October 30, 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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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
(00:34):
has opened the ponderous door to the secret vault, 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
(00:59):
of the Book, I would know what tale we tell
this time. Open the great book and let us read.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Slowly.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
The great Book opens one by one. The Keeper of
the Book turns the pages and stops ah the strange
story of two scoundrels who would stop at nothing for money,
(01:33):
a tale called the Ghost Makers. Here is the Tale
(02:30):
the Ghostmakers, as it is written in the pages of
the Sealed Book. It is an autumn afternoon in the
ancient New England village of Wilton. In an old stone
house a mile from the town. Agatha Wainwright is serving
tea to her nephew Ned, and a little man. Ned
is introduced as Professor Piedmont, a friend who has come
(02:53):
to spend a few weeks with them while he works
on a book to be called Old Graveyards of Newing.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
So this is your graveyard friend looks like a man
who'd be happy staring at tombstones.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
They may professionating, steady, miss Wainwright, Now I'll.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Take your word for it, Professor Piedmont. Myself, I'd rather
read about them in a book.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
The professor not only writes books, Antie, but he's also
an expert on psychic phenomena.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Psychic phenomena, Oh you mean ghosts? Hmm, foolish fiddlefaddle dreamed
up by silly people without the brains to know better.
Speaker 4 (03:29):
Nor But miss Winwright, I assure you you.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Are wrong, nonsense. When a person's dead, he's dead, and
I see anything I'm willing to call a ghost, I'll
know I'm crazy, and I'll admit it.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Why, Antie, this very house is supposed to be hearted,
You know that rubbish.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
This is a perfectly normal house. I've lived here a
month and I haven't heard so much as a board squeak.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Her.
Speaker 4 (03:50):
But miss Winwright, it may be only because you're new
to the house and not yet since itized. It takes
time to become aware of occult influences.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
Stuff and nonsense. Who started all this talk about ghosts? Anyway?
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Here?
Speaker 4 (04:03):
Here?
Speaker 3 (04:03):
Now, let's have some tea, and no more talk about ghosts.
Speaker 4 (04:06):
Oh well, ned, Now that we are alone, suppose you'd
tell me a little more than you put in your letter.
I'm still not sure where you sent for me.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
All right, professor, this is the gist of it. Three
months ago, aunt Agatha's brother died, leaving her in estate
of four hundred thousand dollars, and I'm Aunt's only living relative.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
I see, yes, light begins to don.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Now wait, my uncle arranged as well, so that aunt
Agatha gets only the interest about twenty thousand a year,
and this house to live in. On her death, the
entire estate goes to charity. I'm cut off about a penny.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
I see your uncle didn't like you. Nid shrewd men,
very shrewd.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Yes, she was making sure I couldn't get my hands
on any of it. But that's where you come in.
If fat Agatha were to become shall we say ill,
mentally ill.
Speaker 4 (05:16):
So that she was incompetent to administer the estate.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
You mean exactly, if fat Agatha were to lose her
mind through shock or fright, who but me her only
relative would be the logical one to administer the estate for.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
You would then then you'd have the whole income for
as long as she lived.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Yes'm part of the principle too, and no ways to
manage it. But I've got to get my hands on
some of it before the end of the year. I'm sunk.
I owe little money of twenty five thousand. If I
don't get it quickly. Well, the people I owe it
to are rather short tempered.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
I understand. Yes, Nate, I remember when I knew you
in Chicago. You liked to gamble, didn't you. That's your affair. Personally,
I prefer to stick to my own profession creating ghosts.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Yes, I've heard of some of your jobs, professor, and
some of the ghosts you've created to order.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
Yes, I pride myself on having a unique occupation. Ned,
I believe I'm the only ghost maker there is, and
the ghost I've created have been effective too.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
So I understand now. What I want you to do
is this. I want Auntie frightened to the point where.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
She's I understand well, Ned, it's going to be difficult.
She's a tough, minded woman, hard to scare, hard to
drive insane.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
That's got to be done. Got to get my hands
on the estate. If you succeed, Professor, there's five thousand
dollars in it for you.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
All right, Ned, I'll try. It won't be easy, but
she may craig suddenly when the time comes that type.
Does you know?
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Good? That's settled. Then you've brought everything you are apt
to need.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
All my apparatus and gadgets are in my trunk to
be here tomorrow. I'm not altogether sure I like this job, Ned.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
I hope you're not going to turn moral on my professor.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
No, no, no, no, there's something about this place that disturbs me. Though.
You know, I am psychic at times, not altogether.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
A faker next to be scaring yourself with your own stories.
Speaker 4 (07:18):
As we were driving past that old cemetery this afternoon,
I suddenly felled the premonition and a chill, kind of
chill you're supposed to feel when you go near the
place you'll suddenly be buried.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
What was just the wind. We'll have to get you
some red flannels. Yeah, there's something that will give you
your courage back. Drink it down, ah, ey.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
It, that's me good. All the different kinds of spirits,
I prefer those in bottles.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
I thought you'd like it. Now let's go downstairs again.
