Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Tired of the everyday grind, ever dream of a life
of romantic adventure, want to get away from it all.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
We offer you.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
Escape, Escape designed to free you from the four walls
of today for a half hour of high adventure.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
You are standing alone in a mountain village, somewhere in
the puppet country of Andorra, the high crags of the Pyrenees,
trapping the last of the daylight. And you know that
in one of the stone houses facing you, behind one
of the doors that is closed against you, is a
beautiful woman whom you must find before she meets her day.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Listen now, as Escape brings you Kathleen Heights Story. The
dark wall.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
The black quiet of the night settled over us. I
could hear only the silky ripple of the river Segree nearby,
and a thin whisper of wind in the high pines
above us. The strange silence of the day was over
Joyce was sleeping quietly now a few feet away. I
sank into my sleeping bag and prayed that things would
(01:48):
go better tomorrow. Something roused me some sound. In a glance,
I saw the gray the predom, and then I saw
Joyce poised at the side of my sleeping bag, wild
terror in her eyes and in her upraised hand, a
(02:09):
heavy tire iron.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
Joyce, give it, Joyce.
Speaker 5 (02:21):
Oh you were supposed to wake up? Why why did
you have to wake up? Oh?
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Hell?
Speaker 6 (02:29):
Hell?
Speaker 5 (02:30):
And I'm so afraid.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
No, no, You're all right, Joyce, Joyce, don't be afraid.
Speaker 5 (02:37):
What's wrong? What's wrong?
Speaker 2 (02:39):
There's nothing to be afraid of?
Speaker 5 (02:42):
So awful to be so frightened?
Speaker 2 (02:44):
What frightens you? Can't you tell me?
Speaker 5 (02:47):
I was going to kill you? I wanted to.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Kill you, Joyce? Are you afraid? Help me?
Speaker 5 (02:57):
Oh?
Speaker 7 (02:58):
Is you?
Speaker 5 (02:59):
I love you?
Speaker 2 (03:03):
And I love you, Darnia, I know you do.
Speaker 5 (03:07):
Alan, Please can't we go now? Can't we get away
from here?
Speaker 2 (03:16):
I knew now that Joyce needed care quickly. Her sickness,
whatever it was, had been a growing thing. As we
drove through the narrow, winding roads of the Pyrenees toward
the tiny state of Andorra, I tried to forget what
had happened, tried to ignore the mounting wall of silence
between us. Something in that silence told me that Joyce's
(03:40):
fears were greater than mine.
Speaker 5 (03:44):
Why are you stopping here?
Speaker 2 (03:45):
The road forks up there just ahead. I want to
look at the maps. I'm not sure which way we're
supposed to turn.
Speaker 5 (03:51):
Aren't there any towns?
Speaker 8 (03:53):
Wow?
Speaker 5 (03:53):
Are we ever going to see people and buildings again?
Speaker 2 (03:56):
You can't be too far from Mandora lo' vieha, but
a doubt of this road Roa's even on the map.
Speaker 5 (04:01):
Then let's go back, Alan, if we don't know what's
a hit, let's go back till I read our Barcelona anywhere?
Speaker 2 (04:07):
But here there was a long way back, Joyce.
Speaker 5 (04:09):
I don't care this place, all tangle wooden pines, the
narrow paths that twist and wander.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
We're not lost, darling, Then where are we?
Speaker 5 (04:21):
I don't like it, Alan, It's just a wild, lonely place,
and it frightens me. And I beg you to take
me out of here.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
All right, all right, darling, don't worry.
Speaker 5 (04:32):
I know what's behind me, the head it's all unknown.
I'm afraid of what's a hit.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
You mustn't be afraid, Joyce. I won't let anything happen.
We wound steadily higher and higher through the wooded Pyrenees.
We met no one and saw no one. Andra is
(05:01):
a small estate, only a hundred and ninety two square
miles in all, but that morning it was an endless
stretching climbing no man's land, a lonely place with no
name and no face. Then finally we came upon it.
Not a town, really a village with one great house
and a few smaller ones perched there on the rocky ledge.
(05:23):
It looked like the last stop before oblivion.
Speaker 5 (05:33):
It's so quiet. I wonder where the people are.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
I wonder if there are people. It's not a town
at all. Perhaps we should have turned back when you
said to look look.
Speaker 5 (05:45):
At the window?
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Where?
Speaker 5 (05:46):
Why? No? I saw a face in the window. Oh
there's some one here, allan, some.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
No, you don't want to stay here, darling. Even if
we find some one, this isn't the place for us.
Speaker 5 (05:53):
Now look you see the door is opening, allan, someone
is here.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
But joys, this isn't it.
Speaker 9 (06:05):
You have lost your way.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
If we were told there was a town here, there is. Well?
Speaker 9 (06:12):
Is this.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
All here is to it?
Speaker 9 (06:15):
We do not require more?
Speaker 5 (06:17):
Please, I'm tired, I need resk. Can't we stay here?
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Is there a hotel any place where we can get
a room?
Speaker 10 (06:26):
That is what your eyes tell you?
Speaker 2 (06:28):
That is? And no more? Is there a larger town
anywhere near here?
Speaker 10 (06:35):
You are in Andorra. Nothing is far away, nothing is
easily reached.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
What's the matter with you people? But you always talking riddles?
Can't you answer questions? Can't you ask?
Speaker 5 (06:45):
Please? We must stay here somehow, just a while. I
need to stop a while.
