August 8, 2025 • 29 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
Mark as Played
Transcript
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 Richard Widmark. In Tonight's presentation of Soul Spends, Tonight
Auto Light presents a dramatization of Walter Van Tilbert Clark's
study in Panic The Track of the Cat, starring mister
(00:29):
Richard with Mark. Hello, mister Willcox, Well, gasp me up.
If it isn't Sam, my auto light spark plug man,
how's it going?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Sam? Great? You mean my exclusive auto light plug check indicator.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Ah, that super sleuth is really doing a job a Sam,
You bet it quickly inaccurately shows my customers if their
cars spark plugs need cleaning or if they're worn out
or wrong for their.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Style of driving.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
And if they need cleaning, Sam, why then I do
the job fast and fine with my modern equipment. And
if those spark plugs are worn.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Out or wrong, Oh you know the answer, mister Wilcox.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
I sure do.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Sam. You install ignition engineered autolite spark plugs for smoother performance,
quick starts and gas savings. So friends, take ative from
me and visit your nearest autolite spark plug dealer. You
can learn his location by calling Western Union by number
and asking for operator twenty five. She will quickly tell
you the location of your nearest Autolite sparkplug dealer. And remember,
(01:35):
from bumper to tail light, you're always right with Autolite.
And now with the track of the cat and the
performance of mister Richard with mark, Autolite hopes once again
to keep you in cells spending.
Speaker 4 (02:05):
You gotta get this fire, Collin.
Speaker 5 (02:07):
I got.
Speaker 4 (02:07):
It's my last chance.
Speaker 6 (02:09):
I'm freeze to death out here tonight if I don't
better be cat meat.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
Snow, nothing but snow.
Speaker 6 (02:18):
And that black murdering devil waiting out there in the
dark for me, that big black cat waiting for his
chance as she goes it. That'll hold mister cat for
a while. Cats are afraid of fire, even big black ones.
Even a big black panther big as a horse, won't
fool around the fire.
Speaker 4 (02:37):
And I'll say, what am I talking about? Where are
you gonna find a black panther on a range.
Speaker 6 (02:43):
And a mountain lion? That's all he is, big maybe,
but just a plain mountain cat. And that's all nothing
but superstition, all that out the talk, crazy Indian superstition. Yeah,
fire assuring some man feel good.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
Good, kind of drowsy. No sleep, wasn't go to sleep.
That's all that cat's waiting for out there in the trees.
Me to go to sleep and the fire go out.
Gotta keep awake. I gotta do something to keep awake.
Think about tracking the cat. How I got started two days,
(03:24):
two nights.
Speaker 6 (03:25):
Almost three nights ago, five o'clock in the morning, A
sleep in the bunk house with a storm beginning outside,
with me not hearing it, not hearing anything because I
was asleep.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
So sobs.
Speaker 7 (03:51):
Kurt, Kurt, wake up, Wake up?
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Kurt's the man. What's the matter with you?
Speaker 7 (04:00):
Colls are balling up the canyon. Something's out there.
Speaker 6 (04:02):
Oh, for Pete's sake, you have to wake me up
every time you have one of your crazy dreams.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Go back to bed.
Speaker 4 (04:08):
It's no dream, Kurt. Oh you too, hell uh, you.
Speaker 7 (04:12):
Only hear it when the wind's right.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Listen.
Speaker 8 (04:15):
Well, how long has that been going on? Why didn't
you let me know sooner? We've just been awake a
few minutes. We wanted to be sure.
Speaker 6 (04:21):
A few minutes, and that going on all the time.
Find couple of brothers I got to help me run
a ranch. One good for nothing but dreaming, and the
other good for nothing but thinking about that Gally.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Let's leave her out of it. Huh, how can I
leave her out of it?
Speaker 6 (04:35):
You practically moved her into the house, didn't you quit
ragging the kid?
Speaker 7 (04:39):
Kerti's just here for visit, you know that.
Speaker 6 (04:41):
Yeah, well, get your clothes on. What are you standing
there for? You think that cat's gonna wait for us?
Speaker 7 (04:47):
You figure it is a cat?
Speaker 3 (04:48):
What else could it be? Running cattle like that?
Speaker 6 (04:52):
Maybe you think it's that black panther Joe Sam talks about. Huh,
I swear are there?
Speaker 3 (04:57):
Sometimes?
Speaker 6 (04:58):
I think you're as crazy as that crazy old Indian
could be?
Speaker 7 (05:02):
Could be that Me and Joe Sam are just the
ones that ain't crazy.
Speaker 6 (05:06):
Indian lover and cat lover. But don't think you ain't
gonna go out there with me because you.
Speaker 7 (05:11):
Are anyway you wanted, Kurt, I'll go with the Kurt.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Oh no, no, you gotta stick around take care of
that gal.
Speaker 4 (05:19):
Yeah, listen to that.
Speaker 7 (05:20):
We woke the old lady up.
Speaker 6 (05:21):
She's come down to the kitchen. I suppose now she's
gonna give me some kind of argument.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Why you all have gotta pick on everybody?
Speaker 6 (05:27):
Kurt?
Speaker 3 (05:27):
First, Gwyn, Now what matter? Hell? You're worried about me
and that gal Gwen and yours?
Speaker 7 (05:33):
Huh?
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Come, I let's go.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Up kind of early, ain't Shermi Mom?
Speaker 9 (05:41):
I figured you'd be wanting breakfast, just coffee?
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Some cats running the cattle.
Speaker 4 (05:45):
Up in the canyon head?
Speaker 9 (05:48):
You going up there?
Speaker 10 (05:49):
Well?
Speaker 6 (05:49):
You don't think I'm gonna sit around here on my
hands while some.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
Thieven mountain cat kills off our best stars, do you?
Speaker 11 (05:56):
I'll sit down all of you. Here's your coffee, Kurt.
What I don't want for you to go? I suppose
what I gotta say. Don't carry much weight around here,
but I don't want for you to go.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
Well, I'm going. And so's your dreamer boy?
Speaker 9 (06:12):
Are they? And stopping a blizzard out, Kurt? And a
bad one.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
I've been out in a little snow before.
Speaker 9 (06:17):
A Well, it ain't the same. It's the first snow
of the year.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
Nah, No, I thought.
Speaker 6 (06:22):
So you've been talking to that crazy old Indian too,
haven't you.
Speaker 11 (06:27):
I ain't either, can't nobody hardly talk to him today?
Speaker 9 (06:30):
The shape is in.
Speaker 6 (06:31):
Ill spooped up again, eh, Black panthers, first snow and
you believe in it?
