October 12, 2025 • 29 mins
Suspense was one of the most popular and successful 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 (00:05):
Auto light and it's ninety eight thousand dealers. Bring you,
Miss Agnes Moorehead in tonight's presentation of Suspense.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Tonight Autolite presents the first radio adaptation of one of
the most amazing human documents ever written, the personal diary
of Emily Wooldridge, which she called the Wreck of the
Maid of Athens, Our star the first Lady of Suspense,
Miss Agnes Moorehead, I have buying a magazine, I see, yes, sure,
(00:41):
well why not take this one?
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Oh no, thanks everyone to his own taste, you know, Harlow.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
In buying magazines, yes, haaf. But in replacing electrical system
parts for your car, definitely no. Well, for example, many
leading makes of our finest cars have auto light electrical
systems as original equipment, right, But if if replacements are needed,
do the owners of those auto light equipped cars insist
on auto light original service parts exactly the same as
(01:07):
those specified by the car manufacturer?
Speaker 3 (01:09):
And if they don't, they're sure taking a big chance
with a big investment, hurlle.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
They sure are happ because auto light original service parts
meet the electrical system specifications of the car manufacturers, and
they know what's best for their cars. So friends, insist
on and be sure you get only auto light original
service parts for your auto light equipped car. See your
car dealer or your dealer handling auto light original service parts.
(01:34):
And remember, from bumper to tail light, you're always right
with autolite.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
And now autolite prevents. Emily Wooldridge's The Wreck of the
Maid of Appens, starring Miss Agnes more Heads hoping once
again to keep you in suspense.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
Eighty four years ago.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Tonight they're sale from port of London the brigantine made
of Athoms.
Speaker 5 (02:03):
Sixty some days later.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Off the cold southern tip of South America, the ship
was a fire and sinking in heavy seas. Aboard her,
along with the necessary officers and crew, was the wife
of the Master Captain Richard Wooldridge. Her name was Emily,
and this is her story.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
First mateo Bethoidza.
Speaker 6 (02:31):
He was trying to pray the port life folks, we
can't go off from those parts of jams.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
We'll never use them very well.
Speaker 7 (02:37):
Tell the rest of the men to come here.
Speaker 5 (02:38):
We'll have to abandon ship as quickly as possible.
Speaker 7 (02:44):
Perhaps the most terrible thing of all was the fact
that there wasn't room in the lifeboats for all the men.
Speaker 8 (02:51):
Always in my memory will live the picture of those
who fought to live and who died so hopelessly.
Speaker 7 (02:55):
In those coal scenes. It was a scene of fearful desolation.
Speaker 8 (03:09):
Great waves seemed to swallow, and their troughs are two
surviving lifeboats. And when we were lifted to their crest,
the sight of the burning ship met our eyes. The
gallant Maid of Athens. She seemed to me the loneliest
thing I'd ever seen as we deserted her. Looking the
(03:29):
other way, by the grace of providence, we.
Speaker 7 (03:31):
Could see a low fringe of land on the horizon.
My husband took this to be the island of San
Carlo and perhaps our salvation. But when we.
Speaker 8 (03:47):
Arrived near the shore, we found that instead of safety,
we had run on even greater danger.
Speaker 7 (03:52):
The heavy surf that pounded the rocky island.
Speaker 8 (03:55):
To try the land through it was a fatal risk,
as was proved later that my husband had no other
choice than to order the boats into it.
Speaker 9 (04:01):
Turn around the second boat there, stirn around step shore,
keep falls into the surf, Get alongside us, and do
as we do.
Speaker 5 (04:13):
Stand it out.
Speaker 9 (04:15):
I want standing properly on the rest now all right now.
Speaker 5 (04:21):
Following in.
Speaker 4 (04:28):
The right forth side of get forth side and surf
for your lot.
Speaker 8 (04:45):
Except for the vision of a wave towering over us,
high as a mountain and falling on us, I have
no memory of coming ashore. As though awaking, no, not
quite awaking from a nightmare. I saw a boat overturned
on a tiny strip percent. I saw my husband and
the men who had survived the landing, and I saw
the bodies of those from the second boat who had not.
(05:07):
My husband was pulling the last of these from the
angry sense, and Penny was bending over me where I lay.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
You.
Speaker 4 (05:14):
Were you all right, my dear?
Speaker 7 (05:17):
Yes, and you I'm quite all right.
Speaker 5 (05:20):
But the poor devil's in the other boat.
Speaker 7 (05:22):
Oh yes, I know.
Speaker 10 (05:24):
Besides us there are only four left now, Heyward Oates Robertson.
Speaker 4 (05:29):
Old Lawson.
Speaker 10 (05:30):
There was nothing I could do to say the others,
of course there wasn't.
Speaker 7 (05:34):
Everyone knows you did everything you could do, I hope.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
So can you stand there?
Speaker 7 (05:39):
Yes, oh, dig to the rest of us.
Speaker 5 (05:43):
Have a chance, a very good chance. Come along.
Speaker 10 (05:48):
We'll go further up the shore and build a shot
of some sort. It's a messy coolin, yes, Lawson.
Speaker 9 (05:56):
And the others are been talking.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
We lot a word with you, of course, of course,
what is it?
Speaker 5 (06:03):
We've lost a number of our chances you well know.
I do know, Lawson. I'm terri soryed. Not much good
being sorry? Is it not going to help any of
the poor blokes?
Speaker 3 (06:12):
Is it?
Speaker 10 (06:13):
I guess what do you mean, Lawson? I feel our
losses greatly, if not greater than you do.
Speaker 5 (06:17):
Now what do you mean the way we've been talking,
either to say sorry, you are utter? The dam It
is done. But what we want to know is why
wasn't something done to prevent it from at me?
Speaker 10 (06:25):
I don't think I quite understand you. Every precaution was
taken in London. The cargo in the loading was well supervised.
Speaker 5 (06:30):
You all know that. Then why did the ship catch fire?
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (06:34):
Nobody said nothing to us about a cargo that would
catch fire.
Speaker 5 (06:37):
It was not a dangerous cargo, Heywood. Then why did
it catch fire?
Speaker 4 (06:41):
I've told you, I don't know.
Speaker 10 (06:42):
Under given circumstances, the most peaceful voice can go wrong.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
What circumstances kept in It's.
Speaker 5 (06:47):
Only decent to place the blame when you've lost as
many times as we have. The fine lot they were.
Speaker 10 (06:52):
Now listen to me, man, talk like this won't do
any good. I'll admit we've had more than our share
of bad life.
Speaker 5 (06:58):
Will say ei to that six was spared. And if
we are to survive, we've got to work together. We
won't be any more than survival. And this prophy island.
We haven't got foot stores for a week, and our
waiter it doesn't see a ship once a year.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
But we won't wait to be.
Speaker 5 (07:12):
Found by a ship.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
Now.
Speaker 10 (07:14):
The mainland of South America is a bit more than
three hundred miles west. I have the navigational instruments to
get us there. If we can repair the boat.