Speaker 9 (06:53):
She is your wife.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Yes, there is no hotel, I see there isn't This
house has made rooms, but we are a large family.
Speaker 5 (07:02):
Please please understand me. I've got to stay here. I
can't wind around any more narrow trails. I've got to
stop and rest. Can't you understand? Can I make either
of you understand?
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Darning, It's it's all right. We'll find a room. You'll
rest now. You mustn't worry, Joyce.
Speaker 5 (07:25):
I must sleep. I must no matter what happens, I
must sleep.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Can't you do something? Lady?
Speaker 9 (07:34):
You come woman?
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Almost as soon as he called, a squat little woman
appeared in the doorway. They exchanged only a look, and
then she came and led Joyce into the house. At
first I thought the man meant for me to stay outside.
He moved as if to stop me from following. Then
he stepped back and I walked into the house. Joyce
was stretched out on the bed. When I got there,
(08:03):
the bed was the only piece of furniture in the room.
Speaker 5 (08:08):
Hmm, it's nice, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Ellen, It's a room, a bed. I wish it were more.
Speaker 5 (08:15):
Oh, I'm so tired.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Yes, now you go to sleep. When you wake up,
as soon as you feel like it. I'll take you
to Andra la vieha.
Speaker 5 (08:25):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
He when I wake up, sleep well, darning.
Speaker 11 (08:32):
Mm she's sleep or she's very tired.
Speaker 10 (08:47):
The woman says she trembled.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
The woman says she is full of fear. I don't
suppose there's a doctor anywhere around here. We have no
need but doctor. My wife is ill. We have need
for a doctor.
Speaker 9 (09:01):
You will not find one here.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
I know, I know. Hey, hey, hey, get away from
that car. Go on, now, get get away from get
away from it.
Speaker 9 (09:18):
You are the intruder, not they.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Oh I can leave the car along.
Speaker 8 (09:21):
I have.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Who are they?
Speaker 10 (09:26):
My sons, my brothers, their sons. We are the family here.
We are called Balira, We ten sheep and our own affairs.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Oh, I'm sorry, I'm worried about my wife. I didn't
mean to shop.
Speaker 10 (09:43):
At Most of the time, our mountains protect us. We
do not like intruders.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
It is not so bad in winter.
Speaker 10 (09:51):
The snows fall deep into the passes, seal them and
keep the intruders.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
We are not intruders. We don't want to be here,
We don't mean the here, and I promise you we
won't be here.
Speaker 10 (10:02):
Sometimes the intruders come to hide in our mountains, to
be lost from the world. Always the intruders are troubled people,
full of fears and discontent. The worst of their world
they find their way to anddor.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
I walked away from him along the crude cobble of
the village path, away from the great house and the
smaller ones, and everywhere the sons, the brothers and their
sons of Valia watched me with silent distrust. I walked
to the rocky pinnacle that was the edge of the village,
and beyond, as far as I could see, the awesome
(10:47):
Pyrenees reached higher and higher, like a great wall, closing
out the rest of the world. I went back to
the house where Joyce slept.
Speaker 10 (11:01):
The woman is with her, she called out, and the
woman went into her I shouldn't have left her alone.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
I must wait. The woman has brought her quiet. That
is enough. I wouldn't try to keep me out here
if I how is she woman?
Speaker 10 (11:21):
She is quiet now. The woman would not leave her,
so if she were not joy.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Oh Joyce, darling, he said, you're gone. No, no, no, no,
only for a little while, only while you slept.
Speaker 5 (11:34):
Don't don't come any closer, Oh Joyce, what is it?
Please leave me alone. I want you to leave me alone.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
We're going to get out of this place, Darling together.
Speaker 5 (11:44):
No, no, I won't go. I won't.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
We'll find the right road. It can't be far, and
I promise you, darling, everything will be all right. We
won't come here again. Ever.
Speaker 5 (11:53):
Why don't you listen? I talk to you and you
don't listen. I'm not going with you. You can't make
me go with you.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
No, no, Joyce, wait wait, Joyce was clinging to the woman.
Valera stepped in front of them as I came back
to the front room, and beside him. From every corner
of the room, the rest of the Valera men began
(12:21):
to form a wall between Joyce and me, A wall
of men, silent men with staring distrust in their eyes.
Speaker 9 (12:31):
What are you trying to do?
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Cat? You see she's sick. I'm gonna get her out
of here. Don't you know that I'm taking her with
me and the whole lot of you can't stop me.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
You are listening to The Dark Wall Tonight's presentation of Escape.
(13:13):
One advantage in having several radios about the house is
that they make it possible for housewives to listen while
they work a kitchen, said, another in the living room,
perhaps a third in the bedroom. Keep them all tuned
into CBS Radio for our great roster of daytime dramatic stories,
and now Escape and the second act of The Dark Wall.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
I aroused from a sleep that was tortured and full
of pain. The bright afternoon sun shone in a haze
about me. When my vision cut through it, I saw
nothing my eyes had seen before. I was in my
own car, pulled to one side of a road that
(14:10):
was wider than any I had seen for days, and
not far in the distance. I could hear the approach
of other cars, but none were yet in my view.
I got out, stood in the roadway. For all the
stiff pain of me, it felt good to be part
of the world again. But then I remembered Joyce and
(14:33):
the Wall of Valerimen, and I was lost and lonely, sick.
Speaker 12 (14:45):
Hey you should not walk in the middle of the road.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
No, no, no, I shouldn't only.