Speaker 11 (06:38):
Oh, I told him to fetch some wood to get
him inside. Wonder he ain't froze to death out there
half the night, nothing but his shirt and jeans and
them little thin mocksins.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
Will you sat down and drink your coffee?
Speaker 6 (06:52):
We gotta be leaving here, Na, Well, if it ain't
our little lady.
Speaker 11 (06:57):
Visity, good morning, Come said down, have some hot coffee.
Speaker 9 (07:03):
Child, Thank you. No need for you to got up
this early.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Maybe she got up special just to see us off.
Speaker 9 (07:09):
See who off? Where?
Speaker 10 (07:11):
Oh?
Speaker 11 (07:12):
Mountain cats after the cattle Kurt's bound. They're going up
there to get him.
Speaker 6 (07:16):
Oh hell in this story, don't worry about your precious
Hell and leaving him here to take care of you.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
I said I'd go, didn't I?
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Sides?
Speaker 6 (07:23):
If it is that spoop panther at Joe Sam's, I'll
need Arthur here to make big medicine. He's almost as
good at that Indian medicine as Joe Sam himself.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Ain't you eh ha ha ha?
Speaker 7 (07:35):
Never will learn not to ride a good thing too hard?
When you Kurt, I.
Speaker 9 (07:40):
Guess I'm a little confused. Spoop panther is Indian medicine.
Speaker 7 (07:44):
It's nothing, honey, it's just Kurt's little joke. Here's Joe Sam.
Speaker 9 (07:49):
Close the door after him. Hell, sure, ma, that's right.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
I'll go on.
Speaker 11 (07:55):
Just stump it in the woodbox, Joe Sam. Right now,
drink this hot coffee. For Land's sakes. You're shaking like
a leaf at Joe Sam. Here coffee.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Yeah, you don't want no coffee. You don't even hear.
Speaker 6 (08:10):
He just wants to sit there and go off into
one of them trances.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
He is.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Hey, Joe Sam, you seeing that spook panther? Now, Joe Sam.
Speaker 7 (08:19):
Lay my long, kirt.
Speaker 9 (08:21):
I do wish somebody would tell me what this is
all about, unless it's a family secret.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
Well there you hear that, Joe Sam.
Speaker 6 (08:28):
Go ahead, tell the little lady about that big old
black spook. It looks like I'll have to do the
honors myself. You see, it's this way, little lady. According
to Joe Sam, there's a black panther roams this part
of the country, comes with the first snow every year,
and he's big, big as a horse, and eyes like
(08:51):
holes of fire, and you can see right through him,
and you can shoot right through him too, and still
he'll keep coming until he gets you because he can't
never die.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
He's a spook, kind of frighten.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
Yeah, for old women and for dreamers.
Speaker 7 (09:12):
Maybe.
Speaker 6 (09:12):
Now, come on, dreamer boy, let's go. I suppose you're
gonna wear that old cow eyed parker too. Makes you
look even more like a medicine man.
Speaker 7 (09:20):
Keeps me warm.
Speaker 11 (09:21):
Oh, be careful please, and don't stay out there beyond
night fall?
Speaker 6 (09:26):
Ye sure, sure willma Arthur, Well, come to life, did he?
Speaker 9 (09:31):
Arthur?
Speaker 1 (09:33):
No go? It's all right, Joe Sam, No, Arthur Knocke,
no go.
Speaker 7 (09:42):
I got to Joe Sam, We both do well.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Ye, come on and stop plavering with that old fool.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Alright, Kurt, all right, you go, Arthur got to but
don't you worry.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
Then you go, but you not come.
Speaker 9 (10:01):
You not ever ever come back.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Auto Light is bringing you, mister Richard with Mark in
the track of the Cats tonight's production in Radio's outstanding
theater of thrills, South spends sam My auto light spark
(10:41):
plug man, Why do you recommend ignition engineered auto light
spark plug?
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Why that's easy, mister Willcott.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
It's because because they're designed by the same skilled auto
light engineers who design the coil distributor and all the
other important parts. Of complete ignition systems used as original
equipment on many leading makes of our finest car, trucks
and tractors.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Hey, Sam, that's right.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Those auto light spark plugs are designed to work as
a team with the complete ignition system.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Take the new auto light resistor spark plug for instance.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
It give smoother performance, greater gas savings, and quicker starts.
And it's only one of a complete line of ignition
engineered auto light spark plugs designed for every use.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
So see your nearest auto light spark plug dealer soon.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
Write your auto light spark plug Dealer's exclusive plug check
indicator will quickly show you if your spark plugs are
right for your style of driving. And remember, from bumper
to tail light, you're always right with auto light and
now auto LIGHTE brings back to our Hollywood sound stage,
mister Richard Witmark in Elliott Lewis's production of the Track
(11:46):
of the Cat, a tail well calculated to keep.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
You in cell spend.
Speaker 6 (12:07):
Even after we was saddled up and heading out across
the range, I was still laughing at myself and what
the old man had said to Arthur about not coming back,
and how solemn he's said I tried to get a
look at Arthur. Let's see how he was taking it.
That You never could tell with that one. Well, we
hit the drawer that leads into the canyon about daylight.
It's a real box canyon with a steep slope to
(12:29):
the north and a sheer drop off the east face.
We couldn't hear the cattle now, but we could see
their tracks in the snow where they was heading up
the canyon.
Speaker 4 (12:39):
And then I saw what i'd been looking for.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
Hey, look look at that. You see them tracks? Cat?
All right?
Speaker 6 (12:46):
Big one, yeah, pretty near as big as a horse
at that. But you won't see through the cat that
made them tracks. He's real enough, Come on, most like
he's still up there.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
What he can horse?
Speaker 6 (13:00):
Look up ahead, all right, just steering. He's dead and
with his neck broke. But the looks that's what ails
the horse. They don't like the blood. Eh, look up there,
you're right.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
Two more.
Speaker 6 (13:14):
That's three of my best steers. Oh he's been up
here killing for fun.
Speaker 7 (13:18):
I look like he's up here now though. There goes
the track up in north slope.
Speaker 6 (13:23):
Yeah he's gone all right, but he ain't been gone
a long tracks as fresh and clear as print on
a page. I'm going after him. You'll need snow shoes,
you'll need grubb. I'll go back after it. If you like,
I'll go myself. If it's all the same, you'll stay
here and hold the trail either way now, not either
way that way, unless you're worrying about what Joe Sam said.
(13:45):
I'm not worrying, and don't go dreaming off, because I
want you to be here.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
When I get back.
Speaker 7 (13:49):
I'll be here all right.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
Then, keep your eyes open, sure, and Kurt, yeah, where
were you?
Speaker 1 (13:56):
I'd leave Hal's girl alone.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
A smart one, a real smart one. Like he was
reading my mind.
