August 7, 2025 • 29 mins
The Sealed Book was a radio series of horror and mystery tales aired between March 18 and September 9 of 1945. The melodramatic series began each week after "the sound of the great gong," as the mysterious door to the secret vault is opened - wherein is kept the great sealed book, in which is recorded all the secrets and mysteries of mankind through the ages. Here are tales of every kind, tales of murder, of madness, of dark deeds strange and terrible beyond all belief." Scripts for The Sealed Book were by Robert Arthur, Jr. and David Kogan, who also created The Mysterious Traveler.
Hope you enjoy this episode of The Sealed Book! Find all of our radio stations and podcasts at theaterofthemind-otr.com - Audio Credit: The Old Time Radio Researchers Group - All Podcasts @ Spreaker | Apple Channel | YouTube Music
Hope you enjoy this episode of The Sealed Book! Find all of our radio stations and podcasts at theaterofthemind-otr.com - Audio Credit: The Old Time Radio Researchers Group - All Podcasts @ Spreaker | Apple Channel | YouTube Music
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
The seal Book. Once again. The Keeper of the Book
(00:35):
has opened the ponderous door to the secret bault, wherein
has kept the Great sealed Book, in which has recorded
all the secrets and mysteries of mankind through the ages.
Here are tales of every kind, tales of murder, of madness,
of dark deeds, strange and terrible, beyond all belief. Keeper
(01:00):
of the Book, I wouldn't know what tale we tell
this time. Open the great book and let us read. Slowly.
The great Book opens one by one. The Keeper of
(01:22):
the Book turns the pages and stops ah the strange
story of three people who ventured into a long lost cavern,
a cavern cursed by the ancient Aztecs, a tale called
I'll Die Laughing. Here is the tale I'll Die Laughing,
(02:38):
as it is written on the pages of the Sealed Book.
It begins in one of the big old houses on
Knob Hill in San Francisco. John Dayton, a huge, fat,
middle aged man, is laughing at a story that doctor Smith,
is personal physician, has just told him.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Say Doc, that's a good I remember that.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
You'd better remember the other things I told you too, John.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
I will, Doc, I will, Thanks for dropping in.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
That's quite all right, by John, Come by, John? Was
that the doctor?
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (03:19):
What did he say?
Speaker 4 (03:20):
Did he think the Disney spells you've been having with serious?
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Oh? Of course not, he said, I'd live to be ninety.
He just told me to stop working, start the office
and learn to take things easy. That's all.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
You have been spending too much time at the office.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
John, Well, I'm thinking of taking a vacation, a long vacation. Now,
please excuse me, Dear. They're summone upstairs and study waiting
to see me. John.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
Who is that horrible looking old man waiting up.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
There for you?
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Well, I'll explain that later, dear. Oh say, when Harvey
gets here, send him right up the study, will you
all right?
Speaker 3 (03:53):
John?
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Yes, Oh, Harvey come in.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Hello, Laura Young phone said he wanted to see me
as Ian. Yes, he's upstairs now, Oh listen, is it
about us?
Speaker 4 (04:13):
Oh? No, he doesn't suspect anything. This is about something else.
He is a perfectly weird old man up there with him. Now.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
Yes, I know an old prospect the named Ghip Big Gordon.
I send him to John, You said him, What do
you mean?
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Well?
Speaker 3 (04:25):
This Gordon came to the office last week, John was out,
so I talked to him. He told me a ridiculous
story about a lost Aztec treasure in a secret cave
in New Mexico. I knew it was just the kind
of thing that John would love. So I told Gordon
to come and see John here at the house, and
I warned him to be sure not to mention having
spoken to me. But why, Harvey, I want John to
decide to go looking for that treasure and to take
(04:47):
us along. I don't understand, Darling. John is like a
boy in many ways, but he isn't a complete fool.
He finds out about us, we'll both be out in
the coal yord, lose this lovely mansion and all the
things you enjoy. So and I'd lose my job as
lawyer for the John Dayton Enterprises.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
Oh I wish we.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
Could make a clean breast of it.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
Tell John we.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
Love each other in that and live in a garret
someplace on love and a crust of bread.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
No, Laury, It wouldn't work, No.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
No, I suppose not. What are we going to do?
Suppose something should happen to John an accident, Say, Harvey,
you don't mean, Harvey, Is that?
Speaker 5 (05:23):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (05:23):
John, I'm on my way up now. I've got something
right away, John.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Harvey, this is Gimpy Gordon a prospect here, Yippy, this
is Harvey Lewis, my legal advisor. Howdy, mister Lewis Harvey.
