11 - Menace from Below by Harl Vincent

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

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter eleven of The Menace from Below by harl Vincent.
This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter eleven
All's well board. Platt still nursed to broken legs sustained
during the blast that wrecked the cavern beneath the subway tunnel.

(00:21):
He was growing irritable from his confinement and sat grumpily
before the screen of his television radio with the plastering
case limb propped up on a footstool. He watched disgustedly
the mining operation pictured on the screen, and listened disdainfully
to the voices of the workmen as they labored with
pick and shovel. Mary, he said, turning to his wife,

(00:41):
who sat reading only a few feet from him in
their pleasant library. This work the city is doing will
get them nowhere. Our friends are irretrievably lost. This boring
and digging has been going on for two weeks now,
and what have they found. Nothing. Charlie and the rest
have been swallowed up in the depths of the earth.
Hundreds the feet of rock have been penetrated in every

(01:02):
direction from that cavern of disaster, and there is no
clue as to the whereabouts of the twelve hundred people
who vanished. He shook his head mournfully, and his wife
raised solemn eyes from her book. You think they will
never be found, she murmured. This had been gone over
by them hundreds of times before, but they never seemed
to tire of discussing. The mystery still in the minds

(01:23):
of all of New York and of the rest of
the world as well. At that moment, there was the
flashing of a small light over the screen of the
television instrument, indicating that a call for Platt's number was
being made. He leaned over and pressed a small switch
that dimmed the screen and opened the circuit for the
incoming call. There was a brief pause, a click, and
the screen re lit to picture. Before the astonished eyes

(01:46):
of Ward and Merry Platt, the smiling face of Charlie Frazy. Hello, folks,
came his cheerful voice, and the two watchers paled as
if they had seen a ghost. Why why, Charlie gap Ward?
We thought you were dead. Where are you out in Arizona?
Just leaving for home? You can send out word that

(02:08):
we are safe. Three of us. The smiling face of
Tony Russell now entered the field of vision, and with
him was a beautiful blonde whom Mary recognized as the
missing Margaret van Olstein and the others asked Ward, all
dead or worse, replied Charley solemnly. But it's a long

(02:31):
story and must wait until we get back. We're coming
by airplane at once. There was very little further conversation,
since the adventurers were extremely anxious to start for home.
When their faces faded from view, Ward, Platt sat back
in his chair with a gesture of futility. Well, it's
beyond me, he said, But from what they hint, it

(02:53):
seems that the world is going to be startled by
a well nigh incredible story. In the meantime, we can
be thankful these three are safe at least. Oh yes,
smiled his wife, A thousand times yes, and you too,
my dear. And far out over the desert lands of Arizona,
there sped eastward of fast cabin plain that carried the

(03:14):
three survivors homeward. Charley sat with Marin, who was piloting
the plain and glad to be getting away from his
recent activities. Directly behind them were Tony and Margaret, hands
intertwined as they gazed at the sunlit countryside, slipping away
beneath them, and spoke in whispers of the new life
to come, when they would always be together in the
land which was forever freed of the Menace from Below.

(03:40):
End of Chapter eleven and End of the Menace from
Below by harl Vincent, read by Ben Tucker.