Speaker 6 (14:09):
He knew I wanted to get that gal off by herself,
and with my taking care of her housework and hall
out doing the chores, he knew I'd have my chance.
Speaker 4 (14:18):
And that's just how it happened, too.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Because a little while later I was setting in the.
Speaker 6 (14:22):
Kitchen at the ranch, nobody there but old Joe Sam.
Of course he didn't Mady and little Gwynn sitting right
across the table from me.
Speaker 9 (14:33):
But how did such a story ever get started?
Speaker 6 (14:37):
About the panthers, Joe Sam says he's seen it. Joe
Sam says, this old spook panther up and killed his
wife and all his kids about eighty years ago. Sure, Joe,
Sam's well over one hundred or so, he claims.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Ain't that right?
Speaker 3 (14:53):
You're crazy, old fool.
Speaker 9 (14:56):
You shouldn't talk to him like that.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
Yeah, you don't hear it. You don't hear nothing. When
he gets it's like this, don't you worry, little lady.
Speaker 6 (15:05):
I'm going to bring you back a panther's skin all
the same, may not be black and may not be
big as a horse, but it will make a real
nice present from your brother in law to the bride
and the groom, providing the course that it works.
Speaker 4 (15:21):
Out that way.
Speaker 9 (15:22):
Providen what works out that way?
Speaker 6 (15:24):
Providing I am your brother in law and Hal is
the groom.
Speaker 9 (15:29):
I don't like that kind of talk, Kurt talk.
Speaker 4 (15:31):
Never did a gall no dammage did it.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
That time ago? How about a little kiss to keep
me warm up there? Huh Kurt, Kurt, No, don't I come.
Speaker 4 (15:43):
On, honey, that's the matter with him?
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Shut up?
Speaker 3 (15:49):
You are her?
Speaker 2 (15:52):
I told you that, shut up.
Speaker 6 (15:55):
You you that's crazy something.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
But he had to snap him out of it.
Speaker 6 (16:02):
Well, I'm off, Maybe I get that kiss when I
bring you back your panther.
Speaker 4 (16:07):
Huh.
Speaker 9 (16:07):
I don't care if I never set eyes on you
again the rest of my life.
Speaker 4 (16:18):
Only it wasn't me.
Speaker 6 (16:19):
She wasn't gonna see again for the rest of her life,
because when I got back to the canyon, I found
my brother Arthur, laying in the snow and three deep
gashes in his back like the stabs of a knife,
and his neck was broke, and all around him was
the track of the cat. I lashed him across the
(16:45):
saddle as gentle as I could, and I hit the
horse in the rump to send him back home.
Speaker 4 (16:49):
Then I set out to track the cat.
Speaker 6 (16:52):
It was easy at first with the bare paw snow shoes,
the trail good and clear, and the weather lifted. Then
in the late after noon I saw him the other
side of a ravine, dark and bulky, like a shadow
against the snow.
Speaker 4 (17:08):
I had him full in my sight. I fired, and
I missed.
Speaker 6 (17:12):
He was up the rocks and ten foot leaps and
over the ridge before I could shoot again. And then
I remembered something. I checked off his gun. It had
an empty shell in it. He'd fired it's something too
and missed. Now we both hid it, and then the
storm come up again, and after a while I couldn't
(17:32):
see fifty yards ahead of me. And that was the
first time I heard that other voice.
Speaker 4 (17:39):
Curd, Curd, Who who's there?
Speaker 3 (17:44):
Who is it?
Speaker 7 (17:45):
Nobody?
Speaker 4 (17:46):
Curd? Just you?
Speaker 7 (17:48):
Well, well, who are you?
Speaker 4 (17:51):
I'm the caution that you, Curd. Maybe you never knew
you had it before.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
I'm the coward in you. I am afraid. Ain't afraid
of men or cat or spook.
Speaker 6 (18:03):
Maybe, But it's getting darker, nightfalls coming, Kurt.
Speaker 4 (18:10):
Yeah, yeah, that's so. That's so.
Speaker 6 (18:12):
It is better find a place to hold up for
the night, a good safe place while you can still see.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
Well yeah, yeah, maybe maybe I had.
Speaker 4 (18:25):
That in your head because a man can't see in the.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Dark, Kurt, who said he could?
Speaker 6 (18:31):
But there's something out here that can that can see
in the dark, real good that haunts in the dark,
the cat. It was getting dark for sure, almost the
darker night when I finally found what I was looking for,
a little cave halfway up the other side of the ravine.
(18:53):
I worked my way up to it when all at
once I thought of something. The cat had hole up
from the storm.
Speaker 4 (19:00):
It's the same as me suppose he'd hold up here
for a long time.
Speaker 6 (19:06):
I just stood there listening, but there was nothing but
the wind and the whistle of the snow. And then,
real slow, with my knees shaken a little, I crept
up to it, my finger on the trigger the gun,
and I lit a match. The cave was empty and
(19:30):
it was dry.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
I crawled in.
Speaker 6 (19:32):
I ate some of the bread and jerky beef had
brought along, made a cigarette and smoked it, then lay
back let the tiredness go out of my box. It
was warm, cozy. I felt good, real cut and warm
and drowse.
Speaker 7 (19:59):
Kurt, Hello, Kurt, you're in there, Kurt.
Speaker 5 (20:06):
Art?
Speaker 1 (20:06):
Where are you?
Speaker 7 (20:07):
Right here outside the cave. You can look right through
the wall and see me if you try.
Speaker 4 (20:12):
But what's the matter with you? Your eyes and snow
all in your face.
Speaker 7 (20:21):
I'm dead, don't you remember, Kurt? And I've come to
help you.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
Kurt, Yeah, you help me?
Speaker 4 (20:28):
Help me.
Speaker 7 (20:29):
Listen you hear.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
The cat. It's smiffing out there.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
It's right outside the wall.
Speaker 7 (20:36):
Look left, close and you can see him. Can you
see him?
Speaker 6 (20:39):
Now? You're black, It's black and big as a horse,
eyes like coals of fire.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
But you can't get through the wall.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
You don't know how to get through that wall.
Speaker 7 (20:50):
That's why Joe Sam's here. Joe Sam, see him, See
him out there on the slope. You see him laughing.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
All right, you tell him, you tell the cat about
the wall. Don't blame him.
Speaker 9 (20:59):
I don't let it.
Speaker 7 (21:00):
You laid curd, Oh for help me, help me to
laid now curd too late?
Speaker 8 (21:09):
Oh?
Speaker 12 (21:09):
There I was lying there in the cave and it
was dark. So it was a dream.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
Sure, sure it was a dream.
