Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Lippant Tea and lipp and sup present in a sanctum mysteries.
Good evening, friends of the inner.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
This is Raymond, your host at the squeaking door. Come in,
won't you? We are shivering cold? Oh well, don't let
it throw you. Just remember that many are cold, but
few were frozen. Well our started to be different. Tonight
(00:54):
is about murder. Murder and a clock. So if you've
got a little time to till, let's do it now.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Huh, why, mister Raymond, nobody can really kill time?
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Well maybe not, but you certainly can frighten it, Din'jervy
here of an alarmed cluck.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Mister Raymond, some day you're going to choke on one
of those puns, and won't.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
That be nice? Mary? Then you can revive me with
guess what Lipton tea?
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Oh dear, must this go on week after week? Why
must I talk to the only person in the world
who doesn't know the proper uses of Lipton tea? Oh,
don't say that It isn't used to revive people, at
least not in the way you mean it. Of course,
lots of folks do find that Lipton's makes the day
seem brighter.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
Yes, it sort of.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Helps them through their housework, to sit down now and
then between meals as well as at dinner and supper
and enjoy a cup of Lipton tea.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
And the reason why Lypton's is so.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Satisfying is because of that one little word brisk b
r i s K. Tea experts say that Lipton's has
a brisk flavor, which means that it always tastes tangy, embracing.
It's never flat or wishy washy. So folks ask for
Lipton tea at your grocer's. You just don't know how
good tea can be till you've tried Lipton's.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Yes, and when you leave the grocer, step next door
to the clockmaker's shop and ask him for the Judas
Clock if he doesn't have it on hand, just to
ask him to give you the works. Yes, the title
of Tonight's story is The Judas Clock. It's an original
radio play by that old clock watcher Christopher Mayo. Now
(02:35):
a star is Barry Kroger, who plays the role of
Sebastian Packer.
Speaker 5 (02:45):
I'm a clockmaker. I carry on the profession my father
taught me in London. I like clocks all that is
but one. For thirty years, I've looked for a certain clock,
and a certain the clock is known to collect us
as the Judas clock, the man I swore to kill.
(03:08):
When there's a boy of fourteen, I closed my father's glazing.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Eyes and wiped the froth of blood from his lips.
Speaker 5 (03:17):
Last night I found the Judas clock. Tonight I may
have found the man.
Speaker 6 (03:30):
I'm told you're an expert clock repair man, mister Becker, madam, yes,
I suppose have.
Speaker 4 (03:35):
Well, I have a clock, rather.
Speaker 6 (03:37):
My husband has, and it hasn't run for years. Would
you have a look at it?
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Don't you bring it in?
Speaker 6 (03:43):
Heaven's no. It weighs five hundred pounds. One of those
huge marble things Italian renaistance, i'd say.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Marble Italian. Can you describe it further?
Speaker 6 (03:55):
Well, it's rather unusual black marble, heavily carved with biblical characters.
The ivory sayce has a beautifully yet scene on it.
But it's a gruesome one.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Gruesome What kind of a scene.
Speaker 4 (04:09):
It's a picture of a man hanging from.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
A tree Judas.
Speaker 4 (04:13):
His face is positively ghastly.
Speaker 5 (04:16):
The Judas clock I knew without seeing it. Why the
clock wouldn't run. It had been built in Italy for
a prince of the House of Savoy in fifteen ninety eight.
He conceived the idea when he discovered that his family's
treasures included the thirty pieces of silver of Judas Iscariot.
(04:37):
The clock was made to run only when the thirty
silver coins of Judas were in place in the clock's
hollow weights, fifteen in each weight. And the coins had
been in my possession since the day of my father's death.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Somewhere inside me, that clock.
Speaker 5 (04:56):
Still beats its deep throated song, and I have but
to close my eyes to hear again my father's voice.
Speaker 7 (05:04):
An evil clock, son is he evil? Is said in himself,
and it's cursed. It is a legend, and every man
who has owned it has died of violent and bloody death.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
Fix it.
Speaker 5 (05:23):
Oh, I'm sorry, I was daydreaming, right, Yes, I does
mister Arnold Arnold? Does mister Arnold know that you're having
the clock repair?
Speaker 6 (05:33):
No, We've only been married a few weeks, and I'd
like to have it working when he comes back to
town tomorrow sort of a surprime.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Yes, I see, and I'll be there in half an hour.
Missus Arnold.
Speaker 5 (05:49):
So last night I went to the Arnold house and
found the Judas clock again. I started to work foghorns
from the East River sounded much as I remembered they
did in London, and suddenly.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
I was back there.
