September 11, 2024 • 29 mins
Hope you enjoy this episode of Dark Fantasy! Find all our OTR radio stations and podcasts at theaterofthemind-otr.com - Dark Fantasy was an old-time radio horror/suspense thriller series that ran for only 31 episodes during 1941-1942. Every story in the series explored the mysteries of the unknown. The episodes ranged from murder mysteries to science fiction to spine-tingling supernatural tales. Scott Bishop, known for his work on The Mysterious Traveler and The Sealed Book, expertly merged the supernatural with science fiction. Dark Fantasy is remembered for drawing significant interest to the horror genre during the golden age of radio.- Thank you for listening, consider a donation to help keep the OTR radio stations commercial-free: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/jared.day.oldtimeradio - Audio Credit: The Old Time Radio Researchers Group. Licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 - Find all the podcasts, download free - Spreaker | Apple Podcasts | YouTube Music
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
M dark.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
And see I am your brother.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
You must not forget it.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
The first appearance of bleeding some days following operation is
of the utmost significance to the surgeon. It will almost
invariably be of recurrence unless measures are taken to prevent it,
and it will ultimately prove fatal. The vessels most commonly
affected are the lingual, the fatial, and the internal maxillary arteries.
(01:00):
Unless this offending vessel can be isolated, Mister Briggs, it
behooves me to pause in the middle of this lecture
to remind you of one important thing apparently not important
to you, but extremely important to me.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
I have been paid as high.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
As fifteen hundred dollars an hour for lecturing on the
after treatment of surgic ovasions. I lecture here for the
College medical class free of charge. I at least expect
the courtesy of attention. I do not expect my students
to tagulate their mega bank accounts while I am making
every effort to instill some portion of physical knowledge into that.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Thick covered graniums.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Apparently mentally you are tabulating your money in the bank. Gentlemen,
I regret that the lecture this morning will not be
continued dismissed.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Yes, electural resources.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Stupidity, nothing but stupidity, Julius, trying to teach those idiots
the secrets of surgery is like trying to drill the
Alzonian theory into a two year old.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Sit down, Julius, your tired, I'm tired. I'm simply exasperated.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
Let's come over you, Julius, you've suddenly become so well
so cantankerous since the death of Stephen Hamblen.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
I know, Carl, I know he was very close to you,
wasn't he close. I wonder if anyone knew how close.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
I wonder if any with you. You've known him ever.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
Since he was born, Yes, ever since he was a
mere child. I remember when he first came here to
the university. He didn't impress me as all the others did.
There was no eagerness about him to learn. He seemed
to have no ambitions to learn near. These grades were
the highest that have ever been made in the history
of our institutions.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Yes, just so, that's a pity that he had to die.
Speaker 4 (02:59):
Perhaps, perhaps, Julius, all of us naturally expected you to
be quite shocked to hear Stephan Hamlin's passing.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
But you foolish completely.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
But you didn't seem the least bit startled when we
broke the news to you, know you you seemed almost
almost glad, did I, doctor Miller?
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Yes, doctor Semek, because the party had been cremated.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
Yes, this morning, when my directions carried off to the
letter Julius, the brain of Stephan Hamblin was removed.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
I myself makes the solution you gave me.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
I submerged the brain into the solution and removed the
air from the container first.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
It now in my laboratory.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
It's a perfect specimen, the best developed human brain I've
ever seen.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Doctor. Take me to it now, yes, take me to it.
But haven't you never elected?
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Ju don't argue with me. Take me to your laboratory.
Why must I go alone?
Speaker 4 (03:55):
But well, of course, Julius, of course, this way I
have the second solution at the boiling corn floy is
just as you ordered, doctor Sam good excellent, Yeah, the brain.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Yes, just so, just so. Most excellent work, Carl, most excellent,
And you're satisfied. You need to have a solution. Now
it should be done.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
I believe Stephen Hamlin's brain must be preserved. This is
one sure way of doing it.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
I must admit I don't know what you meant it
is certainly I've never heard of it before. I wouldn't
think a solution like that would preserve anything.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
It is a preservance no one has ever known of before.
Are you ready, doctor, Yes? Quite ready.
Speaker 4 (04:50):
Yeah, you can insert this glass funnel through the rubber
stop on the container.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
I'll do a doctor where now you.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
May extinguish the bunsen Bernard. Dr Miller, you want the
second solution just below the boiling point?
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Yes, very well. Is there anything I can do for you?
Speaker 5 (05:09):
There?
Speaker 1 (05:09):
No nothing, stand back now about to have a hot
solution to the other the perfect? Yes? Perfect?
Speaker 4 (05:19):
Is it necessary to remove the air from the chamber
theain No, not no, not no. I replaced the punk
you'd webb stop over with a new one. Yes to that,
Doctor Miller, just a moment, drster Mick, Yes, Doctor Miller.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
This brain, look at it. I have looked at it.
Carl Julius, that brain it's a lion.
Speaker 4 (05:45):
Doesn't that amaze you? Julius, it's a beautiful specimen.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Isn't it alive? It is actually alive?