Speaker 4 (21:33):
What was it all a dream? I listened and then I.
Speaker 6 (21:39):
Heard something that that could be all right, suppose it
was out there. I couldn't stay hold up there forever
by a stinking mountain catch.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
I reached over for my rifle, and then I bent
my knees.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Up and I kicked out with all my mic and
the wall went.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
Flying out into the ravine.
Speaker 10 (21:58):
And I was crouching there with the rifle, and there
was nothing, no cat, no tracks, nothing better head for
home boy.
Speaker 6 (22:12):
You've got daylight now head while the heading's good.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
I can't do that. I swore i'd get that cat.
Speaker 4 (22:20):
You've got a long way to go.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
I swore for art, and I promised Gwen. When I
tell Gwen, you.
Speaker 6 (22:28):
Have enough on your hands, just getting back before it's
dark again.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
Well, I sure hate to give it up, though.
Speaker 4 (22:36):
What's the matter with you? Don't you know yet?
Speaker 2 (22:40):
No?
Speaker 4 (22:40):
What, You're not hunting that cat anymore? That cat's hunting you.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
I laced on the bare paws and I started down
the ravine.
Speaker 6 (22:54):
It was still snowing, but I could see pretty good now,
and I'd taken my directions the night before. Down the ravine,
up the other side, half a day north along the ridge,
then down the other side, and keep going until you
see the ranch.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
I was making pretty fair time.
Speaker 6 (23:07):
I figured it was just about midday when I seen the
sun break through a hole.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
In the clouds way off to my right.
Speaker 6 (23:13):
And then I stopped because there was something wrong, awful wrong.
Speaker 4 (23:21):
What's it doing up there? What's the sun doing up there?
Speaker 3 (23:26):
I don't know.
Speaker 9 (23:27):
It can't be.
Speaker 4 (23:29):
You're supposed to be going north.
Speaker 6 (23:31):
Sure, Sure, I am half a day north along the
ridge and down the other side. Sure the sun's on
your left when you travel north kirts.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
Oh, and it's on my right.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
A whole half a day had been go in the
wrong direction, A whole half a day You're going to.
Speaker 6 (23:48):
Be caught out after dark again, Kurt, You're going to
be caught out after dark. That's all he's waiting for, Kurt,
waiting for the dark.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
I can't can't come out.
Speaker 4 (24:01):
I gotta make it never, you'll never make it.
Speaker 3 (24:05):
What'll I do? What am I gonna do?
Speaker 4 (24:08):
Run?
Speaker 9 (24:10):
I can't, I can't run much more.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
Think of something, think, I can't think. Think a fire,
a fire. If I only had a fight.
Speaker 4 (24:18):
That's a fire, that's it.
Speaker 6 (24:20):
That's a fire that'll hold mister Black catch afraid of fire?
Speaker 3 (24:24):
Ain't that you murder?
Speaker 4 (24:25):
A devil?
Speaker 2 (24:26):
That'll hold you?
Speaker 10 (24:27):
A fire, A great big ron fire.
Speaker 6 (24:35):
That's all right now, it's gonna be all right. I
got branches cut enough to last all night.
Speaker 7 (24:42):
Nothing to do now but.
Speaker 4 (24:43):
Take it easy to feed the fire.
Speaker 6 (24:45):
He's out there in the trees somewhere, but he won't
come here this fire, No, sir.
Speaker 4 (24:51):
I'll just keep smoking and keep yourself awake.
Speaker 7 (24:54):
Keep your eye on that fire.
Speaker 4 (24:56):
Just watch the fire. Just he watched it.
Speaker 7 (25:06):
Too late, Kurt, too late, Alser, fire's gone out.
Speaker 4 (25:11):
Huh.
Speaker 7 (25:13):
I got to fix it quick, late, Kurt. He's here,
the cat crouching there to make your spring. You see
him behind that tree, big.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
As a horse and black as night, and eyes like.
Speaker 7 (25:25):
Shoot shoot. Why you still got the chance right between
these burn and eyes?
Speaker 3 (25:29):
Shoot you.
Speaker 4 (25:30):
I'll shoot.
Speaker 6 (25:33):
Too late, Curt. You shot right through him, but he's
coming at you. Throw the gun away. It's no good now, Kurts,
run your only chance. Run Faster, faster, Kurt, don't fall.
He's right behind your Curt, Faster faster. The counch are falling.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
You're falling, Kurts, You're falling.
Speaker 8 (26:08):
We buried my brother Arthur the night before, and the
next day we went to look for Kurt, Joe, Sam
and me. We found him where he had fallen over
the cliff of the canyon, all stiff and twisted in
the snow. Later we went up to see what happened.
You could tell he'd been running when he fell, running
(26:30):
away from something and afraid for his life. Only there
was nothing there, no tracks except just his his.
Speaker 5 (26:40):
Nothing.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
Sull Spence presented by Autolite to Light Star Mister Richard Widmark.
This is Harlow Wilcox speaking for Autolite, world's largest independent
manufacturer of automotive electrical equipment. Auto Light is proud to
serve the greatest names in the industry. That's why during
(27:24):
the early months of nineteen fifty two, the Autolite Family
joins 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 in still other autolite plants in many foreign countries.
Our family also includes more than eighteen thousand people who
(27:47):
have invested a portion of their savings in Autolite, as
well as ninety six thousand auto light distributors and dealers
in the United States and thousands more in Canada and.
Speaker 7 (27:57):
Throughout the world.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Our Autolite Family was salute the Studebaker Corporation on the
next Auto LIGHTE Suspense television program. If you live in
a television area, check the day in time of suspense
on television so you'll be sure to see this program
and remember be with us next week for another thrilling
Autolite suspense program on radio. Next week on Suspense, our
(28:24):
star will be Miss Linda Darnell in a story about
a woman who knew her husband was trying to kill
her and was powerless to stop it. A dramatic report
we call a killing in Las Vegas. In weeks to come,
we shall also present Herbert Marshall and Frank Lovejoy, all
on South Spence. Suspense is produced and directed by Elliott Lewis,
(28:50):
with music composed by Lucian Morwick and conducted by lud Bluskin.
The track of the Cat was adapted for Suspense by
Sylvia Richards from the book by Walter Van Tilbert Clark.
Featured in the cast were Harry Bartel, Lee Millar, Martha Wentworth,
Sharon Douglas, and Parley bear Tonight's appearance of Richard Widmark
was made possible through the courtesy of twentieth Century Fox Studios.
(29:12):
Mister Widmark may currently be seen in the technical of
production Red Skies of Montana and Remember next week on Suspense,
Miss Linda Farnell in a killing in Las Vegas. This
is the CBS Radio Network.