Speaker 5 (07:22):
Oh maybe it's not so bad that you thought it was.
It's bad enough. We'll have to be lucky to live
to tell of it. It won't be easy, but it
is possible. And I can't stress the importance of speed
strongly enough. There are two reasons. One is scarce if food.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
The other is more important.
Speaker 10 (07:36):
We're approaching the storm season in these latitudes, and when
it rives, the game rams constant.
Speaker 5 (07:42):
We're having our share repaired. Fortune. It's a fact.
Speaker 10 (07:44):
We shall be all right. If we work quickly. We
can repair the boat. In say, four days, and launch
it without accident. I have every confidence that will be
on our way to safety and home.
Speaker 8 (08:04):
Darkness fell as Larsen and the others buried the dead,
A thick fog settled on the island, and in spite
of exhaustion, the dampness and cold made sleep out of
the question. If we spent the night huddled over fires,
one for the crew and one for my husband and me,
we were separated from the men by only a few paces,
and although nothing further was said, there was.
Speaker 7 (08:24):
A tension between the two groups.
Speaker 8 (08:36):
The next morning, my husband set the men to work
on the boat, where her planks had.
Speaker 7 (08:39):
Been battered on the rocks, and he set out to search.
Speaker 8 (08:42):
The island, hoping to find a beach better suited to
launching through the surf. No sooner had he disappeared than Larson,
a sullen, unpleasant man from the start of the voyage,
walked toward me, and behind I could see the other
men leaving their work to follow him.
Speaker 5 (08:57):
I trust you spent the night counting your blessings, missus Wooldridge.
Speaker 8 (09:01):
Why I'm thankful to be alive, as we all should be,
And did you give a thought to the four boys.
Speaker 5 (09:07):
What went down? And then we buried?
Speaker 8 (09:09):
Of course, my husband told you men to repair the boat.
Why aren't you doing it?
Speaker 5 (09:16):
We want you to hear what we have to say.
Speaker 7 (09:18):
What do you want with me? What is it?
Speaker 5 (09:21):
The day you stepped aboard in London, I said there
was going to be trouble. I told the boys you
want it dead and gone. Now. A woman at sea
is a deadly thing. I told him.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
We didn't have to believe him then, but they do now.
Speaker 7 (09:33):
But you can't believe it. There's no truth in it.
It's only a superstition.
Speaker 5 (09:38):
I am one with some meaning behind it. Do you
know the history of the Maid of Athens? Yo? What
I do? Forty two boys? If she had forty two
not a sea, She hadn't crossed through fair weather and power,
and she never carried a woman until you came aboard.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
What do you say to that?
Speaker 7 (09:55):
It doesn't mean anything?
Speaker 5 (09:57):
It does They got more proof on our side and
you have on yours. We saw the ship go down.
Speaker 7 (10:02):
It isn't proof.
Speaker 5 (10:03):
Listen to this. I've sailed for thirty two years with
good fortune all the way, that is, until this trip.
Speaker 4 (10:10):
How do you answer that?
Speaker 5 (10:12):
There is no answer and then you admit it to
all the cause of the trouble.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
I do not.
Speaker 5 (10:16):
You're writing like children children, you say you should be
speaking of the poor, fatherless children, of them that went down,
made orphans by a fire that nobody can explain. Maybe
you can now.
Speaker 7 (10:26):
That the rest of you, the rest of you, listen
to me. There's no one to blame.
Speaker 8 (10:31):
When you're carrying cotton and if it gets damp, sometimes
the weight of it causes pressure and friction and fire start.
Speaker 7 (10:40):
It's happened before when I don't know, but it does happen.
I haven't told me it did, any.
Speaker 5 (10:46):
Of you charms every ear of anything like that, the
fire starting because cotton is wet.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
In twelve years at sea, I never did.
Speaker 5 (10:53):
It happened because a woman at sea is a deadly thing.
Speaker 4 (10:57):
You of course that there's no doubt of it.
Speaker 7 (10:59):
That's not true.
Speaker 5 (11:00):
Can you prove that it's not?
Speaker 7 (11:02):
Well?
Speaker 8 (11:02):
One needs facts to disprove something, and you accuse me
without facts.
Speaker 5 (11:05):
What you mean is you can't prove we're wrong. I
would take that as your confession.
Speaker 4 (11:10):
It is not.
Speaker 7 (11:10):
It is not. I have nothing to confess.
Speaker 5 (11:13):
You brought us this trouble, and we all know it.
There's nothing you can say to change our minds, and
that goes for what you might say for your husband too.
Good day, missus Wooldridge, come on less.
Speaker 8 (11:30):
Quite obviously, there was an unspoken threat in their words.
Although I hoped that I had maintained my composure in
front of them, I was frightened, considering the problems already
weighing upon my husband.
Speaker 7 (11:41):
It was my player to keep this.
Speaker 8 (11:42):
Fear to myself, But when he returned, my will weakened,
and I told him about it.
Speaker 10 (11:48):
My dear, you mustn't let it trouble you. As you
told them, they are like children. What they think today
will be forgotten to mark.
Speaker 7 (11:55):
But I can't forget their faces. They hated me.
Speaker 10 (11:58):
Oh no, no, they only thought that they did. They
must have something to hate because of the situation we're in.
Speaker 5 (12:04):
Remember before it was me they blamed.
Speaker 7 (12:07):
I suppose you're right.
Speaker 8 (12:08):
I suppose I'm silly to be frightened, but oh pleased, Dick.
Speaker 7 (12:12):
Don't leave me alone with him again.
Speaker 10 (12:14):
I hope I won't have to. But if I do,
mind to have courage to know that although they are
simple and their logic, they are good seamen and are
very important to us.
Speaker 8 (12:32):
His words did give me courage. The men were important
to him as seamen. When he said that, I realized
that he was more important than them, because he was
the only one who could set.
Speaker 7 (12:42):
Us on a course that would take us to safety.
Speaker 8 (12:45):
He was the only one who could navigate with his
importance to them. Surely the men would do nothing to me,
that is what I hopefully thought, But I could not
forget the expressions of hate on the faces of the
four men as I stood.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Before Autolite is bringing you Miss Agnes Moorehead in Emily
Wooldridge's The Wreck of the Maid of Athens Tonight's presentation
(13:21):
in Radio's Outstanding Theater of Thrills Suspense.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Say half, if a reader asked for a sports magazine,
would he let the man substitute detective stories?
Speaker 5 (13:41):
Of course, not Harlom.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Yet many magazine readers will stand for substitute parts in
the vital electrical system of their auto light equipped cars.
But why, Harlow, Well, Halp, I guess it's because readers
can easily see what's inside the cover of a magazine,
but not what's under the hood.
Speaker 5 (13:56):
Of the car.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
But it's simple, Harlo, just insist on auto light original
service parts for your auto light equipped car. Then you
can't go right.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
You are half auto light original service parts meet the
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Speaker 3 (14:22):
You don't take substitutes in magazines, so why take them
for your car?