I've just paid Gimpy here five thousand dollars for a
map showing the location of a buried ass tech treasure
and a hunted cave.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
What yeah, better sit down on that one.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Haha. Well where is this treasure? Well, however, you've heard
of the Devil's Cavern, haven't you? Tremendous cave mentioned in
early historical records of the Southwest, but apparently lost the
last three or four hundred centries.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
Why yes, I read something about it. Supposed to have
miles of winding passageways in which a man could wander
for weeks without finding a way out. That's the one,
and I found it.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Well. The gist of the story is this. In fifteen
fifty four, a Spanish looting expedition led by a nobleman
named de Mendez had acquired a great wealth of jewels
and gold figurines, which de Mendes put into three small
brass bound chests. I see, go on John, Well, this
treasure just made de Mendez greedier. A story whispered to
him by an Aztec priest led him to Devil's Cave,
(06:44):
and de Mendez and his men entered the cave, only
to find out they'd fallen into a trap. While the
Aztecs attacked them and all were killed, but de mendees
he found his way into a great central cavern about
a half mile from the entrance of the cave. And
in that cavern is a natural chaff like a well,
the Devil's well, that's the name of it. Get bubbles
and gurgles and a way to drive a man may
(07:08):
take it easy, can't be taken easy, eh, Well, Harvey
de Mendez reached this Devil's Well, and when the Aztecs
closed in on him, he threw the treasure into the
well and leaped in after it himself. So the priest
sealed up the cave and put a curse.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
On it, a curse. Oh, come now, John, you don't
believe in that.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Oh, it's true, it's true, mister Lewis.
Speaker 6 (07:28):
The curse was that nobody who went into the cave
to get the treasure could ever get out again alive.
They was doomed to die there.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
I see. But you say you went into the cave
and came out again alive, so it can't be much
of a curse.
Speaker 6 (07:44):
Oh but it is, mister Lewis. It killed Pedro, my Indian,
and it's still after me. I wouldn't go back there
again if it was worth a mell.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
Assuming your story is true, how could anyone find their
way into the cave and out again?
Speaker 6 (07:58):
There's a stream marking the root, mister Lewis. Two months
ago me and Pedro found the entrance. We tied the
string to a rock and went in, letting it unroll
behind us. Took us a week, it did, to find
our way to the big room where the Devil's well is.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
But we made it.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Huh? And then what happened?
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Well?
Speaker 6 (08:20):
I had a hundred foot rope and some big hooks.
We fished around in the well for the chests, and
by and by we drew one.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
Of them up. You actually fished up one of the
treasure chests.
Speaker 6 (08:33):
Yeah, it was about so long and so wide and
six inches high. I shook it and we could hear
the jewels rattle inside of it.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Wear is it now? What happened to it well.
Speaker 6 (08:46):
When Pedro seen the chest, he grabbed for it and
tried to push me into the well.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Well.
Speaker 6 (08:52):
I ducked, and Pedro got hold of the chest when
all of a sudden he fell over into.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
The well with it. Or what did you do? Oh?
Speaker 6 (09:01):
I run for it before the cave and the well
could get me too. I followed the string back and
I didn't stop till I was outside. All the way
I heard Pedro calling to me for help. And now
now whenever I hear the well, I hear him too,
calling to me, still calling to me.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Well, Harvey, that's the story, and making all due allowances.
I think it's well worth investigating, don't you see?
Speaker 3 (09:33):
It is an interesting you on, John, and I think
it'd be a lot of fun to look into it.
Whether we find any treasure or not.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Good, then we'll do it, you and me and Laura.
It'll be a vacation for all of us. No, No,
what is it, Gimpy, what's the matter?
Speaker 3 (09:46):
He looks scared of that.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
The Devil's well. I hear it again.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
It's calling me.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Ah, come now, Gimpy, you're letting your nerves get the better.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
No, I hear it, I tell you listen. We don't
hear a thing, Gordon, It's just your imagination.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
No, No, I hear it.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
I hear it. Share me keep chair.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Well, I hear it. And Pedro's calling to me. He nonsense,
your imagination.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
He's going to faint.
Speaker 5 (10:31):
Yes, that's that's pay girl in the well. He's calling
to me. He John rabbing.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Good grief, he's dead.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
A And now to continue the story as it is
(12:42):
written in the Sealed book, the doctor's examination showed heart
failure to be the cause of Gimpe Garden's death, not
an ancient as tax curse. In spite of the tragedy,
John Dayton went ahead with his plans with undiminished enthusiasm. Laura,
his wife, protested, but Harvey added his persuasion to John's,
(13:04):
and at last she agreed to go on the treasure
hunt with them.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
A week later.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
Ever, ready John's car loaded with all the necessary equipment.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
Harvey, I've hardly had a chance to speak to you
all week before John comes and we start out.
Speaker 4 (13:21):
You must tell me what are you planning.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Why, Laura Darling. We're just going on a treasure hunt,
an expedition from which I expect to return with a fortune.
Speaker 4 (13:30):
A fortune from a lost cave.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
You're not serious, Oh, but I am. It'll be a
fortune that I can claim for my own after we return,
a very beautiful fortune. You, my dear Harvey, you don't
know what you're saying. When I do, it's the only
way out. That's what I had in mind when I
sent Gimbe to John in the first place. I've been
thinking for a long time that John would have to
(13:53):
have an accident.