We won't talk about ghosts anymore tonight, but tomorrow, and
I who knows what may him knocking at andack at
this door?
Speaker 1 (09:52):
And now to continue the story as it is written
in the Sealed book. The following evening, Ned and the
Professor joined Dantagatha by the fireplace where she sat knitting
outside of cold winter wind.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Blew. Oh, listen to that wind. We may be in
for a storm.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
We're in for an early winter. That's what The first
snow will fall any day.
Speaker 4 (10:17):
Now, it's good to have a fireplace to sit by
when the wind blows like that.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Here's the cider and donuts, ma'am very well, Ammy, bring
it right in, Ah, cider and donuts just what we
need in a night like this.
Speaker 5 (10:30):
Will you have a glass, mister Ned.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Yes, thank you?
Speaker 5 (10:32):
I mean, will you have some sided?
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Professor peede, ma'am professor, and he's trying to give you
some cider.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
Yah. Oh, excuse me. I was listening. I thought they
heard someone knocking on the front door.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Someone daking.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Well, there is someone there.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
Well, they can't be very anxious to get in. That's
all the noise they can make.
Speaker 5 (10:58):
Shall I go see who it is, miss Agatha.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
Yes, yes, girl, go see though I can't imagine who'd
be calling at this hour of the night.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Sounded like someone who didn't expect to get in anyway.
The timid child may be a ghost.
Speaker 5 (11:12):
Yes, yes, who is it?
Speaker 3 (11:15):
Why?
Speaker 5 (11:15):
Why?
Speaker 3 (11:18):
Well?
Speaker 5 (11:19):
There wasn't anyone there, No one there?
Speaker 3 (11:21):
Of course there was someone knocked, didn't they?
Speaker 5 (11:23):
But I opened the door and there wasn't anyone there.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
And who was knocking? Answer me that I.
Speaker 5 (11:27):
Don't know, But there wasn't anyone anyone. You can see emmy.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
I'll stand for no foolishness now.
Speaker 5 (11:35):
No, ma'am. But just the same, there's nobody at the door.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
Someone's playing tricks on us, and I'm going to see.
Speaker 4 (11:41):
Who it is.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
I'll come with you.
Speaker 5 (11:42):
You won't find anybody there?
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Yes, well we'll see. Well what is it? What do you?
Speaker 2 (11:50):
There isn't anyone here? Oh?
Speaker 3 (11:52):
But there was? They slipped away into the bushes, that's
what they did.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Yes, yes, of course, some small boys playing tricks.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
I suppose if I catch them, I'll tan their hides.
Speaker 4 (12:01):
Who was it, miss Waynewrex?
Speaker 2 (12:02):
And there's some boys playing tracks, professor, That's all it
could have been. Come on, Professor, drink your cider.
Speaker 4 (12:08):
Well, oh, yes, yes, of course.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
Professor, you look like a man who was listening to something.
Then what was it? No, no, I'm too old not
to know when a man is lying, Professor Piedmont, what
were you listening to?
Speaker 4 (12:23):
To the truth? I thought I heard voices?
Speaker 3 (12:26):
What kind of voices?
Speaker 4 (12:28):
Far away? Voices crying something I couldn't make go. Ah,
But it was just the flames in the fireplace.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
I'm sure it was, of course, that's all it was. Well,
what do you say we all turn in? This New England?
Are makes me sleepy? Hmmm?
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Knocks at the door when there's nobody there and voices. Yes,
it's high time we were all in bed instead of
sitting around here imagining such nonsensical things.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Highly Pleased with their first effort in creating ghosts that
didn't exist, Ned and Professor Piedmont went to bed, but
before they retired, they held a brief, low voiced conference
in Ned's room.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Professor, that door knocking act was all right, You did
it very nicely.
Speaker 4 (13:21):
Yes, snead in. Not a length of Blake's right runs
through a crack in the window station and it takes
the doorknocker can create a very setispectory ghost.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Indeed, now tell me what comes next on the program.
Speaker 4 (13:33):
Well, we can't work too fast. To morrow, the hired
girl Emil spread the story of to night's happens. The
whole town will start talking about it good and then
and to morrow night nothing happens. Mount Emmy is reassured.
But to morrow I'll be busy. I notice to day
there's an old, hollowed tree in the woods about a hundred.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Feet from the house, And what about it.
Speaker 4 (13:55):
I'll run wise to it, hiding them under the leaves,
and install a small loudspeaker. I'll conceal the microphone and
batteries behind the drapes in the living room.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
I see, so two nights from now we'll hear ghostly
voices exactly.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
They'll accompany the ghostly knocks from the door. But that
won't be all. There will be other surprises on the program.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Professor, remind me to tell you sometime that you're about
as unpleasant or rascal as I've ever met.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
The next evening, I got the Wainwright listened nervously for
a repetition of the ghostly knocks, but nothing happened. And
she regained her composure. The evening following that, however, as
she and Ned and the professor sat in the living
room around the fire.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Nine o'clock, the evening may just be starting in New York.
