August 10, 2025 • 30 mins
Suspense was one of the most popular and successful old time radio series during it's run of over 900 episodes, spanning 1940-1962. Guest stars included Orson Welles, Frank Sinatra, Lucille Ball, Agnes Moorehead, Marlene Dietrich and Humphrey Bogart. The plots were mostly engaging crime dramas, science fiction and some horror - usually with a surprise ending.
Hope you enjoy this episode of Suspense! Find all our OTR radio stations and podcasts at theaterofthemind-otr.com - Audio Credit: The Old Time Radio Researchers Group. - All Podcasts @ Spreaker | Apple | YouTube | Spotify | Amazon | iHeart
Hope you enjoy this episode of Suspense! Find all our OTR radio stations and podcasts at theaterofthemind-otr.com - Audio Credit: The Old Time Radio Researchers Group. - All Podcasts @ Spreaker | Apple | YouTube | Spotify | Amazon | iHeart
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Auto Light and it's ninety six thousand dealers bring you
mister Herbert Marshall. In Tonight's presentation of Soul Spins, Tonight
Auto Light presents a spy story, the true story of
that series of events known as the Thirty nine Steps,
(00:28):
starring mister Herbert Marshall. Oh harlo, yes have What was
it all about? Why I was just demonstrating the auto
light electrical system happ You weren't sure it goes to work.
(00:50):
Every time you start your car, sound the horn, play
the radio, or turn on your lights or heater. The
electrical system does all that. Sure. App the auto light
coiled tributor, generator, and all the other units and thousands
of component parts. They're all related by auto light engineering
design and manufacturing skill and used as original factory equipment
(01:11):
on many leading makes of our finest cars. So friends,
when your auto light equipped car needs replacement parts, insist
on Autolite original factory parts. Be sure, because from bumper
to tail light, you're always right with Autolite. And now,
with the thirty nine Steps and the performance of mister
(01:32):
Herbert Marshall, Autolite hopes once again to keep you in
cell spends.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Of course, I realize these are trying times and all
that you have your waders about foreign spies and atonic
secrets and the usual international rouse.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
But don't get the wind up.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
You'll muddle through somehow. Take my word, fight and I
know wherell I speak. We had our troubles too in
our dail jolly serious they seem at the time. I
can tell you. For instance, did you ever hear of
the thirty nine steps? It was in the spring of
(02:15):
nineteen fourteen. I'd spent the last ten years on the
African felt in the Bulawayo country, made a modest little
pile and come back home to enjoy it. The only
difficulty was I didn't enjoy it. There was something wrong
about England and about London for me, And then I
realized what it was, and it was doll. I had
(02:35):
nothing to do when I was playing, simply bored that
as I was until that memorable evening when I returned
to my flat near Portland Place. It was the first
floor front and I was in the hall fitting my
key in the lock, when a little man with a
bowl of hat stepped out of the shadows from beyond
the door to the next flat back.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
I saw it.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
He was frightened. He was carrying it off whatever, but
he was frightened as I had seen men frighten, all
frightened of his better life.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
You're mister Richard, and I aren't you?
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Yes, that's right.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Can I speak to you a minute? What about inside?
If you don't mind?
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Very well?
Speaker 1 (03:09):
If you wish, I thanks, thanks a lot. That door locked. No,
I'll do it myself. It's all the same to you.
I know you must think I've got a lot of nerve.
But there are times when a man just can't be
too careful.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Now I suppose there are. Well, when you come in
by the fire.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Thanks, thanks, I had to hunt you with the kind
of guy I could trust. Whiskin soda, Yes, sir, how
could you use one? I guess you're wondering.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Who I am America Ano.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
That's right. Scudder is the name, Frank P. Scudder. I
have the apartment right over yours. I've had an eye
on you ever since my troubles began.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Really, here's a drink, good lord man.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Yes, I'm a little shaky.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
You see, if he would come along about five minutes later,
I'd probably be a dead man.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
I say, well, Cherier here's to you, now, Jack, what's
on your mind?
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Did you ever hear of a Greek politician named ker Laddies?
Speaker 2 (04:10):
No, I can't say that I have got it in
for you? Has he?
Speaker 1 (04:14):
He hasn't got it in for me. They've got it
in for both of us. Care Laddies in me?
Speaker 2 (04:18):
There?
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Who's there? The Schwarzerstein, the black Stone, schwartzers.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Stein black Stone sounds like some sort of German sporting society.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Well, you're not far off at that, but it's not
the kind of sport you're thinking about.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Their sport, mister, and I.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Is war sounds serious? It is serious, It's deadly serious.
But let me start from the beginning. I guess you
know that all the countries over here have their spires,
including your own.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
One hears of that sort of thing?
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Natural, Well, it's true. I'm with you people.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
The only trouble is I've gotten in a little deeper
than I figured out.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Sounds like interesting work, and it is, if you.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Can stay alive.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
And right now that's my big problem, because tomorrow morning
it will be announced that this Carolides has been appointed
Prime Minister of Greece and that he's going to pay
an official visit to England. He'll arrive on the third.
I'm the fourth he'll be assassinated. I'm the only man
in the world who can prevent it.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
And they know that.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
By they you mean the German chaps.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Yes, that's right, and that's why they're after me.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Or if you want my advice, I'd say there's nothing
to it. Simply go to the authority.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
No good, no good. They'd find out about it, and
then they just change their plans.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
You know your business, I suppose. Still, how is see
how the murder of an obscure Balkan politician can very
well involve anyone in war?
Speaker 3 (05:32):
That will only be the incident. There's something else, something
I can't tell you about yet. I'm not even sure
about it myself.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
But believe me, mister.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Hanai, unless I am alive until the fifth, your country
will be at war. This is all pretty hard for
you to swallow, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Well, you must admit it's rather a tall tale.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
Let me show you something. Come over here by the
window for a minute now, pull the blinds very carefully.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Tell me what you see, chaps loafing in a doorway.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Doesn't it strike you as pretty late? For people to
be loafing in doorways waiting for someone. I suppose that's right,
they're waiting for me. Oh, I see, I'll even describe
them to you. One is short, heavy set, dark, Either
is tall, young, blind?