Speaker 6 (13:55):
Harvey.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
I'm afraid you mustn't be.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
Just leave everything to me. I'll know what to do
when the time comes. When we get back, we'll be
able to be together always. Yes, yes, I know.
Speaker 4 (14:06):
But suppose someone suspects.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
No one will.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
After all, on an expedition of this kind of accidents
a bomber happen, no one will be able to prove
a thing against us.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
And just imagine, I guess Wilson and Dack Arnold will
look when we invite them over and show them a
couple of chests full of old Aztec jewelry. Their eyes
all pop right out of their heads.
Speaker 4 (14:46):
John, for heaven's sake, stop laughing anymore.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Oh, what do you mean? Stop laughing? Why? Laura, what's
wrong with laughing. I like to laugh, and when I die,
I hope i'll die laughing.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
But if you don't stop it, John, I'll die.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
After that, all three were silent as they drove. The
afternoon of the second day. They turned off the highway
and carefully following Gimpey's chart, threaded their way through a
series of narrow canyons until they reached a spot between
two towering cliffs beside a great black rock gaped the
(15:30):
dark mouth of a cavern. John directed the unloading of
the car that he led the other two or few
feet into the mouth of the cavern, until he found
there the end of a slender white string that led
into the cave, losing itself in the darkness.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Look, there's the string. Well as old Gimpy Gordon telling
the truth or not, certainly looks as if he was.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
We're not going to explore the cavern, now, are we.
Speaker 4 (15:57):
Let's wait until morning?
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Oh nonsense, my dear, Now as good as time as
any Harvey. You and Laura go ahead of your flashlights.
Laura can carry the rope, and you carry the food,
and I'll bring the grappling hook. All right, John, Ready, Laura,
I'll wait just a second. I gotta try this little
special device I've brought along to make sure we don't
get lost. A bottle with a sprayed top and the
colorless liquid in it.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Why don't get it?
Speaker 2 (16:19):
John?
Speaker 3 (16:20):
What's that for?
Speaker 2 (16:20):
I told you it's to make sure we don't get lost.
Now watch, I'll spray some of the ink in this
bottle on the wall of the cavern. There. Now, I've
sprayed a spot on the wall. Now shine a flashlight
on it.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
But I don't see a thing.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
That's because the ink is a special invisible type. You see,
the ink only shows up when you look at it
through special glasses. Now here, Harvey, put on these colored glasses.
All right, John, what do you see?
Speaker 3 (16:52):
Way?
Speaker 2 (16:52):
George?
Speaker 3 (16:52):
You're right the ink has a greenish glow when you
look at it through the glasses.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Ah, you see, it works. I'm going to use this bottle,
spray the ink and the walls of the cave and
it'll mark the proper passage.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
Oh John, you always have to amuse yourself with something
silly like that.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Don't It isn't silly. You'll give us a double check
and the right root so we can't get lost. Now,
you two start, I'll bring up the rear and every
ten feet I'll squirt a little of this stuff on
the wall. Then we won't have to worry about Gimpey's string.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
Uncertainly, the little party groped its way forward through winding
passageways that opened constantly into dozens.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Of other passages.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
They would have been lost in no time but for
the slender white string that led them ever deeper in
the echoing depths. Half an hour later they came out
into a great chamber far below the surface. Huge stalactites
hung from the ceiling, glistening damply in the beams of
their flashlights. They advanced a little way into the underground
(18:00):
chamber and put down the ropes and the other equipment
they were carrying. Hello, gurgling and moaning of water echoed
through the cavern.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
That's the sound, Gimpy mentioned, Harvey. It means we've reached
the devil's well. Look over here.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
Around opening in the floor of the cavern. Yes, this
is it all right, John.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Be careful, don't worry about me. Laura. You stay there
with our equipment if you like.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
See water isn't giggling anymore.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
No. Oh, but Gimpy said it came and went. Must
be an underground stream causing it. Say, Harvey, shine your
light down here. Let's see how deep it is hmmm,
one hundred feet at least, And to think there's a
fortune down under that water by George. Before we go back,
what do you say we drop the grappling hook down
and see what we can find?
Speaker 3 (18:46):
Now? Yeah, sure, all right, Johnall admit, I'm kind of
curious myself, Harvey.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Get me the rope and the grappling hook, William. We
may bring up one of those chests the first try,
of course.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
John. It won't take a second to try all that.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Laura.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
Have you got the rope there? Yes, right here, Harvey.
You're not going to do it now? Yes, yes, I am.
There's no sense in waiting. We'll be out of here
in thirty minutes, free to live our own life, just as.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
We wish it was tangled.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
John, I'm bringing it now.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Just keep it here, Laura.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
It'll be all over in a minute. Here's the rope, John,
and the grappling hooked too.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Oh fine, let's give me a hand with it, Harvey.
What are you doing? Just giving him the rope? John,
But not quite as you expected.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
Yeah, I try to move your arms.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
Well, you've bound my arms from my side. Harvey. What's
the meaning of this.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
I'll tell you what it means.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
John.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
It means that you're about to die.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
Die if you've gone crazy, you fool.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
Why do you think I arrange this silly treasure trip anyway?