Here in Wilton, it's bedtime. Hmm. Seems to be someone
at the door.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
Mmm, so there is?
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Shall I go?
Speaker 3 (15:03):
No, Emmy can answer the door. She does little enough
to earn her money. Emmy, Emmy, Yes, there's someone at
the door. See who it is?
Speaker 4 (15:11):
Please?
Speaker 5 (15:12):
I must i, miss Agatha.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
Must you indeed answer the door? Emmy, I'd rather not, ma'am. Emmy,
see who is at the door.
Speaker 5 (15:22):
Yes, miss Agatha, I'm going. Who is it? There's no
one there. There's no one there.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
Again, Emmy, get control of your There's no one there
and needs someone playing tricks. That's all you hear?
Speaker 5 (15:35):
Emmy, Yes, yes, Missagatha, I hear, but I don't believe it.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
Go to your room.
Speaker 5 (15:41):
Yes, ma'am. I'm sorry, miss Agatha, but there wasn't anyone there.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
I hope I'm not going to have to discharge that girl.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Shall I go this time? Auntie? Oh?
Speaker 3 (15:53):
Ned? If the rascals play their tricks, whoever they are,
they'll soon stop when they see we pay no attention.
Speaker 4 (15:58):
I wonder if I could see them from the window.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Maybe we could trap them if we were to go
quietly out the back door and step around of the front.
Speaker 4 (16:08):
What was that someone calling?
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Really, I don't hear anyone.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
It's someone calling to us to let him in.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Strange. I can't hear it.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
You must have heard it, Ned, It was perfectly plain.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
There's some voices certain people can hear and others can.
If there's someone calling, we better take a look.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Come on, addie, we'll see what goes on. Who's there?
Show yourself, whoever you are the yard.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
It's perfectly empty.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
There is no soul in sight.
Speaker 4 (16:48):
Boots and knocking, and the voices seem too stoked.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
Perhaps we ought to search the yard and look down
at the edge of the trees.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
Lights, three balls of light moving around just above the ground.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
Three spheres of light, and give me luminous spheres of
common manifestations of spiritual presences.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
Nonsense, they're just too will of the wisps, that's all.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Whatever they are, we're going to see. Come on, Professor's
will soon.
Speaker 4 (17:12):
Yes, Ned, wait for me, don't scare them away.
Speaker 5 (17:15):
I want to see what they look.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
Like, Ned Ned. They're rising, they're floating away. But the
tree s.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
All right, Shall I get a doctor for you? Do
you want with a doctor?
Speaker 3 (17:26):
I'm all right, an old fool carrying on like that
just because of some will of the wisps or whatever
it was. I sha'n't do it again. I promise you.
Speaker 4 (17:35):
You need not be a shame, Miss Wainwright. And they say,
I'm much mistaken. We've witnessed a psychic visitation of a
kind unsuppressed in my susperience.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
Oh stuff and nonsense, Professor. You may believe in spirits,
but I don't. I never have believed in ghosts, and
I'm not going to start now. It was just that
it was well unexpected.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
In the days that followed, Ned Wainwright and Professor Piedmont
found it impossible to shake Agatha Wainwright's iron nerves. Emmy,
the hired girl, resigned in terror, but Agatha remained seemingly unmoved. Resolutely,
she ignored the ghostly knocks, voices, and footsteps that Professor
Piedmont's ingenuity devised. The whole town buzzed with tales of
(18:32):
her haunted house, but she refused to pay any attention
to them. After a month had gone by, Ned was
ready to admit defeat.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Well, professor, you're a washout and Agatha hasn't turned a
hair at your ghost now, Ned, I told you.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
It might take a long time. She's a very strong
minded woman. Believe me, anyone else would have cracked by now.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Well, she hasn't, and she's not going to.
Speaker 4 (18:55):
I still say it may happen all at once. She's
nervous and destruged, doesn't sleep well. Every evening she sits
listening for ghostly voices. She won't admit it, but she's
made up her mind not to believe in ghosts, and
I'm afraid she never will.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Well, what do you suggest. It's the middle of December.
I've got to get my hands on her money by
the end of the year and sunk.
Speaker 4 (19:14):
We must play our last card.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
You me.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
Do you mean she's fond of you? You're her only relative?
Speaker 2 (19:21):
What are you getting at?
Speaker 4 (19:22):
How would she feel if you her only relative would
die and come back here as a ghost.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
I don't follow you.
Speaker 4 (19:30):
My plan is simple. We'll say good bye to your
aunt and drive off as if we were going away.
Then secretly in the night we'll return to the house.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Yes, and then what.
Speaker 4 (19:41):
We'll see to it that she receives a phone call
from a friend of mine in Boston. He'll announce to
your aunt that you and I have been in an
automobile accident, that we've been killed.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
I see, yes, I begin to understand.