Speaker 3 (05:52):
Oh yes, indeed it always has been. Julius I'm an
old man.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
I don't much your tricks.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
This is no trick, Kyle. I assure you why that
brain is displaying the normal reaction you've often witnessed in
viewing a human brain by means.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Of X ray.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
Yes, but this brain has no cranium and the body
nobody attached to it.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Yet it lives, Carl, it lives.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
Only Stephen Hamblen's brain could do that, live after his death.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
It's a trick. The solution, it must be the solution.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
No, Carl, it is not the solution that causes the
brain to live. I admit it could not live without
the solution. Mere pickling would have destroyed it. But the
solution will preserve the life, Kyle, the life that has
never left. Impossible, utterly fantastic. No, my dear doctor Miller,
(06:57):
not at all, not at all fantastic. It's more impossible.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
But the brain cannot live outside the body, the human brain. No,
but Stephan Hamlin's brain can. But doctor Stephan was human,
was he wasn't he?
Speaker 3 (07:19):
No one knew Stephan Hamlin as well as I did, Carl.
No one, not even his parents. Oh they knew he
was different, Yes, they knew he wasn't just an ordinary person.
But they had no idea how truly extraordinary he actually was.
Speaker 4 (07:37):
I I can't believe a human brain existing every the
body has been cremated.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
Perhaps, my good friend, if I were to tell you
his story, you would see the reason why such a
thing could happen. Yes, perhaps, sit down, Carl Sadan, look
deeply into the mystery. You see there before you, a
living brain of dead and cremated Stephan Hamlen. It was
(08:07):
a most extraordinary brained Karl.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Most to know the mystery behind it was to know
Stephen Hamblin. I remember the first time I met him
a little place in Kansas, a small town called Emporia.
(08:31):
Stephan was born there thirty seven years ago. I was
ten years old when I met him. He was nine,
and yet he was crawling about from place to place
on all fours like a mere infant. He'd been examined
by the best doctors in America, taken to New York,
to the West Coast, everywhere for observation, and each examination
(08:54):
brought the same verdict. Perfectly capable of walking, but apparently
unable to do so, probably because of some mental handicap,
A good enough excuse a good enough diagnosis for the
(09:14):
stupid ah. It may have been a mental handicap, yes,
But if it's so, it was of Stephen Hamden's all making.
He had never spoken a word, uttered a single guttural
sound in all those nine years. He had never smiled,
never frowned, never cried, nine long years crawling on hands
(09:41):
and knees, never uttering a sound. And yet his vocal
chords were pronounced perfectly normal, completely developed. And yet he
had never spoken.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Never Ah.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
That first day I met him, I was put in
charge of him while our elders attended a ball game.
It was the first day I really knew Stephan Hammon.
It was the first day any one ever knew him.
When we had been left alone, I went off to
a corner of the room by myself. I turned my
(10:22):
back to that crawling bulk of a lout there on
the floor, and chose a book to help while away
the time until my uncle should return for me. And suddenly,
after a brief passage of time, suddenly there was a
hand upon my shoulder. I probably should have been startled.
I knew Stephan and I were alone in the house,
(10:46):
but I wasn't startled. Instead, I turned my head and
looked slowly around behind me, looked up into the wide,
inner and standing eyes of Stephen Hamblin. He was standing
there beside my chair, gazing down on me. Yes, down, yes, standing.
(11:11):
Stephen Hamblin was standing for a full minute. Our gazees
met confused. I was too startled, too amazed, too puzzled
to speak. But after that long, burning minute, he spoke,
(11:35):
you don't like me, Doulia, Julius. I was too bewildered
to answer. Stephen Hamblin had not only completely astonished me
by standing walking, but he had actually spoken to me.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
And I knew he had.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
Never spoken a single word to a single living soul before.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
In all his.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
Nine years upon this earth. Yes, his walking, his talking
completely mystified me. And yet there was something else, something
else he is, something besides mere walking, something apart, something
(12:18):
far superior to mayor talking. And then when he spoke again,
I knew, I knew what it was. I said, Julius,
you don't like me, do you? He talked with the voice.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
Of an adult.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
I was more speechless now than I've ever been before.
Stephen Hamlon not only completely overwhelming me by a sudden
and unheralded display of an ability to walk, but also
causing my hair to stand on end. By actually addressing
me in perfect Mannish English with the voice of an
adults seemed a compilation of eon a bonion.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
I found my voice. I have never had.
Speaker 4 (13:09):
Occasion to like you, I said, nor he said, have
you ever had an occasion to dislike me?
Speaker 1 (13:18):
I admitted that was true.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
Then I said, why is it you never walked until now,
never talked, to which he replied.
Speaker 5 (13:31):
I had no occasion to walk because there was no
place interesting to which my.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Walking could take me.
Speaker 5 (13:36):
And as for talking, so far, I've never found anything
interesting to talk about, or anyone of enough interest to
talk to.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
How long? I asked, have you been able to do both?
Speaker 5 (13:49):
I have had the ability to walk and to talk,
I said, ever since the day I was born.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
After a while, they became acquainted, long before the.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
Elders had returned joyously from watching their favorite ball club
whitewashed the visiting. Then Stephan Hamlin and I were bosom pals.