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Yes, friends, be sure you get what's best for your
auto light equipped car. See your car dealer or your
dealer handling auto light original service parts, and remember, from
bumper to tail light, you're always right with auto light.
And now auto light brings back to our Hollywood soundstage,
Miss Agnes moorehead in Elliot Lewis's production of Emily Wooldridge's
(14:51):
The Wreck of the Maid of Athens, a true story
well calculated to keep you in suspense.
Speaker 8 (15:08):
Thinking back to my meeting with Lawson and the men,
it was impossible for me to understand how they could
be so blind.
Speaker 7 (15:14):
But when one remembers.
Speaker 8 (15:15):
The witchcraft trials in Salem and the burning of witches
in Europe, then one realizes that humans ever often used
demons and superstitions where no reasonable cause for a situation
can be found. As the work on the boat continued,
it became my responsibility to add to our niager larder
(15:39):
with some rough hooks fashioned by my husband and some
stout cordage secured to the rocks I fished. Although I
checked these set lines often, even at night when sleep
was impossible, the results were disappointing. I thought it possible
that the attitudes of the men would soften toward me
because of my efforts to better conditions, but there were
no indications that this change was taking place.
Speaker 7 (16:00):
Only dark accusing looks.
Speaker 8 (16:03):
One Heyward, the youngest of them, seemed less hateful than
the others. He averted his eyes when I looked at him.
That evening of the second day, Laws and paid a
visit on my husband, a visit that made my fears
all the more real.
Speaker 5 (16:18):
Top of the evening to you, Captain, Thank you lawson,
missus Wooldridge.
Speaker 7 (16:23):
Good good evening at.
Speaker 5 (16:25):
The top of the evening. Ain't worth anything on this
rotten wet island. I hope you don't mind my comings,
of course not lost. What is it? Are you satisfied
with the way the work is going, said, yes.
Speaker 10 (16:37):
I am more than satisfied, to be quite honest, considering
the mood you men were in the day we arrived,
I expected trouble. I'm thank you if there hasn't been
an it.
Speaker 5 (16:46):
Ah bit upset. We were losing all those chums, but
it's survival of the fittest. I suppose when do you
think we'll be ready to leave?
Speaker 10 (16:55):
I should say it will depend on the surf. Oh,
the boat should be fit day after tomorrow, and if
the surf is heavy, we won't be able to launch
safely here and we'll have to move to the other beach.
Speaker 5 (17:04):
And that will take a day. The fourth day, then yes.
Speaker 7 (17:08):
I should say so bothering any trouble, that.
Speaker 5 (17:09):
Is yes, Now, I wouldn't want you to think that
I'm expecting anything bad to happen, sir. It was the
boys that asked me to talk to you about this,
about what the way they feels that, well, we're all
in this together, everybody equal, taking the same chances. Is
that right, going through that surf and trying to make
the crushing to the mainland, anything might happen to any
(17:31):
one of us. Yes, that's true too. Well, what the
boys means say, is that right? Now? Everybody is not
quite equal, and that's because you're the only one who
can keep us on course once we start. I suppose,
I am yes, yeah. Well now I repeat, we aren't
looking for anything bad to happen. But suppose it did
to you, then where would the rest of us be
(17:52):
what We're three hundred miles of ocean to cross and
none of us knowing how to keep us on a course.
Speaker 10 (17:58):
I see you want me to teach your navigation.
Speaker 5 (18:02):
Not just me, sir, all of us.
Speaker 7 (18:04):
No do it.
Speaker 5 (18:05):
Let's go over money.
Speaker 7 (18:07):
But they're up to something.
Speaker 5 (18:09):
I don't know what's upset you, missus Wooldridge. We're thinking
of you too, with the captain wouldn't want you to
drift about until you died of first in case something
happens to him, Right sir, that's quite right.
Speaker 10 (18:21):
But I'll tell you what upset missus Wooldridge. Perhaps we
can straighten it out. You told her she was to
blame for our misfortunely because she was a bored It's
a ridiculous thing for you to say, and it frightened her.
Speaker 5 (18:33):
Well, some of the chums got to talking about it,
and they got a bit excited.
Speaker 7 (18:37):
It wasn't the other man, it was you.
Speaker 5 (18:40):
I only said, but they told me to Missus Woodridge,
and I'm sorry that I did. None. Has there been
any more conversation about it? Oh no, sir, No. The
only thing they talk about now is getting home. I
don't suppose we're much for brain, sir, but do you
think we could learn navigation at least enough to reach
(19:00):
the coast.
Speaker 10 (19:01):
Then one could feel his way until he reached the port.
We'll have the first lesson tonight.
Speaker 5 (19:06):
Thank you, sir. The boys will be pleased to hear this.
I'll be with you in a moment then night. Missus Wooldridge.
Speaker 7 (19:14):
Please sick, please don't teach them. If you do, you
will be important to them any longer. They'll be in control.
Speaker 8 (19:20):
I know that that's what they want their evil men
to capable of anything.
Speaker 7 (19:24):
Where have they left to see it?
Speaker 10 (19:25):
Emma, stop it, stop it. In a situation like this,
we must be realistic. It's for the good of all
that the men should learn to navigate.
Speaker 8 (19:43):
My husband returned an hour later, quite pleased with the
spirit of the men in the progress they had made
during their first lesson. I tried to match his confidence
with my own. But the next day that became impossible.
There was no mistaking the hate for me and the
faces of the men when my husband was not present.
But there's no chance to realize this because the expressions
changed when he appeared. The men took on a rough,
(20:05):
good humor and an enthusiasm for their work and the
future that completely beguiled him.
Speaker 7 (20:10):
At times I doubted my reason that.
Speaker 8 (20:12):
At others I was sure that I didn't imagine this
purposeful change of attitude.
Speaker 7 (20:18):
Then during the afternoon I was able to speak with Heyward,
the one I hoped felt less strongly toward me.
Speaker 8 (20:24):
He was on his way to the spring that supplied
our water when I was able to meet him alone.
Speaker 4 (20:29):
Missus Waldridge, what are you doing here?
Speaker 7 (20:32):
I wanted to talk to you.
Speaker 4 (20:34):
I don't want to talk to you. I've got nothing
to say.
Speaker 7 (20:36):
Why did Lawson lie to my husband and Knee?
Speaker 4 (20:39):
I don't know what you mean.
Speaker 7 (20:40):
He told us last night that you men didn't blame
me for what happened.
Speaker 5 (20:45):
Oh, we don't that you realized.
Speaker 8 (20:47):
How ridiculous the things were that you said to me
the first day that I was the cast?
Speaker 7 (20:52):
But then why do you hate me?
Speaker 5 (20:54):
Jure?
Speaker 4 (20:55):
We don't, Missus Woodridge.
Speaker 8 (20:56):
The expressions on your faces when my husband isn't there
couldn't mean anything else.
Speaker 7 (21:01):
What is it? What are you thinking?
Speaker 4 (21:04):
You must be mistaken, Missus Woodbridge. All we talk about
is getting home.
