Look id I know you must think I'm crazy JV.
But that's how it was. We we argued all through
the day and back and forth till exhaustion, and finally
I I f I fell asleep, and when I awoke,
she was gone. You got to help me find her.
(39:24):
I can't old, buddy, No, no, no, You got me
into this. Now if it hadn't been for you, you've
got to. However, is she? I can only tell you
one thing. By our standards, Stabriannas and she are dead.
What do it mean by our standards. You haven't been
(39:45):
reading the news lately, not even the headlines. So what
a small island and the GNC just up and disappeared yesterday.
I don't read you you will. Oh, it's written off
to a sudden earthquake or other natural causes, but it
(40:06):
seems to have been the private property of one Demetrios Stavrianas.
How do you know that? Because a woman named Margo
left Capri suddenly and flew directly there. You mean Marco
is he's dead. I'll tell you something, buddy, boy, from
(40:28):
my heart, I hope Stabrianas, whoever he was, and your
girlfriend Margo, whoever she might have been, are dead forever
and buried six feet deep. Uh. The rest of the
world is better off if they are, as even you,
old buddy, who'll find out in time. It took a
(40:58):
little time, but I guess the human spirit is elastic.
I came back and I still get the shakes, and
I wonder about things. She haunts me. Margot and her
husband or whatever he was. Stavrianos were burned to a
(41:21):
crisp and a terrible explosion that wiped out a whole
island as well, and yet more and more as I
grow older, I'm afraid to look at children. I I
watched them playing in a park, on a beach, at
amusement parks, and so often I see a girl who
(41:42):
might be Margot. It used to be teenagers, but now
as the years pass, it's the little tots younger and younger.
He'sn't faintly possible that Faust is Morgan, though, to that
one can't make a pact with the devil, and that
(42:06):
he could switch the whole deal instead of holding off age.
It could reverse the whole process of growing old, so
that in the end a person would be nothing, unborn,
a thing that never was interesting. Question, what are you're thinking,
(42:37):
and whether you agree with it as a possibility or not.
Aren't you terrorized by the very concept to live life
in reverse, to travel backwards to an innocent infant, even
to the conception itself. Certainly, if the devil wanted to
steal the purest soul, where else could he find one
(42:59):
more pure? She'll return shortly by some miracle of fortune.
Upward air currents after the explosion carried the deadly byproducts
over the Sahara Desert, where they were dispersed and absorbed
(43:24):
Marco and Stabrianos have never been seen again. Is it
too much to speculate that she had her revenge and
that the devil is locked up in hell for good
where he belongs. So why not hope? Someday we must
all believe that the world will wake up and banish
him as we come to our senses, we must believe,
(43:48):
or as man our cast, including Mercedes McCambridge, Robert Dryden
and Bob Caliban. The entire production was under the direction
of Hyman Brown Radio. Mystery Theater was sponsored in part
by Buick Mortal Division Visus e g. Marshall Inviting you
to return to our Mystery Theater for another adventure in
(44:09):
the macabre. Until next time, Pleasant dream
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