It was a friendship that was to exist until death
did aspire. After that, Stephan Hamlon stood upright on both legs,
(14:31):
spoke like any.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Other human did I say human, forgive me.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
The only difference was that his was a fully developed mind,
a fully developed voice, but a highly underdeveloped anatomy. I
remember one day when Stephan and I were playing together
on the school ground. I remember I was pracked to
seeing high jumping at the time. Stephan was watching me,
(15:04):
and all of a sudden he jumped to his feet
from where he had been sitting and stood staring wide eyed.
Then quickly he raised both hands before his face, as
though to shut out an evil, horrible sight.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Suddenly there was a noise in the air, the.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
Noise of wheels upon rails of steel, spinning, speeding, racing wheels,
creakedy climb, creakedy kline, creakedy.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Cline, screaming as they went.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
And at that very instant, Stephan covered his eyes with
his hands and stowed to blurt out some unspeakable terror,
a terrible, terrifying, resounding crash, as though a million planetoids
(15:51):
had collided in the stratosphere and come crashing down around
us like pellets of falling hailstones.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
When I looked at Stephan, he'd slunk to the ground.
I rushed to him. My heart leaped within me.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
I raised Stefan into my arms as I threw myself
down beside him. When he opened his eyes, he asked, quietly.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Of course, was anyone saved? Anyone saved? I frowned.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
Tell me, Stepan, what in the name of Heaven happened?
He was quiet for a moment. Then he pulled himself
away from me, arose to his feet. He looked about
him momentarily, on all sides, and then he spoke, still softly,
(16:47):
It's been a terrible accident.
Speaker 5 (16:50):
The train has just left the rails and plunged headlong
into one hundred foot gorge.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
The next day, on newspaper headlines screamed that tales of
the most destructive and death dealing train accident ever to
happen in the city of Paris. Yes, in France, it
had happened at the very moment Stephan had covered his
face in terror, and we had heard that pondy awesome crash.
(17:22):
It was not until several years later, when we both
entered Oxford College that I saw Stephan Hamlin again.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
At first, he had avoided me, tried to pretend he
didn't know me.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
But when I finally managed to get in a word
with him and remind him of our first meeting. He
told me he was glad to see me again, but
he was extremely cold, almost insultingly reserved. The very few
times I saw him after that first day. For the
next year was between classes. He never partook in student activities.
(17:54):
He never strolled the campus or climbed the cliffs.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Or swam in the lake or George soccer cricket with
the rest of us. He was never seen with the
rest of us.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
There were constant whispers about him in his strange, weird actions,
many whispers, most of them ugly and vicious and vile.
It was for long years before I talked to Stephan
Hamlon again. Four years at Oxford. I heard those whispers
(18:29):
about him.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
All that time.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
I heard professors say he was the most amazing student
of all times, perfect grades in all subjects, a born doctor,
a truly great scientist, a prospect for the world's greatest surgeon.
And then Stephan and I suddenly found ourselves to be classmates.
Even then I had difficulty in finding an opportunity to
make speech with him, But after much effort, having exerted
(18:54):
a great amount of patience, I finally cornered him. Oh, now,
look here Hamlet. I want to talk to you. Yes,
doctor selec Oh, please call me Julius, Stephan.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
I think I want to talk to you. Julius. Good, excellent,
my dear fellow. Where shall we go?
Speaker 3 (19:11):
My room should be as good a place as any.
Suppose we go there, all, write Stephan. That's perfectly right
with me. So we went to his room. There were
no books there none, but there were a few sheets
of composition paper and pen and ink. I picked up
several of the closely written sheets. It was the most
profound and complete and exquisitely worded treatise in the Diseases
(19:36):
of the Human Brain I had ever read in all
my life.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Ah.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
I remarked to Stephan that it was odd that he
could pen such a masterpiece and yet had no books
whatsoever for reference.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
He didn't smile when he answered. He simply said, I don't.
Speaker 5 (19:54):
Use books, Julius, because I don't need books.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Would I write?
Speaker 5 (19:58):
What I recite in my classes comes not from anything
I have ever read, not from anything I have ever
been taught or have studied, but from somewhere deep within.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
You mean, you're fully aware of all these facts without
having studied or read or heard about them.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Yes, you see, there is nothing I don't know.
Speaker 5 (20:14):
To me, the theories of the scientists and the theologians
and the professors and the doctors are merely nothing more
than the alphabet is to you. I have no interest
in them whatsoever, save that they are convenient at times
to know. And most of those profound theories profound to
you understand, most of them are so terribly false, so
astonishingly wrong and untrue and unsound, that they failed to interest.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
Me in the least.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
Yes, Stephen Hamlin was the fount of all the world's
most intellectual knowledge, everything that all mankind had ever known,
the secrets of science, of medicine, of astronomy, of surgery,
and numbers and mechanics, and all the millions and millions
of other subject matters we're all embedded there.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Been that superhuman, unbelievable brain of his.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
After our graduation from Oxford, after we came here to
medical College to study surgery, Stephan and I grew.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
Closer and closer together.
Speaker 3 (21:16):
Never did he open a textbook, never did he study
or concentrate upon the lectures of Europe's most eminent and
distinguished scholarly instructors. And yet his grades, his papers, his
recitations were perfect in every degree. And then one day
(21:37):
Stephan Hamlin told me his secret, poured forth his very
soul at my feet, and threw himself at my mercy.