Auto Light and it's ninety six thousand dealers bring you,
mister Richard Widmark. In Tonight's presentation of Soul Spends, Tonight
Auto Light presents a dramatization of Walter Van Tilbert Clark's
study in Panic The Track of the Cat, starring mister
(00:29):
Richard with Mark. Hello, mister Willcox, Well, gasp me up.
If it isn't Sam, my auto light spark plug man,
how's it going?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Sam? Great? You mean my exclusive auto light plug check indicator.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Ah, that super sleuth is really doing a job a Sam,
You bet it quickly inaccurately shows my customers if their
cars spark plugs need cleaning or if they're worn out
or wrong for their.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Style of driving.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
And if they need cleaning, Sam, why then I do
the job fast and fine with my modern equipment. And
if those spark plugs are worn.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Out or wrong, Oh you know the answer, mister Wilcox.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
I sure do.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Sam. You install ignition engineered autolite spark plugs for smoother performance,
quick starts and gas savings. So friends, take ative from
me and visit your nearest autolite spark plug dealer. You
can learn his location by calling Western Union by number
and asking for operator twenty five. She will quickly tell
you the location of your nearest Autolite sparkplug dealer. And remember,
(01:35):
from bumper to tail light, you're always right with Autolite.
And now with the track of the cat and the
performance of mister Richard with mark, Autolite hopes once again
to keep you in cells spending.
Speaker 4 (02:05):
You gotta get this fire, Collin.
Speaker 5 (02:07):
I got.
Speaker 4 (02:07):
It's my last chance.
Speaker 6 (02:09):
I'm freeze to death out here tonight if I don't
better be cat meat.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
Snow, nothing but snow.
Speaker 6 (02:18):
And that black murdering devil waiting out there in the
dark for me, that big black cat waiting for his
chance as she goes it. That'll hold mister cat for
a while. Cats are afraid of fire, even big black ones.
Even a big black panther big as a horse, won't
fool around the fire.
Speaker 4 (02:37):
And I'll say, what am I talking about? Where are
you gonna find a black panther on a range.
Speaker 6 (02:43):
And a mountain lion? That's all he is, big maybe,
but just a plain mountain cat. And that's all nothing
but superstition, all that out the talk, crazy Indian superstition. Yeah,
fire assuring some man feel good.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
Good, kind of drowsy. No sleep, wasn't go to sleep.
That's all that cat's waiting for out there in the trees.
Me to go to sleep and the fire go out.
Gotta keep awake. I gotta do something to keep awake.
Think about tracking the cat. How I got started two days,
(03:24):
two nights.
Speaker 6 (03:25):
Almost three nights ago, five o'clock in the morning, A
sleep in the bunk house with a storm beginning outside,
with me not hearing it, not hearing anything because I
was asleep.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
So sobs.
Speaker 7 (03:51):
Kurt, Kurt, wake up, Wake up?
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Kurt's the man. What's the matter with you?
Speaker 7 (04:00):
Colls are balling up the canyon. Something's out there.
Speaker 6 (04:02):
Oh, for Pete's sake, you have to wake me up
every time you have one of your crazy dreams.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Go back to bed.
Speaker 4 (04:08):
It's no dream, Kurt. Oh you too, hell uh, you.
Speaker 7 (04:12):
Only hear it when the wind's right.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Listen.
Speaker 8 (04:15):
Well, how long has that been going on? Why didn't
you let me know sooner? We've just been awake a
few minutes. We wanted to be sure.
Speaker 6 (04:21):
A few minutes, and that going on all the time.
Find couple of brothers I got to help me run
a ranch. One good for nothing but dreaming, and the
other good for nothing but thinking about that Gally.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Let's leave her out of it. Huh, how can I
leave her out of it?
Speaker 6 (04:35):
You practically moved her into the house, didn't you quit
ragging the kid?
Speaker 7 (04:39):
Kerti's just here for visit, you know that.
Speaker 6 (04:41):
Yeah, well, get your clothes on. What are you standing
there for? You think that cat's gonna wait for us?
Speaker 7 (04:47):
You figure it is a cat?
Speaker 3 (04:48):
What else could it be? Running cattle like that?
Speaker 6 (04:52):
Maybe you think it's that black panther Joe Sam talks about. Huh,
I swear are there?
Speaker 3 (04:57):
Sometimes?
Speaker 6 (04:58):
I think you're as crazy as that crazy old Indian
could be?
Speaker 7 (05:02):
Could be that Me and Joe Sam are just the
ones that ain't crazy.
Speaker 6 (05:06):
Indian lover and cat lover. But don't think you ain't
gonna go out there with me because you.
Speaker 7 (05:11):
Are anyway you wanted, Kurt, I'll go with the Kurt.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Oh no, no, you gotta stick around take care of
that gal.
Speaker 4 (05:19):
Yeah, listen to that.
Speaker 7 (05:20):
We woke the old lady up.
Speaker 6 (05:21):
She's come down to the kitchen. I suppose now she's
gonna give me some kind of argument.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Why you all have gotta pick on everybody?
Speaker 6 (05:27):
Kurt?
Speaker 3 (05:27):
First, Gwyn, Now what matter? Hell? You're worried about me
and that gal Gwen and yours?
Speaker 7 (05:33):
Huh?
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Come, I let's go.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Up kind of early, ain't Shermi Mom?
Speaker 9 (05:41):
I figured you'd be wanting breakfast, just coffee?
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Some cats running the cattle.
Speaker 4 (05:45):
Up in the canyon head?
Speaker 9 (05:48):
You going up there?
Speaker 10 (05:49):
Well?
Speaker 6 (05:49):
You don't think I'm gonna sit around here on my
hands while some.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
Thieven mountain cat kills off our best stars, do you?
Speaker 11 (05:56):
I'll sit down all of you. Here's your coffee, Kurt.
What I don't want for you to go? I suppose
what I gotta say. Don't carry much weight around here,
but I don't want for you to go.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
Well, I'm going. And so's your dreamer boy?
Speaker 9 (06:12):
Are they? And stopping a blizzard out, Kurt? And a
bad one.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
I've been out in a little snow before.
Speaker 9 (06:17):
A Well, it ain't the same. It's the first snow
of the year.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
Nah, No, I thought.
Speaker 6 (06:22):
So you've been talking to that crazy old Indian too,
haven't you.
Speaker 11 (06:27):
I ain't either, can't nobody hardly talk to him today?
Speaker 9 (06:30):
The shape is in.
Speaker 6 (06:31):
Ill spooped up again, eh, Black panthers, first snow and
you believe in it?
