September 25, 2025 • 13 mins
An entire subway train filled with unsuspecting passengers vanishes without a trace in the depths of the New York subway! A murder victims body appears to dissolve into the ground right before a witnesss eyes! What dark secrets do the mysterious subterranean ape men hold? Dive into this enthralling tale of wild science fiction and uncover the truth for yourself! - Summary by Ben Tucker
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter two of The Menace from Below by harl Vincent.
This LibriVox recordings in the public domain. Chapter two. More
happenings at another point, not far from New York, the
preceding night had brought strange happenings. At three in the morning,
Anthony Russell lay awake in his bed, listening to the
(00:22):
dreary pattern of the rain on the tin porch roof
outside his open window. He had retired early, but he
could not sleep, so after courting slumber for a number
of hours without success, he arose and dawning bathrobe and slippers,
lighted a cigarette. He was restless and soon tossed aside
the book he had started to read. Tony, as he
(00:43):
was called by his intimate friends, had been working too
hard for many weeks, and it was beginning to tell
on him. His sleeplessness this night was nothing new. For
the past week or more, he had scarcely slept a
night through, and finally, in desperation, he took the advice
of his dear friend, doctor v Lance, and fled to
the country for a week of rest. So Here he
(01:04):
was in a gloomy old house on the outskirts of Cartersville,
two hours by subway and fast train from his office
in Wall Street, and now the very first night his
insomnia reasserted itself. Impatiently, he stepped to the window and
observed that the rain was becoming a mere misty drizzle.
He decided to dress and venture outside. Anything was better
than sitting until daylight in this high ceilinged, old fashioned
(01:27):
room with its flowered wallpaper and sedate air of the
spare bedroom. With hat pulled down to his ears and
with rubber coat over his arm, he tiptoed down the
stairs to the front door, quietly so as not to
awaken the household. He drew the bolts and stepped out
into the dank night air. The rain had now ceased entirely,
(01:47):
but he shivered with the chill of the mist, which
hung low over the lawn, almost obscuring from view the
lone street lamp on the corner. He was unfamiliar with
his surroundings, but proceeded up the street in a leisurely
made as he drew on his coat and buttoned the
collar tightly about his neck. A block away, he remembered
from observations made on his arrival the preceding evening, this
(02:10):
street crossed a broad concreted highway which was evidently quite new.
He soon reached this, and, turning to the right at
the corner, started for the open country, without thought as
to how long he might prolong this nocturnal walk. His
mind was ever on his growing business in the city,
and even now he was thinking over the reorganization plans
(02:30):
he had left uncompleted when good old Doc Vance hustled
him out to Cartersville. Like most of you modern business men,
the doctor had said, you're killing yourself and your mad
rush to make money. You must let up, Tony, or
you will have a complete breakdown, and a fine thing
that would be at your age. Why, man, you're only
thirty two, and the best years of your life are
(02:53):
still before you. Let your partner take care of things
for a while and go up to the old Vance
place in Connecticut for a rest. The old folks will
take good care of you, and I will come up
myself for a week end while you are there. It
will do you worlds of good and we can have
a pleasant two day visit. Besides, Tony argued and procrastinated,
but finally, with very poor grace, gave in to his
(03:15):
friend's urgings, but he found it difficult even now to
rid his mind of business problems. It was not until
he heard the sound of a rapidly approaching automobile that
his thoughts turned into other channels. The road ahead was
suddenly illuminated by the bright headlights of a speeding car,
and he stepped to the side of the road. As
(03:36):
he looked back, he was momentarily blinded by the intense glare,
and he nearly tumbled into the ditch as a powerful
roadster shot past with a roar that spoke of speed
limits broken twice over. Whew, he exclaimed, as he scrambled
back to the slippery concrete that Fellow's in a hurry.
Wonder where he's rushing to at this hour of the morning.
(03:56):
The mist had been almost dispersed by a freshly sprung breeze,
and he watched the beam of light that marked the
car as it disappeared rapidly into the distance. About two
miles further on, he stumbled into the spare tire carrier
of an automobile parked at the side of the road.