Speaker 5 (21:48):
You think I'm hard, you call me different, You despise
me the first day you met me, because I didn't walk,
didn't talk, despite my apparent ability to do so.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Men everywhere have always shunned me. All my life.
Speaker 5 (21:59):
I've been whispered about behind my back. All my life,
I've been lonely. My heart has been heavy with loneliness
that no human words know, not even those words I can,
someone may ever describe.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
I'm different.
Speaker 5 (22:10):
Yes, to me, complete universal knowledge has always been more
an instinct than an requirement.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
All my days, I have had.
Speaker 5 (22:18):
Nothing, nothing to acquire, nothing for which to exist, nothing
save one thing.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Ever, since the day I was born, I have been
looking for my brother, your brother, Stephan. I thought you
were the only child I am.
Speaker 5 (22:35):
I don't mean my worldly, flesh and blood brother, No,
I mean something far greater than.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
That, Julius.
Speaker 5 (22:41):
I've spent my life searching for my spiritual brother, as
it were, and yet not altogether spiritual. Know you see, Julius,
I am not of this race. Startles you, doesn't it,
But it's nonetheless true. I was born ten thousand years
too soon. Yes, at least ten thousand years. There is
something went wrong in the plan of things, some mix
(23:02):
up in the regeneration, some grave calamity, and the routine
of creation for my kind, my race is not to
be born into this world until thousands upon thousands of years. Hence,
how I came to be, I have no answer, but
I am, and so I shall be till my span
is EPPT. I had the complete knowledge of your universe,
because according to the plan of things to come, all
(23:23):
that is knowledge here with you now will be merely
common in born knowledge for the race in the future
that is to be mine.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
That's why I need no books.
Speaker 5 (23:32):
That's why I am different, because the things you know
is mere nothingness to me, and because the things I
know are ten thousand years beyond your understanding. I've brought
you here, doctor Julius Simek, to announce to you the
end of your civilization. I found the means of destroying
it one fell swoop. The sooner to bring about the
(23:54):
appearance of my race, the better for the world.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
I've sought the world over for my brother, the one
like me, one of my race. But now I am
certain there is none that I am alone.
Speaker 5 (24:08):
I can foretell everything, I know everything that is to come,
all save one thing.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
I do not know, my destiny, my own individual end.
Speaker 5 (24:19):
I do not have the power to foresee that, or
to foresee who will bring it about.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
And then he outlined.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
To me the most devastating, the most terrible, the most
death rendering plan of all history, for the dispellation of
the present race from the face of the earth. Bitterly
he outlined it, poison dripping viciously from his everywhere.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
You're so simply done, so quickly, so pinglessly, that its.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
Very program rendered unto me a nausea that I found
almost impossible to overcome.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
I argued with him, pleaded, be I.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
Reasoned, bully threatened all to know them. He had made
his plans, he was determined that they should be carried
out if he were to be destroyed too.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
He did not know.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
He could not foresee his destruction, nor his destroyer, his destroyer. No,
he didn't know what his own end upon earth was
to be. He could foresee all future things, save his
own destruction, save his own destroyer, his destroyer. Someone had
to destroy him, Someone had to someone. He was still
(25:38):
babbling about that wicked, wretched plan of his, outlining it
like a madman. I looked about me cautiously at first,
the desperately when I realized he had forgotten my existence.
I groped for a solution that is terrible, impending calamity.
And just then Stephan opened the best drawer withdrew a
small compass. I caught a glimpse of a small gun
in that drawer. I could see, even at that distance
(25:59):
that the gun was low. He was still talking about
his plan, still bewailing the fact that he alone on
this earth, had the power possessed within him, still decrying
the fact that he had searched the world over for
his brother, got his flesh and blood brother, but a brother.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Of his kind, his race. He knew that were.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
There another soul of his kind alive on earth, that
soul could foretell the end, the destruction of Stephen Hamlin.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
Suddenly he arose from his chair. He ordered me to
come with him. He was about to.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
Work his havoc upon an unsuspecting world. And then desperately
I acted quickly. I yanked open the drawer of his
study desk, took out the gun. I lowed it at
his head. He stood terrified a moment, and then then
there was a pleading in his eyes, a pleading not
(27:01):
for his life, but a pleading to spare him the
damage a ripping bullet would do to his masterly brain.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
And in that instance, in.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
That final desperate second before he lunged at me in
an effort to save his life, there was recognition the
flash of an age old suspicion at last fulfilled.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
And as I lowered my gun to a level with
his heart, I knew.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
That the pain within my heart at that moment would
never be.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
Removed by lightning.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
He made for me, speaking across the room, charging at me.
I tried to stop him, tried to warn him, shouted
at him, keep back, no, keep back.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
Stopping, keep back at my feet, kneeling almost in supplication.
Speaker 4 (28:06):
M hm.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
He had not foreseen his end. He did not know,
He could not know what I was, His brother, Oh.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
Dark and just.