Speaker 7 (21:07):
That's what Larson told you to say if you had
to talk to me, isn't it.
Speaker 4 (21:12):
I don't know what you mean.
Speaker 8 (21:13):
He said the same thing last night, in the same
words that he was lying.
Speaker 7 (21:19):
Wasn't he just like you are?
Speaker 4 (21:20):
You've got no reason to say that, Missus Woodridge. I
don't know what we'd want to lie about about.
Speaker 7 (21:24):
What your plans are?
Speaker 4 (21:25):
Plans? Why don't want to get home as quick as
we can? Isn't that what you plan?
Speaker 7 (21:31):
You're lying to me?
Speaker 4 (21:32):
But Missus Woodridge, why should you say that?
Speaker 7 (21:35):
That's not what you're thinking? What are your plans?
Speaker 4 (21:37):
What I told you to go?
Speaker 7 (21:39):
You're lying to me? I can tell for no faith.
Speaker 4 (21:41):
It's been a trying experience, Missus Wooldridge. Perhaps your mind
is playing tricks. I don't know what else could upset
you like this.
Speaker 8 (21:56):
Final repairs on the boat were completed that day, and
all of the next.
Speaker 7 (22:00):
Was consumed in moving it to the safer beach.
Speaker 8 (22:03):
The surf is not as high as the shore was
protected by a curve of reef from which I cast
my set lines. The crashing waves caused terrible currents, and
the frightening prospect of maneuvering a boat through them was
rare enough to keep my mind clear of my other fears.
Speaker 7 (22:18):
Which seemed to have no basis at the moment.
Speaker 8 (22:21):
At nightfall, I was huddled close to our fire as
my husband awoke from a short nap.
Speaker 11 (22:26):
Oh oh, how long have I slept?
Speaker 7 (22:30):
No more than an hour?
Speaker 5 (22:33):
It seemed like days.
Speaker 10 (22:34):
I will sleep days once I get into a better game.
Speaker 5 (22:37):
Luxury, that'll be eh.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
Oh.
Speaker 8 (22:39):
I hope everything will be all right tomorrow with the.
Speaker 10 (22:42):
Crossing, no reason it shouldn't be. A stop boat were
worth prevailing winds.
Speaker 8 (22:47):
You don't have to make it sound easy for me,
you know. Just tell me if there's a good chance
of reaching safety.
Speaker 10 (22:54):
That's a very good chance. Oh, and I must say
that I'm happy to see our mood improved. Moral will
be most important, one would see.
Speaker 7 (23:02):
I'll help the best I can.
Speaker 10 (23:03):
I know you will, my dear Oh o, rals yes, yes, yes,
what is it?
Speaker 5 (23:09):
I hope you don't mind the boys? Who's a bit
uneasy tonight. They asked me to come wrong, nothing special, sir.
They wonder if you could tell them where we'll land roughly,
that is, they wanted me to ask if you'd talk
to them. I suppose they are uneasy.
Speaker 4 (23:26):
Yes, I'll have a word of them.
Speaker 5 (23:27):
They'd like, that's on yourself. I'm not troubled. I'd say
it's in the lap of the gods. So while you
go to see them, I think i'll have a look
at the beach Agains. Yea, the surf is running. That'd
be a good idea.
Speaker 10 (23:38):
Let me know how the currents are crossing with you, Ay, sir,
I'll be back in a few minutes, Only a few
moments now you trying to.
Speaker 5 (23:46):
Rass all right, missus Wooldridge.
Speaker 7 (23:56):
What are you going to do?
Speaker 5 (23:57):
Nothing, Missus Wooldridge, But you are. It's time to tend
your set lines out on the surf. I think i'll
go with you in case you have an accident on
those slippery rocks in the dark.
Speaker 7 (24:07):
No, I'm going to do it in the morning.
Speaker 5 (24:08):
You've done it before at night. You killed enough men
and now it's an I for an hour, I.
Speaker 7 (24:13):
Haven't killed anybody. You're insane. My heart.
Speaker 5 (24:16):
You'll kill him if you call for him. The boys
are ready to take care of him if you do,
and we don't meet him anymore. It's all up to you,
missus Woolridge. I ain't fair of you to risk us
all when a slip of the reef will save us.
I won't shout come along. Then. We've seen what a
woman at sea brings about. But it won't happen again
(24:37):
in the small boat.
Speaker 7 (24:51):
Do you have to do it?
Speaker 8 (24:53):
Won't you admit that you're mom, that's supposition to fat me,
and that you've nothing to fear about my going with you.
Speaker 5 (24:58):
We've seen what happens, and what you see is proof.
Speaker 6 (25:02):
We'll talk no more about it, don't. I can't talk.
Speaker 5 (25:16):
It's all right time, everything's all right.
Speaker 11 (25:21):
But thank Heaven, the other men were more human than loss.
They let him lead them into the night that they
couldn't justify murder, and told me what he planned to do.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
After three weeks, the five survivors of the Maid of
Athens reached the port of Stanley in the Falklands. As
Emily Wildridge stated that in her chronicle in Time to
hear of the death of Charles Dickens, a sorrowful landfall
after all our trials. Suspense presented by Autolite to night Star,
(26:27):
Miss Aig, Miss Moorehead.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
This is Harlow Wilcox speaking for Autolite, the world's largest
independent manufacturer of automotive electrical equipment. In twenty eight plants
from coast to coast. Auto Light makes over four hundred
products for cars, trucks, tractors, planes, boats, and industry. These
products include bumpers, die castings, industrial thermometers, and batteries such
(26:51):
as the famous Autolite Stayful Ignition, engineered Autolite spark plugs
both standard and resistor types, voltage regulators, wire and battery cable,
Auto Light Bullseye sealed beam units, and auto Light original
service parts for all auto Light electrical systems. Auto Light
is proud to serve the greatest names in the industry,
(27:13):
so from bumper to tail light, you're always right with
auto LIGHTE.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Next week, we bring to life one of the most
famous detectives in literature as we dramatize E. C. Bentley's
classic novel of deduction, Trent's Last Case Our Star, Mister
Ronald Coleman.
Speaker 4 (27:40):
That's next week on Suspense.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Suspense is produced and directed by Elliott Lewis, with music
composed by Lucian Morrowick and conducted by lud Gluskin. Emily
Wooldridge's The Wreck of the Maid of Athens was adapted
for suspense by Gil Dowd. In Tonight's story, Joseph Kerns
was heard as Captain Wooldridge and Ben Wright as Losses.
Speaker 5 (28:14):
Featured in the cast were Larry Thorr, Richard Peel, and
Jack Brushan.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
Agnes moorehead may soon be seen in the Universal International
picture Magnificent Obsession.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
And remember next week, mister Ronald Coleman in Trent's Last Case.
Speaker 8 (28:38):
You can buy Autoight original service pots, Autolight standard or
resistant type spot plugs, and auto Light Safeful batteries at
your neighborhood Autolight dealers switch to Autolite.
Speaker 10 (28:48):
Good night.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
This is the CBS Radio Network.