Speaker 11 (06:38):
Oh, I told him to fetch some wood to get
him inside. Wonder he ain't froze to death out there
half the night, nothing but his shirt and jeans and
them little thin mocksins.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
Will you sat down and drink your coffee?
Speaker 6 (06:52):
We gotta be leaving here, Na, Well, if it ain't
our little lady.
Speaker 11 (06:57):
Visity, good morning, Come said down, have some hot coffee.
Speaker 9 (07:03):
Child, Thank you. No need for you to got up
this early.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Maybe she got up special just to see us off.
Speaker 9 (07:09):
See who off? Where?
Speaker 10 (07:11):
Oh?
Speaker 11 (07:12):
Mountain cats after the cattle Kurt's bound. They're going up
there to get him.
Speaker 6 (07:16):
Oh hell in this story, don't worry about your precious
Hell and leaving him here to take care of you.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
I said I'd go, didn't I?
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Sides?
Speaker 6 (07:23):
If it is that spoop panther at Joe Sam's, I'll
need Arthur here to make big medicine. He's almost as
good at that Indian medicine as Joe Sam himself.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Ain't you eh ha ha ha?
Speaker 7 (07:35):
Never will learn not to ride a good thing too hard?
When you Kurt, I.
Speaker 9 (07:40):
Guess I'm a little confused. Spoop panther is Indian medicine.
Speaker 7 (07:44):
It's nothing, honey, it's just Kurt's little joke. Here's Joe Sam.
Speaker 9 (07:49):
Close the door after him. Hell, sure, ma, that's right.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
I'll go on.
Speaker 11 (07:55):
Just stump it in the woodbox, Joe Sam. Right now,
drink this hot coffee. For Land's sakes. You're shaking like
a leaf at Joe Sam. Here coffee.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Yeah, you don't want no coffee. You don't even hear.
Speaker 6 (08:10):
He just wants to sit there and go off into
one of them trances.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
He is.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Hey, Joe Sam, you seeing that spook panther? Now, Joe Sam.
Speaker 7 (08:19):
Lay my long, kirt.
Speaker 9 (08:21):
I do wish somebody would tell me what this is
all about, unless it's a family secret.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
Well there you hear that, Joe Sam.
Speaker 6 (08:28):
Go ahead, tell the little lady about that big old
black spook. It looks like I'll have to do the
honors myself. You see, it's this way, little lady. According
to Joe Sam, there's a black panther roams this part
of the country, comes with the first snow every year,
and he's big, big as a horse, and eyes like
(08:51):
holes of fire, and you can see right through him,
and you can shoot right through him too, and still
he'll keep coming until he gets you because he can't
never die.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
He's a spook, kind of frighten.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
Yeah, for old women and for dreamers.
Speaker 7 (09:12):
Maybe.
Speaker 6 (09:12):
Now, come on, dreamer boy, let's go. I suppose you're
gonna wear that old cow eyed parker too. Makes you
look even more like a medicine man.
Speaker 7 (09:20):
Keeps me warm.
Speaker 11 (09:21):
Oh, be careful please, and don't stay out there beyond
night fall?
Speaker 6 (09:26):
Ye sure, sure willma Arthur, Well, come to life, did he?
Speaker 9 (09:31):
Arthur?
Speaker 1 (09:33):
No go? It's all right, Joe Sam, No, Arthur Knocke,
no go.
Speaker 7 (09:42):
I got to Joe Sam, We both do well.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Ye, come on and stop plavering with that old fool.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Alright, Kurt, all right, you go, Arthur got to but
don't you worry.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
Then you go, but you not come.
Speaker 9 (10:01):
You not ever ever come back.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Auto Light is bringing you, mister Richard with Mark in
the track of the Cats tonight's production in Radio's outstanding
theater of thrills, South spends sam My auto light spark
(10:41):
plug man, Why do you recommend ignition engineered auto light
spark plug?
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Why that's easy, mister Willcott.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
It's because because they're designed by the same skilled auto
light engineers who design the coil distributor and all the
other important parts. Of complete ignition systems used as original
equipment on many leading makes of our finest car, trucks
and tractors.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Hey, Sam, that's right.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Those auto light spark plugs are designed to work as
a team with the complete ignition system.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Take the new auto light resistor spark plug for instance.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
It give smoother performance, greater gas savings, and quicker starts.
And it's only one of a complete line of ignition
engineered auto light spark plugs designed for every use.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
So see your nearest auto light spark plug dealer soon.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
Write your auto light spark plug Dealer's exclusive plug check
indicator will quickly show you if your spark plugs are
right for your style of driving. And remember, from bumper
to tail light, you're always right with auto light and
now auto LIGHTE brings back to our Hollywood sound stage,
mister Richard Witmark in Elliott Lewis's production of the Track
(11:46):
of the Cat, a tail well calculated to keep.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
You in cell spend.
Speaker 6 (12:07):
Even after we was saddled up and heading out across
the range, I was still laughing at myself and what
the old man had said to Arthur about not coming back,
and how solemn he's said I tried to get a
look at Arthur. Let's see how he was taking it.
That You never could tell with that one. Well, we
hit the drawer that leads into the canyon about daylight.
It's a real box canyon with a steep slope to
(12:29):
the north and a sheer drop off the east face.
We couldn't hear the cattle now, but we could see
their tracks in the snow where they was heading up
the canyon.
Speaker 4 (12:39):
And then I saw what i'd been looking for.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
Hey, look look at that. You see them tracks? Cat?
All right?
Speaker 6 (12:46):
Big one, yeah, pretty near as big as a horse
at that. But you won't see through the cat that
made them tracks. He's real enough, Come on, most like
he's still up there.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
What he can horse?
Speaker 6 (13:00):
Look up ahead, all right, just steering. He's dead and
with his neck broke. But the looks that's what ails
the horse. They don't like the blood. Eh, look up there,
you're right.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
Two more.
Speaker 6 (13:14):
That's three of my best steers. Oh he's been up
here killing for fun.
Speaker 7 (13:18):
I look like he's up here now though. There goes
the track up in north slope.
Speaker 6 (13:23):
Yeah he's gone all right, but he ain't been gone
a long tracks as fresh and clear as print on
a page. I'm going after him. You'll need snow shoes,
you'll need grubb. I'll go back after it. If you like,
I'll go myself. If it's all the same, you'll stay
here and hold the trail either way now, not either
way that way, unless you're worrying about what Joe Sam said.
(13:45):
I'm not worrying, and don't go dreaming off, because I
want you to be here.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
When I get back.
Speaker 7 (13:49):
I'll be here all right.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
Then, keep your eyes open, sure, and Kurt, yeah, where
were you?
Speaker 1 (13:56):
I'd leave Hal's girl alone.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
A smart one, a real smart one. Like he was
reading my mind.