Speaker 5 (06:04):
On a fateful day, about a fortnight after the clock
had been uncreated by my father. I was in the
shop when the man from Scotland Yard stepped in.
Speaker 8 (06:14):
He walked straight to the clock and stared at it.
Good afternoon, sir, mister clock interest.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
You very much? When did you acquire it?
Speaker 8 (06:23):
A cousain bought at an auction Italy, and I am
displaying it for saving consignment. My name's Pettybone, Scotland Yard.
He's been looking for this clock for a month. That
was stolen in Italy. Stolen, yes, mister Beaker, and worse
murder was done. Afraid you're involved in a bit of
something here, murder. I'm taking possession of the clock in
(06:43):
the name of the Crown.
Speaker 5 (06:45):
I shall never forget the look of horror on the
detective's face. A moment later, he laid his hand on
the clock's carving and it froze there, while his face
drained white and his eyes bulshed. He opened and closed
his mouth soundlessly, and crumpled to the floor with his
hands to his throat. He was still and twisted and
(07:11):
very dead. Mister Pettybone had died of a heart attack
the moment he took possession of the clock. I helped
Father drag him into the stock room. Father wanted time
to think, so I went to my room. I dozed off,
only to wait hours later the sound of angry voices Andrew, You've.
Speaker 8 (07:32):
Done me a frank tan, haven't you. I've told you
I didn't mean to kill the old girl. It was
an accident. Don't talk so aloud, boy, will hear us?
You killed it as soon as your land. She'd made
out a will in your favor. Then when you thought
it was safe to us all our vanishings and sent
the clock to me to sad.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Very well I did, drawing it to the ears.
Speaker 8 (07:48):
I'll go to the police all and how will you
explain poor stiff mister Pettybone lying in your stock room
all this while? I besides Timothy, there's nothing to fear
now Petterbone's gone. He was ill only one who suspected me.
Now you're the only one who knows I'll.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Create this cursed left monster tomorrow and you'll leave with it.
And will you also create mister pettybone. Hey, I have
a plan. Here. Sit down in this chair right here,
I will show you how we can solve the whole thing.
Speaker 5 (08:19):
My young heart beat with a wild dread as I listened.
I could only see Cousin Andy's back, but I could
see father seated dejectedly in the chair near the Judas clock,
his head in his hands. It was midnight. All the
clocks in the shop began striking the hour, and louder
than all the rest was the chime of the evil clock.
(08:41):
If only then I had known, I might have done something.
But the slow strokes beat on.
Speaker 9 (08:48):
Eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, and before my horrified eye,
as the heavy marble piece leaned slowly from the wall
and crashed across my father's back.
Speaker 5 (09:08):
Cousin Andy stood facing my father's The heart crushed his
frail form and choked him. He made pitiful sounds, his
eyes begging for life, and the murderer just stood as
back to.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Me, and what hundry sinners? You die hard? Because Andy
ran from the.
Speaker 5 (09:26):
Shop crying for help, he would claim an accident, and
I raced into the shop.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
My father was dead.
Speaker 5 (09:34):
I choked back my tears and I closed the poor
staring eyes. I took the coins of Judas from the
weights of the clock and ran from the shop, the
blood stained pieces jangling merrily in my pocket, Armed with
(09:55):
the notion that the coins were of value and the
definite notion that I must eat, I approached one of
the many dingy little curio shops in the Limehouse district.
I stepped through the fog toward a shop where a
dim light burned in the rear. Every inch of wall
and ceiling was hung with curios, old armor, swords and shields.
(10:21):
I would have run out, but a weezened apish man barked.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
At me from the rear, Eh, what you want? I
I have something to sell. What your gun?
Speaker 5 (10:30):
I have the thirty pieces of silver that belonged to
Judas's carriot.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
I'll twist a scrawny neck off your pulling me like, eh,
oh nos, how I'm not pulling your legs, sir. Here
they are silver, right now? Where'd you cop them? I
didn't steal them, sir.
Speaker 10 (10:46):
They belonged to my father in lightly tale. There will
you buy them by, and me says by him, get
out of me before I cause a bobby of skin.
Get out, oh, nor give me my coin, other right
to my button, fetch you a sound.
Speaker 8 (11:02):
One the ugly group came toward me. He held my
coins clutched in a tight, hairy fist. Before I could move,
he had struck.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
And I hit the wall with a clatter.