Speaker 3 (28:49):
sEH Tonight's original tale of Dark I Am Your Brother,
written and directed by Scott Bishop and originating in the
studios of W. K. Y Ben Marris, was heard as
doctor Julius Semek Bloyce Wright with Stephen Hamblin and Mure
(29:13):
Height played Doctor Carl Miller. Next Friday, at this same time,
the thirtieth original dark fantasy adventure The Sleeping Death, created
for you by Scott Bishop, Tom Paxton speaking dark fantasy,
comes to you each Friday night from Oklahoma City.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
This is the National Broadcasting Company
M dark.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
And see I am your brother.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
You must not forget it.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
The first appearance of bleeding some days following operation is
of the utmost significance to the surgeon. It will almost
invariably be of recurrence unless measures are taken to prevent it,
and it will ultimately prove fatal. The vessels most commonly
affected are the lingual, the fatial, and the internal maxillary arteries.
(01:00):
Unless this offending vessel can be isolated, Mister Briggs, it
behooves me to pause in the middle of this lecture
to remind you of one important thing apparently not important
to you, but extremely important to me.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
I have been paid as high.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
As fifteen hundred dollars an hour for lecturing on the
after treatment of surgic ovasions. I lecture here for the
College medical class free of charge. I at least expect
the courtesy of attention. I do not expect my students
to tagulate their mega bank accounts while I am making
every effort to instill some portion of physical knowledge into that.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Thick covered graniums.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Apparently mentally you are tabulating your money in the bank. Gentlemen,
I regret that the lecture this morning will not be
continued dismissed.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Yes, electural resources.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Stupidity, nothing but stupidity, Julius, trying to teach those idiots
the secrets of surgery is like trying to drill the
Alzonian theory into a two year old.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Sit down, Julius, your tired, I'm tired. I'm simply exasperated.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
Let's come over you, Julius, you've suddenly become so well
so cantankerous since the death of Stephen Hamblen.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
I know, Carl, I know he was very close to you,
wasn't he close. I wonder if anyone knew how close.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
I wonder if any with you. You've known him ever.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
Since he was born, Yes, ever since he was a
mere child. I remember when he first came here to
the university. He didn't impress me as all the others did.
There was no eagerness about him to learn. He seemed
to have no ambitions to learn near. These grades were
the highest that have ever been made in the history
of our institutions.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Yes, just so, that's a pity that he had to die.
Speaker 4 (02:59):
Perhaps, perhaps, Julius, all of us naturally expected you to
be quite shocked to hear Stephan Hamlin's passing.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
But you foolish completely.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
But you didn't seem the least bit startled when we
broke the news to you, know you you seemed almost
almost glad, did I, doctor Miller?
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Yes, doctor Semek, because the party had been cremated.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
Yes, this morning, when my directions carried off to the
letter Julius, the brain of Stephan Hamblin was removed.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
I myself makes the solution you gave me.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
I submerged the brain into the solution and removed the
air from the container first.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
It now in my laboratory.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
It's a perfect specimen, the best developed human brain I've
ever seen.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Doctor. Take me to it now, yes, take me to it.
But haven't you never elected?
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Ju don't argue with me. Take me to your laboratory.
Why must I go alone?
Speaker 4 (03:55):
But well, of course, Julius, of course, this way I
have the second solution at the boiling corn floy is
just as you ordered, doctor Sam good excellent, Yeah, the brain.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Yes, just so, just so. Most excellent work, Carl, most excellent,
And you're satisfied. You need to have a solution. Now
it should be done.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
I believe Stephen Hamlin's brain must be preserved. This is
one sure way of doing it.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
I must admit I don't know what you meant it
is certainly I've never heard of it before. I wouldn't
think a solution like that would preserve anything.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
It is a preservance no one has ever known of before.
Are you ready, doctor, Yes? Quite ready.
Speaker 4 (04:50):
Yeah, you can insert this glass funnel through the rubber
stop on the container.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
I'll do a doctor where now you.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
May extinguish the bunsen Bernard. Dr Miller, you want the
second solution just below the boiling point?
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Yes, very well. Is there anything I can do for you?
Speaker 5 (05:09):
There?
Speaker 1 (05:09):
No nothing, stand back now about to have a hot
solution to the other the perfect? Yes? Perfect?
Speaker 4 (05:19):
Is it necessary to remove the air from the chamber
theain No, not no, not no. I replaced the punk
you'd webb stop over with a new one. Yes to that,
Doctor Miller, just a moment, drster Mick, Yes, Doctor Miller.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
This brain, look at it. I have looked at it.
Carl Julius, that brain it's a lion.
Speaker 4 (05:45):
Doesn't that amaze you? Julius, it's a beautiful specimen.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Isn't it alive? It is actually alive?
Speaker 3 (05:52):
Oh yes, indeed it always has been. Julius I'm an
old man.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
I don't much your tricks.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
This is no trick, Kyle. I assure you why that
brain is displaying the normal reaction you've often witnessed in
viewing a human brain by means.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Of X ray.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
Yes, but this brain has no cranium and the body
nobody attached to it.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Yet it lives, Carl, it lives.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
Only Stephen Hamblen's brain could do that, live after his death.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
It's a trick. The solution, it must be the solution.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
No, Carl, it is not the solution that causes the
brain to live. I admit it could not live without
the solution. Mere pickling would have destroyed it. But the
solution will preserve the life, Kyle, the life that has
never left. Impossible, utterly fantastic. No, my dear doctor Miller,
(06:57):
not at all, not at all fantastic. It's more impossible.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
But the brain cannot live outside the body, the human brain. No,
but Stephan Hamlin's brain can. But doctor Stephan was human,
was he wasn't he?