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Am I right? Yes, by jove you are?
Speaker 1 (06:21):
They are a black store, mister Hanai. And there's another
one who isn't even with him, the head man.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
He's older than either of these two, chubby, thick glasses,
like a professor. One of his eyes looks milky, like
he was getting a cataract, and.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
He's completely bald. If you ever run across him, mister Hanai,
watch out.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
I don't intend to run across him.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
Can I stay here in your place for a few days,
lie low until I can get my plans figured out again?
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Just a few days, that's all I ask.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Well, comfortable turn you out on the street of this
time of night, after what you've told me? Can I
come along? I have an extor room. Fortunately, nothing harsh,
but comfortable enough, Thank you, Thank you. They are suit too.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Oh it looks like heaven to me.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Ready to turn in?
Speaker 4 (07:06):
Then?
Speaker 1 (07:07):
I yes, listener, I'm very sorry to trouble you us.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
You don't mind if I locked the door to you
from my side.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
You still think maybe I'm crazy, Maybe those two guys
outside of my keepers.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Oh, I wouldn't say that.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
I'll go ahead lock the door.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
In fact, it'll make me feel better that you are,
And mister hannai Yah, I'll be grateful to you until
the day I die.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
It was a queer sort of yarn. I didn't quite
know what to make of it. As a matter of fact,
I was more than half in trying to think the
poor fellow was a bit balmy.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
But I wasn't so sure.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
After I'd got my London Times at the front door
next morning, I had a look at the Foreign page
because there was a story about this great chap Carolids.
Just as he told me, new Prime Minister planning a
trip to England and all the rest. I went to
Scudder's door, knocked. There was no answer, so I ventured
to unlock the door and took my head in. The
(08:06):
shade was flapping at a wide open window, which was
natural enough Americans of fiends for fresh air. But there
was something else that was not a doll natural, of course,
Cudder lay sprawled on his side across the veil, his
face white as a sheet, his mouth working as he
tried to speak to a had.
Speaker 5 (08:23):
I the steps, Sir Slider, fight, the steps, Low Tide,
the fifth, the thirty night Stepps.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
And then he rolled over in his face, quite dead,
and I saw the knife. It was buried in his
back to the hilt. When I got myself in hand,
I began to think. It wasn't very pleasant thinking here
I had hold of some sort of information that a
man had just been killed for. And if I went
(08:59):
to the police, the odds were good they'd hang me
for his murder. Got to make a run for it,
I thought, until I can think things through, head for
open countries, Scotland would be best. And then I thought
of something else. I crossed the room and looked carefully
out of the window to the street below. There they were,
sure enough, the same two lads, not waiting for Scudder,
(09:21):
now waiting for me. Suddenly Scotland seemed a very long
way off, and all at once I heard the sound
that was my inspiration, the milkman rapping his cans on
the stairs outside my flat. I ran to the door
and opened it. I say, my good man, Hi morning, governor,
what's up? I'd like to have a word with you,
and what about I'm lighting up as it is about
(09:42):
making a sovereign for yourself. Step inside with you.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
Oh well, I'm not going to turn down good corn
in the room. What's the guy?
Speaker 2 (09:49):
I want the loan of your cap and jacket and
your milk cans.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
For just five minutes.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
It's it's for a bed.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Well, I don't know. I'll tell you what if you
could make it too?
Speaker 2 (09:58):
QUI done?
Speaker 1 (09:58):
Here you are I never saw I'm a man that
spoil a bit of sport.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Thanks.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
Now, all enough to do is to stay here until
I get back. Right, you are, governor. I pulled a
cap down a bit more here.
Speaker 6 (10:08):
You are as proper a milkman as ever.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
I say. Now, give me the cans.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
And just wait here.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Understand right, only five minutes now, yea yeah, I'll be
right back.
Speaker 6 (10:19):
And mind you don't just let milk about.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
I'll stop worrying and shut up with.
Speaker 6 (10:22):
All right, there's no need to get shirt.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
I opened the door and stepped off briskfully onto the street.
The two lads across the way looked at me sharply,
but I kept on until I rounded the corner, because
only then I heard them coming after me. I tossed
the milk cans over a wall, and Megan will run,
and I ran as I've never run before or since.
(10:59):
I had caught the Northern Spressments and Pancras station by
a metal of inches, and by the moment.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
I felt safe.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
I have a third cast compartment of myself except for
an old cudjur who does most of the time.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
And during the restless, sleepless, sleepless.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Night, I tried to get my thoughts together and hit
him on some plan of action. As it happened, the
matter was taken quite out of my hands.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Bought Newcastle.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
My traveling companion had bought a morning paper.
Speaker 7 (11:28):
She hearing the papers that are Foreign Office is meeting
with the French make an agreement in case of war,
really mapping out a plan of mutual defense, a disposition
of our feet. Called that sort of thing, very wise,
I should say.
Speaker 6 (11:47):
Here's a jolly bitch.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Another murder.
Speaker 7 (11:50):
Murder some fellow named Hanai did in another chap with
a knife.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
They found him.
Speaker 7 (11:58):
Not you edge, the Mortland plays murderer.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
They call him.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Hey, I can give you a description, tall fair about.
Speaker 7 (12:07):
Thirty small mustache, silly business.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
It could be most anybody.
Speaker 6 (12:16):
They could be you.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
For that matter.
Speaker 6 (12:19):
You wants a fairly well to that.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Yes, I suppose I do so to be traveling north situation.
You see, they could be you too. The police must
be stupid fellows.
Speaker 7 (12:31):
Do think that they can nab him with that sort
of flim system?
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Yes, police notorious. They're stupid of us?
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Hell yeah, I wonder what they're stopping for or.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Let a train go by?
Speaker 7 (12:45):
Good's training, Possibly schedules old hash deflately, Hey, don't run
things the way they used to. I say, God, step
in here in moments, will you what today?
Speaker 6 (12:58):
A lot of constabulary, no one say, looking for the merger?
Speaker 2 (13:02):
The Portland police Fill, that's right, they're gonna tippies down
this train.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
Healy, really shit, what a look?
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Well, I think I'll step down for a bit of air.