Speaker 2 (19:46):
You arrange the way I arrange.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
That's what you think. But you're wrong. Old Gimby Gordon
came to me first with this ridiculous story, and I
passed him on to you, and you were to give
Laura and me a chance, the opportunity we needed to
get rid of you.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
Laura, is this true? Are you in this with Harvey?
This this murder plot?
Speaker 3 (20:03):
Hobby?
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Hurry please hurry.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Oh so it is true. You two brought me here
to kill me, and I thought, what a joke on me.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
You won't think it a joke for long. In just
a minute, Joe going down, and then well, John, story
will tell us that you got tangled in the rope,
tripped and fell in. If anyone comes to fish out
your body, John, it was an accident.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
If anyone comes to fish up my body, oh that's
a joke. Hervey. You don't know how good a joke
it is, but you will, you will make him stop. Goodbye, Joe.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
He love, he loved when you pushed him Habby. He
always said he'd die laughing.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
He did.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
Laura, put yourself together. It's all over now, do you
hear it's all over? Yes to Hobby, I'm all right.
Let's get away from here.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
Let's get out of here.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
No, and now to continue the story as it is
(23:05):
written in the Sealed Book, Lauren Harvey, with a guilty
feeling in their very souls, started back to the entrance
of the cave, following always the trail of the slender
white string. But their progress seems so slow, all too
slow in their hurry to get away from what they
(23:26):
were leaving behind in the Devil's well.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
Harvey, hurry, can't you go any faster?
Speaker 3 (23:33):
No, Laura, I don't did. If I tried to go
any faster, the string might break? And the what is it?
Speaker 4 (23:39):
Why have you stopped?
Speaker 3 (23:40):
Come to the end of the string.
Speaker 4 (23:42):
What do you mean you can't have We're not andwhere
near the entrance yet?
Speaker 3 (23:46):
The string ends here, It's tied to a piece of rock.
Speaker 4 (23:49):
No, no, it can't end here.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
It must be broken. Look for the other end of it. Oh,
here's the rest of it. Neatly coil upon this ledge.
And here's an envelope underneath it, a fresh white It
was John. It's one of John's jokes. That's it, quick.
What does it say? Dear Laura and Harvey? For some
time I have known what was going on between you too.
(24:13):
It's time you are both told a lesson. When old
Gimpy Gordon came to me with his story, I saw
my way clear to do so, and I have worked
out a plan, a plan that will be in operation
when you read this letter. This is my plan. As
we enter the cave, I shall send you two on ahead.
I shall follow and remove the string from the entrance
(24:35):
of the cave to the point where you find this letter.
After we have reached devils well, I shall contrive somehow
to slip away from you two, leaving you alone together.
You will of course follow the string back toward the
mouth of the cave. But when you come to the
end where this letter is, you will be forced to stop.
Speaker 4 (24:55):
For John plan this he wants to kill us.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
I shall be able to find my way in and
out of the cave by means of the special luminous ink,
which I shall spray on the walls as I go in.
My colored glasses will enable me to see the ink
where your eyes will see nothing. I shall leave you
alone in the cave for twelve hours, and if at
the end of that time you can still stand the
(25:21):
sight of each other, I shall cheerfully step out of
the picture, for during those twelve hours you should get
well acquainted with each other's true character, the beasties. You
ask why I do this, because Doctor Smith has told
me that at best I can hope to live not
more than six months, and under the circumstances, I don't
(25:46):
much care what happens. My little joke on you is
all the punishment I care to inflict. At least you'll
always remember that a man is not a fool just
because he likes to laugh a lot. Signed John Dayton.
That's all about Laura Holley. Hoby. Listen, he's laughing, Hobby,
(26:10):
he's laughing at this. I want to stop it.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
Laura.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
It's just your nerves. You've got to get hold of
yourself or we'll never get out of here.
Speaker 4 (26:15):
We never will, Hobby. That's why John laugh when you
kill him that's why he's laughing.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
Now, Laura, pull yourself together.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
He wait an't joke on this, And now he's laughing, laughing.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
We're going to get out of here, I tell you
we are.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
We're not, never in a million years are.
Speaker 3 (26:34):
I tell you the same way John planned to get out.
He marked the walls of the cabin with special luminous ink,
didn't he, Well, those marks will lead us out too.
You here, they'll lead us out.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
No, they won't. You have to have special glasses to
see it.
Speaker 3 (26:48):
Yes, but we'll go back to the well where we
left the equipment and get the glasses and then we'll
be all right. Oh no, we won't.