Speaker 4 (19:54):
Immediately after the phone call, we'll knock. She'll come to
the door and see us stand ending.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
There and having just heard that we're both dead.
Speaker 4 (20:02):
Exactly. If that doesn't work, need, we are defeated. But
it will be a strong mind, indeed that will stand
such a shock. A strong mind, indeed.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
And now to continue the story as it is written
in the sealed book. Two days later, Ned and Professor
Piedmont said good bye to Agatha and drove away. It
was starting to snow as they left, so they made
their way by a roundabout route to an isolated road house,
and there they spent the day waiting. After darkness had fallen,
(22:24):
they started back towards Aunt Agatha's house. By now there
was snow feet deep on the road. The cold blast
of the north wind made even the heated interior of
the car uncomfortable.
Speaker 4 (22:38):
Bou, I'll be glad when this is opened. At the moment,
you must be down to.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Cyril Ns at least, well almost there. We'll drive up
to within a hundred yards of the house and wait
in the car with a heater on What time did
you arrange to have that phone call made from Boston?
Speaker 4 (22:54):
At nine o'clock exactly, we wonder, not the instant after
she gets it right?
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Isn't that our turn there? I think so. This snow
makes it so hard to see that, professor look up
by going on the road.
Speaker 4 (23:12):
Head, ed, are you hurt my ankle?
Speaker 5 (23:17):
I'll be out of here.
Speaker 4 (23:20):
Come on, hurry, ned, I smell gasoline, call me catch
on fire, all right, help me out of the road. Yes, yes,
what happened. We skidded down a ten foot bank and
turn completely over.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
If you'd watched where you were going, it wouldn't have happened.
Speaker 4 (23:37):
I couldn't tell who was ice under the snow. I
would never mind that. We've got to get the shelter.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
And I think my ankle's broken. Yes, I can't step
on it.
Speaker 4 (23:48):
You can lean on me.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Where are we a quarter of a mile from Nagasis.
There's another house within a mile, and.
Speaker 4 (23:55):
Then come on, we've got to get there, quick lean
on me, help while you can. We don't get there soon,
we'll freeze to death.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
Half an hour later, numb with cold and scarcely able
to struggle, on Ned and Professor Piedmont staggered up to
Agatha Wainwright's house. The windows all had heavy wooden shutters
over them, shutters they themselves had helped Agatha put in
place to keep out anything that might come knocking at
the door in the night. But through the small pane
(24:35):
of glass in the front door, light showed as they
stumbled thankfully up the steps.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
Kevin, we're here. We couldn't have gone another.
Speaker 4 (24:46):
Hundred Georgia, all I'm almost frozy. You've got to get inside.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
Help me.
Speaker 4 (24:55):
All right? One more stip eh Ned the phone call
from Boston. What time is it now?
Speaker 2 (25:06):
Time like it's nine nine o'clock exactly, and not quickly.
Speaker 4 (25:11):
We've got to get in shape before that phone call comes.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
Inside. Agatha Wainwright heard the knocking, but before she could
go to the door, the telephone rang, and she answered
it first.
Speaker 3 (25:33):
Hello, Yes, this is welcome three one seven Boston calling
long distance. Yes, I'll hold on just a minute. Hello, Yes,
this is miss Wainwright speaking the Boston General Hospital. My
nephew Ned, what is it? What's happened to him? Dead?
(25:56):
An automobile accident, both of them killed. No, no, oh no, yes, yes,
I'm all right, thank you for letting me know. I'll
come in the morning. Ned killed. Oh no, no, no,
he can't be let me, yeah, let me, Yeah, Ned,
(26:18):
Ned's dead, he's been killed. Yeah, no, it's dead. That's dead. No,
you can't be Ned. Ned was killed, He's dead.
Speaker 4 (26:33):
It must be.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
The professor was right, there are ghosts. It's Ned's ghosts
out there.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
No, no, you can't come in.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
You're a ghost, You're Neds ghost. You can't come in.
Speaker 5 (26:49):
I won't let a ghost in here.
Speaker 4 (26:51):
I won't.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
The next morning, Ned and Professor Piedmont were found frozen
to death beside the house. But they made a vain
effort to pry open the heavy wooden shutters that covered
the window. You see, Agatha never did let them in.
She knew better than to open the door to ghosts.
(28:29):
And now, keeper of the book, before you close the
great book, show us the tale we tell next time?