Speaker 9 (14:51):
You were heard an accident.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
I'm all right, I just don't know where I am.
Speaker 7 (14:58):
What road is this in Andorra?
Speaker 2 (15:01):
You know that, I know that.
Speaker 12 (15:03):
Then straight ahead on this road the direction your car
is pointing no more than four kilometers lies the capital,
Andra la Vieha.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Straight ahead, and.
Speaker 12 (15:14):
I promise I have just come through there myself.
Speaker 9 (15:17):
You are sure you are right not here.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
I'm much better now. Do you know this country well
or well enough to drive.
Speaker 9 (15:25):
Through it quickly?
Speaker 7 (15:26):
My home is in Spain.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
You wouldn't know a village near here, maybe a small
village where everyone is called Valira.
Speaker 7 (15:33):
No, I would not know it.
Speaker 12 (15:34):
There are many such villages in Andorra. If you can
find them, I must find it, perhaps in Andre la Vieha.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Perhaps my hopes were high for Andorra la Viehan. There
would be answers for all my questions. Be concerned, and
help and interest. I told myself these things to keep
(16:05):
my mind from filling itself with joyce, to keep the
pain quiet. Some corner of my mind held the memory
of all that had happened in the house of Valera.
I could not be sure. I wanted to remember.
Speaker 7 (16:22):
I do not see why you have come here to me.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
I didn't know any place else to go. I need
so much help. I thought surely the police could do
something there, a crime. No, my wife is ill, very ill.
She's with strange people in a strange village. I've got
to find help for her and go back there.
Speaker 7 (16:40):
And why do you not do this? Why do you
buy their meal?
Speaker 2 (16:43):
I've told you, will you try to understand me. I
don't know where the village is. I don't think it's
far away, but I don't know where it is.
Speaker 7 (16:53):
It does a name, David.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
I don't know that the people there are called Valera.
The river cover No, I saw no river. No, not there.
It was high on a rocky crest of a mountain,
just a few houses. You must know where it is.
Speaker 7 (17:09):
You were there, yes, this morning, Then you must know
where it is.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
No, I don't.
Speaker 9 (17:14):
I don't have any idea where it is.
Speaker 7 (17:16):
But you were there this morning. Now you are here, Puck.
Speaker 9 (17:20):
I don't know how I got there.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
Can I make you understand that?
Speaker 7 (17:25):
I think none of this is important.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
That's all important to me. My wife is ill. She
needs care.
Speaker 7 (17:30):
You tell me that. Perhaps then you would tell me
why you left her. Any strange village you do not know,
with strange people you do not know.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
I didn't leave her.
Speaker 7 (17:40):
But she is there and you are here.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
You won't even try to help me, help you.
Speaker 7 (17:49):
Help you?
Speaker 8 (17:49):
What?
Speaker 7 (17:50):
Find it down? Where you have been and I have
never been?
Speaker 2 (17:54):
All right, all right, I can't talk anymore.
Speaker 7 (18:00):
Daisy hotel across the plaza. You will find other intruders there,
among them a doctor.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
I wasn't sure I had heard him clearly, but there
were no questions left in me. I stumbled out into
the glaring sunlight again, steadied myself against a pillar, and
when I could make out the hotel across the plaza,
I walked there, held together. I know by the thin
strand of hope that I would find the doctor and
(18:30):
they would be helpful.
Speaker 9 (18:31):
Joyce, Yeah, drink it down.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Oh hey, whiskey, it's good, whiskey, you need it? Oh,
h good? It helps you do understand doctor, that I
have not come about me.
Speaker 9 (18:51):
Or your wife. I know I understand that.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Oh I'm glad. Someone. Does you think the priest can
help us? You think he'll be able to find the
village or.
Speaker 13 (18:58):
The pottery will direct us there if anyone can. I. Meanwhile,
there's time. Tell me about your wife as much as
you can, as much as you know of her illness.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
I've called it illness. I suppose it's that fear. Unreasonable
fear is an illness, isn't it? Oh?
Speaker 9 (19:14):
Indeed it is? Yes? Has she known these fears long?
Speaker 2 (19:18):
I don't know. We've been married less than a month.
I knew were only a short time before that. No,
it was all pretty sudden. She was alone, I was alone,
and then we were together.
Speaker 9 (19:29):
Did you were happier together?
Speaker 2 (19:32):
Oh? Yes, very happy, very much in love.
Speaker 9 (19:37):
Until this strangeness came over her.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Yes, yes, that's right. May I please do help us,
help you? Thank you?
Speaker 13 (19:47):
How was it you described the difference in her, the
difference in your relationship.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Like like a wall, a mounting wall of silence.
Speaker 13 (20:01):
And in this silent time of hers she is much different,
not at all like the girl you married.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
She doesn't even look like herself. Her lovely, gentle face
contorts into a wild thing, like she was an animal.
Oh it's ugly, doctor, and so real. I couldn't imagine that,
could I?
Speaker 9 (20:19):
No?
Speaker 13 (20:19):
I don't believe you could she was like that early
this morning when she tried to kill you.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
She kept saying that she had to kill me, that
she wanted to kill me, and all the while she
was so frightened, so very frightened.
Speaker 13 (20:33):
But you know what frightened her? Do you know any
reason why she should want.
Speaker 9 (20:36):
To kill you?
Speaker 2 (20:37):
I thought she must be afraid of me. She'd have
no reason to be, but I thought that must be it.