Auto light and it's ninety eight thousand dealers. Bring you,
Miss Agnes Moorehead in tonight's presentation of Suspense.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Tonight Autolite presents the first radio adaptation of one of
the most amazing human documents ever written, the personal diary
of Emily Wooldridge, which she called the Wreck of the
Maid of Athens, Our star the first Lady of Suspense,
Miss Agnes Moorehead, I have buying a magazine, I see, yes, sure,
(00:41):
well why not take this one?
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Oh no, thanks everyone to his own taste, you know, Harlow.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
In buying magazines, yes, haaf. But in replacing electrical system
parts for your car, definitely no. Well, for example, many
leading makes of our finest cars have auto light electrical
systems as original equipment, right, But if if replacements are needed,
do the owners of those auto light equipped cars insist
on auto light original service parts exactly the same as
(01:07):
those specified by the car manufacturer?
Speaker 3 (01:09):
And if they don't, they're sure taking a big chance
with a big investment, hurlle.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
They sure are happ because auto light original service parts
meet the electrical system specifications of the car manufacturers, and
they know what's best for their cars. So friends, insist
on and be sure you get only auto light original
service parts for your auto light equipped car. See your
car dealer or your dealer handling auto light original service parts.
(01:34):
And remember, from bumper to tail light, you're always right
with autolite.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
And now autolite prevents. Emily Wooldridge's The Wreck of the
Maid of Appens, starring Miss Agnes more Heads hoping once
again to keep you in suspense.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
Eighty four years ago.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Tonight they're sale from port of London the brigantine made
of Athoms.
Speaker 5 (02:03):
Sixty some days later.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Off the cold southern tip of South America, the ship
was a fire and sinking in heavy seas. Aboard her,
along with the necessary officers and crew, was the wife
of the Master Captain Richard Wooldridge. Her name was Emily,
and this is her story.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
First mateo Bethoidza.
Speaker 6 (02:31):
He was trying to pray the port life folks, we
can't go off from those parts of jams.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
We'll never use them very well.
Speaker 7 (02:37):
Tell the rest of the men to come here.
Speaker 5 (02:38):
We'll have to abandon ship as quickly as possible.
Speaker 7 (02:44):
Perhaps the most terrible thing of all was the fact
that there wasn't room in the lifeboats for all the men.
Speaker 8 (02:51):
Always in my memory will live the picture of those
who fought to live and who died so hopelessly.
Speaker 7 (02:55):
In those coal scenes. It was a scene of fearful desolation.
Speaker 8 (03:09):
Great waves seemed to swallow, and their troughs are two
surviving lifeboats. And when we were lifted to their crest,
the sight of the burning ship met our eyes. The
gallant Maid of Athens. She seemed to me the loneliest
thing I'd ever seen as we deserted her. Looking the
(03:29):
other way, by the grace of providence, we.
Speaker 7 (03:31):
Could see a low fringe of land on the horizon.
My husband took this to be the island of San
Carlo and perhaps our salvation. But when we.
Speaker 8 (03:47):
Arrived near the shore, we found that instead of safety,
we had run on even greater danger.
Speaker 7 (03:52):
The heavy surf that pounded the rocky island.
Speaker 8 (03:55):
To try the land through it was a fatal risk,
as was proved later that my husband had no other
choice than to order the boats into it.
Speaker 9 (04:01):
Turn around the second boat there, stirn around step shore,
keep falls into the surf, Get alongside us, and do
as we do.
Speaker 5 (04:13):
Stand it out.
Speaker 9 (04:15):
I want standing properly on the rest now all right now.
Speaker 5 (04:21):
Following in.
Speaker 4 (04:28):
The right forth side of get forth side and surf
for your lot.
Speaker 8 (04:45):
Except for the vision of a wave towering over us,
high as a mountain and falling on us, I have
no memory of coming ashore. As though awaking, no, not
quite awaking from a nightmare. I saw a boat overturned
on a tiny strip percent. I saw my husband and
the men who had survived the landing, and I saw
the bodies of those from the second boat who had not.
(05:07):
My husband was pulling the last of these from the
angry sense, and Penny was bending over me where I lay.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
You.
Speaker 4 (05:14):
Were you all right, my dear?
Speaker 7 (05:17):
Yes, and you I'm quite all right.
Speaker 5 (05:20):
But the poor devil's in the other boat.
Speaker 7 (05:22):
Oh yes, I know.
Speaker 10 (05:24):
Besides us there are only four left now, Heyward Oates Robertson.
Speaker 4 (05:29):
Old Lawson.
Speaker 10 (05:30):
There was nothing I could do to say the others,
of course there wasn't.
Speaker 7 (05:34):
Everyone knows you did everything you could do, I hope.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
So can you stand there?
Speaker 7 (05:39):
Yes, oh, dig to the rest of us.
Speaker 5 (05:43):
Have a chance, a very good chance. Come along.
Speaker 10 (05:48):
We'll go further up the shore and build a shot
of some sort. It's a messy coolin, yes, Lawson.
Speaker 9 (05:56):
And the others are been talking.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
We lot a word with you, of course, of course,
what is it?
Speaker 5 (06:03):
We've lost a number of our chances you well know.
I do know, Lawson. I'm terri soryed. Not much good
being sorry? Is it not going to help any of
the poor blokes?
Speaker 3 (06:12):
Is it?
Speaker 10 (06:13):
I guess what do you mean, Lawson? I feel our
losses greatly, if not greater than you do.
Speaker 5 (06:17):
Now what do you mean the way we've been talking,
either to say sorry, you are utter? The dam It
is done. But what we want to know is why
wasn't something done to prevent it from at me?
Speaker 10 (06:25):
I don't think I quite understand you. Every precaution was
taken in London. The cargo in the loading was well supervised.
Speaker 5 (06:30):
You all know that. Then why did the ship catch fire?
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (06:34):
Nobody said nothing to us about a cargo that would
catch fire.
Speaker 5 (06:37):
It was not a dangerous cargo, Heywood. Then why did
it catch fire?
Speaker 4 (06:41):
I've told you, I don't know.
Speaker 10 (06:42):
Under given circumstances, the most peaceful voice can go wrong.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
What circumstances kept in It's.
Speaker 5 (06:47):
Only decent to place the blame when you've lost as
many times as we have. The fine lot they were.
Speaker 10 (06:52):
Now listen to me, man, talk like this won't do
any good. I'll admit we've had more than our share
of bad life.
Speaker 5 (06:58):
Will say ei to that six was spared. And if
we are to survive, we've got to work together. We
won't be any more than survival. And this prophy island.
We haven't got foot stores for a week, and our
waiter it doesn't see a ship once a year.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
But we won't wait to be.
Speaker 5 (07:12):
Found by a ship.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
Now.
Speaker 10 (07:14):
The mainland of South America is a bit more than
three hundred miles west. I have the navigational instruments to
get us there. If we can repair the boat.
Speaker 5 (07:22):
Oh maybe it's not so bad that you thought it was.