This one. Ah, yes, why this is amazing. It's a
tale of murder. We're unexpected fiendish murder, murder of a
(28:50):
very different and unusual kind, a tale such as you've
never heard before. Be sure to be with us again
(29:19):
next time when the sound of the Great Gone heralds
another strange and exciting tale from The Seal Book. The
(29:39):
Sealed Book, written by Bob Arthur and David Cogan, is
produced and directed by Jack MacGregor,
The Seal Book. Once again. The Keeper of the Book
(00:34):
has opened the ponderous door to the secret vault, 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
(00:59):
of the Book, I would know what tale we tell
this time. Open the great book and let us read.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Slowly.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
The great Book opens one by one. The Keeper of
the Book turns the pages and stops ah the strange
story of two scoundrels who would stop at nothing for money,
(01:33):
a tale called the Ghost Makers. Here is the Tale
(02:30):
the Ghostmakers, as it is written in the pages of
the Sealed Book. It is an autumn afternoon in the
ancient New England village of Wilton. In an old stone
house a mile from the town. Agatha Wainwright is serving
tea to her nephew Ned, and a little man. Ned
is introduced as Professor Piedmont, a friend who has come
(02:53):
to spend a few weeks with them while he works
on a book to be called Old Graveyards of Newing.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
So this is your graveyard friend looks like a man
who'd be happy staring at tombstones.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
They may professionating, steady, miss Wainwright, Now I'll.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Take your word for it, Professor Piedmont. Myself, I'd rather
read about them in a book.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
The professor not only writes books, Antie, but he's also
an expert on psychic phenomena.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Psychic phenomena, Oh you mean ghosts? Hmm, foolish fiddlefaddle dreamed
up by silly people without the brains to know better.
Speaker 4 (03:29):
Nor But miss Winwright, I assure you you.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Are wrong, nonsense. When a person's dead, he's dead, and
I see anything I'm willing to call a ghost, I'll
know I'm crazy, and I'll admit it.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Why, Antie, this very house is supposed to be hearted,
You know that rubbish.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
This is a perfectly normal house. I've lived here a
month and I haven't heard so much as a board squeak.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Her.
Speaker 4 (03:50):
But miss Winwright, it may be only because you're new
to the house and not yet since itized. It takes
time to become aware of occult influences.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
Stuff and nonsense. Who started all this talk about ghosts? Anyway?
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Here?
Speaker 4 (04:03):
Here?
Speaker 3 (04:03):
Now, let's have some tea, and no more talk about ghosts.
Speaker 4 (04:06):
Oh well, ned, Now that we are alone, suppose you'd
tell me a little more than you put in your letter.
I'm still not sure where you sent for me.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
All right, professor, this is the gist of it. Three
months ago, aunt Agatha's brother died, leaving her in estate
of four hundred thousand dollars, and I'm Aunt's only living relative.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
I see, yes, light begins to don.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Now wait, my uncle arranged as well, so that aunt
Agatha gets only the interest about twenty thousand a year,
and this house to live in. On her death, the
entire estate goes to charity. I'm cut off about a penny.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
I see your uncle didn't like you. Nid shrewd men,
very shrewd.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Yes, she was making sure I couldn't get my hands
on any of it. But that's where you come in.
If fat Agatha were to become shall we say ill,
mentally ill.
Speaker 4 (05:16):
So that she was incompetent to administer the estate.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
You mean exactly, if fat Agatha were to lose her
mind through shock or fright, who but me her only
relative would be the logical one to administer the estate for.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
You would then then you'd have the whole income for
as long as she lived.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Yes'm part of the principle too, and no ways to
manage it. But I've got to get my hands on
some of it before the end of the year. I'm sunk.
I owe little money of twenty five thousand. If I
don't get it quickly. Well, the people I owe it
to are rather short tempered.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
I understand. Yes, Nate, I remember when I knew you
in Chicago. You liked to gamble, didn't you. That's your affair. Personally,
I prefer to stick to my own profession creating ghosts.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Yes, I've heard of some of your jobs, professor, and
some of the ghosts you've created to order.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
Yes, I pride myself on having a unique occupation. Ned,
I believe I'm the only ghost maker there is, and
the ghost I've created have been effective too.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
So I understand now. What I want you to do
is this. I want Auntie frightened to the point where.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
She's I understand well, Ned, it's going to be difficult.
She's a tough, minded woman, hard to scare, hard to
drive insane.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
That's got to be done. Got to get my hands
on the estate. If you succeed, Professor, there's five thousand
dollars in it for you.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
All right, Ned, I'll try. It won't be easy, but
she may craig suddenly when the time comes that type.
Does you know?
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Good? That's settled. Then you've brought everything you are apt
to need.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
All my apparatus and gadgets are in my trunk to
be here tomorrow. I'm not altogether sure I like this job, Ned.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
I hope you're not going to turn moral on my professor.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
No, no, no, no, there's something about this place that disturbs me. Though.
You know, I am psychic at times, not altogether.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
A faker next to be scaring yourself with your own stories.
Speaker 4 (07:18):
As we were driving past that old cemetery this afternoon,
I suddenly felled the premonition and a chill, kind of
chill you're supposed to feel when you go near the
place you'll suddenly be buried.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
What was just the wind. We'll have to get you
some red flannels. Yeah, there's something that will give you
your courage back. Drink it down, ah, ey.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
It, that's me good. All the different kinds of spirits,
I prefer those in bottles.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
I thought you'd like it. Now let's go downstairs again.