Speaker 5 (11:14):
And then it happened again, for the second time that night,
the curse of the Judas clock struck. As I hit
the wall, my eye caught a metallic glint above, and
the heavy object dropped from the ceiling. The man was
about to strike me again when the object struck his
head and remained part of him. He fell, his skulls
(11:39):
split in twol by a hangman's ax. I clamped my
mouth on a cry and pried the man's fist open.
The fresh blood made it hard, but I recovered the
coins that stumbled and through the shop, out into the night.
Speaker 11 (12:04):
And the fog of London never swallowed a more frightened
and lonely boy, that.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Nasty fog swallowing. A little boy that reminds me of
a little nursery Rhyme Hickory dickery dock. The mouse ran
up the clock. The clock struck two. God, it might
strike you.
Speaker 4 (12:33):
Heavens, I'm glad I don't own that terrible clock.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Or don't say that.
Speaker 8 (12:36):
Mary.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
Just think if you had the Judas clock, then time
wouldn't hang heavely, and you know it would fall, Honya.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Well, if it did fall and you rescued me, wouldn't
that make you a time saber?
Speaker 1 (12:48):
Well, Ell split my sides with an axe if Mary
didn't make with a joke.
Speaker 4 (12:52):
Couple a very little one, mister Raymond.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
That's true.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
But seriously, I do have something to say about a
time saver, and I'm thinking about lipton Tea. You know,
Lypton's is such a handy beverage. It takes a little
time to prepare, and it's always so welcome.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
Yes, Its famous brisk.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
Flavor makes it enjoyable not just at your own meal times,
but between meals and whenever folks drop in for a visit.
That's why it's a good idea to buy Lypton's in
the larger, more economical sized packages.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
The larger packages are much thriftier, so you see, it's
wise to keep on hand a really good supply of
that brisk flavored Lipton teeth.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Oh sure, it'll come in handy to warm up the
chills you get from these inner sanctum stories. And brother,
you're going to shiver plenty with Barry Kroger as Sebastian Packer.
As this story goes on about Judas Clock.
Speaker 5 (13:49):
I hadn't touched those horrible coins of Judas Escariot since
the day the star keeper was killed. By now I
half believed the legend that death followed him. I began
to feel that the only way I could escape their
curse was to find the Judas clung and put the
coins back in its weights where they belonged. One day,
as I read the notices in the Times, my heart
(14:12):
skipped a beat. It said, auction of clocks, a chirping place,
auction room Saturday at seven rare items, one of them
fine Italian Renaissance piece of black marble, rare treat for collectors.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Come early interested in something, young man?
Speaker 8 (14:32):
Why yes, well that is nothing in particular. Just looking
at these splendid pieces, I thought I might stay for
the auction. Look at that auction rooms start for a bit.
Yet I sauntered toward the black clock. My hand had
scooped all the coins from my pocket. I would have
to work fast and noiselessly.
Speaker 5 (14:51):
My sweating fingers began to unscrew the small cover on
one of the weights. I would soon have the coins
put back, as I thought, that's it.
Speaker 8 (15:00):
Off nothing, nothing at all. I was just examining, examining
my foot. You've got a flock of coins there. You
must have taken them from somewhere in the clock. Yes, no,
don't give them to there.
Speaker 5 (15:10):
Sometimes when things happened quickly, the mind retains details that
but otherwise escape notice. As the men and I struggled,
I dropped the clock's weight. It hit a short round
bit of metal directly below it. The man had a
vise like grip on my clenched hand.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Wretch, No, I'll wrench your hand or for you.
Speaker 5 (15:31):
I heard a hurrying sound within the clock, and before
my horrified eyes, the supporting panel at the front of
the clock's base slowly lifted on hinges.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
The clock was off balance and began to fall forward.
I screamed a warning.
Speaker 5 (15:48):
The auction man was dead, mashed to a pulp of
bone and blood beneath the clock. As my father had
been I rendered the door, hung out into the street.
I was right back where I had started, only now
I knew that my father.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
Had been murdered.
Speaker 5 (16:09):
My cousin and I walked for miles trying to pull
myself together. I wandered aimlessly, or so I thought, But
fate had traced my path before me, because I was
startled to find myself staring into the shop window of
(16:31):
a rare coin dealer named Megloroyd. I walked into the shop.
Mister Megloyd was a nice little man. He smiled a
bit quizzically at my firm belief that I possessed the
betrayal coins of judas I poured them onto's counter.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Oh, I see, you could be right.
Speaker 8 (16:50):
You know these are the right ear I say, suppose
they are, and let me put a glass to them.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Mister magloid. Will they be worth a great deal even
if they weren't they?