You can't leave the train now, say why not? Police
orders it? Sorry? Oh I don't take your hands off
me here tell me holy murder, O your party.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Place, murderer.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
When I topped the rise of the moor, I saw
they had been fanning out in every direction. You would
soon have me hopelesses surrounded. There was only one chance.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
The country house.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
A few hundred yards away, nothing for it, but would
throw myself on the mercy of the owner. Yes, sorry
about you, but I'm I'm a little bit of trouble.
Could I come in.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
I'm just leaving, going out for a walk. Does police
after you?
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Yes, I was on the London train. They stop to
it down there. I'm suspected of something. I can assure
you I didn't.
Speaker 4 (14:02):
Do London Tree. Come in quickly at you. They're coming
up to the door. Just if they did this wardrobe
closet until their garden.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Thank you, Thank you very much. I'll just close the
door after you.
Speaker 6 (14:17):
It'll be all right there for a bit, all right.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
Looking for a fugitives. Have seen any strange men about?
Speaker 6 (14:30):
Oh, I can't say.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Alarming, sir, but the man's a murderer and he's agerous shore.
Speaker 4 (14:36):
You find no murderers here, and you're welcome the sens
the draft.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Very good, sir.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
You make him out now, Oh, thank you. I must
see you do that beautifully. And I can't tell how
greateful I am.
Speaker 4 (14:50):
And I'm grateful to you, mister harn I.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
You know who I am, indeed.
Speaker 4 (14:57):
I do, and I would have turned you away hadn't
been so persistent studio of me. Not to guess immediately,
but in my wildest dreams, I wouldn't have hoped to
catch you on my own doorstep.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Catch me. Who are you? You don't know?
Speaker 4 (15:11):
I suppose that's because in your wildest nightmares you wouldn't
dream of walking right into my house. Or maybe it's
this hat I'm wearing and the light's not too bright.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
One mob.
Speaker 4 (15:26):
And now, mister Hanai, can you guess?
Speaker 2 (15:34):
I had never seen him before, but Scudder had described
into a tea, the headman of the black Stone, chubby, thick,
thick glasses, like a professor, completely bald one of his
eyes lookie, And I remembered Scudder saying, if one if
you run across him, mister Hannai, I watch out well here.
(15:56):
I'd run across him, sure enough, And while I was
gathering my wits, I and something with someone behind me,
I move not in time. Something came down with a
sickening crash on the back of my head, and I
felt myself falling through black and bottomless infinity.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Auto light is bringing you, mister Herbert Marshall in the
thirty nine Steps, tonight's production in Radio's outstanding theater of thrills,
souls spends well half. How's the team? No you mean
(16:52):
our basketball team? No, no, no, I mean the auto
light team in your auto light equipped car. That team
of auto light electrical system units, including the coil distributor, generators,
starting motor and all their thousands of component parts. Why
they're all related by auto light engineering, design and manufacturing
skill to give your car the smoothest performance money can buy.
(17:14):
Then auto light electrical system does a big job. Ehilo,
you said it happen. It's vitally important to the smooth
and deficient operation of your auto light equipped car. Then
I'm off to treat my cart to a check up
in an auto light service station. Right, Halp and friends,
visit your car dealer or nearest authorized auto light service station.
You'll find the authorized auto light service station nearest you
(17:37):
listed in the classified section of your telephone directory. Or
call Western Union by number and ask for operator twenty five.
And remember, from bumper to tail light, you're always right
with auto light. And now auto light brings back to
a Hollywood sound stage, mister Herbert Marshall in Elliott Lewis's
(17:58):
production of The thirty nine Steps a tail Well calculated
to keep you in South Spence.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
I came from my senses of a raging headache and
found that I was locked in a sort of storage
room with a heavy bolted door and barred windows. Climbing
to the window, I saw that it was nearly dusk,
and that there was a powerful touring car sitting in
the drive. I surmised that they were only waiting for
dark to dispose a bit permanently. But while I was
(18:38):
taking mournful stock of my seemingly hopeless surroundings, I heard
something that made my heart leap. Someone at the door,
fighting on the back of the neck.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
As her as I could second slater.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
I was at the wheel of the touring car and
speeding out into a country.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
I rove.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
All night. I drove on the white roads that ribbon
the moor, circling, doubling, climbing. At dawn, I drove off
a road into a narrow veil among tall of her trees,
and I stayed there, hidden among the trees, till nearly dusk.
I drove all the next night until I reached a
(19:30):
fishing village called rough. There I came to a kind
of pass where the chimney of a solitary house, sent
up a plume of smoke in the distance, the sea,
the road, swung over a bridge and leaning on the para.
It was a young man I grew up beside him.
Good evening. Is that place an inn?
Speaker 1 (19:50):
At your service, sir, I'm the landlord.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
You are the young to be an innkeeper?
Speaker 8 (19:55):
Whaler wasn't in my choice of a profession, you see,
I wanted to write books.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
Well, an innkeeper should make a good storyteller.
Speaker 8 (20:02):
I may be in the old days when you had
pilgrims and ballad singers and highwaymen.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
But there's even more adventure out on these roads today.
If you have eyes to see it. Maybe you're rubbing
shoulders with it right now, you think, so, put me
up for the night, give me a hot supper, and
I'll tell you what true tale, And a month from
now you can make it into a novel. Well, I
(20:30):
pitched him a lovely yarn. I altered details, but I
put in some of the truth. Told him I was
a mining magnet from Kimberly who crossed a gang of cutthroats.
I told him they chased me across the ocean, kill
my best friend in Portland. Place and now they were
on my tracks. And on top of that, the police
thought I had done the killing. He believed every word.
(20:52):
He was young, but he was the man I needed.
He told me I could stay as long as I liked,
and nobody would know, and the only pay he wanted
was more. All is about my adventures. So two present
days went by. I stayed in my room, ate in
my room, and I began to breathe easier. No sign
of the black Stone, and no more alarming news in
(21:14):
the papers about the Portland Taste murder.
Speaker 8 (21:17):
Then one night, twenty three pages of newsprints and not
a story in all of it. Oh, politics is all
assassins shot some Greek chap in London, Carolidays.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
Carolidies, just to Scutter's head.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
You know him?