Speaker 3 (07:19):
No one knew Stephan Hamlin as well as I did, Carl.
No one, not even his parents. Oh they knew he
was different, Yes, they knew he wasn't just an ordinary person.
But they had no idea how truly extraordinary he actually was.
Speaker 4 (07:37):
I I can't believe a human brain existing every the
body has been cremated.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
Perhaps, my good friend, if I were to tell you
his story, you would see the reason why such a
thing could happen. Yes, perhaps, sit down, Carl Sadan, look
deeply into the mystery. You see there before you, a
living brain of dead and cremated Stephan Hamlen. It was
(08:07):
a most extraordinary brained Karl.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Most to know the mystery behind it was to know
Stephen Hamblin. I remember the first time I met him
a little place in Kansas, a small town called Emporia.
(08:31):
Stephan was born there thirty seven years ago. I was
ten years old when I met him. He was nine,
and yet he was crawling about from place to place
on all fours like a mere infant. He'd been examined
by the best doctors in America, taken to New York,
to the West Coast, everywhere for observation, and each examination
(08:54):
brought the same verdict. Perfectly capable of walking, but apparently
unable to do so, probably because of some mental handicap,
A good enough excuse a good enough diagnosis for the
(09:14):
stupid ah. It may have been a mental handicap, yes,
But if it's so, it was of Stephen Hamden's all making.
He had never spoken a word, uttered a single guttural
sound in all those nine years. He had never smiled,
never frowned, never cried, nine long years crawling on hands
(09:41):
and knees, never uttering a sound. And yet his vocal
chords were pronounced perfectly normal, completely developed. And yet he
had never spoken.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Never Ah.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
That first day I met him, I was put in
charge of him while our elders attended a ball game.
It was the first day I really knew Stephan Hammon.
It was the first day any one ever knew him.
When we had been left alone, I went off to
a corner of the room by myself. I turned my
(10:22):
back to that crawling bulk of a lout there on
the floor, and chose a book to help while away
the time until my uncle should return for me. And suddenly,
after a brief passage of time, suddenly there was a
hand upon my shoulder. I probably should have been startled.
I knew Stephan and I were alone in the house,
(10:46):
but I wasn't startled. Instead, I turned my head and
looked slowly around behind me, looked up into the wide,
inner and standing eyes of Stephen Hamblin. He was standing
there beside my chair, gazing down on me. Yes, down, yes, standing.
(11:11):
Stephen Hamblin was standing for a full minute. Our gazees
met confused. I was too startled, too amazed, too puzzled
to speak. But after that long, burning minute, he spoke,
(11:35):
you don't like me, Doulia, Julius. I was too bewildered
to answer. Stephen Hamblin had not only completely astonished me
by standing walking, but he had actually spoken to me.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
And I knew he had.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
Never spoken a single word to a single living soul before.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
In all his.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
Nine years upon this earth. Yes, his walking, his talking
completely mystified me. And yet there was something else, something
else he is, something besides mere walking, something apart, something
(12:18):
far superior to mayor talking. And then when he spoke again,
I knew, I knew what it was. I said, Julius,
you don't like me, do you? He talked with the voice.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
Of an adult.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
I was more speechless now than I've ever been before.
Stephen Hamlon not only completely overwhelming me by a sudden
and unheralded display of an ability to walk, but also
causing my hair to stand on end. By actually addressing
me in perfect Mannish English with the voice of an
adults seemed a compilation of eon a bonion.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
I found my voice. I have never had.
Speaker 4 (13:09):
Occasion to like you, I said, nor he said, have
you ever had an occasion to dislike me?
Speaker 1 (13:18):
I admitted that was true.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
Then I said, why is it you never walked until now,
never talked, to which he replied.
Speaker 5 (13:31):
I had no occasion to walk because there was no
place interesting to which my.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Walking could take me.
Speaker 5 (13:36):
And as for talking, so far, I've never found anything
interesting to talk about, or anyone of enough interest to
talk to.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
How long? I asked, have you been able to do both?
Speaker 5 (13:49):
I have had the ability to walk and to talk,
I said, ever since the day I was born.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
After a while, they became acquainted, long before the.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
Elders had returned joyously from watching their favorite ball club
whitewashed the visiting. Then Stephan Hamlin and I were bosom pals.
It was a friendship that was to exist until death
did aspire. After that, Stephan Hamlon stood upright on both legs,
(14:31):
spoke like any.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Other human did I say human, forgive me.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
The only difference was that his was a fully developed mind,
a fully developed voice, but a highly underdeveloped anatomy. I
remember one day when Stephan and I were playing together
on the school ground. I remember I was pracked to
seeing high jumping at the time. Stephan was watching me,
(15:04):
and all of a sudden he jumped to his feet
from where he had been sitting and stood staring wide eyed.