Speaker 8 (17:00):
Well, let me see, let me see, yes, gracious, yes,
they should be worth a great dealers collector's items alone.
Speaker 5 (17:07):
Well, mister Maglroy, I feel that there's something I should
tell you about these pieces.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
They yes, it's not important.
Speaker 4 (17:16):
Oh well, now just a moment.
Speaker 8 (17:18):
I have a catalog on this here in my show window,
I'll figure just a chiffy.
Speaker 5 (17:22):
With coins lay on the counter. I watched mister mglroyd
run down the aisle. As he approached the display window.
His foot caught in an electric wire which lay across
the floor. The lights went out and I saw him
pitch forward.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Mister Magel.
Speaker 5 (17:43):
The street light peered through the broken plate glass and
played across a grotesquely sprawled form in the show window.
I needed no more light than there was to see
what had happened. The upper half of the heavy plate
had broken and dropped flat against the solid lower half.
There was no need to ask how he was. No
(18:05):
guillotine could have done a Nita job. Mister Megaroyd had
no head.
Speaker 7 (18:13):
Whos the death can own the coins of Judas.
Speaker 5 (18:28):
Tonight I shall find out if mister Arnold is cousin Andrew.
If he is, I shall feel no remorse in killing
him tonight, because while working to repair the Judas clock
last night, I discovered how my father's accidental death had
been well conceived diabolic murder. When the right hand weight
(18:52):
reached the floor of the clock on the twelfth stroke
of midnight, it tripped a trigger which collapsed the base
of the clock and co to fall forward. My father
had died on the twelfth stroke at midnight. Have you finished,
mister Packer, No, Missus Arnold, I should have to come
back tomorrow night.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
What time do you expect, mister.
Speaker 6 (19:14):
Arnold, tomorrow about eleven, i'd say, Will you be.
Speaker 4 (19:17):
Finished by inn?
Speaker 2 (19:19):
I think so.
Speaker 5 (19:20):
I'll have to take these weights to the shop with me,
though that something has to be added to them.
Speaker 6 (19:24):
Well, of course, mister Packer. Mister Arnold will be so
surprised to see the clock running, won't he.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
He'll be very surprised, Missus Arnold.
Speaker 5 (19:43):
I've put the coins in their place within the weights,
not fifteen in each weight, but fifteen in one and
ten in the other. The other five coins are in
my pocket. Another pocket, I have a small thirty eight,
although I don't p to use it.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Eight o'clock and I have a thirty year old date.
Speaker 8 (20:10):
To keep good evening, Oh, mister Thacker, Yes, but I
I'm closing now, I see you are. My name is Arnold,
just came in from Chicago. Sorry to spoil your little
surprise or my wife's rather you ruh.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
You surprised her instead? Yes, she had to confess.
Speaker 8 (20:31):
I wanted to go out, so she had to tell
me about engaging you to repair the Junis clock. You
don't want it to repair by all means, I insist,
it's a splendid idea. But what I came for really
was to tell you that you and I have much
to talk about.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
Oh do we? Yes?
Speaker 8 (20:47):
But look close your place and bring along whatever you
need to fix the clock, and we'll talk about it
at my place.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
I'm all set, let's go. I think you will have
it fixed in time to strike midnight. Oh yes, yes,
it was strike at midnight. H Well, there we are.
Speaker 12 (21:12):
Mister Ronald waits her in place. Let's see exactly ten
minutes before midnight sets the hands and there's a little
shove on the pender.
Speaker 5 (21:26):
Them so, and the Judas clock ticks again.
Speaker 7 (21:33):
It's an evil clock, son, evenus satan himself.
Speaker 8 (21:40):
The Judas clock wakes from a thirty year sleeper. A cousin, Sebastis,
that's what I wanted to tell you. My wife told
me your father owned this clock in London Hill. Yes,
I was your father's cousin. You are Sebastian Packard, the
little boy who.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Ran away that night?
Speaker 8 (21:59):
Yes, I wonder how much you know of that horrible
night when your father was killed.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
Right, I know the clock fell on father.
Speaker 5 (22:09):
I heard the sound from my room and I I'm
so frightened, and I'm a rare steps in time to
see them.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Carry father away. He was all covered out, So that
was why I didn't find you in your room afterward.
Speaker 8 (22:23):
It happened so fast. We were sitting talking, the clocks
were striking twelve. Suddenly the base of the clock seemed
to cave in. And I know I bought the clock
in an auction a few years later, had it all fixed.