I asked her, and she said it isn't you. I
love you, Oh, poor darling. If she said that after
she tried to kill you, almost immediately afterwards, it's a
complete contradiction, I know, But that's the way. It is,
as if Joyce were two persons, two directly opposite persons.
Speaker 9 (20:58):
That may be precisely the case.
Speaker 13 (20:59):
You know, I don't understand two persons, one almost entirely good,
gentle kind, the other almost entirely evil, terrifying, menacing fiendish
at times, two persons occupying one body.
Speaker 9 (21:16):
That's schizophrenia.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
Oh no, no, not joice doctor who I'd have to
be sure, of course, But from what you said now,
still i'd have to see her, talk with her, and
or there are many steps to take.
Speaker 5 (21:30):
Now.
Speaker 9 (21:31):
The important thing now, is to see her as soon
as possible.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
Schizophrenia, that's hopeless, and't I mean there's no cure? Is there?
Speaker 13 (21:40):
Where it depends largely, I should say, on her along
these two personalities within her have been warring one with another,
the good and the evil, and the moral and the immoral.
If the cleavage is minor at this point, if the
breach between her two cells, as it were, is not
yet great, and there is a measure of hope, but
you couldn't go on this way, and definitely being too
people mustn't one of herselves, as you say, win this war.
(22:04):
If it progresses unchecked, well, then yes, ones self will
emerge triumphant. She's a poor war word here, for in
such an instance, the evil almost inevitably triumphs.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Over the good. Can we go to her now?
Speaker 9 (22:19):
Yes, I'm sure that party will have our directions.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
And the priest's directions were perfect because I'd assumed the
village was not far away. But the drive was an
eternity for me. The strain of the last days was
beginning to tell. I was wound tight and not by
all that happened, and torn deep by all the doctors said.
(22:46):
I stopped outside the great house of Valira. The doctor
touched my arm.
Speaker 13 (22:52):
Perhaps perhaps it's best that I see her alone at first.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
Or but but I've got to see her.
Speaker 9 (22:58):
Oh I know, and you will.
Speaker 13 (23:00):
But you don't know what happened here before you left
the last you remember, she was terrified of you. I'll
send for you soon, and.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
I promise tell her I love her, Will you, Oh
indeed I will.
Speaker 13 (23:13):
Oh Well, there's one thing I neglected to tell you,
one important facet of this. If we find what we
fear most, you must take this comfort to your heart.
The girl you love, who loves you. There's no knowledge
whatsoever of her other self. Thank you, doctor, Yes, you
(23:35):
ponder that I shan't belong.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
I watched the house door close behind him, and there
in the high quiet alone, I took the comfort he
offered me, the choice I loved loved me. That was all.
It was really all in the world I needed to know.
Speaker 10 (24:10):
You will not go in there, the woman, the doctor.
They have brought her quiet again.
Speaker 14 (24:17):
I am going in. I will kill any or all
of you who stand in the way.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Move, move, fire anyone else want his head bashed in good.
You'll make a real mess of things, won't we? Come on,
(24:53):
I like the cracksculls.
Speaker 6 (24:58):
What's the matter. Come on, keep me from that door.
Make one little move and I'll tear your loose.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Men of honor. I see where is she?
Speaker 5 (25:20):
Don't kill again.
Speaker 15 (25:23):
Look at all of your crawling, shrinking cords. What are you, gentlemen?
You make me sick more of you. I killed him.
Speaker 8 (25:40):
You know.
Speaker 15 (25:42):
He was a gentleman, dear gentle Allan. He won't be
with us anymore.
Speaker 13 (25:51):
Please, somebody do something easy enough, somebody will come on.
Speaker 16 (25:56):
Hellen, h I'll tell you, Joyce, but I but I
(26:18):
told him, And you must take this comfort to your heart.
Speaker 9 (26:23):
Alan. The man you loved loved you very much. He
didn't know this other self ever existed.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
There were faces all around me, a wall.
Speaker 8 (26:45):
Of faces, senseless, staring faces, and beyond them a strange
girl wept softly, all strangers, strangers staring.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
At me, and I stared back at the wall.
Speaker 3 (27:26):
Under the direction of Norman MacDonell, Escape Has Brought You
the Dark Wall by Kathleen Hight, starring John Dayner with
Joyce mc cluskey. Featured in the cast were Ben Wright,
Edgar Berrier, Nestor Piva, and Fritz Feld. You're announcer George Walsh.
Speaker 7 (27:40):
The special music.
Speaker 3 (27:41):
For Escape is composed and conducted by Leith Stephens. Next week,
you are.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
In a farmhouse on the southern coast of England, the
autumn countryside around you desolate and bleak, and you know
that in the dusk outside, waiting patiently for you, silently
watching for you, is an enemy from whom there may
be no escape.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
So listen next week when Escape brings you Daphne de
Moriier story The Birds. A reminder for drama and adventure fans,
(28:40):
two of CBS Radio's best known thrillers, Gangbusters and gun Smoke,
both heard Saturday nights, will be moving to Monday evenings
on most of these same stations after this Saturday's performances.