Speaker 6 (14:09):
He knew I wanted to get that gal off by herself,
and with my taking care of her housework and hall
out doing the chores, he knew I'd have my chance.
Speaker 4 (14:18):
And that's just how it happened, too.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Because a little while later I was setting in the.
Speaker 6 (14:22):
Kitchen at the ranch, nobody there but old Joe Sam.
Of course he didn't Mady and little Gwynn sitting right
across the table from me.
Speaker 9 (14:33):
But how did such a story ever get started?
Speaker 6 (14:37):
About the panthers, Joe Sam says he's seen it. Joe
Sam says, this old spook panther up and killed his
wife and all his kids about eighty years ago. Sure, Joe,
Sam's well over one hundred or so, he claims.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Ain't that right?
Speaker 3 (14:53):
You're crazy, old fool.
Speaker 9 (14:56):
You shouldn't talk to him like that.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
Yeah, you don't hear it. You don't hear nothing. When
he gets it's like this, don't you worry, little lady.
Speaker 6 (15:05):
I'm going to bring you back a panther's skin all
the same, may not be black and may not be
big as a horse, but it will make a real
nice present from your brother in law to the bride
and the groom, providing the course that it works.
Speaker 4 (15:21):
Out that way.
Speaker 9 (15:22):
Providen what works out that way?
Speaker 6 (15:24):
Providing I am your brother in law and Hal is
the groom.
Speaker 9 (15:29):
I don't like that kind of talk, Kurt talk.
Speaker 4 (15:31):
Never did a gall no dammage did it.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
That time ago? How about a little kiss to keep
me warm up there? Huh Kurt, Kurt, No, don't I come.
Speaker 4 (15:43):
On, honey, that's the matter with him?
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Shut up?
Speaker 3 (15:49):
You are her?
Speaker 2 (15:52):
I told you that, shut up.
Speaker 6 (15:55):
You you that's crazy something.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
But he had to snap him out of it.
Speaker 6 (16:02):
Well, I'm off, Maybe I get that kiss when I
bring you back your panther.
Speaker 4 (16:07):
Huh.
Speaker 9 (16:07):
I don't care if I never set eyes on you
again the rest of my life.
Speaker 4 (16:18):
Only it wasn't me.
Speaker 6 (16:19):
She wasn't gonna see again for the rest of her life,
because when I got back to the canyon, I found
my brother Arthur, laying in the snow and three deep
gashes in his back like the stabs of a knife,
and his neck was broke, and all around him was
the track of the cat. I lashed him across the
(16:45):
saddle as gentle as I could, and I hit the
horse in the rump to send him back home.
Speaker 4 (16:49):
Then I set out to track the cat.
Speaker 6 (16:52):
It was easy at first with the bare paw snow shoes,
the trail good and clear, and the weather lifted. Then
in the late after noon I saw him the other
side of a ravine, dark and bulky, like a shadow
against the snow.
Speaker 4 (17:08):
I had him full in my sight. I fired, and
I missed.
Speaker 6 (17:12):
He was up the rocks and ten foot leaps and
over the ridge before I could shoot again. And then
I remembered something. I checked off his gun. It had
an empty shell in it. He'd fired it's something too
and missed. Now we both hid it, and then the
storm come up again, and after a while I couldn't
(17:32):
see fifty yards ahead of me. And that was the
first time I heard that other voice.
Speaker 4 (17:39):
Curd, Curd, Who who's there?
Speaker 3 (17:44):
Who is it?
Speaker 7 (17:45):
Nobody?
Speaker 4 (17:46):
Curd? Just you?
Speaker 7 (17:48):
Well, well, who are you?
Speaker 4 (17:51):
I'm the caution that you, Curd. Maybe you never knew
you had it before.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
I'm the coward in you. I am afraid. Ain't afraid
of men or cat or spook.
Speaker 6 (18:03):
Maybe, But it's getting darker, nightfalls coming, Kurt.
Speaker 4 (18:10):
Yeah, yeah, that's so. That's so.
Speaker 6 (18:12):
It is better find a place to hold up for
the night, a good safe place while you can still see.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
Well yeah, yeah, maybe maybe I had.
Speaker 4 (18:25):
That in your head because a man can't see in the.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Dark, Kurt, who said he could?
Speaker 6 (18:31):
But there's something out here that can that can see
in the dark, real good that haunts in the dark,
the cat. It was getting dark for sure, almost the
darker night when I finally found what I was looking for,
a little cave halfway up the other side of the ravine.
(18:53):
I worked my way up to it when all at
once I thought of something. The cat had hole up
from the storm.
Speaker 4 (19:00):
It's the same as me suppose he'd hold up here
for a long time.
Speaker 6 (19:06):
I just stood there listening, but there was nothing but
the wind and the whistle of the snow. And then,
real slow, with my knees shaken a little, I crept
up to it, my finger on the trigger the gun,
and I lit a match. The cave was empty and
(19:30):
it was dry.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
I crawled in.
Speaker 6 (19:32):
I ate some of the bread and jerky beef had
brought along, made a cigarette and smoked it, then lay
back let the tiredness go out of my box. It
was warm, cozy. I felt good, real cut and warm
and drowse.
Speaker 7 (19:59):
Kurt, Hello, Kurt, you're in there, Kurt.
Speaker 5 (20:06):
Art?
Speaker 1 (20:06):
Where are you?
Speaker 7 (20:07):
Right here outside the cave. You can look right through
the wall and see me if you try.
Speaker 4 (20:12):
But what's the matter with you? Your eyes and snow
all in your face.
Speaker 7 (20:21):
I'm dead, don't you remember, Kurt? And I've come to
help you.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
Kurt, Yeah, you help me?
Speaker 4 (20:28):
Help me.
Speaker 7 (20:29):
Listen you hear.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
The cat. It's smiffing out there.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
It's right outside the wall.
Speaker 7 (20:36):
Look left, close and you can see him. Can you
see him?
Speaker 6 (20:39):
Now? You're black, It's black and big as a horse,
eyes like coals of fire.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
But you can't get through the wall.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
You don't know how to get through that wall.
Speaker 7 (20:50):
That's why Joe Sam's here. Joe Sam, see him, See
him out there on the slope. You see him laughing.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
All right, you tell him, you tell the cat about
the wall. Don't blame him.
Speaker 9 (20:59):
I don't let it.
Speaker 7 (21:00):
You laid curd, Oh for help me, help me to
laid now curd too late?
Speaker 8 (21:09):
Oh?
Speaker 12 (21:09):
There I was lying there in the cave and it
was dark. So it was a dream.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
Sure, sure it was a dream.