Speaker 2 (21:34):
Oh no, I've heard about him.
Speaker 8 (21:36):
Look here, Defence packs meetings between us and the French
just gives those silly frenchmen an excuse for a trip.
Did you see their picture in the London paper I brought.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Back this afternoon.
Speaker 8 (21:47):
I didn't notice it now, Oh, I have it over
here on the desk, the picture of them going into
the final meeting. I never saw such an idiotic looking
crew in my life here, that one with little mustache
looking like he smells something bad, and that young slim
when they are rolling his eyes for the ladies, Albert.
(22:07):
And look at that chubby chap with the thick glasses.
He looks blind in one eye. What whatever's the matters?
He looked like he just caught sight of Beelzebub.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
I had i'd seen Satan himself, The head man of
the German Blackstone was looking placidly out at me from
that newspaper picture. He'd been there with the French delegation.
He'd attended those secret meetings, and all the plans for
the defense of England and France, for the disposition of
the British fleet were in his hands on their way
to Germany. That was what's Tuddler hadn't been able to
(22:47):
tell me, but he'd said something just before he died.
Low tide the fifth? Did he mean they were saving
a low tide on the fifth? But from what point?
Saving in what? I excuse myself and went to the
bar of the inn was crowded with fishermen playing darts, drinking,
arguing about the day's catch.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
Hey, yes, sir, the plentt of half and hair.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Oh thank you.
Speaker 6 (23:11):
Oh here, give me another drink?
Speaker 1 (23:13):
Are you not taking a wee bit too much? There?
Speaker 9 (23:15):
Now had a.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Rotten day, rotten lock, eight blessed hours.
Speaker 4 (23:19):
I was anchored off the thirty nine steps didn't hold
in more than two dozen.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Thirty nine steps.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Thirty nine steps, that was what Scudder said, the steps
at no time about ender is, sir? I fill her
up again if you don't mind, so I'll do some
fishing tomorrow. How do I get to the thirty nine steps?
Speaker 1 (23:44):
Oh, he'll find a sort of a track out over
the headland that takes you there.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Oh, the really thirty nine of them? Well you know, sir,
I've never cometed them. I've been down in two three
times too. Going to the cave. Just have of the
crind you can, ok? That cave gives me the creeps. Yes, sir,
where are you going? You owe me three and five?
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Oh?
Speaker 9 (24:04):
Sorry, what's your big hurry?
Speaker 1 (24:14):
My boy?
Speaker 2 (24:15):
Sorry officer, I haven't seen you around rough before here.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
Let me take a long some of the time.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
And yeah, you look a lot like that fellow thereafter
Portland Place murderer that I call him.
Speaker 6 (24:25):
You just come along with me.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Wait, you won't get away.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
It was old and heavier, and I so I outdistanced
him easily enough, But it was only a question of time.
I have to work fast, find the steps, find where
they live. I ran all the way to the edge
of the head and overlooking the sea. The sky was
overcast and it was dark as my pocket. I stumbled along,
barking my shins on rock and scratching my face and
hands of the gorse. Then I found them, narrow steps
(25:00):
calved in the face of the cliff leading down. I
felt my way along the rock wall, going down. Step
by step, they led into the cliff itself. I counted
them as I went, thirty.
Speaker 10 (25:13):
Five, thirty six, thirty seven, thirty eight, thirty nine.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
The steps ended on what seemed to be a wide
shelf of rock. I strained my eyes in the blackness
of the cave and gradually made out the dull.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
Sheen of water.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Below me was an underground lake that seemed to rise
and fall with the movement of the sea. I was
too intent on seeing that there was a boat of
any kind of that strange underground harbor, so I didn't
hear footsteps behind me until I was pinned in the
beam of a torchlight.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
What have you found? I heard the X. They're looking
for you. I brought you a gun.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Tell me can boats sail into this lake?
Speaker 1 (26:06):
Boats by a row boat? Maybe the water is deep,
but there's no headroom.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
It's nearly low tide now, isn't it.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Almost of the minute? Submarine?
Speaker 2 (26:17):
A submarine doesn't need headroom.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
Give me you're right now.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Look Look isn't that an underground stream coming in from
my left? Wat's that something coming down the stream?
Speaker 1 (26:29):
A dory, three men in it.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
They are spies. Give it the gun, now, run and
get help.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Quickly, write you a.
Speaker 9 (26:40):
Oh's there?
Speaker 6 (26:44):
Who is there?
Speaker 2 (26:47):
I have a gun this time, professor, so rander professor
or I shoot? Seven weeks later, as all the world knows,
(27:14):
we were at war. The German had been so certain
of success that his plans were by then too far
in motion to be halted. For myself, I served as
an officer of infantry throughout the show. But I like
to think I did my best bit forever I went
into uniform.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
Sou spence presented by Auto Light to light Star mister
Herbert Marshall. This is Harlow Wilcock speaking for Autoli, world's
largest independent manufacturer of automotive electrical equipment. AUTOLIGHTE is proud
to serve the greatest names in the industry. That's why
during the early months of fifty two, the AUTOLIGHTE Family
(28:13):
will join in saluting the leading car manufacturers who install
auto light products as original equipment. Our Autolite family is
made up of the nearly thirty thousand men and women
in twenty eight great auto light plants from coast to
coast and instill other auto light plants in many foreign countries.