It's bad enough. We'll have to be lucky to live
to tell of it. It won't be easy, but it
is possible. And I can't stress the importance of speed
strongly enough. There are two reasons. One is scarce if food.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
The other is more important.
Speaker 10 (07:36):
We're approaching the storm season in these latitudes, and when
it rives, the game rams constant.
Speaker 5 (07:42):
We're having our share repaired. Fortune. It's a fact.
Speaker 10 (07:44):
We shall be all right. If we work quickly. We
can repair the boat. In say, four days, and launch
it without accident. I have every confidence that will be
on our way to safety and home.
Speaker 8 (08:04):
Darkness fell as Larsen and the others buried the dead,
A thick fog settled on the island, and in spite
of exhaustion, the dampness and cold made sleep out of
the question. If we spent the night huddled over fires,
one for the crew and one for my husband and me,
we were separated from the men by only a few paces,
and although nothing further was said, there was.
Speaker 7 (08:24):
A tension between the two groups.
Speaker 8 (08:36):
The next morning, my husband set the men to work
on the boat, where her planks had.
Speaker 7 (08:39):
Been battered on the rocks, and he set out to search.
Speaker 8 (08:42):
The island, hoping to find a beach better suited to
launching through the surf. No sooner had he disappeared than Larson,
a sullen, unpleasant man from the start of the voyage,
walked toward me, and behind I could see the other
men leaving their work to follow him.
Speaker 5 (08:57):
I trust you spent the night counting your blessings, missus Wooldridge.
Speaker 8 (09:01):
Why I'm thankful to be alive, as we all should be,
And did you give a thought to the four boys.
Speaker 5 (09:07):
What went down? And then we buried?
Speaker 8 (09:09):
Of course, my husband told you men to repair the boat.
Why aren't you doing it?
Speaker 5 (09:16):
We want you to hear what we have to say.
Speaker 7 (09:18):
What do you want with me? What is it?
Speaker 5 (09:21):
The day you stepped aboard in London, I said there
was going to be trouble. I told the boys you
want it dead and gone. Now. A woman at sea
is a deadly thing. I told him.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
We didn't have to believe him then, but they do now.
Speaker 7 (09:33):
But you can't believe it. There's no truth in it.
It's only a superstition.
Speaker 5 (09:38):
I am one with some meaning behind it. Do you
know the history of the Maid of Athens? Yo? What
I do? Forty two boys? If she had forty two
not a sea, She hadn't crossed through fair weather and power,
and she never carried a woman until you came aboard.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
What do you say to that?
Speaker 7 (09:55):
It doesn't mean anything?
Speaker 5 (09:57):
It does They got more proof on our side and
you have on yours. We saw the ship go down.
Speaker 7 (10:02):
It isn't proof.
Speaker 5 (10:03):
Listen to this. I've sailed for thirty two years with
good fortune all the way, that is, until this trip.
Speaker 4 (10:10):
How do you answer that?
Speaker 5 (10:12):
There is no answer and then you admit it to
all the cause of the trouble.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
I do not.
Speaker 5 (10:16):
You're writing like children children, you say you should be
speaking of the poor, fatherless children, of them that went down,
made orphans by a fire that nobody can explain. Maybe
you can now.
Speaker 7 (10:26):
That the rest of you, the rest of you, listen
to me. There's no one to blame.
Speaker 8 (10:31):
When you're carrying cotton and if it gets damp, sometimes
the weight of it causes pressure and friction and fire start.
Speaker 7 (10:40):
It's happened before when I don't know, but it does happen.
I haven't told me it did, any.
Speaker 5 (10:46):
Of you charms every ear of anything like that, the
fire starting because cotton is wet.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
In twelve years at sea, I never did.
Speaker 5 (10:53):
It happened because a woman at sea is a deadly thing.
Speaker 4 (10:57):
You of course that there's no doubt of it.
Speaker 7 (10:59):
That's not true.
Speaker 5 (11:00):
Can you prove that it's not?
Speaker 7 (11:02):
Well?
Speaker 8 (11:02):
One needs facts to disprove something, and you accuse me
without facts.
Speaker 5 (11:05):
What you mean is you can't prove we're wrong. I
would take that as your confession.
Speaker 4 (11:10):
It is not.
Speaker 7 (11:10):
It is not. I have nothing to confess.
Speaker 5 (11:13):
You brought us this trouble, and we all know it.
There's nothing you can say to change our minds, and
that goes for what you might say for your husband too.
Good day, missus Wooldridge, come on less.
Speaker 8 (11:30):
Quite obviously, there was an unspoken threat in their words.
Although I hoped that I had maintained my composure in
front of them, I was frightened, considering the problems already
weighing upon my husband.
Speaker 7 (11:41):
It was my player to keep this.
Speaker 8 (11:42):
Fear to myself, But when he returned, my will weakened,
and I told him about it.
Speaker 10 (11:48):
My dear, you mustn't let it trouble you. As you
told them, they are like children. What they think today
will be forgotten to mark.
Speaker 7 (11:55):
But I can't forget their faces. They hated me.
Speaker 10 (11:58):
Oh no, no, they only thought that they did. They
must have something to hate because of the situation we're in.
Speaker 5 (12:04):
Remember before it was me they blamed.
Speaker 7 (12:07):
I suppose you're right.
Speaker 8 (12:08):
I suppose I'm silly to be frightened, but oh pleased, Dick.
Speaker 7 (12:12):
Don't leave me alone with him again.
Speaker 10 (12:14):
I hope I won't have to. But if I do,
mind to have courage to know that although they are
simple and their logic, they are good seamen and are
very important to us.
Speaker 8 (12:32):
His words did give me courage. The men were important
to him as seamen. When he said that, I realized
that he was more important than them, because he was
the only one who could set.
Speaker 7 (12:42):
Us on a course that would take us to safety.
Speaker 8 (12:45):
He was the only one who could navigate with his
importance to them. Surely the men would do nothing to me,
that is what I hopefully thought, But I could not
forget the expressions of hate on the faces of the
four men as I stood.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Before Autolite is bringing you Miss Agnes Moorehead in Emily
Wooldridge's The Wreck of the Maid of Athens Tonight's presentation
(13:21):
in Radio's Outstanding Theater of Thrills Suspense.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Say half, if a reader asked for a sports magazine,
would he let the man substitute detective stories?
Speaker 5 (13:41):
Of course, not Harlom.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Yet many magazine readers will stand for substitute parts in
the vital electrical system of their auto light equipped cars.
But why, Harlow, Well, Halp, I guess it's because readers
can easily see what's inside the cover of a magazine,
but not what's under the hood.
Speaker 5 (13:56):
Of the car.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
But it's simple, Harlo, just insist on auto light original
service parts for your auto light equipped car. Then you
can't go right.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
You are half auto light original service parts meet the
exact specifications of leading car manufacturers who specify auto light
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electrical system to give you the smoothest performance money can buy.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
You don't take substitutes in magazines, so why take them
for your car?