Speaker 5 (26:55):
That's why he's laughing, because he classes in his pocket.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
When you push, even the devil ray.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
And that is the tale of Vile Die Laughing, as
it is written in.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
The Sealed Book.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
For days, Lauren Harvey wandered through one corridor after another
seeking the entrance of the cave. John's laughter rechoed in
their ears as time and time again they ran into
blank walls. Weeks later, a searching party found their bodies
lying a scant hundred yards from the entrance of the cave.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
And now keeper of the Book.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
Before you close the great Book, show us the tale
we tell next time.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
This one.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
Ah, yes, why this is a It's the tale of
a mad killer who lived alone in a great country house,
that is, until two murderers came to live with him,
A tale called Design for Death. Be sure to be
(29:27):
with us again next time when the sound of the
Great Gong heralds another strange and exciting tale from the
Seal Book. The Sealed Book, written by Bob Arthur and
(29:48):
David Cogan, is produced and directed by Jack MacGregor.
The seal Book. Once again. The Keeper of the Book
(00:35):
has opened the ponderous door to the secret bault, wherein
has kept the Great sealed Book, in which has recorded
all the secrets and mysteries of mankind through the ages.
Here are tales of every kind, tales of murder, of madness,
of dark deeds, strange and terrible, beyond all belief. Keeper
(01:00):
of the Book, I wouldn't know what tale we tell
this time. Open the great book and let us read. Slowly.
The great Book opens one by one. The Keeper of
(01:22):
the Book turns the pages and stops ah the strange
story of three people who ventured into a long lost cavern,
a cavern cursed by the ancient Aztecs, a tale called
I'll Die Laughing. Here is the tale I'll Die Laughing,
(02:38):
as it is written on the pages of the Sealed Book.
It begins in one of the big old houses on
Knob Hill in San Francisco. John Dayton, a huge, fat,
middle aged man, is laughing at a story that doctor Smith,
is personal physician, has just told him.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Say Doc, that's a good I remember that.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
You'd better remember the other things I told you too, John.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
I will, Doc, I will, Thanks for dropping in.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
That's quite all right, by John, Come by, John? Was
that the doctor?
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (03:19):
What did he say?
Speaker 4 (03:20):
Did he think the Disney spells you've been having with serious?
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Oh? Of course not, he said, I'd live to be ninety.
He just told me to stop working, start the office
and learn to take things easy. That's all.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
You have been spending too much time at the office.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
John, Well, I'm thinking of taking a vacation, a long vacation. Now,
please excuse me, Dear. They're summone upstairs and study waiting
to see me. John.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
Who is that horrible looking old man waiting up.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
There for you?
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Well, I'll explain that later, dear. Oh say, when Harvey
gets here, send him right up the study, will you
all right?
Speaker 3 (03:53):
John?
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Yes, Oh, Harvey come in.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Hello, Laura Young phone said he wanted to see me
as Ian. Yes, he's upstairs now, Oh listen, is it
about us?
Speaker 4 (04:13):
Oh? No, he doesn't suspect anything. This is about something else.
He is a perfectly weird old man up there with him. Now.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
Yes, I know an old prospect the named Ghip Big Gordon.
I send him to John, You said him, What do
you mean?
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Well?
Speaker 3 (04:25):
This Gordon came to the office last week, John was out,
so I talked to him. He told me a ridiculous
story about a lost Aztec treasure in a secret cave
in New Mexico. I knew it was just the kind
of thing that John would love. So I told Gordon
to come and see John here at the house, and
I warned him to be sure not to mention having
spoken to me. But why, Harvey, I want John to
decide to go looking for that treasure and to take
(04:47):
us along. I don't understand, Darling. John is like a
boy in many ways, but he isn't a complete fool.
He finds out about us, we'll both be out in
the coal yord, lose this lovely mansion and all the
things you enjoy. So and I'd lose my job as
lawyer for the John Dayton Enterprises.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
Oh I wish we.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
Could make a clean breast of it.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
Tell John we.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
Love each other in that and live in a garret
someplace on love and a crust of bread.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
No, Laury, It wouldn't work, No.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
No, I suppose not. What are we going to do?
Suppose something should happen to John an accident, Say, Harvey,
you don't mean, Harvey, Is that?
Speaker 5 (05:23):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (05:23):
John, I'm on my way up now. I've got something
right away, John.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Harvey, this is Gimpy Gordon a prospect here, Yippy, this
is Harvey Lewis, my legal advisor. Howdy, mister Lewis Harvey.
I've just paid Gimpy here five thousand dollars for a
map showing the location of a buried ass tech treasure
and a hunted cave.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
What yeah, better sit down on that one.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Haha. Well where is this treasure? Well, however, you've heard
of the Devil's Cavern, haven't you? Tremendous cave mentioned in
early historical records of the Southwest, but apparently lost the
last three or four hundred centries.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
Why yes, I read something about it. Supposed to have
miles of winding passageways in which a man could wander
for weeks without finding a way out. That's the one,
and I found it.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Well. The gist of the story is this. In fifteen
fifty four, a Spanish looting expedition led by a nobleman
named de Mendez had acquired a great wealth of jewels
and gold figurines, which de Mendes put into three small
brass bound chests. I see, go on John, Well, this
treasure just made de Mendez greedier. A story whispered to
him by an Aztec priest led him to Devil's Cave,
(06:44):
and de Mendez and his men entered the cave, only
to find out they'd fallen into a trap. While the
Aztecs attacked them and all were killed, but de mendees
he found his way into a great central cavern about
a half mile from the entrance of the cave. And
in that cavern is a natural chaff like a well,
the Devil's well, that's the name of it. Get bubbles
and gurgles and a way to drive a man may
(07:08):
take it easy, can't be taken easy, eh, Well, Harvey
de Mendez reached this Devil's Well, and when the Aztecs
closed in on him, he threw the treasure into the
well and leaped in after it himself. So the priest
sealed up the cave and put a curse.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
On it, a curse. Oh, come now, John, you don't
believe in that.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Oh, it's true, it's true, mister Lewis.