Our family also includes more than eighteen thousand people who
(28:33):
have invested a portion of their savings in auto light,
as well as ninety six thousand auto light distributors and
dealers in the United States and thousands more in Canada
and throughout the world. Our Autolite Family will salute Crosley
Motors on the next auto LIGHTE Suspense television program. If
you live in a television area, check the day and
time of suspense on television so that you'll be sure
(28:56):
to see this program and remember be with us next
week for another thrilling Autolite suspense program on radio. Next
week on Suspense, our star will be mister Joseph Cotton
in a story about three people adrift in mid Atlantic,
each wanting the other dead, a tale we call a
(29:20):
watery Grave. In weeks to come, we shall also present
Frank Lovejoy and Robert young All on Souspence. Suspense is
produced and directed by Elliot Lewis, with music composed by
Lucian Morrowick and conducted by lud Gluskin. The Thirty Nine
Steps was adapted for suspense by Sylvia Richards from the
(29:41):
book by John Buckan. Featured in the cast for Tutor Owen,
Joseph Kerns, Ben Wright, William Johnstone, Charles Davis, Byron Cain,
and Raymond Lawrence. Herbert Marshall may be heard each week
in his own radio program, The Man called X. This
is the CBS Radio Network
Auto Light and it's ninety six thousand dealers bring you
mister Herbert Marshall. In Tonight's presentation of Soul Spins, Tonight
Auto Light presents a spy story, the true story of
that series of events known as the Thirty nine Steps,
(00:28):
starring mister Herbert Marshall. Oh harlo, yes have What was
it all about? Why I was just demonstrating the auto
light electrical system happ You weren't sure it goes to work.
(00:50):
Every time you start your car, sound the horn, play
the radio, or turn on your lights or heater. The
electrical system does all that. Sure. App the auto light
coiled tributor, generator, and all the other units and thousands
of component parts. They're all related by auto light engineering
design and manufacturing skill and used as original factory equipment
(01:11):
on many leading makes of our finest cars. So friends,
when your auto light equipped car needs replacement parts, insist
on Autolite original factory parts. Be sure, because from bumper
to tail light, you're always right with Autolite. And now,
with the thirty nine Steps and the performance of mister
(01:32):
Herbert Marshall, Autolite hopes once again to keep you in
cell spends.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Of course, I realize these are trying times and all
that you have your waders about foreign spies and atonic
secrets and the usual international rouse.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
But don't get the wind up.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
You'll muddle through somehow. Take my word, fight and I
know wherell I speak. We had our troubles too in
our dail jolly serious they seem at the time. I
can tell you. For instance, did you ever hear of
the thirty nine steps? It was in the spring of
(02:15):
nineteen fourteen. I'd spent the last ten years on the
African felt in the Bulawayo country, made a modest little
pile and come back home to enjoy it. The only
difficulty was I didn't enjoy it. There was something wrong
about England and about London for me, And then I
realized what it was, and it was doll. I had
(02:35):
nothing to do when I was playing, simply bored that
as I was until that memorable evening when I returned
to my flat near Portland Place. It was the first
floor front and I was in the hall fitting my
key in the lock, when a little man with a
bowl of hat stepped out of the shadows from beyond
the door to the next flat back.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
I saw it.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
He was frightened. He was carrying it off whatever, but
he was frightened as I had seen men frighten, all
frightened of his better life.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
You're mister Richard, and I aren't you?
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Yes, that's right.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Can I speak to you a minute? What about inside?
If you don't mind?
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Very well?
Speaker 1 (03:09):
If you wish, I thanks, thanks a lot. That door locked. No,
I'll do it myself. It's all the same to you.
I know you must think I've got a lot of nerve.
But there are times when a man just can't be
too careful.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Now I suppose there are. Well, when you come in
by the fire.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Thanks, thanks, I had to hunt you with the kind
of guy I could trust. Whiskin soda, Yes, sir, how
could you use one? I guess you're wondering.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Who I am America Ano.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
That's right. Scudder is the name, Frank P. Scudder. I
have the apartment right over yours. I've had an eye
on you ever since my troubles began.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Really, here's a drink, good lord man.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Yes, I'm a little shaky.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
You see, if he would come along about five minutes later,
I'd probably be a dead man.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
I say, well, Cherier here's to you, now, Jack, what's
on your mind?
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Did you ever hear of a Greek politician named ker Laddies?
Speaker 2 (04:10):
No, I can't say that I have got it in
for you? Has he?
Speaker 1 (04:14):
He hasn't got it in for me. They've got it
in for both of us. Care Laddies in me?
Speaker 2 (04:18):
There?
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Who's there? The Schwarzerstein, the black Stone, schwartzers.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Stein black Stone sounds like some sort of German sporting society.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Well, you're not far off at that, but it's not
the kind of sport you're thinking about.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Their sport, mister, and I.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Is war sounds serious? It is serious, It's deadly serious.
But let me start from the beginning. I guess you
know that all the countries over here have their spires,
including your own.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
One hears of that sort of thing?
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Natural, Well, it's true. I'm with you people.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
The only trouble is I've gotten in a little deeper
than I figured out.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Sounds like interesting work, and it is, if you.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Can stay alive.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
And right now that's my big problem, because tomorrow morning
it will be announced that this Carolides has been appointed
Prime Minister of Greece and that he's going to pay
an official visit to England. He'll arrive on the third.
I'm the fourth he'll be assassinated. I'm the only man
in the world who can prevent it.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
And they know that.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
By they you mean the German chaps.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Yes, that's right, and that's why they're after me.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Or if you want my advice, I'd say there's nothing
to it. Simply go to the authority.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
No good, no good. They'd find out about it, and
then they just change their plans.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
You know your business, I suppose. Still, how is see
how the murder of an obscure Balkan politician can very
well involve anyone in war?
Speaker 3 (05:32):
That will only be the incident. There's something else, something
I can't tell you about yet. I'm not even sure
about it myself.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
But believe me, mister.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Hanai, unless I am alive until the fifth, your country
will be at war. This is all pretty hard for
you to swallow, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Well, you must admit it's rather a tall tale.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
Let me show you something. Come over here by the
window for a minute now, pull the blinds very carefully.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Tell me what you see, chaps loafing in a doorway.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Doesn't it strike you as pretty late? For people to
be loafing in doorways waiting for someone. I suppose that's right,
they're waiting for me. Oh, I see, I'll even describe
them to you. One is short, heavy set, dark, Either
is tall, young, blind?
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Am I right? Yes, by jove you are?
Speaker 1 (06:21):
They are a black store, mister Hanai. And there's another
one who isn't even with him, the head man.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
He's older than either of these two, chubby, thick glasses,
like a professor. One of his eyes looks milky, like
he was getting a cataract, and.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
He's completely bald. If you ever run across him, mister Hanai,
watch out.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
I don't intend to run across him.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
Can I stay here in your place for a few days,
lie low until I can get my plans figured out again?
