The Bell Tone - Edmund H Leftwich

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The bell tone by Edmund H. Leffwich. It is no use,
It's too late the earth I must dig alone, to
whom it may concern, in order to clear up any
misunderstanding or false impressions regarding the amazing case of my

(00:22):
beloved friend and co worker, Professor Howard E. Edwards, I
submit herewith extracts from the Professor's note book, which I
found on the desk Evans Berkley B. S Fellow. I
r y January twenty five. Last night, in my dreams,

(00:43):
I was a monstrous aunt and had been digging myself
a burrow in the soft, fresh earth. The dream was
intensely real, and when I awoke, I felt as tired
as if I had actually been digging. My arms ached,
and I was astonished upon examining my hands to find
them raw. Dressing hastily, I rushed to the back yard,

(01:04):
and there, sure enough, near the fence was a large
hole about two feet deep and three feet long. Hurriedly
I filled it in and returned to the house. I
must rest for a few days, as I feel that
the intense excitement caused by my investigations is preying too
heavily upon my mind. At this time, I feel that

(01:24):
I should make a brief summary of my findings in
respect to the ants, so that Barclay may go over
these notes upon his return from his vacation. First, the
ant colony is the source of a powerful bell like
tone which is radiated continuously on two wave lengths point
one eight meter and point one seven six meter. This

(01:46):
tone acts as a radio beacon and directs the ants
to the colony, no matter where they may be located.
The point one eight meter wave is used by the
ants for their clacking conversations, by means of which they
communicate with each other and the colony receiving orders from
the directing intelligence, reporting the location of food, and requesting
help when needed. The wave point one seven six meter

(02:10):
is used for sending thought, images or pictures, which may
be sent with the clacking code or independently. I cannot
conceive a more efficient or highly specialized communications system. I
must learn their secret their methods. January thirty. This morning,
while sitting at the receiver in a semi doze, with

(02:32):
the bell tone ringing in my ears, I fell into
that state known as daydreaming. Little Nippy, my beloved fox
terrier and constant companion rushed into the laboratory and ran
up to me. For a moment, my mind went blank,
my hands shot out. I grasped the dog around the
throat and began to throttle him. I had risen from
my chair and the dog was nearly dead when I

(02:53):
slipped and fell, pulling the phone plug out of the receiver. Instantly,
my mind cleared and wereords. Cannot express the remorse I
felt at my inhuman actions. Nippy would have nothing to
do with me, and crawled dejectedly from the room, a
terrified look in his eyes. I have no explanation for
my actions. February three, The transmitter is ready for operation.

(03:20):
I have constructed a pair of metal disk electrodes, which
clamped tightly to my head and press upon my temples.
This device will pick up the thought impulses from my
brain feed them directly into the radio frequency amplifier, where
they will be amplified and then radiated in a tight
directed beam. My two aunts were in their little enclosure
under the microscope when I threw the switch to the

(03:42):
send position. I pictured myself as I looked as a man,
and sent the thought I am a man. Hastily, I
threw the switch to the received position. I looked through
the microscope. The ants were lying on their sides. Somehow
I felt that the power was too great and had
stunned them. Keeping my eye to the microscope, I again

(04:04):
threw the switch to send and cut the power in half.
Get up, friends, get up, I thought, as I pictured
them rising. Sure Enough, the ants slowly regained their feet.
They looked about in apparent bewilderment. Back again in received position,
I was conscious of the thought image the man. He

(04:26):
is the man. The man holds us here. He is
killing us. We must kill the man. They gnashed their
fierce looking mandibles. I snapped back to sand and thought, no,
you must not kill the man. The man will not
harm you. He is your friend. He will help you.
As I watched, the ants seemed to become less excited.

(04:47):
From the larger of the two, I received the thought
we are dying. The man is killing us with his
strong vibrations. We must kill the man. Then a very
powerful thought impression burst upon my brain. It seemed to
come from the colony three feet away. Warning to the man,
stop your thought transmissions at once. Your vibrations are killing us.

(05:09):
We want nothing from you. We have everything we need.
You will learn nothing from us. You will stop at
once I threw the switch to send. Viewed through the microscope,
the two aunts were lying on their backs, dead to
all appearances. What if I don't stop, I said the
thought question. I want to learn the secret of your communication.