The head and tail lights had been extinguished, but he
noted by the dim radiance of a small parking light
(04:17):
that the car was a roadster of foreign make and
of rackish lines that suggested power and speed. Must be
the car that passed me, he muttered, and when he
touched the radiator and found it very hot, he felt
certain that this was the case. While he pondered over
the probable reasons for such a late and hurried visit
to an apparently deserted spot, he became aware of voices
(04:37):
a little distance off the road. They were raised in anger,
and his curiosity was at once aroused. But the darkness
was intense, and he could make out nothing in the
direction from which they came. I tell you, Bob, this
is the end, spoke one of the voices, shouting in anger.
With that, a square patch of light appeared about fifty
feet from the road. This revealed itself as the lighted
(05:00):
window of a second story room. Tony watched for a
moment and saw the two occupants of the room, one
a tall man fully dressed, the other a short, heavy
set man in pajamas who had evidently just been awakened
by his late collar. The portly one walked to the
window and closed it with the obvious intention of shutting
the sound of their voices from the outside world. He
(05:22):
seemed to be highly agitated and shook his fist in
his collar's face before drawing the shade. A light showed
in the adjoining window, and the same stout figure approached
this one. His collar had not followed as far as
Tony could see, but the man in pajamas reached up
to close this window as he had the first, With
arms above his head. He seemed to gasp for air
(05:42):
and then double up, as if in pain. His hands
came down without having touched the window, and clutched wildly
at his breast. His broad figure wilted and collapsed without
a sound. Tony hesitated, not knowing what to do, and
in that instant, the heavily coated stranger stepped into the
field of vision and bent over the body, which had
now slumped out of view below the window sill. For
(06:04):
a moment, the tall man remained in this position. Then
he stood erect and completed the task started by the other.
He closed the window and hastily drew the shade. Vanished.
Feeling certain that something out of the ordinary, probably a tragedy,
had occurred, Tony felt his way along the hedge that
enclosed the grounds until he found an opening through which
(06:26):
he made his way and reached a gravel walk. There
was not a sound from the house, which he could
barely make out as a large, forbidding structure of colonial design.
With his heart in his throat, he moved as noiselessly
as possible, still feeling his way along the hedge which
also bordered the walk. His feet eventually encountered the steps
of the porch, and he tiptoed up, expecting to hear
(06:49):
a creak at every move. When he was half way
to the door, the porch was suddenly flooded with light
from within, and simultaneously with its appearance, there was a shrill,
feminine shriek. The door opened precipitately, and the tall stranger
rushed out, knocking Tony off balance in his dash for
the road. On the floorboards of the porch, still slippery
(07:09):
from the rain, Tony lost his footing and fell heavily.
By the time he picked himself up, he heard the
roar of a starting motor, and the high powered roadster
was literally jerked into motion and away. Before he could
even collect his scattered wits, the lights had vanished around
a bend in the road. He turned to the still
open door and was astonished to see a crumpled figure
(07:29):
at the foot of a winding stair that led upward
from the spacious foyer within. Seeing that this was a
woman in a dressing gown, he hastily stepped in. The
figure lay in a heap, face down, a mask of
tumbled golden hair spread over the head and shoulders like
a glistening mantle. Carefully, he turned the limp body over
and saw that it was that of a beautiful girl
(07:50):
hardly out of her teens. A sigh from her told
him this was only a faint, and he experienced an
immediate feeling of relief. The girl opened her eye and
gazed at him, horror stricken. Then she sat up suddenly
and blinked, as if to clear her vision. Who who
are you, she asked fearfully. I am Anthony Russell, replied
(08:12):
Tony hastily. Don't be alarmed. I was passing and saw
strange happenings in the house, so I came in. Can
I help you? He assisted the girl to her feet,
and she leaned against him a moment for support, then
burst into wild sobbing. Oh. She wailed, poor father. He's
been killed, and Bob was here. They'll get him. What
shall I do? Who is Bob and did he kill him?