Follow the latest crime clues and true crime smashing drama
on Gangbusters this Saturday night, and don't miss u s
Marshal Matt Dillon's latest Western adventure.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
You're on gun Smoke the same evening.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
Then after this Saturday, remember to listen for them both
on their new night starting next Monday, July fifth, Listen
while you work enjoy our gal Sunday Monday through Friday
on the CBS Radio Network
Tired of the everyday grind, ever dream of a life
of romantic adventure, want to get away from it all.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
We offer you.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
Escape, Escape designed to free you from the four walls
of today for a half hour of high adventure.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
You are standing alone in a mountain village, somewhere in
the puppet country of Andorra, the high crags of the Pyrenees,
trapping the last of the daylight. And you know that
in one of the stone houses facing you, behind one
of the doors that is closed against you, is a
beautiful woman whom you must find before she meets her day.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Listen now, as Escape brings you Kathleen Heights Story. The
dark wall.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
The black quiet of the night settled over us. I
could hear only the silky ripple of the river Segree nearby,
and a thin whisper of wind in the high pines
above us. The strange silence of the day was over
Joyce was sleeping quietly now a few feet away. I
sank into my sleeping bag and prayed that things would
(01:48):
go better tomorrow. Something roused me some sound. In a glance,
I saw the gray the predom, and then I saw
Joyce poised at the side of my sleeping bag, wild
terror in her eyes and in her upraised hand, a
(02:09):
heavy tire iron.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
Joyce, give it, Joyce.
Speaker 5 (02:21):
Oh you were supposed to wake up? Why why did
you have to wake up? Oh?
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Hell?
Speaker 6 (02:29):
Hell?
Speaker 5 (02:30):
And I'm so afraid.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
No, no, You're all right, Joyce, Joyce, don't be afraid.
Speaker 5 (02:37):
What's wrong? What's wrong?
Speaker 2 (02:39):
There's nothing to be afraid of?
Speaker 5 (02:42):
So awful to be so frightened?
Speaker 2 (02:44):
What frightens you? Can't you tell me?
Speaker 5 (02:47):
I was going to kill you? I wanted to.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Kill you, Joyce? Are you afraid? Help me?
Speaker 5 (02:57):
Oh?
Speaker 7 (02:58):
Is you?
Speaker 5 (02:59):
I love you?
Speaker 2 (03:03):
And I love you, Darnia, I know you do.
Speaker 5 (03:07):
Alan, Please can't we go now? Can't we get away
from here?
Speaker 2 (03:16):
I knew now that Joyce needed care quickly. Her sickness,
whatever it was, had been a growing thing. As we
drove through the narrow, winding roads of the Pyrenees toward
the tiny state of Andorra, I tried to forget what
had happened, tried to ignore the mounting wall of silence
between us. Something in that silence told me that Joyce's
(03:40):
fears were greater than mine.
Speaker 5 (03:44):
Why are you stopping here?
Speaker 2 (03:45):
The road forks up there just ahead. I want to
look at the maps. I'm not sure which way we're
supposed to turn.
Speaker 5 (03:51):
Aren't there any towns?
Speaker 8 (03:53):
Wow?
Speaker 5 (03:53):
Are we ever going to see people and buildings again?
Speaker 2 (03:56):
You can't be too far from Mandora lo' vieha, but
a doubt of this road Roa's even on the map.
Speaker 5 (04:01):
Then let's go back, Alan, if we don't know what's
a hit, let's go back till I read our Barcelona anywhere?
Speaker 2 (04:07):
But here there was a long way back, Joyce.
Speaker 5 (04:09):
I don't care this place, all tangle wooden pines, the
narrow paths that twist and wander.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
We're not lost, darling, Then where are we?
Speaker 5 (04:21):
I don't like it, Alan, It's just a wild, lonely place,
and it frightens me. And I beg you to take
me out of here.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
All right, all right, darling, don't worry.
Speaker 5 (04:32):
I know what's behind me, the head it's all unknown.
I'm afraid of what's a hit.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
You mustn't be afraid, Joyce. I won't let anything happen.
We wound steadily higher and higher through the wooded Pyrenees.
We met no one and saw no one. Andra is
(05:01):
a small estate, only a hundred and ninety two square
miles in all, but that morning it was an endless
stretching climbing no man's land, a lonely place with no
name and no face. Then finally we came upon it.
Not a town, really a village with one great house
and a few smaller ones perched there on the rocky ledge.
(05:23):
It looked like the last stop before oblivion.
Speaker 5 (05:33):
It's so quiet. I wonder where the people are.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
I wonder if there are people. It's not a town
at all. Perhaps we should have turned back when you
said to look look.
Speaker 5 (05:45):
At the window?
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Where?
Speaker 5 (05:46):
Why? No? I saw a face in the window. Oh
there's some one here, allan, some.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
No, you don't want to stay here, darling. Even if
we find some one, this isn't the place for us.
Speaker 5 (05:53):
Now look you see the door is opening, allan, someone
is here.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
But joys, this isn't it.
Speaker 9 (06:05):
You have lost your way.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
If we were told there was a town here, there is. Well?
Speaker 9 (06:12):
Is this.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
All here is to it?
Speaker 9 (06:15):
We do not require more?
Speaker 5 (06:17):
Please, I'm tired, I need resk. Can't we stay here?
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Is there a hotel any place where we can get
a room?
Speaker 10 (06:26):
That is what your eyes tell you?
Speaker 2 (06:28):
That is? And no more? Is there a larger town
anywhere near here?
Speaker 10 (06:35):
You are in Andorra. Nothing is far away, nothing is
easily reached.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
What's the matter with you people? But you always talking riddles?
Can't you answer questions? Can't you ask?
Speaker 5 (06:45):
Please? We must stay here somehow, just a while. I
need to stop a while.