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Yes, friends, be sure you get what's best for your
auto light equipped car. See your car dealer or your
dealer handling auto light original service parts, and remember, from
bumper to tail light, you're always right with auto light.
And now auto light brings back to our Hollywood soundstage,
Miss Agnes moorehead in Elliot Lewis's production of Emily Wooldridge's
(14:51):
The Wreck of the Maid of Athens, a true story
well calculated to keep you in suspense.
Speaker 8 (15:08):
Thinking back to my meeting with Lawson and the men,
it was impossible for me to understand how they could
be so blind.
Speaker 7 (15:14):
But when one remembers.
Speaker 8 (15:15):
The witchcraft trials in Salem and the burning of witches
in Europe, then one realizes that humans ever often used
demons and superstitions where no reasonable cause for a situation
can be found. As the work on the boat continued,
it became my responsibility to add to our niager larder
(15:39):
with some rough hooks fashioned by my husband and some
stout cordage secured to the rocks I fished. Although I
checked these set lines often, even at night when sleep
was impossible, the results were disappointing. I thought it possible
that the attitudes of the men would soften toward me
because of my efforts to better conditions, but there were
no indications that this change was taking place.
Speaker 7 (16:00):
Only dark accusing looks.
Speaker 8 (16:03):
One Heyward, the youngest of them, seemed less hateful than
the others. He averted his eyes when I looked at him.
That evening of the second day, Laws and paid a
visit on my husband, a visit that made my fears
all the more real.
Speaker 5 (16:18):
Top of the evening to you, Captain, Thank you lawson,
missus Wooldridge.
Speaker 7 (16:23):
Good good evening at.
Speaker 5 (16:25):
The top of the evening. Ain't worth anything on this
rotten wet island. I hope you don't mind my comings,
of course not lost. What is it? Are you satisfied
with the way the work is going, said, yes.
Speaker 10 (16:37):
I am more than satisfied, to be quite honest, considering
the mood you men were in the day we arrived,
I expected trouble. I'm thank you if there hasn't been
an it.
Speaker 5 (16:46):
Ah bit upset. We were losing all those chums, but
it's survival of the fittest. I suppose when do you
think we'll be ready to leave?
Speaker 10 (16:55):
I should say it will depend on the surf. Oh,
the boat should be fit day after tomorrow, and if
the surf is heavy, we won't be able to launch
safely here and we'll have to move to the other beach.
Speaker 5 (17:04):
And that will take a day. The fourth day, then yes.
Speaker 7 (17:08):
I should say so bothering any trouble, that.
Speaker 5 (17:09):
Is yes, Now, I wouldn't want you to think that
I'm expecting anything bad to happen, sir. It was the
boys that asked me to talk to you about this,
about what the way they feels that, well, we're all
in this together, everybody equal, taking the same chances. Is
that right, going through that surf and trying to make
the crushing to the mainland, anything might happen to any
(17:31):
one of us. Yes, that's true too. Well, what the
boys means say, is that right? Now? Everybody is not
quite equal, and that's because you're the only one who
can keep us on course once we start. I suppose,
I am yes, yeah. Well now I repeat, we aren't
looking for anything bad to happen. But suppose it did
to you, then where would the rest of us be
(17:52):
what We're three hundred miles of ocean to cross and
none of us knowing how to keep us on a course.
Speaker 10 (17:58):
I see you want me to teach your navigation.
Speaker 5 (18:02):
Not just me, sir, all of us.
Speaker 7 (18:04):
No do it.
Speaker 5 (18:05):
Let's go over money.
Speaker 7 (18:07):
But they're up to something.
Speaker 5 (18:09):
I don't know what's upset you, missus Wooldridge. We're thinking
of you too, with the captain wouldn't want you to
drift about until you died of first in case something
happens to him, Right sir, that's quite right.
Speaker 10 (18:21):
But I'll tell you what upset missus Wooldridge. Perhaps we
can straighten it out. You told her she was to
blame for our misfortunely because she was a bored It's
a ridiculous thing for you to say, and it frightened her.
Speaker 5 (18:33):
Well, some of the chums got to talking about it,
and they got a bit excited.
Speaker 7 (18:37):
It wasn't the other man, it was you.
Speaker 5 (18:40):
I only said, but they told me to Missus Woodridge,
and I'm sorry that I did. None. Has there been
any more conversation about it? Oh no, sir, No. The
only thing they talk about now is getting home. I
don't suppose we're much for brain, sir, but do you
think we could learn navigation at least enough to reach
(19:00):
the coast.
Speaker 10 (19:01):
Then one could feel his way until he reached the port.
We'll have the first lesson tonight.
Speaker 5 (19:06):
Thank you, sir. The boys will be pleased to hear this.
I'll be with you in a moment then night. Missus Wooldridge.
Speaker 7 (19:14):
Please sick, please don't teach them. If you do, you
will be important to them any longer. They'll be in control.
Speaker 8 (19:20):
I know that that's what they want their evil men
to capable of anything.
Speaker 7 (19:24):
Where have they left to see it?
Speaker 10 (19:25):
Emma, stop it, stop it. In a situation like this,
we must be realistic. It's for the good of all
that the men should learn to navigate.
Speaker 8 (19:43):
My husband returned an hour later, quite pleased with the
spirit of the men in the progress they had made
during their first lesson. I tried to match his confidence
with my own. But the next day that became impossible.
There was no mistaking the hate for me and the
faces of the men when my husband was not present.
But there's no chance to realize this because the expressions
changed when he appeared. The men took on a rough,
(20:05):
good humor and an enthusiasm for their work and the
future that completely beguiled him.
Speaker 7 (20:10):
At times I doubted my reason that.
Speaker 8 (20:12):
At others I was sure that I didn't imagine this
purposeful change of attitude.
Speaker 7 (20:18):
Then during the afternoon I was able to speak with Heyward,
the one I hoped felt less strongly toward me.
Speaker 8 (20:24):
He was on his way to the spring that supplied
our water when I was able to meet him alone.
Speaker 4 (20:29):
Missus Waldridge, what are you doing here?
Speaker 7 (20:32):
I wanted to talk to you.
Speaker 4 (20:34):
I don't want to talk to you. I've got nothing
to say.
Speaker 7 (20:36):
Why did Lawson lie to my husband and Knee?
Speaker 4 (20:39):
I don't know what you mean.
Speaker 7 (20:40):
He told us last night that you men didn't blame
me for what happened.
Speaker 5 (20:45):
Oh, we don't that you realized.
Speaker 8 (20:47):
How ridiculous the things were that you said to me
the first day that I was the cast?
Speaker 7 (20:52):
But then why do you hate me?
Speaker 5 (20:54):
Jure?
Speaker 4 (20:55):
We don't, Missus Woodridge.
Speaker 8 (20:56):
The expressions on your faces when my husband isn't there
couldn't mean anything else.
Speaker 7 (21:01):
What is it? What are you thinking?
Speaker 4 (21:04):
You must be mistaken, Missus Woodbridge. All we talk about
is getting home.