(08:36):
Asked Tony excitedly. No, no, answered the girl hysterically. I
know nothing. I was asleep. The voices awoke me, and
I came to the head of the stairs. I saw,
I saw. She bit her lip, and the great brown
eyes widened in horror. Gazing pleadingly at Tony. She pulled
her dressing gown tightly about her slim body and started
(08:56):
slowly up the stairs. But can't I do anything, miss,
he asked in agitation. Surely you're not alone in this
house with your father's body, and with a murderer escaping
at the moment, there may be accomplices about. She turned
toward him and again started sobbing. Leaning on the stair
rail to steady herself, she said, yes, you can help,
(09:18):
and please excuse my rudeness. But it is also horrible.
I can't think, can't reason yet. Where are the servants,
he asked? There are but two, and this is their
night off. But please don't ask me any more questions now.
Something altered the girl's expression, a look of horror and
fear suddenly hardened into stern resolve. As she tottered and
(09:40):
seemed about to faint once more. Tony assisted her to
a settee in the second floor hall. Now you stay
right here, he said, in a tone of authority, and
I'll go in and see if something can be done
for your father. He may not be dead after all.
Oh no, she said, hopelessly, he's dead. I'm sure he is.
(10:01):
But you can satisfy yourself if you wish through that
door on the right. Advancing into the room where lay
the body, Tony felt the chill of death in the air,
but he knelt beside the huddled form and felt for
the pulse of the victim. Obviously, the body had been untouched,
since it was still crumpled in a grotesque heap beneath
the window sill. With a shudder of distaste, he straightened
(10:23):
the twisted limbs and stretched the body to a prone position,
observing as he did so there were no signs of
blood about the person of the pajamoned man. He searched
vainly and was unable to locate a wound of any
sort whatsoever that might account for the man's sudden demise.
But he was dead, there was no doubt of that.
Tony convinced himself of this at once, and then sprang
(10:44):
to his feet in sudden recollection. There had been no
sound of a shot. He distinctly recalled his surprise at
seeing the figure collapse so unexpectedly, and here was a
body without a wound. It had flashed across his mind
at the time that this must be a stroke of
some kind, brought about by the man's evident anger. How then,
had this man been killed? And it was stranger still
(11:06):
that the victim should be old van Alsteen. Tony recognized
him at once as the cold blooded financier who had
within the past week increased his already tremendous wealth by
some eighty millions in one of the most spectacular big
business mergers of the decade. And the papers were still
reviling him, still darkly hinting of his political intrigue, of
(11:28):
the illegality of some of his operations of widows robbed
of their savings to swell his own coffers. Quite probably
the theory of the stroke was the correct one, after all,
he thought. At the sound of the girl's voice from
the doorway, Tony turned abruptly from his contemplation of the body.
So this was Margaret van Alsteen, debutante, daughter of the
(11:48):
great man. He's dead, she asked in a whisper. Yes,
I'm afraid he is. But it may be that he
died a natural death. He has no wounds. We must
call the police. No, not that, the girl almost shrieked,
call doctor Joyce. But not the police yet, Please say
(12:09):
you won't. Tony looked his amazement. Her agitation was undoubtedly extreme.
Surely this sweet girl had not murdered her own father,
he thought. Surely this bob she had spoken of was
not her lover and had killed the old man in
the argument he had witnessed. But he put these thoughts
from his mind at once. They were too absurd to
(12:29):
be considered. All right, miss, he agreed, We'll call the doctor.
Her eyes widened in terror as he spoke. Her face blanched,
and she stretched forth a shaking forefinger that pointed past
him toward the body. With a scream that echoed through
the empty house like the despairing cry of a lost soul,
she slumped to the floor in another swoon. Tony hastily
(12:52):
turned in the direction she had pointed Van Austeen's body
had disappeared, but the pajamas lay in a crumpled pile,
still outlining the figure of the corpse in the position
it had lain. It was as if the body had
dissolved into thin air, leaving its covering behind empty. Well,
I'm damned, he exclaimed in amazement. Then he turned once
(13:15):
more to the girl to start the work of restoring her.