Then quickly he raised both hands before his face, as
though to shut out an evil, horrible sight.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Suddenly there was a noise in the air, the.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
Noise of wheels upon rails of steel, spinning, speeding, racing wheels,
creakedy climb, creakedy kline, creakedy.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Cline, screaming as they went.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
And at that very instant, Stephan covered his eyes with
his hands and stowed to blurt out some unspeakable terror,
a terrible, terrifying, resounding crash, as though a million planetoids
(15:51):
had collided in the stratosphere and come crashing down around
us like pellets of falling hailstones.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
When I looked at Stephan, he'd slunk to the ground.
I rushed to him. My heart leaped within me.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
I raised Stefan into my arms as I threw myself
down beside him. When he opened his eyes, he asked, quietly.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Of course, was anyone saved? Anyone saved? I frowned.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
Tell me, Stepan, what in the name of Heaven happened?
He was quiet for a moment. Then he pulled himself
away from me, arose to his feet. He looked about
him momentarily, on all sides, and then he spoke, still softly,
(16:47):
It's been a terrible accident.
Speaker 5 (16:50):
The train has just left the rails and plunged headlong
into one hundred foot gorge.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
The next day, on newspaper headlines screamed that tales of
the most destructive and death dealing train accident ever to
happen in the city of Paris. Yes, in France, it
had happened at the very moment Stephan had covered his
face in terror, and we had heard that pondy awesome crash.
(17:22):
It was not until several years later, when we both
entered Oxford College that I saw Stephan Hamlin again.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
At first, he had avoided me, tried to pretend he
didn't know me.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
But when I finally managed to get in a word
with him and remind him of our first meeting. He
told me he was glad to see me again, but
he was extremely cold, almost insultingly reserved. The very few
times I saw him after that first day. For the
next year was between classes. He never partook in student activities.
(17:54):
He never strolled the campus or climbed the cliffs.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Or swam in the lake or George soccer cricket with
the rest of us. He was never seen with the
rest of us.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
There were constant whispers about him in his strange, weird actions,
many whispers, most of them ugly and vicious and vile.
It was for long years before I talked to Stephan
Hamlon again. Four years at Oxford. I heard those whispers
(18:29):
about him.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
All that time.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
I heard professors say he was the most amazing student
of all times, perfect grades in all subjects, a born doctor,
a truly great scientist, a prospect for the world's greatest surgeon.
And then Stephan and I suddenly found ourselves to be classmates.
Even then I had difficulty in finding an opportunity to
make speech with him, But after much effort, having exerted
(18:54):
a great amount of patience, I finally cornered him. Oh, now,
look here Hamlet. I want to talk to you. Yes,
doctor selec Oh, please call me Julius, Stephan.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
I think I want to talk to you. Julius. Good, excellent,
my dear fellow. Where shall we go?
Speaker 3 (19:11):
My room should be as good a place as any.
Suppose we go there, all, write Stephan. That's perfectly right
with me. So we went to his room. There were
no books there none, but there were a few sheets
of composition paper and pen and ink. I picked up
several of the closely written sheets. It was the most
profound and complete and exquisitely worded treatise in the Diseases
(19:36):
of the Human Brain I had ever read in all
my life.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Ah.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
I remarked to Stephan that it was odd that he
could pen such a masterpiece and yet had no books
whatsoever for reference.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
He didn't smile when he answered. He simply said, I don't.
Speaker 5 (19:54):
Use books, Julius, because I don't need books.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Would I write?
Speaker 5 (19:58):
What I recite in my classes comes not from anything
I have ever read, not from anything I have ever
been taught or have studied, but from somewhere deep within.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
You mean, you're fully aware of all these facts without
having studied or read or heard about them.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Yes, you see, there is nothing I don't know.
Speaker 5 (20:14):
To me, the theories of the scientists and the theologians
and the professors and the doctors are merely nothing more
than the alphabet is to you. I have no interest
in them whatsoever, save that they are convenient at times
to know. And most of those profound theories profound to
you understand, most of them are so terribly false, so
astonishingly wrong and untrue and unsound, that they failed to interest.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
Me in the least.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
Yes, Stephen Hamlin was the fount of all the world's
most intellectual knowledge, everything that all mankind had ever known,
the secrets of science, of medicine, of astronomy, of surgery,
and numbers and mechanics, and all the millions and millions
of other subject matters we're all embedded there.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Been that superhuman, unbelievable brain of his.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
After our graduation from Oxford, after we came here to
medical College to study surgery, Stephan and I grew.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
Closer and closer together.
Speaker 3 (21:16):
Never did he open a textbook, never did he study
or concentrate upon the lectures of Europe's most eminent and
distinguished scholarly instructors. And yet his grades, his papers, his
recitations were perfect in every degree. And then one day
(21:37):
Stephan Hamlin told me his secret, poured forth his very
soul at my feet, and threw himself at my mercy.
Speaker 5 (21:48):
You think I'm hard, you call me different, You despise
me the first day you met me, because I didn't walk,
didn't talk, despite my apparent ability to do so.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Men everywhere have always shunned me. All my life.
Speaker 5 (21:59):
I've been whispered about behind my back. All my life,
I've been lonely. My heart has been heavy with loneliness
that no human words know, not even those words I can,
someone may ever describe.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
I'm different.
Speaker 5 (22:10):
Yes, to me, complete universal knowledge has always been more
an instinct than an requirement.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
All my days, I have had.