Speaker 9 (06:53):
She is your wife.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Yes, there is no hotel, I see there isn't This
house has made rooms, but we are a large family.
Speaker 5 (07:02):
Please please understand me. I've got to stay here. I
can't wind around any more narrow trails. I've got to
stop and rest. Can't you understand? Can I make either
of you understand?
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Darning, It's it's all right. We'll find a room. You'll
rest now. You mustn't worry, Joyce.
Speaker 5 (07:25):
I must sleep. I must no matter what happens, I
must sleep.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Can't you do something? Lady?
Speaker 9 (07:34):
You come woman?
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Almost as soon as he called, a squat little woman
appeared in the doorway. They exchanged only a look, and
then she came and led Joyce into the house. At
first I thought the man meant for me to stay outside.
He moved as if to stop me from following. Then
he stepped back and I walked into the house. Joyce
was stretched out on the bed. When I got there,
(08:03):
the bed was the only piece of furniture in the room.
Speaker 5 (08:08):
Hmm, it's nice, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Ellen, It's a room, a bed. I wish it were more.
Speaker 5 (08:15):
Oh, I'm so tired.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Yes, now you go to sleep. When you wake up,
as soon as you feel like it. I'll take you
to Andra la vieha.
Speaker 5 (08:25):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
He when I wake up, sleep well, darning.
Speaker 11 (08:32):
Mm she's sleep or she's very tired.
Speaker 10 (08:47):
The woman says she trembled.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
The woman says she is full of fear. I don't
suppose there's a doctor anywhere around here. We have no
need but doctor. My wife is ill. We have need
for a doctor.
Speaker 9 (09:01):
You will not find one here.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
I know, I know. Hey, hey, hey, get away from
that car. Go on, now, get get away from get
away from it.
Speaker 9 (09:18):
You are the intruder, not they.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Oh I can leave the car along.
Speaker 8 (09:21):
I have.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Who are they?
Speaker 10 (09:26):
My sons, my brothers, their sons. We are the family here.
We are called Balira, We ten sheep and our own affairs.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Oh, I'm sorry, I'm worried about my wife. I didn't
mean to shop.
Speaker 10 (09:43):
At Most of the time, our mountains protect us. We
do not like intruders.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
It is not so bad in winter.
Speaker 10 (09:51):
The snows fall deep into the passes, seal them and
keep the intruders.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
We are not intruders. We don't want to be here,
We don't mean the here, and I promise you we
won't be here.
Speaker 10 (10:02):
Sometimes the intruders come to hide in our mountains, to
be lost from the world. Always the intruders are troubled people,
full of fears and discontent. The worst of their world
they find their way to anddor.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
I walked away from him along the crude cobble of
the village path, away from the great house and the
smaller ones, and everywhere the sons, the brothers and their
sons of Valia watched me with silent distrust. I walked
to the rocky pinnacle that was the edge of the village,
and beyond, as far as I could see, the awesome
(10:47):
Pyrenees reached higher and higher, like a great wall, closing
out the rest of the world. I went back to
the house where Joyce slept.
Speaker 10 (11:01):
The woman is with her, she called out, and the
woman went into her I shouldn't have left her alone.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
I must wait. The woman has brought her quiet. That
is enough. I wouldn't try to keep me out here
if I how is she woman?
Speaker 10 (11:21):
She is quiet now. The woman would not leave her,
so if she were not joy.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Oh Joyce, darling, he said, you're gone. No, no, no, no,
only for a little while, only while you slept.
Speaker 5 (11:34):
Don't don't come any closer, Oh Joyce, what is it?
Please leave me alone. I want you to leave me alone.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
We're going to get out of this place, Darling together.
Speaker 5 (11:44):
No, no, I won't go. I won't.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
We'll find the right road. It can't be far, and
I promise you, darling, everything will be all right. We
won't come here again. Ever.
Speaker 5 (11:53):
Why don't you listen? I talk to you and you
don't listen. I'm not going with you. You can't make
me go with you.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
No, no, Joyce, wait wait, Joyce was clinging to the woman.
Valera stepped in front of them as I came back
to the front room, and beside him. From every corner
of the room, the rest of the Valera men began
(12:21):
to form a wall between Joyce and me, A wall
of men, silent men with staring distrust in their eyes.
Speaker 9 (12:31):
What are you trying to do?
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Cat? You see she's sick. I'm gonna get her out
of here. Don't you know that I'm taking her with
me and the whole lot of you can't stop me.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
You are listening to The Dark Wall Tonight's presentation of Escape.
(13:13):
One advantage in having several radios about the house is
that they make it possible for housewives to listen while
they work a kitchen, said, another in the living room,
perhaps a third in the bedroom. Keep them all tuned
into CBS Radio for our great roster of daytime dramatic stories,
and now Escape and the second act of The Dark Wall.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
I aroused from a sleep that was tortured and full
of pain. The bright afternoon sun shone in a haze
about me. When my vision cut through it, I saw
nothing my eyes had seen before. I was in my
own car, pulled to one side of a road that
(14:10):
was wider than any I had seen for days, and
not far in the distance. I could hear the approach
of other cars, but none were yet in my view.
I got out, stood in the roadway. For all the
stiff pain of me, it felt good to be part
of the world again. But then I remembered Joyce and
(14:33):
the Wall of Valerimen, and I was lost and lonely, sick.
Speaker 12 (14:45):
Hey you should not walk in the middle of the road.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
No, no, no, I shouldn't only.