No wonder she had fainted. End of Chapter two.
Chapter two of The Menace from Below by harl Vincent.
This LibriVox recordings in the public domain. Chapter two. More
happenings at another point, not far from New York, the
preceding night had brought strange happenings. At three in the morning,
Anthony Russell lay awake in his bed, listening to the
(00:22):
dreary pattern of the rain on the tin porch roof
outside his open window. He had retired early, but he
could not sleep, so after courting slumber for a number
of hours without success, he arose and dawning bathrobe and slippers,
lighted a cigarette. He was restless and soon tossed aside
the book he had started to read. Tony, as he
(00:43):
was called by his intimate friends, had been working too
hard for many weeks, and it was beginning to tell
on him. His sleeplessness this night was nothing new. For
the past week or more, he had scarcely slept a
night through, and finally, in desperation, he took the advice
of his dear friend, doctor v Lance, and fled to
the country for a week of rest. So Here he
(01:04):
was in a gloomy old house on the outskirts of Cartersville,
two hours by subway and fast train from his office
in Wall Street, and now the very first night his
insomnia reasserted itself. Impatiently, he stepped to the window and
observed that the rain was becoming a mere misty drizzle.
He decided to dress and venture outside. Anything was better
than sitting until daylight in this high ceilinged, old fashioned
(01:27):
room with its flowered wallpaper and sedate air of the
spare bedroom. With hat pulled down to his ears and
with rubber coat over his arm, he tiptoed down the
stairs to the front door, quietly so as not to
awaken the household. He drew the bolts and stepped out
into the dank night air. The rain had now ceased entirely,
(01:47):
but he shivered with the chill of the mist, which
hung low over the lawn, almost obscuring from view the
lone street lamp on the corner. He was unfamiliar with
his surroundings, but proceeded up the street in a leisurely
made as he drew on his coat and buttoned the
collar tightly about his neck. A block away, he remembered
from observations made on his arrival the preceding evening, this
(02:10):
street crossed a broad concreted highway which was evidently quite new.
He soon reached this, and, turning to the right at
the corner, started for the open country, without thought as
to how long he might prolong this nocturnal walk. His
mind was ever on his growing business in the city,
and even now he was thinking over the reorganization plans
(02:30):
he had left uncompleted when good old Doc Vance hustled
him out to Cartersville. Like most of you modern business men,
the doctor had said, you're killing yourself and your mad
rush to make money. You must let up, Tony, or
you will have a complete breakdown, and a fine thing
that would be at your age. Why, man, you're only
thirty two, and the best years of your life are
(02:53):
still before you. Let your partner take care of things
for a while and go up to the old Vance
place in Connecticut for a rest. The old folks will
take good care of you, and I will come up
myself for a week end while you are there. It
will do you worlds of good and we can have
a pleasant two day visit. Besides, Tony argued and procrastinated,
but finally, with very poor grace, gave in to his
(03:15):
friend's urgings, but he found it difficult even now to
rid his mind of business problems. It was not until
he heard the sound of a rapidly approaching automobile that
his thoughts turned into other channels. The road ahead was
suddenly illuminated by the bright headlights of a speeding car,
and he stepped to the side of the road. As
(03:36):
he looked back, he was momentarily blinded by the intense glare,
and he nearly tumbled into the ditch as a powerful
roadster shot past with a roar that spoke of speed
limits broken twice over. Whew, he exclaimed, as he scrambled
back to the slippery concrete that Fellow's in a hurry.
Wonder where he's rushing to at this hour of the morning.
(03:56):
The mist had been almost dispersed by a freshly sprung breeze,
and he watched the beam of light that marked the
car as it disappeared rapidly into the distance. About two
miles further on, he stumbled into the spare tire carrier
of an automobile parked at the side of the road.