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Just a few days, that's all I ask.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Well, comfortable turn you out on the street of this
time of night, after what you've told me? Can I
come along? I have an extor room. Fortunately, nothing harsh,
but comfortable enough, Thank you, Thank you. They are suit too.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Oh it looks like heaven to me.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Ready to turn in?
Speaker 4 (07:06):
Then?
Speaker 1 (07:07):
I yes, listener, I'm very sorry to trouble you us.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
You don't mind if I locked the door to you
from my side.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
You still think maybe I'm crazy, Maybe those two guys
outside of my keepers.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Oh, I wouldn't say that.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
I'll go ahead lock the door.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
In fact, it'll make me feel better that you are,
And mister hannai Yah, I'll be grateful to you until
the day I die.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
It was a queer sort of yarn. I didn't quite
know what to make of it. As a matter of fact,
I was more than half in trying to think the
poor fellow was a bit balmy.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
But I wasn't so sure.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
After I'd got my London Times at the front door
next morning, I had a look at the Foreign page
because there was a story about this great chap Carolids.
Just as he told me, new Prime Minister planning a
trip to England and all the rest. I went to
Scudder's door, knocked. There was no answer, so I ventured
to unlock the door and took my head in. The
(08:06):
shade was flapping at a wide open window, which was
natural enough Americans of fiends for fresh air. But there
was something else that was not a doll natural, of course,
Cudder lay sprawled on his side across the veil, his
face white as a sheet, his mouth working as he
tried to speak to a had.
Speaker 5 (08:23):
I the steps, Sir Slider, fight, the steps, Low Tide,
the fifth, the thirty night Stepps.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
And then he rolled over in his face, quite dead,
and I saw the knife. It was buried in his
back to the hilt. When I got myself in hand,
I began to think. It wasn't very pleasant thinking here
I had hold of some sort of information that a
man had just been killed for. And if I went
(08:59):
to the police, the odds were good they'd hang me
for his murder. Got to make a run for it,
I thought, until I can think things through, head for
open countries, Scotland would be best. And then I thought
of something else. I crossed the room and looked carefully
out of the window to the street below. There they were,
sure enough, the same two lads, not waiting for Scudder,
(09:21):
now waiting for me. Suddenly Scotland seemed a very long
way off, and all at once I heard the sound
that was my inspiration, the milkman rapping his cans on
the stairs outside my flat. I ran to the door
and opened it. I say, my good man, Hi morning, governor,
what's up? I'd like to have a word with you,
and what about I'm lighting up as it is about
(09:42):
making a sovereign for yourself. Step inside with you.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
Oh well, I'm not going to turn down good corn
in the room. What's the guy?
Speaker 2 (09:49):
I want the loan of your cap and jacket and
your milk cans.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
For just five minutes.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
It's it's for a bed.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Well, I don't know. I'll tell you what if you
could make it too?
Speaker 2 (09:58):
QUI done?
Speaker 1 (09:58):
Here you are I never saw I'm a man that
spoil a bit of sport.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Thanks.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
Now, all enough to do is to stay here until
I get back. Right, you are, governor. I pulled a
cap down a bit more here.
Speaker 6 (10:08):
You are as proper a milkman as ever.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
I say. Now, give me the cans.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
And just wait here.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Understand right, only five minutes now, yea yeah, I'll be
right back.
Speaker 6 (10:19):
And mind you don't just let milk about.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
I'll stop worrying and shut up with.
Speaker 6 (10:22):
All right, there's no need to get shirt.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
I opened the door and stepped off briskfully onto the street.
The two lads across the way looked at me sharply,
but I kept on until I rounded the corner, because
only then I heard them coming after me. I tossed
the milk cans over a wall, and Megan will run,
and I ran as I've never run before or since.
(10:59):
I had caught the Northern Spressments and Pancras station by
a metal of inches, and by the moment.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
I felt safe.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
I have a third cast compartment of myself except for
an old cudjur who does most of the time.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
And during the restless, sleepless, sleepless.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Night, I tried to get my thoughts together and hit
him on some plan of action. As it happened, the
matter was taken quite out of my hands.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Bought Newcastle.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
My traveling companion had bought a morning paper.
Speaker 7 (11:28):
She hearing the papers that are Foreign Office is meeting
with the French make an agreement in case of war,
really mapping out a plan of mutual defense, a disposition
of our feet. Called that sort of thing, very wise,
I should say.
Speaker 6 (11:47):
Here's a jolly bitch.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Another murder.
Speaker 7 (11:50):
Murder some fellow named Hanai did in another chap with
a knife.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
They found him.
Speaker 7 (11:58):
Not you edge, the Mortland plays murderer.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
They call him.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Hey, I can give you a description, tall fair about.
Speaker 7 (12:07):
Thirty small mustache, silly business.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
It could be most anybody.
Speaker 6 (12:16):
They could be you.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
For that matter.
Speaker 6 (12:19):
You wants a fairly well to that.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Yes, I suppose I do so to be traveling north situation.
You see, they could be you too. The police must
be stupid fellows.
Speaker 7 (12:31):
Do think that they can nab him with that sort
of flim system?
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Yes, police notorious. They're stupid of us?
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Hell yeah, I wonder what they're stopping for or.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Let a train go by?
Speaker 7 (12:45):
Good's training, Possibly schedules old hash deflately, Hey, don't run
things the way they used to. I say, God, step
in here in moments, will you what today?
Speaker 6 (12:58):
A lot of constabulary, no one say, looking for the merger?
Speaker 2 (13:02):
The Portland police Fill, that's right, they're gonna tippies down
this train.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
Healy, really shit, what a look?
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Well, I think I'll step down for a bit of air.
You can't leave the train now, say why not? Police
orders it? Sorry? Oh I don't take your hands off
me here tell me holy murder, O your party.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Place, murderer.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
When I topped the rise of the moor, I saw
they had been fanning out in every direction. You would
soon have me hopelesses surrounded. There was only one chance.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
The country house.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
A few hundred yards away, nothing for it, but would
throw myself on the mercy of the owner. Yes, sorry
about you, but I'm I'm a little bit of trouble.