Speaker 4 (21:33):
What was it all a dream? I listened and then I.
Speaker 6 (21:39):
Heard something that that could be all right, suppose it
was out there. I couldn't stay hold up there forever
by a stinking mountain catch.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
I reached over for my rifle, and then I bent
my knees.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Up and I kicked out with all my mic and
the wall went.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
Flying out into the ravine.
Speaker 10 (21:58):
And I was crouching there with the rifle, and there
was nothing, no cat, no tracks, nothing better head for
home boy.
Speaker 6 (22:12):
You've got daylight now head while the heading's good.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
I can't do that. I swore i'd get that cat.
Speaker 4 (22:20):
You've got a long way to go.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
I swore for art, and I promised Gwen. When I
tell Gwen, you.
Speaker 6 (22:28):
Have enough on your hands, just getting back before it's
dark again.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
Well, I sure hate to give it up, though.
Speaker 4 (22:36):
What's the matter with you? Don't you know yet?
Speaker 2 (22:40):
No?
Speaker 4 (22:40):
What, You're not hunting that cat anymore? That cat's hunting you.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
I laced on the bare paws and I started down
the ravine.
Speaker 6 (22:54):
It was still snowing, but I could see pretty good now,
and I'd taken my directions the night before. Down the ravine,
up the other side, half a day north along the ridge,
then down the other side, and keep going until you
see the ranch.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
I was making pretty fair time.
Speaker 6 (23:07):
I figured it was just about midday when I seen the
sun break through a hole.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
In the clouds way off to my right.
Speaker 6 (23:13):
And then I stopped because there was something wrong, awful wrong.
Speaker 4 (23:21):
What's it doing up there? What's the sun doing up there?
Speaker 3 (23:26):
I don't know.
Speaker 9 (23:27):
It can't be.
Speaker 4 (23:29):
You're supposed to be going north.
Speaker 6 (23:31):
Sure, Sure, I am half a day north along the
ridge and down the other side. Sure the sun's on
your left when you travel north kirts.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
Oh, and it's on my right.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
A whole half a day had been go in the
wrong direction, A whole half a day You're going to.
Speaker 6 (23:48):
Be caught out after dark again, Kurt, You're going to
be caught out after dark. That's all he's waiting for, Kurt,
waiting for the dark.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
I can't can't come out.
Speaker 4 (24:01):
I gotta make it never, you'll never make it.
Speaker 3 (24:05):
What'll I do? What am I gonna do?
Speaker 4 (24:08):
Run?
Speaker 9 (24:10):
I can't, I can't run much more.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
Think of something, think, I can't think. Think a fire,
a fire. If I only had a fight.
Speaker 4 (24:18):
That's a fire, that's it.
Speaker 6 (24:20):
That's a fire that'll hold mister Black catch afraid of fire?
Speaker 3 (24:24):
Ain't that you murder?
Speaker 4 (24:25):
A devil?
Speaker 2 (24:26):
That'll hold you?
Speaker 10 (24:27):
A fire, A great big ron fire.
Speaker 6 (24:35):
That's all right now, it's gonna be all right. I
got branches cut enough to last all night.
Speaker 7 (24:42):
Nothing to do now but.
Speaker 4 (24:43):
Take it easy to feed the fire.
Speaker 6 (24:45):
He's out there in the trees somewhere, but he won't
come here this fire, No, sir.
Speaker 4 (24:51):
I'll just keep smoking and keep yourself awake.
Speaker 7 (24:54):
Keep your eye on that fire.
Speaker 4 (24:56):
Just watch the fire. Just he watched it.
Speaker 7 (25:06):
Too late, Kurt, too late, Alser, fire's gone out.
Speaker 4 (25:11):
Huh.
Speaker 7 (25:13):
I got to fix it quick, late, Kurt. He's here,
the cat crouching there to make your spring. You see
him behind that tree, big.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
As a horse and black as night, and eyes like.
Speaker 7 (25:25):
Shoot shoot. Why you still got the chance right between
these burn and eyes?
Speaker 3 (25:29):
Shoot you.
Speaker 4 (25:30):
I'll shoot.
Speaker 6 (25:33):
Too late, Curt. You shot right through him, but he's
coming at you. Throw the gun away. It's no good now, Kurts,
run your only chance. Run Faster, faster, Kurt, don't fall.
He's right behind your Curt, Faster faster. The counch are falling.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
You're falling, Kurts, You're falling.
Speaker 8 (26:08):
We buried my brother Arthur the night before, and the
next day we went to look for Kurt, Joe, Sam
and me. We found him where he had fallen over
the cliff of the canyon, all stiff and twisted in
the snow. Later we went up to see what happened.
You could tell he'd been running when he fell, running
(26:30):
away from something and afraid for his life. Only there
was nothing there, no tracks except just his his.
Speaker 5 (26:40):
Nothing.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
Sull Spence presented by Autolite to Light Star Mister Richard Widmark.
This is Harlow Wilcox speaking for Autolite, world's largest independent
manufacturer of automotive electrical equipment. Auto Light is proud to
serve the greatest names in the industry. That's why during
(27:24):
the early months of nineteen fifty two, the Autolite Family
joins 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 in still other autolite plants in many foreign countries.
Our family also includes more than eighteen thousand people who
(27:47):
have invested a portion of their savings in Autolite, as
well as ninety six thousand auto light distributors and dealers
in the United States and thousands more in Canada and.
Speaker 7 (27:57):
Throughout the world.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Our Autolite Family was salute the Studebaker Corporation on the
next Auto LIGHTE Suspense television program. If you live in
a television area, check the day in time of suspense
on television so you'll be sure to see this program
and remember be with us next week for another thrilling
Autolite suspense program on radio. Next week on Suspense, our
(28:24):
star will be Miss Linda Darnell in a story about
a woman who knew her husband was trying to kill
her and was powerless to stop it. A dramatic report
we call a killing in Las Vegas. In weeks to come,
we shall also present Herbert Marshall and Frank Lovejoy, all
on South Spence. Suspense is produced and directed by Elliott Lewis,
(28:50):
with music composed by Lucian Morwick and conducted by lud Bluskin.
The track of the Cat was adapted for Suspense by
Sylvia Richards from the book by Walter Van Tilbert Clark.
Featured in the cast were Harry Bartel, Lee Millar, Martha Wentworth,
Sharon Douglas, and Parley bear Tonight's appearance of Richard Widmark
was made possible through the courtesy of twentieth Century Fox Studios.
(29:12):
Mister Widmark may currently be seen in the technical of
production Red Skies of Montana and Remember next week on Suspense,
Miss Linda Farnell in a killing in Las Vegas. This
is the CBS Radio Network.
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