The head and tail lights had been extinguished, but he
noted by the dim radiance of a small parking light
(04:17):
that the car was a roadster of foreign make and
of rackish lines that suggested power and speed. Must be
the car that passed me, he muttered, and when he
touched the radiator and found it very hot, he felt
certain that this was the case. While he pondered over
the probable reasons for such a late and hurried visit
to an apparently deserted spot, he became aware of voices
(04:37):
a little distance off the road. They were raised in anger,
and his curiosity was at once aroused. But the darkness
was intense, and he could make out nothing in the
direction from which they came. I tell you, Bob, this
is the end, spoke one of the voices, shouting in anger.
With that, a square patch of light appeared about fifty
feet from the road. This revealed itself as the lighted
(05:00):
window of a second story room. Tony watched for a
moment and saw the two occupants of the room, one
a tall man fully dressed, the other a short, heavy
set man in pajamas who had evidently just been awakened
by his late collar. The portly one walked to the
window and closed it with the obvious intention of shutting
the sound of their voices from the outside world. He
(05:22):
seemed to be highly agitated and shook his fist in
his collar's face before drawing the shade. A light showed
in the adjoining window, and the same stout figure approached
this one. His collar had not followed as far as
Tony could see, but the man in pajamas reached up
to close this window as he had the first, With
arms above his head. He seemed to gasp for air
(05:42):
and then double up, as if in pain. His hands
came down without having touched the window, and clutched wildly
at his breast. His broad figure wilted and collapsed without
a sound. Tony hesitated, not knowing what to do, and
in that instant, the heavily coated stranger stepped into the
field of vision and bent over the body, which had
now slumped out of view below the window sill. For
(06:04):
a moment, the tall man remained in this position. Then
he stood erect and completed the task started by the other.
He closed the window and hastily drew the shade. Vanished.
Feeling certain that something out of the ordinary, probably a tragedy,
had occurred, Tony felt his way along the hedge that
enclosed the grounds until he found an opening through which
(06:26):
he made his way and reached a gravel walk. There
was not a sound from the house, which he could
barely make out as a large, forbidding structure of colonial design.
With his heart in his throat, he moved as noiselessly
as possible, still feeling his way along the hedge which
also bordered the walk. His feet eventually encountered the steps
of the porch, and he tiptoed up, expecting to hear
(06:49):
a creak at every move. When he was half way
to the door, the porch was suddenly flooded with light
from within, and simultaneously with its appearance, there was a shrill,
feminine shriek. The door opened precipitately, and the tall stranger
rushed out, knocking Tony off balance in his dash for
the road. On the floorboards of the porch, still slippery
(07:09):
from the rain, Tony lost his footing and fell heavily.
By the time he picked himself up, he heard the
roar of a starting motor, and the high powered roadster
was literally jerked into motion and away. Before he could
even collect his scattered wits, the lights had vanished around
a bend in the road. He turned to the still
open door and was astonished to see a crumpled figure
(07:29):
at the foot of a winding stair that led upward
from the spacious foyer within. Seeing that this was a
woman in a dressing gown, he hastily stepped in. The
figure lay in a heap, face down, a mask of
tumbled golden hair spread over the head and shoulders like
a glistening mantle. Carefully, he turned the limp body over
and saw that it was that of a beautiful girl
(07:50):
hardly out of her teens. A sigh from her told
him this was only a faint, and he experienced an
immediate feeling of relief. The girl opened her eye and
gazed at him, horror stricken. Then she sat up suddenly
and blinked, as if to clear her vision. Who who
are you, she asked fearfully. I am Anthony Russell, replied
(08:12):
Tony hastily. Don't be alarmed. I was passing and saw
strange happenings in the house, so I came in. Can
I help you? He assisted the girl to her feet,
and she leaned against him a moment for support, then
burst into wild sobbing. Oh. She wailed, poor father. He's
been killed, and Bob was here. They'll get him. What
shall I do? Who is Bob and did he kill him?