Speaker 6 (07:28):
The curse was that nobody who went into the cave
to get the treasure could ever get out again alive.
They was doomed to die there.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
I see. But you say you went into the cave
and came out again alive, so it can't be much
of a curse.
Speaker 6 (07:44):
Oh but it is, mister Lewis. It killed Pedro, my Indian,
and it's still after me. I wouldn't go back there
again if it was worth a mell.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
Assuming your story is true, how could anyone find their
way into the cave and out again?
Speaker 6 (07:58):
There's a stream marking the root, mister Lewis. Two months
ago me and Pedro found the entrance. We tied the
string to a rock and went in, letting it unroll
behind us. Took us a week, it did, to find
our way to the big room where the Devil's well is.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
But we made it.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Huh? And then what happened?
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Well?
Speaker 6 (08:20):
I had a hundred foot rope and some big hooks.
We fished around in the well for the chests, and
by and by we drew one.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
Of them up. You actually fished up one of the
treasure chests.
Speaker 6 (08:33):
Yeah, it was about so long and so wide and
six inches high. I shook it and we could hear
the jewels rattle inside of it.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Wear is it now? What happened to it well.
Speaker 6 (08:46):
When Pedro seen the chest, he grabbed for it and
tried to push me into the well.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Well.
Speaker 6 (08:52):
I ducked, and Pedro got hold of the chest when
all of a sudden he fell over into.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
The well with it. Or what did you do? Oh?
Speaker 6 (09:01):
I run for it before the cave and the well
could get me too. I followed the string back and
I didn't stop till I was outside. All the way
I heard Pedro calling to me for help. And now
now whenever I hear the well, I hear him too,
calling to me, still calling to me.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Well, Harvey, that's the story, and making all due allowances.
I think it's well worth investigating, don't you see?
Speaker 3 (09:33):
It is an interesting you on, John, and I think
it'd be a lot of fun to look into it.
Whether we find any treasure or not.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Good, then we'll do it, you and me and Laura.
It'll be a vacation for all of us. No, No,
what is it, Gimpy, what's the matter?
Speaker 3 (09:46):
He looks scared of that.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
The Devil's well. I hear it again.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
It's calling me.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Ah, come now, Gimpy, you're letting your nerves get the better.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
No, I hear it, I tell you listen. We don't
hear a thing, Gordon, It's just your imagination.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
No, No, I hear it.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
I hear it. Share me keep chair.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Well, I hear it. And Pedro's calling to me. He nonsense,
your imagination.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
He's going to faint.
Speaker 5 (10:31):
Yes, that's that's pay girl in the well. He's calling
to me. He John rabbing.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Good grief, he's dead.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
A And now to continue the story as it is
(12:42):
written in the Sealed book, the doctor's examination showed heart
failure to be the cause of Gimpe Garden's death, not
an ancient as tax curse. In spite of the tragedy,
John Dayton went ahead with his plans with undiminished enthusiasm. Laura,
his wife, protested, but Harvey added his persuasion to John's,
(13:04):
and at last she agreed to go on the treasure
hunt with them.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
A week later.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
Ever, ready John's car loaded with all the necessary equipment.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
Harvey, I've hardly had a chance to speak to you
all week before John comes and we start out.
Speaker 4 (13:21):
You must tell me what are you planning.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Why, Laura Darling. We're just going on a treasure hunt,
an expedition from which I expect to return with a fortune.
Speaker 4 (13:30):
A fortune from a lost cave.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
You're not serious, Oh, but I am. It'll be a
fortune that I can claim for my own after we return,
a very beautiful fortune. You, my dear Harvey, you don't
know what you're saying. When I do, it's the only
way out. That's what I had in mind when I
sent Gimbe to John in the first place. I've been
thinking for a long time that John would have to
(13:53):
have an accident.
Speaker 6 (13:55):
Harvey.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
I'm afraid you mustn't be.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
Just leave everything to me. I'll know what to do
when the time comes. When we get back, we'll be
able to be together always. Yes, yes, I know.
Speaker 4 (14:06):
But suppose someone suspects.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
No one will.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
After all, on an expedition of this kind of accidents
a bomber happen, no one will be able to prove
a thing against us.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
And just imagine, I guess Wilson and Dack Arnold will
look when we invite them over and show them a
couple of chests full of old Aztec jewelry. Their eyes
all pop right out of their heads.