Speaker 7 (21:07):
That's what Larson told you to say if you had
to talk to me, isn't it.
Speaker 4 (21:12):
I don't know what you mean.
Speaker 8 (21:13):
He said the same thing last night, in the same
words that he was lying.
Speaker 7 (21:19):
Wasn't he just like you are?
Speaker 4 (21:20):
You've got no reason to say that, Missus Woodridge. I
don't know what we'd want to lie about about.
Speaker 7 (21:24):
What your plans are?
Speaker 4 (21:25):
Plans? Why don't want to get home as quick as
we can? Isn't that what you plan?
Speaker 7 (21:31):
You're lying to me?
Speaker 4 (21:32):
But Missus Woodridge, why should you say that?
Speaker 7 (21:35):
That's not what you're thinking? What are your plans?
Speaker 4 (21:37):
What I told you to go?
Speaker 7 (21:39):
You're lying to me? I can tell for no faith.
Speaker 4 (21:41):
It's been a trying experience, Missus Wooldridge. Perhaps your mind
is playing tricks. I don't know what else could upset
you like this.
Speaker 8 (21:56):
Final repairs on the boat were completed that day, and
all of the next.
Speaker 7 (22:00):
Was consumed in moving it to the safer beach.
Speaker 8 (22:03):
The surf is not as high as the shore was
protected by a curve of reef from which I cast
my set lines. The crashing waves caused terrible currents, and
the frightening prospect of maneuvering a boat through them was
rare enough to keep my mind clear of my other fears.
Speaker 7 (22:18):
Which seemed to have no basis at the moment.
Speaker 8 (22:21):
At nightfall, I was huddled close to our fire as
my husband awoke from a short nap.
Speaker 11 (22:26):
Oh oh, how long have I slept?
Speaker 7 (22:30):
No more than an hour?
Speaker 5 (22:33):
It seemed like days.
Speaker 10 (22:34):
I will sleep days once I get into a better game.
Speaker 5 (22:37):
Luxury, that'll be eh.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
Oh.
Speaker 8 (22:39):
I hope everything will be all right tomorrow with the.
Speaker 10 (22:42):
Crossing, no reason it shouldn't be. A stop boat were
worth prevailing winds.
Speaker 8 (22:47):
You don't have to make it sound easy for me,
you know. Just tell me if there's a good chance
of reaching safety.
Speaker 10 (22:54):
That's a very good chance. Oh, and I must say
that I'm happy to see our mood improved. Moral will
be most important, one would see.
Speaker 7 (23:02):
I'll help the best I can.
Speaker 10 (23:03):
I know you will, my dear Oh o, rals yes, yes, yes,
what is it?
Speaker 5 (23:09):
I hope you don't mind the boys? Who's a bit
uneasy tonight. They asked me to come wrong, nothing special, sir.
They wonder if you could tell them where we'll land roughly,
that is, they wanted me to ask if you'd talk
to them. I suppose they are uneasy.
Speaker 4 (23:26):
Yes, I'll have a word of them.
Speaker 5 (23:27):
They'd like, that's on yourself. I'm not troubled. I'd say
it's in the lap of the gods. So while you
go to see them, I think i'll have a look
at the beach Agains. Yea, the surf is running. That'd
be a good idea.
Speaker 10 (23:38):
Let me know how the currents are crossing with you, Ay, sir,
I'll be back in a few minutes, Only a few
moments now you trying to.
Speaker 5 (23:46):
Rass all right, missus Wooldridge.
Speaker 7 (23:56):
What are you going to do?
Speaker 5 (23:57):
Nothing, Missus Wooldridge, But you are. It's time to tend
your set lines out on the surf. I think i'll
go with you in case you have an accident on
those slippery rocks in the dark.
Speaker 7 (24:07):
No, I'm going to do it in the morning.
Speaker 5 (24:08):
You've done it before at night. You killed enough men
and now it's an I for an hour, I.
Speaker 7 (24:13):
Haven't killed anybody. You're insane. My heart.
Speaker 5 (24:16):
You'll kill him if you call for him. The boys
are ready to take care of him if you do,
and we don't meet him anymore. It's all up to you,
missus Woolridge. I ain't fair of you to risk us
all when a slip of the reef will save us.
I won't shout come along. Then. We've seen what a
woman at sea brings about. But it won't happen again
(24:37):
in the small boat.
Speaker 7 (24:51):
Do you have to do it?
Speaker 8 (24:53):
Won't you admit that you're mom, that's supposition to fat me,
and that you've nothing to fear about my going with you.
Speaker 5 (24:58):
We've seen what happens, and what you see is proof.
Speaker 6 (25:02):
We'll talk no more about it, don't. I can't talk.
Speaker 5 (25:16):
It's all right time, everything's all right.
Speaker 11 (25:21):
But thank Heaven, the other men were more human than loss.
They let him lead them into the night that they
couldn't justify murder, and told me what he planned to do.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
After three weeks, the five survivors of the Maid of
Athens reached the port of Stanley in the Falklands. As
Emily Wildridge stated that in her chronicle in Time to
hear of the death of Charles Dickens, a sorrowful landfall
after all our trials. Suspense presented by Autolite to night Star,
(26:27):
Miss Aig, Miss Moorehead.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
This is Harlow Wilcox speaking for Autolite, the world's largest
independent manufacturer of automotive electrical equipment. In twenty eight plants
from coast to coast. Auto Light makes over four hundred
products for cars, trucks, tractors, planes, boats, and industry. These
products include bumpers, die castings, industrial thermometers, and batteries such
(26:51):
as the famous Autolite Stayful Ignition, engineered Autolite spark plugs
both standard and resistor types, voltage regulators, wire and battery cable,
Auto Light Bullseye sealed beam units, and auto Light original
service parts for all auto Light electrical systems. Auto Light
is proud to serve the greatest names in the industry,
(27:13):
so from bumper to tail light, you're always right with
auto LIGHTE.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Next week, we bring to life one of the most
famous detectives in literature as we dramatize E. C. Bentley's
classic novel of deduction, Trent's Last Case Our Star, Mister
Ronald Coleman.
Speaker 4 (27:40):
That's next week on Suspense.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Suspense is produced and directed by Elliott Lewis, with music
composed by Lucian Morrowick and conducted by lud Gluskin. Emily
Wooldridge's The Wreck of the Maid of Athens was adapted
for suspense by Gil Dowd. In Tonight's story, Joseph Kerns
was heard as Captain Wooldridge and Ben Wright as Losses.
Speaker 5 (28:14):
Featured in the cast were Larry Thorr, Richard Peel, and
Jack Brushan.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
Agnes moorehead may soon be seen in the Universal International
picture Magnificent Obsession.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
And remember next week, mister Ronald Coleman in Trent's Last Case.
Speaker 8 (28:38):
You can buy Autoight original service pots, Autolight standard or
resistant type spot plugs, and auto Light Safeful batteries at
your neighborhood Autolight dealers switch to Autolite.
Speaker 10 (28:48):
Good night.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
This is the CBS Radio Network.
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