(08:36):
Asked Tony excitedly. No, no, answered the girl hysterically. I
know nothing. I was asleep. The voices awoke me, and
I came to the head of the stairs. I saw,
I saw. She bit her lip, and the great brown
eyes widened in horror. Gazing pleadingly at Tony. She pulled
her dressing gown tightly about her slim body and started
(08:56):
slowly up the stairs. But can't I do anything, miss,
he asked in agitation. Surely you're not alone in this
house with your father's body, and with a murderer escaping
at the moment, there may be accomplices about. She turned
toward him and again started sobbing. Leaning on the stair
rail to steady herself, she said, yes, you can help,
(09:18):
and please excuse my rudeness. But it is also horrible.
I can't think, can't reason yet. Where are the servants,
he asked? There are but two, and this is their
night off. But please don't ask me any more questions now.
Something altered the girl's expression, a look of horror and
fear suddenly hardened into stern resolve. As she tottered and
(09:40):
seemed about to faint once more. Tony assisted her to
a settee in the second floor hall. Now you stay
right here, he said, in a tone of authority, and
I'll go in and see if something can be done
for your father. He may not be dead after all.
Oh no, she said, hopelessly, he's dead. I'm sure he is.
(10:01):
But you can satisfy yourself if you wish through that
door on the right. Advancing into the room where lay
the body, Tony felt the chill of death in the air,
but he knelt beside the huddled form and felt for
the pulse of the victim. Obviously, the body had been untouched,
since it was still crumpled in a grotesque heap beneath
the window sill. With a shudder of distaste, he straightened
(10:23):
the twisted limbs and stretched the body to a prone position,
observing as he did so there were no signs of
blood about the person of the pajamoned man. He searched
vainly and was unable to locate a wound of any
sort whatsoever that might account for the man's sudden demise.
But he was dead, there was no doubt of that.
Tony convinced himself of this at once, and then sprang
(10:44):
to his feet in sudden recollection. There had been no
sound of a shot. He distinctly recalled his surprise at
seeing the figure collapse so unexpectedly, and here was a
body without a wound. It had flashed across his mind
at the time that this must be a stroke of
some kind, brought about by the man's evident anger. How then,
had this man been killed? And it was stranger still
(11:06):
that the victim should be old van Alsteen. Tony recognized
him at once as the cold blooded financier who had
within the past week increased his already tremendous wealth by
some eighty millions in one of the most spectacular big
business mergers of the decade. And the papers were still
reviling him, still darkly hinting of his political intrigue, of
(11:28):
the illegality of some of his operations of widows robbed
of their savings to swell his own coffers. Quite probably
the theory of the stroke was the correct one, after all,
he thought. At the sound of the girl's voice from
the doorway, Tony turned abruptly from his contemplation of the body.
So this was Margaret van Alsteen, debutante, daughter of the
(11:48):
great man. He's dead, she asked in a whisper. Yes,
I'm afraid he is. But it may be that he
died a natural death. He has no wounds. We must
call the police. No, not that, the girl almost shrieked,
call doctor Joyce. But not the police yet, Please say
(12:09):
you won't. Tony looked his amazement. Her agitation was undoubtedly extreme.
Surely this sweet girl had not murdered her own father,
he thought. Surely this bob she had spoken of was
not her lover and had killed the old man in
the argument he had witnessed. But he put these thoughts
from his mind at once. They were too absurd to
(12:29):
be considered. All right, miss, he agreed, We'll call the doctor.
Her eyes widened in terror as he spoke. Her face blanched,
and she stretched forth a shaking forefinger that pointed past
him toward the body. With a scream that echoed through
the empty house like the despairing cry of a lost soul,
she slumped to the floor in another swoon. Tony hastily
(12:52):
turned in the direction she had pointed Van Austeen's body
had disappeared, but the pajamas lay in a crumpled pile,
still outlining the figure of the corpse in the position
it had lain. It was as if the body had
dissolved into thin air, leaving its covering behind empty. Well,
I'm damned, he exclaimed in amazement. Then he turned once
(13:15):
more to the girl to start the work of restoring her.
No wonder she had fainted. End of Chapter two.
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