Speaker 4 (14:46):
John, for heaven's sake, stop laughing anymore.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Oh, what do you mean? Stop laughing? Why? Laura, what's
wrong with laughing. I like to laugh, and when I die,
I hope i'll die laughing.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
But if you don't stop it, John, I'll die.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
After that, all three were silent as they drove. The
afternoon of the second day. They turned off the highway
and carefully following Gimpey's chart, threaded their way through a
series of narrow canyons until they reached a spot between
two towering cliffs beside a great black rock gaped the
(15:30):
dark mouth of a cavern. John directed the unloading of
the car that he led the other two or few
feet into the mouth of the cavern, until he found
there the end of a slender white string that led
into the cave, losing itself in the darkness.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Look, there's the string. Well as old Gimpy Gordon telling
the truth or not, certainly looks as if he was.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
We're not going to explore the cavern, now, are we.
Speaker 4 (15:57):
Let's wait until morning?
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Oh nonsense, my dear, Now as good as time as
any Harvey. You and Laura go ahead of your flashlights.
Laura can carry the rope, and you carry the food,
and I'll bring the grappling hook. All right, John, Ready, Laura,
I'll wait just a second. I gotta try this little
special device I've brought along to make sure we don't
get lost. A bottle with a sprayed top and the
colorless liquid in it.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Why don't get it?
Speaker 2 (16:19):
John?
Speaker 3 (16:20):
What's that for?
Speaker 2 (16:20):
I told you it's to make sure we don't get lost.
Now watch, I'll spray some of the ink in this
bottle on the wall of the cavern. There. Now, I've
sprayed a spot on the wall. Now shine a flashlight
on it.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
But I don't see a thing.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
That's because the ink is a special invisible type. You see,
the ink only shows up when you look at it
through special glasses. Now here, Harvey, put on these colored glasses.
All right, John, what do you see?
Speaker 3 (16:52):
Way?
Speaker 2 (16:52):
George?
Speaker 3 (16:52):
You're right the ink has a greenish glow when you
look at it through the glasses.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Ah, you see, it works. I'm going to use this bottle,
spray the ink and the walls of the cave and
it'll mark the proper passage.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
Oh John, you always have to amuse yourself with something
silly like that.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Don't It isn't silly. You'll give us a double check
and the right root so we can't get lost. Now,
you two start, I'll bring up the rear and every
ten feet I'll squirt a little of this stuff on
the wall. Then we won't have to worry about Gimpey's string.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
Uncertainly, the little party groped its way forward through winding
passageways that opened constantly into dozens.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Of other passages.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
They would have been lost in no time but for
the slender white string that led them ever deeper in
the echoing depths. Half an hour later they came out
into a great chamber far below the surface. Huge stalactites
hung from the ceiling, glistening damply in the beams of
their flashlights. They advanced a little way into the underground
(18:00):
chamber and put down the ropes and the other equipment
they were carrying. Hello, gurgling and moaning of water echoed
through the cavern.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
That's the sound, Gimpy mentioned, Harvey. It means we've reached
the devil's well. Look over here.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
Around opening in the floor of the cavern. Yes, this
is it all right, John.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Be careful, don't worry about me. Laura. You stay there
with our equipment if you like.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
See water isn't giggling anymore.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
No. Oh, but Gimpy said it came and went. Must
be an underground stream causing it. Say, Harvey, shine your
light down here. Let's see how deep it is hmmm,
one hundred feet at least, And to think there's a
fortune down under that water by George. Before we go back,
what do you say we drop the grappling hook down
and see what we can find?
Speaker 3 (18:46):
Now? Yeah, sure, all right, Johnall admit, I'm kind of
curious myself, Harvey.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Get me the rope and the grappling hook, William. We
may bring up one of those chests the first try,
of course.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
John. It won't take a second to try all that.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Laura.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
Have you got the rope there? Yes, right here, Harvey.
You're not going to do it now? Yes, yes, I am.
There's no sense in waiting. We'll be out of here
in thirty minutes, free to live our own life, just as.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
We wish it was tangled.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
John, I'm bringing it now.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Just keep it here, Laura.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
It'll be all over in a minute. Here's the rope, John,
and the grappling hooked too.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Oh fine, let's give me a hand with it, Harvey.
What are you doing? Just giving him the rope? John,
But not quite as you expected.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
Yeah, I try to move your arms.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
Well, you've bound my arms from my side. Harvey. What's
the meaning of this.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
I'll tell you what it means.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
John.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
It means that you're about to die.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
Die if you've gone crazy, you fool.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
Why do you think I arrange this silly treasure trip anyway?
Speaker 2 (19:46):
You arrange the way I arrange.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
That's what you think. But you're wrong. Old Gimby Gordon
came to me first with this ridiculous story, and I
passed him on to you, and you were to give
Laura and me a chance, the opportunity we needed to
get rid of you.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
Laura, is this true? Are you in this with Harvey?
This this murder plot?
Speaker 3 (20:03):
Hobby?