We won't talk about ghosts anymore tonight, but tomorrow, and
I who knows what may him knocking at andack at
this door?
Speaker 1 (09:52):
And now to continue the story as it is written
in the Sealed book. The following evening, Ned and the
Professor joined Dantagatha by the fireplace where she sat knitting
outside of cold winter wind.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Blew. Oh, listen to that wind. We may be in
for a storm.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
We're in for an early winter. That's what The first
snow will fall any day.
Speaker 4 (10:17):
Now, it's good to have a fireplace to sit by
when the wind blows like that.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Here's the cider and donuts, ma'am very well, Ammy, bring
it right in, Ah, cider and donuts just what we
need in a night like this.
Speaker 5 (10:30):
Will you have a glass, mister Ned.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Yes, thank you?
Speaker 5 (10:32):
I mean, will you have some sided?
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Professor peede, ma'am professor, and he's trying to give you
some cider.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
Yah. Oh, excuse me. I was listening. I thought they
heard someone knocking on the front door.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Someone daking.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Well, there is someone there.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
Well, they can't be very anxious to get in. That's
all the noise they can make.
Speaker 5 (10:58):
Shall I go see who it is, miss Agatha.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
Yes, yes, girl, go see though I can't imagine who'd
be calling at this hour of the night.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Sounded like someone who didn't expect to get in anyway.
The timid child may be a ghost.
Speaker 5 (11:12):
Yes, yes, who is it?
Speaker 3 (11:15):
Why?
Speaker 5 (11:15):
Why?
Speaker 3 (11:18):
Well?
Speaker 5 (11:19):
There wasn't anyone there, No one there?
Speaker 3 (11:21):
Of course there was someone knocked, didn't they?
Speaker 5 (11:23):
But I opened the door and there wasn't anyone there.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
And who was knocking? Answer me that I.
Speaker 5 (11:27):
Don't know, But there wasn't anyone anyone. You can see emmy.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
I'll stand for no foolishness now.
Speaker 5 (11:35):
No, ma'am. But just the same, there's nobody at the door.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
Someone's playing tricks on us, and I'm going to see.
Speaker 4 (11:41):
Who it is.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
I'll come with you.
Speaker 5 (11:42):
You won't find anybody there?
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Yes, well we'll see. Well what is it? What do you?
Speaker 2 (11:50):
There isn't anyone here? Oh?
Speaker 3 (11:52):
But there was? They slipped away into the bushes, that's
what they did.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Yes, yes, of course, some small boys playing tricks.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
I suppose if I catch them, I'll tan their hides.
Speaker 4 (12:01):
Who was it, miss Waynewrex?
Speaker 2 (12:02):
And there's some boys playing tracks, professor, That's all it
could have been. Come on, Professor, drink your cider.
Speaker 4 (12:08):
Well, oh, yes, yes, of course.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
Professor, you look like a man who was listening to something.
Then what was it? No, no, I'm too old not
to know when a man is lying, Professor Piedmont, what
were you listening to?
Speaker 4 (12:23):
To the truth? I thought I heard voices?
Speaker 3 (12:26):
What kind of voices?
Speaker 4 (12:28):
Far away? Voices crying something I couldn't make go. Ah,
But it was just the flames in the fireplace.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
I'm sure it was, of course, that's all it was. Well,
what do you say we all turn in? This New England?
Are makes me sleepy? Hmmm?
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Knocks at the door when there's nobody there and voices. Yes,
it's high time we were all in bed instead of
sitting around here imagining such nonsensical things.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Highly Pleased with their first effort in creating ghosts that
didn't exist, Ned and Professor Piedmont went to bed, but
before they retired, they held a brief, low voiced conference
in Ned's room.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Professor, that door knocking act was all right, You did
it very nicely.
Speaker 4 (13:21):
Yes, snead in. Not a length of Blake's right runs
through a crack in the window station and it takes
the doorknocker can create a very setispectory ghost.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Indeed, now tell me what comes next on the program.
Speaker 4 (13:33):
Well, we can't work too fast. To morrow, the hired
girl Emil spread the story of to night's happens. The
whole town will start talking about it good and then
and to morrow night nothing happens. Mount Emmy is reassured.
But to morrow I'll be busy. I notice to day
there's an old, hollowed tree in the woods about a hundred.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Feet from the house, And what about it.
Speaker 4 (13:55):
I'll run wise to it, hiding them under the leaves,
and install a small loudspeaker. I'll conceal the microphone and
batteries behind the drapes in the living room.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
I see, so two nights from now we'll hear ghostly
voices exactly.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
They'll accompany the ghostly knocks from the door. But that
won't be all. There will be other surprises on the program.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Professor, remind me to tell you sometime that you're about
as unpleasant or rascal as I've ever met.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
The next evening, I got the Wainwright listened nervously for
a repetition of the ghostly knocks, but nothing happened. And
she regained her composure. The evening following that, however, as
she and Ned and the professor sat in the living
room around the fire.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Nine o'clock, the evening may just be starting in New York.