Speaker 9 (14:51):
You were heard an accident.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
I'm all right, I just don't know where I am.
Speaker 7 (14:58):
What road is this in Andorra?
Speaker 2 (15:01):
You know that, I know that.
Speaker 12 (15:03):
Then straight ahead on this road the direction your car
is pointing no more than four kilometers lies the capital,
Andra la Vieha.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Straight ahead, and.
Speaker 12 (15:14):
I promise I have just come through there myself.
Speaker 9 (15:17):
You are sure you are right not here.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
I'm much better now. Do you know this country well
or well enough to drive.
Speaker 9 (15:25):
Through it quickly?
Speaker 7 (15:26):
My home is in Spain.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
You wouldn't know a village near here, maybe a small
village where everyone is called Valira.
Speaker 7 (15:33):
No, I would not know it.
Speaker 12 (15:34):
There are many such villages in Andorra. If you can
find them, I must find it, perhaps in Andre la Vieha.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Perhaps my hopes were high for Andorra la Viehan. There
would be answers for all my questions. Be concerned, and
help and interest. I told myself these things to keep
(16:05):
my mind from filling itself with joyce, to keep the
pain quiet. Some corner of my mind held the memory
of all that had happened in the house of Valera.
I could not be sure. I wanted to remember.
Speaker 7 (16:22):
I do not see why you have come here to me.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
I didn't know any place else to go. I need
so much help. I thought surely the police could do
something there, a crime. No, my wife is ill, very ill.
She's with strange people in a strange village. I've got
to find help for her and go back there.
Speaker 7 (16:40):
And why do you not do this? Why do you
buy their meal?
Speaker 2 (16:43):
I've told you, will you try to understand me. I
don't know where the village is. I don't think it's
far away, but I don't know where it is.
Speaker 7 (16:53):
It does a name, David.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
I don't know that the people there are called Valera.
The river cover No, I saw no river. No, not there.
It was high on a rocky crest of a mountain,
just a few houses. You must know where it is.
Speaker 7 (17:09):
You were there, yes, this morning, Then you must know
where it is.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
No, I don't.
Speaker 9 (17:14):
I don't have any idea where it is.
Speaker 7 (17:16):
But you were there this morning. Now you are here, Puck.
Speaker 9 (17:20):
I don't know how I got there.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
Can I make you understand that?
Speaker 7 (17:25):
I think none of this is important.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
That's all important to me. My wife is ill. She
needs care.
Speaker 7 (17:30):
You tell me that. Perhaps then you would tell me
why you left her. Any strange village you do not know,
with strange people you do not know.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
I didn't leave her.
Speaker 7 (17:40):
But she is there and you are here.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
You won't even try to help me, help you.
Speaker 7 (17:49):
Help you?
Speaker 8 (17:49):
What?
Speaker 7 (17:50):
Find it down? Where you have been and I have
never been?
Speaker 2 (17:54):
All right, all right, I can't talk anymore.
Speaker 7 (18:00):
Daisy hotel across the plaza. You will find other intruders there,
among them a doctor.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
I wasn't sure I had heard him clearly, but there
were no questions left in me. I stumbled out into
the glaring sunlight again, steadied myself against a pillar, and
when I could make out the hotel across the plaza,
I walked there, held together. I know by the thin
strand of hope that I would find the doctor and
(18:30):
they would be helpful.
Speaker 9 (18:31):
Joyce, Yeah, drink it down.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Oh hey, whiskey, it's good, whiskey, you need it? Oh,
h good? It helps you do understand doctor, that I
have not come about me.
Speaker 9 (18:51):
Or your wife. I know I understand that.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Oh I'm glad. Someone. Does you think the priest can
help us? You think he'll be able to find the
village or.
Speaker 13 (18:58):
The pottery will direct us there if anyone can. I. Meanwhile,
there's time. Tell me about your wife as much as
you can, as much as you know of her illness.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
I've called it illness. I suppose it's that fear. Unreasonable
fear is an illness, isn't it? Oh?
Speaker 9 (19:14):
Indeed it is? Yes? Has she known these fears long?
Speaker 2 (19:18):
I don't know. We've been married less than a month.
I knew were only a short time before that. No,
it was all pretty sudden. She was alone, I was alone,
and then we were together.
Speaker 9 (19:29):
Did you were happier together?
Speaker 2 (19:32):
Oh? Yes, very happy, very much in love.
Speaker 9 (19:37):
Until this strangeness came over her.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Yes, yes, that's right. May I please do help us,
help you? Thank you?
Speaker 13 (19:47):
How was it you described the difference in her, the
difference in your relationship.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Like like a wall, a mounting wall of silence.
Speaker 13 (20:01):
And in this silent time of hers she is much different,
not at all like the girl you married.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
She doesn't even look like herself. Her lovely, gentle face
contorts into a wild thing, like she was an animal.
Oh it's ugly, doctor, and so real. I couldn't imagine that,
could I?
Speaker 9 (20:19):
No?
Speaker 13 (20:19):
I don't believe you could she was like that early
this morning when she tried to kill you.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
She kept saying that she had to kill me, that
she wanted to kill me, and all the while she
was so frightened, so very frightened.
Speaker 13 (20:33):
But you know what frightened her? Do you know any
reason why she should want.
Speaker 9 (20:36):
To kill you?
Speaker 2 (20:37):
I thought she must be afraid of me. She'd have
no reason to be, but I thought that must be it.