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Hurry please hurry.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Oh so it is true. You two brought me here
to kill me, and I thought, what a joke on me.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
You won't think it a joke for long. In just
a minute, Joe going down, and then well, John, story
will tell us that you got tangled in the rope,
tripped and fell in. If anyone comes to fish out
your body, John, it was an accident.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
If anyone comes to fish up my body, oh that's
a joke. Hervey. You don't know how good a joke
it is, but you will, you will make him stop. Goodbye, Joe.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
He love, he loved when you pushed him Habby. He
always said he'd die laughing.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
He did.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
Laura, put yourself together. It's all over now, do you
hear it's all over? Yes to Hobby, I'm all right.
Let's get away from here.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
Let's get out of here.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
No, and now to continue the story as it is
(23:05):
written in the Sealed Book, Lauren Harvey, with a guilty
feeling in their very souls, started back to the entrance
of the cave, following always the trail of the slender
white string. But their progress seems so slow, all too
slow in their hurry to get away from what they
(23:26):
were leaving behind in the Devil's well.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
Harvey, hurry, can't you go any faster?
Speaker 3 (23:33):
No, Laura, I don't did. If I tried to go
any faster, the string might break? And the what is it?
Speaker 4 (23:39):
Why have you stopped?
Speaker 3 (23:40):
Come to the end of the string.
Speaker 4 (23:42):
What do you mean you can't have We're not andwhere
near the entrance yet?
Speaker 3 (23:46):
The string ends here, It's tied to a piece of rock.
Speaker 4 (23:49):
No, no, it can't end here.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
It must be broken. Look for the other end of it. Oh,
here's the rest of it. Neatly coil upon this ledge.
And here's an envelope underneath it, a fresh white It
was John. It's one of John's jokes. That's it, quick.
What does it say? Dear Laura and Harvey? For some
time I have known what was going on between you too.
(24:13):
It's time you are both told a lesson. When old
Gimpy Gordon came to me with his story, I saw
my way clear to do so, and I have worked
out a plan, a plan that will be in operation
when you read this letter. This is my plan. As
we enter the cave, I shall send you two on ahead.
I shall follow and remove the string from the entrance
(24:35):
of the cave to the point where you find this letter.
After we have reached devils well, I shall contrive somehow
to slip away from you two, leaving you alone together.
You will of course follow the string back toward the
mouth of the cave. But when you come to the
end where this letter is, you will be forced to stop.
Speaker 4 (24:55):
For John plan this he wants to kill us.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
I shall be able to find my way in and
out of the cave by means of the special luminous ink,
which I shall spray on the walls as I go in.
My colored glasses will enable me to see the ink
where your eyes will see nothing. I shall leave you
alone in the cave for twelve hours, and if at
the end of that time you can still stand the
(25:21):
sight of each other, I shall cheerfully step out of
the picture, for during those twelve hours you should get
well acquainted with each other's true character, the beasties. You
ask why I do this, because Doctor Smith has told
me that at best I can hope to live not
more than six months, and under the circumstances, I don't
(25:46):
much care what happens. My little joke on you is
all the punishment I care to inflict. At least you'll
always remember that a man is not a fool just
because he likes to laugh a lot. Signed John Dayton.
That's all about Laura Holley. Hoby. Listen, he's laughing, Hobby,
(26:10):
he's laughing at this. I want to stop it.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
Laura.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
It's just your nerves. You've got to get hold of
yourself or we'll never get out of here.
Speaker 4 (26:15):
We never will, Hobby. That's why John laugh when you
kill him that's why he's laughing.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
Now, Laura, pull yourself together.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
He wait an't joke on this, And now he's laughing, laughing.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
We're going to get out of here, I tell you
we are.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
We're not, never in a million years are.
Speaker 3 (26:34):
I tell you the same way John planned to get out.
He marked the walls of the cabin with special luminous ink,
didn't he, Well, those marks will lead us out too.
You here, they'll lead us out.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
No, they won't. You have to have special glasses to
see it.
Speaker 3 (26:48):
Yes, but we'll go back to the well where we
left the equipment and get the glasses and then we'll
be all right. Oh no, we won't.
Speaker 5 (26:55):
That's why he's laughing, because he classes in his pocket.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
When you push, even the devil ray.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
And that is the tale of Vile Die Laughing, as
it is written in.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
The Sealed Book.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
For days, Lauren Harvey wandered through one corridor after another
seeking the entrance of the cave. John's laughter rechoed in
their ears as time and time again they ran into
blank walls. Weeks later, a searching party found their bodies
lying a scant hundred yards from the entrance of the cave.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
And now keeper of the Book.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
Before you close the great Book, show us the tale
we tell next time.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
This one.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
Ah, yes, why this is a It's the tale of
a mad killer who lived alone in a great country house,
that is, until two murderers came to live with him,
A tale called Design for Death. Be sure to be
(29:27):
with us again next time when the sound of the
Great Gong heralds another strange and exciting tale from the
Seal Book. The Sealed Book, written by Bob Arthur and
(29:48):
David Cogan, is produced and directed by Jack MacGregor.
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