Here in Wilton, it's bedtime. Hmm. Seems to be someone
at the door.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
Mmm, so there is?
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Shall I go?
Speaker 3 (15:03):
No, Emmy can answer the door. She does little enough
to earn her money. Emmy, Emmy, Yes, there's someone at
the door. See who it is?
Speaker 4 (15:11):
Please?
Speaker 5 (15:12):
I must i, miss Agatha.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
Must you indeed answer the door? Emmy, I'd rather not, ma'am. Emmy,
see who is at the door.
Speaker 5 (15:22):
Yes, miss Agatha, I'm going. Who is it? There's no
one there. There's no one there.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
Again, Emmy, get control of your There's no one there
and needs someone playing tricks. That's all you hear?
Speaker 5 (15:35):
Emmy, Yes, yes, Missagatha, I hear, but I don't believe it.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
Go to your room.
Speaker 5 (15:41):
Yes, ma'am. I'm sorry, miss Agatha, but there wasn't anyone there.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
I hope I'm not going to have to discharge that girl.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Shall I go this time? Auntie? Oh?
Speaker 3 (15:53):
Ned? If the rascals play their tricks, whoever they are,
they'll soon stop when they see we pay no attention.
Speaker 4 (15:58):
I wonder if I could see them from the window.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Maybe we could trap them if we were to go
quietly out the back door and step around of the front.
Speaker 4 (16:08):
What was that someone calling?
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Really, I don't hear anyone.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
It's someone calling to us to let him in.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Strange. I can't hear it.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
You must have heard it, Ned, It was perfectly plain.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
There's some voices certain people can hear and others can.
If there's someone calling, we better take a look.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Come on, addie, we'll see what goes on. Who's there?
Show yourself, whoever you are the yard.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
It's perfectly empty.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
There is no soul in sight.
Speaker 4 (16:48):
Boots and knocking, and the voices seem too stoked.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
Perhaps we ought to search the yard and look down
at the edge of the trees.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
Lights, three balls of light moving around just above the ground.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
Three spheres of light, and give me luminous spheres of
common manifestations of spiritual presences.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
Nonsense, they're just too will of the wisps, that's all.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Whatever they are, we're going to see. Come on, Professor's
will soon.
Speaker 4 (17:12):
Yes, Ned, wait for me, don't scare them away.
Speaker 5 (17:15):
I want to see what they look.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
Like, Ned Ned. They're rising, they're floating away. But the
tree s.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
All right, Shall I get a doctor for you? Do
you want with a doctor?
Speaker 3 (17:26):
I'm all right, an old fool carrying on like that
just because of some will of the wisps or whatever
it was. I sha'n't do it again. I promise you.
Speaker 4 (17:35):
You need not be a shame, Miss Wainwright. And they say,
I'm much mistaken. We've witnessed a psychic visitation of a
kind unsuppressed in my susperience.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
Oh stuff and nonsense, Professor. You may believe in spirits,
but I don't. I never have believed in ghosts, and
I'm not going to start now. It was just that
it was well unexpected.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
In the days that followed, Ned Wainwright and Professor Piedmont
found it impossible to shake Agatha Wainwright's iron nerves. Emmy,
the hired girl, resigned in terror, but Agatha remained seemingly unmoved. Resolutely,
she ignored the ghostly knocks, voices, and footsteps that Professor
Piedmont's ingenuity devised. The whole town buzzed with tales of
(18:32):
her haunted house, but she refused to pay any attention
to them. After a month had gone by, Ned was
ready to admit defeat.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Well, professor, you're a washout and Agatha hasn't turned a
hair at your ghost now, Ned, I told you.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
It might take a long time. She's a very strong
minded woman. Believe me, anyone else would have cracked by now.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Well, she hasn't, and she's not going to.
Speaker 4 (18:55):
I still say it may happen all at once. She's
nervous and destruged, doesn't sleep well. Every evening she sits
listening for ghostly voices. She won't admit it, but she's
made up her mind not to believe in ghosts, and
I'm afraid she never will.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Well, what do you suggest. It's the middle of December.
I've got to get my hands on her money by
the end of the year and sunk.
Speaker 4 (19:14):
We must play our last card.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
You me.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
Do you mean she's fond of you? You're her only relative?
Speaker 2 (19:21):
What are you getting at?
Speaker 4 (19:22):
How would she feel if you her only relative would
die and come back here as a ghost.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
I don't follow you.
Speaker 4 (19:30):
My plan is simple. We'll say good bye to your
aunt and drive off as if we were going away.
Then secretly in the night we'll return to the house.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Yes, and then what.