I asked her, and she said it isn't you. I
love you, Oh, poor darling. If she said that after
she tried to kill you, almost immediately afterwards, it's a
complete contradiction, I know, But that's the way. It is,
as if Joyce were two persons, two directly opposite persons.
Speaker 9 (20:58):
That may be precisely the case.
Speaker 13 (20:59):
You know, I don't understand two persons, one almost entirely good,
gentle kind, the other almost entirely evil, terrifying, menacing fiendish
at times, two persons occupying one body.
Speaker 9 (21:16):
That's schizophrenia.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
Oh no, no, not joice doctor who I'd have to
be sure, of course, But from what you said now,
still i'd have to see her, talk with her, and
or there are many steps to take.
Speaker 5 (21:30):
Now.
Speaker 9 (21:31):
The important thing now, is to see her as soon
as possible.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
Schizophrenia, that's hopeless, and't I mean there's no cure? Is there?
Speaker 13 (21:40):
Where it depends largely, I should say, on her along
these two personalities within her have been warring one with another,
the good and the evil, and the moral and the immoral.
If the cleavage is minor at this point, if the
breach between her two cells, as it were, is not
yet great, and there is a measure of hope, but
you couldn't go on this way, and definitely being too
people mustn't one of herselves, as you say, win this war.
(22:04):
If it progresses unchecked, well, then yes, ones self will
emerge triumphant. She's a poor war word here, for in
such an instance, the evil almost inevitably triumphs.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Over the good. Can we go to her now?
Speaker 9 (22:19):
Yes, I'm sure that party will have our directions.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
And the priest's directions were perfect because I'd assumed the
village was not far away. But the drive was an
eternity for me. The strain of the last days was
beginning to tell. I was wound tight and not by
all that happened, and torn deep by all the doctors said.
(22:46):
I stopped outside the great house of Valira. The doctor
touched my arm.
Speaker 13 (22:52):
Perhaps perhaps it's best that I see her alone at first.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
Or but but I've got to see her.
Speaker 9 (22:58):
Oh I know, and you will.
Speaker 13 (23:00):
But you don't know what happened here before you left
the last you remember, she was terrified of you. I'll
send for you soon, and.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
I promise tell her I love her, Will you, Oh
indeed I will.
Speaker 13 (23:13):
Oh Well, there's one thing I neglected to tell you,
one important facet of this. If we find what we
fear most, you must take this comfort to your heart.
The girl you love, who loves you. There's no knowledge
whatsoever of her other self. Thank you, doctor, Yes, you
(23:35):
ponder that I shan't belong.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
I watched the house door close behind him, and there
in the high quiet alone, I took the comfort he
offered me, the choice I loved loved me. That was all.
It was really all in the world I needed to know.
Speaker 10 (24:10):
You will not go in there, the woman, the doctor.
They have brought her quiet again.
Speaker 14 (24:17):
I am going in. I will kill any or all
of you who stand in the way.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Move, move, fire anyone else want his head bashed in good.
You'll make a real mess of things, won't we? Come on,
(24:53):
I like the cracksculls.
Speaker 6 (24:58):
What's the matter. Come on, keep me from that door.
Make one little move and I'll tear your loose.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Men of honor. I see where is she?
Speaker 5 (25:20):
Don't kill again.
Speaker 15 (25:23):
Look at all of your crawling, shrinking cords. What are you, gentlemen?
You make me sick more of you. I killed him.
Speaker 8 (25:40):
You know.
Speaker 15 (25:42):
He was a gentleman, dear gentle Allan. He won't be
with us anymore.
Speaker 13 (25:51):
Please, somebody do something easy enough, somebody will come on.
Speaker 16 (25:56):
Hellen, h I'll tell you, Joyce, but I but I
(26:18):
told him, And you must take this comfort to your heart.
Speaker 9 (26:23):
Alan. The man you loved loved you very much. He
didn't know this other self ever existed.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
There were faces all around me, a wall.
Speaker 8 (26:45):
Of faces, senseless, staring faces, and beyond them a strange
girl wept softly, all strangers, strangers staring.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
At me, and I stared back at the wall.
Speaker 3 (27:26):
Under the direction of Norman MacDonell, Escape Has Brought You
the Dark Wall by Kathleen Hight, starring John Dayner with
Joyce mc cluskey. Featured in the cast were Ben Wright,
Edgar Berrier, Nestor Piva, and Fritz Feld. You're announcer George Walsh.
Speaker 7 (27:40):
The special music.
Speaker 3 (27:41):
For Escape is composed and conducted by Leith Stephens. Next week,
you are.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
In a farmhouse on the southern coast of England, the
autumn countryside around you desolate and bleak, and you know
that in the dusk outside, waiting patiently for you, silently
watching for you, is an enemy from whom there may
be no escape.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
So listen next week when Escape brings you Daphne de
Moriier story The Birds. A reminder for drama and adventure fans,
(28:40):
two of CBS Radio's best known thrillers, Gangbusters and gun Smoke,
both heard Saturday nights, will be moving to Monday evenings
on most of these same stations after this Saturday's performances.
Follow the latest crime clues and true crime smashing drama
on Gangbusters this Saturday night, and don't miss u s
Marshal Matt Dillon's latest Western adventure.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
You're on gun Smoke the same evening.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
Then after this Saturday, remember to listen for them both
on their new night starting next Monday, July fifth, Listen
while you work enjoy our gal Sunday Monday through Friday
on the CBS Radio Network
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