Speaker 5 (22:18):
Nothing, nothing to acquire, nothing for which to exist, nothing
save one thing.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Ever, since the day I was born, I have been
looking for my brother, your brother, Stephan. I thought you
were the only child I am.
Speaker 5 (22:35):
I don't mean my worldly, flesh and blood brother, No,
I mean something far greater than.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
That, Julius.
Speaker 5 (22:41):
I've spent my life searching for my spiritual brother, as
it were, and yet not altogether spiritual. Know you see, Julius,
I am not of this race. Startles you, doesn't it,
But it's nonetheless true. I was born ten thousand years
too soon. Yes, at least ten thousand years. There is
something went wrong in the plan of things, some mix
(23:02):
up in the regeneration, some grave calamity, and the routine
of creation for my kind, my race is not to
be born into this world until thousands upon thousands of years. Hence,
how I came to be, I have no answer, but
I am, and so I shall be till my span
is EPPT. I had the complete knowledge of your universe,
because according to the plan of things to come, all
(23:23):
that is knowledge here with you now will be merely
common in born knowledge for the race in the future
that is to be mine.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
That's why I need no books.
Speaker 5 (23:32):
That's why I am different, because the things you know
is mere nothingness to me, and because the things I
know are ten thousand years beyond your understanding. I've brought
you here, doctor Julius Simek, to announce to you the
end of your civilization. I found the means of destroying
it one fell swoop. The sooner to bring about the
(23:54):
appearance of my race, the better for the world.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
I've sought the world over for my brother, the one
like me, one of my race. But now I am
certain there is none that I am alone.
Speaker 5 (24:08):
I can foretell everything, I know everything that is to come,
all save one thing.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
I do not know, my destiny, my own individual end.
Speaker 5 (24:19):
I do not have the power to foresee that, or
to foresee who will bring it about.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
And then he outlined.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
To me the most devastating, the most terrible, the most
death rendering plan of all history, for the dispellation of
the present race from the face of the earth. Bitterly
he outlined it, poison dripping viciously from his everywhere.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
You're so simply done, so quickly, so pinglessly, that its.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
Very program rendered unto me a nausea that I found
almost impossible to overcome.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
I argued with him, pleaded, be I.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
Reasoned, bully threatened all to know them. He had made
his plans, he was determined that they should be carried
out if he were to be destroyed too.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
He did not know.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
He could not foresee his destruction, nor his destroyer, his destroyer. No,
he didn't know what his own end upon earth was
to be. He could foresee all future things, save his
own destruction, save his own destroyer, his destroyer. Someone had
to destroy him, Someone had to someone. He was still
(25:38):
babbling about that wicked, wretched plan of his, outlining it
like a madman. I looked about me cautiously at first,
the desperately when I realized he had forgotten my existence.
I groped for a solution that is terrible, impending calamity.
And just then Stephan opened the best drawer withdrew a
small compass. I caught a glimpse of a small gun
in that drawer. I could see, even at that distance
(25:59):
that the gun was low. He was still talking about
his plan, still bewailing the fact that he alone on
this earth, had the power possessed within him, still decrying
the fact that he had searched the world over for
his brother, got his flesh and blood brother, but a brother.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Of his kind, his race. He knew that were.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
There another soul of his kind alive on earth, that
soul could foretell the end, the destruction of Stephen Hamlin.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
Suddenly he arose from his chair. He ordered me to
come with him. He was about to.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
Work his havoc upon an unsuspecting world. And then desperately
I acted quickly. I yanked open the drawer of his
study desk, took out the gun. I lowed it at
his head. He stood terrified a moment, and then then
there was a pleading in his eyes, a pleading not
(27:01):
for his life, but a pleading to spare him the
damage a ripping bullet would do to his masterly brain.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
And in that instance, in.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
That final desperate second before he lunged at me in
an effort to save his life, there was recognition the
flash of an age old suspicion at last fulfilled.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
And as I lowered my gun to a level with
his heart, I knew.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
That the pain within my heart at that moment would
never be.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
Removed by lightning.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
He made for me, speaking across the room, charging at me.
I tried to stop him, tried to warn him, shouted
at him, keep back, no, keep back.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
Stopping, keep back at my feet, kneeling almost in supplication.
Speaker 4 (28:06):
M hm.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
He had not foreseen his end. He did not know,
He could not know what I was, His brother, Oh.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
Dark and just.
Speaker 3 (28:49):
sEH Tonight's original tale of Dark I Am Your Brother,
written and directed by Scott Bishop and originating in the
studios of W. K. Y Ben Marris, was heard as
doctor Julius Semek Bloyce Wright with Stephen Hamblin and Mure
(29:13):
Height played Doctor Carl Miller. Next Friday, at this same time,
the thirtieth original dark fantasy adventure The Sleeping Death, created
for you by Scott Bishop, Tom Paxton speaking dark fantasy,
comes to you each Friday night from Oklahoma City.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
This is the National Broadcasting Company
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal
Gregg Rosenthal and a rotating crew of elite NFL Media co-hosts, including Patrick Claybon, Colleen Wolfe, Steve Wyche, Nick Shook and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic get you caught up daily on all the NFL news and analysis you need to be smarter and funnier than your friends.