It's good and solid. Now I saw that. Yes, say well,
(22:45):
I I I suppose I run along now, cause Nandy
Ann's a consense. Let's make up for lost time and
get acquainted. Where come now? I have some fine old
port from England. Here I've sit down a while. No no, no,
not that chair.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
You know. This one's a lot more comfortable. It's a
funny thing.
Speaker 5 (23:05):
When you work with clocks as long as I have,
you will get to philosophizing about time.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
That's all. Oh well, here I sit by the big.
Speaker 5 (23:20):
Clock, just as my father said thirty years ago.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
You know how many seconds ago. That was, Cousin Andy. No,
do you well?
Speaker 5 (23:33):
Uh three hundred and fifteen million, three hundred and sixty
thousand seconds and ten years, that'd be uh uh nine billion,
four hundred and sixty million and eight hundred thousand seconds.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
In thirty years.
Speaker 8 (23:48):
You've got quite a mechanical mind, Sebastian. Yeah, try this part.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Thank you? Yes two.
Speaker 3 (23:59):
Father, m.
Speaker 6 (24:03):
Mm hmm, yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
What's the matter, Cousin Andy? Are you ill? Now? Your
face is quite drawn gray? Shut up?
Speaker 5 (24:15):
M hm.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
M hm.
Speaker 12 (24:21):
M hmm.
Speaker 5 (24:28):
Well, Cousin Andy, it's late. I guess I best go.
You know you do look awfully sick. Oh, don't get up,
man here, sit down and relax. Take my chairs the
more comfortable. You're shaking like a leave, and I just
sit quietly. I'll see myself out during sinners.
Speaker 8 (24:46):
Good night, Cousin Andy.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
A question, A question?
Speaker 8 (24:57):
Get it off for cousin Andy. You're joking to death.
You die too, don't you. It was just a metter
of timing. I set the hand a minute fast, and
the weight didn't touch your clever little spring device till
(25:19):
just now, because it's lighter by five pieces of PERSI
judas money.
Speaker 13 (25:31):
Rest easy, father, and he cast down pieces of silver
in the temple.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
And departed and went and hanged himself. Ah. Now, listen,
(26:07):
that's very.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Sad, but a fine chime was had by all.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
Anybody want to buy a large's grandfather clock. I'm in
the market for a sundial on south.
Speaker 4 (26:22):
A sun dial. My they are old timing, m say,
mister Raymond.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
If you're afraid of clock's the tick, why don't you
try to get hold of one of those old Egyptian
water clocks.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
Oh, Mary, Now you're going to tell me that when
tea time comes around, the water begins to boil.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
In the clock.
Speaker 3 (26:37):
Well, that would be quite an invention. But no, mister Raymond.
Right now, I'm not going to talk about lipt and tea. Instead,
I'm going to tell our listeners about an important job
that lies ahead, a fight that's far from finished. Yes,
the Battle for Japan. Our government says that this specific
war will be one of the most bitter and difficult
(26:58):
in history. Never before has the nation fought so far
away from its own shores. And to support this fight,
we at home must work even harder at our home
front activities. We must keep on buying more and more bonds,
and we must hold on to them. And above all
we must stay on our war job until the job
(27:20):
in the Pacific is over.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
Well, I'll leave you with a cheerful, timely moral.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
How that goes with to night's storry? No extra charge.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
Now you can figure out how many seconds you've lived,
all right, that's your past time. But you can't figure
out how many you've got left. That's just some time,
you know. I mean, well, I'll see you in just
six hundred four thousand, eight hundred seconds from right now. Hum,
(27:58):
that's next Tuesday night at nine a clock of course.
By the way, this month's in a Sanctum Mystery novel
is The Lucky Stiff by Craig Rice. When it's really
time to close out their squeaking door until next Tuesday night,
when Lipton Tea and Lipton's Soup bring you another in
a Sanctum Mystery directed by Hymond Brown.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
So until then, good night, pleasant mmm folks.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
If you'd like to give the boys overseas a real
taste of home, then why not include a package or
two of Lipton's Noodle Soup mix the next time you
send them a box of food. Yes, Lipton's has the
same homemade chicken ea taste is the soup you make
right in your own kitchen. That's why it's a thoughtful, welcome,
little gift to send Lipton's and as you know yourself,
(29:01):
Lipton's noodle soup makes a grand snack.
Speaker 4 (29:04):
So remember send the packager two to your boy and.
Speaker 3 (29:08):
Remember to tune in next Tuesday night for another Inner
Sanctum mystery.
Speaker 8 (29:18):
Miss is ABS the Columbia Broadcasting System