Could I come in.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
I'm just leaving, going out for a walk. Does police
after you?
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Yes, I was on the London train. They stop to
it down there. I'm suspected of something. I can assure
you I didn't.
Speaker 4 (14:02):
Do London Tree. Come in quickly at you. They're coming
up to the door. Just if they did this wardrobe
closet until their garden.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Thank you, Thank you very much. I'll just close the
door after you.
Speaker 6 (14:17):
It'll be all right there for a bit, all right.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
Looking for a fugitives. Have seen any strange men about?
Speaker 6 (14:30):
Oh, I can't say.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Alarming, sir, but the man's a murderer and he's agerous shore.
Speaker 4 (14:36):
You find no murderers here, and you're welcome the sens
the draft.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Very good, sir.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
You make him out now, Oh, thank you. I must
see you do that beautifully. And I can't tell how
greateful I am.
Speaker 4 (14:50):
And I'm grateful to you, mister harn I.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
You know who I am, indeed.
Speaker 4 (14:57):
I do, and I would have turned you away hadn't
been so persistent studio of me. Not to guess immediately,
but in my wildest dreams, I wouldn't have hoped to
catch you on my own doorstep.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Catch me. Who are you? You don't know?
Speaker 4 (15:11):
I suppose that's because in your wildest nightmares you wouldn't
dream of walking right into my house. Or maybe it's
this hat I'm wearing and the light's not too bright.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
One mob.
Speaker 4 (15:26):
And now, mister Hanai, can you guess?
Speaker 2 (15:34):
I had never seen him before, but Scudder had described
into a tea, the headman of the black Stone, chubby, thick,
thick glasses, like a professor, completely bald one of his
eyes lookie, And I remembered Scudder saying, if one if
you run across him, mister Hannai, I watch out well here.
(15:56):
I'd run across him, sure enough, And while I was
gathering my wits, I and something with someone behind me,
I move not in time. Something came down with a
sickening crash on the back of my head, and I
felt myself falling through black and bottomless infinity.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Auto light is bringing you, mister Herbert Marshall in the
thirty nine Steps, tonight's production in Radio's outstanding theater of thrills,
souls spends well half. How's the team? No you mean
(16:52):
our basketball team? No, no, no, I mean the auto
light team in your auto light equipped car. That team
of auto light electrical system units, including the coil distributor, generators,
starting motor and all their thousands of component parts. Why
they're all related by auto light engineering, design and manufacturing
skill to give your car the smoothest performance money can buy.
(17:14):
Then auto light electrical system does a big job. Ehilo,
you said it happen. It's vitally important to the smooth
and deficient operation of your auto light equipped car. Then
I'm off to treat my cart to a check up
in an auto light service station. Right, Halp and friends,
visit your car dealer or nearest authorized auto light service station.
You'll find the authorized auto light service station nearest you
(17:37):
listed in the classified section of your telephone directory. Or
call Western Union by number and ask for operator twenty five.
And remember, from bumper to tail light, you're always right
with auto light. And now auto light brings back to
a Hollywood sound stage, mister Herbert Marshall in Elliott Lewis's
(17:58):
production of The thirty nine Steps a tail Well calculated
to keep you in South Spence.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
I came from my senses of a raging headache and
found that I was locked in a sort of storage
room with a heavy bolted door and barred windows. Climbing
to the window, I saw that it was nearly dusk,
and that there was a powerful touring car sitting in
the drive. I surmised that they were only waiting for
dark to dispose a bit permanently. But while I was
(18:38):
taking mournful stock of my seemingly hopeless surroundings, I heard
something that made my heart leap. Someone at the door,
fighting on the back of the neck.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
As her as I could second slater.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
I was at the wheel of the touring car and
speeding out into a country.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
I rove.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
All night. I drove on the white roads that ribbon
the moor, circling, doubling, climbing. At dawn, I drove off
a road into a narrow veil among tall of her trees,
and I stayed there, hidden among the trees, till nearly dusk.
I drove all the next night until I reached a
(19:30):
fishing village called rough. There I came to a kind
of pass where the chimney of a solitary house, sent
up a plume of smoke in the distance, the sea,
the road, swung over a bridge and leaning on the para.
It was a young man I grew up beside him.
Good evening. Is that place an inn?
Speaker 1 (19:50):
At your service, sir, I'm the landlord.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
You are the young to be an innkeeper?
Speaker 8 (19:55):
Whaler wasn't in my choice of a profession, you see,
I wanted to write books.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
Well, an innkeeper should make a good storyteller.
Speaker 8 (20:02):
I may be in the old days when you had
pilgrims and ballad singers and highwaymen.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
But there's even more adventure out on these roads today.
If you have eyes to see it. Maybe you're rubbing
shoulders with it right now, you think, so, put me
up for the night, give me a hot supper, and
I'll tell you what true tale, And a month from
now you can make it into a novel. Well, I
(20:30):
pitched him a lovely yarn. I altered details, but I
put in some of the truth. Told him I was
a mining magnet from Kimberly who crossed a gang of cutthroats.
I told him they chased me across the ocean, kill
my best friend in Portland. Place and now they were
on my tracks. And on top of that, the police
thought I had done the killing. He believed every word.
(20:52):
He was young, but he was the man I needed.
He told me I could stay as long as I liked,
and nobody would know, and the only pay he wanted
was more. All is about my adventures. So two present
days went by. I stayed in my room, ate in
my room, and I began to breathe easier. No sign
of the black Stone, and no more alarming news in
(21:14):
the papers about the Portland Taste murder.
Speaker 8 (21:17):
Then one night, twenty three pages of newsprints and not
a story in all of it. Oh, politics is all
assassins shot some Greek chap in London, Carolidays.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
Carolidies, just to Scutter's head.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
You know him?
Speaker 2 (21:34):
Oh no, I've heard about him.
Speaker 8 (21:36):
Look here, Defence packs meetings between us and the French
just gives those silly frenchmen an excuse for a trip.
Did you see their picture in the London paper I brought.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Back this afternoon.