Speaker 4 (19:41):
We'll see to it that she receives a phone call
from a friend of mine in Boston. He'll announce to
your aunt that you and I have been in an
automobile accident, that we've been killed.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
I see, yes, I begin to understand.
Speaker 4 (19:54):
Immediately after the phone call, we'll knock. She'll come to
the door and see us stand ending.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
There and having just heard that we're both dead.
Speaker 4 (20:02):
Exactly. If that doesn't work, need, we are defeated. But
it will be a strong mind, indeed that will stand
such a shock. A strong mind, indeed.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
And now to continue the story as it is written
in the sealed book. Two days later, Ned and Professor
Piedmont said good bye to Agatha and drove away. It
was starting to snow as they left, so they made
their way by a roundabout route to an isolated road house,
and there they spent the day waiting. After darkness had fallen,
(22:24):
they started back towards Aunt Agatha's house. By now there
was snow feet deep on the road. The cold blast
of the north wind made even the heated interior of
the car uncomfortable.
Speaker 4 (22:38):
Bou, I'll be glad when this is opened. At the moment,
you must be down to.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Cyril Ns at least, well almost there. We'll drive up
to within a hundred yards of the house and wait
in the car with a heater on What time did
you arrange to have that phone call made from Boston?
Speaker 4 (22:54):
At nine o'clock exactly, we wonder, not the instant after
she gets it right?
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Isn't that our turn there? I think so. This snow
makes it so hard to see that, professor look up
by going on the road.
Speaker 4 (23:12):
Head, ed, are you hurt my ankle?
Speaker 5 (23:17):
I'll be out of here.
Speaker 4 (23:20):
Come on, hurry, ned, I smell gasoline, call me catch
on fire, all right, help me out of the road. Yes, yes,
what happened. We skidded down a ten foot bank and
turn completely over.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
If you'd watched where you were going, it wouldn't have happened.
Speaker 4 (23:37):
I couldn't tell who was ice under the snow. I
would never mind that. We've got to get the shelter.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
And I think my ankle's broken. Yes, I can't step
on it.
Speaker 4 (23:48):
You can lean on me.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Where are we a quarter of a mile from Nagasis.
There's another house within a mile, and.
Speaker 4 (23:55):
Then come on, we've got to get there, quick lean
on me, help while you can. We don't get there soon,
we'll freeze to death.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
Half an hour later, numb with cold and scarcely able
to struggle, on Ned and Professor Piedmont staggered up to
Agatha Wainwright's house. The windows all had heavy wooden shutters
over them, shutters they themselves had helped Agatha put in
place to keep out anything that might come knocking at
the door in the night. But through the small pane
(24:35):
of glass in the front door, light showed as they
stumbled thankfully up the steps.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
Kevin, we're here. We couldn't have gone another.
Speaker 4 (24:46):
Hundred Georgia, all I'm almost frozy. You've got to get inside.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
Help me.
Speaker 4 (24:55):
All right? One more stip eh Ned the phone call
from Boston. What time is it now?
Speaker 2 (25:06):
Time like it's nine nine o'clock exactly, and not quickly.
Speaker 4 (25:11):
We've got to get in shape before that phone call comes.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
Inside. Agatha Wainwright heard the knocking, but before she could
go to the door, the telephone rang, and she answered
it first.
Speaker 3 (25:33):
Hello, Yes, this is welcome three one seven Boston calling
long distance. Yes, I'll hold on just a minute. Hello, Yes,
this is miss Wainwright speaking the Boston General Hospital. My
nephew Ned, what is it? What's happened to him? Dead?
(25:56):
An automobile accident, both of them killed. No, no, oh no, yes, yes,
I'm all right, thank you for letting me know. I'll
come in the morning. Ned killed. Oh no, no, no,
he can't be let me, yeah, let me, Yeah, Ned,
(26:18):
Ned's dead, he's been killed. Yeah, no, it's dead. That's dead. No,
you can't be Ned. Ned was killed, He's dead.
Speaker 4 (26:33):
It must be.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
The professor was right, there are ghosts. It's Ned's ghosts
out there.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
No, no, you can't come in.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
You're a ghost, You're Neds ghost. You can't come in.
Speaker 5 (26:49):
I won't let a ghost in here.
Speaker 4 (26:51):
I won't.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
The next morning, Ned and Professor Piedmont were found frozen
to death beside the house. But they made a vain
effort to pry open the heavy wooden shutters that covered
the window. You see, Agatha never did let them in.
She knew better than to open the door to ghosts.
(28:29):
And now, keeper of the book, before you close the
great book, show us the tale we tell next time?
This one. Ah, yes, why this is amazing. It's a
tale of murder. We're unexpected fiendish murder, murder of a
(28:50):
very different and unusual kind, a tale such as you've
never heard before. Be sure to be with us again
(29:19):
next time when the sound of the Great Gone heralds
another strange and exciting tale from The Seal Book. The
(29:39):
Sealed Book, written by Bob Arthur and David Cogan, is
produced and directed by Jack MacGregor,
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