(05:33):
In return, I will teach you many things. I can't
stop now. I changed to receive, and the answer came back.
If you do not stop, we will kill you. I
turned off the apparatus, but the powerful bell tone continued
to pound incessantly into my brain. I laughed, they'd kill me,

(05:56):
would they? Those tiny insects? What could they do? Well?
Let them try, but I'd get what I was after.
I would not quit now, with success so near, What
if my transmissions did kill a few of them, of
what importance were the lives of a few ants, as
compared to the advancement of the science of communication. February nine,

(06:18):
I found myself digging again in the back yard yesterday.
As before, I had been day dreaming when an overwhelming
desire to go outside and feel the cool, moist earth
between my fingers and on my face took possession of me.
I rushed out into the back yard and began digging
feverishly madly, until finally I fell exhausted. Then my mind

(06:38):
cleared and I filled in the hole. About half the
ants have died, due no doubt to the strength of
my radiations. No matter how low I cut the power,
they still cannot live but a short time under the
force of my transmissions. They have stopped sending thought impressions
entirely and are using only their clacking code signals, which
they seemed to realize I cannot unders stand. I feel

(07:02):
that they are undertaking some sort of campaign against me.
For hours, they congregate closely packed, their antennae stiffly pointed
straight up. Their thought currents seem to be flowing into
and merging with the bell tone, which grows stronger and
more penetrating day by day. In my backyard there are
four large ant hills, and at each hill, curiously, there

(07:25):
is no activity except the same mass concentration of the ants.
Have they two been affected by my radiations and joint
forces with the original colony against myself? The belltone continues
to grow stronger. February eleven. Missus Winslow, the middle aged
widow who comes to clean my house in laboratory twice

(07:47):
a week was here this morning. She is short, dumpy,
and inclined to be stout. As she went about her work,
I noticed particularly the fat, firm flesh of her neck,
just below the jaw. I felt an uncontrollable desire to
sink my teeth deep into that flesh and enjoy the
taste of the warm, fresh blood. I had actually risen

(08:11):
from my chair to accomplish my desire when the telephone
rang and my mind cleared. February fourteenth, I have decided
to stop my experiments with the ants, as they refuse
to send any more thought impressions. There is nothing further
I can learn from them. Somehow, I feel that they
are gaining a hold upon my mind, and that every

(08:33):
time I listen in on the receiver that hold becomes stronger.
I firmly believe that I would have attacked poor missus
Winslow had not the ringing of the phone so opportunely
interrupted me. I have sent word for her to stay away,
as I cannot trust myself. I keep a box of
fresh earth on the table in my laboratory. I often

(08:54):
run my hands through it and taste it. It is
remarkable how much. This soothes me my nerves. February sixteenth.
It is too late. For two days I have kept
my apparatus shut off. I have not so much as
looked at the ants. But still that confounded bell tone

(09:16):
rings in my ears. With all the insistence of African
Tom Tom's. Hour by hour, the tone becomes more penetrating.
I cannot sleep and can eat but little. As a
last resort, I destroyed my ant colony. I even went
so far as to pour boiling water on the four
ant hills in my backyard. Still the bell tone persists.

(09:40):
I can stand it no longer. Perhaps if I were
to dig again in the yard, in the soothing earth,
I could forget news clipping from Philadelphia Banner Radio Communications
engineered Howard E. Edwards suicide, Philadelphia, February eighteen. The body

(10:07):
of Howard E. Edwards B. S p h D Member
I r E, Eminent authority on radio communications, aged fifty six,
was found this morning in the back yard of his
residence one four two seven Rains Avenue. The body was
almost completely buried in a long, narrow hole in the ground.
At first foul play was suspected, but later it appeared

(10:31):
that Edwards had dug himself into the ground and died
of suffocation as his nostrils and mouth were filled with dirt.
Doctor P. A. Hoffner, who examined the body, found no wounds,
stated that Edwards had been dead for about two days
and pronounced the death as a clear case of suicide.
The strange means employed, probably due to an unbalanced mental condition.

(10:54):
Elaborate radio apparatus upon which Edwards had been working had
been smashed to bits. The bell tone by Edmund H.
Leffwich