Speaker 8 (21:47):
I didn't notice it now, Oh, I have it over
here on the desk, the picture of them going into
the final meeting. I never saw such an idiotic looking
crew in my life here, that one with little mustache
looking like he smells something bad, and that young slim
when they are rolling his eyes for the ladies, Albert.
(22:07):
And look at that chubby chap with the thick glasses.
He looks blind in one eye. What whatever's the matters?
He looked like he just caught sight of Beelzebub.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
I had i'd seen Satan himself, The head man of
the German Blackstone was looking placidly out at me from
that newspaper picture. He'd been there with the French delegation.
He'd attended those secret meetings, and all the plans for
the defense of England and France, for the disposition of
the British fleet were in his hands on their way
to Germany. That was what's Tuddler hadn't been able to
(22:47):
tell me, but he'd said something just before he died.
Low tide the fifth? Did he mean they were saving
a low tide on the fifth? But from what point?
Saving in what? I excuse myself and went to the
bar of the inn was crowded with fishermen playing darts, drinking,
arguing about the day's catch.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
Hey, yes, sir, the plentt of half and hair.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Oh thank you.
Speaker 6 (23:11):
Oh here, give me another drink?
Speaker 1 (23:13):
Are you not taking a wee bit too much? There?
Speaker 9 (23:15):
Now had a.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Rotten day, rotten lock, eight blessed hours.
Speaker 4 (23:19):
I was anchored off the thirty nine steps didn't hold
in more than two dozen.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Thirty nine steps.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Thirty nine steps, that was what Scudder said, the steps
at no time about ender is, sir? I fill her
up again if you don't mind, so I'll do some
fishing tomorrow. How do I get to the thirty nine steps?
Speaker 1 (23:44):
Oh, he'll find a sort of a track out over
the headland that takes you there.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Oh, the really thirty nine of them? Well you know, sir,
I've never cometed them. I've been down in two three
times too. Going to the cave. Just have of the
crind you can, ok? That cave gives me the creeps. Yes, sir,
where are you going? You owe me three and five?
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Oh?
Speaker 9 (24:04):
Sorry, what's your big hurry?
Speaker 1 (24:14):
My boy?
Speaker 2 (24:15):
Sorry officer, I haven't seen you around rough before here.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
Let me take a long some of the time.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
And yeah, you look a lot like that fellow thereafter
Portland Place murderer that I call him.
Speaker 6 (24:25):
You just come along with me.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Wait, you won't get away.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
It was old and heavier, and I so I outdistanced
him easily enough, But it was only a question of time.
I have to work fast, find the steps, find where
they live. I ran all the way to the edge
of the head and overlooking the sea. The sky was
overcast and it was dark as my pocket. I stumbled along,
barking my shins on rock and scratching my face and
hands of the gorse. Then I found them, narrow steps
(25:00):
calved in the face of the cliff leading down. I
felt my way along the rock wall, going down. Step
by step, they led into the cliff itself. I counted
them as I went, thirty.
Speaker 10 (25:13):
Five, thirty six, thirty seven, thirty eight, thirty nine.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
The steps ended on what seemed to be a wide
shelf of rock. I strained my eyes in the blackness
of the cave and gradually made out the dull.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
Sheen of water.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Below me was an underground lake that seemed to rise
and fall with the movement of the sea. I was
too intent on seeing that there was a boat of
any kind of that strange underground harbor, so I didn't
hear footsteps behind me until I was pinned in the
beam of a torchlight.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
What have you found? I heard the X. They're looking
for you. I brought you a gun.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Tell me can boats sail into this lake?
Speaker 1 (26:06):
Boats by a row boat? Maybe the water is deep,
but there's no headroom.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
It's nearly low tide now, isn't it.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Almost of the minute? Submarine?
Speaker 2 (26:17):
A submarine doesn't need headroom.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
Give me you're right now.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Look Look isn't that an underground stream coming in from
my left? Wat's that something coming down the stream?
Speaker 1 (26:29):
A dory, three men in it.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
They are spies. Give it the gun, now, run and
get help.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Quickly, write you a.
Speaker 9 (26:40):
Oh's there?
Speaker 6 (26:44):
Who is there?
Speaker 2 (26:47):
I have a gun this time, professor, so rander professor
or I shoot? Seven weeks later, as all the world knows,
(27:14):
we were at war. The German had been so certain
of success that his plans were by then too far
in motion to be halted. For myself, I served as
an officer of infantry throughout the show. But I like
to think I did my best bit forever I went
into uniform.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
Sou spence presented by Auto Light to light Star mister
Herbert Marshall. This is Harlow Wilcock speaking for Autoli, world's
largest independent manufacturer of automotive electrical equipment. AUTOLIGHTE is proud
to serve the greatest names in the industry. That's why
during the early months of fifty two, the AUTOLIGHTE Family
(28:13):
will join in saluting the leading car manufacturers who install
auto light products as original equipment. Our Autolite family is
made up of the nearly thirty thousand men and women
in twenty eight great auto light plants from coast to
coast and instill other auto light plants in many foreign countries.
Our family also includes more than eighteen thousand people who
(28:33):
have invested a portion of their savings in auto light,
as well as ninety six thousand auto light distributors and
dealers in the United States and thousands more in Canada
and throughout the world. Our Autolite Family will salute Crosley
Motors on the next auto LIGHTE Suspense television program. If
you live in a television area, check the day and
time of suspense on television so that you'll be sure
(28:56):
to see this program and remember be with us next
week for another thrilling Autolite suspense program on radio. Next
week on Suspense, our star will be mister Joseph Cotton
in a story about three people adrift in mid Atlantic,
each wanting the other dead, a tale we call a
(29:20):
watery Grave. In weeks to come, we shall also present
Frank Lovejoy and Robert young All on Souspence. Suspense is
produced and directed by Elliot Lewis, with music composed by
Lucian Morrowick and conducted by lud Gluskin. The Thirty Nine
Steps was adapted for suspense by Sylvia Richards from the
(29:41):
book by John Buckan. Featured in the cast for Tutor Owen,
Joseph Kerns, Ben Wright, William Johnstone, Charles Davis, Byron Cain,
and Raymond Lawrence. Herbert Marshall may be heard each week
in his own radio program, The Man called X. This
is the CBS Radio Network
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